₦airaland Forum

This Yulitide season, shoppers hoping to get good deals online can find the following virtual shops quite useful:



www.jumia.com

One of Nigeria’s leading online retailers, jumia.com, which rebranded from kasuwa.com, deals in items from home appliances, electronics, mobile phones, computers and accessories, wears, cosmetics, to groceries.

www.circuitatlantic.com

Deals in computers and electronics, fashion and accessories and offers options of delivery of goods.



Also sells electronics, phones and computer gadgets and promises customers ‘free delivery within 24 hours’.

www.nairaland.com

The hugely popular news and current affairs interactive forum doubles as an online shopping and auction platform for second cars and electronics and other home appliances.

flegz.com

The site too sells home stuff ranging from appliances, computers, electronics at bargains prices.

www.nigeriagalleria.com

Everyday items as electronics, jewellery, books, gift items, etc are available on the online shop.

www.ngpricehunter.com

A price comparison website, the platform allows shoppers to find prices from many shops in one place and compare them and get the best deal on items as mobile phones, MP3 players and Blackberry phones.

When your club pays 20 million pounds for a player, you tend to feel you are entitled to some huge dividends on investments in terms of performance. You sure are, only that such returns are not guaranteed. The bigger the investment, the bigger the loss. Football transfers are a notoriously tricky business, which trip up the most astute of managers. Of course, a wrong transfer move can turn a star of blinding magnitude into a certified dud–as these men found out

Fernando Torres

Hard, if not impossible, to look any further than the Spain and Chelsea striker for the title of the biggest flop in the English game. This is despite the fact that he is still playing and theoretically still has a chance to turn good. Torres, an idol in Liverpool for his goalscoring exploits, has become a figure of fun since moving to Chelsea for 50million pounds in January 2010. Everybody who saw him miss an open goal against Manchester United last season gasped at the scale of his depreciation. The miss was recreated by computer game buffs on youtube. Eleven league goals in two and a half seasons hardly represent a decent return on investments.

Robinho

Lucky Chelsea! The feverishly sought the Brazilian striker’s signature, went close to signing him, only to be jilted at the altar. From Real Madrid, Robinho joined Manchester City, which then had just been bought by tainted former Thai Prime Minister, Thakshin Shinawatra.The fee? A not-too-meagre 32million pounds, which advertised City’s vaulting ambition and created a British transfer record. Robinho would score a glorious free-kick on his debut. Unfortunately for the player and the club, he was never able to settle in Manchester, a problem several of City’s signings have had, and with the arrival of more players, Robinho was sent out on loan twice and finally sold to AC Milan, where he is not exactly pulling up trees. His record at City: 53 games, 16 goals.

Andriiy Shevchenko

The recently retired Ukrainian legend was Torres predecessor as resident flop at Stamford Bridge. And until Torres came, he seemed the man for whom the word “flop” was invented. Shevchenko moved from AC Milan to Chelsea in 2006 for a British record fee of 30 million pounds. At the time of his transfer, he was one of the most feared strikers in the game and Chelsea were banking on him to move them to the next level. The Ukranian scored on debut, but the hopes raised on his first outing were extinguished on the back of indifferent performances. After

77 games and 22 goals, he was offloaded.

Sebastian Veron

Nicknamed the “Little Witch”. The Argentine attacking midfielder was as famous for his skills as he was for his pirate goatee when arrived Manchester United from Lazio in 2001. A transfer fee of 28.1 million pounds prised him away from his Italian employers. Big things were expected, but never delivered. After two seasons of uninspired performances, United took a hit, selling him to Chelsea for 12 million pounds. He also failed to deliver at Stamford Bridge and was shipped back to Italy, where he regained his form before heading to back to Argentina, where achieved a total turnaround in fortunes with Independiente. Now retired, Veron played 73 games for United, scoring 11 goals and was top of the flops before Shevchenko and Torres rolled into town.

