The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigeria

  • Nigeria sliding back to era of dictatorship, says Amaechi

    Nigeria sliding back to era of dictatorship, says Amaechi

    Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State yesterday said Nigeria is gradually sliding back to the era of dictatorship and praised the country’s media for remaining “the ray of hope in a dark era.”

    In the preliminary comments he made before reading his speech at the grand event at the Expo Centre of Eko Hotel in Lagos, where he was given the Vanguard Personality of the Year Award, the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, who has of late been involved in a war of words with President Goodluck Jonathan’s men, explained that unlike his usual style of speaking extemporally, he decided to read a prepared speech, because “I am becoming more careful, given that we are gradually going back to the era of dictatorship in this country.”

    While Amaechi was formally presented as Vanguard’s Personality of the Year, 2012, at the event, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, the Managing Director of Access Bank, was also honoured as the runner up.

    According to an earlier report by Vanguard, the event was designed to highlight Amaechi’s achievements in the last one year, stating that his “feat in Rivers State has been lauded by eminent personalities.”

    The report also said “he is being honoured for his widely acknowledged developmental strides which have seen noteworthy improvements in infrastructure and the impartation of governance on all sectors of the society in Rivers State.”

    But responding to praises of his achievements, Amaechi, who dedicated the award to the people of Rivers State said, “I am just an errand boy. Our understanding of political power is that power belongs to the voters.”

    In his speech, the Chairman of the event, former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, recalled, with passion his friendly relationship with the publisher of Vanguard, Sam Amuka, pointing out that even during the military era, when one of the military governors in his regime shut down Vanguard, their relationship was not destroyed.

    The event was a grand party. Nigeria’s pop diva, Omawumi Megbele, Timi Dakolo, Temi Sax and ace-comedian, Gordons led other top artistes to entertain the audience made-up of Nigeria’s creme de la creme, including top political leaders like the Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Tambuwal, many state governors and business leaders like Alhaji Aliyu Dangote.

  • Are there any signs or resources of hope in this troubled land (and this earth)? (1)

    Are there any signs or resources of hope in this troubled land (and this earth)? (1)

    Religion is the opium of the people; it is the soul of a soulless world.

    Karl Marx

     

    I admit it. Something seemingly inconsequential or even embarrassing prompted the series of reflections that begins this week on whether or not there are signs and sources of hope in our troubled nation, especially as we approach the year 2015 and the next cycle of presidential and gubernatorial elections in our country. That “something” is the acronym, IJN. I suppose everyone in Nigeria but myself knew what it stands for: In Jesus’ Name. For a long time, every time I saw the acronym – mostly through phone text messages sent to me by relatives and friends who refuse to give up on me even after futile years and decades of trying to reconvert me to Christianity – I wondered what it stood for, this IJN. Then one day last week, someone actually sent me a text message that combined both the acronym and its meaning. IJN, In Jesus’ Name: All will be well; whatever the problem whether personal, familial, national, continental, global or intergalactic, all will be well. God is in control. Christ is the answer, whatever the question.

    I intend no sarcasm in starting this series with this wry observation concerning the links between religion and hope, with particular regard to contemporary Nigerian Christianity. Like most religions, indeed perhaps more than most religions, Christianity has extraordinarily a powerful and evidently efficacious array of rituals, symbols and parables that produce indomitable hope in periods of great personal and/or collective privation. For this reason, for most members of the Nigerian Christian community, especially those of the Pentecostal persuasion, the question that serves as the title of this series – are there any signs or resources of hope in our troubled land? – is almost completely redundant, if not even blasphemous. If you have Christ, if you are born again in His name, if you serve Him faithfully and put all your trust in Him, you are not without hope and He will not fail you.

