Pause to Ponder

The Winners and Losers of Removal of Petroleum Subsidy Protests

2012-01-11T16:59:00.002+01:00

My initial position as regards the removalof the Petroleum subsidy which drastically put the pump price of fuel to 141.00per litre had always been expressed on my facebook wall. For avoidance of doubtwhile I support the removal of subsidy, and that it should be remove, Ibelieved it is not the right time, and if it is going to be removed at all,certain palliatives measure should have been put in place to cushion the effectof the removal of the subsidy.

On the second day theremoval of the subsidy was announced, the protest that greeted it was alarming,people of Nigeria believed that government has come out to inflict pain on themand add more to their sufferings.

I am with the governmenton this subsidy removal, there is no pain without gain, and from what Igathered, things would be better in no distance future from the proceeds gatherfrom the subsidy. I am also with the Protest too, though not to revert itto 65 Naira, but to serves as a wake up call to government that people ofNigeria are aware that the proceeds from the subsidy needs to be spendjudiciously.

However, unknown to most protesters, there are quite some people who are benefiting fromthe protest while there are others losing a great deal from it too.

On the winners list arethe following:

- the opposition. thePresident's loss is always their gain

- the so called Cabals. Theywill do anything to revert it back to 65 naira.

- the Nigerian Labourcongress, NLC. They promptly call for strike, they will use it to negotiate fortransport allowance.

- Government workers,they will still be paid during the period of Strike

- The Journalist, theyget more news to publish and smile to the bank. They are actually working whilesome other jobs are grounded to a halt.

- Some politicians, theyare using the protest to prepare themselves for 2015

- Nigerian Artiste. Mostof them are siding with the Protesters to gain more support and launder theirimage

- The Senators, House ofReps. They got jumbo salary and government cant slashed it now because it willbe a political suicide, most especially when removal of the subsidy is also apolitical suicide.

- The Governors. Theystand to gain from the subsidy removal. More money for them to steer theaffairs of the states.
- The people residing in the villages. They dont own a car, they dont own a generator, they were not subsidize fuel wise before its removal. Life continues for them.
- The GSM Operators. Strike or protests doesnt affect them, infact, they make more profits.

On the losing ends are the following

- Nigerian masses. They bear the brunt ofthe increase, the strike and wanton destruction in the wake ofprotests.

- The Traders, the Merchants. They donthave anyone to pay them transport allowance.

- The government, protest is discreditingNigerian image they represents

-The Traders and self employed, nobody isgoing to pay them for days lost to Strike action.

- Economy of the nation is suffering asexperts had put about N320 Billion naira as being lost to the protest daily on Nigeria economy.

- The Banks. They will be forced to closedown because of the strike.

- The sick and the hospitalised.

The Police. They are suffering the priceincrease, but cant complain.

- Travellers. All airport closed.
- The Rich. They pay more to fuel their fleet of cars.
- The President, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Sanusi Lamido Sanisi. The hatred from angry Nigerians is too much.

These are just the little I can think ofas at the time of writing this. This is indeed a period to pause and ponder onthe pros and cons of this fuel subsidy removal. Pause and ponder about theprotest, and pause and ponder on the way forward.

The funny sights of Fuel Subsidy Removal

2012-01-02T17:16:00.000+01:00

It is no more news that the federal government of Nigeria had removed subisidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as Petrol. What is funny about it is the sense of humour of Nigerians as regard the whole scenerrios. Here are some of them in pics as collated from facebook.

Recycled Politicians and the Blaming game

2011-12-16T17:08:00.004+01:00

I remembered vividly when President Goodluck Jonathan was contesting last April election, majority of voters were like, I am voting for Jonathan, am not voting for PDP, because PDP is Nigerian problem. Has anyone paused to pondered that PDP was actually formed in 1999 whereas Nigerian problem has been on over 50 years ago.

I made it bold to say that, we should stop singling out PDP as our problem as indeed the Politicians are our problem. For instance, most of the Politicians are being recycled, and they are carpet crossing politicians, today they may be in ACN and before you know it, in another political dispensation, they are with PDP. Mall El-Rufai was indeed a PDP member during Obasanjo regime, today he is dining and wining with CPC and at the same time becoming an emergency anti government crusaders. Most of the politicians in the newly controlled ACN states in the south west were formerly with PDP, now they have cross carpeted to ACN.

I therefore enjoined most of us to stop blaming PDP as Nigerian problem, the politicians indeed as a whole are our problems. The youth of this country should bear this in mind, as from experience, these politicians are using this against us, and at slightest opportunity, they also blame the ruling party, just to get noticed, and what do we get in return, the same treatment meted out to us by PDP. Paused, and ponder this.

When Roger Federer won a record 6th ATP World Tour Final

2011-12-04T14:52:00.001+01:00

I was in the comfort of my home watching the finals between Tsonga and Roger Federer. It was a tense Sunday afternoon as with Federer recent form, I expect him to despatched Tsonga in 2 straight sets. My expectations was coming to fore when suddenly Federer begin to confirm my worst fear, he began to fumble in the second sets having won the first set in 6-2. I was under pressure as if if he won, my life depends on it, but the joy of him creating another record of 6 win of ATP world Tour final and winning his 70th career title in his 100th final keeps me under pressure.

So when the second sets got to a tie break, I can watch it anymore, because with the way it is going, I am pretty sure, my heart cant bear to watch him perform miserably anymore, so I switch channel, even though my thought is with the game playing on.

A mild drama played itself in my household as regard the match. The moment I switched channel my spouse was watching it in the bedroom, and she keep making side comments as regard the Federer lack lustre performance in the 3rd and final sets. I had to warn her to keep it to herself because I cant bear to listen nor watch, as I prepared my mind for a loss. Any ardent Federer fan will remembered that the same Tsonga won against Federer at the Wimbledon even though Federer was 2 set up in the match, and the thought that the same scenario is about to play itself made me believed it is all over for Federer to win the 6th record world ATP tour title.

When my spouse came again to make another side comments which suggests Federer performance isnt encouraging, I set up the quarrel between us by switching off the DSTV Receiver and hell was let loose. That solved my problem as the match was blanked out and I dont have anyone to feed me with the poor performance of Federer, even though my mind wass still on the outcome of the result.

Finally, I summon enough courage to confirm my worst fear a while later to confirm the outcome of the match on the internet, and you can imagine my joy when I saw that it was Federer that won the match.

Ever pause to ponder what actually is our gain as fans when in actual fact, there is no any monetary satisfaction to be derived despite our support, and we go to the length of going under pressure and having blood pressure. Federer won, it calm my nerves and that is what matters!

Gone in November!!! Adieu

2011-11-17T00:00:00.000+01:00

The incident of 6 years ago today, is still very fresh in my mind. A day hardly passed without thinking about you. The truth is, the reality that you are gone forever is the pain I get each time I remembered you. May the lord continue to forgive your sins. Rest in perfect peace my son. I missed you very much in my life. Adieu.

Is GLO BIS COMPLETE Completes?

2011-11-14T14:38:00.001+01:00

Yeah, the title was okay. Glo revolutionise the Blackberry Internet Service popularly referred to as BIS to GLO BIS COMPLETE for 1,400 Nigeria Naira and they were so loud with the advertisement that they keep telling us that you can browse and do all that the full BIS subsprition will do. This was evident from their advert to the extent that they will say a BIS without a browser is not a BIS. So, has anyone pause to ponder whether the Glo BIS COMPLETE is really complete? Read along.

I started using Blackberry on the platform of Airtel which was a 24 month contract. At the expiration in August this year, I dediced to give GLO BIS a trial. I go for the full subscription of 3,000 Nigeria Naira per month, until a few weeks later they started having problems on their network. Having been accustomed to all these Network Operators, I always believed that they were all the same in terms of network, so I still stick with them. When the network became so bad in the month of October, I vowed not to waste my money on full BIS anymore, so I went for GLO BIS COMPLETE which is 1,400 per month. On two occasions, there was total blackout on my BIS Network and I was with the believe that, they had started with their network problem again. This happened to me during Sallah Holidays and through the holiday I was without BIS Network, I resorted to using wifi at home to power my BIS. The following week after Sallah holiday, the same thing happened, up till this day. But days ago, I met someone who was also using GLO BIS COMPLETE, and I discovered that while mine doesnt have BIS network, the other person had. I was surprised, I had to do a battery pull and it was still the same. So this morning, I was still thinking about it, and I remember that I had no credit in my GLO line. I didnt care if I dont have credit in any of my line as long as the other phone has, because I had two phones. So I reasoned that perhaps, it was because there wasnt credit on my glo line that was the reason I couldnt get BIS network on my blackberry. So I bought credit online, and Bingo!! my BIS network came on.

This Network Operators are really taking us for a ride. A full month subscription BIS should be working whether you have credit on your line or not. BIS has nothing to do with having credit on your sim, because it isnt pay as you go, it is a one off payment. I want to believe that, there might be hidden charges apart from the amount charge for this BIS COMPLETE subscription which subscribers are not aware of, otherwise, I dont see the reason why a subscriber must have credit in his or her glo line before your BIS network become operational. Those who are using full GLO BIS should also take note of this discovery, they might be denying them the use of their money too simply because your glo line wasnt recharged.

Pause and Ponder, enough of this rip off. Haba!!!

Babatunde Omidina (Baba Suwe) Drug Ordeal

2011-11-09T16:15:00.001+01:00

On October 12 2011, Babatunde Omidina widely known as Baba Suwe was arrested at Murtala Mohammed International Airport as a suspect for ingesting drugs suspected to be Cocaine by National Drug Law Enfgorcement Agency (NDLEA). He was detained to enable them investigate as the scanner revealed that there is a substance in his stomach suspected to be drugs. All eyes and ears are on the incidence since Baba Suwe is a popular Comedian in the Yoruba genre of Nollywood. However, days drags by, Baba Suwe was still being held because the suspected drugs in his stomach has not been excreted as expected. Then days turn to weeks, still the NDLEA were unable to make him excretes the suspected drugs in his stomach. On the 21st day in detention, he was brought to High Court as earlier ordered and he was granted bail on condition that if nothing was found on him at the expiration of an earlier court order which is expected to end in 3 more days. As nothing was found on him albeit after inhuman efforts to make him excretes the drugs, he was left off the hook after 24 days in detention.

One then wondered the lifespan of a wrap drugs ingested in a human stomach before it burst. One also wondered why after 24 bowel movements, the NDLEA were unable to make Baba Suwe excretes the drugs. I continue to pause and ponder what it would be like and how it had been like on ordinary citizen who are not as popular as Baba Suwe if this is what is obtainable from someone that is well known. The NDLEA certainly are a laughing stock to international community and it really speak volumes about the type of equipment they are parading to fight the drug battle. It continue to make me ponder if such treatment meted to Baba Suwe are obtainable in other countries, and then I continue to ponder still what it will take to nail a suspect at all cost and have me puzzled as to the type of investigations the NDLEA carried out before Baba Suwe arrest and what type of equipment they are parading to nail him despite the fact that a scan reveal something suspected to be drugs is in his stomach.

The DPP of NDLEA however shows the incompetency of the organisation when he claimed the suspected ingested drug is coming down slowly after 24 days and that they still want to keep Baba Suwe a few days more to monitor the suspected drugs, showing inhuman attitude to Baba Suwe plight. The blogger wondered further if it is one of the well known politicians, whether his detention can be as long as that of Baba Suwe.

Having said all this, it is believed generally that there is an iota of truth in every rumour , there indeed must be something in Baba Suwe Stomach as the scan clearly revealed it, and the insinuations that it was African Magic that prevented him to excretes them makes the whole matter very difficult to ponder.

Congratulations Mr. President

2011-04-18T23:40:00.005+01:00

Congatulations Mr. President.

I just need to let you know that Nigerians voted for your personality,not because you are in PDP, majority of Nigerians voted for you because you are from south south, whom a lot of people believed are minority and whom had never ruled nigeria before. The North had ruled us more than the West, you are the first from the South South to win an election and rule Nigeria, dont let Nigerians regret it.

Mr President, rule this country in such a way that when you want to leave in 2015, we will all be begging you to stay. Represent the South South very well so much that Nigerians will realise their mistakes in denying the South South to rule ever since independence.

Mr President Sir, do you know most of your opposition supporters said you are clueless when it comes to affairs of the nation, please prove them wrong.

Goodluck to you in this onerous task ahead. Goodluck to Nigeria!

When Government efforts on Health are white elephant

2011-04-07T16:39:00.001+01:00

The national Health Insurance Scheme introduced by the government of Olusegun Obasanjo was hailed by everyone when it was first introduced. The scheme was introduced as a social security system that guarantees the provision of needed health services to persons on the payment of token contributions at regular intervals. The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is a body established under Act 35 of 1999 by the Federal Government of Nigeria to improve the health of all Nigerians at an affordable cost.

Scorecard emanating from the progress so far about this scheme is not salutary at all. In the other countries where this scheme is being practiced and where it was copied, the level of progress is very high. In Nigeria, there are various complaints, ranging from the beneficiaries being treated as second rate citizens when it come to administer of health facilities.

In some of the Hospitals being retained for the scheme, we are made to understand that each Hospital are entitled to N550.00 per month per a family, which means an hospital with 2,000 customers will rake in over a million naira per month whether the NHIS patients appear for treatment or not. One would have expected that such gratification would be met with commensurate services by the Hospitals, but reverse was the case.

For example, beneficiaries of NHIS complaints that patients on NHIS patient are treated differently in most of the hospital albeit shabbily, they said they are made to see different consultants, and given cheap drugs, and in some cases discriminates as regards to Beds in case of Admission, compared to other patients who are are going to pay for their services instantly.

The Hospitals prefer to deal with the patients who offered to make payment compared to the people on NHIS platform, thereby making NHIS beneficiaries look inferior to their counterpart who offered to make payment. In most cases, NHIS beneficiaires ended up making payment too, so that they can receive the best medical care. This is indeed sad on our part as a nation.

Have you paused to ponder that sometimes, we lack the understanding here in Nigeria that Government is doing all it can to better our lots, but sad that a lot of us prefer our old ways of being treated shabbily.

I Still Hate Politics

2011-03-21T16:09:00.000+01:00

Of recent, my facebook status and comments is on Politics, and mostly about the candidacy of the incumbent, President Goodluck E. Jonathan. Until now, even at the time of writing this, I aint into politics, and would never will, because I cant stand the double dealing, carpet crossing, back stabbing etc, some of these clearly put me off.

I was however pushed into supporting the candidacy of GEJ by my facebook friends who mostly believed General Muhammadu Buhari and Prophet Bakare which they termed (BB) were a better candidate than GEJ. Each time I logged in to my facebook account, it is one noise or the other about how he is the next best thing. The noise is so deafening that, they invented captioned like, 100 reasons why BB is the answer, why they dont vote Buhari in the past etc. As a GEJ supporter, I began to run away from such post and chant. Then I decided to fight back, now a lot of people believed I am some kind of card carrying member of PDP.

Let me set the record straight, I have never met Mr President physically, nor do I belong to PDP, but he is my President, and I believed in him. I believed in his candidacy, but I am not his agent or that of PDP. someone was so pissed off with the way of my strong defence for GEJ that he put it in his Status in capital letter that I am GEJ agent. I would love to, it is an honour, but I aint.

Who doesnt want to be linked with the President, no wonder I am with Dbanj as regard the Interview the President granted him on Silverbird TV. I used to tell people that, if it were to be Buhari that adopted that kind of style, Dbanj will receive lots of applause from the BB supporters. The condemnation was so deafening because most of BB supporters are elites who are online, mostly on facebook, twitter etc. Dbanj should ignore them, they will seize the opportunity if Buhari ask them to come and anchor that kind of programme for him too.

so, pause and ponder, with my recent recalcitrant posture on candidacy of GEJ, does it really look like am into Politics, while in actual fact, I hate politics with a passion.?

When Domestic helps are Dubious

2011-03-14T09:08:00.002+01:00

When i was young, I used to viewed it seriously the act of making someone an househelps. I used to go like, I wouldnt want my child to be one, so why would i used someone else child as one. My orientations changes later in life when I discovered that they are necessary in one daily life. I agreed to this concepts even though I make sure they are treated best in my entire household.

Experience had shown that when seeking househelps, the agents are dubious, so also are the househelps too. The agents will want to supply to highest bidder, while the househelp themselves will come with just the cloth they are wearing, as if they dont have more than that one. When they travel for holiday, they hardly come back, they prefer to try a new ground where they will be treated as fresh, and then get a new set of clothes and wages. All these point to one facts, they are dubious and can never be trusted. The househelp business is becoming a 419 sort of, all the parties involved are so dubious that it is very advisable to have the underlisted tips in mind.

The other day someone sent me a broadcast message on my blackberry, it goes thus:

1. Get your domestic helps to provide 3 guarantors each. Know these guarantors.

2. Call home several times a day preferably to a landline

3. Get to know your neighbours and try to be on good terms with them. Chances are they may report suspicious activity.

4. Have a close relative over as much as possible. Your sibling or parents is unlikely to harm your child.

5. Do not deliberately extend your hours at work. sitting idle in the office waiting for traffic to subside might not be such a good idea.

6. If you really dont have time to be a parent, then dont be.

7. Teach your child (especially your daughter) the parts of her body that are off limits to anybody except you or a doctor.

8. As early as possible, your child should know your name (not "mummy" or "daddy"), your address, where you work, and your telephone number.

