₦airaland Forum

LagosBoi2:
We have been going through this for good 5yrs, If he had gotten those equipments before now, of course you can't tell me it's not possible or the money is not there? As a matter of fact it doesn't take a country in war more than 24hrs to receive delivery of weapons, all these things can be air lifted and when we clear bokoharam from our own country then our neighbors can take care of thiers.

War is going on in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon but Turkey that shares boundries with them is in peace, It's not rocket science my brother

The problem with your post is you comparison of the civil war in Syria to the sort we have, ours is clearly a terrorist Attack. The rebels in Syria try to conform with the rules of engagement while boko haram does not.

Secondly it is impossible to get weapons as fast as your pointed above, there diplomatic channels you need to trash plus the obvious snub from our so called allies. Bro treaties were signed and conditions given in the past. Its easier said than done.

I don't expect less. Education is the greatest tool you can give a man..#GEJ2019

LagosBoi2:
What president Jonathan is doing now on insurgency, He would have done it years back if he has the love of his citizens at heart, It is obvious he is doing it because of the elections

I used to love him and voted for him in 2011 and i have genuine reasons not to vote for him again

I agree that past nigerian presidents have been corrupt but none of them compete with my dear president when it comes to forgiving convicted criminals and giving them guicy positions in government only to loot more.

I am sick of Goodluck Jonathan

All i want is CHANGE

#IN BUHARI WE TRUST#

are you forgetting the military just got the supply of military hardwares plus our neghbors(Chad, Niger, Cameroon.. Etc) and the African Union only agreed recently to help making it difficult for book haram to hit and run. My brother e no easy o...I am sure u heard of the French citizens caught fighting alongside book haram fighters, its a complex situation.

chigo93:
u meant afor market?I am 4rm ukpor too,EBE.MY dad supports gej cos he feels gej presidency gives we easterners a say in d presidency,but when we argue he just says,it is better to support your brother,but I choose to be objective,gej has failed imagine me a yabatech student staying home for 10 months cos of strike, a president that claims he has the youth at heart won't allow a 22 year old stay idle for 10 months,in his own words,"i dont give a damn"Even gej acknowledges that buhari is not a corrupt politician. Like I said I don't support tinubu, I justlove and support buha
Sai buhari
I have my pvc! Sai
Sai baba

while I respect your opinion its also worthy of note that Ameachi and co have also acknowledged that GEJ is a good man. The man you are rooting for,I employ you to find out what he did to young Nigerian students and how he sacked several civil servants and almost destroyed press freedom. Truth is the said strike was a deliberate one to sabotage his effort in the educational sector(I don't expect you to agree). If you truly wish to see a more prosperous Nigeria you should vote Jonathan.

The encounter with Jonathan that I will never forget Onyeizu Chinedu PoliticsFebruary 2015


All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership. — John Kenneth Galbraith. There are three kinds of people: Those you meet and instantly forget a few minutes later. Those that give you a negative impression when you meet them, and those that leave long-lasting pleasant memories after you’ve met them. I am Onyeizu Chinedu from Obingwa LGA of Abia State; a Harvard University trained professional and a Petroleum Engineering graduate of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri. In late 2002, I was posted to Bayelsa State as a “Batch A” National Youth Service Corp member. After the three weeks orientation camp, I was assigned to serve in Kiama Grammar School, Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area; where I taught physics and mathematics. Of course, I had a pleasant experience teaching in the community school and hanging out with friends and other corps members most evenings under the famous Kiama bridge. One of the most significant incidents of my youth service experience occurred outside the classroom and it started with a visit from an elderly friend of mine, Papa, who supplied fresh plantain and fish to corpers.

Anytime he visited, I observed a cloudy white substance that covered a large part of his right eye. While we conversed, I remembered we were encouraged at the NYSC orientation camp to engage in group or personal community development projects (CDP). So the idea of surfing the net for an NGO to help the old man came to my mind, at the same time, as a corps member who had benefited from his free food, I decided to make it a personal CDP and explore any opportunity to relieve his condition. Initially, I pondered whether my meager N11,500 monthly allowance popularly referred to as allowee will be enough to accommodate an extra investment in a humanitarian initiative and also sustain me in Kiama village. But since Papa wouldn’t hesitate to share his bunch of plantain, which is actually all that he had, I didn’t waste time to conclude that any effort to restore Papa’s sight will be worth my time, energy and allowance. The first thing I did was to register the initiative as an NYSC CDP. Afterwards, I started researching to learn about the name and cause of his eye infection. When I was told it was cataract, I started surfing the net on weekends to either find a group, an NGO or a medical institution that will be willing to offer free eye service surgery to Papa. As luck could have it, I found a medical charity in the United Kingdom, “Sight 2020 Direct”. I wrote them an e-mail, asking whether they could come to Bayelsa for a free eye surgery camp. After several e-mail exchanges, I was able to convince the group to come.

