₦airaland Forum

A very good write up.

On reflection, those guys in the 1960s could have done more for the young republic by setting it on paths of greatness, unfortunately, personal differences hampered all these from actualising.

Come to think of it, these guys were heros at my age now (30) when they are controlling things.

DjAndroid: Seun may decide to keep a low profile, it's up to him. that doesn't make him a low income earner.

I remember before I joined nairaland, any time I did a Google search, 70% of the results I got would be from nairaland links.

Someone may make 5mil today and buys a ride worth of that amount the next day. People will think he has 20 mil not knowing he bought the ride with all the money he has made.

Bottom line: that Linda or any other person who loves to show off and tells the world whenever they acquire a new thing doesn't make Seun who doesn't like such publicity a low income earner.

Bros that's very true.

Google any news/topic about Nigeria, Nairaland's link always comes up.

Nairaland's traffic is huge, if not mega.

BTW, Mr Seun Osewa is really doing fine.

Why can't the remaining West African countries be supportive to the affected countries?

It's so sad that an outside country have to take the initiative in providing relief to the affected countries.

If its to steal from the treasuries, they will all be ready to do that.

It's so evident that we Africans are not our brothers' keeper.

In other countries the whole church premises will have been turned to a crime scene and thorough investigation carried out.

xoxogirl: I think not!.


My grandad controls everybody. Married or not. 40 or not. 60 or not.

If he says don't buy this, u dare not

True some old guys still have the upper hand in the affairs of their grown up and married children.

An ex-senator whom I know still controls his family with iron fist.

Evidence that being married does not change a person.

There are definetely some 5th columnist in the Nigerian Army giving information to the insurgents.

How can the ambush take place without someone supplying the information?

Is it now an offence that can lead to death in trying to be an aid worker within the war worn parts of the middle east, according to the story in the link below:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2757258/Hostage-Alan-Henning-kidnapped-IS-just-30mins-entering-Syria-thanks-tip-corrupt-official-incredibly-terrorist-group-Al-Qaeda-tried-released-grounds-taking-unIslamic.html

"Alhaji Goni Rawa, a member of the All
Progressives Congress (APC), told the Nigerian
Tribune that “Sheriff is the father of Borno
politics, whether anyone likes it or not,” adding,
“we have come to welcome our son, a leader of
Borno politics. We are all his students, because
we passed through his political classes".

Who made Modu Sheriff the 'father' of Borno politics?

A very good heart-to-heart talk with your wife is needed in resolving this issue. Which will go a long way in making you 'superman' at home.

Please how old are the puppies?