9. Be kind to your domestic helps. whether you like to admit it or not, for some people, these helps do more parenting than parents!

10. Pray for your kids and be vigilant.

Pause and ponder, dont you think these tips are highly necessary?

Is Facebook and Twitter killing Blogging?

2011-03-12T14:01:00.001+01:00

Gone are the days when net crawlers like me will be refreshing Blog aggregator to get updates on bloggers. You want to keep abreast to what happens around the world first hand through the inspirations of bloggers. Bloggers making waves back then are Chxta's world, Grandiose parlour, Akin's blog, Omodudu, Jeremy's blog, Funmi Iyanda's blog just to mention a few.

But with the advent of Facebook and Twitter, seems blogging is becoming history, as updates of blogs by bloggers is dying. Take for instance, this year alone, and we are in march, Grandiose Parlour and Omodudu both only had one updates, Funmi Iyanda hasnt updated since October last year, while Chxta's world updated last in February. Akin's blog and Jeremy's naija blog however updated their blog regularly.

Yours truly also performed poorly in this regards, as my 2 blogs - Nollywood photoblog and this one had not seen updates in a long time.

While I am not saying categorically that Facebook and Twitter seems to be the only reasons, they may however contributed since in a few words, it is easier to capture whatever one need to update on the blog.

Pause and ponder, is this what is going to happen? I stand to confirm my worst fears on this in a couple of years. Meanwhile, this is a wake up call for me, as I am not determined more than ever to update my blogs as and when the need arises, twitter or facebook notwithstanding.

Taking Advantage of others

2011-03-09T12:12:00.000+01:00

One way or the other, we stand to take the advantage of others, knowingly or unknowingly. In the course of my life, I had learned that if you dont have a hard stern on some matters of life, people will take advantage of you. If you have a weakness, they will take advantage of you as long as your way of life will help them in their selfish interest, they will take advantage of you.

Now, there is this general saying that people used to say, I am me. To me, it is the best way to live one's life. Be yourself, even if what you get from it is people taking advantage of you, in the end, you will know you live your life a fulfilled man.

One noticeable traits about my life is that, I had never and ever make a mockery of my friendship with women, to the extent that I would be taking advantage of them, I let them take advantage of me, and unknown to them, it gives me great satisfaction, and it pleased my conscience than me getting away with a seeming action of mine that would seem like I took advantage of them. The same with my fellow men.

My reader may pause and ponder whether this is right or wrong of me, but the truth is that, I am me, and I enjoyed being me.

Siverbirds Entertainment Centre Abuja and its Non Refundable Ticket Money Arrangements

2010-04-27T14:06:00.005+01:00

If only there is an email address to forward this to, but I guess I have no alternative than to say it here.
The Silverbirds Entertainment Centre Abuja should call their Staff to order. I was in the company of my family to watch a nollywood movie, on Saturday, 24th April, 2010 at exactly 5pm and I ended up losing 3,000 Naira to their staff over zealousness. I obtained a ticket from one Ijeoma who actually asked me for how many people and I replied for my family. She gave me 2 ticket for myself and my wife. When we got to the gate of the movie theatre we were refused entry by a guy stationed there simply because we came along with our 5 year old son whom the guy classified as under-aged. Fine, What is the next thing to do, he ask us to go back to the box office on 3rd floor for a refund of our ticket money. When we got there, the staff we met, Ifeoma refused to refund our ticket money saying at the same time that it was the management policy. She wanted to apportioned blame as to whether in the first place we should not have been given a ticket for such a particular movie had she known we came in company of our 5 year old son who was busy playing around when I mentioned to her that I came in company of my family. I had to cut her short and told her that, that is not the issue, and that the issue is that me and my family came all the way from our house to relax, but we ended up losing our money and also what we came for. When she would not realise how important that was to us than her stupid management policy, I left thereby losing my 3,000 Naira in the process. The management should do something about this rigid stance of non refundable of ticket money especially where a genuine reasons is involved like mine. Talk of daylight Robbery!!!

Who will call Abuja VIO to order?

2010-02-09T15:18:00.002+01:00

Somebody that is in charge should do something or perhaps this should be taken up by a higher authority. The Abuja VIO should be called to order. Nobody says they should not do their work, which is mainly vehicle inspections. They are not methodical in performing this task at all. Nowadays, vehicle inspections is done during rush hours in the morning when motorists are rushing to their respective offices. They will stop motorists with a checklists of demands ranging from vehicle particulars, drivers licence, Triangle and fire extinguishers etc. One thing I noticed is that, the emphasis is not on whether you complied with their checklists, but on the revenue they will generate to the purse of the organisation. This is evident because once you are stopped, there must be one offence they will book you for. As if this is not enough, any genuine explanations is on deaf ears, as they are quick to remove your plate numbers.

If you are unlucky to be booked for any of the offences, which must be redeemed by payment of various fines, getting out of the jam is another thing entirely, as you will be made to go through strenuous procedures.

Come to think of it, their job is not that important compared to that of Raod Safety which is solely to maintain safety of Roads and Vehicles, the VIO main task is to inspect Vehicles. In other State capitals of the Federation, VIOs are not visible along the roads, it is only in Abuja that they are usurping the work of Road Safety.

The job of inspection of Vehicles should not affect the normal life activities of law abiding citizens who are going about their lawful errands of getting to work early in the morning. For example, in the Estate where I reside here in Abuja, the VIOs will come and station themselves at our Junction leading to the town very early in the morning and harrassing law abiding motorists thereby preventing them from reaching their various offices/destinations at the appointed time. This is very wrong.

This harrassment seems to be limited to average Nigerians as it does not concern those who are at the top, because a mere mention of who owns the vehicle is enough for the VIO to let go. Therefore, I enjoined people to rally round this dangerous trend, by joining this blog in the quest to get the right channel where we can table our petitions.

Ever ponder what will happen in a situation where you dont want to be late for an interview one morning and the VIO stop your vehicle for inspection? It could be you next!! Just pondered.

World Cup Qualifier - Thank God Nigeria will not qualify

2009-09-07T13:19:00.005+01:00

Trust Nigerians, they dont joke with football at all, and I can imagine the bashing I will get from this. For instance, they have resorted to their old song of how only God can help us qualify. When will Nigerians learn to accept responsibility? God is sick and tired of us. I mean we have all the time in this world to seal the ticket here in Abuja, and God seems to answer only my own prayer that we should not win.
Thank God we didnt win, I will continue to pray that we do not qualify for South Africa. All is not well with this country, and I dont want football to hide our problem, moreso when our football itself is not in good order. Until Nigeria learn to do things right, we will continue to struggle, enough of all this fire brigade approach to all facets of our life.
Yeah, that is the point, our youth are all at home, because their lecturers are on strike, those who can afford it have withdrawn their children from the striking schools to private own university, whereas it is the same sets of people who make the public university go on strike that now own the private university. We deceived ourselves in this country a lot, tell me how can a private university survive, if there is no problem with the public university? Now, we all want our super eagles to qualify, we dont need any football to hide our sorrow, let not the football be our consoling factors everytime. For us to qualify, is to make it look like everything is well in this country. to qualify is to let the NFA add that to their achievement, as if all is well with our football, to qualify is to let the government of the day believed that we are doing things right. God, Please dont let us qualify for the world cup for the second time in a row.

Take it from the players point of view. We all know what will happen to them if while playing for this country, something happen to them. But because, the country is not in a good state, they can never give in their best, whereas, when it come to their club assignment, they put in everything. So what is the cause of that? because so many things is wrong with this country. A clear case is that of Samuel Okwaraji, and of course until recently, and i dont know if it is true, Nigeria just redeemed her pledge to the players who won African cup of nations which nigeria won last in 1980 - can you beat that? Ponder over that!!!

Agony of lack of power in Nigeria

2009-06-20T14:13:00.000+01:00

Ever ponder when the power supply problem in Nigeria will end? Perhaps it is not going to be in this generation. It is getting worse and worse. At my estate, we don’t even expect power anymore. We all depend on burning fuel on our generators.

To keep your generators running, if you are the type like me who always stays indoor and prefer to have power constantly, then be prepare to budget a large amount of your hard earned money on acquisition of fuel. To get the fuel in filing station is another problem, you need to pray it is not a period where there is scarcity of fuel, less you are in for another problem. If there is no fuel scarcity, then you have little problem acquiring fuel for your gen sets, but if there is, then you will be required to bring your gen set to filing stations before they can sell to you. If you prefer to buy in jerry cans, then be ready to part with extra cash to the fuel attendants.

A case of mine in question, I have 4 generators. You will ponder how I am managing fueling all the four, and having them serviced. I tell you it is not that easy. However, the secrets behind them is that, 3 of them consume less fuel, because they are small power generators, while I have one big one that have capacity to carry all the loads. Here is the idea, I will put on the small ones in daylight just to power the fan and the TVs, and put on the Big one at night to cater for all the bulbs and put the fridge and freezers on. When it get to 12 midnight, I will put it off, and put on the small ones again to power the fans and other security lights till morning.

Ever ponder when this wahala will end? The whole thing looks a mirage to me. God save this country from the small few that are taking us to ransom.

On a final note, ever pause to ponder that, the present Head of Nigerian Communications Commission may as well be drafted to the power sector, who knows, he may revolutionise the industry too just as he did with Communication sector. Just pondering…..

It is only in Nigeria

2009-01-27T14:59:00.002+01:00

Hmmmm, that should sum up my mood today. It is only in this Country call Nigeria that wonders can be happening.
I read it in Daily Vanguard the other day, that Police in Kwara State, Nigeria arrested a goat for Armed Robbery. The Police have concrete evidence, that the Goat actually took part in a bid to disposses someone of his Mazda Car. It is only in Nigeria that such thing can happen. I wonder what a LAPD would thing about such an incidence.
It is only in NIgeria that you will work diligently to move Nigeria forward, you are the toast of the masses when you are in charge of your duty, but, because some people are not ready for your revolutionary approach to move Nigeria forward, they use every available means in their disposal to rubbish your hardwork. Mallam El-Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu are good example, Engr. Ndukwe of NCC is also getting in the saddle right as at the time of writing this.
It is only in Nigeria that the Government will anounce a reduction in price of Petrol from 70 to 65 Naira and the marketers will refuse to adjust their pump price. But when Government threaten to enforce the new price, you discovered that there is scarcity of fuel all over the place. It is also in Nigeria that you will witness such a situation whereby the marketer will be reluctant to adjust their pump price any time there is a reduction in price, but are quick to adjust their pump price any time there is increase in pump price.
But wait, is it only in Nigeria? Just ponder along with me!!!

Just Pondering.....

2008-11-19T14:39:00.002+01:00

Quite some time abi? Dont mind me, I am so engulfed with the sister blog and hardly have time to ponder over things happening around me.
Let me see if I can pause to ponder on past events. The first is the Obama as the president elect. I fo rone is not excited with him being a black man. I want a real black man in the mode of th eblack of Chris Rock, Beenie Man, I mean real black not half black or half white. But since half bread is better than none, I guess we will all have him as a black man.
As for the victory of Adams Oshiomhole, has anyone pause to ponder when how long it will take before we started hearing impeachment song? This is to be expected because his party does not enjoy majority in the state house of assembly.
How about the missing satellite in the space? I wonder and ponder how come the unthinkable always happen in Nigeria. It has come to further prove that nothing works in Nigeria. Had it not been the Satellite was located in the space, one would have been tempted to suggest it was tampered with by Nigerians or sabotaged by the other operator of satellite companies just to continue to enjoy the monopoly. By the way, how come none of the DTH in Nigeria has signify interest in the Nigcomsat even ebfore its dissappearance in the space. Or better still, may be they use Otmopo, Ogun, or Juju to destroy it right here in Nigeria. You dont want to believe me, have I not said it earlier on that nothing is impossible in Nigeria?

And how about the sack of FCT Minister? - I loved it, it is a good riddance for bad rubbish. Has anyone ever ponder again what legacy the man left behind during his tenure? None, other than the fact that he was all over El-Rufai his predecessor. Instead of him to embark on his own tenure with laudable programme to improve on that of his predecessor, he went ahead on vendetta which earn him his sack. He will be remember for his introduction of new traffic light that shows seconds of waiting time during traffic (awarded to his own company I bet), and of course the worse traffic jams Abuja has ever witnessed.

Enough for today, I guess am back to update this blog from time to time. Cheers.

Ever Ponder what today is?

2008-10-11T18:17:00.001+01:00

It is my birthday!!!!

Yes, this blogger added another year today. I give thanks to God for sparing my live and for keeping me alive. I give thanks and praises to Him for all He had done for me, and for giving me the inspirations to start this blog. I will continue to believe in you God. I
also use this opportunity to thank those who find time to visit this blog, your visits is what spur me on to update it regularly, while your comments is the tonic I need to know that you really appreciates what am doing. I thank you all.

BBA 3 - Morris and Takondwa Cheats

2008-10-06T21:30:00.002+01:00

Morris Saved Takondwa in what can be seen as a bizarre decision in the history of BBA This is because Morris had earlier on nominated Takondwa. And when the nomination was announce, and as the head of the house, he use his powwer to free Takondwa whom he had earlirer on nominated. As if that is not enough, he still went ahead to cheat by revealing his decision to Takondwa contrary to Big Brother rules as could be seen from this video.
http://www.4shared.com/file/65929774/a809ad2c/bba3.html

Who will fights against Corruption in Nigeria

2008-08-08T10:02:00.005+01:00

Ever ponder why those who fight against corruptions in the past administration are in the bad book of the present administration? While those who sit on the fence about corruption had nothing to worry about? It simply means, Nigeria is not ready for war against corruption. If there is anyone out there who still doubt what will happen to those who fight corruption and good governance after they have left office, then the case of recent travails of Mallam El-Rufai and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu should be a yardstick on what is coming for them.
Whilst I dont need to go into full details of their travails as we are all aware of that, truth remains that those two were singled out for vendetta. El-Rufai was as at the time of writing this, being barred from holding public office again, while Ribadu was removed unceremoniously and subsequently demoted for daring to step on their "toes".
To further prove my point, Dr Charles Soludo is beginning to feel the power of those politicians too in his seat as the CBN Governors. It is just a matter of time before he also pay the price of having to deal with those "politicians" by withdrawing the licence of the banks of some of them. thereby stepping on "powerful toes". The heat is on.
Has anyone ponder why NAFDAC Director Chief Akunyili was not even a subject of their war of Vendetta, I guess because her own area of war she engaged in wasnt an area where politicians ventured into, or else, she herself must be feeling the heat by now.
I guess I may have to come up later with various ways of how to fight against corruption in Nigeria, now that we know what the "Politicians" will do to those who step on their "toes".

Mexican Telenovela Second Chance and AIT Television

2008-07-24T11:44:00.004+01:00

Apart from incessant break in transmission of this programme during UEFA Champions League matches, AIT for no given reasons had decided to start repeating past episodes of the telenovela. The worst thing about the whole thing is that, they hardly make any excuses, let alone offer any apology to the viewers.
This attitude of AIT is now unbecoming of an electronic media one was beginning to think will lead the revolution of representing the true image of Nigeria in International media community. This singular act by AIT, if they dont realise it, usually spoils a day for some family who from experience must make the 9.00pm time to catch the Soap. You can imagine the disappointment one usually gets on such occasions, especially when you had to sacrifice so many things to meet the time of the Soap transmission.
Now that AIT is now on Nigerian Stock Exchange as a public quoted company, they should at least be more public oriented in their TV programmes, such an unwarranted repetitions of episodes of Soap without due apology or due notice does not befit such a progressive media house like AIT. Chief Aleogho Dokpesi should do something. Haba!

When you have to beg for Money

2008-07-22T15:47:00.002+01:00

Have you ever been in a tight corner and you have to resort to begging for money? I dont mean, asking for money from those you know like friends and all, I mean real begging from someone you have not met before.
It happened to me last night, and I cant but ponder over it, whether I was the first to do such things, most especially when the amount involved was a paltry sum, and I mean a paltry sum.
Before you blow the trumpet and take the news to a Radio or a TV stations, let me quickly add that, I did it for my soon to be 3 years old son.
The scenario perhaps was the second, and the amount involved is always a paltry sum of 50. The first was 50k and I mean fifty kobo, while that of yesterday was just 50 Naira. The first was way back in the early 90s when I was stranded along the road, even though I have money in the office, but I do not have on me, so I ask a passer-by to assist me with the sum for transportation.
That of yesterday happened when I need to buy a toy gun for my son in a supermarket. Did I hear you say, I should have abandoned the purchase of the ordinary toy gun? Well, I cant because of the event of the previous day. We (myself, my wife and our son) go for shopping, he insisted he wanted a toy gun, but I have other idea of not wanting him to be playing with gun at his age. I thought he bought my objection, but by the time we enter the car back home, he registered his protest so much that, he kept on crying and angry at my seeming indifference to his plight. It took a lots of cajoling after about over an hour to calm him down. His eyes is red shot with his registered protest of cries. So I made a promise to buy him one the second day.
I don t have enough money on my wallet to buy the exact type he wanted, I am short of 50 naira only. So I ask a fine gentleman for a raise, telling him I just have to get home with the toy in my hand. He understands instantly, I guess he has them at home too.
So, Ever ponder for once when you have to resort to begging?

Dubai

2008-07-07T09:40:00.003+01:00

This is for my course mates during my recent visits to Dubai. Here posted on this blog is picture taken by this blogger. Please enjoy.

