₦airaland Forum

The first of October 2014 Nigeria celebrated it's 54th Birthday and as part of the celebrations I am compiling a list of our top five achievements as a country this year.

(1) Number one achievement on the list is the Eradication of Ebola from our shores

Phew, we all had a tense couple of months of Ebola terror following the arrival of the now infamous diplomatic visitor Mr Patrick Sawyerr, but faced with severe threat to life facing all of us both great and small, the Nigerian Government set all political differences aside and joined hands to identify, quarantine and decontaminate every trace of Ebola from our country.

Sadly we lost a number of our selfless heroes who remarkably put themselves in the frontline as human shields to save us from Ebola.

To Doctor Stella Adadevoh, Nurse Justina Ejelonu and our other fallen heroes who died that we may live, we will never forget you.

Our eternal gratitude also goes to the following:

- Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu
- Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola
- Dr Morris Ibeawuchi
- Dr Jide Idris
- Dr. Yewande Adesina
- Dr. Wale Ahmed
- Dr. Kayode Oguntimehin
- The Management and staff of the Lagos State Infectious Disease Hospital
- Everyone that caught the disease, got into quarantine without spreading the disease and survived to give us their first hand account. You are heroes for life.


(2) The next major achievement worth celebrating this year is the superlative performance of our women football players, the Nigerian falconets at the recently concluded U20W championships.

Our young ladies showed their mettle by knocking out some heavy weights in their quest for world domination.

A very special mention goes out to Falconet Asisat Oshoala who showed serious star power and some major footballing prowess.

(3) To top off on the sporting front our showing at the commonwealth games was a very respectable one with our haul of medals.

Particular recognition needs to go to our racing stallion Miss Blessing Okagbare who proved to be a very capable and formidable opponent in all her events. Lady blessing really blessed Nigeria with many medals.

(4) One big step in the journey towards electrification - Nigeria took a giant step towards the light by wresting power from the impotent behemoth known as NEPA / PHCN and awarding independent electricity generation and distribution companies the licence to generate and distribute power to the nooks and crannies of our country.

It is still early days but the buds have started blossoming with reports of a slight improvement in power supply from different parts of the country.

As time goes on there is likely to be a more marked increase in power generation as major players from the private energy sector like Siemens and GE are working in partnership with the government (through PPP) to make steady supply of electricity a reality for Nigeria.

We will be happy to report some more good news on this come the next Independence Day.

(5) The Nigerian Army is finally making great inroads and appear to be winning the war against terrorist and reclaiming strongholds such as Konduga from Boko Haram. We are very proud of our peeps in the Army and it is only God that can reward them for their sacrifice.

We have been rejoicing with the news that Abubakar Shekau has been killed and we hope he remains dead.

So in all we appear to have a lot to celebrate this Independence Day, so three cheers for Nigeria on her birthday and may God continue to bless and protect her and her people - Hip, hip, hip hurray.

Source: naijalondoner..co.uk

Thanks@temigracie.

If like me you have spent years trying to maintain a healthy weight you will agree that it is an ongoing effort that requires a lot of discipline, particularly if you love food and are more prone to piling on the calories. Well the good news is that there are five really simple things you can do to cut down on and maintain a healthy weight;

(1) Drink at least 2 litres of water: Most people find it hard to drink water because they don't like the taste but you can jazz up a glass of water with some lemon slices or disguise the taste with small quantity of sugar free fruit cordial like Ribena lighter. Some others find it difficult to drink this much water but a very simple way to up your water intake is to take small regular drinks at specific intervals throughout the day for example aim to drink one 250ml glass of water every 90 minutes up to 8 times a day or one 500ml glass of water every two hours up to 4 times a day. Water is also a very powerful tool for suppressing your appetite and helps to keep you fuller for longer. If you fill up on water then you will have less space for food try to drink a glass of water between forty five minutes to an hour before any meal.

(2) Eat four small meals every day: This is a really simple way to eat for energy without bingeing. It is also really easy to fit into any lifestyle as you can split your meals into four hourly intervals throughout the day helping you to fuel up while keeping in control of what goes into your mouth. With clever planning you can work your five portions of fruit and vegetable into your four meals and ditch the snacking. Try to make small portions of healthy meals using a simple menu plan. For example have a 250ml glass of smoothie at 7.00am, then have a bowl of porridge and an apple at 11.30am, a mixed salad and pasta pot for lunch at 3.30pm, then for dinner have a small portion of grilled fish and salad at 7.00pm. You can vary the timing to suit your own personal circumstances. You can vary your menu with stir fries, wraps and low fat whole wheat cereals like weetabix.

