When I drop by on NL I 'cherry pick' from the frontpage, view topics worth my attention and sign off.
Stopping by today I have found reason to say welldone to the OP for sharing his Mckinsey interview
experience. Just to chip in to what I believe you already know. When an interviewer responds like
yours did while mentioning that paint was actually the reason sighted for the spike in fuel cost,
what he could also be saying is - while all you mentioned also in some form contributed to the
rising fuel cost, I wish you had mentioned the weight of the paint!! To be honest with you
Jarus, it was a delight going through your responses and I will be on the lookout for the
next one.

People, we need more contributions like this on NL to generate the level of intellectual
discourse that has been lacking on this forum for a while. Thanks once again Jarus
and best wishes with your preparations for the next stage.

Do ALL you can my brother to ensure she feels loved, understood and free to express herself. Get her to move in with you asap and create an environment of love, acceptance and understanding for her. Go easy on her, open up and let her know you draw strength for your difficult times when you remember that you have someone like her around. Say little but reassure her that you understand what she's going through and that you will be there for her. Be ready to listen when she warms up to you because she will once she senses she can trust you. It will take some doing my brother but it is possible. Good luck to you!!

Having read this piece about the locomotive assembly, pls find my take in bold italics.

General Electric said it will start assembling locomotives in Nigeria by next year.

Really?? Did GE say so?? Pls show us their contract statement.


If that happens, it could save Nigeria some huge foreign exchange usually used in acquiring locomotives from Brazil. It will help rejuvenate Nigeria’s dying competencies in the railway sector and in growing the sector faster.

Usually, a statement of FACT is NOT made using the word IF. Slide in the word WHEN in that paragraph and it will convey a whole new meaning.


Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) Mr. Seyi Sijuwade revealed at the weekend that the agreement the Federal Government signed with General Electric should come into force in 2013.

In my opinion, the IFs and the SHOULDs of this world have nothing to do when representing FIRM statements of FACTS.

Mr. Sijuwade stated these to our correspondent during the NRC’s first senior management staff retreat and award night in Lagos.

President Goodluck Jonathan had said in his Democracy Day, May 29, address that government had signed an agreement with GE to assemble locomotives in Nigeria.

Jonathan said the project would enhance the sustainability of the rail sector and make Nigeria a major hub in West and Central Africa.

GE will be utilising NRCs existing workshops for the assembly plants.

Mr. Sijuwade said: “GE will have to use NRC workshops because the rail lines are connected to our workshops. If you assemble elsewhere, you will have a challenge transporting the locos to the tracks. Also, our workshops will be improved by GE to modern workshops.

“Why the assembly wouldn’t start just yet is that GE is also looking for investors and partners because they wouldn’t want to take all the risks alone.

Offering this excuse here seems to tell me that this GE/Federal Govt. "arrangement" must have been in the making for as long as only them can tell!!!

He said: “By next year, am sure, GE should have commenced work on the assembly facilities. But first, they also want to conduct independent track integrity on the new tracks we are building so that they would be confident the locomotives they are assembling will be put to use.

Next year could very well mean next decade or never at all especially when weak, open - ended statements like these are misrepresented to mean statements of HARD FACTS.

“Nigeria’s commitment to GE is that, if they commence assembling the locomotives, we will buy at least 200 over the next 10 years. We need to make that commitment for GE to be assured of return on investment. It is a launch order.

Here the uncertainty of the "project" is raised again with the "IF" word as though there are no firm commitments by the parties concerned.

“But, the fact that we are making that launch order of 200 locos in the next 10 years isn’t a guarantee for any kind of price to be given us, we will still get the best deal for the offer,” he added.


In all of it sha, I sensed a casualness in the way and manner a communication of such importance was being handled by a supposedly high ranking official. Will this "project" see the light of day? Only time will tell.

....Sam meets Sung at Google towers on Apple boulevard. Now, let the 'games' begin!!!

