₦airaland Forum

debosky:
Frankly I believe Virgin Nigeria should be disbanded forthwith, if not for job implications.

The Virgin group has used this 'airline' to rip Nigerians off for ages, and drains the company of useful funds through extortionate 'brand use' charges.

GTB is not a charity, so they have to chase any money owed them, even if it's 10,000 naira. I don't think it's a sign of weakness, but when you don't chase one debtor, the others will begin to gain confidence.

Virgin never had any good intention investing in Nigeria and should never have been allowed - they didn't even participate in the bidding process won by South African Airways, but OBJ smuggled them in at the last minute.

Arik which started after Virgin is growing in leaps and bounds but Virgin keeps struggling and 'buying' new jets when it can't service it's loans? What a ridiculous joke of a company.

Wow debosky, thats a big statement o. How come they never had any GOOD intentions investing in Nigeria? I would have thought that with so many airline 'partnerships' around the world (Virgin Asia, Virgin Blue, Virgin America, Pacific Blue etc), Virgin - like any other company is only out to make [honest] money. Why should the Virgin Nigeria be any different from the others?

Is it not safe to say that probably, probably, PROBABLY, our own (Nigerian) business environment brought this upon us?

Anyway, i am saying all these because Branson happens to be one person that i like. A rich man who intensely enjoys his riches and is not ashamed about it. Another being Donald Trump

Aloy.Emeka:
Are you obsessed with igbos? 100 posts on igbo in one day.

I just notice am sef. The guy just dey blast igbo's anyhow. Make you leave am. I will stop replying his posts

babapupa:
I keep reading nonsense like MEND destroyed Atlas cove a property that is owned by federal government? what difference does it make? Didn't lagosians perished in the attack or is Atlas cove not essential to the people of lagos state, their survival and way of life?

Lagosians in what sense? People that live in Lagos or people indigenous to Lagos? Besides that, i dont think that MEND would have taken a census of people present in the property before attacking the place hence, there could have been igbo, hausa, kanuri, ijaw and yoruba people in there when it was blown up.

tayo4lif:
OPC and MEND are not on war path, it was the igbo people that bomb lagos. OPC and MEND should be talking about joint patrol of the water.

Wetin concern Igbo with this one now? Are you trying to insult my people? Seriously, how can you say that?

otokx:
na today i sabi say some people get mouth no power; make them enter bush jo. MEND odi kwa carry go.

My broda, i swear, i am waiting to hear news of OPC's attack on MEND. Make we know say no be mouth dem get

Are you in Nigeria at all, or are you reading the dailies and Nairaland?
OPC and MEND are on a war path and will soon be fighting each other.

banom:
He didnt speak your mind, this thread was a yoruba media propaganda made in other to create some kind of fear, psycological unrest and emotional panic on the mind of Niger deltans and mend, but unfurnately responders simply reminded you the undeniable fact that Mend is more sophisticated than your OPC and will crush OPC in any battle, it now spoilt your motive and you smartly switched on the other side,
As a strategist,i know very well that in doing battle in any war, one dont announce his intention to his enemy ( except for a decoy ) Instead,he obtains his enemies intentions and situation,secretly prepares for battle and give his enemy a sudden swift strike.

If the OPC can defeat Mend, they wouldn't announce to Mend that they will attack them, they will simply strike.

Besides, how come OPC will have to come and fight Mend because MEND destroyed Atlas cove a property that is onwed by federal government, is OPC now the new  millitary of federal government ? I thought they are ordinary useless Yoruba street boys.

