₦airaland Forum

Of course the climate is changing, and it has always been changing, the argument is whether the changes are caused by human actions. I for one believe that human actions play an insignificant role in the climate change, the changes are a result of very complex geological and cosmological forces and interractions. The earth had been experiencing cycles of extreme heat and extreme cold, extreme dryness and extreme wetness, extreme magnetism and no magnetism and even reversal of magnetic polarity for as long as it has existed. So it is quite incredulous to suggest that human actions are responsible for these.

I think some scientist are using the hype of climate change to get more grants and donations from governments and organizations, they can connot even reach an agreement of what type of change the climate is going through, first the hype was global cooling, then it later change to global warming and now they just say it is climate change.

This cycle of warming up stated about 12,000 years ago with the end of the last ice age. The Sahara desert was a savanna forest with steams and rivers not so long ago. Are they saying human actions was responsible for turning the sahara into a desert?

Yes, industial polution is a threat to animals and plants on the planet, but to attribute climate change to these polutions to me is a bit far feached.

Decapo: Is he a builder?? Alaye go and sleep back u neva wake finish

What are you talking about? Was he not the one that made the decision to extend the builder? Was he not the person that sponsored the construction. If he gave permission for the construction and was the financier of the project, the the reponsibility for ensuring things are done properly rest with him.

If TB Joshua flouted the laws of the land and as a result people are killed or maimed, then he is criminally and morally liable for the death of the people.

And besides, who told you a builder or structural engineer was employed to supervise the project? Since the collapse we have not heard any builder named as the person in charge of the project. And no builder or structural engineer has come forwards to claim responsibility for the structure. I am also certain that TB Joshua (or one of his assistants)just called some bricklayer and instructed them to add deckings to the already existing building. Any body that is responsible for adding additional decking without the requisite approvals is criminally liable for the death of people that died in the collapse.

Instead of TB Joshua and his worshippers to refute the allegations that they embarked on a structural renovation without without neccessary papers, they are going on fairy tale stories of UFOs and witchcraft, even Boko Haram was thrown in for effects. If you people have neccessary approvals for the renovations, why has it taken it so long for you to show us.

Billyonaire: All I am saying is. Do not vote Buhari. Nigeria needs to move forward, not backwards. What are Buhari's credentials ? He cant even speak coherent English. I dont want to cover my face in shame when he goes to UN meetings.

And Goodluck Jonathan can speak coherent english? Have you listened to president Jonathan making a speech? Even after all the preparations and tutelage, he still speaks like a "waffi" bus conductor. If spoken english is a criteria for Nigerian presidency, Jonathan does not stand a chance.

And what was Goodluck Jonathan's credentials before be was imposed on us as vice president by Obasanjo? President Jonathan's CV cannot stand up to Buhari's if put side by side. There is no position President Jonathan has held that Buhari had not also held.

Having said these, I do not think Buhari still have the enegy and vigour demanded of the presidency. He look frail and weak.

Nigria needs a young, vibrant, intelligent and honest (corruption free) person at this moment.

The reason this country cannot progress is clearly obvious. The masses worship the Elites, be it religious, political or business elite. We tend to support and be ready to fight for them when they do wrong because of religious, political, tribal or sectional affiliations.

Now people defending and supporting TB Joshua should answer the following questions;
Who made the decision to build a hostel in the first place and who paid for it?
Who hired the Architects, engineers and builders employed to construct the hostel?
Who paid for all the approvals for the structure in the first place?
Who made the decision to extend the hostel upwards, and who paid for the extentions?
Who's responsibility is it to apply for approvals for the extension and who is to pay for the approvals?

If the collapse was due to structural defects, who is to be held responsible? At least someone must be held responsible.

agangadiman: they will still refuse you visa, because all you have written is nonsense.
Russia is not scared of the USA one bit... Putin has been pissing over Obama since he came into office,

China is the one holding up US economy... and Russia and China will soon attack the US dollar, which will become the beginning of the end of america. The US is a dying project...they spend 400x more than they earn on defence and creating useless false flag wars to keep the military industrial complex going.

the biggest stupidity of the century is that Africans do not understand their value, if African leaders came together and worked together they can become the richest continent in GDP (not just resources) in a few decades, instead htey rely on the US who is the biggest Enemy to Africa's progress to decieve them and they fight stupid tribal battles with each other.