    This is both an article of faith and a materialised sign that is inscribed on countless billboards, posters and advertising slogans and legends that we see everywhere in our country, perhaps more than in any other nation on earth. Apart from the innumerable churches and mosques in our towns and cities, you will also see these materialisations of hope and faith in shopping plazas, in roadside shops and stalls, and in even ramshackle shacks of dealers in articles of commerce of every kind: “Salvation Bakery”; “Revelation Pharmacy”; “Second Coming Welders”; “Everlasting Shopping Plaza”; “Blood of Christ Nursing Home and Infirmary”; “Omo Jesu Barber”; “Hope and Mercy Hair Saloon”. A recent visitor to Nigeria who has done much traveling in our continent and other parts of the world informed me, as she was about to leave the country, that the thing she found the most intriguing about our country was the fact that, more than any other place she had ever visited in the world, the sings of religion are everywhere, to the point that not only is this reality inescapable, it is in fact a superabundant facet of the physical, social and existential landscape. If this is the case, if the physical and expressive landscape of our country is so massively dotted with the ubiquitous signs of hope and faith, on what basis can I then pose the question that gives this series its title: Are there any signs and resources of hope in our troubled land?

    The answer to this question is simple and unproblematic: Without discountenancing the importance of religion, I am referring to secular, rational and idealistic signs and sources of hope. Let me put this as sharply and as provocatively as I possibly can. Without leaving Jesus in particular and religion in general out of the equation, the question I am really posing is this: How and where can we find and expand secular, rational, critical and idealistic signs and sources of hope in our troubled country at the present time?

    We cannot leave religion out of the equation, not because the signs and markers of religion are everywhere on the horizon of the present, and not because of the undoubted God-obsession that has gripped the mass psyche of Nigerians in general, but because historically, religion has been both a source of hope and liberation for the enslaved and the powerless and a bulwark for the tyrannical social power of oppressors and exploiters. In other words, if you leave religion out of the equation, if you don’t try mightily to nudge it in the direction of social justice, peace and progress, it will, at best be neutralised and at worst be co-opted by the enemies of human equality and progress.

    This last point compels me to be completely honest about my feelings and thoughts on both official and popular contemporary Nigerian religiosity on the matter of hope and faith. In this piece, I have commented rather extensively on the fact that the signs of materialised hope and faith are so ubiquitous on the expressive landscape of our country that we can validly talk of an over-saturation. Is this not an indication of the thoroughgoing domestication or neutralisation of religion as a potential force for beneficent social transformation in our country? Everywhere you look there are all these signs of robust religious hope and faith, and yet there is a surfeit, a perpetuity it seems, of so much irreligious stealing and looting, so much unholy use of state and non-state violence and terror, so much ungodly spreading of desperation in the land. Short of a massive and totally unprecedented irruption of a miraculous or mystical transcendentalism in the economic and social affairs of our country the type of which has never been recorded in history, is there the slightest doubt that the overwhelming majority of the thousands of small business enterprises that boldly display signs of religious hope and faith in our country will never in fact ever make it to the big league of the rich and powerful in the land? Do these ubiquitous signs of religious hope and faith not in fact mystify and confuse praying with preying in the ways in which they ignore or hide the real means by which wealth and power are in reality cornered by the few to the detriment of the many in our country at the present time?

    Karl Marx, in one of the most often quoted remarks in political and intellectual history, famously remarked that religion is the opium of the people. What is often ignored is the fact that this is only half of the full sentence, for in the other half of this often quoted sentence, Marx also observed that religion is the soul of a soulless world. Side by side with often being a metaphysical opiate that deadens the traumas and sufferings of unrelentingly harsh economic and social conditions for most of our peoples, if religion is to become a real and powerful resource for hope in our country it must also begin to act as the soul, the conscience of the nation – as it has historically done in many other nations and regions of the world.

