₦airaland Forum

Konjour:
^^^ Tell you what who/what says?

i wanted to refer that to Bibanke that was quoting bible pages an verses to support his claims. . . .let him read it out to all of us before concluding

Konjour:
What makes mas.tur.bation unclean? What about married folks who mas.tur.bate regularly? The bible at a point says curses are active up to the tenth generation of the accursed? The bible lists unclean animals in Lev.11 and also castigates Paul for not eating them in the new testament. All these seemingly contradictory loopholes would be exploited by religious fanatics to suit their purpose,The catholic priests who sold absolution of sins in the vatican used the bible to butress their works,innit? For once,the bible never mentioned mas.tur.bation in the ten commandments nor in the subsequent books nor is found in apocryphal books. If a married man died today without any children,and his younger brother who is also married wants to Be Intimate with his late brother's wife,what would your "pastors" say? What would common sense tell you? Anybody who clearly defines mas.tur.bation out as a clear cut sin and tries to perpetuate his judgement on others as sinners for mas.tur.bating while fronting it with self induced bible injunctions is nothing short of an hypocrite,funnily,hypocrisy doesn't prevent you from crawling into a dinghy spot to mas.tur.bate then come out and spit brimstone in the faces of those that openly agree they do. If you think mas.tur.bate is a "sin" that's your problem,if you think its otherwise,that's your issue,but for the very fact that these so called "Pastors" even have contradictory views of the same thing shows that it is debatable,and its not a one-way street as some folks on here have been painting. SMHV

go ahead and tell us what it says

Legitimate1:
masturbatn is an unclean habit done in the temple of God which is the body and thus it is therefore a sin against God. Simple!

the problem with a lot of us is that we have become so used to what we used to know that we would refuse, even violently any fact against it.
Like I have explained before, it depends on whether it is done on lustful basis or just a biological need to release intimacy.ual tension. Just as it will be a sin to look at a woman and have all sorts of lustful desires as opposed to looking at her as a person and nothing more. Thesame applies to drinking, it becomes a sin when you have it to the extent it drives you to commit sin. If drinking was a sin Jesus wont turn water to wine. Christian scholars condemn it not because it is seen a seen by God but it does not edify the spirit, it does not enhance your spiritual growth and adds nothing to your spirituality instead it exposes you to the risk of commiting sin.
This issue must be discussed in context of what the bible says and prescribed and not on the basis of personal morality, sense of decency or what one sees personally as right and wrong. Regardless of what one thinks or have been taught all along, the bible prescription is what is paramount here.
The reason why everyone is shouting Pastor Chris is because he is one of the few clergy that have been bold enough to discuss this issue and instead of joining the herds of self-imposed doctrines, he rather chose to go by the facts in the bible. Anybody that has problem with the facts, should direct their anger to God and not Pastor Chris.

Legitimate1:
masturbatn is an unclean habit done in the temple of God which is the body and thus it is therefore a sin against God. Simple!

the problem with a lot of us is that we have become so used to what we used to know that we would refuse, even violently any fact against it.
Like I have explained before, it depends on whether it is done on lustful basis or just a biological need to release intimacy.ual tension. Just as it will be a sin to look at a woman and have all sorts of lustful desires as opposed to looking at her as a person and nothing more. Thesame applies to drinking, it becomes a sin when you have it to the extent it drives you to commit sin. If drinking was a sin Jesus wont turn water to wine. Christian scholars condemn it not because it is seen a seen by God but it does not edify the spirit, it does not enhance your spiritual growth and adds nothing to your spirituality instead it exposes you to the risk of commiting sin.
This issue must be discussed in context of what the bible says and prescribed and not on the basis of personal morality, sense of decency or what one sees personally as right and wrong. Regardless of what one thinks or have been taught all along, the bible prescription is what is paramount here.
The reason why everyone is shouting Pastor Chris is because he is one of the few clergy that have been bold enough to discuss this issue and instead of joining the herds of self-imposed doctrines, he rather chose to go by the facts in the bible. Anybody that has problem with the facts, should direct their anger to God and not Pastor Chris.

The Bible does not discuss masturbation at all. This seems a little odd since it is such a strong and prevalent human event. And, given that Leviticus has so much to say about sexuality, one would think it natural that the subject would be covered. But it isn't. Masturbation is not specifically declared to be sinful. Nevertheless, we must be cautious to pronounce something to be sinful or not sinful when God has not discussed it. Therefore, we have to derive principles from scripture on related sexual issues and see if we can wisely apply them to the subject of masturbation. First of all, sex was created by God for procreative purposes, physical enjoyment, and the demonstration of intimacy between a husband and a wife. In this context, the sexual act is intended to occur in a healthy marriage relationship between husband and wife in purity and holiness. In contrast to this, masturbation is the self-stimulation to the point of sexual release without the gifting of a spouse. It would seem that masturbation is a denial of the sexual design of God for couples. But, is it sinful? Again, answering this question is difficult because the Bible does not pronounce it as sin. Nevertheless, there is the principle of purity that is obvious true. Does masturbation fall under the category of purity? We can say this for sure. If masturbation involves sexual fantasies and/or pornography, then it is certainly not pure and is very sinful. The Bible clearly teaches that our minds are as important to God as our bodies are and that we are to remain pure in both. Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'; 28 but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart," ( Matt. 5:27-28). Jesus is saying that thinking lustful thoughts is sinful. Therefore, masturbation involving sexual fantasies (at least not of one's spouse) is undoubtedly sinful. But this brings up the issue of a spouse masturbating while thinking of his/her spouse. Is it sinful? Again, since the Bible does not declare it sinful, can we? Let's say that a wife is incapacitated by an accident and is in the hospital for an extended period of time. Is it alright for the husband to masturbate if he thinks only of his wife in order to relieve sexual tension? Again, without a specific declaration of scripture it is difficult pronounce it as sinful. On the one hand, his body is not his own and it is for his wife and he is not to be mastered by anything ( 1 Cor. 6:12). But on the other hand, she is not available. Would his masturbation be sinful should he commit it if he only thought of his wife? I cannot say for sure. Then again, what if someone masturbates with absolutely no sexual fantasy of any sort. Is it then sinful? Again, this is difficult to answer. But, since the Bible doesn't condemn or condone it, can we make dogmatic assertions? Furthermore, what if a person masturbates in order to reduce the sexual urge in an attempt to not commit fornication? Certainly, actual fornication would be a sin, and masturbation would be preferable in this instance. But does this mean that the person is being mastered by the flesh? If so, then that would be wrong. But, does it mean then that a self-release of sexual tension is then acceptable if it is to avoid fornication? Again, since the Bible does not declare masturbation a sin, I cannot say it is.

