₦airaland Forum

bushdoc9919:
If you must blame someone....blame African governments.

In Asian countries like South Korea, China, Japan and Singapore.....there is heavy duty investment in education and innovation development. They do not have resources....so they have to invest in education(as one American commentator on Yahoo.com said....education is their only resource). As a result....they have a highly educated workforce....and they have the innovative economy to produce jobs galore for them. And the Governments of these countries are committed to making things work because they know that if there is no light...the economy fails...and problem happens.(and there is no oil or groundnut to sell).

But in African countries....we just export raw materials to the west....and use the money to share and then import stuff....even the stuff we are making. Nigeria once upon a time manufactured all the tyres used in the country(Infact back in the 1980's...I recall a friend of my dad's bought foreign tyres...and my dad was like...How can you do such a thing when we have good Nigerian made tyres....fit for our roads?) Now...all the tyres used in Nigeria are foreign. Dunlop Nigeria, the last manufacturer closed its doors a few years ago.

And do you know what our resource dependency is doing to us? It is stifling economic growth. We do not have industries...because of importation. Even common exercise book...we are importing from countries like Indonesia FHS.!As a result no jobs. And since government is not dependent on the people's taxes....but on the sale of oil....and in other African countries the sale of cotton, groundnut, etc....they just siddon chop money. So....no jobs...and as a result hundreds of our young men AND women...and even children...are on the boats to Italy. And do you know the disgraceful thing about this? NO AFRICAN LEADER HAS COME OUT TO SAY....THIS IS WRONG....WE HAVE TO DO MORE TO MAKE SURE OUR YOUNG PEOPLE STAY. Instead they keep chopping money. And when things get sticky...the run to the Goddess Christine....to beg for more money from the Heavenly Bank....money that we will promptly waste on chopping and more white elephant projects.Meanwhile we lose the flower of our youth to the Mediterranean.

So....I am not blaming the Muslims for this disaster. Of course...it does not excuse any wrongdoing. Whoever was responsible for the death must pay. But the real villan is our African leaders....and their economics of resource dependency.And even we Africans too are to blame....we tolerate bad leaders....and call people who try to call them to account jokers.

We can stop this...by investing in education and industrial development...and by getting rid of the idea that oil and any resource will save us. Let us leave resource dependency behind. What stops our engineers from manufacturing a simple maize grinding machine for rural ladies to use? What stops us from making cars, lorries, even planes. We must be serious...otherwise we will have more disasters like this. And the road begins with us making our leaders work for us....and with us getting rid of the idea that stomach infrastructure politics is a good thing. We must work for our daily bread. There is no national cake.

Africa awake!

My Dear I read your piece and it agrees to my thoughts completely. For good governance to thrive we must get rid of corruption completely and ensure that the electorates decide who governs over their affairs; meaning that the votes must count. In some of the Asian countries you mentioned, corruption is an offence that may attract capital punishment. If I should zero in on Nigeria, all that Buhari owes this country is to fight and institutionalize anti-corruption; secondly improve on what Jega had started so much so that every single vote counts come 2019. Once the people decide who leads them, their leaders will sit up and the masses will be the better for it.

killjoy:
I was born in northern Nigeria (Borno) were I lived for eighteen years before I gained admission to Uniben. wot many of u don't knw is d degree of hatred muslims have for Christians. der r many oda religions beside Christianity yet I don't understand y muslims hv a special spot in der hearts for hating Christians. its rili pathetic.

it so happens an average muslim is a killer. dat puts Christians always at d receiving end. I hv been wondering y sir lordlugard had to amalgamate us with dis murderous savages, now we hv to tolerate dem until Nigeria splits.

be wary of muslims. wen d tym comes, dey will kill u for being a Christian. even if you are d mother of der kids - dey hate Christians dis much.



p.s. plz all doz Christian gals spreading legs for muslim boys and even marrying dem, u r irredeemable. if only u knw what doz savages tink of u.

a word for d wise is sufficient

I always wonder why many muslims feel no hesitation at the thought of taking human lives that are so sacred; most times crime committed by victims is just that they do not belong to the Islamic faith. If Islam is a religion of peace as we are told then I need to know if these killers spread all over the world in the name of Islam are actually muslims and also understand where they are getting their tutorials from.

