₦airaland Forum

I never said because it happened to a black man it would never happen to a white man did i? I remember using the word english not white. But to be honest you have to admit you are also dealing in speculation as well and you weren't there either. It is just that you seem to be so quick to believe that the Nigerian man was unruly and acting retarded or something of the sort and therefore he was in the wrong. You don't seem to be wanting to give any room to consider the fact that BA might have actually been in the wrong even though i never even said they were. Key word being might because we don't know.

He enquired from the authorities, did you read different? Honestly

@Kobo, why was Naomi Cambell banned? Was it not for assaulting staff yet again? Do you think it is an appropriate comparison? If Naomi Cambell was banned for this do you know how much publicity would have ensued? BA's CEO would have been begging for forgiveness.
Also from what i gathered from the article the man enquired what was going on, he did not go and physically interfere or rain abuses did he? As i said earlier, i completely understand and agree about not crying racism of any kind at any chance, but the whole Naomi Cambell thing simply doesn't fly as a valid comparison here. You have someone with a known temper and history of such banned for slapping staff and someone to the best of our knowledge enquiring about screams in the plane, so how are they so linked?

@Kobo, you still didn't answer my question though. If it was an english person that acted in thesame way do you genuinely believe he/she would have been treated in such a way? How did this man actually get in the way by voicing a concern after hearin "i go die oh". So you would have just ignored such calls as a norm?

@Kobo, i understand where your coming from by stating that this is more of a customer service issue than race issue. However just a question though, do you believe if the person who raised concern was english they would have been treated in such a manner? I mean, he did pay for the service so its not like he was begging for a lift or anything like that and flights to and from Nigeria via BA can be quite costly. The truth is it didn't necessarily have to be a race issue in terms of black and white, but in terms of they are Nigerians or Africans. I have witnessed snide comments by Airport staff in Heathrow concerning african passengers so while i get where you are coming from about avoiding calling the race card at every turn you also have to admit such issues prevail to say the least, simply put it is there. While i wholeheartedly agree we should not play the race card at every turn, i probably am misunderstanding you but you seem to strongly believe such does not exist in the world. They probably wouldn't have done it to an american because they know they won't get off so lightly. If you look at foreign companies, they come into the country from a so called "civilised" culture and immediately exploit the Nigerian situation and actually join the culture of corruption, acting in the most uncivilised of manners. We all know this happens, a couple of examples is Shell and the Mobile phone company that was "blacklisted" for bribing members of the house and there are many more. We can't be genuinely respected until we learn to respect ourselves. Then the whole thing about the Nigerian government crying foul won't stink of hypocrisy.
What i do find funny is from a different perspective. I just find it funny that a country in which the rights of the citizens are tossed to the wind and trampled upon on a daily basis is screaming human rights violation. Did NBA go after that woman who was pulled over in Lagos by a state governor's envoy and beaten up in front of her kids? What about every time people have to give police 20 naira at "check points" or that fact that the average citizen is scared of the police and won't trust them with their 5 naira orange? Or what about when police use whips in public as a means of crowd control? You have to admit is is funny and a tad hypocritical.
If it was even our neighbour Ghana perhaps, but Nigeria? LOL. I am in no way condoning what was done to this person and it is just sad the way he was treated and i do hope he can get a good lawyer and get compensation he as far as we can tell rightly deserves.

I have just been reading the news and from what i can gather, the members of the house refused to deliberate the bill for further passage. This is a disgrace and if this does not act as further proof that the house is full of 419ers as was once stated then i don't know what does. What is so dangerous and damaging about passing a bill which advocates transparency in government and hence making the corruption fight easier by giving citizens the right to government information? People please, if you know the reps from your states, we need to act on this now so that we won't come back here 4 or 8years from now complaining that money was looted in various sates and dealing in speculation. We need to act on this. It would be very interesting to see what effect the proposal would have in the Senate. It would be interesting because one of the first things the Senate president and Yaradua said when they were sworn in last year was that they would ensure the "speedy" passage of the bill. And here we are about a year later. I seriously do hope Yaradua would say something on the issue.

The article does not give some vital information. Was the debate going to be a debate on passing the bill in the house or a debate for debating's sake? Has Yaradua assented the bill? These are the vital pieces of information we need. I was going to say this is the vital information we need before we can act, i mean, if democracy was deep rooted in the country then i would have suggested people in all states should ask their state reps to proclaim their stand on the whole issue. Any rep member who is not prepared to vote for the passage of the bill should just be removed promptly (by a vote of course). But again it all depends on the answers to the initial questions.

