₦airaland Forum

Initially, used to drive without shoes. Wanted my feet to be in "direct" contact with the pedals. Was warned by a close friend to desist from the act as I might one day forget my shoes somewhere. Laughed it off & said it couldn't possibly happen. Prediction came to pass about a month or so afterwards...left one leg of my footwear in the parking lot of the agency I did my IT (the other leg was in the car). Wasted fuel and time in traffic to go back and retrieve it. Few days after, was seriously rushing to work, didn't have time to pull off my shoes before driving, jumped inside car and drove off, nothing happened. I felt even more comfortable and somehow in control, like i was now in charge of a seemingly uncontrollable situation. Haven't looked back since. This year, I drove a few times wearing my NYSC JUNGLE BOOTS (as big and heavy as those things are) & i felt no discomfort at all. Sometimes tho, in heavy / slow moving traffic, I take off my shoes or footwear and drive like that just to 'flex' my feet.

I hear it's the first thing some driving school instructors teach their pupils -learn to drive with shoes on- coz as Siena said, it's indeed a safety thing. You run the risk of damaging your toes or feet (& subsequently loosing control) when faced with a panic situation requiring sudden and swift acceleration or / & braking.

yungboss: you'r right bro. I confronted the dude in question, he laughed sarcastically, and told me that the 'that thing no dey do anything for there' i felt like an idiot, cos recalled i paid him...but not to damage my car! After much altercation, he started pleading.
But could that be 'just' the prob, i got about looking for the O2 sensor but couldn't find it.
Does it come with the exhaust? on inspection, the hole where the sensor should fit has been altered with acetylene flame...

Typical Naija mechanics for you. Ignorant vehicle destroyers. Tell him to cough out the sensor, because I suspect a replacement won't be cheap.

Capnd143: medic! Medic!! Medic!! Oboy! U be filmographer abi moviecologist ?

Lol. Anyone, same same!

walex57: Yeah there are GAs in my school and it's available to international students, it could either be partial or full depending on your eligibility and availability of funds, before i came in i qualified for a partial grant but i didn't complete the form on time 'cos it was sent to me quite late but they said i should wait till this spring so it also depends on how fast you are also...

Hmmm.... thanks a lot. Sad your school doesnt offer M.S. Env. Health Science major

[quote author=Afro_Blue]I rather enjoyed that NL family drama, but am very happy it has been amicably settled.

Real politicians should take note and learn a valuable lesson in solving disagreements rapidly, humility, and moving forward.[/quote]True talk. Btw, we need to set up a reconciliation committee(PDP style ) to look into the long drawn Debosky vs Seun 'face-off' (naija journalist style )

I dread what would happen if in the next 20 years, Seun's son comes to to his dad and presents Debosky's daughter as his girlfriend
& No, these two men are smart, the 'beef' will still be fresh in their brains. Can imagine an Otunba Debosky screaming "over my dead body" and a Chief Seun Osewa threatening to disown his son if he brings "that girl into this house again" (just kidding o, i know say e no go reach that one )


Ohhh, Is Seun married? No I don't think so. per chance his fiancee just turns out to be Debosky's younger sis........


Abeg, make una settle this thing sharp sharp and please 2 of you, spare us the "I have no beef with him....... just expressing myself.......not fighting with anyone" c.r.a.p.

SPECIAL APPEAL goes to the chief tribalists on NL from all tribes (you know yourselves ) to please tone down the level of tribalism here. Many of you shouting "Yoruba", "kidnappers", "Igbo", "boko haram" e.t.c. have people you love or admire (or are even married to) in these tribes/religions you bash. I know some people simply get kicks out of doing these things but let's reduce it please. Let's focus more on discussing the country's problem and try to bring up solutions coz the truth of the matter is certain members from EACH AND EVERY ETHNIC GROUP are responsible for the sorry state Nigeria is in today. & while we sit here and call ourselves names, they are still collaborating together to destroy the country further.

We are all mature (at least most of us are, or claim to be ).

We all want Nigeria to be great.

STOP TRIBALISM (AND RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY) TODAY. It has never gotten us anywhere and it will never do so. Let's concentrate our energies on more productive issues that affect the wellbeing of all Nigerians in entirety.

Happy Holidays

walex57: I attend California State University Sacramento and at least have $15000 for tuition for a year for masters...i think undergrad a just a little more maybe $1000 more

Walex, Are graduate assistantships given to international students in your school? If yes, on the average, what does the package entail? Full or partial tuition waiver?

