₦airaland Forum

We have a right to do what we want with what is ours and you have no portion nor inheritance in it.

Who is this WE you're refering to? You must be part of the looters, thieves and kidnappers like MEND using the unfortunate situation in Niger delta to extort for money because I can't imagine one poor common person from Niger delta with an ignoble opinion like that otherwise if not you need to wake up and see who your real problems are. MEND and their likes are not acting in the interest of ordinary people of Niger Delta. They are thieves. As for your coming days of reckoning nothing would give me more joy than to see looters accountable for their lootings.

Read the below article from Africa Confidential for an inside scoop.

Some of the militant leaders linked to the attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta earn tens of thousands of dollars from contracts with the oil majors. The FNDIC leaders Kingsley Otuaro and Messio German run contracting companies working with the oil majors. In Okerenkoko, Messio’s Integrate Production System Surveillance (IPSS) signed a second annual contract with Shell in November to provide security for the company’s huge Jones Creek flow station, where Okerenkoko is one of five ‘host communities’. Messio says the first contract was worth 24 million naira (US$164,000). The second, running from 1 November to 31 October, was for an initial N18 mn. ($123,000), including ‘incident-free bonuses’ of N3.6 mn. ($24,700) a quarter.
IPSS is not officially registered and its contracts look like disguised protection payments. ‘I sincerely believe MEND will not blow up any pipeline [in Okerenkoko] because the security boys would not allow it’, says Messio. He adds that pipeline vandalisation used to be common until a memorandum from him and Otuaro prompted Shell to hire IPSS.
Messio says Shell has since hired local contracting firms all over Delta state. Similar arrangements in Bayelsa are a source of friction between rival Ijaw communities. Shell admits it faces ‘pressure for cash payments for non-legitimate reasons’, but ruled in 2003 that it would no longer pay communities except for legitimate business reasons. Chevron’s similar clean-up last year involved a Global Memorandum of Understanding, designed to end practices such as the hiring of ‘ghost workers’ to pacify local youths. It also said it was ending the designation of ‘host communities’ for its flow stations (oil rigs have ‘impacted communities’) but the message does not seem to have reached the creeks.
An outfit called The Host Communities of Nigeria wants a constitutional amendment to ensure that 13 per cent of government oil revenues go directly to them, rather than to the state governments which, they say, steal most of the money. Leaders in this move are FNDIC’s Messio and the Gbaramatu chiefs.
Shell has been targeted by MEND in the latest violence but not Chevron, the opposite of what happened in 2003. Then, Chevron facilities were attacked in both Ijaw and Itsekiri areas. Ijaws felt that Itsekiris were getting a disproportionate number of oil jobs (Ijaws call that ‘differentials’).
Otuaro denies any link with MEND and says that Shell is targetted because it is less responsive to ‘opinion leaders’ such as himself, especially in paying for trips to the creeks to calm down angry youths or give jobs to local people. complains that Shell refused work to one of his contracting companies, Bruz-Otus, when drilling new wells around Jones Creek last year. Shadro Services Limited, which is owned by Otuaro and his brother Shadrack Otuaro, has lucrative contracts with Shell at Jones Creek and the Egwa oilfield. This pattern of business and militancy is repeated across the region.

owo:
@demmy; I dare to ask you to name the looters and the amounts linked to them.

When you finish just compare the figures with what Tafa Balogun alone stashed away (and got six 'crazy' months in the name of a prison sentence).
Add that to what the late Afolabi presided over in the National Identity card scam.
We all know the real rogues.

Remove the wool from your eyes and come down from your high hill, it seems you are the only person that does not know the looters and plunderers of this system.

Everything is tribal to you even looters are of a particular tribe. I think the wool is on your eyes.

owo: Should a man's employer refuse to pay him his salary (that he has earned) because he gets drunk with the money?

Yes if he ask for a raise I think there is a moral argument to refuse him. The reason Niger delta states are recieving more money than other states is so the money can be used for development but when this are instead diverted to looters' bank accounts then Nigerians has the right to ask them to be accountable before asking for more.

I don't normally take sides in fights between Nigerian politicians-- they can all choke to death for all I care-- but in this Atiku is sounding more and more credible day in day out while Obasanjo is morphing himself into another Abacha intolerant of any oppositions. Obasanjo has failed glaringly to consolidate democracy in Nigeria to the extent it should be unlikely to break down. After 8 years we are still not sure. This is a failure.

