₦airaland Forum

A radio station (talksport) is reporting that Ballack stormed off after a meeting with Grant and sat down in a corner holding his head in his hands. Whether true or not remains to be seen. If true, I guess Grant wants to play Essien in midfield.

scratch that!

HNIC, L'Equipe do not play - they are a serious paper. They even quoted the time - 7.30pm. Anyway, I will not be following the story at that time cos I will be watching Champions League

I think she is ready to quit cos she defended Obama from Bush's statement at the Kneset.

Whats up guys!

It is official: You guys have signed Samir Nasri for 15m Euro's. It will be reported tonight. Arsenal will confirm at 7.30pm

English Press are not carrying the story at the moment but French paper L'Equipe is carrying the story.

If you can read French, here's the link:

http://fr.sports.yahoo.com/21052008/53/foot-transferts-nasri-arsenal-c-est-boucle.html

So what do you guys think? The boy is very skillful but a bit small and not ever so fast. I remember when he made his debut about 3 years ago and I was like "Who the hell is that!". He has not progressed as I expected since then but still a good signing at a very reasonable price.

Morning guys! How una dey?

It is D-DAY!

I just dey work dey pretend like say I dey work whilst surfing the net for any news on the game. Apparently, Ashley Cole took a knock in training yesterday and is doubtful. Joe Cole also took a knock but made a full recovery.

I am very unhappy with the vibe coming out from Chelsea in the lead-up to this game. Players complaining about this and that. Lampard leaving, Carvalho leaving, Drogba leaving, Grant leaving, bla bla bla. Only to wake up this morning to read this quote from Drogba when he was asked about Grants contribution:

"He just had to wait for the results to comne along or not. Like the son after the loss of his father, in our case we found ourselves with a step-father we hadn't chosen."

Listen Drogs, we know you may have a point - but is this really the time to be coming out with this stuff? Can't you wait till after the match? Everything just seems unsettled at the moment. The players are freaking me out. This reminds me of how they were squabbling before the Tottenham game in the Carling Cup final.

Lampard said "I must play." Ballack said "No, I must play". John Terry said "they better play me otherwise them go hear wiii". And so they spent the whole week arguing on the pages of every newspaper in the land. In the end, they all played and we lost the game. They just didn't seem focused on the game.

Meanwhile, Man Utd are just busy doing their thing, no one is hearing anything from their camp, not even pim. Make these Chelsea players take time O! Before they mess around and blow the greatest opportunity of their careers and the biggest night of our lives.

Anyway, Up Chelsea. We thrive in adversity as always.

BTW, did any of you hear the Mourinho interview where he said he still talks to Roman Abramovic on the phone?

Ala is a certified crook. I don't know why they force all these kind of leaders on us. The man is of the worst kind.

Nigeria1, I like your analysis. You really broke it down. Very educated and good insight. I have long suspected that Naija population is close to £100m rather than the £150m they keep telling us. I don't know how 95,00 houses can house 5 million people as they claim in Katsina.

Those South African negros need to get their act together. Just because they are not smart enough to compete for jobs or smart enough to hustle, they resort to killing foreigners. Stupid idiots!

Xerxes, Xerxes! Please stop talking before the match. There is no need. No one can fully predict who will win but all Utd fans would agree that Chelsea is the team they fear most and the team they least want to face in the final. I can imagine all the nightmares coming back from last years' FA Cup final. You must find it hard to sleep. Not to talk of the numerous times we have walloped you in recent times. If I can remember correctly, you needed the help of the referee and half our team missing through injury in order for you to beat us @ Old Trafford. And despite the fact that Carvalho dashed you a free goal @ Stamford Bridge, you still couldn't beat us. I can imagine that you are very anxious about the game and all this bravado you are showing is just to cover up your anxiety. As for us, we have already beaten the team we fear most - Liverpool. Anyway, sweet dreams. We talk on Wednesday night.

The anticipation is too much abeg. I just want the game to start.

Baba Grant looks like he may be leaving, especially if he doesn't win the CL. He is even stating he will walk away if we win it. Mancini is claiming that Roman already offered him the job. Others are claiming Rijkaard. Me, I just want Hiddink, no one else.

