₦airaland Forum

canalily:
#30 is for VC

this is to inform you that DHQ is monitoring your online comments

sondi:
The best Governor Taraba state has had so far. R.I.P Pharmacist Captain D.D.Suntai.
Your legacies are on ground to speak for you.

yeah. Was he a captain too?

BrutusOj:
Na today? they are always after the big jobs and leave the ordinary Nigerians who knows no one to sit and write GMAT..

Npower instead!

I'm a graduate with a valid driving license with a zeal to meet up with set goals. I'm ready to travel across states
PS: I will need accommodation

I'm a graduate with a good academic record,excellent communication skill and a zeal to work. I can drive with an up to date license. I can work with a computer. I'm ready to travel across states
N:B accommodation will be needed

Stupidity

Adamu Adamu na zombie

orisunmi:
Good day sir am an Npower Nhealth applicant I saw the text to proceed on 7 and I wrote my test on the 8 of July but they just released new date for nhealth test which is July 20 to 24 my question is should I re-write the test thanks

Please were you able to select device?

kenonze:
I didn't understand that part
I simply proceeded.
Pls what's the implications?

I was unable to select device too but there have been reports here that some were able to select their device. try and find out elsewhere and if it's thesame experience too then may be that's the next stage

kenonze:

Oh thanks.
I have written the 20mins 11question test.
Five current affairs, six use of English

were you able to select device after the test?

I will implore both indigenes and the state Government to do t needful.Health is wealth

The Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, on Monday signed into law the bill upgrading Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, into Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology.
Mr. Amosun gave assent to the bill earlier passed by the State House of Assembly at the executive council meeting and also signed into law the re-establishment of Ogun State Polytechnic in Ipokia Area of the state.
He disclosed that the institutions would be multi-campus, as government would engage think-tanks and academics to provide the technical guide for the successful take-off of the institutions so as to compete favourably with their contemporaries.
Mr. Amosun commended the efforts of the State House of Assembly for the timely passage of the bill and assured that the necessary documents had been done and sent to the appropriate quarters.
The Speaker of the House, Suraj Adekunbi, while speaking with journalists said the Assembly accelerated passage of the bill because of the prospect and opportunities the institutions have for the state and the education sector.
‎He added that the step would also create employment opportunities for the people and improve access to tertiary education in Ipokia and its environs.

farouk0403:
Bance no de? ?

e no dey

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ali Sheriff, has advised the Jerry Gana-led Strategy Review and Inter-Party Affairs Committee to stop speaking for the party.
Represented by his Deputy National Chairman, Cairo Ojougbo, at a news conference in Abuja on Monday, Mr. Sheriff described the Gana-led committee as “illegal”.
The committee was constituted on November 10, 2016, by the National Caretaker Committee of the party headed by Ahmed Makarfi, which was described as illegal by the recent judgment of Appeal Court, Port Harcourt.
The court, in the judgment declared Mr. Sheriff the authentic national chairman of the party.
The committee had been visiting founding and prominent members of PDP, including former Vice President Alex Ekwueme, Tony Anenih, Bamanga Tukur and former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Mr. Sheriff said that the report of the committee, which was submitted to the scrapped national caretaker committee on February17, 2017, would not be useful in the ongoing effort at re-positioning the party.
“Professor Jerry Gana going round the country on behalf of the PDP is unacceptable to the party.

“I have the report of Gana here where he recommended that all members of the Sheriff group should be suspended from the party.


“We find it very uncomfortable that a person of Jerry Gana’s standing, if actually he wants to help the party as at this time of crisis, would recommend that a faction or members of the party should be expelled for their political beliefs.
“That is very unbecoming of a man of Gana’s status. So, we take very serious views to his going round as whatever committee he calls himself.
“The committee was not set up by the party and we are giving notice that forthwith, he should discontinue with it,” he said.
On the party’s national convention, Mr. Sheriff said that the report of the Standing Committee on Reconciliation, submitted by its chairman, Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa, had been adopted by the party’s National Working Committee, NWC.
He said that the report had become a working document of the party.
The chairman expressed displeasure over media report that Mr. Makarfi, as chairman of the unrecognised caretaker committee, said the Dickson’s committee was illegal.
He insisted that the committee was legal, adding that its recommendations were not Mr. Dickson’s but of the committee of the party.
Mr. Sheriff said that majority of the party’s stakeholders were in full support of political resolution to its leadership crisis, except for the caretaker committee, which had vowed to pursue legal approach.
He, however, assured that the party’s NWC was capable of conducting free, fair and acceptable national convention in due course.
“The reason why the caretaker committee is protesting is that they have seen that the table is now crumbling fast under their feet.

