Wednesday, March 19, 2014

GAMING REVIEW: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Out Today



Snake moves across the dirt and rock with immaculate care, crawling in silence as rain soaks his suit. He blends into the darkness, and the passing chopper screeches overhead in ignorance of his trespassing. As the camera pans to reveal his face, each wrinkle on his brow betrays his great military experience and troubled past. But this is just another mission for the iconic hero, who returns to PlayStation today in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes for PS3 and PS4.

Following the events of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Ground Zeroes finds Big Boss infiltrating a military compound in Cuba, with a mission to extract two high-value targets before they’re executed… or worse. Ground Zeroes establishes the initial story arc that will continue in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Think of Ground Zeroes as an appetizer to the main course.

The talented team at Kojima Productions have worked marvels on PS4, lending a breath-taking sense of realism to Ground Zeroes and the characters therein. The character models and animation have reached new heights for the series, while the large military base brims with detail, both large and small. Rain lashes down from the night sky in gouts, mechanized gates groan into motion as claxons blare, and the distant whir of an approaching jeep motor can send even an experienced player into a panic.

Special attention has been spent on Ground Zeroes’ controls, enabling players to move, crawl, dive, roll, and fight in fluid succession. In classic Metal Gear tradition, much of the fun comes from learning the behaviors of the soldiers on the base, and finding the best ways to deceive or dispatch them.

Snake has several tools for doing just that, including his trusty tranquilizer pistol, as well as a host of weapons on the base he can procure, from shotguns to rifles. Metal Gear fans will relish the return of other series standards, like engrossing radio chatter and a story steeped in intrigue. Although Ground Zeroes is but a taste of the full Metal Gear Solid V experience, it provides rich insight into Kojima’s future project.

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes launches today for PS3 and PS4.

GAMING REVIEWS : PS4 Introducing Project Morpheus


› Shu Yoshida
  I had the pleasure to introduce Project Morpheus, SCE’s prototype virtual reality (VR) system that works with PS4. Virtual reality is the next innovation from SCE that we believe will shape the future of games.

I have long dreamed about VR and the possibilities it brings in regards to game development. This new technology will deliver a sense of presence, where you as the player actually feel like you’re inside the game and your emotions feel that much more real.

Our current prototype for Project Morpheus features a head mounted display with 1080p resolution and a 90 degree field of view. Accelerometer and gyroscope sensors built into the head mounted unit as well as PlayStation Camera accurately tracks head orientation and movement, so as your head rotates, the image of the virtual world rotates intuitively in real-time. Project Morpheus also features our new 3D audio technology that re-creates stereoscopic sounds in all directions and changes in real-time depending on your head orientation. In addition to PlayStation Camera, Project Morpheus works with DUALSHOCK 4 Wireless Controller and PlayStation Move to deliver an easy-to-use, plug-and-play VR experience.

The prototype for Project Morpheus is the culmination of our work over the last 3+ years as we’ve refined our vision for VR. This prototype will serve as the first development kit for PS4 developers that are as enthusiastic about this new medium as we are.

At GDC 2014 this week, attendees will be able to check out Project Morpheus in action at the SCEA booth through a handful of technology demos.

