₦airaland Forum

It has to be said that on the one hand this is a thoroughly embarrassing scene. It is bad enough that a media outfit that is supposed to be a bastion of proprietary rectitude is allegedly implicated in an odious venture such as this - receiving public property as a gift for the running of a private enterprise for profit. How is this not a prime example of the corruption we like to cry about on the media? This just goes to show that if Nigeria ever gets serious with fighting corruption and does a thorough job of it, we may likely find it hard to recognise the society that emerges from such an exercise because just about every public and private institution will be radically impacted. I am even more ashamed for the journalists present at this interview.

Personally, I consider that one of the biggest setbacks plaguing the Nigerian space today is the emergence of what I call opinionated, celebrity-activist journalists who continue to use their respective media platforms to promote their personal celebrity status at the detriment of rendering true professional, journalistic service, that is neutral and without bias, to the Nigerian people. This matter came to a head for me in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on the fate of old naira notes as legal tender during the Buhari administration. After the judgement, speculations were rife as to whether the government would obey the ruling of the apex court or not. That not a single state-house-correspondent journalist from any media outfit could walk up to the president and shove a mic in his face to ask whether he heard the court's pronouncement, just told me that we have no journalists in the country. I shake my head when I see people glorifying these clowns masquerading as journalists. Yes, I call them clowns because if they were truly journalists, they would know that their profession forbids that they hold opinions on public issues let alone express such opinions to the extent that it becomes obvious on which side their favour lies.

Having said all that, somebody should also put together a remedial course for our public figures on the matter of proper comportment in the public space. There are things that should not be said by people in authority. It is always infra dig to throw in the face of anyone the fact that you are paying them for their services. It is utterly distasteful and no man of class does that. I still cannot understand for the life of me why a given minister insists on doing media chats when the president himself who owes us this service continues to reject doing same.
Honestly, Africans need to do better in the running of their affairs. Nothing in our native cultures prepares us for life in a modern society.

saintkel:
Dear Nigerians pls what has Tinubu exactly done that he deserves a 2nd term?....even if Obi is corrupt, I think he's far better than dis complete failure n heartless leader

I am no supporter of any political party or individual but it has to be said that this tactic of misfortune-marketing a candidate is diabolical. It not only creates suspicion that those using this tactic are in fact the perpetrators of the very misfortune they employ, it establishes a vicious circle of the same practice as it is a tactic that can be employed by anyone interested in taking power from another. The ultimate victims are ordinary people who are used as cannon fodder.

Besides, what magic powers has your preferred candidate demonstrated to convince you that misfortune such as this will cease to exist the moment he becomes president? The problem with Nigeria is that it is run entirely by Nigerians. No nation can develop beyond the collective quality of the totality of the human beings within its borders. In the case of Nigeria, that quality is rather low.

Now, Seun, I'm not one to complain about the many flaws of Nairaland and this is simply because I know that I have a choice. I either not dignify the platform with my precious opinion, or I simply leave the platform entirely. Well, I haven't left yet and I would really love to see Nairaland improve in quality of content posted here.

That said, trust me, if you don't meticulously guard against the posting of inane AI-generated content here for reaction from Nairalanders, the platform will likely die an accelerated death. AI videos are a woeful waste of time to watch simply because they are not true and whatever issue they purport to address or present is absolutely not important. Furthermore, I think it is only ethical that you insist on clearly tagging such content as AI-generated for everyone to see. Then, whoever doesn't mind spending their time 'reacting' passionately to pseudo content can embrace the exercise wholeheartedly. And people like me who would rather not spent real time on unreal content can swiftly pass and spend our time elsewhere. Better still, you can create an AI section for all content such as the one on this thread. But please do well to keep such content off the front page. It lowers the value of engagement on the platform.

This nonsense plagues Facebook massively right now and even YouTube is beginning to suffer as well. Do well to save Nairaland from the scourge or risk the same fate as the aforementioned platforms.

Are we also going to suffer this empty AI content pandemic here on Nairaland?

Seun:
Dear Nairalanders,

We are ramping things up. Here are some things we have done recently:

1. We gave Nairaland's theme a little facelift, fixing buttons, pagination, separators, and other little things.

2. We implemented a dark mode for Nairaland with the most intuitive UX: a sun toggle on your upper right.

3. We further relaxed the minimum character rule because many people were still struggling with it.

We are also trying to make our moderation bot (aka antispam bot) more accurate. Bear with us on that.

What else do you want us to work on?

Best Regards.

We commend you for the facelift and other improvements on the site. However, it is a bit of a bore to have to return to the front page, each time one opens a thread, in order to be able to access other sections of the forum. The link to all sections of the forum should be present on every page of every thread.

Also, it's not a bad idea to introduce a dislike button. Much as one is against cyber bullying and internet trolling, we are not emotional snowflakes in this part of the world and we can certainly deal with a difference of opinion. So, I'd say give us the dislike button to graphically register our disagreements - just as we do our agreements with the like button.

Enough of these inane, AI generated, absolutely brain-dead, non-issue threads on this platform already! This just will be the death of this forum if it is allowed to continue. I really don't care about reading AI-generated content on a platform meant for human beings with a brain.

To make the whole thing worse, such write-ups follow the same boring pattern and layout and invariably end with an equally annoying, patently-AI generated image. Plus, the posters usually have "Lagos this" or "Lagos that" as their moniker.

