₦airaland Forum

By Femi Fani-Kayode

‘’Do not call a conspiracy what these people call a conspiracy, neither fear ye their fear but sanctify the Lord your God in your heart and let Him be your only fear”- ISAIAH 8:12

In an essay, titled, ‘’Afenifere: A Syllabus Of Errors’’, written in 1998 and published in Gamji.com, Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi wrote the following:

‘’Anyone who needs a lesson in how not to be a politician, and how never to win power in Nigeria should study Yoruba politicians.

“Unless the Yoruba masses disown Afenifere, this group of degree-bearing political illiterates will lead Yoruba land down its own version of a syllabus of errors, an island unto themselves, allucinating in their own idiocy and content to remain marginalised citizens in their own country while blaming the North for their self – inflicted woes.

“The syllabus of errors remains a black spot on the history of the Catholic Church. Afenifere will be an even blacker spot on the political history of the Yoruba.

Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi’s pedigree speaks mountains of what his political stance would be ab initio. “He probably believes, like other Fulani politicians, that the problems of this country have a lot to do with the shift in power away from the Fulani to individuals like Babangida and Abacha, products of lower cultures’.

“The Fulani of the North, proud of the history of the Caliphate, remain proud of the roles played by Fulani leaders of the political and military establishment in Nigeria- Ahmadu Bello, Murtala Muhammed, Aminu Kano, Shehu Yar’Adua, Shehu Shagari, Jubril Aminu.

“They are sad that other Nigerians do not know the difference in ethnic background between say, Murtala Muhammed and Ibrahim Babangida. They do not understand how a man like Abacha, born to a cigarette-seller in Fagge quarters of Kano (and this speaks mountains of him, how he ruled and how he died), can be taken as the quintessential representative of the Caliphate whose head he disgraced and whose culture and values he sought to erode.

“So, Shinkafi probably believes in the need for a power-shift: Back to the Fulani. He may not be alone in this tendency. Politicians like Mahmud Waziri, Bamanga Tukur, Jubril Aminu, even M. D. Yusufu may consciously or unconsciously have similar views.

“To the Fulani, there is nothing like ceding the presidency or power. If you want it, you work for it…If you lack the stomach to dig in and fight, too bad for you. Southern politicians have always failed to understand the complexity of the North and its politics’’.

These are interesting words from an interesting Fulani man. The disdain and sheer contempt that Emir Sanusi harbors for non-Fulanis and southerners and for Afenifere and the Yoruba people in particular remains intact till today. His assertion that ‘’southern politicians have always failed to understand the complexity of the North’’ is false.

Racist views

Despite the fact that we southerners understand the nature of core northern politicians and leaders very well, we have always chosen to hold our peace, condone their excesses, carry their baggage and accept their strange ways and complicated peculiarities in the name of national unity.

The truth is that it is Emir Sanusi and his Fulani people that have misunderstood southerners all along. We in the South may be accommodating, tolerant and generous people, but our kindness and liberal nature must never be mistaken for stupidity or weakness. That is the mistake that people like Sanusi often make with their racist views and condescending words. He forgets that the culture and history of most of the southern empires and kingdoms predate that of the Fulani Caliphate by hundreds of years.

17 years after Sanusi wrote this piece about southerners, I have decided to respond to him by sharing my views about the core North and its Fulani leaders. This is especially so because we have a hardline Fulani conservative at the helm of affairs in our country today.

Sanusi wrote his views about the South in 1998 when his fellow northerner was Head of State, but I choose to write my views about the North, not when my fellow southerner is in power, but rather when a northerner is President. I have not taken offence at Emir Sanusi’s views about southerners and I sincerely hope that he and his people will not take offence at my views about core northerners.

This essay will not only be deemed as being controversial but its contents will also be keenly contested and scrutinized. This is because I am going to express some home truths here which the majority of our people know to be true but few are prepared to voice.

Conspiracy of silence

I am making this intervention not out of hate but out of love and compassion for those who have lost their lives at the hands of our adversaries over the last 55 years. I am also mindful of the fact that every single person that is a member of the ruling class or that has held a position of leadership in this country between 1960 and today, including yours truly, has to take partial responsibility for the terrible things that our people have experienced over the years, for the criminal negligence that we have all indulged in, for the shameful conspiracy of silence that we appear to relish and for the abysmal and pitiable situation that we have found ourselves in as a people and as a nation.

Those of us that are members of the ruling elite are all, in varying degrees, guilty and it is to partly ameliorate that sense of guilt that I feel constrained to speak out and expose the truth.

I am not a racist or tribalist. I deplore violence and bloodshed. I have no hate in me for any individual or ethnic group and I am a firm believer in the view that all men are equal before God regardless of the circumstances of their birth, their creed, their tribe, their nationality or the color of their skin. Whilst I hold these truths to be self-evident , I also believe that it is incumbent upon those of us that lay claim to being leaders to always speak the truth about the history and unfolding events in our country no matter how uncomfortable that truth may be.

Despite all the insults, threats, misrepresentation and, often times, slanderous and utterly bizarre allegations that I, my family and my loved ones have been subjected to over the years from ignorant, venal and hate-filled men, I shall be counted among those few voices.

If nothing else that is good enough for me and with that alone I would have made a meaningful contribution to my nation’s history and done my forefathers proud. It is with this in mind that I urge readers to fasten their seat belts and consider the following contribution.

