₦airaland Forum

Ishilove: Where are all those anti-GEJ e-warriors and tribalists in the politics section??

It is now time to show your disgust at the GEJ government. Go to Eagles square, strip to your birthday suits and nail thy big balls to the ground, NOW!!!

Desola: Talo bere ejo lowo eleyi? Abeg, stick your patronage where the sun does not shine. I don't need arse kissers ojare!

All the mods in this section are nutters! They are incompetent sods! Two of them are nepotistic while the third is corrupt as fauq! He has no say because he has been bought. A very highly compromised individual.

Jarus still remains the best thing that happened to this forum.

Desola: In fairness, if Seun will replace Afam and sexkid then he must remove Oam4j too!

Overhaul the whole thing ojare!

Although isale gan is a nutter and a snake, I make a move to nominate her as a mod alongside that snitch, Napt2

CFCfan: If Nigeria avoids defeat (duh), they would extend their unbeaten run in home competitive games to 63 consecutive matches.
The last time the Super eagles lost a competitive match at home was in 1981: a loss to Algeria in Lagos in a WCQ.

[size=14pt]Keshi, beware, remember 1981![/size]

06 Aug 2013 10:00:21 Segun Odegbami

I am writing about Stephen Keshi for the second time in about as many weeks for a good reason. The emerging picture in Nigeria’s preparation for the 2014 World Cup takes a shape and form that is disturbing. As the Super Eagles approach their preparations for the last lap in their qualification matches and I follow the ‘conversation’ between Stephen Keshi and his hoards of critics, I feel a deep sense of responsibility to remind him of 1981!

I hope it helps him even as the pressures are already mounting (post the Confederations Cup) that his team is not good enough without some old players! Many people have been calling on him to recall Joseph Yobo, Obafemi Martin Osaze Odemwigie and co, players that have really not been a major part of his remarkable success story so far.

My opinion would make so much sense to Keshi because, not only was he directly involved in the incident I am about to recount, he was its major victim at the time.

Permit me to go back and forth in time and events to make my points.

First, lets go back to 1980.

In that year Nigeria won the African Cup of Nations for the first time and were very convincing in doing so. The Green Eagles did not lose any game. So well did the team play in the final match that when the qualifying matches of the 1982 World Cup were to start that same year everyone took Nigeria’s qualification from Africa almost as a foregone conclusion.

In the same manner, looking at how convincing the Super Eagles won the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (not losing any match), one could easily understand why the Eagles have absolutely no excuse not qualifying easily for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. It makes sense. The good coach would just stick to their winning teams and winning formulae.

Lets return briefly once again to 1981.

After the 1980 victory a few key but ageing players in the national team were dropped and younger players were brought to undertake the qualifying matches for the 1982 World Cup. That’s where Stephen Keshi and Franklin Howard came in to replace Christian Chukwu (ageing) and Godwin Odiye (moved to the US) who had held the centre of defense between them for years.

The partnership of Keshi and Howard as central defenders had helped established their local club (New Nigerian Bank FC) in the domestic league as the best in the country at that time. They were young, sharp, strong and very hardworking. The only thing they really lacked was enough international exposure, which, of course, they were now amassing successfully through the World Cup qualifying matches when paired with Leotis Boateng and Tunde Bamidele.

The pair was a revelation, especially Howard, a breath of fresh air, intelligent, strong and hardworking, holding fort beautifully and effectively through all the qualifying matches from 1980 to 1981 until the last hurdle against Algeria, the same team that Nigeria had defeated convincingly only a year earlier to win the African Cup of Nations.

Suddenly, in 1981 some agitations by a section of the media started for the recall of some ageing players that had been dropped from the national team (Chukwu and Okala in particular, two African legends that had served their nation very well and should have been left to continue with their clubs).

Otto Gloria was distracted by these calls, allowed his heart to rule his head and recalled some of the old ‘reliables’. To his chagrin he discovered too late that he should have kept his winning team and formula up till that point by sticking to his ‘inexperienced’ but winning pair of Keshi and Howard. He did not and he failed. Nigeria lost at the final hurdle! Keshi was sidelined for the ‘old reliable’.

