₦airaland Forum

KenOne:
Does it change anything when in Rivers state impunity still reigns supreme in PDP. Local government election primaries held across Rivers imposition,rigging and violence was the order of the day from Ward 1 Isiokpo in Ikwerre local government to Emohua, Etche, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni to Andoni LGA's where Uche Secondus comes from same story. Then Degema where Wike disqualified all the chairmanship aspirants when he does not have the right to disqualify any candidate. Then what is the organ of the party responsible for that doing, Wike is the grand commander and supreme leader of PDP with him in charge impunity and imposition will continue.

That ALL ROUND is taking things too far.

deebrain:
like you were reading My mind.

Signs wonders and miracles (apologies to Miracle of big brother fame) will be demonstrated by our politicians cos of 2019.

In fact I think we will see some very interesting things like we saw in 2014 when Omisore was eating two consecutive of corn at once. I just shook my head.

So Aregbesola has stopped forming die-hard Muslim? There was a time he won't remove his cap in the church. Taawun will not like this.

Kyase:
I think obj is actually working for APC, if you look at it critically, as for Shehu he thinks he's puplar on social media, but he fails to know that his puplarity starts and ends in the central kaduna.

I think OBJ is working with APC too but only to save his skin. He will be finished if Atiku should ever enter.

Kyase:
The end of Sani

It is shocking that people don't see this. Sani has made a massive blunder. Let him go and ask Former Senator Gbanga Kaka that followed Osoba to SDP and lost out. If he still doesn't believe let him go and ask General Olurin who lost out to Amosun in 2011 due to split votes.

Nigeria's political space uses a first past the post election system. This naturally evolves into a two-party system in any geographic voting area. This is why in the US there are only 2 credible parties.

If he should contest for governor and PDP fields a candidate he will only gather max of 30% of the votes, the PDP guy will gather 30% and APCs El-Rufai will gather 40% and win. Same thing happened to Olurin in Ogun State.

That SDP OBJ is using is just there to frustrate Atiku politically because SDP can never win federally. OBJ is just deceiving these guys.

revontuli:
Gay marriage is a first world issue. I want to know what Theresa May is smoking to achieve such a level of detachment from reality. Sure one cant be that ignorant of the world they are living in? I've never been to Nigeria in my life and don’t know any Nigerians (except for a few friends I made here on NL) but after reading NL and a few Nigerian news sites for a couple of weeks, I learned all about the problems of Nigeria. A head of state should know better than making such ignorant statements. Nigeria has a million urgent humanitarian problems to solve before it comes to first world luxuries like gay marriage. For crying out loud!

Prime Minister May is aware of Nigeria's problems and those of other developing nation's, but prefers to talk about things like gay marriage because it benefits her.

There are policies that the UK could pursue that would raise living standards in the developing world, but the suffering in the developing world is the price of the prosperity of the first world. She knows this and so she and other Western Leaders talk about things that are non starters like gay marriage and then say that they will not pursue developing world-friendly policies until gay marriage is legalized.

If the African countries cave and legalize gay marriage, then they will shift to corruption and human rights and use those as reasons why they simply can't pass policies that will help us.

Now there is not much appetite for pro-developing world policies in the UK, so her people are happy to hear her preach gay rights and do nothing concrete to help the situation here.

Even Nigerians that flee to the UK and claim asylum due to thier homosexuality are frequently denied asylum and deported.

vedaxcool:
They currently are building a damn in Niger

Yes they are. This is worrying but the dam they are building will not have enough capacity to choke us off totally. That dam should never have happened but they ended up modifying the design to reduce downstream impact.

Lack of strategy is killing us.

vedaxcool:
Look at the trajectory of the river Niger, will actually will be more vulnerable and what if we have mentally unstable presidents in such countries or hopeless turncoats?

If we fumble, we will be checkmated in Guinea. That country has enough hills to build a mighty dam and mess everything up.

This is proof that we need to engage constructively with them to forstall disaster. Niger is another weak point, but the Niger River Basin in Niger is not very suitable for dams.

abumeinben:
Well I don't know much about international relations and diplomacy, but I think the OP and casualobserver1 got points, more for the latter. The fact that competition is in sight doesn't mean one should step down.