Enough of this already! It is plain annoying.

Shawarmagirl:
The poster above me has lost his senses. People they are fighting for is here supporting injustice. If the so-called Professors did not thought you well in school, will you have the gots to type in English and spell correctly? You need help. So teaching is not hustling abi?

You see why I always tell people to Japa, because when you travel and become more exposed, you'll hate Nigeria.

No, the poster above you has not lost his senses. I just think that this trend of comparing the remuneration of totally unrelated professions is as absurd as it is dishonest. Why do we choose to compare the salary of politicians to the salary of academics? Why is it that we NEVER question the salary of football players or compare same to the salary of, say, doctors? I'll tell you why: in our irrational state as humans, football players are more important to us than doctors because while footballers bring us much joy by the entertainment they provide, doctors give us no joy at all by the ailments they diagnose. The same goes for the politician and the university professor. The politician knows how to spread joy among his constituents but the professor, in some instances, is a kill joy by the manner in which he handles his students.

Furthermore, please note that it is a free world and that there is no law that bars any professor from becoming a politician or any politician from becoming a professor. So, if the professor covets the pay of the politician, let him become a politician and spare us the pity party. I can only feel for the professor if, at the time he freely and willingly made his career choice, anyone had lied to him that he would be better paid in this country than a politician.

Tell me any other sector in this country that is adequately remunerated. Why do we make it seem like academics are the only underpaid group? And by the way, the English that the poster above you wrote was not taught him by the professor who only spent four (or five) years with him. It was taught by the combined effort of the primary and secondary school teachers who spent a whopping cumulative twelve years teaching him and getting him ready for life and for university. Yet, when NUT goes on strike for poor pay, ASUU turns a blind eye to their plight. Instead, it is the association of petrol-tanker drivers that threatened to join the teachers in a solidarity strike.

Sentiments will get us nowhere. While I haven't much regard for your politicians and their brand of politicking, I have no sympathy either for your professors and their insular myopia in their self-centred quest to better their lot at the expense of everything else. Still, how is it logical that some of the best paid humans on earth are players and not workers? And, why do we never compare the pay of these entertainers to those of serious workers?

For those who are wondering what the current turnaround time is for IW submissions, here's my personal account of the process:

I read on here that IW appointments had been rescheduled by the embassy for some people and that folks should look in their spam folders for mails to that effect. I looked in mine and behold! They had sent me four mails to say that my appointment which was originally scheduled for August 19 had been rescheduled for July 9! Well, as at the time I was reading the mail it was already July 17. I wondered why they didn't accompany the email with an sms as they usually would in the past. I mean, who goes snooping in their spam folder regularly to see if they have important messages? So I called the embassy to state my situation. They took my details and came back on the line to say that the rescheduled appointment for the 9th had been recorded as a 'no show' for me. They then advised that I get back on the website to reschedule for myself.

I did and saw dates from July 24 to several other days after. I chose July 25 because I wasn't going to be available on July 24. Also, 25 is a Thursday and traffic tends to be super light on Thursdays. So, I did the drop off at DHL in VI at 9:10 am. By the time I got home my dashboard changed to 'Passport is being delivered to post.'

July 26: Dashboard said, 'Passport is still with the embassy.'
July 26: Tracking information shows, 'Application Received.'
July 30: Tracking information shows, 'Issued.'
July 31: I received mail (in my spam folder!) for pick up.
I tried to schedule pick up appointment on the DHL portal as directed without success. I called DHL to complain about the problem and was told to just show up and pick up my passport provided I had the pick up email from the embassy.

I chose to go on Thursday 8 August for the pick up and without much ado at the counter, I had my passport. I guess you could say the entire process from drop off to the issuing of the visa took just five working days. So, yes, this pace is possible: I'm a witness.

I hope this helps someone.

Sold.

Sold.

BizErikah:
Omo!! Congrats jare
I wish this was just me

I'm still seeing that "passport has been received from consular, preparing for delivery"

After I got refused yesterday..
I'm just worries I might not make my trip April 24th..

Fingers crossed for you. With the level of efficiency I experienced in this process, I am willing to bet that you'll make your trip.

BizErikah:
Those that submitted on 23rd March
Have you received any pick up from DHL or gotten your Passport back?

First off, a big thank you to everyone who shared useful information on this thread concerning IW. I have been a silent reader for quite a while and here's my own account of the process:

Submitted on the 23rd of March at 6:30am

Application Received on the 23rd.
Case last updated on the 30th.

Administrative Processing on 4th April

Issued on 5th April

Received collection text and email on the 6th

Picked up today at DHL office at 10am.

Lessons learnt: If you're not in immediate danger of falling out of qualification for the IW, patience is the watch word. With some patience, you don't need to join a Telegram or WhatsApp group to get a drop off date. Visiting this thread frequently will help you scale that hurdle.

Once you submit your documents for processing, again, more patience will save you a lot of nail biting. Just let the process run its course.

Thanks again to all the helpful folks on this thread and good luck to the rest of the fellows on the visa trail.

Selling...

Selling...

Available.

Available.

Sold.

Still selling...

Available.

Available, selling...

Available, selling...

Available, selling...

Still available.

Available.

Available for the taking.

Here and selling...

Here and selling...

Here and selling...

2008 Hyundai Elantra.

Available.

Available.

Still selling...