₦airaland Forum

Abba j:
Keep judging d world's sinless and holiest man. Chk urself', U r d wost

Pity you were hurt.

You better come out and tell your own story like the rest of the world. Sinless eh? After wicked infacuation with children that can only confess to the same abusers secretly. They will burn in hell.

Omo Father!

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/farouk-martins/abuse-of-african-children-by-catholic-priests-veiled-by-stigma.html

ABUSE OF AFRICAN CHILDREN BY CATHOLIC PRIESTS VEILED BY STIGMA

Farouk Martins Aresa

Africa has the fastest growing number of Catholics and Nigeria is the world’s largest seminary making contribution worldwide. The price our children pay for their interaction with some priests is still hidden in secrecy and embarrassment. The rest of the world has learned to speak out against Catholic priests held in high esteem and beyond reproach that abused their positions. They are not the only offenders of children by any means but their culture of secret confessions only, concealed the real number of children abused, even outside of Africa.

While the Catholic Church has been sued worldwide for damages, it is noteworthy that the stigma of homosexuality is so strong in Africa, claiming damages from the Catholic Church are not an option. As the stigma is lifted, people may come forward and sue. If it was in Africa that people were claiming damages in millions of dollars, people could have attached poverty or opportunistic motives to those victims.

Treatment for these children that have become grown men and women, if they come out talking about it, may take another layer of re-reorientation into normal African lives or culture on top of other problems afflicting us. It must be handled differently from the way adults in other countries are treated. Indeed, some may have been told that it got them out of poverty and lack of education that were made available in Catholic churches then. In other words, they have to decide if after benefiting from Catholic schools, abuses from some priests were worth it.

Once Africans start coming out relating their experience in the hands of abusive Catholic priests, another dimension may come in. The obvious one can be racism which may over shadow the real issue of abuse of children. African slaves have been told in the past that they were rescued from diseases and poverty and must consider themselves lucky to be in the western world. By the same token, should the abused children thank these Catholic priest for their training and education, stay quiet and be grateful?

Children may hold adults in awe but their memories are resilient. Some of their parents would not have believed them in Africa anyway. It was the same parents that encouraged and dropped them by the monasteries for practice two or three times a week; if they only knew then. Apart from churches, missionaries established schools and some of them had hospitals but not as big as Government hospitals of those days when the Country worked well.

So, some of the best and most prestigious schools in Nigeria in those days were Catholic schools. The students were much disciplined and they compete very well in their final year’s national examinations. Other denomination schools were Salvation Army, Anglican and Methodist schools. There were also Muslim school like Jubril Martins, Ansar-Ud-Deen and Hammadiya schools. The Government schools were of equal or higher status then because the emphasis was not on religion.

Some of the secondary schools that trained Catholic priest were free and some of the children knew they were not going to be a priest but wanted a good education anyway. As soon as they could take school certificate, they bolted out. Most of them did stay on and became Reverend fathers and sisters. Many parents hid their disappointment that a particular child was lost to Catholic Church, would not spread their genes and expand their seeds.

We have always suspected the coziness between our friends and their priests while growing up. There was some suspicion about reverend fathers that could not be translated into the open. Indeed we had different kinds of jokes and adulterated church songs not suitable for writing, about “servers” and their reverend fathers in Catholic churches. If our parents ever heard our jokes in schools then, they might have taken action.

This aberrant behavior of the Catholic priest had to do in large part with the celibacy and loneliness in places far away from home or without friends they lost once they became Reverend fathers and sisters. We had a few that abandoned the church and later got married. Now that everything is in the open worldwide except in Africa and probably Asia, it means children were not as stupid and unaware as adults thought.

Africans are very sensitive about manhood, even outside Africa. That is why many gay African Americans that are bisexual pose a great danger to women in their unsuspecting communities by transmitting HIV. But the diseases like urinary tract infections, HIV and other promiscuous behavior were not noted amongst Catholic priests. It could also be kept in secrecy from what we now know. Lately that HIV virus has spread in Africa, it may be interesting to know how much of it is concentrated to homosexual activity because HIV virus is just as common in limited number amongst heterosexuals in Africa.

In view of the long lasting effect sexual abuse has on children, the damages done to African children cannot be ascertained until they start coming out of the closets. So far, a book has been written about the abuse by Malidoma Patrice Some from Dagara community in Bukina Faso who was kidnapped from his village at the age of four and trained in the church. He had to relearn his language and culture after he escaped at the age of 20, like the African Christians who came back after slave trade to convert their people.

It is no wonder that African kids who were in Malidoma’s shoes, were told that Chukwu which means God in Igbo is the name of the devil. So we were renamed in the name of God. And so it is that many Africans today bear Christian and Muslim names, prefer Queen’s titles than those of Africa they consider sacrilegious. Some of us like those we met while in the western world even styled our names into English. So Bimbo may change to Bim.

Date Published: 03/20/10

BLESSED OR CURSED AS PLATEAU GOES SO GOES NIGERIA By Farouk Martins Aresa

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As Plateau goes, so does the rest of Nigeria. It’s not a curse. The Hausa have been mostly conquered, food as weapon will be used against the South and the Middle Belt dislocation will be preceded by the declaration of state of emergency in Plateau. Unless the perpetrators of the continuous massacre of people all over Nigeria are brought to justice, it is going to blow up in everybody’s faces. And it will not be pretty. The days of absolute domination are gone. It is repulsive that even if named, perpetrators are relocated to Abuja, where their cases are buried.

Apologist called wanton mutilation of human a revenge. It happens again and again. Revenge again and again. They had all the support they need from the soldiers who denied that they were alerted. As they were denying that, another massacre was going on under their noses. Oh, they arrived late and later to prevent another one. The same thing has been going for years and there is no sign of abatement. Apologists should preach to perpetrators prior, not victims after.

They are tempting the Acting President to see if he would over-react so that they will get the opportunity to strike. This may not be a good time to strike because Nigerians have learnt from past mistakes. In unison shall we resist any cabal that try to takes over Ebele Government. They have not seen enough people demonstrating yet. It will back fire big time. They will make it easy for more youths to join ethnic militia and resist the cowards who cannot protect us from either external or internal aggression.

There is enough blame to go around. We have more people from the Middle Belt in the Nigeria Army than any community in the Country. If that is the case, they should not suffer as victims while the Army stands by. The fact behind the conspiracy is that the region is spilt along ethnic lines so the old divide and conquer is at play. We have many complicit generals from the area in the Army but not as much as those they love to please: powerful “a drop of blood” royals that have gained overall control. They will not even take calls from their superiors in Middle Belt!

Middle Belt generals, you are on notice! Go to the Southwest and ask Akinjide who defined two-third for Shagari, and Obasanjo, their trusted adopted son what they think of them today. Or you can ask the Southeast who has benefited from the Unitary Government of Ironsi. When Issac Boro declared independence, these Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa crushed him. Today the same Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba powers have been neutralized.

If the world can respond to Bosnia, they will respond to Nigeria in a bloodbath between the Nigerian Army versus All Militia with the support of common people. Whatever their economic and political goals surreptitiously clouded in religious passion, they would have pushed their luck too far. How many decent people are supposed to watch and see these massacres and play deaf and dumb because they do not want to “heat up the polity”. Polity my foot!

