A state of emergency should be declared in that state as it has become really dangerous. I was kidnapped between Warri and Sapele earlier this year and I must say it was the worst experience I have had in my life. The indegenes of that state are just too greedy of gain.

Did she wear mini or short skirt to church? From the way the comedian is reacting, it is obvious she was on a mission. If that could not be achieved in the church because of the rules preventing 'tempters' from coming close, then it can be achieved using mass and social media.

The Governor should be sued for assault and sent to jail.

Are they all climbing the mountain today?

Let's check on the background of the Architectural company that did this design. Many institutions are unknowingly carrying satanic symbols because they gave the design to companies with evil affiliations. Many marketing firms have their leaders deeply occultic.The designer of this site may be occultic or simply ignorant of what the symbols mean. May have copied it from a design outside the country. I once heard of an Architect designing an apartment complex in Lagos with a heated swimming pool. A copy and paste design from cold climates.

Laudable steps. However she should never become a puppet in the hands of the West. First mistake is the devaluation of the currency which she succumbed to. The next mistake will be lifting the ban on homosexuality. Five years down the line, the country will be worse off for both decisions, economically and morally. The people will suffer impoverishment of a high proportion as incomes will not rise and purchasing power is eroded by the devaluation. We saw this happen in Nigeria in the 80s when all of a sudden, a teacher's salary could no longer buy a pair of Italian shoes.

You remember the guy who came forward as James Onanefe Ibori some years back and destroyed a credible case! The penalty for perverting the course of Justice in Nigeria should be Life in Kirikiri. That would deter this kind of people from 'taking a micky' out of our legal system.

Tunde Bakare's Lagos group is pushing for social justice and end to corruption in addition to the fuel subsidy protest. He said the Lagos protests will continue and move to Abuja until these issues are addressed. I do hope NLC will not lay down its 'arms' too quickly. I hope Nigerian's will not give up the fight too quickly. Even if the government reverts to the N65/ litre price of petrol, we are not done yet. We want corruption stamped out of Nigeria, we want Nepotism and tribalism out of Nigeria, we want the thieves in NNPC and the fraudulent oil marketers brought to trial. We want a thorough investigation carried out by EFCC, assisted by external bodies like the Israeli Mossad or United Nations to ensure nothing is covered up. We want to get to the bottom of this. Failure to do this now is postponing the evil day and we may one day go the way of Libya. I do hope this will not happen. Let us get to the root of our problems now and prosecute those who should be, name them, shame them, retrieve or money from them and their household. All those who have been given oil blocks by past regimes should be brought to book and our money taken back. It is only in Nigeria that Presidents, Senators, House of Reps executives, retired generals and civilian friends of the our politicians are awarded oil blocks. Can we investigate how Anyim Pius Anyim build the mansion in his home state? Can we investigate how an ex Inspector General of Police built his Palace in Akure Ondo State? What was his total earnings as a civil servant and what is his pension? Can we investigate those responsible for the collapse of the stock market and causing Nigerian middle class so much harm? Can we investigate how United Bank for Africa was taken over by Hakeem Belo Osagie under IBB and later by Tony Elumelu under Obasanjo? Can we start asking questions and getting answers? Can we start prosecuting and shaming people found culpable? Only then can we be sure we will not have Rawlings style of cleansing or the Libyan style of revolution someday.

This man is unintelligent. This is how all our stealing leaders will come openly and confess like idiots without realising Nigerians will be smart enough to read between the lines. The rogue should resign immediately and the anti-corruption agencies should go after him for prosecution. In civilised countries, a crime committed can still be punished 50 years later if the perpetrator is found out. Maku has been found out for taking bribes years ago, he should be tried. He betrayed the confidence of his student followers. Shame! Such should never lead Nigeria.

Never join a cult or fraternity in your lifetime.

I agree that what is served on International flights is poison. I have taken ill both times I flew Arik from London. Something definitely wrong with the pepper served with the rice.

