₦airaland Forum

edoyad:
Sharap ! Stop kidding yourself. Nigeriam Muslims don't have a problem, it's hausa people who have a problem. I was born in lagos and i don't think lag has ever had a democratically elected christian governor but is still the pride of Nigeria.

Na your people get problem, HAUSA PEOPLE. Same problem we had with you here in kaduna, enemies of progress, destined to be doomed.

This is the crux of the matter, along with the 10 million almajiri problem and legal paedophillia in the marriage of 11 year old girl children. These are cultural issues that have been siezed on by the wicked political elite from the area as "unifying" factors to be protected by violence. The whole country is thoroughly horrified at the terrorist acts carried out in Jos under the banner of religion and the overwhelming conclusion is that it was political.

These issues must be tackled head on through diplomatic engagement and total rejection by the rest of the country. This group must be brought into the modern, civilised World, because they have become a huge security threat to the nation; from threats of violence in politics to the regular massacres in Jos.

We have seen gory photo's of mothers burnt to death clutching their tiny babies. We have seen photo's of innocent babies with their heads sliced open. Even countries at war are spared such sights; why is it only when it involves the Hausa or Fulani that such acts are carried out? It is not an Islamic problem.

All backward traditions in the North must be wiped out.

BetaThings:
This your crocodile tears for Ribadu based on an unconfirmed story is strange. BTW did Johnathan also use and dump Dora? At least we remember the noise she made to get Johnathan the presidency

I wonder when you started working at okija shrine to know what others are thinking. Small minded freak.

kcjazz:
ACN dumping Ribadu! hmmm no news to me but I think Nuhu would have a Plan B. One of those smaller parties could adopt him which makes winning difficult and less likely.
This goes back to my theory that the modern progressives (Nuhu, El Rufai, Utomi) needs a laid down plan in order to change the political situation in this country. Why are they not coming together to form one party plan for the next 4 years to come out strong in 2015, if they had done that in 2007 things could have being different today.

The only smart one of that lot is El Rufai. Ribadu has acted very foolishly out of naivety and burnt his prospects. Even if he makes it as ACN's presidential candidate, he will be very weak, because he can't even win his own local govt yet.

El Rufai, on the other hand is playing the smart game. Remain with GEJ who is crushing a lot of rocks, and in a couple of years (or less), leadership of the North falls in his lap. Hopefully he'll then be able to team up with the likes of Chime, Sule Lamido and Fashola who will be finishing their 2nd terms and ripe for the national stage. There are exciting times on the horizon that will come off GEJ's stint, its just that Ribadu's ambition and naivety have got the better of him. Sad really, but he's on the rubbish heap with all that potential.

He said: "The man who claimed to be a lecturer of the college in whose hand the bomb detonated on Tuesday is already in our custody in a hospital undergoing treatment from the injuries he sustained as a result of the explosion.
"The man in question claimed he was mixing chemicals in the school and that it was the chemical that exploded in his hands.
"The man sustained injuries on the hands, face, chest and legs.

"We are investigating the man because his claims of mixing chemicals is not enough to explain what we saw."
Chairman of the local government, Dr. Fom Pam Dakwak, said the college belongs to an individual.
"We cannot conclude now until the police investigation but we are highly suspicious of evil intention in the explosion," he said.
Some residents in Barkin Ladi where the explosion occurred had sent a delegation to the police headquarters Jos with the allegation that a religious group was preparing a local bomb to attack the area.
A member of the delegation, Sam dan Gyang, told THISDAY that they had been hearing rumours that the Hausa community in the area was plotting against them.

Gyang said: "We have been praying that God should take care of our enemies for we don’t know them. Now God is answering our prayers. This is just the beginning of the revelation. God is not sleeping. God will expose them all.”

Looks pretty much like a powerful lead.

[size=14pt]Three Killed as Boko Haram Strikes Again[/size]
•Panic grips Abuja residents •Another bomb goes off in Plateau
From Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja and Seriki Adinoyi in Jos, 12.29.2010

Three persons were killed on Tuesday in a fresh attack in Maiduguri, Borno State, where a similar violence led to the death of six persons the same day bomb explosions claimed scores of lives in Jos.
Some assailants suspected to be members of a religious sect, Boko Haram, fired shots into a teaching hospital killing a police officer and two others in the city.
In Abuja, there are widespread fears that the bombings may be replicated in the nation’s capital, three months after the Independence Day blasts.

In Plateau State, the police command is investigating a fresh bombing at the Orientation Islamic Secondary School, Barkin Ladi, Barkin Ladi Local Government area of the state.
The Boko Haram sect had reportedly claimed responsibility for earlier bomb blasts in which claimed 80 lives on Christmas Eve.
The military said Monday they arrested three persons who were attempting to plant more bombs.
In the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), there are reports of suspicious movements by fundamentalists in the satellite towns.
But FCT Police Commis-sioner, Haruna John, said his command was on top of the situation and called on residents to provide information on suspicious activities to the command for immediate action.

