₦airaland Forum

bukahands: Am on break am not betting but for d match the away team is stronger and they are 3rd in the table while the home team is 14th so I expect the away team to win and not forgetting d fact dat d home team hasn't won in their last 5 games

Verdict away win @ 2.20
Safety draw no bet

But me no dey bet oooooooo

bemagnify: Wu is betting on MEKNES VS FAR RABAT

jimmy4x: Micky, pls I need ur help bro, what can we use to chat 2nyt pls Not on Nairaland...reply pls

jasper7: michky or anybody. pls I need to find out, how do I load my Bet365.com account here in Nigeria. does the Nigerian Debit card aka Atm card work? I need to place some bets and I didn't come back with my credit card.

jasper7: abeg fellow punters. nobody should bet on swansea ManU. dat game can swing any direction. swansea's games against Mancity, chelsea and arsenal. have been a L-D-W. and in the goal market, BTTS wud have been the safest and best market , given the fact that ManU hav played only 2 games out of 17 withouth scoring. and hav conceded almost as much as they scored (only 3 cleansheets this season), and Michu, oh! darling Michu is in red hot form now. but the BTTS market is flawed because Vidic is back! with Vidic it's no more a ManU leaky defence. needless to say that swansea are not really bad in defending too. they conceded only 2 goals in 3 games against the trio of man city, arsenal and chelsea. Betting any market in swansea ManU this season is like betting in a Norwich vs any top four game these matches can swing anywhere. DONT GET GREEDY!
BET WISELY.

olawumia: Pls what happens to the postponed matches? Is it Dat d ticket is gone already?

marlockj: ur tips whr rubbish as I told u.u wntd to empty pples acct,tnk god I venture into helping others.

Fulham lost
Leicester lost
Inter draw
Bren. Postponed
Inve. Won
All other teams are obvious winning team.ur tip whr junks.If combo lost.single still lost.ur tips are jst rubbish.

ujchief: theres a quota system which MUST be put into play by ANY national team coach while presenting his list to Nff, otherwise, they wont approve the list. Rabiu ibrahim, shittu 'the elephant' represents a part of the country that must be included. Do u stil wonder why minister of sports always goes to a particular zone of the country?

jasper7: yeah bro except for Torino vs chievo. datz why I neva punt Italian league maybe I can back Juventus or Napoli. no other team no matter how in-form they are!

Xpset: welcome man. so u dey touch line dey watch d thread

xteve: Hmmm welcm Michky

bukahands: Yes this month has been a successful one, from our weekend combos and some normal combos + single win picks, while awaiting mancity and barca to complete this weekends combo after psg won. So the picks I will drop now will be the last I will drop this year and stake small don't want it to affect yesterdays profits/overall profit so we shud have enough for xmas. Michky welcome back

Inter milan win
Arsenal win
Madrid win

Happy xmas in advance o

wundakind: Ur praising seun nd murkina when i was the one that actually reported some of his quoted posts..... Na wa for u oh..... But its good to have u back...
Me be don dey miss yhu sha.
I knw say zionbaby go attack me later but lets keep the spirit nd fight together...

Welcom back brother. OVER!!!!!!!

mukina2: Zionbaby has been banned.

bukahands: Even if u start a new thread zionbaby will still post his adverts so no need , I think we shud continue like we used to be in peace Please

teeboy4x: U RE SOUNDING AS IF U AV BEEN WAITIN FOR A TIN LIKE DIX TO HAPPEN,I AV ONLY QUOTED UR BET 2 TYMS(LAST WEEK AND DIX WEEK),CNT BLIV DAT U ALLOWD MILCKEY TO BE CONTROLIN U...NO HARD FEELINX BROV,U CAN TAKE OVA D THREAD WITH MICKEY.

AM LEAVING UR THREAD FOR GOOD,WISH U GUYS ALL THE BEST.

bukahands: Micky abeg stop these posts this room is crashing we need to help it up

Michky: Editor's note: Chude Jideonwo is the executive director of The Future Project Nigeria. He has worked as a journalist for 11 years. He was an Editor and Member of the Editorial Board at NEXT Newspapers. He's also Managing Director of Red Media group. The below is an extract of an address he gave at the Future Awards ceremony on Sunday in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Port Harcourt, Nigeria (CNN) -- It occurred to me for the first time as I sat in the car's front seat and felt my father's cold corpse in the back seat in May 2007. The nurses at the Ikorodu General Hospital had just said no to his body. He had died from heart failure an hour or two before. They needed a police report.

I could hardly believe the utter coldness of it. But I had yet to see -- or hear -- the worst. Because I am born and bred in Nigeria, I knew that, at 11pm, the body of my dear father might rot if I sat there pondering the inanity of the request or stood up to argue its inhumanity, so I led the convoy to the nearest police station.