Thank you for that, Sir. Maybe the OPC are being 'used'. Hahahahahha

I sometimes get the feeling that some powerful people, nameless people, are orchestrating these events 'up there'. They are watching Nigeria and Nigerians fight and kill themselves while they continually loot the country. Reason i am saying this is that for God's sake, the property that was destroyed DOES NOT BELONG TO THE YORUBA'S. Why they are taking this attack to heart is beyond me. Some people somewhere must be 'pushing' them to accept this as an insult to their tribe and unknowingly, they are doing just that.

why should he be immortalised, when he was one of IBB's greatest beneficiaries? He wined and dined on the tables of the millitary boys. He was one of IBB's close civilian friends who probably thought that because of his friendship with IBB, he would automatically become Nigeria's president - thereby providing a safe haven for IBB's former nefarious activities. Unfortunately, with all his wisdom and riches, he was not wise or rich enough to know what the boys in khaki were planning for him

Yes, we can argue that he was a good man, and he donated millions to charities etc etc but hey, his dying for democracy does not automatically make him a saint.

Other than that, a lot of his 'enemies' are still alive and will not sit back when he is being immortalized. What will that say about them? The IBB's, OBJ's and others?

SegzyJoe:
@Epiphany
If I understand what you re trying to say correctly, do you mean Yoruba can not fight like agbero on the street of Lagos or you mean they cannot fight for what they believe in? It is quite obvious that whether you re fighting for daily bread like Agbero on the sttreet or you fight for principle and emancipation for your people, fighting is still fighting which ever way you look at it. But the way and method of fighting differentiate advance and primitive society from one another.

By referring to Yoruba as coward and not being able to fight, am sure you mean fighting on the street like Agbero and area boys or has there been any war where you see the Yoruba running away from battle field in the course of your sojourney in the southwest? Even then, if we go by your definition, how many of those Area boys and Agbero have you beaten to coma, so much that you come on this forum to boast of your deep understanding of Yoruba cowardice.

Yeah, talking about fighting, where were you while Yoruba were fighting for re-validation of June 12 election crisis? From 1993 to 1999, where were you when they face the rampaging bullets of the Army on the street of Lagos? Did you witness dead bodies on the street of Lagos that died from either Military or Mobile forces deployed from the Noth to quench the crisis? Am sure you re aware when dead body littered the Street that Abacha ordered his soldiers to kill and carry their the dead bodies. To people like you,that may sound like cowardice, and to other Biafrians , galantry to them consist in fighting a lost battle and blaming everyone else for the failure except themselves.

It never ceases to amaze me that as accommodative and tolerance as Yoruba people are to every other tribes in Nigeria, other tribes always misinterprete this guesture to mean weakness.There is different in fighting a lost battle based on ego and self glorification and fighting strategically in principle and what you believe in, it is not just fighting for fighting sake

Okay Mr SegzyJoe, lets see what YCE and OPC will do. I am waiting. Besides, i never said anything about the Yoruba's being cowards, choosing to negotiate rather than spill blood is not a sign of weakness - it may be, but not in all cases.
I can bet now that in the next few weeks, YCE and OPC will NOT DO ANYTHING. They will come to some form of settlement with the MEND guys and there will be NO RETALIATION OR CONFRONTATION WHATSOEVER!
When did the yoruba fight for the re-validation of June 12? And because there were probably 5 - 10 bodies lying on the streets of Lagos, you equate that to dying for the cause of June 12? Well, anything that floats your boat, is cool by me.

Even without a source for this story, i go add my own comment.

OPC cant do ANYTHING TO MEND. What do they want to do to the MEND boys?? Throw maize or rice at them? Use ropes and charms to fight? First question to ask is where will they see the MEND boys?
The yoruba people are not fighters, i grew up with them and have lived with them all my life. They are more like 'diplomats' - and are more likely to deal tactly with others and issues. They are always ready to come to a compromise and would rather avoid confrontation. Yes, they have little fights here and there, but are not ready for a full blown 'war' with anyone. One way or the other, they will settle this MEND thing.

