₦airaland Forum

is this creativity?

lalasticlala, over to you

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin opened Moscow's new grand mosque on Wednesday, urging Russia's Islamic leaders to stand against extremism at a time when some 2,400 Russians are fighting with Islamic State in the Middle East.

Russia, home to some 20 million Muslims, has fought two wars against Chechen separatists in the mainly-Muslim North Caucasus region where an Islamist insurgency is still simmering and some rebels have sworn their allegiance to IS.

Unveiling the new mosque built of light stone, capped with turquoise and golden cupolas, Putin said Russia must educate its Muslim youth to prevent them from becoming religious extremists.

"This work is particularly important today as attempts are undertaken to exploit religious feelings for political purposes," Putin said during the opening of the mosque, which is said to cost some $170 million.

"We see what's happening in the Middle East where terrorists of the so-called Islamic State discredit the great world religion, discredit Islam by sowing hate, killing people... destroying the world's cultural heritage in a barbaric way."



"Their ideology is built on lies, on open perversion of Islam. They are trying to recruit followers in our country as well."

Adopting Russian Orthodox Christian terminology for an important house of worship, the building is called the Moscow Cathedral Mosque. Its main golden dome and tall minaret reflected the style of many Orthodox churches, except for the Islamic crescents atop them.

Russia's Kremlin-backed Council of Muftis said private donations covered the construction of the mosque, including contributions from Kazakhstan and Turkey, whose President Tayyip Erdogan was present at the opening ceremony.

The new mosque, which can accommodate 10,000 people, was built on the site of an earlier mosque erected in the early 20th century by the Tatar community.

Islam is the second largest religion in Russia after Orthodox Christianity, making up around 15 percent of the population.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0RN1UD20150923

lalasticlala

Mogidi:
@op
1962 or 1982?

1982

"Central bank is making FX available to `essential' services"
"Buhari says cabinet appointment delay not harming markets"


Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said he opposed a further devaluation of the West African nation’s currency and endorsed the central bank’s policies that have restricted foreign-exchange trading.

"I don’t think it is healthy for us to get the naira devalued further," Buhari said in an interview in Paris with France 24 broadcast on Wednesday. The central bank is making foreign exchange available to “essential services, industries.”

Buhari, who has yet to name a cabinet since he took office at the end of May, said markets aren’t being harmed by the delay in ministerial appointments, which will happen by the end of the month. Civil servants are running the government of Africa’s top oil producer competently, he said.

“Work is being done by technocrats, they are there and they provide the continuity,” he said.

Amid a halving in oil prices in the past year, Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele reacted to the naira’s drop to a record low in February by introducing trading curbs and bans on purchases of dollars to stem the rout.

Last week, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decided to exclude Nigeria from its local-currency emerging-market bond indexes, tracked by more than $200 billion of funds, after the restrictions prompted investor concerns about a shortage of liquidity. The naira remained little changed at 199.05 per dollar on the interbank market at 11:42 a.m. in Lagos, the commercial capital.

SOURCE:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-16/nigerian-president-buhari-rules-out-further-devaluation-of-naira-iemoarjh

Oba Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale and paramount ruler of Ijebuland, has accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of being nepotistic by influencing the upgrade and making of Abeokuta, then a rustic town, as Ogun State capital in 1976.

The first class, Ogun State monarch, said at the weekend, during the turbanning ceremony of Princess Khadijat Adebisi Edionsere as the first Iya Suna of Ogun State by the Muslims Council, that Obasanjo used his influence and power as the second in command then, to ensure that capital of Ogun State was given to his home town, Abeokuta.

He revealed that Abeokuta was never recommended among cities under consideration as the state capital by the then military administration of late General Murtala Muhammed in 1976, adding that the then Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Lieutenant General, now former President Olusegun Obasanjo changed the system and favoured Abeokuta overnight.

The monarch, however, explained that the action of the former president proved him “to be a true son of Abeokuta”, saying: “It is good to use your position to positively affect your people.

“When Ogun State was to be created, Abeokuta was not the city recommended as state capital. But, because Obasanjo was the second in command, he took the capital to Abeokuta. I don’t condemn his action, I am only saying our people should learn from that.”

While lauding Governor Amosun for ongoing construction projects in the state, the leader of Muslims Ummah in Ogun state, dismissed allegations in some quarters that the governor is concentrating more on Abeokuta in terms of development, adding that state capitals around the world enjoy certain rights and privileges that befit their status.

