₦airaland Forum

It is only on Nairaland that I'm learning for the first time that Yorubas are restricted to only one type of cap. Wonders shall never cease happening.

That is not the issue at least some Igbo people wear Hausa caps, Niger delta caps and Moroccan fez caps which is also common in the NE part of Nigeria. But the Kwaran Yoruba for some silly strange reason would wear an Hausa Cap, in the morning, afternoon and Night. During 8 years of Bukola Sariki did you ever see him in a Yoruba cap, is he not Yoruba(forgotten that his dad says they came from Mali) and secondly where did Bukola got the name Abubakar from, people who knew him in Lagos and who he grew up with him knows him as simply Bukola Saraki why the sudden adaptation of Abubakar because he entered Politics.

Same thing his Sister that one sef removed a new name from her magic cap Gbemi Rukkayah Saraki all who knew her knew her simply as Gbemi Saraki why copy copy now. 

“Boo ni” - How are you

Ibadan Yoruba

(pronounced as o in the English language)

@moderator

Why the sudden dumbing down of the thread ‘Title’ on the home page. I hope NL are not trying to be bias towards Buhari abi which one be “ Blah, Blah Blah” the title was right this morning all of a sudden it seems to have been changed into something not to be taken serious.

Reading more about Ilorin will let you understand. We do not ape the Hausa. Ilorin is a culturally complex town and your simplistic understanding is no surprise

Don’t be silly an A-CN Governor would not follow this colo-mentality and slave mentality exhibited by the PDP Governors. I remember Governor Adebayo in 1983 always in Yoruba cap. I beg say another one, na by force, they don’t want to associate with you people but you people keep on attaching yourselves TO THEM. Wetin dey do una sef, you are Yoruba first and formost?

[size=16pt]The new President of Zambia, the Soul of the masses in that country called “ King Cobra” is 74 years old and he has started doing a marvellous job in that country.

The main opposition in the DR Congo who is campaigning with a populist streak and most likely would be rigged against by Kabila is 78 years old. Doing the Maths in the  Congo, every indices points to this man winning being a “ Lingala Speaker”. Whilst the President is from East Congo and grew up in Tanzania, only learned the French language as an adult can neither speak Lingala or the local lingo in Kinhasa.

Kinhasa has 50% of all voters in that country obviously doing the Maths one does not need to be a soothsayer to know who would win the election in a free and fair election but for obvious reason we all know who would win. The opposition leader is 78 years old.

The new interim Prime Minister of Egypt appointed 3 days ago by the Army Generals in Egypt is 78 years old.

The President of Senegal is 81 years old and kicking doing some wonderful works in that country especially improving the infrastructures. You need to see the new roads built within the last 5 years in Senagal nothing like that in Naija are comparable.

The President of Angola is 78 years old ,  I don’t need to tell you this country currently is the fastest growing economy in Africa

The President of Ghana is 67 years, Ghana has the 3rd fastest growing economy in the world.

Mugabe is the only boogie man amongst this list of old men in power who is not pulling his weight

President Kibaki of Kenya is 80 years and his doing marvellously well. He is sorting out Al Shebab in Somalia,  and maybe in the next few months Somalia might be free from the clutches of Islamic extremism for the first time in 20 years.


There is no reasons why a 74 year old Buhari would not deliver because let us face it at his age it would be inconceivable of a man of his age to be misappropriating, what for?

Have we forgotten so soon what 36 year old Bankole did in the Hose of Assembly or young Fayose in Ekiti, or Young Ohakim in Imo State, or what Suswam is doing in Benue or even what young Goodluck is doing at Aso Rock.[/size] 

What is wrong with this Ilorin people, they behave like a defeated people despite the fact that the incursion into their land that made them Muslims in the 1830’s was the same continual one albeit subtle incursion into the SW that made several people Muslims in Lagos, Ogun, Oshun, Oyo and Ondo State.

Why do the other Yoruba’s despite being Muslim or Christians still put on traditional Yoruba caps when they dress in native attires? The Kwara people despite being Yoruba just want to belong, their attitude to me appear as someone trying effortlessly to woo the North and each time they try hard, the Northerners spurns such overtures with disdain. Is it not high time they smell the coffee and retrace their steps embracing and celebrating their Yorubaness instead of being an attaché to a Group who does not reckon and want them.