d33jy85:
Lies Lies and more Lies just a paid advert by Opposition. TA. Was in Umuahia collecting his certificate of Return for his Senate race but he was stoned by phantom Traders on his was 2 Abuja bah... the writing on the wall is clear as Day PDP has won in Abia don't listen 2 all d bad Belle people on NL come April 25th. Okezie Ikpeazu will win dis election by a wide Margin. And the disgraced tif known as Alex Otti wil hv 2 file 4 bankruptcy bc he borrowed and stole so much of Diamond banks moni 4 dis campaign. Those that are agitating are not real Abia. Citizens bc every1 knos that TA IS WORKING!! PDP ALL D WAAY

Please can you enlighten this forum a bit; if only you can be kind enough to shed light on the achievements of Gov. Orji.

dre11:
http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=115003

I am neither a member of APGA nor PDP but the truth must be told to free Abia from the shackles of bondage.
Orji and any one introduced by him under any guise must be shown the way out of the State house; enough is enough. Abia is simply a state on auto-pilot cruising to total destruction under Gov Orji!

It's a pity lives have already been lost. In addition to what the government and the hospitals are doing, people should know that PERSONAL HYGIENE CAN GO A LONG WAY IN SITUATIONS LIKE THIS.

KUDOS NIGERIAN DESIGNER!!! More of this should be encouraged; I'm one person that believes in the huge untapped potentials of Nigeria and Nigerians. If the government of the day can just make the environment conducive for business, lots of us won't have to run away to other countries and sometimes be treated as mere trash! Imagine what Nigerians can do just with steady power supply....

Beating any adult generates hate and hardens whoever that is beaten; extend this thought to a situation where one beats one's wife. Imagine how you feel towards a man who slaps you because he is in one advantaged position or the other; naturally as an adult, it is very hard to forgive such a fellow. Thus a woman battered by her spouse will naturally hate the man and become more hardened. You can therefore, never correct your wife by beating her!!!

DIALOGUE CAN AND HAVE SOLVED A LOT OF PROBLEMS EVEN IN MATRIMONY.

Biafra is not the solution to the myriad of challenges facing the Ibo man or even the Niger Deltans. Perhaps if Biafra was realized after the civil war it may have been OK but as it stands currently, the Ibo man will definitely be the worse for it. I do not think that the Niger Deltans will accept a united Biafra: Biafra will likely see a lot of wars with different tribes fighting for Independence and self determination/governance.

THE ONLY OPTION FOR REAL PROGRESS IS UNITY IN DIVERSITY. FOR INSTANCE, IMAGINE THE TYPE OF MIGHTY ARMY WE CAN BUILD AND EQUIP BEING SO HEAVILY POPULATED.

Could this be another "Ibori" in the making? Something tells me we are still far from the end of this unfolding drama. I'll reserve my comments for later.

Hope the relevant agencies are already at work to combat the inferno. I think lots of these market fires are always traceable to evil elements in our midst who start the fire as to have opportunity for unlimited looting. However, I do know that one day will be for the owner of the house while the thief can be stealing for as many other days as possible.

KUDOS Mr President; I thank God Almighty you re-discovered that man that grew up not wearing shoes after election loss. For that singular act of concession even as Nigeria was dangerously dangling on a precipice, posterity shall be kind to you. I think you gave your best, what else would you have done better after 6 years? I sincerely think you were not well advised and were also obviously unprepared for the onerous task of steering this ship called Nigeria.

sCun:
Let me see any Yoluba person what will call Igbos kidnappers again. Can you imagine? Kidnapping is a family business for these people! According to the woman: her husband, mother in-law, father in-law, Brother in-law and 4 kids were all involved in the kidnapping.
Shameless Yoluba family.

Let us not resort to tribal wars again; this goes to show that hardened criminals are not limited to any geographical location. This is a fallout of a society in ruins where you've got to be either extremely wealthy as to afford bullet proof cars, specially arranged police/military protection or very poor so much so that everyone sees you as worthless. If you are somewhere in-between the only person that can help you is the Almighty because the state security apparatus for which you're taxed sore isn't for you after all.

