₦airaland Forum

itodosam:
I was blessed financially this week, all glory to God almighty, who gave me wisdom

God does not give anyone money or wisdom.

crestedaguiyi:
God saved me from police arrest last night at slaughter.
Was going to zenith bank ATM after slaughter when I walked into them picking guys opposite coca cola. I stood afar to observe.

Police entered the Hausa quarter to pick boys smoking weed and patronizing hoes. I was quite disappointed when they left the Hausa guys selling the weed to arrest their clients. When they left,The guy said I dey settle Oga na,him know me well well,ah ,na my brother na

This is a very stupid story to use to demonstrate the purported goodness of God

tukdi:
I thank God for his goodness and mercies!

God is neither good nor bad so please stop this nonsense.

RationalTV:
Lets talk about how God have blessed us this week.
.
Me: he escaped me from kidnappers

God is not in the business of saving anyone so you had better be more careful next time period.

kay29000:
I thank God cos before i used to find it hard to sell my chicken eggs, but now i have sold all and people have booked for many more crates. I almost feel like going to open the hens stomachs and pull out the eggs. Lol!

Thank your Customers and not God

Loyalblak007:

Geez! This is so terrible

Thank God for your life

Should all the bereaved thank God also

LifeofAirforce:
The first baby mama got more super sexy and jaw dropping body


This lady is just there
Nothing special.

Sharrraaaap!

modelmike7:
Awww, this letter by a 10 Year old is so TOUCHING. Now, her dream is coming true.

Soon, you will read from some people that wailing is their hobby shouting propaganda upandan!

I just LOVE MY PRESIDENT.

U sure say e no wan marry am? ? ?

Basic123:
Forget it joor.

Is he the only business man that hob nob with politicians in the country?,why is he greater than others?.

Ask yourself that question.

While at it, try explain to yourself why a certain Theophilus Danjuma can probably buy off all the rest of the tycoons.

Mr. Man, Dangote is not just the establishment. He is within the establishment behind the establishment.

A person like you who cannot see why public refineries must not work in Nigeria probably can never understand why electric power must never be constant in Nigeria.

gbishman:
This is remarkable, but whats funny is how the Niger Delta have made their region so unattractive for investors through their incessant agitations and restiveness. Imagine the scenerio of crude oil been tapped from their region and jobs been created in Lagos to cater for over 230000 plus jobs for Lagosians.
My fellow Yoruba brothers i bow my head for your guys, for me you guys are the smartest ethnic group in Nigeria.
Niger Delta so called leaders you guys are a mess and a disgrace to your region.

You are quite a st.upid person.

Basic123:
hmmmm,igbo dont believe any other tribe can make it on his own except them! or they claim they contributed to it.

His matarnal great grand father,who was the richest in west africa was he the creation of northern millitary hegemony too?

I am not Igbo and I don't know whence that arises.

Dangote is a level headed businessman who has done remarkably well.

However if anyone does not understand the politics of his wealth in the context of the Nigerian State then such a person is simply horribly naive.

Such persons are probably naive enough to imagine that Dangote is not a politician also.

neoOduduwa:
Same here. Even more excited because it's owned by a Notherner

If na some people like that, they no go allow us rest with chest-beating

Dangote owns investments worth billions of dollars in the SW and I've never seen a northerner here on Nairaland brag about it

Perhaps because they understand power and money. Dangote is a creation of the Nigerian state and particularly it's Northern military hegemony. So what's to brag about?

Werehkpe:
Some of these countries including Ghana have devalued their currencies. If we do same d Naira will compare better than it is right now

Redenominated you mean. And that's a cosmetic measure. Anyone can do that and it changes no significant reality.

Redenominate 100 Naira to one Naira and your salary of one million will become 10 thousand Naira with exactly the same purchasing power as the one million had.

No difference except your national ego

Joshthefirst:
Here's a noteworthy reply to one examining the Christian belief by Gideon Odoma.



cc: plaetton, kay17, catfishbilly, deepsight, alwaystrue, MrAnony1, jayriginal, jackbizzle.