However, I didn’t know that I had a big bureaucratic hurdle to jump with the state government ministries. For common sense sake, we are referring to a group of ophthalmologists and nurses that are coming to carry out a free, again free eye saving surgery for cataract blind persons in the state. With the assumption that government officials would be enthusiastic about the project, I reached out to the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Health and the numerous special advisers to the Governor on health matters. To my utmost surprise, I was turned to a ping pong “Chinedu come tomorrow, Chinedu the commissioner is busy with an important delegation, Chinedu the initiative is laudable, we will consider it and call you, Chinedu do a formal application using the NYSC letterhead etc.” After three months of seeking for help and support from the government, I exhausted my resources and the resources of the corps members that volunteered to help.

At a point, my small team and I decided to organize the eye camp on our own. We informed the NYSC state office and got approval to go ahead with a humanitarian branded message and creative ideas on how to execute the project. We started making progress as more corps members volunteered to join. Soon we had opticians, medical doctors, etc in the team. We set up make shift diagnostic centers across the state, used opticians that volunteered in areas outside Yenagoa. Within weeks, we registered over 50 blind patients and conducted visual acuity tests on them. I remember organizing a sensitization road walk along the major streets of Yenagoa wearing a white T-shirt; we branded “Sight for all Bayelsans in 2003”. Because we had no money, we produced the road walk T-shirts out of a cardboard paper cut-out and then used diluted oil paints to write on it. However, the Bayelsa Radio and TV stations agreed to place our public announcements and jingles on air free of charge. That leverage helped us reach out to patients that reside far from Yenagoa. I hardly slept for two hours in a day. I would co-ordinate and plan project deliverables with the volunteer optometrists, follow up on other corp members that volunteered to support logistics and at the same time pursue the ministries responsible for health matters in the state. But determination and the passion to serve our nation kept us going.

When the UK- medical team landed in Port Harcourt airport on November 14, 2003, I still had no financial or logistical support from any government agency. Meanwhile patients had started contacting medical officials in Okolobiri General Hospital. Before I made the last move towards getting the state government’s attention, I said a quick prayer in my mind. I asked God to intervene; at least for the sake of the poor blind persons that have made it out of the creeks to receive sight saving surgeries. This final move was to visit the head of a Bayelsa youth organization. I met him and explained my ordeal with the state government ministries. He apologized and asked whether I met with the state deputy governor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. I said no; but that if any help has to come, it should be quick because the expatriate doctors were already on their way to Bayelsa from Port Harcourt International Airport.

He made some calls and asked me to quickly get into his vehicle. We drove down to the Bayelsa State Government House and we were ushered into the deputy governor’s office. We logged in our names and after a few minutes we went into Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s office.

I told him about the free eye surgery programme and my fruitless efforts to get support from the state ministries. I was specific, I asked him for three things: accommodation, security, and transportation. After listening to me, he smiled and thanked me for initiating such a laudable project in Bayelsa State. You may wait at the reception.” His voice was gentle, like he was giving me a suggestion, not an order. I left his office and waited at the reception room. I was exhausted and anxious, still praying in my heart for a miracle to happen.

As God could have it, the Chief of Staff soon appeared and relayed a message from Dr. Jonathan. “You will be provided a coaster bus, five mobile policemen and accommodation at Intercontinental Hotel, Yenagoa. In addition, they gave me the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand naira to purchase medical equipments for the project.

I couldn’t believe my ears. To me it was a modern day miracle; especially after passing through hell in the last couple of months.

The free eye surgery programme started on Tuesday, November 18, 2003, at Okolobiri General Hospital. The Sight 2020 Direct team performed a total of sixty-eight surgical operations; removing cataracts and inserting intraocular lenses. Over sixty-eight blind indigenes of Bayelsa State had their eyesight restored at the end of the programme–The full story was published on pages 24-25 of the December 13th,2003 SUN Newspapers.