“All the organs of the party are cueing into the reconciliation and when the reconciliation pulls through, they are out and Sen. Makarfi can only come as member of the Board of Trustees (BoT).
“They get subvention from the governors every month and when reconciliation happens, the N50 million monthly subventions from governors will stop.
“Secondly, Makarfi wants a situation where he will tailor-make the convention to suit his interest because he has come out to say that he will be contesting the presidency of the country.
“We are very mindful that we are not going to tie our party around any individual, and that is why the national chairman, Sheriff said ` look, I am going to throw everything open.”

The Burkina Faso national team have released a 25-man squad of invited players to face the Super Eagles of Nigeria in a friendly at the Hive Stadium on March 27.

Head coach of Les Étalons, Paulo Duarte, who is Portuguese, handed call-ups to majority of the players that finished third at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon, and six players received their maiden call-ups.



The new invitees are: Patterson Kaboré (CD Eldense), Dylan Ouédraogo (Monaco), Abdul Meyker Yabré (Vibonese), Stéphane Aziz Ki (Omonia Nicosia), Anthony Koura (Nancy) and Abdoul Gafar Sirima (Baltika Kaliningrad).

Only two players on the list ply their trade locally: RCK goalkeeper Sawadogo Aboubacar and defender Coulibaly Yacouba.

But, eight of the invited players are based in Africa, while 17 are European-based professionals, including Chelsea loanee Bertrand Traoré and FC Krasnodar’s Charles Kabore.

The squad will also face Morocco in a friendly game before playing three-time African champions, Nigeria.

Nigeria are to play against Senegal at the same venue against Senegal on March 23 before trading tackles with the Stallions.

FULL LIST:

1.Sanou moussa Germain (Beauvais, France)

2.Koffi Kouakou Hervé (ASEC, Ivory Coast)

3.Sawadogo Aboubacar (RCK, Burkina Faso)

4.Kaboré Patterson (CD Eldense, Spain)

5.Ouédraogo Dylan (AS Monaco U19, France)

6.Paro Issouf (Santos, South Africa)

7.Malo Patrick Arnaud (Smouha, Egypt)

8.Dayo Issoufou (RC Berkanec, Morocco)

9.Coulibaly Yacouba (RCB, Burkina Faso)

10.Yago Steeve Farid (Toulouse FC, France)

11.Abdou Razack Traoré (Kardemir Karabukspor, Turkey)

12.Saré Bakary (Moreirense, Portugal)

13.Touré Ibrahim Blati (Omonia Nicosia, Cyprus)

14.Guira Adama (RC lens, France)

15.Kaboré Charles (Krasnodar, Russia)

16.Traoré Sibiri Alain (Kayserispor, Turkey)

17.Yabré Abdul Meyker (Vibonese, Italy)

18.Ki Stéphane Aziz (Omonia Nicosia, Cyprus)

19.Bayala Cyrille Barros (Sheriff Tiraspol, Moldova)

20.Koura Anthony (Nancy, France)

21.Nakoulma Prejuce (Nantes, France)

22.Banc Aristide (ASEC, Ivory Coast)

23. Traoré Bertrand Isidore (Ajax, The Netherlands)

24.Diawara Banou (Smouha, Egypt)

25.Sirima Abdoul Gafar (Baltika Kaliningrad, Russia)

China reported 61 fatalities and 160 cases of human infection from H7N9 bird flu in February, the government said on Monday.

The figure is much higher than in previous years and brings the death toll in this winter’s outbreaks to 161 since October.

While the total for last month was lower than January’s 79, it was the highest number for the month of February since the deadly strain was first identified in 2013, according to data from the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

The death toll from bird flu infections tends to drop towards the end of the winter.

The data highlights the scale of the spread of the virus among humans, even after Chinese disease control experts have warned the public to stay on alert.

South Korea and Japan are also battling their own major outbreaks and have culled millions of chickens.



The H7N9 strain shows little or no symptoms in poultry, a factor which has limited the number of birds culled in the world’s third-largest producer of broiler chickens and the second-biggest consumer of poultry.

The total of 140 for first two months of 2017 alone already surpasses the annual totals for avian flu in China in recent years.

In 2010, 147 people died of the H1N1 strain of the virus. Source :the nation

searchng4love:
Mynd44
What's the proof that the bus is stolen? He might have changed the engine or install the engine in another bus... The mismatch of documents doesn't mean he's a thief. Lastma mechionu

Meanwhile op put sauce for lalasticlala

premium times

The General Manager, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Olawale Musa escaped death by the whisker as a commercial bus driver, David Agiri, driving with a stolen vehicle with number plate FKJ 875XC at Oshodi area of the State almost ran over him in a bid to escape.

He was however arrested by LASTMA officials.

Agiri, who has been on the wanted list of the Agency since February 23, 2017 for driving against traffic at Iyana Iba, on Lagos- Badagry Express Way in contrast to the relevant sections of the Lagos State Traffic Laws which forbids driving in the direction of oncoming vehicles, had evaded arrest from the hands of the traffic personnel.

