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More twins courtesy of iyan, amala, ila, gbegiri ati ewedu

Nigeria's 'land of twins' baffles fertility experts by Joel Olatunde Agoi
Mon Nov 12, 1:00 AM ET



IGBO-ORA, Nigeria (AFP) - Igbo-Ora, a sleepy farming community in southwest Nigeria, welcomes visitors with a sign proclaiming "The Land of Twins".

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"There is hardly a family here without a set of twins," said community leader Olayide Akinyemi, a 71-year-old father of 12, as he settled a dispute between two neighbours.

"My father had 10 sets, while I had three sets. But only one set, a male and a female, survived," he said.

The town's high incidence of twins has baffled fertility experts -- underscoring a more regional twin trend and an array of elaborate African rituals around them.

The rate of identical twins is pretty steady throughout the world at about 0.5 percent of all births, according to a 1995 study by Belgian researcher Fernand Leroy, who has worked extensively on twins.

But West Africa bucks that trend, particularly with a much higher incidence of fraternal, or non-identical twins than in Europe or Japan. That is especially true, experts say, amongst Nigeria's Yoruba community which is largely concentrated in the southwestern part of the country where Igbo-Ora is located.

Overall, almost 5 percent of all Yoruba births produce twins, the Belgian study said, compared with just around 1.2 percent for Western Europe and 0.8 percent for Japan -- although fertility drugs in the developed world are changing those figures.

Yam consumption may be one explanation for Africa's largesse, some West Africans and Western experts believe. Yams contain a natural hormone phytoestrogen which may stimulate the ovaries to produce an egg from each side.

For their part, Igbo-Ora's residents appear nonplussed about their twin phenomenon.

Some like Akinyemi support the yam theory -- and point specifically to the reputedly high oestrogen content of agida, the local name for yam tubers.

"We eat a lot of okro leaf or Ilasa soup. We also consume a lot of agida. This diet influences multiple births," he said.

Others are not so sure.

"The real cause of the phenomenon has not been medically found," said Akin Odukogbe, a senior consultant gynaecologist with the University Teaching Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan, the nearest big town.

"But people attribute the development to diet," he continued, adding that studies have shown that yam can make women produce more than one egg which can be fertilised.

Chief nursing officer at the hospital Muyibi Yomi, who records a monthly average of five twins for every 100 births, puts it all down to genetics.

"If a family has a history of multiple births, this will continue from generation to generation," she said.

That should be good news for Yorubaland, where twins are regarded as a special gift from God and bearers of good luck, Akinyemi said.

"Twins are treated with affection, love and respect. Their birth is a good omen," he said.

But while many African cultures see twins as blessed, they often believe twins also have divine powers and the ability to harm those who cause them displeasure.

In pre-colonial times some communities used to kill twins and occasionally their mothers, believing a double birth was an evil portent and that the mother must have been with two men to bear two children at once. A Scottish missionary is credited with ending this practice.

In Yorubaland and indeed in large swathes of sub-Saharan Africa, twins are also believed to possess one soul between them. This belief accounts for a whole series of distinctive, and in some cases macabre rituals that are often country specific.

If one twin dies in a Yoruba family, the parents order a wooden figure called an "ibeji" to be carved, to take the place of the dead twin. The half soul of the deceased twin is thought to live on in the ibeji figure -- which is clothed, "fed" and carried by a mother exactly in the same way as the living twin.

When living twins reach maturity they take responsibility for the ibejis' care.

Meanwhile, a twin who dies in Malawi is buried with a piece of clothing belonging to the surviving sibling.

But when a twin dies in South Africa, the surviving twin is made to lie face down on his sibling's coffin the night before the burial, to mourn his death and say goodbye properly.

Another variant has the surviving twin being made to lie face up in the freshly dug grave the day before his sibling is buried. If not, communities fear the surviving twin will pine so much for his dead sibling that he will also die.

Amongst the Yoruba -- one of Nigeria's dominant ethnic groups who are also present in Benin, Ghana and Togo -- a mother who loses both twins will take part periodically in ritual ceremonies where she dances with both ibeji figures, either one in each hand, or both tucked into her shirt.

Anthropologists say the elaborate rituals surrounding twins go back to the days when perinatal mortality was very high for twins -- the increased chances of premature delivery compounding the problem of inadequate healthcare in traditional societies.

The rituals were destined to help communities come to terms with the loss of the babies.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071112/wl_africa_afp/nigeriafamilytwins

This guy Nigeria1 is sick. He used to go by the name Forshow at the elite Nigeriavillagesquare, where he was chased out for his incoherent and out-of-the-world views as he espouses here.