It is obvious that Arik will not continue as a business in not too distant future unless there is a management change. Business strategy is poor. How can you explain going half empty daily from Abuja to London and back. I have been on that route at least twice and the plane was hardly half full. Something is wrong with the business model. The company also has PR issues. My bag was broken into and an item worth over 100 pds was stolen. I reported to the company and the website says I will be contacted within 28 working days. It is over two months and I have not been contacted. What a useless company. I was told while in England that if you have problem with the company in Nigeria (i.e, you express grievance over an issue which customer services should take seriously) that they will set the police on you and get you arrested if you prove difficult. What a dying company. You can recognise businesses that will fail from their customer services.

Igbo-Ora
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Igbo-Ora is a town in Oyo State, south-western Nigeria, situated 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Lagos. As of 2001, the population of the town was approximately 60,000 people. The unusually large number of twin births in the region have earned the town the nickname Twin Capital of the World.
This phenomenon of a large number of twin births is not unique to Igbo-Ora; it has also been observed in the town of Kodinji in India and Cândido Godói in Brasil. In Igbo-Ora, research has suggested that the multiple births could be related to the eating habits of the women in the region.[1] Though no direct relation between dietary intake and twin births has been proved, a research study carried out at the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital has suggested that a chemical found in Igbo-Ora women and the peelings of a widely consumed tuber (yams) could be responsible.

Obviously we have a corruption and implementation problem in Nigeria. That has to be dealt with for progress to be made. it is however difficult to win the battle against corruption while fighting with pen, paper and internet from overseas. We will do well to all be home leading a revolution to get rid of the old guard that brought us to where we are. On the SAP/ IMF matter, I still believe there has to be a better way of achieving the core objective of poverty eradication/ alleviation without selling the country and reducing the quality of life of the citizens

SAP did not work for us because it was designed for a working system. Nigeria did not have a working and effective framework to make SAP work. Moreover, there are various write ups that show that contrary to IMF and World Bank claim to the contrary, SAP has made developing nations poorer. Take for example major cuts to expenditure on health, education and development while debt repayment is made a priority. The greatest investment any nation could make is the development of the intellect of its people. Will cutting educational budget achieve this? The standard of living of the recipients gets reduced drastically. IMF gave Ireland money at an interest rate that would kill their economy. I was in the UK when this deal was being brokered and I heard the argument the British government was putting across to its people - "we have everything to gain from this deal". They borrowed at about 3% and lent to Ireland through the IMF at about 5%, so they would gain in the long term. The UK's reason for taking part in the bail out was not for Irish interest but to protect British banks exposed to Irish debts. The IMF represents some Western Countries' interest and would kill any economy in order to maintain the position of its current members.

This is not a blame game issue. I am saying wholesale government withdrawal will not augur well for Nigeria. It will lead to the system being hijacked by a few to the detriment of the majority. We need a system where the government plays an active part in the economy. Those who pushed for deregulation in the West are moving back to some form of regulation. Tighter controls on banks, on trade balances (exports and imports), on migration of labour etc. We in Nigeria are agitating for what has left the West bewildered. We will then find ourselves at the same spot 50 years down the line.

Agreed you did not use IMF. I mentioned IMF because SAP is an offshoot of IMF and World Bank. Key policies in SAP are privatization and deregulation. I do not have the kind of data you require but common sense (which by the way has never failed me and our mothers) tells me where the problem lies. Yes those were carried out and privatization only enriched a few and made amenities out of reach of the masses. Privatization and deregulation (which are key policies of Capitalism) also happened around the world. Greedy and corrupt leaders are as much in the West as they are in Nigeria. If you allege that corruption was the cause of SAP's downfall, why are Western economies failing now? Hasn't free market as we know it failed? I would say greed is the cause of Western downfall. UK and USA jobs have been shipped abroad where higher profit margins are guaranteed. What has become of NITEL's privatization or NEPA or other state owned institutions? Certain things just won't work in Nigeria because our culture and thinking are different. We need to seek out what works for us and implement not what IMF wants.

Kobojunkie, where on earth has IMF succeeded in turning any nation's economy around? SAP was an off the shelf set of policies which needed to be tailored to our environment before implementation. IMF and World bank have since realized that taking a policy off the shelf without modification only worsens situation in countries they were implemented. At the moment, Ireland got a bailout from IMF which the people have rejected because rather than help their economy, the demand would only harm them. IMF tells you that your civil service needs to be pruned down but they hardly give you a solution to the social problem that will be created when you relieve people of their jobs. The shortcomings are just too numerous to list.