Kanu - The 13th Greatest Arsenal Players of all time

2008-07-02T16:05:00.001+01:00

The Arsenal Football Club has been celebrating its greatest 50 players of all time. Our own Nwankwo Kanu was on the 13th on the list. This list of 50 Gunners Greatest Players was determined by tens of thousands of Arsenal fans from across the world. The vote took place on the Club’s official website from May 5 to 19. To help prevent multiple voting by a single person, only registered members of Arsenal.com took part.
Kanu who is the most decorated African Footballer play for Arsenal between 1999 and 2004 where he won 2 FA cups and 2 Barclays Premier league the last he won was in 2004 when Arsenal goes the whole season unbeaten. Of Particular note of his magic moments in arsenal was when he scored a 17 minute hat-trick, which enable Arsenal win a derby with Chelsea in 1999. I is a magic moments of Kanu career that lovers of Kanu alike will tell its story to unborn Nigerian generations. I still jealously keep the video in my archive.
Please read more on Arsenal's web site http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=492950

Still on my Dubai Trip

2008-06-27T01:19:00.000+01:00

What I forgot to mentioned in my last post was my experience with Dubai Immigrations. I traveled to UAE in company of three other staff, One of us had scaled through the Immigrations, but when it came to my turn, I was asked to go for an eye scan. Being a novice who had not travel before, I did not know what it means. By the time I finished with the eye scanning, my other colleagues not knowing where I was left the airport without me. As if that was not enough, I was later asked to go to another room where I was scanned from head to toes. I have heard of that before, but could not protest, except laugh at the Officer conducting the scanning. I was so sure I had not swallowed anything, so why should I feel jittery over his act of shame. When he had done with the scanning, he search me physically again, and I had to let him know that "All Nigerians are not the same" He apologised nervously and even assist me in retrieving my luggage.
Ever ponder why what type of troubles that green booklet could land you? I mean the Nigerian passport!!!

My First Time

2008-06-26T12:47:00.002+01:00

When my employer finally approved my journey for an overseas training, I knew quite well it is going to be an emergence of so many FIRST in my life. I had pondered several times as to when exactly I will travel outside Nigeria for the first time in my life. So when I finally embark on an official trip to Dubai in United Arab Emirates for a week training, it was indeed the first time ever in my life to travel outside Nigeria, first time ever to board an aircraft, and of course first time ever I was paid and spent dollars.
The journey itself is strenuous, may be because it is my first time, but, all in all it was worth an experience. At least, i broaden my horizon. I also have the first hand experience of the behaviour of Nigerians outside Nigerian shore. There was an urgent need for me to trace an earlier hotel I had checked in before because I was paired with a Nigerian I had never met before all my life. So when I secured another hotel, I need to park my belongings to the new hotel, and all efforts to trace the hotel prove abortive. Whilst asking around, directions given to me is not sufficient enough to lead me to the hotel. I then met a Nigerian lady who seems not to bother about my plight because she is in a hurry. I guess it was her first time in Dubai too, because she seems to have bought something and forgot it there, not knowing that in Dubai, unlike Nigeria, you can even met your goods you forgot at any shop 3 months after. Anyway, she can be of help, and I continue the agony of locating my new hotel. Meanwhile, as I continue to meandered through the seeming identical roads and building, am using various signs to notice my way around in case i need to get back to my new hotel.
At long last, I met another Nigerians, one male and female, speaking Yoruba while on the mobile phone, I knew I have found my saviour since they can speak my language. I quickly spoke to them in Yoruba, and before you say Jack Robinson, they ignore me. Sensing that they might thought I was trying to ask for financial assistance, I quickly hold the business card of the hotel in front of them that, I am trying to trace this hotel, with the same unconcerned approach, one of them just point a direction to me without proper explanation.
With some little efforts and after wasting a lot of my time, I finally got the hotel, pack my belongings and left for the new hotel. As I was about to step into the new hotel, guess whom I saw? The two Yoruba Nigerians who couldn't offer assistance. I just accuse them in Yoruba and left them there. But can you blame them? Myself too cannot stay in the same hotel room with another Nigerians I had never met in my life.
As for those who had been in this for long, is this the mentality of Nigerians whilst abroad? I continue to ponder!!!

Who Owns a woman's Breast? Child or Hubby?

2008-06-09T09:00:00.005+01:00

I know this has always comes up among the women folks and men alike as to who actually owns (mark my words) 'owns' not "entitled" a woman breast between the hubby and a child. Nigerian Daily Sun Newspaper spoke across the women folks and you wont believe the responses. Check the responses here.
Hmmmm, A friend of mine have this to say on the subject, hear him - "I guess men actually own the breast of their woman. How many child would own a woman breast if we go by the argument of a child being the owner, does it mean if a woman breast fed 4 child, all the child owns the boobs? Besides, how many breast does a child wants to own, when he/she grows up, he own the boobs of his wife, or if a woman, own her own boob? I beg, my wife breasts is mine anyday".
Ever ponder what length women and men can go on this subject?

Senate confirms Waziri as EFCC chairman

2008-06-05T18:00:00.000+01:00

The Senate on Thursday at its plenary session confirmed the appointment of Mrs. Farida Waziri as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The Senate President, David Mark made the formal announcement of the decision. The appointments of other members of the EFCC board were also ratified before it adjourned sitting. The pre-hearing acrimony that took place before her eventual appearance before the Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics, Anti-corruption and Financial Crimes, which is responsible for clearing her nomination proved to be a storm in teacup after all, as her screening was successful. Reports say Waziri answered all questions put to her and impressed the panel, leaving the Senate with no choice than to ratify her appointment. She was said to have impressed members of the panel with her knowledge of the justice system and her straightforward answers to questions put to her.

Nigerian Newspapers Headlines Versus Obasanjo

2008-05-13T11:48:00.002+01:00

I bet for a long time, OBJ will still be hated by majority Nigerians as regard his past rule of this great nation. I happen to notice nowadays the sensational caption of our Nigerian Newspapers on any news about Obasanjo. Some of them did it to sell their papers while some do it professionally to tell it how it should be while some do it to spite Obasanjo himself.

Today, I took great pain to extract the headlines of some of the newspapers as it reflects the story of Obsasanjo not being able to appear before the probe panel on Power. While it is true that he did not appear, his deputy also, Alh. Atiku Abubakar did not also attend. From my own point of view, only Thisday, Guardian, Vanguard and Daily Independent are very objective with their caption compare to that of Daily Sun above, who like others, are simply biased. So now, you know which of the Newspapers are very objective in their reporting.
Hereunder is the captioned of some of the newspapers.

Still on El-Rufai Probe

2008-05-02T11:16:00.002+01:00

I was reading the Punch Newspaper version of former Minister of FCT Mallam El-Rufai appearance on the Senate Committee probe of FCT Demolitions, federal government houses etc. The comments on the write-up by numerous Nigerians aptly describe my views on the shameful drama in the name of probe, and I cannot but publish some of the comments in my blog.

gbosa!4 u (EL-RUFIA).If we have 4 of u ruling the FCT we will have a great capital in the world.U took a decision and stood by it.If u think u were affected and is ur turn to prob him prosterity shall never forgive u.We dont want to have a capital that will full of hoodlums and miscreants.
Posted by: Mbaiorga Daniel , on Friday, May 02, 2008
There should be compensations to the cases El Rufia accepted were a mistake. The uncompleted buildings he pulled down should be covered. No aplologises here. This guy ran his office unchecked.He was a monster even as he was cleaning up Abuja. The ones he compensated after telling us were on sewage lines ought not to have been. The same folks rebuilt their houses on the same plots ( e.g Ali the PDP ex chairman). This guy is a coward! Vultures will eat him.

Posted by: ferdinand C.gbenimako , on Friday, May 02, 2008
Am very pleased at the way Mallam El-rufai handled this matter so far. As a profession and a fighter of good course, he has stood by his decisions and believe me or not, Abuja is better for it. Nigeria needs more of his like, i will be plesed to work with him. Abuja is the capital City of nigeria and should not be turned to a slum. He demostarted courage by pulling down "big Houses" this is the highpoint of his acheivement....Ride on EL-Rufai!

Posted by: Adesuyi Adeleke , on Friday, May 02, 2008
Sometimes I wonder why Nigerians are cynical. The likes of Smart Adeyemi, Sodangi and others even with those asking for the head of El Rufai need to examine themselves. Rufai may not be perfect just like any of us, but he is a workerholic and a very brave. The Abuja we all pride in today came to this level through his dogged effort. Yesterday we all were hailing him, today some of us are asking for his head, why? What convinces us that all we are hearing are not common blackmails?

Posted by: Kurgo Sherengbe Ayuba , on Friday, May 02, 2008
if they are in doubt, FCT office is still open, they should contest it. Just bcos they are used to doing things any how, they thought and believed everyone else does same thing. this has differentiated those that are trained and schoolled from those that are "cut and join". just imagine! Am sure the youths are learning.

Posted by: tari paul , on Thursday, May 01, 2008
Am very suprise at dave, amandi and sadick comments. el-rufai did what our senators, reps had not been able to do. the guy had facts and figures not cooked up. it was obvious he did is work diligently. off course he made some mistake but that is an ignorable percentage. Abj is a pride today, thanks to him. Obj govt. was not the best but it had some good. lets pride ourselves in the good and stop hunting everyone that was in the administration just bcos we have assessed it to be bad.

Posted by: tari paul , on Thursday, May 01, 2008
thumbs up for el Rufai - you are the man of the moment - all those Shodangi, smart - and co should go and hide their faces - trying to make emotional something that is a national issue. They should all be shot at - how did they win the elections in the first instance - riggers - El Rufai - God Bless you for giving us Abuja of our dreams.

Posted by: Olu Adegoke , on Thursday, May 01, 2008

I learnt the guy El Rufai made First Class in the University. He has really proved it with the way he answered those fools questions. What did they make in their own universitise.Stupid people, election riggers.They are all bad examples to the youth.

Posted by: joseph , on Thursday, May 01, 2008
elrufai the small but mighty man.sincerely speaking i wud give the former minister kudos for is brilliance.trough out that brobe he never accepted that he was wrong,instead the senators were now agreeing with him.imagine the court judgements matter,elrufai was insisting that it was never in his name.but he has 2 realize that he was incharge of the fct when the judgements were given,so he his responsible for all d floating of the court orders.i think d senators should prepare well for elrufai.

Posted by: mathias aliu , on Thursday, May 01, 2008
After all de noise making and roof raising, Senator Sodangi and im like, no fit nail de small baba El Rufai. Na de guy even come box dem up, so tay dem dey look for more time to recover to meet am again!. Meanwhile, thumbs down to Punch wey no gree gives enough info of dis 4 hours meeting while Thisday get de thumbs up today for dat.

Posted by: Okerhe O. , on Thursday, May 01, 2008
I think el-Rufai has done well,given the situation he found himself.one should not 4get our peculiar mode of doing things in Nigeria.he appeared b4 the committee n gave answers to allegations levelled against him,and frankly am impressed.All those against him,am sure given the same situation cannot do half of what he has done.i think he deserves commendation.well done nasiru

Posted by: basheer , on Thursday, May 01, 2008
I feel you, Chris. PUNCH is doing a hatchet job - leaving out the details of el rufai's defence and quoting him out of context. El rufai showed satellite images to prove that houses of anyim etc destroyed were on sewer lines. all the committee wanted him to do was to trick him into 'apologising' so that they can it can be splashed on the front pages of today's paper. Kudos to him, he was just too smart for them. For a full report, visit THISDAY: http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=110238

Posted by: saxotech , on Thursday, May 01, 2008
This man is a first class scholar and I don't expect any lesser performance from him.So much emotion ran within the committe members even before the man showed up.With his wisdom and broad knowledge,he will steal and you people will still be thanking him for a good and transparent performance.You just can't nail such a man and I'm not being suggestive either.

Posted by: Olumide Adegbesan,UK , on Thursday, May 01, 2008
I was opportuned to watch the live television broadcast in the UK of Mallam El-Rufai's response to the questions asked by the Senate FCT Probe Committee Members and was indeed very impressed with the way he honestly & eloquently answered them one after the other. As Nigeria is now a laughing stock in the international community because of bad leadership, unimaginable & pervasive corruption, greed & ineptitude, we need the likes of Dora Akinyuli, Ribadu, El-Rufai,to be in charge of our country.

Posted by: Dr.Francis Omohwo , on Thursday, May 01, 2008
The hearing has demonstrated legislators lack of knowledge of their functions, that is fact finding in order to amend existing rules or legislation.Their well paid assistants have not done deligent reseach to aid the senators in their questioning.They are too emotional and not logical in trying to find out the facts, maybe because they lack experience and also may have already compromised themslves.el Rufai is brillient and well prepared than most civil servants in Nigeria.Recogninse that.

Posted by: fon , on Thursday, May 01, 2008
petrol is stored recklessly whilst children are playing with fire in full glare of adults.lt ignites and all perish followed by wailing thats nigeria.when it comes to land issues i have one question,why can't all land be registered with the land registry and all disputes settled pior to registration.also the registry must to transparent would full access to the public for searches at mininum cost.that is not too much to ask neither is it brain surgery.this will cut down aiot of problems

Posted by: francisco okwesa , on Thursday, May 01, 2008
PUNCH is gradualy losing my respect based on their biased mode of writing.I am amazed that this is all they could make out of El-Rufai's testimony.When it was time to report the falsehood that was spread by the committe members & their accomplices,they reported them elaborately,but El-Rufai gave very well detailed responses yesterday to most of the allegations & they are just reporting what I don't know.It is not fair.Read the detailed report on THISDAY & and it would make sense.

Posted by: Chris Oke , on Thursday, May 01, 2008
NOW YOU HAVE HEARD HIM. WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT TO DO TO HIM? KILL HIM? FOR HIS COURAGE TO TRAVEL DOWN TO NIGERIA TO FACE MALICIOUS SODANGI AND HIS COHORTS, HE DESERVES A KUDO.HE IS A LEADER AND NOT POLITICAL A FRAUDSTER. AT LEAST, HE DID NOT RIG TO BECOME A MINISTER. SODANGIS, ARE YOU LISTENING?

Posted by: LATEEF KOLA ADEPOJU (UK) , on Thursday, May 01, 2008

I had always hold that believe that those going after him today are doing so, because the man has killed the existing “system” which favoured them than us. Has anyone ever ponder how come those they demolished their houses because they are illegal and obstruct the abuja master plan got the plot to build the houses in the first place?

Still on Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello

2008-04-29T10:53:00.003+01:00

I had wanted to blog on this matter long time ago, but choose to watch events as it unfolds. One would have thought that a Chairman of a House Committee who was SENT the sum of 10 million naira which she use officially to travel for a retreat in Ghana should be some case the EFCC will treat with kid gloves because the amount involved is a paltry sum compare to billions of dollars case file the EFCC has on its desk. However, small amount as it was, the truth is, the case deserve the seriousness of EFCC but not with huge publicity and tenacity it is presently giving it. But perhaps because the principal officer involved is the daughter of the former president. While watching the whole drama, and the rate at which the masses will ignite their anger on Iyabo, because she is the daughter of the former president who had seemingly inflicted a lots of hardship on the masses as most Nigerians would now think of Obsanjo, the candid opinion of this blogger is that, there are more pressing matter for EFCC to deal with than the Iyabo case because the money in questions was sent to her committee and it was collected by a member of the house and transfer to another member of the house, it was not directly paid into her account and the house confirm that the cash was use for a retreat in Ghana which is officially approved. Even if two members did not attend the retreat out of over ten then that does not make the trip illegal, those members may be indisposed during the trip period. It is also customary for all the Senate committees to source fund for travel overseas, and mostly provided by the ministries or parastatals under them, but Iyabo choose to use the money for a retreat not directly into her own pocket. There are cases of majority of the former governors who stole billions, none has been arrested or the cash collected back from them during this new regime. I am tempted to believe that Iyabo may be right that some people are using the EFCC to get back to her and that her life is in Danger, all these may be to get back to her father or to remove her as chairman of the health committee, which is a lucrative committee as most committee in the house. Some of the men in the house may even be jealous of her, as I know that most Nigerian men dont like to serve under a woman. This is more like another Ette saga, and to me, Iyabo seems to know how to deal with it, not only as a daughter of a former president, (a president who had stepped on powerful toes and those whose toes he had stepped on are ready to get back at him by any means), but also as a politician who knew her right and how to fight back no wonder she has gone to court. Let the court decides then.
Everyone blames Obasanjo for everything, even while he is no more in the office, all blames is still on his head, Nigerians are known to blame somebody for all their problems. Truth is Obasanjo has done his own, he had rule us the way he thinks he can rule us, let us put that behind us and move forward. Let posterity judge him, let us learn from his rule and move forward. People shouted more than this during the demise of IBB regime, nothing comes out of all the noise, we should learn to move forward.
Has anyone ponder how long this Vendetta in the name of probe will continue? Let Mr President suspend all these probes and campaign of calumny as a matter of urgency and begin a way forward. Experience in the past had shown that nothing tangible comes out of probes except the noise during the period of the probe, and to me, that is not what we want!

Testing the new Schedule Post Publishing by Blogger

2008-04-26T00:00:00.001+01:00

If you are reading this, this post was done by me on Thursday 11.10am Nigerian time, and I schedule it to publish 2 days later which is Saturday, when I wont be on the net to post.

This is testing the new service, I guess it works just fine then. If you are interested, read the original announcement or log in to dashboard to give it a trial. Happy post blogging!!!

