₦airaland Forum

I dislike sneakiness, it is cowardly and inefficient. For example, if your intention is to cuss Nigeria due to your political affiliations or you’re an African from one of these African nations typified by citizens with Undermining Mindsets and your intention is to slyly discourage investment going to Nigeria because you want it to go to yours, why go through all the bullshit of opening threads with titles such as ‘Should I stay in Nigeria or Emigrate?’ or ‘Is Nigeria better for investment than Rwanda” or “Should I burn down my Lagos Apartment and Travel to Europe?’, Knowing in advance what responses to all such questions would be. Isnt this a waste of time and energy that fools nobody? Stop dissembling and go straight to the point with titles such as, “Gather Here, Lets Cuss Nigeria” or “Don’t invest in Nigeria invest in my country instead” and be done with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1qvBGXCpUU

A 150-Year Old Idea Could Lead To A Breakthrough In Space Travel
Editor OilPrice.com
September 7, 2021, 1:00 am
The increasing frequency of both natural and man-made catastrophes such as worldwide pandemics and climate catastrophes has re-validated the urgency to establish humanity as a multi-planet species. Indeed, the founding ethos of Elon Musk's private spaceflight company SpaceX was to make life multi-planetary, partly motivated by existential threats such as large asteroid strikes capable of wiping out life on our planet. However, one of the biggest challenges to making this dream a reality is how to get to distant stars and planets within a human lifetime.

Consider that with conventional fuel rockets, it takes about seven months just to get to Mars, and a ridiculous 80,000 years to get to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, using our fastest rockets. This means that ordinary rockets are simply out of the question for interstellar travel, and something a little bit more out there is needed.

Luckily, we might now have the answer to this space travel conundrum.

Once the exclusive province of science fiction films, space colonization has been moving closer to becoming a reality thanks to major advances in astronautics and astrophysics; rocket propulsion and design, robotics and medicine. Trekkies, along with the otherworldly technology featured in the Star Trek series, have helped define the science fiction universe. One of the most mind-boggling of these technologies from those shows is the "Impulse Drive," a propulsion system used on the spaceships of many species to get across the galaxy in amazingly short timeframes measured in months or a few years rather than centuries or millennia.

And now scientists have unveiled the Holy Grail of Space Travel: A real-life Impulse Drive system able to achieve sub-light velocities using zero fuel propellants. After 30 years of tinkering and fine-tuning, a pair of scientists might finally be close to turning science fiction into science fact.

And, NASA is taking the idea seriously.

MEGA Drive

Conventional spaceships burn rocket fuel to achieve escape velocities, maneuver, and even land, in the case of SpaceX rockets. But what if you could build a spaceship that runs entirely on electricity?

That's exactly what the Mach Effect Gravity Assist (MEGA) drive does.

Jim Woodward, a physics professor emeritus at California State University, Fullerton, and Hal Fearn, a physicist at Fullerton, have developed the Mach Effect Gravity Assist (MEGA) Drive propulsion based on what they say is peer-reviewed, technically credible physics.

Related: Europe’s Soaring Gasoline Consumption Triggers Rise In Oil Demand

With the help of a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) grant, the two scientists have developed MEGA Drive based on the physics described in Einstein's theory of relativity. MEGA Drive--which is showing excellent promise in early testing and is already in phase two testing--is pretty much the holy grail of space travel and space science because it could power not only local travel within our solar system, but also interstellar travel that is currently undoable using available technologies.

So, how does MEGA Drive work?

It's a well-known Newtonian law that an object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion at a constant speed unless an external force acts on it. All objects resist changes to their state of motion or rest due to inertia.

In 1872, Austrian physicist Ernst Mach made a conjecture that these forces of inertia result from the gravity of objects in the distant universe. This became known as the controversial Mach's principle. While most experts have now dismissed it, Woodward and Fearn think the idea is simply misunderstood and have built their impulse engine based on it.

The MEGA Drive applies the Mach principle. There are several textbook definitions of the Mach principle; however, the two scientists think of it as the ability of distant matter to influence things up close. To get your head around it, they use this old analogy of how matter bends space-time.