However, in line with the policy of the Agency which forbids officers from pursuing fleeing vehicles, Agiri escaped arrest with the bus.



But the long arm of the law later caught up with him when he was eventually arrested with the same vehicle last Thursday, March 9, 2017 at Oshodi.

Further investigation of vehicle papers by LASTMA officials revealed that the vehicle number plates did not correspond with the vehicle documents as the number plates belonged to a Port Harcourt resident with a different name and type of vehicle.

In addition, Agiri who is a native of Badagry and a resident of Agbara town in Ogun State was said to be a well-known serial traffic offender with penchant for driving against traffic.

Commenting on the incident, Musa said the Agency’s monitoring team on routine patrol of Lagos roads caught the driver of the unpainted commercial bus at Iyana-Iba driving against traffic and that efforts to apprehend Agiri proved abortive as he mobilised social miscreants to attack the traffic officials.

Omagago:
Op, sauce pls

punch newspaper

Johnson Suleman, the controversial Nigerian pastor at the center of an adultery scandal gave a $76,000 brand-new Mercedes-Benz 450 GL to Nollywood star Daniella Okeke in 2016, an official Lagos State website shows.

Ms. Okeke was previously named by Stephanie Otobo, Apostle Suleman’s estranged lover, as being one of the other women in his life.  

For her part, the actress in 2016 proudly displayed the Mercedes-Benz SUV GL 450 on her Instagram page in front of a brand-new house where she parked it.

After her name was revealed by Ms. Otobo at a press conference covered extensively by Saharareporters, some Nigerians invaded Ms. Okeke’s Instagram questioning the source of her wealth given that she has not featured in any prominent movies in recent years.

The more inquisitive among them took advantage of a new website for vehicle registration in Lagos State which unveils the ownership of any vehicles by its number due to a bug on the webpage, and discovered that one of Ms. Okeke’s most prized possessions, the posh Mercedes-Benz car, is registered to “Apostle Suleman Johnson.”

This discovery is the second window into the pastor’s private life following the one opened by Ms. Otobo, but he has vigorously denied the amorous relationship she claims to have had with him.  

Last week, Ms. Otobo was arrested and detained by Apostle Suleman, who procured some federal police officers to rough up the woman.  She was behind bars for a few nights.

Ms. Otobo had insisted that Apostle Suleman impregnated her following sex romps in Italy, New York and Nigeria.  The pastor denied the allegations and threatened to sue SaharaReporters for reporting the story.

On Thursday, he also threatened Festus Keyamo, whose law office in Lagos is representing Ms. Otobo, demanding an apology and the payment to him of N1bn for blackmail and injury.

In a rebuttal on Friday, the law office denied that Mr. Keyamo, its Head of Chambers, was actively involved in the matter, as he has been in Abuja.  It described the pastor’s allegations of a conspiracy against him as pathetic, ludicrous and a nonsensical smokescreen.

As part of investigations into the  illegal importation of 661 rifles, the Nigerian Customs Service has grilled about 15 of its officers, Punch reports.

It was gathered that two officers Abdullahi I, with service number 44483 ASC, and Odiba Haruna Inah, with service number 133386 ACIC are currently facing trial for their role in the crime.

A source said about 14 officers had been quizzed at the FOU while the prime suspects were undergoing an orderly room trial.

Recall that customs officers had intercepted a truck with registration number BUG 265 XG, conveying 661 rifles in Lagos last year.

The Customs has however handed over the rifles to the Department of State Services (DSS).

Chocolate City boss, Audu Maikori who is currently being detained will be charged to court on Monday, Punch reports.

According to the newspaper, Maikori is being held at the Gabasawa Police Station, Kaduna State.

It was gathered that he has also been barred from seeing his family and friends.



It was also learnt that the case had been transferred to the Attorney General of Kaduna State.

Maikori had been arrested on Friday for sharing false information about the Southern Kaduna crisis.

He had alleged that some herdsmen killed 5 students of an institution in Kaduna which turned out to be false.

He had earlier been arrested but was later released.



His arrest on Friday came after he collapsed at an event in Lagos some days back.

