₦airaland Forum

Typical lazy post of the escapist African who sees everyone else as been responsible for his problems except himself? so many assumptions but little proven, an attempt to kill off a whole army of problems with a single silver bullet of an unproven hypothesis. A couple of questions for the poster:

1. Do all black sub saharan team consist only of players playing in the PL? please supply details of the Ivorian squad who I know to have a lot of players playing in the French league. Even our own team had players from Spain, Germany and France. Would you in the name of misplaced nationalism now enlarge the net of your hasty analysis to include these other leagues?

2. Must we play using these English PL players? if we really have developed our own leagues or youth system, shouldn't we be able to use local players as the Egyptians do (despite also using players in other leagues such as Zidan).

Your post has nothing to do with colonialism apart from that which exists in your imagination, it rather has more to do with a society of people unable to chart the best path for themselves by utilising the various synergies that exist within an increasingly globalised world where regional, national and ethnical barriers are increasingly being broken down and people are only interested in what serves up the "best" (depending on what your parameters are for defining what the best is).
Instead of always playing the victim card, it is time for Nigeria to learn how others have done it to synergise between their external exports and internal initiatives towards achieving success, the PL has come to stay, there is nothing anyone can do about it but I do recall Clemence Westerhof not using the likes of John Fashanu from the PL when he was the National coach. Nigerians should find out what works for them and stop complaining about what they have no control over, it is the easiest thing to do but the one that has no chance of resolving anything whatsoever.

I'm not sure you read beyond the title. Please go over the post again with a bit more patience

@ poster: You've got a strong point. I won't entirely blame the EPL for African football woes but i must admit, it has contributed to the problems African football suffers.

For one, a look at most African teams now would tell you a bit of the painful truth. The players that are fielded are not necessarily the best but those playing abroad and one does not need a prophet to tell that most well known African players, play in the EPL. Take a look at Egypt. 95% of their first team play not just in Egypt, but in Al Alhy. It would not be surprising that they are the best in Africa given that they all understand each other and they all play the same style. That's why they've been won the Nations cup. Let's turn heads and look at Nigeria's team: Yakubu, Shittu, Yobo, Mikel, Olofinjana and Etuhu all play in the EPL. Osaze plays in Russia, Kalu Uche and Nsofor in Spain, Taiye taiwo in France, Enyeama in Israel, different leagues with different styles of play: how does on expect them to form a synergy with so much difference?

Someone said old players are the bane of African football. I partly disagree. AC Milan's Last Victory in the UEFA Champions league came courtesy of a good number of old players. Italy's last world cup team featured a team that had it's average age at 31. Yet they won the world cup. If those old players could find a style of play that suits them, the youngest of teams will not defeat them, i tell you.

I'm an avid watcher of the Italian Serie A. I support an Italian club. I watch the league not because they spend too much money selling it to the world (cos they don't) but because tactically, they are probably the best league in Europe. And that was what made African football good to watch in the days gone by; great tactics. Not physical, run-and-shoot football or cross and nod game but a tactical game in which the game was not won by speed and muscle alone but by the power of the mind. So the person that has said that footbal has changed and the tactical style should be discarded should re examine his opinion. Why is the English national team crap? Everyone knows that once upon a time, England were one of the top challengers for the world cup but now they've fallen behing the likes of Brazil and Argentina, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and even Mexico and the Czech republic. IMO the united states played better football in the last confed cup than England did in the world cup qualifiers.

As for Nigerian league being about politics, well that's partly our fault. We left things to deteriorate to this extent without doing anything. How many of us have made concerted attempts to raise Nigerian football to a higher level. We have abandoned it to its fate and prefer to watch foreign leagues to the detriment of our local leagues. Yet we complain that the league is dry and not well packaged and all that.

Both sides have a point. The EPL (and pretty much Europen football) has a hand in African football's demise. The rest of the blame goes to us.

@poster: I love ur analysis. If half the total number of Nigerians could analyse like you do, I don't think we would be in the mess we're in now. More grease to your elbow.