Committee report? Is this for real? Is that really a valid arguement or excuse for lack of progress in a power sector that was meant to be in a state of emergency development? So this power problem just occured overnight and Nigerians have all been taken by surpise and bam, suddenly no light? How many reports have been written in the decades? So all those ones are null and void? People know what needs to be done to provide electricity and it is not rocket science. So how on earth is this so called committe report that has been one year in the making become an excuse for inaction? Can't we really apply that same excuse then to everything that is not working? We all know it will be trite, but we can say the federal roads like the lagos benin one that has been a death trap for how many years and has had billions of naira "spent" on it is still the way it is because they are also writing a committe report for that one too. If this was a sudden problem that might have caught the government by surprise then that excuse might have been viable but honestly please, come on, a committee report for a problem that is over 40 years old? What would this report say that the rest haven't? This seems like more and more excuses.
I assumed that when leaders experience the situation of the country first hand then they take the problems more seious. Apparently during one of Yaradua's speeches a couple of months ago, NEPA took light like 3 times and he promised that we will see the end of it. I thought since he had expericned it as opposed to the constant 24/7 light supply in Aso rock and government house Katsina, that he would take the problem more serious.

But that is EXACTLY the issue, we are not asking for heaven and earth and this things are not difficult to do and that is what makes it even more infuriating. If the government was genuine then these things are not heaven and earth but their implications are HUGE. So has he suddenly got eye pains that he can't rewad or hand pains that he can't sign? What exactly? Even tinapa is in shambles because it was not declared a free trade zone for how long What did it need? A signature.

@Dis Guy, i really don't understand what line you are actually trying to argue, what about continuity in government, considering that it is thesame party that is ruling and that this bill is not a party but a Nigerian masses interest based bill why on earth should it start from square one? Do they need a new sheet of paper to write it or what? SO WHY THE DELAY? I genuinely don't understand your arguement so could you enlighten me? And also consider that Yaradua said he would pass the bill as quickly as possible (you can go and read 10month old news to confirm) so there is your time frame. So quickly as possible to pass an already established bill is 1 year? Really? Are we being serious here?

I really do believe Nigeria should be striving to reach the point whereby we can feed the nation and even feed other parts of Africa via exports. This overdependence on imports is too much. It makes us even more vulnurable to things like the price fluctuations. Also we should have at leats 3 working refineries in the country so that we can stop importing fuel, can you imagine? The largest exporter of oil in Africa and we need to import crude oil? When we are at the point of exporting higher grade materials from refineries, we have more variation in petroleum products and would get much higher income from the petroleum sector. All these things are so basic.

Have you people forgotten "Master plan"?? Even politician's backyard now have master plan.

While i understand the apathy and all that coming from people, to hear Nigerians telling Zimbabweans to stand up for themselves is just something i find very funny. And to read that Morgan Tvangirai came to Nigeria to ask OBJ for help Is Africa really that lacking in good people, OBJ?? Seriously

LOOL. I get the humour but honestly though, imagine if people used that as an actual excuse. How many lines does that bill have, for a former chemistry teacher if he is still reading that bill that has been proposed for like 2 years now and inherited for close to a year now then he must be quite slow if you know what i mean. LOL. So the motion to increase perks and salary of the senate and executive arms had no coma? I don't blame them.

@Kobojunkie, pump more money into the agricultural sector? Don't you mean pump more money into the pockets of politicians via the agric sector? LOL. The problem with Nigeria has not been money but actually spending the money on what it has been allocated for. Hasn't money already been pumped into the agric sector every year already? What has that sector got to show? Honestly what?

Still pending, how long now? The most infuriating thing is that this bill was actually inherited from the last administration so is not like it was a sudden surprise. Obasanjo cleverly refused to sign it because of the implications it has. In about a week the motion to increase salary was passed!! So you can see how painful it is when Yaradua now comes and talks about fighting corruption and this bill has not yet been signed. What are they still reading? If the government was actually genuine about fighting corruption we won't be here discussing the "pending" of this bill. If Yaradua came out and said he does not want to fight corruption then fine, it would be to Nigeria's detriment but at least we have honesty and he is then accepting he hasn't got the guts and is cowardly. But to go on about "fighting corruption" and doing nothing, with and AGF that seems to defend corrupt politicians is just simply a spit in the face and it hurts and simply shows an alarming side of Yaradua's character we might have to be worried about. All the things he said he would do during his swearing in, emergency in power sector, electoral reforms, FOI bill, etc, anyone please, has he done any of them or laid down any feasible or concrete plans towards achieving anything. Hate to sound like a broken recors but this is ludacris.

