GIST ME JOOR

Saturday, August 11, 2012

SHOULD a man's trousers slip down his legs in the full glare of a busy street, the frantic attempt to redeem the situation almost always results in greater "calamity": the elongation of his rear end (buttocks) while bending to reach the errant trousers! It can be quite embarrassing no matter how briefly or swiftly executed; the public often gets a glimpse of some most confidential commodities best left out of print... 

It is however legitimate to wonder why the slip occurred in the first place. Only a curious brand of sloppiness will cause a full-grown man to handle zipping up and belting down (or tying down) of his trousers (or sokoto) with levity.

With the killing machines which the Northern elite has bred and nurtured within its domain over time now out of control and ravaging the region, their pants are way down their knees. And the so-called elders of the region have refused to bend their knees to redeem their trousers.         Rather, they prefer to stand, trousers down, talking back at sane advisers from other regions of the federation. One of their ranks, a common rogue of international repute, even imagines himself to be a statesman. Eleleya.

Now, their sins (age-old treachery) has  caught up with them; and they stand naked on the streets .

But they are not ashamed.

What is wrong in an elder like Chief Edwin Clark expressing the opinion that Northern leaders were not speaking out against increasing violence in their own region? Or in specifically charging Ibrahim Babangida and Muhammadu Buhari to speak out?  Clark had, after all, personally led efforts to dialogue with Niger Delta militants.

The response of these people was a mob attack and a barrage of insults.

The greatest calamities that have assailed Nigeria have come from these ranks. From the 1966 pogrom when Igbos in the North were slaughtered in their thousands to the May 1980 riots in Zaria, the   December 18-20 religious riot of Zaria the same year which claimed over 4,100 lives, to the Maitasine  wahala in Kaduna, Maiduguri, Borno in 1982, Maitasine wahala in February/March 1984 where over 500 were slaughtered, to Zango  Kataf of 1992.The annulment of the June 12 presidential  election won by a southerner by Ibrahim Babangida (Evil Genius) almost tore Nigeria apart . The lingering crises in Plateau State is another.

And the still ongoing slaughter of men, women and children in "God's" name by the Boko Haram lunatics.

The North has been a disaster to everybody in Nigeria--including itself.   These so-called Northern elders, under whose supervision the masses of their people-especially --youths-- have been misguided by religion and impoverished by profligacy have failed woefully both as parents and leaders.

In their "mob" attack on Chief Edwin Clark's sensible advice, they have unanimously distanced themselves from the sect.

Arewa consultative Forum(ACF) spokesman, A.Z Sanni, insisted that " it is unhelpful to associate Boko Haram with any region..."

Really? Such brazen inanity. With what region should it be associated?

Junaid Mohammed, on his part asks "where is proof" that Northern leaders are culpable over the Boko Haram insurgency. Was Kabir Sokoto not caught in the Borno Governor's lodge? Did Zakari Biu, a Police commissioner not confess to aiding Sokoto's escape? Has any of these criminals or the marauding Fulani herdsmen been sentenced anywhere? What step have any of these northern leaders taken to ensure the criminal elements among them are punished? Has the Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, not complained repeatedly that these northern killers are usually spirited away to Abuja or God knows where to escape trial in Plateau state?

What of Senator Ndume, who is standing trial for aiding and abetting Boko Haram? Was an emir in Borno State not fingered in Kabir Sokoto's escape?

Also reacting, Yerima Shetimma of the youth wing of ACF said "this madness must stop...nobody should accuse the North... " Oh oh! So Shetimma knows there is something called "madness"? But not northern elders tacitly aiding and abetting of mass killings of innocent Nigerians.

Kaita Mohammed, on his part claims "northern leaders want peace for this nation"

Haba! Lah ilah ilah LIE!

Do they imagine that Nigerians have forgotten the northern elders' vow, through Alhaji Lawal Kaita, a northern leader in October 2010, to make Nigeria ungovernable if the president did not come from the North?  And Ciroma, and his cohorts gave tacit support.  Imagine the contempt in which they hold the rest of Nigeria to make such treasonable vow publicly.

In the 2012 Budget alone, over N900billion has been earmarked for security due to the northern madness. Think what that could have done in terms of development if the North had not been part of Nigeria.

Dinosaurs were supposed to have died out millions of years ago. These northern Nigeria elders may be poof that Science is sorely mistaken...

Bend down and retrieve your trousers. Your bums are unsightly!

N.B: Before this gets to be published in the next 72 hours, I pray the northern Frankeinstein Monster does not strike again...

yemiogunsola@gmail.com

08069074718
SOURCE: GUARDIAN

The President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote said that nine million tonnes of cement have been released into the market to stem the escalating cost of the product.

