₦airaland Forum

http://www.thesourceng.com/CoverstorySeptember22013.htm



The joke inthe political circles is that: “those Obasanjo want to destroy, he first dines and dances with.” It was the same strategy he used for the late Senate President, Chuba Okadigbo, former PDP National Chairman, Audu Ogbe, former Governor of Ogun state, Gbenga Daniel and Atiku.
In 2000, following series of disagreements between him and Okadigbo, their relationship became strained and the then president made up his mind to remove the Anambra-born politician from the Senate presidency. But he must not give Okadigbo the slightest impression of his grim design. Rather, he let Okadigbo into believing that their tiff was over.


It was a relieved Okadigbo that hosted Obasanjo to a well publicised dinner in his official Apo, Abuja official residence amidst cheers, dancing and popping of champagnes. One week after dinning with him, Obasanjo struck and allegedly orchestrated a fierce campaign for Okadigbo’s impeachment relying on a trumped up corruption charge. Okadigbo was eventually impeached on August 8, 2000.


In January 2005, it was the turn of Ogbeh to fall for Obasanjo’s poisoned chalice. His woes started on December 6, 2004 following a confidential letter he wrote to Obasanjo protesting the president’s ineptitude in handling the Anambra state crisis at that time. In the letter, Ogbeh had rued that Obasanjo looked the other way while reactionary forces turned Anambra to a battle ground. The former President’s reply to the letter was couched in name calling, insults and innuendos that suggested Ogbeh had some skeleton in his closet. What followed the exchange of letter between the two politicians was what many now consider as a bogus petition to the EFCC alleging Ogbeh had misused PDP fund.


On January 4, 2005, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the PDP met and an elated Ogbeh thought the meeting had resolved his differences with Obasanjo moreso as the ex-General went with him to his house in Abuja to eat pounded yam. Few days after the make-believe pounded yam dinner, Obasanjo struck and forced Ogbeh to resign his position. Ogbeh is now an active member of the opposition APC.


Vintage OBJ!

This is what Nigerians should have done long ago!

See Sakorzy and Hollande jointly marching against terrorism!

See Abass and Netanyahu!

Here, our politicians play politics with serious issues!

Unfortunately, most of the international celebrities we saw teeeting and holding #bringbackourgirls banners thought they were joining a symbolism like the one in France over the weekend.

Little did they realise that the were hoodwinked into our local politics.

THE "BRING BACK OUR GIRLS" CHANT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DIRECTED AT THE TERRORIST!

After 9/11, Boston Marathon and other bombings, Americans of all religious and political leanings rallied to condemn the attacks and loudly voiced their support for the unity and sovereignty of their country.

What do we have here?

Southerners openly suggesting that what happens in the north does not concern them. There is a derogatory saying from one of the southern ethic groups that "Gambari killed a Fulani. No case"

People who have lost political influence jump on the bandwagon to revive their flailing political carrers

SAD!

sainty2k3:
Pls who is that woman beside fashola

She is Hadiza Bala Usman, CPC house of reps candidate for Matazu/Musawa Federal Constituency in the 2011 General elections.

She is a co-founder of the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign and daughter of the late fire brand ABU history lecturer and ASUU activist, Dr. Bala Usman.

FastShipping:
Jonathan claimed today on television that Buhari did not buy any weapon for the military. Well, records don't lie.

Here is a video of Buhari buying weapons for Nigerian Military in UK.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQuvrOFV8b4

The title of the video says 1982.

Shagari was president then not Buhari!

BTW, how do we know he was actually buying?

What if he was attending a trade show?

The title of the video says 1982.

Shagari was president then not Buhari!

BTW, how do we know he was actually buying?

What if he was attending a trade show?

what is the source of the text attached?

[quote author=FastShipping post=29609551]Jonathan claimed today on television that Buhari did not buy any weapon for the military. Well, records don't lie.

Here is a video of Buhari buying weapons for Nigerian Military in UK.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQuvrOFV8b4[/quote


The title of the video says 1982.

Shagari was president then not Buhari!

BTW, how do we know he was actually buying?

What if he was attending a trade show?

jaymichael:
HILARIOUS , I Saw this on LIB, according to what "Pastor " Reno Wendel Omokri, posted on twitter, under Jonathan soldiers never flogged innocent Nigerians

Guilty Nigerians nko?

vanndubi:
Bishops around the country were interviewed expect that of Enugu dioceses. I'll be waiting for his own comment.

I am waiting too o!

barcanista:
Rightly said, some politicians benefit from instability and uprising along with their Military conspirators

These people impoverish the masses and keep them ignorant so they can use them as canon fodders at election time violence.