I'm a christian but i will not deny the fact that some crooks are called pastors. Yeah that's the way it is, crooks being called pastors. I'm not against giving but I think phrasing and rephrasing the scriptures to favour the "pastor's" pockets is plain fraud. For goodness sakes,  i've been to some churches and the offerings are so much that one begins to wonder just how much he has to bring to church to satisfy the pastor. First there's tithe, then weekly offering, seed of faith, church support, birthday, wedding and outing services thanksgivings, other donations and fund raisings all on the same day, believe me. There are churches that the service starts by 9:30. By 11:30 the service proper is over but the whole thing ends by 2:30. What happens between 11:30 and 2:30? Offerings, thanksgivings and fund raisings. I believe in giving tithe and weekly offerings but when you're forced into making some donations by the pastor's words then it's plain fraud. Pastor says : "if you want to become a millionaire, sow a seed of 50,000" and people troop out not because they are willingly giving to God, but they're expecting a largesse in return. Giving to God is not by force. God wants people that will give to him with their whole hearts, willingly without reservations not people that give grudginly "because pastor said so". God blesses cheerful givers abundantly not forced givers. Forced givers mainly get their money in return somehow. My pastor is not God to me. I can pray to God to bless me and he does bless me. Not some pastor commercializing the blessings of God. My two cents.

Talking about Illegal refineries, i cant really see any meaningful talents in this, order than delinquent sabotage and nefarious ambition.

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For real? Then i doubt if you are a good judge of talent. You sit there in the comfort of your home, oblivous of what these boys have to pass through each day to survive. What they are doing may be illegal bbut you've got to give them credit for their ingenuity. If there were a law in the US vesting all powers of website creation on the government, then Mark Zuckerberg would be a criminal for creating Facebook but no less talented. If you have been unable to discover your talent, don't put down others that have.

What has kidnapping of foreigners,nigerians even toddlers got to do with the struggle when ransome are paid to free these people?.Are these not crime?

What has kidnapping got to do with oil bunkering? Have they kidnapped people in order to carry out their bunkering activities?

A sensible Government would see these boys as potential assets and train them to be the best in what they do, support them to refine their methods of production and make them more productive and less destructive and not see them as threats. All we have is a government that sees any alternative to themselves as a threat. What has the government been able to do with its own refineries? What is the production rate of the government owned refineries? After arresting these boys, they will throw them in jail (if they survive to make jail), the government owned refineries will continue in their state of dysfunctionality, nothing changes. I really don't blame them. When the foreign companies were exploiting the oil on their land and polluting their land and water for free without any returns to them (the Niger Deltans), nobody said anything. Did the government make any efforts to ensure that oil spills and other physical pollution for the exploitation of oil by the foreign companies were taken care of? They were not concerned, afterall, they were getting paid so they don't give a hoot who gets injured but now that these boys are producing without giving returns to the government, they label them criminals and send the JTF after them. What has government done with the money from the foreign multi nationals? How has it impacted positively on the lives of the common Niger Deltan? Call them criminals or what you will but i don't think you should judge them because you are living under better conditions than them. Maybe you should abandon your home and live a few months in the creeks. Maybe you'll understand why they do what they do.

If you know how to use open source scripts, you can start from there (after doing all your research, planning, budgeting e.t.c). If you want something really social and open source, go for elgg. I think it's one of the best open source social networking engines. Some CMS (like joomla, drupal, xoops and pligg) are extended to have social networking features (which require installing the extensions on the website. I make use of joomla a lot and i've used the three most popular social networking extensions : community builder, jomsocial and joomunity. Community builder and jomsocial are premium (you've got to cough up the cash for them) while joomunity is free but is in alpha testing stage and still has quite a number of bugs. I think jomsocial is the best if you want something Myspace and Facebook like. I'm using it on my current project. I'll post a link later so you can see jomsocial in practical use). You can also download and use Dolphin (about 12mb from sourceforge), it's another great open source social networking script. If you can't DIY however, outsource it. If you need more help, mail me @ madkatzhernandez@gmail. com or post a reply on this thread.

