₦airaland Forum

Ahh, I haven't read animal farm either I'm supposed to be good at English/Lit but your making me feel dumb! Haha

Yea, I guess i should read it, it would be pretty eductional, and I like to read anything & everything about Africa nowadays haha.

Man things fall apart was an awesome book, one of my favorites. It's about time I read it again Actually
was it required at ur school?

Oh I assumed it was a Yoruba thing because the championship is in Lagos. That's good news that it's a national thing tho, perhaps goat fighting will be the new national pastime that unites Nigeria So your a Fulani right? Do u guys do bull fighting also?

^^First off in a country were the average person makes 2 dollars a day a young person With no job who is able to buy a mercades and stupidly crash it into a wall is rich.
Secondly, the police officer in the video said people were 'killing themselves' you can watch it again if you don't remember.

^ that much be why yoobas have such a reputation.

lol Is it really that bad? Can you see actual shit In the middle of the road?

Still believe $450 is too much for a 10,000 sq meter space and based on the State's income they should have built in phases of $100 million. Biggest mall in America, is 320,000 sq and cost $650 million even with inflation rates, Tinapa still exorbitant per sq meter

That is just rediculous. . . 

[quote author=alj_harem link=topic=703197.msg8626504#msg8626504 date=1309485755]bros, u are very stu.pid for u statement

why not go to nigeria and buy innoson car and be driving urself, u can not force people to buy a car from a company we do not trust its safety regulation because innonso is a nigeria made company[/quote]Innoson is not anymore dangerous than the Indian & chinese cars sold in the country. Keep in mind innosson is just a manufactorer of s- korean technology 

@ alj harem What does an int airpoint have to do with anything? C-river already has a state airport at it was mentioned by the director of the project that tinnapa is intended for wealthy nigerians, not foreign travelers.

I recently leaned about the national goat fighting championship in lagos. I think thats awesome. Anyone involved in the sport?  .

LAGOS, Nigeria—It was a good day for the Ram Lovers Association of Nigeria one recent Sunday.

The fan favorite, a shaggy golden brown ram named Gobe, won the main event and got his owner a refrigerator and a dousing of gin and soda.

"It's the power of God," said Lalekun Bayewu, Gobe's owner, a 45-year-old machine operator. "Gobe is like my child, I love him so much."


Nigeria holds the 13th edition of the national ram fighting championships. Video courtesy of Reuters.

Despite a few drunken fistfights, and a single errant gunshot, the 13th annual Ram Fighting Championships went off without a hitch. The sizable crowd on hand represented a growing segment of Africa's biggest city: working-class residents with some cash in hand. Mechanics, taxi drivers and factory workers, lifted by a growing economy, have boosted the fortunes of ram fighting. While the rest of Nigeria depends almost wholly on oil, Lagos has a vibrant informal economy that has helped the city post consistent growth rates.

"Things are improving," said the satisfied founder of the Ram Lovers Association, Bashir Agusto.

Ram fighting—which is also popular in Indonesia, China and Algeria—isn't nearly as violent as dog and rooster fighting. Little blood is spilled, and the rams don't duel to the death. Fights are usually limited to 50 blows before they are called off, though in the finals the limit is lifted.

Two rams are put in a large dirt ring. There is a judge and there are several referees in Ram Lovers Association T-shirts monitoring the fight. Two rams of the same weight-class are brought to the center of the ring and let go. Then they naturally start butting heads. The bout ends when one ram flees the ring. Sometimes, it's over quickly when it's clear that one ram doesn't want to fight.

On the recent Sunday, few fights went beyond 10 blows, although one lasted 98. Only one ram death has been reported since the tournament began, according to Mr. Agusto, who is also known as the grandfather of ram fighting in Nigeria.

The colliding rams have been a welcome diversion from Nigeria's bickering politicians, fighting between Christians and Muslims and militant attacks on the country's oil infrastructure.

One animal-rights group protested the ram fights briefly but came around when members saw that the regulated fights were better than the unregulated ones going on in the street, Mr. Agusto says.

A Sport for the Hard-Headed

View Slideshow

Will Connors/The Wall Street Journal
Supporters of the ram Gobe, who won the Ram Fighting Championship, celebrated his victory.

More photos and interactive graphics
"For rams, it's natural. They like to fight," he says. "I don't like to see blood. I'd probably faint.

While ram fighting has been on the upswing, so has betting. For the animals' owners, the fights can significantly boost their incomes. Owners pay an entry fee of $65 and can win several hundred dollars if their critter wins. Spectators pay a gate fee of 500 naira, around $3. When several dozen young men tried to enter the stadium without paying, a police officer fired a gun in the air to restore order.