Dangote, who disclosed this to newsmen on Friday at the premises of Obajana Cement Company in Kogi State, said that the move was to make the product available in all parts of the country and stabilise its prices in the open market.

The businessman, who spoke after conducting the visiting President of Tanzania, Dr Jakaya Kikwete on a facility tour of the the plant attributed the scarcity of cement in recent time to low production between January and March.

He said the low production followed the yearly turn around maintenance of the plants at Ibeshe, Obajana and other parts of the country.

He assured Nigerians that the prices of cement will drop to its normal price of between N1, 450 and N1, 550 very soon.

Dangote said that the president of Tanzania was at the cement plant to see things first hand and to enable him have a fore taste of what a cement plant the company was replicating in his country.

He said the plant, being established in Tanzania at a cost of 600 million dollars, would have the capacity to produce three million tonnes of cement per annum.

According to him, construction work at the plant has reached 30 per cent completion stage and work is being intensified to ensure its completion and inauguration in 2015.

In his remarks, President Kikwete said that he took time off the World Economic Forum holding in Abuja to visit the plant to have an idea of what his country would experience after the completion of the plant.

He described what he saw as “wonderful,’’ saying that his country was looking forward to seeing the same or better facilities.

He said the visit had further convinced him that Tanzania had a great partner in Dangote. (NAN)

The TY Danjuma Foundation has launched a $5 million endowment at the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa, University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa to fund African scholars’ research in Law and Policy Development in Africa.

The fund, known as the ‘TY Danjuma Fund for Law and Policy Development in Africa,’ is an endowment in perpetuity to support research, capacity building, African knowledge production and information generation for the advancement of well researched initiatives in the law and policy environment for development in Africa.

Speaking during the formal signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Lagos, the founder of the foundation, General TY Danjuma (rtd), said he was invited by the university to endow a fund that will finance legal research in Africa.

“My donation is to the university for all African countries not just Nigeria. The University of Cape Town will administer the fund, they will make sure that only the interest earned on the endowment will be spent on research every year, so the endowment is in perpetuity.”

He said the initiative was in recognition of the need to engender researches and studies that are capable of engendering positive development of African countries especially in the area of law.
He said the fund would assist scholars who need it to further their studies in exploring new way through which African countries could develop their legal system to make them competitive across the world.

“When this issue was first brought to me, I was really not interested because I felt already we have enough lawyers across the continent and we have so many laws that are not being implemented. But when the issue was raised among the board members of the foundation, I was surprised that everyone supported it. And I had to agree that since it is for the development of Africa, we will do it. The only condition we put in there is that the first beneficiary of this gesture must be a Nigerian scholar.”

The fund would engender long-term collaboration between the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa and the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, which is expected to make available its resource base for scholars selected to benefit from the endowment.

Also speaking, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Dr. Max Price, described the endowment as a step in the right direction because it would enable African scholars to start looking at aspects of comparative laws.

“For us at the University of Cape Town, our Centre for Comparative Law in Africa draws on the strengths of comparative methodology to research into the multifaceted field of law on the continent. Thus, we realise the need to develop a continental approach to law and its development since the experience of an African country can benefit another country.”

A peace negotiator used in previous formal negotiations with Boko Haram – the group responsible for kidnapping hundreds of school girls – has proposed a formal negotiation process to the Nigerian government that he hopes will allow for the girls’ safe return.

The operation could be convened quickly, with the girls returned, alive, within a week, Shehu Sani told ABC News.

The negotiating team should involve a committee of Islamic clerics from the north-eastern region of the country, along with insurgents who are in prison, he said. Sani said he believes Boko Haram will be willing to return the girls in exchange for their members who have been incarcerated.

Boko Haram’s threats to “sell” the girls into slavery is a positive signal because, normally, they vow to “kill” their captives, he added.

“Hope is not lost, as long as these girls are alive,” he said.

The peace negotiator, who has previously traveled to Maiduguri in Borno State, in northeastern Nigeria, for direct talks with Boko Haram leadership in a burned-out mosque, is concerned that international attention is forcing Nigeria’s government to take a hardline but miscalculated approach.

"This government is helpless and hopeless on solving the problem” he said. “The most important thing is to get them back alive, and you cannot do that through force.”

Instead of convening a negotiating mission, the Nigerian government has appointed a committee led by military and intelligence chiefs, to whom Boko Haram will be unwilling to talk, Sani said.

He cited recent examples of armed raids, attempting to rescue foreign hostages, that have resulted in the death of captives.

