₦airaland Forum

Permit me to comment from another angle. Having spent a while in a Caribbean university as a lone African, I find myself engaging in heated debates with scholars of diverse cultural backgrounds. I spend most of my days studying African matters, religion, and world politics, only because I'm bound to represent my geography at night. I have several Nigerian friends all over the world who seem to be like me for the most part; we debate daily and try to envision the future of Nigeria, and the parts we have to play in it. Armed with my newly matured 'critical thinking culture', I travelled to Nigeria for a long summer break. It wasn't any different initially, I reasonably debated the most insignificant phenomena with anyone that bothered to spare their time. About 3 weeks before my holiday lapsed, and in the heat of political conflicts in Ogun State, my mother made a comment that seemed to relegate the erudition and leadership capacity of the 'Ijebus' and 'Yewas' as compared to the 'Egbas' that we are. I was peeved of course. I couldn't believe my learned mother would descend to tribalism in the name of political solidarity. My brother and I swiftly stirred up a debate predicated on the fact that 21st century politics cannot afford tribalism, and that in two decades-- when the generation of my brother and I are running the state-- there would be no cognizance of tribe or kind because it doesn't have any correlation with capability (and we wouldn't even be able to tell the accents cos we wouldn't give a damn). The argument heated up to the point that she resorted to insultingly shutting us up for the reason that we are not 'matured' enough to comprehend these things; that it would be criminal to change the culture of ethnic delineation in state affairs. She said: "E ma a se e bi won se se e, ko ba le ri bo se e n ri", meaning: "You have to do it as it is traditionally done, so that it might come out as usual", forgetting that the 'usual' state of the nation is corrupted by prejudices as such. . . She almost broke down in tears, and recalled all the arguments we've had with her the entire summer. She said she's the authority, and we are not in the position to challenge that. She said the 'elders' have a wealth of knowledge that is incomprehensible to naive youths like us, and even though our opinions are welcomed, they should remain just that-- opinions.

I don't think this thought pattern is unique to my mother, so my point is this: I think the suppression of critical thinking is fueled by the 'omniscient' elderly folk-- the Nigerian professor tutoring a class of 500, who just needs everyone to shut up and listen, and the Nigerian parents who must not hear your breath when their adult crew are arguing heartily in the living room. I think the scholarly youths are more open to critical thinking and reasoning, and I'll stick to debating with my numerous cerebral Nigerian friends, both online, and in person.

Nigeria's future intelligentsia would be very dynamic I tell you.

419: Oyo top civil servant bags 20 years (AND UNCLE BODE GETS A WARNING SENTENCE)


The world, literally crumbled for an Oyo State Senior civil servant and mother, Helen Olaoye, on Tuesday as she bagged 20 years jail term for fraudulently collecting N4million under false pretence.

Justice Morenike Obadina of the Lagos High Court, sitting in Ikeja, handed down the sentence to the Director in the Oyo State Ministry of Special Duties after finding her guilty on two of the three-count charges preferred against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The convict who has spent 27 years in the civil service will, however, spend 10 years in custody as her sentence of 10 years each on each of the two-count charge for which she was convicted would run concurrently.

Helen Olaoye was arraigned in August 2005 by EFCC for allegedly defrauding one Segun Olorunfunmi and Yemi Adepoju of East Atlantic Business Support services of the sum of N4 million on the false pretence that the money was for part-payment for security deposit/contract guarantee in respect of an information technology project to be financed by the Department for International Development (DID).
After a careful evaluation of the arguments of both the prosecution and the defence, Justice Obadina held that Olaoye was the initiator and mastermind of the scam.

According to the court, contrary to the claim of the convict that she acted in concert with Oyo State Government, she acted out of her own volition without any link to the State as she was disowned in a letter sent to EFCC during investigations of the matter.

According to the trial judge, the purported DID used to hoodwink the victims was a ruse and non-existent but merely used as cover to perpetrate the crime under the guise of embarking on E-Government project in Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, Kwara and Kogi States.

While the court held that a committee was set up for the purpose of similar projects in Oyo State, Olaoye suggested the hoax deal through which she collected N4 million from the unsuspecting victims.
“She is a director and senior civil servant with experience with international agencies. She suggested the project to the committee. She invested her personal fund on the project. All the documents relating to the project were recovered in her private residence,” the court held.

Justice Obadina held that her latter testimonies in her evidence-in-chief contained a lot of after thoughts as she did not include them in her statement to the EFCC when the matter was fresh in her memory.
Consequently, the court found her guilty of acting in concert with one Dr. E. Balogun to perpetrate the crime.

Aywire:
That man has suffered enough. He must have offended PDP thats why he cant escape diz mess dat many others have majestically strolled out of.

you gotta b kidding

Stupid militants didn't know this all along??

