₦airaland Forum

[size=14pt]Reps to stop fraud in oil exports [/size]
By Akanimo Sampson
July 10, 2010 11:02PM

The House of Representatives is making effort to contain sharp practices by transnational corporations operating in Nigeria’s oil industry. The House Committee on Customs has said it is taking steps to tackle the issue of calibration of crude oil exported from terminals based on reports from the Nigeria Customs Services that oil corporations have been cheating Nigeria.

The Nigeria Customs Services claims that oil corporations use calibration to defraud the country of billions of dollars every year. Customs officials told members of the House Committee on Customs and Excise, who were on tour of formations in the South-East geo-political zone, that the oil companies were exploiting the exclusion of the Customs Service from crude oil terminals to falsify the calibration of the quantity of crude oil exported from the terminals.

The Chairman of the House Committee, Abdullahi Umar Faruk, said when lawmakers’ interacted with officials of the Ministry of Finance, no one knew how much the country gets from oil.

“There was a time we were asking the former Minister of Finance and she was telling us that nobody, even she as a minister, not even the President of Nigeria, knows what Nigeria is earning from oil and this is a sorry state,” he said.

He promised to tackle the calibration issue.

“We have held a public hearing on customs and have made far reaching recommendations which will be debated when the house reconvenes,” he said.

The lawmaker also said the legislature will ensure that customs officials are trained and equipped to stop the fraud. He said it was wrong for the country to make the customs rely on the oil companies they are supposed to monitor for their welfare and equipment.

“We have discovered that lack of training and equipment has made it impossible for the customs to discharge their duties,” the lawmaker said.

“We are going to address the issues of training and purchase of helicopters and patrol boats to enable them fly to terminals, monitor calibrations, chase smugglers and increase revenue for the country.”

He explained that at the public hearing the House committee held in Abuja, and during the tour of the formations and interaction with customs officers across the country, the issue of lack of monitoring of crude export for the country had been raised.

“We are going to discuss further with Nigerian Customs about the issue of not participating fully as they should at the platforms where Nigerian crude is being loaded,” he said.

“In fact, they must know and account for whatever is exported so that adequate and necessary revenue must be taken for Nigeria.’’

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/Economy/5592178-146/reps_to_stop_fraud_in_oil.csp

True federalism will answer all problems.
Let the states be the power centers, then we will see who will involve themselves in a do or die for an empty center.

The whole concept of zoning sounds really foolish when you consider that Nigeria is meant to be a federation.

[size=14pt]Zoning and the power shift debate [/size]
By Jibrin Ibrahim

July 11, 2010 01:28AMT

Zoning and power shift have returned as key terms in Nigeria’s political debate as politicians prepare for the breaking of the PDP pact that would allow Jonathan Goodluck contest for the Presidency. The new Chairman of the PDP has already announced the end of zoning.

Zoning and power shift became major issues in Nigeria because of the major transformation regarding identities and power in the country. Regional power was substituted by federal power and the only “cake” in Nigerian politics became the presidency.

The turning point in the debate was the June 12, 1993 presidential election that was annulled mid-way through the announcement of the results, just at the moment when it had become clear that M. K. O. Abiola, a Southern Yoruba Muslim had won a landslide victory over Bashir Tofa, a Northern Kano Hausa. Even if the truth of the matter was that Babangida, the then Head of State, was a dictator who wanted to rule for as long as possible, the Yoruba, and indeed, the Southern elite were convinced that the annulment of the 1993 election was a Hausa-Fulani plot to keep them out of power.

The 1993 election was considered to have been relatively free and fair and a good opportunity to start rebuilding confidence in the Nigerian nation-state. The annulment led to strong ethnic and regional fears that the so-called Hausa/Fulani ruling class was not going to allow a Southerner to rule, even if the person wins a democratic election. At that time, the Southern press had led a massive media campaign, the main tenet of which was that the Hausa-Fulani had sacrificed democracy to maintain themselves in power. It was in that context that the debate over zoning intensified and Northern political barons agreed to cede power to a certain Southerner they would select. They selected Obasanjo, and the rest, as they say, is history.