When Cain killed his brother Abel, the Bible tells us that God asked him the following question: “Where is thy brother Abel?”

Cain responded in a defiant manner: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God responded by telling Cain that his brother’s blood was crying to Him from the ground for vengeance. From that point, Cain was afflicted with a terrible curse which could not be lifted because it came from the Living God.

Wherever he went, the curse that goes with shedding his brother’s innocent blood followed him. This was made worse by the fact that he refused to repent or show remorse for what he had done. Everything that he did failed and everywhere he went he was despised, rejected, feared, hated and viewed with suspicion by his compatriots, colleagues and fellow men.

Tragedy and misfortune stalked him and he ended up being nothing but a vagabond, a marauder, a parasite and a wanderer in foreign lands. He became a byword and a proverb: a herder of goats and cattle who lived and survived by guile, doublespeak, stealing, pillaging and intimidating others. He became the proverbial leech who made a headway in life only by benefiting from the sweat, labour and hard work of his hosts and benefactors, by sponging off whichever community gave him succour and by resorting to violence and bloodshed at the slightest opportunity and at the drop of a hat.

He also acquired an obsession with controlling others and an insatiable lust for power and the perpetual domination, suppression and conquest of what he perceived as “lesser tribes and lesser people”.

Open defiance

Simply put, he was a dangerous predator who sought to milk others dry and conquer by guile and assimilation. There are comparisons to be made with Nigeria here.

Sinister forces and dark elements from the deeply conservative core North have killed more Middle Belters and southerners than any other in our country over the last 55 years. Worse still, those forces do not just kill but they also establish their own communities in the land and territory of their victims and forcefully occupy it. They have refused to stop doing so and, to all intents and purposes, they have developed an insatiable blood lust which compels them to shed innocent blood at the slightest whim in order to subjugate others and to remain in power.

The South, whom our British colonial masters once referred to as the “rich wife”, has effectively become the Abel of Nigeria whilst the conservative core North, whom they once called the “poor husband”, has now become the Cain. For many years, the Lord has been asking the core North what they have done to their southern and Middle Belt brothers and why they keep doing it.

For years, the conservative core North has responded with defiance and anger and asked God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The result of this open defiance and lack of remorse is simple and clear: It has attracted. God’s wrath. Is it any wonder that Boko Haram now ravages the core North? Is it any wonder that every single core northern leader that has ever ruled Nigeria since 1960 has either been killed or died in mysterious circumstances whilst on the throne or was removed in a military coup and then subjected to a number of years in detention?

Is it any wonder that the core North is totally dependent on the rest of the country for its sustenance and economic survival? Is it any wonder that a UNICEF report, released a few years ago, stated that if Nigeria were to ever break up, that the core North would be the most impoverished, the most backward, the most unsustainable and the most barren area in the whole of the West African sub-region?

Is it any wonder that they were viewed with so much suspicion by others that the core northern states were excised from the country by Major Gideon Orkar in his 1991 coup broadcast and asked to re-apply if they wanted to be part of Nigeria again?

Is it any wonder that the leading south-western politician within the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) is secretly complaining and quietly lamenting the fact that he was used in the 2015 elections by the core North simply to put one of their own back in power so that their hegemony could be resurrected and their agenda of perpetual and everlasting northern rule could be established forever? Is it any wonder that, according to a survey carried out this year by Global.

Terror Index, which was published in the United Kingdom’s Independent Newspaper, that two of the four most deadly terrorist organisations in the world today are based in core northern Nigeria and are led, funded, peopled and inspired by some core northern Nigerians?

According to the report, Nigeria’s Boko Haram is now officially the world’s most deadly terrorist organisation whilst what they have described as ‘’the Fulani militants’’ (aka Nigeria’s Fulani herdsmen) are number four. Is it any wonder that, according to the same Global Terror Index report, Nigeria is now the “third most terrorised nation in the world” whilst Iraq and Afghanistan remain the first and second and Syria and Pakistan remain the fourth and fifth respectively? Given this, is it any wonder that there are loud and increasingly persistent calls for self-determination in southern Nigeria?

Child brides

Is it any wonder that the core North is ravaged by poverty, disease, violence, strife, conflict, stagnation and bareness more than anywhere else in our country? Is it any wonder that, according to a 2015 UNICEF report, Nigeria has the ‘’highest number of child brides on the African continent’’ with no less than 23 million child brides in the North?

Is it any wonder that, according to the World Health Organisation, northern Nigeria has the ‘’highest number of young girls in the world suffering from vagina vesicovaginal fistula (VVF)’’, a disease which comes as a consequence of sexual intercourse with young under age girls?

Is it any wonder that many core North is afflicted with a self-serving and calculating ultra-conservative ruling elite who keep their own people in perpetual subjugation, darkness and bondage and who come from a distant foreign land called Fouta Jallon in modern-day Guinea?

Is it any wonder that most core northerners name themselves after the towns and villages that they were born and raised in rather than after their families and forefathers? Is it any wonder that we have a core northern President who finds it difficult to stay at home?

Is it any wonder that an influential leader from one of the core northern states, who later became a traditional ruler, was an Islamic fundamentalist in his youth, and was one of those that inspired and orchestrated the murder of Gideon Akaluka for “desecrating the Koran?”