Opinion: Why Nigerians are no longer content with 'suffering and smiling'

There, with the most pointed lack of compassion I had ever witnessed up onto that point, the police proceeded to haggle with themselves over how much they would extract from a 24-year-old who had just lost his father -- a father whose dead body was only a few meters away.

As they dropped my father's body in that unkempt, abominable mortuary (one in which I had to tip the caretaker daily on my way to work so that the corpse would not be left to decompose), I could only think of what an abominable country I was so unfortunate to come from, and to live in.

I recalled that scene as I came across pictures of rotten corpses stacked on each other in a room -- victims of June's Dana Crash; "rotting carcasses of human beings stacked on each other, fluids mingling."

More: Nigerians demand answers in wake of Dana Air crash

That is when it hit me. We are living like animals in this country. I remember my father -- and how he, and I, were treated so terribly because our country does not care for any one.

These Dana Crash dead bodies weren't victims of a serial killer locked in a room for months or of a brutal civil war with shut-down health-care services -- these were citizens of a country, who had just been visited by their president a day before, nonetheless treated in death with relentless disrespect. They had been killed by their country -- and it couldn't even pack their bodies well.

It could have been you, or me. It's not just that it could have been me. That's not the worst part. This is the worst part: I could have been the one in that flight waiting for 20 minutes after a fatal crash; sitting there in mind-numbing agony, knowing the plane would soon explode and kill me because I live in a country where emergency services would arrive only about an hour after, and people will die who could have been saved.

That's the part that gets me. And as I watched officials scramble to protect their irrelevant jobs so that they could make enough money to buy First Class tickets on airlines that might crash and kill their children tomorrow, I realized how hopeless we had become as Nigerians.

So I ask myself; why are we still in Nigeria -- a country that does not deserve many of us -- even when we have a choice? Why are we not like the generation that left town? Why are we living in a country that cannot protect us, has not supported us, will not satisfy us?

More: Nigeria's oil economics fuel deadly protests

The logical thing to do is to leave fastest way we can; once the opportunity turns up. But we stay and we come back, because we go better, because it is well, because God dey; because somehow, somehow we think we can survive it; maybe even improve it .

But let's tell ourselves the truth -- many of you in this hall have already given up on Nigeria. Many of us are convinced that this ship is sinking, this country cannot change. We do not trust our politicians, but that is even cliché. We do not trust the activists. Everyone is seen as searching for a piece of that national cake. That's what we have become as a country: an unending race for a part of that cake.

It is difficult to have faith even when you look at the young people -- scrambling for crumbs off the table, buffeted by the need to avoid the poverty of their fathers, changing principle on whim just like those before them; perpetuating scams in the name of advocacy, running businesses long on hype and short on substance. It is difficult to have faith in that kind of country. It is herculean to believe in it. It is almost impossible to be proud of it.

More: Nigeria on edge as Islamist group extends campaign of violence

No, Nigeria, is not a great country. It wasn't great yesterday, it isn't great today. It can be great, it should be great, it could have been great, and if we sit down and get serious, it will be great.

After the Dana Crash, I gave up hope in this country; I lost my faith, I struggled with my love. But two day later, I was back working for the country, and that is the real story.

In pictures: Putting a face on Nigeria's "paradise lost"

It is okay to fall out of love, it is okay to hate that love every once in a while, it is okay to condemn, to criticise, to react, to fight, to protest, to demand; but you must return to loving it, you must return to being pained.

It is the reason despite Governor Amaechi spending two hours debating fiercely with us that our generation is only interested in continuing the "chopping", he decided that it is crucial to get the brightest of that generation here to inspire the young people in Rivers State and across Nigeria -- moving it from an idea in 2006 that couldn't even pay for the hall in which it held, to a movement in 2012 that has taken over this Port Harcourt.

It's because beneath a tough-talking governor lies a tender spot for his country and its future -- and I see it daily across this country even from the lips of those who curse it. Even in those who appear to be ripping the country to shreds, every once in a while you see that wistfulness for what might have been.

More: Goodluck Jonathan: Nigeria's embattled president

But, this is the good news, it is not too late. I do not come as a prophet of cliché, I come here as a student of history because other countries have done it. This shipping is sinking, but it hasn't yet sunk. As long as we are in Nigeria, as long as Nigerians live in Nigeria and work in Nigeria, and fight for Nigeria, and refuse to give up on Nigeria, there is hope.

We cannot ever lose that pain that we should feel for a country that continues to fail us. No matter how disappointed we are in our country, we cannot abandon it. We cannot use Nigeria as an excuse to fail Nigeria.

Pehaps we should handle Nigeria the way a mother handles a drug-addicted child -- with tough love sometimes, with deliberate gentility at other times; demanding at one time, encouraging at the other.