If you put a heavy object on a trampoline, it falls in and curves the rubber sheet. Now, if you roll a ball on the trampoline, it will keep orbiting the heavy mass in the center. That's how a planet behaves when it's attracted by the gravity of a star. The thing is, for the rubber sheet to act that way, it has to be stretched or under tension. So these scientists are basically saying that the distant matter of the universe is what's pulling the space-time and making it taut and causing it to act like a stretched rubber sheet loaded with potential energy. And according to the team's understanding of the Mach principle, so is space-time, meaning they think there's a big gravitational potential out there, and the MEGA Drive can actually tap into that potential energy.

Related: Aramco On Lockdown After Houthi Missile Attack

The MEGA Drive works by making a stack of piezoelectric crystals alternately heavier and lighter by applying electric current to them. Actually, this is not some kind of New Age healing crystals; piezoelectric crystals do expand and contract under the influence of electricity, essentially interacting with what Einstein says are universal inertial fields in the universe, caused by gravity. By making an object heavier one instant and lighter the next, you can create thrust by using the very same Newtonian every-reaction-causes-an-equal-and-opposite-reaction principle used by rocket engines by throwing matter behind them to move forward.

MEGA Drive's main kicker: Unlike a conventional rocket that ejects burnt gases to create thrust, the MEGA Drive does not permanently lose its energy-producing crystals by actually throwing them away; You simply push them when heavy, and pull them back when light, thus creating momentum to move forward.

"If you now have a double frequency mechanical oscillation, you can push on it when it's more massive and pull it back when it's less massive. You've got propelling, but you don't have to throw it over and say goodbye. You get to throw it over when it's more massive and then because of this interaction with this inertial gravitational field, you can let it become less massive and then pull it back in," says Woodward.

Woodward says each Mach Effect drive unit can generate about a hundred millinewtons of force. As currently built, the Mach Effect engines are six-centimeter cubes just over two inches per side. By making them more efficient, Woodward says you'd get more power from each. And, by stacking as many of them as you want on your ship, you can generate enough forward momentum to power your ship.

Then it's just a question of how much electricity you can feed the drives, with a nuclear power plant mooted as a possible source of electricity.

According to Woodward, you can generate ~10 newtons of force for every kilowatt of electricity fed into the Mach Effect engines. Early applications would be in satellites used in chemical rockets to maintain orbits and alignment with the engines fueled by electricity, vastly extending their useful lifespans. Indeed, in this case, solar panels could provide all the necessary energy to power the drives.

Another interesting finding: The team has calculated that the smaller the device, the larger the force it can generate. So instead of scaling up, they hope that arrays of thousands of tiny MEGA Drives powered by a nuclear battery could one day be deployed to accelerate large probes into interstellar space. Indeed, the scientists claim that the drives are sufficient to power a human-crewed starship to nearby stars such as Proxima Centauri located some 4.25 light-years away from the sun and back in some reasonable fraction of the human lifetime.

That sounds pretty futuristic, of course, and relies on peer review and replication of Woodward's results. To be clear, it will take a healthy dose of dogged persistence to replicate Woodward's feat. Indeed, Mike McDonald, an aerospace engineer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory contracted by NASA to verify Woodward's work, gives it a rather unnerving 1 in 10 to a 1 in 10 million chance --but it's a shot, nevertheless.

And if MEGA Drive proves viable, it will become one of the rare instances when science fiction is vindicated and transformed into scientific fact.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/150-old-idea-could-lead-000000248.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU0ARqGQStM

Techguy96:
Because I'm a Nigerian n I hate Nigeria for a legit reason.
If we had good road and electricity and jobs and security, I wouldn't hate Nigeria at all, I will be patriotic.

The comment you made gives the impression that you’re either very young and innocent or you’re a vacuous and trite adult.

Techguy96:
You hatred for America will consume you.

What about your hatred for Nigeria?

Propertys11:
Nigeria is a failed nation

Which nation bu pass Nation na and why ? If at all you choose to answer, please let your own criteria be the abiding Control not what Oyingbo people say.