Twelve years have gone by since my youth service in Bayelsa State, but I have never stopped wondering what would have happened to that free eye surgery programme if Dr. Goodluck Jonathan hadn’t intervened. What would have happened to Papa and the other 67 blind patients?

I strongly believe that Dr. GoodluckEbele Jonathan certainly belongs to the group of individuals who give long-lasting positive memories. He addressed the major anxiety of his people at a time it was needed. Although we met for less than ten minutes, his prompt action that fateful day had a huge impact on my life and the lives of those 68 patients.

From that brief encounter with him, I learned that persistence pays off. Problems and challenges may obstruct your progress, but if you believe in yourself and your goal, you will eventually succeed. I remember waiting for hours, particularly at the ministry of health with nobody paying attention to me. I remember being referred to this or that special adviser, and being forced to use my meager corper allowance of N11, 500 (less than $100 today) to support the free eye surgery programme. Despite these initial setbacks, the breakthrough finally came.

The second thing I learned from my encounter with Dr. Jonathan is that there are government officials who genuinely care about the welfare of Nigerians and strive to improve lives. Even in the midst of corruption and apathy, you’ll find God-fearing leaders who provide immediate solutions to pressing problems.

The last thing I will like people to take away is that it’s okay to aim high. I could have donated textbooks to the students of Kiama Grammar School and registered the donation with NYSC as a personal community development initiative. But I decided to aim high and impact as many lives as possible, and thanks to Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, I succeeded.

These three lessons inspired me to share my national youth service experience with Nigerian youths and with those who find it difficult to cope with government bureaucracy and the challenges of life.

A lot has been written about the upcoming February 14 presidential election, and most of the debate revolves around speculation. I already know my choice for the office of the president and it is based on personal experience, not fantasy or rumors. He might not be a perfect president; but he is a man that can listen and act;especially when approached with solutions to our national problems. However, my vote will go to the affable former deputy governor of Bayelsa State who believed in a youth corper and acted promptly to improve the health of the helpless.

Read full article here: http://www.theopinion.ng/the-encounter-with-jonathan-that-i-will-never-forget/

chigo93:
abeg no thief our "sai",i bet u 2weeks to march 28, won't be funny 4 pdpiggss!
sai d people's general
Sai buhari
I don't support tinubu,I just support buhari
Sai buhari
Sai baba
Btw I am an Igbo 4rm nnewi south lga,Anambra state

my brother I find it hard to relate your support for buhari? I am from ukpor, having gained directly from this regime I say GEJ all the way. O guess u don't know that the FG constructed the okija-afor ukpor- .....road which has been a death trap for years?

Fash20:
No but Nigeria and africa are somehow related. when something happens in Nigeria I already know its in africa. Therefore Nigeria is lessthan or equal to africa .

following your analysis above, the relationship between stealing and corruption is that, they are both crimes.

mployer:
Some CBN policies are contributing to the pressure on naira. They created artificial scarcity of dollar, and You know what to expect when a commodity Is scarce.

You Can't discourage people from buying dollar by making It scarce. It Is not a luxury commodity. It Is bought by businessmen who Will go for it at any cost and have the extras added to the Price of the commodity the sell.

I agree with you. In trying to protect the naira he underestimated the resilience of a typical Nigerian businessman and the purchasing power of our middle class. But at the long run this whole situation will definitely help create a more industrialized Nigeria as more importers will settle for production.

chamboy:
check oilprice.com

that's from oilprice.com and it supports my initial post. Thanks

chamboy:
Op sha

and what is that suppose to mean?

I am sure this will help reduce the pressure on our naira for now, while we wait for the price to stabilize at between $70-$80 by June.

By Barani Krishnan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil hit its highest level for the year on Friday with Brent crude rising above $60 a barrel, as eurozone economic growth exceeded expectations and market bulls priced in another drop in the U.S. oil rig count.

Bets that falling exploration budgets of energy firms' will mop up some of the excess oil in the market also fueled gains.

Many analysts and traders believe there is a global oversupply of nearly two million barrels per day in crude oil. They say little has changed fundamentally to explain the rally of the past two weeks.

