The Lagos State Government has opted for a low key celebration of the 60th Independence Anniversary due to the ravaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still with us.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has directed that the planned parade and other activities that involve the gathering of more than 50 people should be cancelled.
He congratulates Lagosians on this auspicious occasion and strongly advises that they should celebrate quietly at home and pray for the country. They should also observe the COVID-19 protocols, including wearing of face masks to protect themselves and their loved ones.
The Governor urges Lagosians not to relax their vigilance against COVID-19 so as not to reverse the gains that the state has made in fighting the disease.
They are to keep embracing physical distancing and washing of hands with soap and water. Anybody who feels unwell should stay indoors and contact health authorities.
The police and other security agencies have been directed to ensure that nobody flouts these directives in the interest of all of us, especially now that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is warning that a second wave of the deadly disease could occur.
As part of activities commemorating the 60th Independence Anniversary of the country, President Muhammadu Buhari will address the nation from the Eagle Square, Abuja, on Thursday, October 1, 2020. #NigeriaAt60
The live address will commence after the Anniversary Parade beginning at 10am which will be covered by major television and radio stations especially the network services of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN).
Please note that in view of the open-air live address, the traditional early morning October 1 Presidential Broadcast will not feature on Thursday.
PUBLIC NOTICE: The FCT Administration has announced traffic diversion at the following points ahead of the #NigeriaAt60 celebration at Eagle Square, Abuja.
- Bullet junction - Finance junction - Aso Drive road - Phase 1, off Shehu Shagari way - Court of Appeal by GEJ way.
5:00am to 3pm on October 1st, 2020. Alternative routes are advised.
PUBLIC NOTICE: The FCT Administration has announced traffic diversion at the following points ahead of the #NigeriaAt60 celebration at Eagle Square, Abuja.
- Bullet junction - Finance junction - Aso Drive road - Phase 1, off Shehu Shagari way - Court of Appeal by GEJ way. pic.twitter.com/0vkYsBYKiN
naptu2: By the way, still on the subject of microphones, interruptions and Ronald Reagan. . .
A newspaper was going to sponsor the 1980 Republican debate, but the Federal Communications Commission ruled that it would be illegal, so Ronald Reagan stepped in at the last minute and sponsored the debate. (Remember that Reagan had been a millionaire actor before becoming governor of California).
However, the newspaper was still in charge of making the rules for the debate and they wanted the debate to be only between the two top contenders, Ronald Reagan and George Bush The First. Reagan didn't like that idea and he wanted all the contenders to be involved in the debate.
Eventually the newspaper agreed to allow the other candidates to participate, but they were only going to be allowed to give closing remarks. They were not going to be allowed to ask or answer questions. Only Reagan and Bush would be allowed to ask and answer questions. Reagan still wasn't happy.
This video shows what happened when the moderator introduced all the candidates and then asked the "smaller" candidates to leave the stage. Ronald Reagan tried to object, but the moderator tried to shut him up. Reagan continued speaking so the moderator told the sound engineer to turn off Reagan's microphone. And then Ronald Reagan got up and said,
"MR GREEN! I AM PAYING FOR THIS MICROPHONE!"
(The moderator's name was actually Mr Breene).
All the candidates and all the people in the audience gave Reagan a standing ovation.
Ekaka1: That will be too much....one of them is a former VP and the other a sitting President.. I think it's more about reverence for the office
What's too much about it? Simply have a system where a candidate's microphone would be connected to the lights and his microphone immediately goes off when the light turns red. This prevents a candidate from talking over the other and ensures that they keep to their alloted time.
Ekaka1: Not sure why this CNN guy is blaming his moderator .....what does he want him to do to an overbearing trump ..he even tried stopping them a lot of the time
VickyRotex: Yea, I feel for Wallace. He moderated well. So much patience and yelling
And in bold: OMG LOL
What they need to do in future is to have microphone control like they did in some debates in the past. The moderator should be able to turn the candidates' microphones off.
JamParkMe: Its truly baffling to me. I have tried to make sense of their love for this man. All I could come up with is a mix of ignorance their love of so called "strong men" like Trump and Co. I have no clue what else would make them root for a man that cares less about them, insults them and banned them from gaining access to immigrant visas.
A lot of Nigerians who support Donald Trump do so mainly for two reasons.
1) Some of them are supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan and they believe that President Barrack Obama and the Democrats are responsible for Jonathan's loss in the 2015 election, so they hate the democrats for that reason.
