₦airaland Forum

Watch Isabella Obaze's block at the 5 minute mark.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2trOygVVos

AgentGoat:
what's the issue with this merchant navy stuff @naptu2

Ishilove:
Na these ones go enter bus and no go gree pay.

Oops! Sorry, I missed this.

(I think the death of the NNSL is one of the reasons for this controversy).


A merchant navy basically consists of a country's commercial fleet. This was the way that I understood it when I was a kid; Nigeria's military air service was the Nigerian Air Force and its civilian air service was the Nigeria Airways, while its military maritime service was the Nigerian Navy and its civilian maritime service was the Nigerian National Shipping Line.

A merchant navy consists of cruise ships, cargo ships, fishing trawlers and other such large civilian commercial ships. They can be utilised by the government during war or national emergency, for example, the British Merchant Navy was used to evacuate allied soldiers from Dunkirk during World War 2 and ships of the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) were used to transport soldiers to the Niger Delta during the Nigerian Civil War.

Cause of the controversy

The Nigerian National Shipping Line was an important source of training and structure for the Nigerian Merchant Navy, but the company was liquidated in 1995. The controversy between the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Merchant Navy then began in the early 2000s, after the transition to civil rule.

Although every country has a merchant navy, there is no single recognised body in Nigeria known as the Nigerian Merchant Navy. There is no law that sets up an organisation known as the Nigerian Merchant Navy. Furthermore, although civilian seafarers (just like civilian aircraft crew) wear uniforms and have ranks, there is no civilian non-governmental organisation that is authorised to bear arms. There is a government owned and recognised training institution for civilian seafarers, but it is called The Maritime Academy of Nigeria (not the Merchant Navy Academy).

However, some people have created organisations called The Nigerian Merchant Navy. They wear uniforms and organise training camps and also allege that they have the backing of government. The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) investigated these claims in the early 2000s and said that there is no law establishing such organisations and that they do not have the backing of government. The Nigerian Navy said that the people in those organisations were impersonating naval officers. In fact there were several clashes between those organisations and the Navy and some members of the organisations were arrested by naval personnel.

Since then the organisations have insisted that they are legitimate and are recognised by the government, but the police and the navy regularly arrest their members for impersonating naval officers and running an illegal organisation. The organisations claimed that they were approved by Presidents Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan and Buhari, but there is no evidence of such approval. A bill to establish the Nigerian Merchant Navy was introduced into the House of Representatives, but it was never passed (the Nigerian Navy opposed the bill) and the police and Navy continue to arrest members of the organisations and to destroy their camps.

Here is the website of one of the organisations. https://nigerianmerchantnavy.com/

The women's positional awards was dominated by Barcelona and PSG. I guess it's because of Barca's performance last season.

Barcelona Femeni only lost one game last season and that loss was due to poor administration. It wasn't due to any error by the team.

A lot of Barcelona's matches were postponed due to Covid-19 outbreaks in their opponents' camps. These matches were then piled on near the end of the season. Barca was playing like 4 games a week. To make matters worse, Barca won the Copa de la Reina final in Madrid, then had to travel back to Barcelona to play their biggest rival, Atletico Madrid 2 days later. There was a snow storm, so the Madrid Airport was closed, but the Spanish Federation refused to postpone the game. Barca had to travel by bus to the nearest open airport and then fly back home. The result was that the players were tired and Atletico won the game 3-4. That was their only defeat throughout the whole of last season. They won the treble of the Champions League, the Liga Iberdrola and the Copa de la Reina.


The only none Barca player on the list is Christiane Endler, the PSG goalkeeper, while Irene Paredes was the PSG captain, but she moved to Barcelona last summer.


Goalkeeper: Endler

Defender: Paredes

Midfielder: Putellas

Forward: Oshoala