"From the moment when the machine first made its appearance it was clear to all thinking people that the need for human drudgery, and therefore to a great extent for human inequality, had disappeared.  If the machine were used deliberately for that end, hunger, overwork, dirt, illiteracy and disease could be eliminated within a few generations. ... But it was also clear that an all-round increase in wealth threatened the destruction - indeed, in some sense was the destruction - of a hierarchical society.  ... the most obvious and perhaps the most important form of inequality would already have disappeared.  If it once became general, wealth would confer no distinction. ... But in practice such a society could not long remain stable.  For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realise that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away.   In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.  ... Ignorance is Strength" 
George Orwell's 1984


The masses are chained by ignorance and poverty.. the elite by our knowledge and comfort. Both slaves to the same master. Jesse Garba Abaga (Jesse Jagz)


It's an universal law-- intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

barcanista:
Thank you bros. I am not a proponent of violent revolution(I was sometime ago). It is always a cycle, Ayetollah Kameni led Iranian Revolution in the 70s, he transformed into a mini god in Iran, more powerful than the President of that country. See Libya, chartallans hijacked their struggle and it has become a free-for-all fight. In Syria, it has become a case of scores to settle between Pro and Anti Assad elements. The countries you mentioned aren't different. This is why I will always advocate for e mental revolution, where people are empowered to take advantage of their thumb and vote out failed government by resisting every form of intimidation rather that burn the country-Just like what obtained in Cote'd Voire in 2010-2011. The victims that lost their lives during the Arab Spring died for nothing.

You nailed it bro!

Syria, Iraq and Libya are perfect examples of what could happen to Nigeria in 2015 if care is not taken. God forbid!

I hope our people will learn from all the examples both of us have listed above and avoid violence in 2015.

There are vultures waiting to prey on Nigeria and Nigerians.

barcanista:
It may be that the revolutionists aren't good politicians. They may probably be riding on the goodwill of 2011 forgetting that politics is not about yesterday's strategy but that of today.

This is the reason why we need to be careful when people yearn for change just for the sake of change.

How many revolutions have actually benefitted the people.

I usually recommend George Orwell's classic "Animal Farm" to those who call for revolutions.

History is replete with people like Stalin (Russian Revolution)), Mao (China's Cultural Revolution), Roberspierre (French Revolution) who turned to dictators after their revolutions.

You also have people who hijack these revolutions. People like Morsi (a fundametalist) and Asisi (a soldier) in Egypt, the Islamists in Tunisia, Blaise Campaore of Bourkina Faso, those who took advantage of Nigeria's June 12 struggles to deceive people and come to power in 1999.

I only pity the families of the pawns who lose all (incuding their lives) in these revolutions.

I hope people will learn.

barcanista:
Congrat to the Tunisians but this guy has been in Government since God knows when... Anyway, the revolutionists have been defeated in a free and fair poll despite enjoying incumbency.

Mohamed Bouazizi (set himself ablaze exactly four years ago on 17 December 2010 and died on 4 January 2011) the guy who ignited the Arab Spring (no pun intended) and others who died along with him must be turning in their graves now!

President Essebsi, a lifetime in Tunisia politics

The new president of Tunisia , 88-year-old Beji Caid Essebsi is known by Tunisians as the “old wolf.” This is not just because of his advanced age but because of a political career that began in 1941. A former disciple of the first post-independence president of Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba, he learned the basics of military activism during Tunisia’s liberation from France.

Essebsi’s political career began in earnest after Tunisia’s independence in 1956. As well as being one of President Habib Bourguiba’s advisors, he served as Interior Minister, Defence Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister.

After the November 1987 Ben Ali coup against Bourguiba, Essebsi switched allegiances and joined the new leader’s Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD).

In 1990 and 1991 he served as the President of the Chamber of Deputies under Ben Ali, a period that today Essebsi would rather forget.

In 1991 he decided to retire from his political career but returned two decades later in 2011. In the same year Essebsi became the new prime minister of the transitional government following the revolution and was in charge of drafting Tunisia’s new constitution.



Also in 2011 he founded his own secular party, Nidaa Tunes, with the aim of creating an opposition force to the Islamist Ennahda party.

However, later that same year, the Ennahda Party won the elections with a majority.

Essebsi’s revenge came in October 2014 when Nidaa Tunes beat the ruling Islamist Ennahda Party.

As president, Essebsi faces many challenges ahead, not least his age, but also that many Tunisians still remember his role in the Ben Ali regime.

http://www.euronews.com/2014/12/22/president-essebsi-a-lifetime-in-tunisia-politics/

Excerpts from Tunde Bakare's Interview in March 2013.

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/nigerian-governors-are-richer-than-their-states-bakare/

I have quoted his thoughts on the his VP bid in 20111, fortunes/future of APC, 2015 elections and Jonathan's emergence as president after the death of Yar Adua.