As a Nigerian, I am mystified about the hard times our military is having with the Boko Haram murderers in the northeast
Two things are particularly disturbing. The first is the superior firepower that the murderers possess, and the capacity they have developed, in less than five years, to use them.
The second is the intelligence and tactical sagacity that Boko Haram now appears to possess. This is despite the terrain; despite being surrounded by Nigeria’s age-old intelligence network as well as our friends to the north and to the east; and despite the telecommunications and—I presume—technological freeze Nigeria imposed on the area at the onset of the state of emergency in May 2013.
The militants’ growing confidence is further evidence that all is not well with Nigeria, and this ought to be of tremendous concern to patriotic Nigerians.
Regrettably, the Boko Haram phenomenon began right in front of Nigeria’s security agencies. What is more puzzling is that it has continued to grow stronger despite the security and intelligence community, or—some say—even because of them.
In this comment, I will focus only on the first question: Nigerian soldiers having to confront the enemy in the terror era with the modern-day equivalent of bows and arrows, while the enemy swaggers into military establishments with incredible confidence and equipment.
The facts suggest differently: we are the ones with the air capacity; Boko Haram has none. We are the ones with airports and sea ports and highways.
We are the ones with an alphabet soup of intelligence agencies, some of them so intelligent they are located within intelligence agencies; several of them within the military.
We are the ones with big and powerful friends; Boko Haram has only sneaky supporters with whom it converses in whispers and walk around in the bushes with flashlights. We are the ones who slapped down a state of emergency so that Boko Haram would be rendered impotent and naked.
How, then, did our misfortune happen? Why are they the ones growing stronger, killing our boys and overrunning our country?
Why is Boko Haram benefitting from the emergency, marauding and masquerading, seizing our daughters, burning down our shrines and our palaces, sending us videos of their escapades?
Why are we the ones sending our soldiers to be slaughtered, apparently unconcerned that they are out-gunned and out-manned?
Why are we the ones running from battle, when we own the land; when we know the land and have never before fled from battle?
In the interest of the future, not the past, we must question how we arrived at this narrow pass. I recommend a credible probe into the management of the Ministry of Defence and the leadership of the armed forces, as well as our security and intelligence communities, in the last 10 or 20 years.
One of the first lines of enquiry must be the quality and capacity of the inventory at the disposal of our military. How have we been spending our military budgets? Did we purchase what we claimed we would; if so, from where and for how much? How do we maintain our inventory and our combat-readiness?
A cursory look at recent federal budgets shows that Defence has been receiving a lot of money. In view of the questions now being asked by Boko Haram and our larger national interests, it is critical to ensure these funds are being dedicated to the ends for which they were advertised.
Here are some recent budget numbers for the Ministry:
Year Recurrent Capital Total
2003 54,575,272,206 8,003,602,245 62,578,874,451
2004 65,400,230,288 10,657,110,640 76,057,340,928
2005 90,333,808,875 21,535,160,001 111,868,968,876
2006 85,752,943,575 15,699,001,188 101,451,944,763
2007 103,095,201,633 19,219,305,774 122,314,507,407
2008 154,051,142,427 37,464,075,290 191,515,217,717
2009* 223,021,861,244
2010 217,340,355,870 74,378,713,315 291,719,069,185
2011 309,783,758,334 35,253,289,044 345,037,047,378
2012 314,299,342,619 45,436,143,373 359,735,485,992
2013 304,913,982,304 59,251,900,000 364,415,146,885
2014 314,347,339,871 35,360,000,000 349,707,339,871

The archives of the National Assembly do not show a *2009 Appropriation Act, for some reason, but the Budget Office provides detailed Defence appropriations totaling N223,021,861,244.
These numbers show we have spent on Defence during this short period, over N2.6 trillion, a vast fortune in any currency. I must point out, however, that these figures are not exhaustive. In some of the years covered, there were supplementary appropriations that have not been included. The 2010 Appropriation Amendment Act, for instance, provided for additional recurrent expenditures of over N216 billion, as well as capital expenditures of over N47 billion.
This account also does not cover a variety of security-related agencies of the government; I have focused on Defence because it is the one most directly related to the subject. If anyone wants to be fair, it would also be worthwhile to look at how they are also carrying out their responsibilities to the Nigerian people.
Of great interest in this regard is the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA). I confess I am unsure exactly what this office does, but it apparently carries a lot of weight, and spends a lot of money.
In 2006, just eight years ago, the NSA received “only” a budget of N15.5 billion (N12,316,686,404, recurrent; N183,313,596, capital).
In the past few years, however, it has received an armada of funding:
• In the 2010 budget circle: a whopping total of N185,570,007,818 (N107147611048 from the regular budget, and N78,422,396,770 from a supplementary vote)
• In 2011: N109.8b;
• In 2012: N123.4b;
• In 2013: N115.5b; and
• In 2014: N117.7b (recurrent, N66,625,072,907; capital, N51,100,000,000).
I do not know how these funds are spent; the conundrum is that despite all of the spending—or all of the resources—Nigeria has grown less secure.
We cannot have it both ways. It is evident that we are doing something wrong, and it becomes the responsibility of all who really care, not just those whose sons have been, or may be killed by Boko Haram, to ask questions and to demand that governments do the right thing.
We must demand better utilization of our resources, beginning with the exploration of our security budgets. It is important to take this seriously because, given the level of unemployment and cynicism in Nigeria, Boko Haram may not be the lowest that this country sinks.
In the end, our best investment is good governance and the delivery of social justice. That is what will guarantee a level playing field and multiply respectable opportunities for our people, and send the crooks to jail.
Otherwise, we are going to have a republic where the filthy rich build and live in fancy jails, afraid to come out to play, while the fires ravage the land from all sides and there is nowhere to spend the money and nowhere to run.
• sonala.olumhense@gmail.com
• Twitter: @SonalaOlumhense

http://saharareporters.com/2014/09/13/let-us-probe-nigeria%E2%80%99s-defence-spending-sonala-olumhense

The question we should be asking the PDP led government is that, after all these budgeted amounts, why is insecurity still a major issue in Nigeria?