Alberto Aquilani

In 2009, the Italian international midfielder was viewed as a rising star at Roma when he bought by Rafa Benitez, then Liverpool manager, after the sale of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid. He arrived with an injury and continued to suffer from such. Even when he recovered, he was sent on loan twice–to Juventus and AC Milan before being bought last summer

for 4million by Fiorentina. That was a heavy loss. Liverpool bought him for 20 million pounds.

Two goals in 28 games and a dreadful injury record did not make his last valuation seem like larceny.

Robbie Keane

Widely assumed to be the man to complement the rampaging Torres. Keane, a Liverpool fan, arrived from Tottenham in 2008 for a fee of 19 million pounds at Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool. After six months, 28 games and seven goals, he was shipped back to Tottenham for far less than what was paid for him.



Afonso Alves

Totally unknown in England and his homeland of Brazil before his arrival at Middlesbrough in 2008. Boro, under Gareth Southgate, paid Holland’s Heerenveen £12million in the 2008 January transfer window for a striker, who had scored 45 goals in 39 league games. He froze in his first six months. Hope that he would have adjusted in his full season were misplaced, as he hit the net four times in 31 games. Those goals included a hat-trick against Manchester City. Boro were relegated and no Premier League club was adventure-loving enough to take him. His next destination was Qatari side Al-Sadd.



Jo

The dreadlocked Brazilian endured a dreadful stay in England. The first of City’s big money signings (before the arrival of the cash-doped Arabs), cost 18million. He was bought from CSKA Moscow. He arrived with a superb goalscoring record, but failed to produce for City, where he made less than 30 appearances for and scored one single goal.

He moved on loan to Everton and played reasonably well, but not well enough to earn a permanent deal. He now plays in Brazil with Internacional Club where he made his debut



Shaun Wright-Philips

The ageing QPR winger was once on the hottest properties in the English game. He moved from Nottingham Forest Academy to Manchester City’s in 1998 and made it into the first team a year later.

A speedy and tricky winger, he made over 150 appearances in six years, winning the club’s Young Player of the Year award for four years on the trot.

In 2005, Chelsea bought him for £21million. He spent three years at Stamford Bridge largely warming the bench. He made a total of 65 appearances before being sold back to in at a loss of £12.5million. City later shipped him out to QPR at the grand cost of 2.5million.



David Bentley

He looked as sleek as the car with which he shares a name when he broke onto the scene. Tipped as one of England’s brightest young prospects, having been invited to join in with the Arsenal senior side for training sessions at the age of 16, Bentley was a winger with genuine ability.

He made his Arsenal debut in 2003 in the FA Cup and then scored his first and only goal for the Gunners in the same competition a year later. But he did not get playing and made just one league appearance before going out on loan to Norwich and Blackburn, eventually signing for Rovers in 2006.

On his first game as a full Blackburn player, he scored a hat-trick against Manchester United.

After a hundred games for Blackburn, Tottenham were persuaded to shell out £15million for him in 2008. Since then, he has been rarely seen, playing 50 times in four years.

Unsuccessful and injury-plagued loan spells at Birmingham and West Ham United followed. He returned to Spurs from where is on loan Russia’s Rostov. www.youthng.com

Why would a young man lied to the world that he is a graduate (Mass Comm) from OOU in 2006? Why would a man pride himself to be a dropout? In his Linkedin profile, it is clear Wande is a "graduate". Last week, Punch and other news media celebrated his achievements.

This is what he told Dayo Oketola of the Punch newspaper: “I will say that I am also a proud school dropout because at some point, I realised that pursuing academic excellence was interfering with my passion for this dream. Maybe Oxygen would have become a dream earlier but for exams in school,” http://youthng.com/is-millionaire-wande-adalemo-really-a-dropout

Is this right?

Independence anniversaries are traditionally marked with pomp and ceremony. But Nigerians are not rolling out the drums as the nation marked 52 years of nationhood on October 1.

Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, had said this year’s programme was low-keyed – just as it was the case last year. After the bomb blast incident that marred the 2010 independence ceremonies at the Eagle Square, Abuja, the federal government has since refrained from putting up elaborate celebration for the anniversary.

