₦airaland Forum

ZUBY77: Cheap bill. I used to spend something bigger than that in Europe.

IYA NGBALI: 500=00 would give her nutritious and solid poundy

ekt_bear: The ACN has been a tremendous disappointment for me.

Looks like I'll have to lower my expectations dramatically of what will be done.

Very disheartening.

Kobojunkie: Where were you when we witnessed much the same during MEND so-called war against marginalization, and for greater control over oil resources?

Ndu_chuks: The same was said about MEND.
We need to take our country back from terrorists by significantly reducing the availability of poor and uneducated people which they use as foot soldiers. This should be the first reasonable step, next we need to partner with our friends abroad to help us with intelligence tools to fight groups like Al Quaeda who are trying to turn our country to Afghanistan.

Today, the Boko Haram terrorists, like MEND have become a major menace to the country and their negative impact on the nation's economy, is huge. It has become obvious that the government and JTF do not have the ability to defeat BH, just as they could not handle MEND.

In the best interest of our dear country and to save innocent lives, the time has come for a comprehensive amnesty program. This administration does not need to wait until BH violence spreads to South before taking decisive action. Even respected Bill Clinton recently said that poverty is fueling violence in Nigeria. Its time to help the victimized BH foot soldiers, the Almajiris. The Islamic bank has already pledged $98million to help educate the poor Northerners, who, like the common man in the ND, are ignored and marginalized by both the state governments and the federal government.

http://www.punchng.com/news/pdp-convention-jonathan-ibb-atiku-clash-likely/

March 19, 2012 by Niyi Odebode, Olusola Fabiyi and Tunde Odesola 7 Comments

President Goodluck Jonathan may be heading for a showdown with former military dictator, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over the candidacy of former Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola for the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Investigation by THE PUNCH on Sunday revealed that while Jonathan was to be in league with some powerful interest in the South-West to support another candidate, the desire of Oyinlola, the former military governor of Lagos State, is said to be causing ripples in the party.

Oyinlola is said to have the backing of Babangida and Atiku, two prominent PDP leaders, who tried in 2011 to displace Jonathan as the party’s candidate for the presidential election.

Oyinlola came to the party’s headquarters on Thursday to submit his form for the position, but was turned back on the grounds that the submission of forms had closed.

Investigations, however, revealed that Oyinlola’s backers had mounted pressure on the party’s National Working Committee to accept the former governor’s form.

It was gathered that the South West PDP was piqued by Oyinlola’s entry into the race in spite of its decision that none of the former governors should contest the party’s offices for now.

A leader of the party, who pleaded anonymity, said, “We all know those who are in the race. We have penciled down two former ministers – Prof. Tunde Adeniran and Chief Ebenezer Babatope – as well as the National Legal Adviser of the party, Chief Olusola Oke.

“Oyinlola himself is aware of this. The President is aware of our position and he is supporting us. You will recall that none of the former governors was appointed as a minister by Jonathan. We learnt that Oyinlola sneaked to his friends, governors, and Babangida, who was his boss in the army. It is these people that want to pick our candidate for us.”

The PDP chief, who explained the South-West’s position, said, “These former governors were responsible for the death of the party in the zone.

“If we want the PDP to regain its lost glory in Yorubaland, these people should take back seats in the party for now. They cannot launder the image of the PDP in the South West.”

Investigations revealed that Oyinlola was convinced by Babangida, Atiku and some governors to join the race as part of moves to spite the President.

It was gathered that with the chances of Tukur looking bright as a chairmanship candidate, the IBB group reasoned that they needed a person they could trust as National Secretary.

A member of the PDP’s NWC, who pleaded anonymity said, “You know Jonathan has not hidden his support for Tukur. IBB, Atiku and some governors chose Oyinlola, who they think they can trust to check the Jonathan man (Tukur) in the next NWC.”

When contacted, Oyinlola denied that he was being sponsored by IBB and Atiku. He, however, confirmed that he had the backing of the governors.

Oyinlola, in a statement by his media aide, Ayo Olaiya, said as an ex-governor, “There is nothing wrong if the Governor’s Forum throws its weight behind his aspiration.”