I choose to go the way of Tam David-West on this one. The Atlas Cove that was destroyed belongs to the Federal Government and not Lagos state or the 'Yoruba' people. The YCE and OPC are just trying to tribalize this thing now, which may result in inter-tribal conflict.
The reason MEND blew up that installation is because they want to cripple the oil supply in the country - and nothing else. Killing yoruba people was not their main intention.
I also agree that the response from Jomo Gbomo was uncalled for. His words made things worse.

tayo4lif:
Ooni Of Ife did not blesses Femi Fani-kayode. Femi Fani-kayode only visited the oni. And the author is an igbo person. trying to disgrace the oni. We all know how igbos are.

I will not comment on the grammatical errors in your write up because i am assuming that your problem goes way beyond that. What the hell does "we all know how igbo's are" mean? Why are you bringing tribal sentiments into this? If you feel the original article is not original enough for comments, then say so instead of throwing mud at the igbo's.

What kind of Royal Father is this? Why will he bless Fani Kayode when he should know about his (Fani-Kayode's) history in government.
This means that the Ooni's hands are not clean too - he is a Crooked King-maker!

This just goes to show that Nigeria (if people like Fani Kayode actually make it to the government house) is not going to get better in the near future. When he was the special adviser and minister, what laudable things did he do? Which changes did he bring about?

Aloy.Emeka:
Are there no independent business men that emigrated to Nigeria on their own?. Everything is not about our oil please.

Haba, dem plenty o. There are more businessmen outside the oil industry than in the oil industry. To be precise, most of our manufacturing and trading businesses are run by foreigners - Lebanese and Indian to be precise. Park and Shop, Chagoury and Chagoury, Safieddine, 7UP, Churchgage group, Kewalrams, Chanrai, Viju Milk, Sword Sweets, Indomie, Chivita, Jaggal, Energy foods, Mouka Foam, Zard Farms etc etc. There are many other smaller ones that manage to stay off the radar.

Some of these comapanies have been accused of all kinds of things from tax evasion to poor work ethics. The funny thing about this though is that what many of these guys are doing in Nigeria, can not be reciprocated by Nigerians in their countries. Have you heard of any Nigerians really making it in India or Lebanon? Yet they come into Nigeria and flex their muscles - citizens or not.

Na wah o. With all these equipment, the world will kill itself one day.

Jarus:
I go with Gani fawehinmi.

Definately, it has to be Gani. Soyinka has not done and experienced half of what Gani has been through

To all those saying that these things are wrong in the first place, so why should you not be fined for doing them - remember that sometimes, there are some 'grey' areas that are undefined. When Lastma pounces on you for 'entering' an illegal lane to avoid an impending collision, how would you explain that? Or when you enter an obvious diversion that turns out to be a hoax (by the same Lastma), how do you convince them that it was the diversion they effected that made you change direction? I know someone that was fined by lastma because he turned into a narrow road that was the ONLY AVAILABLE SPACE, when he was being threatened by a governors entourage with their sirens and mopol people. The silly entourage had not even finished passing and lastma was already upon the guy, deflating his tires and jumping into his car. How would you explain that scenario too?

If you have been driving in lagos for years, you will understand that these lastma officials are sometimes very very unreasonable and are themselves, the cause of problems many times.

@Samparian

I totally agree with you man. It is for no other reason that to continually milk this country - for God's sake, why would an American or UK citizen want a Nigerian passport? I believe that many of them (from the US and UK) are doing it for reasons such as marriage (maybe they are married to Nigerian men. Like the late Tai Solarin's wife who was continually denied the citizenship).

Secondly, it is easy, very easy to get the nigerian passport. I have a friend over here in the UK who has just got his own. Yes, his father was Nigerian - but died over 10 years ago. His mother is white British and funny, the guy looks more white than black. The guy is 36, has never been to Nigeria and has never had a Nigerian passport. The names he answers are not Nigerian cos he is answering his mothers maiden name (although his middle name is Babatunde) So how did he do it? He got in touch with an 'uncle' in Nigeria who he has never talked to or contacted before and this uncle was very very happy to 'welcome' this long lost family member who they had thought they had lost forever. One thing led to another, the uncle who is a bigshot in one of our parastatals somehow arranged it with the Immigrations people and the embassy here in the UK, and believe it or not, the guy went into the Nigerian embassy in London and came out with a Nigerian passport a few days later.