You need to start producing things that are of export quality before you talk about currency manipulation to aid your exports. We had non of those before we devalued our currency. In fact our few export companies died.

If they succeed in getting us to devalue our currency again, then we are in trouble. The West uses currency to keep nations of the world under control. When they introduced SAP to us (through those old people that went abroad to study book without the street wisdom of our mothers selling pepper in the market) they said "you need to devalue your currency so that your exports can be cheap outside your shores and you can be competitive. They lied to us and we took the bait. We never exported enough to warrant devaluing or currency to the point that we all became poor. The man on N300 per month remained on it while the money could no longer by a single made in Italy pair of shoes. On the other hand, the same Western Countries through IMF that said we should devalue our currency wants China which has been a major exporter to revalue its currency upwards. China has gained grounds against the West by refusing to comply. They have pegged their currency where it pays them. We in Nigeria should follow suite. We should peg our exchange rate at the place that pays us not where the IMF want us to be. No Country in the world that took IMF ever prospered while under IMF control including New Zealand, Australia. We don't need IMF intervention in our economy. We can take care of ourselves. IMF thanks but no thanks.

Women of Africa pls ignore ladies like Carolece who think they are emancipated/ very independent while the rest of you are in bondage. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The liberated women of the West have turned the nations upside down with children growing up without dads. We can see the decadence in the societies. We don't want that rot in Africa. Children growing up with single mums and ending up troubling the tax payer. Ask Carolece why her father took off or was he simply a sperm donor which is what most western men are anyway? Men in Caralece part of the world are only good as sperm donors which are dumped after they have been thoroughly used. I sense her bitterness about her dad not being there for her and she has taken an anti-men attitude. She needs to ask her mum what she did with the man and why he ran off. Was he really her husband or one randy man just saw a raw woman available for copulation and pregnancy resulted. If Carolece had grown up in a healthy home, her attitude to men would have been different. It should be pointed out that African women are not slaves, they are more liberated in dignity. Those who remain uncontaminated by Western culture have maintained their dignity and not slept with different men. A liberated woman's idea of a female is one who is so free that she can change sexual partners at will, give the man he boot as often as possible, ride an 07 plate car (off credit card or hire purchase), have her own flat, not having to cook a meal for a man and the children, having no care in the world and finally becoming a burden to the tax payer in their old age when they need care and have no family unit in place to take care of them. We have seen the West and we want none of their ways for our society. They are at a loss as to how to mend their broken societies. Make the woman the head of the home as you have in UK and the society will go belly up. Shikena!

The following post is from JoAgbaje. I believe he is a member of the Church and has the true picture of events.

Could it be true that Christ Embassy charged N1000 gate fee for their end of the year Watch night service because there were too many people who came for the service? How much did Jesus charge from the thousands who thronged him? I choose not to believe this story, perhaps PM News got the information wrong.

Quote from: noetic16 on January 05, 2011, 11:16 PM
please tell me this is a joke where is joagbaje?

It's not about charging people because many people came, that will be like taking advantage of people. The idea is to discourage people and reduce the attendees . The venue served as a studio where the programme is broadcast live. And it can't take all the people. The church has several centres all over Lagos where people were encourage to go and participate through satellite , they don't have to pay to enter those centres , even some of them are close to the main venue for people that lives arround there , so that they don't have to go too far to attend a centre ,and they are all free. The church also pay for all tv stations to broadcast it live so that people can stay at home to watch. So it's only the studio centre that was ticketed to reduce attendance there and to ensure each person has a sit without overcrowd. People were encouraged to attend the free centres or stay at home and participate by satellite. The studio broadcast is beamed world wide and it will be embarrassing to have crowd problem witnessed world wide live. A studio has to be controlled.so the idea is that everybody must not come over here. It can only take about 20- 25,000 or so. But members are well over 100,000. If you make the tisket free,every body will get. So the idea is to discourage attendance there may be stampede. We had trouble in Uk with crowd in the last crusade there.