Is it any wonder that a core northern Nigerian by the name of Omar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the ‘’underwear bomber’’ who tried to blow up an American airliner that was filled with passengers in Detroit, told the FBI that his ‘’most trusted mentor’’ and ‘’favorite uncle’’ was a well-known and leading core northern leader? Is it any wonder that Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, one of the most respected northern voices in the country, recently, said ‘’the northern Muslim elite laid the foundation for Boko Haram?”

*Fani-Kayode was Minister of Aviation under the Obasanjo administration.

Pray, make i ask u; When was this country EVER united?
Every Nigerian is selfish, bigoted and tribalistic.
You just need to take a trip to vanguard comments section or nairaland to appreciate this simple fact.
The intrinsic ingredient for nationhood and brotherliness was never there...
Anyway, #TeamNameCheckers

Leyelanre:
Must tribalism flow in your blood? Must you call our country a zoo? Can't you offer a comment that will make a difference? My brother, we are in this country together, united we stand, divided we fall. If we all stand as one and contribute our own quota, the next generation won't label our generation "failed". Think about it bro.

Hmmm
Axemen don go international
God help us all

cirmuell:
I even thought it's another biafran that wants to deactivate his account .

I don't understand

Una no go leave igbo people alone.

Wetin join igbo for this matter now?

Leaving after 18 months, Clementine Wallop pens an open letter to the country she fell in love with

Dear Nigeria,

After some time as your guest in Abuja, I wanted to thank you for teaching me:
Patience. If you’d told me I’d spend a year of my life waiting for a Nigerian visa, I might have backed out of the plan altogether and never made it to Abuja. I am glad I stuck with it. Now, if anyone wants to help with my next visa ...
To thank God. Whether you have faith or not, this is a philosophy worth taking with you through life: be grateful for what you have. One night when I had no power, no water, no phone, no candles and my air con unit caught fire, a friend told me I should thank God my house didn’t burn down and that I had somewhere to sleep. She was right.
That a day can only be improved with a proper greeting. Say it with me: “How is your day?” “How was your night?”
The kindness of strangers. It made such a difference to hear people shout “I hope you’re enjoying Nigeria” at me in the street.
That the British Airways luggage allowance is a target every time you fly. However hard you try, there’ll always be someone with more than you (it might even be me).
That if someone passes you a baby on a plane, not to worry, just to give it a cuddle and wait for someone to take it off you again.
Your names — Christmas, Paradise, Endurance, Peculiar, Loveth — are the most beautiful around.

Nigeria's beautiful names, as displayed on Coke bottles
Always to light a candle when showering in a windowless bathroom. The day you forget is the day your power cuts when you have shampoo in your eyes.
Not to ask, but instead to admire, how a car got to Lagos from California still sporting US plates and bumper stickers. My favourite ever was the car claiming on its bumper to be driven by a Texan policeman, though what he was doing moonlighting as a Lagos cabbie is anyone’s guess.
Exactly where my limits are with pepper. The answer is somewhere after suya and before goat’s head soup. Don’t push it any further.
That akara (fried bean cakes) are God’s own breakfast. That eating three akara is fine, four is filling, five is piggy and six is unacceptable.

Akara and fried yam frying in Abuja
How to dress properly. I will never again think holes, frays or missing buttons are OK when out in public.
Overdressing is not a thing. Too many sparkles are not enough, pink is always better than black.
Politics is in everything. When your rubbish bin disappears under election posters, when every taxi driver knows which ministry the former governor of Rivers State should take on, then you know you’re in a place for political animals.
That no avocado tastes better than the one from your garden tree and no orange is better than a green orange from Benue State.

A political car in Calabar, southern Nigeria
That a road trip is never complete without a tyre change.
That anything can be bought and sold. There’s a margin for everything so long as you’re skilled enough to find it.
To express gratitude, not annoyance, when someone says “Clementine, you have added – you look so fat.”
How to kill a cockroach in seconds.
That, unless you want to do the above, to check behind the shower curtain before you get in.

Snappy dressing in Ibadan, south-western Nigeria
The true meaning of the word traffic.
That it’s OK to dance badly so long as you dance a bit, and that it’s OK to have people tell you while you’re dancing that you’re a terrible dancer because everyone knows oyinbo cannot dance.
The romance of Nigerian English. Never again will someone clear glasses from a table with the words “let me decongest this” or park the car saying “let me find some road that’s unencumbered”.
There is no journey a Toyota Camry cannot take on.

That if you need to feel relaxed, there’s Calabar. If you need to go wild, there’s Lagos. That if you want to see history, there’s Kano. That if you want natural splendour, there’s Plateau State or the confluence of the Niger and Benue at Lokoja. There are many Nigerias in Nigeria.
Sculptures in Calabar, southern Nigeria
Sculptures in Calabar
It doesn’t matter what it says your occupation is on paper because it’s all hustle. In my time here I have been a writer, a business advisor and a playschool teacher. I do not yet have a catfish farm but it must be a matter of time.
That what’s in the news should not cancel out the million things that make this country great. You are extraordinary.