Monday, March 17, 2014

I Woke Up To Gushots & Bomb Blasts: First Hand Narrative Of The Maiduguri Attack

This morning I woke up by myself – no rude gunshots or
harsh bomb blasts woke me up. I was not so lucky on Friday
morning though..
I hate campus hostels so I live off campus very close to one
of the school’s numerous gates. But because the campus is
relatively safe, has more power supply and not subjected to
the 9-6 curfew imposed on Maiduguri, I usually end up
sleeping at a friend’s who lives with his mum in the staff
quarters. Well, Thursday night came and network was really
terrible over there so I decided to sleep at my place instead
to see if the network will be better since I had some 360nobs
job to do. I and my roommate Blaq walked home. By 6
o’clock the next morning, the alarm on my pebble smart
watch vibrated me awake. Since I didn’t have any lecture, I
out off the alarm continued sleeping. Checked the watch
again and it was quarter past seven. About five minutes
later, I heard a gunshot. It’s a normal occurrence over here
in Maiduguri so I paid it no mind. A few seconds later, there
was a burst of gunfire. I asked Blaq if he heard that just to
be sure. We got a continuous sound of gunfire in response.
We sprang up and started throwing clothes on. Blaq
suggested we get into the campus, I thought it was an
unnecessary risk since we will have to cross a major road
for us to get into the campus. Our only neighbour who
happens to be a young lady with a baby ran out of the house
with her sister and four others screaming at the top of their
heads for everyone to run out of the area. Turns out the
Boko Haram guys were coming through a dried out river
behind our house. I and Blaq said a short word of prayer to
God to direct us and then we headed out to the gate of our
compound. We met our other friends who thankfully were as
cool headed as us and we were trying to decide what course
of action to take. Yeah, meanwhile we could hear bombs
exploding – it was like on the fourth explosion by now – not
like I bothered to count though.
We decided to go out to the road to see what’s happening.
We saw thousands of youth – the ones called the civilian jtf
– on the road in front of our house brandishing all sorts of
weapons waiting for Boko Haram members to come.
Weapons from stuff you see in ancient medieval movies like
iron spikes, spears, mean ass,ugly swords to common tools
like hammers, axes and shovels. There were all sorts of
weapons though.
And different ages – pre teenagers to adults in their 30s. We
foolishly sat down by the roadside watching the civilian jtf
motivate themselves with chants, scraping their weapons on
the tarred road as they drove in cars teeming with their
members. They did all the macho shit they could do to get
their blood boiling. I moved closer to them and picked up
some of their conversation and from what I gathered, it
seems some Boko haram members one of the army bases
known as Giwa Barracks. It was said that the insurgent
came in full force but the soldiers were prepared for them so
they scattered them. Some said that more of the bad guys
were still coming in however. Did I mention that not once did
the gun fire stop? It was still raging but we were not certain
where from. It was an on and off thing. One guy mentioned
he saw about three of them at that same dried up river
shooting their assault rifles. I moved on from him and asked
someone what was happening. He responded that it was
Boko Haram trying to get into town. I was like so what’s it
gonna be? He confidently boasted that if they were coming
in, it will have to be through the road we were on and by God
they will not get through them. I hailed the fella and moved
back to my friends.
We chilled around those ruffians for a long while with some
soldiers around. Later on, a number of them came with a
bloodied fellow in their midst being beaten and brutalized.
From their shouts, it seems he was a Boko Haram member.
When the multitude that saw them coming they started
jubilating and running towards their comrades to lynch the
dude. One of them holding a heavy machete ran forward and
hit the captive on the head with the edge of the machete. The
dude sank from the brute force but he was still dragged on
while being beaten till he was eventually handed over to the
soldiers nearby. A fighter jet came on the scene doing some
fancy maneuvers. I saw it dip at an area behind our house
and then it rose again. Immediately there was heavy black
smoke around that area. Another jet showed up and they
started firing at the ground from a distance. Those shots
were very far away though, thankfully.
One of our neighbours came back from school and told us a
bomb exploded near s lecture hall. We refused to believe him
because we just couldn’t live with that possibility – school
has always been safe from all the attacks that have ever
occurred. We asked him how it was like and his details were
scketchy so we teased him and made fun of him concluding
that fear made him make up stories. We also got calls that a
girl was hit in the hostel from a stray bullet; one other girl
said her roommate dodged a bulled – we had a field day
with that one too and cracked jokes at the newly discovered
bullet-dodging power. .As usual, I decided not to believe
anything till I could confirm it for myself.
By noon, the jet was done and the gun fire eventually
ceased. I and my friends went back into the compound and
started preparing to eat our first meal of the day.
After eating, I drove into school and I confirmed that indeed a
girl had been hit by a stray bullet. I will later come to hear
that she passed away from the injury. Also, a guy was also
hit by a stray bullet while in the hostel and he gave up the
ghost too. I and a few friends drove to the lecture hall that
my neighbour claimed a bomb had exploded at and though
there was no bomb blast there as we earlier said (mostly in
jest) there was an explosion of sorts there which we
concluded must have been from a Rocket Propelled Grenade.
There was a small hole in front of the class while the glass
windows all around the front of the building were in pieces.
Also, shrapnel seemed to have penetrated through the metal
doors of the lecture hall while the walls of the class had so
many marks. It is a miracle people did not die from that one
alon
e.
It seemed that there were a lot of such damage of that sort
all over the campus. A friend shared a picture where such a
weapon tore through the fence of their compound. The most
sensible rumour concerning that was that the insurgents
were firing those weapons at the fighter jets and some of
them that missed the target found their way onto the
campus. I still cannot make sense of the stray bullets that
travelled so far to kill those two students though since no
shot was fired from within the campus.
I talked to my mum later on and found that the battle was
bad in the area near our family house. Seems that when the
Boko Haram members attacked the barracks and failed, they
tried to escape into that area and they were being gunned
down by the soldiers. Therefore, the area surrounding the
house was littered with dead bodies. My mum and cousins
had to go somewhere else to live the rest of the day.
All in all, it could have been far worse. But the military really
did well. The presence of the civilian JTF was also helpful
despite their wild, brutal, uncouth ways. They hacked a lot
of Boko Haram members to death on the spot even within
the campus. But we rather have the youth of the town in that
way rather than cowering in hiding whenever our city is
under attack. The upside of this most recent experience is
that the casualty suffered by the good guys was so low that
everyone is optimistic that maybe we are reaching the end of
this crisis in Maiduguri… Time will tell

Boko Haram: PDP demands probe of Sanusi


The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said at the weekend that it is worried that the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, might be a sponsor of the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents and, therefore, should be thoroughly investigated.

The observation of the party is contained in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, on Sunday.

The party said the best option to know how Sanusi expended monies at the apex bank while still completely in charge was for the government to institute a detailed forensic audit of all the accounts and financial activities of the CBN from 2009 till date.

Metuh, in the statement, also demanded that the audit must establish and publish all movement of monies from the CBN accounts such as contract sums, donations and other extra budgetary spending under Sanusi.

The party said the audit would reveal all contracts awarded by the apex bank within the period, the beneficiary companies and persons behind them as well as the value of the contracts and their status of execution.

It further said facts available to it, some of which have already been published by the Financial Reporting Council, show that within the period, the apex bank engaged in reckless award of inflated contracts through which over N680 billion was frittered away.

Aside from alleging that Sanusi put the monies into the pockets of “highly corrupt persons who have been hiding under the toga of anti-corruption crusaders and whistle blowers to siphon the nation’s resources,” the PDP said it has been established that there were huge infractions on the management of the bank’s funds, which made it impossible for it to properly prepare its financial statements since 2012, using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Visit website

Boko Haram: PDP demands probe of Sanusi http://dailyindependentnig.com/2014/03/boko-haram-pdp-demands-probe-of-sanusi/

Survivors relive ordeal at NIS


Some of the survivors relived yesterday their “horrible experience”.