People must be calm alright, they must be law abiding for sure and even provide evidence that not one but so many were killed. Those conditions must also include self defense. The men must organize themselves and provide night vigil to their women and children against those who disguise as or were soldiers, the midnight marauders. If police and soldiers cannot protect you, you must protect yourselves. There is honor in defending your women and children.

Midnight cowards hate resistance. Their impunity can be punctured so that the next time they invade, they are not sure what is coming around their shoulders. They have broken people’s customs elsewhere. It is only when they paid severely for it that they check themselves. If law enforcers are helpless and cannot control perpetrators, they must not hold anybody down so that perpetrators can have a field day.

A hungry man is an angry man and nobody has monopoly on violence. There will always be fools who fight for money bags because of a bag of rice. It is not meant to last any family, it is just to carry you as far as they need you for their atrocious duty again. Those who train their poor as hooligans so that they can have reserve at hand to deliver their message must be held responsible. But then, by whom?

If breaking Africa up into ethnic “purities” or into rich and poor people will solve our problem, so be it. We must not wait a day longer because the pain of atrocities perpetrated on Africans by fellow Africans is too much to bear. History is a living testimony that we have walked this path once, divided ourselves into the strong and the weak, ethnics and tribes, poor and rich only to be conquered by those who exploit the fragmentation of Africans.

Our worst parasites in Nigeria are not limited to fleas and ticks dog suckers that are ready to take us down, they are bastards who do not consider themselves Nigerians roaming about the Country with one drop of foreign blood in them. They will never be accepted where their great grandfathers come from. Indeed, they are considered slaves amongst them and will never be taken back. But in Africa, they proudly call themselves Arabs, Oyinbo or Kora from the Middle East and Europe with religions alien to peaceful coexistence in Africa.

The heads of Nigeria religious bodies are out of Africa. They may as well go on and massacre in the broad daylight as they did the Hausa during jihad, instead of the midnight hour. Why in the night like cowards, to limit resistance? They wave a peaceful religion, caretaker of Islam and their followers believe it. While the position of the Pope was reserved for the Romans except a few times in history until recently, Muslims Arabs have never yielded leadership to others.

Peaceful, as in baby-killers. Their languages of prayers to God were in Latin and Arabic since that is the way heavens decreed it. Recently, people are moving away from their God. We use too many languages to pray which their Gods may not understand. When was the last time an Arab prays behind Hausa man or “Fulani” man prays behind Southerners? Yeye dey boom!

We are sick and tired of the killings with impunity and the use of one neighboring brothers and sisters against the other for political power that position a few in charge of money bags and the Armed Forces. Corruption of the highest order is in Nigeria where those in power calculate pay for one another according to international gratuity while the rest of us live on less than 300 naira a day. With so much income disparity, those few fiddle and gamble on the poor to go after one another’s throat like watching games of bull fights.

http://pointblanknews.com/artopn2516.html

DEAD CAT BOUNCE AT THE AIRPORT ABUSE OF OUR SICK PRESIDENT
Farouk Martins Aresa

We can never underestimate some fellow Nigerians when it comes to a desperate hold unto power. Using a very sick president to achieve that aim is no exception, even if it takes a dead cat bounce at the airport to swindle Nigerians that are naive enough to believe them. In a civil community like our villages, abuse of an animal friendly to man, cannot be easily tolerated without a cry from our elders. But we can selfishly manipulate the poor state of our President.

Some of us have blamed an over ambitious Turai propped up by a kitchen cabinet so that we can absolve ourselves of any blame as if it can happen if silent majority rejected it. Those who are brave enough to speak out and take actions have been labeled radicals. There were venoms poured on prominent leaders from all parts of the Country who stood up for peace. Those of us from the North on whose region some cabals based their muscle flexing on, must reject them.

Contrary to reports, Yar’Adua landing at the Abuja Airport was not a surprise. It was speculated in the papers and prepared for around Katsina where a crowd gathered and rejoiced the night before, chanting “Sai Matawalle”. It must be understood that Katsina has a reason to rejoice because a very sick son comes home alive. No matter how sick we get, we want to spend our precious moments at home but certainly not in the midst of power hungry political jargonauts who could not care less, if Matawalle is dead or alive.

It was not reassuring enough that a statement was released telling Ebele to continue to act; a pending audience with Turai. This is a quandary for anyone trying to rule a country as complex as Nigeria. Before the arrival of Yar’Ardua, there were series of misinformation to undermine his authority apart from the threat of military coup. He was just trying to accomplish the variety of monumental obstacles ahead of him left undone by those who have failed.

On the information that Yar’Adua was on his way back to Nigeria, Ebele had to cancel cabinet meeting of discussing the business of the Nation so that he could deal with the situation of an individual man and his kitchen cabinet. Nigerians are the ones on the losing end. The Country cannot move forward until we settle the problem of dual authorities. We are now occupied with power struggle and speculations on who actually has control of the Country. Who gave the military order to secure the Airport without the knowledge of the Acting Commander-In-Chief?

Many in the kitchen cabinet refused to take a back seat or orders from Ebele while the sick President is portrayed to be giving instructions. When in fact we know he is not in the position or state of mind to command as indicated by ambulance and secret arrival. The reading of his state of mind has been, even before going to Saudi Arabia, and will continue to be Turai’s. The beneficiaries are those wrapped around her glorifying every interpretation credited to YarAdua.

Some may see a silver lining in Turai as the first executive lady “President” of Nigeria. Do not be surprised if you see her taunted as the next presidential candidate to complete the second term of her husband. Many of us may be won over to her side or her party on that basis if she did not blow any goodwill by her obsession with power. Readings from the tea leaves, Ebele has been advised not to seek the position of the President in 2011. It would also not make sense for an acting President for a year to run as vice-president to Turai or anyone else.

So if the presidency will remain in the North for PDP to win again in 2011, vultures and well wishers must not damage the agreement existing between the regions either by power rotation or power sharing by portraying certain element as the one representing the only interest of the North. There was a reason for choosing the vice-president from different region in case the president becomes incapacitated. Some are ready to risk the blow up of Nigeria because one year is too long to give up power temporarily.

Those taking actions from the South also have the deep responsibility to make sure that it does not turn into South versus North issue. They must be inclusive since the South has no monopoly of either progressives or conservatives. Some of those campaigning against Ebele to assume full controls at the presidency are not only up in arms and money but are as close to Ebele’s State as a rotten agbalumo is close to the tree.

There are Nigerians all over that feel infuriated by what is going on in the motherland. The indignation cannot be divided along ethnic or regional lines. There are Northerners who have voiced their opinions about Nigeria being a fairer place compared to the status quo it was before Ebele became Acting President. So we have goodwill from the North to the South while devils also squirt from the South to the North.

In the mean time Nigeria continue to lose to corruption, lack of planning and foresight while the economy stagnates. There is no authority or technical expertise from divided presidency to channel to either private or public sector. Nigeria continues to be every man and woman for himself and the helpless have no direction to look to. Unfortunately, this has been our situation for too long and we seem to be following the waves backwards in our non-paddled boat.

More embarrassing is how we force our dirty linen on Saudi Arabia. A country that has its own problem within and around its region is asked to play big brother to Nigeria at any cost. No matter how rich Saudi Arabia is, they will make sure we are paying our way. Many trips have been made by our politicians there claiming to be looking for ghosts while shopping like crazy on esta-code. Some claimed they were just going to say thank you. What about the rest of Nigerians who cannot afford to visit relatives in the villages?

