₦airaland Forum

u

The Oba of Benin has consistently proven to be the only prominent traditional ruler in the South that treats his position with the utmost seriousness, sincerity, pride,honour and dignity it deserves.

May God help us to realize in time the importance of having more serious people holding positions of relevance in our traditional establishments. Hopefully this will save them from the impending de-establishment fervor the actions of the majority titled buffoonery have encouraged.

Rest in peace Princess.

May God continue to comfort her family and mightly bless all Nairalanders who showed her love while she was still alive.

I am weeping now, but I know the tears are more for my countrymen and my country as a whole.

But I believe hope exists and this thread is proof of it- God bless you all.

As indicated by most of the responses on this thread the OP has failed woefully and if he still has plans of putting forward a part 2, I'd strongly advise against it.

IMO this has occurred mainly due to the mouthfuls of insincerity inherent within the write up. I mean I do not doubt the genuineness of his intentions, but that does not excuse writing a largely stereotypical piece and calling it fact .

Furthermore his cause is not helped by outlandishly impractical statements like "Awolowo betrayed Biafra" (lol) or poor enough scholarship as to maintain Igbos are culturally more subservient than the Yoruba peoples.

Anyway all I can see here is a good political piece, I'm struggling to encounter fact let alone truth. The plain truth would have been "if Igbos have a problem with Yorubas, it's really their fault (ie. the igboman)" and "if Yorubas have a problem with Igbos, it's really their fault (ie. the yorubaman); as that is the fact that peaceful coexistence in most of southern Nigeria and the diaspora supports.

[size=14pt] @ OP [/size]

As someone who purports to having a graduate education can you show the common decency of editing your original post and[b] properly referencing the original author and the website you culled the article from.[/b]

I'm guessing that's the least you can do after helping yourself to all this undeserved praise.

Obiagu1:
Who led the coup is open for debate. Some said Theophilus Danjuma, some said Muritala Mohammed. Who actually led the coup? All I know was that Yakubu Gowon, a Northerner, was already the Army Chief. Was that the highest position in the Army? Yes. So they did not pick him from nowhere and my mind tells me he pulled the strings from the top. Theophilus Danjuma and Muritala Mohammed were mere foot soldiers.

When it comes to stepping down, I don't know if anyone had ever done that. Ojukwu was already the leader and there was no debate about who should lead. You said you would have stepped down but there was no reason for that except you feel you are not competent or qualified to lead and I believe you wouldn't have stepped down either. There was no precedent to base your judgement on.

How was the minorities not carried along? Was the 2IC not a minority? Probably because he was not an Ijaw man. Every decision taken before the war involved everyone. You can't dispute that.

Why did we lose that war? Maybe you should look into the crash of a plane in Cameroon that was carrying arms to Biafra before the war started.

Obiagu1, for someone who seems to get so riled about 60s politics/history, you tend to need a lot of correction.

The point in bold is factually wrong. Even if you think about it in the recent past in Nigeria, anytime there is a Military Regime, the COAS is not the most senior army officer (the most senior one besides obviously the HOS are either the CGS, CDS etc).

Anyway in this case when Lt.Col Gowon was appointed COAS in Jan 1966 there were a host of southern officers that senioredhim which he regularly saluted, and they were given what was considered at that time far more influential positions in the Supreme hq, though the immediate next after Ironsi was Brig Gen Ogundipe, who became the CGS (effectively the VP), which was the role Ironsi held before he became HOS. Even both the southern Military Governors, Col Fajuyi and Lt Col Ojukwu both seniored him, and I’m surprised you don’t know Ojukwu seniored him which was another clash they had before/during the war.

Anyway after the northerners had done what they did in the ,counter coup later that year, Brig Ogundipe, Col Adebayo , Col Ejoor and Lt Col Ojukwu were still around and effectively his seniors. If you need links, google or go check Ojukwu’s Wiki page.

I don't know why people are bothering themselves with OP opinions, seeing that he can't appreciate what the universal concept of goverment entails let alone grasp the simplest of parameters involved in setting up an anology

[b] @jason123 your analogy is flawed[u] because the president is not your father,[/u] [/b]nobody is meant to provide anything for you

Good try Jason123 but maybe we'd get further with these Beef-types if we spoke pidgin or sang a Tuface song to them.