THISDAY checks revealed that residents of the territory, especially satellite towns notably Dutse, Karu, Nyanya and Kuje had sleepless nights following reports that there might be a replication of the bombings.
Similarly, a pastor of a church in Kuje Area Council, who pleaded anonymity, called a relation living in Karu at about 11.00pm on Tuesday and complained of strange movements in the area where he lived, alleging that he witnessed some young fundamentalists in the area looking for empty cans to buy.
“They approached my son and the boy ran into the house asking the mother if there was any empty four-litre can. The mother gave him the one we used last for vegetable oil but I intercepted it. After his explanation, I stopped him immediately,” the clergyman said.

[b]News of the fresh explosion in Plateau State has jolted the citizens who were already celebrating the gradual return to peace after the violence in Jos.
Confirming the incident, the state Commissioner of Police Abdulrahaman Akano told newsmen in his office that the bomb exploded at the Islamic college in Barkin Ladi.
He said: "The man who claimed to be a lecturer of the college in whose hand the bomb detonated on Tuesday is already in our custody in a hospital undergoing treatment from the injuries he sustained as a result of the explosion.
"The man in question claimed he was mixing chemicals in the school and that it was the chemical that exploded in his hands.
"The man sustained injuries on the hands, face, chest and legs.

"We are investigating the man because his claims of mixing chemicals is not enough to explain what we saw."
Chairman of the local government, Dr. Fom Pam Dakwak, said the college belongs to an individual.
"We cannot conclude now until the police investigation but we are highly suspicious of evil intention in the explosion," he said.
Some residents in Barkin Ladi where the explosion occurred had sent a delegation to the police headquarters Jos with the allegation that a religious group was preparing a local bomb to attack the area.
A member of the delegation, Sam dan Gyang, told THISDAY that they had been hearing rumours that the Hausa community in the area was plotting against them.

Gyang said: "We have been praying that God should take care of our enemies for we don’t know them. Now God is answering our prayers. This is just the beginning of the revelation. God is not sleeping. God will expose them all.”[/b]



http://www.thisdayonline.info/nview.php?id=190986

Thank God they have caught govt attention at last!

I hope this relationship is the beginning of measures to pull the almajiri system into the mainstream. It needs to be regulated and standardised, and as the President suggested, it must contain some Western education so its beneficiaries can be of use to society and do not end up without skills, destined to be beggars and robotic mass murderers.

[size=14pt]Jonathan: Basic Education for Almajiri ’ll Improve Devt[/size]
From Ahamefula Ogbu in Abuja, 12.29.2010

President Goodluck  Jonathan has said the curriculum of the Almajiri educational system would be made to include basic education to empower them to play the needed roles in the development of the country.

He said the addition of basic western education to the curriculum of the Almajiri school would better assist in the skills development and enhancement of the competences of children who pass through the system. Jonathan said this while receiving in audience the 20,000-member strong Almajiri Education Association in State House, Abuja, that he was impressed by their ability to recite the Koran in 20 different ways, which implies they were imbued with extraordinary abilities.

He therefore assured them that he would be present at the foundation laying ceremony of their education system in the third week of January 2011 in Sokoto, Sokoto State and charged them to always embrace peace in all their dealings.
According to him, “Our country is like the human body, you cannot develop one part and leave the other, that is why I believe the nation's resources should be spread to develop the entire country.”

We must train our young people if our nation must develop. Your presence here and your prayers encourages us to do more especially when we know that you are appreciative of our efforts to improve the Almajiri education system".
Speaking at the occasion, leader of the delegation, Sheik Gwani Lawi said they had been operation in the past 50 years though informally. He also stressed the need to correct the impression that the system was about using children for street begging, pointing out that it was about teaching and preaching core Islamic religious values usually from place to place.

http://www.thisdayonline.info/nview.php?id=190973

tunnytox:
I disagree with you Nigeria has its own problems medlling into this Ivorian issue is a lose lose situation for Nigeria, the UN should not have taken sides, Quatarra could go to court if he believed he won. I don't think Quatarra is even an Ivorian most Ivorians I know detest him no one want a foreigner to rule over them, I'm sure Quatarra is a potential imperialist tool to milk Ivorians of their resources.

How come they never claimed Ouattara was a foreigner for the three years he was their Prime Minister and the one and a half years he was acting president?

Abeg, the Ivorians you know as some of those clam headed ones, I used to have a lovely Ivorian babe for a couple of years. Those people are the most racist and ignorant folk you will ever find in West Africa. All they are about is expensive clothes, real disdain for other people (Anglophone W. Africans etc) and Paris; if you get close enough, you will learn it first hand and they themselves will tell you the same.

The same Gbagbo that is now opportunistically claiming neo-colonialism like a fool was on exile in France from 1982 - 1988. It is interesting how neo-colonialism only started after he lost the elections.

. . .Like I said earlier, send in Aradu, work de Abidjan!

colomb:
No muslim should fool him or herself by condeming these deeds. No matter how you want to look at it, these jihadist are actualy practising true islam and the earlier drop religious sentiments and start seeking out facts based on what your koran reveals, the more your eyes will be opened to the true nature of what you call a religion. A lots of you people have been deeply hoodwinked into the islamic system that you have never even question your religon's philosophy for clarity, Islam is pure evil, forget about what your parents told you and the anti-truth defense mechanism implanted in your mind. Seek the true knowledge on what your religion actualy represents through an analysis of your holy book(s). allah explicity made what is required of you people clear so stop trying to make yourself looking like an exception to these cannibals, they are only being obedient.

