₦airaland Forum

Mr Cork, your comments are so hateful, pls cut the guy some slacks, at least he got to the prime of his career and contributed immensely to naija music industry, am sure most of us got interested to naija songs when 2Baba came to limelite.

*Am just chilling and lounging rite nw, African Queen playing at the background*

[quote author=tayo_ast link=topic=496273.msg6564656#msg6564656 date=1281656818]so also her appointment[/quote]I think there is more we me need to know

A 19-YEAR-OLD boy, Chukwudi Ugwu, has hanged himself in Ebonyi State for being reprimanded by his parents over his failure in the recently-held Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).

The deceased, until his death, resided at No. 41 Nsugbe Street, Abakaliki, the state capital.

He was brought to the Casualty Ward of the Federal Medical Centre, Abakaliki, yesterday where he was confirmed dead.

The Nigerian Compass gathered that the deceased got annoyed following persistent scolding from his father over his poor performance in the examination, which made him not qualified to secure admission into any of the country’s tertiary institutions.

A nurse who pleaded anonymity said that the parents of the deceased told the hospital management that the boy became so annoyed when he was reprimanded and immediately left for his room, where he was discovered later, hanging from the ceiling fan.

“What the father told us was that they scolded him for failing JAMB. Maybe he was one of those children who do not like to be scolded or that he committed suicide out of frustration. He went inside his room where he stayed for a very long time. His parents later went inside to know what was keeping him inside, and saw him hanging from the ceiling fan,” a source told our correspondent.

His remains have since been deposited at the mortuary of the Federal Medical Centre, while the police continue with their investigations to unravel the circumstances surrounding the suicide.

Information and Communications Minister, Prof Dora Akunyili, has insisted that the current call tariff regime in the country must be reviewd, arguing that Nigerians were unnecessarily paying through the nose for making calls. She has therefore charged the new board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to do something about the issue of punitive tariff charged by operators in the country.

“On high tariffs, considering our huge population, we deserve to have one of the lowest tariffs in Africa despite our obvious infrastructural challenges.

“Infrastructure sharing will definitely reduce operational cost and drive down tariffs. For example, there is no way we can be talking about new intercontinental fibre optic cables without a reduction in the cost of broadband access. I am glad to know that the Commission has complied to my directive on the need for number portability and has consequently appointed an adviser to kick off the process,” the minister said during the inauguration of the new board in Abuja.

Meanwhile, Prof. Akunyili has restated her resolve to ensure that all telephone subscribers are registerd in the country.

To this end, she has once again directed the NCC to ensure that recalcitrating operators selling new subscriber identification module (SIM) cards are called to order. Specifically, the minister directed the board to stop forthwith, the sale of new SIM cards without capturing the biometrics of the person buying it. “You are to direct all relevant operators to stop forthwith any sales of new SIM cards without capturing the necessary data of the owners. Government demands and expects full compliance,” the minister charged the board members

“There is no going back on SIM card registration. The first phase involving the registration of new SIM cards by operators has commenced,” she added.

Registration of SIM cards in the country has become a rather untidy affair as most of the operators embark on registering existing subscribers, contrary to the directive of the minsiter and that of the NCC. Sector analysts blame this development on lack of will to enforce government’s directive.

According to them, since the NCC and the operators jointly agreed on the need to reduce the crime rate in the country through registering SIM cards, and drawing a time table for the exercise, it is strange why the operators are doing what pleases them.

“Go to the streets, you still find them, under umbrellas and in shops, selling SIM cards. Nobody asks any question. They just collect N150 from you and there you go. It is not proper.

“The other day, one of them engaged the service of drummers, backed it up with jobless street girls who were dancing virtually nude in the streets in order to sell its SIM card for N50. Since you cannot give what you don’t have, illieterate cannot ask the relevant questions from the new subscribers,” Mr Charles Alake, a teacher said

The training of local staff has commenced to handle full body scanners acquired following the Christmas day bomb attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab even as Air Marshals from the United States now guard flights coming in and out of Nigeria.

