Topic Summary
Posted on: Today at 02:21:23 PM Posted by: omar22
Agree but African players are bought through the basis of exposure, what's wrong with Amodu looking for a replacement for Kanu in the local league……. In reality Amodu was only concern about the 15k – 20k him and Ogunjobi would get from each player joining the squad…. Knowing a knowing that player has to achieve a certain criteria before their work permit was renewed, I know why a certain Charlton Athletic player was called to the squad in a friendly under Amodu… a Charlton player?

Why didn't largerback do the same? or Beti Volts or Bonfereejo, or many of the coaches we have employed before Amodu.

I refer u to this post. summed up my take on the whole amodu issue.

"""Truth be told, this issue about the national team's performance at the World Cup is drilling deep into my bones. Not because our team's performance was unexpected, frankly I expected them to do badly, but because of the reaction of Nigerians to the whole fiasco.

Why do we have this terrible inferiority complex?

Truth is this: Amodu was not the best man for the Eagles' job, and he did not even top the interview. However, when the decision to sack him was stupidly made after the Nations Cup, why were the three guys who trumped him in the initial selection process not called? Why did all of the new people who were called have to be white?

I am no racist, however from a financial point of view, I am more interested in the Return on Investment yardstick. If you take what happened to us in this World Cup, the return has been ZERO. I say build from the bottom up. Engaging foreign coaches is a lazy way out of reaping where we've not sown.

Let's gather the most intelligent of our ex-players - I suggest Siasia/Oliseh - and get them to mould a team that fits into the character of the nation. If we need a qualified coach, look no further than Kadiri Ikhana. The man has won the CAF Champions League back to back, has won Nigerian titles with different clubs! He is the one who in charge of the Nigerien team got them to beat our home based Eagles. A feat that I would never have dreamed of in my worst nightmares!

Look at Argentina and Germany today, their teams are not coached by geniuses like Capello or Lippi but their teams are exciting to watch and add a spontaneity to the game we haven't seen with the overblown and over-coached European teams.

Let's take a risk on our futures and in my opinion, the results wouldn't be any worse than we have now.""
http://chxta..com/2010/06/complexes.html

texazzpete:

As soon as you own up to being wrong about the formation Largerback used, i will.

 You need to shaping your game reading even Telegraph     said we used a 4-3-3 formation, how u came to think we played 4-4-2 is beyond me http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/news/7814310/Argentina-v-Nigeria-live.html The only game we used 4-4-2 was against greece.

It would not have just been 'nice'. It would have been extremely good. It would have been doing what any good coach is supposed to do. it's not the option, the luxury people like you try and make it out to be. It is a neccessity to keep the team competitive. And Amodu failed us in that regard.

Different coaches different approaches. Some coach prefer to focus on the * established* players and allow the developmental coaches to do the job of bringing in new talent. some (like Onigbende) Would rather tire down the house and start from scratch. Your man Las Largerback falls in the former category judging by the selection he named to the world cup.

I'm interested as to how you're so convinced that Siasia 'will not take BS from any player'. The man has been a youth team coach for Nigeria - he has never had to contend with the oversized egos and the 'mafia' and 'cabals' within the team. As Junior team coach, he has not been placed under the same pressure from the NFF as Amodu was I'm not saying he's not all you describe him as, but the man has not yet gone through that baptism of fire.  .

 I don't think so Nigeria is football crazy country and I even though he has not coached the national team, he has coached the Olympic Team and the pressure there is close to that of the national team. Concerning Oversized Egos of the players. Like I said Siasia is a no nonsense coach. He has been there and dont that, he played and scored in the world cup, he was a vital member of the last golden generation of super eagles and has a Nations cup gold to show for that. He has played in the Top league in Europe at a time when the present crop of players were still playing Monkey post. Remember how he excluded Mikel from the Olympic team in-spite of everything many said? I think Siasia is more than ripe for the eagles Job. But would be get it? that is a big question because the power that be don't like people like siasia. there see him too transparent and can not be used as a stooge or bullied.

What i find funny is that in your own words, you admit that amodu is not very enterprising, adventurous and is somewhat susceptible to player influence. Is this the kind of coach you as a self-described Eagles fan would love to see coaching Nigeria?