Taking Nigeria's population into consideration - including minus internet access spread ratio - a number of nations placed below Nigeria on the table ought to be placed above Nigeria on the table.

Solofresh2:
Hello fellow Nairalanders,
Please I need your advice on this.I find it hard to express myself to people because of been rejected by them
I find it hard to express myself because of being criticized
I find it hard to express myself even at my place of work because of being sacked going back to square one
There are somethings I don't voluntrily want to do when people ask me to do then but I can't say no because I don't want to look bad
I lack self confidence too
I really need help because deep down I hate it when I can't express my feelings to people
Have been pretending to enjoy pain and stress since I was born and now am 21 years of age,no school,no handwork, always feeling shy but I have one talent which is music but I don't know how to go about it and I don't want to see sucide as an option
I blame my parents for this things because when I was small, they don't allow me to go out and experience life
As I write about this now,I feed myself and instead of them to give me, they are always demanding from me
I don't even know where to start from
Am tired of this goddamn world!

Seek therapy or write a novel. The later isn’t me being facetious. Depending on where you live, therapy may either be prohibitive or professional therapists unavailable. The act of writing a novel is inexpensive and almost always cathartic.

Or join a boxing club, thank me later.

headbasher96:
This is the only man that has reasoned with his brain this Monday morning

Are you a teacher and Niaraland your classroom?

El Salvador is set to become the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency Bitcoin legal tender, with a recently passed law to take effect from tomorrow.

President Nayib Bukele has claimed the move would increase financial inclusion, investment, tourism, innovation and economic development.

He added that the use of Bitcoin in the country will be optional, and salaries and pensions will continue to be paid in US dollars.

President Nayib Bukele said the move would generate more jobs and create financial inclusion
Citizens have protested against it, complaining that there has been too little explanation from officials about what benefit Bitcoin will bring and how transactions using the cryptocurrency will work.

Claudia Molina, a 42-year-old who sells T-shirts and souvenirs, criticised the plan.

"We don't know the currency. We don’t know where it comes from. We don't know if it's going to bring us profit or loss. We don’t know anything," she told Reuters.

https://news.sky.com/story/bitcoin-protests-and-confusion-in-el-salvador-as-country-prepares-to-make-cryptocurrency-legal-tender-12400516

Nigerian automotive tech company Autochek today is announcing the acquisition of Cheki Kenya and Uganda from Ringier One Africa Media (ROAM) for an undisclosed amount.

Per a statement, Autochek will finalize the deal in the coming weeks. With the acquisition, Autochek completes its expansion into East Africa and follows the first acquisition made almost a year ago when it acquired both Nigeria and Ghana businesses from Cheki.

In 2010, Cheki launched as an online car classified for dealers, importers, and private sellers in Kenya. The startup, headquartered in Nairobi, expanded operations to Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Cheki got acquired by ROAM in 2017 and joined a list of online marketplaces and classifieds in its network like Jobberman.

Per ROAM’s website, Cheki still has operations in Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. However, these markets are quite inactive so it is safe to say Autochek has fully acquired all of Cheki’s main operations.

Cheki Kenya is an exciting market for both parties. The subsidiary has 700,000 users and lists over 12,000 vehicles monthly. It also claims to have grown 80% year-on-year in the last two years, making it a valuable asset for Autochek’s plan for regional expansion.

“Cheki Kenya has always been sort of the crown jewel,” Autochek CEO Etop Ikpe said to TechCrunch. “At the time, when we completed the Nigeria and Ghana acquisition, it wasn’t a conscious effort to make this happen, but it’s great that it happened.”


Credit penetration in terms of vehicle financing is higher in Kenya than in Nigeria and Ghana. The East African country has a 27.5% penetration compared to the whole West African market at 5%. Therefore, it explains why Autochek is optimistic about the East African market. Before making the acquisition, the one-year-old company ran a stealthy pilot with some banks in Kenya — a similar strategy used in Ghana and Nigeria — to provide car owners with financing. So, the acquisition cements the company’s position in the market, Ikpe says.