My regards to your families,
Clementine

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/12033149/Dear-Nigeria-goodbye-and-thank-you.html

DEFENCE HEADQUARTERS NIGERIA

CHINA TO PARTNER WITH NIGERIA IN THE FIGHT AGAINST BOKO HARAM TERRORISTS
The Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Gu Xiaojie has assured the Nigerian Armed Forces of the Chinese government's readiness to partner in the current fight against insurgency.
He gave the assurance when he paid a courtesy visit to the Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin in his office at the Defence headquarters, Abuja.
The Chinese Ambassador expressed his government's confidence on the Nigerian Armed Forces in the fight against insurgency, most especially, at restoring peace and security to every troubled areas in the Nation. He also solicited for stronger ties in the exchanges between the two Armed Forces in intelligence gathering and sharing as well as training.
Responding, the CDS expressed his appreciation to the Chinese government for the hands of fellowship extended to Nigerian military at this crucial time at ensuring that the needful is done to counter insurgency faced by the Nation.
In a related development, the Acting Sierra Leone High Commissioner to Nigeria, Major General Alfred Claude Nelson-Williams (rtd) paid a courtesy call on the Chief of Defence Staff where he lauded the Nigerian Armed Forces for their resilience and indomitable courage at defending the Nation, especially in bringing peace and security to not only Nigeria but to the West African Sub-region.
The High commissioner stated that the purpose of the visit was to appreciate the great role the Nigerian Armed Forces played at bringing peace to Sierra Leone during it's civil war and the training of Sierra Leone military officers at the National defence College and Command and Staff College, Jaji.
According to him, Nigeria sacrificed human and materials during Sierra Leone's civil war to bring peace and succour to the country. He said that government and people of Sierra Leone would be eternally grateful to Nigeria forever. He used the opportunity to assured Nigerian Armed Forces of winning the war against insurgency and solicited for a continuous and stronger ties between the two countries.

Shooo...
Which kind o joro be this ni
This is very important information gabadaya
@lalasticlala @Seun
Front page please

Sometimes I feel that sudden urge to run away from my beloved country, Nigeria and some other times, I feel that strong sense of righteous anger at our plight as a nation. At the best of times, I feel like laughing; and yet from time to time, I throw up my hand in dismay at the situation in our country. But why should I quit my fathers’ land when I have an equal stake in its success or failure like those who control the levers of power. That would never do! So I have asked myself repeatedly, “Why don’t I just do ‘siddon look’?” And then just pray for the best. As tempting as that option appears, alas, I just find that I cannot do that.

Just when I thought I was making progress, there comes this sense of overpowering urge to say something to save our collective memory from abuse by merchants of fiction and make-believe, masters of equivocation and specialists in sophistry, whose zest for their trade leaves one in total bewilderment at their ruthless professionalism. Even more incomprehensible is a willing mob followership, led by falsehood, half-truths and outright lies. Perhaps more intriguing, and genuinely puzzling is the willing participation of well-educated people, respected professionals, captains of industry and the clergy in the new narrative that has seen a “collective amnesia” weaved around the people. Some people I had held in near reverence are even deliberately helping to concoct and spread some story and excuse as gospel truth. It’s small wonder we lag behind in all indices of development. I had all along put the blame squarely on the shoulders of our leaders, but that thinking has gradually adjusted itself to the prevailing realities by including the followership considering their vital role – especially in the countdown to the 2015 elections.

The promoters of “change” only preach “change”, but pay lip service to the attitudinal change required to bring about real and enduring change. The followers on their part have embraced well packaged falsehoods as a way of life. They have even crowned well known villains heroes of a new democratic order and yet yearn for change. Sadly, the country’s resources have become the gift of a few people. And Nigeria gets nothing but mismanagement, corruption and devastation in return. The people have been sold on a change that does not exist and they can’t seem to see or better still have become numbed by unfolding events.

Maybe with innocence, they have yet to realise that the change they bought into is a mirage that does not exist after all. I have had to reflect deeply in search of meaning and purpose of our race. My findings and conclusions may be termed sacrilegious by some people who have chosen to be willfully blind to the truth about our managerial deficiencies, but I have reluctantly come to the inescapable and bitter conclusion that something is intrinsically wrong with the black man of Nigerian genre, particularly. I have lived in denial for too long. But the evidence all around us points to this fact. At least Lord Lugard stated this much several decades ago when he wrote his observation: “In character and temperament, the typical African of this race-type is a happy, thriftless, and excitable person – lacking in self-control, discipline, and foresight. Naturally courageous, and naturally courteous and polite, full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity … His thoughts are concentrated on the events and feelings of the moment, and he suffers little from the apprehension for the future, or grief for the past… He lacks the power of organisation, and is conspicuously deficient in the management and control alike of men or business. He loves the display of power, but fails to realise its responsibility…..Perhaps the two traits which have impressed me as those most characteristic of the African native are his lack of apprehension and his (in)ability to visualise the future.”

Can anybody genuinely fault this bitter truth as told by Lugard in 1926? Is there anyone out there who can truthfully read these excerpts and not feel the overpowering truth so starkly and forcefully spoken so long ago when the promise of our nation was not yet blighted or turned into dust by no one else but ourselves? Given our experience since independence and considering where we are as a nation today, with our dramatic downward spiral in all the indices of development, I have my doubts. I am sure those who lived in Lugard’s time when he penned his treatise on our race and were sufficiently outraged by the “gratuitous insult” to our intelligence would turn in their graves at how his words have become a guide to the study of our country and our race.