Any electrical/engine/ gear box fault whatsoever?
How long has it been registered in Nigeria?
& please post VIN.

@OP, your signature will be invisible to Flexya because he doesn't have a signature. A Nler must be using the signature feature to be able to see other people's signatures. So berra post ur contacts directly on the thread. Nice ride.

It is obvious that dolts like insincere nigerian don't even know what to expect from the country's president. Imagine him saying the president cannot know everything in the budget! Can you just imagine?? Billyoniare (in half kobo) too rushed here to shift the contract award to OBJ momentarily forgetting that in 2009, GEJ was actually the VICE PRESIDENT. Later, both of them will deny they are paid agents of GEJ. I pity you guys by 2015, because then people wil b be soo angry at bootlickers like you if you dare attempt to misinform the populace that the GEJ administration has not worsened the lot of Nigerians.

ogugua88: Lol May D is most befitting. Iyanya released an album a few years ago, but it was "Kukere" that made him a household name.

I concur.

ogugua88: Lol. I wanted to see if my life to change after commenting first. I look the same, I'm not richer, rain still dey fall, and I got no promotion at my job. All na hype lol.

Loool! food for thought

ogugua88: Okay, no more derailing. Gist about gist

Ok, true. Now, Just like you said, Tiwa Savage hardly qualifies as being a new kid on the block by virtue of not only her age (is she that old??), but also IMO, she's not exactly "new", just like Wizkid as well. Iyanya and May D are more "qualified" for that description than Tiwa and Wizkid. Ok, Iyanya too isn't exactly new sha...... Maybe "new stars on the block" will suit them better

ogugua88: My first and last time nwanne

That's comforting.lol . Actually, it can be excused on not too serious threads like this. But its quite ....*insert mild expletive here* when you see "first(or second or third) to comment" without any meaningful contribution on threads where serious matters are being discussed. I know you won't do such anyway

ogugua88: Lol @ Tiwa Savage being called a new "kid". Isn't she 32+ in age?

And I think Paul Okoye and his girlfriend are expecting as well.

First to comment and I didn't even ask Obatala.

Noooooooooooo!!!!! Ogugua, you've joined them too Anyway, just as it was with the ga.r.r.ri movement, the kids will soon get tired of it and find new games to play .

Them no born me well make I dress up like Wiz Khalifa to the wedding I'm going today or anywhere. Them go think say i dey craze ni. But since it's Wiz khalifa, then its 'style' or 'fashion' Whatever happened to full length well tailored pants

@ Topic, It;s all about freedom na, isn't it. Imagine weed being compared to alcohol by airhead Amber Rose. Very soon, the same way homos are asking for their rights, & society says they are 'normal' people, we'll also have Paedos doing the same as well. Crazy world really.

imperiouxx: Na today I got denied in Abuja last year, I slept with headache and heavy heart on that day and today I dey wey the white b!tch said I no dey go. That's why I dey dey happy since even as I dey busy in lab, I still find time make fun. Life is good when you are happy! https://serve.mysmiley.net/happy/happy0069.gif

Lol. keep it up bro. Where head suppose reach, e go eventually reach there (yoruba saying translated to pidgin )

imperiouxx: Hey!https://serve.mysmiley.net/jumping/jumping0047.gif Mamacita is bring suya https://serve.mysmiley.net/party/party0048.gif https://serve.mysmiley.net/party/party0021.gif. Unless you girls want me to appear in your dreams, if not send me my own o.

See again o! you sha made sure I laughed again before sleeping tonight

Yvete: LifeisaHustle![/b] In due time, its gonna be awwwright!

True words! I feel encouraged already on Ronaldg21's behalf! lol

Yvete: Loooool Exams are over and we've got extra time on our hands. Maybe you should #Find-out!
My suya is on the plane already ... *fingers crossed* Will slice my own red onions on top Looooool

Hehehehe, I understand. No more assignments, presentations or exams therefore tension has greatly eased in you guys' minds and it's reflecting even here on Nl.lol. So I guess we shouldn't be expecting any crankiness (I agree some posters ask for it at times though).........till Spring semester starts. Right? lol