I weighed the kind of heaven Christiany promises and that of Islam and even that alone tells so much, how can a god okays things he condems doing on earth in heaven. How can an Islam satan be symbolic with some stones in mecca which is regard as the holy land, a holy land that is satan's abode is quite puzzling.

Please stop!
No religion is evil. It is what humans do that is evil.

Personally, Sule Lamido is the best governor, because of the meagre amount he gets and what he has conjured from the desert with it.

https://www.jigawastate.gov.ng/userfiles/image/Past%20Govs/SULE%20LAMIDO_%20MAY%202007-DATE.jpg

https://lh4.ggpht.com/_f7u9OjJRUxg/S0aFLmGjxuI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/sfk2JMjP-44/s640/DSCF2414.JPG

You can get an idea of how the mind of this progressive governor functions here:
http://thenationonlineng.net/web2/articles/15313/1/See-what-China-has-done-to-Sule-Lamido/Page1.html

There is an NL thread here:
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-379261.0.html#msg5290888

Please read this article on Nigeria Village Square:

[size=14pt]Who Is Nigeria's Best Performing Governor?[/size]
Moses Ebe Ochonu
January 08, 2010
More from this author
Governor Raji Fashola is today acclaimed by many as Nigeria’s best performing governor. Among intellectuals in particular, especially those with residential, professional, or emotional stakes in Lagos, he is celebrated as an exemplary leader demonstrating the possibilities of progressive and visionary governance.

His political fame and the sense of hope that his accomplishments inspire have made their way into the vibrant, increasingly influential Nigerian internet community. He is seen as a bright spot in a political topography devoid of leadership and clarity of political vision, a model deserving of widespread replication.

Fashola deserves all the credit he is getting. I was in Lagos last May and saw, first-hand, the material evidence of his transformative leadership. His defeat of the infamous Oshodi logjam is still a source of personal wonder to me.

Fashola’s governance philosophy and his ability to grow his ideas from paper to infrastructure and service-delivery outcomes make him a champion in this segment of our on-going democratic transition. But he is not an undisputed champion and should not be baptized as such.

From what I saw in Dutse and its surrounding countryside and heard from many Jigawa state folks during a recent research trip to the state, Fashola faces a formidable contender in Jigawa’s Sule Lamido. I first visited Jigawa in 1996 when I was an undergraduate at Bayero University, Kano. I again visited the state in 2007 in the wake of the April 2007 election to begin a pilot phase of a new academic research project. I observed a state that had been turned into a depressing wasteland by corruption and incompetence, a state stunted by neglect sixteen years after its creation.

As a Nigerian with no personal stake in Jigawa but with a profound personal interest in the on-ground, human toll of corruption and maladministration, I was moved to document my observations in an article I published on popular Nigerian internet site, Nigeriavillagesquare.com. Titled, The Ground Zero of Corruption, the article was an unsparing indictment of then Governor Saminu Turaki (of N10 Billion Third Term sponsorship infamy).

I thought that such callous disregard for the moral and developmental burdens of public office and the poor stewardship that underpins it had to be given maximum textual and visual exposure as a way of shaming other public office holders. The pictures depicting Jigawa’s decay under Turaki stirred angst and revulsion in Nigerians and friends of Nigeria. Readers and commentators compared Jigawa’s plight to that of their own states or to states with which they were familiar. This was precisely the emotional reaction and citizen outrage that I had hoped to inspire with the piece.

That was April 2007. This was December 2009. Same state. Different Governor. Two and half years later.

The state capital, Dutse, bore few signs of a state capital when I visited in 2007. Now it wears a new, bold look of regeneration. It is perhaps the most daring signpost of the transformation that has occurred in the last two and half years in Jigawa. Dutse now possesses dual-carriage township roads that branch out and intersect in all directions. The aesthetic appeal of the roads is enhanced by their well-manicured shoulders.

Across the capital, new projects are sprouting up or getting completed. From the state polytechnic, which is being virtually rebuilt, to the ultramodern staff development center, to at least three completed 500-unit housing estates, to the massive new state secretariat, to the high court complex, to the Eagle Square replica under construction, to ubiquitous urbanization projects, Dutse is a city reborn.

Then there is the crowing glory of this remarkable transformation: the Rasheed Shekoni Specialist Hospital, which brought tears my eyes in 2007 (see my 2007 photos in The Ground Zero of Corruption). It had been abandoned for 9 years and had become a habitat for rodents, birds, and insects. Leaky roofs, puddles of water in the premises, overgrown compounds, and abandoned imported containers of building materials constituted an unflattering ensemble of waste and miasma.

Today, the hospital is completed, fully equipped as a specialist medical institution capable of carrying out most specialist diagnostic, therapeutic, and surgical procedures (see current photos). One consultant, Dr. Abdulrazak Taiwo, who was recruited from Lagos state, told me in a private conversation that the hospital may be the best equipped in Nigeria! It faces a challenge of attracting qualified medical personal to run its many specialized units, but it is an impressive medical facility on par with the highest-rated medical facilities in the world. I should know. I patronize a university hospital that is ranked number 6 in the world.