The bloodletting by the Boko Haram sect, which has worsened security in the land, has not helped matters too. The government was understandably being cautious; though it has given the excuse the low-key celebration was part of its agenda of being prudent with resources.

But beyond the security scare, many Nigerians hardly see any reason to cheer about their country’s birthday. Some, however, feel all hope is not lost.

Youthng.com went to town to gauge the feelings of citizens as Nigeria marks 52 years as an independent country. Their responses below, were varied: “Each time you observe things in Nigeria and compare them with what happens elsewhere, it reminds you of that quote from Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, about giants and limbs. Our country indeed is like a giant walking with the limbs of a mosquito.”– Nkrumah Bankong-Obi, journalist and poet

Kashif Jones-Laguda, CEO, Nigerian Carnival UK: “My everyday wishes for NIGERIA are;
I wish I can say thank God Nigerians are SAFER than yesterday. I wish I can say thank God Nigerians are HEALTHIER than yesterday. I wish I can say thank God Nigerians are RICHER than yesterday. I wish I can say thank God Nigerians are more EDUCATED than yesterday. I wish I can say thank God Nigerians are more RESOURCEFUL than yesterday.
I wish I can say thank God Nigerians are HAPPIER than yesterday. I wish I can say thank God Nigerians are more UNITED than yesterday. I wish I can say thank God Nigerians are more RESPECTFUL of each other than yesterday. I wish I can say thank God Nigerians are HAPPIER than yesterday. I wish for my children/grandchildren to see a BETTER Nigeria. I wish I can wake up tomorrow and thank our leaders for making Nigeria a better place. I wish every Nigerian will do their part to lift the country’s image. I wish Nigeria is a better place to live. I wish God bless my beloved motherland, NIGERIA! Happy 52nd Anniversary to the most blessed nation on Earth.”

Adekunle Ayeni, CEO, BlackHouse Media Group: “Nigeria is a great, blessed country. Things may appear to be slow, and a lot might currently be wrong, but we are destined for greatness. And I see that happening in a matter of years.
Few opportunists have held millions to ransom for years, but that cannot continue for long. We must work hard to make sure the worst of us do not continue to lead and rule over the best of us. If we all play our roles, as responsible citizens, in our various day to day activities, and if we hold public office holders more accountable, I see our fortunes changing. We have the numbers, and the resources. It’s just for us to stop fitting round pegs into square holes.”

Portia Yamahan, actress and The Next Movie Star Winner: Aspiration is what the common man holds unto in Nigeria. It is common to hear the word; “E go better” because Nigeria is filled with potentials yet unfulfilled agendas/promises.
At times, one can get tired of singing songs of lamentations. Can’t we just have someone with a ‘one point agenda’ and make it happen for once? But never worry because ‘E go better.’ I totally agree with a friend’s idea of a better Nigeria which is that of subsidize production not consumption. But anyway, my advise to people is not worry as I believe that Nigeria would be better very shortly.”

Kevin Pam Chuwang, Big Brother Revolution 2009 Winner: “I think my aspirations and of other Nigerians still remain the hope for a better future that has since been expected. A change to the system that has almost become an unchangeable standard”





Emem Ema, artiste manager and former member of KUSH: “I hope this 52nd anniversary will be the beginning of a NEW beginning for Nigeria. I expected that we shall have a country with a ray of hope for the future generation. I aspire for a Nigeria that is full of promises and a bright future, constant power supply, security, good health system, infrastructure and conducive environment to do business.”

Emeka Oparah, Director, Corporate Communications & CSR, Airtel Bhartel: “At 52, Nigeria has not made serious progress, considering the abundance of human and natural resources. Metaphorically, the country is like a stunted child, showing retarded growth and no potential for improvement. The abject paucity of national infrastructure and lack of vision due to poor leadership has worsened the situation. I hope 2015 provides Nigeria another opportunity for a rebirth and the emergence of credible leaders and visioners who will take Nigeria to greatness. I am very unhappy with the way we are because things are worse today than when I was younger.”