As for Moscow, I think we will dominate the midfield - although it remains to be seen which system Sir Alex will play. If he plays three midfielders, it could be harder especially with Essien not in midfield to dictate the tempo. I couldn't predict the result but I think Chelsea have more of a chance of winning that ManU.

texazzpete:
@Ibime
Please reconcile your opinion that Niger Delta youths are highly educated with ow11's viewpoint that most of them are illiterate.

I repeat that Naija Delta youth are just as literate as any other rural part of Nigeria. ow11 statement that they need schools applies to every part of rural Nigeria. It is the same in Igboland, Tivland, and even Yorubaland. I have told you to stop using education as an excuse. Even if we had 90% education, you only need a few hundred militants to turn the country upside down. Plus, I have told you that many militants are educated. Maybe, you want us all to be Professors before this problem goes away. The fact is we will always be as well educated as the average Nigerian, even better - but that is not the cause of the problem. Mind you, the more educated we are, the more incensed we will be at our treatment by the Nigerian Government. We will also be more aware of our land rights. Have you ever met anyone from South-South? If you don't know, we are very janded, highly clued up and well educated. Ask anybody about PH, they will tell you it is not your average Nigerian city.

Instead of looking at education, you should be looking at the Nigerian Government who instead of addressing the grievances of the militants, proceeded to buy them off, thus creating lucrative financial incentives for any ragtag fisherman to pick up a gun. Face it, militancy is a highly profitable business - way more profitable than any other occupation Nigeria has to offer them. This is the cause of the problem.

texazzpete:
@Eziachi
It's disheartening when you hear educated people use phrases like 'totally destroyed the ecosystem'. One would think that the entire landmass in the ND is covered with oil spills.

There you go talking balderdash again. First you talk about Buguma, yet you have never been there. I doubt you have ever been to Warri or PH, much less Naija-Delta. Have you ever been to Naija-Delta? Have you ever fished in the river? "The eco-system is totally destroyed" is a valid statement regarding Naija-Delta. The whole land doesn't have to be covered with oil for the fish to die. If there is an oil spill in any single pathway through which fish migrate, the fish will die. The fact is that our traditional occupation of fishing is not a viable occupation anymore. Fishermen are catching 3 or 4 fish a day. Disgraceful!

Watch this:

http://www.viewnaija.com/video-1390.html

and this:

http://www.viewnaija.com/video-1438.html

texazzpete:
And i stick by my observation that most of the oil spills in recent years have come from sabotage and the activities of illegal bunkerers.
Perhaps yourself and Ibime can head over to Soku and see the army of condensate bunkerers there. It's far better than spewing out indoctrinated information.

My friend stop talking nonsense. There are oil bunkerers even in Lagos. Your people are hungry just like my people and oil bunkering is an act of hunger and desperation. Don't act like your people are above oil bunkering. You are really losing my respect with your scattergun comments. Just admit that you are looking for any excuse for Nigeria not to be accountable. At the same time, you are being extremely tribally insensitive. So in 1995, it was Ogoni's causing all the oil spills abi? There are many other causes for oil-spill apart from bunkering such as offshore drilling, storage tanks, routine loading and unloading of crude oil, human mistakes and reliability issues with pipelines and petroleum storage facilities. Gas flaring is illegal in Nigeria, yet oil companies flare gas everywhere in Naija-Delta including opposite my grandmothers house. You want to blame us for everything. There was no oil bunkering 10 years ago, yet there was a lot of environmental damage. We didn't complain back then because we saw how Abacha treated Saro-Wiwa and we were scared. Now, we are in a democracy and we are bolder in speaking up for ourselves.


I shall leave you with Kobojunkie's quote:

"There has been reports of spills for decades now. Since the 90's to this present day. It is not the same place and yes, they are farmers and fishermen  but you have to consider how this spreads.  I used to be in school around that area and did hear of such spills and how some people have had their land destroyed by it. Yes the oil companies offere to buy up the land but usually the price offered is not even enough."