My Third Eye

2008-04-24T09:01:00.002+01:00

I had that believe that I have sharp eyes, and this perhaps was because when I was young, I am amazed with the sharpness of my pair of eyes. But recently, things are not so well with my eyes that I had to visit the Doctor.
I couldnt believe myself, when I was given a pair of reading glasses. Now, I can read clearly especially small printed matter.

The Food Crisis
I felt jitters this morning when it occurred to me that food crisis may engulf this country if adequate care is not taken. Prices of food especially grains have gone high astronomically by 100%. Even, Thailand, where importation of rice is coming from mostly, have stop export in a bid to take care of impending world food crisis and planned ahead.
Nigeria leaders and politicians are busy on witch hunting of each other, scoring political cheap points in the name of probe that will never see the light of the day. Now is the time for them to work for huge amount of money they earn, by trying every possible ways to ameliorate this food crisis. Nigerians can afford to tolerate their excesses in the midst of lack of power, water, good roads, equipped hospital, but I doubt it, if they can adjust to food crisis. I hope they are thinking the way am thinking.

That El-Rufai Probe

2008-04-09T08:54:00.003+01:00

Hardliners sure dont have a place in politics in Nigeria. This notion come to light as a result of recent call for probe of El-Rufai tenure as Minister of FCT. I had not seen a public probe of a former Minister in the past, perhaps El-Rufais would be the first.
Mark it, I am not saying anyone is a saint and that El-Rufai is free from any mismanagement, but truth be told, I cotninue to ponder that the real reason behind the seeming probe is to get back at him especially on some powerful toes he had stepped on during his tenure.
I continue to ponder how some of this politicians want to ruin this country at all cost. My grouse is that, those house demolished by El-Rufai during his tenure were mostly acquire by "know me I know you syndrome", were it be some of us do know people in the government too, does that mean we would also be arranged to own plots of land and houses at the detriment of land own by the masses? Whilst I dont have sympathy for some big shots that their house were demolished because it does not comply with FCT master plan, because in the first instance, those land were gotten illegally, I however felt symphathy for some less big shots, and I am sure there are compensation for some of them.
Having said this, probe or no probe, this has reminded me that hardliners does not have a place in nigerian politics. For any hardliners who refused to dance to their tunes or compromise their stands, the results is what is happening now to El-Rufai. Probe is now the weapon used by politicians to come back at their opponents, and the House of Reps and Senate are sure using the weapon to their advantage. Ever ponder what the outcome of such probe would be other than to make noise as the case had always been in the past? Still Pondering.................

How Wonderfuel Weekend now?

2008-04-07T12:18:00.004+01:00

Yeah, How ya wonderfuel weekend be now? Not with the fuel scarcity biting hard now in the midst of plenty. Now our politicians are trying to stir the masses revolt again. Whilst the masses pretend as if nothing happen to all the problems this country has because of them, they still deem it fit to add to our problems.
Their shows of shame of probing immediate past government is not enough, as the masses watch with hatred, as if something drastic will happen to all the loud probe going on, they pursue personal vendetta in the name of probe to gain the masses sympathy, as if that is what will solve our problems in this country. Instead of them to continue working, and see what legacy they will also leave when it lasted, even though we all know they are also into amassing of wealth into their selfish pocket.
Now the fuel scarcity is back, and heaven knows when it will go off the streets in this country. The danger in the scarcity if it continue for a long time is that, some people in certain quarters are raking in millions daily, and if it continue like this, they wont want their sources of making millions to dry up, so sabotaging the government efforts is the next line of action, while the masses wanton in penury of fuel scarcity and unavailability of power. This country tired me jare.
So how weekend be? Ever ponder whether this kind of weekend will continue? I mean in the midst of fuel scarcity, God forbids, not again!!!

And she was conned (2)

2008-03-25T08:37:00.002+01:00

When I publish this in my blog, I experienced the handiwork of the con men first hand, until I read this in the papers this morning. Ever ponder why some people chose making money through sorrow, tears and blood? This thing tired me o.

If you are lazy in going to the second link, see full story in the comment

The State of our Football

2008-03-24T18:30:00.003+01:00

This video aptly capture the state of our football pitch. I was watching the Glo Premier League on Cable yesterday, and I cant but share this video which capture the state of our football to every concern lover of Nigeria football. As if the pitch scenarios was not enough, pay particular attention to the behaviour of the Centre Referee hesitating while punishing a player. Also pay attention to the commentator who also got it wrong that the player was eventually booked whereas he wasnt. This one minute thirty second movie say a lots about the state of our football. I just cant help pondering over this, perhaps you can ponder along with me.

Oshiomhole declared winner of Edo guber polls

2008-03-20T17:19:00.000+01:00

The Edo State Election Petitions Tribunal has declared the Action Congress (AC) governorship candidate, Adams Oshiomole, winner of the April 14, 2007 election in the state. Head of the tribunal, Justice Peter Umeadi who read the judgment ruled that Oshiomhole, who contested under the banner of the Action Congress won majority of the votes.Umeadi said that the Oshiomhole scored a total of 166, 577 votes to Osunbor's 129, 117. Osunbor's lead attorney, Dr. Alex Iziyon said his client will appeal the verdict. Oshiomhole had challenged the victory of Professor Oserheimen Osunbor at the Tribunal. Oshiomole is contesting the declaration of results in the two disputed councils of Akoko-Edo and Etsako Central after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Returning Officer for the state had said on air that there was no election there. The chairman of the tribunal, Justice Olabanji Orilonishe, retired from the Bench 24 days ago, after attaining the mandatory age of 65.A new chairman, Justice Peter Umeadi, who until then was a member, was appointed to head the election petitions tribunal.

Who Broke The Internet?

2008-03-12T13:39:00.003+01:00

You really want to know, then click this link

Canada smashes Nigerian scam ring

2008-03-11T17:55:00.000+01:00

According to Nigerian Guardian Newspaper, monitor this evening, The police in Toronto, Canada, announced on Monday that it had smashed a multi-million dollar international fraud ring linked to some Nigerians. In a statement obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the police said it recovered $5.5 million worth of counterfeit certified cheques and two million dollars worth of additional fraud documents to "numerous companies across Canada.'' The police revealed that the scam involved purchases of electronic devices that were placed in rental cars shipped to Nigeria and reported stolen in Canada by the man who rented them. The statement also said that after a three-month investigation, officers recovered 30 fake credit cards, 20 fraudulent driver's licences, a number of identity cards, passports, health cards and cherub books from across Canada. "The operation is global and police estimate that millions of dollars worth of equipment and vehicles have been shipped overseas already.''

Some figures that matters

2008-03-03T14:16:00.003+01:00

Do you know your Car Registration number off head? Why do I ask? Well, no reason in particular, but as the title goes, there are some little things that do matters. A friend recently ask me whether I know my car registration number off head, it was there and then that I now realise I do not know it off head, at least not all of it.
Truth is, if you are using a car for the first time, I mean if your car is the first one, chances are that you may know your Car Registration off head, because you will be fond of it, being the first time you are owning a car. But as time progresses, when you continue to change car, you lost interest in those numbers. Which is why some people mistook another person's car for theirs. How do you then identify your own car in pool of cars of the same type in the car park. The colour? or better still, the inner of the cars. Chances are that, they may be the same, this is where the registration come into play. A mere glance at the registration number can quickly assist you which is your car, but you may not notice that you did not actually know the number off head. Stress of work, little time to take notice could be reasons for such forgetfulness. If you dont know your own, how then can you know that of your wife?
This is just car registration number, what about your bank account numbers? That may be too far, how about your cell phone number? or that of your spouse? Some people had save their spouse phone number and does not need to punch the numbers several times, thereby not even knowing it off head.
Ever pause to ponder for once, and ask yourself some of these questions?

Financial Standard Website hacked.

2008-02-18T10:54:00.004+01:00

When I click on my news folder bookmarks this morning, where all major newspapers pages are bookmarked, I was surprised to see that Financial Standard Websites had been hacked. See the screenshot of the pages. This also is the first time of my seeing a hacked website. You always hear about these stuff, a website has been hacked and its landing page has been changed by the hacker. The screenshot clearly shows how it looks like when a website is hacked. What exactly is the benefit this hackers derived from hacking a website? Does that mean they have taken over the administrator of the website? I cant stop pondering over this

Revisiting the Past - Those Love Letters

2008-02-14T15:49:00.000+01:00

My dearest, sweetest, fondest, fantastic, extra-ordinary, paragon of
beauty,

I hope this letter meets you in a fabulous state of metabolism, if so doxology. My principal aim of writing this letter to you is to gravitate your mind towards a matter of global and universal importance, which has been troubling my soul. The matter is so important. Even as I am writing, my adrenaline is 100 per cent on the Richter scale, my temperature is rising, the wind vane of my mind is pointing North, South and East at the same time; the mirror in my eyes has only your divine image. Indeed when I sleep, you are the one in my medulla oblongata, and I dream about you. I went out to sea in my dream, and I saw you: surrounded by H2o and you in your majesty rose from the abdomen of the sea like Yemoja, the avatar of beauty. Oh, Lord be with us! We are thy servants.

As you can see, I am in a serious dilemma. And I want you to take my matter seriously. At this junction, what our Lord said on this matter is germane. He says we should ask, and we shall be given, we should seek and we will find, and that we should knock, and it will be opened unto us. I am this 30th day of the eighth month in the year of our Lord, Two thousand and Four, asking, seeking and knocking at your door. My prayer is that thou should open so that thy servant can enter. I want to wake up in the morning and see only your face.
I want you to be the only sugar in my tea, the only fly in my ointment, the butter on my bread, the grey matter of my system, the oxygen in my head, the planet of my universe, the wall clock of my room. The conveyor belt of my soul. I pray that you realise the gargantuan nature of my predicament. If you refuse, my life will be like tea without sugar, like a snail without shell, a Xmas goat without a horn; in fact I'd become an orphan. In fact I’d kill myself. What is life if I can't wake up in the morning and behold your face? You model of pulchritude, patiently created by God on a Friday morning before he went on a deserved holiday. Please, let me be your Romeo. Make me the Adam to your Eve. Shakespeare said it all: if music be the food of love, then let it play on. I want to emphasise, universally and responsibly, that you are love itself. You are the metaphor, oxymoron, thesis, antithesis, irony, gerund, conjunction and the adverb of love. At this juncture, let me also say that geography of your body is a permanent allelluyah. Not from your body, ammonia, urea and iodine- you are too beautiful for that, what I see in your body is milk and honey. At this juncture, brevity is the soul of wit. A stitch in time saves nine. Procrastination is the thief of time. An opportunity once lost can never be regained. Make hay while the sun shines. All that glitters is not gold. The journey of a thousand years begins with a step. What God has put together let no man put asunder. To be a man is not an easy task even if God's time is the best. But time waits for no one. A man without love is like a fish out of water. I know you are a sagacious girl. If you like the veracity of what I am saying, please reply and let me have it pronto. The mark at the bottom of this page is a kiss from me to you. I remain Your beloved, faithful, loyal, One and only admirer.

The Scandal of CAF Footballer of the year Award

2008-02-07T11:28:00.000+01:00

With recent allegations from Didier Drogba and recently confirmed by Fredric Kanoute, that a CAF officials did call them and warn them that if they did not appear at the ceremony, the award will not be given to them. The obvious is now known that, the award is not sometimes based on the performance of the players being given the award. The case of J J Okocha comes in minds in 2003 and 2004 respectively when the award goes to Samuel Eto'o. The truth is, the BBC footballer of the year award is more fair than the CAF award itself. Where BBC footballer of the year award were being chosen by the BBC listeners, the CAF award were being chosen by the Coach of the 53 affiliates FAs of the CAF. It goes on to show that, the CAF footballer of the year award is being imposed on us by just only 53 'supposed' football experts in Africa.
That reminds me, one would have thought that when Glo take over the sponsorship of the award, it will be more transpatent, but reverse is the case. By the way, what happens to the results of the CAF player of the year which the Glo network ask us to vote for? Does it mean, the 53 Coaches' chosen CAF player award supercedes that of the ones the Sponsorship company ask us to vote for?
Ever pause to ponder that, in future, the voting patterns should be modified as the award continues to generates controversy every year? Ever also pause to ponder what will happen to the credibility of the award if Kanoute decides to return the award because it is evident as if he did not merits the award since if he himself did not attend, it means the award will not be given to him?

NB: FEEDBACK
The CAF has come out later after the above was posted to confirmed on Thursday Didier Drogba's claim that he was stripped of the African Footballer of the Year award because he didn't show up to collect his title.

CAF had initially denied Drogba's revelation that a member of their organisation had phoned him to say if he didn't travel to Togo capital Lome his trophy would go to Fredi Kanoute.

So I pause to ponder again, what will happen if the three nominees refuse to attend the ceremony? Truth is, this arrangement will always belittle the award, and make the awardee feel as if he doesnt deserve the award. Think again CAF. So with the above CAF confirmation, who indeed is the CAF Footballer of the year awardee for 2007? Drogba or Kanoute? A quick answer, Drogba is the selected and merited Footballer of the year Award, while Kanoute is the decorated Footballer of the year award.

Bloggers on the Super Eagles performance at Ghana 2008

2008-02-04T15:47:00.000+01:00

Nigerian bloggers comments on the not so super eagles of Nigeria performance at Ghana 2008 is definitely not a no-comment approach. A note of disappointment is clearly seen from the write-ups. As far as I am concerned, the Super Eagles did not deserve to win Nigeria v. Ghana match, it will strongly be a total disappointment for our team to win against the host nation with our performance, as it will take a shine off the competition if the host were to be eliminated in the quarter finals especially with the eagles shoddy performance. Bloggers and Nigerians have come out to call for the sack of the coach berti vogts who cannot take the advantage of a sending off of a black stars player. The match ended Nigeria 1 Ghana 2
The "Super Fowls" as some Nigerians now call our Eagles or 'super chickens" as the Ghanaians fans now call them, while some one call in to condemn the 'slow motion' football our eagles play during the soccer fiesta.
The truth is, the blame on our shoddy performance is not on the coach alone, but should be on the administrators of our football, the players and of course the fans. I think a state of emergency should be declare on our football, disband the current team and let the current Golden eaglets metamorphose into the national team.
As the soccer fiesta continues, my solace lies on the performance of the Ivory Coast team who are delight to watch, my 100% is with them, especially when they did not allow us to be disgrace out of the group stage by beating the Mali team for us. Go for the gold, the Great Elephants!!! and Come back home disgraced super chicken.

Super Eagles Qualifications - Efficacy of Prayer or Miracle?

2008-01-30T10:16:00.001+01:00

It took a lot of things before the Super Eagles qualify for the next round in the African Cup of Nations. Like I earlier wrote on this blog, the Nigerian Streets roar into life again with the shouts of goals after 240 minutes of play by eagles in the nations cup.
Like the above topic suggests, it took a lot of things, before the Super Eagles were able to fly into quarter finals. It took the intervention of the Captain, Kanu Nwankwo to read riot acts to his players before the match and during the half time. It also took the efforts of the Captain to also shout instructions from the base line of the pitch before the eagles can fly, some football supporters are already asking him to take over the coaching of the super eagles, can you beat that? It also took the ingunuity of the the Elephants of Ivory Coast to beat the Eagles of Mali 3 goals to nil, before the eagles fly into the quater finals, the same Mali team the eagles cannot beat in their second group match.
It is either two things, the Eagles can consolidate yesterday's victory and go all the way to the final, or further show their wobble and fumbling in the next game against Ghana and pack their bags and baggages back to their various clubs. As far as I am concerned, I have written them off, considering their performance since the inception of the tournament.
Having said this, it goes on to show that, at least, the Super Eagles are not disgraced in the tournament, and that Mali truly deserves not to qualify to the quaterfinal because they score only one goal against Benin and it was eventually a penalty goal. Simply put, this set of Super Eagles had everything in them to fly, but they just simply refuse to be more committed, and if these goes on, I am not ready to bet on them.
Ever pause to ponder whether miracle or prayer is responsible for the Super Eagles qualifications into the next round of the competition?

When Nigerian Streets are still Silent

2008-01-28T11:12:00.001+01:00

Everyone in Nigeria know quite well that at this period when the African Cup of Nations is on, the Nigeria streets is always erupted with shouts of goals especially when our Soccer teams - The Super Eagles score goals. Those who are not aware that such soccer fiesta of that magnitude is on are jostled by such shouts, and it indeed adds glamour to the events.
However, in this year edition, reverse is the case, as the Nigerian streets still remain silent, two weeks into the events. Our soccer teams are yet to score a goal. We file out again tomorrow to face our neighbour - Benin republic and it is only a matter of time for us to know whether we are still participating in the event or not, most especially when our qualifications for the next round falls on Ivory Coast, whom we expect to help us beat Mali which we cannot do ourselves. Nigerians are good with permutations, they still expect to qualify when indeed Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast had said it openly that his wife came from Mali, even before Nigeria met Mali in that goaless draw. One would have concluded that, going by Drogba's utterances, his country's dilema is now made easier by Nigeria performance against Mali, as what they need to do is to play a draw since he said it earlier on that his wife hails from Mali and does not know what to do.
A friend of mine would never agreed that Eagles did not sold out their matches. He backed it up that, the betting syndicate that approach Benin Coach probably succeeded with either our own Coach or the Super Eagles as a whole because he cannot understand why the Eagles play without determination and as if nothing is at stake. That is football for you, football lovers do not take it lightly when their team did not perform.
Simply put, Nigeria is out of the competition, we should stop dreaming. What we however expect Eagles to do tomorrow is to score goals, as much as they can, that way, they will be saving their face and indeed the country a lot of agony of evictions at this early stage of the competitions. At least the Nigerians street will erupt in shout of G-O-A-L-S!!!!