At that time, power shift was defined as a plea from the people of Southern Nigeria to provide Nigeria’s President. The argument, according to Charles Ibiang (Thisday, 11/2/99) was that out of the twelve Heads of State Nigeria has had, only four are from southern Nigeria and that the southern rulers were in power for only six, of the thirty-eight years that the country has been independent.

Alex Ekwueme, former Vice President during the Second Republic argued (Guardian, 26/1/99), that they coined the term power shift as an alternative to the concepts of zoning and rotation which had dominated the National Constitutional Conference of 1994-95. Section 229 of the 1995 Draft Constitution had stipulated that the Presidency should be rotated between the North and the South, Gubernatorial power rotated between the three Senatorial districts in each state and the Chairmanship of local governments between three zones to be created in each of them. These constitutional proposals were however completely discredited when it became clear that General Abacha had plotted to continue as “elected President” and that the zoning was therefore going to start from the North, the region that had monopolised power for a long time.

The Abacha plot had to be understood within the context of memories from the Second Republic. The then ruling National Party of Nigeria had adopted a zoning and rotation policy for the Presidency but when M. K. O. Abiola tried to compete for the party’s presidential nomination for the 1983 election, he only received insults from the party hierarchy.

Of course the calls for power shift are today coming from the North and in a sense, it is good that the Northern political class is repeating words and arguments from their Southern colleagues that everybody has the right to contest so let the best candidate win. Northerners had argued that democracy was a game of numbers and they had enough to win elections. If this is the case, they have nothing to worry about a Jonathan candidacy, as long as INEC can deliver a free and fair election.

I believe that in the long run, the real issue in Nigeria is not power shift but power sharing. Nigeria must re-create the multiple centres of power that characterised our earlier history and thereby reduce the very high stake that has been placed on the Presidency. The problem however is that the power shift debate has exacerbated the ethnic dimensions of Nigeria’s political crisis. There are too many losers and only one victor in the power shift argument, the person who becomes President.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Opinion/Columns/5592174-184/story.csp

Donpuzo:
I think some people are over celebrated here on NLAND, cause of their ability to throw insults.

Just spent some time reading up on both technologies as in googling JSP VS PHP and i got a lotta fins that PHP is mostly prefared even by foreign coders.

consider this links:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1283413/php-vs-jsp-which-should-i-learn

http://www.webmaster-talk.com/coding-forum/113214-jsp-vs-php.html

http://www.tutkiun.com/2009/09/php-vs-jsp-vs-asp_8057.html

http://www.pointafter.com/Archives/nl0203.htm

http://mytechrantings..com/2007/06/php-vs-jsp.html

It clearly shows that majority of the programmer share my view, even though i never read about their opinions before i wrote!

Thanks!

I only clicked the first link out of curiosity, only to find that the best answer is basically saying the same things I have said here. I think you just have selective hearing.

As for people being celebrated for vile language, all prizes should go to you; after all, you abused me for no reason over several days, only to cry foul when I picked up the mantle and stood up to laugh at you. Go on, its ok to cry to mummy.

Donpuzo:
@Beaf, You are free to believe whatever about me. It's a free world!

But i have a question for you,

Why do Joomla and Drupal use PHP? Are the developers also "Cut and nail coders " ?

So thats your ultimate technology? Damn!

You should be able to write such software yourself or organise a group of devs to do it, even if not for sale.
By all means, these things are good tech, but they are far from ultimate.

^
I take it that you are a "cut and nail" developer, who is satisfied with where you currently are.

. . .
I believe you are a programmer and should know a lotta things, one of which is that, almost all Programming languages follow similar Syntax, Programs are made up of instructions, and other fins, like loops, conditionals, and some other regular things used, be it Java or PHP,
. . .

First things; I am not a programmer, I am a software developer, thank you.
Now according to you, "almost all Programming languages follow similar Syntax". Oh yes! So true. If you need to get to Sokoto from Lagos, which would you rather take, a car or a bicycle? You see, both operate on the same priciples, afterall they both have wheels which pull and push the mechanism to its destibition. Does that sound reasonable? I could devote time to weep for you, but it will be time wasted.