^^^Eziachi, good points you make about the attitude of Nigerians. They will look for any reason to turn the oppressed into the antagonist. First educated guys like Isaac Boro in the 1960's told them. Then it was Saro-Wiwa - still they didn't listen. Now the militants are speaking. I am sure they are paying attention now. They say its because we are not educated, yet many of these militants are graduates, raised in the "Cult" system of Nigerian Universities. A lot of the militants now are even products of the PDP election strategy. If we tell them that Oyo people must be uneducated because Adedibu's thugs are terrorising the state, I'm sure they will be offended. Bloody Nigerians!

Anyway, you are talking about Naija-Delta sabotaged you - no, Naija-Delta was split on the issue. Half of us fought for you and half of us fought for Naija. The ones that fought for Naija fought because they were not consulted on this Biafra thing. You cannot cut off a part of Naija without consulting the non-Igbo tribes in that part. In reality, nobody in Naija-Delta had a quarrell with you guys leaving Naija. They were just afraid of being dominated by an overwhelming majority who did not even bother to consult them before they declared war. You guys showed an arrogant attitude toward us, just like Nigeria is doing now - and we were not sure we wanted to be a part of that. The fact is, a lot of us are Ibo. I may be Ijaw, but I'm from Ibo migration - just like many others in the region.

Texzzpete, Why should I ask Nairalanders about Rivers State when I grew up in Rivers State, I'm from Rivers State and I know Rivers State like the back of my hand. You are saying that people in Buguma don't want to go to school. Firstly, Buguma is a rural area - tell me which rural area in Naija has good school attendance - is it your village? You cannot compare school attendance in a rural area to school attendance in an urban area like Lagos or PH. Generally, secondary school attendance in rural areas is low in Naija. Secondly, 3/4 of Bugumans live in PH and they all go to school. So the Bugumans that your friends see in Buguma are not a fair reflection of Buguman society. Literally, the ones left behind in Buguma are the blue collar of Buguma society - fishermen, subsistence farmers, craftsmen etc. Really, for you to say that about Buguma smacks of complete and utter ignorance because a lot of our prominent scholars in Rivers State are actually Kalabari. Probably, the Kalabari have the highest percentage of graduates amongst all the Ijaw-tribes. Probably followed by Bonny, Nembe, Okrika and Opobo. If you say that the Naija-Delta tribes do not go to school, what will you say about the upland tribes such as Ikwerre, Etche, Ahoada or even the Ibo? Infact, if you check the percentage of graduates per head of population, we (Ijaws) will probably be no1 or no2 because only the Yorubas can compete with us in that respect in the whole of Nigeria. If I tell you that I don't have a cousin or relative of graduate age who is not a graduate, you will not believe me. Not one!

Your friends should wait till Christmas time and they will see the poulation of Buguma triple just from people coming back home. Almost everybody who goes on NYSC generally has a bad impression of the place they are serving, unless they are in a big city. They will compare the rural area they are serving to their home city - but they will not compare it to their village.

They can legalise gay marriage as much as they want, it doesn't bother me - but I draw the line when it comes to gay adoption.

Bloody idiot. All these anti-Obamites, I notice that they don't have any real case against him. They say this and say that to hide their inherent racism. Bloody idiot.

Kobo needs a koboko. She hates racebaiters more than racists? She is completely out of touch with black people. Nobody is a racebaiter. Frankly, we couldn't give two stuffs. If Black people are racebaiters, then what will you call Jewish people? I love Jews*******before they accuse me of anti-semitism*******they protect each member of their society just like we protect ours. They even do it more than us. Yet, I don't see you harping on about Jews and their racebaiting.

*******Walks away from thread********No point arguing with people who religiously follow FOX News and swallow their prejudices even to the point of self-loathing*******

texazzpete:
I have THREE close friends serving in Rivers state. The stories they paint are of people not willing to learn anything. One teaches in a school in Buguma, where only about 8% of the SS3 class attend lectures. The rest are off bunkering and stealing. The school writes their WAEC for them. I've since confirmed that picture to be a common one in that region.

