Ibrahimovic puts United back in business. 2-1

Goallllll...iheanacho. One goal, One assist.

This boy life don better.

Apparently, he enjoyed the attention he got for naming his dog Buhari. He wants the trend to continue...Wahala full this guy body.

Anyway, I can name his daughter anything he wants.

Sergey Panteleevich Mavrodi (Russian: Серге́й Пантелеевич Мавроди; born August 11, 1955) is a Russian criminal and a former deputy of the State Duma. He is the founder of the МММ series of pyramid schemes. In 2007 Sergei Mavrodi was found guilty in a Russian court of defrauding 10,000 investors out of 110 million rubles ($4.3 million).

In 1989 he founded MMM.

He was then elected to the State Duma, thereby obtaining parliamentary immunity. Mavrodi declared MMM bankrupt on December 22, 1997, then disappeared, and was on the run until his arrest in 2003.

In 1998 Mavrodi created Stock Generation, allegedly a classic pyramid scheme presented as a "virtual stock market game". The website ran from 1998 to early 2000. The Massachusetts district court initially found that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was unable to cite Stock Generation's founders and owners for securities violations. However, the United States Court of Appeals reversed this decision in 2001, concluding that the SEC alleged sufficient facts to state a triable claim. In 2003 the SEC obtained permanent injunctions against SG Ltd. and relief defendants SG Perfect and SG Trading, which profited from the disbursement of funds fraudulently gained by SG Ltd.

On April 28, 2007, a Moscow court sentenced him to four and a half years in a penal colony. The court also fined him 10,000 rubles ($390).

In January 2011, Mavrodi launched another pyramid scheme called MMM-2011, asking investors to buy so-called Mavro currency units. He frankly described it as a pyramid, adding "It is a naked scheme, nothing more ... People interact with each other and give each other money. For no reason!" Mavrodi said that his goal with MMM-2011 is to destroy the current financial system, which he considers unfair, which would allow something new to take its place. MMM-2011 was able to function openly as Ponzi schemes and financial pyramids are not illegal under Russian law. In May 2012 he froze the operation and announced that there would be no more payouts.

In 2011 he launched a similar scheme in India, called MMM India, again stating clearly that the vehicle is a pyramid. He has also launched MMM in China. He was reported to be trying to expand his operations into Western Europe, Canada, and Latin America. As of September 2015 it had spread rapidly in South Africa with a claimed 1% per day or 30% per month interest rate scheme and warnings from both the South African and Russian Communist Parties for people not to participate in it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Mavrodi

Every

If this is true, then the president is calling for a revolution. It's so unfortunate that the change we voted for is totally biting us in the ass.

Zulu

kenonze:
Stoned? = wrong grammar
Stoned= A state of mind which occurs after smoking enough marijuana to the point where the user stares blankly into whatever catches his/her attention.
E.g
"I was so stoned I didn't notice the movie was in French."

Hauled missile should be a better phrase.


N/B stoned is totally different from "stonning"... .. .. Which is a form of capital punishment by hauling stone at someone until person kick the bucket

The kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.

According to Economists, Nigeria is not a developed country by any reasonable standard. The country's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is much too low, as are its living standards. Industrialization in Nigeria lags behind all the countries upon which universal agreement of developed status exists. Nigeria also suffers from low literacy rates, poor health care and a stratospheric infant mortality rate.

Common Developed Country Standards

While there is some variance in the specific criteria set by economists for developed country status, there is universal agreement that developed countries have high per capita GDPs, good living standards and widespread industrialization. Moreover, citizens of developed countries rank high in literacy, high in health care availability and low in infant mortality.

The most common per capita GDP threshold for classification as a developed country is $12,000. The most advanced economies in the world, such as the United States, Switzerland and Norway, boast per capita GDPs in excess of $50,000. Similarly, most developed countries suffer fewer than 10 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.

How Nigeria Compares

As of 2015, Nigeria's per capita GDP sits at $2,831. Even if you do not adhere to the $12,000 threshold as a hard-and-fast rule, Nigeria's economy comes in well below any reasonable definition of "developed." Poverty is widespread, and large swaths of the country lack access to quality health care and even clean water.

The infant mortality rate in Nigeria, at 69 per 1,000 live births as of 2015, is atrocious. Even Afghanistan and Haiti, two countries well known for their deplorable living conditions, have better numbers as of 2015.

Based on its economy, health care and living standards, Nigeria is a long way from being classified as a developed country.


http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/112415/nigeria-developed-country.asp#ixzz4I57dRJlp
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Na now real fight go start. The sharing formula for the N100m.

RIP Mayowa. You fought the good fight.

