₦airaland Forum

Please NO to tail docking, it makes the dogs look ugly.

Nike and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have announced a new partnership for designing and developing football kits for the country's men and women’s national football teams beginning from April 1, 2015, until at least 2018.


Nike is designing performance and training apparel, and equipment, including team kits and footballs, for the Nigerian national football team players at every level of the game.


There will be an exclusive-edition team kit for all NFF teams until the 2016-17 kit to be launched in mid-2016.
In addition, Nike will design an assortment of products for Nigerians to show their support for the national team, to be available from mid-2016.

Nigeria’s Under-20 men’s team will be the first team to don the new Nike kit at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup to be hosted in New Zealand from May 31.
“We are very pleased to partner the Nigeria Football Federation, one of Africa’s premier teams,” said Nike Africa VP/General Manager, Laurent Payre.
“The passion for football in Nigeria is renowned and Nike is committed to supporting and advancing the game at all levels through inspiration and innovation for young men and women.”


NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, said of the new deal with Nike: “This exciting partnership with Nike signifies our commitment toward building and strengthening a successful football future in Nigeria. The game enjoys a huge following across the country and we want to fuel participation and ultimately the success of our future national teams.”

The partnership includes the following elements: supplying performance and training kits to all nine of the Nigeria Football Federation teams at every level, including the men’s and women’s senior teams, men’s and women’s under-20 teams, men’s and women’s under-17 teams, men’s and women’s Olympic teams, and the men’s beach football team.

Nigeria joins Nike’s portfolio of federation sponsorships including Australia, Brazil, England, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea, the USA and others.


http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/nike-partners-nigeria-football/207629/

At least we didn't kill or burn them as what's happening in SA to non-SA-indigenes.

is he already in Lagos Lagoon swimming or drowning away?

Spearheaded by The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (“TFAM”), its founder and presiding Bishop Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder and executive director, Bishop-Elect, Pastor Joseph Tolton, the organization’s international outreach ministry, The Fellowship Global (“TFG”), has launched a month long tour of key African nations where LGBTI communities continue to experience extreme discrimination and persecution. These countries include: Uganda, Rwanda, Cote D’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”) and Kenya.

Until April 30, 2015, Pastor Tolton will be on the ground working to counter this effort and provide an uplifting alternate narrative. The message advocates for inclusion, economic justice and the reconciliation of all people of African descent globally. “As black gay Christians who identify with Pentecostal worship and as people of social justice, we are countering the work of conservative, mostly white American evangelicals who are doubling down on their attempt of spiritual colonization of Africa,” said Pastor Joseph Tolton.

The mission of the tour is to: bring global attention to these human rights issues in Africa; support affirming African organizations and local movements; and, promote governmental policies and the policies of organized religious structures that support LGBTI dignity, inclusion, and justice. A variety of certified academic trainings, worship events and economic development opportunities will be made available.

One of the tour’s primary goals is to clearly articulate the inextricable link between the global agenda of US conservative Christians like Rick Warren, the future of Christianity, and the fate of LGBTI people in Africa. “The future of Christianity is not Europe or North America, but Africa, Asia, and Latin America,” said Pastor Rick Warren. Africa is ground zero for the Christian evangelical right-wing movement. Under the veil of economic development, Rick Warren is also planning a conference in Rwanda that sells a dangerous theology. This anti-gay propaganda has spawned the passage of anti-gay legislation across Africa and notably in Nigeria, Uganda and Gambia.

In addition to promoting TFG’s message of equality and justice, the organization plans to establish new chapters of the United Coalition of Affirming Africans (“UCAA”) in the DRC and Cote d’Ivoire. UCAA chapters were established in Kenya in October 2013 and in Rwanda in May 2014. TFG will also produce at least eight spiritual/worship events to advance the message of equality before God. A variety of certified theological workshops and revival worship services will be held, as well as establishing economic development projects based on gay/straight alliances.

http://nathanhalewill.com/black-pastors-launch-african-tour-to-counteract-rick-warrens-anti-gay-movement/

Last days things - different kind of gospel been imported from the US to Africa.

Messing old men

OBJ still running things in Nigeria.
When will this man leave the scene?

barcanista:
Jonathan is still the President till May 29.