During the last PDP insistence that the Presidential Candidate for the Party should come from the North, Kwara’s Saraki was openly spurned and referred to as a Yoruba man yet the silly guy and the even more sillier new Governor goes around wearing one stupiiiid Hausa cap trying to belong. What is wrong with this people? 

[b]We all know the luxurious rental market for exclusive properties in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt are very high and extremely profitable, why can’t lean state Governments invest in this kind of ventures. To buy land in Banana Island in Lagos would set a private person back by at least a $1 million dollars but ‘States’ with a guaranteed income from the centre can source funds from the banks using their ‘stipends’ from the centre as collateral, if that money or funds is dispensed well by building luxurious Apartment with 60 or more flats all with about 4 Bedrooms each, the rental income for such flats in Lagos is between $25,000 dollars and $70,000 a month, if a poor state like Kebbi, Yobe or Ebonyin State has such investment in prime areas you jus imagine the kind f income that would be accrued and generated to these States.


I have said times without number that what we have in Nigeria are poor Managers in the States, what we need are innovative, inventive and clued up Managers whose eyes would be focused on the ball at all times.[/b]

I won't be surprise this Boko Haram nonsense that has bedevilled us recently might have started by returnees from Sudan. The Sudanese do not recognise them as full citizens only when they need them for their various militias and co. I believe some dis-illusioned ones would have come back to Nigeria and lay claim to their rights which of course includes enforcing a more stringent Islamic practise.

Many of the Nigerians in Sudan are also southerners.

where did you get that stats from?

excerpts from one of the articles

Traditionally,the Kano-Bornu-Darfur-Red Sea route has been used by Hausa,Fulani and Kanuri muslim faithful on pilgrimage to Mecca.Many of these faithfuls,attracted by the similarities in culture,religious practices,weather and an abundance of fertile land in the Nile Valley,settled down to farm the land.But the greatest wave of migration lay ahead.

In the wake of the eclipse of Sokoto’s imperial glory in March 1903 on account of British imperialist aggression,the Mai Wurno,nephew of the Sultan and Protector of the caliphate’s northern frontiers fled with the Sokoto imperial standard and thousands of his followers and troops to the southernmost emirate of Adamawa, over 1000 kilometres away.

Being well acquainted with the exploits of the Mahdist forces in the Sudan and in the belief that the Mahdi was the great liberator whose coming was foretold in the Holy Book,the Mai Wurno and by some accounts,over 20,000 followers began the Hijra(flight) to the Sudan where they ultimately settled down close to the Khartoum-Omdurman area in a settlement which to this day is known as Mai Wurno and whose inhabitants retain their Hausa-Fulani heritage.

Altogether,the Hausa,Fulani and Kanuri of the Sudan today number well over a million people,serving that country in the civil service,armed forces,business and most of all,providing the bulk of the farmers who till the land in that country’s food basket,the Gezira plains

Where on earth are these stats of 1 million+ Hausa in Sudan?

And how did they become "Hausa/Fulani" in Sudan?

It is only in Nigeria and certain other places in West Africa where they are considered one group. . .

I am very skeptical.

http://beegeagle./2010/04/09/hausa-fulani-and-kanuri-of-the-sudan/


http://www.sudantribune.com/The-Hausa-Fulani-are-Genuine,29127

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1106447


http://kanoonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=738.0;wap2

http://www.sudanforum.net/showthread.php?t=86289



Read all those articles and see for your self.

In that case, nothing for the North once again.

Don't be too sure of yourself, according to stats there are over 1 million hausa/fulani in the Sudan, although some of these guys have been there from time memorial they are referred to as west/ africans instead of Sudanese, I bet a northern candidate would claim all one million as northern Nigerians and that would tilt the balance in favour of a core Northern Candidate in an election. It is a slippery slope we should avoid. We have not even taken the Hausa/Fulani in Niger, Chad and Cameroon into account.

