Monday, 4 February 2013

Ivorians Blame Defeat On Coach's Inexperience


Unnerving silence swept through Abidjan and its neigbouring towns on Sunday as the Super Eagles of Nigeria trashed the highly favoured Elephants of Cote d'Ivoire. The game, which was apparently dominated by the Eagles, ended 2-1.

The Eagles clinched the semi-final ticket in a highly technical game that left Ivorian fans, analysts and players stunned at the poor performance of the Elephants. It was observed that many fans sat speechless for the duration of the game.
"What happened to the Ivorian team?" a sports analyst, Anne N'guessan asked. N'guessan said the Elephants put up the worst performance since the commencement of the tournament.
"Right from the blow of the whistle from the start, the Elephants were just trying to catch up with the pace of the Nigerians. Our coach, Sabri Lamouchi, saw it, but he did not effect early changes to alter the rhythm of play."
Fans, who were seen in groups after the game, said the Nigerian team was a better side in all departments of play. Bienvenue Yao, a fan said: "We were playing like one village team that the Eagles were using for training. All our wings were clipped and we were completely absent."
The highly optimistic fans, who have a culture of combing the streets with the Elephants' orange, green and white colours, quickly pulled off after the games. Salif Keita said he expected the Elephants to trash the young Nigerians, 4-0.
"We were still stunned by the outcome of the game and by the beauty of the Nigerian side. Our national team needs an overhaul from the coach to the players."
Unlike the aftermath of previous matches, roadside bars were empty but for a handful, who stayed back to analyse the encounter. Viewing centres set up by telecom outfits and other companies were deserted at the end of the match.
Meanwhile, Nigerians in Cote d'Ivoire took to the streets to celebrate, although cautiously. Jude Okafor, a businessman in Abidjan, said the Nigerian team was "impressive", crediting the coach, Stephen Keshi, for the finishing touch on the team.
In Adjame, Treichville and Makori towns in Abidjan, pockets of Nigrians also took to the streets to celebrate. A source at the Nigerian Embassy said that the embassy had warned that celebrations in Abidjan must be low-key. The source said: "It is still a very sensitive environment after the crisis and Ivorians are crazy about football, so we must be careful."
Naij