There’s an image already being considered the iconic moment of the Rio Games. It shows Usain Bolt looking to the side with a big grin on his face, leaving his blurry competitors behind as he goes on to win the semifinal for the 100-meter dash before winning a record third Olympic gold medal in the event. The shot has gone viral and set off a bevy of memes.

The only problem: who took it? There are actually two very similar photos of the breathtaking moment that so beautifully highlighted the emotion of Bolt’s win.

Two photographers, Getty Images’ Cameron Spencer and Reuters’ Kai Pfaffenbach, were standing side-by-side when Bolt glanced to his left and both captured it. Both photos are getting a lot of praise and being shared widely.

The two photographers took their photos within milliseconds of each other and from nearly identical positions on the track’s infield. They both used 70-200mm zoom lenses.

Have your say: Which of the two photos do you like better?

A 30-year-old trader has been arrested by the police in Ogun state for naming his pet dog ‘Buhari.’ The trader, Joe Fortemose Chinakwe, of No 10, Omikunle Street, Sango-Ota, Ogun State, was reportedly arrested last weekend, after one of his neighbours of Northern extraction complained bitterly that he named his dog after his father, Alhaji Buhari. Vanguard learned that the complainant reported the case at Sango Police Station, last Saturday, after which the trader was arrested and detained. However, it was gathered that efforts by the police to recover the dog, which they intended using as evidence failed following a clever move by the suspect. The trader, said to be trading in female wears at a popular market in Sango, allegedly directed his friends secretly to kill the dog and possibly eat the meat in order to avoid being implicated. It was gathered that consistent appeals by his friends and relations for the police to grant him bail failed as the complainant and his kinsmen reportedly threatened to kill the trader if he was released on bail.

Trader denied bail

The case, however, took a different dimension two days later when Chinakwe’s relatives went to Sango police station to further plead for his bail only to be informed that the case file and the suspect have been transferred to Ogun State Police Command headquarters at Eleweran. A relation to the suspect, who simply identified himself as Chiedozie, told Vanguard that his brother was being persecuted for no just cause and expressed fears that he may either be poisoned inside police cell or thrown into jail. Chiedozie said: “Chinakwe is a lover of dogs and he names them after things that tickle him. He bought this dog a year ago and named it Buhari.  Unfortunately, some Northerners, who dominate the vicinity where he resides misconstrued his intention and connived to take him up. The complainant then claimed it was derogatory because his father answers Buhari.” Police sources, however, told Vanguard that the actions of the suspect “were very provocative.” The source said: “he not only named the dog Buhari but boldly wrote it on the body of both sides of the dog and was seen parading the neighbourhood dominated by Northerners with it.” As at press time, relations to the suspect were still making frantic efforts to effect his bail while his accusers are insisting that he must be prosecuted.

Police confirms arrest

When contacted around 8pm yesterday, the acting Police spokesman in Ogun State, Abimbola Oyeyemi, ASP, said he was still trying to get the Divisional Police Officer in-charge of Sango for details. Oyeyemi later called, stating that: “I have made enquiries. The man bought a dog and inscribed Buhari on both sides of its body. One Mallam lodged a complaint and when our men got there, we found out that it was true. You know such thing can cause serious breach of the peace and ethnic or religious unrest. We are charging him to court for conduct likely to cause a breach of peace.” Continuing, he said: “He was arrested last Saturday and we are taking him to court later today (Tuesday) or tomorrow morning (today). You know an average Northerner will feel bad over such a thing. It can cause serious ethnic crisis or religious confrontation because when you are relegating such a name to a certain person, you are indirectly insulting him.” When asked about the whereabouts of the dog that will be used as evidence against the suspect, the police spokesman said: “The dog cannot follow anybody except the owner. We will use him as our evidence because he did not deny it.”

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/trader-arrested-naming-pet-dog-buhari/

The year couple of weeks  have witnessed the heaviest public criticism of the Muhammadu Buhari administration since he came to power after inflicting a heavy defeat on the Peoples Democratic Party and their candidate Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Much of it has been on account of the unresolved social and economic problems facing the country. Unfair criticism of the Buhari administration especially on account of escalating prices of foodstuff and the liberalization of the currency exchange needs to be challenged before it overshadows the commendable job the President has done in fighting terrorism as part of overall effort to secure the country, reducing corruption and yes, arresting the economic slide before it sinks the the nation.