He said, “The talk about Oyinlola being a candidate of some powerful elements in the North is sheer blackmail. Politics should be without bitterness. Why run a fellow party man down because of your own ambition?”

He added that the PDP remained a formidable national party ready to attain political power legitimately during elections, stressing that his ambition would not scuttle the interest of the South West within the PDP.

But a group within the party, Osun PDP Patriots, criticised the former governor for his ambition.

The group’s spokesperson, Dr. Segun Oyinloye, in an interview with one of our correspondents, alleged that the contest for the post of PDP National Secretary should not be manipulated.

Oyinloye said, “Only those that collected forms for the post should be allowed to run. Nobody should be imposed on the party because it will affect the fortunes of the party in the South West.”

^
Is it irrelevance that causes you people to sound so pathetic? There is no excuse for grown ups to talk like they just popped out of the gutter, especially someone of Lai Mohammeds age.

You even have the gull to talk about the light GEJ is seen in. What worse hypocrisy can come from a man whose leader, Tinubu is a drug baron and fraudster who cannot point out his fathers compound?
You keep on going on about PDP like a one trick pony, but have you looked around at your ACN (I don't need to mention the drugs thing again); just a couple of days ago, there were headlines about Aregbesola signing a contract to plant flowers for 0.634billion for an assembly complex that cost 100million. Daft as you are, it should click in your head that something is grossly wrong with that.

Dude, take to clowing. Thank you.

PRESIDENT Goodluck Ebele Jonathan recently pointed out to members the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) why he thinks the party has continued to be the dominant political machine in the country. He thought it was its ability to resolve disagreements among it’s teeming members; that it was the only party which did not have a single and over- bearing godfather whose word is law to the party faithful. When he said that, he refrained from mentioning the name of any political party. But it would appear that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) believed it fit the description by the president. The common saying is that it is old people who feel discomfort whenever dry bones are mentioned. The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) did not react, neither did the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) worry about the pronouncement of the president at an internal meeting of the ruling party.

Nchara: Not sure what you mean. Take a look at his trade mark suit and then this confirmatory photo.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/03/al-qaeda-wants-to-establish-7000-km-wide-african-caliphate-freed-un-envoy/
On March 12, 2012 · In News
By Uduma Kalu with agency report

LAGOS — A British victim and United Nations Special Envoy who spent 130 days in “the hands of al-Qaeda’s African ‘monsters’” in December 2008 in Nigeria has warned that the killing of British hostage, Chris McManus and his Italian counterpart in Sokoto last Thursday was a wake-up call to the threat posed by Islamic militants in Africa. He also said one of his captors was a Nigerian.

The former kidnap victim, Robert Fowler, in a report in Telegraph of London, yesterday, narrated how he was kidnapped as the United Nations Special Envoy, attempting to broker peace between the government and rebel Tuareg groups. Fowler said he was nabbed one Sunday, two weeks before Christmas, with his colleague, Louis Guay, on their way back to the capital, Niamey, in a UN vehicle.

“The objective of the group,” he said, is to establish a 7,000 km wide caliphate, stretching from Nouakchott in Mauritania to Mogadishu in Somalia, to be ruled by stern Allah-fearing Islamic sages who could be relied upon to understand and execute God’s will. AQIM believe that by replicating across the Sahel, the chaos and anarchy caused by their Al Shabaab colleagues in present day Somalia, they will be creating the perfect growth medium in which their vision will flourish.

“In the face of the murderous rampage of Boko Haram in Nigeria over the past year, which included the bombing of police headquarters in Abuja and the destruction of UN headquarters; many hundreds have been killed (thousands over the past decade).

There seems, though, to be a reluctance to believe that it is all part of the same jihadi movement. Many want to believe that Boko Haram is different, somehow less dangerous than Al Qaeda’s other African affiliates. While I understand the reluctance to acknowledge that Al Qaeda might have won a solid foothold in Africa’s most populous and important country, again, I know that to be the case. One of my captors was a young Nigerian from Kano; clearly what we would call an ‘exchange officer.’”

