aloeman15: in a way, this is an own goal. just this week, lai was boasting about all states having bumper harvests and net export of agric produce. are these implement a matter of duplication of the state govts efforts, or is it that the farmers were all using hoes?
We’re in the middle of another election cycle (what I call the ‘silly season’) when a lot of allegations are made and it’s difficult to sift the truth from lies. Yesterday I created a thread about a senator whose PhD was declared fake by the NUC ( https://www.nairaland.com/4472810/nuc-confirms-foster-ogola-phd ). Some people on that thread declared that Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s doctorate degree was also fake. They said that they've never seen his PhD thesis. This surprised me, so I decided to repost this old article.
New Evidence that Goodluck Jonathan’s PhD May be Genuine Saturday, September 19, 2015
By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. Twitter: @farooqkperogi
Did former President Goodluck Jonathan actually earn a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Port Harcourt? Or did he forge it? I know many people no longer care about this because the man is no longer of any consequence. But I care for at least three reasons.
One, I have spent considerable energy in the past exposing or writing about fakery in high places, and I have had cause to call to question the authenticity of Jonathan’s Ph.D. Second, I have an enduring obsession with untangling truth from falsehood, an obsession that started from my formative years when my dad taught me that my name means one who distinguishes truth from falsehood. Third, I have uncovered authentic new evidence about Jonathan’s PhD that is not in the public domain.
My interest in Jonathan’s PhD was rekindled when I recently got into heated exchanges with fellow academics on a Nigerian-themed scholarly listserv over Babatunde Fowler’s bogus honorary doctorate. In the course of my back-and-forth with my interlocutors, I said something to the effect that circumstantial evidence pointed to the fact that although Jonathan did actually enroll for a PhD program at the University of Port Harcourt, he probably didn’t complete it. Many factors informed my opinion.
When inquiries were initially made to the University of Port Harcourt about the genuineness of Jonathan’s PhD, the university’s Deputy Registrar (Information), a certain Dr. William Wodi, merely recited the publicly available chronology of Jonathan’s educational career at the University of Port Harcourt and concluded thus: “From the above account, it has become obvious that Dr. Jonathan successfully completed the prescribed courses and programmes as specified by the Senate of the University of Port Harcourt to earn his degrees from the university.”
Well, that says nothing. Not even the copy of the PhD certificate Jonathan submitted to INEC is sufficient to establish the fact that he actually earned his degree. People in high and low places in Nigeria routinely produce counterfeit certificates. The evidence needed to establish the genuineness of his PhD is the title of his dissertation, the name of his supervisor, committee members, etc.
We know, for instance, that the title of Jonathan’s master's thesis is, "Stage l larvae of fresh and brackish water decapod crustaceans (excluding Natantial) Of the Niger Delta." We know this because Jonathan self-referenced his thesis in a 1985 conference paper he co-authored with a C.B. Powell, his supervisor who is late, and an I.A. Hart, perhaps a member of his master’s thesis committee. (However, although Jonathan's official CV says he earned his master's degree in 1985, the citation in the conference paper says the thesis was submitted and approved in 1984). Now, if we know the title of his master's thesis, why can't we know the title of his doctoral dissertation?
An NGO made an FOI request to the University of Port Harcourt early this year for information about the title and committee members of Jonathan’s doctoral dissertation; the university said it would not release the information to the public. Why is basic information like the title, supervisor, and committee members of a doctoral dissertation such top secret that a university would refuse to share it with the public?
Of course, this created room for doubts and for insinuations that Jonathan might not have earned his PhD. Protestations to the contrary from Jonathan’s supporters often base their defense on a shaky, slender thread of evidence.
This led me to guess that Jonathan probably enrolled for the Ph.D., was assigned a supervisor, perhaps did some field work, but became too swamped by the demands of his work at OMPADEC (where he was assistant director) to write up his dissertation. Then the overly perverse differential Nigerian culture that conduces to the conferral of anticipated titles on people who haven’t earned them led people to start addressing him as "Dr. Jonathan." He probably got habituated to answering the anticipatory but unearned title and later embraced it, I thought. That has actually happened countless times in Nigeria.