The spectacle of Dutse got me curious about the broader developmental agenda of Lamido’s governorship. Outside Dutse, in remote villages and local government areas, the story was the same: roads, many of them, newly built or newly refurbished. Educational institutions, primary, secondary, and tertiary, wore new coats of paint, had new office and classroom buildings built or being built. Hospitals and clinics, many newly built or refurbished, dotted rural outposts. There was developmental activity everywhere.

I was told that all girls in Jigawa now enjoy a right to free education up to tertiary level and that all students in the state enjoy a right to free textbooks and supplies. If this is true then the present administration is investing as much in long term empowerment projects as it is in immediate-impact ones like the controversial but widely praised N7000 survival allowance paid to disabled indigenes of the state. As an educationist concerned about the slipping competitiveness of Nigerian students in a fast-globalizing intellectual world, the sight of rural schools with first rate laboratories, computer labs, and dedicated V-Sat internet facilities was a source of pure joy!

I was also impressed with the ubiquity of water projects. My research took me to remote villages in Jahun, Birnin Kudu, Gwaram, and Gumel local governments and I was captivated by the quantity and quality of water, education, rural electrification, and road projects. Together, these projects underscore the transformation that is going on in this remote state—and its radical, impatient departure from the waste and stagnancy of two and half years ago.

This is rural transformation at its most heartening. What is remarkable about what is going on in Jigawa is that it is set against a recent history of criminal maladministration and dereliction of governance, one that I witnessed and documented.

Throughout my stay in Jigawa, I heard unsolicited, enthusiastic, and bipartisan praise for the governor’s accomplishments, and for the improvements his administration has brought to rural communities in the state across a broad spectrum of social need. Some of it seemed over the top but it was genuine. I understand why a people starved of purposeful leadership by the last administration in the state may get a little emotional and a bit hyperbolic in their rendering of the transformative and all-embracing changes going on around them.

However, since enormous challenges remain, especially for a state that is making a transition from a rural, insular backwater to an accessible, attractive gateway, I wondered about the dangers of highfalutin and personalized praise for the Governor—two years into his tenure! You don’t want to jinx it—or make him slow down. But Jigawa people like to talk about their “God-sent” (their word) governor and I couldn’t let my concerns dampen their excitement.

I also wondered and asked several Jigawa folks why, given his accomplishments, their governor does not get as much press as Lagos’ Fashola. They had no definitive answer. Neither do I. But it is a question worth contemplating. Lamido has recorded these strides with a significantly lower monthly allocation from the federal treasury than Lagos. The state ranks in the bottom 5 in the size of federal allocation; Lagos ranks in the top 5 (discounting derivation payments to oil-producing states).

Jigawa’s on-going transformation is also more impressive because it entails a from-the-scratch morphing of an essentially rural, infrastructure-challenged state into one that now possesses a solid social infrastructure base—water, rural electricity, schools, roads, urban housing, and hospitals. By contrast, Fashola’s transformative vision entails a rebuilding of Lagos’ crumbling infrastructure, and rarely the provision of a new one. Fashola did not and still does not have to wrestle with the expensive obstacle of rural poverty and a baseline of infrastructural absence. Fashola’s Lagos is an urban renewal project; Lamido had nothing to renew in Jigawa. He is building the base for future renewals.

The two year transformation of Jigawa can better be appreciated from a position of comparison. Unfortunately, many observers lack the framework for such comparison, not knowing what the state looked like two and half years ago. They are understandably more familiar with pre-Fashola Lagos than they are with pre-Lamido Jigawa. Those of us who stumbled onto the decay of pre-Lamido Jigawa see in the state a compelling model for the possibility of progressive governance.

We evaluate effective governance differently, depending on our ideological commitments and our own social-economic backgrounds. There is nothing wrong with that. If visionary, strategic, big-idea leadership is your definition of effective leadership, Fashola, is the winner of what is clearly a two-way contest for best-performing governor. But if rural transformation thrills you; if direct improvement of the lives of the poor and vulnerable gets your juices flowing; and if the transformation of time-trapped rural sectors into co-travelers of modernity is your notion of leadership, then Lamido is your man. If service delivery, physical problem solving, and empathetic, instrumental allocation of public resources are dearer to you than the more elitist, carefully choreographed dance of strategic statecraft, you will love what Lamido has done in—and to—Jigawa. 

One bias of governance is not superior to the other. Lagos’ priorities as an essentially urban and cosmopolitan state are different from Jigawa’s rural challenges and call perhaps for a grander, strategic, longer-term approach instead of the massive infrastructural intervention needed in a state like Jigawa. Each state has its peculiar set of problems; both governors have met their states’ challenges impressively.

What’s more, both of them converge on one juncture of significance: they are models that shatter one dangerously pervasive narrative of our current political arrangement: the lack of fund alibi. We are told by Nigeria’s many grumbling governors that after fulfilling remunerative obligations to civil servants and retirees, there is hardly any funds left for development. Jigawa and Lagos falsify those claims spectacularly.

The arithmetic logic of Jigawa’s ability to fund so many projects simultaneously while paying disabled members of society a survival stipend—one of the fulcrums of Lamido’s pro-poor approach to governance—is still a mystery to me. Fashola’s financial situation may be more obvious, given Lagos’s massive capacity for generating internal revenue and its big allocation from the Federation Account. Nonetheless, Lagos also challenges the tired, corruption-fueled narrative of fiscal decapitation that many governors find convenient as an excuse for their failures.

