Half Of Vehicles Delivered To Nigerian Army By US Govt Faulty

Reports credited to The Nation have it that about 50 percent of the vehicles sent in by the United States government to fight insurgency in Nigeria are not working.

Yesterday, the media was awash with reports of the delivery of over 24 Mine- Resistant Armour-Protected Vehicles (MRAP) to the Nigerian Army to boost the war against Boko Haram.

The vehicles were reportedly donated in line with the United States’ Excess Defence Articles programme, and were said to be among those retrieved from Iraq  and Afghanistan.

Some of the vehicles delivered to the Nigerian Army.

According to The Nation, it would cost the military millions in dollars to fix and equip the MRAP to standard use, especially because the spare parts could only be bought from the original manufacturers in America.

Manufactured in 2008, the minimum carriage capacity of each vehicle is five persons and can conveniently carry anti-air misiles, as well as M-15 calibre machine guns. It can withstand attacks from Improvised Explosives Devices (IEDs), dynamites and bombs.

Defence Minister Gen. Dan Ali, who was represented by Major-General Barry Ndiomu, during the presentation, said the vehicles would help protect troops against IEDs and help in the movement of men with little or no casualties.

“We appreciate what the US has done but like Oliver Twist, we will appreciate if more is done. The vehicles came without spare parts. Not all of them are serviceable. The U.S. should provide the spares to enable us repair those that need to be serviced,” he was quoted to have said.

While fielding questions from reporters, US Defence Attaché to Nigeria Col. Patrick Doyle revealed that about fifty percent were in good working conditions.

“The programme provided equipment to partner nations in the conditions that they are when the nations saw them. So, the Nigerian Army inspected the vehicles a few months back and selected the best they could find.

“Originally, we agreed to allow them to have 32 vehicles. Twent-five are in front of you today. Many of these vehicles will need some work.

“Probably about half of them are in good working condition but will need minor work. Others will need some body, electrical works.

“The reason we have excess defence article programmes is because we are downsizing forces in our military. We have left Iraq  with our forces and have downsized forces out of Afghanistan.
“So, these vehicles were gladly provided when Nigerian Army asked.

“The repairs of the vehicles are up to the Nigerian government to do that. They can repair them on their own, but of course,  the spare parts are particular to these vehicles and can be got only from the manufacturers.

“We have been discussing on this and we are working out conditions on how that can be done. The easiest way to do that is to open a government to government case, where we can work with them to ensure they get the correct parts and in a timely manner from the correct manufacturers.

“We have not done the estimate of what it will cost the Nigerian government to fix the vehicles,” Doyle informed.

Nigerians have since reacted to the promise fulfilled by the American government. While some think it is a good step in the right direction, many others remain skeptical about the new arrangement.

Every Black Person Should Read About Sarah Baartman and How Blacks were Abused

This is a very interesting story. Funny how I never knew about her until today when I came across this article that I just had to read, and then share. It’s kinda interesting how some of us just go through life not knowing how we got to where we are, and who made it happen. Most f us preferred to remain oblivious to the history. But if you are one of those who are curious about the past and keen on making the future better, then this story is for you. Happy viewing!


Culled From, SouthAfrica.Info:

Sarah Baartman, displayed as a freak because of  her unusual physical features, was finally laid to rest 187 years after she left Cape Town for London. Her remains were buried on Women’s Day, 9 August 2002, in the area of her birth, the Gamtoos River Valley in the Eastern Cape.
Baartman was born in 1789. She was working as a slave in Cape Town when she was “discovered” by British ship’s doctor William Dunlop, who persuaded her to travel with him to England. We’ll never know what she had in mind when she stepped on board – of her own free will – a ship for London. But it’s clear what Dunlop had in mind – to display her as a “freak”, a “scientific curiosity”, and make money from these shows, some of which he promised to give to her.

Baartman had unusually large buttocks and genitals, and in the early 1800s Europeans were arrogantly obsessed with their own superiority, and with proving that others, particularly blacks, were inferior and oversexed.

Baartman’s physical characteristics, not unusual for Khoisan women, although her features were larger than normal, were “evidence” of this prejudice, and she was treated like a freak exhibit in London.

The ‘Hottentot Venus’

She was called the “Hottentot Venus”, ‘Hottentot’ being a name given to people with cattle. They had acquired these cattle by migrating northwards to Angola and returned to South Africa with them, about 2 000 years before the first European settlement at the Cape in 1652. Prior to this, they were indistinguishable from the Bushmen or San, the first inhabitants of South Africa, who had been in the region for around 100 000 years as hunter-gatherers.

Khoisan is used to denote their relationship to the San people. The label “Hottentot” took on derogatory connotations, and is no longer used.