One of my professors at Bayero University Kano once told me how people kept calling him "Dr." when he returned to Kano after 7 years of an unsuccessful bid to get a PhD in English from a UK university.
Each time people called him a “Dr.” he protested that he wasn't a PhD. But it didn’t stop people from calling him a Dr. He said the embarrassment of being called a “Dr." when he didn't actually earn a PhD became so intolerable that he was compelled to re-enroll for another PhD at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He earned the Ph.D. three years later.
A former governor of a state in the northwest also used to be called a "Dr.” because he once enrolled for a PhD, which he didn't complete. When the Salisu Buhari Toronto certificate scandal broke in 1999 and searchlight was being beamed on public officials with bogus certificates, the governor preemptively called a press conference and said he had never called himself a "Dr."; that it was other people who called him a Dr. because he was once enrolled in a doctoral program.
So what new evidence do I have about Goodluck Jonathan’s PhD? Well, since no journalist took the trouble to investigate this issue and rest it once and for all, I got in contact with someone who lives in Port Harcourt and who earned his PhD at the University of Port Harcourt in a field that is cognate with Jonathan’s. I asked if he could help me confirm the genuineness of Jonathan’s PhD.
It turned out that Jonathan actually wrote a doctoral thesis. My contact, who by the way dislikes Jonathan, checked a publication of the University of Port Harcourt’s School of Postgraduate Studies titled “PhD Theses Abstracts 1983-2008.” It’s a record of Uniport’s PhD theses abstracts from 1983 to 2008, which was edited by B.W. Abbey, M. Horsfall, J.M. Ebong, and S.B. Arokoyu. A record of Jonathan’s PhD thesis appears in this publication. Notice that this publication preceded Jonathan's ascension to the presidency.
His thesis title is, “Ecology of Parhyale Hawaiensis Dana 1853 and Other Intertidal Talitroids (Crustacean Amphipoda) in the Bonny & New Calabar Rivers Estuary,” and it was supervised by a Dr. I.P. Aleleye-Wokoma. So contrary to what is available in the public domain, the late Prof. Charles Bruce Powell wasn’t Goodluck Jonathan’s doctoral thesis supervisor.
Although the person who gave me this information said he hasn’t seen a copy of Jonathan’s dissertation, anyone who has earned a PhD knows that you don’t write an abstract until you’ve finished writing the entire doctoral dissertation. Plus, you can't have page numbers (Jonathan's dissertation was 215-pages long, according to the publication) if you have not written the whole dissertation. It is therefore reasonable to assume that Jonathan indeed earned his PhD.
Now, I am sitting here wondering why in the world this information wasn’t made available to the public when it was asked for by an inquisitive public. Why was everyone who should have answers to the questions about Jonathan’s PhD suspiciously secretive and guarded? I will never know why.
But one thing I know is that, as I’ve stated here before, a PhD doesn’t make people smart; it’s just that many smart people tend to go for a PhD. But people with mediocre intellects can also get a PhD if they work hard, are persistent, and observe the rituals and protocols of doctoral education.
The National Economic Council (NEC) yesterday agreed to stop herdsmen’s movement, starting with five states – Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Kaduna and Plateau. They are the states mostly affected by the bloodletting sparked by herdsmen-farmers clashes.
The Council supported the immediate creation of ranches across the country, Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi told State House correspondents at the end of the NEC meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
According to him, the five states are expected to provide land for ranches.
He said that through ranching, the nomadic herdsmen and their families would have access to medical facilities and schools.
Staying in a ranch, he said, would also improve the well-being of the cattle.
Umahi said foreign herdsmen would have to show some travel documents, even though visa is not allowed for movement of West Africans.