As mismanaged as Nigeria is, people are legitimately still surviving and succeeding in Nigeria. I[b]s Nigeria such a hell on earth that we would rather [/b]be clubbed to death like poisonous snakes on the streets of South Africa??? Please my people come home. You can legitimately survive and succeed here also.

sCun:
Large Yoruba booobs.
She would have made a nice nanny. The children's mom wouldn't have worried about breastfeeding.

Must everything end on [b]HATE[/b]: an evil person is simply evil regardless of where he or she originates from. Each tribe has more than its fair share of these wicked people largely due to our corrupt and comatose justice and law enforcement system

mulattoclaro:
I know you must find an igbo person there. If there's no igbo person there then the story isn't complete. Igbos are well known thieves, drug peddlers and prostitutes.

I listened to these people being interviewed on telly, there is also a guy from the Old Cross River State (Cross River/Akwa-Ibom) judging from his name. NL should not be a platform for propagation of HATE; these people are dangerous criminals and there is no tribe/race that do not have them. Any country that has a low crime rate, please go closer you'll discover that their justice system works. The failure of the Nigerian State has given birth to all manner of vices; hopefully GMB will live up to expectations.

parkeration:
I can forgive the 9 years old girl for going along with the man but the 16 years old girl is daft. The man said follow me and she did without knowing where she was being taken to.

My dear please note that people much older than 16 have fallen prey to these same people; there are magical powers employed in their nefarious activities.

smsdigito:
Hope ur not trying to insinuate that from my post i was rejoicing?

Please do not get me wrong, I don't mean you are rejoicing at all; when kidnapping started lots of Nigerians felt it was OK since they were kidnapping only the whites and actually supported the boys who they felt would help rid the companies of the white expatriates, but see where we are today.

smsdigito:
Hope ur not trying to insinuate that from my post i was rejoicing?

Please not at all.

egodswill:
I've read all the comments here. And I hardly comment on this forum. Anyway, for me, I live in Port Harcourt, East West Road close to Rumuokoro. I voted on gubernatorial elections day. It was calm all around my area. No quarrel, no fighting, not even an argument I'm aware of. I was accredited in less one minute and started voting around 3pm. No issues. I voted. This was also the case in polling units around Eliozu, Rukpakwulusi, just along the stretch of the express road.

I don't know about the problems in the hinterland or elsewhere. I only heard over news that elections never held. I'm also aware when PDP candidate voted and commended inec for orderly conduct. It was on air too.

For sure, there may have been issues in some areas, but I think it's a bogus statement to say elections never held in Rivers State (I'm talking of governorship elections which I voted in). But, may be, the people talking know what I don't know.

In addition, one thing I observed in the days leading to the governorship election is that: some people I know very close from Ogoni axis close to where I work suddenly changed their minds and decided to vote Wike - not for love for the man, but out of anger at GEJ's loss. I can only say what I know and sure of. But like I said before, those complaining may know what I don't know. Thanks and please let's give Peace a chance to allow Nigeria move on and the new Government at all levels to perform.

One love guys

Thank you for this candid, mature and objective submission! This is what we need to encourage on this platform.

smsdigito:
so crimes change locations? years ago we used to hear of terrorism far away, for some years now we started seeing it right here. We heard of most of these things happening in our land now far away in the hinterlands but they are here. Kidnapping before was perceived as being mainly in southeast but has depleted from there now its reigning in the west.
Love have mercy.

Kidnapping actually started in the SS oil producing areas targeted mainly at expatriate workers of oil companies. The companies responded by withdrawing their staff from field locations and protected them heavily even in the towns/offices/residential quarters. The same evil kidnappers turned to other black oil workers for ransom and from there it spread like a whirlwind to the SE, to the north(Boko Haram/Fulani cattle rearers mainly) and the SW. Evil is evil and should be condemned by all; nip every evil in the bud if you can before it grows into an uncontrollable monster regardless of how far or close it may be to you at that point in time. NEVER REJOICE WHEN A THIEF VISITS YOUR NEIGHBOUR EVEN IF YOUR NEIGHBOUR IS YOUR ENEMY BECAUSE THAT SAME THIEF MIGHT ACTUALLY VISIT YOU ANOTHER DAY.