I am sorry to say, but this is pure unadulterated nonsense. The writer is either stark illiterate or psychotic.

Mujaheedeen300:
Well.... If you ask me,I will say many would decline if given a choice of coming to this world in the first place.... But here we are.... we have no choice than worship our Creator.... n prepare for a meeting with HIM....

What does worship mean and entail for you?

Nymeria247:
I feel you but now that we have been born and existing in this planet already, do we just wallow in bitterness and regrets? Or we should just make lemonade out of the lemons that life handed to us without our consent? Some are born with silver-spoons others without limbs whichever one we find ourselves we should appreciate the fact that it could have been worse.

I absolutely agree with making lemonade out of the lemons we have been handed.

What I see no particular reason for is praising "God" for what is clearly the existence of a dark and rather unfortunate world. And in this I do not refer to the darkness created by man. The very nature of life is merciless. One only needs to watch animals in the wild to understand this acutely. You eat or be eaten, you kill or be killed. Many things happen daily which show neither rhythm nor sense but only the existence of a wild and arbitrary jungle. Although I very much believe that in life you reap what you sow and the general principle of Karma - at a spiritual level - many random things still appear to happen - time and chance. I cannot see much reason to offer special thanks to any God for the misery and sham of the world.

The entire pitiful cry - "it could be worse" seems to me a negative and pathetic cry which only seeks what solace there may be even within the most miserable meaninglessness.

Nymeria247:
Guy, you write so well I could taste the bitterness in your words. What is your story? Please enlighten us.

Bro its not just me. Just take a cold hard look at the world you live in and consider what exactly there is to be grateful about being born here in the first place!

hopefulLandlord:
all these are assertions with nothing backing it up

an atheist wouldn't wear a suicide vest or die for his lack of belief but that's all I there is to it, whether he/she would then call on a god is left to be seen

there's no stat that backs up the idea that atheist would reach out to a god, its just a projection of the person making the assertion; while they say "When you're in danger you'll remember god" they're actually saying "If I were you, when I'm in danger I'll remember god"; so its all psychological projection

Very True

exlinklodge:
Let me ask you, who are you or what have you gone through in life that can deter you from appreciating the Almighty God? Well if you think you being alive is by chance, then you maybe the most foolish person ever in this life.

What is there in this hellish planet to appreciate its creator for? ? ?

Yes is true that sometimes going through a life threatening disease of coming out of an accident scattered jilt some people into appreciating and worshiping God but why wait for that? Why not now?

Why should anyone experience horror and praise the Lord for it?



Is it not so sickening how we thank "God" for tragedy and in this case we are to thank "God" for amputation of a limb?

What is wrong with our reasoning faculties? ? ?

The truth is that whatever force, entity or intelligence conceived and created this world can only be a most malevolent one delighting in cosmic ma.sturbation of a certain sado-masochist nature on a scale incomprehensible to our minds. This world is most likely some sort of video entertainment window for the perverted appetite of the "gods".

thehomer:
That person still exists.

Mr. Homer!
Do my eyes deceive me or I read from a being of another dimension?

My people, your own thoughts please. Over to the house.

Please Click Like to Praise the Article by Amuta and Click Share to Condemn it, as I want to take a poll.

Lalasticlala.

By "Citadel"

Reading this piece of unmitigated falsehood, deception and chicanery causes me to quake with rage. How on planet earth can anyone seek to deify the nefarious activities of IBB in Nigeria? How can anyone recall IBB in the light of a Spartan? Oh, I quite understand if the envelopes and Ghana-must-go are prompting the economic justification, but Mr. Amuta, don't you have conscience?

By Michael Kadiri:

And there you have it people.
A member of the editorial board of one of Nigeria's leading Newspapers.
Trying to call black white and attempting to tell us that the left turn Babaginda took Nigeria was the right turn.
Quite depressing.

The truth is that;
Amongst his many ills;
Babaginda was only ever qualified for skull duggery, coup planning and murder.
His economic policy failed and plunged Nigeria into debt we could ill afford - whilst at the same time becoming a dollar billionaire.
He institutionalised corruption.