JSP is simply too much stress for a simple thing, what PHP can achieve in 6 line JSP will achieve with 100's of line,

100's of lines? Damn! Charlie, I doubt that you know what you are doing or how to achieve it.

To me that suck! JSP is more secured no doubt, and also robust and allows some crazy fuctions, but when you talk of powering a site, i know with many measures, PHP can prove itself much more greater than you think!

You might be used to building homepages and think the World ends there. The World would laugh its head off at anyone that suggests PHP for websites that do real-time enterprise level math (e.g banking, SETI etc) or websites that need the tightest security (e.g. military). You have a very small Worldview that needas expanding, or if you aren't willing, give way and allow the new crop of developers to feed on fertile ground.

ROSSIKE:
If only certain fools would do a search on Google before displaying their ignorance here, we would all be the better for it.

May 2010

''The warship, still under construction at its Apapa base will be completed soon.

General Manager, Naval Dockyard, Commodore A. B. Nuafa, made this known while taking journalists covering the House of Representatives round the Naval dockyard in Lagos.''

http://allafrica.com/stories/201002010691.html

Soon?
If only certain fools would learn to read articles before exposing their foolishness.

bluehorizo:
The Nigerian Navy is set to make history with the construction of the first locally-made warship.

Work on the ship, which is being constructed by local engineers using local materials, has reached an advanced stage at the Naval Dockyard, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The construction was inaugurated in December 2007 by the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye.

The CNS, who addressed journalists at the construction site on Thursday, said work on the ship would be completed in [size=14pt]September[/size].
. . .
http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art2008040323545746

. . .Er, does that not mean the ship should have been completed in September 2008, seeing that Vice-Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye was quoted in 2008? Na wa for angry pipul sha!
Abi is it still in Okija?

[size=14pt]It’s free for all *As PDP clears coast for Jonathan, IBB, others[/size]
National News Jul 11, 2010
*Governorship, legislative primaries too

All doubts about the eligibility of President Goodluck Jonathan for the PDP primaries leading to next year’s presidential election were laid to rest yesterday after the party announced that it was throwing open the presidential, governorship and legislative primaries to all aspirants irrespective of their birth place.

He spoke, just 48 hours after the party’s national chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, said he was misquoted by the media which reported him as saying on Wednesday that “zoning died in 1999”, but could be revisited if necessary.

However, Chief Secondus said under the new dispensation, the coast was clear for President Jonathan to seek the party’s ticket for the presidential election.

President Jonathan is a Nigerian and therefore like all Nigerians, irrespective of tribe and religion, he is qualified to contest the PDP presidential primary election in line with its guidelines”, he said, adding:

“The guidelines for elective offices including the primary election for the Presidential Candidate of the party is open to all Nigerians to contest irrespective of geo-political zone, religion and sex.

“What we have in the PDP guidelines for the primary election to elect our presidential candidate, governorship candidates and members of the National Assembly is that every one that is qualified as stated in the 1999 constitution is free to contest irrespective of where the person comes from.

“We are taking our bearing from the 1999 Constitution as the basis for the guidelines for the primary election. Every Nigerian is qualified to contest the presidential primary election bearing into cognizance age qualification as stated in the 1999 constitution, educational qualification and the person is a bona_fide member of PDP who has paid all his financial dues and above all the person must be a Nigerian. That’s all.

“As we had it in the old national anthem, though tribe and tongue we may differ, we are all equal to contest as far as the PDP primary election is concerned”.

Article 13.10 of PDP constitution confers on the National Organizing Secretary the responsibility for organizing PDP primary elections and initiation of programmes for the general mobilization of the party and recruitment of new members.
The office is also responsible for harmonizing all information, devise appropriate strategy for winning election and coordinate all field activities and organizing seminars, workshop, rallies and campaign for the attainment of the party’s objectives.

“PDP Constitution cannot be above the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Therefore, anything that is inconsistent with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a nullity”, the PDP National Organising Secretary, Chief Uche Secondus, told journalists in Abuja.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/07/11/its-free-for-all-as-pdp-clears-coast-for-jonathan-ibb-others/

^
My sister, we only said he was already married.