“Full-body scanners have been installed at Nigeria 's four international airports and are being used selectively,” the Director-General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Mr. Harold Demuren, said at a joint press briefing with the United States ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Robin Renée Sanders in Lagos yesterday.
Demuren said training is ongoing for officers with the goal of having the scanners which have been installed at Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja operating 24 hours a day.

For the time being, the machines have not been installed at similar airports in Kano and Port Harcourt .
“We want to make our airports extremely unfriendly to terrorists…explosive detection equipment are already being used and full body pat-downs for international passengers will not allow such to happens again." Demuren said.

He disclosed that ten of such scanners which create a 3-D images of passengers’ shape have been acquired by the government
Ambassador Sanders said that Nigeria should be commended for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority’s successful completion of Federal Aviation Administration [FAA] assistance program in preparation for the Aviation Safety Assessment [IASA] audit.
She posited also that although there is still more job to be done in the sector, it is important to celebrate the tremendous progress and success of the government in making the nation’s air travel the safest it has ever been.

Sanders who would be leaving Nigeria soon congratulated the NCCA for its historical issuance of Air Operator Certification [AOC] to Arik Air Limited on July 12, this year. She however said that Nigerian aviation sector has not been able to obtain Category 1 status the way other developed countries have.

Responding to her comment, Demuren said ‘’security challenge is a global one. It is not only an American issue, it is not the Netherland issue, and not Nigerian issue but a global one. So, the war on terror must be total’’. Demuren promised that the December 20th December 2009 bomb incident, with security measures being put in place by the NCAA, will never happen again, saying that body scanners have been made available in all he major airports in the country with the provision of ten scanners by the Federal Government.

While recounting on Abdulmutallab’s bomb case, which resulted in Nigeria in being included in the global terror list by the United States, Demuren said that on the fateful day, the equipment available at the Lagos Airports are those that could only detect metals, but that now all the international airport in the country have automatic detecting systems at different four stages before boarding flight to another country.

THE President Wednesday unveiled the clock to begin 50 days countdown to the nation’s Independence Day celebration coming up on October 1.

Nigeria got her independence on October 1, 1960.

Contrary to opinions in some quarters that the country has not made any impact worth celebrating in the past 50years, President Goodluck Jonathan said if Nigeria had not made any impact globally, the country would have been written off long ago. Hence as a nation, he said, we have reasons to celebrate.

Our challenge notwithstanding, the President stressed that Nigerians are committed to develop this country.

Jonathan, who spoke at the event jointly organised by DAAR Communications and Integrated Management Resource yesterday at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, also described the coming celebration as historic. He ordered that the countdown clocks be placed at strategic locations across the country ahead of October 1.

This, he said, is to reenact the memory or event of lowering of the Union Jack and the raising of the Nigerian flag 50 years ago.

"This event is to officially begin the countdown to the 50th year anniversary which will be celebrated on October 1, 2010. I have directed that the counting down clocks be placed at strategic places as a constant reminder of our jubilee independence anniversary.

"I dare say that current challenges notwithstanding, Nigeria has a glorious past worthy of celebration that should arose in us all the good things about Nigeria . We must rededicate ourselves to those patriotic ideas and creative potentials in us all.

"It is worthy of note that the event to celebrate our 50th independence anniversary is purely private sector initiative sponsored by Integrated Management Resources in partnership with DAAR Communications Plc. Those organisations deserve our special commendation for the patriotic vision".

"We have our challenges, we know that very clearly, which is why this time around we are committed to move this country forward but we have every reason to celebrate the past 50 years.

Earlier in his remark, the Chief Executive Officer, Integrated Management Resource, Oluwafemi Victor Walsh said the believe in the Nigerian dream led his organisation to partner with DAAR Communications to put up the event. "We believe in the Nigerian Vision and we believe in Mr. President. We believe Mr. President became President by divine intervention and that is why we are supporting this Nigeria at 50 project at our own small level".