It is really sad for the students caught up in the London Met wahala, I hope they get sorted out. Seeking out great schools in the UK, US or wherever should be the pre-occupation of every prospecting student. Trust me, taking time to do some research, seeking information from those in the know and checking out university league tables will pay off eventually for anyone seriously thinking of making an educational investment moreso in a foreign country. Because that is what it is, an investment!!

That said. There are several university league tables employing different criteria at arriving the positions given to universities so assessed based on their performance on the set indices used. A combination of two or three renowned tables will definitely help.

And when you get into a top notch institution, please sit your bum down and study because the demand to apply ones self academically will be very high. And yes, there have been reported cases of cheating in the world's top universities too!!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/3287653/Half-of-Cambridge-students-admit-cheating.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-30/harvard-plagiarism-probe-under-way-for-about-125-students.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8409585/Warning-over-cheating-at-Oxford-University.html

@kobikwelu

Good for him if he is a great mind. But what I expect from great minds in situations like his is simple. Lay out a step by step plan of action with time limits, execution dates and expected outcomes for every event we plan to compete for in the Olympics based on our strengths/competitive advantage. Forward same to the FG for funding or solicit same from interested multinationals, telcos, banks, corporate organisations and even high net worth individuals. This should have been done well in advance of the Olympics itself. If the funding or the level of engagement received does not reflect what would yeild great results in terms of preparations worthy of a country's participation in an event like that of the Olympics, then I would have expected a great mind to have tendered his resignation prior to the start of the Games giving clear reasons why he can't put up with the '' same old, same old fire brigade'' approach to doing things in Nigeria, period!!

As for me, I am dead sick of all these excuses we love giving when we fail to do things right.

this is where you are dead wrong!!! the olympics is not yet over...

Oh really?? I bet the remaining few days will see Nigerian athletes ''conquer'' the Games with medals abi?? For your information sir, the closing ceremony holds on Sunday August 12 2012 and the last time I checked today is the 11th of August 2012.

the dude is just trying to let everyone including uncle jona why this group was a failure!!!

- Well, this group is a FAILURE because the LEADERS (within the Sports Ministry and beyond) have FAILED!! The athletes will NOT go to the Games and perform magic, you can't give what you don't have.

i do not expect a detailed plan now..

- If you understood clearly what I said in my write up, I am sure you wouldn't have made this statement. I was responding to a poster's contribution and detailing what I would have expected him to do having assumed the position of Sports Minister especially as it concerned preparations for the Olympic Games. All the plans, preparations and engagement I mentioned earlier ought to have been made well in ADVANCE of the Games itself and NOT ''now'' as you stated in your post.

what i expect is, after the olympics ...use a couple of months to draw out a well detailed (seems like he can do this)plan with specific goals and dates and most importantly!!! hope he gets the right funding!!!

- Here we share the opinion (as I believe well meaning Nigerians do too) that we NEED to prepare well for competitions and that preparing well amongst other things mean committing enough time, effort and money to achieve GREAT results. I am sick of mediocre performances and the ''wish me luck'' syndrome!! Where we differ ofcourse is when it ought to have been done and I maintain that preparations should have been WELL IN ADVANCE OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES.

sports is money ...and if any of you expect miracles without money, you are joking...

- I am well aware of this and I made mention of funding from different sources in that write up. Many things if not everything worth doing cost money and I mean REAL money and sports is NOT an exception.

But seriously, I am still wondering where I got it ''dead wrong''

@Marchman

The Minister actually wrote this> He is indeed very intelligent. He made a first class/distinction at Sussex University in Development Studies.
He is a winner of the Chevening Scholarship. A great mind.Check him out!

Good for him if he is a great mind. But what I expect from great minds in situations like his is simple. Lay out a step by step plan of action with time limits, execution dates and expected outcomes for every event we plan to compete for in the Olympics based on our strengths/competitive advantage. Forward same to the FG for funding or solicit same from interested multinationals, telcos, banks, corporate organisations and even high net worth individuals. This should have been done well in advance of the Olympics itself. If the funding or the level of engagement received does not reflect what would yeild great results in terms of preparations worthy of a country's participation in an event like that of the Olympics, then I would have expected a great mind to have tendered his resignation prior to the start of the Games giving clear reasons why he can't put up with the '' same old, same old fire brigade'' approach to doing things in Nigeria, period!!