The suspect told the Baale that he was taking the children to Ajah in Lagos State where he claimed they came from.
“They came to me for financial assistance to enable them go to Ajah in Lagos State. I was taking them to Ajah when somebody identified one of them. I am only assisting them,” the suspect told the large crowd at the Baale’s house.
The kidnapped girls, however, denied that they sought financial assitance from the suspect. They claimed that he picked them from the community and told them that their parents were witches and were planning to kill them.
One of the girls who identified herself as Jumoke confirmed that the suspect was taking them out of the community, adding that they didn’t know where he was taking them to.
“My name is Jumoke. I am 16 years old. Badmus lives near my house. He told me my mother was a witch and that she was planning to kill me. He said I should follow him to a town to escape being killed. He warned me not to tell my mother. I didn’t know the place he was taking me to. He also tried To Molest me but I resisted him,’’ she narrated.

The suspect claimed the girls came to him for financial assistance which the girls denied. Imagine what the 16 year old said; I think he obviously hypnotized and kidnapped them with some very sinister intents lurking deep in his heart.

Kidnapping is about the worst crime on the face of the earth - that a human being will pick another person, dump somewhere and haggle over him or her as a mere commodity. Even when the ransom is paid, the victim is sometimes molested, abused and even killed.

Kidnapping should be combated more seriously and addressed by our laws by capital punishment.

SHARIAREPORTERS:
Don't ever trust a yoruba man

HATE COMMENTS LIKE THIS SHOULD BE CONDEMNED BY ALL WELL-MEANING NIGERIANS IN NL FORUM. HOW CAN A COUNTRY DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF STAND??

The tale now over, we can look at the real reasons PDP failed. The owl cries in the night and a child dies in the morning, it must be the witch that did it. This sums up Nnana,s thesis on the demise of PDP.

Without writing volumes, the PDP failed because it consistently was anti people. Obasanjo was a mere catalyst to its disintegration. And I predict that if APC follows their foot steps, they will also be gone, sooner than later.

Jonathan by his weak leadership sealed the coffin with several big nails. Don't blame it on anyone else.[/quote]Thanks for this!! If not for the card readers that helped reduce rigging, PDP may have had its way. All we need now is a sustained improvement on what Jega has started; possibly we may be looking at some form of electronic voting model where we will have machines (card readers) stationed all over to enable you vote as if you are using your ATM card. The permanent solution to the myriad of problems in Nigeria is the return of power to the people; the votes must count and the people therefore, will always be at liberty to always choose who oversees their affairs.

mightycrown1:
How Obasanjo destroyed PDP (2) on April 16, 2015
By Ochereome Nnanna

FORMER President Obasanjo, as we can see, used the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to rule Nigeria for eight years. As soon as he assumed office in 1999, he made up his mind to reduce Nigeria to a one-party state, his pet party system which he canvassed vigorously while Nigeria conducted its transition to civil rule programmes. The first part of this serial chronicled how he shrivelled the opposition parties and made the PDP into a colossus that dominated the political landscape. Eventually, most leading lights in the opposition parties decamped to the PDP.

By 2007 when Obasanjo was constitutionally forced out of power, PDP was at the zenith of its power and glory. It had 26 out of the 36 governors, 260 out of the 369 members of the House of Representatives, 85 out of the 109 senators and an emphatic command of the majority in the state legislatures and the 774 local councils. It was at this point that the party started priding itself as “the largest party in in Africa”, and some of its chieftains boasted that the PDP would rule Nigeria for “sixty years”.

The size of the Party was largely as a result of Obasanjo’s repression of the opposition parties, which became unattractive for politicians tocontest for power. The party was so powerful that Obasanjo suddenly developed an ambition to grab extra terms of office for himself when he was nearing the end of his constitutional two terms. To succeed, he nullified the membership of the party and ensured that all party members were re-registered. This, of course, ensured that those Obasanjo did not want in the party were weeded. These included former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Kalu.

When his tenure elongation plans failed, Obasanjo put his Plan “B” into effect. He opted to unilaterally install his successor in office. He chose a terminally ailing Governor Umaru Yar’ Adua of Katsina state for president and paired him with a quiet, self-effacing Governor of Bayelsa State, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as Vice President. He also planted his cronies as governors of the various states. He even planted them in opposition parties.