When Amodu was picked as Nigerian coach I was one of the people who raised my concern about it. He is not my favorite coach. However to blame everything that has happened in nigerian football on him is taking things too far. My point is he is not as bad as people make him to be, and whether u accept it or not he did deliver the mandate given to him by the FA. Qualify Nigeria to the world cup and take us to at least the semi final of the nations cup. He did all that. The issue of whether he struggled to do that or whether he was lucky becomes a subjective matter. Facts is that he delivered on his mandate. Maybe not in grandstyle but no matter what he did not deserve the abuse criticism many are showering on him now. This man served his country the best way he can. I for that I would forever be great-full to him. Does this mean he is the best man for the Job? I think not. Does it mean he should be treated as he was? hell no he deserved much better. judging from the circumstance he had to contend with.  

And yes, luck does exist in football. SOmetimes you make your own luck, like the US yesterday sending waves of strikers up front at the Algerians, exerting serious pressure until they scored. But sometimes you're just plain lucky. Take a look at the South Korean players and coach's faces when Yakubu missed that ball that even my 80 year old grandmother will score. Against Mozambique away, we were repeatedly torn to shreds and saved by the bar on more than one occasion. I will not dwell on this point. Suffice it to say that the Eagles under Amodu stumbled their way to many undeserved wins and draws. And that is no comfort to true fans.

Luck can only take u so far in football, maybe u win a match due to luck. But to qualify a team to the world cup, (remember he didnt lose in Mozambique.  there are lots of what ifs in football. what if Yak had scored would we have still had the penalty? what if Mozambique had scored the goal that hit the bar, would nigeria have been inspired to school more goals and even gone on to win the game? the fact is you never know, this are mere uncertainties and we can only be sure of one thing. The outcome of the game. Amodu's team may not be flamboyant in victory but the fact still remained that he lost only one game in delivering the mandate he was giving by the FA. That is one fact which can not be changed. And luck had nothing to do with it. Even if it did than by God we need a coach who brings the  unexplainable element of luck to the team he coaches.  

Forget all the hype; Amodu's allowances were being paid. Perhaps sometimes not as promptly but they were being paid. ,

you contradict yourself, I am a salaried worker and I know what it means when u dont get your allowance as at when due, the fact remained that this guy here never got his allowance as at when due. It is hardly a good working condition ask the people who work for monthly pay.

When you're the coach of your national team and you're reasonably well off yourself, pride and patriotism is a good enough motivation to get you through

. This is why u completely miss the mark. Patriotism does not pay the bill. If I do something for my country my country too should do something for me, its a social contract. How many FA Chairmen are patriotic? how many players? if the same standard of patriotism is not applied to our football administrators why should Amodu's own be different? Patriotism in nigerian football went out the door in Saundi '89 when players who played and toiled for their father land had thiner shopping bags to take home compared to the FA chairman. That was the period patriotism dead. Amodu is a professional and when u are a pro you should be paid for what you do simple as that asking for your allowance does not mean you arent motivated or patriotic. It just mean you are not working under the best environment.

I'm not suprised you're descending into melodrama; No one told Amodu to his face that they were going to replace him even if he did well or not. And i do not imagine that stumbling to a third place finish in the Nations cup was 'doing well'.

There is nothing Melodramic about it, it was a known thing then, the presidential committee was in Angola to pressure the FA chairman to sack amodu, that was a known fact. and he amodu came to say he was called and informed that he would be replaced and that was a sure thing. In fact people thought it would be the coach of the Mozambican team till amodu's boys thrashed them.  You may have a short memory on that I don't.

The World Cup is where the real deal is at. Go ask Egypt - they'd have gladly traded places with Algeria. We just could not trust Amodu with doing anything good with the team at the world cup, not after their poor displays at the Nations Cup.

Does who do not learn from history are likely to be consumed by it. 2002 Amodu was called in to save the nations qualification after Bonferejo had derailed it. He came in and we qualified in grand style. then he took the team to Mali where there were beaten by Mali in a kinly contested game ( were we even lost a penalty) Amodu accused of "slow motion football" and was fired. Onigbende was hired to take the country to the world cup. The end result? we lost to games and drew one. fast forward 2010 (8 years later) samething happened. OK agreed amodu was not competent to take us to the world cup abi? there say the ends determine the means and if that is the case Largerback gamble was a failure because he came and the much feared poor showing we wanted to avoid by sacking amodu was the very thing that happened to us. Maybe if Amodu was in charge his "luck" might have seen him through with a better showing. But history would have it that Lagerback failed after lifting the hopes of Nigerians and making mouth about how he would take the team to the semis yada yada yada. he failed.