I think I should come clean on what made me really interested in this topic besides the avenue to learn more about Islamic religion and culture. I indulge in a bit of poetry, and I must admit I find the tweets deeply poetic. Honestly without the poetry in the tweets I would have not started the topic. Now I am not a muslim nor do I read Arabic (another reason why I posted the original tweets in Arabic), so I must say it is the translation of the tweets in English that has caught my attention. Maybe it's the ignorance of looking at the tweets with my African Westernised eyes or my little undertsanding of Islam, but  I detect no offence or insult.


Looking at the first tweet I see nothing that seems negative until the writer complains about the "halos of divinity surrounding the Prophet", and accorrding to Tbaba, there seems to be nothing wrong with him casting that aspersion. He then follows it up with what could be seeen as the most negative statement in that tweet "I will not pray for you"- negative it seems but it seems to flow naturally from the previous line. And by the way do muslims pray for the prophet, I mean akin to the way some Catholics still pray for their dead?


The second tweet's negativity seems to occur at the end, but looking at it as a lover of poetry, the meaning a lot of people are going to get from it is not what I take from it. What I take from it is the "hate" he seems to infer is a direct consequence of him seeing the Prophet everywhere he turns, thus kind of saying he loves, hates and does not undertsand what he sees wherever he turns i.e. the Malud celebration going on that day. If that tweet is read line for line or phrase for phrase, then I can see the possible offence but not if read as a whole which is surely what a writer would intend.


Finally the last tweet's main theme seems to suggest an equal and fraternal love, something all the tweets have been building up to. I'm guessing the issue here would be how appropriate the inference of this is. That I leave for Muslims to discuss.


It's not new that people of the arts find Islam quite attractive. Especially if you are from this part of the world where Islamic writers and poets helped keep our culture  alive and written down in such a beautiful way for generations (Liyongo anyone).  It;s just amazing how different the Islam of then seems to be than that of now, especially when pertaning to the arts.


If this kid had written his tweets in prose or so I might understand the uproar, but in the way it's presented to me at the moment, especially he being a Muslim and a Saudi, I'm struggling to understand this response from the cradle.

@ tbaba1234
Thank you. You are the only one who has given me the kind of response I was looking for, but if you could add a little more meat to it for e.g. It seems you feel the blasphemy law should be applicable in this case, why (or should I say how has he actually blasphemed)?
@ sweetnecta

Yet others, like yourself don’t care enough about their beloved to be annoyed when lies are told about them.

To the best of my knowledge we are not engaged in an ongoing fight, a discussion on politics or tribe, so I don’t understand why already I’m detecting aggression in your tone towards a response to my post. Yes, if it were to some of the other posts on this thread I can understand, but what have I said that already we have to deal with unnecessary personalisation. Again, for the umpteenth time, I started this because I wanted to be educated, but if you really need a squabble, unfortunately it seems there are many other posters on this thread who will be willing to indulge you. Anyway, on the bolded part, what lie are you accusing the Tweetor of telling?( again this is a question that has no double meaning )

@ LagosShia
With my little knowledge of Islam it seems the Shiites seem to be a more expressive branch- so say this had happened in Iran or so, would the tweets also be offensive to the typical Shiite? Please note I am not asking if an insult on The Prophet is more acceptable to Shiites, but these tweets as expressed, would it be deemed as an insult there to?

^^^ But the issue here is what are they actually disagreeing about?

Sorry but posting from my phone, thus the unclear nature of some of my text. Honestly to appreciate the story you have to view the link.
Here's the original tweet for those who read Arabic.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2012/02/08/twitter-aflame-with-fatwa-against-saudi-writer-hamza-kashgari/_jcr_content/body/inlineimage_0.img.jpg/1328742470646.jpg

[QUOTE]The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Hamza Kashgari
has been detained in Malaysia.
He was detained yesterday at
the Kuala Lumpur International
airport, the Journal reports,
citing Malaysia’s state news
service.

