How una dey, my people?

Love this one, been watching that horrible website for a while now.

Next project, to help the government develop a set of guidelines for government (state/ministries/depts/agencies/local coucils/etc) websites.

Any roles still open as of, now?

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, EU High Representative Catherine Ashton
London, United Kingdom
January 28, 2010

We express our deep regret at the recent violence and tragic loss of lives in Jos, and extend our sympathies to the bereaved and injured. We urge all parties to exercise restraint and seek peaceful means to resolve differences between religious and ethnic groups in Nigeria. We call on the Federal Government to ensure that the perpetrators of acts of violence are brought to justice and to support interethnic and interfaith dialogue.

Nigeria is one of the most important countries in sub-Saharan Africa, a member of the UN Security Council, a global oil producer, a leader in ECOWAS, a major peacekeeping contributing country, and a stabilizing force in West Africa. Nigeria's stability and democracy carry great significance beyond its immediate borders.

We therefore extend our support to the people of Nigeria during the current period of uncertainty, caused by President Yar'Adua's illness. We extend our best wishes to the President and his family, and join the Nigerian people in wishing him a full recovery.

Nigeria has expressed its resolve to adhere to constitutional processes during this difficult time. We commend that determination to address the current situation through appropriate democratic institutions. Nigeria's continued commitment and adherence to its democratic norms and values are key to addressing the many challenges it faces, including electoral reform, post-amnesty programs in the Niger Delta, economic development, inter-faith discord and transparency. The gubernatorial elections in Anambra on 6 February will be a milestone in the journey towards electoral reform and a signal of Nigeria's commitment to the principles of democracy.

We are committed to continue working with Nigeria on the internal issues it faces while working together as partners on the global stage.
##

Source: State.gov

What is the purpose of this statement? forestalling a potential breakdown in law and order in the largest economy in West Africa, perhaps? or is it an opportunity to draw Nigeria close with one hand while spanking us with the other (see "Clinton blames Nigerian leaders"

Here's my thought,

CAF goes with head-to-head rather than goal difference hence Algeria qualifying ahead of Mali in Group A despite a -2 goal difference to Mali's +1.

Here's how the results in group D went. . .

Gabon beat Cameroun
Cameroun beat Zambia

BUT

Zambia [b]beat [/b]Gabon who had previously beaten Cameroun, making Zambia theoretically superior to Cameroun in the group. So

Doesn't look very convincing but that's all I can come up with.

sayhi2ay:

yea, it'd be wonderful if cpanel can allow folder upload. arrrrgh!

Why dont you zip the folder, upload the zipped file and then unzip it on the server. It takes less than 5 minutes to unzip even a very lage file on cPanel.

C'mon, we are not all about work, work and more work.

I thut it' be a good idea to wish everyone of you happy celebrations in advance since I dont think anybody will be here on christmas day anyway.

Special season greetings to all you guys. Im sure we all made progress in the outgoing year. Next yr's got to be even better.

Have fun and eat well.

@kgold
What do you mean by "honest quotation"? Im not bidding for a job. Im simply telling you what Interswitch will charge you. If you need to confirm, go to their website and find a way to contact them. Or find someone who'll create a bespoke payment system on your website for less.

I was building an application to accept payments on behalf of clients and made enquiries recently. The cost:

1 payee (ie you collect payments in to just one account) - N150,000
2+ payees (ie you process payments on behalf of your clients) - N1.8 million

I hope that helps.

I saw it too. Its looks good. Innovative revenue-generator right there. Not littering the site with Google Ads that are mostly not relevant to the average Vanguard reader.

Is this what it has come down to? Is Yar Adua a baby that he does not know that his absence and continued silence is breeding (albeit slowly) a wave of disorderliness and lawlessness?

A nation of 150million people without a president (at least not one anybody can see) for over 21 days. Na wa O. We are truly the most tolerant nation on the planet.

Oh yeah and this one. . .

Anywhere you go, Ti ti kpangolo go follow you

- -------- ---- - --

I think it was to scare kids . . . cant remember but I sure remember those days.

Apologies if someone already mentioned this. . .

Some have food but can not eat
Some can eat but have no food
We have food and we can eat
Glory be to God on high
A-M-I-N
- - - - - - -

yawa-ti-de:

This has got to go down as the quote of the year for this board 

Thanks Yawa. I was wondering when I'd win that title. . . guess this is my year afterall.

yawa-ti-de:


Currently, I have narrowed down my choices to opencart (the new version seems to have taken care of the issues that made me want to dump it) and prestacart but I don't mind taking another look at zenCart based on your recommendation.