Lamido is certainly no internet political celebrity like Fashola. I am not even sure that the national press has paid much attention to his rural transformation and Talakawa-focused style of governance, which is bringing relief and succor to a long-suffering, modernity-craving, neo-feudal sector of Nigeria. So, why the disparity in press coverage at a time when the paucity of positive leadership demands that we scour the nation in search of signs—any signs—of political hope for Nigeria’s rural and urban poor?

I have some preliminary thoughts on why this is the case. First, Fashola reaps some incidental capital and goodwill simply by being an opposition governor, while Lamido, for all his accomplishments, is after all, one of the most loyal—and proudest—members of the PDP, the behemoth that is today a byword for all that is wrong with Nigeria. He will get little break or credit because of his PDP identity. Nigerians, including this writer, make an impulsive mental association between the PDP and the deficit of leadership that plagues the country, not to mention the fact that the PDP has also become the narrative stand-in for incompetence and corruption. The connections are more than justified given what PDP politicians have done to Nigeria and its constituent units. Lamido is a collateral damage of these mental associations. His stand-out accomplishments will always be weighed down by and evaluated in the shadow of this PDP stigma.

The contagion of the PDP’s abysmal public image cannot do any politician any good. However, in our desperation to find, acknowledge, and celebrate result-oriented leadership in an epoch in which it is notoriously rare, and in light of the palpable absence of leadership at the national level, we have to look at all the governors in all corners of Nigeria, regardless of party affiliation, and shine some light on those of them who are good stewards of public trust and public funds.

I am willing to suspend my concerns about Lamido’s PDP association so that I can assess what the Governor has done in Jigawa in the two and half years since I last visited it. It is difficult to make this distinction. I thought myself incapable of making it. But I am trying to will myself into a principled pragmatism in my evolving notion of leadership in Nigeria. I am trying to allow, within limits, of course, for the imperfections and electoral necessities of curious political alliances.

I have also become less puritanical in my evaluation of leadership in Nigeria, settling somewhat regrettably into a crude commitment to the problem-solving, infrastructure-providing imperatives of governance. I am now willing to sometimes forgive the trespassing of some of the abstract political ideals that I value as long as the trespass is offset by the kind of heart-warming accomplishments that Lamido has recorded. My working class orientation, which stresses existential priorities over abstract ideals, is clearly reasserting itself here. This is the spirit in which I am willing to celebrate and recommend Lamido’s accomplishments, along with Fashola’s, and to advance both models as two manifestations of the same political possibility, which should hearten Nigerians of conscience.

Second, there is a correlation between the visibility of Lagos, the relative invisibility of Jigawa, and the differential exposure that the transformations in both states are getting. The remoteness of Jigawa means that most people who evaluate leadership performance in Nigeria have never and will never visit it. This point should require no elaboration except to add that exposure is also a crude game of numbers: Lagos, with its much higher population has more people who have stakes in its fortunes and are directly impacted by its decline or revival. Simply put: there are more people to tell and celebrate its story of renewal under Fashola than there are for Jigawa, so somehow the story will get told to the world while Jigawa’s story of transformative change may be restricted to the few people with direct stakes in the state’s fortunes. It makes a small difference that the folks who have an intellectual interest in leadership performance or are more likely to report on it are Lagosians by residence or professional or emotional connection.

Third, most of Nigeria’s progressive pundits, who have adopted Fashola as the torchbearer of progressive, purposeful governance in the print and internet mediums, have a personal or professional investment in Lagos. Lagos is Nigeria’s media hub, so naturally, Fashola’s story will get told more frequently and more elaborately. The typical Lagos media person and other evaluators of leadership performance do not have ties to a remote Northwestern state called Jigawa and so may not be naturally inclined to comment on its transformation unless they had been familiar with its prior developmental status and are sufficiently stunned—and stung—by its transformation into commenting. This is my situation, but I am in small company.

Finally, there is and has always been an urban bias in the assessment of developmental effort in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. This followed from the urban bias in the developmental agenda of most postcolonial African governments, including Nigeria’s. Successive governments sought to appease a restive urban population and urban dwelling elites—allies and critics alike—with urban social infrastructure to the exclusion of the rural sector, where 80 percent of Africans/Nigerians reside. Urban dwellers and urban-dwelling commentators on development subsequently cultivated and nurtured an unyielding propensity to privilege the development of urban infrastructure and service delivery ahead of the kind of rural transformation that is going on in Lamido’s Jigawa. Obscure rural development is not appreciated to the same degree that more visible urban projects are. The forces of urban bias are therefore aligned in favor of Fashola and against Lamido.

There may be other factors why Lamido has yet to get the press that his achievements entitle him to, but they are not strong enough reasons to deprive our leadership-starved people of the inspirational comfort of Lamido’s Jigawa story. If we had many Lamidos and Fasholas, we could be justified in screening them for maximum symbolic impact and import. Unfortunately we have no Lamidos or Fasholas to spare or to disregard. So, let us tell these rare stories of performing governors wherever we can find them.

