tensor777:

^^I won't even go as far as even paraphasing the posters who have challenged you on this point.
What are your explanations?

Go back and read our exchange. We can't keep pretending, ok! It is amazing that people want to talk about when the incident happened, not the heinous incident and the fact that it turned his life into a nightmare till tomorrow.

If you have never experienced trauma, by whatever means, then you never understand that the memory is always fresh. Tell the victim why his story is no news because it happened 20 years ago. Tell that to those who are sitting ducks only to be hacked by extremists at a moments notice. The days of hush-hush are over!

tensor777:

What is the whole point of this ludicrouly misleading thread?

Do you care to explain what is misleading about the thread? Thank you.

Afam:

Please, search online for his articles as I won't be doing that for you. Maybe, others may reproduce the article here for you sha.

OK Afam, when I find it I will post it.

@nex
Are you seriously challenging the statement: "Nigeria is sitting on a keg of powder"? With Jos, Boko Haram, and the likes of Abdul Mutallab the powder is getting dryer each day, and some people keep bringing fire closer and closer to it.

Let me tell you Nigeria likes to think everything is at peace because there is some quiet. It doesn't take a soothsayer to tell you that, unless you change the fundamentals of the Nigerian state, what is coming next would make all these other things childplay. A few days before the Boko Haram incident I was moved to write an article warning in very strong language about what could burst out in Nigeria. Unfortunately, the NL bot refused to let me post it - if I had been able to post it this is the way some people would condemn it.

Don't let yourself be lured into a false sense of security - people will come here to promote & rebrand Nigeria, when those at the helm refuse to strengthen the collapsing dam of our nation. When the rains come and make a mess of their propaganda they crawl away, only to appear as soon as the water has receeded and the sun begins to shine, until------

I mentioned Chief Sanusi's name because he was promoting Sharia as a code of law that is good for the nation, and he explicitly used cutting-off of hands as a good example of how this law is good. He certainly didn't say, look I like some parts of Sharia but object to this one and that one. He simply defended the law and made a less than ingenious attempt to argue that states practicing Sharia MAY have too much power than the constitution allows. Infact, he said you can't question the law. 

One of the tenets of Sharia was used by the perperators to commit this dastardly act.  The supreme court stopped one act of stoning to death, but what about the cutting off the hand and the issuing of death fatwas?

nex:

@naijamini

you started by stating that Nigeria is sitting on a keg of powder. However, now we know that your story is from somewhere in our untold history, I'd prefer your edit your initial post to read "Nigeria was sitting on a keg of powder".


Secondly, if it has not been proven beyond all reasonable doubt that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was in that mob that beat up your pastor and cut off his balls, then his name has no business appearing in your article.

Please don't do this to yourself. Nobody said anything about any particular person being in the mob. I don't know what you are reading or drinking to suggest that my statement implies anything of the sort. If you want to put any muslim in my story the most likely place is where I said "Surely some of these good Samaritans were muslims". So buzz off on your ridiculous statement!

@Afam
I am certainly not interested in repeating some old opinion, if I am also privy to the new opinions.

I commented on what I read, which he wrote. Please post the said article(s) that withdraws some of the statements he made in the one available to me, and I would gladly stop attributing the old opinions to him.

I hope that article would show is support for getting rid of hand-cutting, which he used explicitly as an example of Sharia's beauty in the article the one posted on NL. In other cases, your hear say might have worked for me, but not in this context.

Afam:

Sanusi has severally written against some of the practices of Sharia in the past. He supported and defended the woman that was sentenced to death in Katsina (I think) a couple of years ago.

People should stop making unnecessary assumptions and jumping into conclusions.

texazzpete:

Sanusi has never insisted that Sharia be imposed on Nigerians. I don't know where you get off spreading such silly FUD.

Calling Lagos 'crime city' is a personal opinion of his. i don't see how that's an issue.

So what are you trying to say. Where did I say Sanusi called for imposing Sharia on others?

Now that you mention it, he was implying in his article that Sharia would be good for Lagos. He went as far as to praise the "peace" of "totalitarian" Islamist states such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. If you can't read between the lines that is your fault not mine, but please don't accuse me of saying something I did not say.

Yes, it is his personal opinion, so is my opinion of his opinion. Do you have a problem with that?

@paddy_lo
Won't that be great? I hope and pray that you are right.

The problem, as I have said in another place, is not that we can't live side by side for years or even decades. The problem with Nigeria is that there is this deep seated animosity, religious, ethnic, communal, take your pick, that would cause the same people to hack each other to death given the excuse. The Nigerian system of doing things is broken.