I don't live in Oyo state but the name (and face and bling and agbada, and yes, Tura) Alao Akala is not new to me. I remember some time ago, my friends and I were discussing government in Nigeria when the name, Alao Akala came up. Someone said, "that guy has got to be the worst office holder in the whole country. He doesn't even have simple courtesy. The other day, I watched a show where he was being interviewed and the journalist asked him a question that was obviously to his discomfort, something about his achievements in the state. He just looked at the journalist pointedly for a few seconds and said, "ko ni da fun e for that question". The journalist quickly changed question". We laughed and laughed. Seems like the guy deserves the award hands up and down.

lol@ wearing agbada to play. Una no go kill person.

See again, which wan be bleeping. Which kin wahala be dis now. Infact I dey vex.

Hey, someone posted a link to gay porn. Have it removed immediately!

Becomrich, my man! I thought you had gone AWOL from Nairaland. What's the latest on the Yoruba exodus and what are the statistics proving the likelihood of the move's success? (and I need maps)

Anyways, I don't want Yar'Adua to die on Nigerians. Dat wan na big wahala. Northerners supporting a Northern successor vs Southsoutherners (wonder if Beaf will support em) canvassing for Jonathan. It could be nasty.

Only in Lagos will you look left, look right, look left again and keep looking left and right as you cross.

thank God someone started this thread. most (not all) nollywood movies suck! with a very large capital s. infact, from the name to their products, it's all big bull! am hardly surprised at the lack of creativity. they couldn't think of a better for themselves. the covers? God help nigerians. These guys constantly assault our eyes with posters that would better be used in infuriating mad people. Some times, i just feel like ripping em of the wall and washing the defiled wall with detergent to purify it. Really horrible, i tell you. The last three you posted were ok, however . Ije was especially creative.[color=][/color]

@scribesed, go on and make use of joomla. it's a really good cms if you know how to use it. it doesn't matter what cms you use. provided you plan your site well and make it as functional as possible without making it over loaded, you'll be fine.[color=][/color][color=][/color]

@yawa-ti-de, you should understand what i meant with the blanket statement, well, statement. We don't have to go into grammatics and semantics. I didn't fail English Language! . On a serious note, I don't think you are getting my point. My point is that lots of people don't criticise the planning, layout and functionality of most joomla sites first. What they seem to focus on is the use of joomla in the first place. I do not encourage half baked sites and the use of horrible templates but the layout and functionality of the site should be the issue for criticism not the CMS in use. There are lots of sites that make use of popular CMS but because joomla is the most popular, it's easier to identify. There's pligg, xoops, drupal, e701, zikula and others that would not be so easy to identify. Such sites hardly come under the CMS criticism knife because the CMS is not as well known as joomla but once a site is identified as joomla created, it gets the "you're using joomla, aren't you?" bullets. Zahymaka seems to understand me better. The CMS criticism is the question here, not the functionality and layout and as far as i'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with joomla.

Dual Core:
All car owners should learn to drive. That doesnt mean all car owners should drive. But just incase the driver isnt there, they are not lost. Just incase the driver has been demobilized by something, they can still move the car. That's my point.

. Creating websites with CMSs but not knowing how to code is not like not knowing how to drive. It's more like knowing how to drive a manual shift car and knowing how to code is like knowing how to drive both manual and automatic. The person with knowledge of coding just has more options that can help create exactly what the person has in mind. You can't tell me that someone that does not know how to code but knows how to use a CMS perfectly well can't come up with a good website. Would you then say that everyone that does not have an idea of coding should not attempt site creation even if it turns out bad? That would be harsh. If criticising a site, i am saying it again, let the layout and functionality of the site be the object of criticism and not the CMS in use. If joomla is all the person knows how to use, you might as well tell the person to stop creating sites.