Too bad that gov. biz is no man's biz.

Nigeria want it so bad but just want to chop and do no work. Foreigners will work but also chop. So it is better to work and chop than to chop and no work.

chosen04:
Q:: But why is an average performing Governor like Fashola being hailed and rooted for as an exceptional performer by the 'join me hail am peeps' courtesy of our Lagos/western media houses puns?

Because in Nigeria, a country of the blinds, Fashola is one eye man.

Thank you. It means Lagos is still dripping and loosing money to special interest. Each of the people that brought them together including Oba will get their cut.

They must fight again until Tinubu is displaced.

proudly9ja:
I don't think it is good news to be honest.

If Fashola and Tinubu come back together, it only means that one of them has compromised. And I know its definitely not Tinubu

http://ngex.com/news/public/article.php?ArticleID=1515

Prepare For Profiling As If Nigerians Dont Have Enough Causes Within
Author: Farouk Martins | December 31, 2009

The problem with racial profiling is that it satisfies the day pandemonium but disproportionably deprives hard targets of resources and focuses it where there is little threat. The best case in point, is profiling Nigerians who are more obsessed with the problems within their own Country than any other. Though misdistribution of wealth in that Country is internationally known and the agitation for justice and fair play vigorously portrayed on Internet and by Nigeria Press. You will be profiled no matter the passport you carry: your city and country of birth is on front page.

If charity begins at home, Nigeria is it. We want a Country where charity, milk and honey flow at it natural level to all the people, not just the very connected few. At the risk of using absolute terms, Nigerians are survivals not suicide club members. Any idle fool willing to die as a dummy is a product of foreign indoctrination. Foreign indoctrination and malediction that are totally alien to our culture used to take advantage of the poor at home, has been embraced by an idle rich boy who ignored the anguish in the poorest part of Nigeria to debase us in foreign lands.

One would think that in Nigeria where the oppressed feel the daily yoke of injustice, structural adjustment of some years ago and daily celebration of opulence by praise singers of the very few dead or alive, a Moses will rise up demanding justice for his people. Oh no, no. It is in foreign land where two elephants are fighting that the grass wants to rise to the occasion.

In spite of our past reputation Nigerians are not known for violence. This is not the time to give up on good character as demonstrated by most Nigerians, it is time to be reposeful and shame the bad apples. If anything, our silence and tolerance for crumbs have encouraged them. It is time to end indifference and make life sour for crooks inside and outside Nigeria. The harder it is for them, the more difficult it becomes for their children. Nigerians hold up your heads, our good character will prevail.

We must hasten to applaud a father who is willing to bring his son to face the scrutiny of international justice on realizing that he has lost control. That is the way we were brought up, if you do not learn at home, you learn the hard way from outside. Parents would report the children for bad behavior, not hide them from the force of law. But some countries will swear for their children no matter what the offence. Any justice is a kangaroo court in the same western world, if they don’t get favorable acquittal.

There is no country in the world that does not have its mafia and 419s but Nigeria is one of the countries with so much potential that fail to turn into paradise for the majority of its people. We always look up to the “civilized” world. All the crimes committed there are mastered and imported into Nigeria. The brain it takes to master and redirect these crimes are needed to improve Nigeria. The first time some of us were fooled that we have become millionaires was outside Nigeria by business legitimately using 419 to sell magazines and other products.

Instead of making Nigeria a suitable place to study for most of our children, we send them out to foreign countries alone or at best with a single parent while marveling and absorbing alien cultures. Then we wonder why they value other cultures more than our own, why they become religious fanatics, drug pushers or drug mules. It is hard enough to control extremists’ influence on young men at home, formative years alone in an unfamiliar environment is even worse. A mind that is idle and blank becomes a fertile ground for mischief, a carrier of Yemen cause.

Religion is supposed to civilize and instill the fear of God in us, except that some of us have “chop craze with religion”. It is not that God never gave us our own or that we never have enough religious problems that need to be sanitized; nevertheless, we swallow other culture’s religion and their ancient heroes, whole without questions. This was the foreign religion that blessed us as slaves and promised us eternal life in heaven for accepting the injustices on earth.

Every human need the fear of God, retribution or our chi to dissuade us from evil ways like killing each other over foreign soccer match; but looking for sokoto in Sokoto is nothing short of insanity. Since the time of World Wars, Africans were recruited to fight for freedom they were denied at home. Our young men, with all the beautiful virgins within reach in Nigeria, are still promised forty virgins in heaven if they blow up their blokos, as a distraction from noble causes at home. Yet, nobody came back to confirm that he got either virgins or eternal bliss in heaven.

It gets to a point when self hatred becomes devious mind that gives in to unstable mentality. The act of this crazy mind, while funny to a crowd, none of them wants to call him his child: says a Yoruba proverb. It may be funny to a crowd when a guy was paid to ram a petrol tanker into a building in Abuja conveniently used a brick on the accelerator instead! Luckily the tanker got stuck before the hit. Which of these elephants cares about the grass they fight on?

Realistically, we have called for individual sacrifice, including from this writer to tackle the problem of Nigeria. Since we know that every individual is created to make a contribution to our society, we must continue to hold ourselves responsible until that debt is paid. If children are not held responsible early in life and reminded of their contributions, even as chores at home, they will make the type of contribution we detect outside. A child that never suffers at home will look for a place to pay dearly. There is so much money amongst these filthy rich Nigerians, there is more left with their children to go to schools of hedonism or radicalism where they learn to inflict pain and disgrace the rest of us.

Until we fix our problems in Nigeria, no country will respect us. Even South Americans are preaching to us to wake up. We have what is necessary to make Nigeria great but we continue to wallow in abject poverty. Our level of poverty in the Country as a whole and in the North in particular is a breeding place for religious riot with the promise of salvation. Outside Nigeria, they see us as one, so no amount of denunciation of one another will solve our problem. We need more of our young educated brothers in the North to join hands with us in the South to close germinating spots of indoctrination. All the power of Sharia in the North for the poor only, Catechism, gospel and Holy Ghost in the South will not do it.

Our reputation may be damaged temporarily by the misadventure of an individual, but as we have other character and desired markets to offer the world, we will rebound. If God does not want Nigeria to exist, we have already done enough in civil and religious wars to squander the Country. But most Nigerians outside the scattered developed jungles called cities have held Nigeria together and have held Africa in place. So there is still hope for Nigeria in children coming out of those places. The only barriers are the few overfed crooks that steal and pay themselves the highest salary in the world and the rest, peanuts.

I find this article to be balanced and fair

DON’T KNOCK DOWRY BLAME IN-LAWS POWER-PLAY FOR BRIDE’s WOE
By Farouk Martins Aresa

Africans cherish the role of in-laws during introduction and wedding ceremonies more than the token dowry. We do not just meet one another on the streets or internet and move in together. Ignoring in-laws, custom or dowry for too long, even after having kids invoke penalties. It could be a stiff levy of a house in Dubai or fat cows on the groom’s family! Excessive fine is an abuse of customary dowry; but some overbearing in-laws contribute more to a wife in misery.

We must separate dowries from the in-laws. They are not on equal footing if we realize that it is not cash but people that have to represent groom’s side to the bride’s side. Money on the seat, even hard currencies, can neither ask for the woman you want nor answer the grilling from the brides’ relatives. It may influence the eloquence of introduction or hired professional arbiters if family members are not well versed in the traditional or religious marriage.

