Great news and my congratulations to the young pilot(s).
It pains me to think that there are so many young NIgerians who can equally achieve this feat if given the oppurtunity and proper mentoring.
But as we all know the environment isnt right in Nigeria and you can hardly find good models for the youth.
The youth seem to be more interested in yahoo yahoo, the life of celebrities and making quick money by any means.
What a pity!

How can you lead people when you cant convince them that your actions are for their benefit?
You make a foolish decision that the people and even the world do not agree with and you say you have no regrets.
One of the basic ingredients for successful leadership is the ability to carry your followers along.
When GEJ takes interviews he cant even convince the interviewer or others watching let alone inspire confidence in Nigerians.
Yet some will come here and tell us that he is the one to take us to the promised land.
I tell you, Nigeria is filled with dumbheads!

Like they say 'Power is nothing without control'

Same goes for money, 'Money is useless if it is not used to change the life of others'

Hence if you are wishing to have money just so that you can afford the kind of things the Op has posted, you are on a long thing.

The christianity the white man brought to us that I understand has changed.
Then they raised money from far and wide to build schools and educate people for free or next to nothing. Infact the founding fathers of nigeria and most of the people who have made nigeria what it is today were beneficiaries of this free education.
They built hospitals to provide health care to everyone especially the poor for free or next to nothing. Some of this hospitals are still existing till today and are spread all over the country and some of us have at one point or the other used them.
What we have today as christianity in Nigeria is unfortunately far away from this. Instead we are buying private jets and claiming to be evangelizing the world with money that can be used to setup a world class hospital for free. Or build free schools that will educate the poor and shape the mind and mentality of Nigerians in a Godly manner and build a better Nigeria.
The most worrisome part is that the common people who are suppose to understand and advocate for this basic change of focus dont even realize it.
It is most unfortunate.

I laugh every time people on this forum talk about China, Iran, Russia, North Korea and the likes being able to stand the US. For goodness sake a country that spends between USD 600 - 800bn on defence alone every year doesnt do it for fun (that is about 10 times more than the closest country). They do it simply to remain number 1 and have no challenger whatsoever.

I can understand peoples anger with the US behaving like a big bully, yes its true they are. But the fact is, I did rather have them police the world than Russia or china. It is better imagined than experienced what the world would be like if the power the US has was in the hands of China or Russia. Every black man would most likely be hiding in a cave now just to survive. It is only the US that has people who can oppose the govt. based on moral grounds and the president would feel the heat. Try that in Russia and China and you will instead disappear for a long time. These countries have no moral basis for anything they do. All they are interested in is growing their economies at any cost including human lives. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying the US has not been guilty of this in the past. The difference is that these days there are people within the US who will fight the govt on moral grounds. Such fights alone can cost the president a second term.

In summary, it is plain foolishness to fight the US military wise. You will never win because they are light years ahead of everyone. These guys build new weapons every year and test them in every war zone they are involved in and update them if necessary. Before the weapons are even sold out, you can be sure a better one for their personal use is already on the production line. They have gone as far as building strong allies that will back them any day any time and some of them are nuclear powers with great military mights.

The only way to fight the US is using your economy. Grow your economy a great deal and the yankees will start to fear you. This is what China seems to have achieved a bit. Even at that China is still no match for the US and will do everything to avoid a war. They are smart enough to know they are no match and would be the bigger loser if a war breaks out. Can their economy sustain a war? That is yet to be seen. The US has done it for over 10 - 20 years or even more and are still standing.

So please forget North Korea and Iran. They are just noise makers. The smarter ones like Russia and China would instead quietly find a resolution.

Easy people, easy!
One day monkey go go market e no go return.
For as long as Alams is still wanted by the UK govt. they will get him.
For as long as he lives Europe, the Americas and most of Asia is a no go area for him or else he ends up in a UK jail.
You will be surprised that he will make the mistake of travelling to maybe one small african country and they will hand him over to the UK just to seek a small favour from them.
Don't forget, GEJ cannot be president forever.

I have said before on one of the old threads and I will say it again here. My prayer for all of you (You know yourselves on NL) that support this GEJ and his stupid pardon to Alams is that, may all the results of corruption which GEJ has supported with this action, which are sickness, poverty, hunger, armed robbery, darkness, disorder, system collapse, greed, theft, lack of schools, lack of hospitals, insecurity etc be the portion of you, your children and grand children.
Click like if your answer is Amen.

Table Leg :

Why is it a problem if a man dates outside his or her own race?!
You cant understand his choice because we are not all the same.... If your choice is black women, fine, if he is all about his blondes, RESPECT IT!

I never said it was a problem neither did I say I don't respect his choice. Read my post carefully again before commenting, I said 'Na im choice sha!'
My point is dat I don't understand it. I probably never will.

