₦airaland Forum

Are you guys sure that Oprah made those ignorant remarks, or it is a case of a malicious speech, wrongly attributed to her?

Just be natural when speaking.

Where is the link to this story? I will like to know more about the organizations that are providing assistance to the "street kids".

No difference whatsoever, irrespective of their nationality, they are still Blacks.

For the abortion advocates, I should ask, "Would you have been happy if you were aborted"? Or do you honestly think those babies in the womb do not feel any pain?

Where is the Ark of the Covenant?

For those who have turned this unfortunate episode into tribalism on this board, the truth is that in America, the suspect is judged on his nationality, (Nigerian), not his tribe (Yoruba), so all in all, Nigeria's image in the global arena is negative!

It is a dying culture, but nevertheless still thriving in certain parts of the Cross River/Akwa Ibom area.

Ill. student accused of terrorist threat By JIM SUHR, Associated Press Writer
28 minutes ago



EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - A university student was arrested after authorities say he threatened a "murderous rampage" similar to the Virginia Tech shootings that left 32 people and a student gunman dead, authorities said.

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A gun dealer had alerted federal authorities about the man, saying he had seemed overly anxious to get a shipment of semiautomatic weapons, according to an affidavit filed in court by a police detective.

Olutosin Oduwole, who was taking summer classes at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, was charged Tuesday with attempting to make a terrorist threat, a felony. He remained jailed Wednesday in lieu of $1 million bail.

According to the affidavit, the 22-year-old wrote a note demanding that money be deposited to a PayPal account, threatening that "if this account doesn't reach $50,000 in the next 7 days then a murderous rampage similar to the VT shooting will occur at another highly populated university. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!"

The note had suggested the shooting would target a "prestigious" university, but that word was crossed out. There was no direct mention of Southern Illinois University.

John Cernkovich, Oduwole's attorney on unrelated theft and fraud charges filed last week, described Oduwole as a musician who writes rap lyrics and said the threatening note was on a sheet of paper that included rap words.

"I'm not a psychologist or psychiatrist, but I understand that in this environment — post-Sept. 11 — authorities don't take any chances," Cernkovich said. "Unfortunately, my client now is in custody because of that."

Authorities found the note Friday in Oduwole's car on campus, university spokesman Greg Conroy said. Police also said they found a loaded gun in Oduwole's dorm room.

The detective said in the affidavit that Oduwole, of Maplewood, N.J., had recently bought three semiautomatic guns online but had not yet received them, and also had ordered a weapon similar to an Uzi submachine gun.

A gun dealer alerted the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives because Oduwole "appeared very anxious to get these firearms and seemed very impatient," the affidavit said.

According to a search warrant, police also seized a picture of Oduwole flashing gang signs, a camcorder and U.S. and Nigerian passports. The court documents did not list the name on those passports.

Oduwole was charged July 19 with theft and fraud for selling an M-16 rifle online but failing to ship the weapon to the buyer, prosecutors said.

Cernkovich said Wednesday his client is a U.S. citizen and described him as "pretty normal."

"I didn't think he was an irrational person," the lawyer said.

Steve Holeman, 24, a senior at the school and Oduwole's friend, said the matter was "absolutely a misunderstanding." He declined to discuss it further.

Oduwole, who is president of the local chapter of the Iota Phi Theta fraternity, first attended the school during the 2005-06 year but sat out a year on academic probation, Conroy said.

Cernkovich said Oduwole's father was in the area Wednesday.

"His dad's having a difficult time understanding how the system works," Cernkovich said.

The Madison County state's attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville is about 20 miles northeast of St. Louis and has an enrollment of about 13,500 students.

___

On the Net:

http://www.siue.edu/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070725/ap_on_re_us/student_threat_charges;_ylt=AvC7ESVieTMYhgi96DzcwfSs0NUE

The poster did nothing wrong in posting the picture in the first place. That's reality in some parts of Nigeria, and maybe some other parts of Africa. So, while we may be fanning ourselves on the accomplishments of Nigeria, like the establishment of shopping centers, Tinapa, a phenomenal growth in the stock market, and the cancellation of our debt, the truth is that Nigeria has not benefitted some of the masses there. We need to quit living in denial and accept the fact. I was turned off by the picture, but then again, I had to remind myself that others have it worse than I do. Rather than getting irate over the decision of the poster to place those pictures on the net, it should rather galvanize us in instituting a social change/order in the society.


Cornfirmation and Corndition, ok, that got me laughing so hard!