“We have bridges in Ijebu-Ode, Sagamu, Abeokuta and Ilaro. The governor is touching everywhere. Abeokuta is the state capital just like Abuja or Lagos and therefore should be treated as a state capital.”

He then charged the newly installed Muslims’ Women leader, Princess Adebisi Edionsere to continue her support for propagation of Islam through dedication and philanthropic activities.

source: http://businessdayonline.com/2015/09/obasanjos-nepotism-influenced-abeokuta-as-state-capital-in-1976-says-ogun-monarch/

Mugabe reads wrong speech at opening of parliament
George Charamba, spokesman for Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe said, the President read out the wrong speech at the opening of the country’s parliament on Tuesday.

Charamba blamed a mix-up in Mugabe’s office for the error.

"The mix-up happened in his secretarial office, therefore the delivery in Parliament should be set aside," the spokesman said.

Mugabe had delivered the same speech during a state of the nation address on Aug. 25, in which he pinned his hopes on China to help revive Zimbabwe's struggling economy.

Charamba said Mugabe would read the correct speech later at a Harare hotel. (Reuters/NAN)

source:http://dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/mugabe-reads-wrong-speech-at-opening-of-parliament/110877.html

friends4ever:
Illustrate why you're respected more than before. My guy how many square meal did you eat today?

5 square meal

cc: lalasticlala

Nigeria regaining its lost glory under Buhari.

We are respected more than ever before.

World leaders admire Buhari's style of leadership and personality

more

Femi Adesina shared these on his Facebook timeline.

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=886222591470082

Kano was famous for its magnificent groundnut pyramids during Nigeria’s period of agricultural boom in the 1960s and early 1970s. Its groundnut pyramids became synonymous with the country’s agricultural wealth, and Kano was regarded as an economic hub in West Africa.
A pyramid could be built with as much as 15,000 full bags of groundnut. Invented by the late Alhaji Alhassan Dantata, a prominent groundnut trader, the groundnut pyramids were a tourist attraction and symbol of wealth. Dantata was one of the successful businessmen who supplied the Royal Niger Company (RNC) with most of its groundnut demands. His groundnut were kept at facilities in Kofar Nasarawa and Kofar Mazugal in Dala.
The pyramids came about because licensed agents would go to rural areas, buy up groundnut harvests and bring everything to Kano for eventual evacuation by train to the export facilities in Lagos. Curiously, as groundnut production declined in the 1970s, the pyramids disappeared and were replaced by buildings and roads. However, the Kofar Mazugal location of the pyramids at Dala remains intact till today.