As for me, I am dead sick of all these excuses we love giving when we fail to do things right.

Nigeria is losing the United States as its biggest oil customer amid surging output and refinery closures in North America, prompting Africa’s top producer to ship its crude twice the distance to Asia.
U.S purchases of Nigerian crude fell to a five-year low in February, knocking the OPEC member to sixth from fifth among suppliers to the world’s largest oil consumer, Energy Department data show, Bloomberg reports.
To offset the trend, the country is sending cargoes to Asia, where refiners are set to increase imports in June to the highest in a year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Qua Iboe, a light oil that’s Nigeria’s most abundant grade, slumped to an 18-month low in April as buyers in Asia that typically use cheaper, heavier crudes, demanded price cuts to cover the cost of shipping it halfway around the world.
The voyage from the Bonny Terminal in Nigeria to Tianjin, China, is 12,172 miles, compared with 5,847 miles to New York Harbour.
“It’s a very plausible scenario that one day the U.S won’t need to import crude oil from Nigeria,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director at Petromatrix, a Zug, Switzerland-based consultant. “The U.S is awash with light crude. Nigerian crude may need to be priced at a discount to go to new markets in Asia.”
Boosted by drilling in shale-rock formations such as North Dakota’s Bakken and Texas’ Eagle Ford, crude production in the U.S rose to 6.24 million barrels a day in the week ended May 18, the highest level since 1999, government data show. The country’s Nigerian oil imports fell to 352,000 barrels a day in February, about a third of the amount purchased a year earlier, according to the Energy Department.
Refiners are closing plants on the U.S East Coast, the main destination for Nigerian exports, amid falling returns. Sunoco idled the 194,000-barrel-a-day Marcus Hook plant in Pennsylvania on December 1.
The company also said it would decide by July whether to halt production at its 355,000-barrel-a-day Philadelphia plant. ConocoPhillips stopped its 190,000-barrel-a-day Trainer, Pa., site on September 30. The facilities together account for half of East Coast processing capacity.

“The U.S. is losing its position as a lead buyer of Nigerian crude,” said David Wech, an analyst at JBC Energy in Vienna.
The slide in Nigeria’s status as a U.S. supplier marks the decline of a relationship that dates from 1961, when Texaco Overseas began operations in the African producer. The country kept up exports to the U.S even as attacks by militant groups in the Niger Delta cut output by more than 28 per cent from 2006 to 2009.
Reduced U.S demand still hasn’t curtailed Nigeria’s exports. Crude and condensate sales are on course to rise to 2.27 million barrels a day next month, close to their highest level in 10 months, according to loading programs obtained by Bloomberg News.
Demand for Nigeria’s oil may also be supported by South Africa as it seeks replacement sources amid international sanctions against Iran.



''One day the river will overflow,
and there'll be nowhere for us to go ;
and we will run, run...
wishing we had put out the fire, oh no...''

As I read through this thread, I could feel Asa's song
filtering through my inner being as I tried to process
this information in relation to the global financial
uncertainty, Europe's financial meltdown, Syria and
the continued agitations in the Middle East, America's
shale energy revolution etc etc.

I know of NO sane country that would be wasting her resources
(human and natural) the way Nigeria is doing. Serious plans for
alternative incomes ought to have been in place by the 80's. I'm
afraid if things were to spiral out of control now on the world
stage, Nigeria as presently constituted would be done with, period!!

In my opinion I would say this, if you love someone enough to consider having a family with then
marriage is a good place to start my brother. What is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
The choice to want to bring a life into this world is NOT a thing to be considered lightly,
it is a huge responsibility. You MUST be ready emotionally, financially, physically etc.
You will learn to be more selfless and give a greater consideration to the needs of your
child, cultivate patience as a virtue, abound in love and basically be responsible for
nurturing him/her to GREATNESS physically, emotionally, spiritually and educationally.