Let's face it, up to70% of the total number of people that visit facebook everyday have no idea of how it was created. And they don't care. Provided it does what they want and it looks good, they're ok. A site review is intended to help a site owner create a better looking, more functional site not to discourage the person from creating of the site.

ps @all, I'm not trying to put anyone's criticism down, if it was meant in good faith. I just raised what i thought was an issue that needed addressing.

@dualcore, you seem to get my drift but i don't agree with you that every web designer has to learn how to code. I know that the knowledge of coding is invaluable for web designers but let's face it, not everyone wants to create facebook. what about those who need to create small site for one reason or the other, would you recommend a big book on php, html and mysql? i agree that not everyone should be a web designer but i don't think all web designers have to code their sites from scratch. what about those bankers that are graduates of chemical engineering? would you ask them to stop working because they have no knowledge of balance sheets? the bench mark for assesment should be job execution not qualifications.[color=][/color]

@yawa-ti-de, I may have made a blanket statement but it doesn't cover everybody. It does cover a lot of people however. There was a thread I was reading this morning which someone asked for a site review or something. Here is one person's reply: "joomla at work". Nothing more. No helpful advice or criticism. The tone was rather like disgusted and I didn't like that. It's not the first time i've seen such comments both on Nairaland and off it. I've seen it so many times but that singular post provoked me to start this thread. I'm sure if you check recent threads, you'll find what i'm talking about and more if you look through other threads. Not everyone should learn how to code. That does not mean that web design should be left for coding "gurus" alone. Just take some time to look over some threads that have to do with joomla site reviews. You'll understand my drift.

@dhtml, you're considered a web guru here, so I don't think anyone would make light of a site you create. You're a professional so your sites will generally turn out fine. Am sure you also do some coding when using joomla so you can't say you're using the "pure" joomla CMS so to speak. I'm talking especially about those who are new to using CMSs and have to make use of those not so inspiring templates.

@all, whether it's joomla, pligg, drupal, xoops or whatever, a CMS is used to make site creation easy especially for newbies. At the end of the day, after customizing and everything, you're creating your site. The owners of joomla cannot lay claim to your site just because you used their CMS, afterall, it's not in the terms of use. A great site is a great site, joomla or otherwise and except the CMS is making the site look terrible or less functional, I don't think it should be a criticism point.

Each time I visit Nairaland, I make sure to visit this section. Each time as well, there's always a website review request. I've noticed that people seem to look down on sites done with joomla and joomla users. There's this air of superiority in their replies like ,"I can code, you can't. You're an amateur and you can't create a great site". It's not nice really. Not every one knows how to code a site from scratch so why ask someone that's coming off his first or second joomla site, feeling proud of himself to code a site instead of joomla? I know professionals that use joomla. I use joomla too. I know it can be a great time saving tool and you can get great sites using joomla. There's virtually no category of sites that can't be created using joomla, given it's large extension development community. My point here is, when anyone asks for a site review, don't start harping on about what he used in creating the site. Comment on the site itself, how it looks, how functional it is and all that. Don't make the amateurs feel bad and scare them off web design and development cos if you would admit, coding can be scary business.

Nice, Simple. Or maybe too simple. But an ok site sha as sites go

Hey, RICHIE BOY HATER, stop hating on the chic. Abi she steal your money?

this is some serious stuff. A good percentage of what he's sayin is absolutely true, however. Am a christian but it's no news to me that some pastors have turned their congregation to business deals and when they look over the congregation, all they can see are naira signs and not human beings. It really bad. While i don't like criticizing anything, much less churches, i must say that lots of churches are no better than business centers.! I honestly believe that each and every one of us members of the congregation should pick up our bibles and compare what we see written there, especially the life and lifestyle of our Lord Jesus Christ to what we see in our present day pastors and priests. If we, after doing that still think are pastors are God, it would not then be them deceiving us, but us deceiving ourselves.

@ transformr, If i'm a prof, then you are the VC of Nairaland University of Political talk talk. .