Walsh regretted that the tradition where kids use to match to celebrate the nation’s independence has been jettisoned adding, "Nigerians now see it as a day to rest at home, but this celebration gives us all the opportunity to immortalise and lay foundation for the next 50 years. If we cannot celebrate our past then let us celebrate our future".

He said: "Integrated Management Resource is putting together a project that will put Nigeria in the Guinness Book of World Records. It plans to unveil the 65, 000kg World’s largest cake at the National Stadium on 1st October 2010, aimed at rebranding Nigeria "we enjoy the greatest global media attention since 1960."

Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has revealed how former President Olusegun Obasanjo wasted about N16.447 trillion between 1999 and 2007.

The governor accused the ex-president of entangling the three tiers of government in a “paradox” without much to show for it after eight years, except his “do-or-die” politics.

Oshiomhole, who was one of the five governors invited to the Press Week celebration of the Delta State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) yesterday in Asaba, the state capital, said Obasanjo’s “impunity, rigging, subversion of the people’s vote, as well as foisting of absentee and short-sighted leaders on the people complicated the appalling living conditions in the country today”.

According to him, the enthronement of leaders without mandate is responsible for why more than 70 per cent of Nigerians live below $1 per day, the country has one of the highest child mortality rate highest in the world and the average life expectancy is 43 years.

He added: “Between June 1999 and May 2007 which spanned the eight years rule of President Olusegun Obasanjo, the three tiers of government shared a total of N16.447 trillion without much to show for democracy dividends.”

The comrade governor, who was represented on the occasion by his Special Adviser (Media), Mr. Tony Iyare, said no wonder that Nigeria’s ranking in the United Nations Human Development Report published yearly is pathetic.

He said the problem bedeviling the country is the burden of poor leadership, which by extension, leads to poor governance.

He commended President Goodluck Jonathan for appointing Prof. Attahiru Jega to reposition the “decayed” Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

While reiterating the urgent need to free the country from the shackles of fraudulent elections and enthrone an electoral process that is free and fair, he said: “We have a historical duty to enthrone leaders whose mandates flow from the people. Edo State is no longer the vineyard of godfathers.”

He charged journalists to allow the theme of the event, “The Media, Leadership, Development and Good Governance”, permeate their duty as they uphold the ethics of the profession and disallow desperate politicians from making it a laughing stock.

His Delta State counterpart, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, who was represented by his Commissioner for Information, Mr. Oma Djebah, appealed to journalists to report facts by analysing, explaining and interpreting the truth of the matter.

Former Director General of Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), Prof Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, yesterday broke her silence, telling the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market her removal was political.
Ndi Okereke- Onyiuke was last week sacked by the Security Exchange Commission (SEC), just as the chairman of NSE, Alhaji Aliko Dangote was suspected.

Dangote had raised alarm that accounts of the NSE were in red and that the Exchange was finding it difficult to meet its financial obligations.
But appearing before the House Committee led by Alhaji Umar Buba Jibril, the former NSE boss said that the crisis leading to her removal was political.

She informed the committee that whatever allegations against her were purely political because the account of Stock Exchange was intact. The former DG said that since 28 years that she returned home from the US Stock Exchange, “at no time has my integrity been put to question. “I will not be associated with corrupt practices. I have my name to protect. Whatever allegations you hear are not true. I will give details later, as my present ordeal is purely political,” she insisted.

Okereke-Onyiuke likened her ordeal to the Biblical mothers disputing about the ownership of a child during the reign of King Solomon, when one of them wanted the baby split into two, saying “I will rather allow myself to be attacked than to destroy the market I built.