This does not mean there are no good things about Nigeria, there is plenty. Like I said in my comment, some of the good samaritans mentioned in that story were no doubt muslims. However, where is effort to bring those who committed that dastardly act to justice? Where is the effort by our government to rectify laws and policing systems to effectively set us on the path of sustainable peace? These are the questions that border the mind.

I have no doubt that Kano is a swell place to live, except for that one day when it is taken over by the extremists. That one day could turn to forever for those affected.

Also, please advice our extra-religious CBN governor of the same thing. The other day he basically called Lagos crime city.

paddy_lo:

I ll tell u a story. . . .I have an uncle that used to stay in KANO when i was still in naija some 4yrs ago
He went out of the country, came back and decided to settle. . .he checked out lagos,checked out abuja,checked out Enugu
but in the end decided to still move to kano, because according to him there is nowhere like Kano in Nigeria
mind u we are igbo. . . .and he is there till today doing his thing

The moral of the story is that i have not been to kano,but i heard it is one hell of a place
very lively,very commercial,its on 24hrs like Lagos. . .
I think ppl should travel more and see places within the country b4 they condemn a place

I definately wanna go visit if i get back. . .also wanna visit adamawa state and calabar. . .

@paddy_lo
Isn't that the problem? This was mild compared to what is happening in Jos and with Boko Haram. Sharia was designed under 7th century conditions, why is it that some people not only want to follow it in the 21st century, but also force it on others.

It is news today because it could, no, it is likely to happen again tomorrow! Nothing has changed in 20 years!

paddy_lo:

ok this incident happened some 20yrs ago,

so why is it news now?,

I said it long ago and apologies to his children, but IBB is a pure idiot! His intelligence in military matters does not carry into civilian life. He basically has no ideas of his own. All this crap emanating from his mouth are being designed by the lackys who have not been able to find their footing since he was forced by one of his original foot soldiers, no other than Abacha, to carry his trade somewhere else.

IBB likes to sound and look intelligent, but the only thing upstairs, as with many military men, is a sharp survival instinct and an enlarged ego. In IBB's case, he adds inordinate ambition and megalomania. He is obviously trying to "show" us that he understands how to "fix" Nigeria. Let's see how he is doing.

First, the man talks about true Federalism, then he condemns the quota system in Federal appointments. Gee, wiz kid we all know these are "SOME" of our problems. Do you have answers though?

To the immediate point on the impossibility of dividing Nigeria. Again IBB takes a position so devoid of content it gives you a belly ache, then he takes the Solomon solution and applies it to the Nigerian situation. Obviously, the megalomaniac who doesn't see the contradiction in declaring himself military president is trying to show HIS wisdom of Solomon

What nobody told the wiz kid is that this is not two women fighting over a baby. The question of slicing individuals doesn't come up, except in IBB's mind. IBB needs to go and ask Eriteria and Ethiopia, two nations so closely related that even relatives continue to be part of the government of the two nations after their bloody separation. Breaking up Nigeria is not going to be easy, and may never happen, but only IBB's mind would create a strawman situation and then declare it impossible.

IBB dwells in fallacies, and fallacies are usually hard to distinguish from truth. Moreover, it makes  the speaker seem intelligent to the gullible mind. If Nigerians really want to have a unified nation stay away from Babangida and his chop I chop politics, he will be the only one chopping at the end of the day, and you would be the mumus.

Nigeria is sitting on keg of powder, and small, small people are figuratively and literally lighting the fire. Powder burns. I admire this man's willingness to forgive, but if it were me, well let's just leave it at that.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/apr/18/national-18-04-2010-001.htm

He was born and raised a Muslim in the same state. He was even known in the city as an Islamic scholar before he converted to Christianity. That was when his problem started. Members of his family denounced him and his former Muslim friends and colleagues began treating him like a pariah. For daring to switch to another religious faith, a fatwa (death sentence) was slammed on him.

The above is one aspect of Sharia, which our CBN governor would like us to believe is the best code of laws for living. I would like to read Sanusi's defense of this outdated practice.

When a religious crisis convulsed the city, a handful of fundamentalists were hot on his trail. They stormed his office and dragged him out by the scruff of his pastor’s collar to the back of his office. After beating him unconscious, his assailants crudely cut off his testicles with a sharp dagger and plucked out his right eye. They went away triumphantly with these vital body parts as a trophy and he was left to bleed to death.

All of this in the name of God? Some people would be surprised that if they ever meet God, instead of a handshake, he would deliver them an almighty slap in the face, and that would only be the begining of their punishment.

Help later came to the 56-year-old Anglican Pastor. Still dazed by the harrowing experience, he was taken to a hospital in Kano by some good Samaritans. After months in the hospital, he was discharged. For security reasons, the church, Sunday Sun learnt, “spirited” him out of the city and eventually out of the country. For the past 19 years he had been out of Nigeria until his brief return this week.