Tell Jim to hold my Legs

2008-01-24T12:04:00.000+01:00

Kids sure do have a way of doing funny things as they grow up. My two and half year old son is simply cracking me up with his recent attitudes to taking drugs. Ever since infancy, he hates taking drugs, whether sweet or bitter. At a point, to make him see that drugs are sometimes so sweet, i happen to ask him to come and take his drugs, but ended up giving him honey, you wont believe it that he still ran away, despite the fact that i forced the honey into his mouth, his attitude shows that they are not sweet as he continue to throw out the remnant in his mouth. His dislike for taking drugs is simply alarming. His favourite however, is Bonababe while he was infants and recently; paracetamol tablets when dissolve in water.
That is not the real gist, that is just a preamble, the real issue that prompted the above topic was that, of recent, he was taken ill seriously, and there is the need that he just had to take his drugs, so we always have problem forcing him to take the drugs. One day, I told his mum that, there used to be a way kids of his age are forced to take drugs during our time. If you are yoruba, you will know what the term "Idagbale" means. Of course, it is away of forcing a kid to take liquids either food, herbs or syrups by laying him down across the lap, with the both hand tuck away, and someone holding his leg, you now have chance to put the liquids in your palm so that at the end he will have no option other than to swallow. Much as I hate this, we dont have alternative, because his ailments defy taking injections.
So on this occasion, it has now become ritual that we just have to force him to take those drugs in those ways. Kids. As time goes on, he is so accustomed to taking his drugs that way, that he himself will even request that he want to take his drugs. but when you encourage him to take it normally, he will refuse, but insist that he want to take his drugs. His Uncle staying with us, Jim, is always the one holding his legs. The funny aspect of it is that, the moment he indicate intention that he wants to take his drugs, he will follow the statement with, Mummy tell Jim to come and hold my leg, Where Uncle Jim is not around, he wont allow any other person to hold his leg, and so, he will not take his drugs. As if he is enjoying the way he is being forced to take the drug, he will then proceed to lie down across his mother's lap, and as soon as Jim hold his leg, he will start crying until he finish taking the drugs. After taking the drugs through this hard way, he will now come to me and report Jim to me, that he hold his leg. Kids!!! Arent they funny? Ever pause to ponder?

Year 2008 Checklist

2008-01-21T13:22:00.000+01:00

Yeah, the new year is running on by now, and the slangs of "happy new year" is dying down. A lot of people has also try to adapt to their new year resolutions, even though I dont keep any.
I hasten to awaken each and everyone conciousness however that as the new year is in, a lot of checklist in a form of awareness of the new date should be imbibed by everyone on the following.

1. Bear it in mind the date of the expiration of your vehicle particulars if you have one, since the new year has sets in, the tendency is that whether you like it or not, you must renew your vehicles particulars.

2. Bear in mind the expiration of drugs you will purchase. Since most drugs in 2007 bear the expiration of 2008, now is the time to start checking so that you wont end up buying and use expired drugs.

3. Bear in mind birthdays, anniversaries, weddings etc and if possible store important ones on your phone for a reminder. I wont want you to end up being castigated by loved ones for forgetting important dates.

What is more, this should serve as a guidance for other important dates you should remembered as the new year progresses.

When she.........

2008-01-14T10:49:00.000+01:00

When she walks away from you mad
[ Follow her ]

When she stare's at your mouth
[ Kiss her ]

When she pushes you or hit's you
[ Grab her and dont let go ]

When she start's cussing at you
[ Kiss her and tell her you love her ]

When she's quiet
[ Ask her whats wrong ]

When she ignore's you
[ Give her your attention ]

When she pull's away
[ Pull her back ]

When you see her at her worst
[ Tell her she's beautiful ]

When you see her start crying
[Just hold her and dont say a word ]

When you see her walking
[ Sneak up and hug her waist from behind ]

When she's scared
[ Protect her ]

When she lay's her head on your shoulder
[ Tilt her head up and kiss her ]

When she steal's your favorite hat
[ Let her keep it and sleep with it for a night]

When she tease's you
[ Tease her back and make her laugh ]

When she doesnt answer for a long time
[ reassure her that everything is okay ]

When she look's at you with doubt
[ Back yourself up ]

When she say's that she like's you
[ she really does more than you could understand ]

When she grab's at your hands
[ Hold her's and play with her fingers ]

When she bump's into you
[ bump into her back and make her laugh ]

When she tell's you a secret
[ keep it safe and untold ]

When she looks at you in your eyes
[ dont look away until she does ]

When she misses you
[ she's hurting inside ]

When you break her heart
[ the pain never really goes away ]

When she says its over
[ she still wants you to be hers ]

When she repost this bulletin
[ she wants you to read it ]

- Stay on the phone with her even if shes not saying anything.

- When she's mad hug her tight and don't let go

- When she says she's ok dont believe it, talk with her

- because 10 yrs later she'll remember you

- Call her at 12:00am on her birthday to tell her you love her

- Call her before you sleep and after you wake up

- Treat her like she's all that matters to you.

- Tease her and let her tease you back.

- Stay up all night with her when she's sick.

- Watch her favorite movie with her or her favorite show even if you think its stupid.

- Give her the world.

- Let her wear your clothes.

- When she's bored and sad, hang out with her.

- Let her know she's important.

- Kiss her in the pouring rain.

- When she runs up at you crying, the first thing you say is;
"Who's ass am I kicking babe?"

Very Blunt Denrele Edun of Soundcity

2008-01-06T18:30:00.000+01:00

I read this in the Daily Independent, and cannot but pause and ponder on some of the blunt answers by Denrele Edun. Like him or hate him, he sure make my day.

When you won Producer of the Year award at the Future Award some people protested that you were not a producer?

At the Future Award, I was nominated in two categories, Producer of the Year and On-air Personality of the Year. I wanted the on-air personality award but didn’t get it. The thing is I produced most of the programmes on Soundcity. When I started at Soundcity I wanted to be engaged in behind the scene work because everybody wanted to be on TV. If you mention the name Soundcity now, my name readily comes to mind. All the stuff that Pasuma, Sound Sultan, Stella and Co. did were my work. All Soundcity endorsements were courtesy me. I even developed concept of some of the programmes and wrote scripts for most of them. I’ve been producing Star Host from 2005.

When did your crazy stunt begin?

It was when I started modelling. I’ve been in entertainment for a while but when I started modelling a lot of things changed. I started with House of Kesse Jabari and at that point I was the smallest and skinniest. I didn’t even have the criteria to be a runway model but Kesse Jabari must have seen something in me. I needed to make an impression so I started cutting my jeans and combing my hair. Then I couldn’t do my hair like this I had to be packing them because I was too shy. When I started my family, especially my grandma, almost ran mad. It was modelling that started the crazy stunt.

Who makes your clothes?

When I was a model I made my clothes but now there is no time. Abbey Stitches is making them for me now.

It is said that all sort of women want to have a taste of you.

There are too many women for me to handle. In just two weeks I have had over 900 texts from women. Right now I’m not in any relationship and I’m enjoying the attention. There are too many girls running after me and even men have started running after me.

What do you do about them?

I’m very focussed; I can count the number of girls I’ve slept with. I can handle that aspect of my life well. Of course some situations have gotten out of hand; there was one girl that printed wedding invitations that she and I were getting married. It was a big issue.

When I’m dating somebody I concentrate fully on that person. I am a one-way traffic person. Don’t also forget that you can’t have it all, the girls you like will not like you and the ones you don’t will.

Is handling them also getting down with them?

No. I know how to handle them in such a way that I won’t put them in a position that will make them feel inferior or dejected. I just lead them on knowing that they will leave me when they are tired. But there are some that will put you in a tight corner.

When they put you in a tight corner what do you do?

Well, it depends on the person in question; if she is worth it we will unzip everything.

Would you have gotten this far without Soundcity?

Before Soundcity I’ve been doing something; I was teaching at that time. Then, I had to cut my hair short, I was still struggling with modelling and other things. Soundcity helped tremendously; I’ve been recognised for something. The station has helped to project the Denrele brand.

What was the transition like from stage acting and modelling to presenting?

I had to draw a line between acting and presenting. When we were doing our training, I was always acting too much. Even now, there are so many things distracting me when I’m presenting.

There was a time you guys were suspended from the station; you were the last person to return then. What happened?

I really don’t know why we were suspended, the allegation was that we came late to the venue of our Soundcity Blast. We were in the hotel and I was on the red carpet for three hours. When we got the suspension it was a blessing as I had the time to do the things I wanted to do. When everybody was recalled I did not feel like going back because I had issues with my boss. We used to fight a lot. Then, I got endorsement for Power Fist and was with D’Banj going from one campus to the other. I did Who Wants to be a Millionaire and launched Deola Sagoe’s new line. So I was not jobless. I felt I’m not done with the station yet, because I am not working for Tajudeen Adepetu, I’m working for the brand, Soundcity. I am happy I am back now and I plan to be there for a long time.

What has been the biggest challenge?

Nobody wants to know when you are going through a trying moment. Everybody wants to be around you and wants you at their event.

During your days at the University of Lagos, did you know you will get this far?

I knew, I just did not know how.

Where is your mum now?

She is in Dublin and I’ve not seen her since 2002. She is a wonderful and a strong woman even when my father was out of a job, she stood by us, and you know she is Indian.

So many things have been said about you; one of them is that you are a gay.

I love controversy; people can say whatever they want to say. When I was much younger I used to feel bad but now I don’t care. I am not gay and don’t care what people say. The only aspect I don’t like is the fact that some gay people call me thinking I’m for real. And they are big guys. At a time when I did not have a car, I had about 10 different offers from such men.

So, you’ve never been with a man?

Yes, and I’m serious. If you don’t believe me you can check my bum; it is still the way I was born.

When was the first time you had sex?

I think when I was in SSS 1. It was late, I was very young and had not fully matured. It was quick and short.

Where did you do it?

In my granny’s house and my mother caught me the second time.

You said you are a one-way traffic person, tell me about that.

Yes, I just concentrate on that person but once in a while we all experiment.

How often do you experiment?

It’s not often.

I learnt there was a time Cossy Orjiakor invited you to her house?

How did you hear that? She did but I did not make it down.

Why?

She is too much for me to handle. She has a lovely and sexy figure, eye popping and breath taking breasts, she is every man’s dream but I prefer my women slim, with long legs.

When will you get married?

I am not thinking of it, I am just 24; it is the last thing on my mind now.

Who would you like to sleep with that you have not?

I’m going to mention her name even though her boyfriend is my friend, Ify Yolanda Jones. I think she is sexy. And Isioma Oyebo who went in for Nokia Face of Africa. I always tell the two that if their boyfriends are tired of them they can come to me.

Do women offer you sex or you ask for it?

I don’t need to ask, it happens in a magical way for me. But the ones that ask I usually run away from. There is this one that says "you are using your ‘prick’ to do shakara for me abi" .

New Year Greetings

2008-01-03T11:04:00.000+01:00

Here below are some of the new year greetings I received either from my email box or phone SMS.

"Welcome to the next level of success, upliftment, joy, peace, victories and abundant blessings. Happy New and prosperrous New Year 2008"

"In this new year God will remember you like Noah, favour you like Joseph, honour you like Mary, fight for you like Israelites and prosper you like Abraham. You will be highly favoured. Happy New Year".

"I hope you saw my friend, He is in town. I gave him your house number. He is God, ur family doctor and Pilot for 2008. HAPPY NEW YEAR".

"With ease the sun shines, the moon glows, the bird flies, the fish swim, as from now you and your family will enjoy every aspect of your life with ease. Wishing you a prosperous New Year".

"I wish you a very happy and prosperous new year filled with God's abundant blessings and your heart's desire for 2008 and beyond".

"Eid, Xmas abd the New year rolled in one in a season of hope. May the true essence and full benefit of this season be your portion as you draw from God's fountain of peace, joy health and prosperity. BARKA DA SALLAH, MERRY XMAS AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR 2008".

While also wishing you all the same as above, I also wish you in customary of this blog, which is the way I am used to wishing my readers.

Wishing all bloggers 12 months of Happiness, 52 weeks of fun, 365 days of laughter, 8,760 hours of GoodLuck, 525,600 minutes of Joy and 31,536,000 seconds of success. Happy new year

Pause to Ponder as we say Bye to 2007

2007-12-31T15:20:00.000+01:00

Ever pause to ponder that this year starts with MONDAY and ends also on MONDAY. This year has got highest number of SUNDAYS and SATURDAYS - 104 Saturdays & Sundays.

Ever also ponder that public holidays that falls into these working days. i.e Christmas - 2 days, Eid-el-Fitr - 2 days, Eid-el-Kabir - 2 days, Moulid Nabiy, Independent, Workers day, democracy day and new year day all 1 day each makes 15 days of public holidays. Therefore, 104 + 15 = 115 free working days. This left the number of working days left in the year 2007 to just 250 days. Na wah o!

Ever pause to ponder what others are doing when the new year clocks in? Well, while others would prefer to remain in the Church praying, others prefer to be at the night clubs.

Ever Pause to ponder which country celebrates the new year first? Russia and New Zealand on the east side of Asia are the first to greet the New Year.

Ever pause to ponder why people tends to start making new year resolutions at this time, but rarely keep the resolutions?

Ever ponder that this is the last post for this blogger for year 2007 and I am using this opportunity to thank all my readers for stopping by during the year.

Adios 2007!

Are you an Arsenal Fans? Enjoy this

2007-12-28T16:43:00.000+01:00

If you are an Arsenal fans, then you must know the great rivalry between Arsenal and Totenham Hotspurs so much that, Spurs has not beaten Arsenal under the reign of Martin Jol as Totenham Manager. That said, it given rise to the following vides. You may have seen this before, if you have not, enjoy it, if you have, why not see it again. Please note that Benayoun is an Israeli, Hitler hates the Israelis, this tip will guide you in enjoying the joke the more.

Enjoy this as a parting gift for the last weekend of 2007.

and this

Nuhu Ribadu - A Blogger's Views

2007-12-28T12:11:00.000+01:00

This news sadden me today so much that I cant stop thinking where this country is going. First, the IG confirm that the Chairman of EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu is proceeding on a year course at NIPSS at Kuru near Jos. It is not even an overseas course to broaden his fight on corruption, but a mere strategic course here in Nigeria. The truth is the moment he proceeds on that course, two things are bounds to happen - the EFCC would be merged with other corruption fighting bodies or better still, he may be re-assign by the time he completed the course.
What is quite clear that the government does not want the public to believe is that, Nuhu Ribadu had been removed as EFCC chairman. Much as there had been no different in the leadership of the current FCT Minister as against what his predecessor in office in El-Rufai did in office, so shall it be if Nuhu ribadu is replaced by a seeming stooge who is ready to dance to the tune of the politicians.
I continue to ask myself whether the course he is to attend is more important than the job he is currently doing. If the training is important, I dont see the reason where he cannot be allow to do on-the-job training. The government should stop playing on our psyche, they should simply tell the world that he was simply sacked.
By the way, what will happen if Ribadu simply resigned from the force, whereby he wont have to proceed on any Police organized course? Would he still retain his portfolio as EFCC Chairman? The answer is Yes, but it wont take long before he will also be force to resign or remove unceremoniously. In my own view, I still find it deem fit for him to resign from the Police Force, I am sure he wont lose at the end of the day, as there will be a lot of International appointment waiting for him. The guy has create a niche for himself. In any case, we await further development on the matter, especially the reactions of our Law makers on this scenarios, since it was them the EFCC Chairman was reporting to.

Seasons Greetings

2007-12-27T10:42:00.000+01:00

Wishing you all a belated Barka de Sallah, and a belated Barka de Christmas and Wishing all my readers Happy New Year in advance.

Alhassan Bangura's Story

2007-12-21T12:58:00.001+01:00

Alhassan Bangura is a footballer with Watford Football club in England, he came to England at the age of 15 as an asylum seeker. Now that he is 19, and old enough, the british home office thinks he is mature enough to return back to his country. There had been 5,000 signature petition and appeal of rulings, and in the end, Al Bangura case is still on, but with a concession that he can apply for a work permit.
Read more from this blog about Bangura full story.

What baffles this blogger is the reason he adduced to his inability to return back to his country. This blogger ponder whether such babaric culture still exist in Africa. With this scenarios, will Bangura ever play for his native country - Sierraleone?

When to keep a distance

2007-12-18T10:55:00.000+01:00

My best friend that recently got married is facing a hell of a time of marriage life. Each time we spoke, it is one counselling or the other. Some people sure dont know how to take care of the home front, especially on the right of each partners on every matter affecting the couple, and this immensely contributed to my friend marriage imbroglio.
There is no clear trust and respect for the bride on the part of the groom, while the bride feel insecure from this incessant occurrences on the part of the groom, which makes her feeling home sick and misses everybody that matters most in her life. Not to be at the centre of a young marriage problems, I guess I have to stop taking the call of my friend if it relates to matter affecting their marriage, as it is beginning to take stock on this blogger especially when he is already being put at the centre of some of their controversy.
I guess readers of this blog should take a cue from my experience, it is only wiser to maintain a respectable distance of giving advice to couples at certain stage, and I want to believe that now is the best time as far as my friend marriage is concerned.

