₦airaland Forum

In a sign that Nigeria is in and South Africa is out, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) chose the Nigerian capital to announce their decision to send 3,000 troops to flush out terrorists from Northern Mali. With Nigeria contributing the largest Military contingency and leading a new diplomatic offensive, President Goodluck Jonathan signals a Nigerian comeback on the African scene.

Seeing that the African Union has been keeping low profile and the South Africa-Algeria axis in decline, Nigeria is well position to assume the role of Africa’s diplomatic leader on the international scene. After South Africa’s faux pas in Ivory Coast, Libya and Mali, Africans has turned to Abuja for guidance.

Algeria’s ambiguous position vis-à-vis the military intervention in Mali and South Africa’s abrasive approach made the Algerian-South African alliance irrelevant to the efforts aiming to resolve the crisis in the Sahel. The scandal plagued Zuma and his partners in the African Union (AU) have hijacked the pan-African organization for the purpose of self-promotion discrediting its reputation in the process and dashing the hopes of Millions of Africans longing for unity.

South Africa’s decline led to a resurgence of Nigeria’s diplomatic activities on the African scene. Notwithstanding Nigeria’s ongoing cycle of inter-religious violence, widespread corruption and economic woes, President Jonathan is poised to overtake Zuma’s coveted “status” of Africa’s spokesperson.

However, to be successful in Mali, Nigeria needs a North African partner with a clean record in the Sahel and good relations with the Bamako government and the Touareg separatists. It is important for President Jonathan to open dialogue with the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), once the North is recaptured.

Given Algeria’s reluctance to join the Nigerian efforts and its shaky relations with Mali and Niger, Morocco stands as Nigeria’s “potential” natural partner and its future anchor in the Maghreb and the Sahel. Nigeria’s leadership in West Africa will compliment Morocco’s friendly relations with countries in the Sahel.

Nigeria’s position in the Western Sahara should not stop a Moroccan-Nigerian partnership from flourishing. A Rabat-Abuja alliance would benefit the African continent and promote a new African union based on real-politics and not demagogy and self-promotion.

Moroccan diplomacy should undertake an informational campaign in Nigeria to familiarize the Nigerian government and civil society of Morocco’s proposals to resolve the Western Saharan conflict. Rabat must highlight the commonalities between Moroccan efforts in the Western Sahara and Nigerian’s current campaign to keep their Federation united.

Moroccan Diplomacy should break free from its French Africa centered foreign policy and open up to Africa’s Anglophone communities. Nigerian, facing the threat of the terror group Bako Haram and still traumatized by the short-lived secession of the southern state of Biafra, should be perceptive of Morocco’s positions.

Moroccan diplomats should remind their Nigerian brothers that Tanzania and Zambia recognized the “independence” of Biafra in 1968.

A Rabat-Abuja axis has the potential to become an engine for stability in North and West Africa, the Sahel-Sahara region and North Africa. As the AU becomes irrelevant and more of a vehicle of South Africa’s self-centered political vanity, regional blocks, like the ECOWAS, led by local powers are the future for a united Africa.

Despite its internal problems, Nigeria has the capacity to lead an effective foreign policy in Africa. Unlike South Africa, Nigeria has cultivated a better image among smaller African nations and cultivated a solid track of diplomatic success during tough crisis and under harsh security conditions.

If South Africa failed to end civil crises in several hot spots in Africa, Nigeria successfully led African efforts that ended civil wars in Sierra Leon, Liberia and in Ivory Coast. The South African Nigerian diplomatic rivalry will keep playing on the African scene. For now Nigeria seems to be winning all the campaigns. However, for Abuja to stay engaging, it needs to cultivate strong relations with key players such as Morocco.

Katsumoto: Apart from that, will these political prostitutes suddenly develop political ideology and personal morals?

saxywale: same old people just recycling themselves via various parties.

By GBENGA OLARINOYE

OSOGBO – Ahead of the 2014 governorship election in Osun State, the camp of the main opposition party in the state the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  was yesterday further depleted with the mass defection of about 8,000 members of the party  to the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.

The defectors were from all the 30 Local Government Areas of the state including Ife East Area office, Modakeke-Ife.

At the rally held at the Government Technical College, Osogbo thousands of PDP supporters led by Chief Adekunle Oluawo, a former Chairman of the State Water Corporation under the administration of former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, said the administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola motivated them to move en masse into ACN.

Governor Aregbesola who received the defectors to the party, said his administration has within the last two years transformed the state with his Six-Point Integral Action Plans, which according to him are aimed at abolishing poverty in the state.

He saluted the courage of the former PDP members and assured them of equal treatment in the party, stressing that there would not be preferential treatment for the new comers, as the ACN and the present administration in the state are prepared to carry everybody along in their transformational agenda.