So, you are not sure if you will participate in the 2015 elections?

With who? The collection of rogues, right, left and central?

Even with the progressives?

Who are the progressives in Nigeria; mention their names? Are you persuaded that they are progressives, progressive where, taking you where?

The progressives who formed the All Progressive Congress (APC).

If the devil becomes a pastor, Nigerians will attend his church, because they don’t know the true church and they cannot distinguish it from the synagogue of satan. Some of these governors are far richer than their states, because they are looting their states dry.

I read in the newspaper that former of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu do not own Oriental Hotel, Shoprite and others.

Who is interested in this in a decent society? Something is wrong; do they say Obafemi Awolowo owns the Cocoa House in Ibadan?

Has anybody alleged that? Do they say that his wife owns the Premier Hotel in Ibadan? The reason why you have to deny this is that your hands are not clean.

In the build up to the 2011 presidential election, there were reports that the leaders of the ACN gave a condition to back General Buhari; that you should write your resignation letter as vice president even before the election. Would you now be comfortable with the same group of people in the merger arrangement?


My dear friend, anybody can ask you to do anything they considered in their own best interest and it is left for you to see whether it is in your own interest. It is true they asked me to sign a letter resigning the post of vice presidential candidate of CPC and Vice President of Nigeria. And I prepared my own letter and I said to General Buhari and the CPC, if you don’t want me to be your candidate any more, you are free any time.

But I am not going to resign as Vice President of Nigeria, because I have not occupied that office. And they said that is what they want. I said, look this man will not bend his rule; I don’t want to join the perjurers who are no longer electable in Nigeria but want to destroy the opportunity of other people.

Sitting on the table with these people means nothing to me. I am not part of the merger committee. If the merger is being put together for the development of our nation and our people, may God let it succeed, but if is to continue this foolish, crazy, greedy aggrandizement, God will overturn it.

If merger has been put together by good people, it will deepen our democracy, at least we will develop a two-party system in Nigeria. But I don’t see the difference between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors and the so-called progressive governors. You can ask question how much is the kilometers of road awarded as contract in Oyo State and who is doing the road. It is not Bayelsa where you will say there is too much water there.

Where are the progressive governors? These ones who are fruitful and everyone wants to buy his own private jet once he is out of office, how much were they worth before they came into power?

And how do they come by their massive wealth now that they are bragging all around?

I desire to see in my life time, a nation that works and I pray that God will give grace and opportunity to people who can make it work. I am not saying if a person like me is not there it won’t work. There are thousand others who are better than I am in this country, God will bring those ones into power.

Do you think Nigerians are prepared for a change?

It depends on what change we are thinking about. We can change for the worse. We are miles away. We are dancing into the lagoon and into the woods everyday. The blind is leading the seeing in Nigeria. But why will the seeing allow the blind to lead them? The moment they get there they change.

Even you now interviewing me, the moment they make you a Commissioner for Information, it is an opportunity for enjoyment. All the things you have written against me you will change. Ask Reuben Abati. Men have lost their honour because of temporary power. Must you sell your birthright because of a pot of porridge?


General Buhari recently foreclosed INEC under Attahiru Jega, conducting free and fair elections in 2015. Do you share the same sentiment?

Has Jega conducted a credible election? INEC had always been in the pocket of the sitting president. But a time is coming when people will say enough is enough. Mubarak was in power for more than 30 years in Egypt. He did not envisage that one day they would carry him on a stretcher to the court. Muammar Gaddafi thought he had conquered Libya and the rest of Africa was his next agenda. They found him inside a water tunnel where they shot him.

You have seen what happened to the Tunisian president when the citizens decided to say enough is enough. Anything will happen any moment from now that will let these people say it’s over. Unfortunately they cannot see the handwriting on the wall.

After the 2011 post-election violence, the Federal Government constituted a panel on the crisis. The panel had submitted its report, but nothing has been done on it.

Because they were targeting Buhari, Bakare and CPC, that was why the panel was constituted. They had to bury the report in shame because they didn’t find anything that indicted us. The people who reacted to the daylight robbery after the election were not CPC.

They were poor people who were angry and that was the only way they could vehemently release their anger. It was not good, we didn’t support it but you don’t expect anything good to come out of that panel other than they have been truthful and the government cannot publish it because of shame.

Let them publish it and take action. I have never sponsored violence in my life and I won’t because vengeance has no foresight. That was why we went to court to ensure that nobody takes the law into his own hand.



But you couldn’t get justice in the court.

The Nigerian judiciary is compromised. Justice Ayo Salami tried to do what sounds like justice but was immediately removed. His tribunal quickly packed up and the next panel said they were not bound by the order made by his court.

And they didn’t allow us to bring the ballot papers to the court for forensic investigation because they said there would be breach of security. Those who did these things in the past, we knew where they ended up. So, let them keep on dancing to the same tune. They will end up the same way.