Venus is the Roman goddess of love, a cruel reference to Baartman being an object of admiration and adoration instead of the object of leering and abuse that she became. She spent four years in London, then moved to Paris, where she continued her degrading round of shows and exhibitions. In Paris she attracted the attention of French scientists, in particular Georges Cuvier.

No one knows if Dunlop was true to his word and paid Baartman for her “services”, but if he did pay her, it wasn’t sufficient to buy herself out of the life she was living.

Once the Parisians got tired of the Baartman show, she was forced to turn to prostitution. She didn’t last the ravages of a foreign culture and climate, or the further abuse of her body. She died in 1815, at the age of 25.The cause of death was given as “inflammatory and eruptive sickness”, possibly syphilis. Others suggest she was an alcoholic. Whatever the cause, she lived and died thousands of kilometres from home and family, in a hostile city, with no means of getting herself home again. Cuvier made a plaster cast of her body, then removed her skeleton and, after removing her brain and genitals, pickled them and displayed them in bottles at theMusee de l’Hommein Paris.

Some 160 years later they were still on display, but were finally removed from public view in 1974. In 1994, then president Nelson Mandela requested that her remains be brought home. Other representations were made, but it took the French government eight years to pass a bill – apparently worded so as to prevent other countries from claiming the return of their stolen treasures – to allow their small piece of “scientific curiosity” to be returned to South Africa.

In January 2002, Sarah Baartman’s remains were returned and buried on 9 August 2002, on South Africa’s Women’s Day, at Hankey in the Eastern Cape Province.  Her grave has since been declared a national heritage site.

Marang Setshwaelo, writing for Africana.com at the time, said Dr Willa Boezak, a Khoisan rights activist, believed that a poem written by Khoisan descendant Diana Ferrus in 1998 played a major role in helping bring Baartman home. Boezak said: “It took the power of a woman, through a simple, loving poem, to move hard politicians into action.”

Whatever the reason, Sarah Baartman is home, and has finally had her dignity restored by being buried where she belongs – far away from where her race and gender were so cruelly exploited.

SHOCKER!!! Islamic Terrorist Publicly Executes His Own Mother

Islamic Terrorist Publicly Executes His Own Mother


In a shocking low even by the standards of the Islamic State, a militant has publicly executed his own mother after accusing her of apostasy.

The activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RIBSS) said 20-year-old jihadi Ali Saqr al-Qasem shot his mother Lena, 45, in the head with an assault rifle in front of a large crowd.

Lena al-Qasem is understood to have been accused of apostasy – a crime that usually means leaving one’s religion but in practise is used by Isis as a justification for murdering anybody who doesn’t support or speaks out against the terror group.

The exact charge against Ms al-Qasem was “inciting her son to leave the Islamic State and escaping together to the outside of Raqqa”, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.

The UK-based conflict monitor said Ali Saqr al-Qasem had reported his mother to his Isis superiors, who then sentenced her to death and ordered him be the one to kill her.

The Observatory said hundreds of people turned out to watch Ms al-Qasem’s execution.

It is not known why her son was given the task of killing his own mother but the reason the execution took place outside Raqqa’s post office is because that is where Ms al-Qasem had worked.

The news comes as Isis’ chief spokesman in neighbouring Iraq, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, was reportedly left with severe injuries following an airstrike.

Al-Adnani, who has been singled out as a potential successor should anything happen to Isis’ leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, required initial emergency treatment in the jihadi-held city of Hit after losing large amounts of blood, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said.

He has since been moved to Isis’ Iraq-stronghold of Mosul, MailOnline reported, adding that his condition remains unknown.

Naira hits 278 as dollar supply worsens

The naira took further beating on Thursday at the parallel market, trading near its 2015 low of 280 against the United States dollar.

The dollar was sold for N278 at the parallel market on Thursday, as against 273 on Wednesday and 267.5 on Tuesday. The naira had on Monday closed at 265 against the dollar, compared to 263 on Sunday.

The Central Bank of Nigeria had on Wednesday sold about $15.5m to 1,650 Bureau De Change operators, but this was not enough to stem further slide of the nation’s currency at the unofficial market. The official rate ranges from 197 to 199.

The naira had on December 17, 2015 crashed to 280 against the greenback at the parallel market.
The Acting President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, said he expected the weakness in the naira to continue.

“The naira has been battered seriously. We are talking about 278 now from 273 yesterday (Wednesday). Dollar demand is coming up and the supply is very limited.

“The CBN sold about $15.5m to 1,650 BDCs on Wednesday. Still there is a drastic short supply. Honestly, I am afraid because it is all about demand and supply and the way the thing is going, the demand is twice the supply in the market. To me, I don’t see the naira getting stronger soon.

The nation’s currency had closed at 262 against the greenback before the New Year holiday started last Wednesday. After the Christmas holiday, the local currency rose from 265 to 260.