Mordern or Urbane Yoruba-Speak and Interpretation - My tenses that is Yoruba tense mark or "Ami" are horrible so bear with my interpretation.


1. I speak Yoruba.

1.Mo le so Yoruba. or Mo gbo Yoruba dada



2. I used to play video games.

2. Mo ma'n play video game. or Mo ma'n ta video Game.


3. I ate a cookie 5 min. ago.

3. Mo ti je biscuits 5 minutes ago or Ebi o pa mi Mo ti je Biscuits 5 minuute ago - Cookie being the American Interpretation of Biscuits, most people tend to use biscuits as against cookie on this side of the pond.



4. Last year he was ill.

4. Ara re koya ni odun to koja



5. When his parents built the house, he was ill.

5. Ni gba ti baba re ati iya re ko ile yen ara re ko ya- Mordern speak would just be " Ni gba ti won kole yen ara re oya"


6. At the beginning of this year he has been ill, now he is fine again.

6. Ati ibere odun ni ara re ko ti ya, sugbon ni isin ara re ti ya


7. He had broken a leg, therefore he couldn't come to school.

7. O se ara re le se ni to ri e ni ko fi wa si school(or ile iwe)


8. I’m reading a book now.

8. Mo ka iwe ko ni isi iyin


9. I was working while she was studying.


9. Mo shey se lowo nigbati toun ka we


10. I was eating there (- let's say lunch) until I got to know that there were cockroaches in the kitchen. Then I left (immediately).


Mo je ni ibe yen(ni orsun) mo wa ri kokoro ni nu kitchen igba yen ni mo wa kuro ni inu kitchen kia kia.

11. I had been lying there for 3 hrs. before I fell asleep.

11. Mo dubule si ibe yen fun 3 hours( OR "wakati meta" mi O mo gba ti mo fi sun lor

12. You will have been eating for 10 min. when I finish.

12. Wati ma jeun fun 10 minutes ni igba yen mati pari ounjen mi, e mi ama wa duro de re ko se tun

13. He wants me to go home now.

13. Ofe kin lole ni si si in yi


14. I would buy more food but I’m full now.

14. Ma ra ounje si sugbon mo ti yo ni si si iyin


15. You are baptized now. ‘passive’

15. O ti se baptizing ni si si iyin OR "ko pe at all oti se baptizing"


16. You were baptized for 5 min. ‘passive’

16. Oti se baptizing fun iseju marun



17. The city was destroyed by the fire ‘passive’

17. Gbogbo ilu lo jo ina tan ni igba ti inor yen bere



18. I had been baptized 3 times by 2001.

18. Mo ti se Baptizing le meta igba ti oma di 2001



19. I will have been baptized 6 times by 2002.

19. By 2002 mo ti se baptising le mefa, e le believe e




20. If he paid me more, I would stay. (2 possibilities for ‘if he paid me more’)*


20. To ba fun mi lowo si ma duro ke or ma duro to ba funmi benbele si



21. We would have built the house, if we had had the money.*

21. Ati ko ile yen ke ta ba ni owo or "Aii  lowo ni o je kako ile

what happened to the Burundis?  if this video is anything to go by the Kenyans have a hell lot of battle in their hands. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJTDaXTb-1g&feature=related

[size=18pt]This piece x-rays the monumental and phenomenal people-oriented on-going and completed projects being championed by the Olusegun Mimiko administration in Ondo State.

Former Ondo State Military Administrator,Colonel Ahmed Usman (rtd), recently, gave some insights into what is happening in the state.

Usman said: “I am quite impressed with the development in the state since the inception of Dr Olusegun Mimiko’s administration. Can you imagine that I missed my way into the same Government House, Akure, where I once resided, because of the monumental reconstruction and improvement of the township roads? I am impressed with the new looks being given to Akure, the state capital.”
[/size]
Usman must have been taken by surprise by the transformation that is going on in Ondo, which, many residents say, is unprecedented and is turning the state into a huge construction yard. Simultaneously, scores of construction works are in process.