As we become more independent from traditional customs of our duties to all in-laws who are neither mother nor father in-laws, some power-play have developed on who is more dominant in the family issues. Some husbands in Africa and most in Diaspora may leave it to their wives to decide who can move in with them. In those cases, extended family from the wife’s side gain better access. The intention is comfort for the wives not to feel alienated from their families.

Many women have been shortchanged when the husband’s side dominates. They have been treated as part of the property of the extended family. God forbids “bad thing” if the husband passes away early, she may be left in poor stead with her children, even worse without children. Out of shock, some ladies may suddenly become homeless and mentally unstable. The entire dowry paid on them wouldn’t help in this dire circumstance, even if saved. Our law courts have been very good in the division of properties in such situations mainly for those they acquired together, rather than those acquired by the husband alone or inherited from families.

Consequently many wives do not feel secured in the midst of the husband families. They dread their overbearing influence in the life of the husband and their children. There was an Iranian lady who expressed the same fear about her husband’s Bosnia family. She actually thought her mother in-law bonded too much with her child, not her. Since her own mother was not around, you would think she should appreciate the free babysitting services she got while at work. No!

Indeed, the mother in-laws usually move in during prenatal and child births periods of their grand-children. It may be necessary for family members to help with the children through early years of school instead of those cute house-helps. In most cases, relatives come from the wife’s side. When they are from the husband’s side, it presents a burden because of wives’ traditional reluctance to request the husbands’ family to do chores the way she would require hers.

There are others factors that determine who have access to the nuclear family. There are cases where the wives get along so well that their mother in-laws and the brother or sister in-laws would rather go through her to curry favors from her husband. In other cases the husband may be totally useless to his own family and be more useful to the wife’s family. If the nuclear family is struggling to make ends meet, that may close the access dependants used to have to the wife or the husband, especially in African society where the middleclass are getting fewer today.

It has never been a one way street of giving amongst Africans. Extended families will help out a young struggling family usually early in their marriage apart from their usual wedding gifts. The point is making sure the union survives well. Traditional counseling is offered by the elders on both sides of the family so that they can learn the rope of marriage and avoid mistakes made by those who were in the same position before them.

Despite all these generous support from the extended families, some wealthy nuclear families are trying to free themselves from most of the inconveniences. In the process one side of the family may become estranged. They may find out that their sons or daughters are hardly home. It may not be a problem as we can usually catch them very early in the morning or wait until he or she comes back home. We may find out that it is not an option if their gate is always locked.

Throughout colonial African countries are GRAs (Government Reservation Areas). It is totally opposite of what the name refers to in US or England. These are not Indian reservation areas or governments clusters of housing in United Kingdom. If you see them in the West Indian islands, they are the same in Africa. It is a place usually reserved for colonial workers and developed to their British standard. They are well built with boys’ quarters at the back for house helps.

As Africans moved up the leader to professional levels working for the government, they are also allocated “government housing”, retaining the colonial and economic disparities between the ruled and the rulers: a huge salary gap. There is no easy access to these “housing projects” for commercial buses except by private cars or taxis. Before you can get into the house of your brother or sister, a gateman may be waiting. If he tells you they are not home, that is it.

So before you leave home, think about how much the taxi is going to cost you. The chances of not meeting either of them at home or not allowed inside must be factored in. While a gateman may have instructions on who to let in and who not to let in, he knows who the regulars are at the house that may not need introduction before gaining unhindered access. They may be disproportionably from one side of the family and for the factors touched on, the wives’ side.

In most African societies, the father owns the children. But the in today’s nuclear family, once the father is out of the picture, the mother may take over her children with all his properties unless there are other children. Africans fear that she may cut off the husband’s legacy from his extended families, though the name of the children remains that of the husband forever. Chei, it used to be the fear of the bride’s family!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/us/17visa.html?


November 17, 2009
African Official Retains American Access
By IAN URBINA

Several times every year, Teodoro Nguema Obiang arrives at the doorstep of the United States from his home in Equatorial Guinea, on his way to his $35 million estate in Malibu, his fleet of luxury cars, his speedboats and private jet. And he is always let into the country.

The nation’s doors are open to Mr. Obiang, the agriculture minister of Equatorial Guinea and the son of its ruler, even though federal law enforcement officials believe “most if not all” of his wealth comes from corruption related to the extensive oil and gas reserves discovered more than a decade and a half ago off the coast of his tiny West African country, according to internal Justice Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents.

And they are open despite a federal law and a presidential proclamation that prohibit corrupt foreign officials and their families from receiving an American visa.

Susan Pittman, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement in the State Department, said she was prohibited from discussing specific visa decisions. But other former and current State Department officials said that Equatorial Guinea’s close ties to the American oil industry were the reason for the lax enforcement of the law. Production of the country’s nearly 400,000 barrels of oil a day is dominated by American companies like ExxonMobil, Hess and Marathon.

“Of course it’s because of oil,” said John Bennett, the United States ambassador to Equatorial Guinea from 1991 to 1994, adding that Washington has always turned a blind eye to the Obiangs’ corruption and repression because of its dependence on the country for natural resources. He noted that officials of Zimbabwe are barred from the United States.

“Both countries are severely repressive,” said Mr. Bennett, who is now a senior foreign affairs officer for the State Department in Baghdad. “But if Zimbabwe had Equatorial Guinea’s oil, Zimbabwean officials wouldn’t still be blocked from the U.S.”

Shown the Justice Department documents that detail the accusations of corruption against Mr. Obiang, Senator Patrick Leahy, the Democrat of Vermont who wrote the law restricting visas, expressed frustration and anger with the State Department, which is responsible for enforcing the law at the border.

“The fact that someone like Mr. Obiang continues to travel freely here suggests strongly that the State Department is not yet applying the law as vigorously as Congress intended,” Mr. Leahy said. The law he wrote was partly inspired by the accusations of corruption surrounding Mr. Obiang’s family and the Equatorial Guinean government, according to Mr. Leahy’s staff.

“There are many instances of corrupt foreign officials plundering the natural resources of their countries for their own use, while their people starve,” he said. “The law states clearly that if you do that, you are no longer welcome in the United States.”

Daniel Whitman, who retired in September as the deputy director of the Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs, agreed that the law should be used more forcefully.

“We just seem to lack the backbone to use this prohibition,” Mr. Whitman said. “In the rare cases it is used, no one at State was willing to talk about it.”

When asked how many times the laws have been used to bar corrupt foreign officials from entering the country, State Department officials declined, citing privacy reasons, though Ms. Pittman said thousands of visas had been denied to corrupt officials using other legal means. A 2007 State Department report said the presidential proclamation, signed by President George W. Bush in 2004, had been used “dozens” of times.

A State Department official who handles investigations of corruption said that while the measures are important tools, the department as a matter of policy does not want to reveal the number of times they have been used because it would show that the number is actually quite small. The official asked not to be identified because of departmental rules prohibiting public comment.

The Justice Department memorandum, dated Sept. 4, 2007, and obtained by The New York Times, said the government believes Mr. Obiang’s assets are derived “from extortion, theft of public funds or other corrupt conduct.” From April 2005 to April 2006, the memo said, Mr. Obiang funneled at least $73 million into the United States, using shell corporations and offshore bank accounts to launder the money and ultimately buy his Malibu estate and a luxury jet.