Despite producing some of the best brains in all spheres of human endeavour, the black race, especially, Nigeria is held down by the selfishness and wickedness of a visionless and greedy leadership. Nigeria, the biggest black nation on planet Earth has become the laughing stock of the world community because it wouldn’t do that which is right in order to grow and prosper. Nigeria cannot project power anymore even in West Africa. The country has become pathetically so weak that it cannot even crush a ragtag band of terrorists, who has consistently bested the military in the battlefield. What puzzles me is why a nation that is so blessed with huge resources, human and natural is led by such a visionless and parochial set of people. I had thought that the promoters of change understood the fierce urgency for national rebirth, I had prayed the infectious bewitching and smitten fervour of the “change” would drive real change thereby engendering change from a hobbled down past to a new national order, but it quickly became apparent that the wrong people were promoting a powerful campaign which successfully hoodwinked and sucked millions of people in across the land only for them to manifest the same tendencies and impunities they so vociferously condemned only months earlier. The party in power has not shown any sure sign of the “winds of change”. Today, the contradictions are all too obvious. From the use or misuse of state power, the old ways and attitudes are still very much with us – only that new players rebranded from the old order are now calling the shots.

Unfortunately, the people are too fooled to see that change isn’t coming. To justify their support and hopes, they became carried away with cosmetics such that they started awarding marks and grades to the face of change barely seven minutes into a four-hour test.

And suddenly, everything positive from the mundane to the then marginal improvement in power supply was attributed to the now famous President Muhammadu Buhari’s “body language”. I have friends who swore by their fathers’ graves that it was Buhari who within a week of assuming power, delivered stable power supply to our homes. Typical of the usual mob hysteria, abuse was screamed at anyone with contrary views. The power supply in the country has since dropped dramatically and many homes are back in darkness. When I asked my friends what happened, they responded in faint murmurs, oh, it was the rot former President Goodluck Jonathan left behind that was still causing the power supply problem, and barefacedly walked off with their tails between their legs.

Two weeks after Buhari was declared winner of the presidential election, it was reported in the media that a former Minister of Petroleum and Energy, and a Buhari for-better-or-worse ally, Prof. Tam David-West, told Nigerians to expect a sharp drop in petrol price from the current N87 to about N40 per litre, saying: “The president-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, will reduce the pump price of fuel to N40 per litre. This is possible and he has the credibility to make it work. The major assignment of the president-elect when he is eventually inaugurated is to restore confidence to the industry.” Well, words are cheap. Six months after President Buhari’s inauguration, a litre of petrol not only sells far above N87 in many parts of the country, there are long queues all over the country. It is noteworthy that in April, crude oil prices hovered around $61 per barrel when David-West gave that undertaking. Now in November, oil prices are in the $38 range. And going by his prognosis, shouldn’t petrol be selling for less than N40 per litre in fuel stations by now? But the truth is that it is not available. And Buhari is the Minister of Petroleum.

Recall that barely two weeks after he was installed as president, the propagandists went to work, spreading the tale that the refineries were working at between 70 to 80 per cent installed capacity. When the Buhari mania sweeping the country reached new heights, I remember watching and listening to an impressionable lad saying, “Oh, you see, the refineries are now working ooo. There is now light. Jonathan was just there lying to us that they are not working, oh! Buhari is Nigeria’s saviour ooh! There is now light everywhere.” Then, he knelt down on the ground with arms spread, and in near silent supplication, murmuring platitudes to God for bringing Buhari to save Nigeria. The basis for his gratitude might have been justified, given the level of obfuscation of the truth and the deitification of Buhari, but it was essentially premature, hasty and more than anything else sentimental and without foundation in reason – except for those who are eager to rewrite the truth and handover to posterity half-truths and “true lies”. Well, to them, there is a saying in the land of my fathers: “You cannot beat your chest with another man’s hands.”

The news in town about the refineries is that they are actually not working. They are essentially scraps which have become guzzling labyrinth of turnaround maintenance – euphemism for pouring more money into a bottomless pit. The sadder news coming out of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) group financial report has shown that the corporation incurred a total loss of N120.07 billion between the month of August and September. Specifically, it stated that NNPC’s revenue in August was N146.617 billion, while its expenses were put at N207.287 billion. For September, the corporation’s total expenses were N171.914 billion, while its revenue for the same month was N112.514 billion. An analysis of the report showed that the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC, incurred the highest amount of losses in the two months under review.

Sad to say this did not generate any media buzz. So despite all the talk about sanitising the NNPC and putting it on the path of prudent management, we are still hearing of losses? Where are the propagandists? Where are the tale-bearers? I was taken aback that the president in his “magnanimity” (whatever that means) according to Ibe Kachiku, approved N413 billion subsidy payments to marketers of petroleum products. Are these people kidding us? But in the run-up to the election, the president consistently disputed whether there was subsidy on petrol or not. It is therefore ironic he is now paying for what he did not believe existed. In an interview published in Daily Trust, on May 24, four days to his swearing-in, he made it categorically clear he didn’t believe in the subsidy. Here are excerpts: “… We could tell how much Nigerian crude cost, the cost of transportation from there to the refinery, the cost of refining, the cost of transportation to the pump stations and maybe 5 per cent go for overhead. I can understand if Nigerians pay for those costs. But somebody is saying he is subsidising Nigerians. Who is subsidising who?”