In all these, you will have to love and care for yourself and wifey too. In essence,
having a family and raising a child and equipping him/her with the necessary things
of life might quite frankly be the first true test of being a man. I will be
deceiving you if I say it would be a smooth sail all the way but I can tell you
one thing - It is possible and well worth the effort. So pls think it through!!

To answer your question - I will assume you mean the appropriate time, right?
Once you are ready and capable of fulfilling the above stated responsibilities,
you should do fine.

I am glad I was born in your era, I am fulfilled that with my own eyes I saw
your conquest on the field of play. Thank you for all that you gave to the
beautiful game and for the joy you brought to its teeming followers the
world over.

May your soul rest in peace and may your family find the comfort to
bear your loss, Amen.

Ifymma: Thank God he survived it, it would have been a great lost

British Airways fined £58.5m for fuel price-fixing

British Airways is to pay a reduced £58.5m fine for colluding with rival Virgin Atlantic on fuel surcharges, finally putting to bed an investigation that has lasted more than five years. BA admitted in 2007 that it had colluded with Virgin over price fixing on long-haul flights between August 2004 and January 2006. At the time, BA agreed to pay a record fine of £121.5m imposed by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), but later reassessed its position after the OFT's criminal case against a number of former BA executives collapsed. The OFT said the fine had sent a "strong message" on price fixing to the industry, and added that the reduced fine reflected the level of BA's co-operation in the investigation. Ali Nikpay, OFT senior director of cartels and criminal enforcement, said: "The size of the fine underlines that it is important for companies to take steps to ensure that they have an effective compliance culture. The fine would have been higher still but for the co-operation provided by BA throughout the OFT's investigation. Without this, together with BA's admission of the infringement, [/b]the case would have taken considerably longer to resolve." A spokesman for BA said, "We are pleased that this matter, which concerned events between 2004 and 2006, has been settled." [b]Under the OFT’s leniency policy, Virgin, which blew the whistle on its agreement with BA, was not fined. A spokesman for Virgin said, "VAA regrets its involvement in this matter but is pleased that a final determination has been reached. VAA reported this matter to the OFT in 2006 and has retained fully immunity since then.” Last year, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic were hit with a fine of more than $200m (£127m) by Nigerian authorities for "colluding" on passenger fuel surcharges. Both airlines rejected the fine, which was later overturned by a judicial panel.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/9213267/British-Airways-fined-58.5m-for-fuel-price-fixing.html


Now my question is, who are these judicial panel members How did they come to overturning this case??
Just a few days ago we heard the conclusion of the Ibori case and now this?? Just thinking aloud!!

We all know Nigeria is performing way below what she is capable of
and we have the resources (human/financial etc) to build a modern
and prosperous society. It is NOT rocket science to identify your
needs and set out to plan towards effectively satisfying those
needs based on what resources you have. Unfortunately we have
a situation where human beings in positions of authority know
almost nothing about service, economics or how a very high rate
in the population figures can affect/limit development if not
well managed. Sadly their souls have been sold out to insanely
high levels of greed to even care!!

Nigeria's population can be effectively controlled and managed
but I am in serious doubt as to how that can be achieved with
the crop of so called leaders presently ''idling'' away in
various positions of authority in Nigeria. The application of
the 'thought process' is seemingly non-existent in the way and
manner this country has been 'run' for several decades.