A medical doctor, Emmanuel Ogah, has been arrested by the Ogun State Police Command for allegedly stabbing his mother to death.
The Command Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who on Saturday confirmed the incident and arrest to PREMIUM TIMES, said the suspect claimed that he killed his mother because she was fond of scolding him publicly.
Mr. Oyeyemi said the suspect committed the offence at 16 Ololade Street, Lafenwa, Itele Ota town of the State. He said the man was arrested after the accused person’s elder brother complained to the police.
“The Ogun State Police Command has on the 9th Of March arrested one Dr. Emmanuel Ogah for stabbing his biological mother to death. His was arrested following a complaints from one Cletus Ogah who reported at Itele Ota Divisional headquarters that his younger brother has stabbed his mother one Janet Ogah to death,” Mr. Oyeyemi said.
Mr. Oyeyemi said preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect who had just completed his NYSC program, came back home three days earlier and had being having quarrel with his mother.
“In his statement, the suspect claimed that his mother was in the habit of insulting and disgracing him in the presence of her apprentices and that he was frustrated into taking the life of his mother,” the police spokesman said.
The body of the 62-year-old deceased was deposited at the General Hospital Morgue for autopsy, police said.

So happy I made front page for the first time

The senate has cancelled its planned visit to the South African parliament to protest against the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians.

Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, announced the decision of upper legislative during a plenary session on Wednesday.

He said the decision of the senate was informed by the need for the legislature to send a single delegation to South Africa.

The house of representatives had already nominated Femi Gbajabiamila, house leader, to lead five members of the lower legislative chamber to South Africa for the same reason.

They are – Nnenna Okeje, Sadiq Ibrahim, Henry Nwawuba, Nasiru Daura, and Shehu Musa.

Last Tuesday, the senate resolved to send a strong delegation to South Africa to protest against the attacks on Nigerians in the country.

The upper legislative chamber took the decision after‎ Rose Oko, a senator from Cross River north, moved a motion urging it to intervene in the resurgence of xenophobic attacks.

In recent times, aggrieved South Africans have attacked Nigerians and their businesses.

The Nigerian Union in the country reported that pieces of property worth millions were destroyed in the attacks.

Responding to the development last Tuesday, the senate resolved “to send a strong parliamentary delegation to the South African parliament to register its displeasure at the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians”.

But the senate has now aborted the plan.

Abike Dabiri-Erewa, senior special assistant to the president on foreign affairs and diaspora, had earlier warned the South Afric‎an government against the attacks, threatening consequences if they persist.

A gorgeous pair of earrings is a great accessory—but what’s the deal with the holes in your ears smelling like rotten cheese? Turns out it’s a mix of skin cells and natural oils getting clogged all up in there. Um, gross.

Luckily, there’s a super easy way to prevent—or get rid of—that funky smell if you notice it. You should clean your old piercings in the shower and let warm water run over it, says Maria Tash, owner of Venus by Maria Tash, a fine jewelry and piercing spa in New York City. “Cleaning the piercing tunnel occasionally with antibacterial soap also cleans off any skin cells that can collect in the jewelry and create odor.”

But don’t freak out if you’ve had your ears (or another part of your body) pierced forever and they start to get itchy all of sudden. Infections aren’t common in healed piercings, says Tash. You’re probably just allergic or sensitive to the material in your earrings (nickel is the most common ingredient people have a reaction to), which could antagonize the surrounding skin in the form redness, tenderness, discharge, or itchiness. In that case, opt for stainless steel or hypoallergenic earrings.

When it comes to new piercings, a little redness and slight crustiness is totally normal while it heals, says Tash. But if your skin is raised or there’s a ring or bump forming around the piercing, your body may be telling you it’s not happy with your newest accessory, says David E. Bank, M.D., director of the Center for Dermatology, Cosmetic, and Laser Surgery in Mount Kisco, New York.

You may be dealing with the beginning stages of an infection. Since there is a foreign body present in the skin, some of the bacteria may be sitting on the piercing itself, which can cause the body to reject it as a way of protecting itself, says Bank. Here’s what you can do to keep new piercings free of additional irritation—or an infection (hey, you may have heard this when you were younger, but it’s worth repeating):

Never touch your piercing with dirty hands. “You don’t want to touch a door handle and then touch your jewelry,” says Tash. “You just transferred whatever is on the door handle to your piercing.”

Change your bed sheets frequently. You already know how grimy dirty sheets are, but they can be bad news for a new piercing, too. Any hair or dander on your sheets can easily be transferred from your pillowcase onto your healing skin. “You have to be mindful that you have a fresh wound that takes a while to heal, and you have to keep everything around you as clean as reasonably possible,” says Tash.

Make sure your earring fits properly. If the piercing is feeling too tight or too loose, have your piercer look at it to make sure it isn’t sitting too tightly or at an odd angle, which can irritate i

Don’t overdo it with cleaning. “People commonly think, ‘I’ve got something to sterilize, let me throw this harsh chemical on it,’” says Tash. “But it’s very harsh. It will make your skin sensitive after a while. I can’t say it will happen right away, but if you keep using [something harsh] twice a day, it will make your skin red.” The Association of Professional Piercers suggests avoiding alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, or other strong solutions. Instead, clean the area around your piercing once a day with a mild fragrance-free liquid soap and soak it once a day in a warm saline solution.