Stop swallowing Amodu's FUD about his 'work condition'. He was given a job to do and paid to do it. if at any time he felt that he was not being well rewarded for his services, the honourable thing to do would have been to quit. When you stay on a job on which the hopes and dreams of Nigerians rest upon, you damned well better do the Job. Of all the excuses you've given, this is the silliest.
I hope you're this generous when doctors, police, teachers and firemen give you for rendering poor services to you.

Why are u talking with two side of your mouth, on one hand u are saying patriotism he should be motivated by service to father land, now u are saying if he was not happy with the work condition he should have left. anyway I think he should have left. But I think he wanted to proof a point and in my book he did. in-spite of the pressure and non payment of allowance as at when due, he did deliver the world cup ticket and got us our usual bronze in the nations cup. The hopes and dreams of Nigerians has been dashed way before amodu, our league is in shambles, we hardly produce playser from the youth team as we use to. The last major supply we got from the Youth team was in 1993 and the players them formed the 2 second Golden generation of Nigerian football and went on to rule africa and the world. since then players have just not come through. as we key players we have not been able to replace them. we lost Olise, Finidi, Amokaci, Ikpeba, Amunike, Uche Okechuwhu (gentle gaints) Taribo west, Yekini. etc where are the replacements for this players? where is the continuity in our youth team? or are u going to also blame amodu for that too? the problem of Nigerian football and the rot is deeper than amodu or any coach for that matter. Unless we fix the administrator side of things we would continue to wumble and fumble even if u bring Jose Mourinho.

 

Yeah, local coach, local methods. Unlucky for us that FIFA lists other members apart from African Nations.
Shebi Osaze confessed that Amodu had NEVER used game videos as part of their training program? remember that these are not the words of an embittered player, so that's much more likely to be an honest statement.
The taste of the pudding is in the eating. And when entrusted with the Eagles, Amodu made sure he was responsible for the future decline of the team.

You yourself said Osaze should not be taken seriously. He had lots of things to say about Largerbacks tactic too so do not be selective in picking out just his opinion which favour your argument. He criticized his 4-3-3 formation saying it left lots of gap in the Medfield and a his instructions that the forward line should not come back to help the defense. He had many things to say about Largerback and having compared him to Amodu said sacking Amodu was a mistake so we can infer that he felt Amodu was way better than Largerback. at least using ur own logic.

'Someone like Utaka'
When last did Utaka turn in a decent performance for club or country? After seeing his shitty display against Chelsea, i wanted no part of him. You'll find that most SE fans were even questioning Utaka's inclusion in the squad sef.

Then the next question is if he is so bad why include him in the squared? i mean we needed someone u could play from the right and give us width there if he know ukata was not good enough he should have allowed maybe Anichebe to come in and play that role? or probably ask Amokachi for a local league player who was good enough for that role?  
Also do u know another player who had almost a zero playing time for his club? Shittu!

Your comments about Kaita are valid opinions, but the same Kaita had been glorying in the attention his position on the right got after the Colombia match. Supersport reported that his teammates were thrilled will his performance, dubbing him the 'new finidi'
http://www.supersport.com/football/article.aspx?Id=351446
Kaita himself was so thrilled, he put this up on this Facebook page as 'Link to article calling me the new Finidi' So for all intents, kaita had an 'outstanding' game on the right against Colombia. Why is Largerback now being reviled for playing this same fellow on the right?

2002 A player called Ogbeche was taken to the world cup because of a over head kick he did in a friendly game against Paraguay. Even though he did not score such was the beauty of the kick that he was included to the world cup squad he went on to be a huge flop. A good coach doesn't plays a player to his strength and is not carried away but one fluke performance, Kaita is a defensive midfielder, his strength is the ability to break down attacks or the opposing team. Its ok to play him in central defence if need be but as a right side of midfield? you need players who can hold on to the ball and who has speed and can put in crosses. Can u honestly say that Kaita has this attributes? Fine its ok to even resort to him during a tournament where all the first choice are our due to card or injury, but to build a team plan on him playing from the left is taking things to far. If u knew u had a problem in the right wing. Then why did he take Ukata who is more natural in that wing? if he  knew he was not going to play him he should have taken someone else. Perhaps one of the under 21 players? If it were Amodu you would have been the first to jump on his case.

Osaze's comments are not to be taken seriously, and anyone who does so needs to be seriously ashamed of himself. This was how Yekini came out blasting Westerhof after we narrowly lost to italy, claiming his teammates were instructed not to pass the ball to him.
If you believe Osaze's comments, why not also accept Yekini's silly accusations against the likes of Siasia and Westerhof (our most successful coach ever)?

