₦airaland Forum

selingel:
@ Beaf, you don come again. Abeg no make me laugh!.

Don't worry, I don forgive una.
What of my friend, otobroto? I see all of you guy's representing from time to time, but no otobroto.

Afam:
Whether extremists or not there are people that will reject such offers.

I cut off a few friends who believed that every rich man in Nigeria cannot claim to have made money without doing something illegal. This they repeatedly told me when I relate to them some of my encounters with people who propose all manner of businesses to me.

I have severally been asked by scammers to replicate bank websites and even though I can do this under 4 hours from start to finish (including everything on the original website) and you have on the average N200,000.00 on the table [size=14pt]I tell them I won't do that[/size].

Now, people tell me I am being too rigid for not making N200,000.00 for just 4 hours work on my laptop but they seem not to understand the issue of right or wrong.

This is just a matter of hours not to talk about hundreds of millions worth of projects that one is being begged to handle by banks.

There are indeed honest men and women in Nigeria who will not be moved at all by any amount of money based on principles, integrity and credibility.

Way to go bro. You are an example to follow.

I knew it had to be in Delta State. I just knew it!
Where others are stealing money, one of ours is spending from her own pocket on public projects!

That state is an example for the rest of the country. I keep stressing something that is a miracle in Nigeria. . . Yes, our governor (Emmanuel Uduaghan) is from a minority ethnic group in the state. His ethnic group forms just 4% of Delta states population, yet he is our governor and you can be sure he will serve a second term.

[size=14pt]Up Delta!!! Up Deborah Ogaga[/size]

Sagamite:
My friend, don't be dumb.

Saudi doctors have no duty to you to get muddled in your local politics. You sure know nothing about politics.

You want to tell me if Saudi King goes to UK for treatment, the UK government or doctors have some right to reveal his medical condition without permission or against his wish? Are you serious?

Your questions on the President's health should be directed to the president or his team (which includes his party). The PDP come into the equation as they put him forward for election. He was elected on their platform and their party's political machinery have him under their control to an extent.

It is as silly as saying the Labour party have nothing to say about Gordon Brown's behaviour or Democrats have nothing to say about Obama.

You OBVIOUSLY know nothing about politics. Get more knowledge about politics, I can't even believe I am debating such.

. . .Therefore, the politicians who went to Saudi to elicit information on Yar Adua's health "OBVIOUSLY know nothing about politics" too?
I didn't go, members of the National Assembly did.

Now as to the Saudi king going AWOL in the UK. There is no doubt that if the Saudi's sent a government delegation, answers would pour forth.
We really must get rid of our slavish attitudes in Nigeria, it makes us think like we are second class citizens, humans etc. Low self esteem at both individual and national levels have served to keep our country huttling backwards toward stone age irrelevance, instead of developing and matching forward.

Sagamite:
It is the onus of the president to give an update on his health if it is obviously not superb.

If he is incapacitated and not capable of doing so, then his cabinet (made up of his party members) should be, in consultation with party leadership, providing the details through the Press Secretary of the government. If they are not doing it fast enough or at all, then the party leadership (PDP) should be requesting they do so.

It is the party that put him forward to the Nigerian people for election, so they have a responsibility along with him (the president) to communicate if he can or cannot perform the function.

The president's health is not a private matter, but it sure aint the hell Saudi Arabia's business to decide or enforce that. They owe you nothing in that respect so don't be chatting that rubbish that they should provide you with the details of the health upon request, they would need his or his family's permission to do such and to what extent, they should not be engaging in activities that might embroil them in the local political battle of another nation. The Saudi and Saudi doctors only responsibility is NOT to lie about his health when they have to release details, they either give it as it is or not give it at all, this is what they have done so far. It is the president AND his party that owes you on reporting of his health.

With due respect, the above is a lot of rubbish in a lot of words.

Nigerians are not beholden to either the president or the PDP. Your whole view on this is muddled. I will stress it here that the president is Nigeria’s number one public servant. The PDP doesn’t even come into the equation; if he is dead, will we wait until the PDP in their benevolence, announces it to us? Crazy.

Thank goodness, you got it that the president’s health is not a private matter. I will add that, only the enslaved will feel that when an arm of our government (and by extension, the Nigerian people) demands answers, his doctors or some foreign national has the right to withhold answers. Wash your face Charlie.

I used to be a chess guru in the good old days. I have played a good game for at least 5 years now.
In the past, while walking or driving, every movement was something on the chess board (thank God its no longer that way ); I used to play and read chess for hours and hours .