But seriously, how did we get to the point where people who knew
nothing about managing their family finances are now the ones
in charge of the nation's purse and mis-managing our lives??

must you comment because people are commenting?
do you know the logistics and risk involved in flying workers from lagos to bonny?
do you know how much bristow,caverton and aero contractors charge?
do you think that oil workers trekk over the seas? what about employment opportunities where one is asked to come to lagos to collect employment letter to work in bonny?
do you know how many servicing companies in ph just because of SPDC's presence?
DBN one of the biggest NLNG contractors are likely to follow then others, that is job opportunities in my book.
osun state and NLNG? are you a ghost? the newest NLNG project is ongoing in brass LGA in bayelsa state as we speak, what gas infastructures are you talking about?
on a crew change day, exxon mobil provides choppers from offshore locations to Eket air strip then another chatered flight from Eket to lagos every 14days, have you phantomed the cost implication?
on major projects, these flights operate like lagos is back door.
anyways, common sense is uncommon on nairaland.

My sentiments exactly. I would like to see a situation where more purposeful, well researched and
intelligent contributions like yours are made on NL so that the forum could be THE meeting point
for the cultivation of ideas for the re-building/re-organization of Nigeria. I would really
love to see that happen and NOT wild/uninformed opinions as has been the case all this while!!

The topic of this post is MISLEADING!!! It is NOT a donation
but a SPECIAL GRANT as is clearly stated in the first sentence
of the news report.

As to whether the CBN is well within its powers to award grants?
That I do not know.

@ Deepsoul

That is exactly the RED FLAG, an URGENT REQUEST to update SENSITIVE information (password / pin number or username) through a supplied link!!!  If you MUST change / update anything about your account, please walk into
your branch and deal with the appropriate official. NEVER respond to any such requests online. Period!!!

This is truly a sad day.

Having followed the exploits of this fine, soft spoken gentleman on the tracks
while he pursued greatness for his fatherland with the best of the best in the
world of athletics, I finally had the honour of meeting with him one on one in
one of the RCCG parishes. It turned out he was a committed member and
over the years I have had every reason to believe that this guy is one of a kind.

May his gentle soul rest in peace and may God give his family the grace to bear
this loss.

@ Spyker and Justwise

There is NO way daft children and relatives of our politicians can pull through with the visa requirements
of say the H-1B or the O-1 visa categories as administered by the US, trust me!! The H-1B visa category
in particular is the exclusive reserve of the finest of the finest!! There is more to just the submission of
paper documentation, you'll prove your mettle one on one, no go come!! 

I can't comment about this UK version though.

Visa categories like this one isn't meant for everyone, it is usually targeted to draw certain individuals
that possess qualities/abilities that the government thinks for whatever reasons will meet specific
goals or targets it has set. Set goals vary, it could be research in the further advancement of
science and technology, business innovation, sports or even in the field of nuclear medicine!!

The United States operates these "genius" visa categories in its H-1B and O-1 visas and
I wasn't aware the UK had any. Hmmm, now i do!!

If the story we've read here is all there is about the Nigerian coy and her American partner in a
purported multi-billion dollar project supposedly signed, sealed and almost delivered over the
internet without the corresponding inputs from internationally recognised and independently
verifiable project professionals or neither of the country's relevant trade/investment agencies
and/or ministerial apparatus, then really, these people need to get their heads examined. Period!!   

And if the information as contained here is how the EFCC handled this case, then we are in a deep mess!

The debt deal bickering shone a spotlight on the American economy and her ability to push through what is necessary to get the economy back on consistent growth. Her growth prospects for the medium term is grim and in the long term uncertain and the only way the stocks will go is down south taking into consideration concerns also in the Eurozone economies especially now that Spain is showing signs of acute economic "haemorrhage" and there are scramblings in Italy to keep its own financial house in order!! Portugal is an honourable mention in this group too, so technically speaking, the downgrade was being expected. The question really is, will the other rating agencies follow suit considering the already "bleeding" world stock exchanges??


@ Kizito96
However tempting it is to play the racial card here, it is pretty difficult to come to terms with the furore generated by Obama's one time request to raise the debt limit compared to the "not worthy of news" stance that other debt limit requests may have received before now. Sad isn't it??

Wow!!! With all the negativity playing out at the world's stock exchanges, this isn't coming
at the best of times for the US and the business world at large. What's your take on this??