PG&E Customers Lose Power in Downtown San Francisco (Update4)

By Greg Chang

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- San Francisco's downtown, including the financial district, suffered power interruptions that cut service to as many as 40,000 customers this afternoon and disabled some Web sites including Craigslist Inc.

Power fluctuations between 1:30 p.m. and 1:40 p.m. at a San Francisco power substation caused the outages, Pacific Gas & Electric spokesman Joe Molica said. Service was back to normal around 3:30 p.m., he said. Electricity to some buildings in the financial district cut on and off at least three times.

Some customers in San Mateo County, immediately south of San Francisco, also were without power, Molica said. Pacific Gas is the electric utility for most of Northern California.

Web sites including Craigslist and Yelp Inc. were disabled when data centers lost power. The disruption didn't affect operations at financial-services firms with major operations in the city, including Charles Schwab Corp., Barclays Global Investors and WR Hambrecht & Co., officials said.

``Around 2 p.m., the power went off and on intermittently,'' said Robert Raney, a portfolio manager with WR Hambrecht in San Francisco. The failure came after the close of regular U.S. stock trading and didn't affect the company, he said.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that an explosion under a manhole on Mission Street downtown could have caused the outages. Molica said he couldn't confirm that.

The power failures set off fire alarms throughout the downtown area, forcing firefighters to respond. Commuter trains on the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system were running normally, spokesman Jim Allison said.

Craigslist, Yelp

The problem may be ``affecting a lot of sites,'' Craigslist founder Craig Newmark said in an e-mail. Closely held Craigslist, which started as a local listing of classified ads, has grown to a Web site that spans the globe and gets more than 10 million users a month.

The site was offline for about three hours and was back online by about 5 p.m., spokeswoman Susan Best said in an e- mail.

The outage took down service at 365 Main Inc., a data center company that hosts sites including Craigslist and consumer-review site Yelp.com, which was unavailable for about two hours.

365 Main's building at its namesake street address was ``100 percent operational and running on back-up power'' by 4 p.m., spokeswoman Cynthia Harris said in an e-mail.

Google Inc., based in Mountain View, and Sunnyvale-based Yahoo! Inc. said they didn't experience any disruptions.

Financial District

The lack of power idled five electric-bus lines run by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency for about 15 minutes. The historic cable-car system also temporarily went out of service, spokeswoman Maggie Lynch said in a phone interview.

Traders in the financial district said power supplies were normal.

``This building never went out and this is where the options exchange is,'' said Herb Kurlan, president of Vtrader Pro LLC, a San Francisco-based options and futures brokerage.

Other businesses, including Barclays Global Investors, switched to generators and suffered no disruptions. ``Business as usual,'' Barclays spokesman Lance Berg said in a phone interview.

Charles Schwab's headquarters in San Francisco regained power after a short interruption and was largely unaffected, spokesman Greg Gable said. There was no disruption in customer service, he said.

Early Close

The power failure caused some downtown offices to close for the day.

`It wasn't good for the computers,'' said Gina Ruggiero, who works in the area. ``We're leaving for the day.''

Norton's Vault, a financial-district tavern on Sacramento Street, enjoyed a mid-afternoon boost of customers who had similarly given up on work, said bartender Paul Simon.

The failures extended to some communities south of San Francisco, PG&E's Molica said. Between 30,000 and 50,000 customers were affected, he said.

Intel, the world's largest semiconductor maker, didn't experience any power failure, said Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for the Santa Clara, California-based company. Santa Clara, the center of Silicon Valley, is 40 miles south of downtown San Francisco.

Pacific Gas is a unit of PG&E Corp.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Chang in San Francisco at gchang1@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ap.0hdjYY7cc&refer=us

That man appeared to be authentic and it is very unfortunate that he met his death at a young age. Banning female circumcision, practising what he espoused, by adopting a modest lifestyle, among others that he implemented shows that he was a man of character.

Thomas Sankara is definitely an African hero. Perhaps, my favorite to ever rule any African country.

I gotta ask this, how come Nigerian Leaders have not had much of an impact on global affairs as their counterparts. Definitely Mandela stands head and shoulders above them, but there is Nkrumah of Ghana, Nyerere of Tanzania and quite a few others. Zik did not have the aura of his counterparts, while Awolowo, as popular as he was, his idealogies were confined to regional politics. Abiola who probably would have made a name was more or less known as an African businessman.

The wearer of a shoe knows where it hurts. There are individuals who vamossed back to Nigeria, upon arriving in UK, because of the harsh realiities they faced. For others, they have decided to wade the storm, no matter how fierce. For those who live a comfortable life living in Nigeria, and yearing to move to the states, remember the saying, "All that glitters is not gold".

