₦airaland Forum

The Republicans have won control of the Senate in the US mid-term elections, increasing their power in the final two years of Barack Obama's presidency.

The Republicans also increased their grip on the House of Representatives and now control both chambers of Congress for the first time since 2006.

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell said the result was a vote against "a government people can no longer trust".

Mr Obama is to hold a press conference later on Wednesday.

He has already invited congressional leaders from both parties to the White House for talks on Friday.

Mr Obama reportedly tried to call Mr McConnell as the results came in, but the two did not speak and the president left a message.

About one-third of the Senate, the entire House of Representatives, 36 of 50 state governors, and numerous state and local offices were up for election.

Throughout the campaign, Republicans focused on voter dissatisfaction with Mr Obama, a Democrat, describing the vote as a referendum on his presidency.

As the first results came in late on Tuesday, it became clear they had made the six gains they needed to win control of the Senate.

As the first results came in late on Tuesday, it became clear they had made the six gains they needed to win control of the Senate.

The Republicans won in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia. The party now controls 52 seats, and is tipped to win at least one more as votes are counted in other states.

The Republicans are also projected to increase
their majority in the House of Representatives to levels not seen since before World War Two.

They also made gains among the 36 governorships up for re-election.

Barack Obama's unpopularity in the run-up to these mid-term elections is hard to exaggerate. One of the things that is lost in the big picture of the night is some of thebsidebar poll findings - the American people are fed up with all their politicians. It's not just the occupant of the White House, though as Harry Truman most famously noted, the buck stops with the president.

Mitch McConnell will be conscious of that, and will know that in two years' time, when it is not just the Senate but the presidency in play, the American people could be venting their spleen on him. Be fearful of the blame game.

That leaves the Kentucky senator with some important tactical decisions to make.

The Republicans will now have the power to complicate, if not block completely, Mr Obama's agenda in the last two years of his tenure in the White House.

Control of the Senate will also enable the Republicans to stymie his ability to name new federal judges, cabinet members and senior government officials.

In addition to seats the party won from the Democrats, the Republicans retained seats in at least a dozen other states.

Republicans in numbers

100 Women elected to Congress - including Mia Love - first black Republican female.

1st African American, Tim Scott, elected in the South since 1870.

3rd George Bush - grandson and nephew of two former presidents.

18 Age of Saira Blair, the youngest elected state legislator.

30 Age of Elise Stefano, youngest woman elected to US Congress.

http://bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29910542

I've got my eye on this thread.

Litmus:
His native attire gives him a trademark, identity, swag and respect around the world. Here he is like any ordinary office boy just like all those African presidents.

native attire?

https://r.m.yahoo.com/api/res/1.2/3wudg4UHSpVV52iAz3jPeg--/Zmk9Zml0O2g9MjQwO3c9MjU1/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/Part-PAR-Par8021324-1-1-0.jpg

Johannesburg (AFP) - Angola's long-ruling president should learn from the ousting of his counterpart in Burkina Faso and make plans to step down rather than be forced out, the country's most prominent activist has told AFP.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos is the continent's second longest serving president -- after Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema -- having led the oil-rich country for the past 35 years.

There are no signs of the Angola leader relinquishing power anytime soon.

"I think the plan of President Dos Santos is to stay in power until God calls him and then if possible for his son to take over," author, rights and anti-graft activist Rafael Marques de Morais told AFP during a visit to South Africa.

"It's up to society to help him to be aware that if he does not heed the call for change and doesn't realise that he has been too long in power, they can also remove him by popular uprising.

"No one expected the Burkinabes to rise and if the Angolans rise, no one will be expecting that to happen," said Marques.

News that Burkina Faso's long-serving leader Blaise Compaore had been booted out amid mass protests last week after 27 years in power, has reverberated across Africa.

Nine leaders across the continent, including Dos Santos, have held power for more than 20 years.

"This is the opportunity that the president has to reach out to other sectors of society and make a plan for transition, rather than being pushed out by force and humiliated after so many years in power," said Marques.