His words: “Today, NEC took briefing from the NEC technical committee on the farmers and herdsmen conflicts in the various states of the federation. NEC sometime this year came up with a committee following the constant conflicts between herdsmen and farmers. They came up with the committee of nine governors with the VP as the chairman, and the committee went into deliberations.
”After a couple of meetings, they decided that the most five affected states should be visited. So, they came up with a sub technical committee of three governors, chaired by governor of Ebonyi State, with the governors of Plateau, Adamawa as members.
”We were constituted to visit the five core states. Later, other states, like Plateau and Kaduna states, were also added. But we were able to visit only five states, such as Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Jigawa and Zamfara states.
”The core causes of the conflicts we were made to understand were ; perception and, of course, our media friends, competition for scarce resources and banditry or what you can call pure criminal activities through cattle rustling, kidnapping etc.
’Today we look at three categories of herdsmen in Nigeria. We look at the foreign herdsmen that come in due to the treaty and we continue to say that the treaty is not being properly implemented. For any herdsman to come into Nigeria from outside, there should be a kind of certification, there must be a letter, even though you are not coming in with a visa, you have to travel with ECOWAS documentation. Animals that are coming into the country are required to be quarantined, but this is not being done.
”So, this one category of them. Secondly, we have the nomadic herdsmen, who during the dry season, travel from up North to the Middle Belt down to the South. This crest conflicts . Also foreign herdsmen coming all through the way from neighboring countries and travelling through the farm lands also cause conflicts.
”Then, of course, we have the migrant herdsmen who migrate for a very long time and settle with the villagers and even inter marry with them. These are the three categories we have in Nigeria. In all, we agreed that movement is not either profitable to the herdsmen because they value the milk from the cow even more than the cow itself.
”So, the movement is not healthy for the cows as it dries up the meat and gives less than two liters of milk per cow per day,” he said
According to him, NEC also condemned the issues of foreign invasion by foreign herdsmen.
He said: “Today, there was a meeting of ECOWAS countries on the subject and we also agreed that these movements by the nomadic herdsmen have to stop and occasionally by those who have settled and integrated from other parts of the country, like the Middle Belt, they sometimes go into conflicts with farmers because of movement of their cows.
”So, in all, we agreed that there is a more profitable and modern way of raising these cows which is by ranching. So, we have agreed that the five states that are involved are going to give land. Niger and Kaduna, outside the five states, have given land and Plateau is also giving land. Ranching is being practised in Mambila, in Taraba State and they have success stories with regards to that.
”We also agreed that through the Agric Ministry, we have the need to introduce new species of cows. The minister told us that there are new species that produce as much as 60 liters of milk per day per cow, and that the cows weight as much as 900 Kgs but our own weigh less than 200kgs. So, we have agreed that we are going to work on these new species, while also working with our ranching. We also agreed that livestock production in Nigeria has not been taken care of.
”As we are taking care of the farmers by way of the Anchor Borrowers Scheme, of course the farmers cry of the high interest rate. The rate of interest should be between 2 to 5%, so, we should extend those gestures to the herdsmen. And it was discovered that most of these cows are not being herded by their owners. Big men buy these cattle and give them out to the herders So, the children of the herders have nothing to inherit. They, therefore, go into cattle rustling and other forms of criminalities.
”Through this policy and intervention in the livestock production, it will be possible for the herdsmen to own their own livestock and have something for the future. We also agreed that there is need for good life for the herdsmen. Through theses policies their children will be able to go to schools.
“There will be nomadic education and medical facilities through these ranches for the herdsmen and their animals. Grasses will be planted, irrigation and dams will be created for source of water. Lastly, we ask the public to begin to see livestock as another means of investment.” he said
Agriculture Minister Audu Ogbeh said that the Federal Government would not allow the killings to continue.
According to him, Nigeria may no longer be able to keep to the ECOWAS protocol on free movement of persons.