Blessing Uzor and Chinemen Isaac, who were recuperating at Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH) and Glory Hospital Ogbunabali in Port Harcourt, said the stampede at the Elekahia stadium was caused by the directive of the immigration officers that applicants should squat.

Uzor said she could recall when some military officers told them to squat which led to the disaster as those standing fell on them.

She said: “The only thing I can remember now is when soldiers who were assisting the Immigration officers ordered some of us to squat and while we were doing that many candidates were standing at our back.

“Five minutes later, the crowd fell on us. I regained consciousness at 4:45 am on Sunday. I began to ask for my bag and the other writing materials I took to the recruitment centre. I thank God that I can talk now.”

At the Glory Hospital, Isaac, who is still struggling with the shock , said it would be better to be alive and remain unemployed than to die unemployed.

“I didn’t know when they fell on me. I was squatting as directed because they were sharing question papers.

“Some people started pushing to make way for themselves. That was how they fell on top of one another. About 15 persons fell on me.

In Abuja, Kunle Ojelabi said: “I see it as a day when the unemployed in Nigeria all gathered to update themselves on how they are hustling to make a living. It would have been a better opportunity for the Bureau of Statistics to get accurate figure through head count of those who are jobless in Nigeria.

“The recruitment, which was meant to put smiles on faces, saw people struggling to enter the stadium. How does NIS expect to conduct a good recruitment test in a place like this?”

Some applicants who were invited for the recruitment examination in Lagos described it as a sham.

A large turnout of unemployed graduates who paid N1,000 each for the registration, caused massive traffic on Ikorodu Road and the Western Avenue which lead to the National Stadium, venue of the exam.

A candidate, who does not want to be named, said the main bowl of the stadium was nearly filled – with many unable to gain entry. The source said many candidates had to climb over locked gates to gain entry and to get out; the question papers were inadequate and many could not take the examination; even many of those that took could not submit because the officials were not available.

He said: “The exam was a sham. Those who organised it just did it to fulfill righteousness. They first told us they must sign our confirmation slips (which contained our identity details). I laughed because I knew it was impossible for them to sign all because of the crowd. When they got tired of signing, they told us all to submit the confirmation slips. We struggled to submit. After the exam, we saw the pile of slips scattered on the football pitch.

“Many people had to fight for question papers. While I looked for an official to submit my script to, some others had not got question paper to write.”

Another candidate, Yinka Adebisi said though there were three categories of questions, the officials made no distinctions on how they should be written.

“I eventually got to write the exam after much struggle. It got to an extent that the officials started throwing the questions on the field for candidates to scramble and pick. In fact, the whole thing was a sham. It was not well organised.

“There were three question types. I think Type 1 was for BSc holders; Type 2 for HND, and Type 3, ND holders. But the officials did not even specify which one was for which,” he said.

The post Survivors relive ordeal appeared first on The Nation.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Police Arraign Pastor For Cutting Off 2-year- old’s Fingers


The Sabo Police Station on Tuesday arraigned a 49-year-old
pastor, Moyo Martins, before a Yaba Chief Magistrate’s Court for
allegedly cutting off the fingers of a two-year-old child, Saidat
Faleye.
The incident happened on Olumo Street, Iwaya Onike, Yaba, Lagos
State.
It was learnt that the mother of the victim, Mrs. Bola Faleye, had
left her in the care of Martins on Thursday, when she wanted to
take her bath.
READ MORE AFTER THE CUT........................
After she was gone, the child and the suspect were said to have
been together in his room.
About five minutes later, the child suddenly let out a loud shriek of
pain which drew the attention of neighbours.
They reportedly alerted her mother who equally rushed to the
scene in panic. She found her child’s ring and little fingers
chopped off.
It was alleged that Martins sawed off the fingers in his room.
The kid was said to have been rushed to a hospital within the area
for treatment.
The suspect initially denied knowing anything about the incident.
However, upon his arrest, he allegedly confessed that he did it in
error and pleaded to be forgiven.
He was arraigned on one count, which reads, “That you, Moyo
Martins, on March 6, 2014, about 1.10pm, at 5, Olumo Street,
Iwaya Onike, Yaba, Lagos in the Yaba Magisterial District, did use
sharp saw to cut off the left finger of one Saidat Faleye, aged 2
years.”
The police prosecutor, Mr. F. Ifijeh, said the offence was
punishable under Section 243 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State,
Nigeria, 2011.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge and elected
summary trial at the magistrate’s court.
The Chief Magistrate, Mrs Y.O Aje-Afunwa, admitted him to bail in
the sum of N100,000 with one surety in like sum.
The matter was adjourned till April 24, 2014
punch

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Between Wole Soyinka, Sadiq Abacha And Ayo Sogunro On Rejection Of Centenary Awards: The Genesis, The Response, And Brilliant Counter Response