I was once called in to work on two of these sites and that's where I got my first experience with Zencart. Its easy to set up a shop you can be comfortable with, within a few hours. All three websites are powered by ZenCart and they look good (or so I think).

yawa-ti-de:

I tried integrating virtuemart into a joomla site I did some time ago and am happy that the clients ended up saying they didn't need a shopping cart on their site as it wasn't the easiest thing for me to configure.

I feel you. Virtuemart is not the easiest thing to work with but it gets a lot easier when you are used to it. There are easier ones to use though and in the future, I dont see myself setting up a virtuemart shop for any of my clients.

You can take a look at the ecommerce applications on open source cms. Some interesting applications there. Magento doesnt look bad as well.

My first choice would be Zencart. Its easy to customise and if you need to find a particular string from any of the files, you can run a search for it directly from the admin interface.

I cant be bothered with osCommerce. It just doesnt look nice, no matter how you try to customise it (my opinion)

Presta Cart looks like the complete Web 2.0 package. Seems to combine the best of ecommerce features with a solid, easy to use content management system (almost as easy as using wordpress) . I dont think they come any simpler than this one.

As for the rest, I cant say much about them as I havent used them.

One Ive used in the past but cannot recommend in good faith is Virtuemart - the ecommerce solution for Joomla. As with everything Joomla, it is not the easiest to customise but ideally you would be looking for something that combines your shopping cart with a CMS and that's where Zencart and Prestashop lead the way. Paypal is pretty standard anyway. If it doesnt come with Paypal, then its not worthy of the name "Cart".

On this occasion, the man speaks for most us when he calls for stability in the executive arm of governemt. We all know the military and their sponsors are just lurking around the corner waiting for the slightest provocation to seize power.

However, I favor a separation between religion and politics. As a Nigerian he has every right to use his exalted platform to lend a strong voice to the call for sanity and adherence to the constitution. As a pastor though, I'd rather hear him talking about christain values and whatever esle. There is a tendency for his members and devotees to take his word as the "word from God" and we all know how Nigerians worship their pastors.

@ Dual Core,
If you think Joomla is hard, try out Movable Type. At first glance, they all have their no-no's. Agreed though, out of all the open source CMSs available today, Joomla seems to be the most time-consuming when it comes to customisation. Even a "commercial" template still needs tweaking to make it look unique.

I think the key in the end is planning. Build a Joomla site as you would any other type of website - from scratch. Map everything out on paper and when you get on the PC, its easier to handle. Not a breeze, but definitely easier. An even easier way would be to have a "customsed" version of Joomla to hand, so anytime one gets a project you are not looking to start from scratch each time (installing, configuring globals, content parameters, etc). That way you can focus on mapping out content and navigation and then styling the site.

@Topic

There just happened to be a tortoise in the room when the woman delivered the baby. Someone probably saw the tortoise crawling out from under the bed at about the same time and assumed_modified decided to tell a story. . . whatever. This should encourage us to emphasize cleanliness in our hospitals instead of pointing accusing fingers at the devil.
We will believe anything, wont we?

Tommorow, we'll hear "Woman delivers housefly" when the innocent fly just happened to be passing by, attracted by the smelly toliets next door.

Abeg, give us all a break with these diabolical claims.

Joomla is not hated.
@ propro

The issue is not that people criticise Joomla. It may sound that way, but in reality what people are actually criticising is the fact the the developer has made no effort to mask the fact that Joomla was used to build the site by applying proper design procedures like content planning and knowing what modules to use and when.

Barackobama.com is built on an open source CMS and Im almost certain the new white house website as well. But you wouldn't know it from looking at it.  People dont want to see the content management system, they want to see a website and the way most Nigerian Joomla sites are structured, you only get to see the system rather than a usable website which is more important.

Interesting thread. There's a high incidence of Nigerian sites using Joomla recently and it doesnt always turn out well, hence the seemingly blanket criticism. If you are going to do something, at least try to do it well. I am a Joomla user, have been for a few years now. But I dont take offense at most of the criticism of Joomla sites I see on this forum. The developers need to be encouraged to do better, but you can only make that point so many times before you start to get irritated by the constant stream of half-baked Joomla websites our brothers produce. I use Joomla a lot and cant stand it when I see websites that seem to have had no planning element. Its not about boasting. Its simply about the level of professionalism we portray in this industry and with sites like this, it seems we are going back rather than moving forward.

So folks the draw is Live on Supersports but you can watch it online on the BBC (UK only) or click this link

I suppose a worst case scenario will see Nigeria paired against. . .

Pot A - Brazil
Pot B - USA
Pot D - Portugal

Anyway, its time we start to showcase Africa to the rest of the world, not just on the pitch but off it as well. Nice work, SA.

yawa-ti-de:

pie: welcome back.  wey you been dey hide? 