Suspected ritual killers confess

By Emmanuel Obe, Benin


Two of the suspects who were arrested by the police at the King’s Square , Benin City on Tuesday on the suspicion that they were behind the several killings that had taken place in the area have confessed.
The two suspects, a male and a female, who resided in a shack by the wall of the Central Hospital mortuary, spoke with reporters at the State Criminal Investigation Department on Wednesday.

The man, who gave his name as Festus Ivabor, from Ozoro in Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State, was however, incoherent in his reply to questions.

Festus said he was 17 years old, but looks like a man in his late 30s or early 40s.

He denied having a hand in the serial killings that have been going on at the King’s Square, and said he was only being framed up.

But the woman, who gave her name as Patience Overo from Akure, said Ivabor had killed three people in her presence.

One of them, she said, was a beggar around Ring Road. According to her, the second victim was another beggar who Ivabor owed some money and a third one, whose death on Tuesday led to the discovery of the secret killings.

She said Ivabor, who had lived at that spot for about three years, forced her to become his live-in lover some months ago.

Patience denied that she and Festus sold parts of the bodies they killed to people that used them for ritual purposes.

She said Festus had beaten her up severely when she reprimanded him for killing the third person. She said he even threatened to kill her the same way he had killed the other people and nobody would come for her.

She claimed to be a 34-year-old divorcee who left her husband in Lagos with three children.

The lid on the ritualistic acts of the suspects was blown up on Tuesday when officials of the Oredo Local Government were called in to remove a corpse near the residence of the suspects.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Peter Ogboi, said experts would be brought in to examine the state of mind of the suspects while investigations into their nefarious activities continue.

http://odili.net/news/source/2007/nov/8/403.html

Akwa Ibom Moves to Recover Oil Wells
From Emmanuel Ugwu in Umuahia, 11.10.2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007

Faced with the problem of recovering a large number of its oil wells ceded to neighbouring states the Akwa Ibom State government has turned to its Abia state counterpart for a strategy to recover the wells.

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To get the Abia formula, Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio visited the government house, Umuahia to consult with Governor Theodore Orji, saying that he was impressed with the approach used by Abia to recover its oil wells.

Abia state recently got back 46 oil wells that were wrongly ceded to Rivers state following a long drawn agitation which compelled the federal government to investigate the issue and return the oil wells to its rightful owner.

“I’m here to learn from you. I want to know how you got back the oil wells,” Akpabio told Orji, adding that Akwa Ibom is desirous of getting back about 86 oil wells with historical links to the state but ceded to Cross River state. Akpabio noted that Abia state is now enjoying enhanced revenue with the recovery of its oil wells, hence Akwa Ibom is expecting to enjoy the same increase in revenue if it eventually got back its oil wells.

The Akwa Ibom chief executive expressed satisfaction at the performance of his Abia counterpart and enjoined “all the people of Abia to join hands with the progressive administration in the state to make Abia great.”

In his response Governor Orji described Akpabio as “a good person” noting that “the crop of governors in the present dispensation is all God-given. “

He acknowledged the bond of good neighbourliness existing between Abia and Akwa Ibom and called for its sustenance for the peace and progress of the two neighbouring states.
http://odili.net/news/source/2007/nov/10/205.html

nnnnnn

Church in import waiver mess
Finance Minister faults
Saturday, November 10, 2007

Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, has put a lie to the claim of the National Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Eng. S. L.S. Salifu, that the ministry was yet to furnish him with details of the churches that have seemingly abused the import waiver regime, as claimed by the minister.

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Usman says his office has not only replied, but had appealed that the issue be viewed from the economic point of view rather than imputing religious sentiments into it.

In a statement responding to CAN’s position, made available to Saturday Sun, the minister claimed that contrary to the CAN chief’s accusation that he made wild allegations and declined to reply his letter requesting for details, he actually wrote back to the Christian body.

He noted also that he named names and gave specific instances of churches that benefited from the windfall made possible by an indulging administration. The minister in a memo of October 10 with reference number FMF/OHMF/1 addressed to the CAN Secretary, Eng. S. L.S. Salifu, and signed on his behalf by his Special Adviser (Media), disputed the claims of the CAN chief at the Independence anniversary and noted:

Minister’s letter

Kindly take note that the Honourable Minister of Finance was out of the country when your initial letter was received. Upon his return, he ordered that the information you requested, be communicated to you accordingly.

