haka_nai:

abi o! una don try south-africa?The South-Africans need yorubanization i tell ya!

Malam, we are looking at that side too o. But we must achieve our short-term goal first.

By the time we are done. Saudi people sef will worship Ifa

haka_nai:

Like Nigeria has being great to the Yorubas

You can say that again. Yorubas don enjoy Naija die

Benin republic too, next, we will take over Cuba

shymmex:

I'll like to see a Yoruba/Igbo fusion, that would be interesting - but I don't think it's feasible.

Under the banner of Nigerian nationalism it is possible. If we leave it to nature and regular folks on the street, it it possible. If we can identify a common enemy, it might be possible.

But as things stand now, that type of fusion exists only among our oil-money sharing elite (when they are sharing stolen public funds)

. . or sometimes in a dark passion filled bedroom

Negro_Ntns: Kilode,

As you know, fulani exist across the West African belt. . . but so is Hausa and Yoruba. It is only Nigeria that fulani has this exclusive command of elitism and it is because we were not throughly educated in the different cultures of our own country, instead we were instructed in the British and European histories and so on. Our own cultures remained a mystery to us, only told through the mundane realities of daily interaction.  Unfortunately, our reality of fulani is that of a turbulently violent people.  Miyetti Allah helps to push and further enshrine that reality in the Nigerian conscience, which undoubtedly their ruling elites subsist on to maintain power.

The middlebelterss have always been the swell of military personnell, so how did the minority fulani end up being the top echelon and commanders of military force in the Army, Air Force and even to a extent displacing Southerners in Navy posts?  It is a wonder!!

Negro, 

You are right. We know less about our own surrounding communities than we know about far flung foreign western cultures, I blame that on so many things beyond the scope of this thread.

My theory about the Fulani influence is tied to religion, and a large dose of luck desperation, smart vision and self-preservation.

 The Fulani arrived in what we call Nigeria today armed with a religious philosophy that encouraged aggressive "evangelisation"  , conversion at the pain of death and self-righteous divine mandate. They had that over the indigenous people they met.

Remember who else did that? The Europeans. Even the Oyo and Benin Empire did to an extent, it's human nature really. 

If a group of people can manage to view themselves as custodians of a universal philosophy and put all they have into spreading it with as much self-righteousness as they can muster, it's possible they will conquer the more passive, more contended people around them. The world is a brutal  jungle. 

The smart thing they did in Nigeria was their fusion with the Hausas, that was a masterstroke, I wish I have the time and resources to research that further. There are parrallels in human history From the Germanic Anglo-saxon's infusion with romano-British to what we had close to home; Yoruba ethnic group is an example of fusion. And I think Ijaws are struggling to form that kind of alliance too. I may be wrong.

Nigeria has been great for the Fulanis especially, I can't think of any African country where the Fulani, despite his minority population command the kind of influence he commands in Nigeria.

Uthman Dan Fodio must be proud. Not sure it will last, events of the last few years should make them worry.

It shouldn't matter though, if we can build our country on the foundation of justice and egalitarianism, it won't matter if you have 20 or 20 million fulas.

“If he is claiming that he never initiated the idea, who then initiated the release of more than N8bn from the CBN coffers? Is it not only the president that has access to CBN vaults? Or does any lawmaker or senator have access

No wonder Oga Sanusi was sharing/ donating CBN money like Malam Christmas the other day.

And they want this country to progress? SMDH

Callotti: Ndi Igbo Kwenuuuuuuuu!!!!
Ask Charles Soludo!

Mu he he he he he he

Fawu nyansh don dey h-opin small small!!!

Blazay, The thing tire pesin jare. All of them na "robber"



Are you still in Benin, abi you don return to Texas ? Happy Easter.

Queen Park Rangers?

Walk in the park for my boys.

BlackPikiN: Anger and outrage, on Saturday, trailed claims by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that he did not initiate the infamous third term agenda.

In an interview he granted Channels Television, Obasanjo had placed the blame on the National Assembly. He said it was an idea initiated and pursued by the National Assembly and not himself.

He argued that a presidential initiative would normally have come to the legislature in the form of an executive bill, which was not the case with the third term project.

The former president claimed that the legislators on their own included the agenda in the 100 amendments they proposed to the 1999 Constitution.

However, some of the ex-lawmakers who spoke to our correspondents on Saturday insisted that the former President was the brain behind the third term agenda.

Former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, who could barely hide his anger while reacting to Obasanjo’s assertion, claimed that Obasanjo informed him about the agenda shortly after he became Senate President.