    As I have remarked earlier in this piece, in this series my emphasis will be on secular, rational and idealistic signs and resources of hope in our country and the world in which we live, the world that constitutes the outer boundary of the conditions of possibility for justice, peace and progress in Nigeria and Africa. Let me put this observation in the form of a question, though in very concrete terms: How can mystification and superstition, religious and non-religious, that are so prevalent in our country at the present time, be contained by the rational exercise of the collective mind, especially with regard to the knowledges available to us in the world of the 21st century? This question may at first sight seem laughably audacious. Our country may be world famous for the number of its churches and mosques and the size and variety of its denominational congregations, but it lags far behind countries that have solid infrastructures and institutions for teaching, research and inventions. Without such infrastructures and institutions, the gifted, active mind works in isolation, bereft of the kind of supports that make the mind – any mind – productive and socially useful. Since we do not have such infrastructures and institutions in place, how can I seriously or realistically hope for the rational exercise of the mind in our country in line with the great advances in knowledge in the 21st century?

    This question is falsely put and this is the fundamental basis of this series. There are no reasons in the world why, under the right socio-political conditions, we cannot rapidly but solidly build and maintain infrastructures and institutions of genuine learning, research and innovation that will in no time at all dissolve the fogs of mystification and superstition that now almost completely becloud the operations of the collective mind in our country. Thus, my question really boils down to this: Are there women and men in our country, are there currents of thought and action that could coalesce into a powerful movement that would fundamentally change the socio-political order in our country such that the institutions and infrastructures that seem so impossible for us to build and sustain at the present time will in short but effective order become a vital part of the exercise of the mind in our country?

    My answer to this question is, of course, yes. But I admit that it is a tentative, unsure and provisional yes. Without being sectarian or dogmatic, let me say that the reason for this tentativeness lies in the present almost comatose state of the Left, the democratic, egalitarian and humanistic Left that was a very big movement in our country in my youth and that has been the most dominant ideological, ethical and emotional force in my public and private life. Without that movement – in whatever form or expression it is reinvented as long as it is mature and genuinely humanistic – the signs and sources of hope in our country will remain very dim, very weak and impotent, if in fact things do not get far worse than they are now.

    Perhaps there is no need for me to explain why this observation is, for me at least, not sectarian or dogmatic, but I shall do so anyway. Quite simply, I am not talking here of a Left that has a monopoly on moral rectitude, patriotism and dedication. As a matter of fact, it could be said of the Nigerian Left, of the Nigerian progressive movement that it has perfectly mirrored all the social pathologies of the ruling elites in the post-civil war period. I would even go further to say that it has also been as infected with the malaise of mystification and superstition as the rulers and the ruled in our country. The apple does not fall far from the tree: the Left, the progressive movement in our country has been, in the last two or three decades, a perfect mirror of all the social ills that bedevil the country. In fact, this is the reason why, in this series, I decided to start, through an exploration of contemporary religion and the operations of spirit and psyche in Nigeria at the present time, on the subject of mystification and superstition. In next week’s continuation of the series, we shall move to the more secular domains of the operations of the secular mind and the imagination as resources of hope in our troubled land.

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

     

  • Unbridled corruption will ruin Nigeria, Bafarawa warns

    FORMER Sokoto state governor, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, has warned that unbridled corruption ravaging the nation might lead to its doom.

    He stated opposition political parties came together to form a formidable party is to re-unite and promote the growth of democracy in the county.

    He said the move was necessary because there can be no democracy without viable opposition.

    Bafarawa spoke yesterday while commiserating with the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, over the recent attack against him.

    He noted the relationship between him and the traditional ruler remains that of a father and son.

    As a member of the constitution drafting committee of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Bafarawa expressed optimism that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will register the party.

    He said: ”I am optimistic that INEC will register APC. We are law- abiding; we know the rules and what it will take to be eligible for registration and will not submit our application through the backdoor.

    “We will ensure to forward our application to INEC through the right channel, which is why we are painstakingly going through the right door and trying to comply with due process, before the submission of our application, which I believe we will scale through at the close of the day.”

     

  • Whoever believes in Nigeria should please stand up!