"What happened in Burkina Faso, you cannot call it undemocratic, people got fed up. And people can get fed up in Angola as well because the president is ruling above the law."

- 'Government fearful' -

Marques, a 43-year-old Oxford educated activist and journalist, has been arrested and detained several times for exposing corruption.

He has written a book entitled "Blood Diamonds: Torture and Corruption in Angola" and runs an anti-corruption watchdog, Maka Angola.

He faces nine separate legal challenges from seven Angolan army generals and two diamond companies he accused of committing rights abuses in the country's diamond fields.

The generals are suing him for $1.2 million in damages and also want him jailed.

But Marques believes the Angolan government in some ways finds it useful to keep him around.

"Members of the regime are not shy about saying in public that the fact that I am alive, and still doing my work, is evidence of democracy in Angola and the magnanimity of our president."

Thanks to a long civil war that killed hundreds of thousands, Angola had become a by-word for brutal internecine conflict.

The government has been trying to polish its image of late, lobbying hard for a non-permanent spot on the United Nations Security Council and taking part in multinational peacekeeping missions.

But Dos Santos remains vulnerable to accusations of authoritarianism at home, where the vast majority of people live in poverty despite massive oil wealth.

A majority of Angola's 24 million inhabitants struggle to access basic necessities such as water, electricity, health and education.

- Votes 'rigged' -

"People mean nothing to them except when there is pressure for legitimacy, and then they rig the vote," Marques said.

Marques says he has evidence Angolan elites are acquiring vast tracts of land by exploiting the weakness of land rights in Angola, as in much of Africa.

"There is land grabbing, leaving tens of thousands of peasants without land for subsistence farming," he said.

"The country's leaders keep plundering the resources and now they are plundering the land."

That is "reason enough for people to rise and say enough is enough."

Marques said Luanda's repeated use of force to crush small peaceful protests was a sign it was scared of change.

"One testament that the government is so fearful is that it doesn't allow 15 young people to demonstrate against the president, it will send hundreds of police officers to tame them.

"Now the day you have thousands of people on the streets, the regime will fall."

As in many African countries, the media in Angola has come under the grip of the administration, he claimed.

"What existed of independent media is now under the control of proxies of the regime."

http://news.yahoo.com/veteran-angolan-leader-warned-burkina-style-revolt-175319991.html

PEREP:
OP,

Pls change this Misleading Topic after reading the Post again. Note, the 10 Billion USD is for Global Cocoa export.

For me, I think it is noble to localize the Chocolate Industries for local consumption and export. There is just a lot of opportunity for private sector in the Agriculutural Sector of this country but even most of the industrialists that should have improved this sector is busy jostling for Government houses.

Let's create the jobs and Nigeria will be a great place for all of us.

GOVT cannot provide all the Jobs we need.

I thought so..

Nonsense figure.. Ghana produces 4 times the cocoa that Nigeria does, so I'm suppose to believe that Ghana earns $40billion from cocoa?

Nonsense figure this.

KidStranglehold:
It seems Virginia has a significant number of AA's who are descendant from Igbo's. And also it seems light skined AA's may not be the result of the over-exaggerated "plantation rape" but Igbo's themselves. Along with many other lighter toned African ethnics like the Fulani's. Remember AA's are a mix of a diverse group of African ethnics.

Fulanis? You were denying that AA have Bantu (Congolese & Angola) ancestry, now you claim Fulani ancestry, what is up with you?

onila:
their physical features are clearly east African

What physical features are those? Bantu is a language group, not physical features.

Seems like you don't know the people you're always hating on.