Damn!! The Winans family is so blessed with the voice, the whole family sings.
Their pastor brother Marvin has a great sense of humour and I liked the way he indirectly told everyone that part of the problem WH had was not prioritizing her choices well. And people should give Bobby a break, even though i personally feel he did not handle it well.
The turning point for me was Stevie re-wording his song Ribbon in the Sky and personalizing it. . .i almost cried listening to him. Rkelly too got me, i think he was crying too, he struggled with the song, I look to you in btw the song.
The ending where the pall bearers were carrying her casket and her song, I will always love you came on, mehn!! I thought the lyrics of the song and the dramatic way Whitney sang it was meant for that moment. . That is when you realy apprciate the song and the heavy soulful laden voice with which it was sung. Mehn, that woman was a Legend, no doubt. Even the governor of New Jersey was there and stood by his decision too. This Funeral service had it all, it did not have to go the MJ way, they brought the world to the church and showed them the Black baptist church version of church service, very interesting funeral service to watch.

I fisrt fell in love with whitney houston at a perfomance show that I watched on MTV, I think it was a grammy in around the time they released Bodyguard and I think the songs were "I will always love You" and "I have nothing" . . .mehn I was stunned by her very powerful voice and her ability to control her voice in a very skillful manner. You know, when she belts. . Mehn that ls when you get that Whitney sparkle, I think she was the one that made belting in pop music popular, that was her trademark signature. Today, we have Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson doing thesame thing, thanks to whitney.
By the way, I am yet to see any male fans of WH that knows about her songs and can sing them more than me. . Lol

Watching her top 20 videos right now on MTV base. . . i wanna run to you.
Mehn, when are we going to have a soulful voice like this again. Few muscians move me like whitney does. . . Damn, i feel like crying men.

Whitney Houston was the female version of Michael Jackson.
Back in the 80s her kind of success was very uncommon and have only been attained by a handful of artiste.
If there is one woman with a mastery of voice control it was Whitney. Whitney will turn any kind of song into a huge hit that will make you forget about the original version. Most of the songs she had covered were not originally hers and had been sung before. However, when whitney sang them, she turned them into a gold mine of her own. Her debute abulm sold over 7million in the U.S and later went on to sell over 25million copies worldwide. Just as Micheal Jackson can be credited with opening the road for black singers into America's mainstream market and being the first black artist to get a heavy rotation on MTV for blacks, Whitney Houston can be credited with opening the way for black female singers into mainstream American music market, she was MTV's first female Megastar. Her second album was even greater, selling over 9million in the US alone, at that time, at that time she was only rivalled by legends like Michael Jackson, Prince and Madona. Her success helped black and minority female singers like Janet Jackson, Maria Carey and Paula Abdul to cross-over with similar but unmarched appeal and success.
Till today, Whitney has the most successful film soundtrack of all time; "I will always Love you" which went on to sell about 50million copies worldwide.
I will always love was originally written by Dolly Patton and had been covered by a lot of artistes-both male and female-but Whitney turned it into a goldmine and her version is the most popular and successful of all the version. As big as Dolly Parton was beforehand, whitney managed to rip her name of the song and turned it to hers. That particular song spent 14wks at no1 at the chart.
This woman was a mine of success and had a very powerful voice that many could only wish for. She was a pioneer and made songs that set the standards for today's artistes. Her personal life may not have been perfect but I choose to remember her by her works and how she used music to touch people's life. This might sound a little sissy but I am yet to a male fan of whitney that has more of her songs and know how to sing them like me. . Lol
geeeez. . .even as I write I am busy listen to one her songs "Hold Me" with teddy Pendergrass. . . Mehn this was when talent mattered in music. . Her vocal range and extreme voice control are qualities that makes her a delight to watch even when she belts she does it in a very skillful way that she does not have to shout unlike Maria whom I feel sometimes screams unneccessarily in her songs. You listen to her songs like "saving all my love", "greatest love", "where do broken hearts go" her duet with Jarmain Jackson, "Nobody loves Me like you do" or the one with Maria Carey, "When you believe".
Whitney is not your regular superstar like lady gaga or Nicky Minaj whom as far as I concerned are not known for their talent in music but just their weird and disturbing images on music videos. Or like Beyonce who has got the voice but still sees the need to sell her abulms using her sex appeal as is seen in her over-sexualized videos. Whitney was more 100% talent and personality, she did not need to dress weird to get attention, turn into a sex object in her videos. Her videos were always about music and love.
Wow!! Am still shocked mehn, this woman is damn too young to die like this. And please lets accord her some respect here, it has not been confirmed or certified that she died of drugs, she was found in a bathtub, and so far the only drugs that have been seen in her hotel room so far are just prescription drugs. Whatever allusion to her being killed by drugs are erronously based on her row with drugs in the past. Let's give her the benefits of our doubts. I believe whitney was troubled and never recovered from her divorce with Bobby Brown, she was claimed on Oprah that Bobby was her drugs and whatever they did, they did it together. Her decision to leave Bobby was not her will, she prolly succumbed to pressure from friends and family, may have seemed the best decision but she obviously did not get over it. Babe, rest in peace. . .you give good loving gurl.

Bobby Brown expressed his love for the late Whitney Houston on Saturday night while performing onstage with New Edition at the Landers Center in Southaven, MS., according to the Associated Press. “First of all, I want to tell you that I love you all,” Brown told the audience. “Second, I would like to say, ‘I love you Whitney.’ The hardest thing for me to do is come on this stage.” Brown heard about the death of his ex-wife while getting ready to perform with the reunited New Edition. Brown said he decided to perform the show because of the support fans had shown the band over the years. During an intermission, Houston’s hit “You Give Good Love” played over the speakers. Publicist Kristen Foster announced Houston’s death on Saturday afternoon.