Hmmm...lucky you. May US Customs not confiscate the Suya Aaamen

[quote author= Find Out!]All stakeholders in Nigeria’s community of conscience have an urgent struggle at hand. I hope Pastor Tunde Bakare and the Odumakins are listening to the need to place this struggle at the forefront of the preoccupations of the SNG; I hope CACOL, Campaign for Democracy and other genuine civil society groups are listening; I hope the collective children of anger are listening and are prepared to sustain the struggle to redefine the Nigerian presidency in their social media spheres; I hope Nigeria’s progressive columnists are listening; I hope Sahara Reporters, Premium Times, the Nigerian Village Square, and Punch are all listening. They must all listen and act because this phenomenon of irresponsibility as statecraft gives us a jamboree state which profoundly insults all of us in our sovereign Nigerian-ness. The time is now to make it clear to these misbehaving boys and girls in the political class that we are no longer going to tolerate the jamboree instinct which collectively holds them hostage like cocaine addiction insofar as they privatize the Nigerian state to service that instinct.

It’s just that they have no capacity for critical thought. Otherwise, they would be able to see the holistic picture of the Nigerian state which emerges from the following scenarios. When they travel abroad – as is always the case with President Jonathan – it’s a jamboree. When one of them returns from a medical safari abroad as was the case with David Mark, they all abandon their duty posts and troop to the airport for a reception jamboree. One week, they are in Uyo for Akpabio’s 50th birthday jamboree. The following week, they mass-migrated to Kaduna for Namadi Sambo’s TV and laptop wedding jamboree. One week later, they are all in Okoroba for Oronto Douglas’s jamboree. Next week, one of them could wake up and decide to “turn the back” of his great grandfather who died just after the second World War and the same set of characters will use the resources of state to charter helicopters and private jets, abandon the work of the Nigerian people, and head out to Ibadan or Abeokuta for yet another jamboree. It is time for us to make it clear that we’ve had enough of the jamboree state that is Abuja.[/quote]

[quote author=Find Out!]This is what you get when the Presidency is no institution. It becomes a hollow bubble of baser instincts, effete materialism, and outsized egos elevated above the common good. Think of it this way: when was the last time you heard the name of any of President Obama’s immediate White House staff in the public domain? Hardly anything in French politics and culture escapes my radar. Yet, I don’t believe that I know the names of President Hollande’s immediate Elysée staff. I am not sure that any of my friends currently living in France - Yommi Oni, Tunde Biade, Dominic Okutue – can name President Holland’s immediate aides at the Elysée. At the White House, at the Elysée, the President’s aides are just regular, self-effacing civil servants toiling quietly for the people of America and France at the behest of the President. It is highly unlikely that any of them would organize a wedding or a funeral for which the American state or the French state would stand still. It is not imaginable that any of them would organize a personal jamboree that would have State Governors, Ministers, Parliamentarians, etc, abandon their duty posts for the roll call at the venue of the jamboree. And it is absolutely impossible that the resources of the American or French military would be irresponsibly diverted for private purposes because a civilian, a mere aide in the Presidency, is throwing a party. Above all, it is not imaginable that presidential aides in France and America can become overnight billionaires dragooning the state into their private affairs.

Why has this happened in Nigeria? Our presidency not being an institution is only half of the explanation. The other half of the explanation is that once the private bubble of egos is consolidated around the president, the incumbent and those within that bubble become the most powerful custodians of the prebendal system we operate. In this sort of system, even an aide in the presidency becomes the custodian and guarantor of access to the ultimate spoils of office, to be courted like a demi-god by political office holders way beyond his level. This crazy system explains why Governors, Senators, and Ministers abandoned the Nigerian state and outpaced Usain Bolt to Okoroba at the behest of a mere aide of the president. It was never about the funeral of the faithful departed. It was all about nurturing their continuous access to the Presidency-as-guarantor of prebends. Before Oronto Douglas, there were Yar’Adua’s Tanimu Yakubu and Obasanjo’s Andy Uba.

So long as we, the people, fail to sustain the struggle for a redefinition of the Presidency and a constitutional redesigning of her role – she is currently too powerful, so absurdly powerful – Aso Rock will continue to throw up irresponsible presidential houseboys with whom Governors, Ministers, and Senators will have to play footsie in order to guarantee strategic access to the cookie jar. But for the fact that it would amount to asking him to entertain Abu with Abu’s money, I would have joined the calls for Oronto Douglas to be made to cough out the cost of replacing the naval helicopter that we lost before being summarily dismissed from office. But we know that he cannot afford this from his honest salary. It will only provide him with another opportunity to send his hands on an errand into the cookie jar.[/quote]

[quote author=Find Out!]Contrary to these normative attributes of responsible presidencies, the Nigerian Presidency is a transient, ephemeral embodiment of the egomaniacal idiosyncrasies of the incumbent, his cabinet, his aides, and the political jobbers and hangers-on who constitute the President’s bubble. No philosophical core, no transcendental attribute of Nigerian self-fashioning links the Obasanjo Aso Rock, the Yar’Adua Aso Rock, and the Jonathan Aso Rock in the sense in which I have sketched out what connects successive American White Houses. In the absence of an enduring deontology of responsibility, every Nigerian President and his team approaches Aso Rock not from the perspective of being custodians of the sacred, great, and grand values of the Nigerian people but as guarantors of the immediate prebendal moment of their ilk and political benefactors – even if such benefactors are convicted criminals.