A case in point was in Imo, where the Obasanjo ordered the PDP to withdraw from the governorship race and support Chief Ikedi Ohakim, who had decamped from PDP when he failed to get the ticket at the primaries and ran on the ticket of the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA).

Obasanjo’s ambition, at this juncture, was to become the Life Leader of the PDP, such that he could wield great political influence and lord it over the occupants of Aso Villa from Ota or Abeokuta.

The plan ran into storms, however. When Yar’ Adua assumed power, he refused to dance to Obasanjo’s tunes. He was determined to leave a legacy of his own. Obasanjo was not given any space to maneouvre. But unfortunately, Yar’ Adua became seriously sick and died in 2010. Obasanjo jumped out of his political doghouse and started prompting Jonathan to run on his own terms in 2011, even though many northern leaders preferred that he allowed one of theirs to replace him.

Soon, Obasanjo found out he had lost his place in the PDP even under Jonathan. It was so bad he was almost ignominiously booted out of his Board of Trustees Chairman post. In the middle of 2013, he resigned from the post. President Jonathan was later on to describe Obasanjo as “a goat seller who, after selling his goat, refuses to release the rope”. The Ota-born chicken farmer went home and started the war that led, ultimately, to the end of PDP’s reign.

In January 2014, he published one of his series of scandalous open letters to President Jonathan, accusing him of every abominable sin under the sun, including training snipers to kill his political opponents. A man under whose watch many prominent people were murdered was accusing a president who never recorded a single such incident in his five and half years as President!

Between April and May 2014, Obasanjo went round many states of the North and persuaded some of the governors he planted in power to run for president to replace Jonathan. Some of these were: Governors Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano, Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto and Babangida Aliyu of Niger. Some of these OBJ-made governors were at the forefront of the rebellion against Jonathan.

The tipping point came when five of the rebel governors decamped from PDP and joined the newly amalgamated All Progressives Congress (APC) which was put together by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and General Muhammadu Buhari.

From that point on, the rapid emaciation of the PDP could no longer be stopped. Obasanjo was relentless in his attacks on Jonathan. Apart from writing public letters, he also nudged some of his out-of-work former ministers, such as Oby Ezekwesili, Nasir el Rufai and lately, Charles Soludo, to slam the Jonathan administration each time they got the chance to go public. Obasanjo climaxed his choreography with the public tearing of his PDP membership card a couple of months to the presidential election.

Of course, PDP’s fall from power under the watch of President Jonathan was further helped by the President’s failure to take decisive steps when and where he needed to. This made him subject to blackmail. Jonathan surrounded himself with people who posed as his lovers but were actually deceivers. They took whatever they could from him and abandoned him when he needed them most. Matters were not helped by his sloppy handling of the Boko Haram insurgency, which grew from a small pox on the nose to a plague that wracked the whole nation.

Perhaps, if Jonathan had been a little more in charge and decisive, he would have prevented some of the little problems that ballooned to decide for him only one term in office. But Obasanjo was the headwind that chipped away, unchallenged, at the pedestal of his presidential power.


SOURCE - http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/how-obasanjo-destroyed-pdp-2/#sthash.c2UvA7FM.dpuf

Well written!! But I think the heading of this piece should be re-phrased as "How Obasanjo and Jonathan destroyed PDP and the country" Please take a look at your last two paragraphs.

Sunymoore:
Good.. And we the Hausas and Yorubas trusts each other and collectively distrust the Ibos

My people, we should think about the next person as human as oneself; one important thing that we need to note is that the view of a few doesn't necessarily represent what a tribe stands for. Imagine the no of very successful inter-tribal marriages that have happened in this country; what does it tell? We cannot continue to hate each other on the basis of tribe, religion, etc but like Martin Luther King Jnr. " People should be judged by the content of their characters."

