Nigeria Declares War!
November 29, 2007 by 
Che Oyimnatumba · Leave a Comment
Every adult Eastern Nigerian believes that the Bakassi Peninsula was given to Cameroon during the Biafran war as a thanksgiving offering for the Saboteur effort of the Cameroonians against the realization of Biafra. It was with a sore feeling of nostalgia that Ndi Igbo held themselves when President Olusegun Obasanjo formally conceded to the demand of the Cameroonians and handed over Bakassi.
In an apparent act of boredom, Nigerian senate declared the handing over of Bakassi Peninsula by President Obasanjo as un-constitutional and demanded the return of the Peninsula to Nigeria. The 22 wise Senators (sic) gave varying reasons for their demand.The most politically blind person in Nigeria, knows that a great number of acts by Obasanjo’s regime, if not totally unconstitutional were unpopular and shrouded in mystery.
One wonders, if this ceding off of Bakassi the only unconstitutional act of Obasanjo? The Senate should spend their time on legislating and carrying out their oversight functions to see that all the depilated infrastructures are functional. The mobile telephone service providers are ripping off Nigerians with diverted calls, dropped calls and poor reception. A handful of schools in Nigeria are paying either in pounds or dollars, yet Nigeria is a Sovereign state.While sympathizing with the displaced Nigerians of Bakassi extraction, one is tempted to say that these displaced people are better off being Cameroonians than Nigerians.
The degradation in the Niger Delta – the goose that lays the golden egg – is a pointer that most oil producing areas are better off in their own Republic.This unwarranted declaration of war by the Nigerian Senate, is most unfortunate as Nigeria parades herself as giant of Africa and parrots that Africa is the at the heart of Nigerian Foreign Policy.
Che.
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Where Are Indigenous Construction Companies?
November 29, 2007 by Che Oyimnatumba · Leave a Comment
Residence of Kuwba pride Kubwa as the largest satellite town in Abuja. There is no census figure to rebut this accretion but what is not contestable is the road situation in Kubwa. Of the entire Abuja suburb, Kubwa has the worst road.
The F.C.T minister Dr. Modibo agreed to this at the oath taking ceremony of the National Youth Service Corps members that just passed out from the orientation camp located in Kubwa. True to his promise a group of contractors are seen milling around Kubwa and to the dismay of the residence, these contractors are wearing gargets to protect themselves from the African sun. These aliens to African climate make one wonder why engage the services of foreigners to rehabilitate Kubwa roads?
We have painfully taken solace in fate where it comes to Julius Berger taking the lion share in respect of major constructions in Abuja. This is most shameful as this same Berger is not ranked among the best 20 in their country. To worsen the situation, Berger operates a Nazists policy when it comes to Medicare provisions to her staff. African staff members are not prescribed the same drugs as their white counterpart. NAFDAC closed their clinic in Life Camp but it remains a mystery how it was resolved.
Is this as a result of shortage of manpower or are the Nigerian Universities inept in their engineering faculties?
Why employ the services of a foreign company to rehabilitate a feeder road. Nigerian indigenous companies should affirmatively protest this encroachment. In other clime, these feeder roads are pilot projects for the nearest university within the locality where these repairs are needful. Another option is to use direct community labour, which will make the community maintenance minded and wad off any attempt to destroy the roads.
As I was lamenting, some one reminded me that the Chairman( don’t know if he was dissolved with the othe Federal Agencies and Parastatal boards) of Federal Road Maintenance Agency is a front liner indigenous construction company owner and if such can degenerate to patching roads, what do you expect the younger generations to do if not sub-lets.
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Text Ouotes (II)
My mom always told me that we could never measure our wealth by money but by our friends. She would surely be glad to meet you and know how rich I turned out to be!
I’m glad friendship doesn’t come with price tags. For if it does, I’d never afford someone as great as you.
God in heaven, God above, please protect the friend I love. Sent with a smile, sealed with a kiss, I love my friend who’s reading this.
The nicest place these days is right beside your friends.
A friend is sweet when it is new. And it is sweeter when it is true. But you know what? It is sweetest when it is you.
A coin is easy to earn, a friend is hard to find. The coin depreciates but a friend appreciates. I lost a coin when I texted you, but it’s okay because I got you.
A smile makes us look younger… while prayers make us feel stronger… and friends…? They make us enjoy life forever.
Each day God sends His angels to guide us. We don’t expect to see them with wings, or with halo flying above their heads. Instead, they come in disguise and we call them friends. Thank you for being an angel to me!
A friend is like a book that has to be read to appreciate its beauty. As such, you’re one of the finest books ever written. How I wish you could be reprinted!
What are the differences between a peso and a friend? A peso is easy to earn, a friend is hard to find. A peso loses its value, a friend increases its worth. I don’t have a peso but I have you!
God sprinkles tiny but wonderful seeds of blessings on earth each day…and I just caught one that’s so nice and true…It’s you!
A single candle can illuminate an entire room. A true friend lights up an entire lifetime. Thanks for the bright lights of your friendship.