The memo identified several specific wire transfers by Mr. Obiang from 2005 and 2006, beginning with a bank in Equatorial Guinea, then going to the central Banque de France, and landing in American accounts at Wachovia, Bank of America and UBS. In one six-week period alone in 2006, Mr. Obiang transferred $33,799,799.99 to the United States, the memo said, which was used to purchase a Gulfstream V jet.

Part of his wealth, the memo said, comes from a “revolutionary tax” that Mr. Obiang placed on timber. Instead of sending the payments to the coffers of Equatorial Guinea, Mr. Obiang, who is considered likely to be a successor to his father, has “insisted that the payments be made directly to him,” the memo said.

In addition, the memo said, the Justice Department believes Mr. Obiang “may be receiving bribes or extortion payments” from the oil companies as a percentage of their contracts.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the memo.

Another document, prepared by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Homeland Security Department, said that Mr. Obiang “routinely travels to the United States with over $1 million in cash” that he fails to declare, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Mr. Obiang regularly visits the country using a diplomatic passport, even though he rarely does diplomatic business here, said the I.C.E. document.

The document said the immigration agency’s goal is to deny a safe haven to Mr. Obiang and to “identify, trace, freeze and recover assets within the United States illicitly acquired through kleptocracy by Teodoro Obiang and his associates.”

The documents were originally obtained by Global Witness, a British human rights group that monitors corruption in natural resources industries, after they were released in response to a legal complaint filed in France against several African dictators, including President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea. The Justice Department and I.C.E. would neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of the documents.

Through a spokesman at Qorvis Communications, a public relations firm working for the Equatorial Guinean embassy in Washington, Teodoro Nguema Obiang declined to be interviewed. But his brother denied the charges of corruption.

“This is the problem when a country becomes very successful,” said Gabriel Mbega Obiang Lima, the vice minister of Mines, Energy and Industry and another of the president’s sons. “Everyone assumes us guilty until proven innocent.”

The vice minister said that his government had made great strides in dealing with corruption. He cited as an example his country’s participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, an international coalition of governments, civil society groups and companies that sets and enforces global standards for transparency in oil, gasoline and mining.

But a 2009 internal document from the initiative says that the organization is “particularly concerned about the pace of progress” in Equatorial Guinea. The country has failed to produce a required report regarding its revenue, even though it joined the organization more than three years ago, the report says.

In 2004, President Bush signed a proclamation barring entry to the United States for any foreign official “whose misappropriation of public funds,” including the taking of bribes, has had serious adverse effects on the activity of American businesses, or the nation’s security against international crime. Congress followed up in 2007 with a law containing even stronger language, barring admission to anyone believed by the secretary of state to be “involved in corruption relating to the extraction of natural resources in their countries.” Both restrictions also apply to the family members of corrupt officials.

Otto Reich, who served as the United States’ special envoy to the Western Hemisphere until he left the post in 2004, said that there was resistance to applying the presidential proclamation even before it was drafted.

“Senior State Department people especially from Africa kept saying that if something like this is used they wouldn’t have anyone to talk to in their home countries,” Mr. Reich said. “It’s politically simply something they do not want to take on.”

The Obiang family and Equatorial Guinea have been the focus of corruption accusations for years, a concern that helped lead to the 2007 law. In 2004, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations accused the Riggs Bank in Washington of having “turned a blind eye to evidence suggesting the bank was handling the proceeds of foreign corruption” in accepting hundreds of millions of dollars in deposits from Equatorial Guinea.

Committee investigators found dozens of irregular payments, multiple individual signatories to accounts and even deposits of millions of dollars in shrink-wrapped currency. Riggs Bank was fined more than $25 million for its handling of the Equatorial Guinean and other accounts, and several of the bank’s directors were criminally prosecuted.

But millions of dollars of the country’s money eventually found its way to other American banks, including the ones named in the Justice Department memo. Wachovia and Bank of America, according to the memo, filed suspicious activity reports to the authorities, and ultimately closed all accounts associated with Mr. Obiang and his associates, but not before tens of millions of dollars had already entered the United States.

“These banks appear to have facilitated a grand corruption, and it may even have been done legally,” said Gavin Hayman, director of campaigns for Global Witness. “Those that filed suspicious activity reports may have been complying with their regulatory obligations under the law, but at the same time they went ahead and forwarded transfers of tens of millions of dollars about which they already had suspicions. Effectively, the regulations are allowing banks to pollute the money supply.”

All three banks declined to answer questions about the transactions, although Wachovia said Mr. Obiang was not a client.

Since oil was discovered there in 1996, Equatorial Guinea has become the third-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, after Nigeria and Angola, with estimated revenues of $4.8 billion in 2007. But although petroleum has made the ruling Obiang family and its associates vastly rich, the oil and gas wealth has not been spread beyond ruling elites.

In 2006, more than three-quarters of the population was living below the poverty line, according to a 2009 International Monetary Fund report. On average, about 35 percent of the nation’s residents die before the age of 40, and 57 percent lack access to safe water, according to a 2009 United Nations report.

By some measures, conditions in the country are getting worse. Though the nation’s gross domestic product grew more than tenfold from 1990 to 2007, infant mortality rose from 10 to 12 percent, according to according to a 2009 UNICEF report.

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Londoner,

Thank you for that story. That was the African in you to respect that woman. In Nigeria most of our drivers when I came back home were much older, we call them baba and the cleaners or secretaries were called mama. That was Nigeria, I do not know about today when young boys ask elders to postrate for them.

Many of us do not do nasty job today abroad but I remember through my first couple of weeks after I left my tie at home and started looking for real buru. I got to a car wash at 5 a.m by an ad. I saw the previous day. When I was rejected, I cried and decided to go back to Nigeria like a mommy's boy. What I see here is that after all these many years, many Nigerians still do not respect the dignity of labor.

So I saw this man in Nigeria while in the bus cleaning one of those nasty gutter. Many of the people held their noses and some even saying it out that they will never do that type of job. I asked them if that man changed the shovel he had to a gun demanding money from them, would they respect him? They all looked at one another.

A man who has no respect for the dignity of labor will steal and that is what we have here amongst Nigerians who are not well exposed while overseas because they get looted money sent to them and even worse for those who never left Nigeria not realizing the need for buru or why some remained illegal immigrants even in small African countries.

There were two graduates in Nigeria long time ago who started a biz of picking rubbish up from private companies. Today, they are so big, they have diversified. I will not mention names but that was in Nigeria under the nose of these losers. They have never been productive anyway, they only spend pounds and dollars they never worked for.

londoner:
I dont either, and thankfully have never had to, but if it were a choice of me cleaning toilets or my children not eating a good meal or having enough clothes for the winter I would clean toilets, without thinking twice.

Even Jesus washed somebody's feet.

I remember when I was at Uni, there was one Nigerian woman who must have been over 60 years old, she used to clean the whole building, which was about four floors. This woman came to work daily so tired and her swollen legs bandaged, climbing the steps one at a time slowly. I used to greet her as "aunty" and the other Nigerians though it funny, (mind you I schooled with some of the children of these Nigerian politicians) and influential people. She sat down and told me how many people are dependent on her and how tired she was at her age.

Because she was working so hard just to keep her family even though you could see she was a bit ashamed. I admired her and remember her to this day.

On the other hand, when one of my friends who I love to bits started displaying her hunger to make yet more money than her millionaire family already had, I felt disgusted at her.