    Whoever believes in Nigeria should please stand up!

    Today, reader, I am not talking about anything in particular; I am just going to ramble on and on about a topic dear to my heart: why no one seems to believe in Nigeria. Indeed, everyone appears to be filled with doubt about the survivability of the country and then do everything they can to make sure it does not survive. Get me, I hope so, because sometimes, I can hardly catch up with my own thoughts. Sometimes, they seem to run away with me, sometimes they just seem to fly from me.

    Anyway, doubt, like a yawn, is contagious. For example, whenever there is a couple to be joined together in holy matrimony, just watch the face sitting next to yours as it goes all wrinkly in doubt as the owner is obviously thinking: will these ones make it past their second year? They are hardly even talking to each other at the altar! You also take a second look at the front and find that only the pastor is smiling; the couple is all frowns and wondering why the pastor is smiling. But that doubt is nothing compared to this one: let your kitchen plumbing go all kaput and let your man pick up the hammer and wrench. A mighty but wisely unspoken doubt seizes you as you watch him knock the sense out of the pipes, wrench the life out of the pumps and drain all the blood out of your own veins as you hope there will still be a kitchen to use after he is through. That is still nothing yet compared to this. Now, should there be a knock on your door at midnight and a voice asks you to open the door for you are about to be robbed and the head of the house marches forward in great indignation holding nothing but a cudgel, I think the mother of all doubts will seize you at that scene. The prospect of anyone successfully confronting guns with a cudgel is nothing but hilariously doubtful, I think.

    Truly, doubts tend to creep up on us whether we want them to or not. In a well-known and widely circulated joke, a jury was once said to be confronted by the strong arguments of a defence counsel who vehemently denied that his client was responsible for a murder. In just one minute, he confidently told the jury, the dead man would walk in. The jury expectantly looked towards the door. There, triumphantly cooed the counsel, you looked because you doubted.

    One of the major things occupying the mind of every thief, I guess, is to ensure that their crime scenes are wiped clean. One man was so incensed at his son for stealing jam that he called him to reprove him. Son, he said, I am not mad with you for stealing the jam. But why on earth would you leave your fingerprints at the scene of the crime? Create reasonable doubt, he admonished!

    The British architects of what we regard today as ancient and modern Nigeria (oh yes, there is an ancient one) deliberately planted reasonable doubt as to the possibility of the new nation surviving by forcefully fusing three completely parallel nations together and choosing doubtful leaders. Monumental doubts seized then them, and have continued to trail all leaders ever since. Since independence, successive leaders have adopted an attitude towards nation building that only a one-eyed giant can have: keep one eye on the eventuality that the contraption may collapse. This means there has been no eye to keep on the development road since then. Like Moshe Dayan, who wore an eye-patch said, with one eye on the road, which eye can I now keep on the speedometer? So, for want of a good second eye, our leaders have not worked since independence. Most have been too preoccupied with saving for that rainy day of eventuality, when they expect Nigeria to break up.

    This is why I believe that Nigeria has the highest number of plunderers of any country on earth. And no nation that has such a vast number of people more interested in taking than in giving has been able to survive. Nigerians have indeed turned themselves into worms eating out the core of the national apple (or national cake as we love to call the metaphor) that my fear is that sooner than later, all the core will be gone and we will be eating each other. Perhaps then, we can sigh and begin again. Indeed, the fact that Nigeria continues to survive today amazingly defies logic, my logic, that is. You see, in my logic, no nation governed by half-literates can survive; no nation ruled by self-absorbed neonates more interested in owning the best shoes and handbags can do a thing about its future; no nation standing on its head, with the best visionaries hidden at the bottom of the heap and the little men who cannot muster half a cow’s brain between them standing at the top, should survive. But then, that’s just my own logic.

