ARIWO !

Okada, the nigerian Zemijan

Okada (also: achaba, inaga^[1]) refers to commercial motorcycles in Nigeria, where motorcycle riders carry passengers for hire. The name Okada is borrowed from the then popular Airline in Nigeria, the Okada Air. A local airline that was not popular for its confort but remained the most used local airline in the country. In an ironic metaphor the first group of motorcycle transporters were then given this name okada. Because of the comic irony of this name being used for a cyclist and for the popularity of the airline, the name okada for the commercial motorcyclist was never to be forgotten and eventually became as popular as it is now. Many people do not even remember that there was any thing like Okada air any more. Okada began to gain popularity in the late 80s when because of economic difficulties in the last years of the first decade of the Nigerian economic crunch, some jobless youths began to use this age-old transport system for commercial purposes, to transport some stranded but willing passengers through the narrow or bad roads to the far inaccessible parts of the cities or villages. It is one of the chief modes of transport in Nigeria and, by far, the most common form of informal transport system in that country. It is easily affordable for the common man and very flexible. Above all okada is readily available: one can hadly wait too long for an okada to come arround, even in the remotest villages they appear in given intervals. There is no road too narrow or a place too remote for Okada. It became for the common man a wellcome alternative to the sometimes short but often long walk to-and-fro home after a long journey or a days job - a short trecking under the sun (for example from a commercial car park where the passengers are picked or dropped collectively) that is more tedious and arduous than it looks. For these reasons okada became quickly beloved and did not take long to convince its critics and soon the fears or recentments of the early inception were dissolved into calculable risks that accompany all transportation. The popularity and widespread acceptance of okada has rapidly risen in recent years. It has become a regular means of transportation for the young and old, man or woman. Unfortunately, the rise of okada has been accompanied by increased levels of high-risk behavior and accidents on Nigerian roads; as a result they have come under heavy flak culminating in legislations restricting or prohibiting their operations in some Nigerian cities….

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Nigeria: Rice Importers Raise Alarm Over Smuggling

 

Sylva Emeka-Okereke

23 February 2010

Lagos — President of Rice Importers and Distributors Association of Nigeria (RIDAN), Gbadamosi Mufutau has raised fresh alarm that the unbridled smuggling of goods through borders areas, coupled with the recent increase in the benchmark for rice importation are threatening their business.

While speaking to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) last week, Mufutau said these factors are capable of frustrating the importers out of business, just as it is capable of making mess of the federal government's plan to improve the sector. The federal government had last year proposed to establish 17 rice mill plants in some states of the federation.

It would be recalled that the federal government recently increased the benchmark for rice importation from $590, about N88, 500 to $640 (N96, 000) while duties payable on them, increased to 32 per cent. This is in addition to the increasing smuggling activities, which have been threatening the nation's economy to a halt.

The RIDA boss, who spoke to NAN said 560, 000 tones of parboiled rice imported into Republic of Benin in 2009 found their way into Nigerian markets, which resulted into loss of over N16.3 billion.

He said the quantity of rice smuggled into the country through the nation's borders was increasing by the day, recalling that the smuggling, which started since 2005 has continued to increase astronomically.

"Go to Seme and Idiroko borders, you will see the beehive of activities of loading of hundreds of articulated vehicles with different products heading to Nigeria .It is a big economy for some selected people now while the Nigeria importers are grounded," he said.

According to him, if activities of the smugglers remained unchecked, it would cripple activities of genuine importers and lead to sacking of over one million workforces….

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Senator Sani Yerima, tufiakwa!

Senator Sani Yerima

Senator marries 13yr old

Who is the pedophile? Senator Sanni Yerima of Zamfara State, who married a 13yr old from Egypt as his fourth wife and paid $100,000 (about N15 million) to her family as bride price.

Will he be expelled from the Senate?

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Senator Sani Yerima, tufiakwa!

 Thu at 2:45am

Baby-boomer Sani Yerima has just taken delivery of his fourth wife. As a Muslim, we cannot accuse him of bigamy. A fourth wife is just it for a Muslim who has enough harvest in his barn to cater for such indulgence. The Muslim religion allows for up to four wives.
So, in the case of Yerima, we ought to be clinking glasses in animated celebration. But there is a snag. Yerima's wife is also his daughter or even grand daughter. She's a 13-year-old Egyptian girl, a soft-spoken, pliant and innocent virgin. That's the person that appealed to Yerima most; that captured his dirty heart and captivated his depraved sense of love. Even Pharaoh with all his shortcomings would not have approved of this act of savagery.
Taking a starry-eyed 13-year-old as wife is a pastime only fit for maniacs. It is the stuff of decadent minds. But Yerima is not new to such dissolute acts. Recall he was governor of Zamfara State for eight years, from 1999 to 2007. He was the chief proponent of Sharia law. He introduced the Islamic legal code in his Zamfara State. A man of such near-manic passion to please his God ought to be a repository of morals, a beacon of rectitude and exemplar of the finest virtues of civility. Not so for Yerima.
As governor, he got the hand of Citizen Jangebi chopped off in the name of justice. Jangebi's offence was grave, very grave. He was convicted by a Sharia court for stealing a cow. Yes, a cow, which as at then was not more than N60,000 in the market. That's a grave offence, my dear. And for stealing such rare quadruped specie, Yerima got Jangebi's hand amputated. Yerima defended his action amidst a swirling tide of public outrage. Yet, while he was governor, there was rumour of billions of Naira flying out of government coffers into private pockets. It ceased to be rumour when former boss of the anti-crime agency, EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, singled out Yerima for lampooning.
While tendering the report of the investigations carried out by the EFCC on serving governors during ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo regime, Ribadu told a bewildered National Assembly that the variant of corruption in Yerima's Zamfara was of the primitive genre. "It was a case of direct stealing", a seething Ribadu told his audience. And this is my quarrel with Yerima's moral self-glorification. A man who would crucify a fellow man for stealing N60,000 has showed up to play the role of officiating minister at the funeral when the same man cannot account for billions of Naira put under his care. Yerima's case file is still at the EFCC. I hope he hasn't forgotten that. But that's by the way.