EFCC Arrest Ex-Governor Fayose

2007-12-14T17:28:00.000+01:00

Former Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayo Fayose has been arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Sources told P.M.News this afternoon that he was picked up today by the EFCC operatives who will keep him in their custody throughout this weekend until next week Monday when he will be flown from Lagos to Kaduna for trial.

Sources at the EFCC further revealed that Fayose is to face trial over alleged corruption.

It was gathered that after his arrest, the Ekiti State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) had requested that the EFCC release Fayose to answer charges for alleged murder but the EFCC turned down the request, insisting that the former governor won’t be released until he is charged to the Federal High Court in Kaduna next week.

An Ekiti High Court judge had ruled that Fayose could not be arraigned but since that order has been vacated, the former governor will now face trial over the allegation of murder levelled against him after EFCC is through with him.

Fayose had returned to Ekiti last week after almost a year of being in self exile and announced that he was ready to be quizzed by EFCC regarding the allegations levelled against him over corrupt enrichment while in office.

It was as a result of the allegations that he was impeached by the State House of Assembly late last year and he immediately disappeared to avoid being arrested by EFCC.

CUULED FROM the news

Fayose's return - What next?

2007-12-05T16:16:00.000+01:00

It was given a wide publicity yesterday when the impeached former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose make a seeming triumphant entry into Ekiti State. The way and manner he arrived, certainly shows that it was a bold entry. His address to his supporters put a credence to this, when he stand on the podium to address them.
This blogger has since his returned pause to ponder where exactly he hide himself for the period of his absence knowing fully well that he might be arrested. Now that he had shown himself, since yesterday, there was no news of his arrest, does it mean there is no tag on him for arrest during the period he ran away? Was it that, those who promise to deal with him after impeachment had relaxed, and that explained why he surfaced triumphantly?
I think that it is only a matter of time before the Police will pick him up, or better still, the EFCC might also invite him for a chat. There are some matter pending against Fayose before he took a french leave. The poulty project matter is still pending. There is also a case of murder hanging on his neck. We awaits future developments.

The Pretenders (1)

2007-11-27T14:23:00.001+01:00

Apart from corruption which has eaten deep into conscience of Naijas, Pretending is another vices well noticed by this blogger but hardly noticed by most Nigerians.
From the top, I can count the number of pretenders on the part of our leaders who pretended not to want the coveted seat of leadership as President, whereas they are scheming underground to realise their ambitions. The irony however, is that it is always those who pretends not to crave for it that ended up getting the job. Of recent example, while the Odilis and co. were busy touring the country lobbying for the mission to succeed the OBJ, the present President hardly consults wide enough, and he ended up getting the job. Same story with the past President.
Now to the issue of nudity, sex and pornography, Naija people are known for their pretences that such should be discouraged. They achieved this pretences by making it loud and clear that no obscenity should appear on our local TV stations. That probably give room for inquisitiveness, as a lot of people are known to imbibe the habit of watching the pornography movies. A visit to those selling pirated CDs and DVDs will butress this point. A recent interactions with a vendor of this pirated CDs and DVDs revealed that the pornography CDs and DVDs sell like hot cakes. Now what would have happen to their market if such obscenity is permitted on local TVs?.
In the last Big Brother Africa, if Mnet were to release the figure of Nigeria women that seek to participate in the event, I am sure the figure will be alarming, despite the fact that they known there is going to be shower hour on the reality show which will make them revealed their nakedness. One would also be amazed to known the number of parents who does not care whether their daughter participated in such an event.
Having said this however, this blogger continue to ponder why we pretends that all is well, while in actual fact, we all know it is a mere pretences. As long corruption can never be nip in the bud, pornography too can never be nip in the bud. Government probably know they cant control the racketeering surrounding pornography, no wonder the only fight they can muster is to pretend to us all that Nigerian prefer not to publicise owning to love watching pornography.
Visit any of Nigerian forum and you will be amazed with the rate at which Nigerian pretends in their views and opinions. When an issue that is very common in our daily life crop up for discussion, Nigerians are quick to condemn such acts while in actual facts, that is exact replica of what is happening in their lives. I guess Pretending is entrenched on our psyche right here in Africa.
Look, I gotta go, I must however confess that, if anyone read this piece and hiss or believed it is another figment of my imagination as regard the points raised, I guess the bug of pretending also reign supreme in your life. How sad!!!

This is cool - So who was driving?

2007-11-20T11:44:00.002+01:00

I got this in my mail box. It is cool though.

One night Jack Evans, along with his 3 university friends went out drinking till late night, as many college students are prone to do, and didn't study for their test, which, of course, was scheduled for the next day. In the morning they thought of a plan. They made themselves look as dirty and weird as they could with grease and dirt. They went up to the dean and explained that they had gone out to a wedding last night and on their return the tire of their car burst. They continued to explain how they had to push the car all the way back and that they were in no condition to appear for the test. The dean, being a compassionate human being said that they could take the test after 3 days. The students graciously replied that they'd be ready by that time.
On the third day, they appeared before the dean. The dean explained that since this was a special test all four were required to sit in separate classrooms for the duration of the exam. They all agreed as they had prepared well in the last three days. The test consisted of 5 questions with total of 100 points: MID SEMESTER COURSE WORK EXAMINATION INSTRUCTIONS : All questions are required. Any inconsistencies on any of the questions among the four students will result in all the candidates getting a zero mark.
Q.1. Write down your name. ----- (2 POINTS)
Q.2. Write the name of the bride and bridegroom at the wedding you attended. ----- (30 POINTS)
Q.3. What type of a car were you driving? ------(20 POINTS)
Q.4. Which tire burst? ------- (28 POINTS)
Q.5. Who was driving? ------ (20 POINTS)

2 years....... Still very much in mind.

2007-11-17T16:17:00.000+01:00

The incident of 2 years ago today, is still very much in my mind. A day hardly pass without thinking about the incident. May the lord continue to forgive your sins. Rest in perfect peace my son. I missed you very much in my life. Adieu.

Read this Picture

2007-11-15T14:52:00.001+01:00

HAZARDOUS - Emissions From Cell Phones and Base Stations

2007-11-13T11:44:00.000+01:00

Fear of uncertainty still envelopes users of cell phones as to whether radioactive emissions from cell phones really endanger their health.

Several unconfirmed reports from local and international research have put confusion in the minds of users, as some reports suggest that emission from cell phones and base stations could cause health risk such as dizziness, headaches, cancer, brain tumor, hearing defect, among others. But some research reports suggest otherwise, claiming that the amount of emission from cell phones and telecommunication base stations are too small to cause health risk in humans.

The cloud of confusion was, however, cleared at the weekend in Lagos, where the National Association of Telecommunication Subscribers (NATCOMS) held a one-day seminar on "radiation health risks associated with the use of mobile phones."

National President of NATCOMS, Mr. Deolu Ogunbanjo, said in his opening remarks that the seminar was organised to clear the confusion about the perceived health risk associated with emissions from cell phones. According to him, the seminar was not meant to raise fears, but aimed at enlightening Nigerians and cell phone users on the need to play safe, while communicating with cell phones.

The seminar was attended by officials from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), telecom operators, and radiation emission researchers, and cell phone users.

Presenting a paper at the seminar, Dr. Moses Aweda, research medical physicist of the Department of Radiation Biology and Radiotherapy, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, described cell phone communication as voice transmission from the antenna in form of radiofrequency radiation. He insisted that continuous use of cell phones could pose health risk to users.

According to him, frequency of cell phone radiation is between 800 and 1,990 mhz, and that the human brains may absorb up to 60 per cent of the radiation energy.

He explained that much microwave or cell phone radiation exposures could adversely affect health. Radiation, he said, is electromagnetic and consists of waves of electric and magnetic energy moving together through space at the speed of light.

"We live in a world of radiation and we are exposed to both natural and man-made radiations," he said.

According to him, Nigerians are exposed to all forms of radiations such as ultraviolet light from the sun and radio waves from radio and television broadcasts, and that the effects of cell phone radiation may be immediate or delayed. Some tissues are highly radiosensitive and each tissue has its own risk factor, he said.

Aweda advised cell phone users to spend the minimum possible time on phones even when the call is justified.

When people are not making calls, they should be able to keep the set at the farthest possible distance from the body, he said, insisting that the use of headset hand free is highly recommended, as well as other devices that reduce the power of emission reaching the body.

He, however, said that a cell phone user's level of exposure to radiation depends on several factors which include amount of cell phone traffic, quality of the transmission, how far the antenna is extended, size of the handset, among other factors.

He called on cell phone users to consider using cell phones with low power rating and ensure that they do not use cell phones with power rating higher than the national/international standard limits

Another researcher, Dr. O.B. Eletu, an associate professor of Radiation Oncology, who presented a paper on the effect of cell phone radiation on youths and children, explained that the widespread use of mobile phones is a recent phenomenon and that the use of cell phones and related technologies will continue to increase for the foreseeable future

Wireless devices such as cell phones, utilise radio waves (radiofrequency or electromagnetic fields) to transmit information, adding that reports have suggested that cell phones radiation may impact on children’s health.

Although he said the use of cell phone is important to man, he stressed that a mobile phone provides an "emotional and functional prop" for children as well increased vulnerability of preadolescent children.

According to Eletu, pre-adolescent children can be expected to be (potentially) more at risk than are adults for the following reasons:

Absorption of microwaves of the frequency used in cell phones is greater in an object about the size of a child’s head - the so-called head resonance – than in an adult’s. Smaller skull of a child allows more penetration of the radiation into the brain than in an adult. The developing nervous system and associated brain-wave activity in a child are more vulnerable to the pulses of microwaves used in GSM than in a mature adult

The increased mitotic activity in the cells of developing children makes them more susceptible to genetic damage.

He said in Oct 2004, a Swedish research concluded that those who used mobiles for 10 years were almost twice as likely to develop an acoustic neuroma - a tumor on a nerve connecting the ear to the brain and that in Jan 2005. He advised parents not to allow children under nine to use mobiles because of potential but unproven risks.

However, in December 2006, a Danish study of people with brain tumors concluded there were no increased risks for heavy users.

Apart from cell phones, there have also been conflicting reports that emissions from base stations can pose risk to human health.

Celtel, however, said it holds tenaciously, the company’s electromagnetic emissions compliance policy.

According to mobile operator, the objective of the Celtel electromagnetic emissions policy is to ensure that the general public is, at all times, exposed to safe levels of the radio frequency fields known to emanate from its base stations. It further explained that in line with the position taken by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on what constitutes safe radio frequency exposure, Celtel shall at all times adhere to the International Commission on Non-ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) public exposure guidelines.

Culled from Independent Newspapers

Big Brother Africa II - Where Immoral triumphs over Moral

2007-11-12T11:21:00.001+01:00

The Big Brother Africa II reality show ended yesterday, and as was expected and unexpected, the Tanzania candidate, Richard won by a slight margin. He beat the Nigerian contestant Ofunneka to the 100,000 dollars prize.

The outcome of the results clearly shows that Immorality triumphs over Morality. Richard it was, that is very popular with the reality show for his glaring immoral and uncare attitude while the shows lasted. His love escapdes with the Angolan contestant Tatiana is well known to the followership of the reality show. One would have thought that, following the patterns of voting from the beginning of the show, where those who throw immoral to the wind ended up being evicted, Ofunneka who is more decent and represent a true African Women with her disposition, character and conduct, should have won the prize, but, it was Richard, who epitomises all the names calling that has the face of immorality that won the prize.
My candid opinion however is that, it wasn't Richard character or his popularity that earn him the prize, but his supporters did the outside job for him. This is possible because of the voting patterns adopted by the Big Brother. All participating country represent one vote each, while the rest of Africa represent one vote. In all, there is a total number of 13 votes, since there are 12 countries participating. A look at the voting pattern of the grand finale clearly shows that the southern African countries voted in favour of Richard, and I hasten to add that, it wasnt because of his popularity, but because of the background work of Richard's supporters. His supporters resides in countries in the Southern Africa i.e Tanzania, it is easier for them to garner supports for him by travelling to the participaing southern african countries, buy phone credit, and vote massively for Richard in each of the countries.
As far as I am concerned, if the rest of Africa were unbundled, to represent various number of votes, Ofunneka would have beaten him to it. To buttress my point, if Richard indeed won because he "entertained" us with his immoral performances as his supporters would want us to believed, how come his co-adjutor in the immoral acts i.e Tatiana ended up with only one vote from her own country, Angola. The fact that Ofunneka captured the "rest of Africa" vote means that, she won the heart of African people who truly appreciates moral values.
From the outcome of the grand finale, it clearly shows that there is no any single lesson from this Big Brother Africa, It means it promotes immoral values, encourages and rubber stamped adultery as seen with the way Richard who suppose to exhibit great caution being a married man, throw caution to the wind and had sex during his sojourn in the house. The only losers amongst them is the Angola contestants, who was seemingly used by Richard and ended up with only one vote and of course may lose Richard to his wife, and probably lose (Gustavo) her boyfriend too. To those who believed the lady in this picture is Ricki, Richard's wife, she is not, she is Linda, Richard's sister.
There is also Richard wife's antecedents while the show lasted. At a time she open a blog in the name of her husband where she updates Richard fans. But as soon as Richard started having immoral acts with one of the housemates, she withdrew from the blog, but later issue a statement towards the end telling whoever care to listen that she intend to open up as at when due to the media. Now that Richard is a rich man, and Tatiana has confirmed to the whole world that she and Richard will hook up and continue if their both lovers abandoned them, the BBA II continues. This blog will keep you posted.
I hasten to add however, that this blogger and his entire household do solemnly declare henceforth not to watch or participate in the programme again.
Those who were greatly dissappointed with the outcome of the grand finale are beginning to wonder whether Ofunneka would go ahead and sue the organiser of the reality show for the ugly incident that involved her and the eventual winner Richard during the show. Ofunneka sure did her best, and it should rest on the conscience of those who know what true moral values are to mourn her loss of the prize money. Truth is, she did earn a much more coveted prize than the 100,000 dollars - a true African Woman whose moral values will be well respected and cherished by all African, as seen with the way the rest of Africa voted for her.

BBA II - Would Ofunneka follow the footsteps of Cherise?

2007-11-09T16:52:00.000+01:00

After 98 days of intense maneuvering and backbiting among housemates, the curtain finally falls this weekend on the M-Net Big Brother 2 Television Reality show. Without a doubt, the big question on the lips of every BBA fan in the continent is, who among the trio of Nigeria’s Ofunneka, Angola’s Tatiana and Tanzania’s Richard, will clinch the coveted $100,000 or N12.6 million on offer this Sunday?
I am not good at predictions, but sometimes, I do predict silently to myself which most times come into pass. I remember, I had supported Katung during the BBN, and he won gallantly. As for this BBA 2, my support is with Ofunneka, the Nigeria contestant in the house. Each day I think about how the voting will look like, I ended up finding it difficult to believe that she wont win. All the aces are on her side. But if recent text messages by Richard fans which are being shown on the screen, is anything to go by, I am beginning to have jitters. However, the contest is certainly between Ofunneka and Richard. I have to say it with all sense of modesty however, that I believe that Ofunneka will win and join the Cherise the winner of BBA first edition. If Ofunneka wins, it will be the second time in the running that female would win the Big Brother Africa.
Most of the evicted housemates has come out to say that Ofunneka would win, One of them even said it recently that she is the only housemates who had stick to her game plan since the beginning of the show.
What is more, something keeps telling me that Ofunneka would win comes this Sunday. Best of luck Ofune-Mama.

HAZARDOUS - Liverpool Fan Kills Arsenal Supporter

2007-11-01T10:17:00.001+01:00

This should be the third or fourth time this is happening in Nigeria. That is of course those that were reported. The hazards of supporting English premier League has claimed another victim. This was reported in the news newspapers yesterday. I had also reported 2 of such incidence in another blog operated by myself but now merged with this one, where a Bolton fan also stabbed an Arsenal fan in the last year Carling Cup. Is this madness not getting too much?

Here is the story.

A 28-year-old fan of Arsenal FC of England, Mr. Femi Ajibola, has been stabbed to death by a Liverpool FC supporter. P.M.News learnt today that the incident took place at Afijuomo area of Mile 12, Lagos, after the 1-1 draw between the two teams last Sunday.

Sources at the scene of the incident told P.M.News learnt that the suspect, Mr. Wahebi, a fan of Liverpool FC, engaged Mr. Ajibola, an Arsenal fan, in an argument over which club is superior.

“The heated argument led to a fight but the intervention of neighbours and other fans, brought the situation under control. Ajibola and Wahebi thus went their separate ways,” he said.

It was learnt that not satisfied, Wahebi went to his house, picked up a knife and went to Ajibola’s house where another fight ensued and Wahebi stabbed Ajibola.

Ajibola, P.M.News learnt, was taken to Ikeja General Hospital but he died on the way due to excessive bleeding.

It was further gathered that after Wahebi learnt of Ajibola’s death, he fled the area along with his entire family.

When P.M.News visited Wahebi’s house this morning at 20, Afijuomo street, Mile 12, the two storey building where over six families lived before the incident was completely deserted.

P.M.News learnt that tenants and Wahebi’s family fled for fear of being arrested by policemen from Ketu who are investigating the murder.

It was gathered that after the incident, the youths in the area attempted to burn Wahebi’s house but were advised by the elders in the area not to take laws in their hands.

The atmosphere in the area this morning was still tense days after the incident happened.