Acting Chairman of the party, Mr. Adelowo Adebiyi said it was time for members of the opposition parties in the state to put sentiments apart and rally round the progressive government of Aregbesola in the interest of the state.

Leader of the decampees, Chief Oluawo said he and other members of the PDP who decamped to the ACN left the party on principle, adding that the PDP lacks discipline, transparency and accountability, which he said contributed to the ruin of the party.

by Emma Okonji;

Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, Niger State and the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State have emerged top winners of the 2012 Software Competition organised for students of tertiary institutions by the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON).

Announcing the result at the Tinapa Business Resort, in Calabar, Cross River State, venue of ISPON’s annual conference, the judges, said the students were examined through their entries, which they submitted for the competition.     


Students from the Federal University of Technology, Minna, won the grand prize of the 2012 ISPON software competition, while students of Team 1 and Team II from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, emerged second and third positions respectively.


The winners were selected based on the quality of solution presented, its relevance to the Nigerian society, and capacity to solve local problems for the ordinary in society, as well as the extent of work and creativity demonstrated in the solution.


The team members from FUT, Minna that won the grand prize, were Olofu Mark and Temitope Oguntade.
Their entry, tagged ‘One School’, is a one-stop solution that provides generic and unified solution to support e-learning, e-teaching and e-school administration.


Teams 1 from the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, got the second position with the entry tagged ‘DoTheMaths’, which is a mobile game application that supports informal self-learning of arithmetic computations using basic mobile phones. The team members were Akinboyewa Akindolani, Abdul-Rahma Shitu, and Nnanna Eze.


Team II from the same Obafemi Awolowo University, won the third prize with the entry ‘GMBox’, which is a media cloud application, with a browser-based application that provides a remote cloud based media organiser and player that leverages on cloud storage accessible on the go. The team members were Oseroke Igwubor, Olubukola Aborode, and Oyewale Oyediran


Apart from the three best overall positions, there were other categories of the completion that were won by other students.

The ‘Best Mobile Software Application Developer of the Year’ was won by Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Team I), with the mobile game application entry ‘DoTheMaths’. Evaluation for this category was limited to only applications that operate on mobile devices such as iOS, Android, RIM, Palm, and Mobile Windows.


Federal University of Technology, Akure won the ‘Clement Ndukwe Cup for the Most Creative Software of the Year’, with the entry, ‘Eye Drive’, which is a security and driving system application solution. The team members were Olaoluwa Aboluwarin, Mofesola Banjo, and Oluwadara Oladapo.


Federal University of Technology, Minna, won the ‘Prof. Cleopas Angaye Cup for the best Open Source Software Developer of the Year’, with the entry ‘One School’, which is a solution that provides generic and unified solution to support e-learning, e-teaching and e-school administration. The team members were Olofu Mark, and Temitope Oguntade


Abia State Polytechnic, Abia, won the ‘NITDA Cup for Best Software Design Architecture & Documentation for the Year’, with the entry ‘NAGRO SOL’, which is an Agricultural application solution that supports loan administration for farmers and marketing of farm produce. The team members were Anslem Nkoro Ire, Chinagorom Alex Chikwendi, and Marcus Okwu Eke.


Excited with the performances of the students from OAU, Prof. Sola Aderounmu, a lecturer at the Computer Science Department, told THISDAY that his students did very well to have attained the second and third positions. He promised that his students will emerge the overall best at the 2013 software competition.

shymexx: It's not about preaching, it's about showing proofs or citing examples... I'm from a proper Christian family and my pops is a "topman" at his church... I can proudly tell you that I know more about Christianity that than you'll ever know because I was raised in the Church, and I know almost everything in the Bible... So, when I talk, you ought to listen...

Paul john: Like I said earlier, "this thread is not meant for preaching".

shymexx: Nah, your religion is a peripheral of your culture and a higher level of consciousness birthed by your culture ... Let me help you with examples, since you're too lazy to cite any... Europeans owe their civilisation(culture) and higher consciousness to Christianity, they created the religion that became Christianity for themselves for guidance - from other existing religions at the time... So, Christianity is an European religion and their culture... Islam is an Arab religion created by Arabs... Asians are into Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism etc.. and these religions were created by the culture and level of consciousness..

shymexx: Ancestors and forefathers are interchangeable - they both basically mean the same thing... Oluwa is a Yoruba meaning for God just as Olorun and Eledumare - it has nothing to do with Christianity... And those those "jesutofunmi" and Islamic Yoruba names are just new age names given to people by delusional and un-African people like you and your co-travelers.. That's slave mentality!!

shymexx: Rid yourselves off perpetual servitude and mental slavery - there's absolutely nothing wrong with your culture and belief system...

shymexx: Can you either proof this, or cite examples to back up your claim?

shymexx: Belief system and tradition/culture are like siamese twins everywhere in the world, except Africa... Go check the religion vis-a-vis culture/tradition of all the other races of people in the world(except black Africans), and get back to me with your answer...

shymexx: Yoruba identity and its religion are the same thing, hence why Yoruba names have an element of its religion in it... Just look at the what begins every Yoruba name, and it alludes to the gods of your ancestors...

shymexx: Is your god more powerful than theirs?...

shymexx: Belief system is an ideology created to enhance consciousness and relationship between human beings and their environment vis-a-vis the universe...

shymexx: Being Yoruba is deeper than just being from Osun, it's a way-of-life and ancestral background...