“Immediately, I became Senate President, he told me of his intentions and told me how he wanted to achieve it. I initially did not take him seriously until the events began to unfold,” he said.

Nnamani, who spoke to our correspondent over the phone from the United States of America, said, “There was a time that there was a rumour that heavy sums of money were doled out to National Assembly members (Senate), that each of us received N50m – that translates into more than N8bn, including other sums that were shared.

“If he is claiming that third term was not his agenda, where could such money have come from and for what purpose? Didn’t he give instructions to the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor then to dole out the money?

“If he is claiming that he never initiated the idea, who then initiated the release of more than N8bn from the CBN coffers? Is it not only the president that has access to CBN vaults? Or does any lawmaker or senator have access to it?

“How can someone talk like this that he didn’t know about it, yet money, both in local and foreign currencies, exchanged hands,” he asked.

The former Senate President, however, was not forthcoming on how the money was shared and whether he got a share. He only said that as the President of the National Assembly at the time he took “full responsibility” for all that might have happened during his tenure.

He insisted that the third term bill was an executive bill and that he was prepared to defend his statement “anywhere and anytime.”

He said, “I am telling you that as the man who presided over it (third term bill), that it was an executive bill. I can defend this anywhere and anytime, with more than enough facts that I have given to you. No one should claim ignorance. If anyone is saying that the bill was not an executive bill, then such a person is only being a liar. At certain age in life, there are certain things one shouldn’t expect from an old man.

“The bill containing the tenure elongation was an executive bill and could not have been sponsored by any National Assembly member. Moreover, I don’t know what magic the executive would have done to get such bill through when all Nigerians were against it.

“If you remember, during the saga, I requested that all members return to their various constituencies to seek the views of their people. It was when they returned that we sat on it and ended on the 15th of May, 2006.

“In your paper today (SATURDAY PUNCH), Obasanjo referred to Ibrahim Mantu as Senate Leader. Mantu was not the Senate Leader, he was the Deputy Senate President then.

“I also read in your paper where he said that if he wanted third term he would have had his way. Well, that man is just a big joker. I don’t want to tell you other dubious and unpatriotic things he discussed with me. If I do, you would really know the kind of person he is.”

The former senate president also stated that Obasanjo solicited the support of the United States of America but failed.

“If you want to be convinced that the man is only telling a lie, pick up a copy of the book written by Condoleza Rice, the former Secretary to the Government of the United States of America. It is actually an autobiography by Rice.

“On page 628 or page 638, she discussed about Obasanjo’s meeting with Bush, how he told the former American President that he wanted to see how he could amend the Constitution so that he could go for a third term.

“To his surprise, Bush told him not to try it. Bush told him to be patriotic and leave by May 29, 2007.”

The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, told our correspondent that Obasanjo’s denial of his role in the third term agenda still sounded like a dream to him.

He remarked, “What is he (Obasanjo) talking about? Is such a statement coming from a military man and a former President? He has insulted the collective intelligence of Nigerians and members of the National Assembly.

“His aides came to me to solicit support for third term because I led the fight against third term in the House.

“All those names he is claiming not to have sent (Florence Ita-Giwa, Senator Ibrahim Mantu); they all came seeking support.

“I recall vividly that people were being given N50m, some N100m to support third term.

“The money totalled over N10bn. How could N10bn be taken out of the national treasury for a project when you were the sitting President, yet that project was not your idea? Where did the money come from?”

The Action Congress of Nigeria lawmaker from Lagos State added, “Assuming it was not his idea as he now claims, did he speak publicly against it? What did he do or say publicly to condemn or stop the project.”

Gbajabiamila also added that Obasanjo attempted to enlist the support of a former US President, Mr. George Bush, for the project, but failed.

In the same vein, a former influential member of the House, Mr. Halims Agoda, laughed for about two minutes when his reaction was sought.

Agoda, who was at the House, from 1999 to 2007, recalled that he participated actively in the third term debate.

“One of the things that make a statesman to stand out is the ability to stand by whatever decision he took, whether good or bad.

“That a project failed should not amount to a complete denial. The third term was Obasanjo’s personal agenda, which he took a long time to nurture.

“He sought the support of the National Assembly, but it was thrown out”, Agoda said.

Agoda held the view that until now, Nigerians were hoping that Obasanjo would throw more light on the project so that they could learn some political lessons from it.

“The third term has been practised elsewhere in the world; it is not entirely new.