And there i was struggling to get beyond the stupid tallies in the Nigerian embassy in London, when my friend (a close friend) just bypassed all protocol. Well, he eventually introduced me to his contact and the man accelerated my own process.

The way i looked at it is that if that bigshot or influential man did the same thing for someone who is not a Nigerian at all at all, will any flags be raised?

Aloy.Emeka:
Do they write part time in their certificates?

I dont know about local schools, but i asked someone in the UK this question when i was contemplating studying for an MBA part time and he said that most of their schools DO NOT WRITE 'PART-TIME' ON THE CERTIFICATES. The certificates they issue are exactly the same ones they will give to the full time students.

Afam:
Wrong! The Igbos have the resources for self determination unless I don't understand what he means by resources.

In spite of the criminal transfer of oil producing communities in Igboland to Rivers when the state was created it is common knowledge that while Imo and Abia have crude oil and as a matter of fact are part of the 9 oil producing states in Nigeria that Anambra sits on a considerable amount of crude oil which for obvious reasons the FG has termed strategic reserve just to avoid empowering the East by exploiting the crude oil there.

Move to Enugu state and you will find very high quality coal. Interestingly you can use this coal as a foundation for a viable steel industry by just getting iron (that we will gladly pay for from anywhere) and you can certainly use coal to produce crude oil by hydrogenating the coal. South Africa produces oil this way so we have more than enough resources to want to stay on our own if Nigeria cannot be far to everyone.

The Igbos do not need special treatment, they are not interested in favoritism, all they ask for is fair play because an average Igbo man will succeed and survive anywhere as long as there is equity and fair play.

So, Biafra failed because there were betrayals from our own neighbours and brothers in the South South. Even Bakassi was ceded to Cameroun for the part that country played in blocking food supplies into Biafra that led the to killing of many innocent men, women and children through starvation.

Take a trip to Ebonyi and you will find a state blessed with many natural resources like limestone and they state can practically feed all the Igbo states.

Let the Niger Delta say what they want to say about making peace with the Igbos but none of them should ever make the statement that the Igbos cannot sustain themselves even if only the core 5 Igbos states are left on their own because not only do we have enough natural resources we also have the human capital, zeal and intelligence to turn a nation into a vibrant and progressing one.

Love the Igbos or hate them but you can certainly not ignore them.

Peace to all lovers of equity, justice and fair play!

Good man, good man. Well said bro.

Let us face the facts; Ghana is better off in some areas, where Nigeria lags behind. Otherwise, why would people (Including our leaders) send their kids there to school? Why would industries and manufacturing companies chose to relocate to Ghana? That said, there is no way in hell anyone can compare Ghana's economic activities/outputs with that of Nigeria. We dwarf all their attempts to be called economic giants. Is it not OUR companies and industries that are helping them? Glo, the banks and even our telecoms companies send people to Ghana to 'teach' them how to do things!

Who knows, Obama may be visiting Ghana because he feels that he can PUSH them around concerning America's interest in Africa. Who knows whether he was told that he cant come into Nigeria to do what he wants to do because we are either too smart for America's antics or we will frustrate all their efforts at certain things.

Negro_Ntns:
No it will not.  They are not going to attack and stay in the vicinity.  They will hit and return home or stage a remote station nearby.  A remote base far away from home increases risk.  So their damages cannot be sustained to an extent where it will result in an open warfare.  

An open warfare will result say if they start to target and kill civilians.  Their mission is to disable oil supply.  But given some of the responses here it appears that some individuals have tribal agendas and would love it if MEND would target and kill people, thus solidifying their own entry into the confrontation and a lifelong desire to seize and own Lagos.  A dissilusioned desire.  