Friendship is a gift that is fair in all things. It roots from one’s heart and involves memories that stay not for a while but for a lifetime.
If you open my heart, guess what you are gonna see? It’s you. True friends are hard to find so I kept you.
Care is the main ingredient that keeps true friendships alive despite separation, distance and time. Care sustains love. Since I can’t see you, let my care be with you, friend!
What is a friend? She looks out for you, inspires you, laughs with you, cries with you, understands you, guides you and walks with you. That’s what a friend is…you.
I have a pen which is blue, I have a friend which is you. Flowers will die, waters will dry, but our friendship will never say goodbye.
How long shall we be friends? Do you want a clue? As long as stars twinkle in the sky, till the water runs dry and till the day I die. We will be friends.
I might run out of cute graphics to send you, but I’ll never run out of this: care for you.
A friend is a push when you have stopped, a chat when you are lonely, a guide when you are searching, a smile when you are sad, a song when you are glad.
Source: Txtmania
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3rd Abuja Carnival!
November 22, 2007 by Che Oyimnatumba · Leave a Comment
Written By: Che
There has been a sustained effort by the Nigerian tourism industry to make a big bang on the world tourism calendar. For three years running, the Nigerian Tourism Development Council has kept up this pace though not without hiccups.
Today the 3rd Abuja carnival starts and is expected to run through to 25th of November. Unlike last year’s carnival that ran from Carnival Park, at Area 1 and evaporated at Peace Park Area 10, Garki. This year’s carnival took a back flip and commenced from Ahmadu Bello Way and terminated at the Eagle Square. It’s a back flip to 2005 the debut of the Abuja Carnival. Residence of Abuja and tourists from all over the world are in for an array of cream de la cream of African culture.
To the credit of this year’s organizers, a foreign country was involved in the opening parade. The Republic of Niger solidarized with Nigeria and put a spade to the age long Eurocentric half truth about Africans interaction before colonization.
Che Onyimnatuma
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Diaspora Africans need Decolonisation of Mind
November 21, 2007 by OCI · Leave a Comment
Written By: James N. Kariuki - is head of the African Diaspora Unit at the Africa Institute of South Africa in Pretoria
Global Africa needs a push by both the Diaspora of Enslavement and the Post-colonial Diaspora. The former has economic and political influence, especially in the US, while the latter understands Africa and Africans because of its recent connection.
The African Diaspora is not a homogenous group prone to any type of overarching collective action. It is understandable that many of the descendants of the Diasporans who left the continent through enslavement identify more with their current countries than with contemporary Africa.
A significant aspect of the ‘enslavement process’ was to mis-educate the Diasporans about Africans, and Continental Africans about those in the Diaspora. This stubborn barrier still exists within the Global African community and needs to be reversed by appropriate education.
As we consider steps towards a Pan-African reconnection, a genuine effort must be made to educate, inform and expose Africans in the Diaspora of the dynamic and rapidly evolving contemporary Africa. That Africa is different from the Africa their grandfathers left three centuries ago or that is presented in the media.
Additionally, efforts must be made by Continental Africans to conceptualise and understand the ties that bind the Diasporans to their host countries.
A Global Africa re-linking ‘action plan’ should include specific aspects.
The first aspect should be ‘The Diaspora is Welcome’ policy manifesto. South Africa is recognised continentally as a leader in the development of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), for its peacekeeping efforts, and recognised for its significant business investments in the continent over the past 13 years.
For this reason, the South African government is in a unique position to help craft and foster development of a set of principles and ideas to be put forth by the African Heads of State indicating the aims and intentions in strengthening economic ties with the African Diaspora.
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Factors that make Nigeria and SA stand out in Africa
November 19, 2007 by OCI · Leave a Comment
Written By: Prof. Ali Mazrui is Chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture, Kenya
Half a century separated the formal independence of Africa in 1910 and the formal independence of Nigeria in 1960. The two countries have since become the giants of Africa. Nigeria excels in human resources. It has the largest population in Africa.
South Africa excels in mineral and material resources. But what other factors distinguish the most influential African countries?
In the 20th Century, Africa had two types of European colonies: those with large numbers of white settlers and had evolved a racial hierarchy, and those that were overwhelmingly indigenous. Their white populations consisted mainly of colonial administrators and temporary residents.
The most important white-settler model was, of course, South Africa. On the eve of World War II, South Africa had become the largest concentration of white people on the African continent. Extensive white settlement in an African country was good news for the economic infrastructure, but bad news for race relations. South Africa evolved into the most industrialised nation in Africa. But it also became the worst case of racism and apartheid.
In contrast, the most important African country without a large European population was Nigeria. The absence of European enterprise and developmental skills deprived Nigeria of a more modern economic base and infrastructure. However, it also spared Nigeria the agony of racism and subsequent racial conflict.
The political formulation that most shaped Nigeria was Lord Lugard’s policy of indirect rule, seeking to de-centralise power to local chiefs and ‘native authorities’.