See how inconsistent you are now. This is the lack of consistency which hikes me about Nigerians. You were ready to use Osaze's criticism of Amodu to justify your claim that amodu is a bad coach but the same criticism of largarback makes him unserious? You and Osaze are one and the same then. I condemned him when he did it to Amodu and I condemn him now with Largarback.

Talk of Westerhof people now find it easy to say he is the best coach for Nigeria. What many failed to remember is that it took him 5 years to deliver and take us to the promise land. Infact his first game for Nigeria we lost 5-1 to Algeria (even though we still got to the final and lost 1-0 to same team)  Westerhof was successful because he was given a free hand not just by the NFA (which he had serious issues with) but by Babangida Administration. He had the full support and access to the presidency at that time and even then it still took him 5 years to win the cup of nation. his first attempt was a silver medal, second was a bronze in senegal 92 (I game we were favorite to win)but lost to 2-1 to Ghana after who came from behind after Mutiu Adepoju's header. It was in 1994 that he finally got the goal after 2 failed attempt and we qualified to the world cup same year. So it is not co-incidental that Westerhof and Bonferejo the two most successful coaches in Nigeria had full support of presidency and were also the longest serving coaches we had.

Our group was relaitvely EASY. Why? because it contained Nigeria. On any milestone, any scorecard or any yardstick, we were always lumped among the weak teams. When people start blabbing about our group being 'easy', i wonder if they realise that Nigeria in there serves to reinforce the 'easy' tag. To South Korea, our group was 'easy' because it had us and Greece. ditto for the greeks. I can bet they would have been far more scared of drawing Cameroun or Ivory Coast.
That is Amodu's legacy - we are now a weak, third rate team. Sure, we can hold our own in Africa (for the smaller teams), but even then i'd be extremely apprehensive going up against the likes of Egypt, Ivory Coast, Cameroun and Ghana. Hell, we look more shaky than the South Africans.

Don't even try to spin this one we failed woefully even Onigbinde performed better in a more difficult group 8 years ago. we needed just a win to qualify and we failed and u blame amodu? what legacy did he leave? he employed and given a mandate. he satisfied that mandate that is his legacy. You man Largerback choose to follow amodu's legacy by using the same players Amodu used, playing the same formation Amodu played. even his first 11 was same thing with Amodu (more or less)

Amodu is not responsible for the rot in nigerian football ask the people administering it. Where are the U17 U21 boys? who is coaching them were are they camped? There whole NFF federation every single one of them took themselves to south africa even though we have a league going on here.  What is the faith of our league. where are the boys who won the U17 with Yemi Tela? where are the boys who got to the finals some months ago? what happened to them? or u want to blame amodu for that too? You have an FA that can not even tell you who the highest goal scorer in the league is. or is that Amodu's fault too?

Have u ever wondered why experienced good coaches never take Nigeria seriously? and why we always settle for coaches who are past their prime, unknown coaches looking for someone to shine with, or losers. Largerback was a loser before he came to nigeria (facts!)- its because of offcial meddling by the FA. Largerback is there cus he is a stooge we see it happening its not the first time. Unless you have presidential support nothing for you. That is why no good foreign coach want to come here and tarnish their image. Again you can't blame Amodu for that.

That is Amodu's legacy. And Largerback (Or perhaps Siasia) will have their work cut out for them to lead us out of this mess.

Amodu's legacy is that of a man who qualified his country twice to the world cup. The only local guy to have achieved such a fit too.

texazzpete:

Utter balderdash from you as usual.
The job of a coach also includes rejuvenating the team, bringing in fresh players with new ideas to replace the ageing team members. Amodu has had extensive experience in Nigeria's local league, yet even with that local know-how the fellow could not blend in any decent regulars from the local league. Instead the porky fellow preferred to allow the team stagnate, allowing our 'Golden Generation' to become the 'olden generation'. And this fellow had the opportunity of numerous friendlies and the Nations Cup to find new talent.
Our world cup qualification was fraught with poor football and an overreliance on pure luck to qualify. Only luck sustained us against Tunisia and Mozambique, and in most cases our goals came from rare flashes of individual brilliance by some players.
Yes, he qualified us to the world cup, but he mortgaged our future. It's just like Otto Rehhaggel won the Euros, but destroyed the future of the Greek team by refusing to change the same old players for many years. At a point you really have to make a hard decision for the best of the team. And we did that for Amodu.