Amnesty International has
confirmed that Hamza Kashgari
is being held in Malaysia at an
undisclosed location. He was
arrested Thursday morning,
Malaysia time, as he tried to
board an 8:50am flight to New
Zealand, where friends told the
Daily Beast Kashgari hoped to
apply for asylum.

Cilina Nasser, a researcher in
Amnesty’s North Africa and
Middle East program, tells the
Daily Beast that Kashgari may
be at “imminent risk” of
deportation to Saudi Arabia,
where he could face charges of
apostasy, which is punishable
by death. “We are calling on the
Malaysian authorities to
immediately disclose the
location where Hamza is being
held and to immediately grant
him access to his lawyer,” she
says.

While it remains unclear
whether the Saudi authorities
have made an official
extradition request, Nasser
says, Amnesty believes the
Saudi authorities may have
requested Kashgari’s arrest in
Malaysia. “We call on the
Malaysian government to stop
any deportation proceedings
that may have started,” she
says.

A friend of Kashgari’s, who
asked not to be named, told
The Daily Beast on Wednesday
that she had accompanied him
to the airport and witnessed his
detention. “We were just
watching him, waiting for him
to pass the immigration
checkpoint. Once he submitted
his passport, they asked him to
step away for a few minutes,”
the friend said, still noticeably
shaken. “And suddenly these
two people without uniforms
just arrested him.”
A spokesman for the Malaysian
police confirmed Hashgari’s
detention to Reuters today ,
saying that the arrest was “part
of an Interpol operation which
the Malaysian police were a
part of.”

Last week, just before the
anniversary of the Prophet
Muhammad’s birth, Hamza
Kashgari, a 23-year-old Saudi
writer in Jidda, took to his
Twitter feed to reflect on the
occasion.

“On your birthday, I will say
that I have loved the rebel in
you, that you’ve always been a
source of inspiration to me, and
that I do not like the halos of
divinity around you. I shall not
pray for you,” he wrote in one
tweet.

“On your birthday, I find you
wherever I turn. I will say that I
have loved aspects of you,
hated others, and could not
understand many more,” he
wrote in a second.

“On your birthday, I shall not
bow to you. I shall not kiss your
hand. Rather, I shall shake it as
equals do, and smile at you as
you smile at me. I shall speak
to you as a friend, no more,”
he concluded in a third.

Twitter quickly flooded with
responses to Kashgari,
registering more than 30,000
within a day. He was accused of
blasphemy, and enraged Saudis
called for his death. By the time
he removed the tweets and
issued a long apology,
backtracking on his comments
and begging for forgiveness, the
danger had already expanded
beyond the Web. Someone
posted Kashgari’s home address
in a YouTube video, and, his
friends say, vigilantes came
looking for him at his local
mosque. The Saudi information
minister banned Kashgari’s local
newspaper column and barred
outlets across the country from
publishing his work. Nasser al-
Omar, an influential cleric,
called for him to be tried in a
Sharia court for apostasy , which
is punishable by death. Other
leading clerics decried Kashgari
on their own, and Saudi
Arabia’s council of senior
scholars issued a rare and
harshly worded communiqué
condemning him and his tweets
and demanding that he be put
on trial. Yesterday, Saudi
Arabia’s leading news site,
SABQ , reported that the king
himself had issued a warrant for
Kashgari’s arrest.

With the pressure mounting,
Kashgari fled to Southeast Asia
earlier today. Hours later, in his
first interview with the press, he
told The Daily Beast that he was
stunned by the turn of events
but resigned to the fact that he
can never return home. “It’s
impossible. No way,” he said.
“I’m afraid, and I don’t know
where to go.” Kashgari says he
is now planning to apply for
asylum abroad.
Though Saudi Arabia has seen
uproars over controversial
newspaper articles or scholarly
works before, no great calls for
Sharia trials have ever sounded
in the kingdom on account of a
few tweets—and the furor has
gone viral, snowballing into a
bigger scandal than anything
the country has seen in the
recent past.

