₦airaland Forum

Pk001:
I just finished watching the final episode. I must confess, I was almost crying. The story might not be accurate enough, but at least it gave an insight to what is really happening. I like the final speech by kene said it all. It is true both the government(indigene & non indigenes) and the international community are to be blamed , but for us to be a nation we must consider each ethnic group as part of us.

Anything more accurate would have left you not just in tears, but in full scale riot mode.

Ayemokhia:
. . .What system are we operating in Nigeria?

Cabal system.

Tears almost came to my eyes. That was 100 percent Nigeria and a good summary of Niger Delta issues.
Yes, we will build a nation! The struggle continues!

After so long, the World is beginning to admit what is going on in the ND.

PapaBrowne:
@ Beaf
What happened with the website??

Abeg don't give up oooh! This idea was something good mehn!

PapaBrowne, thanks for the encouragement; God bless people like you. Its so strange, over the last few weeks, I have agonised seriously over this issue. Its like you read my mind!

Looking at Nigeria, so many things go through the mind and one gets discouraged that our efforts would only succeed in helping other Black countries, but not ones own. Certain areas have slowed because of this, but within a couple of weeks, the website will begin a phased launch.
I will post update info right here on this thread.

^
Precisely! This is a welcome u-turn, especially from things like the recent BBC Hausa service Yar'Adua "phone call".

From ND?
That means Obama can join MEND!

Really, if it was a man that  was to be in her shoes, d man would have bold answered d question in few seconds.  'Where a woman's sense stops, there, d man's sense begins!

You're more than this na!
This statement is quite offensive, please find reason to edit it.

aisha2:
Am simply his Assistant. Kosovo is still the Moderator

Nonsense! I hereby promote you to supreme moderator of the whole of NL or in the parlance of kosovo, Capo di tutti capi!
Congrats to the angel of NL!

[size=14pt]World’s most expensive runway?[/size]
By Punch Editorial Board, Published: Tuesday, 30 Mar 2010

By stopping a staggering N64bn contract for the construction of a second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, recently, the nation’s lawmakers have saved the nation what would have been another huge drain on its resources. The House of Representatives, in the exercise of its oversight functions, promptly suspended the brazenly padded contract. The lawmakers found, to their dismay, that the N64bn earlier earmarked for the four-kilometre runway contract is enough to build two new airports. The House has thus asked the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria to halt the construction and await the outcome of its investigative hearing during which the International Civil Aviation Organisation will be invited to assess the project and its cost.

Aviation authorities say the runway is necessary to unburden the current airstrip. The legislators have, by their action, paved the way for another look at the contract with a view to seeking alternative way of executing the important project at a cost comparable to the global standards.

The Federal Executive Council had, in December 2009, approved the construction of the runway because the present one built 27 years ago had outlived its design and life span of 20 years. The analysis provided by the House indicates that, at the cost of N64bn, the runaway, if constructed, would have been the most expensive in the world. Under a competitive and transparent tendering process, the project should cost between N24bn and N26bn.

Comparatively, it has been revealed that Bucharest Airport in Romania recently had its runway installed for the equivalent of N17.5bn, while a similar construction reportedly cost N18bn in Thailand. Back home, a complete International Airport recently built by the Akwa Ibom State Government, with maintenance facilities and the country’s longest runway, reportedly cost N42bn.

Spending a whopping N64bn on a runway would have been another avoidable leakage. Funneling public funds into private pockets through inflated contracts has been the bane of the nation’s infrastructure development. The World Bank once rated the cost of contract execution in Nigeria as one of the highest in the world. While inaugurating the Presidential Projects Assessment Committee recently, Acting President Goodluck Jonathan told newsmen that petitions on inflated contracts and abandoned projects had flooded the seat of power. And despite committing about N1.5 trillion to road projects since 1979, many of the contracts were found to have been abandoned.

The aviation sector, too, has, over time, been mired in allegations of graft. For instance, the N19.5bn intervention fund released by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in the wake of three successive air mishaps between 2005 and 2006 was allegedly misapplied, leading to the arrest and prosecution of two former ministers of aviation, Babalola Borishade and Femi Fani-Kayode, an Austrian contractor, George Eder, and the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, Roland Iyayi.

NAMA, in June 2008, told the Senate Committee on Aviation probing the disbursement and application of the intervention fund that FAAN inflated the contract for the Safe Tower Project by N5.5bn.