Thank you jagunlabi. The level of ignorance around here is pathetic. It makes sense of course if one consider the state of our educational system but still "generations of ham is Africa"?

nightrider: So Africa is not suffering under a curse. But The generations of ham were cursed and the generations of ham is Africa( that cannot be denied)

"generations of ham is Africa"? This is based on what fact sir?

You're talking of the much recent British deposition of Oba Ovonramwen in 1897. By this time if you'll note slave trade was already abolished. I was talking about the Portuguese and the Dutch earlier foray into Benin Kindom way back in the 15th century when slave trade was still just starting.

nightrider: Noah cursed the descendants of ham , which is africa.

This is misinformation. Ham, Noah and his curse had nothing to do with Africa. This is a hebraic 'tale by moonlight' taken over by the Christians and was later used to justify African slavery.

As for slavery you should that originally the Oba of Benin like many other kings in Africa refused to sell slaves but then they were deposed to punished them and stooges installed. step up your history study.

3rd world countries were the non-aligned countries during the cold world era but it had come to mean the non-functioning countries characterised by dictatorship and poor economy so yes Nigeria is a developing third world country.

@ono

I won't take Taylor's word for it if I were you.

@missworld

Curiously your husband didn't do much for education the last time he was at the helm, instead he retarded whatever progress was on the ground before he came to power . Remember the time he wanted to close Nigerian universities for one year? so why would he do anyting good now?

I do like your opinion on polygamy though. I despise the tradition myself but still we say no no no to Babangida. sorry.

why is it an embarrassment for the Nigerian armed forces?

He is not looking too happy in those photos.

Nigeria is not a failed state. Leaders fail not the nation.

"atheist christian with deistic leanings"

This is more than an oxymoron. Its conflicting and I don't think you can logically defend such description. If you're a deist, then you cannot be an atheist because atheists don't believe in the existence of any God, Christian or non. Whereas deists do. Also if you are an atheist you can not be a Christian because the latter believe in God. And if you are a deist you cannot be a Christian either because deistic God is not based on religion.

I think you are a deist. simple. You believe in some higher Being but not in the Christian or Muslim way.

@owo

Sure God knows what would have happened had the progressive force been allowed to come to power in Nigeria the better to aligned with religio-conservative oligarchs who retarded the progress at worst and stagnated it at best. Choices do have repercussions you know. By the way you're still to show how other people (the yoruba) are to blame.

GL: I always had that feeling too, that George Weah won the election but other African leaders felt he wasn't qualified because of his lack of education & exposure, and chose the highly educated woman instead. Weah seemed to know it too, as he protested at the Nigerian embassy there. I hope that after America pays whatever they promised to pay Liberia for Taylor, Mrs. Sirleaf would not give in to them again in any other situation. This is not just politics, it's blackmail. I hope she'll be able to deal with it when next it happens, because America would probably do something like this again.


It's so sad that America can push African leaders around, when they obviously don't care very much (except when their interests are affected). I wonder what their real agenda is in this case, as they refused to get involved in the heat of the war.

Stop blaming America and confusing the issues. The question is do Taylor have a case to answer? If the answer is yes, then must America forced us to do the right thing? If African leaders are refusing the bold steps necessary to stop war in the region, then others will be forced to do it. Yes Nigeria spent and lost a lot in Liberia and Sierra Leone, this is even the more reason why we should have initiated the steps for parmanent peace and bring justice not just going about pacifying warring sides as Obasanjo is doing.

Nigeria is relunctant to play an assertive leadership role in Africa (which no other country in Africa can assume outside of Nigeria) and this leaves non-Africans to play such role. What is wrong with the special court in Sierra Leone by the way? Have you seen mutilated Sierra Leonean children? The same thing is going on presently in Darfur because Nigeria is refusing to put her feet on the ground but instead it is trying to pacify warring sides to no result meanwhile rapings and killings continue.

And nothing will happen in Liberia, Charles Taylor has very few friends and supporters left.