The Hausa have a saying:  “Ba zomo na kashe ba, rataya a ka bani,”  meaning literally “I killed no rabbit, I am helping to carry the prey.” Wherever they go these days, in London, Dubai, Beijing, Washington, New York or Tokyo, Nigerians get the good feeling of being asked the question, how is    President Muhammadu Buhari? It is a proud moment for many citizens that the country is being perceived differently now that it has a different kind of leader creating a positive buss abroad, the kind of sentiment that can lead to foreign investments when properly capitalized upon. The lavish praise the President gets abroad and the wide public support he enjoys among the lower segment of the local population is, by contrast, given a short shrift in the local press, mainstream and online. At its lowest point, this unambiguous media rebuke has created a wave of sympathy for anyone with a view that runs counter to the President’s.

Boko Haram terrorist leader, Shekau    or the pipeline vandal form the Delta region is more likely to get newspaper front pages today than the Minister of Labour, Governor Emeka Ngige or the Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun talking about jobs creation in the economy. I don’t say that media criticism is not reflective of the feeling of the citizens. President Buhari has himself on numerous occasions admitted that the change mantra has brought with it pain and suffering which he likened to the pains of labor. It is a passing phase.

When they ask the question, is this the change we voted for, the critic forgets how far we have come from the scam-tainted years of the PDP rule. How many people have given a thought to the possibility of Nigeria doing something that the combined strength of Europe and America have failed to do?

There are many today who take for granted the declared victory over the Boko Haram terrorists, forgetting the reign of the bomber who made it almost impossible for regular attendance in Churches and Mosques in many of our cities, including the Federal Capital City, Abuja. Victory over Boko Haram has brought peace not only to Nigeria but to the countries in the Lake Chad region. The world leaders are still at work trying to contain the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, ISIS, which threat sadly continues to become more potent.

Everyone living in Nigeria knows that there is a major movement against corruption as part of the ongoing change. This war has forced the return to the treasury of billions of Naira and millions of Dollars stolen by past officials. On account of this war, government suspects that the biggest trigger of the opposition to the change agenda is the army of the corrupt. With the enormous resources at their disposal; money that is unearned, these forces are ready to throw in everything to gag the Buhari administration. When he assumed office, President Buhari said he understood the outcry of Nigerians and was determined to right those wrongs. I will remind you of his inaugural speech where he said: “At home we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive corruption, the hitherto unending and seemingly impossible fuel and power shortages are the immediate concerns. We are going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us.    We must not succumb to hopelessness and defeatism. We can fix our problems.”(Emphasis added). He has said times without number that his government is dedicated to the poor.

As can be seen from the 2016 budget, this is a government that is determined to hugely empower the disadvantaged groups- the poor, the jobless, the widows and the orphaned children including those of the North-East. As a listening government, the President was prepared to open the door to additional food imports but given the processes involved, the turn around in any such import of commodities would have taken a long time as to coincide with the harvest of home grown grains and cereals now in progress. The market would have been deluged and the local grower given the short end of the stick. Calls on Hausa radio by a rabble-rousing section of the opposition for the “reopening of borders” to “allow food come in” are redundant and mischievous because all the county’s borders remain open till date.

Following the budget, the administration has begun rolling out several social welfare programs. The direct cash transfer to the poorest of the poor, the school feeding and the recruitment/skills training of about one million jobless citizens are such an example. In addition to hard work, all leaders need luck on their side to create what is sometimes seen as economic miracles. As leader, President Buhari never had the luxury of high oil prices as did his predecessors in office. When he first emerged as the military Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari saw oil price, the mainstay of the nation’s economy sank to as low eight Dollars a barrel. He rolled up his sleeves, worked on diversification strategy of the economy only to be eased out of power just as they began to take hold. Thereafter, his successors abandoned these efforts.

On his second coming, this time as a democratically elected leader, the collapse of oil prices has challenged President Buhari to quicken efforts towards the diversification of the economy with emphasis given to agriculture and solid minerals mining. Every    crisis, it is said, is an opportunity. Not so in Nigeria. This is a county that inherited massive technological inventions from Biafra, yet failed to take it forward. We must not lose this opportunity to diversify the economy and our foreign earnings presented by the present oil crisis.

As the country hopes for a bumper harvest this year, government is taking steps to ensure that no farmer will sell at a loss or fail to find markets for their harvests. Grain silos are being readied nationwide to receive excess produce for warehousing to ensure food security, avert market glut and price collapse. By this, government will ensure a minimum guaranteed price. In dealing with challenges of the economy, the administration is devoting attention to ridding the country of its notoriety as a difficult place of doing business. The government has been making quiet but significant progress in this area, thanks to the leadership given by the National Economic Council under the Vice President and the combined efforts of the Ministries of Trade and Investment, Finance, Interior, Foreign Affairs, Budget and Planning and the Customs under new leadership. Everyone in this sector is doing everything in their power to boost up Nigeria.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s infrastructure initiatives will see country making progress with intractable projects such as the Second Niger bridge, the East-West expressway, the green field Lagos-Abuja expressway and important national railway projects, Lagos-Calabar and Lagos-Kano which had been on the drawing boards for as long as anyone can remember. These projects will be counted among the accomplishments of the administration alongside the 4,000 MW Mambila power plant which the President has declared a national priority. Government has also taken several bold steps to boost renewable energy. It has opened the door for a new conversation on the environment with decisive steps towards the clean-up the Ogoniland in the Niger Delta.