Besides we have seen people organised Christian conferences that people pay to register,or Christian music shows that people pay to attend. So it is not like taking advantage of people. If it's about money, then every church would have been mandated to issue ticket all over the world. Some churches used stadium as centres . More money would have come in.

@X-Factoria. God is capable of defending himself. Moses did was seemed wrong in the eyes of the public. He was condemned by his siblings. God descended on them with punishment. Miriam became leprous, Aaron was spared because he was the high priest. Let the one who called Pastor Chris deal with him. You talk so much as if you are a saint. If you are not 100% sinless, you are treading on dangerous grounds. God is watching all of us in this matter to see how we apply scriptures. If it was in this age and time that people brought all their earnings to church like in the days of the Apostles, people like yourself would go wild in the press. Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11 held back part of their takings on a land sale and it was considered lying to the Holy Ghost. They were struck dead on the spot. What would you call that in this your jet age? You cannot be smarter than God. Let Him defend Himself, let Him call Pastor Chris to question. I would stay out of the firing line if I were you.

May God forgive us all. I was actually carried away by the media report before giving a good thought to the matter.

No official version of the story has been heard from Christ Embassy. As such, most of the commentators are giving an unbalanced view. The newspapers will only write what will sell. Did Christ Embassy make provision for people to watch the event from other venues, say open field via large TV screens? My mum just informed me that she used to watch the watch night service on a big screen in a field at Okota in Lagos which was more convenient than going to the main service at Oregun. If the church had allowed everyone in and an overflow or balcony had collapsed killing people, the Church leaders would have been blamed for negligence. There had to be a way of dissuading the crowd from turning up en-mass at the church premises with limited space. Unfortunately the church may have adopted a method which is strange to the Nigerian culture. In the Western world for example, this would have been a perfectly normal practice. If you do not want to pay the £4 or $6, watch from a different venue which is free. The same power available in the main auditorium would be available to those watching on the big screen or internet. In the West, in order to dissuade people from doing something, you add a penalty say parking fee, congestion charge, toll fee etc. People thus find alternatives. The case of the church is different but the church had to find a way to ensure the safety of all those who wished to attend the meeting. People had to be turned away. Maybe an acceptable alternative would have been first come first served. Once the full capacity of the church is reached, the door is shut (for safety reasons) and others will watch from big screens outside or on the internet. A record in Acts 20 shows that the Church is not spared of its share of disasters if due care is not taken. Having seen the feedback on this incident, I believe the leadership of Christ Embassy would work together to find a more acceptable approach in future. Let us not see this as a ploy by men of God to extort money from people but rather as a means of crowd control for safety reasons which may or may not have been well thought through. In conclusion, Christians out to pray for one another and encourage/ rebuke, reproof one another whenever we seem to have missed the mark rather than calling for one anothers' crucifixion.

Hi Akin! How did the sale of this Ford Transit go? I wish to know if they are in demand and one can recoupe the cost price if sold in Nigeria.

It is unfortunate that your wife did not tell you before marriage. She was probably afraid you might dump her. Have a heart-to-heart talk with her about your disgust with the fact that she hid this from you and give her the opportunity to open up on other hidden things in the past. Both of you can thus deal with them together, forgive and heal. For the Pastor, he is living a lie and needs to be corrected, otherwise he is on the way to Hell. You need to take your stand that he no longer comes to your house. Let your wife know that the man must stop coming to your house and if that doesn't work, you will have to get the family involved so they can know they are dealing with a wolf in sheep's clothing. How do you know this Pastor is not doing the same thing to your wife's sisters or other people's daughters in the church? He needs to be stopped. The Catholic Church in Europe is facing a crisis at the moment because of Priests who sexually molested children as far back as 35 years ago. People are beginning to come forward with evidence saying the Catholic authorities made them sign an oath of secrecy never to talk. Find a way of getting the Pastor out of your life. Stop attending the church if you are. This kind of a problem is usually handled by elders of the church in which case the Pastor may need to be disciplined. My worry is that he will still be doing it to other girls if not stopped.