Sanusi is truely a bigot of helpless proportion. On what capacity is he dishing out monies to so-called Kano victims?
Those of us talking about how this moral gesture can't be questioned are missing the point. If Sanusi feels very strongly about helping the victims of bokoharam in Kano, he should have used his own money for the donation. I am not sure any parts of the constitution gives him any right to donate tax payer's money to anyone, tribe or group. He is a hypocrite and is doing this against the backdrop of his claims of inequitable distribution of wealth between the north and the south. I am guessing this is his own little way of re-distributing Nigera's wealth

MONOPOLISTIC OPERATION IN THE CEMENT
INDUSTRY IS BAD FOR NIGERIA
Public Statement Issued by Ibeto Cement
Company Limited.
The Ibeto Cement Company Limited has
noted a series of misleading press reports
and comments being orchestrated for the
purpose of negating the very compelling
reasons for which the Federal Government
made the decision to reopen our cement
bagging plant in Port-Harcourt and
recreating adverse conditions that will
frustrate the restoration of work on the
plant.
These press reports mostly trade on
sophistry and guile, in order to obfuscate
the truth and confuse the very same
Nigerians for whose benefit our plant is
being reopened.
Quite obviously this calumnious press
campaign is being orchestrated by the same
monopolistic cartel that first contrived the
closure of the plant but their statements of
deception are easily exposed. We wish to
refer specifically to the following
newspaper publications:
a. This Day newspaper of Wednesday July
25; a front page report titled “Cement prices
set to crash”.
b. Punch newspaper of Monday July 30; a
back page report titled “Cement
Importation; Nigeria May lose $647 million.”
c. Independent newspaper of August 5; on
page C1 titled “High Expectations, Cautious
Optimism as Ibeto Cement Returns.”
d. Punch newspaper of Friday August 10;
on page 17, under the Business and
Economy review, titled “Why Cement Prices
Remain High.”
The above publications quoted copiously
from statements issued by certain
representatives of certain members of the
Nigerian cement cartel, namely, Mr. Akin
Adesokan, Managing Director, Dangote
Cement; Mr. Joseph Okonmah, Corporate
Affairs Manager, Dangote Group; Mr. George
Lourandos, Managing Director, WAPCO of the
Lafarge Group (Elephant and Atlas Cement)
and Chief Emmanuel Ukpabi, Managing
Director, Flour Mills of Nigeria (Burham
Cement).
In response to the numerous untruths and
contrived disinformation that are credited
to the above-named persons and the
organizations that they represent, for the
benefit of the Nigerian public, it is
necessary to present the incontrovertible
facts. These are:
1. The Ibeto Cement Company Limited has
not been favoured with an exclusive right
to import bulk cement into Nigeria. The
truth is that about 80% of all the cement
currently consumed in Nigeria is imported.
It is also pertinent to note that there are
only six (6) organisations in Nigeria with
the capacity to import or manufacture
cement. These are; the Lafarge Group,
Dangote Cement, Flour Mills of Nigeria,
Eastern Bulkcem (Eagle Cement), Ibeto
Cement Company and the Cement Company
of Northern Nigeria.
Among these, Dangote has been and
remains the biggest importer of bulk
cement into Nigeria, thanks to the Federal
Government yearly allocation that favours
Dangote with a quota of 6.5 million - 9
million MT per annum, against 3.2 million MT
per annum shared out among the rest of
the other four companies, excluding Ibeto
Cement.
2. The essential information regarding the
operation of these organisations are as
follows:
a) The Lafarge Group, comprising Ashaka
Cement in Gombe State currently producing
a mere 700,000 MT per annum; Ewekoro
and Sagamu (WAPCO) in Ogun State with a
combined production capacity of just 1.4
million MT per annum. This means that the
total output of all three cement factories
owned by the Lafarge Group in Nigeria is
only 2.1 million MT per annum. The Lafarge
Group also has a floating plant in Port-
Harcourt (Atlas Cement), for bagging
imported bulk cement which has a
production capacity of 2 million MT per
annum.
Lafarge, a French company, had entered
Nigeria some ten years ago, promising to
invest heavily in the Nigerian cement
industry. A grateful Nigerian government
threw our doors open, enabling the
company to pick up some very rich assets
at rock-bottom prices. These included
Ewekoro, Ashaka and Sagamu cement
factories. Since these concessionary
acquisitions, Lafarge has largely been
reaping without sowing. Practically none of
the expected expansions promised by the
company in these plants have been realized.
Instead Lafarge manoeuvred itself into
becoming the Lease Manager of the
Onigbolo Cement Factory, owned by the
governments of the Benin Republic (51%)
and Nigeria (43%). Lafarge, which has no
single share in this partnership, has become
the main beneficiary of that investment.
This is achieved through manipulating the
loophole that allows Lafarge to import
cement duty-free from Benin Republic,
which is an ECOWAS member country. The
Onigbolo plant has become a clever conduit
for cement to be brought in from overseas
and laundered through the Onigbolo plant
and then pushed into Nigeria, duty free,
under cover of the ECOWAS protocol. This is
why Lafarge is able to import so much
cement into Nigeria from this tiny Benin
plant with the claim that the plant is
producing at full capacity. The question
should be asked, why is it that La Farge
cannot perform the same miracle in its
Nigerian factories which are all struggling
on at very low capacity utilisation?
The truth is that there is no be miracle being
performed by La Farge at Onigbolo that is in
any way beneficial to Nigerians and the
Nigerian economy. What is going on there is
that La Farge is engaged in trickery utilizing
that plant to smuggle imported cement into
Nigeria. Money lost to Nigeria and gained by
this foreign company, Lafarge, through its
many ploys is in excess of $500 million U.S.
dollars per annum. This situation requires to
be fully investigated by the appropriate
agencies of our government, especially, the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) and Nigerian Customs Service. This is
especially important because of the fact that
there is no evidence that the duty waiver so
far enjoyed by Lafarge has translated into
lower prices for the Nigerian consumer or
substantially the improved welfare for the
company’s Nigerian workers. It is
noteworthy that just before he left office,
President Obasanjo directed the Bureau of
Public Enterprises to transfer to the Dangote
group the Federal Government’s
shareholding in this tiny Benin Republic
Cement plant. Could it be that the La Farge
and Dangote monopoly-promoting and
strategically mutually beneficial relationship
in Nigeria is being exported to the cement
plant in the Benin Republic?
Meanwhile Mr. George Lourandos, the Greek
Managing Director of Lafarge’s WAPCO
subsidiary, prefers to be cunningly
economical with the truth. He appears to
take delight in deceit and influence peddling
by manipulating public opinion and
government policy with false statistics. Mr.
Lourandos may want to explain to
Nigerians by what magic he intends to
produce 5.7 million MT of cement in one
year, from the figure of 2.1 million MT that
his three plants (Ashaka, Ewekoro and
Sagamu) are actually producing. A good
example of this foreign company’s
manipulative ways was, in the recent past,
manifested in their success at contriving
with President Obasanjo to shut down Ibeto
Cement – a setup by the vicious cement
cartel of which Lafarge is an important
arrowhead.
b) Dangote Cement, comprising Benue
Cement purchased from the Bureau of
Public Enterprises in 2001 and still
struggling at a meagre production level of
350,000 MT per annum; Obajana new
cement plant hurriedly commissioned by
President Obasanjo with a claimed capacity
of 5 million MT per annum which in reality is
producing less than 500,000 MT per annum.
Dangote Cement has been in the business of
bagging bulk cement since 1995, over 12
years ago, using Nigerian Ports Authority
infrastructure and buildings. It was only this
year, in May 2007, that Dangote finally
commissioned a cement manufacturing