We were therefore shocked by your inaccurate and misleading public comments about the subject matter and the person of the Honourable Minister while efforts were on to process your request as directed. And that you chose the occasion of the commemoration of our nation’s 47th national day celebrations was indeed indiscreet and misguided, to say the least.

However, the transcript of the relevant portion contained in the Honourable Minister’s text of press conference is hereby reproduced for your guidance as follows:

“When we issue these tax incentives, what is the purpose? Are we achieving the purpose, or are we just giving up revenue?

“I was surprised. When you look at the list… I asked for the full list of all the waivers we’ve given from the Customs, FIRS, especially in those two areas.

“A lot of government departments are asking, a lot of state governments are asking for these waivers. Then some private sector parties, (you know).

“And even churches! Some people will say churches?, Yes! Churches can get waivers but when you see the amount of money involved, you then ask, what is a church doing with such kind of money?.

“A state government, I mean, somebody is organizing some game, and he gets a waiver to import 600 motor cars. What do you need 600 or 800 motors vehicles for? I mean, there is serious abuse in this area that has to be stopped ! “

It is therefore unfair and unjust of you to willfully label the Honourable Minister, by levying such grave allegations against his good person, reputation and track record.

As you can now see, nowhere was the importation of 600 vehicles linked to any church in the Honourable Minister’s speech, to warrant your deliberate and unkind misrepresentation of his person.

In summary therefore, the Honourable Minister only expressed general reservation over inappropriate issuance of tax waivers to various levels of governments, agencies and non-corporates such as faith-based organizations – because of the massive loss of revenue involved, and the continued implication of this to our nation.

Further to the above, and to prove the point made by the Honourable Minister, I enclose the relevant, unedited portion of the press conference in question for your guidance.

And as a proof of his concern over the possible abuse to which they can be deployed, find attached, two samples of such import waiver details, variously granted to the … (church name withheld by us), the colossal amount involved, items imported and revenue implication to the nation.

Now that you have been adequately availed of facts of the matter, I have no doubt that as a man of God, you will take necessary measures to correct your misrepresentation of the Honourable Minister, especially in the eyes of your members – whom you said had inundated your office with requests for clarification on the subject matter as contained in your letter under reference.”

According to the aides of the minister, the ministry had no reason to believe that the above letter, which was also copied to the president of CAN, had not got to the National Secretary as at the time he granted the said interview.

It is said in the Bible that in the last days, many false prophets shall arise. Nothing else to say

This is an honorary degree. It is not worth anything else except its nominal worth. May be he has bribed them (like the third term bid) for the award.

davidyland@yahoo.com:
very stupid comparison.

It is clueless people like you that plan bad policies for Nigeria. Now scram before I gba etie

davidyland@yahoo.com:
have u been to Glasgow? I have been and there is no infrastructure that is there that is out of the heaven - and glasgow is not paradise.

How do you mean mwhen you say it is going to be a waste of money @FSU. Exactly my point - what will we as a nation endeavour to do that the citizens will not bring down as a waste of money - please tell me. No country is exactly and absolutely ready to host any international sporting event - even here in London - with rights to hold the 2012 Olympics - they are just building the stadium and other places to be used for the competition - even glasgos is doing the same - so what do you mean that we don't have facilities in place?

Same for South Africa - went to SA and i can see that they are just puting most facilities and infrastructures in place to hold the world in 2010 - so what r u saying?

It is only in Nigeria that the citizens find it hard to support anything good the country aims to be.

It will be a waste of money because at least half of the budgeted money will go to private pockets
It will be waste of money because the money can better serve other purposes-fixing bad roads, electricity, water supply and health amongst others. Did you see that our inability to fix roads have led to shameful deaths?
We do not have any security.
Infact, we are simply not qualified to host that games. Period

davidyland@yahoo.com:
Everything good that the country puts her hand in is seen as a waste of money by the same Nigerians who complains that nothing is done in the country.

try build a railway line - they will say its a waste of money

try build bridges - they say its a waste of money

try send satelite to space to improve communications - they say its a waste of money

try host international games - they says its a waste of money

so what is it that will be done in the country that will not be a waste of money? what does development mean to Nigerians? is it only about what?

This particular one was sure going to be a waste of money. Good that it fell through.

babasin:
and what happened to FESTAC

This is pure rubbish.

They should rather use the money to build 'railway line from

Lagos - Aba,
Aba - Maiduguri,
Lagos - Sokoto,
Sokoto - Maiduguri!

Sounds far more reasonable than the stupi bid.

I am happy that we lost. Nigerians never see garri drink, wey dey put hand for wetin big pass us. We get big eye sha.