I just knew u would ignore the part of how you new coach used the same formation with Amodu At least accept the fact that you got it wrong with the teams formation your white man coach used. Anyway like I said Amodu is not a saint. He has his fault, It would have been nice like u said if he had brought in more fresh blood to the team why I didn't (or couldn't we would never know) Some coaches love to stick with players who have distinguished themselves. If I were do choose a coach for Nigeria I would pick siasia who seem more enterprising and adventurous a coach who knows what he wants will not take BS from any player and a someone who is disciplined. This are not characteristics I would attribute to Amodu but this does not make him as bad as many portray him to be. There is no luck in football But anytime Amodu wins it is luck (or the players individual skills) and when he loses its all his fault, see how he is in a no win situation? Amodu would have won the nations cup and Nigerians would still have hated him and called him incompetent. People say oh it was Mozambique that qualified us for the world Cup forgetting that Amodu's team did not lose at home, A feet the Tunisians were unable to achieve in even all they needed was a draw.

Nigerians should try and be Objective, Before u criticize  a man  try and walk his shoes. How many can work in a Condition where you allowances was not being paid, where even though you delivered people always criticized you? where even your employers looked you in the face and said whether you perform well or we are still going to replace you? I mean how many people can work under such situation and still win something? Amodu is not responsible for the rot in the Nigerian league. Did your white man coach take any Home based players to the world Cup? At least he had Amokachi (the coach of the home based Eagles) and Other Nigerian Assistance in his coaching team who could have helped him in his picking someone from the Home based. Putting into consideration the condition that Amodu had to work in I would give say he did a great job as no white coach would ever ever work in such a condition.

The problem with Nigerian football is threefold : Coach, Players and NFF. Now we've solved the Coach part by hiring a decent coach, so we WILL see some improvement going forward. All we need now is new players, we're NEVER going to solve the NFF issue. Under Amodu, we would have had a mediocre coach (please re-read Odemwingie's comments about Amodu's coaching methods), bad players and a bad NFF. And that's just unacceptable.

Same Osaze had something to say about your new white man's method. And how is he a decent coach? what has he achieved before coming to Nigeria? remember he failed to qualify his own country to the world cup and really wikipedia this guy and tell me what he has achieved? Amodu has more laurels than this guy (yeah even if he is a bad coach, he has won league titles with BBC Lions, El kanemi (On many Occasions)  and even won the CAF Cup winners Cup. Outside the shores of Nigeria he performed very well in Orlando Pirates in South Africa and has had like 2 Bronze Medal effort in African Nations Cup. This are not the best of CV for a coach but really there are not the CV of a bad horrible Coach. You white man does not even come close to this.

From the looks of things the way the world cup played out  Lars Lagerbäck is definitely not the messiah we need. He lacks complete lacks of understanding of Nigerian Football, (maybe he needs time) But playing Kaita as 7? i mean (wtf?) we lacked width in this team and yet we had someone like Utaka on the bench. U need to hear what Osaze said about his tactis.  For the sake of consistency I would say keep it and give him time. But we have to admit his first report card is an F9.

Real Super Eagles fans like myself will support Largerback. People like you and Osaze will rather focus on rewarding a few individuals rather than the collective joy of millions of Nigerians. Luckily, you're in the minority.

see him calling himself real super eagles fan. I don't need to show my barge and no need to bring in sentiment. Be objective, most of your Argument (as always) are never based on facts. You are yet to state how a coach who even though in one of the easiest groups in the world cup manage to grab just one point? lost to greece? I mean Greece beside Nigeria were the weeping boys of out team. Yet we could not beat Greece. And we lost to S.Korea even though we had the game in our hands. I mean back me up with facts and stop being emotional about this. I rather be a sensible thoughtful Minority than be in a reactionary Mob

@texazzpete

Sure you watched the World cup? Largerback employed 4-4-2, not 4-3-3.

Again u succeed in showing your ignorance of issues you talk about (why do u always do that) Largerback played a 4-3-3 formation in our first and last games and it was only in the second game that we played a 4-4-2 formation we played our first and last games with 2 defensive midfielders  and One Holding midfieder. and we now have 3 attacking minded wingers and a lone out and out striker. How you read the formation to be 4-4-2 is beyond me. But then again its you so am hardly surprised.

You're whining about the 'deeper rot' and 'lack of players'. Who was the coach in place for much of the last 8 years you're referring to?