Abati’s latest article: The bashing of Obasanjo, El-Rufai and Ezekwesili

By

The continuous rivalry between formal President, Olusegun Obasanjo, his loyalists and the Jonathan’s team has raised serious dust amongst political analysts who have concluded that Nigerian politics can not enjoy any other nomenclature other than the jungle of ‘fame’.
As this deluge of denigration continues to heat up the polity, the gladiators have decided to use various tactics to bring down their opponents. It has therefore become obvious to many Nigerians that Abati’s duties and responsibilities as Jonathan’s Adviser have become more challenging as he is meant to defend one comment or the other at each passing day.
People now believe that the ongoing media war, and his constant defence of his boss has created the impression that most writers only play politics with their work.
Just like yesterday that Abati enjoyed people’s supports and positive comments due to his analytical and thoughtful presentation in the guardian newspaper, sooner than one could pause over his days, people have suddenly realized that the writer’s aim of attacking Jonathan then was politically motivated. Some say he wanted an appointment which he got. The critic of government ironically became the mouthpiece.
His latest article, where he took on Obasanjo, and other supposed enemies of Jonathan’s government, Abati ridiculed some Nigerian politicians whom he said the time has come for them to step aside.
However one respondent who read the article queried: “Shouldn’t it have read “Hypocrisy of today’s men”? Is this the same Reuben of Patitos’ Gang? I am yet to see the difference between today’s men and yesterday’s men. Reuben you are just one of them”. Another said: “This must be a rejoinder to your Guardian Editorial of 4th May, 2010 – “Hurry up Jonathan”.
In the said item, Abati had among other things written: “When will his initiative on electoral reform begin? What is his blueprint for the Niger Delta? When will the construction companies begin the task of providing needed infrastructure in that region? Or if that is not possible, what structural and constitutional reforms does he want to push through to resolve existing conflicts? On corruption, is he really interested in the anti-corruption war or he is out to use the anti-corruption agencies to settle conflicts within the ruling PDP? These are not the key signals coming out of the Jonathan Presidency.”
At this instant though, the aide in the piece published on his website defended his boss as any other spokesperson would do. His reaction was not unexpected. Only short of labeling Obj, Nasir and Oby as enemies of the state, he did a good job proving that not only his boss’ critics were blessed with punching attacking lines. Even in the entire defence, he rained quiet over the trending $67 billion question.
With stocky lines and direct outrage, the aide in the “ hypocrisy of yesterday’s men” article left no one in doubt that his choice of ‘Yesterday’ was a reference to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s period in office, while ‘Men’ was a leotard axiom for the three personalities who were part of that regime but have been most vocal in the evaluation of Jonathan’s leadership.
According to him: “A loosely bound group of yesterday’s men and women seems to be on the offensive against the Jonathan administration; they pick issues with virtually every effort of the administration…“Arrogantly, they claim to be better and smarter than everyone else in the current government. They are ever so censorious, contrarian and supercilious. They have no original claim to their pretensions other than they were privileged to have been in the corridors of power once upon a time in their lives. They obviously got so engrossed with their own sense of importance they began to imagine themselves indispensable to Nigeria. It is dangerous to have such a navel-gazing, narcissistic group inflict themselves with so much ferocity on an otherwise impressionable public. We are in reality dealing with a bunch of hypocrites.”
Obj, as fondly called, has remained tireless in his attack. His main grouse as it were, is the president’s handling of the Boko Haram insurgency. Asides casting persistent vociferous slander on the man he helped win the presidential election about twenty-two months ago, he is reportedly rooting for his ouster come 2015. These days, the former General seizes every opportunity with the media to lampoon Jonathan, a development that usually cause chaos in Aso Rock.
But in the article, Abati took Baba headlong and pounded him this way: “When one of them was in charge of this same estate called Nigeria, he shut down the Port Harcourt airport and other airports for close to two years under the guise of renovation. The Port Harcourt airport was abandoned for so long it was overgrown with weeds after serving for months as a practice ground for motoring schools. It was reopened without any improvement and with so much money down the drain, and the pervasive suspicion that the reason it was shut down in the first place was to create a market for a new airline that had been allowed the monopoly use of the other airport in the city…Perhaps the greatest hypocrisy from our see-no-good commentators comes from the one who superintended over the near-collapse of the aviation sector who is now audacious enough to claim to be a social critic.”
As proven, the Ota farmer is not alone in his fault-finding mission. His “accomplice” and estranged acolyte, Nasir el-rufai, has also been aboard the hypocrisy (in Abati’s word) train until lately joined by his former colleague and pioneer head of Bureau of Public Procurement (aka Due Process Unit), Oby Ezekwesili.
El-rufai’s grumble in the last two years is, according to him, the nation’s unexciting economy. With column in a number of news tabloids and sites, the one-time Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, has taken on the administration in a way you would think he was getting paid for it. He however opined that this was necessary in order to let the electorates know that the government of the day was incapable of solving the present economic woes. He once said that the government was exhausting N1 billion daily on wasteful spending. With two or three instances of harassment by the State Security Service, the Congress of Progressive Change stalwart is undoubtedly one of Jonathan’s nightmares.
Referring to the ex head of Bureau for Public Enterprise, the former Guardian Editorial chairman mocked his upcoming book “The Accidental Public Servant”, his editorials and his “Introducing Young Voices” series, a platform through which he prints commentaries by young social critics.
“The accidental public servants who have turned that privilege into a life-long obsession and profession must be told to go get a life and find meaningful work to do” said Abati. “Most people become public servants by accident, but they soon get so used to the glamour of office that they lose sight of their own ordinariness. They use the system to climb: to become media celebrities, to gain international attention and to morph into self-appointed guardians of the Nigerian estate. They exploit ethnic and religious connections where they can or join political parties and run for political office. They even write books (I, me and myself books, packaged as cerebral stuff); if that still doesn’t work, they lobby newspaper houses for columns to write.”
“Unsatisfied with the newspaper columns, they open social media accounts and pretend to be voices of wisdom seeking to cultivate an angry crowd which they feed continually with their own brand of negativity. They arrange to give lectures at high profile events where they abuse the government of the day in order to gain attention…The fact that they boast of some followership and the media often treats them as icons, makes their nuisance factor worse. They and their protégés and proxies are united by one factor though: their hypocrisy”
Abati in the article, did not spare ‘Madam Due Process’, the articulate former World Bank vice president. Recently at the convocation ceremony of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, she mentioned that the President Umaru Yar’adua and incumbent, Jonathan frittered away a monstrous USD $67 billion dollars (or N10.3 trillion). It was one statement too many. That single allegation has seen not less than four government officials issuing different statements, with most filled with personal attack. Information Minister Labaran Maku accused Ezekwesili of misappropriating the special intervention fund allocated to the Education sector during her tenure as minister, even as presidential assistant on media and public matters, Doyin Okupe in his lament, described her as an individual who should be ignored by Nigerians. Curiously, both kept mum on the issue of a public debate proposed by Ezekwesili.
On his part, another presidential assistant (this one in charge of New Media) Reno Omokri, took to twitter to dish out his assault. Tweeting in a parable of the wicked stepmother, he said: “Youths think! A wicked step mother who’s been displaced by a new wife does not lose her wickedness because she offers you sweets…When the wicked step mother displaced by a new wife settles with the husband of the house, the step kids soon find out she was never a friend.”
Not minding her gender or brilliance, Abati dished up a slice of fit: “Those who believe that no one else can run Nigeria without them must be told to stop hallucinating. The former Ministers, former Governors, former DGs, and all sorts who have been busy quoting mischievous figures, spreading cruel propaganda must be reminded that the Jonathan administration is in fact trying to clean up the mess that they created. They want to own the game when the ball is not in their possession. They want to be the referee when nobody has offered them a whistle. They seek to play God, forgetting that the case for God is not in the hands of man.”
As events unfold, one thing clears, we will continue to have a lot to discuss in our homes, offices and relaxation spots. In the coming weeks, it is likely that more revelations will emerge about how the country was/is being run.
From all indications, the government camp and the determined “hypocrites” are on a ‘no retreat, no surrender battle’.
Certainly, the last has not been heard of the heated argument.
DailyPost