Why is this just becoming news in the UK?
That is where Ibori is being tried and where Yar Adua's "phone call" originated. There is most likely a lot more going on in that country than meets the eye.
How come a British MP is involved? Perhaps, there are more people in the UK that have been soiled by Ibori's wealth, maybe even in Scotland Yard.

Everyone knows he didn't act alone. In fact two other Nigerians were rumoured to be involved and indeed two Nigerians were arrested recently in Asia. But all of that is conjecture and no better than the ignorant attempts of the Fox News; they are a very thinly valed racist channel anyway.

Depilot:
Ribadu will foolish to attemt to return at this time.But it was confirmed few days ago that Ribadu's case was one of the things Obasanjo discussed with Goodluck. I will not be surprised if Ribadu returns back to the country before this coming [b]summer [/b]time. Any can happen in Nigeria

Summer? 

So this plonker is not even in Nigeria.

[quote author=akenzua_II link=topic=398035.msg5511828#msg5511828 date=1266162945]I am really trying to gauge what the true population of Nigeria programmers are and at what level, where they learn new tech etc - I do realise this forum does not represent the nation but I can still put the question out there. Unfortunately I do not count as my experience has been mainly western.

With regards to your point about mathematics, I have to disagree with you - it matters ACROSS all levels. For example, in algorithm development and functional languages, it is the ability to transform a mathematical equation into a code that really shines. The invention of the contraption you use to post was only possible because of the mathematician's curiosity - mathematics is intertwined into every programming language.

My point is that, although enterprise software applications is where the 'money' at - grass-roots research is what drives it. Lets not make this post about our personal skills - a wise man knows, even he does not know everything and can always learn.[/quote]To me, programming is logic and logic is a much bigger thing than mathematics (it embodies math, critical thinking, argument and inference etc). Even algorithm development is not 100% math, rather it is about how well defined, optimised processes fit together to perform a task. Formal mathematics might or might not be involved in the definition the individual processes.

In Nigeria, where there really isn't much to go by (platform choices, tools, information, connectedness etc), I believe that the best way to drive the grassroots higher, would be to approach programming from a more process centric point of view that can easily be visualised. So that for example, rather than present a rigid calculus equation and a cold academic thesis, we could simply present a graphic of a loop and its conditions. Remember also, that since logic is not taught to any extent at primary and secondary levels in Nigeria, this reserves certain types of thought processes to the naturally gifted only (which is a huge loss).

If you are looking for the brightest Nigerian programmers, I think your eye should be out for mixture of 20% bright and 80% willing to learn.

Sagamite:
What a dumb statement!

Break diplomatic ties because they would not reveal the private details of health of someone.

It is the President and his ruling party that has the duty to reveal and be open about the health of the president for the nation to decide if he is fit to rule.

Daft.

What if the president is in a coma or is clinically dead, should he still report his situation?
I am shocked that anyone would suggest that Nigerians should look up to PDP to tell us Yar Adua's state of health. Yar Adua is not the president of the PDP, he is the president of Nigeria and commander in chief of our armed forces.

I am wondering. . . Do you really think PDP is written into our constitution? I never knew the PDP was a legitimate barrier between the president and the Nigerian populace. . . But some people obviously think so, no wonder we were taken for a ride for 79 days.

One last thing, Yar Adua's health is not a private matter, he is the president and our most public figure; his welfare is for public consumption. It can only be treated as such in a crude and backward quasi dictatorship, like what we had until the VP was made acting president.

You should only expect to see mathematics if the discussion is about very low level stuff. Most folk here are either junior PHP developers, students or good people looking for the next survival avenue (Nigeria is hard). But that is not to say that there aren't people who are battle ready and are equipped with the how's and why's of various architectures (low and high level), various philosophies, all backed by fruitful years of experience at various levels.

. . .Now, which are you? Novice, mathematician, junior PHP developer or guru approaching white bearded nirvana?

The delegation was able to meet Yar’Adua’s physicians who said they could not disclose anything to them since the Yar'Adua family and the Saudi government had signed a confidentiality agreement with them. They however told the delegation that no one could enter to see Yar’adua because there are lots of complications for now, and that he is totally isolated due to various infections.  What appears to be the most disconcerting point of the visit was the statement by the Saudi government official that they would be discharging Yar’Adua to Nigeria “dead or alive” sometime soon.