Should I say reality has set in now that he is sitting on the hot seat?

If you think that was all, then wait for this — the National Economic Council last week, approved that $250 million of NLNG proceeds should be invested in the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF). It is the same Fund the then Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, now Minister of Transportation, alongside his fellow governors asked the Supreme Court to declare illegal. Amaechi never wanted any money saved in the SWF, insisting all the monies must be shared and quickly so, and that the federal government didn’t have the authority to save on behalf of the states for tomorrow. He argued vigorously that the states would save for themselves. That case is still pending at the Supreme Court. I wonder how he feels – now that Buhari is building up the fund for the rainy day. The states Amaechi so passionately argued would save by/for themselves are today begging for bailouts to pay salaries from the federal government. None has any savings. What about the irrepressible Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomhole? Remember his claim with gusto that the managers of the SWF could not account for $700 million out of the $1billion contributed to the fund. Well, if it was true, I am sure the president would have fired the management by now. And does it make sense that those who Oshiomhole accused of mismanagement are given another tranche of $250 million to (mis)manage? The “true lies” are tiring out.

Now, where are the “Buhari trekkers”? I am sure they are not affected by the current fuel scarcity causing travel chaos all over the country because they are used to trekking. Or are they? The witchcraft of change appears to have run out of steam. And now, the demystification appears to have begun.

On a final note, having watched some of the actions or inactions of the president and having listened to some of his utterances, I have drawn some painful conclusions that either he cannot make the tough choices, or he would not take the equally tough decisions necessary to push Nigeria from the dire situation it has found itself because he is now a hostage to his own popularity with the masses, which he is afraid of losing. He appears stuck in the past to understand the complexities of a modern economy even if he may mean well. He seems to be lacking the energy and enthusiasm for real change. Those who should tell him that the economy has slipped into the abyss are the ones figure-skating around him and calling him a messiah who has started to make “Nigeria of our dreams” possible.

Shaka Momodu

Nigeria army engages boko haram in sambisa base camps

DEFENCE HQ NIGERIA ‏
Troops are continuing their advance towards the main camp of the BH sect in Sambisa Forest
The troops also discovered a tunnel the sect uses as hideout from military air strikes

@viviangist:
SHUT UP!!
STOP LYING

She was shot by the police!!

Nigeria is not worth 1 drop of blood talkless of dying for

@NIGERIA ARMED FORCES

Troops’ Rout Boko Haram RPG Factory, Slay Terrorists In Damboa

Patchesagain:
- Nigerians start flinging poo
- Complain when they get thrashed

Don't throw a punch and then complain when you get your ar.se beat

LISTEN little biiiitch...

Of all the south africans here, u are the one i have the least respect most contempt for...

And you are the one with the smallest dick, that's why everything is a pissing contest to you.

And i've WARNED YOU before, stay the hell off my fuqqing timeline...KAPPISH?

DHQ

DHQ
UPDATE ON OPERATION LAFIYA DOLE
Troops of 7 Division Garrison Nigerian Army in Operation LAFIYA DOLE, made a remarkable progress by arresting a Boko Haram Terrorist kingpin, Mr John Trankil, at Kasuwar Shanu in Maiduguri metropolis.
Preliminary investigation revealed that 9 terrorists sneaked into the Maiduguri armed with AK 47 assault rifles and a Hilux vehicle laden with 20 Improvised Explosive Devices meant to be detonated at some selected targets in the city.
In a related development, troops of 21 Brigade Nigerian Army, while on offensive operations on Boko Haram terrorists location, with the support from the Nigerian Airforce discovered and destroyed the terrorists' Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and Rocket making factory along Bama-Gonin Kurmi within the outskirts of Bama town, Borno State.
The items recovered includes gas cylinders, welding machine, pipes and poles. Others include locally made rocket shells,
large quantity of assorted chemicals, unprimed IEDs and various technical and laboratory equipment suspected to be stolen from schools' laboratories around Bama before they were dislodged from the area.
The Theatre Commander operation LAFIYA DOLE, Major General Yusha'u Mahmood Abubakar, commended the efforts of the troops and implored troops and the public to be more vigilant and security conscious particularly at all check points, markets, worship centres, motor parks and schools.

Is there a reason these fuqqing south african thrash are trying to derail this thread with abuse

Where is seun, lalasticlala and co

Abeg, my 9ja peops, make una leave these saffers.
Deir talk is just getting tiring and inconsequential.
Dem no reach.
Dem still dey learn work.
Make we focus on this thread pix, videos and analysis abeg.

Boo-Boo's body odour is working!!!
Boko haram is almost eradicated...
in just 2 months!
Sai Dullard- inho
sai king of the north

Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba put the blame on Health Professional Council officials for failing to properly vet these “doctors”.

[s]“Most of these foreign doctors know nothing, even some nurses are better than this foreign doctors,” Maweya claimed.[/s]


http://www.healththenmore.com/2015/11/fake-nigerian-doctor-arrested-in-south.html


http://www.bustle.com/articles/107772-who-is-bennet-omalu-the-concussion-doctor-brought-much-needed-attention-to-a-controversial-issue

Iboman, trained in nsukka, practicing in U.S


http://howafrica.com/meet-nigerian-dr-olurotimi-badero-the-worlds-only-combined-heart-and-kidney-specialist-doctor/

Yoruba man trained in ife practicing in u.s

There are more than 40,000 nigerian doctors working in u.k, u.s, australia, new zealand, middle east, europe, russia and that xenophobic sh*thole called south africa. Most of them are excellent doctors. obviously there will be a few bad eggs.
BUT overall, Nigerian doctors have proved themselves over and over again.