I just dey float around space, my brother. Im back on earth anyway, hopefully for good this time.

I hail O.

Dual Core:

k, so if i nepotize with u, it means i'm scratching your back. mmmmm nice.

LOLOL.

@Yawa-tide, I hail thee. Sorry, I've been hiding under a rock  (away from Nariraland) for the last few months/weeks/days (?) Hope say you dey cool.
On my return, I took a fancy to the Sports (football) forum. Some heated debates there at the time (don't ask).

@Topic
I was not fortunate enough to see the old rebranding website. About the new site, I can say at least it uses bright pictures. That's where my compliments will stop for now. It's easy to see that there was no designing prior to setting up the site. A well designed website will have taken into account information architecture and navigation especially. How come the top two modules (static image and dynamic image) are made to show up on all pages, forcing the reader to scroll down to see whatever content is being displayed. This is a joomla website which should allow the administrator to clearly define which pages those modules should show up on. Anyway, before I descend into a rant, I'll leave it there. Good idea though, having a website. But instead of looking at sites like Rebrand South Africa
which is also Joomla-driven, Im sure Nigeria can afford the resources to develop something along the lines of Visit California, which is actually a branding website, not just for the aesthetics (which is brilliant by the way) but also for the way it tries to convey the experience of visiting california.

By the way, why is it that most of the recent Nigerian govt. websites seem to be powered by Joomla (and by Joomla newbies), I might add)? Me smell something fishy. Cutting corners? More money for a lot of hype and less quality? Me no like.

@everyone

I hail ooo!. . .

@ topic

I think using a blanket generalisation like that is misleading. Yes, there are lazy Nigerian webmaster. What should also be noted is that most of the people calling themselves "webmasters" would actually be classed as "web developers". There are designers and developers (as we've discussed in some past thread). Designers in practice, design websites. They dont install content management systems, they dont develop templates, they dont code, not with dreamweaver not with anything else all of which you would typically find the Nigerian webmaster involved in.

The problem(?) is that in most cases, the designer is also the dveloper who also happens to be the multimedia guy (some experience with flash) and he is also the guy creating the logo AND the site content. C'mon, you can only ask so much of one person. I think that's why you see so many seemingly half-baked websites in Nigeria.

My point is there is no standardisation in the web design/development (or software as a whole) profession in  Nigeria and as long as that remains the case,  we should thank God for some of the better-looking websites we see from Nigerian practioners (if I can use that word).
There will come a time when the chaff will be separated from the wheat, as the potential online customer pool for Nigerian businesses widens more and business owners being to understand that getting a crappy website on the cheap is akin to leaving money on the table.

Sagamite:

No doubt, I neglected the body of work of most of the coaches (some just don't have any) because, no doubt, if I asked you to explain why Amodu lacks tactical astuteness, you will neglect his body of work and pick isolated cases WHICH would not be any different from the isolated cases of your coaches. You will neglect the beautiful team goals we scored in the WCQs and the fact his team never loses and hardly concede. But I guess his isolated cases must be worse because he is black and they are white.

If it was Scolari that made the subs in the WCQs that produced so much critical goals through teamwork and passion from the players, it is the result of fantastic tactics and inspiration of the players by the coach.

If it is Amodu that does the same, it is the result of luck and individual brilliance of the players, no technical input.

Tell them o.

These people just come here and display such a complete disregard for reality when it comes to Amodu that you wonder whether they even realise that when they do achieve something in their own lives, they will be seen in the same light (other people like them will disregard what they've managed to achieve) as they seem to have no sense of self-esteem whatsoever.

No wonder we cannot seem to cut ourselves loose from the shackles of slavery that still bedevils us to this day.

Scolari ko, Spagetti ni. Abeg, shift.

davidif:

The man is not tactically astute at allllllllllllllllllllllllllllll. If you watch Nigeria's games, you would see the incredible amount of space we live in our defense.

Also, do you want to compare Amodu to Frank Rijkaard who took his country to the semi finals of Euro 2000 or who made Barca world conquerors. What of Spalletti who is widely regarded as one of the most innovative coaches in football. Gerrard Houllier is one of liverpools most successful coaches EVER. He was responsible for the resurgence of Liverpool. Juande Ramos won 2 UEFA Cups, Roberto Mancini won 2 scudettos and Luis Felipe Scolari won a world cup and make Portugal a powerhouse.