The sale of Cheki operations in all of its major markets, which happened within a year, might lead some to ask if the four entities did poorly and forced the classifieds giant to find a suitable buyer quickly.

But CEO Ikpe refuted any claims of a distress sale when asked. He stated that the acquisition happened in quick succession because both parties understood that the classifieds model (run by Cheki) needed to make way for the more modern transactional model (employed by Autochek and leading automotive players in Africa). Therefore, ROAM Africa saw it as a needed transition for Cheki.

Building off Ikpe’s past relationship with Ringier (one arm of ROAM before the merger), where he ran DealDey, a classifieds deal company Ringier eventually bought, it wasn’t a tough decision to sell the company to Autochek, Ikpe tells TechCrunch.

“I think for them it’s really long term strategy and they believe in our business model. And there’s a lot of hope that we can do things in the future. It was also really about finding the right home for the business and their employees.”

From a statement, ROAM CEO Clemens Weitz said, “Across the world, we see a new evolution of digital automotive platforms, requiring deep specialization. Specifically in Africa, we believe that Autochek is the one player with the best team and expertise to truly create a game-changing consumer experience. For ROAM Africa, this deal is more than a very good transaction: It unleashes even more focus on our strategic playbook for our other businesses.”

Autochek’s expansion to East Africa is coming at a time when automotive tech companies like Moove, Planet42, and FlexClub are receiving attention from investors as the need for flexible vehicle financing keeps growing across the continent.

The most important car financing market on the continent is arguably South Africa. Other automotive companies have some form of presence in the market and for Autochek, the plan is to expand there too, and understandably why.

South Africa is the crème de la crème market and has the highest car financing penetration on the continent. Yet despite the seeming competition, Ikpe believes opportunities exist for the company to provide services tailored to the market different from what other companies have.

“The beauty of our platform is that we can be diverse; for instance, we can have a retail or B2B approach. There’s a lot of dynamic ways we can work. So I think it’s natural that our goal is to typically be in every region. We’ve made our inroads into East and West, and we’ll continue to work as we want to be in North and South Africa,” he said.

Autochek says a funding round is in the works to execute on this front and might close before the end of the year.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/06/nigerias-autochek-acquires-cheki-kenya-and-uganda-from-roam-africa/

In his treatise Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes did not suggest that government was benevolent – only necessary. Without it, argued the philosopher, people would live in perpetual fear in “a war of all against all” and life would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”. His argument’s urgency reflected its context – the English civil war. But it recognised that the state had to be justified by a degree of consent from those it ruled.

The Nigerian government has a democratic mandate. Though President Muhammadu Buhari was once a dictator, his return to power in 2015 was the country’s first transition between democratically elected leaders. Voters chose him to tackle corruption and curb Boko Haram’s violence. But the state’s ability to carry out its most basic function, providing the basic physical security of which Hobbes wrote, is crumbling by the day. For too many Nigerians, the government is a force that encroaches on or plunders their lives without offering protection, let alone support. Unemployment is among the world’s worst, the cost of living is rising, the pandemic’s impact has deepened frustration and an oil price slump hurt the petro-dependent economy; all threaten to worsen widespread violence.

Nigeria has not one but multiple security crises. Mr Buhari boasted that it had “technically” defeated Boko Haram. But six years on, jihadist violence continues in the north-east, and Islamic State West African Province appears to be establishing quasi-governance in places, collecting taxes and digging wells. Things are worse in the north-west, where hundreds of schoolchildren have been kidnapped for ransom, including 73 in the last week. The banditry grew from longstanding conflict between herders and farmers, often from different ethnic groups. Armed vigilante organisations formed in response now pose a threat themselves and jihadist groups are an increasing presence. Police are reluctant to keep people safe, or incapable of doing so, in a region awash with arms, where one gang recently shot down a military jet.

The Delta Avengers, quieter in recent years, have threatened to resume attacks on oil installations there. In central Nigeria, there is growing banditry and inter-ethnic violence. Armed attacks have grown in the south-east since security forces clamped down on protests in 2015 calling for Biafran independence.