Even so, oil prices have marched higher. Brent rose over 3 percent in Friday's session, about 6 percent on the week and nearly 16 percent on the month. Gains heightened after its front-month contract switched on Thursday at a premium.

Brent had collapsed from a high above $115 a barrel in June to a near six-year low under $46 in late January, as fears of a global oil glut rattled the market.

"Naturally, when prices fall that much within that short a time, you're likely to have a severe rebound as well, though speculators are possibly adding more fuel on the way up now," said Phil Flynn, analyst at the Price Futures Group in Chicago.

Brent was up $2.22 at $61.50 a barrel at 10:48 a.m. ET, having reached $61.77 earlier.

U.S. crude CLc1 rose $1.94 to $53.15, after a session high at $53.32.

Some traders attributed Friday's strength in oil to the unexpected acceleration in euro zone economic growth in the final quarter of 2014. The bloc's largest member, Germany, particularly grew at more than twice the expected rate.

Others said the market was possibly pricing in another weekly drop in the U.S. oil rig count, ahead of industry data due later in the day. The rig count fell last week to a three-year low.

Still, the rally in oil has come amid record-high U.S. crude inventories.

Walter Zimmerman, chief technical analyst at United-ICAP in Jersey City, New Jersey, said unless U.S. crude rose above $58.72, its rebound from the January low of $43.58 "is doomed to be a minor bear market correction in a continuing long term down trend."

(Additional reporting by A; ex Lawler and Jack Stubbs in London and Adam Rose in Beijing; Editing by Dale Hudson, David Evans and Tom Brown)

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSKBN0LH08120150213?irpc=932

Indications emerged yesterday that the leadership of the nation’s security agencies are not comfortable with the role of the United States in the fight against Boko Haram terrorism following the constant blockade of plans to purchase arms from other willing countries.
A top security personnel who spoke to Vanguard under condition of anonymity, noted that the same American who told the world they were coming to Nigeria assist in the fight against terrorism, in the wake of the abduction of the Chibok girls, last year and were granted free access to Nigeria’s security facilities, have only ended up sabotaging efforts to procure arms to end the war on terror.
“When they came, they were given access to the nation’s military control centre. Since they refused to sell us arms and equipment for whatever reasons, we thought they will provide us with intelligence reports on the movements of these terrorists because they have drones and satellite tracking systems which would have assisted us a lot”.
“But as I am talking with you, they are not providing us the information we need. They say they are gathering information. What are they doing with the information?
If they were helping us with information, the movement of Boko Haram terrorists in the night because it is a terrain they understand very well, would have been tracked and the intelligence made available to Nigerian military.
“What is surprising to us is that the same United States is sending fighter aircraft to support the fight against ISIL in Syria; supporting the fight against terrorism in Libya, Yemen and Afghanistan.
Why is the fight against Boko Haram which they have tagged a terrorist organization different?
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/01/nigeria-not-comfortable-us-role-fight-boko-haram/

slimfit1:
How on earth are you just doing this now !!!!

timing is of great importance. If this policy was done when the economy was OK, majority of Nigerians would have criticised the governor, with excuses of no power to encourage local production and all. So with this timing no body,including my Igbo brothers will say you are killing our business because you can see the effect it has on the economy.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is considering halting the sale of dollars for imported goods that are already manufactured in the country as it seeks to reduce pressure on the naira hit by a drop in oil prices.

“The only thing that will reduce pressure on our currency is by producing those things we are importing today,” CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele was quoted by Bloomberg during an interactive session with the private sector on Tuesday in Lagos.

“We will try as much as possible not to hurt your business, but we need to be able to work together,” he added.

Africa’s largest economy is struggling to deal with a decline in crude prices near the lowest in six years, sales of which bring in more than two-thirds of government revenue.

The central bank devalued the naira in November and raised the benchmark interest rate to a record 13 per cent.

The central bank that month also banned the use of dollars purchased at its twice-weekly auctions for the importation of items including electronics, telecommunication equipment and generators.

The regulator “will meet legitimate demand, but we will not be concerned about illegitimate demand,” Emefiele said. If the central bank allowed the naira to trade more freely (free float) then “it will lead to a major depreciation” as Nigeria is not yet an export-driven economy, he said.

According to Emefiele, the speculative demand for the greenback observed in the foreign exchange market may compel the central bank to stop allocating dollars for the importation of certain category of items, such as rice, that can be produced in the country.