. . .Then, we must break diplomatic relations with Saudi. They have no right to withhold information of our president whom they have in their custody; especially as the delegation represents an attempt by the Federal Government of Nigeria to solicit answers to both the whereabouts and state of our president who disappeared 3 months ago.

Saudi Arabia's attitude is deeply spiteful of Nigeria's sovereignty.

[quote author=mama-gee link=topic=397603.msg5509225#msg5509225 date=1266089753]Who the hell is Turai, all these strange names popping out of nowhere.[/quote]You don't know Turai?
Damn!

samuelk:
still at a loss on how a mere woman could be so powerful,

That is the most condescending and ridiculous thing I have heard today.
You need to retract that statement and apologise to all women, immediately.

Some people don't realise that American pressure helped in no small measure to resolve the Yar Adua issue.

Thank you America and all condemnations to the BBC!

deluxecad:
@Beaf: Being a pastor does not localize him in the church neither does that strip him of his fundamental human right of freedom of expression. That he spoke out and reference the bible doesn't attach any religious undertone to his stance. I've always read his interviews and have come to the conclusion that he's unselfish, forthright and thinks clearly.

You do have a point, but what gets me is the sheer volume of comments from him. A man in his position ought to speak less and with more gravity.
In order to mainain that volume, he get's petty from time to time. Take this for instance;

Tunde Bakare: The National Assembly simply passed a resolution and I saw him last night like a weather beaten, battered and totally afraid man reading from a telly- printer from the wall, a statement that has been written for him without any conviction or persuasion from his body language. Yes, to a certain extent, they have followed the doctrine of necessity. I just want to remind the nation that necessity may be the mother of invention; it is not necessarily the mother of virtues. I can’t see any legal backing for what they have done. Constitutionally speaking, I think we should go a step further.

The above, coupled with religous undertones in a secular polity really doesn't present a rounded (or required) message. It makes him sound like someone seeking relevance or favours.

babapupa:
Was he irritating too when he was leading the fight to hand over power to Jonathan?

Besides, is he not a Nigeria or because he's a pastor, he's not blessed with the same freedom of speech and expression like the average Nigerian including ever clueless people like you yarning nonsense.?

Sometimes I wonder about you or real.

Did you actually read through everything said here before jumping in with that? . . .If only you had done that
Never be in a hurry to speak, your tongue will trip you.

deluxecad:
@You are too hasty in making such a harsh remark. Besides being a pastor, the man is equally a Nigerian citizen and a trained lawyer. Everything he said makes a lot of sense and worth paying heed to. Watch it!

Maybe, you think Nigeria is a religous state? Thats what sharia propagandists think as well. This does not sound right as the reason for a reasonable citizen to have joined in the protest.

Nigerians were surprised when you joined others to protest in the street at Abuja and Lagos. What informed your decision?
Well, first and foremost, it was a sense of duty and secondly a patriotic responsibility because we all cannot shut our eyes and watch what will spell doom and disintegration for our nation. The Bible called the church the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We must be involved in what is going on around us. We cannot live in a secure Island of prosperity in what I call the quick sound of poverty. As the salt of the earth we must step into every situation that would not contradict our faith. And we must maintain contact without contamination.

None of the above sounds reasonable to me. All it does, is give the Nigerian struggle a religous twist, there is nothing more dangerous; in fact, that is how the likes of Boko Haram started. . . You just slowly blur the boundaries between state and politics and a few years down the line, a beast will be born.

McKren:
Beaf cool down.

Tunde Bakare has been campaigning for weeks for handover of power to Jonathan. Besides this kind of agitation from the likes Bakare is necessary so that the moves by Jonathan to implement section 144 will be supported by public opinion.

We all support Jonathan Presidency and hope that he delivers, but as honest supporters its important to criticise him to keep him honest. A man who wants to lead 2010 Nigeria should be somewhat charismatic. Jonathan can work on his speech making abilities. We don't expect him to be Obama but he can improve.

Bakare did well with his campaigning, but people were beginning to get uneasy after some weeks of it. Sincererity is a difficult thing to project as a Nigerian pastor. It is time for him to either bow out of politics or maintain a dignified silence. It is beginning to look like he is fishing for favours.

As for Goodluck and his poor speech making, we might wish for better, but those wishes would just be cosmetic. On my part, I wish he had better pronunciation, diction and would throw away that "resource control" hat.
. . .But delivery and execution of his duty is really all that counts. I feel you sha.