About remittance of money to Nigeria, I am beginning to think that sometimes, your generousity can backfire in that it could create laziness and a sense of entitlement in the mind of the beneficiary. How about you just send money, a nice sum, once, to a sibling, loved one, and tell them to invest in biz?

Any organization that does not believe in the Divinity of Jesus Christ, is to me, false!
Grafikdon, you are defending amorc, but do you know if the tenets of amorc acknowledges the Truth that only Jesus Christ is the Way to God Almighty?

Please dont equate the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross for the atonement of our sins with animal sacrifices that was the norm of the day, prior to His death. For the Holy Bible says, "Heb 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

I wonder, that is why I blame the Nigerian government for subjecting us immigrants to the upheaval we experience abroad. If Nigeria was better, tell me, what would I be doing in America, apart from occasional visits?


@minutue. What your cousin did was heartless, but I hope you forgive her.

I used to take three buses to work, when I came here newly. My brother and I had just moved to a different part of town, Cupertino, and I had a job in Menlo Park. Sunnyvale's distance was actually worse. I had to walk, about a mile to the nearest bus stop to head to work. When we moved to Cupertino, my house was very close to the bus stop. I would ride one bus, to Wolfe in Sunnyvale, take the 300 to Palo Alto, and then take SamTrans where it would drop me at the bookstore. Afterwards, I will walk to my job, where I was a temporary worker. How much was the pay? Sincerely, I was living paycheck to paycheck. Hmmm, another instance, when I lost my job, I realized that I had no money in my account. So, by Divine intervention, I read an article in Ebony magazine about unemployment benefits. Turns out that I qualified for it. So, I had to apply, and in order for the funds to be backdated, I had to show proof that I was unaware of it. I explained in court that I read in Ebony magazine about unemployment benefits, and such social benefits were non existent in my country. Later on, I was awarded my money. Honestly, that money, (it wasnt even upto a thousand dollars), but for me, it made a huge difference.

Then, there was this temporary agency that I had signed up with sometime earlier. They could only assign me to various companies for a two to three day assignment. Then, I started bugging them, still, there was nothing available. One of their branches was very close to my residence so without even calling them, I walked to the place to ask them why I was not called for an assignment. I saw one of the workers in the company, but when I got there, he wasnt at his desk. When I inquired of his whereabouts, his coworker(s) informed me that he did not come in that day. It was a lie. He was hiding somewhere to 'escape' from me. I knew that he was in the office, so when I walked back home, I placed a call to their office. Guess who picked up the phone? The same guy, that I was 'tricked' into believing that he hadnt showed up to work that day. It became so frustrating that I questioned the notion of having to fill in those blank boxes, indicating your race, to my friend. My friend agreed with me. I felt if you filled out that you were black, then you wont get the job.

Still, I signed up with another temporary agency, and used to call them, even go into their office, and they had nothing available for me. It got so rough that my bills were just piling up, and my brother, who had always helped me financially was getting married. Mother was flying in from Nigeria for his wedding and here I was, unemployed, and depressed. Miraculously, an agency that I signed up with the day before found me a job at a law firm the following day, and within weeks, I was depositing lump sums of money in my account. The pay was alright, but there was an opportunity to put in long hours (sometimes 14 hours), and I was ready for it. Just weeks before momsie landed, I was financially buyoant, and had moved out of my brother. Momsie was awestruck by what appeared to be my seamless transition in America. Not until later that I narrated to her about the travails that I had been through in the country. I always remember to Thank God that I was not a disappointment/embarrasment to her when she visited, and even moved back home, sometime after the wedding. That was my last time of seeing her alive! God is Wonderful!

Nna babyosi, different routes for different folks. I dont think I can wash corpses, but for folks who can do it, then more grease to their elbows. For once, I have been thinking that there should be a community center for Nigerian immigrants in the USA to help them adapt to the USA. I think there is one in Chicago, but I wont be surprised if there are a few in that Houston/Dallas area.

Nna, it is easy to have a breakdown in yankee. If you don't have the stamina, or you are the "Ajebutta" type, whose parents typically catered to your needs, don't even move to yankee, because, it will be rough with you. Ah, stories of survival in yankee? What makes you think some people resort to doing drugs to survive? I read in a Nigerian paper at Stanford of a guy, who narrated that he had a breakdown in London, and (I think) had to be repatriated to Nigeria. What of being homeless? Thank God I have not been on that path before. That is why, I have a lot to be thankful for, to God Almighty. Bouncing from job to job to job,and sometimes questioning the rationale in coming to America, and all of a sudden, a miracle in the form of a cushy job lands on your feet on a platter of gold. I don't take things for granted, and moreso, my stay in this country has only strengthened my faith in God. When you go through tough times and survive, there is that feeling of appreciation and accomplishment you experience, which you attribute to God.