(3) work some exercise into your daily routine: try walking briskly for between 20 to 30 minutes throughout the day. Aim to do so at least two times a day or ideally three times a day. Alternatively you can wake up an hour earlier and dance for 30 to 45 minutes, break into 15 minutes intervals and try to burn as many calories as possible during each interval. Increase interval intensity using either a skipping rope or some light hand weights. Try to do 3 x 12 reps of resistance training such as lunges, press ups or weight lifting at 5 minute intervals three times and then finish up with abdominal crunches, the plank and a good stretch.

(4) cut out sugar and processed white foods: processed sugar, white carbs like processed rice, pasta, bread, cakes, biscuits nd so on will really make you fat and feel bloated as they are full of empty calories that play havoc on your blood sugar levels, give you a fast energy buzz that soon crashes and makes you more prone to cravings and unhealthy bingeing. Get friendly with whole grain foods like brown rice, brown pasta and so on, swap sugar for low calorie sweeteners, stop taking fizzy drinks and drink more water. You will have a healthy weight, a washboard tummy and keep obesity, diabetes and heart disease at bay.

(5) Rev up your metabolism everyday; it's very easy to do this by squeezing the juice from half a lemon into your glass of water or you could try adding two tablespoons of apple vinegar into your water or you can swap four 250ml glasses of water for four cups of pure green tea. This will cleanse your palate and help you metabolize faster throughout the day turning your body into lean mean fat burning machine.

Credit; ezfitness4life..co.uk

yelfal: Its because of this kind of quotes that i adviced us to deal with our issues wisely. Lets make effort to keep the bond of peace. Jesus is real, his love is true and he is the author and finisher of our faith. God is aware of this situatn and he has it covered.

Blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada...please save the sermon for your hypocrite 419 pastors.

SamMilla1: I think we should have "Women" section here on nairaland.
This kind of thing belongs there.
I have never come to terms with why a gentleman should be discussing wedding dresses.


And to crown it, it's senator ita giwas daughter.
The gentleman is irrelevant here.
The same criminals that steal our money in Abuja and k3pt us in the dark.

What were the actresses doing there too?

Thank you for the above posts as long as we openly celebrate criminals and rejoice with them when they fritter away our commonwealth on trivialities like this type of their children's wedding extravaganzas we will never have good roads, good hospitals, good schools, social infrastructure like pipe Bourne water, disease free environments, industries and employment opportunities for our people, enlightened and educated citizenry (who do not commit crime, kidnapping or join boko haram) and so many other things that Nigerians are entitled to from their commonwealth because this is how that money is being spent.

I can never, ever celebrate these rogues and their kids! What did this senator Ita Giwa ever really do in business, technology, science or entertainment to justify the wealth she is showcasing here...she is even shamelessly hobnobbing with the killers of her ex husband..no dignity, Kai!

Seun: I can't afford to spend that much on a car. The things I covet - like the iPhone 6 and HTC One M8 and iPad Mini Retina 3 - are much cheaper.

Seun, I really admire your humility and you are a better role model to me than Linda. You are coveting only things that can help expand your intellect and not cars that are a depreciating liability from the moment they are bought; the more expensive brands costing even more to maintain particularly on Naija bad roads.

It's refreshing to see a Nigerian whose mindset is more like the Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and co who are constantly innovating things from their heads rather than consuming other peoples ridiculously expensive products.

McWhillion: Well said sis.

I agree that this man requires urgent psych intervention. He probably exploded after years of pent up frustration from too much discipline. We all want the best from our kids but when can discipline cross over to extreme physical and mental abuse that can lead to this type of horror?

It's a vital lesson for all of us disciplinarian parents, every action must be thought through and well balanced so we don't push our kids into doing the unthinkable.

A similar occurrence happened this year in the UK to a Nigerian mother who was killed by her 22 year old son who also alleged years of mental and physical abuse from his mother all in the name of discipline. He even accused her of tormenting him with quotes from the bible! He is currently being detained in a psych unit and his case is being treated as involuntary manslaughter occasioned by temporary insanity.

So let's pause and take in the lesson from this tragedy and pray that God can console the family and help this man get the right help that he desperately needs.

5.00GP:
IT'S THE IBO THAT ARE UNPRODUCTIVE N NOT CREATIVE.....

OOO, IS IT THE SUBSTANDARD GOODS THAT THE IBO ARE PRODUCING THAT MAKES U THOUGHT THAT IBO ARE PRODUCTIVE N CREATIVE?
IBO KEEP WANDERING ABOUT IN NIGERIA,AFRICA, EUROPE, ASIA.......