Left: Wole Soyinka, Right: Sadiq Abacha
This is going to be a very long article.
It is so because to fully understand what is going on between Noble Laureate professor Wole Soyinka, the Abacha family, and Ayo Sogunro, the points made by all the parties must be thoroughly examined against the merit of each sides argument.
The whole issue stems from the recently held Centenary awards where 100 Nigerians were supposed to be given awards based on their contribution to national development in the last 100 years.
Of the 100 named, the families of Gani Fawehinmi, M.K.O Abiola, Fela Anikulapo Kuti rejected the award. Proffesor Wole Soyinka also followed suit, and gave his reasons in an article he titled 'The Canonisation Of Terror', in which he said it was an insult to be honored along side former military dictator Sanni Abacha. Sadiq Abacha son of the late head of state decided to reply the Nobel Laureate in a very interesting open letter. Also responding to Sadiq Abacha, a writer has on behalf of  the learned Proffesor written an even more interesting response. See Prof. Soyinka's article, Sadiq Abacha's response and Ayo Sogunros counter response after the cut:

NB: Before proceeding from here, put on your thinking cap, wear your glasses(if you use one), get popcorn(or a snack) and a drink then relax, because this is going to be a long, interesting literal ride...lol.
The Canonisation Of Terror By Wole Soyinka
The sheer weight of indignation and revulsion of most of Nigerian humanity at the recent Boko Harma atrocity in Yobe is most likely to have overwhelmed a tiny footnote to that outrage, small indeed, but of an inversely proportionate significance.  This was the name of the hospital to which the survivors of the massacre were taken. That minute detail calls into question, in a gruesome but chastening way, the entire ethical landscape into which this nation has been forced by insensate leadership.  It is an uncanny coincidence, one that I hope the new culture of ‘religious tourism’, spearheaded by none other than the nation’s president in his own person, may even come to recognize as a message from unseen forces.

For the name of that hospital, it is reported, is none other than that of General Sanni Abacha, a vicious usurper under whose authority the lives of an elected president and his wife were snuffed out.  Assassinations – including through bombs cynically ascribed to the opposition – became routine. Under that ruler, torture and other forms of barbarism were enthroned as the norm of governance.  To round up, nine Nigerian citizens, including the writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-wiwa, were hanged after a trial that was stomach churning even by the most primitive standards of judicial trial, and in defiance of the intervention of world leadership. We are speaking here of a man who placed this nation under siege during an unrelenting reign of terror that is barely different from the current rampage of Boko Haram. It is this very psychopath that was recently canonized by the government of Goodluck Jonathan in commemoration of one hundred years of Nigerian trauma.

It has been long a-coming. One of the broadest avenues in the nation’s capital, Abuja, bears the name of General Sanni Abacha. Successive governments have lacked the political courage to change this  signpost – among several others – of  national self degradation and wipe out the memory of the nation’s tormentor from daily encounter. Not even Ministers for the Federal Capital territory within whose portfolios rest such responsibilities, could muster the temerity to initiate the process and leave the rest to public approbation or repudiation. I urged the need of this purge on one such minister, and at least one Head of State. That minister promised, but that boast went the way of Nigerian electoral boast.  The Head of State murmured something about the fear of offending ‘sensibilities’. All evasions amounted to moral cowardice and a doubling of victim trauma. When you proudly display certificates of a nation’s admission to the club of global pariahs, it is only a matter of time before you move to beatify them as saints and other paragons of human perfection. What the government of Goodluck Jonathan has done is to scoop up a century’s accumulated degeneracy in one preeminent symbol, then place it on a podium for the nation to admire, emulate and even – worship.

There is a deplorable message for coming generations in this governance aberration that the entire world has been summoned to witness and indeed, to celebrate. The insertion of an embodiment of  ‘governance by terror’ into the company of committed democrats, professionals, humanists and human rights advocates in their own right, is a sordid effort to grant a certificate of health to a communicable disease that common sense demands should be isolated. It is a confidence trick that speaks volumes of the perpetrators of such a fraud. We shall pass over – for instance – the slave mentality that concocts loose formulas for an Honours List that automatically elevate any violent bird of passage to the status of nation builders who may, or may not be demonstrably motivated by genuine love of nation.  According generalized but false attributes to known killers and treasury robbers is a disservice to history and a desecration of memory.  It also compromises the future. This failure to discriminate, to assess, and thereby make it possible to grudgingly concede that even out of a ‘doctrine of necessity’ – such as military dictatorship -  some demonstrable governance virtue may emerge, reveals nothing but national self-glorification in a moral void, the breeding grounds of future cankerworm in the nation’s edifice.

Such abandonment of moral rigour comes full circle sooner or later. The survivors of a plague known as Boko Haram, students in a place of enlightenment and moral instruction, are taken to a place of healing dedicated to an individual contagion – a murderer and thief of no redeeming quality known as Sanni Abacha, one whose plunder is still being pursued all over the world and recovered piecemeal by international consortiums – at the behest of this same government which sees fit to place him on the nation’s Roll of Honour! I can think of nothing more grotesque and derisive of the lifetime struggle of several on this list, and their selfless services to humanity. It all fits. In this nation of portent readers, the coincidence should not be too difficult to decipher.
I reject my share of this national insult.
Wole SOYINKA.



Responding to the above article one of the sons of late military dictator Sani Abacha Sadiq wrote the English aficionado an open letter. In the letter he criticizes the 'Canonization of terror' , insisting that his father deserved the centenary award.
His letter goes thus:
If you want to think, speak and act logically then you should know all three.
1. The law of identity
2. The law of excluded middle
3. The law of non contradiction.
Now let's look at each one of these and see what they mean in practice.
1.The law of identity
The law of identity means that things are what they are, which at first doesn't seem very illuminating, but wait; it implies also the following, that things are what they are, whether you like them or not, it implies that things are what they are whether you know them or not, it implies that things are what they are whether you agree with them or not.
However, if you don't like the facts as they are you are going to have to put up with them, because facts are what they are, if it's raining on your golf day, get used to it! Because the facts are what they are and are often not what you want them to be, like if the traffic lights turn red when you approach, stop complaining! The law of identity means that you must adapt yourself to the facts and start your work from there, it implies that the facts will not bend to meet your expectations. You must first adapt yourself to what life is and then get to work changing and improving things in your life, be brave to meet reality as it really is and not how you would wish it to be.