Everybody now claims to be a doctor- babalawo, lab scientist, physiotherapist, physiologist, anatomist, biochemists,market woman, nurse, janitor etc
Dem go just open one pharmacy, PRONTO! dem don turn doctor dey spoil people name.
If it's that easy to become a doctor, go and do 7 years + x number of years in medical school

You can't blame Nigerain doctors just because the MORONIC south africans can't distinguish between a native doctor and a medical doctor.
Even when given 15 years to check the documents. undecided
The fact is south africans are a lazy bunch of morons angry

Oga henry, bone dese Xeno animals.
Dem no get work. Na only ogogoro be deir work.
Dem no worth the toilet roll wey i dey use clean my nyash 4 sapele.
Odawise dem go just spoil dis fine thread.
The pple just carry evil bad belle 4 their heart.
No point of yarning anything with dem as puff no go gree dem get even small sense.
I go advise oda naija pple to try bone dem as well.
e just no worth am to dey yarn wit dem...

Henry240:
Me no go yarn on this matter again. I jst sy mak I clear dem doubt rapidly on this matter, that idea of wanting to dey feel say na dere own no good, na em make I say I must clear dem doubt by fire by force.


We no dey find prsn wey go lik us. Infact, me wan always want mak dem show dem true colours, so tht we go put dem 4 dem level. See as Agaugust say mak em yarn em mind as d matter use touch am 4 chest, na em all of em come just pounce on am like village dog wey see shit.


I wan put dem 4 dem level, make e pain dem well well.... Dem don mad finish. Carry old schl tactics come dey train 4 2015 come dey expect sy make we dey clap 4 dem.


Wetin dem get sef wey persn no go gree hear word again, shuuuuu!! Tht na a similar system wey our navy don use tey tey, since 2011. Comprehensive Digital C2, and na even naija company wey develop am, still install am 4 our navy sef.


Initially I sy mak I jst bone d matter, sy dem no reach, but d way dem carry agugaust matter for head like say na government work na wetin mak me para.... I say mak i treat dem Fvck-up, put dem 4 dere place. If I jst keep quiet dem 4 just continue still dey mumu.

bebe77:
A Nigerian man, Aberie Nwafor has been arrested in South Africa for using fake qualifications to practise as a “doctor” in a government hospital for years.

Nwafor was said to have arrived in South Africa 15 years ago and was arrested Nov. 6 for using fake qualifications to find a job as a doctor at a Limpopo government hospital.

Nwafor's wife, Amara was also arrested and he was found in possession of 14 fake passports.

Last Monday, he appeared in the Polokwane Magistrate Court on charges of fraud, corruption and violation of South African immigration laws.

Reacting to Nwafor's court appearance, Dr Sizeka Maweya of the South African Medical Association (Sama) warned the problem was widespread.

Maweya said: “The Health Professional council is failing us, now we check those foreign doctors from countries such as Nigeria personally, but the problem is that we don’t have capacity, but now SAMA (South African Medical Association) has said ‘let us be the ones who vet them, because we understand the trade’.”

Maweya said Sama had in the past helped the health department to remove two Nigerian “doctors” suspected of using fake qualifications from the Musina hospital and in Waterberg, also in Limpopo.

Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba put the blame on Health Professional Council officials for failing to properly vet these “doctors”.

[s]“Most of these foreign doctors know nothing, even some nurses are better than this foreign doctors,” Maweya claimed.[/s]


http://www.healththenmore.com/2015/11/fake-nigerian-doctor-arrested-in-south.html

http://www.bustle.com/articles/107772-who-is-bennet-omalu-the-concussion-doctor-brought-much-needed-attention-to-a-controversial-issue

Iboman, trained in nsukka, practicing in U.S


http://howafrica.com/meet-nigerian-dr-olurotimi-badero-the-worlds-only-combined-heart-and-kidney-specialist-doctor/

Yoruba man trained in ife practicing in u.s

There are more than 40,000 nigerian doctors working in u.k, u.s, australia, new zealand, europe, russia and that xenophobic sh*thole called south africa. Most of them are excellent doctors. obviously there will be a few bad eggs.
BUT overall, Nigerian doctors have proved themselves over and over again.

You can't blame Nigerain doctors just because the MORONIC south africans can't distinguish between a native doctor and a medical doctor.
Even when given 15 years to check the documents.
The fact is south africans are a lazy bunch of morons

bebe77:
A Nigerian man, Aberie Nwafor has been arrested in South Africa for using fake qualifications to practise as a “doctor” in a government hospital for years.

Nwafor was said to have arrived in South Africa 15 years ago and was arrested Nov. 6 for using fake qualifications to find a job as a doctor at a Limpopo government hospital.

Nwafor's wife, Amara was also arrested and he was found in possession of 14 fake passports.

Last Monday, he appeared in the Polokwane Magistrate Court on charges of fraud, corruption and violation of South African immigration laws.