But he was not done yet. With his fellow short man devil (SMD) Abacha, they annulled a free and fair election in which Nigerians voted for arguably the best candidate. After which, he retired to his Hill top Mansion in Minna - a city I have visited several times and is unbelieveable that two previous Heads of State reside in a place where you can literally smell......no not the money, but the poverty. They could not even elevate their own.

Dr Amuta, Dr Amuta, Dr Amuta - how many times did I call your name?
Oh well, as they say, to the victor goes the spoils of writing the history.

If like in other civilised countries, he who committed crimes against our humanity were not cooling themselves in million dollar mansions, but in jail where they belong, then we might not have to read such offensive diatribe.

First Comment, by "American Abroad':

Ficta Voluptatis Causa Sint Proxima Veris (fiction meant to please should first approximate the truth).

The wise, as Schopenhauer often reminds us, have since the beginning of time, always said the same things, and the foolish, who are always in the majority, have always done the exact opposite. So it has been with Nigeria's faux-military leadership, which remains in perpetual crisis mode, and so has it also been with Nigeria's journalists, whose trade has become an alloy of compromise, romanticism, falsehood and nonsense. Mr Amuta is an archetypal proponent.

Briefly, the fallacies: Babangida may have attained power in a "bloodless coup" (Nigeria's military tradition does not advertise the necessary loss of subaltern and NCO lives in any of its many putsches), but the price in blood, talent and treasure expended in maintaining his regime was simply horrendous; democracy is based on consensus not religion, therefore the concept of "No Go" areas in national discourse is anathema to any uncompromised democrat; it makes little sense to decapitate the nation's military (figuratively and literally) through defunding, disarming, wanton executions, retirements, witch-hunts, dismissals and outright subversion, then propose to set up a lesser para-military tier to take over those same functions as a National Guard which would lack the legitimacy of the Mobile Police as well as the capacity for pro-rated violence of the Army; prescribing a 2-party system by military fiat in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-linguistic aggregation is carrying the American political template to ridiculous limits.

But of course, the usual excuse made by several military apologists and fellow praise-singers is that we face(d) "very difficult" problems in those days. Recall, if you will, that the majority of those "very difficult" problems were created by the military itself, in usurping a political position it was neither temperamentally nor intellectually prepared for. Assembling an "ivy league faculty" as cabinet is of no use, if the principal (or University President) is a dunce. Furthermore, in the words of Ed Murrow following the Kennedy assassination, the only excuse history will never accept is "difficulty". But then, Ed Murrow knows very little about Nigerian historians- or journalists.

Regardless, history is exact, being the scion of truth and not of propaganda. The mere fact of Abacha's rogue regime, and all the resultant misery for this country, is as comprehensive a denunciation of the Babangida Years and its wasted potential, as Copernicus was in comprehensively discrediting the genius of Ptolemy. Amuta's piece essentially proposes, with more passion than evidence, that Babangida generally had good intentions. Even that will not fly. For Amuta to convince anyone beside himself, he must first be persuasive; to be persuasive, he must, assuredly, be believable; to be believable, in accordance with Ed Murrow's stoichiometry of political propaganda, he must be credible; but to be credible, alas, he must be truthful. Nobody, not even the passionate Mr Amuta, can be truthful whilst presenting Babangida to a discerning public for acceptance. Beyond that, good intentions are not the measure of any leader, especially for one who had made a career from usurping political leadership through the barrel of a gun rather than through democratic plebiscite. If good intentions were actually measurable, perhaps he would have been found to have good intentions, but they are not, and he does not.

The underlying problem with Babangida was not the spectrum of his thoughts; those were intuitive, expansive, even catholic, but fundamentally vacuous, untethered to any recognizable doctrine or underlying philosophy. Most of his decisions were ad hoc, simply predicated by immediate political survival. Fostering national "debates" on serious economic issues which were barely understandable to professionals in the field, such as SAP, was merely abdication of leadership. Consequently, without any foundational moorings, none of his ideas were viable or possessing of longevity. He walked a tightrope purely of his own design, allowing his prejudices and lust for the trappings of power to commandeer any residua of common sense, until his ignominious exit from all that he held dear: power, self-idolatory, deification by little men, access to unlimited funds, all manner of fleeting nonsense.