THAT IS THE STUPIDITY OF THE CENTURY

Whats concerns visa with the topic at hand? Is a personal view of the strength of the US economy a condition for granting visas? Why is it that Nigerian political lapdogs always get personal when debating issues?

Putin pissing over Obama? please explain how.


The US economy has been the largest economy for over 140 years and is still the largest economy as of today. Yes the chinese economy is fast catching up but it still depends heavily on the US for technology and market. The Chinese (and Russia) cannot afford at this moment to engage the US in an economic war, yes it would greatly affect the US economy, but it will damage the Chinese and Russian economy more. The US has launched some economic sanctions against Russia, Russia's retaliation was to impose a ban on beef from Europe and the US.

The mentality of the Americans are very different from that we African, we African love to beat our chests for insignificant achievements. A Nigerian creates a toy rocket and we would hear how a nigerian as invented a world wonder. Our earnings increase as a result of consistently high oil prices, and we make so much noise about being the fastest growing economy in the universe. Meanwhile the Americans always down play their strengths. When the Japanese economy was growing at double digit in the 80s and 90s, the Americans were overhyping the Japanese and downplaying American achievements (They do this to spur themselves further). Latter we saw that the growth was unsustainable and it was controlled to a large extent by the US. Then we heard a lot about Japanese technology when actually the so called Japanese technology was a copycat of American technology.The same senerio is playing out with the Chinese. America (and to some extent Europe) still controls world's technology, China only copies using cheaper materials and labour.

About the value of Africa today. It is sad that as of today Africa has very little value. Africa of today is famed for nagative things like poverty, wars, famine, disease, corruption, etc. We have failed to realize that the most valuable assert a nation can have is its human resources, and believe, me we are lacking greatly in this regard. To make matters worse, the little credible manpower we are producing are pilfered by other nations. They design immigration policies to steal our best. Our best brains and athletes ply their trade for other countries. Our literacy levels are falling yearly, our universities are producing half literates and our research institutes are non existent. Is this how we are going to progress and lead the world?

So Jonathanians think they can confront the US of A, that is the stupidity of the century. When even countries like the UK, Germany and Japan always make sure they dont antagonize the Americans. Even the Iranians have seen the folly of being enemies of the US, they are gradually coming to their senses and are tying to mend fences with the US. Even almighty Russia that is doing shakara now would eventually retrace their steps and make peace with the US. Putin is just trying to get concessions on Crimea and some Russian speaking parts of Ukraine.

We need the US, but the US need virtually nothing from Nigeria. They have stopped buying our oil and within the next 5 years would become the highest exporter of oil in the world. If prices are crash we would go abegging to IMF, world bank and other US controlled financial institutions just to run the country.

The greatest flaw of this administration is the lack of a clear foreign policy direction. We seems to making so many enemies without courting any friends. We cannot afford to have the US as an Enemy.

I see it as an evolution rather than a regression. Fashion evolves like any other aspect of human endeavour. It is to do with freedom of expression that have become the standard of modern societies. There was a time when religious authorities and the state regulate the way people dress, eat, speak and think, but all these has been thrown overboard. People can now express themselves however they wish to (except in extreme cases that infringe on the rights of others).

Even in Europe and the US there was a time the prevalling fashion was covering up like a nun. At that time most women in africa were going about barely covered up (topless), but today it is the reverse, most African ladies prefer to cover up while the Europeans prefer to be minimally clad. In the next century the fashion sense might change again, who knows.

About African movies, you cannot dictate the extent of how actors and actresses are covered and how much sexuality is screened, at least for legal Adults. What can be done is to protect the young by adequate censoring and categorizing of movies. That is having all the neccessary protections in place to prevent children from being exposed to indecent or violent films. As i always say, demand is the mother of supply, if there is no demand for these indecent movies and videos, the actors, producers and marketers would go burst.

rexzqcom: The business of life and death which the international arms trades represents, often are covert. Less than 30% of it are transparent. Over 70% are shady in nature. Even the Usa operates more often than not, in the veiled arms market. The case of Iran-Contras arm deal comes to mind. A situation when the CIA had to receive drugs (cocaine) from Contra guerrilla army, sold them in the US, and use the proceed to buy arms for Contra to sell to the Iran govt, who was their vowed enemy. This unsavory deals was promulgated to circumvent the same USA law that forbid the sale of any new arms, ammunition, and spare-parts for their existing armaments purchased earlier during friendly time. The Contra-Army themselves were illegal guerrilla force fighting their elected Sandinista govt of Nicaragua. Won't be surprised, if this so called deal with the SA, is actually a deal where Israel is the actual seller by way of South Africa transit. Such are the covert natures of international arms trafficking.