You can give your beautiful dog cow leg bones pieces which you can get from most abattoirs.

SR has been known to be the only media channel that keeps the government on the edge.

Majority of people look forward to their breaking news, they have been accurate with providing the news which most media outlet within Nigeria cannot reveal.

For now, it is best to keep calm and investigate further.

The founder of the Believers Loveworld Ministries, also known as Christ Embassy, Chris Oyakhilome, on Sunday, enjoined his congregation to refrain from speaking against a man of God. The church also suspended Michelle Okojie, a pastor in Lagos, for her “subversive activities.” The reason for Ms. Okojie’s suspension was not given. At the church’s Sunday service, Mr. Oyakhilome described a man of God – as different from a preacher – as one who had been given a revelation from heaven. “To speak against the man of God is to bring a curse on yourself and your children. When you hear people speaking against a man of God, move away from there.

“Men of God don’t just talk. When they speak, God is forced to move.” Sunday’s service was Mr. Oyakhilome’s first appearance to the Lagos branch since the news of his divorce broke last month, and he meticulously stayed away from discussing the saga. “This is the first service of this nature and I don’t know what you are expecting, but you will be blessed. “It’s gonna be a short service but will be loaded,” Mr. Oyakhilome said. Though he was not physically present at the church’s headquarters in Lagos, he conducted the service via a telecast from the branch in Pretoria, South Africa. At the beginning of the service, the first moment the two large screens at the altar panned from choir to Mr. Oyakhilome, loud cheers erupted inside the capacity filled church in Lagos. Ushers in dark suits and red ties motioned worshippers to their seats as the congregation sang along with a choir showing on the large screens.

Outside, armed police officers and church security officials ensured that everyone coming into the church’s premises was screened by a metal detector. A sign at the entrance warned worshippers that cameras are not allowed into the church. Two Automated Teller Machines belonging to Parallex Micro Finance bank stood at a corner. The service began with the launching of the Loveworld News App, a software application platform where the church will be showing its activities from around the world. Mr. Oyakhilome, in a milk-coloured three-piece suit, sat in a panel comprising of three other pastors who took turns to share their experiences on the benefits of the App to church members. “It makes you aware of the things that are going on in the ministry. It also inspires teenagers and gives them direction in life,” one of the pastors said. “CNN and Fox news are reporting about the war in Ukraine, and then (I got) a breaking news (from the App) that our brethren over there are distributing Rhapsody of Realities. So it is not all gloomy. It was awesome,” another pastor said.

At the end of the pastors’ presentation, Mr. Oyakhilome began his sermon. Speaking on the topic of the day’s preaching, ‘Children of the Word,’ he cited a plethora of Bible verses to encourage his congregation not to stray from God. “Sometimes when you are going through challenges in your life, you many not know what steps to take. He says you should take these scriptures as a light shining in the darkness.” He also used several other Bible passages to explain the difference between a man of God and a preacher as well as spiritually-minded people and carnal-minded people. “A carnal minded person will say ‘How many times do we give offering? One, two, three, four times. Spirit people don’t think like that. A carnal minded person will come into the church and say ‘This place is hot,’ ‘The A/C is not working,’ ‘The fan is not working.’ A spiritually-minded person will instead say ‘How can I contribute to change this place?’ “Say I refuse to be a carnal person.” The congregation chorused after him. Mr. Oyakhilome is also renowned for his healing powers. So just before he rounded up his preaching, he announced a couple of miracle-receivers. “A young man named Appiah, you are deaf in your right ear. You are healed.” Another lady, named Maggie, suffering from migraine, was told that she had been set free; another unnamed “adult” having an infection creeping towards his spinal cord was also told to receive his healing. “There is someone who is not far away from me. You’ve had three seizures in the last six weeks. You are healed. “As you are sitting down, miracles are happening,” he reminded them.”

A pastor is suspended after a list of offerings that included monies for Bible sponsorship, Children/Teens Ministry, Healing School, Reachout Nigeria, partnership with the church, amongst others; it was announced that Michelle Okojie, one of the Lagos pastors, had been suspended from the church. “It has come to our attention that Pastor Michelle Okojie has been visiting church members in private and slandering the ministry, engaging in subversive activities that are against the scriptures,” read the statement issued by Ray Okocha, the church’s Secretary General. Citing Bible passages from Romans 16:17-20 and Titus 3:10 wherein Christians were told to “watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles,” the church warned every member of the congregation to stay away from Ms. Okojie. “The church is not a social club where you can walk in and walk out at will and live disorderly. “Pastor Michelle is hereby suspended from the fellowship. “Avoid her. Do not fellowship with her.