2) Some of them are pentecostal and evangelical Christians and they believe that the democrats want to force homosexuality on Nigeria. Therefore they hate the democrats.
Now, you also need to understand that many Nigerians are very emotional. As far as they are concerned, people that they support cannot do any wrong and people that they hate cannot do anything right, no matter what.
wink2015: You are repeating a statement that governor Donald Duke of Cross Rivers state made as his own defence because people was accusing him of not stepping his feet against Obasanjo.
And one of the reasons Duke was blamed was because he had ambition to became President of Nigeria and he was afraid of telling Obasanjo the bitter truth so as not to loose the presidency.
At the end Duke never got the presidency and his own people are refugees in their own land.
EVEN IF FRANCE SEND THEIR TROOPS INTO BAKASSI.
It still does not put Nigeria in the weak point Obasanjo put Nigeria in.
There will be no WORLD COURT ruling in Nigeria matter.
Obasanjo was filled with BUSY BODY AND KNOW TOO MUCH SPIRIT.
The late yoruba lawyer Justice Akinjide and another yoruba lawyer ( Justice Bola Ajibola ) all had shallow knowledge about the case but they deceive Obasanjo to go into it.
Nigeria already had its troop already positioned in the Bakassi I am wondering why they should be afraid of France.
We are afraid of France but we are at the present time fighting and wasting money in the NORTH EAST REGION OF NIGERIA.
The money we are presently spending in the North east is far higher than the money that we would have spent to defend the bakassi.
OAUTemitayo: You are the one saying what you don't know
France couldn't do NADA for years. It was Obasanjo in his usual appeal for world recognition that sold Bakassi.
You guys remind me of my professor.
naptu2: I once had a really crazy professor. This man was a radical and he was also very aggressive.
One day, many years later, I saw the professor on TV in a panel discussion with Admiral Aduwo. This was in the early 2000s. They were talking about the Bakassi Peninsula. Along the line they started talking about what happened during the Shagari administration, when Admiral Aduwo was the chief of naval staff.
There was a skirmish between Nigeria and Cameroon at that time and my former professor chided Admiral Aduwo because he felt that the action that the Nigerian Government took was not enough. Admiral Aduwo said that they did not go further than they did because they had intelligence reports that there was a French destroyer in Cameroon at the time. My professor replied, "So what? If the French get involved then you deal with France!" Admiral Aduwo looked at him as if he had gone mad.
"My fellow Americans, I am pleased to inform you that I have signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes".
He made this joke while he was doing a mic test before an actual live broadcast.
Do you know that I knew about this joke all those years ago, but I did not know what the real broadcast was about until now? This is what he said during the real broadcast a few minutes later:
"My fellow Americans: I'm pleased to tell you that today I signed legislation that will allow student religious groups to begin enjoying a right they've too long been denied—the freedom to meet in public high schools during nonschool hours, just as other student groups are allowed to do."
I was going to write about the bizarre reactions of Nigerians to the US elections, but I didn't have the time, but I've seen some pretty crazy things in the past 24 hours.
US presidential elections were just another form of entertainment to some Nigerians, while most Nigerians couldn't really care about them. They were just another item at the end of the news. We had our own problems.
That changed a bit in 1988 when Jesse Jackson ran for president. Many Nigerians supported him for obvious reasons and were disappointed when Dukakis won.
1992/1993 election season provided fantastic entertainment, Sistah Soja ambushing Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton's cardboard sign (It's the economy, stupid), George Bush 1st focusing on his foreign affairs track record, etc (it also had the best inaugural concert).
Bush vs Gore wasn't our problem, but it did provide drama, what with the perforated or half perforated ballot papers, etc.
But all of that changed in 2008. The way people went on about the election, you would think that Obama was running for the Nigerian presidency. Ndi Okereke-Onyuike bizarrely had a fund raising dinner for him in Lagos! People printed Obama thirty and other similar nonsense.
But this year takes the cake. I just saw an article about people in Abuja who are staging a protest against Donald Trump. Friends became enemies because of this election. People are arguing over whether Buhari was invited or not (like WTH). By the way, this same nonsense happened in 2012 when Bola Tinubu attended Obama's inauguration and ACN supporters claimed that Goodluck Jonathan was snubbed. When have you ever seen a sitting Nigerian head of state at a US presidential inauguration?? In fact, when have you seen a British, German, Japanese or Russian head of state at a US presidential inauguration? Does it mean that they were all snubbed?
naptu2: Some people hated him because of all the wars that he engaged in, some very seriously hated him because of what happened to black Americans during his tenure, some (like my dad) thought that he was a cowboy, but what nobody can deny was that he was a very funny man. I marvelled at the way that he created incredibly crazy jokes out of nothing.
