Instead of descending into the Zombies versus Wailers argument, see what Time magazine is lauding this young Nigerian for. I'm sure he's younger than many of the posters in this section who have not made any meaningful contribution to this country.
When he was 11, Oscar Ekponimo was so hungry he would stare at the kitchen cupboards in his home in Calabar, Nigeria, wishing they would magically fill with food. His father had stopped working after a partial stroke, and his mother earned so little as a nurse that he and his siblings ate just one substantial meal every two days. “My mom used to remind us that the hunger was not forever,” he said. “That always kept me going.”
Now 30 and a skilled software engineer living in Abuja, Ekponimo is working to ensure others do not suffer as he did. He has developed an app called Chowberry, which connects grocery stores and supermarkets with NGOs and charities to put wasted or leftover food to use. As packaged food items near the end of their shelf life, the app initiates discounts that grow larger the longer the products remain unsold. Local aid groups and other selected nonprofits are alerted about these discounts and also when supermarkets are giving food away for free. Food that would otherwise have gone in the trash is instead distributed to orphanages and needy families.
Andrew Esiebo for Time Andrew Esiebo for Time Last year his team of four completed a three-month pilot involving 20 retailers and fed around 150 orphans and vulnerable children. “Our system helped [orphanages] cut down on their spending by more than 70%,” he says. Although every small retailer Ekponimo has approached in Nigeria has embraced Chowberry, he says, larger companies have been slow to adopt the technology, mainly because of red tape. “That’s been my biggest challenge.”
Despite such problems, Ekponimo can’t imagine a different life for himself. “I had several job offers from big [technology] companies over the past few years,” he says. “But Chowberry is what I am passionate about and find fulfilling. I want to see it grow and continue to benefit people’s lives.”
This message is on GEJ's Facebook page. It is a response to the guardian of UK claim that he refused help from abroad after the Chibok girls were abducted.
Response to The Guardian of U.K.
My attention has been drawn to a report in the Guardian of the U.K. alleging that the former Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan rebuffed efforts by the British military to rescue the kidnapped Chibok Girls sometime in 2014.
Nothing could be further from the truth and to prove that this story from the Guardian is untrue, the international community will recall that when a Boko Haram affiliate kidnapped a Briton and an Italian, Chris McManus and Franco Lamolinara, from Birnin Kebbi in Kebbi state of Nigeria, then President Jonathan personally authorized British Special Forces from the British Military Special Boat Service, to attempt a rescue mission in Sokoto state on the 8th of March, 2012 a full two years before the Chibok Girls Saga.
The British Military sent boots to the ground and these troops were given full and unhindered cooperation by both the then Nigerian government and the Nigerian military.
This already shows that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan had set a precedence of allowing British Military Forces operate in Nigeria to rescue hostages. This proves that not only is The Guardian story untrue, but it was not well researched. Why would then President Jonathan approve that operation and rebuff the other? The story from The Guardian is built on a foundation of lies.
This is however not surprising since The Guardian stated that it was relying not on its own investigation but on second hand hearsay reportage from The Observer.
The international community is reminded that it is public knowledge that then President Goodluck Jonathan wrote letters to the trio of then US President, Barack Obama, then British Prime Minister, David Cameron and French President, François Hollande, asking them for precisely what The Guardian says he refused, help in rescuing the Chibok Girls.
The international community is reminded that so eager was the then Nigerian President to rescue the girls that he personally approved for these foreign governments to fly over Nigerian airspace in order to identify the location of the Chibok Girls.
Not only did Dr. Goodluck Jonathan welcome foreign intervention, he was also the prime mover in the Multi National Joint Task Force involving Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria and authorized the military forces of those nations to fight Boko Haram on Nigeria soil. If President authorized the military forces of these nations to operate against terrorists in Nigeria, why would he refuse similar assistance from Nigeria's international partners?
And to Lai Mohammed, Nigeria's current minister of information (if he can be so called) who said:
"After the girls were kidnapped and the Jonathan Administration did nothing for all of 15 days or make any determined efforts to rescue them thereafter, our party, the then opposition APC, told the nation several times that the whole Boko Haram crisis was allowed to escalate by the PDP-controlled Federal Government so they can use it as a political tool ahead of the 2015 elections."