@violent, but are they non existent? If I remember correctly, CNN is not a business only news channel. If that is so, why do they keep highlighting the bad parts of Africa? Is that what will contribute to global economy? I ask you again, do they have our interests at heart. If they did, they would broadcast the good and bad in equal measure. They are not obligated to have our interests at heart but some of us on NL think they do. And that is not entirely true. Are you supporting their highlighting of the negatives in Africa? How would their highlighting our problems help? Like we don't know we have problems. Do you know the impression of the average American kid about Africa? An AIDS infested jungle with rancid poverty. Is that the real Africa? Not all of them have this mentality, i agree, but most do. Do I blame them? No. It's what they see on tv and since noone tells them otherwise, it's what they believe. We may not have everything working out well for us but that does not mean they should throw more burden on us. After fixing our infrastructure, we would then have to deal with an unnecesarily dented image thrust upon us by some eager tv channels. Africa is not all nasty. Realize that.

@ violent, you are so damn wrong. The past is essential for the future. The fact that we ignore the importance of the past is probably one of the reasons Nigeria is where it is now. Most Nigerians see the past only as a memory and not a reference. I say to you again, ignore your past and forfeit your future. Why do you think poor people want to be succesful? Is it not to escape their past? The past has become a reference point to the person and any decision the person takes is aimed at making sure the past does not become the present. What about Nigeria? Were we always like this? My father says that what hurts him about Nigeria's situation is that we were not always like this. How is the past essential? We have to think back and ask ourselves, what made us succesful in the past? How can we bring those things or a substitute of them into the present? How did things go wrong? What can we do to make sure the wrong past does not repeat itself? I am not downplaying the importance of the present but ignoring the importance of the past is serious, unforgivable ignorance, no insults intended. Don't you know that most policies created today are intended for the future with reference to the past? I am not advocating wallowing in the past because that would be using the past as a memory only. I am advocating using the past as a reference for the future which would be using the past as planning tool and a reference. Most decisions we make in the present are based on similar decisions we or someone else have made in the past. Without the past, there would be NO future. Realize that.

@ the amaka, no mind us o! U can see what Nigeria's problems have turned us to; Nairaland intellectuals with no credentials!

I am somewhat with transformr on this one. The foreigners are not helping us much. Not that they are supposed to but am saying this for those who believe that the whites whole heartedly have the interest of Africa at heart because newsflash is lots of them don't. Most of them have their own interests at heart but to get what they want from Africa, they have to appear to have the interest of Africans at heart. Gone are the days when you just foist yourself on people and siphon their resources. You have to appear to be an ally of progress to be welcome. Watch CNN everyday. All you see is Crises in Africa, AIDS, poverty and corruption like that is all we have. They hardly talk about the good parts, our entertainment, tourism and all that. That's the mental slavery am talking about. Most of us watch CNN and believe that without the whites, Africa can never get it right. The seem to be sympathetic to our "plight" but the truth is, a good number of them are not. We are shown daily on CNN and their ilk, how incapable and incompetent we are of managing ourselves, how the white man has been our best friend, how we will go extinct if the abandon us and we believe it. The foreigners only support African leaders that will serve their interests not the best leaders. Look at the leaders endorsed by the West. Not all of them have exactly turned out to be messiahs in their countries. Yet they were endorsed by these same foreigners that can do no wrong. That is mental slavery people. We believe that if our leaders are not endorsed by the West, they will never be good enough. And our leaders believe it too. That corruption is a major illness in this country is a given but if you look properly, even corruption is a product of mental slavery. Y'all have got to Realize that.

Specifically@ anonimi, I don't know what to say to you, really. Have you never heard that the future is the child of the past and the present? We should ignore our past in forging ahead. What are you saying? If your child comes home with a bad result and reminds you that he had a good result the previous year, what will bother you? Is it just the fact that the child failed or that the child once passed but now fails? I will be bothered about the latter because if the child always comes home with a bad result, you can surmise that the child is not brilliant but when the child was once brilliant but now fails then you have to find out the cause because that will be the key to making the child pass again. Africa has not always been backward and under developed. Our problems as we know it started from the slave trade. Reviewing the events between the slave to present day and our present conditions will tell us how to make our future brighter than our today. The past is the key, the present is the door. Both are needed to unlock the future. Ignore your past and you forfeit your future. Realize that.