Paradoxically, I rather liked the man, as opposed to the leader. I have nothing personally against him. Stories of his personal generosity are legion. But he was there to do a difficult job, which he took upon himself, and failed spectacularly. He was truly at the verge of history like other presidents before him. He chose fame, power, wealth and all other winnable attributes of an exceptional life, but he gave up honor, the only winning attribute of a life of meaning. He garnered all the hustler's gold that life could bestow, in exchange for the single thing which should never be lost.

Which was a tragedy for him, for his legacy, for his country, and for us all.

I post below an article by Dr. Chidi Amuta on the Backpage of today's Thisday Newspaper.

I will post after its, a few comments and reactions to the Article.

August is Babangida month. It is the month of his birth and the commemoration of his ascension to power as Nigeria’s sixth military leader and eighth head of state. Rightfully, the nation and his friends have a right to reflect on his abiding significance in the persisting pantheon of Nigerian leadership, both imposed and elected. An armored officer who acquired political power in a bloodless coup, assumed the curious title of President and maintains a tortured persistent relevance deserves at least periodic acknowledgment.

Fortuitously perhaps and to those who are conscious of his historical footprints, Babangida’s ideas on key issues about the survival of the Nigerian nation have constantly returned to center stage especially in recent times. After his long medical leave, President Buhari made a national broadcast that is still being debated widely. His key contention, against the disturbing background of divisive noises about the future and structure of our federation, is that the unity of the Nigerian nation is a settled matter: “Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable…Every Nigerian has the right to live and pursue his business anywhere in Nigeria without let or hindrance”.



It was Babangida who inaugurated the concept of “No Go” areas in our political discourse. He clearly told politicians aspiring to succeed him then that they were free to debate everything under the sun except certain ‘No Go’ areas. These included the inviolability of our national unity and indivisibility of the federation, the secularity of the state, the right of Nigerians to hold opinion and subscribe to divergent faiths, a two party system etc. Then as now, politicians and their errand spokespersons were up in arms. They wanted to keep busy debating nearly everything including questioning the very unity of the country in order to further degrade military rule. Babangida remained resolute and soon enough, the politicians fell into line once faced with the the prospect of elections on the platform of the two mandatory parties.

In the heat of the current clamour for restructuring of our federation, Babangida has advised that all views be heard and power devolution be given consideration. This view, which has been variously misinterpreted as an endorsement of the dissolution of the federation, falls into the man’s liberal disposition, which allows free debate of key national issues. Easily the author of the modern Nigerian liberal state, Babangida as military president had the singular distinction of subjecting key national issues to open liberal debate as a precondition to achieving the consensus that should inform the actions of the state. A checklist of the issues he subjected to national debate: the question of ideology, economic reform, Structural Adjustment, relationship with the IMF, the political programme, privatization, political party structure, rural development, poverty alleviation, the future role of the military, civil-military relationship, the place of traditional authority etc. etc. Those who are harassing President Buhari over his position on the re-structuring issue do not understand the nationalist doctrine which binds all the key civil war generals. ‘To Keep Nigeria One is a Task that Must be Done” is the slogan on which the war was fought and won by the federals.

Barely one week before President Buhari’s return from his hospital leave, the Minister of Internal Affairs, retired General Abdurrahman Dambazzau while receiving the commander of the California National Guard expressed the Federal Government’s desire to establish a National Guard for Nigeria in the light of increasing internal security challenges. This again was a return to one of Babangida’s pet projects. It is worth recalling that in the dying days of his administration, President Babangida had actually established the National Guard with a commander designate (Col. Abdul Mumuni Aminu) and begun ordering equipment and uniforms while putting together an enabling law to back the organization. Because of the politically problematic nature of the tail end of his tenure, the more vocal wing of our public opinion mounted a vicious propaganda, insisting that the establishment of the National Guard was a ruse by the then President to raise a private army to prolong his tenure.