Once they invest the Presidency with this narrow vision, this baser instinct, the President and his aides become greater and grander than the collective will, vision, and aspirations of the Nigerian people. From here, it is open sesame to irresponsibility as statecraft and to crass personalization of the state and her resources. From here, it’s only a matter of time before we get to Okoroba. This is not just pure theoretical talk. When a Presidency is a genuine institution, she recognizes the power and value of symbolism. Presidential symbolism devolves mainly from the personal example of the incumbent. His style, his preferments, his priorities, when collectively adopted and projected by his team, become symbolic expressions of the character of the state. What sort of symbolism have President Jonathan and his team been sending out to the Nigerian people?

The answer is simple. It is the symbolism of galling irresponsibility. You wonder in whose brain the idea of a new Presidential banquet hall – with the attendant metaphors or gorging and bacchanals amidst and impoverished populace – germinated and how a President could have approved such an irresponsible project at this material time; you wonder in whose brain the idea of a brand new N16 billion mansion for the Vice President germinated and how a President could have approved such an irresponsible project at this material time; you wonder how a president comfortably lives with the idea of his weekly Federal Executive Council meetings being a “contract bazaar” (apologies to Sonala Olumhense) where mind-boggling contracts are irresponsibly parceled out to cronies week after week; you wonder what message, what symbolism the Vice President imagines he is putting out there when he marries off two daughters and allows flat screen television sets and laptops to be distributed as souvenirs to wedding guests.[/quote]

Will try to bring out some salient points for longarticleophobia patients.



[quote author=Find Out!]Okoroba has now morphed into its own afterlife of arrogant recrimination of Nigerians by woolly-headed Presidential aides and hangers-on, mostly truculent sidekicks of Oronto Douglas, the principal jamboreelizer and misuser of state resources and the current metaphor of everything that is wrong with the Nigerian presidency. Because of the continuous wetness of the geography behind his ears, Reno Omokri, the President’s Special Assistant for Facebook and Twitter, was the first to rush to town, sending his tongue on careless errands of recrimination. This young fellow, who lived in America and was exposed to the best traditions of civic questioning, has naturally forgotten that experience.

After reprimanding Nigerians for asking questions too soon, he was quick to remind us that the cavalcade of helicopters and other expensive modes of transportation to Okoroba were funded by the mourner and his family. If, down the road, Omokri ever manages to achieve the feat of getting dry behind the ears, he will have sufficient time to rue the silliness of inviting questions that are even more pertinent. With his $400,000 annual salary, President Obama is not in the league of those who could visit Nigeria and charter too many helicopters for his local commute. Nigeria is too damn expensive, way beyond Obama’s level. If he visits Nigeria and charters a harem of helicopters for a private jamboree (funeral, wedding, etc), he will face the dire prospect of returning to America to beg Senator Boehner and other obdurate Senate Republicans to approve an emergency salary increase for him. So, how much is Oronto Douglas’s annual salary that he is able to afford the orisirisi chartered air transportation scenario proposed by Omokri in his irresponsible social media outburst? Not to be outdone, one listserv Arrow, who claims to run “The Jonathan Project”, one of the numerous food-for-the-boys stunts of the Jonathan Presidency, is amok on Nigerian internet listservs, hounding patriotic citizens like Mr. Ibukunolu Alao Babajide and Dr. Valentine Ojo, while justifying the jejune and rationalizing the risible.[/quote][quote author=Find Out!]I am saying in essence that irresponsibility is not just about the habitual demission of individual Presidency actors from the common good and the consequent privatization and diversion of the state and her resources to service their bacchanalian proclivities in any given presidential term in the life of the Nigerian state. I am saying that this has been the only building block of the Nigerian Presidency since her inception. I am saying that what every President and his team do is to strengthen the foundation before adding their own block to the edifice of Presidential irresponsibility. I am saying that irresponsibility is the singular framework from which the quotidian practices of the Nigerian state devolve. To the extent that the Presidency is the apex body of that state, irresponsibility is statecraft in the context of Nigeria’s political agency.[/quote]

Just saw this article on my facebook newsfeed posted by SR. Enjoy.