The currency liberalization and the deregulation of the petroleum products sale will make President Buhari one of the best presidents till date. The removal of subsidies on the petrol products has saved the government more than two trillion Naira annual expenditure in this respect.

President Buhari’s foreign trips have brought many things to the country. He has energized our foreign policy. Beyond the enormous goodwill reaped from “resetting” age-old but damaged relations with neighbors and distant partners and friends, the President has attracted foreign development assistance and direct investments (FDI). It is generally accepted that good foreign relations bring foreign direct investment. So much is currently being done one year into the administration. This is in spite of the world economy being sluggish and recession-stricken.

It bears repeating that President is a different kind of leader, who just happens to be a victim of the tyranny of high expectations. He has brought positive intention, commitment, honesty and personal integrity into governance. This is why the country’s poor hold him so dear; this is why the world is in love with him. His knack for prudent spending and effective management of resources is in the belief that this country can only prosper when there is transparency, reduced corruption and a drastic cut in bureaucratic red tape. His decision to have a small cabinet, reducing government ministries from 46 to 24 has the effect of relieving the treasury of the burden of salaries, allowances    and miscellaneous expenses now being counted in billions of Naira.

President Buhari should be credited for the the unblemished record of his ministers. This is a government that has stayed above scandal for a year. If all of these are not desirable changes, to be appreciated and adored, it is hard to know or determine what some of our critics want. These reforms certainly represent major milestones in change which have led to a decline of corruption at the top. As to the question of these leading to a resurgent economy, it all means that in a democracy everything takes times. The President needs our support with understanding and patience. No matter how hasty a president wants to bring changes, there is no magic wand in that office to make everything change from bad to good or make all of us prosperous with a wave of the hand. This change is on course. It requires patience. The change is working for the nation and sooner than later, the testimony shall be given.  

Garba Shehu is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/defense-buhari-change-voted-yes/

The Abuja-Kaduna train service recorded N5 million income within the first two weeks of operation, Mr Fidet Ikhiria, Acting Managing Director of Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), has said. Ikhiria made this known on Saturday. The Managing Director of NAN, Mr Bayo Onanuga and the Editor-in-Chief, NAN, Mr Ado Lawal, were also on board. The 1.46 billion dollars Abuja-Kaduna train service was inaugurated on July 26 by President Muhammadu Buhari. Ikhiria said that he did not have record of the daily income of the service. “In the first week of operation, we made N2.2 million; in the second week, we made N2.9 million. “This is the third week of operation; the last week report showed that we had almost 5,000 passengers in six days. ”We have capacity for 320 passengers per trip; for now, the maximum we can carry per trip is 320. ”So, for a day, the maximum number of passengers we can have is 1000,” he said. Ikhiria said that fencing of the tracks would commence before the end of August. He acknowledged that there were some operational lapses on the route, and said that the management was working toward addressing them. He said that some of the staff had yet to get used to the seat numbering as it was different from what was obtainable in the previous trains. According to the managing director, the coaches are overwhelmed by the number of people coming on board. “Some passengers with economy class tickets are coming to sit on the first class coach because the economy class is filled up. ”We are going to do more enlightenment on this at the station and communities levels.” On the speed of the train, he said that the parameter for speed was not coach but track which, according to him, was designed according to specification. He said the train moved at 90 kilometres per hour from the initial 70 kilometres per hour but would get to 150 kilometres per hour in due course. “The slow speed of the train is to avoid accidents as people living close to the tracks have yet to get used to the movement of train,’’ he explained. Okhiria said that efforts were being made to beef up security at the stations and on board the train. “By next week, our scanners will be in place; I am also discussing with Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to deploy more men. “We have armed policemen on board and some security personnel without uniform,” he said He added that efforts were also being made to install internet facilities in the train. In an interview, the Managing Director of NAN, Mr Bayo Onanuga, who was on board the train, lauded the service and said that Nigerians were beginning to enjoy train services the way they did in the 60s and the 70s. Onanuga, who was in company with the Editor-in-Chief of NAN, Mr Lawal Ado, however, said that NRC needed to do more work to improve on the train services. ”Apparently, NRC underestimated the interest of our people in boarding train. ”They need to acquire more trains; they need to increase the capacity and increase the frequency of movement. ”They need to provide food and other services such as internet. “It is a good one; we made it to Kaduna in two and half hours,” he said. Another passenger, Mr Kayode Emmanuel, told NAN that the system of boarding the train was chaotic and disorganised. He said that the management should know the number of passengers each coach contained and sell tickets accordingly to avoid crowded coaches. On his part, Isa Yusuf, who was also on board, said that he expected that passengers on the first-class coach would be given light refreshment. (NAN)