Money Laundering: Lamido's Son Remanded in Prison Custody


Aminu Lamido, eldest son of Jigawa state governor, Sule Lamido, has been remanded in prison custody until Tuesday following his arraignment on Monday at a Federal High Court in Kano on money laundering charges.

Judge Satun Riman ordered him remanded pending his ruling on Lamido's bail application after he was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Before today, Aminu Lamido had been enjoying administrative bail granted to him by the EFCC since December 13, a day after he was arrested at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport by EFFC operatives for allegedly not declaring $40,000 in his possession on his way to board an Egypt bound flight to Cairo
Naij

CPC Dismisses FCT Budget As Spectacle Of Outrageous Imprudence


By SaharaReporters, New York
The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has strongly condemned the N253Billion budget proposal by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mr Bala Muhammed, describing it as a “spectacle of outrageous imprudence,” and called on the National Assembly to investigate it.

In a statement on Sunday, it drew attention to several bizarre and outrageous lines embedded in the budget, including
·        N4 Billion for construction of First Lady’s mission building;
·        N5 Billion for rehabilitation of commercial sex workers;
·        N7 Billion for construction of two city gates; and
·        N150 Million for renovation of Vice President’s guest houses in Asokoro.
“It is appalling to see budgetary allocation as much as four billion Naira for the office of the First Lady that is not recognized by the Nation’s constitution,” the party lamented.  “A cursory view of these budgetary items easily reveals that this PDP-led regime is never in short supply of nauseous financial recklessness and indescribable superfluity of indiscretion.”
“At a time when many Nigerians have been rendered homeless by the anti-people stance of the PDP-led FCT administration, it is ludicrous to imagine that, rather than embarking on projects in alleviating the afflictions, this clueless regime has again shown its undisguised self-centeredness. Indeed, it beggars belief that a supposed democratic government can revel in such thoughtless insensitivity!”
CPC further recalled that only recently, a N7 Billion allocation for the construction of a new home for the Vice President was mindlessly jerked up to N16 Billion.  “Despite the show of outrage by the Nigerian people - as evinced by their elected representatives in the National Assembly- the same regime is demanding another humongous allocation for renovating the guest houses for the same Vice-president.”
The party said it has become unmistakably clear that, whilst Nigeria’s rulers demand selflessness and sacrifice from Nigerians, they show no example in practicing the patriotism they preach.
CPC said it has become convinced that the current PDP-led administration is incapable of judicious appropriation of scarce resources, and called on the National Assembly to investigate and reverse the scandalous budget proposals.
Saharareporters

Photo: Indian Scientists Develop ‘Snake Robots’ For Surveillance, Rescue Operations



Indian scientists have developed ‘snake robots’ that can slither through the rubble of buildings brought down by earthquakes, locate survivors and alert rescuers, hence to saving lives during disasters.
Fitted with a high-definition camera and ultrasonic sensors, snake robots are flexible enough to enter into a narrow opening and locate survivors under the rubble.
The 1.5-metre-long robot, made of aluminium, can be easily operated with a joystick and the camera fitted on its head can send images of people stuck under rubble to rescuers.
Developed by scientists from the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), Bangalore, the first prototype of these snake robots has been inducted in the Indian Army for trials.
“The idea behind a snake robot was to develop a device that can make rescue operations easy during disasters and calamities,” Sartaj Singh, the CAIR scientist who developed the robot, said.
“It can go to locations where it is difficult for rescuers to reach. It can send pictures and videos of survivors and thus help in saving the lives of people without delay,” said Singh.
The robot that looks like a snake has attracted attention at various exhibitions in India and abroad since last year. It was also exhibited at the Indian Science Congress in Kalkata in January.
 