This argument sounded somewhat foolish to those of us who were close to and in sympathy with the regime at the time. My argument then was that a full fledged army general in control of all the armed forces and the machinery of government of the country did not need to float an alternative force to remain in power if he so desired. All he needed to do was to take off his uniform and join one of the two parties and contest the presidential election. The outcome would be a landslide in his favour. But wild conspiracy theories had seized the moment as politicians and professional rabble-rousers joined forces to discredit a military that had in any case overstayed its welcome.

I recall engaging informally with the president and some of his security advisers on the National Guard matter. It was our conclusion that our federation was still unsettled, with many real and potential flash points. The present and future nature of our internal security challenges would overwhelm the police and distract the professional military. The police are too civil to contain armed insurgency while the military is too fierce to be pressed into combatting fellow Nigerians with its characteristic terminal precision. The solution was to establish a mid intensity intermediate force- a National Guard- specially trained and indoctrinated to manage internal security with a mixture of resolute force and patriotic compassion. The Guard would have home contingents in every state and specialized national units in the key flash points nationwide. That was the origin of the National Guard concept and a debate that will not go away for as long as this federation remains unsettled.

On July 12, 2017, Nigeria’s Supreme Court delivered a judgment that settled the leadership tussle in Nigeria’s major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). That judgment may have served the specific needs of justice in a matter that was legitimately before the court. But the political import was more far reaching. The Supreme Court was making a major statement in jurisprudence. It was a major step by the judiciary to stabilize and re-balance the polity by re-establishing the fact that viable political parties are the major pillars for a workable democracy. Through that judgment, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the integrity of the nation’s effective two party democracy.

While the Nigerian constitution and the electoral law empowers Nigerians that meet the relevant INEC guidelines to establish political parties in line with the dictates of a multi party democracy, the reality of our situation is that we are now effectively a two party democracy. This reality took between 1999 and 2015 to fully evolve and crystallize. For that long, the PDP as the ruling party ruled Nigeria almost as a one party state while the smaller parties shopped for loyalty, alliances and followership in limited favourable locations. But by the eve of the 2015 elections, it became clear that only a coalescence of major opposition parties into a single effective pan-Nigerian counter party could challenge and supplant the PDP. The emergence of the APC was therefore the culmination of the evolution of an effective two party system for Nigeria’s democracy.

Here again are loud echoes of Babangida, a leader ‘who saw tomorrow’ on the necessity of a two -party democracy for Nigeria. It would be recalled that on October 7, 1989 following the completion of the work of the Political Bureau, the military administration of General Babangida announced the establishment of two party system for Nigeria. The Social Democratic Party(SDP) and the National Republican Convention(NRC) came into being, complete with two ideologically diametrical manifestoes and national symbols.

This development was, like most military decisions, an arbitrary imposition. It was however informed by historical hindsight and a deep historical analysis of Nigeria’s political evolution so far. Babangida rationalized his decision then with admirable philosophical insight. Nigerian political history had shown that Nigerians and their political leaders aggregate around two major poles after each election: a winning party and a coalition of those that lost. The losers either form an electoral alliance or agree to work together in subsequent elections. In effect, Nigerian politicians and their followers always aggregate around two poles.

Therefore, the choice of a two party system was a logical outcome of a perennial Nigerian political tendency. In addition, the choice of two parties was also a strategic national unity move. It prevents Nigerians from aligning along ethnic or religious lines, as each party must have offices, representation and followership in all states of the federation in order to qualify as a national party. To ensure that the two -party system was truly national and representative, the government designed and built identical party offices at local government, state and national levels at government expense.

Here again, we have witnessed an evolution towards the Babangida ideal from a decreed two party system to one freely chosen by politicians with its inherent deficiencies. But the realization that the nation’s future political stability would depend on a bipolar political party structure remains a tribute to Babangida’s foresight, vision and profound courage. It is one that has placed us in the same league with major democracies of the world.

In Babangida’s bold idealism, however, is also to be located the major flaws and contradictions that bedeviled his legacy. His political legacy remains riddled with unpardonable contradictions. Although he wore a nationalist garb, he cancelled party primaries when the late Shehu Musa Yar’dua had won in most of the south and south west. Similarly, many Nigerians believe that one reason why he annulled the June 12 elections was the defeat of the NRC candidate, Bashir Tofa, in his won Kano state constituency by M.K.O Abiola as well as an unstated understanding with the late General Abacha. Rightly or wrongly, the truism that no man escapes his destiny holds true for this interesting man.