Considering that most of the revenue of the country comes from the sale of crude oil and there is not even a working refinery in the country and the monumental waste and inefficiency Nigerian institutions are known for, ofcourse a properly conducted and thorough, uncompromising and published probe is required. The question you should be asking isn't wether a probe should be conducted but wether the probe would be carried out properly given the track records of useless and unfruitful probes. What has come off the energy probe? They did not even invite Obasanjo who was responsible for signing all the cheques and awarding all the contracts, some ex governors who had their hands soiled were even being addresed as "your exellency" while serious questions were not even asked just continuous beating round the bush while feeding the masses the common rhetoric of fighting corruption. THEY COULD NOT EVEN INVITE OBASANJO. If the kind of probe being carried out on NNPC is going to be like the one being carried out on the Energy sector then people should not hold their breath. THAT IS WHY WE NEED THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL. So that we won't have to keep waiting on useless badly conducted Nigerian specially branded probes that go nowhere, so that the public can acess all this information we are waiting for these so called "probes" to bring to light.
If Yaradua is not serious about that bill, or addressing electoral reforms and making plans to make the EFCC actually active and effective he should not open his mouth and talk about fighting corruption because all that will come out from that mouth would be the stench of more talk less action

So does Nigeria even have anything resembling an active agric sector? A lot of money goes into the agric sector but what does the country have to show for it? What does the minister of that sector have planned? All the empty land, is Ota the only functioning farm in the country?

What Nigeria has got to show? Have you not been reading news about all those commitees that have been set up and all those meetings LOL. We should even be grateful sef at how technologicaly advanced we are, some countries are using ordinary power generation stations, our own stations are invisible to prevent easy location during bombing raids.  Yaradua the undercover brother, the plans for the country he has are so secret that nobody else but him knows.

It is not a matter of anti yaradua or pro yardua or anti obj or pro obj or whatever. It is simply pro good governance and development, and anti corruption

@Truequest in no way am i praising OBJ who was a disgrace, but neither will i praise this undercover action that nobody else is seeing. I would rather praise the fruits of good labour. That is what you praise, not meetings being held. Have we even heard of any plans at all to tackle any major issue? Simple passing of Freedom of Information bill cannot be done. So what exactly are we praising? Come on. Really, what are we praising? Did the situation in Nigeria dip so low that we now have a distorted view of what good governance really is?

i am sorry but this is just silly and against my better judgement i have been foolish enough to reply. I have also been accused of being Kobojunkie once, LOL. Please let us just stick to the topic at hand and if you can't reply then don't. I am not anyone but Sky Blue, have a nice day and God Bless

What i really don't understand is what people are seeing that is worth praising in this current leadership Are people now reading special news that i am not aware off? The excuse has been that the rot and decay OBJ left is sooo great and Yaradua is spending time clearing it. In order to break the cycle of thesame arguement please enlighten me, what steps have been taken to "reverse" the decay? Is it electoral reforms which he "promised" he will instigate because we all know the election was disgraceful? I am guessing the freedom of information bill has being passed when i was sleeping? For someone who keeps on baptising us each day in the rhetoric of "fighting corruption" he sure doesn't seem to know what that means. Is there now emergency declared in the power sector? Someone said the country is now safer LOOOOOL. That lagos state police might have become more responsive is that now a credit under Yaradua or a credit that should be ascribed to Fashola of whom people have been seeing the fruits of his labor? Did Fashola not inherit this so called rot too or is Yaradua's own a special brand? Today again i read news, the lagos government is now instigating registration of cars via a smart card at banks instead of the crowding off government offices that was the order of the day before. Tomorrow you read different news about lagos, so Fashola inherited perfect governance? So what is it that i am missing please do tell? What? What has really been done? By the way acting decisive and being cautious are not mutually exclusive. What i really don't understand though is what is being praised? Is it that he has a nice smile? He knows how bad the health situation is in the country especially with his bad health and have we heard any plans to build anything in the health sector? Someone please help me out honestly. If he does not look like someone out of his depths then i really don't know how else to describe him. This is not yaradua hating this is simply honesty. What do you want me to see to praise? Should i just praise this special brand of invisible action. Abi he is working undercover ? LOL