Glasgow wins bid to host 2014 Commonwealth Games
9 November, 2007

By Alex Smith

Scottish city beats Abuja in Nigeria for the right to host the Games

Glasgow has won the competition to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The city was announced as the winner ahead of Abuja in Nigeria at a ceremony in Sri Lanka this afternoon.

Plans for the £288m Games include the construction of a “Games Village” of 1,000 homes to be built on the Clyde, to be used for private sale and social housing after the Games are finished.

The Games will also see a new indoor sports arena, velodrome and entertainments arena built, and will make use of the City’s existing venues, with Hampden Stadium to host the track and field, Ibrox the rugby 7s, and Celtic Park the opening ceremony.

The Commonwealth Games Council of Scotland says that all new buildings will be constructed so that they can be used by the community after the Games, and it hopes to renew “significant” brownfield sites.

Council chair Louise Martin said the plans were a “vision of a city and country leaving a legacy of sport and opportunity throughout the Commonwealth for generations to come.”

Pictures soon.

needeeg:
Big boy, she's really his divorce wife, we live very close to her house here in Kaduna, same 2 boy as someone say it and the names!

You are misfiring. That is not Mrs. Yaradua. But why should it matter to me, anyways?

See Americans digging diamonds like poor Africans do in Congo and Sierra Leone


http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=4926797&ch=4226713&src=news

That is not Mrs Yaradua. That is Binta Nyako, one of the FOUR wives of Adamawa gov. This photo was on the front page of Daily Trust newspaper of yesterday. She is the legal eeeediot[b][/b] who gave MASSOB leader the unprecedented 3 months bail.

Also speaking with P.M.News this morning on phone, Funke Egbemode, former media assistant to the speaker, said the allegation was a figment of the imagination of those peddling it.

She said detractors should avoid heating up the polity through spurious allegations against public office holders.

Egbemode also said she can confirm that Bankole participated in the scheme.

This Funke Egbemode is a shameless political and moral prostitute. She was dead beat defending Etteh. Now she has jumped from Etteh to defending Balogun. When Balogun leaves, as I know he will soon, Funke will jump to the next ship. Na wa for Waec oh!

I once asked if this guy will last. Obviously he also has a baggage. Away with him now. By the time it is 8 years, Yorubal would have produced 8 or more speakers

New Speaker Accused of Dodging NYSC
From Stanley Nkwazema in Abuja and Tunde Sanni in Ibadan, 11.07.2007