My response to his lies is as follows. Opinions are subjective but facts are sacred. The facts are that then President Jonathan immediately sprung to action to rescue the kidnapped Chibok Girls and it was precisely the fallacious Lai Mohammed, whose words I caution the international community to take with a pinch of salt, that attempted to frustrate the efforts by the then government to rescue the girls.
Below are a factual timelines with dates, names and location. I challenge Lai Mohammed to rebut them with his own facts:
Timelines:
March 12, 2014: The then minister of state for education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, wrote the Governors of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa and advised them not to hold the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations in areas susceptible to the Boko Haram insurgency. This letter had the reference number HMSE/FME/147/VOL.1/150 and the subject: 'Security challenges and the conduct of the 2014 WASSCE and SSCE in Borno, Yobe and parts of Adamawa States'.
The Governors of Yobe and Adamawa acknowledged the letter and cooperated with the then Peoples Democratic Party led Federal Government to bus students to secure locations to write their scheduled school leaving examinations.
April 14, 2014: Contrary to the advise given by the Peoples Democratic Party led Federal Government of President Goodluck Jonathan, the All Progressive Congress led Government of Governor Kashim Shettima, for reasons best known to it, chose to ignore that advise and held the WASSCE examinations in Chibok, a mainly Christian town that was susceptible to attacks from the Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram. On the day in question, the girls of Government Girls Secondary School Chibok were kidnaped by Boko Haram while preparing to write their final physics examinations.
Curiously, both the Principal of the school and her Vice were not on the school's campus as the girls were inside a dormitory.
The Principal of the school, Hadjiya Asabe Kwambura, later claimed to have gone to Maiduguri for a 'medical check up' on the day of the abduction. It seemed very inauspicious for a principal of a school to schedule a non emergency 'medical check up' for a time when the school she presided over was having perhaps its most important activity of the year, school leaving examinations.
This same woman later changed her story when she told Fox News that she had gone to Maiduguri to buy medicines and was informed by her daughter about the kidnap. But how did her daughter, a student of the school, avoid being kidnapped?
It is noteworthy that this particular principal was never reprimanded or disciplined or in anyway made to take responsibility for this obvious dereliction of duty by the Borno state government who owns the school.
Flash forward to April 2, 2016: Governor Kashim Shettima confessed in an interview with Premium Times that he, the chief security officer of the state, DID NOT inform then President Jonathan when the girls were kidnapped for reasons best known to him.
April 17, 2014: Exactly three days after the kidnap, President Jonathan who had not been formally informed of the issue because of the deliberate refusal of the APC led government of Borno state to brief him called for an emergency meeting at the Presidential villa after the military independently alerted him.
Multiple dates in April, 2004: The military, principally the air force, were given conflicting information as to what direction the fleeing terrorists took when they captured the girls. Were these conflicting information a deliberate effort to send the military on a wild goose chase?
Flash Forward to January 6, 2017: One of the Chibok girls who escaped from her captors granted an interview to the New York Times and revealed that they were not taken to Sambisa Forest by the terrorists as previously thought. According to her testimony, they were rather taken to the Borno state capital of Maiduguri and kept at a house there for months.
Flash Forward to January 11, 2017: Chibok Community leader, Pastor Bulus Baba, in an interview with local media corroborated the New York Times report and said even after they left Maiduguri they were moved to another town and kept in the home of an influential local politician. According to him:
"The girls said, they spent over 8 months in Gwoza local government area along with other abducted women. They said they were kept at a resident of one of the top politicians in that local government area until at a point when a fighter jet dropped bomb that touch part of the house killing some of the girls.”
May 2, 2014: Then President Jonathan sets up a fact finding mission to determine the facts of the kidnap and stresses that the mission's work would not interfere with search and rescue efforts.
May 2, 2014: Frustrated by the school's authorities to come clean with accurate information about the identities of the missing girls, the Christian Association of Nigeria released the names of the kidnapped girls for the first time.
May 3, 2014: Charles Eguridu, head of the West African Examination Council's National Office in Nigeria revealed in testimony broadcast live on national television that WAEC had asked the Borno state Governor not to hold examinations at Chibok due to safety issues, but that Governor Shettima, in writing, had assured WAEC that he would provide adequate security for Chibok, a promise he did not keep. According to Mr. Eguridu:
"The Borno state government also refused to relocate the students from Chibok to safer places like Maiduguri. “Borno state government only agreed to relocate the remaining 189 pupils after the abduction of the girls."
Talk about medicine after death.