This really is irony at its finest and just funny in a bad way. So apart from South African president and botswana and Namibia, who else in africa should intervene? Nigeria? LOL. The saying we are looking for hear is "don't throw stones if you live in a glass house". The sad situation is good African leaders are in short supply. Sorry, but what audacity would Yaradua need to have to go and tell the dictator in Zimbabwe to step down due to election results etc when Yaradua's own election was greatly regarded as total trite? Why should he? Does that mean i am in support of Mugabe, definately not but i am just being honest. It would be highly hypocritical of a lot of African leaders to do so. Unfortunately the presidents who have the moral obligation to talk to this man do not have the guts to stand for justice.
@bawomolo they should be left alone if they refuse to stand for themselves?? I hope you are applying thesame priciple to Nigeria. All the trash and all the rubbish and a pretty much inactive president and after all the years of tyranny did we ever as a country together stand up for ourselves?? My bad sorry you are right, people do stand up for somethings in Nigeria. When you arrest anyone guilty of robbing from his people and killing them, people from that area cry and shout "selective justice". The only thing some people can be united towards in Nigeria is defending corruption.

@ Kobojunkie. Ok then, so will you be able to make such a decision to send someone to the electric chair or whatever method is going to be used? Will you be able to live with the implication no matter what the person did? If you are able to easily make such a choice then we have no problem and you can say you support it. That was my arguement in the first place.

Let us just put sentiments aside for a moment. I am not saying i am for or against capital punishment, i view life as precious as i am sure or hope we all do. However, i think were the discussion should start from is with the question: If you are the one left with the decision of taking a mans life irrespective of what he has done would you be able to make the decision to end such a life and be able to live with the knowledge of what you did and the concequences? If you can make such a decision then you can now start shouting capital punishment any how you want. There have been situations whereby after decades of putting the wrong person behind bars for life, on further review of the cases later eview of the case such persons have been cleared. I can think of one or two cases of such in England. imagine if such a person was given the death sentence. While there are no spaces in prison i believe we should work very hard at genuine rehabilitation.

So are we saying otta is the only modern farm in the country? We are were we are we all see that, my only problem is what is actually being done now to improve the sector? Nigeria needs to become self sufficient and should aim to improve the agricultural sector up to the point were the nation can be fed, so what is being done now? I really do think every well meaning person or groups had better start keeping tabs on leaders of different areas in anyway we can. They should bring out all the ministers and let them tell us how they aim to improve their different areas and sectors and what is on the ground and what is being done. Thinking about it, i have not heard anything from any agric minister in years and we know money is being pumped into the different sectors. So again, what is being done with the money? i hope it is not being used to throw owambe.

Just out of interest though, what has the ministry of agriculture done or accomplished in the last 9 to ten years? I still don't understand why we can't feed the Nation and why we need to import things like rice? Even egypt that is mostly desert has one of the most advanced agricultural sectors in the world, so what is Nigeria doing? what is the minister doing? I think we might need to apply a more hands on approach to people in power before we start getting a repeat of what happened in the health ministry where 300million naira was spent as unspent money and yet how many good world class hospitals can we boast off? Money is allocated to agriculture after all right?

@Nigeria 1 Ok, i think i have said everything i need to say and this will be my last post on this thread unless any other arguement comes up because this just seems to be going around in circles. First of all, do not credit the sucess of others to OBJ. Was it OBJ or Okonjo Iweala who now has one of the top positions in IMF an international institution that was instrumental in getting rid of our debt? How many things have you had to ignore in order to make OBJ passable as a leader? Is it the gross mismanagement and obcene ammount of corruption that he stands for? Is it the looting? Is it the illegalities that plagued most of his handling of the country's treasury while he went on to hypocritically vaunt the whole "rule of law" process? The treasury and money of a whole country becomes one man's piggy bank? The deflation of government parastatals so that they could be sold to friends and family? We both know i could go on and i am yet to mention the $16 billion dollars on power. If you want to ignore all of this and say he was a good leader because we now use mobile phones then that really is up to you.
I never said nobody in the north was not corrupt and i don't think anyone ever claimed that as the case. But i would end with this, so the fact that there are people in the North who are corrupt, does that automatically make Odilli, Ibori, Alams and co innocent? If they are not inocent then should we be defending them in the first place? Should your problem not then be with the system that you claim is biased? . The irony is that one of the biggest thieves whom you defend has not been arrested and you are not shouting selective justice and untouchable for that situation, hence who is really being selective? At the end of the day, if you choose to defend murderers, armed robbers, looters , comon thieves and selfish and greedy men all under the umbrella of "selective justice" that is up to you and then arguing is simply going to be futile. As some would say, 'to each his own'. Take care and have a nice day.