    So, here we are, all logic is thrown to the wind, and the country only just plodding on because everyone is too distracted to do the right thing. Governance, right now, is comparable to chewing a piece of rock with one’s teeth. In that set-up, no one is comfortable; neither the teeth, nor the rock. Neither the government nor the governed can claim to be comfortable in this hot-bed called Nigeria. And there is only one reason for this: Nigerians do not believe in Nigeria.

    The various levels of unbelief are too apparent to even the blind. It is in the fraudulent voting system, the corrupt civil service system, the ineffective federal, state and local governance system, the fallen educational system, and even the rural system. Did I tell you that even the village chiefs have now perfected their own system of exacting tax from the wealthy surviving relatives of deceased members of the village? Oh ho, you will not believe it, but you better pray that you don’t lose any member of your family (as I also pray) so we don’t fall into the hands of the village mafias.

    On the other hand, it is not too difficult to know a believer. Just look around you at your typical religious pundits, which we are not going to do here. Anyone who believes in Project Nigeria can easily be known. First, let’s shop around among our leaders for a good example. Err… err… Ok, let’s not shop among our leaders; let’s go into the civil service for a good example. Err… err… Ok, let’s not go into the civil service; let’s go into our religious institutions. Err… err… Ok, let’s not go there; let’s go into our tertiary institutions. Err… err… Oh dear, where then shall we go for a true believer?

    Reader, Nigeria is in dire straits because we all to a man and woman, who should be strenuously working at nation building, are more interested in pocket building. The fact that Nigeria has not collapsed in spite of all these shenanigans may be telling us something: it is time to get serious because we’re going nowhere. Let’s get serious with the transportation system; let’s get serious with energy production; let’s get serious with leadership and begin to hold everyone accountable. Above all, let’s get serious about changing our attitude and begin to think that the country may not disintegrate after all and we may end up passing it to our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. Oh, please!

  • Retrogression and paralysis in Africa and Nigeria

    Retrogression and paralysis in Africa and Nigeria

    Less than a decade after most African countries got their flag independence, some of their leaders became acutely aware of the corrosive effects of neocolonialism. To counter this problem, they attempted a cocktail of cultural, economic and political policies to neutralise the negative effects of colonialism up to as far back as the curse of the Berlin Conference of 1884-85. Leaders of Africa’s independence movements knew, and to some extent accepted, their limitations in trying to redraw the debilitating maps drawn arbitrarily by the Berlin conferees, but they didn’t entirely give up. They were not only passionate about their countries; they were also largely well-educated, cerebral and innovative. To supplant the destructive impact of colonialism on the African mind, these leaders promoted the ideals of pan-Africanism in order to give the continent an identity, instil confidence in young Africans, and give them a reason to look forward to a greater tomorrow where they could stand tall and equal with the young of any other continent, especially Europe and America.

    Barely half a century after independence, however, all hope of a greater tomorrow has virtually evaporated. Not only are the continent’s current leaders half-educated daydreamers and cannot, therefore, tell the difference between colonialism on one hand and neocolonialism on the other hand, they are simply too desensitised to the dangers of harmful external influences to care what happens to the continent or how its peoples are regarded by the rest of the world. It wasn’t too long ago that great minds walked on the continent, minds like Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Tom Mboya, Amilcar Cabral, Kenneth Kaunda et al, but their walk was both too brief and sometimes inexpert to help create enduring ideological and institutional legacies for Africa’s freedom and economic independence. Yet, for all their faults, it was never said of them that they were too stupid not to comprehend the denigrating impact of foreign influences.

    In contrast today, there is hardly any African leader with the depth of understanding, political ingenuity and moral fortitude needed to galvanise the continent away from the looming apocalyptic path of recolonisation. West Africa has become a barren landscape of short-sighted leaders who can’t tell the difference between leadership and feudalism. Even when a few honest leaders come along, they lack the rigour to reclaim and promote the visions of past continental leaders. Ghana’s present leaders, for instance, are the beacon for the sub-region, but beyond offering their country technocratic competence, there is precious little else. Whatever they call vision today can’t hold the candle to Nkrumah’s vision. Both Sierra Leone and Liberia fought senseless civil wars, in spite of their poverty, and Cote d’Ivoire and Mali needed their former colonial master, France, to restore stability and order. And self-destructive Nigeria is, of course, boiling with largely self-inflicted and man-made sectarian cum socioeconomic revolt.

