₦airaland Forum

She Looks Gorgeous.Is'nt She?

egusi til eternity

I live in Edo-State,Benin-City to be precise . To be honest and sincere It's a big (YES) For the past 4 months power supply have been constant in my area.We can boast of 20Hrs Power Supply per-day uptill now.

Kudos to PHCN,I pray they should keep it up.

Shame on Us, As Cotonou is Changing
Pendulum By Dele Momodu,email:delemomodu@thisdayonline.com, 08.15.2009

I  was in Cotonou last Sunday. It was my first visit to that serene city of Benin Republic in the last one year. The journey was expectedly bumpy from the Nigerian end. That is stale news, anyway. For some unexplainable reason, we’ve not been able to offer respectable leadership in Africa despite our love for the appellation “the giant of Africa.” Seme border was as dirty and boisterous as usual. All manner of touts swarmed everywhere. Beggars with varying degrees of afflictions on parade scratched the innocent windows of your car as if with a vengeance. You must be ultimately cruel not to pity these underprivileged members of our society. The story of Seme is the sorry story of our shame as a nation. In fact, the stretch from Badagry to Seme is a disgrace to mankind.

It would probably enter the Guinness Books of Records as the dirtiest place on earth. Bill Gates may realize the futility of eradicating mosquito and malaria from Africa if he ever visits that part of Nigeria. I’m not trying to be hyperbolic. To see is to believe. The swampy area has been flooded in this season of incessant rainy season. I saw a woman and her little daughter crossing the putrid river like ducks into their homes. Any error and they could easily be buried alive without any chance of a trace in this world. It is obvious that the ministry of environment has given up on that region.

The inhabitants themselves must be congratulated for staying alive in that filthy fiefdom, where the police, the customs, immigration, quarantine, area boys, all take turns to traumatize smugglers and non-smugglers alike. The horrendous tales of what smugglers dare to do are actually hilarious. But let’s leave that for another day. A journey through Seme is as unpredictable as it goes. It is indeed an Israelite’s journey. What should ordinarily take less than one hour may drag on for several hours. The experience must test your patience. And even your temperament.
I had my assistant with me who was supposed to be an expert on that route. He travels with our magazine every month by road to Ghana. He even turned out to be a novice on this occasion. After going through the Nigerian formalities, with as much ease as possible, we crossed to the Benin Republic part of the border. My brief to my assistant was to waste no time as I desperately wanted to enjoy whatever was left of the sunshine of Cotonou, one of the quietest cities on earth. I was looking forward to my usual dinner of peppered local chicken (mind you, not one of those fertilized chicken that tastes like paper). This was the real thing, slim, healthy, tasty, and prepared by the culinary experts at the Novotel Orisha.

Oh! That supernatural name. Orisha worship is still very popular among the devotees of heathen religion. It even enjoys an official public holiday in Benin Republic. In case you don’t know already, that’s the home country of the super songstress, Angelique Kidjo, whose song, Sango, in praise of the god of thunder, remains evergreen. I predict that after Ghana, Benin Republic would become the greatest West African wonder. Once Governor Babatunde Fashola is able to complete his ten lanes to and from Badagry, that axis would witness an unprecedented tourism boom that is certain to threaten the present influx of Nigerians to Ghana and The Gambia.

Back to Seme, and to reality. The French side is one place the officers are never in a hurry. If an officer goes on break, he takes the keys of the offices with him. And walks back majestically despite seeing the long queue of human sufferers. He’s the original “baba go slow”. You hand him your documents and tell him you need a laissez passé. He scans your documents with a toothcomb. He takes his time before announcing to you that because your car is new you must register with CFA35, 000, and mumbles another mumbo jumbo on the need to pay an extra CFA10, 000 for other documentation. But in reality, you only get an official receipt for CFA5, 000. The guys make all that money for themselves. But can you really blame them? It is the fault of the governments of ECOWAS, who spend all the time talking at ECOWAS summits without coming up with any major improvement to the lives of our people.