2. The law of excluded middle.
  The law of excluded middle means that you should give a straight yes or no answer always and there is no middle ground. The law means that there is no kinda yes and kinda no, there is no ‘sort of’ being married because you are either married or you are not, you are either a thief or you are not, you are either on time or not, you are either living in Nigeria or you are not. The law is the idea that you should not try to keep all of your options open by staying in the middle or hedging, when it suits you, like when you accepted an appointment during IBB's regime as chairman of FRSC. I bet that was a military regime you partook in. Please pick one wife and state your claim 100% to her, pick one idea and go for it 100%! Decide and commit Sir! There you might find great power and self satisfaction in the doctrine of decide and commit. No half way measures, no middle ground, exclude the middle! Here! The law of excluded middle Sir.

3. The law of non contradiction.
The law of non contradiction says don't contradict yourself simple. If you say you will be there then be there. If you say you will do it then do it. Don't say or fight for one thing and then do the opposite. Don't say one thing and then later deny that you said it. Don't say one thing and then later contradict it. Be consistent in your thoughts and actions. Observing someone who was a socialist in the morning but then became a capitalist in the evening is a textbook on contradiction, these are two polar opposites, such a person is clearly inconsistent and is therefore considered a flip flop, confused, easily led or misled or at best a lunatic who has no clear understanding of the basis of either doctrine.

Apply these three logics to others with consistency and then you can ask for the same or expect the same from others, and then you can also ask for others to deal with facts not fantasy, which is the law of identity. Ask others to make up their mind to decide and commit. The law of excluded middle.Then ask others to follow through on the things that they say they would do. The law of non contradiction.

Sir, I believe brilliance is not perfection. I have grown and watched you criticize regime after regime and at that young and naive age I was thinking why wouldn't this man just contest to be president so that Nigeria can be saved, I would have defiantly voted for Mr Soyinka if it would have brought an end to Nigeria's woes. To my utter surprise, I heard about your FRSC leadership and how funds were misused and a great deal of it unaccounted for. "Oh my God! In the end he turned out to be just the same as everybody else" were my next thoughts. My hopes for you, all ended up in great disappointment.
Here I find myself defending my father 15 years after his death because some of you have no one else to pounce on, or rather, you have chosen a dead person to keep pouncing on over and over again when you have more than an array of contestants.  A coward's act I believe.  "A common writer" is what I have heard you being referred to lately, and I believe a mature mind would now agree to such referrals. With all due respect, there is a great challenge that faces the country, we have to put our heads together, rather than clashing, our collective ships must sail in the same direction, let us leave the ghosts of past contention and face the future bravely as one, criticizing the past does not help the present or define a path to the future.

You say, with the weight of your sense of history and the authority you possess on national issues that " a vicious usurper under whose authority the lives of an elected president and his wife were snuffed out" referring to my late father, you must be growing old, or you would rightly recall that that president elect you refer to did not die while my father was alive. Did you slyly change your facts to fit a history that would better serve your narrative, or are you just plain forgetful? Either way, it shows you are losing your grasp of reality.

Comparing my father’s leadership to Boko Haram's current reign of terror,  is a rather cheap shot, you are in no position to examine, judge and sentence an entire regime based on the information you think you have, you are privy to almost none of the true facts, what is at your disposal is at best, hearsay, or were you ever minister of defence? did you ever sit in during security meetings, evaluate the facts and subtleties of national security? You remind me of Obama criticizing the Republicans  before he became a sitting president himself, vouching to put an end to all American occupation, this all came to an abrupt end once he had access to the briefs and security issues, economic and political, facing his nation. Surely he did what he could, and history will judge him. To lead is not to be a rock star, and to be a Nobel laureate is not to be a an antagonist of this countries legacy..We are Africa's leaders, whether we like it or not, we cannot trivialize the centenary celebration, it happens only once, let us come together, if only for this one occasion and agree to disagree.

Open rebellion against the current government at this time, on the manner of the centenary celebrations, for whatever reason, is tactless, it is not about you, it is about our nation, our beloved country. There is a time and place for everything. My late father was a Nigerian, lived in Nigeria and died protecting our interests to the best of his ability, critiquing placing him on the honor roll, along with many deserving dignitaries is your right, you have the right to your own opinions, but you do not have the right to your own facts. Facts stand alone, regardless of who espouses them, let posterity judge, but you are clearly politicizing a dead issue, how could you not be? Having an issue with the naming of a hospital after the late General and leader? really ? Now ?

It almost seems as if you want to turn back the hands of time, what else would you like to undo besides the naming of the hospital, would you like to unmake Bayelsa state, Zamfara state or the others?  What about the advances we made in commerce, reducing the inflation rate, what about security and welfare, how many projects, hospitals and schools were created? inflation went from 54% to 8.5%! my father oversaw an increase in our foreign currency reserves from 494 million dollars in 1993 to 9.6 billion dollars by the middle of 1997, that is unprecedented , 15 years after the PTF the benefits are still being reaped today in Nigeria, What of peace keeping and nation building, not just in West Africa but the entire continent, restoring democracy in Liberia and Sierra Leone, all these under my father’s leadership, are all these not laudable? Or would you like to undo them all. All this on 8$ per barrel of oil! You have to be kidding me.