All you are saying are lies and and half truths. I am sure you were not born or conscious enough to know what transpired during the Iran-Contra scandal. It is sheer bullsh1t that less than 30% of international arms deal are done transparently, only deals between rogue nations or rogue organizations are done in clandestine manner. So you are now comparing the Nigerian government to Nicaraguan rebels. If you took time off to read up on the Iran - Contra affair, you will learn that the CIA had to sell weapons clandestinely to Iran because there was an arms embargo on Iran and the Reagan administration was desperate to free American hostages. From there some of the weapons were diverted to the contras in Nicaragua. When the scandal blew open, it almost consumed the Reagan administration. Colonel Oliver North took the fall for the whole scandal and was dismissed and prosecuted. So it smarks of dishonesty to to use that singular scandal to try and justify the illogical and disgraceful way, the Nigerian government is going about this illegal arms deal cum money laundering scandal.

National governments do not resort to illegal means to procure arms, they negotiate and conclude business through normal financial and diplomatic channels.

My own grouse is that when schools were invaded by terrorists in borno and the schools were burnt with hundreds of studentskilled or abducted, president jonathan did not deem it important enough to visit the schools and commiserate with the state, the communities and the parents, but when a building collapse in the Lagos as a consequence of Negligence on the part of a church (and to some extent the state government), resulting in unneccessary loss of lives, and the president deemed it fit to pay a condolence visit to the church.

Why the double standard by the president?

Centrifude: Yep Blame it on South Africa huh!?

Its our fault that your guys tried to smuggle money into our country. $9 million is way above the legal limit, your guys knew exactly what they were doing, they knew it was illegal but they still did it, and Governments almost never buy Arms with Cash unless its for some dodgy Ish.

So yes Blame us for your guys basically disrespecting us, its our fault that your guys tried to illegally bring in a large sum of money into our country to buy arms from the company that is not even Licensed to sell Arms.

Our Governments don't get along but S.A would never try to pull a stunt like that on Nigeria.

Please do not lump us all into the same basket. Most of us are appalled by the way the government is disgracing us internationally. The vocal few making all the noise (and blaming everybody else like APC, US, UK, South Africa, etc) are mostly paid government apologists, ie TAN ambassadors and some ethnic bigots. The Majority of Nigerian masses are even oblivious of the whole scandal.

Please do not use the selfish motives of a few Nigerians to label the rest of us.

Nigeria is gradually slipping back into the Abacha Era, where everybody is an enemy. UK, US, Canada and South Africa has now become our enemy while we court nations such as Iran, Russia and maybe China as friends.

You break international money laundry and arms laws, not only your own counrty but also of a sister foreign nations and you are still playing the victim car?d.

I wonder how many enemies we would have made by the time Jonathan leaves in 2019 (assuming he wins the next election)

And the empire strikes back. This time the empire(SCOAN) is striking at everybody and anyone that questions is negligence and breaking of the building code of Lagos.

Forget all the excuses given by SCOAN members on this forum, the building was substandard. Just one look at the rubble of the collapse building would show just how ridiculously sunstandard the building was ( and i am not even talking about adding additional floors to a building caring about the foundation yet). A look at the rubble shows relatively thin pillars with no beams whatsoever. A 6 storey building should be a structural frame of beams and posts, but the building here seems to have been built by adding concrete deckings on top of walls and pillars one floor at a time. If it was a latice frame structure of beams and posts, there is not way the building would have collapsed in one go like that, the weak side would first collapse while the weight of the upper floors would then collapse on the rest of the building.

FFK and the TAN brigade are now experts in black market sales of arms, especially by the intelligence services of the world. Their argument is that since the market in black market arms sales is done in secrecy, every thing is permissible by the Nigerian government under the guise of black market arms deal. It is like saying after it was discovered that the king is indeed dancing naked, the kings aid explain away the situations by saying all other kings dance naked also, but their subjects are not aware yet.