Asking that Africa be helped to get over the scourge, the UN envoy said: “After intensive diplomacy on the part of all manner of regional players, Louis and I were freed after 130 days of captivity, along with the two female members of a group of European tourists who had been kidnapped by a separate AQIM faction.

“Six weeks after we returned to Canada, another of that group, the Briton Edwin Dyer, was killed by his captors. Louis and I are very lucky to be alive and we owe our lives to a great many fine, imaginative and hard working people who made it possible.”

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/nigerian-soldiers-murdered-10-youth-protesters-revenge-mission-jos
By SaharaReporters, New York

Eyewitness account told Saharareporters that Nigerian soldiers murdered at least 10 young protesters as they marched on Mai Adiko village near Jos to avenge the death of 5 people killed on Sunday suicide car bomb attack on St. Finbarr's Catholic church in the Rayfield area of Jos city.

The source said christian youths had been told that the two bombers took off from Mai Adiko village had headed there in large numbers on a revenge operation when soldiers confronted them on their way and started firing indiscriminately, killing 10.

The source told Saharareporters that soldiers kept firing at the protesters several hours later until they were forcefully dispersed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/11/us-nigeria-violence-idUSBRE82A05A20120311

By Buhari Bello

JOS, Nigeria | Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:35pm EDT

(Reuters) - Christian youths killed at least 10 people in reprisal attacks after a suspected suicide bomber hit a Catholic church in the central Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday, killing three people, authorities said.

"The situation is bad," Sati Dakwat, health commissioner for Jos, told Reuters. "Several were killed in the reprisal attacks, more than 10."

A Reuters reporter at the scene of the church bombing was unable to gain access, as the police had cordoned off the area around Finber's Catholic Church in the Rayfield suburb of Jos.

"We haven't got actual figures of injured yet, but at least three people have been confirmed dead by our men attending the scene of the blast," the Jos coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Al Hassan Aliyu said.

But he later added that "the situation is calm now", after the initial reprisals by Christian youths.

Earlier NEMA called it a suspected suicide bombing, but Aliyu said this was not yet confirmed.

Islamist sect Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for a wave of bomb attacks on churches across Nigeria since Christmas Day. The bombing campaign has raised fears that the group is trying to ignite sectarian conflict in Africa's most populous country, split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims.

In the past decade Jos has become the main flashpoint for tensions between Nigeria's Christian and Muslim communities. Bombers have targeted its churches many times since Christmas.

A Reuters witness watched angry Christians set up road blocks near the church. In the past, such a move has preceded retaliatory violence against Muslims.

President Goodluck Jonathan, whose term has almost come to be dominated by the insurgency in the north, condemned the bombings, a statement from his office said.

"Despite seeming appearances to the contrary, government is indeed winning the war against the terrorists and will continue to progressively destroy their ability to unleash murderous attacks on peaceful, law-abiding Nigerians," it said.

"Their hideouts and modus operandi are also being consistently exposed."

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden", wants sharia law more widely applied across Nigeria.

The sect has been waging an insurgency against Nigeria's government since 2009, and has been blamed for hundreds of killings in gun and bomb attacks.

SECT STIRS TURBULENCE

Styled on the Taliban, Boko Haram's methods have become more sophisticated in the past six months, and it has widened its targets beyond the police and other authority figures to include Christian worshippers.

On February 26 a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a church in Jos, killing two people and wounding 38. Christian youths beat two Muslims to death in revenge.

Other cities also have been affected.

A bomb at a Catholic Church in Madala, just outside the capital Abuja, killed 37 people and wounded 57 on Christmas Day. Another blast struck a church in Jos.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for previous attacks on churches, citing violence against Muslims by Christians in Jos as justification.

Despite its Islamist ideology, it is Muslims in the north of Nigeria who mostly bear the brunt of the sect's violence.

Police killed a suspected Boko Haram fighter and arrested 11 others in the sect's northeastern heartland of Maiduguri on Saturday, Borno state police spokesman Samuel Tizhe said.

He said they had tried to attack a mobile police base, but were repelled. He said one of the gunmen was killed, 11 were arrested and arms and explosive devices were seized from them.