A Governor by Supreme Court not by the People

2007-10-26T09:32:00.000+01:00

I blog about the sacking of Governor Omeiha in my blog yesterday in a hurry and quickly wondered aloud how it is possible to install Amaechi as the Governor without contesting an election.
This makes him the first Governor in Nigeria who did not stand before the electorates before becoming a Governor. I still find it very hard to believe that someone who did not stand for an election, did not campaign for an election, present a manifesto for an election, did not even tell the people his programme of action if elected is now a Governor - What a judgment!
Perhaps, it is only in Nigeria that we now have a Governor who was not duly elected by the electorates. By the way, I hail from Kwara State, Nigeria and I have no support for either Celestine Omeiha or Rotimi Amaechi.

What is more, the man that was now installed as Governor has been expelled from PDP along with Ararume in the wake of 2007 Governorship election. The Supreme Court is even silent on whether he should be re-instated into PDP or not. Now that he is not a member of PDP, on which manifesto platform would he based his government administration?

The matter of his deputy is also there. Who is going to be his deputy? the incumbent deputy or he will be choosing his own deputy. How about the control of the state assembly? For how long will he be in the stewardship as Governor before the PDP controlled State Assembly impeach him.

Whatever the travails of Amaechi regime as the Supreme Court installed Governor, I suggest he should not be pity, such is what is applicable to those that use the back door to be Governor without being elected by the electorates who in the first instance has the right to elect a Governor to rule over them.

With this judgment, a precedent is set again in Nigeria. Once there is a problem during the party primaries, an aggrieved contestant can win an election without facing the electorates if he/she goes to court. This will greatly be capitalized upon by the ruling party, once it is sure that the candidates it was trying to field would not win an election if he/she is made to face the electorates, they can simply cook up some hankypanky similar to that of Rotimi Amaechi and thereafter seek legal redress citing the Sujpreme court judgment that single handedly handed the Governorship to Amaechi. I hasten to state it once again that from my own layman point of view, this judgment is flaw with error.

S'Court sacks Omehia, okays Amaechi as Rivers gov

2007-10-25T17:12:00.000+01:00

The Supreme Court on Thursday removed from office Mr. Celestine Omehia as governor of Rivers State. In his stead, the court's seven Justices that sat over the suit unanimously ruled that the former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, should be sworn-in immediately as the governor of the state. The judgement was read by Justice Katsina-Alu Amaechi, who won the state governorship primaries of the Peoples Demoratic Party (PDP) last December but was later substituted with Omehia by the ruling party, had gone to both the Federal High Court annd Court of Appeal but failed in both bids to restore his mandate. Amaechi again headed for the Supreme Court to appeal the verdict of the appellant court.

Now from a layman point of view, isnt this judgement by supreme court full of flaw? For God's sake the people of Rivers State voted for a candidate in Omehia and not PDP, so I dont see why Amaechi should be the Governor without contesting an election. Methinks, a re-election should have been ordered. Pause and ponder over this!!!

Still on Big Brother Africa II

2007-10-22T10:34:00.000+01:00

I just need to say this that most Africans are pretenders when it come to the matter of morality. Take the case of Big Brother Africa II for instance, they are the one to quickly condemn the shower hour and also the first to watch it with a great attention.
Mnet is at liberty to show the content of Big Brother Africa as long as the content does not violates the age restrictions. The TV station put the age restrictions on the screen and this shows that certain category of people should be restricted. TV is meant to entertain and relax from a hard day's job, and it goes to show that what is a one man's meat is another man's poison. What some people are quick to condemn is another person's fantasy.
Truth is, if the content of Big Brother Africa II is too much to bear for those who are complaining, let them just switch to other channels or better still block the channel. Enough of shifting blame to other places for what we ourselves have absolute control over.

The birth of a Nigerian Nollywood Photo blog

2007-10-15T17:30:00.002+01:00

For a long time, I had nurse the idea of starting a photo blog, the idea give birth to Nigeria nollywood photo blog. The reason behind it was that, it took a long search on the net most of the times to get at least some reasonable pictures of Nigerian actors or actresses. This does not go down well with me. So I thought if I started the Nollywood photo blog, pictures of nigerian nollywood actors and actresses will be more celebrated as would be display by this blogger.
Interested bloggers should take a trip to this blog and chip in suggestions as to how to make it more better than it is now. I am still experimenting and researching into how it will be better than it is now, your constructive criticism is highly welcome.

Welcome to Nigerian Nollywood Photo blog.

What a coincidence?

2007-10-13T15:06:00.001+01:00

I added another year on 11th October. This goes to show that, the salah day also happens to be my birthday! So it is double celebrations. I guess this type of celebrations happens rarely in a lifetime. What a co-incidence!
Barka da Salah to my dear readers! and did I hear someone say Happy birthday!?

When Dida took a 'dive'

2007-10-09T12:42:00.000+01:00

'Diving' is the right football terms to use to describe the action of AC Milan goaltender Dida, when he did theunthinkable during the last UEFA champions league involving Celtic FC. A crazy Celtic FC fan invaded the pitch after his team had scored the winning goal to 'tap' (I wont say slap) Dida on the shoulder or was it neck? Dida responded by trying to pursue the fan, when he couldnt catch up with him after about three strides, he felt on the ground as if the effect of the tapping has just gone down on him. The resultant effect of the scenarios was that, Dida was stretch out of the field of play because of that incident. Now that is what I called diving in the field of play.
This whole scenarios further put paid to my believe that those Italian clubs are known for one thing in the game 'cheating'. What Dida failed to achieved from his 'diving' act was that the referee has no power to decide on this particular type of 'diving' but the UEFA itself. They subsequently subject him to disciplinary action. We awaits their decision.

She wont resign? - So What?

2007-10-04T09:41:00.000+01:00

So what if Madam Speaker does not want to resign? To me, I want to believe that the whole saga is being politicised, and definitely not on the fact of fighting "due Process" as our Lawmakers want us to believe. Truth is what was the precedence before she became speaker? I am quite sure if the probe covered the past speakers of the house, we will discovered that due process wasnt follow during their terms. Why was her own different? Was it because she is a woman, no wonder there was no a single woman in the panel that probe the scandal? or perhaps because she step on some toes who are hell bent in keeping certain key Chairman of certain committees as their birthright? Was it because she has the rubber stamp of the former President? or better still because some adversaries want to take her position by all means.
Whilst I am not saying this in her support, I however hold the firm belief that those Politicians are all the same. There is no gainsaying in it that the next successor will follow due process. It is when those lawmakers want to deal with any of their colleagues who seems not to dance to their tunes or follow the lay down "systems where rub my back I rub yours persist" that they invoke some nice tune like ("due process") that the public will want to hear to crucify each other. They are all the same. I hasten to add however that all their in-fighting was not because of we the electorates they represents, but because of their pockets no wonder they can descend so low as to box shamefully at the House while their children are watching the show of shame. I beg let us hear words. If she said she wont resign, who cares! One thing is quite clear, her resignation can never set things right as long as her successor continue to sing the tune they want to hear and not the tune the electorates wants. To hell with their lots.

The Mandara Margi: A Society Living on the Verge

2007-09-26T10:03:00.000+01:00

The above topic was first inspired by Jeremy's blog. But while I was going through the web site, I came across the Ethnographer's note. What catches my attention was the above picture which appear at the bottom of this page. Read the preceding paragraph and, like the writer do say - "Think about it"

Was that fighting for our sake?

2007-09-24T16:28:00.001+01:00

I was so much consumed with work that I hardly find time to comment on last week show of shame at the House of Representatives. The question that keep ringing in my mind since then was whether those boxing, those shouting, those temper flaring and of course those show of same were all for our sake. I mean we the masses are the one those legislators claimed they represent at the House, therefore, was all those fighting for our sake? Are they doing that to defend our interest?
The answer of course is a capital NO. They are doing that to defend their own selfish interest and I made bold to say that they are defending their pocket as well as fighting for the money they have collected.
Like I had commented earlier on this blog, what Madam Speaker did was not a new thing, it has always been the case at the House, I wonder why there was so much noise on this particular Speaker probably because she is a woman. Of course, I need to bring gender into it since the whole house did not deem it fit to include a woman on the panel investigating the whole saga. I think the whole fighting and noise making was the fall out of the appointment of the House Committees Chairman and other juicy positions. Some people are hell bent that the Speaker must go, to pave way for their parochial interest.
Mind you, I am not saying I support the Speaker, what I am saying is that they are all the same, it will still be the same story, should another person come on board.
Enough of those show of shame, we the masses are not impressed one bit other than that they are showing their real self to us - Thieves!
So, pause and ponder along with me whether those fighting are being embark on by our Legislators to protect the interest of electorates. I dont think so.

Joan Agabi of Big Brother Nigeria

2007-09-21T11:34:00.000+01:00

Yes, Joan of Big Brother Nigeria, I had a chat with her of recent and was able to extract some answers to questions a lot of her fans had wanted to ask her. Here goes

PTP: How have you been coping with fame after the BBN?
Joan: we handle it as it comes.

PTP: After your participation in BBN, what have you been doing?
Joan: Acting in movies and soaps.

PTP: Can you mention some of the films you have participated in?
Joan: A price to pay, be my val, duty, twisted.

PTP: How have you gone with furthering your studies?
Joan: School starts in febuary.

PTP: Going personal now, a lot of your fans will want to know candidly, what has been happening between you and Chinedu?
Joan: We have remained good friends.

PTP: What is your general view about Nollywood?
Joan: It is a work in progress.

PTP: Who is your favourite housemates in Big Brother Africa.
Joan: I dont watch much of TV but i would say richard is ok.

PTP: Can you compare the BBN and BBA.
Joan: It is different a lot.

PTP: How had it been going with you and other BBN housemates after the show.
Joan: Everyone is doing fine.

Next on this blog will be her Vital Statistics. Watch out!

NFA/NFL Crisis

2007-09-19T12:16:00.000+01:00

Even FIFA the highest ruling body of the game had not laid an example of banning its official for 3 years despite the offences as serious as mismanaging money. But, here in Nigeria, anything is possible. For merely fighting to save our league and pivoting it to a better standard and refusing to allow the laid down foundation to be jeopardised, the NFL Chairman Obaseki and its deputies got suspended for 3 and 2 years respectively.
Nigerian football is in for another problem this year. Despite the fact that, it was planned to start our own league to run parri-passu with that of eruope, the league has not yet start up till now due to NFA/NFL Crisis. The bone of contention this time around is appointment of referees for league matches even though everyone knows it wasnt that but globacom money to run the league. The truth of that however came out when the seeming bone of contention i.e appointment of referees for matches was settled when the NFL agreed that it was NFA who could appoint referees. The imbroglio continued with the NFL chairman getting suspended along with his deputies.
Now, our football is in problem and the league might take a while before it commences unless the Senate successfully waded into the matter and resolved it amicably. What is more, the Club Owners Association had take a stand that it will not ordered its clubs to participate in the league scheduled to take off this weekend if the NFL officials suspended are not re-instated. What an Impasse!
When will our football be run by the professionals and not by politicians? When would NFA be run like the real NFA and not like a Federal Ministry or Parastatals? When would NFA be more responsible and avoided ugly incidences like unpaid bonus to Super Eagles, Super Falcon and of course glaring neglect of the Golden Eaglet before their triumph at the U-17 African Nation Cup as well as their shot at the real thing - U-17 FIFA World Cup which they won, but which NFA has been going about with the accolades as if they were the true brain behind the achievement.

See My Daddy's Car

2007-09-14T10:38:00.000+01:00

My Son is 2 years old and you can never guess what his daddy's car look like, but the truth is he can recognise the make of the car at any slightest sight of it. He is now accustomed to the phrase "See my daddy's car" each time he sighted the make of the car irrespective of colour or model. Nobody seems to know how he was able to photographed the make of that car in his brain. On a long journey that involves him of recent, he actually make the journey less stressful because each time he sighted the make of his daddy's car, he will draw our attention to it. If you are lock in a deep conversation and you seems not to listen to his 'phrase' he continue to shout your name until you discard such conversation and reply with another phrase he is accustomed to i.e 'yeah, See this boy daddy's car'. Kids!!!

Be careful how you list names on your cell phone

2007-09-11T10:11:00.000+01:00

I got this from my mail box, and felt I should share it with those who might not have received same. Here it goes....
This lady has changed her habit of how she lists her names on her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag which contained her mobile, credit card, purse...etc....was stolen. 20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says "I've just received your text asking about our Pin number and I've replied a little while ago." When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.
The pickpocket had actually used the stolen hand phone to text "hubby" in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from the bank account. Moral of the lesson: Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, sweetheart, Dad, Mum etc....... And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked thru texts, CONFIRM by calling back. Also, when you're being texted by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet "family and friends" who text you.

What about the Silver Eaglets?

2007-09-10T14:24:00.000+01:00

When the Ugbade led Eaglet won the maiden edition of the U-16 world youth Tournament in china in 1985, all the sets of the recently crowned Golden eaglet were yet to be born, neither were they when the next eaglet failed to lift the trophy again in Canada 2 years later. How time flies.
While we are quick to remember the three occasions where we triumphed in the competition, it is a pity how we are quick to forget to celebrate the period when we came close to winning the trophy i.e Canada in 1987 and Trinidad & Tobago in 2001. So I said what about the Silver Eaglets? Those of us who still cares, does these names still rings a bell as regards those who took Silver in Canada 87 even though they lost on penalties, or these names that clinch Silver in 2001?

I am back

2007-09-10T09:49:00.000+01:00

3 weeks now I have left this blog unattended. I explained the reasons when I took the leave of absence. My 3 weeks absence open my eyes as for the first time in my life I travel all the way from Abuja to Ilorin all by myself and alone in the vehicle, and indeed a smooth journey. My journey also took me to Lagos where also for the first time in my life, I saw how the Area Boys do their things. I witness the way and manners they collect toll from the danfo drivers as if they are the one they are working to take care of, I however do not pity my danfo driver I boarded because he tried to take a fast one on us (Me and my friend who is my guide). In all, he had to settled about 11 different groups of area boys on our way to Oshodi bridge from Ojota. Lagos will always be Lagos, probably the only city in Nigeria that bear a native name and English name - Eko and Lagos.
While away, I also visited Ilorin town in Kwara State. It is still its old self, with the idea of blocking the road just to hold festivities. I had trouble making my way around. But I must confess that the town is very neat and tidy, the Governor is doing an excellent job on this part.
Now, while I was away, I wasnt current with much of the news around, but I heard of the suspension put on denomination of the Naira. Some even argue that, the government had to veto its suspension because of some powerful people it will be affected, other even argue that its suspension is political in nature because at the end of the day when the action become successful, the CBN Governor will be more powerful than the President himself. Can you believe that, what an arrant nonsense.
I cannot but also comment on the Madam Speaker's 'Contract Gate'. I wonder what the fuse is all about, all the present crop of legislators needs to do is to check on the precedents before the advent of this new speaker what has been the practice. I am quite sure she follows the footsteps of her precedecessors in office. Perhaps there is so much dust on this one because she is a MADAM Speaker. It is the systems that is bad, not the Madam speaker herself.
During my leave of absence, I also happen to get in touch with Joan Agabi - remember her? Well, let me reminded you of her, she is one of the housemates of the famous Big Brother Nigeria. I had some interesting vital statistics on her which I will publish in due course.
Now that I am back, I guess I am back with a bang!

I am out for a while

2007-08-17T11:25:00.000+01:00

Starting today, posting to my blog may remain stagnant as I intend to travel away from my base. If however I have access to internet, I shall surely update the blog. I will be proceeding on a one week course sponsored by my employer and will proceed on another 2 weeks leave thereafter. I am in for a long absence if things go on as planned.
Also, for the first time, I intend to undertake a journey by driving myself, one actually needs such adventure in life. You need to see the way I am preparing, it is as if I am going out of the country. Please wish me safe journey. Peace out!!!!!!!

The Killer Kerosene

2007-08-10T09:16:00.000+01:00

Kerosene explosion has reared its ugly heads again in Nigeria. Of recent, in parts of Delta State, particularly Ughelli and Warri, kerosene explosions claimed no less than 11 lives and left a number of property destroyed. As if that was not enough, the ugly development spread to neighbouring Rivers State where at the Nigerian Railways Quarters in Port Harcourt five people lost their lives. Earlier, kerosene explosions had occured in Okoduiri in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State and in Borokiri area of Port Harcourt.
These explosions are mainly caused by adulterated Kerosene. In order to make higher profit, since Kerosene is more expensive than Petrol, they probably mixed the content of Kerosene with Petrol fuel. This always resulted in explosion moreso because of the presence of Petrol in the kerosene mostly when the end user are using it to fuel their Kerosene Stove or carelessly display near a naked fire with the understanding that ordinary Kerosene will not cause explosion.
It is high time the distribution of this items is regularised to avoid this ugly incidence. I had paused and ponder that this is what is obtainable from Kerosene distribution that are adulterated, the consequences of this adulterated items could only be made known because of explosion it caused, what about those who had died one way or the other through other means of adulterations viz drugs, water and of course baby food items all in the way of making quick profits. Truth is, there are lots of victims these adulterations had claimed their lives which we dont know of, since most of the people that are affected simply buried their dead without conducting autopsy to determined the cause of death.
This country Nigeria, may God continue to save us from those who wants to get rich and maximise their profits at the expense of the lives of some innocent citizens.