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/abuja-kaduna-train-service-records-n5m-income-2-weeks/

South Africa is once again the biggest economy on the African continent, a position it reclaims from Nigeria, thanks to a surging rand.

Using the gross domestic product at the end of 2015 published by the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg reported that the size of South Africa’s economy is $301 billion at the rand’s current exchange rate, while Nigeria’s GDP is $296 billion.

Bloomberg noted that the rand has gained more than 16% against the US currency since the start of 2016, while in contrast, Nigeria’s naira has lost more than a third of its value.

In Afternoon trade on Wednesday, the rand firmed by more than a percent against the dollar, to R13.29.



The media agency pointed out that both Nigeria and South Africa are facing the risk of recession, having contracted in the first quarter of the year. Nigeria’s economy shrank by 0.4%, while South Africa’s GDP contracted by 0.2%.

Nigeria has suffered amid low oil prices, while South Africa is sensitive to shifts in the commodity cycle.

“More than the growth outlook, in the short term the ranking of these economies is likely to be determined by exchange rate movements,” Alan Cameron, an economist at Exotix Partners LLP, told Bloomberg.

He said that although Nigeria is unlikely to be unseated as Africa’s largest economy in the long run, “the momentum that took it there in the first place is now long gone.”

While the results of the recent municpal elections is feeding positive sentiment back into the markets, the South African Reserve Bank forecasts zero growth for 2016, while unemployment still remains above 26%.

In July, South Africa stepped past Egypt as the continents’ second largest economy in dollar terms, having dropped behind the North African country earlier in the year.

http://businesstech.co.za/news/banking/132926/south-africa-overtakes-nigeria-as-africas-biggest-economy/

Two days ago, the minister of agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, released the following statement:

The Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development — Chief Audu Ogbeh has threatened to shut down any fertiliser plant that denies local farmers access, while exporting the same commodities. The minister made this known following allegations that one of the two big urea plants in Nigeria is producing for export while selling to Nigerian farmers at skyrocketed prices, making affordability and accessibility difficult.



“Two urea plants are big enough to run the Nigerian demands. We know their capacities. But where there are allegations that some people are exporting instead of putting in the Nigerian market, and prices shot to N10,000 per bag of urea, we became extremely angry with them. Thank God now, many of them have started producing and putting into the market. The price is already dropping,” Chief Ogbeh observed.

“But, we are warning against the future. There can’t be any priority but the Nigerian market. If there is a surplus, they are free to export. But, unless and until there is a surplus, we can’t sit by and watch people selling fertiliser beyond the shores of Nigeria when the local farmers have nothing to buy. And we are saying the same to others. The priority is the Nigerian market.”

According to the minister, “Nigeria is a good market for fertilizers, therefore there is no reason to side-track this market and create difficulties for farmers. The government is giving every support it can to people who want to manufacture locally; and we will always give. So, we need absolute cooperation from all of them.”

There has to be a point where you say ‘enough’. And for me this is it. To the extent that I can afford to have some principles, I cannot have anything to do with people who are so openly hostile to enterprise and who speak the language of Venezuela to the economy.



You can run a simple google search on ‘maduro threatens to shut’ and you will see results where the Venezuelan president is using the same language as Audu Ogbeh to threaten businesses. It did not start with Nicolas Maduro — it began with Hugo Chavez who conveniently died before oil prices crashed. Today, Venezuela is a complete humanitarian disaster that is on the brink of complete implosion.

Whether or not Audu Ogbeh carries out his threat, he has publicly shown the type of person he is and the kind of government he is part of. If you run a fertiliser business, you will have to find some way of protecting yourself just in case he actually carries out his threat. There is no way this can be good for consumers. If it was as easy as ordering prices to come down which country won’t be doing it? Why will some countries bother with the hard work of allowing markets do the job of bringing down prices?

For one year, some of us tried as hard as we could to get the government to leave the currency alone and let markets work. They only agreed to do it after they had tried everything else and it didn’t work. But even at that, they cannot help themselves. The first month was spent on trying to rig the market to keep the naira at N280. When that failed, they tried all sorts of things including mandating oil companies to only sell their dollars to oil marketers —an idea so foolish that even they quickly backed down from it.