Surely some of these good Samaritans were muslims.  Moderate muslims need to take back their religion from the hoodlums, condemn & throw away any inherited practices that fly in the face of reason and human decency.



•‘My attackers didn’t win; I’m alive with children’
•Why he fled Nigeria
By Jossy Idam (jidam14@yahoo.com)
Sunday, April 18, 2010


•Rev. Simon
Photo: Sun News Publishing
More Stories on This Section
The commercial city of Kano in North Western Nigeria was engulfed in a riot. As the city convulsed and simmered, Rev. Simon H. Ibrahim decided to take refuge in his office. Then he was the secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kano. But he was a marked man.

Fatwa
He was born and raised a Muslim in the same state. He was even known in the city as an Islamic scholar before he converted to Christianity. That was when his problem started. Members of his family denounced him and his former Muslim friends and colleagues began treating him like a pariah. For daring to switch to another religious faith, a fatwa (death sentence) was slammed on him.

When a religious crisis convulsed the city, a handful of fundamentalists were hot on his trail. They stormed his office and dragged him out by the scruff of his pastor’s collar to the back of his office. After beating him unconscious, his assailants crudely cut off his testicles with a sharp dagger and plucked out his right eye. They went away triumphantly with these vital body parts as a trophy and he was left to bleed to death.

Help later came to the 56-year-old Anglican Pastor. Still dazed by the harrowing experience, he was taken to a hospital in Kano by some good Samaritans. After months in the hospital, he was discharged. For security reasons, the church, Sunday Sun learnt, “spirited” him out of the city and eventually out of the country. For the past 19 years he had been out of Nigeria until his brief return this week.

Safe at last
Now a missionary in far away Mali and under the protective wings of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Rev Simon is safe at last. He only flew into Lagos to witness the handing over of keys to an apartment and car to Mrs Veronica George Orji, the wife of another pastor slain by Boko Haram in Maiduguri last July.

Not broken by the ugly incident, which took place in 1991 when renowned German televangelist Reinhard Bonnke visited the city, he told Sunday Sun: “I remember the grim details all the time but as a Christian, I forgive them.”
Pressed for further comments, he said: “I don’t call what happened to me a castration. I call it God’s own appointed time. I had had children before that time. I have six of them and I’m contented with that number. My attackers didn’t win. I’m alive, hale and hearty

“In fact, very little has changed. I’m still a thorn in their flesh. As I told you, I was an Islamic scholar before I converted to Christianity. I have their records. That is why they are afraid of me.
“Anyway, I’m under the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). We are not allowed to talk the way I’m talking to you now.”

Deep concern for his safety and security perhaps precludes him from disclosing where his wife and children are. All he could say about his family was: “They are somewhere. You know, with the way things are, it is not right for me tell you every detail. That may create a security problem.”

Defiant
At the quiet ceremony in Gbagada, Lagos, which attracted the president of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, Rev Simon radiated good health and defiance.
Praying for all martyrs, widows and orphans of the numerous religious crises in the country, he said: “God will in His infinite power and wisdom touch the hearts hardened by hatred and protect helpless widows and children made fatherless.”

Before heading for the airport to return to his base, the cleric spent quality time with Mrs Orji’s little daughter, Esther. She was born six months after her father’s death. The resettlement of Pastor Orji’s wife was spearheaded by an NGO, Macedonia Initiative. Its international coordinator, Pastor Ladi Thompson, told Sunday Sun: “The gesture is only a model of other great things we plan to do for the martyr.”

Notable clerics, who also helped, included Bishop Mike Okonkwo, Pastor Yomi Kasali and Pastor Femi Paul of Grace Assembly.

@Kobojunkie
Your response virtually ruled the possibility out. However, the statement was meant to be a "friendly" contradication. The "sorry", not the "disappoint" was the important word.

My reaction would probably have been the same as yours, if I had never seen it before.

The fact is that many of the practices we have in Nigeria were derived from the English through our colonial past. Such archaic Queen worship are almost gone in the USA, but remnants remain.

Anybody in the house know if this is still a practice in Britain? My bet would be that the Queen's picture still hangs in their government offices.

Kobojunkie:

How does that disappoint me? You yourself clearly state that not all federal buildings have these pictures hanging.

Kobojunkie:

heck no!!! ROFLMAO!!

Sorry to disappoint you Kobojunkie, but I have seen the President's & VP's, both this one and G.W. Bush, as well as Secretaries' photograph,  in some government offices. It is not placed in the same places as in Nigeria, usually at the entrance or something like that, and definitely not everywhere. May be it is only in Federal Offices, but again I don't know if there is even a rule about it.