But the prominent ones among them are the Oba Adesida Road and Arakala Road. It is not only in the area of road construction that the former military administrator has a testimony to share. He is also a living witness to the entire gamut of the Mimiko administration’s urban renewal plan. Before the advent of the governor, the markets in Akure, just like in other major towns of the state, were at best, slums. But the coming of Mimiko has brought a new lease of life to shopping across the state.

“The Neighbourhood market located within Akure, I learnt, was completed within three months of Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s assumption of office. I chatted with the people in the market to feel the pulse of the market people. I can tell you that they are happy with the governor. The market women told me that the market, as modern and neat as it is, is cheap and secure to do business in,” Usman also stated.

The erstwhile military administrator did not stop there. He extends his testimony to the innovation in auto shopping that the Mimiko government brought to Ondo.

“The last, but not the least place I visited, was the Auto Mart complex which gladdens my heart. The mart has offices, which includes a licensing office, solar powered lights, fire service, pipe borne water, banking facilities and adequate security,” Usman said.

But the story of the former military administrator would pale into insignificance when you visit Ondo to behold the gargatuan transformation that is taking place there courtesy of the Mimiko administration.

“Our dream for an Ondo State where things work is coming to pass before our eyes,” an Akure resident, who gave his name as Femi Oluwasanmi, said. And the story is better told by somebody who has been out of the state capital for some time and is now visiting.

If the visitor does not miss his way, just like it happened to Usman (ex-MILAD), due to the new road network, then he must be lucky. If your entry point is Ilesha Road but you choose to enter through the Owo-Benin end of the inter-state road, there is no way you will miss this picturesque sight on the left side of the road on which sits several hundreds of vehicles.

As you behold the facility, your mind races back to Berger on Lagos-Apapa expressway, said to be the largest auto mart in the West Africa sub-region. Berger Yard is characterised by chaos. But the sight before you is not Berger Auto Market. This is the Caring Heart International Automart. In terms of landmass and capacity to accommodate vehicles, the Akure facility compares with the Berger Market. Where the distinctive difference lies, however, is that whereas disorderliness rules in the latter, modernity and orderliness holds sway in the former. If you are in Ondo and the need to buy a vehicle arises, this is where to do it, and in comfort too. You do not need to move from one location to another looking for the vehicle you want to buy. Unlike what you have in other states, all the vehicles from which to choose from are in one location. And for the auto marketers, the Caring Heart International Automart is a most convenient facility.

It has all the amenities any market of international standard should have. As itemised by Usman, former Ondo MILAD, “this is a product of good thinking and the vision came as a small part of Mimiko’s larger urban renewal package.” But the Akure automart came with an irony. When the governor envisioned the facility and informed the Akure auto marketers that they had to move from the road sides where they were displaying their wares (particularly Oba Adesida Road) in order to recreate the place, the initiative was met with strict resistance. The auto marketers did not want to move because of the fear that the movement would lead to poor patronage as the new site was far away from the town centre.

But the Mimiko administration knew better that if all the auto marketers moved, anybody wanting to patronise them will find them wherever. Today, the motor sellers are smiling.

They operate in a most conducive environment. And patronage remains. They are even said to be paying less for rent.

All these could have come from a governor with a caring heart. The other side to this action is that the road sides where the auto marketers hitherto sold their wares have been reclaimed and recreated to renew the state capital. A resident described the scenario as a win-win situation for the auto marketers and the Mimiko administration’s urban renewal programme. From the Caring Heart International Automart, your journey into Akure takes you into Oba Adesida Road. Oba Adesida Road is one of the major roads in the state capital. Built in 1976, it has fallen into a state of disrepair necessitating reconstruction. The reconstruction is viewed against the backdrop of the fact that every road has 20 years lifespan. By simple calculation, Oba Adesida Road is 35 years old. The reconstruction that is going on there is one that befits a state capital, complete with beautification and street lights so bright at night that one would mistake them for a stadium’s flood lights. The reconstruction has eliminated the indiscriminate parking of vehicles on the road thus impeding traffic. The road has designated bus stops with the state-of-the-art shelters for commutters comfort. If your next port of call is Arakale, then you cannot lose sight of the massive reconstruction that is about 50 percent completed. A single lane road is giving way to a dual carriageway. When completed, the road will decongest Akure major roads. Many houses were demolished to make the project possible. But the landlords are happy because the demolition was carried out with a human face. Every property owner got at least N8 million regardless of whether the structure had documents or not. The project comes with drainages to check flooding in Akure metropolis.