plant of its own initiative.
Dangote, Nigeria’s largest importer of bulk
cement, has four bagging plants in the
country: the Lagos Cement Terminal at
Apapa Port, the Aliko Inland Terminal at
Lagos, one in Onne/Port Harcourt and one
in NPA Area 1 Port Harcourt with a
combined production of 3 million MT per
annum. With its overriding influence on the
Obasanjo regime, Dangote Cement always
managed to seize cement import quotas of
between 6.5 and 9 million MT per annum.
Keeping hold of so much import quota
enabled Dangote to limit what was available
to other operators. Dangote regulated how
much of their cement import quota to use
and when to use it and so has successfully
been manipulating market prices.
Dangote Cement did not only tyrannize
other producers but also succeeded in
frightening away would-be new entrants
into the cement industry with bogus claims.
These claims included wild production and
expansion figures that were never met but
were accepted by the Obasanjo
government as a basis for the issuance of
import quotas.
One wonders at the reasons for the
company to put the cost of its 5 million MT
capacity plant at Obajana at One Billion US
dollars, when Ibeto cement is building its
own plant of the same capacity for less than
300 million U.S. Dollars. We believe that the
only discernible reason is that Dangote is
acting to frighten away prospective
investors and thereby reduce competition.
More ominously, one would want to know if
these claims on plant costs and investment
costs would be accepted by the Securities
and Exchange Commission without question
in giving value to the company’s shares if
and when the company decides to go
public. We believe that the most viable
strategy for achieving cement security for
our dear country via local manufacture lies
in implementing public policies that
encourage more investors to enter the
cement industry with plants of all sizes,
some costing just about 20 million U.S.
Dollars, as is the case in China which has
over 120 cement factories.
Numerous Chinese businessmen have
approached Nigerian investors with offers
for turnkey cement projects, at the above-
mentioned price and even lower, but the
monopolistic trends in the industry have
proved too discouraging for these Nigerian
investors. Recent efforts by the Yar’Adua
government to create a level playing field in
the country are most commendable and
should be supported by all true patriots.
c) Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc (Burham), the
nation’s second largest importer of bulk
cement has only facilities for bagging
imported bulk cement, which they have
been operating for over twenty-five years
without any known operational cement
factory in place in Nigeria. This company
owns four 55,000 MT DWT ships dedicated
to bringing bulk cement into Nigeria for the
past 25 years. The plant has a production
capacity for bagging 2 million MT per
annum. All the claims the company makes
about developing a cement factory in
Calabar are based on the existence of a
company called UNICEM in which it is a
minority shareholder in partnership with
the following companies; Dangote (22%),
Holcium and Orascom. So much for the
claims of its Managing Director, Chief
Emmanuel Ukpabi of having invested the
sum of $800 million on cement production
facilities. All these false claims are just to
keep Ibeto Cement, a bona fide competitor,
out of business.
d) Eastern Bulkcem (Eagle Cement) which
has a bagging plant in Port-Harcourt with a
capacity of 600,000 MT per annum. The
company purchased Nigercem Nkalagu
from the BPE and is working hard to
reactivate it, despite problems with
shareholders and labour. This company also
suffered victimization during the Obasanjo
era for failing to join in the plot against
Ibeto Cement. It was shut down for 9
months and three of its cement vessels
were prevented from discharging their
cargoes.
e) Ibeto Cement Company Limited, operating
a bagging plant in Port-Harcourt with a
production capacity of 1.5 million MT per
annum commissioned in July 2005. This
plant, erected on virgin mangrove swamp
in downstream Port Harcourt reclaimed by
Ibeto Cement, was certified by the Federal
Ministry of Industry as the best bagging
plant in the country. Other operators of
bagging plants are utilizing developed NPA
facilities. The company is also developing a
5 million MT per annum cement factory in
Ebonyi State, in partnership with the
government of that state. These two
projects were grounded in November 2005
after only four months of the operation of
the bagging plant, by the order of the
former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo,
applying an executive fiat that was not
supported by any discernible rationale,
except for the spurious claim by a foreign
company, La Farge, that Ibeto Cement was
not supporting government
industrialisation efforts by not
instantaneously completing a local cement
manufacturing factory prior to operating
the bagging plant which the Federal
Government had given it permission to
erect.
This charge was duly debunked by
investigations carried out by the Federal
Ministry of Industry which found that Ibeto
Cement was very seriously engaged in
establishing a cement manufacturing plant
in Ebonyi State. Based on the findings of the
Inter-ministerial Committee (made up of
Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Finance,
Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, all
cement manufacturers and bagging plant
operators, Standards Organization of
Nigeria), the former Minister of Industry
recommended to the President to reopen
the Ibeto Cement factory. To the
consternation of most operators in the
industry, except of course, the monopolists
who had instigated President Obasanjo’s
earlier decision to close down the factory,
this recommendation was turned down by
the former President.
f) Cement Company of Northern Nigeria,
manufacturing 300,000 MT per annum in
Sokoto State. This company is the only
producer that is fully dedicated to
manufacturing as it does not engage in
importation of bulk cement for bagging.
3. Concluding Remarks
With all the facts and figures on the ground
especially when all cement plants in Nigeria
are still importing bulk cement, it is obvious
that the closure of the Ibeto Cement plant
was ill-motivated and unjust. It was
definitely not in the best interest of the
generality of Nigerians.
We believe that it was grossly unfair,
malicious and wicked of those who had
enjoyed the right to import and bag bulk
cement for 10 to 30 years before venturing
into manufacturing, to insist that Ibeto
Cement must first build a cement
manufacturing factory, before being
allowed to operate its own bagging plant.
We believe that there is no justification
whatsoever in shutting down a 12 billion
Naira factory after just four months of
operation on the basis of pressure from
monopolists, especially when, with all the
records available to the Federal government
that approved all the applications to set up
that bagging plant by Ibeto Cement before
the company commenced the project
Moreover the Federal Government, through
its relevant officials (including the person of
the Head of that Government, Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo), was constantly briefed
on progress of work as the plant was
erected on that very challenging virgin
mangrove swamp.
For the same people who contrived to shut
down Ibeto Cement plant to continue in the
same vein in an effort to frustrate the wise
decision of President Yar’Adua, made after
due process of consultation with all relevant
government ministries and agencies, to
reopen the plant, is simply unpatriotic and
selfish. They are all better advised to desist
from their efforts at eliminating competition
by all means and concentrate on making
their operations more efficient. This is the
sure way to survive competition in Nigeria’s
emerging democracy.
Finally, we wish to assure the Federal
Government and all Nigerians that, while
running our bagging plant in Port Harcourt,
we will assiduously and relentlessly
continue with the realization of our green
field cement manufacturing project in
Ebonyi State and will do everything possible
to fast-track its completion and
commissioning.
Dr. Ben U.C. Aghazu
Director ( Projects and Public Affairs)
Ibeto Cement Company Limited
17th June 2007