Sir Barcanista, yes you're right GEJ till May 29

https://www.nairaland.com/2041596/emergence-muhammadu-buhari-killed-pdp

This is how a serious government operates.

PDP or New PDP will always and remain a Northern party, when the northerners are ready they will take their party back.

Ndigbo: A New Direction

Guest Columnist By C.Don Adinuba

Twenty-four hours after the historic March 28 presidential election, my phone began to ring ceaselessly for the next two days. You would think, on the basis of the torrent of congratulatory messages, that I had transformed into Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). But almost two weeks after Buhari’s well deserved victory, I had found it difficult to write even an article on the victory, a supreme irony for someone who crafted over 30 enthusiastic articles on Buhari’s campaign. This is no mystery. I am deeply worried by the absence of my Igbo people in the electoral victory map, all the more so since most of my articles on the presidential election were written from the Igbo perspective.

It is unlikely that an Igbo could become the next Senate President because there is no Igbo APC senator. There is something fundamentally wrong with a system that would not allow someone like Chris Ngige to return to the Senate. Ngige would have been the natural Senate President. As things stand today, no Igbo is likely to head the executive arm of government or the legislative arm or the judiciary. This is not a great record for a majority ethnic group. Under outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, the Igbo became the only majority ethnic group not to have a representative in the nation’s security council because Jonathan did not find any of them fit in the last two years to be the chief of defence staff or to head the army or the navy or the air force or the police force or the Department of State Security (DSS) or the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA); Ambassador Nwana who was the most senior officer in the line to become the NIA director general was bypassed and retired.

It is not flattering that the Ohaneze leadership could not pick up intelligence that President Jonathan was a tough product to market, hence its unwavering support for a candidate who, far from developing Igboland, was in cahoots with a majority of inelegant beings from our place to ruin Igboland. It smacks of awful intelligence failure on the part of Igbo think tanks that none of them knew that the United States, European Union and even Chad and Niger Republic were up in arms against Jonathan on account of his grand failure to deal with large scale insecurity, his indifference to unprecedented graft and his inability to move the country in the right direction.

I had argued before the election that anytime two of the country’s three majority ethnic groups came together in politics, they would carry the day, citing the instances of the coalition government in the First Republic, the working accord between the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) and the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the Second Republic and the map of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) electoral victory since the restoration of democracy in 1999. True, the Igbo-dominated All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) was part of the grand coalition which formed the APC, but ex governor Peter Obi and APGA national chairman, Victor Umeh, opted out abruptly and then mounted the most vicious hate campaign ever seen in the country’s history against the APC. Putting to effective use his position as chairman of the Conference of Southeast Governors, Obi embarked on religious and tribal propaganda against the party.

Even otherwise rational people in the South-east and the Igbo world generally began to internalise the propaganda that the APC was the main promoter of Boko Haram, Nigeria’s islamisation, etc. Both Obi and Umeh will for life bear the burden of their use of terrible propaganda to scheme their own people out of political relevance. We are now in a situation where almost every presidential candidate could feel that he or she could win without the Igbo vote. The APC will from May 29 become the government party, yet there is not one single Igbo APC senator that can attend any of its senate caucus meetings. Ironically this is a party that could have easily chosen an Igbo as the presidential running mate if only the Igbo had shown a bit of interest in it. And this candidate would have been now not just vice-president-elect but president in waiting!

The good news is that deeply thoughtful Igbo people like Festus Odimegwu, Pat Utomi, Charles Soludo, Oby Ezekwesili and Bart Nnaji did not capitulate to the mass mind programming of PDP operatives. They were later joined by ex governor Ikedi Ohakim and his Igbo Conversation Group which included erstwhile ex House of Representatives member Nze Chidi Duru, ex PDP senatorial aspirant Chike Maduekwe and all factional Ohaneze factional leaders, whose stout refusal to compromise managed to reduce the millions of votes the PDP usually awarded itself in the South-east.

Truth is that Jonathan could have won the presidential vote in the South-east on March 28, but not with the same margin which was proclaimed officially. PDP operatives used the police and army to write false election results, and in some places tried to kill those who resisted the perfidy. A perfect example is what took place in my hometown of Ihiala in Anambra State where a daring attempt was made in broad daylight before over 1,000 people to assassinate the Nestoil chairman, Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi.