If it is true that the US and the UK has refused to sell weapons and ammunition to Nigeria, then we should start getting worried. It means we are gradually slipping into a pariah state like syria, sudan and iran. We need ask the Nigerian government why they refused to sell to our government, at least they must have given excuses for blacklisting Nigeria.

Why had the government been silent about this critical issue until now? Why had the government not tell Nigerian that we have been blacklisted from buying weapons by the west? If this South African fiasco had not happened, we would never have known about the refusal of the US and UK to sell us weapons. So when did this embargo start? Where had they been purchasing their arms and ammunitions from before? or are they telling us that they over 1 trillion defense budget yearly over the last few years did not include purchase of arms and ammunition?

The government owes Nigerian explanations on these matters and other matters concerning the running of our country.

FFK trying so hard to take the job of Okupe or Abati. Even though he is no a government spokesman or even officialal, he does not work for any of the the intelligence services nor is the a staff of Pastor Oritsejafor or any of his companies, he writes as if he was in charge of the whole saga.

FFK is seriously looking for a job.

The irony is that when Boko Haram decides to purchase weapons (illegally), they make use of official channels like CBN (according to Davis) to transfer the funds abroad and everything is done covertly and smoothly without any scandal.
But when the Nigerian government decides to purchase weapons, they bye-pass the financial system and smuggle raw cash into another country( which is a violation of the country's laws), using private contractors with private planes, and to make the matter worse, they were caught.

Nigerian government is now involved in smuggling cash into another country ( money laundering), buying weapons illegally (without the country's knowledge or permission) and then smuggling the weapon out of the country ( also without permission).

Now what sort of government does that?

That plane does not look anywhere close to the building. If the plane is big enough to cause a whole building to colapse like a pack of cards, it will not look that small when taken from that angle. That singular flat picture cannot tell us much about the height at which the plane was flying.

If this kind of thing happens in any other country in the world, the irresponsible government would be history by now, with all involved facing jail time.

mikeansy: Don't spoil the thread with Buhari talk abeg. The man na bad news!

Whether you accept it or not Buhari has more integrity than anyone you have ever known or met. He has his flaws of course but stealing public funds (which incidentally is not corruption) is not one of them.

Abeg, what did you see? There is no way anyone could determine that the HELICOPTER (and not plane or jet) was flying over that particular building because we are looking at it from a flat 2 dimensional frame of reference. To determine which building the helicopter ( or helicopters, because it might be different helicopters) is/are flying over, you would need to look at it from 3 dimensions or at least 2 different angles.

Besides if the helicopter was flying unusally too low to the building, it would have caused concern to people passing bye, but from the footage, the passersbyes were oblivious of the passing chopper.

As much as i admire Dangote and what he has achieved, i do not think he is the kind of president we need now. The two greatest theats to Nigeria at the moment are corruption and insurgency, so we need a president who has the character tp tackle these problems head on. Buhari has these attributes but i he is now too old and has compromised with some corrupt politicians. Ribadu also has these attributes but he is too Naive to navigate the murky waters of Nigerian politics. I wish Tunde Idiagbon was alive, i am certain he can get Nigeria back on the right path.

Right now i honestly cant think of a suitable president for Nigeria, all the available options are part of the problem including Goodluck Jonathan.

I honestly do not understand the connections between an helicopter hovering a building, the said building collapsing like a pack of cards and Boko Haram.

If TB Joshua implying that Shakau bought an ordinary helicpter, got a pilot to fly it to the synagogue in lagos, circle the building 4 times and then 13 minutes later launched an incontinental ballistic missile at the church? Wow, the prophet is giving Boko Haram so much credit, even the US and Isreal would marval at such precision and sophistication. If Shakau has that level of sophisticated weaponry, i am sure he would direct it at more important targets and not a church building.

Maybe T B Joshua is implying that the helicopter has spiritual powers and all it needs to do to demolish a building is just to circle the building 4 times and fly away and promto the building would crumble like it has been hit by a missile.

Religious people are adept at giving excuses. A building crumbles as a result of adding two extra floors to a building that was badly constructed in the first place and without building approvals and someone is blaming hovering helicopter and Boko Haram for its collapse

Fashola has visited the site of the collapsed building, so what next? Is proper investigation going to take place and the culprits responsible for the numerous loss of life punished? I thought lagos has a law that the site of any collapsed building in Lagos would be seized by the state government.