His exile won't be anything new anyway, Akingbola tried it and came back home to face trial.
I hope Sanusi will face trial too (at the very least, for mismanaging the banking sector).

McKren:
He was talking about his speech on TV

Jonathan did not look confident and he should work on his speak making effort. For a PhD holder and fromer lecturer, its not too much to think he should do better.

See the speech below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8507340.stm

Jonathan is deeply introverted. He has been so for more than 50 years of his life. What matters most is that he delivers.

McKren:
Desmond Tutu of South Africa also became the leading voice for black south africans after Mandela was arrested.

Desmond Tutu sounds as out of place as Bakare. Both don't know what they are talking about and should keep out of politics.

marvix:
Beaf d problem is not Yaradua or Goodluck there is no question of who wil be worse they are one and the same Jonathan wil continue wit wat Yaradua has started my only praya is dat they allow him work and he shld earn d party ticket as dis wld also show that we are on d match towards progress and true democracy witout ethnic sentiments.

Exactly!
Let's tell that to folk like Shoot2Kill.

pcmecom:
am not a big fan of pastor tunde bakare, but I think on this occassion he is right, it is hi-time nigeria's pastors start participating in political issues in nigeria.Instead of spending time in the pulpit

What of American pastors too? You've got no clue.

[quote author=naija_swag link=topic=397624.msg5506892#msg5506892 date=1266062903]MOSSAD orchestrated it.[/quote]No, it was America that signed it. You know how they hate Nigeria's progress!

Don't mind those criminal's in the FEC. I hope each and every one of them that was involved in our national disgrace is caught and jailed indefinitely.

This man is beginning to get irritating.
Maybe he should seriously consider setting up a political party like Chris Okotie, instead of seeking cheap publicity from national trauma's.

Shoot2Kill:
You be solid Olodo.No be you dey rejoice when dey make Jonathan acting presdient.Now you dey deny am.Stick to your guns my man don't be flip flopping like OBAMA . 

Jonathan will be worse off than Yara Dua.Please record this comment and post in future if i am wrong!

The first sign of his bad governance is firing the AGF only to rehire him a few hours later .In which country is that ever done! 

Jonathan is a looting chicken! Have you forgotten his 7 billion Naira home?

I rejoiced like every other Nigerian and am still rejoicing. But a donkey like you thinks Jonathan is President of the Niger Delta. Sorry, he is the President of The Federal Republic of Nigeria and only a person like you will bring the Niger Delta into it. Olodo!
You might deslike or hate the Niger Delta, but that shouldn't come into the current discussion, which is about national politics.

Listen to yourself waxing brainless again;

Shoot2Kill:
Hahahahahahahahaha, where is beaf and his Niger Deltans associates?

I told you fools when you were rejoicing that you will soon start crying.What some of these morons on nairaland forget is that Nigeria has five major tribes now :

Politicians

Yoruba

Hausa

Igbo

Niger Delta*

Politicians are a tribe on their own,you fools started praising Akinluyi because she submitted a dumb memo at the very last minute.LOL Nigerians ! very unintelligent set of people.

Give me 24hrs with all these monkeys and i will execute them one by one even Akinluyi because they are birds of the same feather.Don't worry PDP i am coming back soon and i am coming with trouble.

Shoot2Kill:
Abeg so siddon ,na now you wan dey patriotic ! Villageman i no blame you, lagos resemble heaven for your eye.Oh boy go get visa make you visit other countries see as human beings suppose to live.Upon all fashola dey do ,lagos still be ghetto.Imagine common Zimbabwe fine pass am!

[size=14pt]See donkey comparing a whole country to Lagos now. Kai!!!! Enemies![/size]

[size=14pt]Jonathan Presidency: The inconvenient truth[/size]
Matters Arising Feb 13, 2010

By Kunle Oyatomi
Do our good readers remember the above title? That was the theme of the controversial documentary by former Vice President of the United States of America, Al Gore on climate change.

It was meant to rudely awaken skeptics to the reality of the disaster looming over mankind if we did nothing to curb our carbon emissions that is heating up the planet. The inconvenient truth (which America eventually had to admit) is that due to man’s industrial and other activities, global warming is laying waste a good deal of planet earth in a life threatening proportion. The world must rise up to the challenge or face extinction!!