new maonza:
'"Please Dont Beef the Player'" Hate The GAME!!!!!, [color=#770077][/color],  You Guyz now have a feel of what a real entrepreneur is like,  The same thing that drives Dangote is the same thing that drive Steve jobs, Bill gates , et al, Letz pray innoson learns from Dangote

abeg guy no dey trivialize matter like that. In a million years, Dangote can never be driven by thesame business philosophies with the likes of Bill Gates and Steven Jobs. These guys were in fierce competition and only sought to outdo the other through innovation, invention, excellent marketing strategy and price competition. None of them incited government to shut anybody out of business like Dangote did the likes of Ibeto, Eagle Cement and co. . Or Sabotage the products of competitors like they did with Indomie(unfortunately for him, indomie is a very big and strong brand). In situations where one tried to go out of business the other even offered help as was seen between Microsoft and Apple. Dangote will rather he was the only surviving player in a sector and kill anyone that has a chance. You need to go back to the OBJ administration to understand what I mean. This guy would ordinarily not have been able to compete on a level playing field but for the unfair advantage given to him against the others who are as well Nigerians.
He is more into politics than the running of his businesses jare!! There are way better and smarter ways to compete in a market sector than going gangstar and putting food out of people's mouth because you need to succeed at all cost.
Chukwuma knows that there are strong brands in the market like Toyota, Mercedes, BMW and co and yet still goes ahead to compete that is the spirit. His plastic company has got to be the biggest in Nigeria, yet there over 50 plastic companies in lagos alone doing almost thesame thing, we have not heard any story of Innoson trying to stiffle competitors or sabotage their products in the market by sponsoring some bad news or rumour mill about them. Rather, he is comfortable and working very hard to carve his own niche in the market.
Go to the Cement sector, na Dangote is having it all to himself, u go to sugar, na Dangote all to himself fixing prices as he likes, go to oil, he and the host of OBJ emergency billionaires have formed a formidable cabal that are in the business of fixing prices and collecting subsidies. Business man indeed. In a fair Nigeria economy, Dangote wont last in the face of competition with such an approach to business. He will be abruptly shut down by court cases upon court cases of violation and indecent business practice. Somebody like Dangote wont even stand the markets in the west.
And you say he is driven by thesame force with the likes of Bill and Jobs. . Nigga?

It is obvious the Eze guy is an Ohakim apologist that lost out big time during the elections. What exactly is his grouch? Is it the fact that Rochas knowing he is an Ohakim apologist did not pay him any mind during his kano visit or that Rochas dismantled the fictitous 10,000 jobs that all of a sudden came up in the last leg to the elections?
This man Eze is bitter for personal reasons, he can't stay put in Kano and tell me what is obtainable in Imo state. My cousin was one of the 10,000 people Ohakim promised jobs for over 6months only for him to start disdtributing letters of appointment just weeks to the elections, only an eeediot will deny to see the antics that was being employed there.
In the first place, how do you employ 10,000 redundant workers to do jobs that do not exist. Of course, the case would have been like that of Aregbesola where in his bid to be popular employed 20,000 unproductive people and was paying them over N200,000,000 every month for doing nothing productive.
Let's be honest, what will these people employed be doing in the service that is already bloated with ghost workers and the likes. You and I know they will only constitute a conduit for wasteful expenditure every month when there are many projects begging for funds.
It is only in Nigeria government creates jobs by merely employing people even when they wont be doing anything productive to help generate monies that will be paid to them as salaries. If you must employ, make sure there are vacancies for jobs, where the employed will actually work and earn their salaries. It is folly to take the populist route and employ people just to give a placebo to the gullible public that the problem of employment was being solved through unplanned, indiscriminate employment by government for non-existent jobs.
Eze should have told us where Rochas should have engaged Ohakim's 10,000 workers. He should have told us that close to 90% of them had not even started the so-called job as at the time Rochas scrapped the fraud, I wonder who he claims had been thrown out of jobs when in the first place they had to wait forever until Ohakim needed a re-election.
He did not tell us that the reason even Ohakim his friend took so long and could not come up with any job for the 10,000 youths was because there was never any job for them, there was no space to absorb them. The whole decision to employ 10,000 youths was  borne out of a dishonest political move and nothing concrete.
People need to be honest when making their comments and stop picking the sides that help their insincere arguments alone.

alj harem:
Dantata has companies in the SS only because of the Oil buiness he is into

Dangote has branches in Anambra and enugu, I brought out a link not so long ago to Nchara

This is a good development, certainly a stepping stone for US NIGERIANS, AND I am proud. God bless Mr Chukwuma

I was just thinking if he could get the ajaokuta steel mine and Ogun steel as well from the FG so he can get the necessary steel he needs for his company