NOW WHAT HAS YOUR AMODU EVER DONE BESIDES BEING LUCKY IN TAKING NIGERIA TO THE WORLD CUP

Y'know what? You really should listen to the adults more since you seem to be too young to remember even the most recent events. Here's a short history lesson for ya.
I will try to compress this as best I can, OK?

Amodu (like Frank Rijkaard) has indeed taken his country to the semi-finals of CAN 2002 (African equivalent of the Euros, believe it or not) and won a bronze medal which funny enough, we are still yet to surpass even after 3 later attempts, once with a foreign manager (Berti Vogts) who actually reached the finals of Euro 92' and won the tournament in 96' with his native Germany. As far as accomplishments go, he was one of the most reverred names in the football world at a time, believe it or not.

Amodu, like Frank Rijkaard again has won titles (local and continental) with clubs in and outside Nigeria and is one of the coaches responsible for putting Nigerian club football on the continental map with the likes of BCC Lions of Gboko. Rijkaard had the luxury of managing Barcelona with the likes Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Xavi and it doesn't take a genius to get those sort of players winning trophies.

Your argument does not have a factual spine. You simply watch too much European football and that is your problem. Whether you agree or not, the reality is that Amodu has delivered time and again with the national team, given the limited resources at his disposal and he will remain as coach, whether you finally decide to remove those white-colored glasses of yours or not.

ikeyman00:

pie1lect

nonesense

only a blind-folded man will claim to be blind

hard fact yea when one of your so called away goaless match kenya hit your goal post

u werent good enough cuz u have to depend on mosambique stopping tunisia but your ewudu brain cell has contracted beyond reasoning

nigeria should qualified with one or two matched left to spare; u might not see the fact due to your conditions

Y'know what? I really dont know what to do with this. Its not worthy of a response, seriously.

Eastbay:

No need to continue arguing with you.
Stick with your dimwit Amodu.
If someone came to do your job while you were able to I wonder what that says about you.forget that ogunjobi was indeed shouting.That was a huge indictment on amodu that someone in NFA will take over his job.arsene Wenger won't shout because he's done his homework,and most times we see the output on the pitch.
Amodu won't know what it feels like,because he's not competent.
I'll dream,because I don't let my situations limit me.If in our debut appearance,we got to the second round and we were robbd by inexperience in extra time against eventual runner-up,then 16 years later,we're just happy to be there,then i'm sorry for your thinking and approach to life.
About coaches,it's obvious you're still confused.
Aime Jacquet?You must be something else to compare him to Domenech.
Jacquet had the authority to drop players like Cantona(his captain),Papin and ginola,who were at the peak of their careers at the time.Domenech,and subsequently our own Amodu can't.
the other day,Henry literally mocked his own boss in public.nothing happened.
Besides,Jacque won the world cup.domenech couldn't.there's a whole world of difference in there.Even domestic league titles,Domenechcannot boast of one while jacquet has three.
Guus hidink will not be successful all the time.That does not take away any credentials from him,that russia failed to qualify.
westerhof,clap-trap?yes during the early days,when he was building,but certainly not when the Eagles were in their prime.

i'm tired of defending mediocrityit seems  like you seem to have  a penchant for defending the indefensible.
Name one competitive fixture where we beat a credible opponent.Name one game you were atually convinced we had all it takes to do well in SA during Amodu's reign.
Friendlies discounted,because the gains from the French game have been annuled with shabby displays ever since.
then I will listen to you.

I see now there's no point continuing this argument as you have a penchant for conjecture. It's also obvious the English language is not your particular strong point. You cannot make an argument of your own, you simply jump on what I say and twist them in your own interpretation.
I never compared [/b]Aime to Raymond. I said the fact that the whole nation wants you sacked does not mean you are a bad coach (which is your argument) as most french football commentators wanted Aime sakced [b]before [/b]the french triumph. Look it up on the web if you need convincing. I cant do this anymore. I also clearly stated "through the years [b]since Westerhof" as in "not since Westerhof has any Nigerian team played well". Maybe you'd understand the meaning of that statement if you weren't too eager to pick holes where there are none. It seems you are averse to facts anyway. You'd rather debate your own ideas than the facts.
Im out.

Chuks84, Ikeyman and the youngbest, you guys are just working on conjecture.

There are no hard facts to prove any points you are making. Firstly youth teams are not the same as the Nigerian Super Eagles. I think it was Eguaveon who was drafted into the Eagles along with your beloved SiaSia. If they performed so well, why were they dumped? John Obuh leads an U17 team to the U17 WC final and already you want him to take over the Super Eagles? How enlightened.

Please, I beg. Someone. . . Anyone, please present hard facts (not flimsy rubbish that can be shot down in a whiff) to support your baseless arguments.