(CNN) -- The Standard & Poor's rating agency announced Friday that it has downgraded the U.S. credit rating to AA+ from its top rank of AAA.
"The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics," the agency said about the move, which was announced after the markets had closed.
Rating agencies -- S&P, Moody's and Fitch -- analyze risk and give debt a grade that is supposed to reflect the borrower's ability to repay its loans.
The safest bets are stamped AAA. That's where U.S. debt has stood for years. Moody's first assigned the United States a AAA rating in 1917.
Rumors of a downgrade surfaced shortly after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced in Rome that finance ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized nations may meet "in a few days" to discuss the sagging world economy.
The G7 members are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
Asian markets sink Markets across Asia, Europe down Jobs: Calming waters or raising fear? July job numbers better than expected

The announcement came on a day when financial anxiety gripped the globe. Stock markets worldwide saw intense volatility amid worries of a widening debt crisis in Europe and a stalled economic recovery in the United States.
Stock market values fell across Asia and Europe on Friday. U.S. markets were dramatically up and down a day after having their worst day since the 2008 financial crisis.
Concerns about debt issues in Europe appeared to battle with optimism that a positive U.S. jobs report indicated the American economy is not headed into a new recession, the dreaded "double-dip."
"The crisis in Europe is quickly becoming on par with the financial crisis of 2008," David Levy, portfolio manager at Kenjol Capital Management, told CNN Money. "The jobs report shows that things aren't getting much worse in the U.S., but the focus is clearly on Europe at this point."
The Dow Jones index spiked 170 points in early trading on a better-than-expected jobs report, but then dropped by 200 points in mid-morning trading. It closed Friday up 60.93 points (0.54%). The Nasdaq closed down 23.98 points (0.94%).
In London, the FTSE 100 closed off 146 points, or 2.7%, to close the week down nearly 10%. Germany's DAX fell 2.78% to finish the week down nearly 13%. And the French CAC 40 declined 1.26% to finish the week off 10.73%.
"We are going to get through this," Obama said before the downgrade at the Washington Navy Yard, where he announced a jobs program for veterans. "Things will get better. And we're going to get there together."
Obama, who spoke Friday afternoon with France's Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the crisis, noted that July marked the 17th consecutive month of private-sector job growth in the U.S. but said much more work needs to be done.
CNN's Ben Brumfield, Laura Smith-Spark, Mariano Castillo, Mike Pearson and Kendra Petersen contributed to this report.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/BUSINESS/08/05/global.economy/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Let me start by saying that having gone through this thread as well as numerous other threads on NL and indeed other social media "outlets" the world over, one recurring decimal has been the potential to find people of varying intellectual abilities attempting to lay down their "baskets of knowledge" to spill its contents thereof for public consumption. In this case, just a few have made excellent and well thought out/researched contributions. We need more of this and more also of people who can process information dispassionately even where the views expressed run contrary to theirs.

To the discussion at hand. Yes, Nigeria does have intelligence gathering outfits like every sovereign nation of the world. However, the "business" of intelligence gathering is a CAPITAL intensive business that involves a complex web of activities which draws its workability from the existence of certain key factors within/outside the nation state. Intelligence and security management goes beyond funding though and is dependent also, amongst other things on tested, dedicated and patriotic men and women of the relevant agencies as well as on intelligence sharing with other foreign agencies like the MI5, Mossad, ISI etc.

However, where corruption is endemic then the possibility of a tainted intelligence trail is likely. Where this happens, trust is destroyed because technically speaking, everyone is spying on everyone!!   

@K2Kay


How many CCTVs in Nigeria work?

I bet the ones in and around the banks are in working condition!!   
Quote from: werepeLeri on Yesterday at 03:34:18 PM
All of them.
Sorry to bust your bubble, the fact that they work doesn't mean they are all good enough,my twin works at GTB and his phones were stolen from his bag, later when the tapes from the CCTV were being played to unveil the culprit, GUESS WHAT? the picture was so blurry that they culdnt make out a darn thing yet they saw how the culprit performed the act but was FACELESS at day's end!