With the governorship election coming up on Saturday, PDP elements have resumed the task of setting up the Igbo against the Yoruba in Lagos State. Capitalising on an unfortunate statement by the Oba of Lagos about possible consequences if the considerable Igbo population in the state should vote against APC candidate Akinwunmi Ambode, the PDP has been trying to give the false impression that the Oba is a card carrying APC member who speaks on behalf of the party. The APC is bound to win the gubernatorial vote. No one should deny the Igbo the opportunity to be part of this victory by forcing them to take sides with a losing party. The Igbo lost out at the national level by wasting their votes on the PDP on March 28. They should not repeat the same mistake on April 11, otherwise we will be suffering double jeopardy.

We have a big stake in Lagos, Nigeria’s most strategic state. More Igbo people live in Lagos than any other place in the world, and Ndigbo prosper here more than any other place. The Igbo and the Yoruba have been living in harmony with each other, and the relationship should be deepened in the overriding national interest. Good a thing that leading Igbo individuals and groups like Eze Igbo of Lagos, Igbos In Commerce and Senator Annie Okonkwo who voted for the PDP on March 28 are daily endorsing the APC candidate in droves. Ambode will certainly win, and it is in the interest of our people to identify with him early enough.

What is axiomatic now is that the Igbo need to go into a new direction. The leaders who have emerged in recent years cannot engage in strategic thinking, an awful handicap in the 21st century. We must take our rightful place in the world.

• Mr. Adinuba is head of Discovery Public Affairs Consulting


http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/ndigbo-a-new-direction/206249/

If GEJ is not seen campaigning for PDP governors at this stage, what more can he do to save Fayose

Unfortunately, GEJ has used Fayose and dumped him.

Fayose is now on his own to fight his many battles.

A formidable alliance of PDP and other smaller parties can be a forceful opposition to APC, if they can get their act together.

We don't need a one-party state in Nigeria.

Why vote for PDP, a party that can't coordinate a proper governorship primary without infighting among the contestants and delegates.

We all see how the governorship primary was rigged in favour of Agbaje by Bode George.

How can such a party govern Lagos State.

President-elect General Muhammadu Buhari has hit the road again rooting for governorship and state assembly candidates of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The elections hold Saturday and Gen Buhari yesterday appealed to the electorate in Lagos and Imo states to vote for Mr Akinwunmi Ambode and Rochas Okorocha respectively.

Today Buhari will hold town hall meetings in Gombe, Adamawa and Bauchi states. He will meet with religious leaders, traditional rulers, youths, businessmen and women, pressure groups, among other stakeholders.

He will also visit other states considered to be battle grounds for the governorship election. The states include Rivers, Nasarawa, Abia, Delta and likely Benue.

The campaigns end mid night on Thursday, but there was little indication last night that President Goodluck Jonathan, whom Buhari defeated 11 days ago, was canvassing support for PDP candidates.

Jonathan’s spokesman, Reuben Abati and the president’s aide on public affairs, Doyin Okupe, neither answered phone calls made to them nor replied to a text message on the issue.

http://saharareporters.com/2015/04/08/buhari-campaigns-apc-guber-candidates


Leadership by example!!!

President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed his “deep” sadness over the death of his special adviser on research, documentation and strategy, Oronto Douglas.

Douglas died in the early hours of Thursday after battling cancer for eight years.

In a statement by Reuben Abati, presidential spokesman, he said the president “extends his heartfelt condolences to the Douglas family and the government and people of Bayelsa State on the death of one of their most distinguished sons who served his country, state and the Niger Delta region, passionately and diligently, during his very impactful years on earth”.

Jonathan said Douglas, who was his personal aide for close to a decade, “will always remember him for his passion for work, excellence, inspiring creativity and outstanding commitment to his duties”.

Abati said: “The President remains thankful to God Almighty for the brilliance and resourcefulness that Oronto brought to bear on every assignment as a loyal and dutiful aide during his tenure as Governor of Bayelsa State and as Vice President, Acting President and President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“President Jonathan believes that Oronto will remain a shining and worthy example for every young Nigerian who seeks a life of service and achievement.