    Southern Africa was a hotbed of apartheid, but when they finally emerged from servitude one after another, only Nelson Mandela exhibited the character of a leader. Sam Nujoma had to be pressured not to amend Namibia’s constitution to serve tenure extension, and geriatric Robert Mugabe has become a burden greater than apartheid upon his people. Successive leaders of Angola and Mozambique have also not been too inspiring, while Central Africa is probably the worst served by incompetent leaders. Since Britain’s MI6 plotted the death of Patrice Lumumba using the façade of Belgian, French and local forces, the hapless country has grappled with a succession of inept rulers, including the two Kabilas, Laurent and Joseph. Central African Republic (CAR), which is embroiled in non-ideological, distasteful and interminable rebellions, has not fared better.

    While ethnic groups in Rwanda nearly exterminated one another, and Uganda reels under rebel attacks, and Burundi stagnates, it took spectacular incompetence, as Mo Ibrahim observed, for Sudanese leaders to infuse religious dogmas into their country’s body politic thereby destabilising and fragmenting it. East Africa is also entrapped in rebellions and poverty. Ethnically and religiously homogenous Somalia is just emerging from state failure begun in 1991 and orchestrated by local rebels, Ethiopia and Libya working in concert. And Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti at the horn of Africa oscillate between pointless wars and horrifying famine.

    The retrogression in Africa is so numbing and so nearly complete that whispers are beginning to be heard in many European capitals that what is needed is a complete takeover, a recolonisation. (See Box, and note the factual inaccuracies). The consequence of the massive retrogression is that future generations of Africans will become humiliatingly less globally competitive than their European, American and Asian counterparts. The gap is widening into a chasm, and it is only a question of time, if things are left unchecked, before active calls for recolonisation receive favourable attention in many key world capitals. Except the continent puts behind it the effects of the trans-Saharan slave trade (which are factors in the Mali turmoil), the even greater evil of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the most crippling effects of colonialism that virtually distorted the economy, culture and thinking of the colonies, the continent’s problems will worsen and predispose it to recolonisation.

    Indirect rule made it difficult for Britain to retain a strangulating hold on its former colonies. It consequently could not actively pursue the establishment of military bases in Africa as successfully as France has done in more than half a dozen of its former colonies. But it nevertheless has advisory presence in Kenya and Sierra Leone. France’s colonial policy of assimilation facilitated the insidious subjection of its former colonies. From Central Africa to West Africa and even to the Horn of Africa and the Maghreb, France has sustained its military presence and bases, and intervenes when the need arises. The relationship between France and its former colonies goes beyond military, however. In foreign policy and the economy, the former colonies still look up to France. China is doubtless elbowing its way in. But many analysts suggest that the disturbances in Mali, CAR and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and especially the promptness and assertiveness of France in those trouble spots, could not be detached from the rising economic profile of China in many African countries.

    During the Cold War era, many African countries were cajoled into taking sides with the Eastern or Western bloc. In the Berlin Conference, which was chiefly triggered by the quest for raw materials to feed European industries, Africa had no say on how its internal borders were drawn. The fresh campaigns for the recolonisation of Africa can also not be detached from economic reasons. For instance, all seven French West African countries are connected to the French Central Bank. The fall of former Ivorian leader, Laurent Gbagbo, was partly a consequence of his dispute with France over Cote d’Ivoire’s external reserve. Niger is as important to France economically (supply of uranium) as Nigeria is important (oil) to the United States. France, Britain and the US are now engaged in strategic military cooperation involving deployment of drones. On another side, China is also steadily and aggressively pushing in into Africa for raw materials to feed its massive industrial complexes and huge population. To facilitate this push, China deploys financial and other kinds of assistance to needy African countries. It may not be too far-fetched to say that China and the West have begun a new scramble for Africa, as the September 2011 election in Zambia proved, and as the creation of the US African Command (AFRICOM) is also indicating.