Do not try to counsel her or receive counsel from her. All you can do is direct her to her pastor. “Do not be a partaker of another man’s sin.” Efforts to ascertain from the church members the real reasons for Ms. Okojie’s suspension were unsuccessful as all the church members approached for comments declined to speak. But one who spoke over the telephone said that the pastor was suspended for blasphemy. “She has been suspended for blaspheming against the ministry. But we don’t know exactly why,” said the church member who did not want her name mentioned for faith reasons. “My zonal pastor just told us we should not have communication with her,” the lady added.

- See more at: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/168164-chris-oyakhilome-warns-members-against-speaking-against-man-of-god-suspends-pastor.html#sthash.TntwYm33.dpuf

Why can't Dr Sign Fireman take his revival to places much closer to home i.e. the sub West African states plagued by the current epidemic, instead of flying thousand of miles across the Atlantic?

Nice to read her story which is very encouraging.

A big thanks to all the relevant authorities and selfless individuals who risk their lives to attend to the cases of Ebola in Lagos.

Well done.

Dimeji Bankole suppose to settle the guy with part of his loot from the House of Reps, then he will shut up.

PDP chapter in Ogun State have always been divided.

Nothing, absolutely nothing will happen to this guy.

Hasn't him been appointed to a number of 'useless committees' which were formed since GEJ came to power.

Yet some very useless individuals will be crying that GEJ is their best man for the office of the presidency.

How many known corrupt individuals have been jailed, talkless of charging them to court under this GEJ government?

I like Nkem Owoh's song - I go chop your money - just for the comic relief.

I prefer roast duck.

Tribalism and ethnicism - are very biggest reasons why Nigeria will never develop or attain great heights.

Why can't we just put all these nonsense aside and see what Mr Elliot has to offer?

As long as he's a Nigerian, even half-Nigerian, he's good to contest for any political position.

As for me if he's the best candidate I will surely vote for him. We need people like him in politics.

We are too full of ourselves in this country with useless positions and titles.

The next GEJ election slogan will be that, "GEJ has created 3million jobs in Nigeria".

By the way, what's the purpose of the SURE-P program?

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/indian-shiite-group-puts-huge-bounty-isis-chief-105920735.html

An Indian Shi'ite group has announced a huge bounty on leaders of Sunni Islamist organisations across the world including Isis (now known as Islamic State), which is wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria.
The All India Shia (Shi'ite) Hussaini Fund (AISHF) has said a reward of 10 million Indian Rupees (£100,000) will be given to anyone who kills one of five men; Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, Taliban chief Mullah Omar and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen chief Azhar Masood.
"At the meeting of our all India executive on 6 September, we discussed the matter of putting rewards on killing of these five persons heading five organisations involved in terrorism. The resolution was unanimously passed. We will give the reward to those who kill them," the secretary general of the Shi'ite group AISHF Syed Hasan Mehdi told the Press Trust of India.
The group had earlier offered to send thousands of young Shi'ites to Iraq in order to participate in the ongoing battle against the Sunni insurgents.
"We are putting posters across the country including Lucknow, Hyderabad and Jammu and Kashmir to announce the reward as we feel that these terrorists do not deserve to live. They are killers of humanity and innocent persons of all the castes," the secretary general added.
AISHF has claimed millions of Muslims across India are ready to contribute funds towards this cause.

Beauty - 8/10
Frontage - 7/10
Yansh - 3/10

My verdict.

Some folks nearly killed themselves few weeks ago with regards to the construction of the bridge.

They were adamant that the construction have started, they even posted pictures to back up their claim.

Now this article is singing a different chorus compared to those folks.

Which reporting side should we believe now?

RNS) Large churches in the South tend to pay their senior pastors the highest salaries, a new survey finds. That’s one of the conclusions on churches and finances released Tuesday (Sept. 9) by Leadership Network, a Dallas-based church think tank, and the Vanderbloemen Search Group, a Houston-based executive search firm for churches and ministries. A total of 727 North American churches with attendance ranging from 1,000 to more than 30,000 answered questions, more than double the number of congregations featured in previous studies.