Early in his tenure, Obasanjo had set up a probe panel headed by Justice Obiora Nwazota to investigate alleged $400 million scandal in the Nigeria Airways. Some officials were consequently indicted and ordered to refund millions of dollars.

It is however better to prevent such looting than wasting more money on probes after the deed had been done. This, indeed, is why the assemblymen should be commended for stopping the allegedly inflated runway contract. But the legislators must dig deeper to identify those who would have benefited from the padded contract. Did the contract go through the routine tendering process? If not, how was the due process bypassed? What happened to the Bureau of Public Procurement?

All those involved in bungling the process do not deserve to retain their public positions. They should be identified and punished. The House needs to be thorough and firm in this assignment. Members should not hesitate to expose and recommend for prosecution all those behind the Abuja runway contract scam.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission should be involved in getting to the root of the scandal. The runway project, owing to its importance, can be re-awarded to a new contractor at a reasonable cost after an open and competitive bidding process.

Above all, contract padding and other corrupt acts are mere symptoms of an opaque public contracting system. A freedom of information law is urgently required to infuse more transparency into the system. There is need for continued vigilance by the public to check the criminal culture of using contracts as a veritable means of corrupt self-enrichment.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art2010033012054

The British position has changed otherwise the BBC would never air such a series. The truth about the Niger Delta is being told to British people in no uncertain terms?. . . And MEND are depicted as the heroes they are! Nigerian politics has just turned full circle. Power to the people!

Even the British have realised that politics as usual has failed woefully.

Mhismole:
I realised something. People tend to see a topic, click reply and post without reading from the roots. See people still thinking "Apology coming too late". what part of SHELL DID NOT APOLOGIZE, THE WHOLE THING IS A HOAX dont you understand shish!

Exactly! I have noticed this thing about the average Nigerian, it is so painful to see people behave this way. It isn't just on NL, it is in every facet of life.

You should state clearly that you only cover Linux. Thats all I could conclude from your site.
Let people know exactly what you're about even before they visit, or some will go there looking for open source C# software and only see PHP stuff. . . Anybody will be mighty pissed by that.

Ghadaffi has made the silent question a loud international one. Good.
Let us press Goodluck Jonathan for thorough electoral reform, after that, we will see if we will not be forced to either hold a National Conference or negotiate a split up.

If through common sense, we cannot acheive the above, then we might be forced into an explosive split with a thousand Jos's (God forbid).
The vast majority of Nigerians are tired of a country that doesn't represent them.

“In case they don’t know, I believe that Murtala’s appointment would help to redeem the battered image those managing Yar’Adua have brought to the Yar’Adua family. Because whether they like it or not, Nigerians are angry over this whole mess created by those charged with the responsibility of managing Yar’Adua. I think they should just go and bury their heads in shame.
“The quality of political discussion is very poor. People no longer remember yesterday. And when they don’t, we can’t chart a course for tomorrow. Those accusing Murtala of being greedy, what are they? Three years into their term, the things we are seeing call for question. We are not pleased with their conduct, and that is public judgment and measurement.

“In case they don’t know, late Shehu Yar’Adua is the reason for their being on national political stage today.
The cover page of Umaru Yar’Adua’s presidency was the late Shehu. So the president was covered with the integrity of the late Shehu Yar’Adua. People should know that eras come and go.
“If today, the son of a man who laid down his life for the survival of democracy is appointed to serve as a minister, the least I expect from the President Yar’Adua’s group is to pray for his success, and not to plot his fall, even before he takes off or try to vilify him. After all, most of the elder statesmen today from the North served as ministers and got government’s appointments in their 20’s. if they cannot push for it when they (Yar’Adua’s group) had the opportunity, I think acting President Jonathan deserves a commendation and praise for appointing a young man in his late 30’s to come and contribute his quota to the development of this country.

“They are claiming that President Yar’Adua said his presidency was not for the family but for Nigeria, fine, why didn’t they call that to work when they were hiding the man from us? Or is his health not Nigerian’s concern anymore? Yet they were playing hide and seek with a national issue. But now they suddenly realized his presidency was not a family thing but a national one. I think we should begin to agitate for their prosecution, for making Nigerians go through this experience.

“Come to think of it, are they saying a call to service means embezzlement. Well, if that is their thinking, I want to assure them that Murtala was not brought up that way. He has the best of training and home discipline from his late father and living mother. They should therefore keep quiet and leave the Yar’Adua family out of this. I am qualified to speak for them because I was late Shehu’s confidant and personal adviser.