Earlier on Saturday, suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked and burned down a police station in Bulabilin Ngaura village, in the northeast, killing one policeman.

Suspected sect members shot dead a traditional ruler in the northeastern Gombe state, as he left a mosque after Friday prayers two days ago.

On Thursday, a Briton and an Italian held hostage in Nigeria were killed by their captors after being held for almost a year by what security officials said was a Boko Haram faction, although a spokesman for the sect denied any involvement.

Boko Haram used to be confined to Nigeria's northeastern state of Borno. But the sect, or factions of it, have expanded in the past six months to operate in at least 10 states across the north, and have struck the capital.

(Additional reporting by Shuabu Mohammed in Jos and Ibrahim Mshelizza in Maiduguri; Writing and additional reporting by Tim Cocks; editing by Michael Roddy)

Beaf:
^
Preach, bro!

Ilekokonit:
Any one who denies his fatherland has inferiority complex.

Any Nigerian who is a tribalist is either an illiterate or an educated illiterate.

Anyone holding a Nigerian passport and still working against Nigerias unity has no principles and is a disgrace.
Why don't you give up your Nigerian passport first before you come here and talk rubbish about Nigeria breaking up.

Nigeria is bigger than any tribal sentiments. If you don't like being Nigerian then give up your Nigerian passport first. You can't have your cake and eat it. Man up and do what real men do.

If you are tired of being a Nigerian then go adopt another country and lets see how you fare. Leave us who are proudly Nigerian to mend our imperfect but much beloved country.

In 40 years time you will definitely still be Nigerian like the rest of us so why not try and build a better Nigeria for us and our Children to cherish instead of trying at every corner to pull it apart with your tribal poison

Once again if you don't like being Nigerian then give up your Nigerian passport first instead of tiring us out with your empty boasts.

I am not a traitor and no matter how little, I have benefitted from Nigeria [/b]in the past and come good, come bad, I will remain a loyal Nigerian till I die. I may criticise the imperfections of our corrupt leaders across ALL 36 states and in the Presidency BUT it is in my best interests for Nigeria to remain one AS [b]WE HAVE NO OTHER COUNTRY TO CALL OUR OWN.

Long Live Nigeria For Better For Worse

Dudu_Negro:
We Yorubas do not believe in land grab and we never force or threaten anyone to come into our commonwealth, that choice is completely left to the subject territory to make. The Yorubas, our kith and kin, in Kogi and Kwara States are in border frontiers and politically controversial territories zoned into the North Region. Given the current political awareness and developments in the country, particularly in the possibility of a collapse and dissolution of the country, the leaders and sons of Kwara and Kogi States have spoken!  In tandem with a dissolution of Nigeria they are resolved to equally dissolve their political identity with the North and return home to the Yoruba Commonwealth.  

We support their choice and we welcome their wisdom.  We Yorubas must exhibit this support in action and we do so by acknowledging and including Kwara and Kogi West whenever we discuss the Western States, Region and the Yoruba Commonwealth in general.

Your comments are welcome. . . .

ndu_chucks:
Its amazing how cowards march for treasonous "freedom" thousands of miles away from the homeland. make una come march for Onitsha na.

beblessed:
@koruji, u re so funny! Pls nobody shd jugde him. It's all about survival. Even d country cant protect us on it's shore so beta 2 protect urself. See all d senseless killings up north,wat has been done? Wisdom is d principal thing oh!

queensmith:
I hope everybody that loses a relative to these terrorists gets a special letter from the president. I hope so, it will be sad indeed if it took the death of 2 europeans at the hands of these militants for the Nigerian Government to decide to clean up. It will be very sad indeed.

Beaf:
^
What survival instinct? Do you think Europe is a jungle full of animals who just kill Nigerians at random? You think it is Iraq Nigeria? Your story is absolutely ridiculous.
Low self-esteem is a prison that makes one run when there is no danger, change their names and adopt annoyingly fake accents when nobody really gives a phuck if you are from the Moon or Jupiter.

Low self-esteem is a prison that makes foragers out of individuals that would normally be talented.