One of my friends who worked security in California was caught sleeping, and the generator got 'stolen'. Turns out that his boss had sneaked in on him when he was dozing off, and had taken his generator.

Consult a dermatologist, or you can google for more information. I thought that Nixoderm was used to eliminate pimples.

"perhaps you need to read my posts a little more critically than merely wanting to be seen to criticise. I have NOT and will NEVER excuse a pastor that fleeces his flock. If you bothered to read the 2 threads on Oyakhilome, my stand on fake pastors/businessmen who continue to use the pulpit as a profit making company is not ambigous. My point (which you conveniently failed to see) is simple; it is silly to justify violence, murder, intolerance and bigotry on the basis of "extremist" pastors whose only offence is fleecing their flock of their hard earned salary.

Perhaps you intend to educate us on which is worse; a gullible individual who falls for the tricks of "men of God" or 19 adults who choose to murder 3000 innocent Americans in the name of allah and martyrdom. Over to you sir!"

Ndipe's comment
Both of them are guilty as charged, but for you to even attempt to mitigate the charges of the dubious wolf in sheep's clothing, who swindles their congregants, with your exclamation, "Thank God" shows that you think that one is of a lesser crime than the other. I dont think so!. These fanatical muslims, and I am not defending them, act out of ignorance, while the 'pastor' despite professing a knowledge of Jesus Christ chooses to defraud their gullible flocks in the Name of Jesus Christ. If you can boldly "Thank God" that the crimes of these dubious wolves are lesser than those of the muslim fanatics, then you are mistaken and contradicting your later assertion that the 'only offence (of these wolves) is fleecing their flock of their hard earned salary". Think of the ramifications that occur when an individual suddenly realizes that they were indirectly fattening the coffers of their pastors? Truth is disappointment sets in, and probably a lesser desire to turn away from Christianity is another option they could explore. I for once, have fallen for some tricks practised by Pastors, and it is only by the Mercy of God that I am still a Christian.

"Thank God that all pastors do is fleece their flock of money and "seed offerings" to amass ill-gotten wealth. In islam, cowards such as mualana abdul-aziz of the lal masjid fame was caught trying to flee his mosque in a burqa surrounded by women and children. The same man who had vowed that he and his band of terrorists would "fight to the death". The same man who used women and children as human shields, armed female "students" with kalashnikovs and provided a safe haven for suicide bombers! To use the word "sacrificing" in this case is most appropriate!"



All of them are evil@davidyland, and should be condemned! As a matter of fact it is even worse for a pastor to fleece his congregrants using the Name of Jesus Christ. So, don't even attempt to justify the actions of swindlers masquerading themselves as pastors over the antics of fanatical muslims.

It took me 4, I repeat, 4 years to get my transcript from Nigeria, to attend graduate school. Try as hard as I could to explain to my mother that my transcript had not arrived from Nigeria, she did not believe me. So, for those who live in Nigeria and have to endure these trying times, think of your peers in America, who are relegated to menial jobs, with no hopes of transitioning into their career of their choice, because of the hurdles in getting their transcript. It can be so frustrating, seriously, that I wont be surprised if some Nigerians out here have resorted to travelling home, just to get their transcript.

How I was able to get mine was during my visit to Nigeria a while back. Few days after my arrival in my hometown, I landed at Uniuyo and requested for my transcript. The woman was quite reluctant to hand it to me, insisting that the officers would post it. I refused to budge. Went to the bursary department and paid 500 Naira for the transcript. When I came back with receipts to prove that I had paid for it, the secretaries were in the process of issuing out a new one for me, by typing it, when one of them told the workers that they should check the file drawer. Guess what? A display of worker's indolence could not have been more apt in this scenario when I saw, with their own presence, my transcript, lying idly in the drawer. I figured out that at least the transcript could have been there between a year to four years.

Immediately, I went back to the bursary office to get back my money, but who sai? The officer kept back 50 Naira, but I was only relieved that I got my transcript. An ordeal indeed!

Nna, you gotta start from the bottom, though it took me a while to realize that. Back home, I read of the extremities that Nigerians went through in their quest for a job. I read that some of them were washing corpse. One of the workers narrated to a Nigerian based tabloid, that on his first day at work at a mortuary, he was assigned to wash a corpse. When he saw it, he passed out.