But, since it came to Nigeria in the days of Obasanjo, Nigerians expected that he would speak more on the project, not to disown it,” he said.

Senator Ahmed Lawan, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, also said Obasanjo was interested in the third term agenda, adding, however, that there was no bill from the executive to that effect.

“There was no way the ex-president then could have done it himself because it was a legislative affair. But Obasanjo was clearly in support of it. There were lobbyists from the Presidency,” he said.

Lawan, who was a member of the House of Representatives at that time, said although he was not a member of the review committee, he would not be able to tell at what stage the third term came into the bill.

Effort’s to get the ex-president to respond to the claims of the lawmakers were not successful on Saturday night. When our correspondent called his Chief Security Officer, Mr. Ayo Akande, he said he was not competent to comment on the matter.

“I can’t make comments on the matter. I am not his spokesperson. You can contact the spokesperson to react,” he said.

When our correspondent called Obasanjo’s media assistant, Mr. Adeoba Ojekunle, the network operator said the number was wrong. A text message sent to his mobile phone was not replied as at press time.

The third term bid failed after the National Assembly annulled the entire process of amending the Constitution following sustained public outrage.


http://www.punchng.com/news/obasanjo-is-a-joker-liar-he-was-behind-third-term-nnamani-others/

Here we have Former Senate President Ken Nnamani and Former leader Gbajabiamila accusing OBJ of bribery, they mentioned specific amounts, time period and names. They even mentioned CBN!

On national TV ?

And OBJ and these fools are still walking around free with no investigation done, no questions asked. Yet we have EFCC, ICPC, NPF, Justice ministry and other fancy institutions we copied from Oyinbo people ?

Shey Nuru Ribadu did not see these things at that time??'

And we want to progress? SMH

ACM10:

Acknowledge google interpreter pls

Babylon Acknowledged.

BTW, have you seen the Facebook page PDP used as evidence of Aregbesola's secession plan? LOL don't even bother to check it out. I can bet it was started by one of those NL comedic ethnic warriors. They can't even write OBJ's name. They called him President "Olusegun Adebayo"

The Page is riddled with spelling errors and other unforgivable mistakes.

I think ACN and PDP are just trolling us all.

These ACN and PDP guys are probably sharing Ogogoro together as we type, who knows. Awon oniyeye.

ekt_bear: Lmao

Yeah, Latina women in general can be quite hot.

Me encanta mexicanas especialmente...

Ellas tienen pechos grandes, saben que bailar suavamente, y finalmente les gusta que yo hablo espanol con un "accent" mexicano

Especialmente cuando se mezclan con negro, una de las razones por Beautiful cubanos son tan bellos.

Nigerian girls are still the best tho.

Ekt, Lol Not really, but thanks to Aregbesola I'll probably get a Cuban visa soon. Have you seen those Cuban women?

Aregbe's warriors will have a difficult time focusing on their training.

Os filhos de Oduduwa e seus irmãos cubanos adentramo.

ekt_bear: No sabia que los cubanos son amigos fuertes de los yoruba :]

Autodeterminação é um direito universalmente protegidos. Não sei se quem Rascality embora

^
Alaagba Wooli Buzugee! W'sup bro

ekt_bear: At some point if/when I have the chance to spend 3-4 months or so in Nigeria, i'll use that time to become fluent.

But for now I have some other things that must be accomplished first...

Good enough.

^

I definitely support that sir. But regional first. Then we leave the rest to competition, human nature and individual needs and taste.

Many, if not most Nigerian kids born in major urban areas in the last 20-15 years are not even proficient in their own local Nigerian languages. Talkless of picking up a new Nigerian one.

Let us master our regional languages first, Nigerian unity is great but language won't guarantee it. Enforcing Justice and egalitarian principles will do that faster. Like Ekt_bear said, separatist won't budge even if they speak your language. Nice call though.



I'll go slightly off-topic:


Ekt_bear you need to improve on your Yoruba o. You already speak good English. We don't want you to totally miss out on the advantages it brings. Especially if you want to do business with us

It's good to be proficient in English, better to master your own regional language too. It's an advantage, the emotional connection you have to a mother tongue is a great leverage when learning.

Language and culture are important vehicles for learning and development. The Ancestors of the current masters of the world - Anglos where not stupid to translate foreign knowledge, scripts, wisdom and science into their own mother tongue. Latin gained from Greek by translating it into a language they can easily understand and relate to and later they benefitted from Byzantine and Arabic works which they translated back into Latin and later English. Point is they put knowledge in the hands of more of their people - both brainiacs and regular folks..