Back again to 2013 and the parallels.

Keshi had started a transition to a new generation shortly before AFCON 2013. The younger players won the African Cup of Nations in South Africa. So convincing were they that most analysts believe it would take a catastrophic ‘accident’ for the team to fail to qualify from Africa for the 2014 World Cup. They have been on course.

Suddenly, as Nigeria coasts to the end of the qualification matches of the 2014 World Cup, the players are no longer good enough in the thinking of a section of the media to take the country there, hence, the start of a romantic campaign to bring back ageing players using the sentiments of nostalgia and past service. Yobo, Martins, Osaze must now come back to conclude the assignment at the final hurdle! It is simply preposterous!

I have observed Keshi’s pressured but guarded response up till now to this distractive call. I am worried by his body language.

My advise is that he goes back to his own story in 1981 and take lessons! Once a transition has started and is on course, it is very unwise to go back and dust materials from the archives.

Yobo, and Co have served Nigeria well. They have been great ambassadors of Nigeria’s national team, the Super Eagles, of the past decade and more. But change is called for and a transition has begun. All should hearken to the tolling of the bell.

I hope Stephen Keshi does!

Obiagelli: na so i dey hear, to Sunny_bobo abi na willywilly i am musiwa, not surprised though as the 3 of them are from the same planet.

firestar: To All:


[size=18pt]http://download.jw.org/files/media_music/f6/iasnv1_E_010.mp3

Even the guests.

Naptu2-dono
Mynd-tan
Djtm-kun
Silkmoth
Timpaker-kun8)
Baddestguyp-kun
Tovot-chan
Come-san
Ihedinobi-kun
princesa-nyan
jidesp-tan
Wacky-tan


E se gan. [/size]

naptu2: Nduka Ugbade was captain of the Golden Eaglets squad that won the world cup in 1985 - he was received by General Buhari.

He was a member of the Super Eagles squad that won the African Nations Cup in 1994 - he was received by General Abacha.

He is the Assistant Coach of the Golden Eaglets (2013 squad) - he is currently (this minute) being received by President Jonathan.

American golfer Tom Shaw claimed throughout his career on the PGA Tour to have been born on December 13, 1942. He was suspected by some of being older, notably by Frank Hannigan, who as Executive Director of the United States Golf Association paired him with the then-19-year-old Ben Crenshaw and 24-year-old Johnny Miller, both known as fast players, for the first two rounds of the 1971 U.S. Open for his apparent amusement. As it turned out, Hannigan was right; in 1988, Shaw produced a birth certificate proving that he had been born on the same date in 1938, which made him eligible for the Senior PGA Tour (now the Champions Tour) starting with the 1989

The father of UCLA blue chip Shabazz Muhammad was found to be lying about his son’s age:

According to the UCLA men’s basketball media guide, he was born in Los Angeles on Nov. 13, 1993. But a copy of Shabazz Nagee Muhammad’s birth certificate on file with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health shows that he was born at Long Beach Memorial Hospital exactly one year earlier, making him 20 years old — not 19 as widely reported.

How and when he lost a year of his life are unclear. But competing against younger, smaller athletes, particularly in the fast-growing years of early adolescence, can be “a huge edge,” said Eddie Bonine, executive director of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Assn. “People naturally look at the big, strong kids.”

Asked about the discrepancy, Holmes insisted his son was 19 and born in Nevada. “It must be a mistake,” he said. Several minutes later, he changed his account, saying that his son is, in fact, 20 and was born in Long Beach.

…

But the story details how Holmes has always believed he’d be the father of professional athletes, and there’s no denying a year advantage over competitors growing up can be a huge advantage, and that a 19-year-old Muhammad is more attractive to NBA scouts than a 20-year-old Muhammad, if only slightly. Either way, the most interesting thing is that Holmes lied initially, initially lied when he got caught and then seemingly tried to bribe the Los Angeles Times writer. His name is Ken Bensinger.

It makes you wonder how many paid athletes were ‘redshirted’ by their parents.  And of that subset, how many of those kids’ ages were falsely lowered in order to make them seem like they have greater long-term upside.  This is just a really easy way to make the kid look better than he is and to build buzz.  All you need is a parent or guardian who is willing to go to that length to pull it off.