    If the creeping recolonisation of Africa is not to become a fait accompli, Nigeria must experience revolutionary changes in order to offer the leadership necessary to reclaim Africa from its local and foreign oppressors and reposition its peoples for greater competitiveness in the coming decades. If things remain as they are for much longer, the image of the continent will be battered and its chances of securing a glorious future compromised. Fundamental changes must come to Nigeria, for it is the only country with the potential to offer that leadership, not South Africa, not Ghana, and not Egypt. Sadly, in spite of the momentous events happening around it, Nigeria has remained silent, phlegmatic, inept and docile. It lost confidence in handling the Mali conundrum, ignored the CAR troubles, and has said little on DRC. It is high time visionary and ideological African leaders emerged, leaders who have the depth, intellect and passion to create and drive technological advancement, cultural renaissance and new and sustainable democratic paradigms.

    The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cannot midwife the necessary fundamental changes Nigeria and Africa need. On its part, it is anticipated the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) will whittle down its ideological purity and political idealism to stand a chance of birthing a new party (say, the All Progressives Congress) capable of beating the PDP. I am, however, not too optimistic that within the existing Nigerian political structure and given the nature of party politics, the changes the continent desires and deserves can be achieved.

     

  • Golden Eaglets return home Sunday

    Golden Eaglets return home Sunday

    The U-17 national team, Golden Eaglets will on Sunday arrive in Lagos after a three weeks training tour to Doha, Qatar.

    This is contained in a statement signed by the team’s spokesperson, Morakinyo Abodunrin on Saturday in Abuja.

    The team of 30 players and officials, the statement said would depart for Lagos aboard Qatar Airways.

    “The Golden Eaglets are due back in Nigeria on Sunday after undergoing a training tour of the Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence in Doha, Qatar.

    “A team of 30 players and officials including the Director, Technical of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Mr Emmanuel Ikpeme will depart for Lagos aboard Qatar Airways and will arrive Lagos about midday,’’ the statement said.

    It added that the team would depart for Morroco later in the week to participate in the U-17 African Youth Championship (AYC).

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Golden Eaglets are preparing for the 2013 edition of the AYC billed for Morocco from April 13 to April 27.

    During their stay in Doha, the Golden Eaglets won its two friendly matches by beating Aspire’s Under 18 team 7-1 and recorded a 1-0 win over former Asian Champions, Al Sadd Sports Club complete with former Spanish star, Raul Gonzalez.

    The statement quoted the team’s head coach, Mr Manu Garba as commending the NFA for the opportunity given to the team.

    “The tour of Doha is delightful and successful and now the team is battle-ready for the continental cadet competition.

    “We are so grateful to the NFA for organising this training tour for us, coming here has given us the opportunity to prepare well for the forthcoming competition.

    “We are focused on our objective to qualify for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in UAE as African champions and we want to come back to Aspire to prepare for the World Cup.

  • HP ScanJet 300: A scanner for Nigeria

    HP ScanJet 300: A scanner for Nigeria

    With the introduction of the new HP ScanJet 300 Flatbed Scanner into the market, global leader in PC products and technologies, Hewlett-Packard, brings small business owners in Nigeria an exciting new option for scanning photos and documents.

    The HP ScanJet 300, superior to the Flatbed ScanJet 200, is a high resolution scanner designed to carry out scanning tasks at an incredible speed of 10 seconds per page. Small, compact, and easy to carry around, the new scanner, which is the smallest in the Flatbed series, weighs about 1.76kg. It is built for efficiency as it combines versatility in function with cost and time saving features to capture, store and share photos and documents in less time.