“And on Masari, the former Speaker, I wish to state that taking into cognizance the changing conditions and character of our politics, where governors serve as ministers, former Nigerian leaders are called to serve in different capacities, rather than completely throwing Masari’s nomination out, a role should have been created for him to play, because this is a special time in our political history, as such we need the services of special people like Masari, especially if we agree that he led the House well under his leadership,” AbdulRahman said.
Meanwhile, Major Umar (retd) has described the latest actions of elder statesman, Yakassai, as a disservice not only to the North but the people of Nigeria.

“You see, I wonder what legacy the man wants to bequeath to we the younger generations. Don’t forget, this man is supposed to be 84 or so. And if at his age, some people are still using him, then, it is most unfortunate.
“And if you go and investigate, you will discover that the man is not doing it for free. He is not doing it because he believes in it. He is not doing it because he is patriotic. He is doing that because he lacks morals and probably because he may have been promised an oil block. And if that is correct, how many years will he live again to enjoy it? I don’t think the man should be taken seriously. Let’s leave it at that for now,” Umar told Daily Sun in a telephone interview recently.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/mar/29/national-29-03-2010-002.htm

Some real fireworks!!!
Thank God the real Northerners are speaking up at last!

^
It might acyually kill NL if it goes too far.

frosbel:
But we disagree to agree in the future in a different form.

True.

^
No, Frosbel. I just see this as the same problem, only a different side of the coin. Religion can be a very dangerous weapon, the Hutaree's are White supremacists who are prepared to kill, because they have interpreted their holy book to say so. It is the exact same thing with Bin Laden.

There might currently be by far many more extremist Muslims than there are Christians, nevertheless the issue exists in both religions. In the past, there were far more Christian terrorists (Spanish Inquisition, Crusades etc).

^
The censorship is a bit of a joke, isn't it?
I actually got a 12 hour ban the other day for circumvent the censorship filter! Wow!

The hutaree's are white supremacist fools that are being used to destabilise Obama's govt.
[size=14pt]They are Christian terrorists. Period.[/size]
Dogmatic religion and its blind faith breed terrorism. Both Christians and Muslims can be terrorists.

Go and rest, you're tired.

Dogmatic religion = terrorism.

These groups pop up every now and then in the US, from Jonestown (Jim Jones) to Branch Davidianians (Waco) to Hutaree's to all sorts of crazies.
The good thing is the FBI knows how to destroy these evil folk.

The hutaree's are white supremacist fools that are being used to destabilise Obama's govt.

Onye Babe:
This is so funny. I don't know why you guys think Shell should apologise for anything. We tend to forget that Shell is a business entity, a business in incapable  of responsibility, it relies on its people. Shell employs lots of people mainly Nigerians who work for them in various locations. Why is it impossible for us to see that it is our fellow Nigerians that are hurting us? We all know about the absurd practices of the company, yet most of us would accept a job at Shell if the opportunity ever presented itself. It is all about morals, ethics and belief systems if we don't respect ourselves, why should anyone respect us? There lots of companies that have the same bad practices as Shell, for example British Tobacco, they are in our country selling us cigarettes, can anyone argue that slowly killing people that cannot afford basic healthcare isn't equally as bad? You can say it is a choice but go and say it to the young boys who live on the streets and smoke to pass time and numb the pain and suffering they encounter on a daily basis.

Please forget this nonsense, Nigerians working in Shell are a bunch of greedy and immoral people. If they all felt strongly about their country, they should all go on strike until action has started on the clearing and cleaning of the mess in Delta State. Lets see how that would not work.

If you ever see a past state governor throw poo on them except Tinibu. (Funny enough I see a lot of them but it is impossible to tell a friend you hate their fathers.)

LOL

This is another terrible example of how Nigerians sell ourselves into slavery for peanuts, trying to sound politically correct when the rest of the World aknowledges that Shell is a grave human rights abuser in the ND.

You only think an apology from Shell is funny out of very deep ignorance. Every tom, manliness and harry thinks they can talk about the ND crisis without first of all learning the basics.
You are spitting on the graves of thousands of innocent souls, sent to their graves by the actions of Shell; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell#Human_rights_concerns

This one "Nigeria religion" thing is sooooo damn funny!
Last time there were various goons posting hate topics against the US as Nigeria's enemy numero uno, it was that they were trying hard to split the country and deprive some of oil; [size=14pt]. . .but, today it is their very own Magreb brother, Ghadaffi telling them the blindingly obvious![/size]

. . .soooooooooo funny, I could die of laughter!