Listen guys, we are all we've got, and this should be the turning point generation.

See more from the the Future Project Nigeria

I don't come here to excite you; I come here so we can encourage one another. I come here to remind us that, after all said and done, you and I are still here. And 'cause we are still here, we have no choice but to keep working.

Let's keep the faith. If we stumble, let's rise. When we fall, let's rebound. Let's refuse to let Nigeria go, let's insist that it must work. Let's keep working until it changes; let's keep changing until we tear down these walls.

Because we can. Because we have no choice. Because we love this land.

God bless Nairaland!!

Michky: Jerusalem (CNN) -- A day after the U.S. State Department strongly condemned Israel's plans to build a 1,500-unit settlement in East Jerusalem, Israel announced it would continue a plan to build settlements in other East Jerusalem neighborhoods.

On Wednesday, initial approval for a total of up to 3,000 homes in Jerusalem was granted.

Read more: Calm elusive as rockets rain in Gaza, Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of foreign ambassadors from Asia-Pacific countries he met with on Wednesday, while overlooking Jerusalem's Old City: "The walls that you see behind me represent the capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years. All Israeli governments have built in Jerusalem. We're not going to change that. That's a natural thing."

He went on to say: "Imagine that you had to limit construction in your own capital; it doesn't make sense."

The significance of building in East Jerusalem is that Palestinians have long hoped to make it their capital in a future Palestinian state that would include the West Bank and Gaza. In 1967, Israel captured and annexed East Jerusalem, an action never recognized internationally and long condemned by Palestinians as an obstacle to a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

On Tuesday, Israel announced that settlement building in Ramat Shlomo would continue, a plan originally announced in 2010. Back then, the announcement, which coincided with a visit by Vice President Joe Biden, angered and embarrassed the United States.

Read more: After Israel-Gaza: Who won, who lost?

At the time, the U.S. had brokered indirect talks between Palestinians and Israel that it hoped would reinvigorate the peace process, but the settlement building announcement prompted the Palestinians to pull out of the talks. There have not been peace talks since.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland used the strongest words against Israeli settlements in recent years after Tuesday's announcement to move the settlement plan forward.

"We are deeply disappointed that Israel insists on continuing this pattern of provocative action. These repeated announcements and plans of new construction run counter to the cause of peace. Israel's leaders continually say that they support a path to a two-state solution, yet these actions only put that goal further at risk," she said Tuesday.

Read more: Why Israel might hesitate to start a ground invasion

On Wednesday, Israeli Interior Ministry spokesman Efrat Orbach said of the Ramat Shlomo building plan:

"It is a plan which was passed in the local council (during the visit of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in March 2010), and two and a half years ago, it was opened to appeals from the public by the regional council. The public's objections were heard this week. As a result of the objections, a number of units were dropped. Now the property developer needs to make the changes to the plan and set out what he is obligated to do according to the plan."

Still, 1,500 new units have been approved.

And a day after Nuland's statement, an Israeli planning committee approved more settlement plans. The latest approval is for the Givat Hamatos and Beit Safafa neighborhoods. If that plan goes to the building stages, they would be the first new settlements built in East Jerusalem since 1997.

Palestinian Authority officials are furious and see this as another indication that Israel is not interested in a two-state solution, something Israel denies.

"If there is a financial cliff in Washington or the United States today, there is a political cliff over a two-state solution (here), and I think we are already slipping down the cliff, because the implementation of the massive settlement program that Israel has announced just today and yesterday it is putting an end to the possibility of a two-state solution," Mohammad Shtayyeh, a Palestinian Authority negotiator and minister, told CNN on Wednesday.

Israel's Jerusalem mayor sees things differently. A statement about Israel's plan to build about 2,600 units in the neighborhoods of Givat Hamatos and Beit Safafa from the mayor's office said: "Mayor Nir Barkat strongly condemns any attempt to undermine or derail the development plans, which will benefit the Jewish and Arab residents of Jerusalem alike. Not planning and developing Jerusalem neighborhoods ultimately harms all residents and landowners -- Arabs and Jews alike."

Read more: Gaza conflict leaves a 'cruel paradox' for Palestinians

Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev told CNN: "The actual construction is of 3,000 housing units, as was decided by the government on November 30, 2012. All these units are in Jerusalem and the settlement blocs that will stay a part of Israel in a future peace agreement. All other announcements regarding construction refer to stages of planning and zoning, a bureaucratic process that takes years to complete. In any case, this process necessitates a separate decision by the government before actual construction can begin."

The United Nations and many countries in the world consider Israeli settlements illegal and an impediment to the peace process.

Netanyahu has been pushing more settlement expansion ever since the Palestinian leadership petitioned the United Nations for nonmember state status, which it received on November 29 after the majority of U.N. member nations approved it. In essence, the approval created a degree of statehood for Palestinians, though the change is largely symbolic.