For example, during the 1984 presidential debate, the moderator said that he was the oldest presidential candidate in history and that some members of his staff had told journalist that he was tired after the last debate. The moderator said that President Kennedy went several days without sleep during the Cuban Missile Crises, so, did he think that he was too old to contest for the presidency and did he think that he would be able to withstand the rigours of office.
President Reagan replied that he would not make age an issue of the campaign. He said that he would not exploit for political purposes his opponent's youth and inexperience. Even his opponent, Walter Mondale, could not help but bust out laughing. The joke completely disarmed the moderator.
What about the "bombing joke".
While waiting for the engineers to get ready for his live address to the nation, President Reagan jokingly made a little speech. (Now remember that this was in the middle of the Cold War). He said:
"My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes".
Of course that was not broadcast live, but it was leaked by the media much later and it caused a lot of confusion in the Soviet Union.
naptu2: This is just crazy! Watch this one, you need to watch this one.
This is the age joke and you need to watch it. Just look at Senator Mondale's reaction! Even he couldn't help but laugh. The joke completely took out the journalist.
naptu2: The first US presidential election season that I paid close attention to was the 1988 election season (for obvious reasons. That was the season of Jesse Jackson vs. Dukakis). Prior to 1988 I had only known the candidates and the eventual winners. I had never watched the debates, primaries, inaugurations, inauguration balls, etc. I wasn’t really interested in them.
I have watched every US presidential election debate since 1988 (that’s 30 years) and there were usually only 2 presidential candidates at each of those debates. The only exception was in 1992 and that was because the phenomenon known as Ross Perot contested as an independent candidate. This is despite the fact that between 7 to 10 candidates contested each of those presidential elections.
Michael Dukakis debated against George Bush in the main 1988 presidential debate, despite the fact that there were 7 presidential candidates in the 1988 election.
George Bush the 1st, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot took part in the 1992 presidential debate, despite the fact that there were 9 presidential candidates in the 1992 election.
Only Bill Clinton and Bob Dole took part in the 1996 debate, despite the fact that there were 10 presidential candidates in the 1996 election. This was also despite the fact that Ross Perot contested the election again and also despite the fact that there was another phenomenon called Ralph Nader that contested in that election.
George Bush the 2nd and Al Gore were the only candidates that took part in the 2000 debate, despite the fact that there were 9 presidential candidates in that election.
It’s usually only the Republican and Democratic candidates that take part in the main presidential debates, despite the fact that there are other candidates. Some people also organise an alternative presidential debate in which candidates from the smaller parties and independents get to debate their ideas in front of the public, but its only the candidates of the two major parties that usually take part in the main presidential debates.
US election 2020: What time is the Trump v Biden presidential debate?
29 September 2020
We've had months of set-piece events, tightly controlled by a team of campaign staff. Well, that's about to end.
On the debate stage, candidates are on their own and in the whole campaign, this is the moment most fraught with risk.
Plenty can go wrong, so hold on tight.
Here's your handy guide.
When - and where - are the Trump v Biden debates?
There are three presidential debates on the agenda:
29 September in Cleveland, Ohio
15 October in Miami, Florida
22 October in Nashville, Tennessee
Vice-President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris will also go head-to-head:
7 October in Salt Lake City, Utah
They all take place from 21:00-22:30ET (02:00-03:30BST), with no commercial interruptions.
What's the format for the first debate?
Six questions in six segments, 15 minutes each. The segments are:
Mr Trump and Mr Biden will get two minutes apiece to respond to the question initially before the back-and-forth begins.
The first moderator is Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace .
A lot of people might think a Fox News anchor would give President Trump an easy ride but this is no Sean Hannity. Quite the opposite. The president has endured some of his most awkward moments sitting across from Wallace, whose command of the detail is legendary.
An interview in July went viral when Wallace told Mr Trump he'd taken the same cognitive ability test the president touted, telling him it was "not the hardest test".
Mr Trump - who typically favours Fox News - has dismissed Wallace as a "wannabe" of his father, Mike Wallace, who was an original reporter with CBS 60 Minutes.