Ram owners spend years nurturing their animals, feeding them secret diets heavy on beans and bananas, giving them plenty of exercise (lots of running), and comfortable places to sleep.

Before Sunday's main event, the rams walked slowly onto the National Stadium grounds. They were led by supporters wearing matching shirts and twirling matching umbrellas. Some entrants had their own brass bands.

The announcer read out their names as they entered: Sledgehammer. Peacemaker. Minister. Master. Hercules. One ram, like a baseball player stepping up to bat, had his own entrance music.

Sunday's fan favorite, Gobe, which means "tomorrow" in the northern Nigerian Hausa language, weighed in at 120 kilograms, or 264 pounds, and had the biggest entourage, including a group of children who said they were Gobe's trainers

The Ram Lovers Association spent about $4,000 on the prizes, supported by a few wealthy benefactors and gate fees. Several prizes were put on display: two 100-cc Boxer motorcycles, a handful of 15-inch LG television sets, several electric fans and three refrigerators.

In stands crowded with young men taking sips of local gin and eating beef stew with rice, bets were placed for each fight, ranging from $0.50 to $10. Fights between young men, like the ram fights, broke out periodically.


CAPTAIN

The 2008 and 2009 champion ram, Obama of Agege, won its owner, Mr. Agusto, a car in 2008 and a motorcycle last year. But Obama of Agege has retired, so this year the field was open to a new crop of challengers.

One of the first fights, between the rams named Minister and Master, stirred the crowd. "What is going to happen?" the announcer asked the crowd. "Minister, Master. Master, Minister. Ladies and gentleman, who is going to win?"

Minister won after a dozen blows. His owner won a TV set.

In the main event, Gobe versus Captain, the bout was over after four blows, when Captain ran away, defeated.

Mr. Bayewu bought the ram for about $1,000 six years ago. Someone had offered $8,000 for him last year and was turned down. "I could never sell him," Mr. Bayewu says.

Mr. Bayewu says the key to Gobe's success was training: "When I play [soccer], I bring him along. If I do 10 to 20 laps around the pitch before we play, we'll do them together."

Brimming with pride, Mr. Bayewu couldn't resist a bit of trash talk against his opponent's ram, Captain. "Captain is my wife," he said. "It didn't even take five blows to defeat him."

when are the matches?

^ what they need is an a$s kickin isnt this a public road?

nah, only and exerpt were the main character is talking about getting stuck in some river in the congo and getting sorrounded by charcol black people and they were all wild and animalistic and stuff. . .

lol everyone says its a good book though. did you like it?

^the tax whatever?

@Mariory you must mean not opening the federal port to the state gov? Yea thats a pretty big blow to the whole thing. lol just imagine, cross river state not even alowed to use its own sea port. smh.

^ how?

^^ lol, it was the medival Europeans. The word 'moor' means black/dark skinned or something like that.
Europeans also drew them as black.

But anyway no ones saying modern moors are black . . . So they can chill haha.

Yea it seems like everything nigeria does its designed to copy something else. The Dubai tag is juts plan silly IMO.
there is also a serious lack of advertising.

how on earth did the project cost 450mill? wastefull

^^^ leave them alone? how

Anyway those berber ppl in Mauritania still try and keep black slaves. haratin

I agree with you on that. Tinnapa would have been better near lagos.

But its hard to understand why the location in Calabar is not working out, Calabar is already a popular vaction spot for Nigerians. Its beautiful and completly safe.

The Tinnapa premises also has a dedicated sea port as I understand.  The plan seems watertight.

Pagan Those black fezzan ppl you see in libya are Touregs. Everyone thought they were african mercenaries.

Before arab admixture most berbers where discribed as "black as night" abiet with semetic features. This is debated of course.

apoti:
I've witnessed this stunt on one occasion, it's pathetic that so many accidents and injuries occur yet people still go there every Sunday

So you have seen it? whats it like

Plus I could listen to this reporter all day, sounds like he is singing

Yea i know that guys voice was mesmerizing. Very wierd.  

[flash=480,380]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb9YbmRI-BU[/flash]

I think this CNN report was very unfair to tinnapa, Since when were they armed rebels in calabar? However, they have a point, I have been to tinnapa and it was very very quiet. Why are people not comming?

[flash=480,390]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHQcnSqFb7Y[/flash]

Look at this wierd video I found on YouTube.

There's already a 't-mart' in tinnapa

Perhaps all is not lost. Since palm oil Is Indigenous to Nigeria it is probable that nigerian palm oil will be of higher quality than Malaysian ones.

^^ awesome video, Thanks for posting that.

I can't help but wonder where all that waste goes afterwards though.

Have you thought about growing cassava? Or palm oil?