You once led Nigerians to protest in Abuja that Jonathan should be made the acting president. Are you satisfied with what his government is doing?


I didn’t go to Abuja to make Jonathan acting president or president. We went to Abuja collectively to uphold constitutionality and we will do it again if a goat is there. You are to blame yourself for allowing a goat to sit on the seat of the president not the constitutionality; what we went to Abuja to do was to uphold constitutionality, it does not matter who the president had been.

And as for his government, at the appropriate time SNG went to meet him and we exposed, gave him a mirror-image of his government; what it was all about and we were saying goodbye and he thought we could be bought. He was trying to bribe us with $50,000. Shame!

donroxy:
The man said in Kwara's Fatai declaration :

''Oo Lowo, Oo Logun , Oju e oo tun le, then oo lo fe je Governor, ki lo n wa ni di e ? ( [size=18pt]You no get money , you no get charms and ur eyes no red-eye High and u wanna become govnor, wetin u dey find there ?[/size]) !!

Listen to this man will make you laugh and shake head for Nigeria and the backward means of campaigning for elective positions !!

Significant oil reserves have been discovered in the Lake Chad Basin, a vast, semi-arid and desert area at the heart of the Sahel, surrounding Lake Chad. It is estimated that oil fields in the regions around the Lake, including northern Cameroon, north-eastern Nigeria, southern Niger and western Chad, may contain up to 2.32 billion barrels of oil and 14.65 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. However, a raft of challenges face companies and governments seeking to commercially explore and produce in the Basin.

The instability caused by Nigerian militant group Boko Haram’s ongoing insurgency has the potential to threaten oil operations already underway in Chad, Niger and Cameroon and is preventing Nigeria from beginning oil exploration at all. Despite the Chadian military being one of the largest and well-equipped armies in the region, defence forces in neighbouring countries are not as strong and have so far proved unable to quash the militants. Since August 2014, for the first time in the group’s history, Boko Haram has begun seizing and retaining territory and there are fears that the wider Lake Chad region — plagued by lawlessness, porous borders and ambitious local Islamists — may be under threat as the group strives to expand its base beyond their current stronghold south-west of the Lake.


The Boko Haram Insurgency

Created in 2002 in Borno State, north-eastern Nigeria, bordering Lake Chad, Boko Haram is seeking the establishment of an Islamic state in Nigeria and across neighbouring parts of West Africa. Indiscriminate in their targeting of all opponents, including Christian or ‘western’ institutions and individuals and Muslims opposed to the insurgency, Boko Haram has recently dramatically changed its modus operandi, with the group now focused on direct, sustained battles and the capture of towns and exposed rural areas in north-eastern Nigeria and northern Cameroon. Recent advances have given the militants two clusters of territory which form a strategic crescent around the Borno State capital Maiduguri, a swathe of land along the south-western shore of Lake Chad, a number of towns in Yobe and Adamawa in Nigeria and along the unmanned Cameroonian border, and Fokotol and surrounding areas in northern Cameroon.

While the group has not captured any territory in Chad to date, it is believed the Chadian side of the Lake is being used as a safe haven of sorts for Boko Haram, with a number of the group’s key commanders living in and operating from Chad, and a cluster of strategic camps located across the Chadian border. Some of the 234 schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok in Nigeria in April are understood to be being held in Chad and there are believed to be a number of critical arms trafficking routes into and out of Chad, facilitating the provision of weapons for the group. Boko Haram is also believed to contain a large number of Chadian fighters, with kidnappings and recruitment drives ongoing in the vulnerable Lac and Hadjer-Lamis States. Historically, local residents surrounding Lake Chad share ethnic and religious links with neighbouring communities, irrespective of national boundaries, with many being from the same Kanuri ethnic group from which Boko Haram draws many of its fighters. The lake has shrunk by over 90 per cent in the past 50 years, leaving many communities, for whom the lake is their lifeline, poverty stricken as national governments fail to address deep socio-economic imbalances. It is this sort of environment in which Boko Haram, adept at exploiting state weakness, disenfranchised populations, security gaps and religiously charged political divisions, can thrive.

Economic Motivations

Despite these socio-economic issues rendering the population vulnerable to infiltration by insurgents, Chadian President Idriss Deby is known to have fostered a comparatively strong and cordial relationship with Boko Haram, which has led to him being at the centre of recently reported negotiations between the group and the Nigerian Government. Chad is also understood to be benefitting from the delayed commercial exploration of oil on the Nigerian side of Lake Chad, as it taps oil from shared underground reserves irrespective of geographical sovereignty. It is reported that a number of prominent Nigerian and Chadian politicians have personal business interests the Chadian oil industry and consequently have a vested interest in ensuring the Boko Haram militancy continues to destabilise north-eastern Nigeria and prevent Nigerian commercial oil production. There is the possibility therefore, that Boko Haram may be benefitting from high-level financial sponsorship from political figures either side of the border, with these resources originating in Chadian oil. Indeed, the Chadian Government has been criticised for its inaction against Boko Haram, only joining anti-insurgency operations in July 2014 after a suspected intervention by French President François Hollande.