Our borders have been left for too long in the hands of illiterates and crooks. Ordinarily, I should be able to drive effortlessly to Cotonou without any sweat. But that’s not the case. I believe something has to be done urgently to clean up our borders of human beings who live like pigs in a piggery. The solution lies in privatizing the section to be used by non-commercial travelers.  The process should have been computerized in a way that my vehicle particulars can be swiped and registered instantly at a drive-through. ECOWAS citizens should also be able to have machine-readable passports which when scanned allows you to drive through immediately. Government would make all the money, and eliminate most of the corruption. Those who would have to go into offices are those traveling with commercial goods. On that trip I lost CFA40, 000 to those guys. Despite that, one irritant who was obviously drunk still came out of nowhere to block our passage. He wanted his own settlement. Tourism can never thrive under this condition.

Mercifully, Cotonou compensated for the wasted time and money. I could not believe the level of development that has taken place since my last visit during the launch of GLOBACOM Network in Benin. I saw GLO billboards standing proudly in most places. Everywhere looked more beautiful. Roads were being constructed and rehabilitated. Even flyovers that look so heavenly have been erected. Road-markings were seen everywhere. Street-lights stood ramrod on the major streets. Beach-houses were springing up along the coast-lines. The sea-port looked very busy, meaning business was bristling. I saw what good and visionary leadership could do.

All credits must go to one man, President Yayi Boni, who came into power barely three years ago. I knew the state he met Benin Republic. Yayi Boni was then a banker in Togo. He had returned home to cause the greatest political upset in that small country. His first move was to appoint credible professionals into government. He courageously locked his door against the politicians who had brought the country down on its knees. Yayi Boni also fought a courageous war against corruption. I know how difficult it must have been to cause a bloodless revolution in any country. He must have stepped on very powerful toes. But he was more concerned with his name in history. He wanted to make his mark, and leave a worthy legacy behind. President Yayi Boni accomplished most of these things in a country that has practically nothing to export to the world except the brains and talents of his people.

It was such a pleasurable experience driving through the streets of Cotonou. I felt proud as an African and was reassured that nothing was wrong, after-all, with the Blackman. After settling down in the hotel, I went down with my good friend, Oluwarotimi Obey-Fabiyi, the son of legendary musician Evangelist Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi to the poolside to catch an early dinner. We were shocked to find several Nigerian families. A family had travelled all the way from Niger State. They looked very much at home. They had apparently escaped from the tension-soaked country of ours to savour the tranquility offered by Benin. This confirmed my earlier prediction that Benin is set to take over more of the Nigerian tourists soon. Cotonou is less than three hours to Lagos. More than 40 percent of its inhabitants speak the Yoruba language, and share Yoruba ancestry and culture.

We later met some friends who told us more about the miracles being performed all over Benin Republic. Education is now free for primary school pupils. Pregnant women who develop complications during child birth are now to be treated free of charges at government hospitals. About 600, 000 women have been offered small-scale loans for business under a government-controlled macro-finance scheme.

The Chinese have been brought in to undertake gigantic infrastructural projects. Please, let me add that we’ve underrated the Chinese for too long by always condemning the quality of their works. Truth is the Chinese are capable of delivering whatever you want as long as you can pay for it. In Cotonou, the Chinese are demonstrating their world-class skills. Cotonou is fast transforming into a modern city. Not that all is now well with Benin Republic. Several citizens complained about the toll the ambitious projects are taking on their country. Such is life. Nigerians are suffering much more. We’ll even be ready to endure more hardship but only if they’ll lead to visible results.

We were forced to think about our own dear country. It was my conclusion that our leaders must really hate Nigeria. The rape of our nation is with bitter savagery. It is without pity. A leader can only engage in such acts of debauchery out of acute lack of patriotism. Why would a leader award contracts running into billions of Naira without ever lifting a finger to execute it. What meanness could be worse than this?