“The government of Nigeria is pretending to be serious simply because the world is taking an interest,” he said.

Source ABC

In an apparent move to avoid future occurrence of abduction of school children, a coalition of Nigerian business leaders working with the United Nations (UN) special envoy for education, Gordon Brown, the Global Business Coalition for Education and A World at School yesterday at the World Economic Forum launched Safe Schools Initiative.

The Safe Schools Initiative which is also in partnership with government, media, civil societies, youths, parents and teachers is to set up a $10million fund to pilot 500 safe schools in Northern Nigeria following the kidnapping of more than 200 girls last month.

Gordon Brown, former British prime minister who is in Nigeria to attend the World Economic Forum, pledged the support of the international community to the Safe Schools Initiative, adding that he will seek additional resources from international partners and the government to scale up safe schools.

Accordingly, the UN Special Envoy for Global Education will meet with President Goodluck Jonathan this week to discuss a plan by the international community to partner with Nigeria for the largest school expansion in the country’s history to get out-of-school children into school.

A petition with over 400,000 signatures will be delivered later this week to President Jonathan showing international support for creating safe schools in Nigeria so that every child is able to go to school and learn.

Gordon Brown in a statement said the thoughts and prayers of the whole world are with Nigeria’s abducted girls and their parents as they face their fourth week in captivity.

“Three weeks ago, I asked for international support to rescue them. Thanks to John Kerry, the US secretary of state, and William Hague, the UK foreign secretary, with whom I have talked in the last 24 hours, the US and UK governments have agreed to send specialist teams to support efforts in Borno State to locate the kidnapped girls,” he said.

SOURCELeadership

A moment of passion can strike just about anywhere.

s one couple exchanged vows at a Salt Lake City church altar, police say they were called to break up another couple engaging in sex acts on the church lawn.

An officer flagged down by a wedding guest outside Sacred Heart Catholic Church reported seeing the two transients in the throes of passion about 6 p.m. Saturday.

"I walked over to the couple and I physically saw the sex act," Officer Rich Stone wrote in a graphic, detailed police report obtained by The Smoking Gun.

Rich described the couple, identified as Sandra Kruser, 56, and Wilson Benally, 60, as committing the acts in front of him, other wedding guests and "four children in the wedding party."

The couple allegedly ignored Stone's orders to stop, and carried on until they were physically broken up.

They were later charged with gross lewdness and public intoxication. Benally was also hit with a third count of criminal trespass.

They pair were booked into the Salt Lake County jail.

Speaking out for the first time on the horrific kidnapping, President Obama on Tuesday called the abduction of the Nigerian school girls “heartbreaking” and “outrageous.”

It’s been 22 days since the 276 girls were taken from their school by extremist militants from the Islamist terror group Boko Haram, which translates to “western education is sinful.” The group has since threatened to sell the girls into slavery.

The girls’ plight has attracted international condemnation and spurred a global call to action.

“You’ve got one of the worst regional or local terrorist organizations in Boko Haram in Nigeria, they’ve been killing people ruthlessly for many years now and we’ve already been seeking greater cooperation with the Nigerians – this may be the event that helps to mobilize the entire international community to finally do something against this horrendous organization that’s perpetrated such a terrible crime,” the president told ABC News’ Ginger Zee.

On Tuesday, the White House announced it is sending a team to Nigeria to aid the effort to find the girls and those responsible, amid criticism that the Nigerian government has not done enough to rescue them.

“We’ve already sent in a team to Nigeria – they’ve accepted our help through a combination of military, law enforcement, and other agencies who are going in, trying to identify where in fact these girls might be and provide them help,” Obama said.

The president’s comments come just hours after the Senate passed a resolution condemning the kidnapping, saying it’s time to send a message to the “bad guys” that they need to leave the girls alone.

“This is an outrage, an outrage against these girls and an outrage in the international community and we need to speak up as a nation, women and men together saying what is this, where a girl can’t go to school simply because she’s a girl?” Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. said on the Senate floor.

“This is a horrific situation. Kidnapping certainly has no place in any village, in any region, in any country,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said. “The voices of the civilized world must rise up and be louder than the terrorists who are taking away basic human rights.”

A spokesman for the Nigerian Presidency has defended the arrest and detention, yesterday of one of the leaders of a protest calling on them to do more to find more than 200 girls abducted by Boko Haram terrorist group from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.

Reuters international news agency quoted a source in the presidency as saying that Naomi Mutah Nyadar had been detained over allegations of falsely claiming to be the mother of one of the missing girls.