The Yorubas have a saying "A fi ete sile a npa lapalapa". Meaning we have left leprosy and are trying to cure ring worm. Two problems are now on ground. Ghadafi 'insulted' our sensibilities by telling us we have a problem and here's my advice. The other problem is we have a problem that needs no shying away from. What do we do? We fight Ghadaffi or solve our problems? Fellow Nigerians, I am not sure the set of 'old' politicians with poverty mentality we have now can take us out of the woods. If we continue this recycling of thieves and visionless leaders, I'm afraid Nigeria is edging closer to disintegration as America has predicted. Our internal problems won't just go away, they cannot be wished away. We need to tackle them headlong by destroying some established structures and rebuilding new structures from the scratch. Poverty won't go away - the rich and powerful especially in the north will use religion as an 'opium of the poor'. They will use it to delude their people perpetually resulting in the kind of commotion we have in Plateau State which was otherwise a peaceful State until there was a clash of religions arising from land issues. I personally would demolish the office of traditional rulers doubling as religious leaders, I would seek to abolish state boundaries, I would seek to move closer to the system in the UK where the Local Councils are closer to the people. The present system of governance is too expensive for us, that is why recurrent expenditure is usually above 70% of budget. From a constituency, you have a senator, a house or Rep member, a state legislator, a local government chairman, a councillor yet we see nothing on ground. What do we have, the Federal and State governments give money to individuals for projects in their communities. What do they do with the money? Buy us rams at Salah and Christmas and 'chop' the rest?

Ghadaffi may not be far from the solution. A little bit of panel beating to that statement and we have the perfect solution. Obviously, the Union is not working at the moment. It has taken the keen eyes of an outsider to diagnose one of our problems and proffer a solution. The other major problem is ethnicity. If we do not find a way of getting rid of religious and ethnic hold over our country, then splitting up along those lines may not be far from a solution.

We are in for a long haul. This looks like the beginning of the IRA strategy used against the UK. What else can be done to wake our sleeping and looting leaders up? Our leaders still see themselves as in safe havens as long as they have enough stolen wealth. They really believe they can live in peace in the midst of the commotion that is going on and the suffering of the poor masses? They really do not care as long as they have air-conditioned cars, houses with tall fences, they can go abroad for medical treatment and have an ambulance dedicated to an individual, have dialysis machine bought for the President when the rest of the country has just a handful, award oil blocks to individuals at the expense of the people - what should have been common wealth becomes personal wealth, as long as they can generate their electricity at home, they do not need the National Electric power Authority to work, the infrastructure can be left to rot as long as they can fly in helicopters and private jets. What do we do about these set of leaders? Can democracy deliver us - with the bunch of thieves in both houses? Are we going anywhere when leaders put their pockets first, their religions second and their ethnicity third before they spare any thought for the electorate? If things continue this way, there may be need for some shaking by MEND and their likes for a while until we come to a round table to discuss what sort of governance is best for our country.

We will need to demolish the present structure we have in order to have a meaningful nation building. We need to destroy the hold of religion on our nation and politics, we need to destroy the establishment of traditional rulers, we need to remove state boundaries and move to local council level administration. We will thus save more on overhead costs and the people will better feel the impact of governance. We need to detribalize Nigeria, the present constitution that emphasizes state of origin needs to be revised to read your origin is where you live or have lived for a period of time etc. A complete uproot will do the job. Sack the emirs and obas, we do not need them, their opinion should mean nothing to Nigerians. They are ordinary citizens like the rest of us. Hence they will be unable to cause commotion in our country by linking calls for the discipline of an outright indiscipline Northern and Moslem General to religion. At the moment, Moslem youths in Sokoto have given the ethnic minorities and other religions apart from Islam ultimatum to vacate the state within 24 hours. I am not sure a democratic government can bring about this change we desperately need. We can live together as a nation if we break the structure down and rebuild.

Siena, I am yet to hear from you. The cost of converting and S320 1999 V reg and a 2008 Merc Vito

Hi Sienna? How much will it cost to convert a Mercedes Benz S320 1999 V Reg from RHD to LHD pls? Pls reply to atmo510@yahoo.com. Thanks