Of course with the aid of the FG which after some years he might pay back. NO interest

What do you think, do you think he has the capacity to run that as well or maybe it is a bit far-fetch

seriously, Aljaharam are you calling other people's distribution shops and malls Dangote's?? And even so, how is a distribution outlet similar to having a well defined office corner or factory to co-ordinate the sales of his product in the region? Forget abg everyone is getting wiser and people are begining to realize that the only safest place to have your investment in the Nigeria of today- where you are seen as a visitor in other parts of Nigeria instead of Nigerian-is home, your region where you can control and understand better the mindset of your own ppl. Besides, there is no need for him to even go up north, when you have places like lagos and portharcourt with better potentials for sales and distribution.
Another thing, I don't respect Dangote's business philosophy. He is more of a political business man than anything else.
I am in the manufacturing industry and can tell you that his philosophy is to some extent flawed. He is not the type to compete in a sector, he goes into a sector and sought to kill the biggesy players there through dishonest political manuevering and inciting the government to come up with stifling policies that that kills his competitor and put them out of business so he can take their place, monopolize the sector and fix prices at his whims and caprices. When competitors are very strong he resorts to sabotage, gangsterism, formation of cabal and even buying over experienced workers from competitors just to weaken their resolve. The reason why Dangote has become so wealthy is majorely because of his monopoly of many of the sectors, unfair advantages giving to just him as opposed to other Nigerian business men, his political connection, forming a gangstar bloc that fixes prices unfairly and dubious deals that award with defunct companies whose worth were grossly underpriced. Seriously, Mr Dangote is not your average hard working entreprenuer, he is a political business man and rely on politics to advance his conglomerate. Unlike Chukwuma who has not been giving thesame advantages but is making heads anyway and investing in where it realy matters in manufacturing. We need people to go into aspects of manufacturing that are heavy and capital intensive, not just the traditional manufacturing alone.

moremi2008:
It will most likely fail once the Chinese decide to flood the Nigerian market with even cheaper tires! He just can't compete running a factory on generating sets!

It wont fail my brother. Where there is sincerity and a genuine need to help the economy it wont fail. I work in a plastic customizing and packaging production company owned by a Lebanese and I tell you, if they could run their production factories like slave labour camps with a very dis-organized management structure and still stay afloat, then Innoson a more purposeful and goal driven entreprenuer with the true vision of making Nigeria an industrial hub and providing real job with a way better welfare structure for her staff can and will succeed.

I remember when the issue of the feasibility of setting auto manufacturing plant came up and many NL "read book economics" were just busy gi ing a million reasons why the venture will fail, they cited or manner of excuses, even went as far as talking about how they wont be able to meet up with the standards bla bla bla. . . Today they have all been proven wrong that where is there is will there is way. If you listen to what many of these theoretical professors say, their dooms' day lecture you wont even move to achieve anything. Today, most of them are not here to congratulate the man's feat, of course the best way to shut critics is to go ahead and succeed anyway. Once, I am through with my service, I shall apply as a maintenance engineer in his plastic company, currently I work in a plastic production company that is shitty. Applying my skills in a Nigerian company is way more worthwhile.
Aljaherem you and your antics, how many factories of dangote, dantata and co and in the SE.

aribisala0:
It is important to correct a number of misconceptions ,
1.Historically there is no such thing as "YORUBA" .
Rather there were several ethnic groups that trace their ancestry to Ile-Ife.
2.They all spoke what were essentially different languages with huge variations but some degree of mutual intelligibility. I think Nigerians in general need to open a dictionary and study what the word tribe means .
VERY FEW actually know.
3.To some extent all of this was made possible by the influence of OYO. The word "empire" should make clear that there were different nations which fell under Oyo control and influence but  never at one time were  all of Omo odua under OYO.
[b]
If the term Yoruba is to be applied correctly it should apply to Oyo people only [/b]and NOT EKITI,AWORI,IJEBU etc.
MANY AMERICANS WILL RESENT IT IF YOU CALL THEM BRITISH TODAY
COLONIALISM AND NIGERIA HAS FORCED MANY PEOPLE TO BECOME "YORUBA" Who would otherwise be known differently. Those who understand this will understand why it is wrong for any OMO ODUA group to insist another is YORUBA a word that has no meaning anyway.

4. [b]To that extent those who say AWORI are NOT yoruba are CORRECT [/b]in very much the same way that Ijebu ,Ekiti and others are not Yoruba. Today the term has been bastardized to mean all Omo Odua which is a different concept entirely. The Badagry people are certainly not "Yoruba but claim ODUA ancestry and so this can be interpreted several ways

5,Those who say Lagos is Awori need to be more explicit ;What is Lagos? Lagos State has FIVE DIVISIONS HISTORICALLY and was formed in 1967 from parts of the Western region e.g.Mushin and the old Federal capital territory.


BADAGRY
EPE
IKEJA
IKORODU
LAGOS
of the five EPE and IKORODU are IJEBU ,
BADAGRY  is EGUN  but is mixed with others and
IKEJA division which extends up to Sango in Ogun state is quite mixed ,THAT LEAVES LAGOS DIVISION . There are Awori settlements in Ikorodu e.g Majidun and Epe too but relatively small. On the whole It is wrong to describe Lagos State as AWORI either in terms of indigenous population majority (as a large number of Western REGION IJEBU were added to the NEW LAGOS STATE on creation)or land occupied.

Regarding the Ikwerre issue this has been debated AD NAUSEUM several times. I believe it is clear how the Ikwerre people (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH ETCHE PEOPLE) wish to be identified, others should respect that.

like seriously, what are you on about lecturing us about an unrelated topic. To the likes of you, everything always has to revolve around Yoruba so you can contribute you borrowed points.
Incase you are not aware, this has absolute nothing to do with Yoruba and Odua and Nigeria is not all about yoruba, carry your lecture go meet yoruba kids that want to learn about yoruba alone.