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Barely one week in office as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole may have been presented with his own political baptism.
Some unnamed members are alleging that the new Speaker evaded the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme.
The scheme is mandatory for Nigerian graduates of universities and polytechnics but those who are 30 years or above on completion of their studies are exempted.
Also exempted are those who have served in Nigerian military and police.
Section 13 of the NYSC Act (amended in 1993) makes it criminal for anyone to dodge the service, under-declare educational qualifications or work in either public or private sector without undergoing national service.
Some House members, rattled by the way and manner the former Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Etteh, fell from the office, are insisting Bankole dodged the scheme.
The new Speaker will be 38 today.
Going by his CV, Bankole was 26 years old when he started working in 1995 at Freight Agencies, Lagos.
Efforts to get the response of the Speaker to the allegation last night were unsuccessful.
But THISDAY learnt that Bankole will address a news conference on the issue at 12 noon today, two hours before the House resumes sitting.
As if responding to the issue, however, the Speaker’s father, Chief Alani Bankole, said yesterday in Ibadan, Oyo State, that the banana peel, the political phrase used to describe the fall of politicians from exalted positions, was not for his son in his new position.
It was gathered that the seeming banana peel may not be unconnected with the short message service (SMS) that went round the House last Thursday before Bankole eventually emerged as the Speaker.
In the SMS, members were told not to vote for Bankole, saying he was a chronic bachelor and that rather than serve Nigeria through the NYSC programme, he served the British Army.
Those against Bankole then also said he swore to an oath of allegiance to the British Government before he was enlisted into the British Army.
But a member of the Integrity Group and a close friend of the new Speaker told THISDAY last night that since Bankole was honourably discharged from the British Army, whatever allegiance he had to that country subsisted while he was in active service and not after his discharge.
On the NYSC programme, the source also said that may not be necessary since Bankole received military training and also graduated from a military academy like Sandhurst where many Nigerian senior military officers were trained.
He said what he would need was an exemption, if he chose to work in public service.
Bankole, who represents Abeokuta Federal Constituency, of Ogun State, holds a Masters Degree in military techniques from Oxford University, England and was an Oxford Officer Trainee in 1991.
He also passed selection to Sandhurst and was in the Royal Artillery Corps for a Short Service Fast Track Officers Course.
From 1995 to 1998, he was a Director of Freight Agencies and later moved to become the Executive Director of Operation at the West African Aluminium Products Limited, Ikeja, Lagos owned by his father.
The new Speaker is spending his second term in the House. He was first elected to represent his constituency in 2003 and was the former Deputy Chairman House committee on Finance.
The elder Bankole spoke with newsmen in Ibadan at a symposium organised as part of the funeral rites of late Chief Adisa Akinloye, former National Chairman of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN).
He noted that with his education and moral training, the new Speaker would be too conscious to avoid banana peel which had sounded the death-knell of many presiding officers in the National Assembly.
Bankole, the substituted gubernatorial candidate of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the 1983 election in Ogun State, said his son had surpassed his political achievements with his emergence as Speaker.
"My son will not be removed in the name of the Almighty God because he won't do anything to warrant that. He has got all the qualities he needs to be a good leader and to retain such an important position. I was never removed in any position I occupied in my life and I know with the support of God, his colleagues and the prayers of Nigerians, he will not be disgraced out of office,” the elder Bankole said.
The Egba traditional title holder urged Nigerians not to mistake his son’s youthfulness for weakness or soft mindedness.
He said: "My son will be 38 years of age tomorrow (today). When General Yakubu Gowon became the Head of State in Nigeria, he was 33 years and a bachelor and he had nine years of peaceful and progressive reign in this country; when Murtala Mohammed became Head of State in 1976, he was only 37 and when Olusegun Obasanjo became a military Head of State, he was 37 years. So if these former leaders did excellently well as leaders 30 years ago, and did not falter in spite of their age, then my son will perform excellently well and not falter.”
He said Dimeji would not be a stooge to anybody as he has an independent mind, "he can't be pushed around by anybody and he won't pander to the influence of powerful caucus within the ruling party."
The elder Bankole solicited for prayers from Nigerians for the lower chamber and for his son as Speaker.
On likelihood of his son’s position affecting the position of Chairman Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BOT) occupied by former President Olusegun Obasanjo from the same Ogun State, Bankole said he was not conversant with the arrangement for sharing offices in the ruling party.
"I do not know about the constitutional set up in PDP. I do not know whether the position in the party hierarchy, especially those of advisory capacities, will affect that of parliamentary or executive positions. I will not be in good position to comment on that,” he said.
But he said it would be diabolical to trade his son’s position considering his popular support from his colleagues for that of an advisory one within the party.
He said his son’s accomplishment was brought about by many factors which included devotion and belief in God, self discipline, forthrightness and sincerity of purpose, pointing out that with his educational upbringing, Dimeji would make the difference.
On the late Akinloye, Bankole said the deceased’s politics was devoid of bitterness and that the late politician was straight forward to a fault.
“He was a pillar to friends, reliable and a potent political actor in the First and Second Republics who never said anything against Chief Obafemi Awolowo, despite the fact that they belonged to different political parties,” he said.
The seminar put together as part of the funeral rites of Akinloye was devoid of colour as the elder Bankole and Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, former Director-General of the Nigeria Security Organisation (NSO), were the only associates of the deceased in the defunct NPN who graced the occasion.
Shinkafi lauded the contributions of the late Akinloye in politics and commended him for introducing the zoning system into Nigerian politics, which according to him, went a long way to stabilise the Second Republic.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=94534

nigeria1:
Any clear thinking igbo man would agree with me, It is only the foolish Igboman that owns your views, Why not ask clear thinking Igbomen who believe in fairness if it is right to check others,

Ok. lets see what Igbo man will support you here. The floor is open.

nigeria1:
well , here is where i stop discussing with you. i have gone through, some other of your post, And I have seen , you are not a reasonable man to discuss with. Have a nice day.

You are as unreasonable as your fake TV station. You ran away from the Nigerianvillage square. You will soon disappear from nairaland. Ewu population analyst.

This Nigeria1 is a thief, like his pastor Adeboye

Igbos can now see what people like this will do to them if given the opportunity.

Either equal states or regions. De-emphasise oil. Everyone should work for their financing. The Lazy one will simply perish

Vigasimple,

Yoruba and Hausa are not in large numbers in Igboland because there is no federal presence in Igboland. The things you find in Igboland are Igbo-made (by this I mean private enterprises). Get that into your thick skull. Why would an Igbo man stay back home instead of going to enjoy what other Nigerians are enjoying in Abuja?

Vigasimple,

Igbos are not accomodating? Do you have any evidence?