Again u ask as silly question. I was not referring to any coach, in fact my point is that the problem and the rot in nigerian football goes behind just coaching. we are nolonger producing the quality of players as we use to before. what progress has we made in the last 8 years? The last time we were at the world cup we lost our first game ( to argentina) 1-0,  lost the second game (after going ahead) 2-1 and drew out last game. even then we were coached by a Local coach who was under a much more difficult situation then nigeria is now. he raised a team almost from scratch like 1 month to the world cup. and we were in the group of death them (Argentina, England, Sweden) Fast forward 8 years and nothing as changed even with a white man in charge. How many players do we have playing in Top teams? There was a period when our players got the african player of the year award 4 times consecutively now we dont even make the 10 ten. The only Nigeria player playing for a top club is Mikel but even he is not a super regular he is more of a squad member than a first 11.

Ask yourself why a coach Amodu with a wealth of experience in the local league would fail to bring in any decent talent from the local league to bolster the team

.   You can not give what you dont have. I dont think I Amodu is the best coach in the world but he is not as bad as many Nigerians make him to be. Yes is his not Charismatic but this guy has records that speaks for him. Twice he has Qualified the team to the world cup. Twice he was sacked and replaced and twice his replacement got let the world cup with a single point. Through out the last time he was coach of Nigeria he lost only one game. Just one game and he was fired. This guy took so much BS from Nigerians and our FA and yet he never complained. His allowance was not paid, he was even told while in the nations cup that no matter what he would be replaced whether he does well or not. How many people can work under such conditions? yet he still got the nation a bronze medal. our last white man coach got us nothing in the last nations cup remember? Fine Amodu is not a Good coach yet your white man coach used this same squad he too to nations cup to the world cup. used the same formation he used. and Nigerians are now saying he should be retained? where is the consistency? if he had been amodu we would have hung him . we would have shouted oh why didnt he use Utaka? why did he play Kaita on the right of midfield? The lack of consistency is what hikes me the most about the whole situ.

Osaze just confirmed what I have always said about the Eagles, The problem is not coaching. At least if anything Nigerians Got the foreign Coach we wanted.  Did he perform any better? He took the same boys Amodu took to the nation's cup and even played the same 433 formation amodu used. All this goes to show one thing. Amodu was just a scape goat for the deeper decay which is Nigerian Football. we have not made any progress in 8 years we are now bottom of the barrel and lack the players to bring us back to the golden days.

lynxnoon:

at nd when dat 1 comes out?. . . . wait for the next one again?
most times this new releases dont hv much difference except d case design and maybe increase in memory space

The N9 is expected to be significantly better than the N900, its suppose to have double the hard drive space of the N900 (64GB) and a 12 megapixel cam (as against the 5 mp on the N900) beside that it would be the first meego device and would come with a Qt based UI with feel multitouch support. Although the UI has not be released it is expected to have a better map software and couple of other stuffs which are missing from the N900 like full landscape support. It would be a much more upgrade to the previous version.

The same thing u talked about happens to many phone manufacturers. HTC, iPhone and even Blackberry.

The latest addition to the Nokia family is the first device running Maemo 5, a new OS that takes the best of Nokia's internet tablet range and stuffs it into a phone-sized chassis.

Featuring a huge 3.5-inch screen and full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, it's also packing a seriously strong engine under the hood to power things along. Will the N900 shed the ageing image of Symbian and bring Nokia to the next level to match the likes of the iPhone?

Been using the N900 for close to 6 months now, got the phone in december, before that I was using the Nokia N810 which I got after selling the Ipod Touch I had then. The N900 is not an IPhone/Ipad touch alternative or replacement. But device have different target audience.  The IPhone is for the consumer who wants a locked down phone which works for this their limited use case. The N900 is for people who want a device with a endless open  possibility. I found out I get to do much more with the N900 than even my friends who use the Iphone but that is just in respect to my use case 

I HAVE INTENTIONS OF BUYING THE PHONE ON GETTING THERE I WAS GIVEN TWO CONDITIONS:
1. THE PHONE DOES NOT CARRY A NOKIA WARRANTY HERE IN NIGERIA\

You are spot on with that, But I was able to get slotlimited to give me their own in house warranty since every phone there sell is covered by a standard one year warranty. (well there honor the warranty? seriously I dont wanna find out)