The latest idiocy is to tell people like me that I can only use Western Union or MoneyGram to send my own money to Nigeria. I have not used Western Union to send money in close to 5 years now and I don’t know anyone who still uses them. We abandoned them for a reason. For the CBN to try to force us to go back to something we walked away from is so laughably idiotic that I will give them a few weeks to reverse themselves again.

Now they are telling BDCs that they are only allowed to add a 2% margin to forex sales. In a couple of months time, the forex landscape will be such that no one will remember that these same people ‘floated’ the naira a couple of months ago.

A few weeks ago, the CBN governor was in New York to meet with some investors and try to convince them to return to Nigeria. One of the big fund managers refused to meet at all. Please understand this — the CBN governor was in their city and they refused to meet him. Nigeria has less than zero credibility in the eyes of foreign investors right now. And less than a month later, he has proved them correct by constantly fiddling with the rules and trying all kinds of shenanigans. They know he is not reliable so nothing that comes out of his mouth can be believed.

The logic of floating the naira some of us campaigned for was simple — a transparently priced currency would give investors confidence to bring their money into the country after they all ran away. The inflow of forex would then reduce the pressure on the naira and make life a little less painful for Nigerians who are exposed to forex through the price of imported goods.

When the government then goes back to its vomit by fiddling with the market. When it keeps a CBN governor who has less than zero credibility with the people we are trying to entice back into the country. When the agriculture minister is openly threatening private businesses based on the idea that everything you have is only yours because the government allow you to have it. When the government is directly increasing the suffering of Nigerians even though it claims to be doing the opposite.

One must say enough.

It is possible that I convinced a couple of people to vote for Buhari and the APC. I owe them an apology. I never expected this. The instincts of these people is to run with their expired ideas directly in the face of all the contrary evidence i.e. the 21st century. In fact, they are not interested in evidence, they are so convinced of their own foolishness. A bunch of undercover communists and unreconstructed socialists.

I have nothing in common with such people and yet I somehow donated money to them and canvassed people to vote for them. I will freely say that this is one of the biggest lessons I have learnt in my life so far.

Was the evidence there all along? Possibly. The adrenaline of changing a government we were tired of closed eyes to the obvious. Sometimes there are no good choices and with or without me, Buhari and his APC co-travellers would have won anyway. I doubt I can swing 10 votes in a Nigerian election.

But what I should have done is to have been more skeptical. Ideas should have been interrogated a lot more. Even if it ended up not making a difference, it would still have been important to do so. Not just so one can say ‘I told you so’ but perhaps to have forced a few concessions and to make them know we were watching closely. If enough of us had done this, perhaps the APC would not have the confidence to be walking away so blatantly from the product it sold during the campaign as it is doing today.

It is hard to see where respite will come from. Unless oil prices go back up significantly, there is really nothing coming out of the government that gives you any confidence they know what they are doing. The ‘smart’ people who were supposed to lead sensible reforms and drive the change agenda have been reduced to actors in a silent movie.

In place of a change agenda that was promised, Nigerians are now offered a daily dose of high drama and the redefinition of extant words. ‘Padding’ now means a different thing from what it used to mean.

If I convinced even 10 people to vote for Buhari, then I owe them an apology. For not properly interrogating the people who offered themselves as the solution to Nigeria’s problems. Not because it would have made a difference but because it was the right thing to do. Nigeria was always the point.

I feel sad and ashamed at the way things are unfolding. I speak to people in Nigeria and the level of sadness without even the outline of a vision of a better tomorrow from the leadership fills me with despair. I speak to some people in government and even they know that things are not working. The government that promised change is now so bound up in politics that changing anything is practically impossible even when they know the thing is not working.

This has been a chastening experience for me. There are hard lessons to be learnt here.

So, even if you were 99% convinced of voting for the APC last year and you read something from me that finally pushed you to 100%, I apologise. If you overcame your skepticism because you thought the arguments that people like me made carried some sense, I also apologise.

All that is left to do now is try as much as possible to keep the government from tipping Nigeria over the cliff. It is already standing at the edge and is determined to jump off. And more importantly to start a process of ensuring that mistakes made last year are not made again in the future. It is the right thing to do.

Sorry

This Best Outside Opinion was written by Feyi Fawehinmi

http://www.thescoopng.com/feyi-fawehinmi/

This is such a sad thing for me to report this afternoon. Just two days after we were all happy that Nigerians kindly donated to cancer patient, Mayowa Ahmed, for surgery she needed for ovarian cancer, LIB just learnt that Mayowa and her family scammed kind hearted Nigerians.