SapeleGuy:
Are you sure there is no way this missing 70 billion can be linked to Niger Delta?

I strongly believe it is the Timipre Sylva money. Sylva has taken over from Ibori as the new fool and conduit pipe of ND money's to the cabal; his passport should be siezed too, damn immunity!

The end is near!

[quote author=~Bluetooth link=topic=421600.msg5791228#msg5791228 date=1269885579]so do you mean that countries that are bigger than nigeria dont have their own story to tell.just this morning,a rebel group in chechenya attacked moscow just because they wanted independent from russia.remember the russia and georgian war of 2004 over this same issue.dalai lama and chinese secession saga is still pending,the darfur crisis and last year,texas threatened to breakaway from thr united state.we cant count on and on but the problem of secession is not peculiar to nigeria alone,so stop all these aggressive inciteful campaign against oneness of nigeria[/quote]Please try to make sense when you talk about people involved in some mythical "aggressive inciteful campaign against oneness of nigeria". The govt is the one that has always done that with its corruption and wickedness (bordering on evil). We give our people to another country like they are mere objects (Bakassi); 500 women and children can be slaughtered in a single day while we aren't even at war; we gave Malaysia palm oil seeds some years ago, but while we have no electrity, they are a developed country and the leading oil palm grower Worldwide; 90% of our intellectual talent is abroad, because home is hostile to their self realisation; after 50 years of existence, we are still a mono product economy with a parasitic govt; we have by far the highest paid politicians in the World, but the people are perishing in poverty; shoot at sight police; rampant tribalism; rampant corruption. . .

I could go on and on and on. You know the drill yourself, so please apply some sense rather than accuse anybody of some funny campaign. Tell me, what has a Nigeria without true federalism got to offer? Failing that, tell me what has a united Nigeria got to offer? After that could you kindly provide the definition of a Nigerian citizen and their rights?

shilling:
If they did apologize, what can I say - talk is cheap.
Come on, share it!!! I'm curious here. I'm quite confused because the video looks genuine, but there's no evidence of this anywhere on the Shell website . . . weird.

The video is the very first giveaway;
1. The man in the video is very scruffy
2. His suit is like something from bend down boutique

Second, a google news search yields ZERO results for the so called apologiser, Bradford Houppe;
http://news.google.co.uk/news?q=Bradford%20Houppe&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7TSEA_en&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wn

Thirdly, the registration details for for Shells real website reveal;
Domain Name: SHELL-CO.COM
Registrar: ASCIO TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Whois Server: whois.ascio.com

Whereas the so called shell apologises thingy is hosted on www.joker.com, a cheap, roadside host (see https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-421199.0.html#msg5786350)
Shell does not do cheap. In fact it is impossible.

ziga:
It doesn't matter to me how many pieces Nigeria is broken up into. There are many small countries in the world.

But if dividing is not targeting and removing the cause of our problems, then why are we wasting our time.

I still have not seen how dividing will remove the problems we face or how it will make Nigerians less corrupt and hypocritical.

The heart of the matter is that Nigeria is built for corruption, it is built solely for dividing easy money. Read post at this link and let your jaw drop, you will find that on researching, the figures mentioned are real; https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-276078.0.html#msg3918895
Divide the country and you have cured 99% of the problem for all resulting countries.

tensor777:
Because in this case the "common" sense of some disgruntled elements in Nigeria is also pretty daft.
Collective unity is better than division.

What is to be gained from a united Nigeria? Jos crisis? Boko Haram? ND problems? Cabals? Laziness? Poverty and underdevelopment? Senators with bigger salaries than the US President? What? Shoot to kill police?

^
Yeah, I just saw that in the article.

calyx:
How would she know hes 25? All shes seen are bogus pictures mayb of the 50-60 yr old man she seeks

You're right, she was indeed thought he was a middle aged British man.

bawomolo:
it's election time, most politicians try to be articulate and populist during this period.

Akala can never manage to be articulate. An ex-roger is an ex-roger.

prettyG:
I come from a township unlike you that comes from a creek.

. . .The child oracle knoweth all and speaketh rubbish!

prettyG:
I am also Igbo.

Division of the country will not solve the problem but rather will escalate the problem. A friend of mine wrote an article about it and I totally agree.

P.S I never said it is well with Nigeria. That will reduce me to a dreamer like beaf and the rest of his ilk.

Why are you so concerned about other people? Or is it really that you fear your village is too corrupt or the people are too lazy?