“During any disaster, it is the initial hours which matter when it comes to saving lives of people. Usually a delay occurs in clearing the debris but with a snake robot we can follow a targeted approach and locate survivors fast,” said Singh.
Scientists said the robot can also be used by defence and paramilitary forces for pipe inspection to locate explosives in narrow tunnels in militancy — and naxal-affected areas in the country.
CAIR focuses on developing robotics technologies and systems to cater to the needs of the Indian armed forces while providing spin-off benefits to industrial, educational, medical and other civilian sectors.
The centre is also developing other robots — used for surveillance — for the defence forces, scientists said.
Some of the specialised mobile robots include gadgets that can walk on rough terrain or climb the wall and walk on the ground. They can fly too.
All of them are fitted with cameras that can take images and videos during surveillance.
“The army is trying out the snake robot. Once they give the report that the gadget is useful to them, we will start production according to the demand,” Singh added.
TalkOfNaija

Akpabio opposes creation of new states

by Chris Agabi, Lagos
Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State says creating more states in Nigeria is unnecessary.
Fielding questions from reporters at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos at the weekend, Akpabio said while it is necessary for the constitution to be reviewed, he described the agitation for more states as mere ethnic hype rather than economic viability of the states.
 “We need to look at the viability of states, so that we don’t end up creating states on ethnicity or tribal sentiment,” he said.
  “The constitution review even with the current legislature, we must continue to fine tune until we get or have acceptable people’s constitution. You know the history of Nigeria. You know how we got there. It came through various committees and various structures of the military, so we have to actually bring out the peoples constitution and it is not going to be a day business. I always say that democracy outside Nigeria has thrived for over 200 years in some countries but in Nigeria, we are learning and it is a learning process.
 “The current and future reviews will only succeed in fine tuning in ensuring that democracy deepens in the country and there is no doubt that after this, we will still do another one because there would still be a lot of agitations. Not that I don’t support creation but when we are talking about state creation we also need to look at the viability of states, so that we don’t end up creating states on ethnicity or tribal sentiment”.
 “We must look at how we can manage what we have today to have holistic development of all the states of the federation instead of partitioning the country into ethnic or tribal groups, at the end of the day, we can end up with over 300 states”, he said.
DailyTrust

There's No Perfect Age To Find A Husband



Heterosexual women today, in certain milieus, find themselves placed into one of two categories: too young to settle down, and too old to find a man. There is a window of opportunity to get married, but it is ephemeral almost to the point of non-existence. It falls at a different age according to region, or the idiosyncratic biases of one's circle, but hovers around 27.
"Too young" refers not to teen marriage, but to any commitment entered into by a grown woman deemed still a child by those around her. Here's how it works: A young woman hears from friends and family that she needs to focus on her career or education, not some guy.
She is warned of certain dangers: unsolicited male attention; unintended pregnancy, as if intended pregnancy were also a thing; and the desire hardwired into all straight men to turn their girlfriends into 1950s housewives. To entertain the possibility of it being difficult to find a husband, to even utter the expression "find a husband," is to regress to another era. And this advice is incredibly appealing, a rejection of the quaint notion that female heterosexuality is the desire not for men, but for a white picket fence. And then, suddenly, the message shifts. A not-quite-as-young woman will learn that rather than having all the time in the world to start a family, her biological clock is about to strike midnight.
That even if she doesn't want children, she is now on the cusp of being too old to find a husband. Hasn't she heard of the man shortage, which only gets worse with age? 40-year-old men can (as will be news to most 40-year-old men) date any 23-year-old they want. And those degrees, that burgeoning career? Maybe feminist dreams shall be realized, or maybe it was just an elaborate mating strategy, tailored for an era when the highest-status men demand women with educational backgrounds simil
But individual cases are, well, individual. A 22-year-old may already have had all the dates or relationships she wanted, and be prepared to commit. While the woman of a certain age who regrets dumping a long-ago boyfriend has become something of a cliché, there probably are women who regret ending things simply because those whose advice they value urged them to move on. And while romantic options tend to decrease with age, there is no official end date to when a woman can find a husband. Let's all become more accepting both of women settling down younger than the "right" age, and of women remaining unattached past that point. In the mean time, we as women may—and plenty have already done so—do as we please, and care less what those around us think.
 TalkOfNaija