When Daily Trust on Sunday visited the place our reporter discovered that the location has been converted to a football field, campaign ground and test-driving location. People were also seen gathering there for one purpose or another on a daily basis. Despite the long years of its abandonment, traces of the triangular shape of the pyramids could still be seen all over the place.
Many of those who witnessed the groundnut boom and the famous pyramids located at Kofar Mazugal in Dala, Bebeji, Malam Madori, Kofar Nasarawa and Dawakin-Kudu areas, regarded as the hub of trading about 60 years ago, are unhappy at the pyramids’ disappearance. Those who spoke to our reporter recounted the glorious days of the groundnut trade .
Alhaji Illiyasu Danladi, who was a young man during the groundnut boom said, “It was over 60 years ago. I was a teenager then, but I can remember the activities here. I lived close to the abattoir. Cars in the state at that time were not more than 10. What we had were donkeys and camels. Camels represented trailers. People were poor, but we all lived in peace. We were not jealous over the successes of one another. If you had N10, I would pray to God to give me N20. I would not try to collect yours.
“This area was bushy and not tarred. We had trains and railway tracks that led to Lagos. I didn’t participate in the groundnut business. We used to watch the activities from here. At that time, this place used to be filled with people who brought groundnut from different areas. A lot of customers came from other places to buy groundnut and other products.
“Although farmers participated in farming other crops, like rice, the most important crops were groundnut and cotton. That was where the federal government was getting its revenue from. Whoever was privileged to witness the period of the groundnut boom in Kano will not be happy to see the way it has disappeared. But the government can revive it. In Kano, we still have the capacity to produce groundnut in large quantities, even more than we produced during the boom.
“I remember that I saw white people many times here. We watched some of them as they took pictures of the groundnut pyramids. Nobody would not be fascinated by the way those bags of groundnut were arranged before they were taken to Lagos. Why did they stop it? In those days, it was the only business that was booming here in Dala.
“Some of our people also sold kolanuts around here, but most people came here because of groundnuts. We will be happy to see the groundnut pyramids back. You can see that the field is still there. Any day I walk through this field I remember the activities that went on here for many years. If you were here some years before now, you would have seen the rail lines. They were destroyed during the construction of roads.”
Malam Zakiru is an old man. According to one of his sons, Adamu, he is over 88 years. He was a kola-nut trader at a market close to the location of the groundnut pyramids at the Dala area of Kano city. Recounting his memories of the period, he said: “Traces of the groundnut pyramids are still there. You can go and take a look for yourself. I didn’t work there, but I still have the memories of the activities that took place there from the 1950s. I had friends who were labourers there. They were helping to arrange the bags of groundnut to form pyramids. I was selling kola-nuts at the market here, so we could see what they were doing from here. Whenever it was time to place the last bag of groundnut on the peak of the pyramids we would leave whatever we were doing to go there and watch how it would be done. It was only one man that did that. His name was Dabge. I haven’t seen him come out for many years until I heard he died some years ago. It was fun watching him climb the pyramids to the peak without being assisted by anyone. Whenever it was time to place the last bag of groundnuts on the pyramid he was the one who would do it and people would gather to watch him.
“That was the most exciting time at the pyramids. I was young then, but I don’t think I had that strength to do what those labourers were doing with bags of groundnut at the pyramids.”
Also speaking, another community elder at Dala, Malam Sheriff Aminu, said that going to the pyramids was like going to the market. “No one went to the groundnut pyramids unless there was a reason. Unfortunately, they allowed that business to die. That period, the agents would gather the groundnuts in pyramids and transport them to Lagos.
“Alhaji Alhassan Dantata was the one running the business here. Many farmers in the villages were harvesting for him. Whenever it was the season, you would see people bring groundnut from different parts of Kano to the locations of the pyramids on camels and donkeys; only few people had vehicles to bring their produce here. His own was to get labourers to put them together in pyramids. When this was done, the agents would later transport them to Lagos for shipment abroad. Most of his customers were outside the state and the country. The groundnuts produced in Kano at that time were beyond what the state could consume; they were even beyond what the country could consume. You would see farmers bring their produce for sale from different villages. The next day you would see another set of people coming in large groups and everywhere. The field would be filled with people selling groundnut. But now, things have changed.
“You can see that the place is now used as a football field. Those who want to learn driving and religious preachers also use it. Even politicians use it during election periods as a campaign ground.”
Malam Aminu also said that he and some of his friends always watched the labourers as they arranged the bags of groundnut to form the pyramids. “They would continue to arrange the bags until they got to the peak.
“There was no road here (pointing at the IBB Way built by the PTF during the late Sani Abacha era). Only a railway line was here. It was constructed to link the two groundnut pyramids located at Dala and the one at Kofar Nasarawa. From Kano Radio House to this place, there was no road. When the PTF came to construct the road, they removed the rail line.
“Look at this wall, from up to that end was used as groundnut pyramids. The field belongs to Alhaji Alhassan Dantata. If you look at it carefully, you would still see traces of the pyramids carved out in a triangular form.
“The federal government had made efforts to revive the groundnut industry and rebuild the pyramids many years ago. Former President Goodluck Jonathan, on his visit to Kano during the presidential campaign, promised that his administration would help the people to revive the groundnut pyramids, as well as put in place, the necessary infrastructure to boost its processing and packaging. He said there was the need to empower Kano people and boost trade and industry here. In 2014, he said his administration, under the groundnut value chain programme, expected to produce an additional 120,000 metric tonnes of groundnut valued at N24 billion (US$ 155 million) and supplied to small, medium and large scale processors.
According to him, the project was planned to be implemented in 15 states - Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Gombe, Kebbi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara - in the North-West, North-East and North-Central geo-political zones of the country.
But nothing was heard of the project till the expiration of his administration in 2015.’’


source:http://dailytrust.com.ng/news/feature/60-years-after-kano-groundnut-pyramids-site-turns-to-football-field/110537.html

