I flew KLM from Amsterdam to Abuja last year on an expired passport.

The process was pretty smooth: I arrived Schiphol Airport, told the attendant that I had an expired Nigerian passport and requested to know if I'm allowed to travel with it, she ran a check with her line manager and gave me green light.

I arrived Nigeria and was only prompted to it by an Immigrations personnel, told him I'm aware and know of the law permitting it too. I checked out smoothly.

Walk into any magistrate court and they'll give you a court order with which you can retrieve your money. Works for wrongly credited accounts and dubious transactions. Used it less than a month ago.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BRITISH AND AMERICAN PUNCTUATIONS

There are two major styles of English punctuation: American (commonly followed also in Canada) and British (commonly followed also in Australia and New Zealand). Over the years, these two styles have converged. The few major differences that remain are described below.

TITLES

Mr., Mrs., and Ms. all take periods in American English. In British English, the periods are omitted.

DATES

British usage omits the apostrophe in the plural form of dates (e.g., 1980s), whereas the American practice more often includes it (e.g., 1980’s). The British style is gaining ground in America, however.

Though not necessarily a matter of punctuation, there is one important distinction between American and British usage when it comes to dates. American usage puts the month first, followed by the day, and then the year. Hence, 12/5/2010 means December 5, 2010, in American usage. The British practice (followed in most of the world) is to put the day first, followed by the month. Hence, 12/5/2010 means May 12, 2010, in British usage. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has established the YYYY-MM-DD format, in which December 5, 2010, would be written 2010-12-05. Whether this will catch on with American writers remains to be seen. In the meantime, writing out the month will avoid confusion.

TIME

British usage dictates a period between the hours and minutes when writing the time (e.g., 10.30). American usage dictates a colon (e.g., 10:30).

QUOTATION

American style uses double quotes (“) for initial quotations, then single quotes (‘) for quotations within the initial quotation.

“Economic systems,” according to Professor White, “are an inevitable byproduct of civilization, and are, as John Doe said, ‘with us whether we want them or not.’”

British style uses single quotes (‘) for initial quotations, then double quotes (“) for quotations within the initial quotation.

‘Economic systems’, according to Professor White, ‘are an inevitable byproduct of civilization, and are, as John Doe said, “with us whether we want them or not”’.

The above examples also show that the American style places commas and periods inside the quotation marks, even if they are not in the original material. British style (more sensibly) places unquoted periods and commas outside the quotation marks. For all other punctuation, the British and American styles are in agreement: unless the punctuation is part of the quoted material, it goes outside the quotation marks.

#Copied

mrdcai:


Haha.

As an international student, your chances of finding a part-time job are extremely slim if you don't speak any Dutch.

Try finding one first before planning to circumvent the rules.

Uh-uh! So the rule can really can be circumvented?

I understand there's an official 10 hours weekly work restriction for non-EU students in the Netherlands. Is there any way to boycott this and work full time and if caught what is the penalty?

I have admission to do a PhD in Theology in VU University, Amsterdam. My problem now is how to go about the visa application process. The school says tuition fees, visa and accommodation is to be provided by the student (the programme doesn't have any scholarship from the school). When I calculate the cost of these, it amounts to about 10,000 euros aside upkeep. At the moment, I have a sponsor who has promised me about 4000 pounds which translates into about 5000 euros. Meanwhile my main supervisor in the school has reached an agreement with me that I could come and spend three months annually in the Netherlands for my courses and return to Nigeria to continue with my research until my programme is done. Do you think the embassy will grant me visa with this constraint? Or can I first apply for a short stay visa and if the monies I'm expecting come in, I extend my stay? Is that possible?

Admin, help move this to the appropriate section. Thank you.

In 2012, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan
removed subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit and it
was greeted with nationwide criticism and
protest. Following that, many unemployed
Nigerian youths and hapless students were
organised to stage protest at Lagos, Kano, Abuja,
Kwara and even London tagged OCCUPY
NIGERIA. The Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade
Union Congress, Civil Societies and some
opposition politicians were the brains behind the
demonstrations.

The then presidential candidate on the platform
of the Congress for Progressive Change in the
2011 election, General Muhammadu Buhari
criticised the action as callous while his crony
and former minister of the Federal Capital
Territory, Nasir el-Rufai is remarked to have said
that General Buhari would have done it better
without removal of subsidy.

Building on the loopholes of the Jonathan
administration, this same crop of politicians
came to gullible Nigerians kitty soliciting for their
votes in the 2015 general elections with many
promises of change ranging from reduction in
pump price of petrol, combating the Boko Haram
menace between three to six months of
assumption of office, monthly allowance to
unemployed Nigerian youth or graduates, to free
feeding of school children, etc. But in impugn
defiance today, what we see is ALL PROMISES
CANCELLED (APC) with recurring removal and
replacement of petrol subsidy. The excuse is the
global fallen oil price.