Is this had happened to a building owned by an ordinary Nigerian, the owner and all involved would be arrested and interrogated by now. But this is Nigeria, the law only applies to ordinary people. The rich and powerful are immune to the law.

emmatony: By Senator Iroegbu  and Michael Olugbode 

Insurgent fighters from the Boko Haram Islamic sect were in full retreat from the strategic town of Bama, in Borno State, at the weekend following a fierce aerial onslaught by the Nigerian Air Force, military sources confirmed yesterday. They said the aerial attack aimed at knocking off Boko Haram’s weapon installations in the town it had recently overrun, had been effective and yielding the desired results.

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has also confirmed that over 50 terrorists were killed yesterday afternoon as troops raided their hide out in Kawuri shortly before setting out on a planned attack on Konduga.

This was disclosed in terse statement through the DHQ twitter account @DefenceInfoNG.
The Defence authorities said "one fabricated artillery  gun, two Anti Aircraft gun, an armoured vehicle  and assorted types of ammunition were recovered in the process.

"Some hardware, weapons  food items, and personal belongings were also destroyed in the raid".
However, one officer and two soldiers were said to be seriously wounded. But Boko Hram opened another front in the antiterrorism war on Friday after an attack on Gulak town, the headquarters of Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State. The Secretary to the Government of Adamawa State, Professor Liman Tukur, who confirmed the attack in a statement, said insurgents had taken over the town.

President Goodluck Jonathan had on Friday, reportedly, ordered a full-scale war against Boko Haram.

NAF intensified its bombing campaign at the weekend to rid Bama of the terrorists, pockets of which were still said to be holding out in the town and its environs. But the battle took a heavy toll on civilian lives and property as the insurgents were said to be embedded with residents, locals said.

A source said, “The first attacks didn't really make the expected impact but the second round of bombardment really injured those Boko Haram boys, which is why they are retreating now. They are no more deep into Bama, while our people are advancing and gaining territory. The Boko Haram boys are right now retreating.

“We are now dislodging them. You know, Air Force have intensified their efforts; they brought F-7 and different kinds of aircraft. They really bombarded them.”

Another military source confirmed the advances of the Armed Forces in the battle of Bama but cautioned that it was no time for celebration yet, as the operation was still ongoing in several parts of Borno State. He said the situation was “still very volatile” with Gwoza far from being liberated from the terrorists’ siege.

“We don't want to say anything official but there are still fights going on in different places and on different scales, especially by air.  This is a critical and unusual time,” the senior military officer said.

A senior Air Force officer, who spoke from Borno State, said apart from the aerial campaign in Bama, NAF had been effective in support of the ground forces with the launch of air attacks with different aircraft types, including helicopter gunships.

He said, “We are very deeply involved. You know what we are having here is a joint operation of the services, even though the Navy may not be involved right now because of the terrain.

“First and foremost, apart from the airlift, we are equally supporting the ground forces; in most of the cases we even take the initiative. In modern warfare, Air Force normally does the first dirty job, clear the road for the Army to do the mop up operations.

“Like I said, all our platforms are participating fully here. We have Alpha Jets, we have F7, Beechcraft, Mi35, which is the gunships, and then all our transport planes: C-130, the G TripleT. So we are participating fully and playing a significant role in that place.”

The Defence Headquarters had vowed in a statement by Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, that it will not allow any violation of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity by terrorists. The statement was in apparent response to a growing sense of apprehension among citizens and foreigners following recent reports about the gain of territories in Borno State by Boko Haram.

“While welcoming all the concerns shown by Nigerians and a section of the international community following the increased menace and activities of terrorists, it is necessary to reassure all that the Nigerian Armed Forces is more than ever determined and committed to the defence of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Nigeria, regardless of any odd,” Olukolade stated. “We therefore urge our citizens not to lose hope or be disenchanted but to remain steadfast and supportive of the military as all steps are being taken to ensure the success of the counter-insurgency operations, especially at this crucial time when our sovereignty is being challenged.”
But a military intelligence source said, “Gwoza is still a no-go area, I must tell you the truth, as the town is firmly in hands of the Boko Haram terrorists. We are currently focusing on Bama before advancing to other areas.”

However, the senator for Borno Central senatorial district, Ahmed Zannah, said the military might be playing right into the enemy’s hands by focussing on Bama. He said the reported retreat of Boko Haram from Bama might be a ploy to draw out the military from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, before launching a heavy onslaught on the town.