Matt Valentine, buddhaimonia.com

1. Live with compassion

Compassion is one of the most revered qualities in Buddhism and great compassion is a sign of a highly realized human being.

Compassion doesn’t just help the world at large, and it isn’t just about the fact that it’s the right thing to do. Compassion, and seeking to understand those around you, can transform your life for a number of reasons.

First, self-compassion is altogether critical towards finding peace within yourself. By learning to forgive yourself and accepting that you’re human you can heal deep wounds bring yourself back from difficult challenges.

Next, we can often be tortured because of the fact that we don’t completely understand why people do certain things.

Compassion is understanding the basic goodness in all people and then seeking to discover that basic goodness in specific people. Because of this, it helps you from going through the often mental torture we experience because we don’t understand the actions of others.


But even more than that, expressing compassion is the very act of connecting wholeheartedly with others, and simply connecting in this way can be a great source of joy for us.

The reasons for practicing compassion are numerous and powerful. Seek to live in a way that you treat everyone you meet as you would yourself. Once you begin trying to do this, it will seem altogether impossible. But keep at it, and you’ll realize the full power of living with compassion.

2. Connect with others and nurture those connections

In Buddhism, a community of practitioners is called a “sangha”. A sangha is a community of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen who practice together in peace towards the united “goal” of realizing greater awakening, not only for themselves but for all beings.

The sangha is a principle which much of the world can greatly benefit from. People come together in groups all the time, but it’s usually for the purpose of creating monetary riches or obtaining substantial power and rarely towards the united goal o1f attaining peace, happiness, and realizing greater wisdom.

The principle of the sangha can be expressed in your own life in many ways. The sangha is ultimately just one way of looking at life, through the lens of the individual “expressions” of the totality.

By living in a way that you’re fully aware of the power of connecting with others, whether it’s one person or a group of 100, and seeking to nurture those relationships in the appropriate way, you can transform your life in ways that will pay dividends for years to come.

3. Wake up

One of the most powerful points on this list, the power of simply living in a way that you’re fully awake to every moment of your life pretty much couldn’t be exaggerated even if I tried.

Mindfulness, greater awareness, paying attention, whatever you want to call it- it changes every facet of your life and in every way. It’s as simple as that.

Strive to live fully awake to each moment of your daily life and overcome your greatest personal struggles, find a great sense of peace and joy, and realize the greatest lessons life can teach you as a result of living fully awake to the present moment.1

4. Live deeply

To live deeply, in a way that you become keenly aware of the precious nature of life, is to begin down the path of true peace and happiness.

Why? Because to live in this way is to gradually become aware of the true nature of the world. This will happen essentially in “sections” of the whole, such as realizing your interconnectedness (you begin to see how everything is connected to everything else) and impermanence (you begin to see how everything is ever-changing, constantly dying only to be reborn in another form).

These realizations are the bread and butter of Buddhism and all spiritual practice. These “sections of the whole” are fragments of the ultimate realization, ways for us to understand that which can’t be fully understood in the traditional sense.

By living in a way that you seek to realize these various “qualities of the ultimate” you find greater and greater peace in realizing the natural way of things. This cultivates in us the ability to savor every moment of life, to find peace in even the most mundane activities, as well as the ability to transform your typically “negative” experiences into something altogether nourishing and healing.

5. Change yourself, change the world

Buddhists understand that you can hardly help another before you help yourself. But this isn’t referring to you gaining power or riches before you can help others, or living in a way that you ignore others.

This is mostly referring to the fact that because we’re all interconnected, by you helping yourself you create an exponentially positive effect on the rest of the world.

If you want to make an impact on the world, don’t falsely convince yourself that it’s “you or them”. You don’t need to drag yourself through the mud to help those around you. If you do this, you’ll greatly hamper your ability to create a positive impact.

At the deepest level of understanding, by making it about you you’re also making it about them because you know there’s no separating “you” and “them”.

Take care of yourself and seek to be more than just a help, but an example of how to live for others to follow and you’llcreate waves of exponential possibility that inspires others to do the same.

6. Embrace death

Death is an often taboo topic in Western society. We do everything we can to not only avoid the subject, but pretend that it doesn’t even exist.

The reality is, this is really unfortunate and in no way helps us lead better lives. Becoming keenly aware of your ownimpermanence and deeply understanding the nature of death with regards to our interconnectedness are both things which can help us find great peace.

In Buddhism, students in many sects at one point or another “meditate on the corpse” as it were (a practice which is said to have originated at least as far back as the Buddha’s lifetime).

This is literally what it sounds like. They meditate on the image of a corpse slowing decomposing and imagine that process through to its end, eventually resulting in a deep and profound realization on the true nature of death.

That might sound a little intense to you, but the truth is, if you live you’re entire life acting as if you’re never going to die or ignoring your own impermanence then you won’t ever be able to find true peace within yourself.