I have come across Nigerians from these three tribes that are quite wonderful people; I often times wonder why we cannot live above these primordial sentiments and live as citizens of same country. The 21st century offers so much to us if and only if we can take advantage of our diversity and make it our strength!

danny301:
The main factor that lead to the collapsed of PDP was/is the refusal of the party to sincerely manage the aftermath of Yar'dua's death and the subsequent emergence of GEJ as President... There was an understanding/ agreement that the presidency would be on two terms rotation between North and South but the death of Yar'adua which was not for seen by the party leaders brought an alterations into that arrangement... What I expected from GEJ and PDP was to revisit that aggrement and make some realistic and pacifiable adjustments to pacify those who felt short changed but instead of that some of them deny that existence of such agreement.... We began to hear things like, "let them go to hell with their born to rule mentality" "it's our turn" "power will never return to north again" "we are wiser now" etc . You don't rubbish the same arrangement that brought to power like that... Politics is a game of number. You need the people in order to win election everywhere in world. When the G7 staged a walkout from PDP's national conference, GEJ had the chance of bringing them back to the fold but some persons asked him to ignore them because according them the governors had no polical value and were liabilities rather than assets to the party... These myopic set of people were only looking at PDP ticket and they reasoned that if those governors majorly from north were out of the party GEJ would have no difficulty getting the party ticket. They didn't what happen to the party after somebody might have grappled the ticket either rightly or wrongly. they were too blind to see that such mass exodus could finish PDP as a party.. They trusted so much in using the power of incumbency to rig elections but they didn't know that even as an incumbent you would find it difficult to rig elections in places where you and your are nit on ground at all.. I couldn't believe that somebody actually bought the delusion and arrogance that 7 governors among other high profile politicians leaving a political party was "good radiance to bad rubbish"... PDP was later reduced to a regional party for SS/SE, yet the chest beating continued..when it became very obvious to GEJ that PDP was nolonger the national party it uded to be but a regional SS/SE in party that would not win at the national level even with rigging, election was already around the corner hence he had to shift elections and see how he would make in road into the south west and may north east but it was already too late and as the saying goes, the rest is now history... GEJ did not only lose election but PDP, the once largest party in African is at the verge of finishing (God forbid)... Obj did contribute to the fall of PDP, but more than that, insincerity, ego, hate, arrogance, insults etc destroyed our beloved PDP. The only road that leads to progress and stability is sincerity, fairness and respect.

Good Job Well done!

How are the mighty fallen?? Gov. Amaechi used to be the darling of all but somewhere along the line he abandoned Rivers people and the state itself for trivialities that would have been better managed. Granted, there may be some skirmishes recorded in the State but the truth is that Rivers people have rejected Amaechi and anybody attached to him under any guise. That said, the tribunal will do its work but I believe that even if the election is annulled and re-contested free and fair; PDP will still carry the day.

Abia and Abians are tired of the Orji "oligarchy" - how long shall it go from one Orji to another? Abians unfortunately have been at the receiving end of this government for a selected few!! The people of Abia State hunger and thirst for the so called dividends of democracy which for the last 8 years have been limited to billboards dotted all over the state.

Abians aren't asking for too much but there should be some semblance of "government for the people" installed in the state house.

INEC should ensure the voice of Abians are heard loud and clear via the ballot box and of course the Orjis and their appendages will be shown the way out for good.

I appreciate your thoughts so much but I'd like to add a few words.

Let's note that a real husband material will be looking out for a real wife material.

Unfortunately lots of our ladies have abandoned our core values of modesty and decency; probably due to peer pressure and this unrealistic quest to be like the whites in every single aspect.

The real husbands are still there and they are still searching earnestly...

The state Abia is currently under a siege of some sort and I simply wonder how long it's gonna last.
How long shall a people be subjected to so much misrule by a few selected/anointed/imposed politicians?
The Orjis of this world have practically destroyed Abia State; just for instance, if you visit Aba from which the state gets its largest IGR you will end up weeping uncontrollably for Abia and Abians. There are no roads for even a tipper let alone cars. This glaring absence of government is spread across the length and breadth of the entire state.

Abians get absolutely nothing good from governance and this informed the latest clamour for change in the person of Alex Otti.

We sincerely hope that the will of the people will be respected by INEC, security agencies and even the incumbent governor and his cohorts.

Evidence of the decay in the system; where is the security apparatus of the facility? Aren't people paid to guard the place?

Good work well done!!