At last, VP - Goodluck Jonathan declare assets - worths N295.3m

2007-08-08T16:49:00.000+01:00

Bowing to public opinion, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has released the details of his assets totalling N295, 304, 420. Details of the assets declared on May 30 this year before Justice Muktar N. Dodo of the Abuja High Court show that the Vice President has no foreign accounts or assets. The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President (Media and Communications), Mr. Ima Niboro, told journalists at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, that, "this merely shows that in the affairs of man, there comes a time when even the law must take a second place, and the public mood must define our actions." To the Vice President, this is such a time, hence the choice to send you a copy of his declaration of assets for publication. There is nothing to hide, as you can very well see," he added. The total worth of Jonathan's private residences is N67, 990,000 according to the declaration, which is already with the Code of Conduct Bureau. The residences include a four- bedroom duplex in Kpansia, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, valued at N15 million; a four-flat storey building extension of the family house in Yenagoa valued at N10 million; and a four-flat storey building. The rest are his seven bedroom village personal home at Otuoke, Ogbia Local Government Area, which was bombed days before his inauguration as Vice President, valued at N18 million and a five-bedroom personal residence in Gwarinpa, Abuja valued at N24, 990,000. Under the vehicles and household items, the Vice President declared assets of N41.8 million. They include a BMW car in Abuja valued at N15 million, generators, electronics, air conditioners, furniture, kitchen utensils and others in Kpansia, Yenagoa and Gwarimpa, Abuja valued at N26 million. The BMW car was declared as a gift while the other items were declared to have been procured from savings. Jonathan also declared vacant and undeveloped plots of his to the tune of N60.538 million. They include five undeveloped plots of land in Bayelsa State, two undeveloped plots of land in Cadastral Zone BO2 and AO6 in Abuja. He disclosed also a yearly income of N62, 072, 200. These comprise investments in stocks in 16 Nigerian blue chip companies managed by City-Code Trust & Investment Company Limited. His investments also cover four 16-seater passenger boats which he hires to companies and other agencies. The Vice President's total cash in Nigerian banks (Bank PHB, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, UBA and others) is put at N58, 984, 123. He stated that the total income includes personal savings and income from his investments including performing stocks and hiring of the boats. Niboro said the assets declared do not include those of the Vice President's wife. This, he explained, is because "the wife of the Vice President is a public officer, being on the staff of the Bayelsa State Ministry of Education, Yenagoa. She could, on her own, still being in service, declare her assets through the laid down procedures." He added that the Vice President's children do not own assets. President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua had on June 28 released his assets declaration forms, putting his total worth at N856.64 million.
Culled from Nigerian Guardian

HITV and its Exclusive EPL TV Rights

2007-08-08T11:33:00.000+01:00

Ever since the exclusive TV rights to English Premiership (EPL) which saw Nigeria bundled together with Africa was unbundled last year with High Entertainment Company known as HITV winning the right for Nigeria, a lots of Nigerian heave a sigh of relief that the monopoly of Digital Satellite Television (DSTV) is eventually broken. I remembered that some people are quick to point out that it is not the broken monopoly that matters but whether there will be a continuity of enjoyment of the English Premier League as was the case with the former owner of the rights DSTV.
Truth is 3 days to the commencement of this year league, the HITV is yet to commence its much talk about satellite bouquet that will enable all parts of Nigeria to view its channel. As at the time of writing this, it is only in Lagos that their services operates and that too is on terrestrial platform, which is not 100% quality of service.
For those of us who are ardent fans of English premier League (EPL), our hope of watching the commencement of the league is dashed as news emanating from HITV office indicates that those outside Lagos might have to wait a little longer if they have to hook up with their TV channels. I bet we have to depend on the one match per week free live broadcast by Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria and the weekly highlights.
When would a Nigerian wholly owned companies rise up to the occasion like its counterparts in Globacom? HITV Do something fast and I am tired of having to call your office to find out what is happening. You owe Nigerians and lovers of Soccer updates, and please make sure your e-mail address is working, my last mail to you to inquired about your satellite bouquet was returned.

Down, Very Down

2007-08-07T09:53:00.000+01:00

This is the second day in the running that nothing interests me one bit. I guess it started through the weekend, but the feeling wasn't as high at it is during the working days. A number of things could be the reasons, as one of my friend would want to agree that it could be due to old age or middle age as she put it. That reason I found very amusing because I am a lively person who knows what makes my day and go for it. But these days, they just don't interest me any more.
But what I felt could be responsible is someone that is part of me is due to sign the dotted lines in a couple of weeks. I guess losing the person to marriage life is beginning to occur to me as it is quite clear that the friend in question means a lot to me. But what can I do, I just have to let go, even though it is very painful and a very difficult thing to do, life must go on.
Now I know how it feels to let go, especially when the person concerned means a lot to you and contribute to your happiness in your life. I now know why some people are so selfish enough to do everything to frustrate their friends wedding because of what they shared together that is going down the drain. But I learn it the hard way that even though I felt the same, I am not brought up that way not to understand when to let go, and let friends move on with their life.
If you are reading this my dear friend, I want to tell the world that I cherished so much what we share together and want the world to know that I can never find another person to fill the vacuum you left in my life. You are everything to me and for ever what we share together that makes our friendship so deep in my heart will never be forgotten. As you leave the life of single for double, I can only but wish you a happy married life. I love you so much!

On NigComSat and NCC Imbroglio

2007-08-03T17:01:00.000+01:00

In a publications placed by the Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd (NigComSat) in some national dailies, it stated that they had applied for the use of certain frequencies and licences to enable them provide fixed, mobile and last mile services.
However, Engr Ernest Ndukwe the Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) disagrees with NigComSat’s position saying its request for a license is against its original plan to provide transmission infrastructure for operator. He said further that the NigComSat request is totally against NCC regulatory environment. He said when NCC initiated this process, what it understand was that the satellite solution is desirable for providing long distance transmission, and assist to take the telecoms Operators to remote locations. He wondered why NigComSat will now abandon this objective to pursue a 3G Licence to provide last mile solutions.

The truth is the Memorandum and Article of Association which NigComSat claimed clearly empower it to provide end-to-end solutions alongside satellite owner is not enough to entitled it to telecom Licence.

It is still fresh in the memory of every Nigrians with the way Ndukwe handles GSM auction which led to the emergence of MTN, Econet and Nitel and of course the imbroglio of CIL (Communications Investment Ltd) which could not meet the auctioning licence at that time. We all coult still remember the transparency of how Glo later emerged as the Second National Carrier which is also transparency. There is also the auction of 2.5Ghz frequency which NigComSat now want, which was auctioned in 2003, of all those that won the bid, it is small proportion of them that was able to deploy because the technology to deploy is very exhorbitant. The fact that some group wants the job of Ndukwe does not mean we should take the NigComSat matter as if the regulatory body is not transparent anymore. Now, if NigComSat wants the 3G Licence at all costs, what will happen to those that paid exhorbitantly to be in business? What happen to their business? That is why reason should prevailed on NigComSat to concentrate on deployment of its satellite to vendors instead of being a last mile vendor.
The argument that its services will take care of the quality of service does not hold any water, it cannot provide GSM services through its satellites, and in any case if it can, what happens to the investments of the GSM Operators majority of who are foreign investors?
The Licence issued to Mubadala is in order since they are an investment company of the Government of United Arab Emirates. Records of the company performance in telecom industry is there to be seen, they excel, and it is a welcome development that they deploy their services in Nigeria. If NigComSat wants to be like Mubadala, then it has to pay as much as what Mubadala pays to win the Unified Access Licence.
What is more, The role of government is to provide overall direction to telecommunications development and ensure policy consistency. This role does not include participating in the provision of telecom services which NigComSat is seeking.
It is even worse for NigComSat to start mudfight with NCC Executive Vice Chairman, all in the name of trying to get a telecom Licence. NigComSat is established to provide satellite services as its name implies, and its purpose in Internet services is already felt with drastic reduction in bandwidth, to me, it cannot operate as satellite service provider as well as end-to-end service provider, it should leave the job of regulatory of telecom sector to NCC which NCC is clearly charged by the policy and the law to issue licences to all operators and service providers in Nigeria. This is why NITEL/M-TEL were licenced by the NCC and the two organizations also paid in full for their GSM frequencies and other licencees just like every other operator even when they were fully owned by government.
It is therefore in view of this clear understanding of both the provisions of the Policy and the Law that government did not consider it improper for the NCC to be represented on the Board of NigComSat. It is obvious that Government clearly did not intend NigComSat to be a fixed or mobile telecommunications services provider that will be in competition with other such licencees. The NCC has a duty to ensure a level playing field for all operators in line with the Act and international best practices. Lastly, How would NigComSat feel, if government allow another company to deploy the same satellite they had in Nigeria territory and allow them to compete with them, would they not want to run to government for Cover? The same regulatory body it is now fighting with both tooth and nail.

Happy Birthday - Papillo

2007-08-01T15:55:00.000+01:00

Today is the birthday of my hero and my idol - Kanu Nwankwo. He to me must be the most highly-decorated African footballer in footballing history, with over 10 awards to boast of, including a UEFA Champions League medal, a UEFA Cup medal and two African Player of the Year awards. Between Arsenal's Double win in 2002, and Chelsea's FA Cup win in 2007, he was the only current Premiership player to have won the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, Premiership, FA Cup and Olympic Gold Medal.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Olusoji Fasuba rejects Nigeria Flag

2007-07-23T11:58:00.000+01:00

Olusoji Fasuba create some mild drama after winning the gold medal in the 100m event at the just concluded 9th All Africa Games and some people think it was a shame to the nation. Fasuba was reported to have on two occasions rejected the Nigeria national flag for a victory run.
Eye witness at the stadium on that day narrated, Calistus Ebare of AIT threw the Nigerian flag to him as was the practised when an athlete won gold in major events, but the athlete did not picked the flag, this further prompted Frank Ilaboya of Sportville to take it to him on the tracks, which he still refused by making a gesture indicating he didn’t want the flag. Finally, his colleague, Uchenna Emedolu, collected the flag and hand it over to Fasuba again who again rejected the flag and continue the celebration without any flag.
We awaits his official reasons for this unpatriotic, shameful and disgraceful episodes. Meanwhile, that perhaps prompt me to pause and ponder whether that action is an indication that the athlete is about to dump the country or perhaps his own little way of protesting some lack of preparations on the part of officials of Team Nigeria. Like I said, earlier, we awaits his official reasons.

Darfur – Genocide or Conflict?

2007-07-20T16:58:00.000+01:00

According to the United Nations, genocide is defined as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:"

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Former U.S. President Clinton, chose to define the genocide in Kosovo with the euphemistic term "ethnic cleansing," since the term "genocide" might have implied an obligation for the United States to intervene. Perhaps, it is high time African should coined out another word to denote “Genocide” so that the crisis in Darfur be taken more seriously, if ‘Genocide’ is the only word recognized before action needs to be taken. An appropriate word like; Mini-genocide’ or ‘Multi-Genocide’ may be appropriate here.

The insurgency and counter-insurgency in Darfur began in 2003 which were driven by domestic tensions. On the one hand, there was a struggle for power within the political class in Sudan, with more marginal interests in the west (following those in the south and in the east) calling for reform at the centre. On the other, there was a community-level split inside Darfur, between nomads and settled farmers, who had earlier forged a way of sharing the use of semi-arid land in the dry season. With the drought that set in towards the late 1970s, co-operation turned into an intense struggle over diminishing resources.

As the insurgency took root among the prospering peasant tribes of Darfur, the government trained and armed the poorer nomads and formed a militia – the Janjawiid – that became the vanguard of the unfolding counter-insurgency. The worst violence came from the Janjawiid, but the insurgent movements were also accused of gross violations.

Since its onset, two official verdicts have been delivered on the violence, the first from the US, the second from the UN. The American verdict was unambiguous, that is a clear case of Genocide, but some people believe that since the US has no national interest in Sudan crisis, it can quickly rush to call the crisis a Genocide. The UN. found out that government forces and militias in Sudan conducted indiscriminate attacks, including killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement, throughout Darfur, but that these acts were conducted on a widespread and systematic basis, and therefore may amount to crimes against humanity, but it believed the atrocities committed does not amount to a policy of genocide, as the United States has alleged.

In September 2004, what could be termed the African Union definition of Genocide was made known when the Nigerian former President Olusegun Obasanjo, then the chair of the African Union, pronounce as to whether the crisis in Darfur was a Genocide. Hear him:
"Before you can say that this is genocide or ethnic cleansing, we will have to have a definite decision and plan and programme of a government to wipe out a particular group of people, then we will be talking about genocide, ethnic cleansing. What we know is not that. What we know is that there was an uprising, rebellion, and the government armed another group of people to stop that rebellion. That’s what we know. That does not amount to genocide from our own reckoning. It amounts to of course conflict. It amounts to violence."

The truth is Genocide is just a bigger term to entails the above definitions, isn’t it the right time that those responsible for legal definitions of Genocide re-emerge with another befitting one that befit the crisis in Darfur if “Genocide” is the only magic word that will spur the world to solve the crisis.

Please read more about the world opinion on whether the Crisis in Darfur is a Genocide or a mere conflicts?

The Month of July

2007-07-18T13:47:00.001+01:00

The month of July virtually come and go in my life, until I got married in 2004. From then on, it is always one event to celebrate or the other any time I witness the month of July.
For a start, I got married on 18th July 2004 precisely 3 years today, I guess today is the 3rd year anniversary of our marriage. As if that is not enough, my wife's birthday is also July 10th. I remember we tried as much as possible to hold our wedding on 10th July back then so that we would be celebrating two things together on 10th July, but tried as we did, the marriage could not hold on that day.
And lastly, our bundle of joy arrived on 28th of July making it another occasion to celebrate especially where birthday is concerned. I guess to save cost, we need to fix all the celebration till July 28th and make it 3 in 1. So far, I am the odd one out in the family as birth date is concerned, because I hold the same month with Nigeria Independence.
Ever ponder how some things are mere coincidence? I guess my family and the month of July is another coincidence.

The Fighting Flying Eagles Meet their Waterloo

2007-07-16T09:26:00.000+01:00

Just like I predicted in my last post that the flying eagles will not get past the next stage, it did came to pass yesterday when they met their waterloo in Chile.
However, the attacking flying eagles did fought gallantly, and it took the assistance of the centre referee to help subdue their fighting spirit. The truth is, the first goal, offside as it looks like, was allow for a goal by the match officials, and that demoralise the eagles. They press on forward to equalise, and again the referee came to the rescue of the Chileans again, by allowing another offsides that resulted in penalty.
Having said all this, the attacking flying eagles did their best, at least they were not disgraced in a competition where the likes of US, Mexico were also sent packing. The next thing is for the football authorities to learn from what went wrong and move forward. Just like I said earlier on in my post, it is good we do not get past this stage, as it would send a wrong signal that all is well with our preparations.

The Attacking Flying Eagles wont go far

2007-07-13T08:35:00.001+01:00

Mark my words, the flying eagles will not get pass the next stage of the competition. I had not seen any vision, I just felt they are not good enough for the trophy. Let truth be told, and let me set aside sentiments of being a Nigerian, the present flying eagles team lack what it takes to continue in the competition. The only thing good about this team is their attacking nature and ball possession, but they lack the experience and capacity of utilising such advantages.
The number 15 shirt - Ideye Brown who is the point striker lacks poor finishing, they hardly take shot at goals, and when they does, it is always at the wrong opportunity. The best among the team are number 6 shirt, Ambrose Efe, and the number 4 shirt. The goal tender is good too, and I wonder whether the injured first choice keeper can do better than him.
Just ponder over this, if we win our next match, we probably will reach the final, but I am quite sure we cant go beyond the quarter final stage, at least that will be a good commensurate to our poor preparation for the event, reaching the final will be like, everything is well with our football.

Chris Benoit - The WWE Wrestler's Tragedy

2007-07-10T14:23:00.000+01:00

The wrestling world has suffered another blow. WWE sensation Chris Benoit was found dead, along with his wife and son. He was 40 years old.

Benoit, his wife Nancy and his 7-year-old son Daniel were found in their Georgia home on Monday. On Tuesday, authorities announced that Benoit had strangled his wife and smothered his son before hanging himself.

Also today, the CNN on Larry King LIVE also confirmed that Benoit actually killed his wife and son before killing himself.

From an investigation that had taken place since that time when the incident happened, and continued at the crime lab earlier, where autopsies were performed on all three subjects, the case was ruled as a double homicide-suicide. Evidence in the home leads us to believe that Mr. Benoit had, sometime - possibly Friday, had murdered his wife by asphyxiation. Sometime shortly after that, on the early part of the weekend, the same for his son, Daniel, and, then maybe later on Saturday evening, some time early Sunday, had committed suicide by hanging himself in the basement area. Further results from the crime lab are still being awaited, which will include toxicology reports which can take up to several weeks to get all of that information back.

The FIFA Ban of Flying Eagles Supporters in Canada

2007-07-06T15:31:00.000+01:00

The news making round was that FIFA ban the flying eagles supporters club in Canada from drumming their trumpets, but it is not clear enough to me, because i had not been able to read it on the net where a reason was given as to why the ban was effected.
This is a sad development because drumming and singing had always been trademark of eagles supporters club. Is FIFA now saying, drumming in match venue is now outlawed? Or was there a particular law in the hosting country banning drumming or blowing trumpet? They have started another year of Ojoro, just like they did in the last edition of the competition all in the efforts of frustrating Nigeria in lifting the trophy.