A registered Democrat, Wallace has said moderating debates is a serious business as it helps "millions of people decide who we're going to elect".
For the second debate, we'll have C-Span's political editor Steve Scully moderating. That's a town hall format which means real people get to play a part too.
Finally, NBC's White House correspondent Kristen Welker will round out the debate season.
USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page will tackle the one and only vice-presidential debate.
wink2015: You are repeating a statement that governor Donald Duke of Cross Rivers state made as his own defence because people was accusing him of not stepping his feet against Obasanjo.
And one of the reasons Duke was blamed was because he had ambition to became President of Nigeria and he was afraid of telling Obasanjo the bitter truth so as not to loose the presidency.
At the end Duke never got the presidency and his own people are refugees in their own land.
EVEN IF FRANCE SEND THEIR TROOPS INTO BAKASSI.
It still does not put Nigeria in the weak point Obasanjo put Nigeria in.
There will be no WORLD COURT ruling in Nigeria matter.
Obasanjo was filled with BUSY BODY AND KNOW TOO MUCH SPIRIT.
The late yoruba lawyer Justice Akinjide and another yoruba lawyer ( Justice Bola Ajibola ) all had shallow knowledge about the case but they deceive Obasanjo to go into it.
Nigeria already had its troop already positioned in the Bakassi I am wondering why they should be afraid of France.
We are afraid of France but we are at the present time fighting and wasting money in the NORTH EAST REGION OF NIGERIA.
The money we are presently spending in the North east is far higher than the money that we would have spent to defend the bakassi.
P&ID: UK Court Orders Release of $200m Guarantee to Nigeria
editor. September 29, 2020 1:50 Pm
A London Commercial Court Tuesday ordered the release of the $200million guarantee put in place as security for the stay of execution granted Nigeria for the appeal filed against the judgment of Justice Butcher for the execution of the Arbitral award of $10bn in favour of a firm based in the British Virgin Islands, Process & Industrial Development..
P&ID had sought to increase the security to $400 million, but the court presided over by Sir Ross Cranston rejected the request and ordered cost of £70,000 against P&ID.
The court had earlier in the month granted another cost of £1.5million against P&ID.
Commenting on the outcome, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, said: “Due to the substantial evidence of prima facie fraud established before the Court, we are pleased that the Judge has agreed to release the guarantee. We are also pleased that the Court has rejected P&ID’s application to increase the guarantee, which was clearly intended to be a diversionary tactic and entirely misconceived. This release which is an accretion into the reserves will further enhance the nation’s management of the exchange rate of its domestic currency, the Naira.
“This is a further and significant victory for Nigeria in our ongoing fight to overturn the US$10 billion award procured through fraud and corruption by P&ID and former government officials.
“P&ID and its backers, Lismore Capital and VR Advisory, are increasingly seeing their case slip between their fingers. They continue to resort to employing delay tactics, disseminating misleading claims, and taking every step to obstruct our investigations across multiple jurisdictions.
“The FRN will not rest until we secure justice for the people of Nigeria – no matter how long it takes. Investigations are ongoing, and we are confident that more of the truth will be revealed over the coming months.”
Process & Industrial Developments, a firm based in the British Virgin Islands set up solely to build a gas processing plant in Nigeria, won a $6.6 billion arbitration award after the 2010 deal collapsed.
The award had been accruing interest since 2013 and is now worth more than $10 billion.
Nigeria in September successfully sought the right to appeal an August ruling that would have converted the arbitration award to a judgment, which would make it easier for P&ID to seize its assets.
Africans are notorious for age cheating, I really don't know why. It reminds me of that time, years ago, when Taiye Taiwo was celebrating his 28th birthday, while Kehinde, his twin, was celebrating his 33rd birthday somewhere else in Lagos. It was hilarious
Err, that started out as a joke and became a rumour, but the truth is that Taiye Taiwo's twin died at birth.
In the old days footballers in Nigeria were fond of claiming that they were older than they actually were because coaches thought that some of them were too young to join a team.
However, FIFA began age grade competitions in the early 1980s and players began claiming that they were younger than they actually were in order to get selected for the junior teams.
Furthermore, Nigerian players began moving abroad to play in Europe in the mid-1980s and they figured that they had a better chance of being signed by a European team if they had a more recent date of birth.
Politics › Re: FCTA Announces Traffic Diversion In Abuja For Independence Day Parade Tomorrow by naptu2(op): 2:46pm On Sep 30, 2020