@ono

I'm not the one to be misled by Shagari. My reference to the interview was to show one more time that IT WAS DURING THE SHAGARI ADMINISTRATION WHICH THE SOUTH-SOUTH VOTED FOR ENMASSE THAT THE DERIVATION OF OVER 20% IT ENJOYED BEFORE THEN WAS TOTALLY REMOVED.

And despite this even today South-South are still aligned with the North politically.

I can't believe that Nigerians are now siding with Charles Taylor. May I remind you that Taylor brutally murdered Tayo Awotunsin and Krees Imodibe, the 2 Nigerian journalists covering the Liberian war back in 1990 for no reason not to talk of countless Nigerian army officers? Or that he destablished Sierra Leone and the sub region?

@ramono
Those points are disjointed. One has nothing to do with the other.

Great news, at least Obasanjo has tried finally to salvage what is left of the nation's image.

seun and others thanx for those great pictures. well done.

Lagos' ghost workers were not counted.

If Obasanjo was not prepared to hand over Taylor why not come out and say based on the agreement for peace and to stop war in Liberia, that Taylor was granted immunity and so will not be tried. End of story. This would be more honorable though many would disagree including me, but more understandable compare to this messy and lawless maneuver. This is simply an embarassment. Our politicians will need to learn how to play politics at least when on international stage because the lawless, irresponsible non chalantant type they are playing within Nigeria won't work outside except to dent and make mockery of the the nation's image.

And we are demanding U.N parmanent seat?

obasanjo is a joke. absolute total joke.

@hero your very funny, photocopying results ke? are u a nigerian at all? they are photocopying the forms thereby inflating the figures. As for results; it may not even come out this year.

The fingerprints I believe is to remove the possibility of double counting at least if they are honest about it.

LoverBwoy:
i don't what the tutorial i want the software

Download utorrent below after open it abd make default torrent files
http://www.utorrent.com/download/1.5/utorrent.exe

then click on the link below for Photoshop CS2 and open with utorrent
http://www.mininova.org/get/239291

Human & Constitutional right ko! Human & Constitutional right ni!!

Ogbeni Kola, what are you afraid of? That gays mightl infect you?

Taylor's vacation in Calabar is over.

Nigeria to transfer Taylor to Liberia



By Estelle Shirbon Sat Mar 25, 6:09 PM ET

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria will transfer former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is living in exile in Nigeria and has been indicted for war crimes, to Liberian custody, the Nigerian government said on Saturday.
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The former warlord is seen as the mastermind behind once intertwined civil wars in Liberia and neighboring Sierra Leone, where a special U.N.-backed court wants to try him for supporting brutal rebels in exchange for diamonds.

"President Olusegun Obasanjo has today , informed President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf that the government of Liberia is free to take former President Charles Taylor into its custody," the Nigerian government said in a statement.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060325/ts_nm/liberia_nigeria_taylor_dc_7

Abeem:
@Obong - On paper, privatisation is a better option because it will allow for better organization and effective management of resources. Privatisation is often intended as an economic remedy to a social malaise that is stunting the growth of a public sector organization. But why prescribe privatisation for a market like Oshodi that is not a public sector organization? I fail to appreciate the rationale. Most of the traders captured in that aerial picture are gatecrashers, if I may use that word, who are trying to make a hurried living from the attractiveness of Oshodi as a central bus terminal for commuters in the Lagos metropolis. By so doing, they are denying legitimate traders, who own shops or rent them, and who must pay tenements and all kind of taxes to the Oshodi local government authorities. These traders that I nicknamed gatecrashers only congregate in the evening and night, when the local government officials must have retired to their homes, effectively evading taxes. And they do so spreading there wares in unfathomnable places - in the slum, on the rail lines, on the road, thereby creating a chaotic experience for commuters, pedestrians and motorists alike. The problem as I see it is not one of organization, but of lawlessness of Nigerians at display. Your prescription should be an antidote to curing the traders of their lawlessness.

I agree this is no privatisation issue. Nigerians have this penchant for chaos. Anybody with table and bench can put them anywhere even in the middle of the road and spread his or her wares. They do this all the time though not just at evenings and nights and government hasn't been consistent in maintaining order. You see make-shift shops all over the place because there are no standards prescribed and enforced for setting up shops. Iron shingles and rotten woods are patched together everywhere even in Ikeja Computer Village. This bastardised the name computer village.