Nigeria to end ECOWAS free movement to curtail criminals’ influx
Nigeria will stop unfettered movement of persons into the country from the West Africa sub region to curb killings believed to be carried out by foreigners, the President said yesterday.
President Muhammadu Buhari blamed the non-implementation of two ECOWAS protocols on free movement of persons, goods and services for the lingering herders/ farmers conflicts in the sub region.
He was speaking at the ECOWAS Ministerial Meeting on Conflicts between Herders and Farmers in the region organised in partnership with the countries’ ministries of Agriculture and Interior in Abuja. It was on a day when gunmen struck at a church in Benue State, killing seven people and injuring others.
The President said: ”We can no longer continue to tolerate the undocumented movement of persons that simply contribute to the escalation of our security challenges.
“We must be able to track the movement; we must ensure that the protocols are complied with and relevant sections are activated.’’
Represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the President said the protocols were necessary in the discussions to proffer a lasting solution to incessant killings as a result of the conflict.
“Two ECOWAS Protocols are critical to the conversation that we are going to have here today.
“The 1979 Protocols of free movement of persons, goods, capital and services and the protocol relating to transhumance in 1998.
“Regrettably, what we have been confronted with over the years is the failure to fully follow and enforce the terms of these protocols and in some cases the failure to activate sections of the protocols.
“So that where for example transhumance certificates are to be used and endorsed by medical or immigration officials; this is not the case; this has to change.
The President said the vision of integration of the ECOWAS founding fathers must not be allowed to be derailed by the failure to comply with the safeguards and conditions that they in their wisdom and foresight embedded in the protocols.
He said that was why Nigeria had taken the lead in organising the conference, bringing together senior government officials with oversight for agriculture and internal security in the region and beyond to proffer solutions to the lingering problem threatening national security and regional security as well.
Buhari noted that the economic implications were quite worrisome, considering that no fewer than 70 per cent of the ECOWAS made a living by agriculture.
According to him, many of the countries in the region are already struggling with food security and the violence, if unchecked, will lead to a catastrophe.
The President stated that the grazing of cattle along long distances and the whole transhumance experiences needed to be reviewed in favour of ranching.
He said ranching was a more productive way of breeding cattle rather than walking long distances, adding that the region must explore all the options and look for new and creative solutions to resolve the problem.
He said the solution should be holistic – from law enforcement to climate change and reforms in current methods and practices of crop and animal production.
“We simply must move with the times and modernise our thinking and approach to the issues that face us,’’ he stated.
Buhari said the Federal Government and states were collaborating to work out an acceptable plan to quell the conflicts by proper management of land resources.
“We just concluded the work plan jointly put together by the states and Federal governments on the sustainable resolution of herders/farmers’ conflicts and we are now at the point of implementing that plan,’’ he said.
Meti99: But I saw ATIKUNATION behind that lady. Meaning what?
DIYhackers: Am I the only one not understanding this post?
Atiku Abubakar was speaking at Chattham House. His supporters are outside the venue with placards of support and she's there with her own placard.
Some people say that Atiku can't go to the US because he had legal issues. Basically, she is mocking Atiku's supporters that Atiku can't go to the US while Buhari is about to embark on a trip to the US.
The National Universities Commission of Nigeria has confirmed that Senator Foster Ogola’s Phd certificate is invalid as the institution attended by the senator is among the illegal universities which will be closed by the commission.
An investigation revealed that the senator, currently representing Bayelsa West senatorial district, has fake credentials from an unaccredited university in Nigeria named GMF Christian university.
The investigation further revealed that the senator has a fake Phd as there was no official site for the university he attended and it is not accredited by NUC.
There is no research paper or thesis to the senator’s name online although he got the degree in 2012.
But, the senator, in reaction to the allegation told our reporter to “Kindly clarify for me if PREMIUM TIMES does exist, to entertain allegations from third parties whose identities are not mentioned, especially, when they are criminal in nature.”