You are a learned man, you would have to undo all your learning to knowingly wish to undo all these achievements! I will be the first to proclaim that my fathers leadership was not pitch perfect or spot free, that does not exist, maybe in utopia but not here on this earth, so let us keep our discourse set in the sphere of reality please, he deserves the award, and he did not campaign for it, let it go, Sir...and allow Nigeria to at least bask in our survival and endurance in our growing prosperity and development in these trying times. I have been accused of being an optimist, hence, I am optimistic that you will come around and accept that we can all come together and face the future together, forgive each other our wrongs while celebrating our rights, I am still an admirer of your works after all, however, I cannot and will not attempt to answer your every charge, this is not the time or place, this is a time for solidarity, if only you were wise enough to grasp this.
 I applaud the patience of President Goodluck Jonathan and his composure and restraint in not having a knee jerk reaction at such a pivotal moment in our nations history, but you would mar the occasion, Sir, in the future, please pick your battles, and do better to safeguard your relevance,  Enough Sir!
Sadiq Abacha.



 

Respondinhg on behalf of proffesor Wole Soyinka, a seasoned writer Ayo Sogunro has responded to Sadiq Abacha's deluded ramblings above, from the average Nigerians perspective during the Abacha regime. Please read below:


Dear Sadiq Abacha,
I do not know you personally, but I admire your filial bravery—however misguided—in defending the honour of your father, the late General Sani Abacha. This in itself is not a problem; it is an obligation—in this cultural construct of ours—for children to rise to the defence of their parents, no matter what infamy or perfidy the said parent might have dabbled in.

The problem I have with your letter, however, arises from two issues: (i) your disparaging of Wole Soyinka, who—despite your referral to an anecdotal opinion that calls him as “a common writer”—is a great father figure, and a source of inspiration, to a fair number of us young Nigerians; and (ii) your attempt to revise Nigerian history and substitute our national experience with your personal opinions.

Therefore, it is necessary that we who are either Wole Soyinka’s “socio-political” children, or who are ordinary Nigerians who experienced life under your father’s reign speak out urgently against your amnesiac article, lest some future historian stumble across the misguided missive, and confuse the self-aggrandized opinions of your family for the perceptions of Nigerians in general.

Your letter started with logical principles, which is a splendid common ground for us. So let us go with the facts: General Sani Abacha was a dictator. He came into power and wielded it for 5 years in a manner hitherto unprecedented in Nigerian historyFacts: uncomfortable for your family, but true all the same.

Now, for my personal interpretations: between 1993 and 1998 inclusive, when your dada was in power, I was a boy of 9 to 14 years and quite capable of making observations about my political and cultural environment.Those years have been the worst years of my material life as a Nigerian citizen. Here are a few recollections: I recollect waking up several mornings to scrape sawdust from carpentry mills, lugging the bags a long distance home, just to fuel our “Abacha stoves” because kerosene was not affordable—under your father. I recollect cowering under the cover of darkness, with family and neighbours, listening to radio stations—banned by your father. I recollect my government teacher apologetically and fearfully explaining constitutional government to us—because free speech was a crime under your father’s government. Most of all, I remember how the news of your father’s death drove me—and my colleagues at school—to a wild excitement, and we burst into the street in delirious celebration. Nobody prompted us, but even as 13 and 14 year olds, we understood the link between the death of Abacha and the hope of freedom for the ordinary man.

These are all sorry tales, of course. Such interpretations would not have occurred to the wealthy and the privileged under your father’s government, but they were a part of the everyday life of a common teenager under that government. The economics were bad, but the politics were worse. And I am not referring to Alfred Rewane, Kudirat Abiola and the scores killed by the order of your father. Political killings are almost a part of every political system, and most of those were just newspaper stories to us. In fact, I didn’t get to read most of the atrocities until long after your father died. So, these stories did not inform the dread I personally felt under your father’s regime. And this was true for my entire family and our neighbours.

Instead, the worry over our own existence was a more pressing issue. Your father, Sani Abacha was in Aso Rock, but his brutality was felt right in our sitting room. We were not into politics and we didn’t vocally oppose Abacha, yet we just knew we were not safe from him. You see, unlike any dictatorship before or after it—your father’s government personally and directly threatened the life and freedoms of the average Nigerian. Your father threatened me. And if your father had not died, I am confident that I would not be alive or free today.

Think of that for a while.

Now, let’s come to Wole Soyinka. First: you can never eradicate the infamy of your father’s legacy by trying to point out the failings of another Nigerian. Remember what you said: A is A.  Abacha is Abacha. And no length of finger pointing will wash away the odious feeling the name of Abacha strikes up in the mind of the average Nigerian. Second: Don’t—as they musician said—get it twisted:Wole Soyinka did not antagonize your father just because he was a military man—Wole Soyinka was against your father’s inhumanity. Your father was intolerant of criticism beyond belief. Your father made military men look bad. Your father’s behaviour was so bad it went back in time and soiled the reputation of every military man before him. Your father, finally, made Nigerians swear never—ever—to tolerate the military again. Soyinka may have worked with the military before—but your father ensured that he will never work with the military again. Do you see? Three: Evil comes in many forms: there is no qualification by degree. There is no “good” evil thing.Sani Abacha, Boko Haram, Hitler, slavery—they all fit into the same category of misfortunes. Soyinka is right: Abacha was just as bad as Boko Haram is—deal with it. Four: Soyinka has been kind enough to limit his criticism to the unenviable awards this inept government has given your father. But, you see, in a saner political system, we wouldn’t just ignore your father, we would have gone one step further and expunged the Abacha name from all public records. Wiped without a trace. Abacha would forever be a cautionary tale against the excesses of political power. In a saner political system.