I just can't understand dis Tiger, supposedly with roots from an African jungle. Of all d women he has bin associated wit not one is black. Wat happened to all d black beautiful women in America? Guy, abeg bless one black woman life wit ur love, affection and money small na!
It is obvious now why d black community in America never offered him dat much support during dat difficult time (not saying he needed it). Well na him choice sha. But, honestly I still can't understand it.

I wish him God's guidance and blessings. He started perfectly by asking the crowd to pray for him at his introduction before he then blessed them.

My prayer for all of you (you know yourselves on NL) supporting this corruption laden and engulfed president of ours over this his presidential pardon decision, is that all the overall effects of corruption which includes, system failures, disappointments, joblessness, sufferings and sickness will be the portion of you, your children and your children's children.

If your answer is 'Amen', click 'like'

Madam firstlady, the only way your property (I presume they are cars and houses) will be sold off by others is if they are not registered in your name.

The most likely reason why you have property not registered in your name and yet in the control of others is because you dont want people to know they belong to you.

Mrs Patience Jonathan, I put it to you that you dont want the public to know you own them because you acquired them shamefully and with funds you cannot account for. In summary with stolen money!

I beg to use the words of NLders and Nigerians, Madam, the God that saved you in Germany is 'still watching you!'

Abeg, which kain mumu be this?
After rescuing him, the police suppose give the boy one beta slap make the mumu wey dey im brain evaporate.
Nonsense!

The moment the Good Governance Tour (GGT) gave T.A. Orji a pass mark I confirmed it was all a huge joke and I laughed my heart out.
But lets go back to basic reasoning. What else do you expect?
They are touring the states and asking for the governors to part fund the tour with huge amounts. There is no way, they will give any governor a fail after they have collected his money.
Therefore it is safe to conclude that Maku and his team are telling us that all the states have been experiencing good governance even before the tour started.
THIS WE KNOW FROM OUR GOD-GIVEN SENSES IS NOT TRUE.
The question then becomes, what is the use of the tour in the first place?

My friends, my brodas, my compatriots, please I beg you, dont accept deceit when it stares you in the face.
Dont accept corruption when it stands right in front of you
Dont accept evil when it decides to come your way

Thanks and God bless

i am glad some of you in lagos are getting the effect I had when I first experienced street lights on the renovated Eric Moore road in Surulere. I unconsciously muttered 'God bless Fashola'.

Believe me when I say it, and I say it without any doubt in mind. Fashola's idea of a modern civilized city is beyond what any governor or serving political office holder in Nigeria now can equate.

Despite the small mistakes he makes from time to time, the man is miles ahead in thinking and delivering. I am from the East and I lived and worked in Lagos for over 8 years before I left the country so no bias intended.

This is certainly a topic that shows those that are critical thinkers.
I wish I had the time to put down what I have in mind.
I like Wallie's points but mine will be slightly different and include some more.
One area that is central to my own policies that I will mention now is 'Record Keeping' as Nigeria has no good record of its citizens.
Without a comprehensive data, its extremely difficult or almost impossible to plan for the future.
Every organized and thriving society has a good record of its people. They know exactly who is who. Everybody can be traced or tracked down.
I will find time to explain how i intend to achieve this and others later.

Just watching Doyin Okupe speak you will realize how unintelligent the guy is.
If Oby got her figures wrong, why not engage her in a debate and floor her once and for all in the debate.
By doing so Okupe and GEJ govt will earn some small respect for credibility.
Instead he goes down the low road (as he has always done) shouting and almost sweating to convince Nigeria's that Oby Ezekwesili is a liar.
Its a big pity for Nigeria how we end up with people with below the average IQs in govt like Okupe and his boss.
A govt that should hv only the best and sharpest minds whose vision and action is for a Nigeria of 50 - 100 years to come.

This scenario reminds me of Femi Fani-Kayode and Prof Wole Soyinka some years back. Fani-Kayode was like a mouth piece to Obasanjo's govt then as Maku is now, and was running his mouth as just the same way Maku is now. By the time Soyinka finished with him he was reduced to a featherless chicken brought to the market to be sold. The story was that he begged for forgiveness in private.

The lesson is simple, dont fight very smart people in an area where intelligence counts let alone in their area of competence. I pity Maku because by the time Madam (Due Process) Oby finishes with him, he will be the govt's laughing stock for the rest of this administration and a serious point of mockery for all of the govts critics. It has become a case of allowing oneself to look stupid and foolish to a whole country just to hold on to dat juicy govt job.

Nevertheless, I believe Maku is also a smart guy, because i bet you, he will never show up for the challenged debate.

ypzilanti:

When we get a president of that mould, all nigerians will sit up and know that the music has just changed.

I totally agree with you

So far, all signs suggest Banda could become a new model for African leadership, shedding the strongman syndrome and getting down to business to help the poor. She has cut her own salary by 30 percent and put the late Mutharika’s $12 million presidential jet and most of his fleet of 60 luxury cars up for sale. “I can as well use private airlines,” she said. “I am already used to hitchhiking.