Reacting to Nwafor's court appearance, Dr Sizeka Maweya of the South African Medical Association (Sama) warned the problem was widespread.

Maweya said: “The Health Professional council is failing us, now we check those foreign doctors from countries such as Nigeria personally, but the problem is that we don’t have capacity, but now SAMA (South African Medical Association) has said ‘let us be the ones who vet them, because we understand the trade’.”

Maweya said Sama had in the past helped the health department to remove two Nigerian “doctors” suspected of using fake qualifications from the Musina hospital and in Waterberg, also in Limpopo.

Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba put the blame on Health Professional Council officials for failing to properly vet these “doctors”.

[s]“Most of these foreign doctors know nothing, even some nurses are better than this foreign doctors,” Maweya claimed.[/s]


http://www.healththenmore.com/2015/11/fake-nigerian-doctor-arrested-in-south.html

http://www.bustle.com/articles/107772-who-is-bennet-omalu-the-concussion-doctor-brought-much-needed-attention-to-a-controversial-issue

Iboman, trained in nsukka, practicing in U.S


http://howafrica.com/meet-nigerian-dr-olurotimi-badero-the-worlds-only-combined-heart-and-kidney-specialist-doctor/

Yoruba man trained in ife practicing in u.s

There are more than 40,000 nigerian doctors working in u.k, u.s, australia, new zealand, middle east, europe, russia and that xenophobic sh*thole called south africa. Most of them are excellent doctors. obviously there will be a few bad eggs.
BUT overall, Nigerian doctors have proved themselves over and over again.

Everybody now claims to be a doctor- babalawo, lab scientist, physiotherapist, physiologist, anatomist, biochemists,market woman, nurse, janitor etc
Dem go just open one pharmacy, PRONTO! dem don turn doctor dey spoil people name.
If it's that easy to become a doctor, go and do 7 years + x number of years in medical school

You can't blame Nigerain doctors just because the MORONIC south africans can't distinguish between a native doctor and a medical doctor.
Even when given 15 years to check the documents.
The fact is south africans are a lazy bunch of morons

Illogical reasoning again
ANC built up weapons in south africa under the noses of the south african army able to engage SA- a perceived apartheid superpower, IRA built up weapons and took over neighborhoods under the nose of the british army, Algerian militants took up swathes of land under the algerian army etc etc etc
It's still difficult to make out your locus standi for these arguments short of spite...
I see you chaps from down under just love abuses, slights and fact misrepresentations just for the hell of it.
I'll just leave u all to play ur little games...

MikeCZAR:
Remember the war is in Nigeria's backyard.

The insurgents which didn't have a capability to take cities built a force able to fight the Nigerian and defeat them at times allowing cities to fall them. They built that force under the nose of west African perceived regional power

Other insurgents groups around the world build their force mostly on the limitless supplies of weapons from their toppled government.

CHANJI!!! CHANJI!!
BODY ODOUR IS WORKING!

MikeCZAR:
No major urban fighting.

Ineffectiveness of the Nigerian armed forces. If challenged BH won't fight down to bare hands defending a town when challenged by a force similar to the one during Amani.

This is just illogical reasoning.
It is impossible for you to postulate "If challenged BH won't fight down to bare hands defending a town"
-Yet these are the same boko haram who want 72 virgins in paradise and are willing to die anywhere-whether in an urban setting or "bush"
-We have consistently seen boko haram engage NA in cities/towns/villages/LGA/units/districts- whatever u want to call it. Maiduguri, konduga, damasak, banki, baga etc in urban combat.
Gwoza is a town and was retaken from boko haram

In the same breathe, you claim it is down to the "ineffectiveness" of "Nigeria armed forces"
Yet we have seen major armies, infact all american coalitions being unable to take towns and cities from terrorists for prolonged periods of time.
Kunduz, Sinjar, kandahar etc is still fresh in the mind as well.
I will assume it was also down to the ineffectiveness of western armies and western-trained armies as well ?
i don't really get your locus standi for the point you are trying to make...

Troops hit Boko Haram fighters preparing meal, advance to Sambisa main camp
http://dailypost.ng/2015/11/15/troops-hit-boko-haram-fighters-preparing-meal-advance-to-sambisa-main-camp-photos/?wt=2

"Insufferable oaf"...
You are not the only one who knows how to abuse people.
This thread is not for abuse but yet you south africans keep spamming this thread with abuse.
You know which thread u can take all the abuse to...
It is just embarrassing watching you act like kids
u keep on insulting people on this thread for no just cause
Most people come here to learn and read and see interesting write-ups, pix and videos without all this abuse.
If you know u cannot abide by that, why not just STOP posting here
CEASE AND DESIST

Patchesagain:
anyway, now that I am done with that insufferable oaf

Time for some South African military humor, courtosy of our man John Dovey (I found him on youtube)!

Some Reservist mortar crews have some difficulty during training....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw-O_xbW6os

Sambisa

BREAKING: Troops demolish Boko Haram guard post in Sambisa, kill insurgents
http://dailypost.ng/2015/11/14/breaking-troops-demolish-boko-haram-guard-post-in-sambisa-kill-insurgents-photos/

President Buhari decorating Lance Corporal Kenneth Kulugh with the Purple Heart medal for gallantry in the fight against Boko Haram during his moral boosting visit to Nigerian troop in Yola Adamawa on 13th Nov 2015