At the entry point of Arakale from Hospital Road is the NEPA Caring Heart Neighbourhood Market, an ongoing project to create a modern market complete with all the needed amenities out of a slum, while, as you exit Arakale Road to Ondo Road, is the Isikan Caring Heart Neighbourhood Market. In the neigbourhood markets scattered across the state, it is a case of “shopping made easy” as attested to by the market men and women. Amenities in the Isikan Caring Heart Market include police post, clinic, abattoir, 12 toilets, fire service and a creche for people that need daycare services for their babies.

Highly subsidised, the rent is about half of what obtains in private shops in town. There is also the Caring Heart Mega School in the Oke Ijebu area of Akure and the Mother and Child Hospital both of which speak volumes of the Mimiko administration’s vision to redefine education and health provision to the people, especially the poor who now have access to quality services in the two sectors, completely free. What is unfolding in Akure and other parts of the state, spearheaded by Mimiko government, is the bold move to build a new state, and the people are on the road to that destination.

Q: Who is your running mate.

Journalist asked Bakin Zuwo former Kano State Governor in 1982,

A:  My running mate is ‘Abubakar Rimi’ he would not let me rest, anywhere I go he follows me, even in my bedroom I bet Rimi would be hiding somewhere there, he keeps on running after me.

Abubakar Rimi was the incumbent Governor between 1979 – 1983, apparently Barki Zuwo during the election campaigns of late 1982 got paranoid with the way Rimi seem to be going to places where Barkin Zuwo had already visited or would be visiting, so in his frustration when asked the above question he answered saying those words.

[size=18pt]Kuje Chairman Denies N3b Contract Inflation Allegation[/size]



The Chairman of Kuje area council, Mr. Danladi Etsu Zhin, has debunked an allegation levelled against him by the immediate past Senator representing the FCT at the National Assembly, Mr. Adamu Sidi- Ali, over corrupt practices and inflation of contracts to the tune of N3bn.

Zhin described the allegation as baseless and untrue and said there was no time he was on the run from officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as reported in the national dailies, (not LEADERSHIP).

He affirmed that the EFCC had sent some of its men to the area council to investigate the said corrupt practices and contract inflation but they discovered that the allegations were not true. He said “This is a ploy by Sidi Ali to rubbish my career and administration, because I never inflated any contract.”

The council, boss who made the clarification in a chat with LEADERSHIP yesterday, explained that Sidi-Ali cooked up the allegations based on documents he had submitted to the Senate Committee on FCT, during his tenure as Senator, adding that the documents contained a list of contracts awarded and executed by the area council.

“What Sidi-Ali did was that he cooked up the allegations based on the documents that I submitted to the Senate Committee on FCT when he was in the senate. Why did he not ask the committee to investigate me then?

“I started my career in politics as a councillor and since then, I have carried out my duties with the fear of God. That was why the people of Kuje re-elected me for a second tenure. I live with my people, Kuje is my community and I cannot afford to shortchange my people. The reality is that the area councils’ chairmen in collaboration with the FCT administration have been occupied with developmental projects which they have executed and are still carrying out more projects in their respective councils,” he added.

[size=18pt]Inflation of contract for Vice President’s residence, other alleged fraud: NUJ Gives FCT Minister 7 Days' Ultimatum [/size]



The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Abuja Council has stated that it has become necessary for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to begin investigation into of fresh revelations of alleged massive corrupt practices in the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), headed by Senator Bala Mohammed. Chairman of Council, Mr. Jacob Edi in a statement Monday, said at a time when government was considering cutting cost and imposing harsh economic policies on the people, the FCT minister and his management team have continued to waste tax payers’ money on non-existent projects as recently discovered by the Senator Smart Adeyemi Senate Committee on the FCT.