& Yeah, its quite looooong , but really interesting.


These are not the best of times to be an ordinary Nigerian citizen. Hardly a week passes these days without some half-witted douchebag in the rulership upbraiding us for expressing dissatisfaction with the way they are running and ruining our lives. We can ignore the habitual heehawing of ribalds like Doyin Okupe, Labaran Maku, and Reuben Abati and concentrate on some of the more interesting characters in the circles of rulership. There is the archi-corrupt Diezani Allison Madueke, who asked us to shove it with regard to our complaints about fuel subsidy before promptly jetting off to London on a medical safari at our expense. Then came the tragedy of Okoroba and insufferable presidential aides began to crawl out of the woodworks to upbraid Nigerians for asking questions. After tears, after mourning, after regrets, Nigerians began to ask those hard questions required of them by the civic imperative. Nigeria would be truly hopeless if no dissenting and dissentient voices were heard after a brazen, irresponsible privatization of the resources of the Nigerian state by a presidential aide led to the loss of the precious lives of a naval pilot, aides, and two members of the ruling class.



Okoroba has now morphed into its own afterlife of arrogant recrimination of Nigerians by woolly-headed Presidential aides and hangers-on, mostly truculent sidekicks of Oronto Douglas, the principal jamboreelizer and misuser of state resources and the current metaphor of everything that is wrong with the Nigerian presidency. Because of the continuous wetness of the geography behind his ears, Reno Omokri, the President’s Special Assistant for Facebook and Twitter, was the first to rush to town, sending his tongue on careless errands of recrimination. This young fellow, who lived in America and was exposed to the best traditions of civic questioning, has naturally forgotten that experience.

After reprimanding Nigerians for asking questions too soon, he was quick to remind us that the cavalcade of helicopters and other expensive modes of transportation to Okoroba were funded by the mourner and his family. If, down the road, Omokri ever manages to achieve the feat of getting dry behind the ears, he will have sufficient time to rue the silliness of inviting questions that are even more pertinent. With his $400,000 annual salary, President Obama is not in the league of those who could visit Nigeria and charter too many helicopters for his local commute. Nigeria is too damn expensive, way beyond Obama’s level. If he visits Nigeria and charters a harem of helicopters for a private jamboree (funeral, wedding, etc), he will face the dire prospect of returning to America to beg Senator Boehner and other obdurate Senate Republicans to approve an emergency salary increase for him. So, how much is Oronto Douglas’s annual salary that he is able to afford the orisirisi chartered air transportation scenario proposed by Omokri in his irresponsible social media outburst? Not to be outdone, one listserv Arrow, who claims to run “The Jonathan Project”, one of the numerous food-for-the-boys stunts of the Jonathan Presidency, is amok on Nigerian internet listservs, hounding patriotic citizens like Mr. Ibukunolu Alao Babajide and Dr. Valentine Ojo, while justifying the jejune and rationalizing the risible.

I do not mind the lies of these arrogant presidential aides. I mind the fact that outraged Nigerians in our community of conscience have plugged so deeply into their distraction that we are fast losing another occasion to reflect on the broader dimensions of Okoroba in terms of the tragedy’s implication for the struggle for meaning that is the Nigerian Presidency. The disgrace of Okoroba is the Jonathan Presidency – no, make that the Nigerian Presidency – writ large. Precisely because the Nigerian Presidency defines us all, we cannot abandon her meaning, the content of her character, and the stuff she’s made of to the latest group of buccaneers to hold her hostage under the chairmanship of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. I emphasize the latest crop of buccaneers to underscore the fact that the current crop of irresponsible characters emptying the Nigerian Presidency of philosophical content in Aso Rock are merely the latest arrivistes in town. They are no originators of a culture of Presidential irresponsibility that has calcified throughout our postcolonial existence into the singular identity of the Nigerian Presidency.

I am saying in essence that irresponsibility is not just about the habitual demission of individual Presidency actors from the common good and the consequent privatization and diversion of the state and her resources to service their bacchanalian proclivities in any given presidential term in the life of the Nigerian state. I am saying that this has been the only building block of the Nigerian Presidency since her inception. I am saying that what every President and his team do is to strengthen the foundation before adding their own block to the edifice of Presidential irresponsibility. I am saying that irresponsibility is the singular framework from which the quotidian practices of the Nigerian state devolve. To the extent that the Presidency is the apex body of that state, irresponsibility is statecraft in the context of Nigeria’s political agency.