Outlook for the Lake Chad Oilfields

The Lake Chad oilfields, located in Lac State, western Chad, are central to the Chadian Government’s ambitions to increase oil production to 300,000 barrels per day by 2016. Due to the scale of potential revenues and the importance of these revenues for the Chadian Government and investors, it is likely these oilfields will be rigorously protected from potential insecurity. A sustained Boko Haram attack on the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, is also unlikely, particularly thanks to a heightened Chadian military presence and the recent arrival of a 3000 strong French anti-Islamist force headquartered in the city. However, rural areas to the north surrounding the oilfields will remain vulnerable for as long as the insurgents remain active. Although this is unlikely to directly impact oil production, it will contribute to an increasingly insecure operational environment for companies working in the region. With Lake Chad’s oil reserves being spread over four countries — arguably only one of which possesses the military capability to defend against the insurgents — and an extension of the Cameroon-Chad pipeline proposed to Niger, regional security concerns are of paramount importance to international businesses wishing to operate in the Lake Chad Basin.

In October 2014 Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria, along with Benin, agreed to create a multinational joint task force to combat the insurgency. However, with Boko Haram issuing threats to any countries supporting the Nigerian Government, and no logistical details agreed upon so far, there are reservations about the potential success of this latest agreement. While key strategic and commercial locations in Chad are likely to remain safe in the short-term, due to a heavy military presence and Deby’s dialogue with Boko Haram, international pressure to defeat the group is likely to increase as security concerns grow ahead of Nigeria’s general election in February 2015. The Chadian Government may be forced into more overt displays of aggression against Boko Haram, threatening the current status quo and the use of Chadian territory as a safe haven for the militants, and increasing the likelihood of reprisal attacks within Chad. Should the militants continue to make territorial advances within north-eastern Nigeria it is also possible that vulnerable, rural areas of Chad may prove an attractive target for the expanding Boko Haram caliphate.

http://blog.edinburghint.com/chadian-oil-and-instability-in-the-lake-chad-basin/

Fig. 1: Boko Haram activity in north-eastern Nigeria, August – October 2014
Fig. 2: Chad – Oilfield and militant group locations

LaBellaMafiaZA:
Impi, onansi 'mpi yeza
Ngubani obenga' thinta mabhubesi

Ki leleyi nso?

[size=18pt]Punishment or Child Abuse?[/size]

By MICHAEL ERIC DYSONSEPT. 17, 2014

WASHINGTON — THE indictment last week of the N.F.L. player Adrian Peterson by a Texas grand jury for reckless or negligent injury to a child has set into relief the harmful disciplinary practices of some black families. Mr. Peterson used a “switch,” a slim, leafless tree branch, to beat his 4-year-old son, raising welts on the youngster’s legs, buttocks and scrotum. This is child abuse dressed up as acceptable punishment.

While 70 percent of Americans approve of corporal punishment, black Americans have a distinct history with the subject. Beating children has been a depressingly familiar habit in black families since our arrival in the New World. As the black psychiatrists William H. Grier and Price M. Cobbs wrote in “Black Rage,” their 1968 examination of psychological black life: “Beating in child-rearing actually has its psychological roots in slavery and even yet black parents will feel that, just as they have suffered beatings as children, so it is right that their children be so treated.”


The lash of the plantation overseer fell heavily on children to whip them into fear of white authority. Terror in the field often gave way to parents beating black children in the shack, or at times in the presence of the slave owner in forced cooperation to break a rebellious child’s spirit. Black parents beat their children to keep them from misbehaving in the eyes of whites who had the power to send black youth to their deaths for the slightest offense. Today, many black parents fear that a loose tongue or flash of temper could get their child killed by a trigger-happy cop. They would rather beat their offspring than bury them.


If beating children began, paradoxically, as a violent preventive of even greater violence, it was enthusiastically embraced in black culture, especially when God was recruited. As an ordained Baptist minister with a doctorate in religion, I have heard all sorts of religious excuses for whippings.

And I have borne the physical and psychic scars of beatings myself. I can’t forget the feeling, as a 16-year-old, of my body being lifted from the floor in my father’s muscular grip as he cocked back his fist to hammer me until my mother’s cry called him off. I loved my father, but his aggressive brand of reproof left in me a trail of un-cried tears.