May 4, 2014: After consistent confused and contradictory information from the Borno state Government and various other authority figures, the Presidency invited the principal actors in the Chibok saga to the Presidential villa to ascertain the truth. The Presidency was shocked at the non appearance by officials of the Borno state government. The governor's wife who was invited shunned the event and when the then First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan saw the scanty representation from Borno she famously exclaimed 'na only you waka come'?
May 5, 2014: many residents of Gamboru Ngala were killed by Boko Haram forces after troops stationed there left that town to go to the Sambisa forest area closest to Chibok town to look for the missing girls. The precision behind the arrival by Boko Haram just as the troops left the town gave rise to strong suggestions that the terrorists were tipped off by a mole.
May 6, 2014: The then National Publicity Secretary of the APC and now the current minister of information, Lai Mohammed, released a statement calling the Presidency's intervention a 'distraction'.
May 6, 2014: In response to a request by the Nigerian Government for help, then United States President, Barack Obama announced that the US was dispatching personnel into the area to help search for the missing girls.
May 9, 2014: Nigeria welcomed experts from the United States and the United Kingdom to help search for the girls.
May 11, 2014: Borno state Governor, Kashim Shettima tells the local and international media the girls had "been sighted". In view of later testimony by the released girls that they had initially been kept in Maiduguri, Shettima's accounts now elicit more suspicion especially as Boko Haram released a video a day after the revelation by Governor Shettima.
May 12, 2014: Boko Haram releases a video purporting to be of the Chibok girls. However, in that video, the girls do not look terrified and one of them is shown distracted as she appears to be sending a text or making a call on her mobile phone which was visible to the camera. This video is still publicly available on YouTube. Giving the testimony that they were held in Maiduguri the state capital before being taken to Gwoza, how could this video have been shot in day light without attracting some attention?
May 26, 2014: The Nigerian military revealed through Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, that it knew the location of the girls but could not attack because of fear of loss of lives of the girls after a similar operation in Sokoto to save an Italian and a Briton led to loss of lives of the hostages taken by an affiliate of Boko Haram.
Unspecified Date in May 2014: The Jonathan administration began secret negotiations to secure the release of the Chibok girls.
September 7, 2014: In an interview with foremost Northern Nigeria daily, Leadership Newspaper, some of the parents of the kidnapped girls alleged that the entire saga was a conspiracy. In that interview, a Chibok parent, Bulama Jonah, said:
“We still believe that there was an internal collaboration in the abduction of our daughters by the Boko Haram gunmen, because we have correct information that some of the teachers, who are very senior in the school, managed to move their own daughters and family out of the school premises before the attack. “That is why we are insisting that (the Borno state) government must provide our daughters and we would not take it lightly if they don’t produce our girls for us. The girls were in their custody, because school premises belong to government; and we believe they were aware of the attack but failed to provide security for them.”
October 6, 2014: Then President Jonathan visits Niamey as part of efforts to secure the release of the Chibok girls with the help of the Nigerien government.
October 15, 2014: During the Presidential Declaration by then candidate Muhammadu Buhari, now the incumbent President, Audu Ogbeh, at that time the Director General of the campaign (he was later replaced) said on live Television that the pressure group Bring Back our Girls, led by a virulent critic of the Jonathan administration, Oby Ezekwesili, lso said that the #BBOG campaign is led by “members of our party, the APC.” This is an exact quote and reflects the politicization of the saga.
Flash Forward to July 12, 2016: President Muhammadu Buhari appoints Bring Back our Girls co-founder, Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman, as the head of Nigeria's largest and perhaps most profitable parastatal, the Nigerian Ports Authority. Many consider this as a reward to Ms. Usman and a corroboration of the "members of our party, the APC" comment of Chief Audu Ogbeh.
October 17, 2014: A truce was announced with Boko Haram after negotiations which was to allow for the release of the Chibok girls. The truce was broken by Boko Haram who reneged on their promise to release their captives.
From the above, it is clear that Nigeria's minister of information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has an estranged relationship with the truth.
Reno Omokri For and on behalf of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
They killed Hausa-fulani(innocent hunters) you people are happy and celebrating it and if Fulani revenge someday the same people will rain abuses on the Govt. Let's condemn evil irrespective of who perpetrated it. God bless Nigeria
That is the root of the matter, I seriously doubt that innocent hunters excuse. If you're "peacefully" traveling to kano from nassarawa, is FCT not the logical way to follow at this time ?