In Nigeria, even gas stations hang a photograph of the governor or somebody in high office.

@iceblue
I agree with you that there is nothing historic about the visit, but its significance was dictated by the events of the last few months.

Isn't it nice that the Ag. President made all these speeches? It would be nice if our leaders recognize the importance of communicating at a personal level with the Nigerian people. I am not talking about those archaic, listen up nationwide broadcasts, but rather daily event briefings and policy dialogue with the Nigerian people.

iceblue:

it isn't historic, but i certainly like that jonathan is making wise use of the time spent there - from townhall meetings, to world bank meetings with requests concerning power and infrastructure. he's probably the most useful and time efficient leader we've had in 20 years. not to mention he speaks like he's got a brain in the head on his shoulders.

@AIRDIG

You are seriously missing the point. We had, yes had, a president who went AWOL while events that could have drawn his country into a war was brewing. Unlike the mouthings our leaders embarked on after that very serious event Ag. President Jonathan's visit says to the world, yes we have our problems but we are not about to join some crazy people's war against the US. More effective than words don't you think. It says, we indeed have people who can and would behave like leaders in our midst. That is the message of the Ag. President's visit.

I feel sorry that one has to explain the significance of this visit and worldwide display to some people in the context of the events of the past few months. I guess if someone from another country tries the same nonsense in Nigeria's airspace we would simply behave like nothing happened?

You said:

This is a sovereign country for God's sake & not a colony of The U.S. (or U.K not anymore). The president is[b] only[/b] legitimize by the electorate (and this has taken place).
So, wipe off that slave mentality/Inferiority complex/ "U.S is our masah" illusion from your consciousness.

Can you point me to a country whose president recognizes his nation's sovereignty that would do what Yar'adua and his cohorts did, and continue to do. When our leaders start behaving like mature adults, talkless of real leaders, nobody is going to deny the sovereignty of our nation. Right now, they are treating us worse than a colony of the US or UK - we are colonized by their megalomaniac views of themselves, and by their pockets.

AIRDIG:

Haba Otukpo!

Intellectually speaking, kindly explain how a president meeting another president (a colleague), becomes somewhat a landmark event to be celebrated as historic.

This is a sovereign country for God's sake & not a colony of The U.S. (or U.K not anymore). The president is[b] only[/b] legitimize by the electorate (and this has taken place).

So, wipe off that slave mentality/Inferiority complex/ "U.S is our masah" illusion from your consciousness.

Whoever is coming up with this nonsense is planning to steal the Amnesty funds.

Only the funds would make it abroad - which country is going to grant a know militant a visa?

Where is the EFCC Chairwoman's fifth finger on the right hand .

Funny, should make Ibori shiver in his cave!

@Poster
I believe that's done in government offices around the world, but may not be a rule. Nigerians hang it in private offices too, I believe.

I am extremely delighted at the Ag. President's dignified re-presentation of Nigeria to the world after the fiasco of these many months. More grease to his elbows.

At the same time we remain aware of retrogressive forces who are determined to keep Nigeria down, and the ever familiar hubris that has bedeviled our leaders one and all. Our prayers that these would not derail the Ag. President Jonathan's good intentions.

Yes, we can.

Update

8. Deliver Credible 2011 Polls
Status:
March 2010: Except for PDP no party has its national acts together;IBB claims he is consulting;Buhari and others are forming a new party;Atiku seems to be returning to PDP too;Still the same old faces;Iwu must go protest by NLC;Counter Iwu must stay moves looking for 15 million signatures;Iwu's current tenure expires in June;National Assembly seems to be thinking about tinkering with the structure of INEC;No real preparations apparent with less than one year to elections;

April 13th 2010: Ag. President promises an overhaul of INEC - hints that the Chairman and other INEC commissioners are on the way out due to tenure expiration.

Update

9. Conclude High Profile National Embarrassment Corruption Cases
Status:
March 2010: Procastinating on the Halliburton Case - US says Nigeria has enough evidence (US Ambassador to Nigeria, Washington D.C, 04.09.2010 - ThisDay); Ibori has gone into hiding, while his investigators were attacked by gunmen; Bank Manager Cases before EFCC - involves more than 1/2 trillion Naira;
April 12 2010: Nigerian Tribune reports 8 individuals to stand trial on the Haliburton case: [url]http://www.nigeriaanew.org/forum/index.php/topic,1236.0.html[/url]

@igbo boy

You are still reading the old lies or ignorance written about Africa from ages ago. The scientific evidence and archaelogical evidence have begun to show that all humans came out of Africa. The Somalis and Ethiopians are closely located to the point of human dispersal, and so would most likely carry a combination of the genetics of the entire human race as the evidence seems to suggest:

[b]Overall, the genetic studies conclude that Somalis and their fellow Ethiopian and Eritrean Northeast African groups represent a unique and distinct racial bloc on the continent:[39]

"The most distinct separation is between African and non-African populations. The northeastern-African -- that is, the Ethiopian and Somali -- populations are located centrally between sub-Saharan African and non-African populations,  The fact that the Ethiopians and Somalis have a subset of the sub-Saharan African haplotype diversity -- and that the non-African populations have a subset of the diversity present in Ethiopians and Somalis -- makes simple-admixture models less likely; rather, these observations support the hypothesis proposed by other nuclear-genetic studies (Tishkoff et al. 1996a, 1998a, 1998b; Kidd et al. 1998) -- that populations in northeastern Africa may have diverged from those in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa early in the history of modern African populations and that a subset of this northeastern-African population migrated out of Africa and populated the rest of the globe. These conclusions are supported by recent mtDNA analysis (Quintana-Murci et al. 1999)."[/b]

Ask yourself this simple question: If all humans originated from one original stock or as the Bible says Adam and Eve, which race today do you think those original pairs would most likely look like. Ah, now you get it, they would probably look more like the Ethiopians or Somalians, then the Arabs and a lot less than the so-called whites or sub-saharan blacks or Asians. Personally, I have really only met a few "white" or "black" people

igbo boy:

Khosian are very african for your information, I have reitierated several times the diversity of the black race,

However, Yes Somalis are black people with mixed arab heritage, the rest of us are different not becuase of being mixed, but thats how we are

@safeact
And people wonder why America is being more proactive with respect to Nigeria. Don't be surprised to hear that F-16s are dropping bombs on al qaeda training camps in Nigeria. I think it is that bad!

safeact:

Very very funny! I smell terrorist being bred up in naija. Mayb he forget how to detonate d bomb so he wanted to rush back 4 more training. I prefare rail transport to flight nowadays.

This stuff by our Chief Central Banker, while thoroughly readable and enjoyable, is also thoroughly gibberish about defending the indefensable.

Nobody is saying that the entire Islamic law is barbaric or civilized - as with any religion that developed in an age of limited knowledge and generally war-like approach to resolving human issues certain aspects of it just don't cut (excuse the pun) it anymore. As the CBN Governor himself showed a number of the law is strangely contradictory - the example he gave basically says that you are allowed to do whatever you want, just not in public. Now I get it 

The most gibberish stuff from the article is the following:

The State does not stop a woman from wearing what she likes inside her house but it stops her from dressing publicly in a manner that is likely to attract an ordinary man, as this is one of those things leading to another and up to adultery. When a man drinks in his house and sleeps that is his problem. When he comes out and mingles with people, or drives, others are at risk from his actions since he is not in complete control of his senses etc.

I have a question for Chief Sanusi. Why, as an erudite scholar and over all these years, he did not ponder the injustice of having the women pay for the man's lack of control. Why can't the rule instruct the MAN TO COVER HIS EYES or better yet CASTRATE himself - those are called eunuchs, you know! Sorry, I forgot you can't question the law. As Bob Marley once said, in this case the"migthy God is a living man".

Now compare this society with ‘totalitarian’ Islamic states like Saudi Arabia and Iran. You find there that people are safe and secure and the only persons who need fear are the criminals. Instead of citizens living in perpetual fear of criminals, it is the criminals who live in perpetual fear of the law.

People are safe and secure in North Korea and China too - it is not the religion stupid, it is the totalitarianism.

This brings me to second point: what, exactly is the yardstick for declaring a law barbaric or civilized? A few people have made the point that to say the electric chair, for instance is civilized while cutting off a thief’s hand is not, is a purely subjective matter. I think we can go beyond that and have a rational basis for making comparisons. A body of laws is only good as the type of society it creates. Take Nigeria today, where the Shariah is not in force. In Lagos, all of us are victims of thieves and robbers.

Sanusi must be on drug to use a one-sided comparison and Lagos as a "criminal" state. The culture of Almajiri is nothing to write home about, and what about all those pen robbers that are roaming the northern landscape - I don't see any of them with one or no hand. And the biggest of all, the stealing that the entire nation is doing by taking oil from under the feet of the Niger Deltans without compensation means what under Sharia? I guess the law doesn't cover collective stealing?

I can't believe a man at his level would argue such nonsense - but a least he doesn't think it is not up for discussion.