Like many biblical literalists, lots of black believers are fond of quoting Scriptures to justify corporal punishment, particularly the verse in Proverbs 13:24 that says, “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.” But in Hebrew, the word translated as “rod” is the same word used in Psalms 23:4, “thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.” The shepherd’s rod was used to guide the sheep, not to beat them.

Many believers — including Mr. Peterson, a vocal Christian — have confused the correction of children’s behavior with corporal punishment. The word “discipline” comes from the Latin “discipuli,” which means student or disciple, suggesting a teacher-pupil relationship. Punishment comes from the Greek word “poine” and its Latin derivative “poena,” which mean revenge, and form the root words of pain, penalty and penitentiary.


The point of discipline is to transmit values to children. The purpose of punishment is to coerce compliance and secure control, and failing that, to inflict pain as a form of revenge, a realm the Bible says belongs to God alone.

Yet secular black culture thrives on colorful stories of punishment that are passed along as myths of ancient wisdom — a type of moral glue that holds together varying communities in black life across time and circumstance. Black comedians cut their teeth on dramatically recalling “whoopings” with belts, switches, extension cords, hairbrushes or whatever implement was at hand. Even as genial a comic as Bill Cosby offered a riff in his legendary 1983 routine that left no doubt about the deadly threat of black punishment. “My father established our relationship when I was 7 years old,” Mr. Cosby joked. “He looked at me and says, ‘You know, I brought you in this world, I’ll take you out. And it don’t make no difference to me, cause I’ll make another one look just like you.’ ”


The humor is blunted when we recall that Marvin Gaye’s life ended violently in 1984 at the hands of his father, a minister who brutalized him mercilessly as a child before shooting him to death in a chilling echo of Mr. Cosby’s words.

Perhaps comedians make us laugh to keep us from crying, but no humor can mask the suffering that studies say our children endure when they are beaten: feelings of sadness and worthlessness, difficulties sleeping, suicidal thoughts, bouts of anxiety, outbursts of aggression, diminished concentration, intense dislike of authority, frayed relations with peers, and negative high-risk behavior.

Equally tragic is that those who are beaten become beaters too. [/b]And many black folks are reluctant to seek therapy for their troubles because they may be seen as spiritually or mentally weak. The pathology of beatings festers in the psychic wounds of black people that often go untreated in silence.

[b]Adrian Peterson’s brutal behavior toward his 4-year-old son is, in truth, the violent amplification of the belief of many blacks that beatings made them better people, a sad and bleak justification for the continuation of the practice in younger generations. After Mr. Peterson’s indictment, the comedian D. L. Hughley tweeted: “A fathers belt hurts a lot less then a cops bullet!”

He is right, of course, but only in a forensic, not a moral or psychological sense. What hurts far less than either is the loving correction of our children’s misbehavior so they become healthy adults who speak against violence wherever they find it — in the barrel of a policeman’s gun, the fist of a lover or the switch of a misguided parent.

Michael Eric Dyson, a professor of sociology at Georgetown, is writing a book on President Obama and


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/opinion/punishment-or-child-abuse.html?_r=0.

A man has been spotted helping a nurse in the US with ebola board a flight to a specialist unit - without wearing any protective equipment.

The air ambulance company official, who is carrying a clipboard, comes within feet of Amber Vinson, who is now being treated in isolation in Atlanta, Georgia.

He is seen handling items given to him by a person wearing protective clothing, but his employers Phoenix Air said he did not need to don a hazmat suit.

Ebola is contracted through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids, and it is not airborne.

But this incident is the latest to raise questions about the US response to the outbreak, which has killed more than 4,000 people in West Africa.


Other mistakes include:

:: Allowing Ms Vinson to travel on a commercial plane from Cleveland, Ohio, to Dallas, Texas, even though she was showing the early symptoms of ebola.

The nurse did tell officials she was running a temperature, and now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is trying to track down 132 other passengers on that plane.

:: Another nurse who contracted ebola did so after an "unspecified breach of protocol". Nina Pham, 26, had been wearing full protective gear when she was treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who died after catching ebola in Liberia.

:: Healthcare workers have inadvertently violated protocols by wearing too many protective layers, according to CDC director Thomas Frieden.

:: Mr Duncan was sent home from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, despite telling medical staff he had come from the West African nation.

:: Workers were seen not wearing any protective clothing while they cleaned the outside of his Dallas apartment.
Video: How Ebola Attacks The Human Body

:: A nursing union has alleged a litany of errors in the treatment of Mr Duncan, claiming that he was kept in a non-isolated area of the emergency department for several hours and that nurses treating him were also taking care of other patients.

However, one notable success in the fight against ebola involves Nigeria and Senegal, two countries where the outbreak has been largely contained.