Edi continued that even when such projects exist, they were usually over-inflated .He cited examples such as the Kubwa expressway as well as the Vice president’s residence. The NUJ chairman observed that unless the EFCC moves in and begins a thorough investigation into the award of contracts in the FCTA by Mohammed since his re-appointment, the fight against corruption will be viewed as dead.

Only recently, the Senate Committee on FCT discovered that the official residences of the Senate President, his deputy, Speaker of the House of Representatives and his deputy which were awarded for over N3billion could not be located when the committee went for oversight functions. It was further discovered that there was 120 percent increase in the cost of the contract of the official residence of the vice president which was originally awarded in October 2009 at N7 billion but unilaterally reviewed upward to N16 billion.

According to the NUJ chairman, the FCTA had awarded a road in Kuje Area Council since March this year and paid the full contract sum of N880 million with less than 5 percent of the job done though the road is scheduled for completion in about 3weeks.

Edi hinted that the NUJ would not shirk its responsibility of holding the FCTA accountable to the people of the territory and reiterated the determination of the Council to use the Freedom of Information Act to get the minister accountable. He disclosed that the NUJ Abuja has written the minister and would wait for the mandatory seven days and if the minister fails to furnish the Council with details of all roads and infrastructure contracts awards then the NUJ would be left with no alternative but to seek legal redress.

The NUJ chairman charged Nigerians to give support to the Senate Committee on FCT as it works to ensure that the FCT administration was accountable.

ABUJA HEARTBEAT: The return of the FCT Mayor

By Agoma Awaritoma


T
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I was attending secondary school in Benin City, Edo State, when I heard about this famous Federal Capital Territory from my church choir master. He was a business mogul and one of the major owners of Agura Hotel. He drove in and out of church with cars and buses heavily branded with ‘Agura Golden Tulip Hotel’.

He advertised the hotel so much in Benin that it was like Abuja was somewhere in Edo State, and almost all of us in that church looked forward to staying in the hotel for at least one night. His love and passion for everything Agura was captured in the lines of a television jingle which says “…don’t say you are going to Abuja, say you are going to Agura”.

He succeeded in mobilising a good number of young men and women from my church, but I was not one of them because I was still in school and, to be candid, I did not know God had planted my wife and, therefore, my life and destiny in Abuja, for lo and behold, I was called up for national youth service to Agura, sorry, Abuja.

It was not just the passion for the hotel that my choir master exuded. As I was to discover later, he had plans to run for the prestigious post of Mayor of the Federal Capital Territory. He painted Abuja like paradise to us, and as they built the hotel in Abuja, you could tell the excitement and joy that radiated from my choir master’s face.

He was doing something he was obviously proud of. I believe he wanted to do more, but the military and that particular cabal did not allow that dream to come to fruition, as they selfishly and wickedly changed our constitution and put a minister in charge of the FCT.

And now, for those of us who have taken Abuja as our home, we cannot hold anyone responsible for the over development or underdevelopment of the city. With all the funds released since IBB moved in here, things seem to be falling apart and now, it looks like the centre cannot hold because of too much concentration at the centre: Wuse, Wuse 2, Garki, Maitama, Asokoro, and the central area where the three arms zone is located.

To leave a legacy, you must have some kind of passion; part of you must be in and believe in that dream, whether physical or psychological. Today, I have not seen any sign of my famous choir master in and around Agura Hotel, but the structure is still standing tall and competing favourably with other hotels within its class and above.

I have not, and believe I will not, see any minister that will exude that passion to genuinely develop Abuja the way it was planned, without first satisfying his own personal or cabalistic greed because as we all have noticed, nobody goes to any school to study to become a minister, at least not yet in Nigeria where a lawyer can be made Minister of Health.

So it seems no individual has been trained or packaged to handle the FCT. But if it was a Mayor, there would be some kind of plan and so no minister of the FCT has genuinely gone out of his way to improve the lot of Abuja people.

Did I hear somebody say El-Rufai? How much development did he bring to Kuje, Kubwa, Nyanya, Gwagwalada, Abaji, Bwari, or Kwali? Well, to be fair to him, he looks the best yet of all the men that have been appointed to administer the FCT. The situation today would have been worse, but for the timely intervention of the dare devil El-Rufai who reclaimed Abuja from slum titans. But he too is guilty of not developing beyond the city centre or what has been called ‘Phase 1’ in the master plan.