The warning came against the backdrop of recent Boko Haram seizure of towns that are just few kilometres from Maiduguri, which is already swarming with internally displaced persons said to be numbering over 100,000 who are housed in different camps.

With the recent attacks on Gwoza and Bama, those displaced since January in the North-east are estimated to have risen to over 500,000, according to the National Emergency Management Agency.

Zannah said in an alert to the military, “At present, there are pockets of insurgents in Bama, men who are mainly indigenes of the town but left behind by their leaders to continue to terrorise the town. The leaders have left for their hideouts in Sambisa.

“It is believed that those left in Bama are to draw the military out of Maiduguri and when they are reclaiming Bama, the large number of insurgents in Sambisa will sneak into Maiduguri to take control of the town.”

Zannah said Maiduguri, from where the insurgents had been driven about a year ago, remained their ultimate target, saying there are indications that the sect is arming for a battle to capture the ancient town.

Sources within the military blame some of the difficulties being encountered in the fight against Boko Haram on what they term indiscriminate retirement of experienced officers.

One officer said, “The problem we are also having now is that the military retired the very ambitious and brave people from the service for the fear of coup without knowing that this kind of thing will arise. Some of these military officers, very courageous ones, should have still been in the system and by now they could have given the guidelines on how we can go about this.

“They could have acquired enough skills on how to manoeuvre to deal with these guys. If we succeeded outside the shores of this country, in Liberia, Sierra Leone and other places, how much more back home here. The fact is that this is not like a conventional war.”

The opening of another key battlefront in Adamawa State by the insurgents marked a major escalation in the anti-terror war. Tukur said the insurgents killed and displaced many people in Gulak during the attack on the town.

The Adamawa State SSG said in a release at the weekend, “It has come to the attention of the Adamawa State Government that insurgents are now in Gulak, the headquarters of Madagali Local Government Area, and had killed and displaced scores of people.

“On behalf of the people and government of Adamawa, his Excellency deeply sympathises with the people of Gulak and other surrounding villages and towns whose areas had been overran by insurgents.

“The concomitant effects of the insurgency, like displacement of whole villages and towns, create multitudes of internally displaced persons whose management and welfare the government is left to bear.”
Residents of some villages in Michika Local Government Area, which borders Madagali local government, were said to be fleeing to Uba, Mubi, and Yola for fear of possible attacks.

Chief Press Secretary to the acting governor of Adamawa State, Mr. Solomon Kumangar, also confirmed the attack on Gulak town by insurgents and said several people were killed.
Kumangar, however, denied reports that the residence of the acting governor, Alhaji Umaru Fintiri, in Gulak had been torched by the Boko Haram terrorists.

Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima, in a state broadcast on Friday, lamented the siege and plunder of communities in the state by Boko Haram, saying the attempt to predicate the attacks on religion is despicable.

Shettima stated, “In recent days and weeks, we have come under renewed and augmented attacks, waged against all of us by an armed minority that seeks to impose on us a doctrine that is completely at variance with the religion of Islam, which they claim to promote; a doctrine that negates the dignity and existence of humanity on earth, despite Allah’s decree in the glorious Quran that He has dignified the human creature, prohibited unjust killings and made the religion of Islam that which does not sanction compulsion in a multi-faith society like ours.

“Several innocent communities in Gwoza, Damboa, Askira/Uba, Marte, Chibok, Konduga, Dikwa and the most recent, Bama, have had young and old amongst them children, weak old men and women, killed in cold blood, their homes destroyed and thousands forced to flee, with some trekking over hurtful distances to become refugees within and outside Borno State.

“Our capital city of Maiduguri is today facing a heavy influx of refugees from the local government areas in Borno. Borno citizens have been forced to take refuge in parts of Gombe and Adamawa states mainly on account of man’s inhumanity to fellow man in the gratuitous name of religion. These acts are absolutely condemnable in the strongest of terms.”

However, the governor said in the history of Borno State since the 19th century, the latest insurgency was “not the first threat to our existence as a people. We had faced and survived threats in years past and we shall survive this, insha Allah.

“We are confident of victory through a reinforcement of our Armed Forces and the collective will of all of us, citizens, who are committed to defeating the Boko Haram scourge.”
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/after-intensive-aerial-bombardment-boko-haram-retreats-from-bama/188431/

The bolded red highlights calls for concern. winning a battle is different from winning the war. Bama might be a distraction to distract the Nigerian military from Maiduguri.