I don talk my own already, if my people want these systematic killings and deliberate murder to of the Igbos to stop, we must, as a neccessity kill at least 4 to 5 hausa people for every Igbo person that is slain or killed by the Hausa-fulani killing machine. This is not the time to preach civility and uneccessary peace talk, obviously, we have gone past that stage. . Now it is kill or be killed. There is no greater revenge than a reprisal 5times the provocation. Hausa people Must, I repeat it again, MUST Die to avenge this Igbo man killed in his own home by a foreigner. Those people talking about peace should wait until they lose a relative to the cold hands of these idiots who lately have seen it as a fancy responsibilty to systematically decimate the nyamiris in readiness of an inevitable war that is pending.
The murderer that calls himself a police will get off the hook and prolly kill another Igbo somewhere else. These guys are all thesame from their commissioners, DPO to the idiots mounting roadblocks on our high ways, they have this sense of entitlement like anyone owes them anything, the Southeast in particular has been a target for extortion, every mile has a police check point where they forcefully extort hardworking Igbo men.
Igbos be wise, this was not a mistake, neither was it not planned or has the tacit backing of the Hausa-political killing agenda, there is a strong link here with BokoHaram. Have you all wondered why of all the people they are supposed to post to the east, it always has to be hausa soldiers, policemen and other forces of hausa extraction, they want to contain us, move swiftly to save their people from retaliation when their brothers kill Igbos up north. I implore every Igbo youth to as a matter of urgency, arm themselves and deal with any hausa person they see around, kill them for they will do thesame or infact, are doing thesdame to your kiths and kins up north, dont let them preach peace to you, give them a mark that will help them preach to their own brothers. Take over their space and send them packing. They are nothing but cockroaches that deserve nothing but serious squashing little wonder even God is punishing them and plaguing them with the worst form of body defect and mental incapacitation.

If I was right there at the scene where it happened, I will take the life of an hausa man as well without feeling any qualms about it. People of Onitsha should hunt them right into their caves. . .or better still send the idiots packing. I hate these fools. I dont care if any hausa person in onitsha is not to blame, that is not the point, the point here is to send a strong msg to those uncontrollable fools.

deboah:
O boy!stop deceiving urself and your cohorts,am not replyn u and l dont need ur response,am tryn 2 help those dat ure trying 2 deceive.So,after d test dat was held @ lb(loyola college), dis wkd abj ll be doing theirs,go and find sth else 2 do,instead of abusing dis platform.Dragnet 2u is a scam abi?Vio/dvla is real,2 own office @ Central Area not 4 joke or small boy.Stop confusing people,what do u want 2 gain?

You are a hardened criminal. You, your multiple I.Ds and the other rogues that just registered for the sole aim of perpetuating your scam will grow twisted grey hairs on your pimply buttocks if you continue to lie in wait here for anyone to fall for your lame antics and childish scam.
Hahahaha. . . Now the next line is to claim that exams had been written in Ibadan. . Lol. . Am laughin right now in my Igbo dialect, e be like say na only you and your multiples identities write this exam that nobody knew anything about it until it was written. Lol. How lame can you desperados get. .
You can keep conversing and asking yourself and your multiple I.Ds questions about your fraud. . Lol . .nobody is buying your $hiiit, even a lamebrained slowpoke will know that you and your personalities are internet fraudstars. Keep coming up with em lame antics and i will keep bursting your bubbles. . Hahahahahahahahahah

It is only out of ignorance that you hear some ikwerre people claim they are not Igbo but Ikwerre even when they have no iron-caste evidence of such a preposterous claim.
Generally, a person’s native name, mother-tongue, pedigree and ancestral geographical location define his race. But this may not be so in cases where an individual bears a name and speaks a language unrelated to the one associated with his ancestors. However, when the indigenes of an entire community speak as their mother tongue, a language associated with a particular race, bear names borne only by persons of that race, share boundaries with communities within that race and have traditions similar to theirs, then the inescapable conclusion is that they belong to that race. This is the place of Ikwerres and other Igbo-speaking communities in Rivers, Delta, Edo and Cross River States vis-à-vis the Igbos of the South-East.
It is a well known fact of history that Ikwerre people are descendants Igbo merchants and traders from Arochukwu, Awka, Nkwerre, Orlu and some other Owerri areas.
Unless, the likes of Me Dibia and Elechi Amadi( whose names ironically are names of Igbo deities) are trying to tell us that the Ikwerre people descended from heaven and miraculously began to speak Igbo language. The history of Ngwa and their spread vis-a- vis the founding of Diobu - Port Harcourt would also interest those that are concerned with this subject.
Mr. Onueze Chukwujindu Joe Okocha (SAN) a.k.a OCJ Okocha, is an Ikwerre heavy- weight and a former President of Nigerian Bar Association. OCJ, In his speech to "Ogbako" ( which is an igbo word that has thesame meaning in ikwerre) Ikwerre USA, told his kinsmen that the Ikwerres could have had more than one source of origin, and that Arochukwu is just one undeniable one. He credited the founding of two out of the four segments of Ikwerre to Arochukwu. Barristers OCJ Okocha, Uche Okwukwu and Isaac Nwownu are some of the elites and leading lights in Ikwerre who do not share the total exclusion of Igbo in their anthropology. On the other side of the divide, are the Gowonist revisionists, if you will, led by Elechi Amadi and Eze Frank Adiele Ekeh. They constitute the immediate post war leaders of Ikwerre, who tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to re-invent another language for the Ikwerre. Let's be realistic here, the whole "I am not Igbo" movement by Igbos in the SS started after the end of the civil war, the whole thing is political. Perhaps they started it to better their chances at being accepted by larger Nigerian group who at that time were still basking in the euphoria of their victory and were the ones calling the shots on who or which group gets what and all that crap. However, the reality today is that, the whole hoax has fallen flat on their faces and they are still seen majorly by non-igbos as Igbos, coupled with their betrayal of the Igbo nation, they decided to go into a self imposed identity of being an ethnic group whose descendants originated from thin air. It is equally important to debunk Mr Dibia's claim of Ovunna which according to him was the original ikwerre varient of Obinna that he claimed was imposed by his fictituos "Igbo coloniallists". The word Ovu is Igbo and is not used exclusively in the ikwerre dialect alone. Ovu is commonly used by the natives of Awka local Government Area in Anambra state, it's an open fact and it means thesame thing as obinna- meaning heart or house in Ikwerre dialect and igbo general. This fact points to my early assertion that their descendants came from these igbo towns. Anyway, nobody is forcing them to be Igbo, I personally do not have anything to gain from Ikwerre people who call themselves whatever, Igbo people as a race are extremely blessed and do not need any group to survive instead it is rather the opposite. However, it is our collective responsibility to educate where it is found that the truth for whatever reasons are being deliberately distorted for a political convenience and not neccessarily to teach history.