Hopefully we can shame their colleagues into action or inspire the people of other states to demand more action from their governors and to reject the tired excuses that Lamido and Fashola have discredited through their achievements.

So, who is Nigeria’s best-performing governor? Well, why choose when you can credibly declare it a two-way tie. Let’s call it a two-way tie between Lamido and Fashola.

But I would rather we had a four, five, or six-way tie. The two governors are really not competing on the same terrain. One is in the business of urban renewal; the other is the architect of an on-going rural transformation. Both are unqualified successes in their respective domains.

The bottom line is this: in this tragic dearth of leadership at the national level, we must look to the margins to locate and celebrate every effective, disciplined, compassionate, and result-producing leader. They are not many but wherever we find them, their activities should be advertised to bring some psychological cheer to justifiably cynical Nigerians, to inspire or shame other leaders—and to provoke outrage in the indigenes of states with lethargic governors. This is our national duty.

The author can be reached at: meochonu@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/moses-ebe-ochonu/who-is-nigerias-best-performing-governor.html

Oracle knowledge is not very relevant anywhere anymore. SQL Server pointed the way forward long ago, MySql (free) is more popular though.
I'll advice that you learn SQL Server for enterprise knowledge or if you are interested mundane "carpentery," then MySql will do (not to say some massive systems haven't been built with MySql, it just lacks too many bits).

No point learning how to tame a gorilla to keep in your backyard when there are zoo's around.

Poor Tsvangarai is a simple minded man who hitched a traitors ride and it hasn't been funny for him. If only he'd known, he wouldn't have made himself a Western stooge the way he did.
The coalition govt was his last roll of the dice, he thought he would have an impact and be able to take over from inside, but found he had been cleverly marooned and become little more than an ugly showpiece. The tea leaves say he will become a nonentity in the very near future, occupied with fighting the most stupeed court cases the govt can think of and jousting with his own shadow.

Whenever Mugabe leaves, Tsvangarai will not be taking over.

Godswill Akpabio is another capable performer, so is gov Lamido of Jigawa state.

frosbel:
@ Beaf you are becoming more like the London Daily Mail these days

Always tearing their country to pieces and reporting all the negatives.

Abeg, make una fogif my bad behaviour! I will try to do beta next time.
Happy Xmas bro.

appletango:
i thought you people eat dogs and here you are keeping one as a pet. good for you beaf, good for you!!

Who are "you people?"
Stupeed bigot.

netotse:
i see someone has been reading the power sector roadmap. . .lol

@thread
it takes a couple of days(sometimes even weeks) to recover from a system collapse, so no one should expect things to get better immediately

and a system collapse isn't caused by lack of gas, it's caused by the generators being overloaded(in extremely simple english)

Ok, lets get pedantic.
Lack of gas cuts out some plants which puts weight on others, leading to overloading, leading to their short down and system collapse. . .
Happy Xmas by the way.

Chrisbenogor:
Wishful thinking, they aint doing nada! Especially not in the form of armed combat, do you think its sellotape they will use to join blown pipelines? I aint gonna argue its just my opinion.

I think you didn't read what I wrote properly. The US is not interested in attacking MEND or any militants as Yar Adua got to learn after it was too late. However, the US point of view can be seen from the full blown military exercise they carried out, should Nigeria run into trouble in 2015. Their main interest and how it would be protected in the event was made totally clear; they would send in forces to secure the oil. It is straightforward to read that as they would partition Nigeria.

You can find the full document on the AFRICOM website, just search.

The US doesn't model war scenario's for nothing.

xterra2:
South Africa isnt rally capable, no fighter jets for now, but when the gripens are delivered, they would be ahead of us,

Abeg, make una no de mis yarn.
South Africa already has 15 JAS 39 Gripen mult-role fighters and they manufacture and export the Atlas Cheetah jet fighter.
The JAS 39 Gripen is equivalent to an F-16 in capability.

http://www.denelaviation.co.za/
http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/cheetah-fighter/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Aircraft_Corporation

It isn't sane to compare SA and Nigeria in any military sphere.

mbulela:
I am willing to take a real life bet (not some e-bet) that nothing will come out of the investigations into this bayelsa bombing, the independence bombing, the jos killings and any other bombing that will go off in the country between now and May 29th next year.
I am willing to bet a C of O for a parcel of land in a prime location in one of the country's major cities.
A lawyer in the house can vet the process.

It is about time we start putting our hands where our mouths are.
Enough of these sickening sycophancy that tends to hoodwink us into believing that this is any different from the decaying leadership of the past.

Why not simply take a legally binding oath to hand the land to an NLer that we all know in the event that you are wrong? The first thing though, is that we must be able to totally ascertain your real World identity. The land must also be worth money, not some impossible swamp. Anything short means you arent serious and we no get time for 419.
If you are serious, you can make Jarus the middle man who will hand your land to the NLer.

The US already patrols Nigerian waters, it has been so since Yar Adua's time. The dumb arse signed away our sovereignty after drinking copious amounts of oyibo tea in the White House. He thought it would make the US subdue the Niger Delta on his behalf, only to come home and deny what had been announced in the US already when he realised that all he got was useless tea. We dealt with this issue extensively during Yar Adua's time.