Eastbay:

First stop putting wors in my mouth.
I have never canvassed for a foreign coach.Stop talking like you're in a bar.

Hmm, I wouldnt even know what that sounds like.

Eastbay:

I only said amodu isn't competent enough to coach the national team.
Ogunjobi violated FIFA regulations to co to the touchline to shout instructions to the players in the mozambique game in Abuja.i'm not basing qualification on that.I only pointed out that fact to prove amodu's incompetence.

So shouting at the players (grown men, all of them) is supposed to be a sign of competence. How many times do we see the likes of Arsene Wenger screaming on the touchline? That one is strictly a matter of preference. It does not make the team play better or otherwise. It is not a "fact" that proves anything. If anything, it proves that Ogunjobi is too big-headed to know his place in the structure of our football setup - behind a desk.

Eastbay:

From the above highlighted,It's clear you don't understand the tactical angle.That's why you're contradicting yourself on the "international-football-does-not-need-tactics" mantra you've developed.

What can I say? Russia just lost out on a WC ticket. I suppose their coach wasnt tactically sound enough to combat the great tactical team that is Slovenia. Nw you are putting words in my mouth. I did not say "international football does not need tactics". I said, International football is not always about tactics. Its also about pride and commitment. If you are going to "quote" me, then quote exactly what I say. Its about who turns up on the day. Whether Domenech has won anything before or not, the fact remains that he took his team to the world cup final ahead of supposedly more accomplished managers. Im giving you facts but you simply do not want to deal with them. You would rather dwell on conjecture.

Eastbay:

By the way, that your staementwill still gt you shot.

I'll like to see someone try. Maybe in crapland, but in the land of people who think logically, I dont think so.

Eastbay:

Domenech has no titles to his name.
you haven't answered my questions on Domenech.At least you didn't bring up Trappatoni.if domenech is that good,why is he a laughing stock,as the article i posted?Why does virtually all of France want him sacked?the same applies to Amodu.

Maybe you may not know this but most of France wanted Aime Jacquet out before the 98' world cup. He ended up with the world cup. Russians did not want Guus Huddink out, but he failed to qualify them for the WC. So what that prove exactly? My mistake though, England lost to portugal who later lost to France.

Eastbay:

Statistics do not tell the whole story.Let your statistics carry us to SA and let's see if we can qualify for the latter stages.You seem to be crediting Amodu for our qualification when everybody knows Mozambique did us a huge favour.Yes people struggle in Mozambique.But heck we've gone past that stage.we should be world powers by now,but your NFA decides to appoint an incompetent amodu to drag us back several years.
Amodu is already making excuses for failure in the nations cup.wouold a good coach do that?if he is that good,let him win the Nations Cup.then I'll be convinced he has the guts to lead us.world cup qualification is a feat,but we,like France under domenech,got there in spite of our coach.

Westerhoff gave his players international eposure.at least he helped their professional careers.This mumu  doesn't even know how to talk like the coach of a national team of 120 million people.

This is just weird argument. French people want Raymond out because his team does not play good football and they dont win matches either. And they've got good reason. They are afterall former world champions. Nigerians like you want Amodu out because he is a Nigerian even though he doesn't lose many matches and his teams actually play some semblance of good football compared to all the clap-trap we've seen the Eagles perform through the years since Westerhof. No matter that our best result on the world stage is the second round of the world cup (and that was our best team to date). You can keep dreaming about Super Eagles who are supposed to be world powers by now all you want but the reality is that we aint. And you sure as hell know it is due to no fault of Amodu.
Moreover, maybe it hasnt crossed your mind, but the team you are thinking about (Eagles of 94') have long retired and been replaced by a bunch of over-pampered old men who rely would sooner stay at their clubsides than pull on the green and white jersey.

Your last point just beggars belief. There is no national team of "120 million people". And by the way, enlighten me on how the coach of a "national team of 120 million people" is supposed to talk.

Chuks84:

the fact is that Amodu has failed us twice, but NFA disregarded that and decided to hire him once again. it is unfortunate that our football association is run  by nitwits. watching all our qualification matches; one thing was clear to me, our team lacks technical guidance, which is something amodu has failed to deliver. the only thing that has saved the team is the individual abilities of its players, no kudos can be given to the coach. its too late to do anything about Amodu, we have made our bed and so we shall lie on it and suffer the consequences. All we can do now is pray for a miracle and hope we are not thoroughly disgraced at the world cup.

This is what I was just talking about. The total lack of disregard for simple facts. When did Amodu fail us (twice)?

The individual abilities of the players? Funny how that didnt save us against Tunisia in Abuja. All of you Amodu-bashers, please come up with some facts to back up your inane arguments.