When he caught wind of the
tweets, Fouad al-Farhan , a
respected liberal and Saudi
Arabia’s most influential
blogger , knew Kashgari was in
trouble. He quickly got in touch
with the young writer and urged
him to issue the apology. “Don’t
try to be a hero,” he told him.
“You will lose big time.”
An undated photo of Hamza
Kashgari.
By tweeting about the prophet,
al-Farhan says, Kashgari crossed
a line that even Saudi liberals
won’t dare to touch. Even so,
al-Farhan was surprised by the
level of rage that Kashgari
inspired, and how quickly it
spread. In a span of just days,
the issue came to dominate
social media—from the
onslaught of tweets under the
hashtag #HamzahKashghri to
vitriolic YouTube videos and a
Facebook group, currently
boasting nearly 8,000
members, called “ The Saudi
People Demand the Execution
of Hamza Kashgari”—and
reached all the way to top
clerics and the king. “There was
an amazing anger. I’ve never
seen anything like it in my life,”
al-Farhan says, noting that the
outrage in Saudi Arabia has
exceeded even the levels seen
after a Danish newspaper
infamously published a cartoon
of Muhammad in 2005.
“I think it’s because this is an
extremely unique case. We’ve
never had our own Salman
Rushdie before. We’ve never
had a case as extreme as this
one of someone crossing the
line,” al-Farhan says.

Al-Farhan has been harshly
critical of Kashgari’s tweets.
Even Kashgari’s friends, all of
whom requested anonymity,
say they’re reluctant to come to
his defense—and have even felt
the need to attack him
themselves. “Everyone who
tried to objectively deal with
this case was immediately
stigmatized and labeled an
enemy of the prophet, who
therefore should suffer the
same fate Hamza is awaiting,”
says one.
Adds another: “Right now we’re
not worried about freedom of
speech. We’re worried about
the safety of our friend. And
right now we can only help his
safety if we condemn him, and
[from there] try to rationalize
what he said.”

Kashgari says he never
expected such an outcry—“not
even 1 percent.” But he knows
the mindset of his critics well.
He was raised as a religious
conservative in a traditional
Salafi community, becoming
more liberal and “humanist,” in
the words of one friend, as he
grew older and embraced the
Web. His writing also grew
more provocative, particularly
on Twitter, where he had
attracted the ire of
conservatives who kept a close
eye on everything he wrote.
Ahmed Al Omran, who keeps
the popular blog Saudi Jeans ,
says it’s common for
conservative activists to keep
watch over liberal-minded
social-media feeds. “They wait
for the moment when they say
something controversial to use
it against them. Hamza is
apparently one of the people
they’ve been monitoring,” he
says. “Most people feel strongly
about the situation. But at the
same time, I feel that
conservatives are trying to take
advantage of the situation,
make an example out of him,
and show their strength.”

Kashgari says he knew he was
being watched online; since the
controversy arose, someone
released a compilation of his
past tweets on the Web. “I
knew I was being monitored. I
considered it a form of
psychological warfare,” he says.
“But I didn’t give it that much
attention, because I didn’t want
them to think I was losing the
battle.”
Kashgari has since deleted his
Twitter account, and he says
some like-minded friends have
done the same. He declined to
comment on his apology and
retraction but insisted his battle
was still not lost. “I view my
actions as part of a process
toward freedom. I was
demanding my right to practice
the most basic human rights—
freedom of expression and
thought—so nothing was done
in vain,” he says. “I believe I’m
just a scapegoat for a larger
conflict. There are a lot of
people like me in Saudi Arabia
who are fighting for their
rights.”[/QUOTE]

www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/08/twitter-aflame-with-fatwa-against-saudi-writer-hamza-kashgari.html

I am confused- and I want to make it crystal clear that this post is being put forward by me as a consequence of my confusion and the need for me to get some clarification. Again this is not an attack on anyone or his beliefs. Feel free to check my previous post history for form.

For as long as I can remember, when having religious discussions with my muslim friends, I've been told that the big difference between Christianity and Islam is that Christianity lost it's way by the corruption of the Bible and our worship of Christ and the trinity concept- which practically all muslims interpret as worshipping three gods. So my understanding is Islam believes there is no divine personality but God ( Allah ) and anything else is heresy. So my understanding is Prophet Mohammed is neither divine nor to be worshipped.
But then I stumbled on this case which has led to my current confusion - so I'm asking again is Prophet Mohammed divine or not - and if not how is this case currently going on justified according to Quoranic and note NOT Islamic teachings. As this is for the sake of education, answers from Muslims and theoretical experts preferred.