Mr Ogola referred to the allegation as a product of “mischief makers with a potential to foment distraction from weighty matter of state.”
A Monday Bulletin from the office of the Executive Secretary on NUC dated April 23, 2018 on page 19 listed the senator’s university, The Gospel Missionary Foundation (GMF) Theological University as one of the illegal university operating in the country.
“The National Universities Commission (NUC) wishes to announce to the general public , especially parents and prospective undergraduates, that the under-listed “Degree Mills” have not been licensed by the federal government and have therefore , been closed down for violating the Education (National Minimum Standards etc) Act CAP E3 law of the federation of Nigeria 2004,” the bulletin reads.
The deputy executive secretary of the commission, Chiedu Mafiana, in a phone interview told PREMIUM TIMES that the university WAs not known to NUC as a registered institution.
“Will you want to value a certificate from a university that is not known? If we say the university is not recognised in Nigeria, it means that the certificate it purports to have issued does not exist,” Mr Mafiana said.
The National Universities Commission of Nigeria is a government agency promoting quality higher education in Nigeria.
The commission is saddled with the responsibility of granting approval for all academic programmes run in Nigerian universities granting approval for the establishment of all higher educational institutions offering degree programmes in Nigerian universities.
The commission also ensures quality assurance of all academic programmes offered in Nigerian universities and a channel for external support to Nigerian universities.
I saw most of the wrestlers when they came to Nigeria, some of them were lodged at Kilo hotels in Surulere and freely walked the streets..
Remembered seeing also Eric the red, Luis Martinez (Ariba).. they were two cowboys back then, Ted McKenzie and d other guy (can't remember is name now)..
@naptu you remember that song that starts the show, there's a local way we use to sing it back then..
Mill mascara, Mighty Igor, Argentina Apollo
There were also those 2 dwarfs ... Wow, wrestling was close to real back then..
The two dwarfs were Sky Low Low and Little Boy Blue.
I'll remember the name of the second cowboy in a minute.
One of Professional Wrestling’s greatest attractions is the high fliers. Watching Jimmy Snuka leap off the top rope and crush his lame duck opponent with his patented Superfly splash, or Rey Mysterio, Jr. performing a picture-perfect springboard hurricanrana perhaps best exemplifies the nobility of the industry's sometimes mystifying appeal.
It is the astonishment as well as the jubilation of seeing, witnessing, espying something we very well could not have thunk or foreseen, that former impossibility now rendered very much possible, that cross between our imagination and reality that is most exciting about these athletes.
Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, Jushin “Thunder” Lyger and Mil Mascaras are just a few of these acrobats who have drawn our awe with their death-defying moves. And since we live in a society that is obsessed with ranking one over another, as if it truly proved something, it was only a matter of time before this confounding impulse swung toward them.
I have ranked the top five best high-flyers of all-time. The five that I have selected as the premiere daredevils of the squared circle were picked based on their supremacy in three crucial categories—innovation, influence and technique.
While this list is restricted to five, it does not diminish the accomplishments or proficiency exhibited by others that were ultimately left off of it for one reason or another.
The infamous "Super Fly" Jimmy Snuka. In the 1970's and 80's, nobody was more synonymous with high-flying than Snuka (except for maybe George Jung). During an era of bruisers and brawlers, Snuka stood out with his array of aerial maneuvers that included such classics as the cross body block and diving head butt. Not to mention, his patented top rope splash.
While his moves are tame to say the least by today's standards, many of the present-day air stylists may never have even thought of jumping off the turnbuckle if it wasn't for Snuka. Shawn Michaels, Marty Jannety, Mick Foley and Ricky Steamboat, among others, were influenced by his innovative performances.
You cannot compile a list of the top high-fliers without Jimmy "Super Fly" Snuka.