@Me_Aboki
If you feel this article is an embarrassment to you and other Muslims, it should be! I hope you are not saying that in a modern nation the following kind of punishment should be the order of the day:

Another man Lawal Isa, also had his right hand cut off, after being convicted of stealing three bicycles. And presently, there are several dozens of people in jail awaiting amputation across Northern Nigerian States of Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Kaduna, Borno, Gombe among others. What is also disturbing about this Sharia theft punishments, is that the victims upon being accused gets ostracized by their relatives and society, and the only way for them to get re-integrated back into the community is to accept amputation as a form of atonements for their sinful way that will transformed them from a thief into a religious person.

Your post seems to suggest you would not mind implementing the following rule by a Sharia court judge to prevent ridicule. Nobody put the word in his mouth, he said it himself. If the discussion of the punishments metted out by Sharia embarrasses you and those behind it, that is your conscience telling you that it is not right. Listen to it.

It is disgusting that Sharia court judge Ibrahim Lawal not only banned the use of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to campaign against the amputation of Mr. Jangebe by the civil rights congress. He also ordered the immediate suspension of all debates on the amputation by the public. Acccording to him Muslims, had no right under the law to question or review any judgment given by the Sharia Court as doing so would be tantamount to questioning the laws of Allah.

If you want to deny any of the things contained in the article, do that and be done with it already - don't come here to Sharia police the internet. Discussion is the only way to development, not some inherited rules that were formulated based on the "best available knowledge" of the time. The blame is not on those who formulated those rules in those ages, since these rules were "state of art" at the time. It is sad that some poeple are living in the 21st century according to rules designed for the state of knowledge in the 7th.

By the way, the Old Testament of the Bible contains even more severe punishment rules, but you don't see any Jew or Christian making use of those rules anymore.

And if the Catholic Church doesn't call its priests to order with these molestation of kids nonsense it would soon lose its role as a major religion. Can't hope the same for the adherents of some other religion since women are openly protesting the right to marry off their girls at age 9 or 12! Nobody is forcing them to do this, and as I said above if it embarasses you and others, it is then time for religious reformation, another more enlightened religion or no religion at all.

No innocent person in their right mind is hurt by discussion and exhortation to quit metting out injustice to others. Please post any negative religious news away. Thank you.

Me_Aboki:

@ poster, what have you got against sharia? For example what are your views on the issues raised in the above article? How will or has sharia been imposed or impacted on you?
You seem to have a penchant for negativity against the law and its religion.
Obviously, any body with a mind can cut and paste.

I doubt it would be that difficult to google, find and paste neagative news about christians or christianity and upload it in this forum as way of retaliating against you and your ilk, but unfortunately I would also be hurting and provoking innocent persons that are unlucky to share the same faith with you - a simple consideration you obviously dont have.

@cgem
This is the kind of absolutism that us no where. Who were the major investors behind the Chinese economic "miracle"? After they helped S. Korea, H.Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, the Chinese realized what they needed to do - they accepted US help (investment, bilateral cooperation, education, technology) without losing their mind. UMYA's bosom friends in Saudi Araba are at the steps of the Americans, although the same UMYA hypocrisy is keeping them down.

It is a mutual or relative world, however you see it. What has the Chinese brought us?  Nigeria has a choice. We can accept needed help without losing our heads, if our leaders get their heads out of their pockets and start using it, or we can go adrift, in which case the Chinese, Americans or Osama bin Laden will gladly step in.

Our oil, our oil - whose oil are you talking about. The Niger Deltans certainly don't feel like it is their oil because they only see it leaving and the proceeds never come back because it develops legs faster Usain Bolt.

cgem:

The United States knows exactly what they are doing! Yara'adua was never their ally, infact American govt has not been favored by the UMYA govt, during his time he invited Iran to help Nigeria in Nuclear electricity, he sold a lot of oil wells to the chinese, sidelined US and gave Chinese most of our multibillion dollar contracts.
US is happy to have Jonathan, and they will do everything to have Jonathan become president 2011, they want to take good control again of Nigeria's main economic driving tool and that is oil. Removal of Iwu therefore confirms this. Can any country of the world dictate to another country who should head what? the answer is no. But in the case of US they are very interested in the 2011 elections and who governs Nigeria. America do not want the Chinese to have more economic control in Africa's most populous nation and Africa's second largest economy. The saying goes "He who controls Nigeria controls Africa" its a fight of the two nations over Nigeria. Hence, the call for removal of Iwu

@mbulela

Obama has more important things to worry about.
What makes you think Obama is so jobless that he is bothered about Iwu?

You would have been right before Dec. 25 2009. In fact this was Obama's policy towards Nigeria since he became president - which I think was a mistake by the way.

Nigerians had better sort out their issues for their own good.
Last time i checked,we do not have monopoly of oil.