Notice that I called the Presidency the apex “body” of our state. If I were talking about other responsible presidencies, say in America, France, South Africa or Ghana, I would have used the word “institution”. The culture of irresponsibility has never allowed the Nigerian presidency to develop into an institution in the real sense of that word. When, for instance, we speak of the Kennedy White House, the Carter White House, the Bush White House, the Clinton White House, the Obama White House, we know that beyond party affiliation and deep-seated political differences, all of these ‘White Houses’ are connected by their subscription to certain transcendental attributes of American self-fashioning, reducible to the philosophical core of buzzwords like “freedom”, “promise”, “values”, “enterprise”, “can-do”, and the sacrosanct “American dream”. In over two hundred years of existence, the American Presidency has evolved as the first institution of state which immediately embodies these immutable attributes of the American being. The state evolves and behaves in such a way as to project and protect these transcendental values of American-ness. And the American Presidency is an institution because these values are greater and grander than any incumbent President and his team – cabinet and aides.

Contrary to these normative attributes of responsible presidencies, the Nigerian Presidency is a transient, ephemeral embodiment of the egomaniacal idiosyncrasies of the incumbent, his cabinet, his aides, and the political jobbers and hangers-on who constitute the President’s bubble. No philosophical core, no transcendental attribute of Nigerian self-fashioning links the Obasanjo Aso Rock, the Yar’Adua Aso Rock, and the Jonathan Aso Rock in the sense in which I have sketched out what connects successive American White Houses. In the absence of an enduring deontology of responsibility, every Nigerian President and his team approaches Aso Rock not from the perspective of being custodians of the sacred, great, and grand values of the Nigerian people but as guarantors of the immediate prebendal moment of their ilk and political benefactors – even if such benefactors are convicted criminals.

Once they invest the Presidency with this narrow vision, this baser instinct, the President and his aides become greater and grander than the collective will, vision, and aspirations of the Nigerian people. From here, it is open sesame to irresponsibility as statecraft and to crass personalization of the state and her resources. From here, it’s only a matter of time before we get to Okoroba. This is not just pure theoretical talk. When a Presidency is a genuine institution, she recognizes the power and value of symbolism. Presidential symbolism devolves mainly from the personal example of the incumbent. His style, his preferments, his priorities, when collectively adopted and projected by his team, become symbolic expressions of the character of the state. What sort of symbolism have President Jonathan and his team been sending out to the Nigerian people?

The answer is simple. It is the symbolism of galling irresponsibility. You wonder in whose brain the idea of a new Presidential banquet hall – with the attendant metaphors or gorging and bacchanals amidst and impoverished populace – germinated and how a President could have approved such an irresponsible project at this material time; you wonder in whose brain the idea of a brand new N16 billion mansion for the Vice President germinated and how a President could have approved such an irresponsible project at this material time; you wonder how a president comfortably lives with the idea of his weekly Federal Executive Council meetings being a “contract bazaar” (apologies to Sonala Olumhense) where mind-boggling contracts are irresponsibly parceled out to cronies week after week; you wonder what message, what symbolism the Vice President imagines he is putting out there when he marries off two daughters and allows flat screen television sets and laptops to be distributed as souvenirs to wedding guests.

Only yesterday, jamboree weddings of President Yar’Adua’s daughters were the talk of the town. Where are they today? Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher. Is Vice President Namadi Sambo aware of the transience of these things? Is he aware of the message of crass and repugnant materialism he is sending to our youth? Does he know that his wedding guests are the same people who were all groveling before Turai Yar’Adua at her daughters’ weddings but will not even greet the same Turai today? Does he know that these same wedding guests will consign those TV sets and laptops to the dustbin whenever they rush to the embrace of the next President and his Vice President? Does he remember that Ojo Maduekwe, an avowed Yar’Adua loyalist who, one could have sworn, would plead to be buried with his principal as the king’s horseman, was screaming and describing himself as a “little Jonathan” even before Yar’Adua’s bones had cooled down sufficiently in the grave? Does Vice President Sambo understand these things? Does he think?