So yes, you are right sleek-p, each to their own.

tosh-acer,

We have to be careful so that this loser of a man does not divide us - we are retirees, pensioners, cleaners, bus drivers, cart pushers and farmers in Nigeria who has never gained anything from Nigerian Government. These are the people Diasporans have to bond with.

tosher is a loser and a loafer looking for visa to go and dump his loot in Swiss bank or human courier of you know what.

In the first place, by your language, you must have been born in the gutter no doubt.

That $10 billion is pure clean money because you will be stupid to send fraudulent money thru Western Union or Money gram as you have to identify yourself but some of you in Nigeria dont know that. FBI will pay you a visit, so your fraud will be exposed.

That Nigeria politicians send much more than that outside. To whom, to their bank account or Diasporans who then send it back home? You wonder if people put on their thinking cap. Is that not the source of our problem? Politicians exchanging hard earned money, black gold for mirrows and toys.

That Chinese, Arabs etc take more out of Nigeria. In colusion with whom? Do these foreigners work as hard for their money as Nigerians do abroad? Whose fault is that if well placed Nigerians at home open their treasury for foreigners?

That some Diasporans live in shacks and do dirty work. If they do it in Nigeria and those who do it in Nigeria, what do they get paid? Can they feed their families with it? Out of their sweat, they send money home so that their relatives do not have to work as hard and if they do, will never get paid, or on time.

Diasporans do not brag about sending money home, they do it as a duty but some ingrates in Nigeria who can never work for money but know how to play 419 telling Diasporan they are building houses for them, they should send more money, they lend it to their brother and mother, they should send more money, they gave it to their father, send more money to marry etc.

They come back and ask -  How much is 100,000 ; how much is $100.00; how much is $10 billion. A pure characteristic of a loser and a loafer who never work for money.



[quote author=tosh_acer link=topic=349109.msg4918079#msg4918079 date=1258123467]what the fu ck? where was i when this useless thread was opened?

You send money to feed your hungry families and then you think you deserve national award for that? Whats going on here? Who is praising who? Drug money and credit card fraud money wire back to Nigeria and y'all think you deserve national award for that? when will this self deception stop? Lets start another topic to say, all diasporians deserve awards because they send money home to feed their hungry families - what the F? dont send it, and wait what becomes of your family, and beside, most of them borrowed money to travel hence they have to pay it back. what the F?

Do these goons know how much an average American business man in Nigeria takes out of Nigeria to America yearly? Do you know how much the Chinese, Indians, South Africans make from Nigeria and send back to their home country daily? We talking billions daily, in the same dead economy, in the ame failed system, in the same rotten egemony that you ran away from, do you know how much? You stay there praising yourselves for sending money to feed your family! What arrant nonsence![/quote]

Beaf,

I know people risking their lives and health sleeping in taxis so that they can send money home. Sometimes we have to call a few of them warn them that we will not contribute money for their families if they die in cabs. Of course, all Nigerians no matter from where contribute once a disaster happens.

We are talking about illegal immigrants, what about legal professional working from one office jobs in the day to nasty jobs after to get enough to send money home? Or doctors working from hospitals to clinics and nurses working overtime until they colaspe. Abeg some people make me mad.

ezeagu:
Where did you see the high rate, are you from ideato? And if so where are the other stories of ritual killings from this place?

My broda, Na true true you talk. Have a nice day.

diggler:
I aint no diasporan, but i've gotta give a big shout out to our hustlers out there.

Y'all are really keeping this economy afloat (at least for the common man)

i know a lot of so called Big boys back here, who have been given chances to travel out by family out there, but refused simply becos they know if they leave, they will have to work for every cent as opposed to flexing on their ppls sweat blood back home.

Also, i feel that if these remittances capture the informal & other aspects, the figure is closer to $20billion.

Some of my diasporan peeps, even boast of wealth over here that makes the life they live ove there such an irony

May God bless you my broda. They are trying to divide us and conquer us. Home based or Diasporan, we all feel the same pain for Nigeria. Selfishness has taken away our culture to be our brother's keeper. We must focus on defeating the forces of evil so that Nigeria can return to the average man like me and you.

Some people can twist sha. Low rate of ritual killing or people are fed up of too many!

ezeagu:
The fact they are protesting shows the level of tolerance and low rate of ritual killings in this community, good move by the local women.

If they get that in foreign aid with all the conditions or as Paris Club loan, they will be grateful. But these are Nigerians in Diaspora, take it and kick their butts. Nobody sould be surprised that these few people in number still oppress us in Nigeria. They have ardent supporters.

Beaf:

It is a cool [size=14pt]61%[/size] of the proposed N2.46 Trillion budget for 2010 http://allafrica.com/stories/200910080502.html

See twisted logic on display. So those who stashed billions abroad are Diasporans? I thought they run away from Diasporan so that they would not be humiliated. We call the them AKOTILETA or traitor parasites. They are part and prcel of you, never leave home except for short short visit to deposit their loot if their green passport they carry about is allowed in. You must be one of them. If you see the way they spend, you will know they have never worked for a dollar or pound.

It is $10 billion is peanut, eh? Out of $180? Only a Nigerian like you would say that.

quote]

KunleOshob:
Well considering the fact that Nigeria's GDP is in excess of $180 billion [and that is taking into account only the legitimate and formal aspect of the economy which actually accounts for less than 50% of the National economy] one would realize that the so called $10 billion being sent home is peanuts. I would like a comparrison with how much is being siphoned out yearly, stashed away abroad by our politicians and sent to support our struggling brothers over there. I am sure this would be well in excess of the $10 billion our diaspora folks are getting excited about.

[quote][/quote]

I don tire for these victims wey dey blame my dear Country. If you cannot beat us join us now. Afteral there are so many of u and only about 10% of us. Abeg comot make we enjoy Nigeria, the most beautiful country in the world. No soso whin una dey whin because una dey jealous. Make jelousy nor kill una!

This anti nonsense are now glorifying the misery of those running away risking their lives to get away from what? People they love, a land they love and the culture they cherish.

They do not ask what is it they are running from. These are people who would rather die in the desert than die slowly of hunger at home. This is what fools are glorifying. The face of sadness and failure.

Nigeria, a Country flowing with milk and honey diverted by a few away from the majority.  Look at their agents blaming the victims.

The victims of ASAP, the retirees and children picking from the dumps say Allah go punish una and una children wey nor sabi Nigerian languages well well.

I guess all the pensioners and retirees dying before collecting their money are Diasporians, abi no be so?

All those who hijack workers' salaries are Diasporians, no be so?

Most of you, certainly not all, are agents of looters who wants to divide us and dehumanize us so that they can keep the status quo.

All they cry about is that they can not launder their loot because of green passport. Stay there in Nigeria and rot in your rut so that poor people can breath for a change.

Nothing will stop Diasporians for fighting to come back home to their fatherland they love so much. People want to come to a better home, they want to run out with green passport and launder money.

Their children can not even speak any Nigerian languages, na soso American and British schools them dey go. While children who have never been to Nigeria because of these looters speak and sing in Nigeria languages. Ask their children what is his name in Ibibio,"oh my parents do not speak Yoruba to me".  SHAME!

Nigerians are crossing the desert just to get three meals a day and we are rejected by countries we used to feed and nurture in Africa, yet these vultures can talk.

God punish una!

By the way, many Nigerians are doing fine but it is not enough without our home. As for those struggling, that is your shame. But they can still eat, drink and send their children to good schools including Nigeria culture schools, which they could not in Nigeria.