Sports academic Dave Berri has looked into the relationship between age and draft position for the NBA.  He found that each extra year decreases draft position by six places.  I’m assuming that his analysis controlled for statistical output and that he was purely measuring age.

One of the top basketball recruits from the D.C. area claims to be 18, but some documents show that he may be 20.  He’s African and the cousin of NBA player Serge Ibaka.  You’ll see a lot of this stuff from international players in basketball and soccer and the Dominicans and Puerto Ricans in baseball.  Youth is valuable.

For further reading on Muhammad and his father, check out Joe Nocera’s New York Times piece on NCAA sanctions against Muhammad.

jp philips: @ naptu

there is no doubt our defence contractors have the capacity to produce APCs
my biggest worry are the so called local drones, even during their launch in 2006, those drones were just hardwares kept on display none was operated at the launch neither were they flown nor the command center shown to us.

I still believe recon drone making is not a big deal for our military considering their training and other sundry issues like big budgets etc.

I am worried that these present drones you are showing us are failed projects, the Nigerian drones were not employed in Mali, they were not employed in expertrate rescue missions for which majority of them were failures, our drones are not operational in borno state so where exactly does the army wish to use them?

I don't believe Nigeria has operational local made drones.

naptu2: You are both right and wrong. The drones actually fly (give me a minute to get the pics), but, to the best of my knowledge, they are more or less prototypes. Research and development was ongoing when the aerostar/seastar contract ran into difficulties, so the government decided to rush the Amebo project to replace the Aerostar/Seastar.

Horus: [img]http://beegeagle.files./2012/09/amebo-in-flight.jpg[/img]

Made-in-Nigeria Amebo drone in flight

scipher: Amebo 3
[img]http://beegeagle.files./2012/09/amebo-iii.jpg?w=640[/img]
[img]http://beegeagle.files./2012/09/amebo-gcs.jpg?w=960[/img]
Features
• Customisable flight control software
• Waypoint navigation
• High speed real time image processing for onboard Geo-location and Target Tracking•
Up to 40 km VHF communications• Modular and mobile GCSApplication Areas of AMEBO
• Pipeline Monitoring•
Border Patrol•
Mapping•
Traffic Monitoring
• Disaster Monitoring•
Maritime Patrol•
Aerial Surveillance• Pest Monitoring and Control

jp philips: @ naptu

there is no doubt our defence contractors have the capacity to produce APCs
my biggest worry are the so called local drones, even during their launch in 2006, those drones were just hardwares kept on display none was operated at the launch neither were they flown nor the command center shown to us.

I still believe recon drone making is not a big deal for our military considering their training and other sundry issues like big budgets etc.

I am worried that these present drones you are showing us are failed projects, the Nigerian drones were not employed in Mali, they were not employed in expertrate rescue missions for which majority of them were failures, our drones are not operational in borno state so where exactly does the army wish to use them?

I don't believe Nigeria has operational local made drones.

jp philips: I am convinced that Amebo can fly, I am equally convinced Amebo has a command center (though shabby) however, if Amebo is patrolling the Niger delta pipelines like you claimed, I believe the takeoff and landing will definitely be in the ph NAF base which I have its aerial view locked on sight 247, I have never seen the Amebo on duty.

cosidering that SPDC has been shutting down no fewer than 3 trunk lines weekly, I doubt the efficiency of the Amebo.

in the ops spec you posted, I didn't see any feature that guaratees long hours of flight,
I didnt see any night vision capability, I equally didnt see its recon altitude.

in all, I still doubt if Amebo is operational. BTW what is the cost of the Amebo project?

naptu2: You are both right and wrong. The drones actually fly (give me a minute to get the pics), but, to the best of my knowledge, they are more or less prototypes. Research and development was ongoing when the aerostar/seastar contract ran into difficulties, so the government decided to rush the Amebo project to replace the Aerostar/Seastar.