If you believe the EFCC is biased then you can start another thread about it. But i really don't see how you can now say let the likes of Lucky, Ibori, etc go because the EFCC is as you claim biased. That would be defending crooks and wether the EFCC is biased or not does not magically make Odilli, or Ibori and co innocent. Why did Odilli get a restraining order on the EFCC stopping them from arresting him and even more suspiciously stopping them from publishing whatever they have on him Why?? If the EFCC is biased then you can argue that they are being biased, but these people irrespective of wether the EFCC is biased or not have something to hide and are wickedly corrupt. The shame is the public can't know the full extent of their wickedness because the freedom of Information bill has STILL not yet been passed ad Yaradua keeps on opening his mouth about his stance on fighting corruption.

@Nigeria 1, i don't know what all you are saying has got to do with this situation. What has ethnicity got to do with the fact that Iyabo stole or that Odilli, Lucky, Ibori, Alams, etc are all common criminals? Has the fact that they are from a specific part of the country automatically mean they did not do any of what they were accused of? If you can't show the link between the two then i am sorry, i really do believe you are then simply arguing for arguement sake. If they are guilty which i honestly do believe they are due to overwhelming evidence (just go and visit the states they ruled) then after the court trial, they should be arrested and thrown in jail, simple as, and that my friend is justice that you keep on talking about. Justice for the real victims, the Nigerian population and all the families that lost people as a result of these crooks and their actions, selfishness, insensitivity, greed, egocentricity and just pure wickedness.

[quote author=Nigeria1. link=topic=125952.msg2141381#msg2141381 date=1207869578]Sky Blue , No , we are not saying that people should not be probe, but what we are saying is the EFCC only interested in ethnic cleansing. And that should stop, what the EFCC is saying is that they are first class citizen and we the people of Southern Niger Benue are second class citizen. Why are the governors of the Northern Niger benue working free while nearly all the governor of the Southern Niger benue are been charged. For all appointment. This is ethnic cleansing. If the federal govt can not bring to book all appointed people from the north benue niger because the North Niger Benue are in power, we do ask that all charge against people of Southern niger benue be drop, from Ibori, Orji Kalu, Odili and others,  This is ethnic cleansing. We say no to anybody from the Southern Niger Benue been treated like second class citizen. And you have to have been sentence to jail before you are a thief.
look if you read my previous written up I have always supported the president, but I would never sell my soul because of appointment or money. So Orji kalu,Iyabo Obasanjo,Ibori , Odili and others have not offered and  I have never collected my money from any of others. It is just an issue of fairplay and justice. People from the southern Niger Benue should not be charge for any offense that we all know that People of the North Niger benue are walking free .

I say if the federal govt and EFCC refuse to charge North Niger Benue govt appointed people,  All charge on Ibori, Iyabo,Odili, Orji Kalu and other should be drop. if not they become political victim.[/quote]Wow, Odilli commited more crimes against his people than OBJ did, what an irony. How many people have died as a result of the political sponsored cultism and thuggery used to "win" elections? What is there to show for eight years in Rivers State? All this so called "militants" are they not simply Odilli's government sponsored armed touts who now have nothing better to do and are struggling to find relevance? How many political assasinations went on in that time? People were even beaten up or killed for just simply criticizing Odilli's government. But let us all forget ALL of that people, Odilli, is now a victim? I really am just speechless and don't know what to say, why would someone want to show solidarity with an armed robber? Criticizing the system and trying to change it is one thing, but to now use the situation to defend people who were caught broad daylight with their hands in the cookie jar and saying they are the victims is simply shocking. If this is the way everybody thinks or feels then. . . . . . . . how can there ever be any progress and is it then any surprise that the country is the way it is?  All this, leave my thief and armed robber because you have not yet arrested your armed robber is just ludacris. Who are the armed robbers robbing from? Is it not from YOU? If you believe the system is "biased" as you claim, then fight to change the system instead of trying to justify the actions of armed robbers. Instead of being happy that EFCC focusing on your governor (who stole and robbed from you, killed your people, raped the land for his own gain), might actually bring more accountability to that area, people from that area are now crying foul and are at thesame time saying they want to "fight corruption"? Is that not a paradox?