How do you discourage laziness when youths in the Buguma region are given N20k for doing nothing?

Please stop saying there are no schools. it does you a great disservice, and marks ALL Niger Delta people as failures. Schools exist in the region, but people are not that interested.

O-boy no dey yarn opata. Niger-Delta was one of the first areas in Naija to accept education after Lagos. Don't forget that we were one of the first to have contact with the white missionaries. My great grandfathers were going to school probably even before most Nigerians could spell their name. Please don't turn this into a tribal thing. We have been going to school for a long time, yet we have not been able to get jobs because of tribalism. Do you blame some of those youths for quitting education when their parents are holding Masters Degrees and sitting at home doing nothing? Abonema annd Buguma have always been some of the most progressive places in Naija when it comes to education. You are there casting judgements and your whole nation is living off our natural resources.

ow11:
I hereby nominate Akolawole to open a wiki thread on Nigerian football in the 80's. Please Akola, what happened to Friday Elaho?

Me too - all Nigerian football pre-1994 infact

Mc Omo:
una be Methusellas o . . . even though I can sense some wiki and google here

Trust me, these guys they are mentioning cannot be found on wiki, google or youtube. These guys don kala.

I don't know. How tied in is Nigeria's banking sector to the International markets? Do they have subprime exposure? Or exposure to risky bonds? China, India etc remain largely unaffected by the subprime crisis and any downturn they are experiencing is due to Government regulation. What is the situation with the Naija market? I tried to do market research on Naija stocks and found that apart from the banks, most of the companies do not even release their financial ratios. Not even on Bloomberg terminal can you find complete Naija stock ratios. Anyway, I still do not understand why Naija markets are reacting to the slowdown/downturn in global markets. Just goes to show that Naija stock market is heavily reliant on sentiment. Or am I wrong? Can anybody explain?

The South-South was divided over the Biafra issue. As my dad told me, even from the same house, brothers would go and join different armies.

ow11, abeg tell them for me.

Lagos has enough traffic problems without street parties slowing up traffic further. Abeg ban all of them, including religious ceremonies that spill onto the road.

Hmmmm . . . . . . . . some of una done old o!

subice:
Kidnappers are not militants , they are criminals and low-life devils. The media should report them as such.

Don't mind them. They like to cloud the issue.

Hehehe . . . . . I thought so. I just remembered that the Kalabari version is Ibiso I think. It means "I am good".

No I no from Naija. E just be say I sabi speak pidgin well well. But then, I could be from Gambia.

[center][size=14pt]We're going to Moscow![/size][/center]
[center]https://ia360931.us.archive.org/0/items/WereGoingToMoscow/Chelsea.gif[/center]

I just had to do that again.

IMO, Ogbeche was very unlucky. Things happened too quickly for him and I guess he lost confidence. But he was really unlucky. So far, he is the only player that has made Martins look really good in a Nigerian shirt in that friendly against Ireland. I feel really sorry for Ogbeche. Every time I went to watch Naija match, he really impressed me.

Ako, Ibiyemi is Nembe or Kalabari. Ibime is Okrika.


[center][size=14pt]We're going to Moscow![/size][/center]
[center]https://ia360931.us.archive.org/0/items/WereGoingToMoscow/Chelsea.gif[/center]

Huckarson is Jackal 

Unfortunately, Ako, this is one of the things on Google which is true because even Schuster commented on it. Like I said, it was all over the papers last August, I am surprised you didn't catch it.

BTW, Mourinho's favourite food is fufu, not eba.

Seriously though, do you know Portuguese eat watered down fufu? My Angolan friend told me.

Breaking news: It is official:

[center]Chelsea to sign £16.2m Bosingwa  [/center]
Chelsea have reached an agreement with Porto for the £16.2m transfer of right-back Jose Bosingwa.

The 25-year-old Portugal international has arrived in London to discuss personal terms and undergo a medical, according to the Blues website.

Bosingwa, who was also a target for Manchester United, was born in Congo but moved to Portugal as a child.

The full-back helped Porto to the 2004 Champions League title and four league championships since signing in 2003.

More soon.