This is what you get when the Presidency is no institution. It becomes a hollow bubble of baser instincts, effete materialism, and outsized egos elevated above the common good. Think of it this way: when was the last time you heard the name of any of President Obama’s immediate White House staff in the public domain? Hardly anything in French politics and culture escapes my radar. Yet, I don’t believe that I know the names of President Hollande’s immediate Elysée staff. I am not sure that any of my friends currently living in France - Yommi Oni, Tunde Biade, Dominic Okutue – can name President Holland’s immediate aides at the Elysée. At the White House, at the Elysée, the President’s aides are just regular, self-effacing civil servants toiling quietly for the people of America and France at the behest of the President. It is highly unlikely that any of them would organize a wedding or a funeral for which the American state or the French state would stand still. It is not imaginable that any of them would organize a personal jamboree that would have State Governors, Ministers, Parliamentarians, etc, abandon their duty posts for the roll call at the venue of the jamboree. And it is absolutely impossible that the resources of the American or French military would be irresponsibly diverted for private purposes because a civilian, a mere aide in the Presidency, is throwing a party. Above all, it is not imaginable that presidential aides in France and America can become overnight billionaires dragooning the state into their private affairs.

Why has this happened in Nigeria? Our presidency not being an institution is only half of the explanation. The other half of the explanation is that once the private bubble of egos is consolidated around the president, the incumbent and those within that bubble become the most powerful custodians of the prebendal system we operate. In this sort of system, even an aide in the presidency becomes the custodian and guarantor of access to the ultimate spoils of office, to be courted like a demi-god by political office holders way beyond his level. This crazy system explains why Governors, Senators, and Ministers abandoned the Nigerian state and outpaced Usain Bolt to Okoroba at the behest of a mere aide of the president. It was never about the funeral of the faithful departed. It was all about nurturing their continuous access to the Presidency-as-guarantor of prebends. Before Oronto Douglas, there were Yar’Adua’s Tanimu Yakubu and Obasanjo’s Andy Uba.

So long as we, the people, fail to sustain the struggle for a redefinition of the Presidency and a constitutional redesigning of her role – she is currently too powerful, so absurdly powerful – Aso Rock will continue to throw up irresponsible presidential houseboys with whom Governors, Ministers, and Senators will have to play footsie in order to guarantee strategic access to the cookie jar. But for the fact that it would amount to asking him to entertain Abu with Abu’s money, I would have joined the calls for Oronto Douglas to be made to cough out the cost of replacing the naval helicopter that we lost before being summarily dismissed from office. But we know that he cannot afford this from his honest salary. It will only provide him with another opportunity to send his hands on an errand into the cookie jar.

All stakeholders in Nigeria’s community of conscience have an urgent struggle at hand. I hope Pastor Tunde Bakare and the Odumakins are listening to the need to place this struggle at the forefront of the preoccupations of the SNG; I hope CACOL, Campaign for Democracy and other genuine civil society groups are listening; I hope the collective children of anger are listening and are prepared to sustain the struggle to redefine the Nigerian presidency in their social media spheres; I hope Nigeria’s progressive columnists are listening; I hope Sahara Reporters, Premium Times, the Nigerian Village Square, and Punch are all listening. They must all listen and act because this phenomenon of irresponsibility as statecraft gives us a jamboree state which profoundly insults all of us in our sovereign Nigerian-ness. The time is now to make it clear to these misbehaving boys and girls in the political class that we are no longer going to tolerate the jamboree instinct which collectively holds them hostage like cocaine addiction insofar as they privatize the Nigerian state to service that instinct.

It’s just that they have no capacity for critical thought. Otherwise, they would be able to see the holistic picture of the Nigerian state which emerges from the following scenarios. When they travel abroad – as is always the case with President Jonathan – it’s a jamboree. When one of them returns from a medical safari abroad as was the case with David Mark, they all abandon their duty posts and troop to the airport for a reception jamboree. One week, they are in Uyo for Akpabio’s 50th birthday jamboree. The following week, they mass-migrated to Kaduna for Namadi Sambo’s TV and laptop wedding jamboree. One week later, they are all in Okoroba for Oronto Douglas’s jamboree. Next week, one of them could wake up and decide to “turn the back” of his great grandfather who died just after the second World War and the same set of characters will use the resources of state to charter helicopters and private jets, abandon the work of the Nigerian people, and head out to Ibadan or Abeokuta for yet another jamboree. It is time for us to make it clear that we’ve had enough of the jamboree state that is Abuja.


http://saharareporters.com/column/beyond-oronto-douglas-irresponsibility-statecraft-pius-adesanmi

Nice song, nice video concept, great cars , pretty or should i say HOT and pretty babe .