Proof: Versus Don Muraco—Madison Square Garden Steel Cage Match, 1983
Building off what Snuka did the decade before, the Heartbreak Kid took it a step further—standing hurricanranas, diving splashes off ladders and suicide plancha over the top rope.Trained by Jose Lothario, a famous Mexican wrestler, Michaels picked up many of the moves then surfacing in Lucha Libre. He combined that with what he learned from Snuka to buttress the innovative style that would leave its impression on nearly every wrestler to come for the next decade—most notably, Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio.
Perhaps the best junior heavyweight of all-time. Jushin "Thunder" Liger was a hybrid of sorts, combining the disparate skill sets of heavyweights and lightweights, while injecting a shot of his own invention. He is responsible for the shooting star press and the surge of junior heavyweight dominance that started in Japan and migrated, as a result, across the world.
Few wrestlers today are untouched by Liger's greatness.
Proof: Versus the Great Sasuke at the Super J Cup '94
Known today simply as Rey Mysterio, after he was forced to drop the "jr" to again don the mask he lost to Kevin Nash in 1999 in good conscience. Mysterio's career has spanned nearly two and half decades. During which, he has drawn more "oh's" and "ah's" than perhaps any high-flier professional wrestling has ever seen.
Mysterio was the figurehead of Lucha Libre's hostile takeover of the American professional wrestling scene and not for nothing. His moves were not only breath-taking, they were executed with a flawless technique that has become his trademark and remains largely intact to this day, despite his mounting injuries.
Still going at 36-years-old, the full extent of Mysterio's influence has yet to be seen, but its tract marks are vividly on display in the work of Mistico (Sin Cara), Evan Bourne and the Amazing Red. Chris Jericho himself called Mysterio the best high-flier of all-time.
Kicking off his career in 1965, Mil Mascaras spawned the groundbreaking style that would captivate millions in the years to come through the future generations that picked up the ball he had gotten started rolling.
In Mexico, where his legend rests most comfortably, Mascaras was largely known for his technical prowess. It was the top rope planchas and headscissor takeovers that have earned him the seminal position in this list.
A paltry contingent of his move set, they were nonetheless revolutionary, breathing life into a style that had not really existed until that point and inflating beyond the capacity of what any athlete had done before or since.
His oeuvre casts a tall shadow that swallows up every wrestler that has or will take to the sky, knowingly or not, for their offensive arsenal. Simply put, Mil Mascaras is the best high flyer of all-time.
Proof: Versus Buddy Roberts for the IWA Heavyweight Championship at AWA SuperClash on September 28, 1985. Look it up, if you can.
The WWE has blocked one of the videos of Mil Mascaras that I posted above, so I'll post another one.
Mil Mascaras vs Beautiful Bruce.
Big Ernie Lad came to the ring with Beautiful Bruce. Ernie Lad was a giant that was hated by the fans and he is known for cheating.
The commentators were Jack Reynolds and Big Tex McKenzie. Tex McKenzie and Ernie Lad were enemies.
I initially thought that Ernie Lad would cheat again and Tex would get involved to help Mascaras, but that's not what happened. Mascaras beat both Beautiful Bruce and Ernie Lad on his own.
Ox Baker and Dick The Bulldog Brower were among the most hated wrestlers on Nigerian TV in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Ox Baker often wore a plaster of Paris cast on his right hand and he had a very powerful punch (called the Heart Punch). Some speculated that his punch was powerful because of something that was in the POP cast.
There was hype that Ox Baker had killed several wrestlers with his Heart Punch and this caused a riot at one of Ox Baker’s matches in 1974. People thought that wrestling was real in the 1970s and early 1980s and Ox Baker was relentlessly punching this guy to the extent that the fans thought that he was going to kill him. The fans stormed the ring and Ox Baker and the other wrestler had to flee to safety. Watch the video below.
Politics › Re: See What Was Actually Distributed To Farmers During Buhari’s Visit To Bauchi by naptu2: 3:02pm On Apr 27, 2018