You see, Mayowa is really sick. She truly has Ovarian cancer. She's admitted at LUTH but she didn't need money for surgery, because doctors had told Mayowa she was beyond treatment and no hospital in the world could treat her as she was extremely far gone. Mayowa had reached stage 4 and doctors, unfortunately, already told her family she won't survive it and had advised them to take her home. Her family instead used her situation to raise money from Nigerians. The doctors in LUTH have also denied giving her family a medical report advising her to seek treatment abroad.

oyin Aimakhu, who was one of those who spearheaded the fundraising, as you read this, is at LUTH right now with police officers. Some people also went to the family's home and the place is locked up. Will share video from the scene at LUTH, involving Toyin and one other donor later...

#SaveMayowa raised over $100k on GoFundMe and millions of Naira.

http://www.lindaikejisblog.com/2016/07/savemayowa-was-scam-she-was-sick-but.html

CRAZY!!

Ekugbeh:
Sauce or adonbilivit

you can use the sauce to eat the bread

The Real Madrid superstar keeps grabbing endorsement deals left, right and centre.

So happy for him.

Damn!! She should use a scarf abeg....ahn ahn!

Lower Manhattan as seen from above

VERSUS MAIN STREET

As a figure of speech contrasted to "Main Street", the term "Wall Street" can refer to big business interests against those of small business and the working or middle classes. It is sometimes used more specifically to refer to research analysts, shareholders, and financial institutions such as investment banks. Whereas "Main Street" conjures up images of locally owned businesses and banks, the phrase "Wall Street" is commonly used interchangeably with the phrase "Corporate America". It is also sometimes used in contrast to distinguish between the interests, culture, and lifestyles of investment banks and those of Fortune 500 industrial or service corporations.

PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF WALL STREET

Wall Street in a conceptual sense represents financial and economic power. To Americans, it can sometimes represent elitism and power politics, and its role has been a source of controversy throughout the nation's history, particularly beginning around the Gilded Age period in the late 19th century. Wall Street became the symbol of a country and economic system that many Americans see as having developed through trade, capitalism, and innovation.
Wall Street has become synonymous with financial interests, often used negatively. During the subprime mortgage crisis from 2007–10, Wall Street financing was blamed as one of the causes, although most commentators blame an interplay of factors. The U.S. government with the Troubled Asset Relief Program bailed out the banks and financial backers with billions of taxpayer dollars, but the bailout was often criticized as politically motivated, and was criticized by journalists as well as the public. When the United States Treasury bailed out large financial firms, to ostensibly halt a downward spiral in the nation's economy, there was tremendous negative political fallout, particularly when reports came out that monies supposed to be used to ease credit restrictions were being used to pay bonuses to highly paid employees. FBI statistics on robbery, fraud, and crime at one time showed that Wall Street was the "most dangerous neighborhood in the United States" if one factored in the $50 billion fraud perpetrated by Bernie Madoff. When large firms such as Enron, WorldCom and Global Crossing were found guilty of fraud, Wall Street was often blamed, even though these firms had headquarters around the nation and not in Wall Street.

TOURISM

Wall Street is a major location of tourism in New York City. One report described lower Manhattan as "swarming with camera-carrying tourists". Tour guides highlight places such as Trinity Church, the Federal Reserve gold vaults 80 feet below street level (worth $100 billion), and the NYSE. A Scoundrels of Wall Street Tour is a walking historical tour which includes a museum visit and discussion of various financiers "who were adept at finding ways around finance laws or loopholes through them".

Occasionally artists make impromptu performances; for example, in 2010, a troupe of 22 dancers "contort their bodies and cram themselves into the nooks and crannies of the Financial District in Bodies in Urban Spaces" choreographed by Willi Donner. One chief attraction, the Federal Reserve Building in lower Manhattan, paid $750,000 to open a visitors' gallery in 1997. The New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange also spent money in the late 1990s to upgrade facilities for visitors. Attractions include the gold vault beneath the Federal Reserve and that "staring down at the trading floor was as exciting as going to the Statue of Liberty.

AS AN ECONOMIC ENGINE

Wall Street pay, in terms of salaries and bonuses and taxes, is an important part of the economy of New York City, the tri-state metropolitan area, and the United States. In 2008, after a downturn in the stock market, the decline meant $18 billion less in taxable income, with less money available for "apartments, furniture, cars, clothing and services". A falloff in Wall Street's economy could have "wrenching effects on the local and regional economies".