Na God go punish una. Na retirees and pensioners living in Nigeria, curse una no be me o.

Are these AKOTILETA Or Diasporians?

Money laundering: Nigeria tops GIABA’s evaluation report list
National NewsNov 11, 2009
By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA — Director-General of the Inter-governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in West Africa (GIABA), Dr Abdullahi Shehu, yesterday in Abuja disclosed that Nigeria came top on the list of countries that has failed to comply with anti-money laundering standards as set out by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Shehu who stated this at the anti-corruption and Financial Crimes Summit that ended in Abuja yesterday, further said among 12 West African countries that were subjected to a mutual evaluation programme by GIABA, Nigeria was found wanting in the area of terrorist financing in Africa.

GIABA is a specialised agency under ECOWAS that monitors cases of money laundering and terrorist financing among member states as well as deals with predicate offences like fraud, corruption, drug trafficking and other economically motivated crimes.

Recommending that the Federal Government evolve strategies towards encouraging alternative means of transaction by public officers in the country, he equally advocated the speedy implementation of non-conviction based asset forfeiture and stolen state asset recovery initiative, which he said would help to combat corruption and financial crimes in Nigeria.

He further bemoaned the fact that public officers in the country prefer to stash their stolen money abroad instead of re-investing it in the country, stressing that though his agency will offer technical assistance to Nigeria, it could not go the extra mile of recovering such stolen assets for it.

According to him, “Nigeria no doubt is a great nation with great resources, but the truth remains that this country today ranks high among countries with prevalent cases of money laundering in the world, considering the mutual evaluation report recently released by GIABA.

“I don’t think that absence of policy framework is the issue, rather the problem I think lies in the absence of strong political will by public officers in this country.
“The EFCC cannot be said to have done enough until it not only prosecute all the political criminals in this country irrespective of their status, but also prove that the money recovered from them was directed towards economic empowerment.

“GIABA cannot recover stolen assets for Nigeria, we can only help to prevent the spillage of such asset and we are recommending that more emphasis be placed on commiserate punishment for offenders despite their status in the society.

2legit2?,

My broda, why now? Abeg no curse, face facts and reply with facts.

Your green passport to go where? If your Country sweet you so, why come out? I pity you o. You nor know where 419 start? Na one section for Nigerian law o, my broda.

No matter where you go, the whole world know where 419 letters come from. Those who are greedy enough have honored your invitation to Nigeria. All your politicians, and you must be one because you say na lie outside paper dey talk about how much una dey put Delta money for outside bank. Bank nor dey Nigeria?

Even bank for Nigeria, una loot am and put money outside. Wetin una dey find for outside with these green passports wey dey pain you so? Stay home!

Diasporians can not wait to come home if they are not there already. Please, please read my post again and respond to fact. A nor dey for curse o, my broda.

2legit,

Read the whole page before you answer because you make no sense at all.

"So"! Is that an answer? It shows how much you care. Greedy Nigerians hoping the system will stay the same so that he can exploit their people to death.

Who told you Diasporians are not coming home? They come home, send their money home and you envy them and want to eat, drink, wear and live like them. But you are too lazy to work hard so you have to loot and take the money outside of the Country.

Ole, akotileta who brags about going out for vacation and medical check ups instead of providing same where you live.

Which schools do you brag of sending your children? Overseas or some American or British schools in Nigeria. Go on, fool us that you care about Nigeria when your money and your heart are outside Nigeria - SHAME!

Those outside are praying to go home, akotileta are throwing every treasure Nigeria has outside. Tell us, who is pointing to his home with the left hand.

1. You can not stay in one place and know what is going on all over Nigeria unless you read newspaper, watch TV and go on internet. But most people in Nigeria can not afford to while most people outside Nigeria can. So they are better informed than those at home.

2. The days of moving printing machines from one house to another running away from authorities are gone. Damaging info can not be printed in Nigeria, it can be printed and debated outside Nigeria and out of reach of the dictators.

3. To appreciate Nigeria, you have to compare it to other places. Smiling and suffering in Nigeria is not good enough. Those of you who are blaming Diasporans make up less than 10% of Nigerians who are rich and spend whatever money you make outside Nigeria or on products made outside Nigeria. What about 90% of Nigerians?

4. Diasporians send more money home to families than all of you care to spend on the same extended families. You only care about your nuclear families and live in places extended families can not reach you.

5. The amount of businesses created by Diasporians employ Nigerians in various fields. They build houses in Nigeria they do not live in. All the money you people at home make legally and illegally are saved and spent outside. All your businesses employ cronies and you loot the banks or treasury.

6. The dedicated Nigerians are the lower middle class that is disappearing and the poor who are exploited and have no where to go. Most others are oppressors who pay their workers low wages.

7. Good Nigerians at home struggle to change but most of the loud mouths here love the status quo and hate those who call for change. It is true, Nigeria is a failed State and Ghana has to come and preach to you. You remember them? Those you kicked out!

8. Diasporians will not stop until the poor man in Nigeria can afford three or two meals a day.

9. Diasporians are coming home in large numbers and making a difference. Nigeria belongs to us all and nobody is going to shut anyone up until the failed State become a Country for its people. It is THAT Country now, we must make it OURs.

1.  You can not stay in one place and know what is going on all over Nigeria unless you read newspaper, watch TV and go on internet. But most people in Nigeria can not afford to while most people outside Nigeria can. So they are better informed than those at home.

2.  The days of moving printing machines from one house to another running away from authorities are gone. Damaging info can not be printed in Nigeria, it can be printed and debated outside Nigeria and out of reach of the dictators.

3.  To appreciate Nigeria, you have to compare it to other places. Smiling and suffering in Nigeria is not good enough. Those of you who are blaming Diasporans make up less than 10% of Nigerians who are rich and spend whatever money you make outside Nigeria or on products made outside Nigeria. What about 90% of Nigerians?

4.  Diasporians send more money home to families than all of you care to spend on the same extended families. You only care about your nuclear families and live in places extended families can not reach you.

5.  The amount of businesses created by Diasporians employ Nigerians in various fields. They build houses in Nigeria they do not live in. All the money you people at home make legally and illegally are saved and spent outside. All your businesses employ cronies and you loot the banks or treasury.

6.  The dedicated Nigerians are the lower middle class that is disappearing and the poor who are exploited and have no where to go. Most others are oppressors who pay their workers low wages.

7.  Good Nigerians at home struggle to change but most of the loud mouths here love the status quo and hate those who call for change. It is true, Nigeria is a failed State and Ghana has to come and preach to you. You remember them? Those you kicked out!

8.  Diasporians will not stop until the poor man in Nigeria can afford three or two meals a day.

9. Diasporians are coming home in large numbers and making a difference. Nigeria belongs to us all and nobody is going to shut anyone up until the failed State become a Country for its people. It is THAT Country now, we must make it OURs.

So far, I have not heard of any specific offence unless going to the market is one. As for thugs, my body guards are thugs to you and your body guards are thugs to me.

To remove an Oba, they have to be more specific like killing a pregnant woman for rituals or so. Otherwise, it is all politics. Another Oba was removed because he called himself a Xtian and refused to performe some human sacrifice ritual. It boils down to money and politics abeg.