Nine Hausa Fulani hunters from Kano just happen to be passing through southern Kaduna at this time ? Hmmm ! Who is phooling who ?
Nine hunters of Kano State origin have been killed and four corpses missing in renewed violence this week in the troubled Southern Kaduna region of Kaduna State. The victims perished in fresh fighting that erupted from Monday to Thursday this week.
A top Kano State Government official confirmed the developments to SaharaReporters via telephone.
According to the source, the Hausa-Fulani hunters were returning from a hunting expedition in Nasarawa State when they ran into a roadblock erected at Kagoro in Kaduna State by some indigenous youths from Southern Kaduna.
The hunters hailed from Rano, Kibiya and Wada local government areas of Kano State.
Our source disclosed that there were more than 20 hunters in the party, adding that the indigenous vigilante youths killed eight of the hunters before soldiers got to the scene. The military recovered four corpses while four are yet to be recovered.
"The soldiers, after rescuing 13 of the hunters on Monday, took them to a police facility in Kafanchan, but unfortunately when they were returning to Kano on Thursday, they were ambushed again by Southern Kaduna youths and one more was killed," said the source.
The source added, “The security screened them and indeed confirmed that they were hunters on transit back to Kano from Nasarawa. To this moment, there is no single word from the security agencies and Kaduna State Government.”
The source named the hunters slain on Monday as Muhammadu Kibiya, Naaloma Rano, Ado Rano, and Ado Kafi. The names of the corpses missing were given as Alhaji Mukhtari, Rabiu Kibiya, Biyu Kibiya and Baba Kibiya.
The man killed on Thursday was identified as Ambo Nakuda.
All attempts to reach Samuel Aruwan, Governor Nasir El-Rufai's media aide, were unsuccessful as he was said to be attending a security meeting.
Audu Maikori, a Nigerian lawyer and CEO of Chocolate City Entertainment, has been arrested by the police. The arrest is linked to his tweets about a fatal attack on his relatives in Southern Kaduna that turned out to be false, his lawyer said Friday. Mark Jacobs told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr. Maikori, 41, was arrested in Lagos around noon Friday by a team of police officers attached to inspector-general monitoring and intelligence team and was immediately transferred to the Force Headquarters in Abuja. “I arrived at the Force Headquarters and learnt that a detention order has already been signed for him,” Mr. Jacobs said of his client. “I am not sure he will be released tonight.” Mr. Jacobs said he was told by the police that a magistrate issued warrant for Mr. Maikori’s arrest and are planning to charged him with attempt to “incite” the public. Police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, did not immediately respond to PREMIUM TIMES’ requests for comments Friday night. The arrest of Mr. Maikori, a vocal advocate for the plight of residents of the restive area, came nearly four weeks after he narrated an attack that purportedly took place in Southern Kaduna. In a series of tweets on January 23, Mr. Maikori said his driver, later identified as Simon Joseph, told him that he lost his brother in a Fulani herdsmen ambush in Southern Kaduna and will be travelling for burial. “My driver’syounger brother and five others students of college of education Gidan Waya were ambushed and killed by herdsmen yesterday #SouthernKaduna.
“They were in a commercial car going back to school when the driver stopped suddenly under the pretext of checking his engine #SouthernKaduna. “As soon as the car stopped the attackers shot all 6 students but let the driver who is Fulani go. He gave us these details#SouthernKaduna. “When we speak we are viewed as trouble makers by the Govt. Well I have seen the pictures and it’s a painful sight#SouthernKaduna,” Mr. Social media users became livid after Mr. Maikori’s vivid naration of the purported attack. The tweets were later picked up by some Nigerian newspaperswithout further checks. Two days later, Kaduna State College of Education in Gidan Waya, where Mr. Maikori said the students were schooling, issued a statement denying any loss of students to an attack as described by Mr. Maikori. The Kaduna State Government condemned the misinformation and the reporter responsible for the story in Vanguard Newspaper was arrested and charged. On February 4, following intense criticism on social media, Mr. Maikori retracted and apologised for posting the tweets in a lenghty article that also offered detailed explanation of how he was misled by Mr. Joseph. “I hereby tender an unreserved and sincere apology to the Management of the College of Education, Gidan Waya, His Excellency the Governor of Kaduna State and the Kaduna State Government, and also to the people of Southern Kaduna and the Fulani community and also VANGUARD newspapers whose source was my driver for the false statement by my driver which I also publicized believing same to be true,” Mr. Maikori wrote. Mr. Jacob said Mr. Maikori’s driver was arrested a few days ago in Lagos, and had remained in detention ever since. Mr. Maikori’s arrest caused social media buzz late Friday, with a prominent human rights activist and legal expert, Chidi Odinkalu, calling for his immediate release. Mr. Odinkalu, a former Chairman of National Human Rights Commission, was among the first to raise alarm about Mr. Audu’s arrest Friday night. “They should immediately release him because he had apologised for the tweets and I don’t think the matter is a criminal offence that warrants him being locked up for so many days,” Mr. Odinkalu told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone. Over 200 have been killed and thousands more displaced in the latest violence between Fulani herdsmen and southern Kaduna residents.