I am particularly thrilled by this comment. A president is selling off the presidential jet and fleet of cars! Here in Nigeria others are buying and people think it is okay. Gosh, too many heads without brains!

PEREP:

We need results without a process path to the Results Has the process started? The answer is yes
Can Jonathan jail without the courts? The answer is No
If the legal luminaries are serious and wish to match words with action, they should ensure personalities arraigned in courts don't go scot free.
OBJ handled the oil sector for 8 yrs with business as usual but a suppossedly 'weak' president came on board and despite his efforts to weaken the corrupt structure in the oil sector,we keep talking of results as if it will come from the blues. This is hard to comprehend honestly. Nigerians I hail thee oh.

I never mentioned jailing because I know that is the job of the judiciary. However, I believe he can find a way to workout something with the Judiciary that can make them more effective and convictions faster. Well that is a story for anoda day. My point is that he can however, do things that will prevent the thievery from going on. Like Gbawe mentioned, why leave the importation to middle men? Why not buy directly from the refineries abroad? What about bringing in foreign companies who are operating successful refineries all over the world to come and run ours? If they run them and stabilize them then they can hand them back over to us. Why rely on the NNPC who have proven themselves to be incompetent?

The truth is that, to make the change we want in this country requires a few simple things. The problem is that you must have the will power to fight the thieves who are benefiting from the current mess. Unfortunately, GEJ is their product and has his hands deep inside the messy activities. So be rest assured, the lack of progress under him will continue.

Maxymilliano:

You know I can't allow you to get away with this. You made it known yourself that you don't like dishonest folks who dance around and run from pillar to post over issues, so, what other conclusion do you meant by this? If you care to browse through my first contribution to this thread, I stated it emphatically that most of the claims in the original post are open secrets and it will be irresponsible of anybody to try the usual 'blame the opposition' card. How does this justify my support for the government as alleged by you?

I never made any glibly insinuations or whatsoever that Nigerian selling its oil through middlemen is no big deal, what I said was that the originator of the idea, the military, could have halt the trend by taking the 'simple action' you proffered if it is that simple, after all, they govern by decrees and fiat.

I never dispute the fact the rot in the system is festering by the day, but while criticizing the government for its failings, we should also be sincere to acknowledge some of the efforts made by the government so far which is why I keep referring you to the PIB, the situation in the sector was allowed to degenerate this low because of the complexity and the inherent flaws and that's why the holistical solutions to the situation is captured in the Pib Bill. But it doesn't mean that the bill is the all remedy capscule to the malaise but it will be a good way to start.

We don't need to know the efforts the government is making. WE NEED RESULTS. Simple.
Whether those bad things started 300 yrs ago by anoda govt. doesnt matter. What matters now is that under his watch things are not right.
He should correct them IMMEDIATELY! Thats what he is there for. No damn excuses please!

Una go kill me with laugh o!!!
Infact, all I could see in those pics are dolls. Not sure there were female humans there.

Happy birthday Sir!
We celebrate you today as always because you are a man of the people.
May the ink in your pen continue to flow until the second the Omega calls you home.
Nevertheless we pray He gives you more time with us
as you continue to share His literary gift with us
I have just received your most recent work 'There was a Country'
and intend to make it the beginning of my library of your work
Happy Birthday once again Sir.

@OP wants to separate the girls from the women abi?

because if you wore this sandals to skul you are r woman and if not u r a girl

Congrats to him. But come to think of it, it now seems to be the trend for our local superstars to have children outside wedlock.
Is it that the stardom has started to get to them or that the women feel that because they are stars there is no longer need for protection?
Just asking

vedaxcool:

At least he got freed from a strange tradition that has led to more homosexual priest and thus damaging the credibility of Religion!


I think, we are bearing witness to how secular the British actually are! we thought church and state are separate entities. This looks like the Chinese set up, whjere the govt determines who becomes the Dai Lama and etc. Sometimes people aren't quite different as they tend to think.

If the old strange system was creating homosexual priests and damaging the credibility of religion, was The King marrying anode wife a solution to the problem?
My friend, it is common sense, you don't solve one problem by creating anode one.

dayokanu: I think Igbo is a continent

Please respect your age, if it counts for anything, and stay of this post.
We do not need tribal bigotry here.

Tennis is one sport Nigeria is yet to tap into. I am somewhat hoping that the visit of the venus sisters will aspire young girls (boys too) to look at the game differently and see the enormous potential it holds for them.

Just my 2 kobo.

where is Tonto dikeh?

Do I really want my pic on NL. Not sure at all. Thinking about it. hmmm........

As for me, she is supporting and loving.
She has taken charge of everything in my absence and has done a fantastic job.
She is also a wonderful mother and has co-operated well with my family.
That woman is my all.
No doubt, she is the best.