The political policy that moulded South Africa most fundamentally was apartheid, seeking to segregate the races socially and territorially. What did Indirect Rule have in common with apartheid in the second half of the 20th century?
At least in theory, the policy of indirect rule in colonial Nigeria and apartheid in South Africa were based on a belief that Africans could best be ruled through their indigenous institutions.
In Nigeria, indirect rule resulted in preserving the ‘native’ political institutions of Northern Nigeria. In South Africa, apartheid resulted in creating Bantustans with separate ‘native’ authorities.
Both indirect rule and apartheid were based on a profound distrust of potential ‘westernisation’ of Africa. The doctrines aspired to protect the cultural authenticity of Africa.
But on this issue, colonial Lord Lugard was more sincere than South Africa’s Prime Minister, Hendrick Verwoerd. Lord Lugard’s indirect rule was genuinely based on the British cultural tradition of political gradualism. Ostensibly, the apartheid ideology also valued cultural continuity and regarded westernisation as a potentially disruptive force among Africans.
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Senator and Ex-Ministers Named In 10m Euros Siemens Bribery Scandal
November 17, 2007 by OCI · Leave a Comment
REPORTS on Friday indicated that four former ministers, a senator and a number of government officials in decision making offices have been fingered in a 10 million Euro bribery scandal.
The bribe, according to The Wall Street Journal on Friday, was offered to the senior government officials between 2002 and 2003 by Siemens AG, a German company.
The former ministers were Chief Cornelius Adebayo, retired General Tajudeen Olanrewaju, Dr. Mohammed Bello and Alhaji Haruna Elewi.
They were all at different times and under different regimes Ministers of Communications.
While Olanrewaju served in the regime of late General Sani Abacha, others were part of the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007.
The senator named in the bribery scandal was Prof. Jubril Aminu. Other government officials named occupied different offices in the Nigerian Telecommunications Company (NITEL) and the Nigeria Immigrations Service (NIS).
The bribery scandal, according to The Wall Street Journal, was uncovered as a result of the probe of Siemens AG by a Munich State Court in Germany.
The searchlight was turned on Siemens because of allegations of offering bribes to get contracts.
The company was indicted for offering bribe in three countries - Nigeria, Libya and Russia.
Though the court did not interview any of those indicted, information gleaned from the records of Siemens showed that Adebayo was given 500,000 Euros at an unknown time after 2002 and another 70,000 Euros on May 22, 2004.
A staff of Siemens, simply identified as Seidel, allegedly offered the bribe to Adebayo.
The Project Manager, Implementation, of NITEL, simply identified as Mohammed, was also given 70,000 Euros by Seidel.
One Secretary in the Ministry of Communications, David Osakwe Oyegun, was reportedly given 50,000 Euros by Seidel “shortly after 2004.”
Seidel on April 11, 2004 allegedly offered Aminu, former Minister of Petroleum Resources in the regime of military President Ibrahim Babangida, and others 185,000 Euros.
In Siemens’ record, Aminu was identified as a senator of the governing party.
On October 18, 2002, Seidel reportedly offered 50,000 Swiss Francs and 10,000 Pounds to some “political decision makers not known by name.”
Between November 29, 2001 and August 25, 2003, Seidel, through two business consultants of Siemens, J.E. Douglas Steradian Co. and C. Woermann GmbH, offered one million euros; 500,000 Euros; two million, two hundred and fifty thousand Euros; 350,000 Euros, 750,000 Euros; 620,000 Euros; 380,000 Euros; and one million and sixty-four thousand Euros to “several decision makers.”
Late Elewi was allegedly given 50,000 Euros by Seidel on November 10, 2003.
On December 2, 2003 and February 18, 2004, Oyegun received 20,000 Euros each from Seidel.
Seidel also offered Bello 150,000 Euros and 550,00 Euros on August 25, 2003 and July 8, 2002.
Others who allegedly received bribes from Seidel between 2002 and 2004 were Samson Olabiyi (Legal Advisor of NITEL); one Dr. Mamza (Secretary in the Ministry of Communications); R. Olusanju (NITEL tenders board secretary); Buba Bajonga (MD of NITEL); Allahbamulafa (a Director with NITEL); Elewi; Olanrewaju; Chuka Nwizu (Head of Immigration Service); Aliyu Dadi (Legal Advisor, NITEL); and some political decision makers.
Some of the bribes were reportedly received on behalf of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Munich State Court ruling that indicted Siemens was delivered on October 4, 2007.
The court indicted a top Siemens Manager, Mr. Reinhard Siekaczek, for allegedly paying 12 million euros in bribes to secure lucrative telecommunications and power contracts in Nigeria, Russia and Libya.
Siemens has accepted responsibility for the misconduct of Siekaczek and agreed to pay 210 million euros in fines.
German prosecutors have said that they would not pursue action against non-German citizens who were identified as recipients of the bribes.
According to the Munich court ruling, Edward Seidel, who headed Siemens operations in Nigeria earlier this decade, helped deliver many of the bribes to final recipient.
SOURCE: Nigerian Tribune
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