May D hasn't disappointed o

This thread seems so extra lively today. Snazzygirl, congratulations. The good news you bring us blends nicely with the thread's 'mood' .

Yvete, your witty comments have been cracking me up, especially your "mallam suya" description, your exchanges with Imperiouxx & your teasing of Kpolli.lol. & Yes, if the suya is re-heated before buying,wrapped tightly, then frozen till the travellers are about to step out of the house, i believe the Suya should be nice and fresh for the next 24 hours, especially as it wont be transported via a hot medium (the plane's Air conditioner can't malfunction na, can it? ). Just be sure to re-heat VERY WELL before consuming .

Imperiouxx, good thing you reposted your interview experience. It should serve as a source of motivation to NLers who have beeen denied and are reluctant to re-apply. & bro, your smileys are funny!!!!

WE WILL NEVER STOP SAYING " WE TOLD YOU SO"

All of you complaining, sorry o! Shebi you guys saw the profligacy inherent in the Jonathan/Sambo administration before you voted them in. Would Muhammadu Buhari or Nuhu Ribadu have condoned all these trash? Abeg, make una enjoy the "fresh air" and "transformation" going on o! I've said it before, if the current pace of corruption and lack of performance is sustained or not remarkably improved upon for the better before 2015, then anyone who dares campaign for these GREEDY INSENSITIVE and also CLUELESS looters(OMG! What a combination ) in power should consider himself/herself an enemy of Nigeria and Nigerians. We've had ENOUGH please.

floriana: You will soon find out.

I have found out now o!

Should have been back here earlier.

*revives thread with cold water*

Now, it's December, & just as I'd feared, power supply in my locale (somewhere around Ikeja) took a sharp nosedive around October (or when did Barth resign?).

Right now, we get to have uninterrupted darkness during the day(usually) & interrupted power supply during the night (usually). Despite the statistics put up by the FG over ''increased'' power generation, i really have doubts if this has reflected in power distribution across the country.

Please DND *calculating 2012 - 2006*.....

But seriously, you can be single & not be lonely. Guess that applies to me..... & NO, I don't mean 'Friends with benefits' either .......at least not exactly those sort of benefits...

Yvete: Looks like someone sneaked out of his hiding place last night! Guess its no longer cozy in there.

@Biofem2000 Congrats to your son.

Hehehehe. I've actually not been hiding you know. Been out here in the open, just silent & following attentively.lol. When the time comes for me for me to start receiving i-20s & start booking appointments, then I'll be sure to bombard the thread with my questions if any but then I'm really learning a lot already. & as to how cozy my "hiding place" is, feel free to come and find out!

Great thread!!!! Would love to see more of this. Oga Ikenna, Weldone!!!

Immature kids & unintelligent adults, please whenever you see a serious thread like this, do yourself a favour and stay out. Yes we know we are not paying for your internet subscription but "It is better to keep quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt".

anulaxad: [s]the yoruba's of nigeria I must say are very troublesome but the best ethnic group we got why well lets look at population for beginning there's an estimate of 39 million yoruba people in the world and 35 million live in nigeria know and the population of nigeria is 180 million people so minus 35 we have 145 million Nigerians that are non Yorubas that's allot so there very sustainable and with again tribalism there the most diverse people ever they accept whatever culture you are and embrace unlike some places now lets split nigeria in two three there's the north the east and west now I can only think of two languages spoken in northern nigeria huasa and Fula (originally Fulani fulfude) I know there's more languages and the east I can only think of two but I know for sure there's more igbo and ijaw. but in the west they talk Yoruba literally they could be dialects but its just Yoruba no other language so you see what im talking about. im random[/s]

anyway the problem is lack of good leadership even an illiterate can see that miles way

ehen. Simple. Lol @ Bolded, no o, some people are still busy blaming Lord Lugard and 1914 amalgamation o. As if thats d reason why we have kidnapping, corruption and bad leaders.

biofem2000: Where`s the emotion for really big eyes?
Hi Nairalanders. I`ve been away because of my tripple life. My son turns 7 today (sigh..... now he has the liberty to think I`m not as smart as his first grade teacher). Everyone is invited to come grab a cup cake with angry bird rings.

E kaabo LOL at bolded. I assume you r speaking from experience....experience from back when you were 7 years old too.lol. Congratulations to him & you as well. We've indeed missed your contributions on here but Imperiouxx, Yvete & co have been holding forte nicely.

back to my silent followership mode