Forex scarcity, which has caused significant decline in the nation’s external reserves, prompted the CBN to ration dollar supply to banks, importers, BDCs and the general public.

The nation’s external reserves declined by 15.79 per cent year-on-year to about $29.070bn on December 31, 2015, compared to $34.52bn a year ago, according to data from the CBN.
The nation’s foreign reserves fell by $112m to $28.960bn on January 5, latest data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday showed.

The CBN recently cut its weekly forex sale to the BDCs from $30,000 to $10,000 each.
Earlier, the central bank had refused to sell forex to over 1,600 BDCs over their failure to provide necessary documents for previous allocations.

At the official interbank market, the currency has been pegged since February and stood at 197 against the dollar on January 6. It traded at 199 to the dollar on the official interbank market on Thursday.

The BDCs account for less than five per cent of the total dollar trade in Nigeria, but provide an indication of where investors see liquidity and are willing to trade it.

Since June 2014, the CBN has limited the availability of hard currency to importers and placed restrictions on interbank dealing as it tried to mitigate an oil price crash that has gutted the government’s revenues.
Analysts predict that the naira will inevitably be revalued this year, causing further pain in a country that is heavily dependent on imports. The CBN has spent billions from the country’s already dwindling dollar reserves to shore up the currency.

“The issue is when, not whether they will [devalue]”, the Chief Macroeconomist at Ecobank Capital, Gaimin Nonyane, was quoted by Forbes as saying.

An Igbo makes history in the US as the first appointed African judge in New Jersey

An Igbo makes history in the US as the first appointed African judge in New Jersey.

Jude O Nkama made history on January 6th as he became the first African to be appointed as a judge in the 349 year history of the city and State of New Jersey, USA. Hon. Ras Baraka, Mayor of the City of Newark, NJ also appointed Hon. Ugochukwu Nwaokoro as Deputy Mayor; and Evans Anyanwu, Esq. as Chief Prosecutor of the city.

See photos from the event

Justice nkama and colleagues


Justice Nkama with friends


Justice Nkama and family


Justice Nkama

Biafra Panic: Kanu’s Father Ready To Quit Throne For Biafra

Biafra Panic: Kanu’s Father Ready To Quit Throne For Biafra

 

His Royal Majesty, Eze Kanu, the father of Nnamdi Kanu, has revealed that he will go as far as abdicating his throne for the actualization of a Biafra republic. In an interview with The Sun, the Eze Ikputu of Afara Ukwu Ibeku in Umuahia, said he was ready to quit his throne over the course for which his son is being detained. He said there was relief having heard that his son, the Radio Biafra boss, was arraigned in court in good health. The monarch also expressed his joy over the continued support of the “Biafran” people who rallied round the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). In an appeal to President Muhammdu Buhari, Eze Kanu urged the federal government to release his son, because he has not done anything wrong in fighting his course with just words. He said there was no way to tell his son to backdown, stressing that Biafra is not just Kanu’s fight but the desire of the Igbo people. Eze Ikputu noted that the Igbo people are like slaves in the country, hence the the call for their liberation. He added that nothing but freedom will do for the agitators of Biafra, and that the separation in no way calls for war, seeing that other countries have gained their freedom without bloodshed. Meanwhile, Princess Chinwe Kanu, the sister of the detained Biafra leader, has cried out over how t he Department of State Services (DSS) plans to kill her brother while in detention.

ex-Senate President’s Son Sues Catholic Priest For N5bn Over Prophecy

ex-Senate President’s Son Sues Catholic Priest For N5bn Over Prophecy

Second son of 1st  Republic Senate President, Late Abyssinia Orizu, Prince Orji Orizu has challenged any Nigerian, native doctor, any child or agent of a native doctor and anybody connected to any native doctor in or outside Nigeria to come out and speak that he has visited, patronized or been seen in the house of any native doctor anywhere in or outside Nigeria.

Prince Nwafor-Orizu gave the challenge while addressing newsmen in his house in Nnewi, following allegations by Rev. Fr. Chidozie Chilaka, aka ‘Jesus Network,’ of the Catholic Diocese of the East (Orthodox Catholic) during his weeklong crusade at Nigeria Science and Technical College Nnewi, that Prince Orji Nwafor Orizu was responsible for the misfortunes of his uncle’s wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Orizu and those of her children.

The Mbaise-born and Isiala Mbano, Imo State, based evangelist had allegedly called out one Mrs. Orizu, Prince Nwafor-Orizu’s uncle’s wife, during his crusade in Nnewi and told her that she had been under a spell from Prince Nwafor-Orizu.

The priest allegedly told the woman that all her daughters’ broken marriages were caused by the legal luminary, promising that he would nullify curses inflicted on them by the former first Republic Senate President’s son.

Orji Orizu subsequently sued the Reverend Father for N5b for defamation of character.