    For new users, getting started with the ScanJet 300 flatbed scanner is easy. The user-friendly design and almost ‘plug and play’ attribute sets the user up a smooth experience. To begin, the user only needs to plug in the device using a single USB cable.

    The HP ScanJet 300 machine is equipped with four buttons that perform multiple functions. It scans documents at resolutions of up to 4800 dpi and can scan multiple documents which can be saved as separate files in several formats. The high resolution of the scanner ensures clarity of scanned photos and documents.

    The Flatbed ScanJet 300 comes pre-installed with software like the Arc Soft Photo Studio 6 and the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) which enable direct photo and text edits and transfer.

    With its scan-to-cloud access feature, the ScanJet 300 saves time by reducing drastically the process of sending scanned documents via email.

    The scanner also aces it in the areas of energy efficiency. Its low energy consumption makes it eco-friendly while the USB-powered design ensures it is the perfect fit for the Nigerian market. With this unique power design, the machine scans and archives documents without a ready power source. In this case, the PC can serve as an alternate source of power thereby allowing scanning functions during power cuts or while on the user is on the move.

    The HP ScanJet 300 Flatbed Scanner is intuitive, time efficient and mobile in nature. It comes in handy for businesses and professionals who cannot afford the luxury of time while scanning, archiving or sending photos and documents.

    Despite the easy-to-carry design, the ScanJet 300 scanner appears not as solid as some of its predecessors; and so it should be handled with care. It is however worth every bit of the N16,500 it costs.

     

  • Nigeria spends $45.5m yearly on stationery

    Nigeria spends $45.5m yearly on stationery

    A lecturer, Prof Goddy Nkem Onuoha, has disclosed that Nigeria spends between $54.5million and $91million annually on importation of education materials for school-age children.

    Delivering the 23rd inaugural lecture of the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) at the weekend, Onuoha said it was regrettable that the pencils imported from China could be produced locally.

    “All the basic raw materials (graphite, clay and wood) required for the production of pencils have been identified to exist in sufficient quantities in Nigeria”, he said.

    The professor of Chemistry lamented that the country suffers economically because of its inability to transform natural resources to good that satisfy human needs.

    “Our inability to key into the new and emerging technologies and therefore commercialise our low hanging fruits has forced us to remain a consumer nation. It is regrettable that Nigeria with its abundant human and natural resources was considered one of the 20 poorest countries of the world,” he said.

    Onuoha, therefore, recommended that government at all levels should develop the political will and create the enabling environment for the sustenance of research and development activities.

    He underscored the need for government to ensure that basic sciences are adequately taught in schools.

    The don also urged financial institutions to support entrepreneurs with proven capabilities to translate research results and create employment.

     

  • Interactive session on military – media relation in Nigeria

    Interactive session on military – media relation in Nigeria

  • Nigeria to site culture centre in South Africa – Minister

    Nigeria to site culture centre in South Africa – Minister

    The Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, on Monday said plans were underway to establish a Nigerian Culture and Information Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.

    A statement signed by Dr Taiwo Oladokun, Special Assistant (Media) to the minister said the centre would be established by the end of the year.

    Explaining why Nigeria decided to site her first culture house in Africa in Johannesburg, the Minister said the decision followed the successful opening and operations of Nigerian Cultural Centres in Brazil and China in 2008 and 2012 respectively.

    “It would also be used to strengthen cultural relations not only with the government and people of South Africa but also with other countries in the southern part of the continent.

    “This choice is also in recognition of the role Nigeria played and continues to play in the history of Southern African countries.

    ‘’ We recall the very elaborate and robust relations between Nigeria and South Africa, especially in the years of struggle against apartheid as well as the leadership role the two countries are playing in the advancement of the cause of Africa globally.’’

    The statement also quoted the minister as saying that the centre would serve the purpose of promoting Nigerian culture while also providing general information about the country.