Good read.

[quote author=One_Naira link=topic=866064.msg10154964#msg10154964 date=1328753384]ROFL.

The behavior of NL bigots.

Ask for proof, you provided them proof, they result to insults.

Whatever puts you to sleep dayokanu.

[size=15pt]Everyone loves Yoruba, admire them, wishes their entire life revolves around Yoruba and everyone hates Igbo.[/size]

The need to connect yourself to others as having a universal look of Igbo and a ego sponsored look to Yoruba is IMO becoming a pathetic attempt.

Desperation if you ask me.

Whatever strokes your ego and butter your bread dayokanu.

The obsession of Yoruba to Igbo is becoming just pitiful. Most NL Igbo are starting to disregard una on daily basis but but una killing yourself of them. ROFL[/quote]@ One Naira

I don't know the genesis of your arguments with Dayokanu but on the proof you've just posted by Physics on the identity of the Oba of Benin, there seems to be nothing mutually exclusive about it.

It seems the point Physics was trying to make was Erediauwa ( excuse my spelling ) at the time he made the comments was not Oba Akenzua 2 yet, and thus the comments were not officially made in his official capacity now as the Oba of Benin.

So I understand your confusion, but evidence so far points to it being the same man and nothing yet suggests he has recanted his views (which btw I have not read yet).

To think people were derided for saying we were actually subsidizing the theivery of the government and the true price was less than N40- a people so adverse to truth, kai.

IIRC when they removed subsidy in December they increased the price by only 15% but now they want to reduce it by 20%- so that means Ghanaians will now be paying less for petrol than even before the subsidy was removed??
Could someone please confirm what the new price will be and BTW our Labour leaders should please go to foreign hospitals so we can never see them again , fools!!

With 1/10th of the GDP of Russia some eediots will still put it out that we consume more oil than almost all these countries, chai!!

omanzo02:
The bolded suggest GEJ could not contest the election, which was nigeria main opposition to the souht africans,
NL liars should cover their faces in shame.

Yes I agree, GEJ could have never been the chairman of the AU, seeing as he and his supporters have shown the inability to read any form of writing, whether on the wall or not.

But just to debunk the half-baked claims of the OP, Thabo Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo and Gadaffi are all past chairmen of the AU Assembly, who should be ineligible, that's if you choose to pay any attention to the unintelligible conclusions made by this lazy poster and his kind.

Interesting read but can someone tell African writers to stop embellishing these chance meetings with these sage like white men who spill all to complete strangers- a southern African writer just did the same story a week ago and most of us with firsthand experience of the white 'devils' know the manner of these candlelight confessions are very Nollywood.

I mean if invoking this tired scenario is the only way they feel they can say anything meaningful about corruption, then maybe we should equally be worried about the limited literary technique displayed by the current young African generation.

An article after my heart, may God continue to bless . . . . . oh!!!

Walemaj:
Lol! If you believe these moro.ns, then Nigeria consumes more petrol than India, brazil, Indonesia (all countries with bigger populations and bigger land masses than we do). In fact, if you believe the govt figures, Nigeria will be the 4th highest consumer of petrol after US, China & Japan!

And I just heard that in Ghana, they're demanding for a re-instatement of the fuel subsidy that was removed in December, so much for us copying subsidy removal from Ghana (note also that in Ghana, the increase in price was only 15% not, 100+%)

GBAM!!
This comparison is all that really matters.I mean intelligent people will know that 3 main factors will dictate oil consumption:
1. Productivity of your economy
2. Population
3. Weather Conditions
so seeing as the productivity of our economy is pretty crap, we don't have winters here and we're really only the 8/9th most populous country in the world , we have no business being in the top 5 gas guzzling countries, let alone top 20. I mean how can any educated man believe Nigeria consumes more oil or even comes close to a Russia?