I feel this is the best time to let the Francos and its boys knew we are a major voice in ECOWAS. If we "Nexit", like Brexit, what do you this would happen to Kainji Dam, considering the fact that the River Niger flows through that ECOWAS state? France would fund them for power generation and dam the river in their country, cutting drastically our power generation.

I feel we should not only remain, but stand "gidigba".

I appreciate your acknowledgement, Sir.

Your point about Kainji Dam is a very true one. We could be checkmated there by simply building another Dam in Guinea. The same thing is playing out between Egypt and Ethiopia. Egypt did not make friends with the Ethiopians and now the Ethiopians are building a dam that will dry up the Nile and bankrupt Egypt.

If that dam is built, Egypt's agricultural sector will be destroyed. The Egyptians have been trying to threaten the Ethiopians but no hope there for now. It looks like the Dam will be completed by 2020. The Ethiopians are adamant about building that dam and once they do, Egypt will officially be under thier mercy.

Ethiopia will be able to topple Egyptian governments, by slowing down water and destroying Egypt's agricultural sector. Egypt will lose it's independence in a stroke.

We must engage with our neighbors before we are checkmated.

LibertyRep:
I think Nigeria should stay at ECOWAS but be very very assertive.

If we quit, France wouldn't waste time to take over ECOWAS through one of these Francophone neighbours.

A nation is a secured as its borders. We can't afford to have hostile neighbors being proded by foreign powers.

Btw, those that are vast in international relations should please explain the sudden obsession of these North African countries with ECOWAS.

I suspect that they are being sent by the French to destabilize ECOWAS. Once they are inside the block, the leaders of other West African states can decide to side with the Arabs and follow them because they have some money.

As it is now, Nigeria is the only country that is credible enough to influence these other West African countries. We are the biggest player on the block so they have to follow us- they have no choice.

The French want to stop that. They are sending thier boys to divide the block. Watch out as France applies for observer status in ECOWAS. Some people won't want to believe but I believe it is coming.

SSGN:
True words..but ECOWAS will keep us grounded and stuck. There are just two many players. ECOWAS countries should be wooing Nigeria and making concessions to make us stay..not the other way round. %70 of West Africas population. %80 the GDP of West Africa...not counting Nigerias FDI.....What voice is Nigeria looking for? If ECOWAS member states unilaterally choose to engage with external players for selfish gains the regional bloc has lost iys relevance. $20 million dollars......giving the Americans foothold in Anglophone West Africa. $20 million. Nigeria spent $300 million in January 2017 to end the electoral crises in Gambia. What exactly are we benefiting frim ECOWAS. The comment made by Ghana's president on Americans makeing the region secure is a veiled slight at Nigeria. I am yet to see the returns for our magnanimity. What exavtly has ECOWAS got to offer Nigeria? Our future cannot be inexorably tied to a bunch of countries with economies thw size of local governments. We are punching below our belt.

Everything you are saying is true. The fact that the $20 million turned the Ghanian President's head is tragic and disappointing. But to me, it was a failure of Nigeria's Intelligence Agency. Something as huge as this should have been known to us before it happened and the key thing would have been to buy off the President of Ghana via direct payments and economic incentives.

One good method would have been to forgive Ghana's natural gas debt and increase shipments to them. The Ghanian President would have been able to spin this as a huge win and in exchange the military base agreement would have been scrapped and we would have secured Ghana's vote against the Arabs.

The fact that the Ghanians are being silly and allowing themselves to be played should only encouraging us to play them. The current Ghanain president is someone that showed himself early on as someone that isn't that credible when he plagiarized an entire speech. We should not be surprised that he is talking anyhow.

We know what we are working towards and we must not be distracted at any cost Oga. We have a huge GDP, with massive soft power but we are not using it properly. We should be carrying our economic aid for places like Ghana, Togo and Benin. Doing this is the surest way to increase our prestige and obtain influence. Yes, they should be wise enough to know that we are the only chance they have, but it they won't see we have to draw them closer to see.

Recently the Liberian president came out to ask for teachers from us. It would have been trivially easy to send about 1000 youth corpers to teach in Liberia. This kind of gesture can do so much to increase our views with the common people of the sub-region.