2. ONE CANT LOAD RECHARGE CARDS WITH IT HERE NIGERIA, BECAUSE IT HAS NOT BEEN OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED HERE.
No you can not recharge or check your balance (or infact use any ussd command) because ussd is not supported on the phone. This situation has been fixed in the forth coming PR1.2 firmware which among other things fixes many bugs on the phone and adds much needed features including system wide portrait more support and ability to make skype video calls .
however as the power of the N900 lies in the open endedness of the device members of the maemo community have already written a work around the issue. you can always get a work around that by clicking here http://maemo.org/downloads/product/raw/Maemo5/ussd-widget?get_installfile this would install an application which is actually a widget from where u can check your balance and also recharge your phone. There is another app called ussdpad which is available in the unstable software repository of the N900. I have managed to get it to install on my phone and would write a guide on how u can install it on your N900 without much hassle. Once u have that you would be able to use all ussd functions easily

SO I TOOK A TIME TO GO BACK HOME TO CONTEMPLATE, BUT NOW I DECIDED TO PUT ALL THAT BEHIND ME AND GO FOR IT COS I LOVE THAT MACHINE.

  the problem many people have with the N900, there see a cool looking device, have little understanding of what its for all what it can do to improve their life as long as its big, looks nice and its expensive ,  u have a deal. I have seen alot of people with the N900 so confess they just use it to make calls. and am thinking why pay soo much when all you use it for is to make calls?

Here is what I use my N900 for

-- fm Radio: although its doesnt come with the device, the device hardware comes with an phone radio module and thanks to the openness of the phone community members where able to write a very cool fm radio UI for the device 


Internet radio: I also love the internet radio functionality I have been a fan of the BBC since I was 13 year old and hardly a day passes without me listening to the world service, with the N900 I have been able to do away with my cheap clunky chinese word services sw radio

email: I know this is a feature which almost every phone has nowadays but still I love the way its implemented on the N900. I know many people regard the blackberry as the king when it comes to emailing. But the lack of support for standard email protocols like Imap is a big downer for me. with the N900 I get the best of both worlds I can either setup standard gmail imap account. or use nokia mail (their bb like email services) I also love the fact that email is integrated through out the device allowing me to send any of my files via email very easily.

Mutimedia : currently there is no device anywhere which comes close to the N900 when it comes to multimedia powers. This devices plays just about anything any video I through at it,  avi, xvid, dvix mp4, DAT (VCD files) and even VOB (DVD files) and plays them all out of the box, no need to encode or instal extra packages. There all just work. On the audio side I get support for all the usuals (mp3, acc, wma) and even ogg (through a codec) add the 32gb hard drive to the 16gb mmc which I added to it, and my N900 becomes my mobile cinema ,  If I want to watch things on a bigger screen I just connect the phone to the TV and get a bloated version of the movie. Infact  atm the N900 is what I use with my 21 LCD TV because I don't have a dvd player so I just connect the phone to the TV and play my favourite metal sounds from there ,  seriously it doesnt get better than this

Full web
This is one of the strongest areas of the N900. the web browser is called microB and it has full support for javascripts, flash and just about everything u have on a laptop browser. It is based on mozilla gecko engine and by far the best web experience on a mobile device. Infact the N900 is so far on top with the web experience that there is no second place.  as if this is not enough Firefox google chrome and opera have all been ported over to the N900

IM and messaging
When it comes to IM no one does it better than the N900 like seriously no one even comes close. Like with the phone I have full contact integrated support for yahoo, gtalk, msn,aim,icq,facebookovi and skype ,  and all my buddy list show up in my phone contacts in such a cool way that if I need to chat with someone I just open my contact search their name and start the chat. Also I can merge a persons connections (faceboook, gtalk, email etc) into one contact which makes it easy for me to engage them in any way I want another thing I love about the msging system of the device is threaded sms which is not unique to the N900 but still its a really cool functionality.

Linux,  Free and open source: This may not mean anything to the average user but for me its a huge deal. The fact that the phone is made of free and open source software and based on debian linux allowing me to get down to the gut to get things down and tweak the device as I want is something which is so huge I cant describe the feeling. The ability to open a terminal and run apt-get install? or tweak the tracker settings so there dont see my podcasts audio files as part of my music,  or the ability to use ssh to and from the device? or use vi or use nmap? or even wireshark? I mean seriously the feeling is one of orgasmic pleasure (if not close). Open source also mean I get to file bugs for things which I would like then to add and already 2 of the bugs report I filed have been fixed and would be part of the latest fw release, 