Iam really sorry about your brother's loss and I hope the bank replaced his phone. Just as there could be many reasons for the installation of security camera's, individual needs vary widely too and this is reflected on what it is you want to capture, how much detail of the recordings you want to see, the size of the room you want to cover, the lighting condition of that room as well as the model/capability of the CCTV equipments itself etc etc. Ofcourse, one other very important aspect will be the personnel handling the installation, they have to be people who know what they are doing. Period!!

If all these are taken into consideration and applied professionally, what happened in your brother's case sure would never, ever repeat itself!! Trust me!

@ Intrepid

You should know these things are automated and there is always a way to backdoor them


You are right, atm machines are automated and can't think. But the complaint will be made to someone who can you know!! And since "these guys" are automated, I would have thought they would send back the exact amount they brought out, right? Anyway, I would love to check out a few things to see why "it" replaced back N3k and not N5k into the cash holder afterall!! And the different CCTV angles would be one of those things to consult if you know what I mean!!   

How many CCTVs in Nigeria work?

I bet the ones in and around the banks are in working condition!!   

@ Lastpage

Exactly my point my brother!! A range of some of these skimming devices come complete with bluetooth reception capabilities that leaves practically everyone vulnerable. Now, as we discuss this, practically every home in Nigeria has an individual who uses a smart phone even as the number of blackberry users continue to rise dramatically. Now, it is from these pool of data users who hardly know little or nothing about protecting their identity online that the predators will swoop on! Imagine a combination of these pocket-friendly yet sophisticated devices in the hands of fraudulent minded individuals in a place as complex as Nigeria! Then you have an idea about the scale of intrusion Iam talking about here. I bet our inept and corrupt Police Force have some serious work on their hands to make investigative sense of the "abracadabra" about car thefts, identity thefts etc that will soon be the order of the day in Lagos and in other Nigerian cities.

Please be informed about this and educate others too.

@ Denzel2009

There would be enough prove to discredit his query if he tried this on an ATM machine that has a camera. Besides this, most banks situate their ATM machines within the sightings of their CCTV camera's at different angles.

@ Intrepid

Welldone for your act of bravery and for sharing this info with us all. Credit/debit card skimming sadly is rampant in Europe and North America and is a growing trend in other parts of the world and so people MUST be vigilant (and I mean it seriously) when using their cards for payment or for cash withdrawals on ATM's and POS terminals. As I type this, there are even tiny, sophisticated hand-held skimming devices in the market now that can be used on unsuspecting victims to 'ferry' their hard earned cash from their bank accounts without them ever suspecting anything. Again I say 'be vigilant' because there have been several such cases in the US and in the UK especially that occured in restaurants, fast food shops, petrol/gas stations, shopping malls and most ATM's not situated within bank premises.

Sadly, you'll have to prove beyond reasonable doubt to the bank that you did not pass on your details to someone else for them to ever believe you and re-imburse your account. Sadly again, this is pretty difficult to prove, isn't it??

Hmm, interesting contributions!!

The power to choose resides with every1 and we exercise it everyday of our lives. But the power to choose wisely is dependent on several other factors that may not be readily available to every1. This is where your educational exposure, family influences/guidance, societal norms/pressures, peer influences, religious inclinations, personal convictions, print/broadcast/social media intrusions etc help form or dictate what your daily choices are. Whether they be good, bad or great choices depends on the mix of all these things and more in different proportions and how it affects you. The outcome could be positive or negative based on how you process these influences. Ultimately though, the choice will still be yours to make!

For those who have come out doing great in life having made no mistakes and are stainless, well done!! (I doubt if there's any1 like that on planet earth!!) For those who 'mis-stepped' and have carried themselves up again, determined to do better congrats to you!! For those who need help, please get it asap.

Truth is that people process information and by extension those experiences i mentioned earlier differently hence the onus is on the individual to equip himself well enough to handle life through wise decision making!!

Good luck 2 every1.