The elites of the West African sub-region are selfish and blind and that is why they have not decided bto follow us bumper to bumper. We need to go past them direct to thier people. That your service scheme of sending teachers to Liberia will increase support for us all over West Africa. Imagine a generation of Liberians wanting to wear khaki the way you g Nigerians do. Within a few years we will see politicians campaigning on pro-Nigeria ticket.

China is doing similar things in South East Asia. They have Confucius Institutes everywhere teaching this neighbors Mandarin and offer scholarships for them to school in China.

You can imagine China having to do things like that to get places like Vietnam and Cambodia to see the light and Ally more closely with China. The Chinese know they should not have to play such games but they know what they want and it costs them nothing, so they play them.

The Chinese play this game and it is working for them- the PM of Cambodia has decamped after years of chopping American money. Why? His people are looking to China more.

I understand your frustrations with our brothers. They should be wise than this by now, but we just have to draw them closer at all cost. Imagine offering Liberian and other graduates ability to do NYSC. We will have a generation of young West Africans that will see that they need to key into Nigeria.

With such strategies we will win them over firmly.

.

Of a SSGN,I understand your frustrations with the recent developments in ECOWAS, but I don't think that leaving will pay us in the long run.

If Nigeria leaves, we won't have a voice during any negotiations and will lose a lot of influence in the sub-region. The other countries will simply have to shop elsewhere for guidance in the area of international cooperation in the sub-region, and that will leave them all at the mercy of the French.

The French are the ones pushing thier satellite states in the Maghreb like Tunisia and Morocco into ECOWAS, and my analysis of this leads me to believe that they are doing this because they don't feel like they have enough leverage right now.

That the French would feel threatened enough to try to "stack the bench" tells me that now, more than ever, we have the ability to step up in the sub-region. To me, this new push by France has a lot to do with the role we played in Gambia. Getting Jammeh to step down and simply escorting him out and going home is something that gave us a lot of support in the sub-region.

I am sure you recall the recent crisis in Togo where the people went into the streets against France's Eyadema. If we can pressure Jammeh to step down and go so far as to relocate him to Equatorial Guinea on our own, the French have good reason to fear that we might simply show up in Togo or Burkina Faso one day with an army and ease out one of thier own boys.

Since we have checked excesses in Liberia, Sierra Leone and now Gambia and never tried to subjugate the liberated population, what stops oppressed francophones from coming to meet us to help.

Let us consider that when the Cameroonian Separatists ran away from Biya's oppression, they ran to Abuja and claimed sanctuary. This happened after the Gambia intervention. Such a development would trouble any credible planners in the French Foreign Ministry and I think that is what is driving this new push by racist Maghrebis to join ECOWAS. Fear is the motive.

If we leave now, we condemn West Africa to the French and they will push the advantage and encircle us even more than they have now.

We are at a critical moment right now. While those in power don't see the big picture I know you do. We can't afford to leave. Now is the time to build even more bridges and give our brothers in the sub-region more hope and more alternatives.

The fact that Jammeh was removed did not go unnoticed by the Francophones. The fact that Senegal could not be trusted to intervene in the crisis is also critical to seeing the bigger picture.

Any Patriot with the ability to see the big picture will be frustrated by Nigeria's lack of grand stategy with dealing with ECOWAS, but inurge you not to give in to the despair by advocating a withdrawal.

Gazzy88:
I wanted to report you to the mods for typing this nonsense for I changed my mind. Most of you lives in Lagos and only judge on what the media feeds you. OGD is the worst governor Ogun has ever produced. Very useless man. I live here in Ogun and I can boldly say he's a bad performer. All he knows is to empower touts and urchins. Many touts became millionaire when he was in power. Forget all what propaganda you've be fed online,amosun remain the best governor in Ogun till date. Even OGD knows that so stop your theoretic fantasies and say things the way and manner it should be said.

I was shocked to see him post that OGD was reasonable. That man messed Ogun State up big time. He was the one that let the unplanned communities between Lagos Ibadan expresses the take root. Now we are seeing unplanned development all over. Abeokuta was comatose and the suffering of those people in Ogun West was really pathetic. The fact that Atiku is still moving around with this man tells you Atiku is not choosing the right people for now.