Most Federal roads in Nigeria have been abandoned for over ten years. None of the Federal projects in Lagos has been touched ever since the seat of government moved to Abuja. Worse still, the Federal Government behaves like a jealous cat in its relationship with Lagos state. Federal properties are being sold off in a most prodigious manner. Lagos has been totally and mercilessly abandoned. The most important road in Nigeria, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, has virtually collapsed. It is now to be rescued by Bicourtney, a company owned by Wale Babalakin. Why did the government wait this long, and after some kleptomaniacs had stolen most of the money voted for such projects.

For two nights in Cotonou, we saw a serious nation at work and wondered why our own leaders cannot spare us this shame. As we drove back to Lagos, the big shame became even more palpable on our side of the road. We saw heaps and mountains of filth competing for space with human beings. It is incredible how human beings can survive a few minutes in that wasteland. Memories of Cotonou flooded back to us, but all we could do was to pray and hope that one day soon our best materials would be allowed to come to power. There must be a way.

All is Well that Ends Well

I’m beginning to think President Umar Musa Yar’Adua is a good man at heart even if I’m still convinced that he cannot move our country to the next level. Goodness alone cannot change a country. The president has shown that he reads newspapers or they read it to him by a few actions I was privy to in the last two years. The latest example for me is the intervention of President Yar’Adua in the bitter altercations between the Minister of Information and Telecommunications, Professor Dora Nkem Akunyili and the Executive Director of the National Communications Commission, Engineer Ernest Ndukwe over the licensing of national frequencies in the 2.3 GHz band. The Minister had smelt a rat in the transactions which were handled by the Board of NCC and concluded that they were not transparent enough.

Newspapers were agog with different slants of the mega-story. I also intervened in the debate in this column on June 20, 2009. My conclusion was that both the Minister and the Executive Director should embrace peace and return to the status quo. Incidentally, I ran into Mr. Ndukwe and his beautiful wife at the Nigerian Telecoms Awards in Lagos last Saturday. At first, they were not going to exchange pleasantries with me. They felt I was unkind to them by relying heavily on documents that came from the enemy camp. Mr Ndukwe even told Chief Olusegun Osoba who sat next to him that I relied on fake documents. I replied that when others wrote in his favour the document must have also come from his camp. At any rate, the duty of every writer is to form his own judgement, usually from empirical or circumstantial evidence.

I believe my position was fair to both parties. I had asked both camps to embrace peace and dialogue. Two days after my encounter with Mr. Ndukwe in Lagos, President Yar’Adua came out in support of my position on the matter. It was stated clearly that the transactions were not tidy enough, and as such the earlier license must be aborted. For me, it was a happy ending to a sad situation. Both parties must show maturity by ensuring that the next bid is not only transparent but very successful. There should be no victor, and no vanquished.

TO ME THIS DELE IS AN EMBRYO JOURNALIST AND A SYCOPHANT

MANCHESTER UNITED TILL ETERNITY, WE ARE BACK AGAIN

Yes, I do drink water while eating.i fill comfortable doing that.

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – Nigerian security forces shelled then stormed the mosque and compound of an Islamist sect blamed for days of violence across northern Nigeria, killing more than 100 militants in a raging gunbattle.

The bodies of barefoot young men littered the streets of Maiduguri on Thursday morning as the army conducted a house-to-house manhunt on the outskirts of the city for sect members. Police said most of the dead were Islamist fighters.

Sect leader Mohammed Yusuf escaped along with about 300 followers but his deputy was killed in Wednesday night's bombardment, according to Army commander Maj. Gen. Saleh Maina.

An AP reporter watched soldiers, under fire, shoot their way into the mosque in Maiduguri on Wednesday and then rake those holed up inside with gunfire. The reporter later counted about 50 bodies inside the building and another 50 in the courtyard outside.

The militants, armed with homemade hunting rifles, bows and arrows and scimitars, were no match for the government forces.

Another five corpses were just inside a large house near the mosque. Maina pointed to the body of a plump, bearded man and said it the Boko Haram sect's vice chairman, Bukar Shekau.

"The mission has been accomplished," said Maina, the army commander.

Militants seeking to impose Islamic Shariah law throughout this multi-religious country attacked police stations, churches, prisons and government buildings in a wave of violence that began Sunday in Borno state and quickly spread to three other states in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria.