You don’t necessarily have to meditate on the image of a corpse, but simply opening up to yourself about death so that you’re no longer shielding it from your mind (which you’re likely doing unconsciously, as that’s how most of us were brought up in the West) can begin to be a great source of peace and help you appreciate the many joys in your everyday life.

A true appreciation for life can never be fully realized until you come face-to-face with your own impermanence. But once you do this, the world opens up in a new and profound way.

7. Your food is (very) special

Buddhist meditative practice, particularly mindfulness and contemplation, helps you realize the precious nature of the food in front of you. Indeed, with how integral a part food plays in our lives, to transform our relationship with food is to transform a key aspect of our entire lives, both now and in the future.

By contemplating on the food in front of us, for example, we can come to realize the vast system of interconnectedness that is our life, and how our food coming to be on our dinner plate as it is depended on numerous elements coming to be.

This helps us to deepen our relationship with food, cultivate a deep sense of gratitude before each meal, and learn to respect the delicate but ever-pressing balance that is life.

8. Understand the nature of giving

Giving is more than the act of giving Christmas and Birthday gifts, it’s also about those gifts which we give each and every day which we don’t typically see as gifts at all.

Buddhists hold a very deep understanding of the nature of giving, particularly in that life is a constant play between the act of giving and receiving. This doesn’t just help us find peace in understanding the way of the world around us, but helps us realize the amazing gifts we all have within us that we can give others in every moment, such as our love, compassion, and presence.

9. Work to disarm the ego

The easiest way to sum up all “spiritual” practice is this: spirituality is the act of coming in touch with the ultimate reality or the ground of being, and as a result spiritual practice is the act of overcoming those obstacles which keep us from realizing that.

The primary obstacle in our way? The ego.

To put it short and sweet, the reason the ego is the major obstacle in spiritual practice, or simply the practice of finding true peace and happiness (whatever you choose to call it, it’s all the same), is because it’s very function is to pull you away from the ground of your being by convincing you that you’re this separate self.

The process of unraveling the ego can take time, as it’s something which has been with us, intertwined with us, for years. But it’s infinitely rewarding and altogether necessary if we want to realize our best life.

10. Remove the 3 poisons

Life is filled with vices, things which attempt to bind us to unwholesome ways of living and therefore do the very opposite of cultivate peace, joy, and greater realization in our lives. Among these, the 3 poisons are some of the most powerful. The 3 poisons are:

Greed
Hatred
Delusion
Together, these 3 poisons are responsible for the majority of the pain and suffering we experience as a collective species. It’s perfectly normal to be affected by each of these poisons throughout your life, so don’t knock yourself for falling for them.

Instead, simply accept that they’re something you’re experiencing and begin working to remove them from your life. This can take time, but it’s a key aspect on the path towards realizing true peace and happiness.

11. Right livelihood

We should all strive to work and make our living in a way that’s more “conscious” or aware. This generally means not selling harmful items such as guns, drugs, and services that harm other people, but it goes deeper than that.

There’s ultimately two aspects to this: making a living by doing something which doesn’t inhibit your own ability to realize peace and making a living doing something which doesn’t inhibit others ability to realize peace.

Facing this can lead to some interesting situations for some people, and as Thich Nhat Hanh has mentioned this is a collective effort as opposed to a solely personal one (the butcher isn’t a butcher only because he decided to be, but because there is a demand from people for meat to be neatly packaged and made available for them to be purchased from supermarkets), but you should strive to do your best.

Following the teaching on right livelihood can help you realize the harmful effect that your own work is having on you and therefore coming up with a solution can result in a largely positive shift in your life as a whole. Only you can decide if a change needs to happen though.

Whatever the case, seek to make a living doing something that promotes the peace and happiness of yourself and those around you as much as possible.

12. Realize non-attachment

This is a difficult point to put into so few words, but a profound one I felt would be greatly beneficial to mention nonetheless.

To realize non-attachment in a Buddhist sense doesn’t mean to abandon your friends and family and live alone for the rest of your life, never truly living again just so that you don’t become attached to these desires.

Non-attachment refers to living in a way that you exist in the natural flow of life and generally living a typical modern life, building a family, working, etc., while simultaneously not being attached to any of these things. It simply means to live in a way that you’ve become aware of and accepted the impermanence of all things in this life and live in a way that you’re ever-aware of this fact.

It’s perfectly normal for a Zen student in Japan, once having completed his training, to actually de-robe and go “back into the world” so to speak. This is because, once they’ve reached this level of realization, they see the beauty in all things and are compelled to live fully absorbed in all the beauty and wonders of this life. From this point on, they can truly “live life to the fullest”, while not clinging to any of these things.

Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean that you stop feeling emotions. On the contrary, these emotions are welcomed and expected, and fully experienced with mindfulness in the moment of their impact. But this is simply the natural course of things.

A little more than a week on and Francis Koné can recall the incident vividly. It is the type of thing that is hard to forget. His Slovacko side were holding their hosts, Bohemians 1905, at the Dolicek stadium in Prague, the Czech top-flight game goalless as it edged beyond the half-hour, when the striker chased a pass down the channel. His pursuit was hopeless given the home side’s captain, Daniel Krch, was tearing back and the goalkeeper, Martin Berkovec, was sprinting out to intercept. All had eyes only on the bouncing ball. Koné, 26, had actually been checking his own run when he heard the sickening thwack of heads.

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The dreadful impact, “un choc violent”, rang out over the drums and hubbub of the crowd. The two home players fell limply to the turf, Krch landing a few yards away just inside the penalty area, while Berkovec’s momentum carried him clattering into the striker. Koné, knocked to the ground, was on his knees when instinct took over. “I saw the defender was moving, so I was not worried about him,” he said. “But the goalkeeper was still, lying on his back, and I could see the whites of his eyes. They were rolling in his head. He was either unconscious or worse. So I planted one foot across his chest to keep his left arm tightly in – sometimes the body can convulse, becomes really strong, and you can’t always control it – and tried to force my fingers into his mouth.


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“The jaw was locked tight, but I had to make sure he had not swallowed his tongue. The clock was ticking. A couple of his team-mates came in and helped, moving him over on to his side, which you have to do to make sure the airways are clear, and I eventually prised his teeth apart and pulled the tongue back. It was slippery with the saliva and at some point he actually bit me, the jaws clamping back down, but it doesn’t matter. It was all over in a few seconds, and when the goalkeeper actually tried to say something I knew he was going to be fine. That’s when I got up and walked away.”

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Some among the home crowd have since admitted to having spent the first 31 minutes poisonously marking Koné’s every touch with cries of “monkey”. All had applauded when Berkovec, after around 20 seconds, rolled himself on to his back. Moving a player who has suffered serious head trauma can be unwise, even dangerous, not least given the possibility a neck injury has been sustained. The issue came up last week when Fernando Torres was knocked unconscious after falling heavily in Atlético Madrid’s draw at Deportivo La Coruña.

Yet the Bohemians medic, Martin Vavra, praised Koné’s swift intervention as critical given the support staff had to be waved on to the pitch by the referee and then sprint – “and I am no Usain Bolt”, said Vavra – to the far side to reach the stricken player. Martin Dostal, one of the home defenders, slapped the Togo international on the back in appreciative thanks of his quick thinking. “Without God, something bad could have happened that day,” the forward said. “Something terrible. He could have died, but I knew what to do. I’d seen it before.”

Koné boasts no formal medical training but he does have experience. Aside from his remarkable transformation from a target of racist abuse to potential lifesaver, it is just as staggering to acknowledge that the incident two Saturdays ago was the fourth occasion over an eight-year professional career, spent at clubs in six countries, when he has prevented a team-mate or opponent swallowing their tongue. Not all have been on the pitch. In Thailand, where he had arrived as an 18-year-old seeking opportunities with PTT Rayong and Muangthong United, a team-mate collapsed after suffering a head injury in the gym. “I had to pull his tongue from his throat that day, and was bitten too,” he said. “The second time was back in Africa, where I’d played for Togo and had been asked by a friend to turn out in an exhibition game before going back to my club, Al-Mussanah, in Oman.


Togo and Slovacko forward Francis Koné has saved the lives of four players in his eight-year career. Photograph: Zdenka Bartosova
“A player clashed heads with the goalkeeper, and then fell on the back of his neck when he hit the ground. That time I really struggled to get the tongue out because his body had tensed up – he was completely unconscious – and people came to help me, including medics, holding him while I pushed two fingers into his mouth to try and grab his tongue to slide it out. The third time [again in Africa] was only two years ago.

“It’s strange. When it happened the first time, I didn’t tell my mother because I didn’t want to scare her. The second time I told her and she warned me it would keep happening, and I should be careful. Always be wary. Never run away if something bad happens out on the pitch. ‘You can’t just wait for someone else to step up,’ she said, so when it happened the third time it was: ‘I told you so’.” Akoudji Yawavi Victorine and Koné’s father, Mahaman, saw coverage of their son assisting Berkovec on the internet at their home in Ivory Coast. Koné Sr apparently “can’t go out of his house now for people hassling him, talking about what happened. They’re both very proud.”