Akpa133:
PDP will not like this because secondus can't March Oshomole

Wow I love that picture you posted. Are you into cashew production?

partnerbiz4:
They shot hom naa. Killed him.

Wow.

partnerbiz4:
People are wicked.

That's why in court at times, they ask for proof and people will say lawyers are liars..



That's how one man in Onitsha was owing one guy. Guy demanded for money.

Man accused him of kidnapping, got olopa to get him.
He later paid them and they "travelled" the boy.






Over 575 persons who testified can't be lying..


See below

What do you mean when you say they "travelled the guy"?

lobell:
You're right about the charges but there are ways to beat them at their game. When we start naming and shaming them on social media, the bad eggs will be removed with time or they stop their nefarious activities.

This is true. Social media can definitely be leveraged in this area.

PearlStreet:
The man who revolutionised Nipost was the late Alhaji Argungu. Young, visionary man. He was being groomed to succeed OBJ as president before he died in the Bellview air crash.

That brings said, any e commerce firm that wishes to succeed in Nigeria must partner with NIPOST. Ignore this advice at your peril.

What it means is that Nigeria lost out big time. The change is just too much. God should just have mercy so that the good ones will survive.

lobell:
I can guarantee that NIPOST will deliver in a week, two weeks tops for busy terminals like Lagos if incoming from outside the state.

Honestly I don't know how come NIPOST is not publicizing the advances they have made of recent. You can imagine someone being able to track packages from US to Nigeria in real time. In fact when I picked the package they even updated it to say that it was picked up and added the time I picked it. I was in shock.

The only thing they need to work on is the bail they charge to pick up packages. They collect money without receipt. If they can just get that right, it won't be long before they take over finally.

PearlStreet:
Bro, when last did you use Nipost?

I still received 2 parcels via Nipost last week and I was impressed with their services.

Logistics is a big issue but there are ways around this.

Honestly NIPOST has upgraded. One of my guys abroad sent me something using NIPOST recently and I tracked the whole thing till I picked it up.

I was shocked. NIPOST needs to publicize more because they are making serious progress.

pp802:
OK, thanks. So the guys that got them pregnant rejected or denied the pregnancy! What about their parents? Elder siblings?

I use to think that when a village girl gets pregnant out of wedlock, even if the guy rejects or denies, the parents of the girl usually take her to the guys parent's house.
Atleast I see this a lot in nollywood movies

Those structures are becoming less common due to the state of the economy. Quite a few of these girls are girls that move to the city and do some menial jobs here and there. They are poor, with poor relatives and cannot take care of the kids.

Due to lack of willingness to procure abortions as well as the fact that some people are willing to pay them, they sell the children. They also do it in America. One ofy guys said that they help people who are pregnant and then adopt the kids out there.

revontuli:
You got it wrong. It's not the Anglo-Saxons and Jews on top, it's the lizard people

I'm not saying it's the reptilians...

But it's the reptilians.

Cunnilingus:
to go there no easy

That is true but if one has the opportunity to choose between Europe and Canada I suggest Canada.

Cunnilingus:
I already have the money. Now the problem is finding reliable source for any European country genuine papers

Forget Europe. I suggest Canada.

Does anyone know who Saraki is backing for 2019 yet?

DonBobes:
D fact dat i am in d military alone, I will drop d mic here n not delve an inch further. But I just told u wat it is

I understand Sir. I appreciate you saying what you said already. There are several levels involved in what you said.

DonBobes:
Gud but I NEED NOT REMIND U DAT ETHNICALLY NIG IS NOT UNITED TO BRING UP SOMETHING LIK DIS

I salute Sir. Thank you for replying. It is not everyday that one can interact with a force man just like that.

Indonesia itself is not ethnically united also. They have 5 major religions and several ethnic groups. It they can do something like this, can't we also do it? It won't be easy but it is possible in my opinion. How do you see it? Can we at least start with the paramilitary and police then maybe with time we move it to the army?

DonBobes:
If dats how UN invades we will not be where we are today.

The need for a stronger military is known amongst learned people, but the Military's lack of popularity with the common people is a huge hindrance to it's true power.