The question is; who beat who?
I can see Uncle Joe's 7 footer there (in red). Dat man na Kilimanjaro!

Is there any insider info about which jabs, hooks and uppercuts were deployed?

[size=14pt]Benin Republic. . . or die trying! [/size]

While I don't believe this article belongs in this section, there are deep lessons to be learnt from it.

I hope the story isn't true, because that dude can end up with a criminal conviction, just for expressing his foolishness. A big lesson to any Nigerian going abroad (even if to Ghana), people are not even a 10th as aggressive in other countries. So, please, please for heavens sake, mind your attitude. If you are only on a short holiday, you could escape punishment without even realising it; but, if you staying for some time (or visit often), statistics will surely catch up with you one day.

In the UK, where this Okposo dude is, you can get done for verbal assault. Learn from such things please, people; don't be the one caught for something fool!sh; Nigerians are too aggressive and its a shame.

The rest of becomeriches family leaving from Shagamu, strrrrrraight to Benin Republic!!!!!!!
. . .Its just a matter of putting petrol.

There will be food in Benin, because North have accepted majority. That means any small pikin can learn electricity engineering and their brain will work well, because there is plenty akamu in that lorry.

^ No wound pesin o!

Its all good, even Egyptians have heard the good news. Dem don de pack go Benin Republic too. No be small tin o!

Red Bull "gives" Vettel wings and puts Horner in a corner.

Even malaysians are hopping on the trip to Benin Republic!!!!
Everybody, pack ya load!

Happy, young militants going to clear the way through Seme border!

. . .Ondo people happily going. . .
If you look closely, you will see some militants.

Pictures below show the great mr and mrs becomerich relocating to Benin Republic to make north majority.

Ok, this thread was started in 2008, so where is this ship in 2010? Abi it is still at Okija?
Indigenous Warship my foot, 9ja and filmtricks sha!

AC is the wrong party for Ribadu. It just doesn't have national credibility, not with Tinubu pulling all the AC strings.
As for Fashola running as VP or even President under AC, Tinubu will be sure to kill such an ambition. In Tinubu's eyes, it will be him or no one.

In the meantime, Red Bull seem to have carried on with their favouritsm.
They brought two new front wings to silverstone, Vettel broke his. . . and guess what? Webbers new wing was taken off and fitted to Vettels car and Webber had to make do with an old version.

http://www.f1sa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23411:f1--no-manipulation-as-sebastian-vettel-takes-mark-webbers-formula-1-wing&catid=1:f1&Itemid=157

All I can say is, may Vettel crash out of the race.

hercules07:
Bros why the sarcastic question na, information on the net points to the fact that we have more muslims? Nigerians are a religious bunch, for me let us join all the associations, even the ones for buddhists, we need all the help we can get.

Religion has no place in politics. Period.
As for your CIA factbook, it is high time Nigeria had a genuine census in which cows are not counted. Current census figures simply defy even kindergarten logic; there is no place the World over, where the desert is more populated than coastal and green areas. If any rashional mind studies the official figures for "population growth" of Lagos compared to Kano and Kaduna, they will end up crying non-stop like a baby. . . Such is the beating that the normal working brain would take from the "official figures".

@topic
IBB (soldier) took Nigeria into the the Organisation of Islamic Conference.
Abdulsalami Abubakar (soldier) took Nigeria into the D8.

Nigeria is not an Islamic country, so Jonathan can only do the diplomatic thing and "act" along. All this Islamic country nonsense is the more reason to permanently wrest the grip of the old North from power in Nigeria. There is nothing but Boko Haram to show for their time in power. It is in the interest of the whole country for the North to have a brand new set of leaders in the mould of Ribadu, El-Rufai, Umar etc.

Slowly, but surely, as time goes by, government involvement in such stuff as Hajj, Organisation of Islamic Conference, D8 and other stup!d "gains" of foolish military regimes will be completely cut out.

Also, one day Nigeria will stop counting goats, cows and chickens and we'll have a proper census.