Here are the regions that speak a Bantu language.
www.nairaland.com/attachments/1783184_1655365nigercongomappng0f4b1f20e1f41579e52e02f48f91e9b8_pngfaf187d2afbb06329e3e7b09d9629fc7

This topic made FT the last time it was posted, and the anti Igbo e-worriers were all over the thread.

anyway, great info

muafrika:
Fabulous idea!

you should pick from onila 's threads the top Bantu beauties and post them here. maybe your Bantu sisters nayah and kayela can help you.

hmmm, ONILA can u help with pics from ur beauty threads.
Post those beautiful Zim, Cameroonian and Tanzanian women, also those handsome Cameroonian and Angolan guys.

iwonbaoko:
Whereas I have served notice expiring yesterday 28th day of October 2014 on Mr Seun Osewa who purports to own copyright of Nairaland.com exclusiely.
I hereby draw attention to EU Directive 95/46/EC without prejudice to any other legislation that you are now in breach of my relevant rights.
I hereby put you on notice that for each subsequent day from today when you fail to delete the said account "Iwonbako" I reserve the right to a daily charge of one thousand (1000) Euros for every day the account remains without deactivation, as well as exemplary and punitive charges which may be exacted against your person in any European Union country of my choosing at any time without further notice including airports or transit areas .
Whereas Nairaland is not limited as a charity or corporate entity in the EU the extent of damages I may pursue against you is unlimited .
Therefore be on notice and take prompt and immediate remedial action of the aforesaid breach and delete the aforementioned "account" post haste. No further warnings shall be issued
Iwonbaoko
29 October 2014

Click on the edit profile option and deactivate your account.

Henry120:
Whinny biaatch.

Thanku,
Hope you won't start whinning like you always do when awodwa, zdee and others are back.

Henry120:
Are you done playing with sand,

Or you're going to run along go report to mummy again ?

I'll report to mummy when I have to.. .

hope y'all will behave like adults.

chris365:
ehm... you don't hear us complaining do you? this thread belongs to no one anymore. buzz off if you don't have anything to say. we derail and come back like nothing happened.

You're not complaining now, yet a few days ago ya'll were crying when those e-worriers were all over the place. You people better thank me for refereeing here, or else this section, especially this thread would still be a haven for e-worriers and their abusive posts.

This is a world class forum, not your village, there are rules for posting.

mukina pls ban these two derailers. chris365, Dievluit1.

I think the thread has long passed it's expiry date, seems people can't refrain from breaking the forum's posting rules. Military matters are barely discussed. So the thread should just be locked.

Y'all have started again, stop this senseless bickering or this thread will be closed permanently.

Do you know how many rules get broken here.

Hosting when elections are around the corner ain't a good Idea.
Anyway, Ebola is a hoax, so Morocco has nothing to worry about, unless their problem is a lack of preparedness and Ebola is a convenient excuse..

iconize:
I wonder where these Bantus coin their names from.

Bafana bafana, bayana bayana.

Reduplication
Reduplication is a common morphological phenomenon in Bantu languages and is usually used to indicate frequency or intensity of the action signalled by the (unreduplicated) verb stem. [17]

Example: in Swahili piga means "strike", pigapiga means "strike repeatedly".

Well-known words and names that have reduplication include
Bafana Befana, a football team
Chipolopolo, a football team
Eric Djemba-Djemba , a footballer
Lualua, a footballer
Ngorongoro , a conservation area

Repetition emphasizes the repeated word in the context that it is used. For instance, "Mwenda pole hajikwai," while, "Pole pole ndio mwendo," has two to emphasize the consistency of slowness of the pace. The meaning of the former in translation is, "He who goes slowly doesn't trip," and that of the latter is, "A slow but steady pace wins the race." Haraka haraka would mean hurrying just for the sake of hurrying, reckless hurry, as in "Njoo! Haraka haraka" [come here! Hurry, hurry].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantu_languages

man Rossike, why all these negative threads about Ghana?

Collynzo29:
The last time I mentioned something like this on Nairaland, I was almost swallowed.
There are countries as corrupt as Nigeria but they are doing far better because there is still enough left for the small population after those on top have stolen. Libya is an example.
Check Nigeri's land mass and compare it with that of other countries, then compare the population too, you will understand how overpopulated we are.
Texas a single state in the US is almost as big as Nigeria, but thie Us total population isn't up to double of ours, Russia is 20 times bigger than Nigeria but our population is bigger than theirs.

Japan?

Remember people, use the report option to immediately inform the mods about the derailers.

All offensive posts should be reported.

Keep the thread clean..