It is not known how many scores of people have been killed, wounded and arrested. Relief official Apollus Jediel said Wednesday that at least 4,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.

The epicenter of the violence has been the Boko Haram sect's headquarters in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, which was bombarded Wednesday. Maina said his troops would fire mortar shells later Thursday to destroy what is left of the sprawling compound, which stretches over 2.5 miles (4 kilometers).

The radical sect is known by several different names, including Al-Sunna wal Jamma, or "Followers of Mohammed's Teachings" and "Boko Haram," which means "Western education is sin." Some Nigerian officials have referred to the militants as Taliban, although the group has no known affiliation with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Earlier this week, President Umaru Yar'Adua said the sect were preparing to unleash "the holy war." Security agents have been watching the sect for months and were ordered to attack when the movement began gathering fighters from nearby states at its Maiduguri headquarters, he said.

In recent months, police have been raiding militant hideouts and finding explosives and arms. The house at the compound in Maiduguri included a laboratory the military said was used to make chemical and fire bombs.

Borno Gov. Ali Modu Sheriff told journalists Yusuf had been seen Wednesday night in a village about 28 miles (45 kilometers) northeast of Maiduguri.

Men in Bauchi state and in Maiduguri, meanwhile, started trimming and even shaving off their beards Thursday, fearful the facial hair could make them targets for security forces.

In other violence, Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper reported that militants attacked security forces in Yobe state on Wednesday, and quoted police as saying that 43 sect members were killed in a shootout near the city of Potiskum.

Police in Bauchi state have reported 42 people killed, including two soldiers and a police officer, 67 hospitalized with serious injuries and 157 men arrested.

In the city of Kano, the local government on Wednesday bulldozed a mosque and the house of a sect leader, who officials said had fled with his family. Officials said the mosque was an illegal structure.

The bulldozing came two days after sect militants attacked a Kano police station. Kano police spokesman Baba Mohammed said more than 50 militants have been arrested, with five shot and killed during the arrests.

Nigeria's 140 million people are roughly divided between Christians in the south and northern-based Muslims. Shariah was implemented in 12 northern states after Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999 following years of oppressive military regimes. More than 10,000 Nigerians have died in sectarian violence since then.

Yet at the heart of the violence is dire poverty and maneuvering by political and religious leaders who manipulate ill-educated youths to further their aims.

Yar'Adua, the president, has been criticized for leaving the country Tuesday on a state visit to Brazil. He insisted before he left that the situation was under control. The military itself keep referring to "mopping up" exercises even as a full-scale battle was taking place.

Boko Haram is reported to include many members of the elite, including university lecturers and others who have abandoned their posts and sold their homes to join. Vanguard and the Nigerian Guardian newspaper reported that police in northwest Sokoto state on Tuesday arrested former university lecturer Kadiru Atiku, believed to the sect's local leader.

Analysts say the latest violence reflects decades-old grievances of Nigerians whose governments are so corrupt and ineffective they do not deliver even basic services like running water and electricity.

Nnamdi K. Obasi, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the militants don't have the weapons or the numbers to have much impact beyond northern Nigeria but predicts violence will return unless deeper issues are addressed.

"You're talking about improving governance as a whole," Obasi said. "Reducing corruption. Year after year, you don't see progress on these issues, and this is one of the biggest problems of Nigeria."

Best --------+ Basket Mouth, I Go Dye, Gandoki

Worst-------+ Alibaba(Overated) Maleke (Too Primitive For My Likening)

You are welcome to the best informative,Educative and people oriented Forum.The forum you can get upto date news.The best to none in Naija. Long Live Nairalanders. Long Live Nigeria.