Let Me put this fact straight. The mail or the post is not about the OP i.e Me, I even made that fact clear at the end of the mail. It was a mail sent by the stutterer himself to Linda Ikeji( a very popular blogger) in an effort to get help from her contributors. The story is not a fiction as Linda claims to have his contact details should anyone decide to further help the guy besides just proffering advice.

THE DILEMMA OF A STAMMERER IN LOVE
Hi Dear ,
I read your blog everyday like it's the scriptures. Now I need your help. I have a question for your readers. I'll be grateful if you can put it up in your blog. I am 29 years old and I'm well educated. I'm quite good-looking, of average height, very smart and financially successful.
In my final year in College in California, I was among the earliest employees to join a Silicon-valley startup that eventually got sold to Microsoft in 2009. I earned a few millions of dollars for my little stake in the company. I just bought my own house in Lekki, and I drive a decent SUV. I'm moderately comfortable, but I think I might be one of the most unhappy people around. I moved back to Lagos two months ago in order to reunite with my family and try my hands in setting up a beverage company. When I came back in November, I started attending this church in my area. That's where I met this girl. Her name is Amaka- I know this because the pastor called her up to the pulpit last week to make an announcement in church. Linda, I'm crazy about this girl. Our eyes have met several times in church. Two weeks ago she even smiled and said 'hi' to me. I'm familiar with the signs and I know she likes me, but I'm scared to approach her. And it's not because I'm a wuss. It's because I'm a very, very severe stammerer- the worst kind you'll find. It's really bad. I'm the kind of stammerer that when you hear me talk, you'll probably get irritated because it takes me so much time to say very basic things. Because of that, I don't really talk much- I just listen. I have lots of male friends who I've grown up with who understand my situation, and my former colleagues were very understanding and accommodating. Even my professors and classmates at school understood my situation. I'm scared about approaching this girl because I fear that if I approach her and start stammering before her like a bitch, she might just laugh at me, or even get nauseated. What should I do? I screwed up a lot of opportunities with girls who seemed to like me in school simply because I did not approach them since I was scared of my stuttering problem. I've grown up having a lot of close male friends and buddies, but virtually no female friends because of this issue. I don't want to screw up this opportunity with this girl. What do I do? Should I just go to her, stammer like a mad man and make a fool of myself? Do you think she'll judge me because of this? Do girls hate stammerers?
Thanks.
Culled from Linda Ikeji's blog
Guys and Ladies in Particular, what do you advise?

I have been to Calabar myself and yeah, the City is very clean and has this pristine outlook. However, I would ve given to Calabar if it had continued in thesame manner Duke handled the state, Calabar as it is, is a little dull, activities there are sloe and the present state government's priorities are different now. Calabar as it is now, is not cleaner than Owerri or even Enugu. Enugu and Owerri in particular are more clean, well planned and aesthetic with better modern appearance than Calabar whose old colonial signatures still very much dot the old city-with the clean and green program by the last administration of Ohakim and the paucity of funds that greeted Imokhe's government after the FG stewpidly re-allocated some of the cross-rivers oil wells to Akwa-Ibom-it was only a matter of time before the strains started to show and the effort to make Calabar a tourist hub started to dwindle thus losing the position of being the cleanest city. Seriously, Owerri is underrated, I know what I am talking about here.

deboah:
I think these guys are now mute,abi is it still a scam?just wait until when your colleagues get busy with their life and u can still go ahead and run job opportunities down may be you have been a VICTIM before well u just have to move on,is it still a scam, ?

ediota!! Ediota!! ediota!!
Who exacrly are you asking such a stewpid question?? Even a mor'on knows it is a scam and you obviously are an agent. Your handlers used the strike as an excuse to indefinitely postpone their so-called physical fitness test and phoney interview while they keep telling people to go ahead and pay for thier scam. . .lol. .
You are here trying to sound like they have fulfilled any of their criminal claims to give the impression that we were wrong? Con man, I am here to make sure I box you and your lies into a corner.
There is no such thing as an employment fome VIO-DVLA, it is a big scam.

It is true, the 2012 NYSC Mobilization list for BATCH A is out. My SChool FUTO already has pasted theirs, i just checked mine and have gotten my mobilization number alreasy, na sorting now be d next thing.

Hahahahaha. . . my cousin got this text from the VIO-DVLA scammers during the strike saga, this is a perfect excuse for indefinite postponement of an interview and test that never were, anyway. . Lol. Here is the text: Got this rubbish as a txt msg from them VIO-DVLA interview fixed for 14th & 21st Jan,2012 is now postponed due to NLC strike.Payment & Lab test also postponed.New dates will be fixed after the strike. . .lol let me ask the mugus that paid, have you gotten the new dates for your imaginary job interviews and tests. . Lol and yeah, the still iterated the need for candidates to still pay up their up "medical fee egunje". . Lol. Hahahahaha. . .all thesr yahoo boys are so damn cold when dem dey do their things sha. . .that money wey una pay don enter voice mail, you all can be sure that they will keep digressing, using excuses until ya'll will get tired and die the matter. , . People can be incredibly stupid and not even realize it,

Hahahahaha. . . my cousin got this text from tge VIO-DVLA scammers during the strike saga, this is a perfect excuse for indefinite postponement of an interview and test that never were, anyway. . Lol.
Here is the text: Got this rubbish as a txt msg from them VIO-DVLA interview fixed for 14th & 21st Jan,2012 is now postponed due to NLC strike.Payment & Lab test also postponed.New dates will be fixed after the strike. . .lol
let me ask the mugus that paid, have you gotten the new dates for your imaginary job interviews and tests. . Lol
and yeah, the idiot still iterated the need for candidates to still pay up their up "medical fee egunje". . Lol.
Hahahahaha. . .all thesr yahoo boys are so damn cold when dem dey do their things sha.

Source?? Dude you funny sha! If you are interested in source, all you need to do is go the parks and see the shear number of people that have besieged it in an effort to leave the place.
And abeg stop encouraging them to stay in a region whose leaders are the mastermind of their victimization. If your people in the east who have not been subjected to quarter of what your kith and kin constantly do to them could leave en mass and leave their shanties and businesses then it is clear what the nessage is. Your ppl listen to Bokoharam directives than any other authority in the land.