All these may not matter to someone already versed in the English language, but if your goal is macro in nature, and you want more of your people englightened, then it makes sense to meet them at their language comfort zone. We really need gifted translators. There must be a way to explain the theory of relativity or teach calculus in Yoruba or Igbo.

If the Chinese and Japanese can do it, then we can.

cap28:

A tthorough grounding in african history and I don't mean african history taught from a eurocentric perspective. I would also insist on international politics and economics taught at 0secondry schl level I wld also want to see compulsory para military training introduced

Implementation wld simply be a matter of putting together a comitted grp of dedicated educationalist with a similar vision and giving them responsibility of totally overhauling the current educational system which is currently being used to keep million s of nigerians in a position ignorance and subservience

All secondary schooin addition all nigerian sech schl Students will be expecyted to have read and fully understood the works of. All the great radical writers such as marcus garvey franz fanon walter rodey cheik anta diop and many others

You'll need to raise that Army bro, and soon too.

You and my other Afro-centric brothers won't achieve these things we like to drum into our people's ears without an army.

We won't.

ekt_bear: Kilode, in short, deal with it. You are one of the elites

You will fool your kids with these stories of how you made it to America through luck and hard work, but then they'll find out that their grandfather is a college graduate in chemistry, speaks excellent English, that their father was the local science fair champion in high school, etc.

On a serious note though, I think the main lesson I've drawn from this personally is a bit more humility. To realize that my accomplishments aren't really due to anything amazing that I personally did, but basically a consequence of certain things I've inherited from my parents and grandparents.

Of course, it sounds a helluva lot sexier to say that your grandfather was an illiterate lion hunter in the Ekiti bush or something

You no serious o.

If i'm elite, then Ndidi Okereke-Onyuike is a Victoria's Secret Model

But yes, I will tell my kids: I'm the Great-Grand son of a Hunter who trekked all the way from Tapa to become a servant of a Yoruba King. A Grand Son of a Cocoa farmer who left his son one weighing machine, 2 farms and 7 Embroided Caps.

And yes, I'm the son of a No-nonsense Tisa father who is proud of his Odua accent.

So maybe I'm elite.

Do we have like SAT results or something for Nigerians vs. white Americans?

We don't have it. I can bet they won't release one soon. I'll be shocked if they do that.

Black is Black in Omerica, Which why I'm glad Nigerians are taking good advantage of the affirmative action laws in that country. they shouldn't lose both ways

ekt_bear: Kilode, so you believe that most Nigerians in the US come from below average backgrounds in Nigeria?

You used yourself as an example. I am very sure that you are not the first person in your family to go to university. I am sure that your parents are not illiterates. You completed high school. All of those things by itself puts you well above average, does it not?

Despite the challenges you went through, it isn't accurate to say that you were ever at the bottom of Nigerian society, right?

So even if you believe that you yourself have nothing in common with the elites, you aren't and probably never in your life were the proverbial average Nigerian living on $1/day, right?

But you are correct that we are both just speculating...we don't have hard data on the background of Nigerian immigrants. But if the majority of them did not have impressive credentials before leaving Nigeria (at least relative to the average), I would be highly surprised.

The issue I have with the thrust of your argument is your definition of "Nigerian elite and upper middle class"

I don't agree with your assumption that most Nigerian migrants fall in this class at all, at least based on my own experience.

Nigerian elite don't go to America to struggle, heck they don't even stay in america after their education so as to get a Green Card for the most part.

Maybe Middle class kids do, but not elite kids and the Nigerian middle class is a little too fluid to be properly defined here. I'm yet to see a good definition on this thread.

In the absence of real and credible data, a lot of our opinions here will be subjective and anecdotal.

If your parents attended Ife/UI/UNN like ekt_bear and your family, friends acquitances and what have you are from that group of fairly educated migrants, then you'll probably agree with him.

On the other hand, if you are from an atapata-dide, ara oke, community-funded education background like me,(maybe Fstranger too j/k ) If you travelled to America on borrowed funds, if you managed to escape Nigerian hardship using ori-olori papers, and most of your friends are like you and they drove night cab to pay for college, then you might disagree with the "majority were elite in Nigeria argument"

So I'll repeat, in the absence of good data, we can't know for sure.

But what's the point though? These peopple, regardless of their Nigerian background, surmounted some incredible odds; language, culture, racism, colorism, lack of social network to get ahead in a foreign country. That to me is the important message here.