Govs, ministers, MPs steal N285bn —EFCC
ACHILLEUS-CHUD UCHEGBU (Abuja Bureau Chief) and ERASMUS ALANEME
Amidst rising poverty and failed infrastructure, former governors, ministers, senators and other categories of public servants allegedly swindled Nigerians of about N285.4 billion in 10 years of the return to civil rule.
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Of the amount, reported loot by ex-governors, ministers and senators amounted to over N102 billion.
Other public officers including members of the House of Representatives, political party officials, board members, civil servants and others from the private sector allegedly looted public money amounting to over N183 billion.
However, of the amount only a paltry N50bn has been recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
These were the highlights of a media parley yesterday in Abuja to mark the first year in office of Mrs. Farida Waziri as Chairman of the commission.
Speaking at the event, Waziri revealed her frustration in prosecuting corruption cases while frowning at the slow pace of litigation in the country though she said the commission had achieved conviction in 65 corruption cases.
A breakdown of the looted funds indicated that former governors and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalwarts formed the bulk of heavy looting.
According to EFCC, trial of the former governors was at different stages of prosecution but hampered by slow pace of the judicial process and alleged connivance between the accused and the judicial officers, especially, lawyers to frustrate trial.
A document entitled "On-going high profile cases’ gave details of the alleged looting indication that former Gov. Ayo Fayose is facing trial for allegedly looting N1.2 billion from the coffers of Ekiti state.
The document also indicated that former deputy National Vice-Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Olabode George allegedly swindled government of N100 billion while serving as Chairmnan of the Board of Nigerian Ports authority (NPA).
Others include; Saminu Turaki (N36 billion); Orji Uzor Kalu (N5 billion); Chimaroke Nnamani (N5.3bn); Michael Botmang (N1.5 bn); Prof Babalola Borishade (N5.6bn); Boni haruna (N93million); Femi Fani-Kayode (N250million); Rasheed Ladoja (N6bn); Prof Adenike Grange (N300m); Sen. Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello (N10m) and Jolly Nyame (N180m).
Also on the list are Sen. Nichola Ugbane, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu and others (N6.2billion); Four Managers of Zenith Bank Plc (N3.6billion); Molkat Mutfwang and others (N636m); Dr. Ransome Owan and others (N1.5billion); Tom Iseghoghi and others of Transcorp (N15 billion); Kenny Martins (N7.7billion); Patrick Fernandez, an Indian businessman (N32billion); Eider George, an Australian businessman (N5.6billion); Nyeson Wike, Chief of Staff to Governor Rotimi Amechi of Rivers State (N4.6 billion) and Roland Iyayi, a former Managing Director of FAAN (N5.6billion).
Waziri also disclosed that the list of former governors who had looted their state treasuries will only increase as the commission is tying up loose ends in the cases involving Bola Tinubu of Lagos State and Peter Odili of Rivers state.
On Odili, the EFCC boss said legal steps have been taken to seek an invalidation of the restrictive injunction secured by him against arrest and prosecution by the commission.
She noted that the commission had secured the services of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria to challenge the order and seek its lifting so as to pave way for his arrest and prosecution.
Commenting on her activities in office in the past one year, Mrs. Waziri said she has been able to develop a new anti-crime software, EagleClaw, which according to her would change the face of the war on cyber crime in the country.
She said: "Project EagleClaw is software that sniffs out all fraudulent e-mails and monitors them with the option of shutting down such mails. This means that when fully deployed, all 419 mails emanating from Nigeria will either be monitored or be shut down."
The EFCC boss also said that the deployment of GoAML and GoCase softwares, which had been redundant, helped the commission in tracing a money laundering case involving officials of Zenith Bank Plc.
Expressing confidence in the future of anti corruption war in the country, Mrs. Waziri called on Nigerians to join the fight so as to enable the country achieve appreciable reduction in the level of official corruption even as she said her greatest frustration comes from the courts.
She noted however that the commission had initiated dialogue with leadership of the judiciary and the bar association to seek ways of enhancing litigation so as to achieve more results.

My favourite songs for now are:


1, Miss Independent by NEYO

2, Live Your Life by T I feat. Rihanna

3,Same Girl by R.Kelly feat Usher

4,My Life by Game feat Lil Wayne

5,U need somebody by Faze

6,Collabo by Deebee

7,Halo by Beyounce

8,Takin' Back My Love by Enrique iglesias feat Ciara

9,Adara by Sasha

10,Can't Believe It by T.Pain feat Lil Wayne