Alariwo, Afrobeat musician: “As much as I want to wish all Nigerians happy independence, I wish to see a New Nigeria with constant light, free education at all levels, corruption eliminated from our entire system, good roads and most of all, a prayer for good leaders...youthng.com

Socrates, the late Brazilian midfield supremo was a doctor of medicine and philosophy.

Tostao, one of the socerers in the World Cup winning team of 1970, qualified as an eye specialist. Hugo Sanchez, who scored profusely for Real Madrid and Mexico in the 80s, is a dentist. Football is not known for producing such in abundance. But then, a few others have tried, successfully, to conduct marriages between the game and academics. YOUTH.COM presents such “footballectuals.”

ALESSANDRO DEL PIERO

The former Juventus striker, who recently secured new employment in Australia’s A-League, is quite the accomplished fellow. Along with three awards for “gentlemanly conduct“, he has appeared on stage with both The Rolling Stones and Oasis, even featuring in a music video with the latter. Del Piero is more than rock and roll, as he also has a degree in Accounting from Italy’s University of Urbino

FILIPO INZAGHI

The recently retired Italian striker bagged goals aplenty–and also bagged a degree. He is the record goalscorer in European competition with 62 goals, including a phenomenal 41 from 49 Champions League appearances. Two of those Champions League goals in the 2007 final of the competition helped AC Milan atone for the 2005 defeat to Liverpool.

“As a kid, I was lively, cunning and determined. And mad for football, of course. I was born with a ball in my head. I studied just to make my mum and dad proud the result was a a diploma in accountancy,” he once told an interviewer.

ANTONIO NUNEZ

Wondering who the heck he is? Even Liverpool fans will struggle to remember him. Well, he was Rafa Benitez’s second signing, when he arrived from Real Madrid in 2004. Nunez, who currently plays for Huesca in the Spanish second division, was one of the unused substitutes when Liverpool implausibly defeated AC Milan in the final of the 2005 UEFA Champions League, earning a winner’s medal. Nunez, a right-sided midfielder, had bagged a degree in Law before coming to Liverpool. That will provide a fall-back position when his less than illustrious career ends.

SEYI OLOFINJANNA

The former Nigerian international midfielder played for Wolves, Stoke, Hull City and Cardiff. He holds a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering and later signed for a programme in Sub-sea Engineering, which he hopes will make him eligible to work with an offshore oil exploration team after his football career.

“Maybe if I was born in England, I would not have tried to take degrees. But back home, things are not very rosy and even though I could play football, I needed something to fall back on. Football is not forever. At 35, you retire and I want something to have another career,” he once told Daily Mail. Some insurance policy.

STEVE HARPER

Famously or infamously chipped by Xabi Alonso from behind the halfway. Injury has curtailed the progress of the goalkeeper, who is also famous for playing understudy to the excellent Shay Given when he was at Newcastle. Harper is not a graduate yet, but he is studying for a degree in Social Sciences at the Open University.

SHAKA HISLOP

The former West Ham and Newcastle goalkeeper has started a second career–in punditry. He appears on ESPN, talking, as you would have guessed, football. The man from Trinidad and Tobago earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Howard University in Washington DC. Shaka, whose first name is Neil, spent time as an intern at NASA. Not an unstellar...www.youthng.com

For a professional footballer, playing in the UEFA Champions League is the equivalent of travelling first class. Doing so in other club competitions, naturally, rank as second class travel.

But the Europa League, Europe’s second tier competition, brims with a lot of first class talents who, most likely, will not look out of place in the premier competition and even add spark to it.