They have Yoruba ancestry just like you, however, they lead a more Yorubacentric lifestyle than most of you do - peep the difference..

shymexx: Yoruba language is widely spoken in: Tobago, Cuba, Barbados, Oyotunji in USA, Bahia(Brazil), Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, New Cross(Jamaica), Equador, Dominican republic etc..

And they also worship the Orishas... They're more Yorubacentric than most Yoruba people in Nigeria...

Kingdom of Oyotunji African Village


Sheldon, South Carolina
The Kingdom of Oyotunji African Village covers 27 acres and has, well, we don't know exactly how many citizens (5 to 9 families in the last ten years, according to one tipster).Oyotunji is not part of the United States, according to King (Oba) Ofuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi I, who founded it in 1970 and moved it to its present site near Sheldon because its old neighbors complained about the tourists.
Oyotunji literature pictures its happy residents dressed in colorful, flowing robes. On our brief visit we saw only people dressed like average South Carolinians. But the people of Oyotunji do live in the woods, surrounded by exotic concrete monuments, and they have a royal palace. In its courtyard stands the mausoleum of Orisamola Awolowo, one of the founding fathers of Oyotunji, who died in 1990.

August 2006: Adesoye Adeyini wrote to us: "His Royal Highness, Oba Adefunmi I (iba ara torun, roughly translated as 'rest in peace') joined the ancestors on February 11, 2005. In Yoruba culture, the king is not announced as dead, but as having 'gone up the ceiling' (Oba wo aja)".
"It is important to note that the Oba was the first African-American to ever be initiated into the priesthood and initiation cult of any African traditional religion. Furthermore, he did not start his own religion and there is no separation between Yoruba culture and religion...the religion is one part of the whole culture. Religion, arts, philosophy, etc. are all things that create culture."

Kingdom of Oyotunji African Village

Address:
56 Bryant Ln., Sheldon, SC

Directions:
Just south of Yemassee. I-95 exit for US 17. Drive east for 1.5 miles, then bear right on Trask Parkway (US 17/21). Drive around three miles, and look for Bryant Lane/Safari Rd. on the left.

azpekuliar: Ileke-idi is right in her first post, this article is no news!

9ja voice: example: when OBJ was on seat, he make sure he destroy economy in eastern Nigeria.
why?
because core-north and southwest sees igbo's as their worst nightmare and arc-enemy ...

A former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, has offered to dialogue with Boko Haram on behalf of the Federal Government.

Mr. Kalu made the offer following a purported proposal by the sect requesting a former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, to dialogue with government on its behalf. Mr. Buhari has since declined the role.
In a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Emeka Obasi, Kalu said there was nothing wrong with the refusal of the offer by Buhari, adding that he was in a position to talk with the group for the return of peace to the country.

He said that having lived in the hotbed of Boko Haram activities, Maiduguri in Borno State and being a prominent South Easterner, which has been largely affected by the activities of the group, he was in a position to marry the feeling of the actors in the dialogue process.
Mr. Obasi quoted Kalu as saying: “General Buhari took a laudable step by opting out.
“For one who contested the 2011 presidential election, meeting with Boko Haram may be misconstrued because many believe that the group’s activities heightened after the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan.”

Mr. Kalu, who is also the protem leader of the nascent socio-cultural organisation, Njiko Igbo, added: “Ndigbo have suffered enough.
“Their businesses have been destroyed, lives lost. Nigeria is their country. I do not see why they cannot walk freely from Maiduguri to Mubi, from Borno to Bauchi. I lived in Maiduguri. I still own properties there. I know the terrain.

“We can sit down and dialogue on the condition that the group will cease all bombing activities in Nigeria. In the interest of peace, I think government should accept the peace move. Previously, they were almost faceless. Now, there is a window for peace. It is always good to jaw-jaw than to war-war. Both Islam and Christianity preach peace.

“A situation where going to serve God becomes a walk into bloodbath does not help our spiritual lives. No family prays to lose four, five members to bombs in a war that seems to set one religion against the other.”

achi4u: ...waiting for other of our brothers to counter this claim and list their own success stories#