@SEFAGO & anonimi, I don't get you guys' drift. Is it that the whities had no part to play in our present misfortune or not? Granted we have our faults and a huge chunk of the blame to take for our present predicament but to ignore the role of slavery, both physical and mental would be pure ignorance. Example, Juventus were relegated in 2006 for match fixing. Till today, the only trophy they have won is the Serie B trophy. It is not that they do not have what it takes to win the Serie A or Champions league but they are still suffering from the after effects of relegation. So also is Africa suffering the after effects of slavery. Granted, it is not the sole reason why we are where we are now but it is a serious determining factor. Like someone said on this thread, we are still suffering from mental slavery. The white men made us believe we had to depend on them to survive and a large number of us still believe it. That is why most of us don't try our hands at new things, intentions and discoveries because we believe the white man has done everything and we don't need to do anything. We believe we can never be as good or developed as the white man. We believe the white man is our saviour and we should not try to save ourselves. Some people are actually waiting for foreigners to get rid of our government so things can get better. If we can liberate ourselves from mental slavery, believe we are the only people we should depend on, believe we can surpass the white man, then we will. Mental slavery is holding us down. Realize that.

I don't see anything wrong in a lady keeping her father's surname after marriage. Nevertheless, i would not allow it happen in my case. My mother had to abandon her father's name when she married my father and she's not worse for it. Why should my wife hang onto her father's name? Someone says it gives a sense of security and togetherness with her family but the fact is that whether she retains the name or not, her family is her family and a change of surname does not change her membership of her father's family. Some men may accept it but eventually some begin to feel they have made a mistake especially when the ladies' father's name eclipses his own name like Obasanjo-Bello. The Obj totally eclipses the Bello so much so that few people would notice the presence of Bello. She had no choice in being born to her father but she had a choice in getting married to her husband. Since she chose him, she gets the whole package including the husband's name. Such a thing makes the man feel insecure (yes, we men do feel insecure sometimes) and feel that his wife would pick her father over him.

@koolitos, thaks for your opinion. Am not looking at it finance wise, however. I just want to address what i think is a need. I'm not really looking to make a profit from it.

@Onos55, that site is rather empty, it did not come up in any search results. Was it created recently? Thanks for letting me know there's such a site in existence, however. Really appreciate it.

@koolitos, am not talking freelancing site generally. i'm talking about a NIGERIAN freelancing site. I've gone thrrough almost twenty pages of google search result sites and i've not found any. I know there are lots of freelancing sites but ive not seen any specifically for Nigerians. That's what my idea is about, a NIGERIAN FREELANCING SITE.

@yawa-ti-de,
a) Of course not, how can I check every single result? I'd be married with kids before i finish (and i'm nowhere near ready for marriage now)

b)true, they could suck at SEO. Their loss, my gain.

c)over 100 million websites, not up to a quarter of a quarter of that number is made of quality sites not to talk of freelancing sites. Most people design free websites with webstarts, webnode, jimdo and suchlike and abandon such sites as soon as they are created. They make up a bulk of that number so i don't think I have much to be worried about.

@koolitos, pls tell me what you think of the idea, at least,

@yawa-ti-de,Of course someone else could have thought of it but since i don't know any such person, I can as well assume i'm being original (afterall, i did not get the idea from anyone). I'm just trying to address what I feel is a need. I have googled it and it came up with no direct nigerian freelancing sites so i can assume at this time that there is none. But you did not actually reply my question: What do you think of my idea?

@Mavenbox,

@OP: Never be afraid of having your idea stolen. The better product/service will always win, no matter if the idea is common to both products/services. This, i think, works in the enterprise / digital age. e.g. even after launching your site, who says someone else will not copy the idea and try to release something much better?

Thanks for the words. One has to be careful however. It's somewhat discouraging to be beaten to actualizing my idea.