But Nigeria is not the only country affected by
the fallen oil price, the other member States of
the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting
Countries are affected yet they don’t cease the
opportunity to inflict hardship on their people.
Nigeria among these nations is the only one with
the highest petrol pump price but with about the
lowest minimum wage.

In Saudi Arabia, for example, a gallon (4 litres) of
petrol sells for $0.64 (that is about N127 at the
official exchange rate of $1 to N199), while the
monthly minimum wage is $720 (about N143,280
when converted to naira at the official exchange
rate). In Venezuela a gallon goes for $0.38
(about N76), while monthly minimum wage is $89
(about N17,711), in Russia a gallon goes for
$0.63 (about N125), while monthly minimum
wage is $95 (N18,905). Algeria, Angola, Ecuador,
Iran and Kuwait in face of the daunting challenge
of fallen oil price is reputed to be selling a gallon
of the PMS for less than $1 while the monthly
minimum wage of Angola is $90.53 (N18,015.47),
Ecuador is $427 (N84,973), Iran is $215
(N42,785), Iraq is $214 (N42,586) and Kuwait is
$3,650 (N726,350) meanwhile there is a current
debate to increase the minimum wage to over
$5000 (995,000).

Nigeria in the midst of these sells a gallon of
petrol at the official rate of N580 that is about
$3 and runs a minimum wage of N18,000, the
equivalent of $90. Meanwhile prior to the
Workers’ Day celebration, the organised labour
had bargained for an increment of monthly
minimum wage to N56,000 about $281 but the
Federal Government would not say a word on
that while addressing the working populace on
their day, even to this point. This is outright
wickedness and a naked dance of skelewu on
the intelligence of the Nigerian people.

As part of the liturgy of my ecclesiastical bloc
which has been commuted to a personal prayer
rubric, I pray daily, ‘O God save our president’
but that would not translate into criminal silence
and conspiracy in the face of reckless impunity. I
therefore call on those who OCCUPIED NIGERIA
in 2012 to come now and LET’S OCCUPY
NIGERIA for like Desmond Tutu would say, ‘If you
are neutral in situations of injustice, you have
chosen the side of the oppressor...’ while Ban
Ki-Moon would add ‘It is up to each and every
one of us to raise our voices against crimes that
deprive countless victims of their liberty and
human right.’

Congratulations Nigerians!
Petrol Price Has now dropped to 57 naira all thanks to Buhari. You can now purchase Petrol for 57naira on Jumia, Konga and all OLX petrol stations.
For more lies please text APC to 419###

My assessment of the situation in Kaduna State
presently is that Governor Nasir El-Rufai may
have some good intentions for his people - to
sanitize the environment of noise pollution, which
is reasonable. But it is certainly misplaced,
extreme and insensitive for a state as his. I wish
it were not coming from him.

While I would want to justify him, his recent
utterance on the population of the state sells
him out. Reliable statistics have always put the
Christian-Muslim population at 55-45% and at
worst 50-50. But that my amiable governor has
reduced the Christian population to 30% while
the Muslims are 70%, and further in Plateau
State (my home, sweet home) 70% Christians
and 30% Muslims which has never been, calls for
concern and points to some clandestine motives.
More worrisome however in the face of this
development is the silence of the leadership of
the Church in Nigeria. The Christian Association
of Nigeria (CAN), Pentecostal Fellowship of
Nigeria (PFN) and other ancillary Christian
umbrella organizations to this moment still think
all is well.

This calls to mind the scenario of Acts 12: Herod
arrested and killed James and the Church was
silent while his kinsmen, the Jews hailed, so he
went on to arrest Peter, then the Church rose in
prayers and Peter was rescued.

Already we hear that more states are requesting
for copies of the bill. If this bill is successful in
Kaduna and the Church remains silent, then
Peter would be arrested!

While I am an advocate of "reasonable worship"
which is part of what this bill addresses, I doubt
that God has answered my prayer through a
seemingly ulterior motive and bigotry of an
Islamic fundamentalist. Therefore I urge the
leadership of the Church to rise and speak, and
the fellowship of the saints to go on bended
knees in our sacred places today and pray, for if
there is a people to pray, there is a God to
answer.

In times like this when the fuel scarcity is acmatic, where a litre is sold between NGN250 and NGN300 without an assurance of end in sight, I think it's high time we legalize the "illegal refineries" extant in the crannies of the Delta. The value of these cottage refineries cannot be overemphasized as they have the capacity to create more jobs and increase government revenue since these youths would also be paying their taxes and buying crude from legitimate sources. I call on the National Assembly to begin to think in this direction.

# JustThinkingAloud

Is this peculiar to Flash Share? What of Xender and others, are they also vulnerable to this?

Good decision on Rivers election violence, Mr President. Can the decision also be extended to the 2011 post election violence?

!

I bought, filled, submitted and printed out my form online but wasn't given the form registration number. Please how do I get the number and will it affect me in any way if I don't get it?