This is where the problems may begin. If they continue hitting and running or in the end, achieve their aim by dissabling the oil supply, that is still a big problem. In an economy where everything runs on fossil fuels - cars, aeroplanes, generators, kerosene for cooking - this event will be catastrophic. If this particular attack is not nipped in the bud, these guys may be more emboldened and continue these guerilla warfare attacks

Wow, people that are hoping for MEND to target and kill people is absolutely ludicrous. The problem with this is that innocent people end up being killed and those WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO DIE will end up escaping with their families.

It is so unfortunate that this is beginning to happen in Lagos, where a lot of Nigeria's commercial wealth and influence begins. This indeed, apart from the crude oil installations in the south, is where the effect can be felt by the Federal Government the most - should MEND decide to escalate these attacks there. Other than that, if the FG decided to continue ignoring these guys, their boldness may increase and they will attack some more - and maybe take these attacks to the hinterland, and not only along the coastal areas

It is seemingly 'small' events like these, if allowed to blow up, that can start a civil war. It will be in the interest of the FG (and the world at large) to once and for all, get these guys to sit down with them and iron out whatever issues are at stake. Nigeria is too large a country to allow to deteriorate into a full blown war. The effects will not only be felt in West Africa/Africa, but the world at large.

You know, i have always said that Nigeria has been blessed in the past. Events that could have resulted in full blown wars were somehow dissipated. Let this not be the straw that breaks the camel's back

Wow, i have just read all the posts and people don try sha! A big hand to all those who have had very humble beginnings

A waste of time and money. They should look for an uninhabited island somewhere and ship all the offenders off to the island - just like they did with what is known as Australia today!

Forgive me for being cynical, but i dont believe that this will happen by 2010. Other than that, i remember that sometime during the Obasanjo years, this was promised and even started. Some money was given to UCH in Ibadan but at the end of the day, what came out of it? Some money was also given to other teaching hospitals and nothing came from there too.

2010 is only a few months away, so what Osotimehin is telling us is that in the next ONE YEAR, if Yar'Adua suffers his usual breakdown and needs a dialysis or whatever, he will be treated in one of these hospitals? What a joke! He will be on the first plane to Germany before anyone will even know what is happening.

Something else we need to know too is that even though the will to upgrade the hospitals is there, there needs to be some equal effort in STAFFING these medical centers with qualified and able doctors, nurses and technicians. Is it not only a few months ago that the doctors went on strike? Sometime soon, nurses will follow suit. Then ASUU will also strike (some teaching hospital doctors and professors are also members of ASUU).

By 2010, how will all these happen?

Anyway, lets hope for the best. Let them at least START the process so we, the ordinary people, can see. When they start and we are satisfied with the progress, maybe we will begin to believe that they are serious

Its called GLOBALISATION and like an earlier poster said, it is not only Africans that are imitating. The Asians, South Americans and most others are doing the same. It comes with whoever drives the world economy - they eventually influence the local cultures.

We all watch films made in the US, drive cars made in Europe, wear clothes made in the Far East (who are also imitators of the West), read books and magazines written by all these people put together, etc. How will we not be affected by the west?

Mind you the west is also influenced, in varying degrees, by those from these countries they are supposedly influencing. People in the US and Europe love to eat native foods: like Indian Curry, Thai and Chinese dishes etc. They wear native 'charms' and accessories from these places: bangles and jewellry from Africa and Asia, they drive cars made and imported from countries like Korea, Japan, china, india,

My conclusion is that we all influence eath other - even though we may claim that we are more influenced by the west than they are by us!

One last question: what are we doing to stop being influenced by the west or what are we doing to influence them back? NOTHING. WE IMPORT EVERYTHING AND EXPORT NOTHING. Even our crude which is collected locally is sent abroad and sold back to us as refined products. Shame!

If he is dead nko? We are already like a ship without a captain anyway!

God help us, this is how problems in countries begin! How will the country survive without crude oil? Even if they finally realize that they need to focus on other income earners, it will not take a day or even a year to achieve this!