Nyadar was arrested on Sunday after a meeting she and other campaigners had held with President Goodluck Jonathan’s wife, Patience, concerning the girls.

She was taken to Asokoro police station, near the presidential villa, said fellow protester Lawan Abana, whose two nieces are among the abductees.

“Ms Naomi was arrested yesterday evening,” he told Reuters. “We are begging them to save our daughters. Instead of taking steps to rescue them they are jailing us.”

The presidency source said: “(Nyadar) was arrested because of impersonation. She claimed that she was one of the girls’ mothers, so she’s just being questioned by the police.”

Abana denied Nyadar had made any such claim.

“They are claiming it is a hoax and that her daughter was not abducted. But when we say ‘bring back our daughters’ the campaign means it in the broader sense of ‘daughters of Nigeria’,” Abana said. “They are so clueless.”

Yesterday afternoon, the Northern States Christian and Elders Forum (NOCSEF), an affiliate of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), released the names of abducted 180 girls comprising 165 Christians and 15 Muslims.

Last night in his Presidential Media Chat, Goodluck Jonathan admitted that he did not know where the girls are being kept but vowed to find and rescue them.

•Photo shows demonstrators seeking to compel the Nigerian Government to take serious action to rescue the abducted schoolgirls.

Source News Express

When it comes to relationships, women tend to believe the hype about men they’re considering dating. Researchers found that women change their opinion of men when they’re presented with a negative or positive spin, even if the information is exactly the same.

Researchers at Concordia University in Montreal found that women were more highly attuned to information about potential mates when it was negatively framed, even if the facts were exactly the same as the positive framing. In other words, women are extremely susceptible to spin.

They presented participants with two statements about potential mates that said the exact same information in different ways. For example:

“Seven out of 10 people who know this person say he is kind”

vs.

“Three out of 10 people who know this person say he is unkind.”

The information is the same, but the framing is different, and the women were much more likely to reject mates who were framed negatively. The researchers concluded this is probably because of “parental investment theory,” or the notion that women have to be pickier about their mates because the consequences are higher for picking the wrong one.

So what does that mean for guys who get mixed reviews on apps like Lulu that rate men? It means they should clean up their act, because one negative comment could be enough to turn dates away.

CULLED: TIME

Despite unprecedented political momentum to fight rape in war zones, sexual violence remains a global crime affecting women, men and children in more than 20 countries, a senior United Nations official, Mrs Zainab Bangura, announced yesterday, urging greater action at the regional and national levels.

“It doesn’t matter whether she comes from Bosnia, Colombia, Syria or Central Africa, the pain that a woman feels who has been raped is the same,” Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Bangura told journalist in New York at the launch of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s annual report on the issue.

Documenting information based on cases recorded by the UN system in 21 countries of concern, the report identifies 34 armed groups, militia and Government security forces, responsible for using rape as a tool in conflict zones.

Among its findings, the report also links sexual violence with local economies. It notes that rape is used to gain control of territories with natural resources, including minerals, which are used by groups to further fuel conflict, as well as human trafficking and illegal drug trade.

Rape has also been documented as a trigger for mass flight, which further makes women, and especially youth, vulnerable to abuses. Some parents trying to protect daughters push them to early and forced marriages, which has led to cases of human trafficking and sexual slavery, Ms. Bangura noted.

While impunity for sexual violence remains prevalent, it is particularly acute in these situations. Under-reporting of sexual assaults is a function of limited capacity to safely monitor and report, as well as the result of fear of stigmatization and reprisals by the survivors.

Among the report’s recommendations, Mr. Ban also urges governments “to work to develop a comprehensive protection and service response for survivors” of sexual violence, including reproductive health services, HIV awareness and response services, and assistance in psychosocial, legal and livelihood aid.

“The UN calls on the countries in question, and the international community, to ensure that men, women and children who are victims of sexual violence, and children born of rape get the assistance they need,” Ms. Bangura underlined echoing the report.

The report also urges building the capacity of civil society groups to better protect against such crimes at the community level. At the national level, the report recommends engage with state and non-state parties to obtain commitments to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence.

Earlier this month, Ms. Bangura and other senior UN officials, including human rights chief Navi Pillay, called on the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to step up the fight against impunity for rape and sexual violence, which remain widespread and largely unpunished. Referring to a report from the UN Joint Human Rights Office in the DRC (UNJHRO), she noted documented cases of 3,600 people attacked, nearly half of them in the strife-torn eastern province of North Kivu, and ranging in age from two years old to 80.

This year’s report also includes a list of groups credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape and other forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict on the agenda of the Security Council. These include parties in the Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Mali, South Sudan and Syria, among others.

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