Ok some will say the cheap price of oil in this country (which is not relative to wages) and our electricity problem could explain this, but then how come Egypt, with the second largest population in Africa, a better economy than ours, and far cheaper oil prices than Nigeria is not joining us in this infamy. I would love it if someone could put that up so we can revel in the wickedness of our government and these fake technocrats.

Nope I'm wrong, it was someone that had the same querry as you

www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-843856.0.html

An eeediot recently posted something about seeing Buhari in the stadium watching another eagles game, i think it was one of their recent friendlies, I'll try and get the link for you.

[quote author=Kilode?! link=topic=850757.msg10008182#msg10008182 date=1327069121]More like nemesis catching up with Nigeria if you ask me.

As someone who was old enough to understand words written on a newspaper at the time of the Oputa panel, it's mind boggling to see that Biu was given a job after what happened during the Abacha years.

But why am I surprised sef? 

This is the same country where we allowed a jobless Mohammed Abacha to keep part of his Fathers loot.

We made Obasanjo president decades after the shoddy election of 1979

We give national honours to incompetent failures like Ringim and co

In April we voted the failure of Bayelsa in as president.

I think I'm just fooling myself, I already know this country cannot progress when we reward incompetent idiooots with promotions. No organization can progress that way.[/quote]Unfortunately I find myself sharing a lot of the same sentiments.

Heres another link exposing more of the man's bomb making prowess and other crimes.

www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-849386.0.html

I don't know what's wrong with Nigerian journalist, please can you change that to half-sister or sister please.

That was a breathtakingly brilliant contribution.

What is wrong with this Chime gan sef, does he think he is Emperor Sylvanus or something??

And these illiterate police, when will they realise that the only thing we ask they read in their 30+ years of miserable service is our substandard constitution??

@ Rad1cal
why don't you stop exposing yourself and clothe that ugly thing you call a mind with perspective. I do understand that controlling your disgusting hard-on for all things ACN is asking a lot . . . . but I can assure you I have proudly never voted for ACN and probably never will . . . . so does that relieve some pressure? Do we have some brain cells to work with now?

If we do back to the topic, why/how should the actions/inactions of this one man/one minority party, affect a meaningful passage of this bill for the Nigerian people as whole? I predict silence

I'm not sure why Gbawe and co are wasting there time with these masquerading bigots, who are so confused with hate and cowardice that they can't even put up a believable argument as to why the actions of this one single man or ACN as a whole, should affect the safe delivery of the deformed bastard that PDP now want to present to this nation.

These cowards have chosen not to even reflect on my Bola Ige comparison and hush the F up as any other decent human being would when faced with such an embarrassinly heartbreaking reminder of what dining with this devilish PDP government can lead to- allegedly slain by a drug baron!! A whole Ige!!! God knows . . .
. and most of you bigots soon enough will too, that the road to hell is paved with your good for nothing intentions. Desperate clowns.

I also think he should accept- and should any evil befall him, me and the other "patriots" on this thread, will go to his children, and just like Uncle Wole, beg them and Ogun for forgiveness.

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has described as blasphemous President Olusegun Obasanjo’s statement that Bola Ige was killed by a drug baron. Addressing journalists this morning in Victoria Island, Lagos, Soyinka also called on civil society leaders to agree on a date to protest the last fraudulent national elections. He said he was
deeply offended by Obasanjo’ s statement that Ige did not know his right from his left when he was the minister of power. “For him to accuse Ige of not knowing his right from his left is a lie. He should be ashamed of himself. I stand
here as a witness on the day to day activities of Bola Ige when he was Minister of Power and Steel,”, he state.
The Nobel Laureate argued that for Obasanjo to try to erase the memory of Ige from the people’s mind is
uncalled for, adding that it was Obasanjo that sabotaged Ige’s reform for the power sector.
He said when Obasanjo chose Ige as Minister of Power and Steel, Ige came to him and asked him what to do, adding that he urged Ige to accept the job so that he could reform the power industry.

www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-54986.0.html

Seeing as he is a professional bomb maker, I won't be surprised if he's the one who thought Boko how to do it in the first place.

The original link
www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news/33815-zakari-biu-fate-of-a-controversial-cop.html