Make no mistake about it, the US will land jackboots the moment the ND and their oil interests are threatened by anybody born of woman.

^
Dude, you're not smiling at all!

From what is in the press, the Jos issue is being comprehensively dealt with. An implementation of the Kaduna model that has seen that previously bloody state turn calm, is being rolled out and overseen by Namadi Sambo (ex-Kaduna gov). So, there seems to be good movement in that direction.

About an accelerated trial and public execution of a couple of those involved in the Jos crisis, I strongly support. That will surely send a signal, especially if those executed are not mere ball boys. We shouldn't be having industrial scale killing in the name of political sabotage.

Abagworo:
I'm still not convinced that the real Abuja bombers have been arrested.The truth will take years to emerge.

BTW our intelligence need to buckle up and we must not wait for every bomber to succeed before being arrested.

Are you hiding something that the security agencies need to know?

You could be right, but it isn't my place to judge or make claims. It is always best to allow those with more knlowledge and authority deal with such matters, rumour and gossip aren't the equivalent of training and experience.

I agree with you about our intelligence service, but they are only a reflection of the decay the wider country after decades of misrule. It takes time to right wrongs that were put in place as mere quick fixes (most opportunistic).

blacksta:
Anytime someone challenges your flawed ways of reasoning - you automatically result to insult - Are you age 3 by any chance

Beaf abeg grow up.

I said you are a fool and did it without regrets, because I genuinely believe it. If you insult me, what do you expect in return? Roses? You must have a fish brain.

Tell us if the accused in those cases should be lynched or what your reason for id!otically raising thoses matters was. You are nothing but a meat seller. If you like, log on with a million names to attack Beaf, cos your life is totally empty, you will still look foolish and wretched each and every time.

My dog has more intelligense than you. Tell us, we're waiting; do you expext the suspects in court to be be given agbero justice and burnt to death or what? Fool.

blacksta:
Your level of sycophancy has reached another level. Are you saying like the way they solved recent bombings in Warri and Abuja - where all persons involved were found guilty and are now in prison.

You're a fool and have always been one. Only a donkey doesn't know those cases are in court. What do you expect should happen to the accused? That tyres should be placed around their necks, they be doused with petrol and burnt to death in Eagle square? You are a primitive fool.

sulad82i:
enu dun rofo. see as u said it like its just wind blowing with no control.
beaf, how many loosing politicians have been arrested and were is the peace that resulted after every election?

If we push for it, it will be different. Its just that the average Nigerian thinks that they have no power, or the average person looks toward religion and ethnicity and turns a blind eye to crime.
This time will very likely be different in my opinion.

There are serious issues with our gas supply infrastructure. For instance, the SE (for reasons best known to past govts) is completely cut off from the rest of the country gas wise, whereas Eastern Nigeria is very important in gas production. Port Harcourt is in the East, same as our highest oil producing state, Akwa ibom, same as Bayelsa and Rivers.
The problem is so gross, that there could be abundant gas coming from Delta state, but absolutely none in the East and vice-versa. How we could have ended up with such an arrangement is beyond me. It ranks right up there with how we signed all of our gas supplies to foreign countries up till 2015. Way above that though, is that it is a serious security problem for the country, if an enemy were to attack, then the isolation of the East would make it easy to knock out 100% of Nigeria's power supply, a very dire situation indeed.

So far there has been a lot of frantic behind the scenes work to normalise our gas infrastructure and bring it up to date (hence the record amount of power supplied last week), because govt seems serious about power supply, but it will take time to get some things right, there might be further hiccups. of course, being Nigeria, there might also be some mago mago dealings. But we will get there.

NNPC has to answer quite serious questions about how gas supply they had guaranteed could drop so low as have a chain effect that knocked out plants across the nation.

sulad82i:
Nigeria has become something else. If care is not taken there will be war in nigeria.

Na lie! Everybody loves oil, even those politicians who are behind the bombings. As soon as they have lost, they will be locked up or flee the country and we will have peace.
I believe from the Jos news, that investigations would likely provide concrete proof of who exactly is behind these troubles.

[quote author=~Bluetooth link=topic=576102.msg7429391#msg7429391 date=1293644880]Cope with what ?
This is nothing but sheer hypocrisy.Nevertheless,it's someone like you with a pre-meditated mind that will read meaningless meaning even when it's not needed.
As per the questions you asked,I leave it for you to answer.Must every Nigerian own a house in Abuja ?[/quote]My friend, who is leaking such details as how many cows Ribadu has, and why? It is quite clear that blackmail is being used as a tool against the man.
There are many worse people in ACN, so why begin propping up Ribadu for a great fall, while talking "positively" about him with snake tongues?
Why open up his basket at this time? Who exactly is gaining from throwing the man under the bus?

morpheus24:
War is imminent as usual. Not new in African affairs.

Lets see how this plays out. Gbagbo should step down in my opinion. Not as a result of being labeled a weakling but compassion to his people who have suffered enough.

He didn'tdo anything with the power when he held it. Why stay ony if not as a show of ego and not principle

I really think you coat Gbagbo in words that are too nice and address him like he has some honour. You are too kind.
In my opinion, any African that condemns half of their country as second class citizens in an apartheid concept, is no better than a slave trader and deserves to scunned, spat on and treated like dirt.