“I will rather not say or do anything that will put heat on the market because for 27 and half years, the market is my baby, which I carried in my womb, my whole life depends on it”. Okereke-Onyiuke told the committee that contrary to newspaper reports and what the public had been fed with, she was honest and had her name to protect as a professional and allayed the fears of Nigerians saying “no money is missing,” the former DG said following the closure of her office, she had no access to all her supporting documents, but promised to give enough necessary information to satisfy the yearnings of the lawmakers.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Umar Jubril said the meeting was a fact finding one to extract information from all stakeholders on the crisis at the Stock Exchange. The meeting later went into a closed-door session after the opening remarks.

Mr Cork:
Ok, he need to QUIT sing becoz he a publick national this grace who cant speak english!!

He cant even count upto ABC,

2face is talented

blinx4real:
Why are u so concerned about what the political elites support or not? Are they more nigerian than you?
The question asks what you will vote for and not which candidate is more politically acceptable?
In my own opinion, Ribadu is a better candidate simply because he has ideals (how good or bad the ideals is another discussion), and he at least stands up for something.
Bros Lucky on the other hand is well known for capitulating, saying things and doing something else - an unstable man, wavering in all his ways. He stands for nothing so you also wont be able to hold him if he does nothing at the end of the day. He is spineless, liverless and cowardly. Easily bending at the least pressure, would you put your future and that of your kids in the hands of such a man?

Spot on

@Post
Pls dont flatter Jonathan by comparing him to Ribadu, GEJ is very corrupt and his wife still has a case of money lauderin hangin on her neck. This man Jonathan does not have vision and looks very confused, he has served under so many corrupt govt. from state to federal level so he cant be any different. What we need in our next president you can find in Ribadu

@Poster
Dont you think he is enjoyin the attention? IBB is a man that should be seen and not heard

slap1:
I prefer Chukwuemeka Emenike of Newswatch.

Am sure you have not seen the best of Asukwo EB, mehn that guy is good and creative

chosen04:
contact number of the cartoonist

Not an advert, every cartoonist does that, they always insert their numbers

chosen04:
So this thread is just to take style do advert?. . . .

Wetin we dey advertise 4 here?

A Nigerian gay,Publicly accepting that OMG. Please does anyone have an idea of when Jesus is coming. Am tired

Ranoscky:
@High_Chief, you call our leaders looters n u stil dey say sorry? Na wa for u O! Dey'r all bunch of big tym CRIMINALS!

LOL, ok maybe i should have refered to our Commander-in-thief!!!

Is it Amodu that sits on the bench eating suya(yes suya,not gum) while d super chickens run around the pitch like headless chickens will tell us who to take the job, meanwhile people should stop creditin him with our qualification for the world, i think d glory should go to the Tunisians who failed to win their last match. I sanction Sia Sia to take charge of super eagles and i know he will do well, cos he is a winner.

I have always known that Chinese will come up with such briliant idea, it is possible in nigeria if we put the right people in power and not those looters(sorry leaders) that we have

Kobojunkie:
Right beneath his signature at the far top left there on each of the cartoons.

Yeah thats his number

@Poster

I can see that you have a vision driven force, first off, you have to know the kind of people you get into this project and their various intentions because we started something like this while in school, but a pioneer member defected from the original purpose and got selfish hence the forum is now defunct, so please be careful with the people you get into this project. You may not change Nigeria, but you can inspire the mind that will change Nigeria. I wish you luck and success.

Mehn u just have to love this guy Asukwor, he is truly the best!!!

Any Hope 4 2011?

I think d traditional man is rite

Which way Nigeria?

ONE member of the Falconets – Nigeria’s highest achieving female football team – saw the charade at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja and expressed her shock.

In her words, Nigeria was a funny country. For the months they were in camp preparing for the competition, nobody knew they existed. She mistook the uniformed dancers, the filled streets of Abuja, the omnipresence of Mrs. Patience Jonathan, the President’s wife, as indicators of the harvest of gifts that awaited them. They were dead wrong.

After the boring speeches and futile efforts of all to establish a link with the success of the young women, the Federal Government dropped the bombshell, it was awarding scholarships to the players.