It is no more about just oil. It is now about the potential threat to security. I agree that we better sort our issues out for our own good. However, since we have "kids" for government America cannot watch until another foolish idiot climbs on a plane.

mbulela:

all these crap stories that are cooked up in beer parlors.
What makes you think Obama is so jobless that he is bothered about Iwu?
Nigerians exaggerate the importance of this country in the comity of Nations.
Obama has more important things to worry about.
As it is, his cup is full at present.
Nigerians had better sort out their issues for their own good.
Last time i checked,we do not have monopoly of oil.

@Isiolo
Your frustration is understandable. The fact is that the lies that were told to subjugate and dehumanize us ages ago lives on. Many of us today have being taught completely untrue and downright cruel stuff about our past, and we keep passing it from one generation to the other without question. I know this from a personal perspective. Until I began to read some books about ancient Africa that have begun to right the wrongs it was easy to accept many of these lies. At some point the "absence" of black people in history seemed to suggest that we were the outcome of some accident. Although nobody had said that to me directly it was a conclusion that jumped out of the dim view of black people globally. It turns out that in fact this was the explanation the caucasians gave of our existence in the past. My eyes have been opened by reading and searching for knowledge about Africa's past. What I have found were pleasantly surprising. Glorious civilizations all over the African continent, not only since the 1000 AD, but deep in the past to the begining of human civilization. Some of the bad, but true, stuff they associate with Africa were actually the same things almost everyone around the world was practicing during that period. For example, they use to claim that Africans were born slaves to justify their cruelty, but the word slave itself came out of the word "slav" representing a large number of people on the European continent! Everyone was praticising slavery in those days, but the Europeans wanted to take it several steps higher so they had to lie to themselves in justification.

I used to believe that Somalis, etc were the product of mixtures, but it has been shown that these people have lived in that area from ancient times. Not hybrids at all. Africa is recognized as the origin of mankind, and also that we have the greatest variation in DNA of any continent. Africa literally was the center of the Universe, the continent that stayed in place while others moved.

If anybody is in doubt about the extent the caucasians went to dismiss or claim anything remotely sophisticated in Africa look at the video below and listen to the LIE that came out of this 1960s narrator right at the begining. He basically said that those black people were "Aryan". Why? Because by the 1960s it had become obvious that the Ethiopians had a WRITTEN history and culture comparable to the "great" civilizations of the world.


We need to reclaim our history and glorious past by making Africa the best it could be. We have enormous potentials, but are missing a few good men and women to lead us out of the wilderness.

.[center][flash=400,350]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5XIhibezSQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1[/flash][/center]

Isiolo:

I truthfully can't help some of this ignorance here, if you wanna call all 15 million Somalis in the Horn hybrids go on, and go ahead, call the 30 million Oromo hybrids as well and the 30 million Habesha hybrids as well, the entire Horn are all hybrids, go on tell us that lol.

And also tell those Berbers who are natives of Africa who share 90% DNA with Somalis that they're also hybrids because they don't resemble your image of "African looks", tell the Egyptians they're also hybrids, and tell the Khoisan of South Africa they're hybrids. Might as well tell the greater 50% of Africa they're all hybrids and foreigners to your strange image of your continent. BUT what if we said YOU are foreigners to OUR Africa? How would that strike you, INVADER? lol. Africa is the land of its owners whomever they may be from the Khoisan to the Tuareg and nothing but your ignorance changes that.

@bandely
I would suggest that you learn a little more about how IBB ruined Nigeria. IBB's "homegrown" SAP was actually dictated by the world bank. Also, IBB had already completed the process of obtaining an IMF loan, while pretending to the Nigerian people by starting a nationwide debate to discuss the merits.

IBB was the one who without consultation single-handedly upgraded Nigeria's membership in the Organization of Islamic Countries, and then denied it.

And who are some of the people that seem to be promoting IBB for president?

What we need is someone that would do the right thing on behalf of the Nigerian people all the time. Otherwise, the world will continue to dictate to us for better or for worse.

bandely:

I'm sure this won't happen if IBB is the Nigerian president.

_{Though I am in no support of him.}

@Afam
It sounds like dictating, but really it is not. It is showing leaders who keep behaving like juveniles, while leading 140 million people,  their imbecility has got to stop. Why? Their incompetence and irresponsibility, coupled with aristocratic stealing, is a threat to global security. This people who cannot keep a coal powerplant or refinery running or guard an airport are talking about building nuclear power plants. There is no doubt that they can throw some of our people's money to get such a plant, the problem is the aftermath.

Iwu doesn't deserve his seat at the head of INEC, he should have been long gone if Yar'adua was half the honest man he made us believe. Since they don't consider the voice of the Nigerian people or performance at your job as decision variables then the only thing is for a bigger dog to humiliate them the way they humiliate our people each and everyday.