This government is far from the sole cause of these woes. Many are rooted elsewhere, including in the legacy of past administrations, colonialism and the foreign thirst for Nigeria’s resources. But the contrast between the state’s weakness in many realms, and its ruthlessness in others, is stark and unforgivable. Though security forces are frequently outnumbered and outgunned, the answer cannot be simply to funnel them more resources. Repression and human rights abuses have in many cases radicalised populations.

The 2020 “end Sars” campaign against police abuses was bloodily suppressed and the crackdown on civil society continues. The government banned the use of Twitter, proposed new laws to rein in journalists and told broadcasters to limit the reporting of the rising insecurity. Many fear electoral conditions have deteriorated.
Nigeria is not a failed state. But governance failures mean that support for the whole political class is eroding fast. Many in this youthful nation can see what the country could be with better leadership. Some industries, like the tech sector, are thriving. “End Sars” showed the young’s capacity to mobilise, as well as their passion and determination to make their country better. The tragedy is that these signs of hope come in spite of their leaders.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/05/the-guardian-view-on-nigerias-violence-the-problem-of-the-state

Igbos are not hated.

heniford2:
Waiting dis wan dey type

"Dis Wan" is rude. If you’re unsure of something, ask politely; don’t give the impression you’re ignorant and proud .

Kayberg:
They don't burn roads bro.
They'd just happily litter it with refuse and garbage.
Nigerians are ill mannered when it comes to that.

Given opportunity, Oyibos would litter too and just as happily and carefree as Nigerians. It’s just that Nigeria societies is not organised as those of Western nations. You litter in Canada, Uk, USA or Norway, chance are you'll be breaking laws and will face associated consequences. Laws and institutions in the West endure for centuries; people eventually learn to tow the line. Antilitter laws exist in Nigeria too but are not managed because relevant institutions in Nigeria do not work for long even when they exist in the first place. Nigeria is not organised. Endurance is part of what it means to be organised. When Nigerians say Nigeria has no maintenance culture and mean it in terms of hardware, Infrastructure; same thing applies in terms of software also, superstructure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-PmIGy7Dtg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN0Qv6A_z9k

kingsceemark:
Which country you dey live make I come kidnap you? I need money

Uganda!

Police need to place bounty on the heads of any known bandit leader. If the police lack money, let them make appeals to us Nigerians in the Diaspora and we'll donate money. If the police, State and Communities in the relevant areas organise themselves properly, Bandits wouldn’t be able to get at them as threats for placing bounty on their heads. When Police, Military or Vigilantly capture bandits, people in the community should break them out of wherever these authorities detain them and hang them.

May the gods forgive me for making such suggestions but this is getting too much.

I'm sorry, but Ghanaians often deserve slapping; actually, not just Ghanaians, but Africans from all these useless countries up and down the continent, and they can be arrogant towards Nigerians, with much to say for themselves, although they are dependent for survival on foreign aid. But the Nigerian musician shouldn’t have physically abused anyone. Personally, though, if I were a musician, I wouldn’t visit Ghana. Nigerians have themselves to blame for patronising Ghana and then expecting sympathy when Ghana met out to them the anger they have deep in their souls for Nigerians.

Nigerian musicians need to build or buy their homes in Nigeria, nowhere else in Africa, or buy or build Overseas. Build your music studios in Nigeria; open musical instrument selling shops in Nigeria, help young poor Nigerians.

Caboceer:
When those three demons eventually die gruesome deaths, some useless nincompoops will be on hand to type RIP to them and suggest that maybe they are among the 'good ones' within the force.

Are you suggesting that only bad people die?

I immediately or quickly calm down when I stop the self-pitying narrative in my mind, which drives much of my anger and your anger. Once the calming sets in, I reinforce the calming by remembering that, ultimately, the world owes me nothing.

Unless you're suffering from a mental condition, you can learn to control your anger by understanding when you're beginning to feel self-pity.