It was one of the most unforgivable – even cruel – decisions that anyone could have made. Who said the players wanted scholarships? What happened to similar promises made to players in the past?

Nigerian leaders are totally out of touch with reality. The poor excuse for this inexcusable decision is that the players were young, amateur and should keep their focus on the future. How do they survive to the future? How many of them want to be in school? Which school would accept them in Nigeria? Are scholarships their problem?

Falconets may be under 20, but they are young women in a society like ours, where those in government never bother about how others survive. Young as these women are, they are already BREAD WINNERS with daunting responsibilities.

Their new status as FIFA World Cup runners up adds to the responsibilities. They would be holding receptions back home, they would entertain, they would have people trooping in to share in their success, and they would still cater for more family members. What would a scholarship do in these?

A reward system that is not relevant to the needs of those rewarded is useless. Government simply abdicated its responsibility to the players. In doing that it passed the message that it does not recognise hard work.

Eagles earned $30,000 each for limping to the second round of the World Cup in South Africa. The argument could be that the money was from the $1 million FIFA paid Nigeria for qualifying, yet it does not make sense that the Nigeria Football Association has more than $6 million in its accounts and cannot pay a reasonable sum to the Falconets as performance bonus, in case the Federal Government is clueless about what the team did.

Government’s example is terrible. A few weeks down the line, none of these players would be able to access the scholarship assuming she needs it. Government rewarded the winning U-16 World Cup team with stocks in 1985, saying they were young people and money could distract them. Not one player got a share certificate of those stocks to date.

Falconets need money, they know how to secure their future. If the government is concerned about them wasting the money, it could appointment a fund manager for the purpose and pay them at least $30,000 (about N4.5 million) each, a fraction of what each Eagles player got for the heart aches they created in South Africa. The coaches should be rewarded in addition to factoring them into a long overdue national coaching system.

We should not discriminate against the Falconets. We commend businessman Jimoh Ibrahim for his N20 million gift to the team. Corporate Nigeria should emulate this example and reward the players as a way of motivating others to follow in their strides.

All the lobbyists in Washington cannot achieve the good image the Falconets created for Nigeria in Germany.

Government can change its mind – it has done so a couple of times – by rewarding the young women who made Nigerians proud unless it considers their efforts in Germany ignoble.

Vanguard Editorial
Monnday, August 9, 2010

papa ejima:
How did this rubbish ever get to the front page? Are Nairaland moderators toddlers?

U call it rubbish, but things like this happen everyday in Nigeria. sounds stupid but even messier situations like this happen on a daily basis. This story was culled from a Nigerian dailies, will post link when i get home

Ujujoan:
You ain't see nothing yet!

I had a commissioner give me the 3rd degree last week for not respecting her enough, just because I asked someone to deliver a message to her! As improtant as she was, I should have come myself instead of 'sending' someone! *rooolz eyez*

Especially d women, i have an aunt that changed totally immediately she got a political appointment. SMH, thats why I won't be surprised if it was this woman that instigated her hubby to ensure Paw-Paw got no award, which is evident by her sending a text to explain why paw paw did not receive an award. I expected her to calm the situation but she seems jubilant that the hubby has paid him back

The truth is that I prefer Paw-paw to Aki, he acts better than Aki(IMO), but if this was why he was not given the award that means its a very sad one, snubbing or not,he shuld have gotten one too

Wyclef is in no way qualified to run a country-not even a damn town. I dont think that him being Haitian, and rich qualifies him? You need an education-all the way to university and post grad-as a first step. To my knowledge, Wyclef sang songs for a living-how does that in any way qualify him to run a country with huge economical and social needs like Haiti. He is just not qualified. great entertainer does not mean great president. Wclef has too many skeleton and past history to say thumbs down for him as president.

Dolemite:
Lol, but OJ Simpson killed two honkies and walked free. . .

He was just lucky and got the best legal team, but at last they set him up and gt his ass back to jail, trust me if Linday was black maybe shuld ve been in Rickers nw