I personally think the Nigerian Military should adopt the Indonesian Military's defense ideology- create regional commands and populate the regional commands with the dominant ethnic group in the region at the level of enlisted men. Officers should be from totally different ethnic groups to the enlisted men and be moved from one group to the other.

The Military's size should be limited to 120k-150k with huge increase in equipment quality and technological force multipliers, and each of the terrestrial commands should only be deployed to areas within thier territory unless there is a huge emergency.

Paramilitary/gendarmerie forces should upgraded but the numbers should be around the same but used also as a rural police force as is done in some countries. The gendarmerie/paramilitary should also be organized as terrestrial commands drawn from the population they garrison with officers moved about.

The paramilitary should be geared towards the light infantry role that they are known to play as well as police duties.

This is a modified version of how it is done in Indonesia and it works for them. How do you see it Ogas DonBobes?

Cadec007:
thanks......thats a good plan/strategy or ideology....i like it

I appreciate Sir.

Cadec007:
right? Pssstt does an AGGRESSOR need right to touch somebody?
Right or no right an aggressor is an aggressor.

Your question is a good one. Aggressors do not need reasons to invade anybody. Just look at the USA. They have bombed and outright invaded countries that have done them no harm and nothing happened.

Oga SSGN, it is good to see another post from you. I would like to ask if you plan to write about the Nigerian Military's human rights record and popularity with the common man.

The need for a stronger military is known amongst learned people, but the Military's lack of popularity with the common people is a huge hindrance to it's true power.

I personally think the Nigerian Military should adopt the Indonesian Military's defense ideology- create regional commands and populate the regional commands with the dominant ethnic group in the region at the level of enlisted men. Officers should be from totally different ethnic groups to the enlisted men and be moved from one group to the other.

The Military's size should be limited to 120k-150k with huge increase in equipment quality and technological force multipliers, and each of the terrestrial commands should only be deployed to areas within thier territory unless there is a huge emergency.

Paramilitary/gendarmerie forces should upgraded but the numbers should be around the same but used also as a rural police force as is done in some countries. The gendarmerie/paramilitary should also be organized as terrestrial commands drawn from the population they garrison with officers moved about.

The paramilitary should be geared towards the light infantry role that they are known to play as well as police duties.

This is a modified version of how it is done in Indonesia and it works for them. How do you see it Ogas SSBN and DonBobes?

ooshinibos:
No ,this happened at ife campus , he asked us to put our hands in our pockets ...we thought he wanted to blessed our wallets but he said all the money in our wallet should be placed in the offering bags , I think he said it was a command from God or he something like that ..
after he collected the offering , he got in his car and drove off ,
the second one was in London , he was invited to a CAC conference , during the offering , he said all cheques should be made payable to idahosa ministries , the host got up and corrected him ..and told the crowd to pay all cheques to CAC ,London ....Idahosa again got up and said all cheques should be payable to his ministries ...the argument went on for awhile ..before he gave up ...it was a complete drama , I was ashamed to be a Christian then

Wow. That one of put all tbe money on the offering table is quite serious. So many things done in God's name.

revontuli:
I'm here to learn about all those rich and diverse cultures, and exchange all kinds of culture knowledge.
It took me more than 5 years to do the worldbuilding before I wrote any of the story. It's a lot of work, but I draw inspiration from the underrated parts of real history and various dead and living cultures of the world. Most fantasy writers are lazy about creating cultures or do only superficial research. I try to do better than that. Maybe someone will even publish the book when it's finished.

I think the best way to erase prejudices and stereotypes is establishing contact and listening to the real people instead of the media.

I have heard that Amazon has a way to do some low cost publishing. Maybe you could look into that to make publishing easier.

I am a fan of Issac Asimov and he launched his publishing career by writing short stories based on his universe. That is something else that might help you.

You are very right about shoddy research and world building being an issue. I am a fan of science fiction and alternate histories and sometimes one plot hole can really mess up an otherwise excellent universe.

I also agree with you about listening to the real people. All media companies have thier own agenda so they just end up twisting things to promote the agenda. Interpersonal communication helps us know that in the end we are all humans and can lead to much progress.