TheLionofLasigi:
Red cap like isi-agwu is a recent introduction in Igbo culture. Your fore fathers had no civilization talkless of an empire.....they ran around, hunted and fvcked around half naked in the forest.....your dressing was similar to that of the Zulu's of south africa....not that it's a bad thing. Have you seen Zulu women in their traditional wears....the problem with you Igbos is that you're always trying so hard to westernize your culture.

It's good they, Igbo Tribes adapt and evolve, and long may they continue. Those you call West used to run around in animal furs. They evolved. Leave Nigeria tribes alone to evolve. If contemporary Nigeria tribes didn't evolve, Nigeria traditional attire wouldn't now be gaining Africa the interest the world is showing in African fashions.

The Nigerian Activist Trying to Sell Plants to the Oil Company That Destroyed Them

“I need to help my women to stand,” says Martha Agbani, who helped a group of women from the Niger Delta build a flourishing mangrove nursery.

Martha Agbani with women workers from Ogoniland, an area of the Niger Delta ravaged by oil industry pollution, as they plant mangrove seeds.Credit...Yagazie Emezi for The New York Times
By Ruth Maclean
Sept. 3, 2021
YAATAAH, Nigeria — When the women arrived in the quiet, waterside village of Yaataah on an afternoon in May, some local young men hurried over to them. They offered to carry the women’s loads — old rice sacks and tin basins full of seeds, ready for planting — down to the swamp.

They seemed helpful but the women’s leader, Martha Agbani, sensed danger. “No, leave it!” she said sharply. “Let the women carry.”

It wasn’t the first time she had run into these men in Yaataah, perched on a small hill in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, and she knew their offer contained menace: If she didn’t pay them, there would be trouble. And one of her main goals was to create work for the women.

All her life Mrs. Agbani had watched as women from Ogoniland, a part of the oil-rich Niger Delta famous for standing up to polluting oil companies, struggled to get by, and struggled to be heard over men.

And she was determined that men would not disrupt or muscle in on her new project — establishing an enormous nursery to grow hundreds of thousands of mangrove plants to sell to the Nigerian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, the dominant oil company in Ogoniland and the one responsible for wiping out many of them in the first place.

Mrs. Agbani, a hardy woman with a ready laugh and a kind but no-nonsense manner, was trying to turn her hand to a business that could put money in women’s pockets and go some way to restoring their devastated environment.

Mangroves have prodigious natural powers, filtering brackish water, protecting against coastal erosion and providing a sheltered breeding ground for aquatic life, which in turn sustains humans.

The Niger Delta is home to one of the largest mangrove ecosystems in the world, one that humans lived in harmony with for centuries. But with the advent of oil production — something that the Nigerian government has come to depend upon for most of its revenue — the mangrove forests suffered.

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In 2011, the United Nations Environment Program released a major report documenting pollution in Ogoniland, saying it could take 30 years to clean up. But the government agency set up to clean the land and water, the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, has been grindingly slow to act.

After two oil spills in 2007 and 2008 killed off thousands of acres of mangrove forests near the village of Bodo, Shell agreed to compensate the community, clean up the oil and replant. Mrs. Agbani spotted an opportunity.

The company would need thousands upon thousands of mangroves, tropical trees that grow in the spaces between land and sea, protecting the coastline and providing vital habitat for baby fish and periwinkles, the sea snails that are a staple of Niger Delta cuisine.


Martha Agbani’s mangrove nursery in Bodo. Her two nurseries are home to about 250,000 plants that will soon be transplanted in their natural habitat.Credit...Yagazie Emezi for The New York Times
She started by growing mangroves in her yard, then started looking for a place to establish a nursery.


That’s how she came across Yaataah. Once, its creek was home to thick forests of mangroves, but now most were gone, the victims of past environmental disasters and encroachment of invasive nipa palms, brought there long ago by the British. She started planning the project’s rollout there, and bused in more than 100 female mangrove planters to celebrate its launch in late 2019.

But at the party, Mrs. Agbani said, she had her first experience with the young men, who suddenly arrived and demanded money, as well as the snacks she had brought for the women.