Acer,

What do you do for a living more than loot and spend the loot outside of Nigeria. As you were called in that article I referred you to earlier. You are Omoakotileta. Stop complaining those who contribute more than all the the foreign aid given to you by your masters from the same money you carry to them.

You Dont Pay Tax, You Dont Vote, Yet You Shout How Bad Naija Is A Shit Hole.
« on: Today at 10:04:04 AM »

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is this not arrant nonsense? You want things to improve, yet, you dont vote, you dont pay tax, you shout on top of your voice on NairaLand how things are bad- why

Tosh Acer,

You will love this:

Ngex.com

Farouk Martins Hunger As Weapon Of War To Bankrupt Nigeria Worse Than Biafra War
Author: Farouk Martins | October 30, 2009
There is no point fooling ourselves about some greedy access to Nigeria’s Treasury, since many without contact are waiting in the corridor for their turns to loot our assets to ashes. This war against Nigeria is longer and more deadly than the Biafra war.

Yet these few Nigerians from a tiny part of our populace, are our kin and friends. They are so powerful, nobody has been able to stop them thus far. Their worst punishment is a couple of years in prison hotels. Helplessly, we watch more of our children in the North and the South scavenge toxic dump to eke a living.

Give many Nigerians the choice of either a couple of years in prison hospitals as billionaires like Bode George, less years like Tafa Balogun or none like Andy Uba and Tony Anenih or die slowly of hunger, they would go to prison. If some Nigerians had a choice between crossing the desert pregnant, ending up in foreign prisons or a couple of years in Nigerian prison inns with billions waiting for them, they would chose Nigerian prisons. Indeed, soldiers would rather die gallantly fast by the hail of bullets in a war than die sluggishly of 1-0-0, 0-1-0, or 0-0-1 hunger in our land!

Nigerians have fought a civil war before, but not this type of deprivation that is invisible and undefined lacking concerted strategy to attack and cut its head off. It is almost a one sided battle as these general of looters conquer every institution in the Country like the spoil of war with impunity and little resistance because they are our kin and friends. Since a few of our kin and friends have declared war of deprivation on us, we don’t need invading army as enemies.

During the Biafran war, we had generals on both sides fighting for a conviction, a cause or oil against formidable opponent. In the war against corruption, Nigerians are no match for these political generals. All the training at Royal Military Academy and National Institute of Policy and Strategy Studies only taught us how to overwhelm our people not create surplus and conquer hunger. Instead, they are killing women and children with one of those weapons of war- hunger. After all, they claimed they only loot millions in US dollars compared to these new billionaires.

Anyone who can hijack salaries can kill us slowly. You can see and quantify atrocities of war but our war of corruption is insidious. You have to do an analysis and prove intellectual correlation to corroborate evidence for the adherent of due process to convict. Even then, cronies would argue about it and compare it with their own paid research. By the time we finally agree on the culprits, the house has burnt to the ground and lives lost. Nigeria would be gone. Watch how angry supporters of convict, Bode George who had sued for libel, reacted at the court house.

If Chairman of Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Hamman Tukur, had it right that we are speeding recklessly to destruction, as if we and the looters don’t know that, no more Country would be left to manage. Some parts of Nigeria will merge with Niger, some with Benin Republic and the rest, maybe with Cameroon. A movie of Nigerians in Nollywood carrying bowls to tiny West African countries asking for jara, may wake us up, or make us revolt.

So who will save us from ourselves but us? Every reasonable voice from the time of Awolowo’s dire warning of the consequences of our profligacy to that of a late convert, the new prophet of doom in charge of politicians excessive salary, Chairman of MAFC, always fall by the wayside. Any silver lining in financial prudence under colonial masters and some unpopular governments, haves been squandered. They handed back our treasures to foreigners under successive rulers. Today, it is excess crude oil account that is being depleted, the next target is foreign reserve.

Yeah, sure, as if they care about what is next! These are the ones whose only achievement and pride in life is how hard they fought to keep us together so that they can loot the Country to death. We need to debunk that aggrandizement. We know the difference between those who were willing to die to get rid of Nigeria’s ten-percent kickbacks and those willing to fight to fat on other peoples’ natural resources. Who care more about Nigeria’s unity, rogues fighting for spoil of war or patriots who could not stomach 10% kickbacks then?

In the same country we tolerate armed robbers to be shot at the Bar-Beach, Sharia courts cut off arms and legs for stealing goats. But no such public drama for those who stole too much to know the worth of their loot, have no idea how it is generated or not care less. They glorify their loot without the shame that made the Chinese hang, which made Americans like Madoff lose the key of his jail house. Well, in Nigerians they wear their badge of indignity with a wink.

Many of them who think they and their children are immunized to Nigeria’s poverty have lost their lineage in the Country. Their children and grandchildren will remain foreigners spread all over the world or absorbed by neighboring countries. They have reduced those who cannot take the risk to cross the desert or means to sell themselves abroad to praying to win visa lottery, even in their old age. Raise objection, and be struck down or given a wound to nurse.

Hear them, rail against those who made something of themselves outside without subsidy from home: These Nigerians out of the Country are throwing stones back home giving us bad image base on cynicism. Well, at least those ones aim their stones at vultures at home. How can they explained those Judas or traitors, omo-akotileta, throwing hard earned and God given treasures out of Africa to ever-fed countries paved with gold, milk and honey produced by modern serfs?

Those abroad who sweat to build houses to return to, wonder if sweet home they grew up in will be there by the time they return from exiled as economic refugee? How long their personal savings will provide polluting generators and water for their families. You miss Nigeria not when you are hungry but when you have enough to eat and drink.

When you are hungry and cannot feed your family, the fear of hunger grips and stares, Nigeria is the last place in your mind. But we can afford to reminiscent again as we become comfortable in either Nigeria or abroad.

Tosh Acer

the Nigerians abroad are so foolish and stupid for doing that to the woman. They should first of all fish out all the dupes, thieves, murderers, rapists, forgers, credit card thieves, and dubious Nigerians amongst themselves before shouting on people who come to visit from home, or are they saying they dont know them? These are people who forged papers to travel abroad, these are people who dont pay one sigle tax in Nigeria, these are people who says Nigeria is a failed state and doomed, these are people who should all be shot first but because they are abroad, they seem to have become the saviour of Nigeria- bull crap people. Giving the opportunity, all of them will be rounded up, tried and sent to jail and thats when they will know how to shut up.

Tosh

You have a problem.
You need to find out how much they send home yearly to care for those who can not get a kobo from the useless politicians who come out and waste your taxes and resources abroad. You need to find out how many projects they start in Nigeria: jobs, housing construction and other businesses.
Yet they do not pay taxes? Who pays taxes in Nigeria and how much until they need freebies from government?

Mekuslogan is really a dum dum.

Okadigbo was pardoned by his cohorts and this guy is asking which court convicted him. He was pardoned, pre-empted before they drag his butt to court or jail. Andy Uba also got away. A Yoruba judge will not let a Yoruba rogue get away.


Which court convicted Okadigbo? Assuming he stole, how much was it and why was he not jailed. Who were his cohorts? The senators? If so how many senators are there and what tribes do they come from? I thought Okadigbo was Obasanjo's enemy. Look my friend, Okadigbo's case was politics played by Obj, every other idiot except you knows that.

Igbo do not steal at all. That is why Chuka Okadigbo who stole Nigeria blind was pardoned by his cohort as if it is their money he stole.  So far Yoruba are held accountable by Yoruba judges.