Nigeria had eight deaths but brought its outbreak under control by tracking 894 people who had been in contact with a man who brought the virus from Liberia, and visiting 18,500 more people to check for symptoms. Here are seven things Nigeria did right:

:: Training

Nigeria's Public Health Department sent dozens of doctors on an ebola training course. Hundreds of private clinics have been trained in identifying symptoms.

:: Communication

The first known case was a man exposed in Liberia, who despite medical advice travelled on a commercial aircraft from Monrovia to Togo, via Ghana, then changed aircraft and flew to Lagos. He died on 25 July.
Video: Speed of Ebola Spread Graph

Port Health Services conducted early contact tracing at the airport, and worked with airlines to ensure proper notification of the outbreak.

:: Early tracing

Suspected cases were isolated at ebola treatment facilities, initially in Lagos and subsequently in Port Harcourt. A contact tracing team, staffed by dedicated epidemiologists, was established to investigate all primary contacts and alert the case management team to anyone showing symptoms.

:: Response

Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Health activated an Ebola Incident Management Centre (a precursor to the Emergency Operations Centre) on 23 July, to rapidly respond to the Ebola outbreak.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) credit this response with helping to contain the outbreak.

:: Mobile phones
Video: Hazmat Crews Board Plane In Boston

An emergency presidential decree enabled officials to access mobile phone records and empowered them to lean on law enforcement agencies where necessary to track down people at risk.

:: Awareness

Nigeria Health Watch set up EbolaFacts.com within 24 hours of the first confirmed case. The site received 600,000 hits and 850,000 Facebook views within a week.

:: Government support

President Goodluck Jonathan declared a national emergency, and approved a 1.9bn naira (£7.2m) fund to help fight the outbreak.

http://news.sky.com/story/1354204/ebola-mistakes-in-fighting-deadly-virus

codedguy1: I don't know how healthy obasanjo and Buhari's relationship is, but I know obasanjo will not want Atiku to be president. I also don't think Tinubu will trust Atiku. Buhari will be irritated with Atiku now.

The convention where APC's presidential candidate will emerge will be quite interesting.

GEJ just dey laff. Obasanjo will rather have Jonathan there than Atiku who seem to be more audible in the APC presidential race than Buhari.

Mark is there to tell Obasanjo to support the lesser evil which is Jonathan.

Tinubu go just collect money and sell the APC presidential slot regardless of who becomes their presidential candidate.

All these are my personal permutations anyways.

Omo, your head dey there!

Chop knuckle!

Police arrest aspirant for alleged certificate forgery

The police in Ebonyi State have arrested a councillorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Odah Mmaduabuchi, for alleged certificate forgery and impersonation.

This followed two petitions by an aspirant, Kingsley Onu, to the Commissioner of Police and the Chairman of the State Independent Electoral Commissioner (EBSIEC), John Nkwuda.

In the petition titled: “Conspiracy, Forgery and Impersonation”, Onu alleged that the party’s State Deputy Chairman, Joseph Onwe and the councillorship candidate for Ntezi ward in Ishielu Local Government forged a West African Senior Secondary School Examination statement of result.

The petition reads: “I wish to bring to your notice act of conspiracy, certificate forgery and impersonation against Odah Mmaduabuchi, the councillorship candidate of Ntezi ward and Joseph Onwe, the PDP Deputy Chairman, who hail from Amata Ntezi Community, Ishielu Local Government Area.

“Mr. Odah did not attend any secondary school in Ebonyi State or elsewhere in Nigeria.

“He conspired with Joseph Onwe to forge and impersonate the May/June 2008 West African Senior Secondary School Examination Statement of Result with examination number 4120810154 and Examination Center, Community Secondary School Agba, belonging to Odah Ogochukwu, his younger sister.”

Police spokesman Sylvester Igbo confirmed Odah’s arrest.

He said the police were still investigating the matter.

When contacted, Onwe said: “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/police-arrest-aspirant-for-alleged-certificate-forgery/

BackDatAssUp: He must be an APC member.

Did you read the second new article?

PDP House of Rep Aspirant, Son of NTA Director Among Arrested Robbers

Fresh facts have emerged that a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ayodeji Olumudi was also part of the arrested robbers by the Nigeria Police Force Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Adeniji-Adele Street, Lagos State.

The robbers are reportedly given gun by an All Progressives Congress Chieftain

The APC chieftain has been identified as Honourable Odeyemi Itunnu.

According to the police, Itunnu is also a Local Government Executive in Efon-Alaaye, Ekiti State.

After the arrest of the gang, FSARS said it recovered 17 of their stolen cars in different parts of the country, most of which were Toyota and Honda models.
Three assorted guns were also recovered from them.

But APC said it was not only its member that was a suspect. They alleged that the PDP chieftain was also involved.