Abacha was brutal—and Soyinka was one of those individuals who gave us inspiration in those dark days. He was part of the team that founded the underground radio station to counter your father’s activities. Let me rephrase in pop culture language: Wole Soyinka was the James Bond to your father’s KGB. Most of the influential people either kept quiet or sang the praises of your father to stave his wrath. But a few like Soyinka spoke, wrote and even went militant against Abacha. But at the end, even Soyinka who never ran from a fight had to run from your father. That was how terrible things were. And now you want Soyinka to join the praise singers of your father? I’m not certain Soyinka has grown old enough to forget how he escaped your father,slipping across the border in disguise. You will have to wait awhile to get that praise from him.

Now, back to you. You have a deluded sense of your father’s role in the progress of Nigeria’s history. Nigeria has managed to be where it is today, not because of leaders like your father—but in spite of leaders like your father. This is a testament to the Nigerian spirit of resilience, and our unwavering optimism in a better future. You owe every Nigerian an apology for daring to attribute this to the leadership of Abacha. Those “achievements” you believe were accomplished under your father were simply all the things he had to do to keep milking the economy, and thereby perpetuate himself in powerthey benefited Nigeria only if, by Nigeria, you meant your family and your cronies.

Your tone is that of a white master who justifies his oppression because he clothed and fed his black slaves. That is what your father did. The fact that we choose not to regurgitate, and reflect on that socially traumatic period doesn’t mean we accept it as your entitlement. We have not forgotten, and we will never forget. Sani Abacha raped Nigeria. Your father raped us. Your father raped us and then pressed some change into our hands. And he then tried to marry us forcefully, too. You may think all this is well and good—but then you’ve never been raped before.

But we now live under a democracy—the kind your father denied us—and so you are free to talk. And so you are free to insult the people who ensured that your father had sleepless nights. Had the revolution your father rightly deserved happened, you—and the rest of your family—would have been lined against a wall, before you could pen one article, and shot.

And we would probably have cheered.

But we live under a democracy now—a system of government where even the scions of former oppressors can talk, and write freely, about the benefits of dictatorship. That’s a democracy. A concept your father wouldn’t have understood.

Regards,
Ayo Sogunro
 Do leave your comments.

"I Don't Know My Real Age!"-Ex President Olusegun Obasanjo As He Markes Birthday



Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has confessed that he has no real record of his birthday.
Obasanjo said he could not give an actual date of his birth, attributing it to his parent’s inability to have it documented.
The ex-president spoke on Wednesday at his 77th birthday ceremony held at the amphitheatre Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
“Sooner than later, the cat will be let out of the bag by myself but one thing that is clear, I was born, there is no doubt about that.
“Another thing is that, I was told by my mother that I was actually born on Ifo market day because, according, to her in our village, she had prepared to go to Ifo market and Ifo market is every five days.


 
“And then she was under labour. Before those who went to Ifo market had come back, I was born. I know and she knew I was born on Ifo market day. Don’t ask me what year or month. Whether I know the exact date or not, I think God has made my path to be glorious.

“There are others like me who have no real record of birth. I want to thank God once again for what He has done in my life. Whether I know the exact date of my birth or not, I think God has made my birth glorious”.

“I am grateful to God and I cannot thank God enough for all He has done, for all that He is doing and all that I know He will continue to do in my life. For making me to be a source of blessing to others, for making me to be a participant in areas that are of relevance and importance in the life of this country, Africa and indeed in the world”.

Obesere released from Police Custody for alleged Rape


Obesere - March 2014 - BellaNaija
Fuji star Abass Akande Obsere who was accused of raping a 29-year old business woman, has been released by the State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba, Lagos.
If you missed the first story, click here
The police officers revealed to Punch reporters that the musician was invited for questioning and released immediately.
“We invited him based on the petition we received and he has written a statement. He said the woman was his girlfriend and she had come to visit him at home.
Obesere is not a flight risk, so we have released him on bail. However, investigations will continue and if he is found culpable, he will be arrested.
The woman in question came to Obesere’s house willingly and was not abducted. There are no eyewitnesses apart from Obesere and the victim, so we cannot conclude that it was rape, but we will leave no stone unturned.” said the police officer.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