The recent settlement approvals do not mean building will commence quickly, but they may heighten tensions between Israel and its Western allies, never mind its Palestinian neighbors who are hoping the international community puts more pressure on Israel over the settlement issue.

"Israel does not understand the language of condemnation; it does not need somebody in a press conference to say we're opposed. Israel needs somebody to link its actions to the economic relations with this or that country. It was (former U.S. Secretary of State) James Baker who stood to say that if Israel continues with the settlement program, we are linking it to loan guarantees that are given to the state of Israel," said Shtayyeh, the Palestinian Authority negotiator.

This is all happening just as Israel is set to elect its next leaders on January 22.

Michky: IZAMAL, Mexico (Reuters) - Thousands of mystics, New Age dreamers and fans of pre-Hispanic culture have been drawn to Mexico in hopes of witnessing great things when the day in an old Maya calendar dubbed "the end of the world" dawns on Friday.

But many of today's ethnic Maya cannot understand the fuss. Mostly Christian, they have looked on in wonder at the influx of foreign tourists to ancient cities in southern Mexico and Central America whose heyday passed hundreds of years ago.

For students of ancient Mesoamerican time-keeping, December 21, 2012 marks the end of a 5,125-year cycle in the Maya Long Calendar, an event one leading U.S. scholar said in the 1960s could be interpreted as a kind of Armageddon for the Maya.

Academics and astronomers say too much weight was given to the words and have sought to allay fears the end is nigh.

But over the past few decades, fed by popular culture, Friday became seen by some western followers of alternative religions as a day on which momentous change could occur.

"It's a psychosis, a fad," said psychologist Vera Rodriguez, 29, a Mexican of Maya descent living in Izamal, Yucatan state, near the center of the 2012 festivities, the site of Chichen Itza. "I think it's bad for our society and our culture."

Behind Rodriguez, her two children played in a living room decorated with Christmas trees and Santa Claus figurines.

Mexico's government forecast around 50 million tourists from home and abroad would visit southern Mexico in 2012. Up to 200,000 are expected to descend on Chichen Itza on Friday.

"It's a date for doing business, but for me it's just like any other day," said drinks vendor Julian Nohuicab, 34, an ethnic Maya working in the ruins of the ancient city of Coba in Quintana Roo state, not far from the beach resort of Cancun.

Watching busloads of white-haired pensioners and dreadlocked backpackers pile into their heartland, Maya old and young roll their eyes at the suggestion the world will end.

"We don't believe it," said Socorro Poot, 41, a housewife and mother of three in Holca, a village about 25 miles from Chichen Itza. "Nobody knows the day and the hour. Only God knows."

FOREIGN INVADERS

Tracing its origins to the end of the 4th millennium BC, the ancient Mesoamerican civilization of the Maya reached its peak between A.D. 250 and 900 when they ruled over large swathes of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize.

Famed for developing hieroglyphic writing and an advanced astronomical system, the Maya then began a slow decline, but pockets of the civilization continued to flourish until they were finally subjugated by the Spanish in the 17th century.

Today, ethnic Maya are believed to number at least 7 million in Mexico, Guatemala and other parts of Central America.

The vast majority are nominally Roman Catholics, though many still uphold elements and rites of their old beliefs. According to a 2000 Mexican census, there were also a few hundred Jews and handful of Buddhists among the Maya.

Tales of human sacrifice, pioneering architectural feats and an interest in the stars burnished the Maya's supernatural reputation. So too, say experts, has the misguided notion that the Maya died out with the arrival of the conquistadors.

"That idea that they disappeared culturally back in the deep past is one of these things that feeds into this idea that they are mysterious, that they are otherworldly," said David Stuart, a Maya expert at the University of Texas.

The reality is that many Maya live in rural areas where water can be scarce, communications poor and education patchy.

Even as some shrug their shoulders at the awe and reverence December 21 has inspired, others worry it has become a free meal ticket for sharp-witted businessmen.

"There's the legend and there's the reality," said Yolanda Cornelio, 21, a tourism official in the city of Merida, whose mother speaks Maya at home. "Some people take the legend and abuse it, using it to make money. There's a lot of con artists."

With scores of old Maya ruins, temples and monuments dotting the landscape between southern Mexico and Central America, locals have plenty of opportunities to impress foreign visitors.

One of the most popular attractions lies in a leafy grove near the crumbling pyramids of Coba, where a large stone tablet records the Maya creation date of August 13, 3114 BC - quite literally the cornerstone of the 2012 phenomenon.

"This is a very powerful, sacred place," said Jonathan Ellerby, 39, a writer from Canada. "I feel something energetic, emotional, and I feel I'm in the right place. I really do."

(Additional reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; editing by Dave Graham and Todd Eastham)