“He prays that Almighty God will grant Oronto’s soul eternal rest, and the Douglas family and everyone who knew him, the fortitude to bear the pain of his death.”


http://www.thecable.ng/jonathan-deeply-saddened-douglas-death

Taiwo Lakanu, the commissioner of police in Ekiti state, has been redeployed after he reportedly connived with thugs affiliated with Governor Ayodele Fayose to attack 19 state legislators who were on their way to the legislative assembly to begin impeachment proceedings against the governor.

Our police source disclosed that Mr. Lakanu personally selected some rogue policemen led by one divisional police officer (DPO) on Mr. Fayose’s payroll to carry out the assignment of escorting the lawmakers to the state legislature to commence the process of impeachment.

However, the state commissioner of police also made covert plans with a controversial army officer in the state, Brigadier-General Aliyu Momoh, to ambush the lawmakers at an army checkpoint in the town of Itawure. Our sources said that, as soon as the 19 lawmakers arrived at the army checkpoint, General Momoh had them arrested and detained. General Momoh was the officer implicated in a scandal captured on an audiotape in which several PDP officials, including then Minister of State Musiliu Obanikoro and Minister of police Affairs Jelili Adesiyan, ordered the officer to unleash troops on supporters of then Governor Kayode Fayemi who was squaring off with Mr. Fayose in a governorship election.

Shortly after General Momoh’s detention of the Ekiti legislators, a group of thugs reportedly hired by Governor Fayose arrived at the scene and began assaulting the lawmakers. Our sources said the legislators managed to scamper into their vehicles and flee to Osun State, escaping what could have been a brutal attack by Mr. Fayose’s thugs.

SaharaReporters learnt that the Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, this evening ordered Mr. Lakanu relieved of his job after he investigated a petition detailing the connivance of the state commissioner of police with Governor Fayose.

http://saharareporters.com/2015/04/08/ekiti-commissioner-police-redeployed-over-fayose%E2%80%99s-impeachment-drama

Bro Shahydbinaliyu,

Is Prophet Mohammed a Sunni or a Shia?

Data on all passengers leaving the UK is to be collected and handed to the Home Office under a scheme being phased in at ports and border crossings. Transport staff will record details of all travellers leaving by commercial air, sea and rail transport.

The exit checks will particularly affect travellers on cross-channel ferries and the Channel Tunnel.
The government said they were needed to combat illegal immigration and would cause the "least possible disruption".
For the first month all passports will be scanned but only 25% of the passport holders will have their details verified to ensure they are genuine, in a bid to minimise disruption.

After a month, there will be a move to 50% verification and by the middle of June 100% verification will be introduced.
Data will be collected on all passengers as they leave the UK on scheduled commercial international air, sea and rail routes.
The government says exit checks are "predominately an immigration and data tool", giving a "comprehensive picture" of whether people leave the UK when they are supposed to.

It says the data - gathered by airline, rail or ferry operator staff - will "improve our ability to identify and further tighten the immigration routes and visas that are most vulnerable to abuse". It will also help security services "track the movements of known or suspected criminals and terrorists". John Keefe, director of Public Affairs for Eurotunnel UK, which manages and operates the Channel Tunnel, said "an awful lot" had been done to prepare for the change over the past two years since the government announced the plan.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme some £2.5m had been spent on measures including refurbishing its terminal and opening new buildings to make coach halls and control points, and that 50 new staff had been recruited.

Asked what the effect on passengers was likely to be, he said: "No, they shouldn't expect longer queues. The investments we have made have been specifically made in the interests of customer service."
A spokesman for P&O Ferries said the company was "hoping for a fairly seamless transition to the new system".
"They have picked a quiet day for the introduction of the checks. The actual scanning of passports is quick, it's the verification that takes longer," he said.

'Vital information'

John Vine, former independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, said the measure would help provide useful information.
He told BBC Breakfast: "It will enable the government, for the first time in a long time, to have an idea of who's left in Britain, because up until recently it's not been possible for the government to know who's overstayed their visa and who's remained in the country, and they've not known who's here and who's left."