The APC in a statement said, "The story, which makes the headlines in some national newspapers, refers. While it is not the intention of APC to deny the political affiliation of the said Itunu Odeyemi, who hails from Efon-Alaaye Ekiti to the All Progressives Congress (APC), we however wonder why he is the only one so identified and wish to draw your attention to the following:

"1. That the said Itunu Odeyemi is neither a chieftain, nor a leader in our party. He is a registered member though and we could not have raised any doubt on his integrity, except for his proving otherwise.

"2. That Itunu Odeyemi, first from the right in the picture displayed, is not the only culprit with political affiliation. We are concerned that a more prominent person among those paraded as robbers is one Ayodeji Olumudi, who is a core member of the People's Democratic party (PDP) from Kogi State since 2009. He stands 3rd from left in the picture displayed, putting on a red T Shirt.

"The attached picture is a from poster he released when he was contesting for House of Representative in 2011. This picture is also on his Facebook page with the name (Ayo Olu) which can be accessed through this link — https://www.facebook.com/ayo.olu.775

"His mother is Vicky Olumudi, an Executive Director at Nigeria Television Authority (NTA)"

It will be recalled that an APC chieftain Honourable Odeyemi Itunnu, was identified to have given gun to the robbers.

Itunnu said: “Omoniyi (Ajewole) is my political thug.

“I brought him to my place and gave him a gun to secure me.
“Actually, I have never participated in any robbery operation, but he used to escort me with the gun.
“All of us, who are chieftains, were given slots in the state and we were working for the state government.
“Every political party, including ours, has factions.
“That was why I gave him the gun, so that he could always protect me wherever I went.
“I also told him to be with me, particularly as the Ekiti election then was approaching.
“But before the elections, I just saw the police then coming to my house to arrest me.
“I had seen the gun on the ground during the 2007 elections violence in the state and had kept it.”
Other members of the robbery gang are Omoniyi Ajewole, Oluseye Jacob, Oluwadamiliare Rasaki, Ajisafe Olawale, Ogunniyi Sunday, Tolani Babatunde, Abubakar Umar, Odeyemi Itunnu and Ayodeji Olumudi.

The gang met its waterloo after the arrest of Ajewole, 28.
Ajewole alleged that Itunnu was his political godfather.
The police explained that the suspects were arrested after they received a complaint from a victim who had allegedly being robbed of two vehicles.
The victim told the police that aside from the two vehicles, he was also dispossessed of other valuables.
He said the incident occurred on June 27, 2013 at his Ile-Ife, Osun State residence.
It was gathered that the case was later transferred to the FSARS.

Ajewole said: “He gave me the gun to use in protecting him during any campaign violence.
“But I had not yet used the gun before I was arrested in September 2013.
“I am not a robber.
“I prefer to be called a political thug.
“I was the only one the Honourable gave a gun and he was also paying me salaries.”

The Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba, addressing journalists, said that all the suspects connected with the crime would soon be arraigned before a court of law for the criminal charges preferred against them.
Mba added: “This is a case that started on June 27, 2013 after a Nigerian was robbed of two vehicles and other valuables and he had reported to the police.

“This arrest is one of the achievements of the federal SARS.
“It led to the arrest of nine suspects who were clearly linked with not just the armed robbery reported, but a series of such in several parts of the country.

“An interesting aspect of the arrest is that Ajewole confessed to the police that he is not an armed robber but a political thug working for Honourable Odeyemi Itunnu from Efon Alaaye, Ekiti State.

“We want to warn politicians to steer clear of actions that are capable of posing a threat to the security of the country.

“Meanwhile, all the suspects will soon be arraigned before a competent court of law.”
The cars recovered are:
· Toyota Highlander Jeep Model 2008 with Reg. No. GWA-489-BC,
· One Toyota Matrix car Model 2007, Reg. No. RSH-196-DA and other personal effects belonging to the said victim.
· One Toyota RAV-4 Jeep with Reg. No. EPE-477-AC,
· Two unregistered Toyota Highlander Jeeps,
· Two unregistered Toyota Saloon Cars, 2012 model,
· One unregistered Toyota Camry 2009 model,
· One Toyota Avensis Saloon Car with Reg. No. EKY-989-AX,
· One M/Benz E-Class 350 Series with Reg. No. LND-919-EC,
· One Honda Accord Coupe with Reg. No. EKY-857-CH,
· One Toyota Camry car with Reg. No. YEN-902-SY.
· Others are one Toyota Highlander with Reg. No. GWA-489-BC,
· One Toyota Camry with Reg. No. AKD-882-AC,
· One unregistered Sienna Bus and
· One unregistered Toyota RAV-4 2009 model.

http://www.dailytimes.com.ng/article/pdp-house-rep-aspirant-son-nta-director-among-arrested-robbers