Filin Dala, the site of the groundnut pyramids now an empty field

very silly topic. u will die before buhari

Thousands of groups that supported former president Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid have disappeared from the Abuja landscape.
There were over 6000 such groups in the build-up to the presidential election in March which Jonathan lost to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.
With huge resources at their disposal, the groups dominated the airwaves and pages of the print media but soon after the defeat of the former president, most of the groups disappeared.
The physical structure of a prominent group, the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), which played a significant role in the election campaigns of Jonathan, has been taken over by an oil company, Daily Trust has reliably gathered.
Aside from the taking over of TAN’s structure, all majors groups that campaigned for Jonathan’s re-election have closed shop, visits to their offices by our reporters have revealed.
At the peak of the 2015 campaigns, the groups were screened, registered and merged by the office of political adviser to former president Jonathan, Professor Rufa’i Alkali, under the name of Goodluck Support Groups (GSG) in 2014.
Prior to the commencement of the 2015 campaigns, TAN, sponsored by Ifeayi Uba, toured states across the country where millions of signatures were collated in support of Jonathan.
The activities of the group that expended billions on Jonathan campaigns were coordinated from Maitama District of Abuja. Expectedly, the area became a beehive of political activities.
But a visit to the secretariat of the group last Thursday revealed that it has become a hub for oil business. The place is now occupied by Capital Oil.
On arrival at the office of TAN, located at No. 10, Oguda Close, off Lake Chad Crescent, Maitama-Abuja, Daily Trust reporters were told by the police and other security personnel there that “TAN is dead, it died after elections.”
A policeman who craved anonymity said: “This place is no longer a political arena. It is now an oil company.”
 Similarly, the central office of the Goodluck Support Group (GSG) was locked when Daily Trust visited at Area 11, opposite the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), Abuja.
There were no security personnel there and it was deserted. Only the inscription: “The Nigerian Mandate 2015” was seen written on the wall of the building.
In a telephone interview, TAN’s director of communications and strategy, Udenta O. Undenta, said TAN was a platform designed to showcase the achievements of Jonathan for him to be accepted and re-elected by Nigerians.
On whether TAN would resurrect in 2019 to support whoever emerges as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Udenta said that is not yet clear.
He said: “I am in Lagos now, when I come to Abuja, I will call you so we can have a chat on that.”
Similarly, a visit to the office of Goodluck Initiative for Transformation (GIFT) at Wuse 2 revealed that the office no longer exists.
Security operatives were not seen at the gate while the phone line of the national coordinator of the group, Engr. Chinedu Okpalanma, could not be reached.
GIFT was the first group to ask Jonathan to declare his intention to run for the election. The group had kept vigil for weeks at Unity Fountain, Maitama-Abuja, insisting that Jonathan must declare his intention to contest before it would leave the premises.
However, a call and text message sent to Professor Rufa’i to find out whether the groups under the aegis of GSG were repositioning to support the PDP in the 2019 general elections were not responded to.
Chief Olisa Metuh, the PDP national publicity secretary, in a telephone interview with Daily Trust said: “I can’t talk about groups for now but our structures at the ward, local government, zonal and national levels will work hard for the success of the party.
“But, of course, the elections will not come and go without groups supporting our candidates. Groups must also participate in ensuring the success of our candidates. So if you say the groups have disappeared, well, it may be because of one reason or the other, but I think we will have groups that will help in selling our candidates.”


Source:http://dailytrust.com.ng/news/politics/6-000-jonathan-campaign-groups-disappear/109864.html

Goodluck Support Groups central office in Abuja. Photo:

olapluto:
Is he related to the late Ikemba Ojukwu? The semblance is striking.

becareful

Change has come bro, u better wake up and change ur business

shaddoww:
@op did u notice dat was d same cloth he wore while praying for his cows d last time he visited?

yes, same cloth he wore for his official portrait

more

Presidential Media Adviser Femi Adesina posted this on his facebook page.

pic(1) President Muhammadu Buhari being welcomed by the Governor of Katsina state Alhaji Aminu Masari as he arrived at the Umaru Musa Yar'adua International Airport on 4th Sept 2015

pic(2) PMB, Governor of Katsina state Alhaji Aminu Masari and Deputy Governor of Katsina state Mannir Yakubu at the Umaru Musa Yar'adua International Airport as President Buhari is warmly welcomed to Katsina state on 4th Sept 2015


pic(4)President Muhammadu Buhari attends Jumaat Prayers, Departs Kaduna for Daura Katsina

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1452287068399764&tsid=0.3878839360550046&source=typeahead

mightyokwy:
First class fooooooooooooool

first class thief, igbo

zik4ever:
I think your comment is very unfair. I clearly said I love the guy and have been following him. All I asked was to say would it work given our kind of environment? I have not expressed any sentiment against him. I know how things work thats why I just asked and had no hidden meaning at all.

edit ur comment too.

zik4ever:
Op, can this be for real? I like the guy and have followed his works/site but it looks like he is from the same State as the CBN Governor and the new GMD of NNPC. Will it fly?

why not? constitutionality it is not wrong.