Here they are:

Radamel Falcao (Atletico Madrid)

The Colombian striker is every manager’s object of desire. Luminaries of the game like Pep Guardiola (former Barcelona coach) and Fabio Capello (former coach of England) consider him as the best out-and-out striker in the world. It will require a degree of blindness to disagree with the assessment. Chelsea fans are unlikely to be afflicted by such. The Colombian’s hat-trick reduced the European champions to rubble in this year’s Super Cup clash. Since arriving Europe, Falcao has scored profusely. With 17 goals, he broke Jurgen Klinsmann’s record of 15 goals in a single annual international club football European competition UEFA Champions League/UEFA Europa League campaign. While at Porto his goals won the Portuguese powerhouse a UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League title and ensured triumph (unbeaten) in the 2010-2011 domestic league season.

He continued doing the business after joining Spain’s Atletico Madrid in a £34 million move. In three season in Europe, he has scored over 100 goals. Falcao’s goals ensured that Atlético Madrid maintained a 12-match winning streak in a single Europa League season, becoming the first team to do so.

He also became the first player to win two consecutive European titles with two different teams (the Europa League with Porto and Atletico Madrid), while at the same time becoming the top scorer for the two teams.

Luis Suarez (Liverpool)

On his day, Liverpool’s Uruguayan forward is a world beater. Apart from being able to play across the front-line, El Pistolero (the gunslinger) has searing pace and impudent skills and the strength of an ox. Prior to his £22.8million transfer from Ajax Amsterdam, he built a reputation as great goalscorer, plundering 111 in 159 appearances. He has not managed to deliver such hefty returns in a Liverpool, where he has been widely criticised for profligacy in front of goal. But he has managed to be a scorer of great goals. Being a little more clinical will not hurt his case.

Stefan Jovetic (Fiorentina)

Liverpool fans cannot claim not to know him. He famously put their team to the sword with two well taken goals at the group stage of the 2009-2010 UEFA Champions League. Injuries have curtailed the... go to www.youthng.com

Hi. i will look into that

They are all youth. Find out their ages

OMOTOLA JALADE EKEHINDE
Nollywood diva, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, 34, occupies the top-echelon of Nigeria’s movie industry. The mother of four, and wife of a pilot, has had a distinguished acting career and is one of Nollywood’s highest paid.

Since bursting unto the scene with a lead role in the 1995 blockbuster, Mortal Inheritance, Omosexy, as she’s otherwise known, has gone on to wow movie buffs across the Atlantic, nicking many awards for her exploits. Omotola, as did a few of her actor colleagues, has aIso taken to singing, and is involved in a number of charity efforts.

CHUDE JIDEONWO
Lawyer, journalist and entrepreneur, Chude Jideonwo, is one of Nigeria’s most promising youths showing the light for the future. Jideonwo, CEO of PR concern, Red Media, is one of the brains behind the respected The Future Awards, an annual recognition for young Nigerians doing great exploits. Jideonwo is also involved in the running of YNaija, a news blog which features breaking news and informed opinion articles.


TOYOSI AKERELE
One of Nigeria’s youngest and brightest female entrepreneurs, Toyosi Akerele, 28, is founder and CEO of the Rise Group, which she started while studying Law in the University of Jos. A leading light in youth education and empowerment, Akerele’s Rise Networks organises the country-wide Rise Youth Forum. At the annual gathering, thousands of young people brainstorm on critical youth-based issues, and receive mentoring from accomplished individuals.

DON JAZZY
Multiple award-winning producer and musician, Michael Collins Ajereh, 29, better known as Don Jazzy, is owner of record label, Mavin Records. The young Nigerian has brought international recognition for the country through many works turned out on the defunct record label, Mo’ Hits Records, which he founded in 2004 with his former partner and singer, D’Banj. After their split up, Don Jazzy, in May 2012, founded the Mavin Records label.

Don Jazzy owes many of his acclaimed works to his talented first signing and childhood friend, D’banj. He produced D’Banj’s 2004 debut work, Tongolo. His other works include D’banj’s first studio album titled No Long Thing released in 2005, among other acclaimed works which won many major awards.