BTW, I don't believe Indian/Asian migrants leave their country less educated or less "elite" than African migrants, well, until I see credible data proving that.

ekt_bear: So I apologize in advance for bringing up the racial dimension (I know that it is poor form)...but nobody feels slightly twinged that black folk are in the process of losing half of this country to the Tuareg (certainly an indigenous African people, but appearance-wise closer to white)?

I know it is irrational, but there is something...annoying...about this to me.

ekt_bear, It's a point that we will have to ponder and explore. I wasn't expecting that emotion from you on this issue though.




Having said that, I'm kinda "Conflicted" about this Mali situation. I'm no Mali expert by any means but I read quite a bit about W.A politics to make some observations.

One, The Tuaregs are a true minority in Mali and one must sympathise with the burden that comes with that. larger Ethnic groups like the Mandigos (mandikas?) control more political and economic power than the Tuaregs in Mali. It is not surprising that these people do not feel welcomed.

But the issue for me extends a little bit beyond Mali. One, I'm worried about the AQIM link and the fact that Tuareg and other marginalized and closely affiliated Nomadic groups like them might be interested in taking this "Mali Victory" further. That possibility cannot be good for W.A peace.

Two, Nigeria shares a large border with Niger, a country with a sizable Tuareg Population. Also we have Fulanis who are also present and marginalized in Mali and closely associated with Tuaregs in this struggle. That worries me because of the AQIM link and the fact that we have a brewing rebellion in our hands here -Boko Haram.

Three, there is the issue of weapons looted from Libya during their civil war, I read that the Tuaregs were closely associated with Ghaddafi at that time and they have many of his weapons in their possession. That is disturbing, because it's obvious now that they can put it to "good" use. I'm sure other Tuareg groups can too.

Back to Nigeria, Many of those weapons where reportedly smuggled into Nigeria via NIger, I don't know if those reports are true but I remember reading them during the Libyan conflict.

Finally , there are reports of large deposits of Uranium in the North of Mali. That is important.

Anyway, In geo-politics, It's better to treat conspiracy-like stories with some respect, it's often foolish to ignore them totally. I dey look.




NB: I was not a fan of Ghaddafi, but I'm worried about the absence of a Ghaddafi-like figure in the Sahel Region at this time, There seems to be a vaccum, Hopefully Nigeria and Ecowas can fill it.

St. Louis, Great Catholic Public school.

Brilliant feat by the girl!

What's up with the port??

I Agree OAM4J. Yes, you can raise bond, that is what cash strapped Govts and Municipalities do, but it is sheer stupidity to spend your borrowed money on projects you aren't planning to make profits from. If they have no plan to make these utilities generate income through tolls, levies, taxes e.t.c then we must call it Nonsense.

But I believe Fayemi is not Foolish and bond investors can't be that stupid. So maybe there is an income generation plan to this.

PapaBrowne is a well known seer. Dude don't need no Linda to confirm his stories.

He declared Benin-Ore Road fixed 11 months ago, even before the contractors arrived on site

36 months from now, they will start the renovation of the Airport, PapaBrowne is ahead of you all. He's in the future

https://www.nairaland.com/644476/benin-ore-road-been-fixed

Kolababa: I work in the airport. The tiles they are removing are far better than the new ones. All na in the name of awarding contract to chop. So many things are begging for attention in the Murtala Muhammed Airport, these looters will not fix them, they will only do the ones passengers will see. Have you ever experience a situation you checked in bags in good shape but when you receive your bag when you arrive, your bag is damaged. This is due to bad conveyor belt. If you go to the airside, you will weep for Nigeria. Things are terribly bad there.

Think of the elevators, have you ever been trapped inside any of the lifts? If you get trapped inside any of these bad elevators, you will call your father your mother.

Two years ago, 358 million was used to renovate the airport toilets but now they are renovating the same toilets for 3.5 million each. Then multiply it by the number of toilets. Just to chop.
5 billion was used to install CCTV round the airport but none of the CCTV is working.

Three month ago, five member gang of armed robbers invaded the buereau de change at the car park of Murtala Muhamed Airport. They operated for twenty minutes, all the policemen ran away and the robbers went away with large sum of money in hard currency. Our CCTV did not capture the incidence.
In short, the only thing our government is known for is WASTAGE.

You mean you know more than PapaBrowne?

Wonderful !

Shuo!

Wetin be ya own? no be Saro you be?

Nigerian journalists are a strange breed.

NYT online commentators or NYT editorial ?

Who gave the endorsement?