A curfew Governor Nasir el-Rufai imposed in Zangon Kataf was relaxed last week. Mr. El-Rufai said the attackers were herdsmen from neighbouring countries who had returned to avenge attacks on their relatives and livestock back in 2011. The governor came under fire after admitting he had sent payments to the attackers to compensate for their losses, as part of efforts by his government to end the bloodshed.
Nigerian Men, the only thing we know how to do is look for Govt employment so we can loot and hide dollars in our villages. Tell me why : 1. Cement - Dangote 2. Petrol - Dangote 3. Sugar - Dangote 4. Salt - Dangote 5. Pasta- Dangote 6. Fertilizer- Dangote ?
Is he our God, or is he the only man with two testicles ? We really need to get woke
I've always preached that Arsene is past his best. That was the same PSG we were grouped with in the 1st stage. Now just imagine they had finished top of our group and we were the ones who faced Barca last night, what would the result have read ? Anyways good luck to the boys sha
Then they will cry about previous thieves as if these ones from Buhari's administration aren't stealing as well.
At least Donald Trump tried to use executive powers to actualize one his promises. Over here, it's almost as if they lying to the electorate like how we tell lies to children to get them not to do things they're eager to try.
It's funny how our governments develop amnesia. While all our Federal Medical Centers currently can't even treat you for Malaria, the owners of Nigeria keep jetting out to London for every ailment.
So you don't know why shouldn't travel 200 kms on that dangerous Abuja Kaduna road that is not only a dirt and death trap but is filled with robbers, renegade policemen, herdsmen and kidnappers ..How can any sensible alternative be 200 kms by road ...Abeg try and recieve sense
The idea is to use the train from to and from Abj, but like I said, I don't really know how secure the rigasa area is sha
Please how far is Kaduna train station, from Kaduna airport?? And how far is Abuja rail station from Abuja airport? I wan know how I go take plan my journey...
Sorry I'm just seeing this. The distance like the other guy replied is about 20 km, roughly 20 mins drive. I don't really know the area where the station is situated but in all my years of staying in Kd I never visited the area. Heard it's kind of an Afghanistan like environment with virtually no Christians.
The core function of the DSS is intelligence gathering for internal security, while the core function of the military is defense of the nation against military threat. Both of these institutions are very capable of performing the task of close protection. With the right training, even the police can do it.
However the DSS due to its nature is better positioned. They are more exclusive and therefore much harder to penetrate by double agents. They also are more adept at intelligence planning and gathering so if there is a threat they will be better equipped to nip it in the bud. Lastly the military in Nigeria has never been trustworthy and the DSS remain the best positioned force to counter any internal military threat to the president and his office.
While you are correct to an extent you have to understand the Nigerian constitution is there for a reason. The SS is the Agency stipulated by the constitution to perform that role and there's a reason and purpose. Nigeria as at now is a democracy and that rule is there, I believe to prevent militarization of our democracy which would result in dictatorship.
^^ if God send you whatsapp message that tomorrow is rapture and you have the choice of either spending eternity with these four Chelsea girls or the Arsenal one , what would be your choice ?
No say I no warn you o, na like so one Liverpool fan for my compound dey celebrate league for November, now we dey do contribution make them use buy am blood for low blood pressure
Look , Mr IBU, I have told you times without number that Chelsea that can still manage to do a last season stunt with your remaining. They did it last season, what's to prevent them from doing it with the remaining games.
Politics / Instead Of Zombies Vs Wailers Argument, Time Magazine Lauds This Young Nigerian by edoyad(m): 7:10am On Mar 09, 2017 
And how far is Abuja rail station from Abuja airport? I wan know how I go take plan my journey...