Estimates vary about the number and quality of financial jobs in the city. One estimate was that Wall Street firms employed close to 200,000 persons in 2008. Another estimate was that in 2007, the financial services industry which had a $70 billion profit became 22 percent of the city's revenue. Another estimate (in 2006) was that the financial services industry makes up 9% of the city's work force and 31% of the tax base. An additional estimate (2007) from Steve Malanga of the Manhattan Institute was that the securities industry accounts for 4.7% of the jobs in New York City but 20.7% of its wages, and he estimated there were 175,000 securities-industries jobs in New York (both Wall Street area and midtown) paying an average of $350,000 annually. Between 1995 and 2005, the sector grew at an annual rate of about 6.6% annually, a respectable rate, but that other financial centers were growing faster. Another estimate (2008) was that Wall Street provided a fourth of all personal income earned in the city, and 10% of New York City's tax revenue. The city's securities industry, enumerating 163,400 jobs in August 2013, continues to form the largest segment of the city's financial sector and an important economic engine, accounting in 2012 for 5 percent of private sector jobs in New York City, 8.5% (US$3.8 billion) of the city's tax revenue, and 22% of the city's total wages, including an average salary of US$360,700.

The seven largest Wall Street firms in the 2000s were Bear Stearns, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup Incorporated, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers.[50] During the recession of 2008–10, many of these firms, including Lehman, went out of business or were bought up at firesale prices by other financial firms. In 2008, Lehman filed for bankruptcy, Bear Stearns was bought by JP Morgan Chase, forced by the U.S. government, and Merrill Lynch was bought by Bank of America in a similar shot-gun wedding.

ARCHITECTURE

Wall Street's architecture is generally rooted in the Gilded Age, though there are also some art deco influences in the neighborhood. The streets in the area were laid out prior to the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, a grid plan that dictates the placement of most of Manhattan's streets north of Houston Street. Thus, it has small streets "barely wide enough for a single lane of traffic are bordered on both sides by some of the tallest buildings in the city", according to one description, which creates "breathtaking artificial canyons" offering spectacular views in some instances. Construction in such narrow steep areas has resulted in occasional accidents such as a crane collapse. One report divided lower Manhattan into three basic districts.

1. The financial district proper—particularly along John Street
2. South of the World Trade Center area—the handful of blocks south of the World Trade Center along Greenwich, Washington and West Streets
3. Seaport district—characterized by century-old low-rise buildings and South Street Seaport; the seaport is "quiet, residential, and has an old world charm" according to one description.

Landmark buildings on Wall Street include Federal Hall, 14 Wall Street (Bankers Trust Company Building), 40 Wall Street (The Trump Building), 55 Wall Street (the former world headquarters of Citicorp), the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Broad Street and the US headquarters of Deutsche Bank at 60 Wall Street. The Deutsche Bank building (formerly the J.P. Morgan headquarters) makes Deutsche Bank the last remaining major investment bank to have its headquarters on Wall Street.
The older skyscrapers often were built with elaborate facade, which have not been common in corporate architecture for decades; the nearby World Trade Center, built in the 1970s, was very plain and utilitarian in comparison.

WHY IS IT CALLED WALL STREET

The name of the street originates from an actual wall that was built in the 17th century by the Dutch, who were living in what was then called New Amsterdam. The 12-foot (4 meter) wall was built to protect the Dutch against attacks from pirates and various Native American tribes, and to keep other potential dangers out of the establishment.
The area near the wall became known as Wall Street. Because of its prime location running the width of Manhattan between the East River and the Hudson River the road developed into one of the busiest trading areas in the entire city. Later, in 1699, the wall was dismantled by the British colonial government, but the name of the street stuck.

The financial industry got its official start on Wall Street on May 17, 1792. On that day, New York's first official stock exchange was established by the signing of the Buttonwood Agreement. The agreement, so-called because it was signed under a buttonwood tree that early traders and speculators had previously gathered around to trade informally, gave birth to what is now the modern-day New York Stock Exchange NYSE.
Today, "Wall Street" is used to describe the country's financial sector. Since the start of the latest economic recession, in some circles, the term "Wall Street" has become a metaphor for corporate greed and financial mismanagement.

WALL STREET

Wall Street is a 0.7-mile-long (1.1 km) street running eight blocks, roughly northwest to southeast, from Broadway to South Street on the East River in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial sector (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or New York-based financial interests.
Anchored by Wall Street, New York City has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world, and the city is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Several other major exchanges have or had headquarters in the Wall Street area, including the New York Mercantile Exchange, the New York Board of Trade, and the former American Stock Exchange.

He should not only be prosecuted, his balls should be fried and fed him

RIP woman of God. Though, u r not here but God's gat you.

I can see that you are not plain. You came with whiskers and claws.

ireneony:
Why do cute guys end up with plain looking chick

Congrats to them