“We are not going to ban the importation of rice, but we are going to say we would no longer provide foreign exchange if you want to import rice into this country. If you want to use your dollars that you got from somewhere else to import rice, no problem!

“But with the way we are going, we would not allocate foreign exchange for you to import rice. The same way we would graduate it to other products.

“We have seen the pressure in the forex market arising mostly for the lopsided dependent on imports. Today in Nigeria, toothpick, tomato paste, furniture, rice, sugar, fish, petroleum products are all being imported into Nigeria.

“Perhaps, I want all of us to know that if we import one cent worth of toothpick, it impacts on the external reserves. So why should we be seen to be importing items that can be produced locally?for more-http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/cbn-may-stop-forex-sales-for-goods-that-can-be-made-in-nigeria/200341/

safarigirl:
He shouldn't waste his time...he won't win. Forget all these nonsensical brouhaha, even the mumu Jonathan campaign team know that you can't phuck with Buhari else they would've filed a suit faster than this fellow

Any attempt to remove Buhari as aspirant will lead to chaos far worse than whatever Boko boys have unleashed and trust me when I say, of they destabilize Buhari, what happened to Shagari will happen to Jonathan. All these ones are just foolish, attention-seeking moves

just hear yourself, so you are telling us he is untouchable, Why? Because he is buhari and from the north? You need to wake up this is a new and more developed Nigeria

Defense headquarters just now

Defence headquarters just now

I suspect feeding them is becoming a problem in BH camp, as the regional army is becoming more cooperative in the joint effort to stamp out insurgency, border controls are expected to be efficient with this collaboration thereby limiting the movement of the sect.

eighTHREAD:
Na lie! OP is trying to get twitter followers.

hey! That's bullshit I have got my own Twitter account ..so take a chill pill

Follow our him @NamadiSamboVP

And yet some people call him clueless..Abeg GEJmyVAL

Ngozi Okonjo Iweala was right afterall. GEJmyVAL

Moderators can this be moved to front page so more Nigerians can vote in other to improve our chances of winning.

Nigerians please follow the link below to cast your vote,so we can make naija proud
http://stadiumdb.com/competitions/stadium_of_the_year_2014

Nigerians please follow the link below so we can make naija proudhttp://stadiumdb.com/competitions/stadium_of_the_year_2014

http://www.proshareng.com/news/15914 that link shows the template used in calculation of PMS import. If only multiplication,addition and subtraction was enough for the world problems then we wouldn't have had need for differenciation and integration. I guess you don't.know that!!!

ItsMeAboki:
Its time to say goodbye to Badluck and his Corrupt government

stealing
1.
take (another person's property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it.
"thieves stole her bicycle"
synonyms: purloin, thieve, take, take for oneself, help oneself to, loot, pilfer, abscond with, run off with, appropriate, abstract, carry off, shoplift; More
theft, thieving, thievery, robbery, larceny, burglary, shoplifting, pilfering, pilferage, looting, appropriation, misappropriation;
embezzlement;
rarepeculation, defalcation
dishonestly pass off (another person's ideas) as one's own.
2.
move somewhere quietly or surreptitiously.
"he stole down to the kitchen"
synonyms: creep, sneak, slink, slip, slither, slide, glide, sidle, slope, edge, move furtively, tiptoe, pussyfoot, pad, prowl More. Corruption: The word corrupt when used as an adjective literally means "utterly broken".[1] The word was first used by Aristotle and later by Cicero who added the terms bribe and abandonment of good habits.[2] Morris,[3] a professor of politics, writes that corruption is the illegitimate use of public power to benefit a private interest. Economist I. Senior[4] defines corruption as an action to (a) secretly provide (b) a good or a service to a third party (c) so that he or she can influence certain actions which (d) benefit the corrupt, a third party, or both (e) in which the corrupt agent has authority. Kauffman,[5] from the World Bank extends the concept to include 'legal corruption' in which power is abused within the confines of the law - as those with power often have the ability to shape the law for their protection.

Even though Nigeria tried to be neutral I still would have preferred we voted against Israel, but I guess our govt was guaging the reaction of our Christian populace who sentimentally support Israel and our Muslim brothers who prefer otherwise.

This dude is sick!

If he didn't stop corruption then at a younger age, how will he succeed now he is older and 72.

Thanks op ..but some will still blindly argue otherwise