Immigration minister James Brokenshire said: "Exit checks will provide us with vital information that confirms a person's exit from the UK.
"Port and travel operators are experts in their business and know their customers best, which is why we've supported them to design and trial the systems for collecting data in a way that will minimise the impact on customers."
The new rules were brought in under the Immigration Act 2014.
The Advance Passenger Information system, introduced in 2004, gives the government information on passengers flying in and out of the UK - and exit checks mean information will now be gathered on people leaving by any commercial transport.
People arriving in the UK remain subject to passport checks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32205970

His or her name will be Abiona

I guess Jonathan became a president for such a time as this - assist in making our democracy more stable, one good thing he will be remembered for as an elder stateman...

APC organised a well-thought out campaign.

A big well done to them - Fayemi, Amaechi, Okorocha and other progressives.


I was here - 17.56hrs 31 March 2015


#Feedthenation

Delta State with 1.2m votes...the real results will be known at the governorship election next weekend.

Have the 'mad man' been escorted from the hall yet?

Mr Orurebe is just being silly like a billy goat.

He's trying to finish the unfinished business PDP couldn't finish at the polls.

Whether he or other PDP touts like it or not, the election results will be announced and the wiiner will be known today.

Prof Jega, must have been through a lot over the past few months i give him maximum respect.

Sadly, I think the Igbos have been shortchanged when they align their regional party APGA with PDP. Slowly they have effectively killed any change of having any national prominence. How many states did APGA win in 2011, only one.
Unlike ACN that won in 5 states in 2011 and a number of seats in both the Senate and HOR. For the Igbos to be taken seriously, they need to have a very strong regional party, which unfortunately is not there at the moment.

PDP turned from being a national party to a regional party in the SE and SS

The next Senate President

I guess the results for Bayelsa will be released after some transformation of the results.

Imagine, the smallest state in the federation yet to release its results whilst bigger states have done theirs sharpish.

A very good nollywood script by our President Jonathan as the film director.

Why all these on the eve of an election to score extra votes...very shameful indeed.

Forty-two processed and semi-processed food products of Nigeria origin exported to the United Kingdom were rejected between January and December in 2014, investigations have shown.
This is 24 higher than the 18 processed and semi-processed food items that were rejected by the UK authorities within the same period in 2013.
According to statistics obtained from the European Union Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, the affected food products include brown beans, melon seeds, honey beans, white beans and watermelon seeds.
Others are sweet potato, cashew kernels, nutmeg, snails, soft drinks and sesame seeds.
The data showed that more contaminated and substandard food products from Nigeria were discovered in other European Union countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Spain, Ireland and Italy.
The EURASFF stated that rejected products did not meet the prescribed regulations and quality standards specified by the receiving countries.
According to the agency, foreign agents discovered after analyses were not limited to rodent excrements and dead insects, but also included chemical contaminants like aluminium phosphide and dichlorvos, which are carcinogenic.
High levels of chemicals used in fumigation coupled with bacteria, fungi and mould growth were also discovered in some of the products.
It added that some melon seeds and honey beans were rejected due to illegal importation into the UK, while some were destroyed because of the absence of health certificates, certified analytic reports, common entry documents and poor state of preservation.
In 2014, 23 food commodities from Nigeria to the UK were destroyed, 11 were re-dispatched, one was recalled from consumers and another one was subjected to official detention.
Due to repeated rejections and alert notifications received on food products from the country, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has been mandated to certify packaged, semi-processed and processed food commodities for export.
The Director-General, NAFDAC, Mr. Paul Orhili, was reported to have said that many exporters had their products rejected and destroyed due to non-compliance with regulatory requirements for processed and semi-processed commodities.
He added that insufficient technical and non-scientific competence of some stakeholders on good agricultural practices and non-compliance with import requirements were other reasons for the rejection of the produce.
At an export sensitisation forum recently, the Deputy Director, Ports Inspection Directorate, NAFDAC, Mrs. Comfort Makanjuola, emphasised the need for laboratory analyses of all processed and semi-processed food commodities before export.
She explained that obtaining export certification for such product had no cost implication, adding that when the wrong type and quantity of pesticide were used, food products would be contaminated.
Makanjuola added that the agency often detected excess quantities of the chemicals during laboratory analyses.

http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/uk-rejects-42-nigerian-food-products/