Horus: [img]http://beegeagle.files./2012/09/amebo-in-flight.jpg[/img]

Made-in-Nigeria Amebo drone in flight

scipher: Amebo 3
[img]http://beegeagle.files./2012/09/amebo-iii.jpg?w=640[/img]
[img]http://beegeagle.files./2012/09/amebo-gcs.jpg?w=960[/img]
Features
• Customisable flight control software
• Waypoint navigation
• High speed real time image processing for onboard Geo-location and Target Tracking•
Up to 40 km VHF communications• Modular and mobile GCSApplication Areas of AMEBO
• Pipeline Monitoring•
Border Patrol•
Mapping•
Traffic Monitoring
• Disaster Monitoring•
Maritime Patrol•
Aerial Surveillance• Pest Monitoring and Control

jp philips: @ naptu

there is no doubt our defence contractors have the capacity to produce APCs
my biggest worry are the so called local drones, even during their launch in 2006, those drones were just hardwares kept on display none was operated at the launch neither were they flown nor the command center shown to us.

I still believe recon drone making is not a big deal for our military considering their training and other sundry issues like big budgets etc.

I am worried that these present drones you are showing us are failed projects, the Nigerian drones were not employed in Mali, they were not employed in expertrate rescue missions for which majority of them were failures, our drones are not operational in borno state so where exactly does the army wish to use them?

I don't believe Nigeria has operational local made drones.

lastpage: Good points you have made but l am wondering: How can he be "proved innocent" when he had "already confessed" to these robberies and killings of law officers?

Okay, l understand: This is Nigerian Judge we are talking about!
I hail O, Nigerian Judges!

Lastpage!

naptu2: Proforce is a private nigerian defence company that manufactures armoured cars, armoured boats, armoured buses and trucks, ballistic helmets and bullet-proof vests. Proforce's website:

http://www.proforcedefence.com/index.php/armoured-products

Johnson and Victor Obasa are brothers from Ekiti State in Nigeria. They graduated from the New York Institute of Technology, returned to Nigeria and set up Obasa Speciality Vehicles (OSV). OSV makes armoured cars, fire fighting vehicles, etc.

Obasa Specialty Vehicles website: http://obasasv.com/products.html


The Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) is a government owned defence company that was established by an act of parliament in 1964. DICON makes armoured personnel carriers, AK47 assault rifles, FN-FAL rifles, ballistic helmets, bullet-proof vests, etc.

DICON's website:
http://www.dicon.gov.ng/index.html

The Air Force Institute of Technology makes the Amebo series of drones and they also developed the bomb detonating robot.

Unfortunately the institute's website is currently down. www.afit-nigeria.org

Etc

naptu2: Anyway, I'm happy that we are getting back on track. In 1988 I was excited when I heard that they were going to commission the first made in Nigeria air force plane ( a trainer/reconnaissance plane), the Air Beetle. I was a bit disappointed when I discovered that it was based on Van's Aircraft. However, it was a beginning.

Air Beetle
https://emob132.photobucket.com/albums/q35/flex297/NAF-076RV-6AAirBeetle.jpg?t=1242309147

Political instability and changes in government meant that we did not improve on that start. The return to democracy has seen us make a fresh start with the following:

Igirigi. An armoured personnel carrier that's built by the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON).
https://i.imgur.com/MOysUsG.jpg

The Prowler. An armoured personnel carrier that's built by the Obasa brothers.
https://i28.tinypic.com/o70xhl.jpg

The Proforce Pf1. An armoured personnel carrier that's built by a private nigerian company.
[img]http://beegeagle.files./2012/06/apc.jpg[/img]


NNS Andoni. The first Nigerian built shore patrol boat, it was conceived in 2006 and built by the Nigerian Navy and a private Nigerian company.
[img]http://beegeagle.files./2012/05/nns-andoni-p100vanguard.jpg[/img]

And the Amebo series of drones.
[img]http://beegeagle.files./2012/10/plateau_state_delegation_visit_to_air_force_institute_of_technology_4_20120706_13653689243.jpg[/img]

[img]http://beegeagle.files./2012/07/amebo-2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://beegeagle.files./2012/09/amebo-iii.jpg?w=640[/img]