The Commander in Chief and his generals must put their thinking caps on, war is like a chess game, there are pawns to be sacrificed for the ultimate victory, to capture the king/capital.

I hope the government does not get overly emotional with every little victory and forgeting the ultimate goal of crushing the insurgents.

I am not a military man and have not had any military training, but common sense dictates you cannot defeat an invading army with airstrikes alone. Airstrikes are supposed to be support for ground troops. They are meant to take out enemy heavy artillary like APCs and tanks to allow for a ground offensive. If Boko Haram has already captured a town like Bama, what is the use of air bombardments without ground troops? what will they be bombing? How will they know where the insurgents are hiding in the city?

It is a big shame that Boko Haram could overrun a military barracks and subsequently capture a whole town of half a million inhabitants in just 12 hours of fighting without any air support. Meanwhile our own soldiers are relying on bombing the insurgents at a distance from the air and hope recapture the town.

I am so sad about the latest developments in Borno.

Please can someone show me where the Aussie named Sanusi as Boko Haram Financier?
If the man is really concerned about the resue of the kidnapped girls and Nigeria in general, he would do us a world of good by naming the CBN officials invoved in financing Boko Haram- both the one that has left and the one still there now, so that they would be arrested and the source of Boko Haram's funding stopped. Or is he telling us that he had given more detailed info to the SSS and other security forces and they refused to take action?

This write up does not provide any information, it is just innuendoes and speculations we have always been fed with by Olisa Metuh and his gang,

dragan: That's most likely the opinion of many halfwits like her in the South, Halfwits that just cant accept that the guys running the Military are incompetent and the Military is not well armed (which they also try to 'Blame it all on Northerners') anyway, this all ends up making GEJ looking bad and that's something they just cant handle so they will use whatever tribal or religious excuse possible to evade that.

So if they want Northerners removed from Maiduguri so badly I wonder if they're fine with having only their tribesmen in the Military sacrificing their lives to fight BH which they refer to as 'Northerners Problem')

The sad aspect is that this warped thinking as a result of political and religious bias is the thinking of a lot of southern politicians. They see Boko Haram as a Northern problem and so it does not concern them. They are so myopic to see the threat of Boko Haram to every tribe in Nigeria. If Boko Haram is allowed a foothold in the North, then the whole of Nigeria is in trouble. No other tribe in Nigeria has the Military personel, weaponry and resources to confront Boko Haram.

Sending only southern christian soldiers to confront Boko Haram in the North will the the most stupid thing the commander in chief would do. You would only be sending them to their early grave. You want then to fight in a terrain their are unfamiliar with, without understand on the local language or support from the local people, to fight insurgients who are entrenched in the terrain and with the local population. Even during the Iraqi invasion of Iraq by the US and its allies, it was the Syrian army and the Iraqi nationals in the US military that spear headed the entry and capure of Baghdad. It was actually an Iraqi born US soldier that captured Saddam Hussein and dragged him out of his hiding hole.

lyntiffany: My dear is not as if Cameroonian soldiers are more active than Nigerian soldiers , the issue is that Nigerian military is filled with Hausa Fulani Muslims that are bokoharam sympathisers. Some which have their brothers in the sect. That's the reason it seems this people cannot be conquered.

You are treading on dangerous grounds with your unsubstantiated allegations. Are you aware that a substantial number of our military is made up of hausa fulani muslims? Are you now tagging ALL hausa fulani soldiers as Boko Haram sympathisers? Are you saying that no Hausa Fulani Muslim has died in the war against Boko Haram? You are effectively trying to split the Military along tribal and religious lines.

If a soldier is found wanting in his duties, he should be investigated on personal liabilities instead of ethno-religious biases. Since this crisis started we have not heard of senior officers being court marshalled for dereliction of duty or for incompetence. In cameroon, senior officers were said to have been court marshalled for the kidnapping of the vice presidents daughter, but in Nigeria nothing is heard of commanding officers of barracks or military barracks that were overrun by insurgents. Boko Haram as taken control of a section of Nigeria and no body has been sacked, and somebody is here blaming Hausa fulani muslims.

Even though power has gone from bad to worse in Ikorodu, a General improvement is expected this time of the year. We have been experiencing the same cycle of improved power from March to october and horrible power supply from November to february. Its been like that since the 80's.