Gbagbo waded through blood to get where he is and is an example of the sort of despot that has brought repeated shame to Africa. He falls in the same category as Bokassa, Idi Amin and Mobutu Sese Seko.

[size=14pt]West African chiefs plan force to oust Laurent Gbabgo from Ivory Coast[/size]
From: AFP December 30, 2010 4:06AM
WEST African defence chiefs planned for a possible military intervention in Ivory Coast after regional leaders failed to persuade strongman Laurent Gbabgo to cede power.

After three regional heads of state wrapped up a mission to the troubled nation yesterday, it emerged that armed forces chiefs from across the troubled region were meeting in Nigeria to draw up their strategy for a troop deployment.

A senior diplomat said the meeting in the Nigerian capital Abuja was about "the military planning ,  and the logistics" of any eventual operation.

Abdel-Fatau Musah, director for political affairs and external relations for the 15-member Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) regional bloc, said the talks had begun on Tuesday and was expected to finish later in the day.

Nigeria's defence spokesman, Colonel Mohammed Yerimah, confirmed the meeting was underway but would not give details.

The talks came as the leaders who went to Ivory Coast on Tuesday admitted they had failed to convince Gbabgo to make way for his rival Alassane Ouattara, the internationally-recognised winner of last month's presidential election.

Presidents Boni Yayi of Benin, Ernest Koroma of Sierra Leone and Pedro Pires of Cape Verde had gone to Abidjan to deliver Gbagbo an ultimatum: cede power or face the prospect of an intervention by ECOWAS forces.

The troika then flew on to Abuja to brief Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, chairman of ECOWAS and leader of the region's military powerhouse.

The Nigerian president acknowledged the envoys had not broken the deadlock but said they would return on January 3.

"We are still talking," he told reporters after meeting Koroma and Pires. "People are negotiating. We are discussing. That is why they are going back."

Pires had earlier said that a return to Ivory Coast was necessary.

His office said the "Ivorian parties" had asked for "time to reflect in order to find a viable way to conclude the electoral process, which is the only way to promote durable peace and stability in this West African country."

Jorge Borges, Cape Verde's foreign affairs secretary, said the focus of regional efforts was to find a mediated solution and that talk of a military intervention had been put on the backburner.

"This initial mediation has helped to establish a bridge to dialogue between the camps, and we are no longer talking of military intervention by ECOWAS which seems, thankfully, to have been set aside for the moment," he told AFP.

However Ouattara's spokesman Patrick Achi said that the would-be president had told the envoys his status as head of state is "non-negotiable" and asked them to "return as soon as possible".

Both Gbagbo and Ouattara claim to have won Ivory Coast's November 28 poll run-off, but only the latter has been recognised as president by the world community, including ECOWAS and the United Nations.

Gbagbo's forces dominate the south of the country, home to the world's largest cocoa-exporting industry and the commercial capital Abidjan, while Ouattara's shadow government is blockaded inside its hotel headquarters.

There is no sign of the defiant incumbent loosening his grip. His supporters have begun harassing United Nations peacekeepers and his regime has issued veiled threats against West African migrants living in Ivory Coast.

The country is home to millions of foreign workers, drawn to what is still a major economic hub of West Africa to work in huge cocoa plantations, major ports and a small but promising oil production sector.

Even before the poll, the country was split in two between the rebel-held north and Gbagbo's southern strongholds, and loyalist security forces hold Abidjan in an iron grip.

His troops have cornered Ouattara's shadow government in his former campaign headquarters, a luxury golf resort on the outskirts of the city protected by a cordon of 800 UN peacekeepers and supplied by helicopter.

Gbagbo has ordered French and UN troops to leave Ivory Coast, a demand they have rejected, insisting they recognise only Ouattara's rule, and around the city the Blue Helmets are under increasing pressure.

On Tuesday a Bangladeshi soldier was wounded by a machete blow during a mob attack and a UN truck burnt out by pro-Gbagbo demonstrators.

The United Nations estimates that at least 173 people have been killed in post-election violence, many dragged from their homes at night by pro-Gbagbo forces, and that more than 19,000 refugees have fled the country.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/west-african-chiefs-plan-force-to-oust-laurent-gbabgo-from-ivory-coast/story-e6frfku0-1225978404779#ixzz19WRxTs6B

Akainzo:
What this declaration means is what it says: that this is what Ribadu claims and not necessarily that that is what it is. Going through what he himself has admitted though makes for some interesting read.

a. What happened to the N10 Million Naira land in Abuja?
b. By Ribadu's admission, the cost or value of cows was diminshing during his tenure.
c. The Honda CRV is also worth the same amount after the his tenure.
d. What about the Jeep that he was purportedly shot at?
e. Ribadu never invested in himsled in all his tenure, so what was his salary being used for?

I have learnt in life, that one should be careful of two situations in life: 1. The presence of the abnormal and 2. The absence of the normal.

There are a lot of absences in his declaration and that is what I'd love to find out. Am sure a keen investigator would be able to dig up more interesting stuffs.

Dude, we agree partially for once, but for different reasons. I repeat the question I asked earlier, why is this stuff coming out at this particular point in time and who is benefitting from it? Gbawe, over to you!