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Copyright, Blaise APLOGAN, 2010,© Bienvenu sur Babilown

Tout copier/collage de cet article sur un autre site doit en mentionner et l’origine et l’auteur sous peine d’être en infraction.

Release of the Committee of Support to Simon Pierre Adovelande

Since December 25, 2009, Mr. Simon Pierre Adovelande, National Coordinator of Benin's Program for the Millennium Challenge Account is undergoing an injustice and a flagrant violation of human rights from the Beninese government,  particularly from the head of State, President Boni Yayi.
As a matter of fact, on Friday, December 25, 2009, Mr. Simon Pierre Adovelande was arrested by National Police and placed in custody, a government statement; the command centre of the RAID, a section of the Benin National Police, specialized in repression of crime.
The official reason served to the public, shocked and appalled by such brutality, is the involvement of the person concerned in the management of a private limited company called Bezaleel Building Group (SA GBB), as Chairman of the Board of Administration and specialized in real estate. The real reason is reflected in the growing popularity of Simon Pierre Adovelande because of his moral values, discipline and professionalism in the implementation of MCA-BENIN ; and above all, in the increasingly persistent rumours of his claims for presidential elections in March 2011 that hinder the power and decided to break his curse.
In March 2000, Adovelande Simon Pierre and his friends have established the Bezalel Group Building (GBB), a company whose main object is to develop real estate business. In 2001 and in the framework of for a government housing program, GBB has won the tender in two areas of real estate that can accommodate about 1042 low-cost housing to be built on its own fund raising intiatives.
To this end GBB has had to resort to Shelter Afrique and the OPEC Fund, private institutions specializing in financing real estate in Africa. These two organizations have granted GBB loans in 2003 and 2004 totalizing 2.235 billion CFA francs of which 1.825 billion CFA francs have been disbursed for the implementation of 323 housing units fully sold, built and on which 203 have been delivered. It should be noted that these loans were not guaranteed by the Benin government
For commercial reasons, especially the plastering costs of disposal of certain types of housing by the government, GBB has made huge losses that do not allow it to meet its repayment obligations when due vis-à- vis its lenders..
It is clear from the foregoing that GBB, the Board of Directors of which Adovelande Simon Pierre is the Chairman, is in no way accusable of a criminal offense. The company is in temporary financial difficulty and at best liable to a business process with its partners, the aim of which should be research and commitment of ways and means to resume its activities and the repayment of loans made to it.
Instead, Simon Pierre Adovelande and Isaac AGOSOU, the Director General of GBB were arrested on December 25, 2009 (Christmas Day) and brought to the civil prison of Cotonou since December 29, 2009, arbitrarily, on the basis of counts fanciful, like common criminals. Upon their arrest, the government and the counsel for Shelter Afrique in Benin, tried with much media noise, to present to the public their version of the events, in the old style of African dictators of the 70s and 80s.
After questionings and hearings of the plaintiff and confrontations that have clearly shown that we are in a business process and that the charges against Mr. Simon Stone Adovelande are fully identified, he is still detained at the civil prison of Cotonou. Only the constant search for truth can justify detention of the accused, detention should also be an exceptional measure and freedom the rule, as stated in Article 118 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The plaintiff has, himself, admitted that if GBB-SA had consistently met its financial commitments in respect of creditors, this case would never have existed, which shows that we are in a purely commercial process.
On several occasions, before he was arrested Simon Pierre Adovelande had received several emissaries of the ruling regime in Benin, urging him to abandon his presidential ambitions. The complainant had until his arrest given no response to theses demands that continued even during his incarceration.
To all the friends of Adovelande Simon Pierre, who approached President Boni Yayi to intervene for his release, President Yayi has always denied his involvement in the affair, which confirms that his is really behind the whole machinery. Democracy and human rights are seriously threatened in Benin. For this reason we appeal to all groups and all associations of Human Rights to consider the case of Simon Pierre Adovelande and Isaac AGOSSOU who are deprived of their liberty since 25 December 2009 and detained in civil prison in Cotonou.
On behalf of the committee of support of Simon Pierre Adovelande,
France, Section
Raymond ADJAKPA-ABILE
Consultant & Director of Publication AfriQualité
[email protected]

Copyright, Blaise APLOGAN, 2010,© Bienvenu sur Babilown

Tout copier/collage de cet article sur un autre site doit en mentionner et l’origine et l’auteur sous peine d’être en infraction.