The survey found that 14 percent of large churches have a financial bonus structure for their top leader. And one in five of the big congregations find ways to collect their money other than passing the proverbial offering plate. Warren Bird, research director at Leadership Network, said pastors have long held a lofty place of authority in the South, and that may be why they are paid more in that region.

Northeastern churches are the second-highest paying, followed by the West and the Midwest. The lowest-paying region in North America is Canada. The higher pastor salaries in the South contrast with lower-than-average wages for the region. The Department of Labor Bureau of Statistics reports average annual wages of workers in all the states in the Deep South — Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina — are lower than the U.S. annual wage of $49,804.

Although researchers agreed not to divulge specific salaries of particular pastors or the identity of participating churches, they were able to determine trends in these congregations that reflect about one-quarter of the nation’s Protestant worshippers. For example:
* The larger the church, the more the senior pastor is likely to be paid.
* The second-in-command at many churches earns about 70 percent of the salary of the top executive.
* Three-quarters of the churches gave pay raises between 1 and 5 percent and the most common raise was 3 percent for 2014.

“Bigger means more employees, more volunteers, more moving parts and a greater scope of leadership required,” Bird said. “That reality usually leads to more compensation across a host of organizations.” In fact, the common pay raise also reflects a wider social trend. Towers Watson, a Virginia-based professional services company, released a separate survey Monday (Sept. that found that U.S. employers plan to give their professional employees an average pay raise of 3 percent in 2015.

Researchers for the large-churches survey found that donations are slightly higher at those churches that pass the plate, but all churches in the study offered more than one option for giving: 81 percent provide online giving options; 37 percent had a donation box in the lobby; and 25 percent had an electronic kiosk in the lobby. Far surpassing churches of other sizes, congregations with more than 10,000 worshippers were least likely to pass offering plates.
“If your stereotype is that every church passes the plate, they don’t,” said Bird.
Online giving has been growing in popularity for seven years, Bird said. He recently visited a church in Australia that gets 80 percent of its donations via the Internet. One Maryland megachurch gets 40 percent of its giving through online donations. How much do congregants know about the finances of their churches? Bird said most congregations will get some kind of a report from their leaders.

“It is extremely rare that the entire congregation will be privy to specific salaries,” he said.
But even people with inside knowledge about church salaries need to know more about how to handle their finances, said Holly Tate, director of business development at Vanderbloumen.
“Churches are known to fall behind in compensation trends and they end up losing their staff because of it,” she said.
The survey also found:
* 80 percent of the large churches were predominantly white, while 20 percent were made up mostly of another racial or ethnic group or were multiethnic.
* The larger the church, the more likely it is to be a multisite congregation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/09/southern-megachurches-pay_n_5793052.html

Do we know how much our Nigerian megachurches pay their Pastors?

It seems that some people are not happy with ISIS according to the article and the links below:

Pictures of Lebanese activists burning flags in Beruit in protest against Islamic State militants have sparked a hashtag campaign against Isis.
The hashtags #BurnISISFlagChallenge or #BurnISIS have been circulating across social media after pictures of three boys burning a flag in Beruit’s Sassine Square emerged on Saturday.
One example was a video of person burning a picture of the flag, captioned: “I nominate the whole world to the #BurnISISFlagChallenge. You have 24 hours. GO!!"
The burning is understood to be in response to the beheading of a Lebanese officer by Islamic militants. Photographs of the soldier's death were posted on social media on 28 August, prompting anger from mourners in Lebanon who accused the government of neglect for failing to secure his release.
The burning of the flag has been heavily criticised by the Lebanese justice minister, who was quoted in Lebanese news as warning the “strongest punishments” would be meted out to those who burned flags last week.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-ice-bucket-challenge-lebanese-activists-burning-flag-sparks-antiislamic-state-hashtag-campaign-9714437.html

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/burn-isis-flag-challenge-goes-viral-arab-world-124824439.html#BEg7J8N

http://www.inquisitr.com/1454324/burn-isis-flag-challenge-going-viral-in-middle-east-as-anger-toward-militant-group-grows/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-29130369

more info on bbc news

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-29130369

even the bbc news website have something to say about this!!!