There are many things I love about the N900 and in many ways it does add value to my life, with it I feel very connected and I can do just about anything I do on my laptop. Podcasts management, fm transmitter, weather widget, 4 home screens, the phone is like a swiss knife to me

NB I forgot to add the fact that I can skype is built into the device and I can make skype calls or chat from just about anywhere. even gtalk has ability to make video calls and video call is coming for skype soon.

oh oh and I forgot the awesome calendar support which allows me to setup mail for exchange and have a 2 way sync with my google calendar, and google contacts. what this means is that my phone contacts and google calendar are always in sync.  and if I add an appointments to my google calendar from thunderbird, this appointment shows up on my phone immediately vis a vis. plus there is an app which takes the birthdays and avatars of all my facebook and skype contacts and add their birthdays to my calendar which then shows on my google calendar and is the first thing I  see when I open my thunderbird mail client on my laptop. vola I start remembering friends bdays and calling them, 




Seriously There is just so much to say about this device,   Oh I missed out multitasking,  well not even google android beats the N900 when it comes to multitasking. I mean real multitasking not make believe. every app running in the background and u can easily get live thumbnail previews


Is the N900 now for everyone? No Its not. Its a great phone but still its not yet complete. Its not meant to be a final device for the masses. Nokia calls it the stage 4 of a 5 step roadmap towards a consumer ready maemo (now meego) device. I only recommend the N900 to those ready to thinker and take full advantage of the open platform and participate in the community. If you are looking for a iphone like phone, then there is nothing here for u, move along

macnuel:

Just yesterday, I was making use of the Java uploader to put some pictures on my facebook account and I was like it seems this uploading has improved to some extent. Actually, I just upgraded my java plug-in to version 6 update 19. However this evening as I wanted to upload again, I was asked to download and install the FACEBOOK PLUG-IN for uploading photos and I was like these guys have come again. But believe me, the plug-in worked just fine, better than simple uploader and far better than the java plug-in uploader. I don't want to think I am appraising these guys but what do you guys who might have used it think?

You just make me realize the things I take for granted on kde where uploaded photos to facebook,flickr,picassaweb,zoomr,smugmug,23 etc,

@Ex Inferis @texazzpete i replied your post a long time ago but it was deleted from the nairaland because it was called a spam msg , , and i was banned from posting any msg on nairaland , if you really want to see the deleted msg u have to go to 'show post' of my bigrovar profile , the alleged *spam* post can still be viewed from my profile , had to create this account just to post this ,

let me also use the oppotunity to start repeat the msg i posted in the ubuntu thread here

Hi guys am sorry for being silent for a while , well its because i have been banned from posting msgs on Nairaland , the reason given was that i posted *spam* here , in Nairaland , i tried mailing the mod for computer section (dhtml) and i even left a msg for seun that this most be a mistake because i have never posted spam msg here , ever since i have been a member here i have tried to abide by the rules of decent discussion expected on a public forum. well i guess it was all to no avail. as it is my normal nairaland account bigrovar is no longer active , i had to create this account so i can post this msg , after which i have no intention of being a part of the board anymore , its really sad that things have to turn out this way , and this is no way to run the biggest on-line forum in Nigeria. anyway i want to thank everybody and all my friend that have made my stay here a memorable one , will miss u all for those who still want to get in touch with me u can do that thru twitter http://twitter.com/bigbrovar or thru my blog http://bigbrovar. or the ubuntunigeria mailing list http://groups.google.com/group/ubuntunigeria/ , so i guess this is it , bye

Hi guys am sorry for being silent for a while ,  well its because i have been banned from posting msgs on Nairaland ,  the reason given was that i posted   *spam* here , in Nairaland ,  i tried mailing the mod for computer section (dhtml) and i even left a msg for seun that this most be a mistake because i have never posted spam msg here ,  ever since i have been a member here i have tried to abide by the rules of decent discussion expected on a public forum. well i guess it was all to no avail. as it is my normal nairaland account bigrovar is no longer active ,  i had to create this account so i can post this msg ,  after which i have no intention of being a part of the board anymore ,  its really sad that things have to turn out this way ,  and this is no way to run the biggest on-line forum in Nigeria. anyway i want to thank everybody and all my friend that have made my stay here a memorable one ,  will miss u all  for those who still want to get in touch with me u can do that thru twitter http://twitter.com/bigbrovar  or thru my blog http://bigbrovar. or the ubuntunigeria mailing list http://groups.google.com/group/ubuntunigeria/ ,  so i guess this is it ,  bye