The only way to decongest the centre is to deliberately ensure that there is constant light, good drinking water, and mesmerizing road network in all the Area Council’s headquarters and the satellite towns.

In fact, the grapevine says that the FCT’s minister’s office was originally to be located in Gwagwalada, where the University of Abuja is. It was only Maman Kontagora (former FCT minister) that tried to do anything reasonable about Gwagwalada.

Until the Uniabuja students and the entire Abuja people decide to Mubarak one FCT Minister, this matter will not be taken seriously and no House Member or Senator representing the FCT has thought it necessary to take up this issue vigorously.

Sincerely, it is time for a return of the Mayor. Perhaps, we would then have an accountable government of the FCT and a House of Assembly of our own where the Mayor will be and can be held responsible for his actions or inactions, where there will be a serious contest for the National Assembly seats, and hollow headed individuals who are completely bereft of ideas will not find themselves in those offices.

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Reader Comments (1)


Posted by Rasputin on Mar 15 2011

I need enlightening please - why is it that since the city of Abuja took off, all the ministers administering the city (I think 17 of them since 1990?) have always originated from the north? And why is a city supposed to be the centre of unity have area names that stem from that area? It appears everything is skewed towards the north to the detriment of other ethnic groups in Nigeria. I am surprised no one has ever deemed it fit to come forward and challenge this injustice.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It is not my state but I see it as a city that has potential especially when d dual carriage road from Abuja has been completed.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
At least d poor would be employed with a lot of activities going on in d water front. It is shame Nigerians don't make use their water front to it's maximum capability. Imagine most of d water front areas in most of our cities are used for shiiiiiting can u imagine.

Unfortunately this gentleman did not win the primaries, I hope the Gentleman who won the primaries, could glean from some of the wonderful ideas postulated by this Gentleman. It would help that City achieve some of her potential if nothing else.

By Imaobong Eka

Abuja

A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Kogi State, Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba, has promised to build a modern city on the Lokoja waterfront that will be known as “Confluence City” if he gets the mandate of his party and the people in the upcoming elections.

Speaking in Lagos at the weekend during a meeting with some business people from the state, Onukaba also unveiled a plan, titled “Re-inventing Kogi State”, to develop a beach resort at the confluence of the Rivers Niger and Benue.“Kogi State is suitably positioned on the banks of Rivers Niger and Benue which both form a confluence at Lokoja. On both sides of the two rivers, it boasts of over 300-square kilometer of waterfront. In one particular portion of Lokoja, there is available for reclamation and development, land in the neighbourhood of 12-square kilometer”, he said.“Already, the Lower River Niger had been dredged and a river port is being built in Lokoja with a jetty proposed for Idah. Beside the Federal Government efforts at re-launching Inland Water Transport System in Nigeria, Water Front activities are still a virgin economic terrain. My administration will liaise with the National Inland Waterways Authority to facilitate the completion of the Lokoja River Port and Idah Jetty and lobby for more jetties on both the rivers Niger and Benue”, the aspirant promised.Onukaba said the proposed confluence city will be a mixed business and residential development on the 12-square kilometre reclamable land. He promised to accelerate the processes for issuance of certificate of occupancy to waterfront developers with additional tax reliefs. He said he would develop and sustain the city through Public Private Partnership (PPP).

The governorship aspirant promised to establish a Kogi State Waterfront Development and Transport Agency, if elected.

I couldn't have supported any of the candidates since I don't reside in Nigeria. I supported all Candidates equally obviously some more than the other. But vote wise, I did not vote, so Mr or is it Mrs or even Miss Kobojunkie shut your trap, I am a Nigerian and I have an opinion on who should lead us since politics is in my blood and something I crave for.

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There are no novice amongst that list of Rascals. When d chips are down each of those men mentioned above would make a firm decision and stand by it. The novices would be on d list of d Goodboys quite a few popular individuals would be on that list so stay tuned.