Don Jazzy has also produced tracks for other members of the defunct Mo’Hits crew, including Dr SID, Wande Coal, and D’Prince. He’s also worked with other wave-making acts like Darey, Naeto C, Sauce Kid, Ikechukwu and Tiwa Savage. He also collaborated with Jay-Z and Kanye West on the production of Lift Off, featuring Beyoncé on the album Watch The Throne, released in August 2011.

Don Jazzy was recently rated by Forbes as the 36th “Most powerful celebrity in Africa”.

LINDA IKEJI
One of Nigeria’s most successful bloggers, the ex-model maintains the influential lindaikejiblogspot, which features breaking news and entertainment stories. The blog, which attracts reasonable advert revenue, and has a huge following, is nonetheless sneered at by a section of the traditional media for its sometimes controversial reports. Ikeji, who regularly features celebrity gists, occasionally courts controversy. One of his touchy blog posts about a purported ‘N250m mansion’ actor Richard Mofe-Damijo, built in Asaba, Delta State, where he is commissioner, earned the blogger reproach from the actor who dismissed the story as untrue.

GENEVIEVE NNAJI
The Nollywood superstar and former ‘Face of Lux’, Genevieve Nnaji, 33, remains one the country’s most-sought-after acts. The sultry actress, who, in 2005, won the African Movie Academy, AMA, Award for ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’, continues to land lead roles in high-budget films, especially those being recently produced by foreign-based Nigerian filmmakers. The single artiste, who has a teenage daughter, has her fingers in other pies, including his fashion label, St Genevieve, and is brand ambassador for major brands, including automobile, Range Rover.

JAPETH OMOJUWA
Japhet Omojuwa, youth advocate and twitter activist, has a huge following on the micro-blogging site where he regularly attacks unpopular policies and campaigns for a better deal for Nigerians. His blog, omojuwa.com, features topical issues, and has been used as a platform by notable politicians to debate controversial issues that ended in exchanges of brickbats.

TUFACE
Singer, song writer, and producer, Innocent Idibia, aka, Tuface, 36, is one of Nigeria’s most successful acts to have come on the hip-hop scene. Since going solo in 2002, the former Platainshun Boyz member has turned out many award-winning works, including his 2006 hit number, African Queen, which won the MTV Europe Awards for Best African Song, and was used as soundtrack for the film Phat Girlz, which was released internationally. Tuface owns the record label Hypertek Entertainment, which he set up after leaving his launch pad label, Kennis Music. He also runs an NGO, the 2Face Idibia Reach-Out Foundation, and is part of the Sony All African One8 Project alongside seven other musicians across Africa.

D’BANJ
Dapo Oyebanjo, aka, D’Banj, hip-hop singer-songwriter and harmonica player, is reputed for his powerful stage-craft, which, combined with his musical talents, have earned him international acclaim. D’Banj, 32, is currently based in the UK, where he relocated to after breaking up with his long-time friend and producer, Don Jazzy, with whom he founded the record label, Mo’Hits Records. His latest international hit, Oliver Twist which topped the African charts for most of last year, also became a top 10 hit in the UK singles chart in this year, reaching No 2 on the UK R&B chart.

D’Banj, who turned many hit songs on the Mo’Hits label, before leaving to join, Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music, has won many laurels. They include the awards for Best African Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2007; Artist of the Year at the MTV Africa Music Awards 2009; and BET Awards of 2011 for Best International Act; Africa.

CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHI
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 35, has since her debut work, Purple Hibiscus, released in 2003, proven to be one of the most prominent writers of her generation. The novelist first studied Medicine and Pharmacy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for a year and a half, before going on to the U.S, where she ended up completing a master’s degree in Creative Writing, in 2003, at the John Hopkins University.

Through her decade-long writing career, Adichie has been accorded much international recognition. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, which enjoyed rave reviews, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction (2004), and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book (2005). Her second book,Half of a Yellow Sun, was awarded the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction; while her third work, The Thing Around Your Neck, a collection of short stories published in 2009, also enjoyed international mention.

SOURCE: www.youthng.com