Koné, who qualifies for Togo through his mother but was born in Bondoukou in the north of Ivory Coast and raised outside Abidjan, the economic capital of the country, has endured hardships aplenty in pursuing his football career. He spent his childhood fishing for crabs and washing cars to earn enough to buy boots, then excelled leading the line in a side who won the semi-professional third division. He has always been desperate to follow his idol Didier Drogba to England but his first venture abroad came with an agent arranging a move to Thailand. “I was young, and I had to be strong in a new country, a new culture. The racism there was actually much worse. I was virtually the only black footballer in the league, so I stood out even more.”

After Oman, spells followed in Portugal with Olhanense and Hungary at Budapest Honved before his arrival in Uherske Hradiste, where he and his young family have settled at Slovacko, but the same depressing problems have pursued him throughout. “When you’re an African, a black man, and you play in a country like this … well, it’s not like going to play in France or Belgium. Even if things are improving, they’re still not very open, and that’s why the racism happens. It’s still a bit behind. When I’m on the pitch I try not to pay attention to it. But it’s hard. Racism makes me sick. It hurts. It’s frustrating for us, as African players, to hear things like ‘monkey’ or ‘black’ being shouted at us. You have to be there, out on the pitch, and have it directed at you to really understand how it makes you feel.


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“What can we do about it? I don’t know, but maybe what happened last weekend will help a bit. I’ve had messages from a few Bohemians fans. Two apologised to me on social media, saying they’d heard racist chants but then they saw an African saving one of their players and had thought about what they’d done. I don’t know whether that’s true or not, but I’ve seen their messages, and I hope it is.” Local media picked up on some of the testimonies, one from a supporter who claimed to have been surrounded by fans who had abused Koné throughout that opening half-hour, and ended up chanting his name. Another insisted the striker had “taught me something”, the implication being it was not just emergency medical practice.

Members of the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), would begin an indefinite nation-wide strike, on Monday, March, 6, 2017. Mr Ayinde Obisesan, the National General- Secretary of the Association announced this on Saturday in Ibadan, in a directive to the workers.

“You are hereby directed to commence an indefinite strike action with effect from 12: 01 am, Monday, 6 March, 2017, until otherwise directed.

“This is sequel to the ultimatum issued to the government since 20 January, 2017 and the inability of government to address our demands positively, “he said


NUAHP is an umbrella union for health workers such as physiotherapists, pharmacists, dieticians, medical laboratory scientists, optometrists and radiographers.
Others are dental therapists, medical physicists, health information officers, clinical psychologists and medical social workers.

The Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) has made some major changes in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) for 2017.

More adjustments have however been made, and these are some of the things that will happen this year, that have never happened before:

1. No Awaiting Result

JAMB has announced that candidates who have not received their O’level results will not be able to apply or secure admission in higher institutions.

In a statement released on Tuesday, February 28, the examination body said it was part of its restructuring plan for 2017.

2. Fourth Choice

JAMB has also introduced a fourth choice of school option for candidates but would only be able to select only one government school while filling out their forms online.

3. No Choosing Of Public University

The following was also announced: The new registration platform will now be first choice, second choice, third choice and fourth choice and not most preferred, preferred etc as it was.

Candidates’ first choice can be a College, University, Innovative Enterprises Institutions or Polytechnic/Monotechnic. However, if a candidate makes a Public University his first choice, he will not have any public University to choose for 2nd, 3rd and 4th choice.

He will have on the remaining three choices, a College, a Polytechnic, Private University and IEI’S. However, candidates for the 2017 UTME can now select NCE (College) or ND (Polytechnic/ Monotechnic) as their 1st choice up to 3rd choice and the 4th IEI.

They can select the IEI (Innovative Enterprise Institution, ND) as their 1st choice up to the 4th choice, but can only pick a public university once.

4. JAMB  Form Sold Late

The organizers of the major examinations in the country, including JAMB met to avoid a clash in schedules and in order to have a harmonized timetable.

An agreement was reached at the national headquarters of the Board in Abuja on Tuesday, January 24, after a meeting with National Examination Council (NECO), West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Business and Technical Examination (NABTEB) to harmonize the timetable.

This is one reason the registration is yet to begin.

5. Mock UTME

While speaking the body also announced that plans were in place for a mock UTME and this might explain the delay in beginning the sales of the examination forms. So if you are preparing, start your preparations now, so you can do well in both the mock and the real deal.

6. No Scratch Card

Speaking on the issue of scratch card, the registrar explained that one reason for the delay was due to issues the board had with sale of scratch cards.

He said that whereas candidates used to buy scratch cards to access the forms online previously, they planned to cancel that since it had been abused thoroughly.

According to Daily Trust, he said: “What we want to do is for students to pay directly to government coffers and we are working out the process of doing so to avoid the type of abuse that it has been subjected to.

“So, we want to sell directly and to make sure that candidates pay into TSA account. We have cases of students saying their scratch cards got burnt, others saying their scratch cards were swallowed by snakes or lost in an accident.”

Ride on the New Registrar.

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