I strongly suspect Nigeria fixed matches. How else can one explain the bizarre antics of Yakubu, Kaita, Lagerback and all players, except Enyeama?

davidtayo:
my ajaxcontroltoolkit is not working. anybody has idae why?
i use VS 2008 version 3.5
thanks

Do you think we do Okija here?
What exactly do you mean by "not working?"

netghost:
@beef, i changed my mind let me have a chat with u first, u can send your number to this mail and i will contact u
mittjames@yahoo.com

Watch out for any changes to my signature in the next few days (latest Wednesday), you'll be able to contact me through a 3rd party. Either that, or I'll send a contact to your email by Wednesday.

pc guru:
@beaf I apologize for my statement I get your point I misinterpreted your post.yeah its true java and c# are much more better to start with cause am doing java now and the loose type language affects me when it comes to java,

No issues. We Nigerians are hot headed types.
You are experiencing exactly the sort of problems that come from learning to code with the wrong language. I'll advise that you totally dump any PHP or Classic ASP mindset and start with a totally clean mind. Do a lot of reading first to gain background info, then delve in and destroy.
If you enjoy reading a lot, I'd recommend this page; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_(programming_language) One of the best parts of Wikipedia is the refferences at the bottom of the page, some are nuggets of the purest gold.

The most damaging effect of learning PHP or Classic ASP as a first language is that, vast areas where we should have an instinctive strictness are ignored to our peril as effective developers. I can bet that you might have issues not only with strong typing, but also with quite a few OO concepts and also things like strict ways of separating code from presentation.

Vettel claims another pole!
In the team mate stakes its - Rosberg 5th, Schumi 10th; Lewis 4th, button 14th.

1    S Vettel Red Bull
2    M Webber Red Bull
3    F Alonso Ferrari
4 L Hamilton McLaren *
5 N Rosberg Mercedes ***
6    R Kubica Renault
7    F Massa Ferrari
8    R Barrichello Williams
9    P de la Rosa BMW Sauber
10 M Schumacher Mercedes ***
11    A Sutil Force India
12    K Kobayashi BMW Sauber
13    N Hulkenberg Williams
14 J Button McLaren *
15    V Liuzzi Force India
16    S Buemi Toro Rosso
17    V Petrov Renault
18    J Alguersuari Toro Rosso
19    H Kovalainen Lotus
20    T Glock Virgin
21    J Trulli Lotus
22    L di Grassi  Virgin
23    K Chandhok Hispania
24    S Yamamoto Hispania

Button is out of Q3 (14th), while his team mate is 7 places ahead. . . Little girls doll.

pc guru:
This is one character i find in programmers in Nigeria of Today "Pride " and it s very digusting i dont go around telling ASP Developer that what they are studying is silly because in my opinion i believe every language serves its purpose to a particular problem.not engaging in any word sparing with you BEAF, but that pride of yours will hinder you from expanding your mind.my last line on this topic. to think i use to look at Beaf as someone who was a simple minded programmer,

Pride? I am only offering what I genuinely believe is the very best advise, as someone who is competent across several IT technologies; from C# to your Classic ASP and the OP's PHP; from MySql to Sql Server etc etc etc. Also, why is it that no developers refer to themselves as "programmers" in this day and age, except Nigerians? Maybe, its a dangerous sign of being out of touch with technology? A programmer is a mere technician.

The very last thing I am, is "proud". On the other hand, what I observe among Nigerian developers is an eagerness to take the easiest route and sort of bodge their way forward (even if its the worst solution); the statistics for security vulnerabilities I posted are as real as daylight and mostly the result of bodging with the "easiest" tool; well, its extremely easy for us to become dangerous developers and let ourselves loose on an unsuspecting World.
Always use the right tools. whether it is design patterns or technology, lets not give our fellow Nigerian code hacks who are doing the right thing a bad name.

I will continue to stress it, learn a major language like C# or Java, before launching into PHP or Classic ASP. You will be a better developer for it, you will get paid much more and for goodness sake, the learning tools are FREE.

It is easy to observe the average Nigerian Website and shudder. IT is still relatively new, we can make a difference by stressing best practices now, so that we can catch up with the likes of India.
Nigerian developers can be as good as any in the World, but if we don't strive for excellence, we will continue to rip mediocrity.