In this country an INEC chairman gets a protest and attempt to get 15 million signatures on his behalf. Sickening!

Afam:

The US dictating to Nigeria will only bring more problems for Nigeria and Nigerians in the long run and it is sad to note that we are not seeing things they way they should be seen.

And the message of God to Nigeria continues - Ezekiel 22:25-30

25: "There is conspiracy of her prophets in the midst of her, like the roaring lion, tearing prey. A soul they actually devour. Treasure and precious things they keep taking. Her widows they have multiplied in the midst of her."
26: "Her priests themselves have done violence to my law, and they keep profaning my holy places. Between the holy thing and the common they have made no distinction, and between the unclean thing and the clean they have made nothing known, and from my sabbaths they have hidden their eyes, and I am profaned in the midst of them."
27: "Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves tearing prey in shedding blood, in destroying souls for the purpose of making unjust gain."
28: "And her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, visioning an unreality and divining for them a lie saying: This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself has sadi, when Jehovah himself has not spoken.
29: "The people of the land themselves have carried on a scheme of defrauding and have done a tearing away in robbery, and the afflicted one and the poor one they have maltreated, and the alien resident they have defrauded without justice."
30: "And I kept looking for a man from among them who would be repairing the stone wall and standing in the gap before me in behalf of the land, not to bring it to ruin; AND I FOUND NO ONE."

What a coincidence? God has a reply for our leaders - I don't know if they will believe it, but it his message for a nation led by similar rogues in the 7th centur BC in Ezekiel 22: 4-12

4: "by your blood that you have shed you have become guilty, and by your dungy idols that you have made you have become unclean. And you bring your days near, and you will come to your years. That is why I must make you an object of reproach to the nations and of jeering to all the lands."
5: "The nearby and those far away from you will jeer you, O you unclean in name, abounding in confusion."
6: "Look! The chieftains of Israel have proved to be in you, each one to his arm for the purpose of shedding blood."
7: "Father and mother they have treated with contempt in you. Toward the alien resident they have acted with defrauding in the midst of you. Fatherless boy and widow they have maltreated in you."
8: "My holy places you have despised, and my sabbaths you have profaned."
9: "Outright slanderers have proved to be in you, for the purpose of shedding blood; and on the mountains they have eaten in you. Loose conduct they have carried on in the midst of you."
12: "A bribe they have taken in you for the purpose of shedding blood. Interest and usury you have taken, and you violently keep making gain of your companions with defrauding, and me you have forgotten, is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah"

wales:

After several minutes of recounting Nigeria’s political and economic travails, the president of the Senate, David Mark, on his birthday, said he is confident that “God will intervene in a positive way.”

Mr. Mark, who turned 62 on Thursday, spoke in an early-morning prayer session at St. Mulumba Catholic Chapel, Apo, Abuja. He said that regardless of the challenges and difficulties Nigeria faces presently, “I am hopeful that God will see us through”.

Prayer for leaders

Mr. Mark called on Nigerians to continue to pray for the nation and its leaders in order to overcome its challenges.

“There is no gift that is bigger than the gift of prayers,” Mr. Mark said. “Politicians go through a lot of temptations, countless in number, it is only through our support, fasting and prayers that they can survive and triumph.

“I am certain that our prayers for the country and our leaders during the Easter celebration will not go in vain to seeing Nigeria through.

“All we need as a nation is prayers that God in His infinite mercy should help our land”.

The Senate president noted the temptations leaders in Nigeria face by the day and concluded that only supplication to God could see them through.

Mr. Mark has often, at most public religious events, requested for prayers from Nigerians for either ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua or the unsettled political balance in Nigeria.

Guests pray

Scores of politicians including Maurice Iwu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the newly-appointed ministers attended the early-morning prayer session.

In the homily, Rev. Jerome Bello urged Nigerians to have faith and believe in the country as a way to invoke God’s intervention on every aspect of the nation’s plight.

“God wants us to demonstrate our faith for our miracles to happen,” said Mr. Bello. “We should also believe in ourselves to overcome any obstacles on our ways. Miracles are not automatic, it happens when we play our own part of faith.”

Mr. Bello and guests offered prayers for a democratic stability in the country and for wisdom for leaders.

Link:

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/5552229-147/mark_at_62_seeks_divine_help.csp

And it WAS a bright and sunny day, TOMORROW

Ikengawo:

He's like a federal version of Fashola.
in a short time he seem to have made the nigerian fed a serious governing body, cut nepotism and inefficient ppl from government, enforced discipline and is now tackling the issues with a very serious result oriented drive.
hes actually in a few months done more then yar adua did in years, which isn't saying much, but i applaud he great governance. I can't think of anyone other president that was straight forward and as mature minded