Babangida believed in ideas, subjected public policy to robust exchanges of ideas and ruled the nation with the force of those ideas while eternally respecting men and women of ideas. His cabinet read like an Ivy League faculty list. To stand for something definable is one of the attributes of great leadership. Ibrahim Babangida, Nigeria’s self effacing but contentious military president, has never tired of stoutly assuming responsibility for his ideas and actions. He endlessly insists that while leaders can delegate aspects of authority, a leader must assume ultimate responsibility for the actions taken under his watch.

One area of responsibility for which Babangida cannot escape responsibility is his championship of certain strategic ideas about the Nigerian nation and state. Undeniably, most of the ideas he canvassed in the public space and brought to bear on his administration were mostly visionary and farsighted, thus making him a leader for all seasons.
• Dr. Chidi Amuta, a Member of Thisday Editorial Board, is Chairman of Wilson & Weizmann Associates Ltd., Lagos

This is the sort of irritating headline that makes me know this admministration is going nowhere. "Weighing Options" makes news? Poof!

Dear AgentOfAllah

Many thanks for your lucid and well set out responses on the science of the matter and I am particularly delighted at the academic and professional bent you have given to your ripostes.

Whilst I deeply appreciate the effort given to that approach, I only read and follow science but am not a scientist by training. Hence I would like to ask you one 9r two questions which may divert towards the philosophy and cosmological theory of the matter.

First question which will guide my other questions is this: Into what is the universe expanding.

Thank you.

Abeg wetin happen to IBB, OBJ, Tinubu Atiku, Abdulsalam?

If a British Prime Minister could resign (when no one asked him to) simply because he saw that his view on Brexit was at variance (even only marginally) with the view of the public - what is wrong with us in Nigeria? Why can a President not resign when he is too ill to work? Especially a President who has been Head of State more than 30 years ago already?

Answer: The Vice President is not from Daura.

We need help!

waldigit:
I didn't because from history and current global event these religion failed my forefathers. Kept them in the dark enslaved them and made inferior until the gospel of Jesus Christ came to liberate them.

What a m.oronic answer. In the first place how exactly did ancestral religions fail your fore fathers? Wars and conquests, including slavery are a fact of history all over the world. Even your special Jews have been enslaved by Egyptians and Babylonians and Assyrians, not so? Does this mean that Yahweh had failed them? Why are you reasoning in such a pathetic and ignorant fashion. Biko, where did you get your education?

Secondly are we to conclude from your analysis that the success of a nation is evidence of the veracity of its religious model. Thus, from your analysis, we should also say that the pagan traditions of Babylon, Persia, Egypt, Greece and Rome were all worthy religious models since these nations were the most successful super powers of their times, no?

religion failed to teach them love hence they sold themselves to slavery. Unfortunately, after effect still lingers till today.

What is wrong with you? Is slavery not promoted in the Bible? ? ?

waldigit:
I didn't take the white man's word for it. I used the power of faith and received mercy to know the truth.
I then balanced what was revealed to me by applying it and then got result.
I don't have anything against your belief system. yet I have a ministry to fulfill.

Have you ever tried using this same power of faith on your African Ancestral and Traditional Religions, and if not, why?

waldigit:
Yeah He will be bitter to those who hate the Truth, but sweet to those that love it.

That is contradictory. You said the Truth is bitter and that Jesus is this Truth. As such it follows that he is bitter, period.

You are simply suffering colonial mentality and a horrible cultural inferiority complex. If the exact same story of Jesus was given to you by your African ancestors you would laugh at it as a myth. But a white man comes to tell you that a Jewish child was born by a virgin after God slept with the virgin and that the child died and his death leads to the forgiveness of sins and salvation of all mankind and that in fact this Jewish man is God himself.

How you can believe such balderdash and still imagine that you respect yourself is beyond me.