TELL ME THE MAJOR CONTRIBUTION OF THE IBO TO GROWTH OF THIS COUNTRY BUT TO DETRIMENT OF THIS COUNTRY

YORUBA N HAUSA ARE THE MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO THE GROWTH OF THIS COUNTRY WITH THE LIKES OF DANGOTE,MIKE ADENUGA, ALAKIJA, RABIU AFOLABI......

Please, all these so called major contributors you mentioned above are beneficiaries of the corruption, nepotism and cronyism that has killed our once great country and set an unequal playing field for generations of Nigerians when it comes to creating wealth.

Instead of you to ask questions and think deeply about how these people got so rich so quickly (thanks to helping their ogas at the top to launder ill gotten wealth, creating monopoly markets in the country, getting oil fields as payment for designing First Ladies clothes, e.t.c) when millions of Nigerias live in slums, can not afford basic amenities or basic education because of their stolen wealth which has been misappropriated and is still concentrated in the hands of a greedy minority you are busy bragging and celebrating them!

If there were not so many greedy thieves in our political arena there is no reason why Nigeria could not have been the Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Kuwait of Africa after all we have the oil and many other rich mineral resources all over every inch of the country!

When everyone has an equal opportunity to build businesses without bribing any official or having Godfathers in top positions then we will see if other parts of Nigeria will not produce similar numbers of billionaires...

And remember the southerners you are accusing of not being major contributors were once devastated by a bloody civil war which wiped out the fortunes of so many historically rich southerners causing them to start rebuilding from a position of disadvantage thanks to wicked policies implemented by the great "AWO" and precipitated by subsequent government policies that did not help them.

As a parting shot, I will advise that you try to eschew tribalism and think critically about what is going on in our country as it is affecting all of us regardless of tribe or race.

When you leave the borders of Nigeria you are summarily described as a Nigerian, not "Igbo-Nigerian", "Delta-Nigerian", "Hausa-Nigeria", "Ibibio-Nigerian"or any other mess. We are the ones who like this primitive behaviour of dividing and discriminating among ourselves, while the thieving politicians laugh at us and pack our common wealth to invest in different countries. Stop tribalism it is a very evil and destructive force that distracts you from tackling the real issues on ground!

jnrbayano: .....Stop chatting on Nairaland site because you may interact with demon possessed individuals...
.....Not owning a phone because you may receive calls from demon possessed people....
.....Not drinking water because we have marine spirits who dwell in water bodies.

SMH!!

You forgot to add stop watching movies like Chuckie and Exorcist where I am sure OP copied all the items on the demon list! Some people really have free time on their hands. If the rest of the world was busy worrying about demons and devils chasing them like this my guy here, we for nor see internet use until Jesus come....the OP wants me to send some demons to slap some common sense into him.

For those of you that are fired up and want to see a change in Nigeria you can start from here to contribute;

http://ends.ng

Also try to attend rallies and protests on ground. Remember all power belongs to the people there are over 150 million of us against 10000 known criminals and cabals in Abuja running our country into the ground. If we all come out en masse, how many of us will they be able to shoot? we must all try to work in one accord with a single purpose to reclaim our country.

Meanwhile you can do your own:

- stop tribalism, see every Nigerian as your brother no matter their tribe, religion or sexual orientation
- stop bribery, don't give and don't collect bribe
- stop nepotism, don't only give jobs or contracts to people you know, give them to the most qualified and capable applicants
- stop the violence, learn to communicate clearly and effectively not with verbal or physical abuse ( I see a lot of you on this nairaland displaying the verbal abuse behaviour and it's shocking!)
- last of all, be an advocate for change and the peace you want to see, check your self and your behaviours then adjust to see if you can promote peace, discipline, integrity and honesty all the time.

Nigeria go survive, my country go survive, Nigeria go better!

I am an old hand at browsing the nairaland forum and I have never felt the need to join as a user or to run any commentary but felt a pressing need to do something in regards to this post and the myriad of responses that have been posited here. I am a thirty something year old who has watched Nigeria deteriorate from a beautiful promising country to a mere geographic expression that is currently run by brigands. However the country is still the only country I have and since we have allowed ourselves to be ridiculed all over the world by our actions or in actions it is time to start thinking of how we can get our country back on track. Let us dispense with the name calling and tribalism; roll up our selves and get down to brass tracks. The first thing we all need to do is begin to get involved from the grass roots up. Let us start challenging things, demanding for accountability and saying no to corruption. We can all get involved even the arm chair critics. The internet is a powerful weapon for activism, lot us begin to harness its powers. Join an advocacy group and pay attention to what the government and people in power are doing. It's time for less talk and more actions. Please sign up for action. If you don't know where to go then ping me here and I will send a link sharply.

Thank you; all useful commentary and usual Naija insults very welcome.