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When she remonstrated with them, pointing out that the women had come to help restore the land so that their mothers and sisters could once again harvest periwinkles, they physically attacked her.

“They were dragging me from behind,” she said. “It all went bad.”

Shaken, Mrs. Agbani and her team left and did not return to Yaataah for months. She decided to base the nursery elsewhere — a local leader agreed to lend her land close to the polluted sites in Bodo.

But she couldn’t quite let go of Yaataah. It had a good creek where they could practice cultivating mangroves out in the wild, directly from seeds, rather than first establishing them in the plastic grow bags of the nursery in Bodo.

And now, in May 2021, the women were back to plant.

Hoisting the sacks onto their heads, and with their skirts above their knees, the women descended the little hill barefoot and slipped into the clear water of the creek. It didn’t stay clear for long, though, as dozens of feet stirred up the soft sediment.


“Something’s sizzling round my legs,” said Mrs. Agbani, 45, laughing, leaning on a stick, and struggling to get a foothold in the mud. “Oh my god, Martha is an old woman.”

The spot was perfect. There was very little oil pollution. Birds, frogs and crickets still sang from their clumps of foliage. Like many a creek of the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, it was choked by nipa palms. But Mrs. Agbani had arranged for villagers to clear a large patch of the palms.

The women squelched nimbly through the mud over to the patch and worked quickly, passing the seeds — technically, podlike “propagules” that germinate on the tree — from hand to hand and sticking them in the mud at foot-long intervals, directed by Mrs. Agbani.

“Carry me dey go-o,” one of the women, Jessy Nubani, sang, bobbing up and down as she worked, adapting a popular call-and-response song. The other women sang back in harmony: “Martha, carry me dey go, dey go, dey go.”


The young men had shown up again, and summoned their friends, who buzzed in on motorcycles to see what they could get. But they stayed on shore. Mrs. Agbani had given them a round telling-off.

Martha Agbani returning from the planting site.Credit...Yagazie Emezi for The New York Times
Mrs. Agbani learned activism partly from her mother, who in the 1990s was involved in the Ogoni people’s struggle against the Nigerian government and Shell.

Like her mother, Mrs. Agbani worked for years for the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, set up in 1990 in response to the environmental destruction of the ecologically delicate area by multinational oil companies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAMp8wh-Ras

I typed, 'Meaning of Disorganization', on Bing search engine and the following below came up:

Disorganization
[dɪsˌɔːɡənʌɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n]
NOUN

lack of proper planning and control.
"social disorganization is destroying the wellbeing of the population" · [More]
inability to plan one's activities or affairs efficiently.
"if you frequently lose your keys you may be suffering from chronic disorganization"

I typed, 'Meaning of police', on Bing search engine and the following below came up:

police
[pəˈliːs]
NOUN
(the police)

the civil force of a state, responsible for the prevention and detection of crime and the maintenance of public order.
"when someone is killed, the police have to be informed" · [More]
synonyms:
police force · police officers · policemen · policewomen · officers of the law · [More]

VERB

(of a police force) have the duty of maintaining law and order in or at (an area or event).

Is anyone interested in the history of the American Wild West, 1865 – 1895? I’m somewhat fascinated by the period. You’ll find that much of the so-called banditry plaguing the NE share a remarkable similarity. In the end, combination of Texas Rangers, reward placed on the heads of outlaws (bandits), hanging and the coming of the railways tamed the West. .

The vids are just about gunmen, not much about banditry, just for your mild amusementt, in these grim times we’re experiencing in Nigeria.




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


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Houn5e4wDg



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVcsJG7tNpA



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3388C4oXRkQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BJFQkXYAyc

Bigchristo:
The money didn’t destroy her life, her attitude did, when you have money and think you can bully everybody around you then they leave you to be alone with your riches
Most especially when she is living in a society where money don’t freak people because government has everything in place for both rich and the poor.

What you've achieved here is the equivalent of hammering jigsaw pieces of the Monalisa into Picaso’s Weeping Woman.