However, on a smaller scale, Nigeria has had to face the “life threatening crisis” of a vacuum in the presidency from a standpoint of “the inconvenient truth” that if we had failed to resolve the crisis the way we did (through a resolution of the National Assembly), the very existence of our country was at  risk. We are all so familiar with the crisis, it is pointless to recap details.

But at the core of the problem was a constitutional log-jam in which certain powerful people in ailing President Yar’Adua’s cabinet were manipulating the constitution to prevent Vice President Goodluck Jonathan from being sworn-in as Acting President, to the extent that the ship of state was left without an effective pilot.

Every nasty, if not ignoble trick was sprung to perpetuate the vacuum in the presidency for 78 days and keep the nation adrift on dangerous waters until reason prevailed and the national assembly had to face the inconvenient truth that the crisis was “life threatening” enough for the nation to pull back from the brink. However, in doing so, the choices were difficult.

Difficult because the constitution manipulators in Aso Rock had frozen all lee ways open for a constitutional solution by pre-empting the application  solution by pre-empting the application of section 144, 145 and 146 under which the National Assembly could have acted to forestall the crisis!!

But on  Tuesday February 9, 2010 the manipulators of the constitution were out-manoeuvre by the law makers who applied the doctrine of  necessity to side step the constitutional obstacle in order to stop the drift.

Since the Federal Executive Council base of the pro-Yar’Adua’s hawks who were bent on preventing Jonathan from becoming Acting President would not facilitate the application of section 144 of the constitution, the senate had to depend on events which had close connotation to the prescription of the constitutional clauses  of section 145 to declare Jonathan, Acting President.

The National Assembly action was as unprecedented as the crisis. It resulted in a political solution devoid of strict constitutionality. Are we to address this crisis politically or constitutionally? If we had opted for a political solution (as the National Assembly did), should we have rightly ignored the  constitution?

These were grave questions to answer. The inconvenient truth is that we would still have been in that crisis if our objective was to save the small clause of the constitution that was infracted. However, the very life of the country was at risk, so we had to make a choice between saving the country or the constitution.

Our option was obvious for the constitution would be dead anyway without a country in which it was supposed to have been applied. Concerns for a united country prevailed over that for a constitution that was terminally under abuse by manipulators who were out protecting their personal interests rather those of the country.

Those who did not want Jonathan as Acting President will now have to swallow their pride and work with him or ship out of the FEC. Their failure is the victory for common sense and democracy.

But this victory, if care is not taken, could be phyrric, for the cause of the crisis has not been addressed – which is the absolutely fraudulent and flawed 1999 constitution, which Nigerian politicians and the general public knew nothing about until when President Obasanjo was sworn-in.

Unless and until a fundamental rework of that document is done by the federating units of this country, we are bound to contend with greater crisis in the future which could signal the disintegration of the country. The call for this is not new, but we have been ignoring it to our own peril. If we persist, we could be inadvertently on a suicide  mission.

Having said that, it is only appropriate to point out that this victory does not by itself mean a solution to our political crises. A lot will have to depend on how Acting President Goodluck Jonathan steers the ship of state in the coming days, weeks and months.

We can only hope that he has got all it takes to make the difference between the PDP disaster and the previous government’s (of which he was an integral part) lack-luster performance. Can Jonathan have the decisiveness (and bring to bear) to do what is right to move the country forward? Can he bring to order the level of disorder that has characterised the last 78 days before he won the right to act as President?

Or would he continue with the PDP “Family Affair” approach to governance or we would see a man calm but firm and focussed to address the country’s many potentially explosive problems? These question are apt because the future will be determined by what Jonathan does or fails to do. Therein lies the greatest of the challenges confronting  him.

Lessons from the crisis are stark. Unless we want to remain in denial of the inconvenient truth, our constitutional  democracy and its institutional infrastructure is  fragile and unstable; and it would be the greatest risk for a  nation to rely on the calibre of politicians we have at the moment to effect change.

That it took 78 days before a majority of them could see reason and ack to save the country is a mark of incompetence; but more importantly it is evidence of both incapacity to cope with the enormity of work involved in governance, and the intellectual tardiness that impede their capability.

This, I admit, is a strong indictment but isn’t it true that what took 78 days to fix could have been resolved in two weeks if the political class had been alert and focussed on matters bordering on the unity and good governance of the country?

We are lucky to have scaled over this crisis. However it is doubtful if we would be as fortunate in the event of another major crisis, (many of which treacherously lie in wait for us along the way to 2011 and beyond).

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/02/13/jonathan-presidency-the-inconvenient-truth/