Incredibly dumb commercial.

bawomolo:
maps have never harmed anyone. bring it on.

but a million satellite images can

naijababe:
Having a lot of time on my hands these days gives me the opportunity to visit NL a lot more often than I used to. I enjoy coming to NL for a variety of reasons; chief of which is the comedy factor. My visits have however translated into grouping nairalanders into categories that I'd group Nigerians as below:

1) The Ostriches: A vast majority of NLs and Nigerians belong in this group; this group also have a large subset namely:
a) Ethnicists - those who believe in the Utopia that will evolve once their ethnic group is carved out of Nigeria because they are the best of Nigeria. You can't even say goodmorning to these people without the conversation degenerating into some tribalistic BS
b) Faithfuls - the ones who believe only in the God factor, these ones are waiting for God to come and solve their man-made problems, IMO they have their heads in the clouds most of the time
c) The fanatics - very similar to the ethnicists, every thread degenerates into a religious fisticuff. A lot of these people I personally find irritating
d) Elites - The ones who do not see anything wrong with Nigeria because their position does not allow them to do so
2) The Ignorants - These people provide the comedy I alluded to ealier, some of them believe that grammar equals intelligence and when backed to corner will resort to insults. All most all the time everything to them is either black or white, you'll have a hard time having a sensible conversation with them and for this group common sense is not common
3) The realists - IMO, these people will always back up their arguments with facts and aren't usually unwilling to stand corrected when proved wrong
4) The Grazers - These people are mostly spectators, their attitude is that of "siddon look"
5) The Idiots - The fuddyduddies who provide even greater comedy than the Ignorants.

You don't mean "BECOMERICH" do you?

WHO THE HELL IS MOHAMMED FREAKING SAMBO. Kaduna state? what the

Biden- We are looking for gas to meet 6000mw target.

franktolk:
view Shuaibu Amodu's comments after the match in kenya.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBNPB4ZCw3Q

I HATE that stadium!

And what's with the kids at the end??

See how 'fresh' the naija boys looked at the airport here

[flash=400,360]http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/jIzTXFEgvnQ&feature=channel[/flash]

Please support the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital development project.

www.oouthdevelopmentproject.com

Thanks.

Dominican Republic and Dominica are two completely different countries. You DO NOT want to hustle in either-- especially Dominica!

Stay wherever you are.

i just meant that d poster was addressing the lazy nigerians at home not the diasporans.

No kobojunkie, It's about the lazy arse dummies at premiership football centres waiting for 24hr power supply before they start a life.

Gabry:
I believe mine has a negative side to it by saying that[b] I have different personalities and its hard to predict what will come out of me[/b]. Isnt that negative enough? So I dont think theres anything to be proud about ooo

I believe being unpredictable is a splendid compliment.

Y'all wouldn't agree as much if he gave you negative 'truths'. It's like a horoscope: I see it all as a brilliant art of toying with your egos. If Gabry's assessment was switched with say 'accopen's, the pair, most likely, would have marveled at his 'psychic abilities', and concurred still. . .

Not trying to be insensitive but, I'm almost certain I heard he died like half a decade ago. I can almost hear the words "Steve the sleek kadiri is dead" in my head. Or was it just when he was soliciting financial support for a surgery or something 

Forgive me if it sounds outrageous; must be one of my brain spells.

RIP sha

Very petty criticisms Emeka. Beautiful website. downloaded.

Nigeria has been raped and murdered.

white cars in IB

Jakumo:
I saw Father Xmas once, and I'll never forget it.   I was aboard a translantic jet at 35 thousand feet in clear skies, and with a slight westerly wind, just off the coast of Newfoundland, in mid-winter.  I looked out the window after what must have been my 5th martini, and there, before my disbelieving eyes, was old Saint Nick himself, aboard his magic sleigh.   He was cruising at a brisk airspeed well in excess of 400 knots because his beard has bent backward in the slipstream, and his eyes were watery despite the ski goggles he was wearing.  I remember being rather upset at the way he kept flogging those reindeer to make them go faster, but he paid absolutely no attention to my frantic gesticulations that he give them a break. 

I asked the pilot to turn left on an intercept heading of approximately 075 degrees, so I could get a better look at the old fart, and to my delight, I could clearly see, in his gunny sack of goodies, the distinct outline of at least two of the Raider's cheerleaders that I had repeatedly requested as Xmas presents during the preceding year.   Sensing an opportunity to take posession of the women right away, I asked for the landing lights to be illuminated, in the hopes of forcing Santa Klaus into an emergency descent towards at Gander Airport, which at the time was a mere 80 nautical miles due west.

To cut a long story short, Santa took evasive action, climbing up in an inverted loop to bleed off airspeed, and then dropping out of sight in a classic barrel roll that took his sleigh down through a cumulo-nimbus cloud formation which suddenly appeared as if by magic.  Enraged by my pilot's inability to keep the bogey in sight, I asked for his resignation papers as soon as we were on terra firma, and to this day, I have refrained from ever travelling that particular route again, no matter the fuel savings.

Oh bloody hell I opened this ridiculous thread only because I saw that Jakumo just posted.

Ok man, it's about time we met. How?

800,000 students to protest nude in Washington Friday. Arewa

God Bless Nigeria

CNN can burn to ashes for all we care.

Want a series of reports that actually makes sense? http://www.youtube.com/user/ABNDigital#play/uploads/2/pVNMhYYFl9g and look up 'eye on lagos'

The Ibom International airport is already completed.

Nigeria is winning this tournament

See game see game!

YEE see chance!

Redman44:
I know the NFF cowboys will be smiling in secret now. God won't allow them sacrifice Siasia. Amen.

They'll be so quick to fire him if they come out 4th in this tourney

aarg!