To Sadiq Abacha – On Behalf Of Wole Soyinka By Ayo Sogunro



Capture
Sadiq Sani Abacha gets the first reply to his open letter to Prof. Wole Soyinka from writer/activist, Ayo Sogunro. Read below and tell us what you think…
I do not know you personally, but I admire your filial bravery – however misguided – in defending the honour of your father, the late General Sani Abacha. This in itself is not a problem; it is an obligation—in this cultural construct of ours – for children to rise to the defence of their parents, no matter what infamy or perfidy the said parent might have dabbled in.
The problem I have with your letter, however, arises from two issues: (i) your disparaging of Wole Soyinka, who—despite your referral to an anecdotal opinion that calls him as “a common writer”—is a great father figure, and a source of inspiration, to a fair number of us young Nigerians; and (ii) your attempt to revise Nigerian history and substitute our national experience with your personal opinions. Continue…
Therefore, it is necessary that we who are either Wole Soyinka’s “socio-political” children, or who are ordinary Nigerians who experienced life under your father’s reign speak out urgently against your amnesiac article, lest some future historian stumble across the misguided missive, and confuse the self-aggrandized opinions of your family for the perceptions of Nigerians in general.
Your letter started with logical principles, which is a splendid common ground for us. So let us go with the facts: General Sani Abacha was a dictator. He came into power and wielded it for 5 years in a manner hitherto unprecedented in Nigerian history. Facts: uncomfortable for your family, but true all the same.
Now, for my personal interpretations: between 1993 and 1998 inclusive, when your dada was in power, I was a boy of 9 to 14 years and quite capable of making observations about my political and cultural environment. Those years have been the worst years of my material life as a Nigerian citizen. Here are a few recollections: I recollect waking up several mornings to scrape sawdust from carpentry mills, lugging the bags a long distance home, just to fuel our “Abacha stoves” because kerosene was not affordable—under your father. I recollect cowering under the cover of darkness, with family and neighbours, listening to radio stations—banned by your father. I recollect my government teacher apologetically and fearfully explaining constitutional government to us—because free speech was a crime under your father’s government. Most of all, I remember how the news of your father’s death drove me—and my colleagues at school—to a wild excitement, and we burst into the street in delirious celebration. Nobody prompted us, but even as 13 and 14 year olds, we understood the link between the death of Abacha and the hope of freedom for the ordinary man.
These are all sorry tales, of course. Such interpretations would not have occured to the wealthy and the privileged under your father’s government, but they were a part of the everyday life of a common teenager under that government. The economics were bad, but the politics were worse. And I am not referring to Alfred Rewane, Kudirat Abiola and the scores killed by the order of your father. Political killings are almost a part of every political system, and most of those were just newspaper stories to us. In fact, I didn’t get to read most of the atrocities until long after your father died. So, these stories did not inform the dread I personally felt under your father’s regime. And this was true for my entire family and our neighbours.
Instead, the worry over our own existence was a more pressing issue. Your father, Sani Abacha was in Aso Rock, but his brutality was felt right in our sitting room. We were not into politics and we didn’t vocally oppose Abacha, yet we just knew we were not safe from him. You see, unlike any dictatorship before or after it—your father’s governmentpersonally and directly threatened the life and freedoms of the average Nigerian. Your father threatened me. And if your father had not died, I am confident that I would not be alive or free today.
Think of that for a while.
Now, let’s come to Wole Soyinka. First: you can never eradicate the infamy of your father’s legacy by trying to point out the failings of another Nigerian. Remember what you said: A is A.  Abacha is Abacha. And no length of finger pointing will wash away the odious feeling the name of Abacha strikes up in the mind of the average Nigerian.Second: Don’t—as they musician said—get it twisted: Wole Soyinka did not antagonize your father just because he was a military man—Wole Soyinka was against your father’s inhumanity. Your father was intolerant of criticism beyond belief.
Your father made military men look bad. Your father’s behaviour was so bad it went back in time and soiled the reputation of every military man before him. Your father, finally, made Nigerians swear never—ever—to tolerate the military again. Soyinka may have worked with the military before—but your father ensured that he will never work with the military again. Do you see? Three: Evil comes in many forms: there is no qualification by degree. There is no “good” evil thing. Sani Abacha, Boko Haram, Hitler, slavery—they all fit into the same category of misfortunes. Soyinka is right: Abacha was just as bad as Boko Haram is—deal with it. Four: Soyinka has been kind enough to limit his criticism to the unenviable awards this inept government has given your father. But, you see, in a saner political system, we wouldn’t just ignore your father, we would have gone one step further and expunged the Abacha name from all public records. Wiped without a trace. Abacha would forever be a cautionary tale against the excesses of political power. In a saner political system.
Abacha was brutal—and Soyinka was one of those individuals who gave us inspiration in those dark days. He was part of the team that founded the underground radio station to counter your father’s activities. Let me rephrase in pop culture language: Wole Soyinka was the James Bond to your father’s KGB. Most of the influential people either kept quiet or sang the praises of your father to stave his wrath. But a few like Soyinka spoke, wrote and even went militant against Abacha. But at the end, even Soyinka who never ran from a fight had to run from your father. That was how terrible things were. And now you want Soyinka to join the praise singers of your father? I’m not certain Soyinka has grown old enough to forget how he escaped your father,slipping across the border in disguise. You will have to wait awhile to get that praise from him.
Now, back to you. You have a deluded sense of your father’s role in the progress of Nigeria’s history. Nigeria has managed to be where it is today, not because of leaders like your father—but in spite of leaders like your father. This is a testament to the Nigerian spirit of resilience, and our unwavering optimism in a better future. You owe every Nigerian an apology for daring to attribute this to the leadership of Abacha. Those “achievements” you believe were accomplished under your father were simply all the things he had to do to keep milking the economy, and thereby perpetuate himself in power—they benefited Nigeria only if, by Nigeria, you meant your family and your cronies.
Your tone is that of a white master who justifies his oppression because he clothed and fed his black slaves. That is what your father did. The fact that we choose not to regurgitate, and reflect on that socially traumatic period doesn’t mean we accept it as your entitlement. We have not forgotten, and we will never forget. Sani Abacha defiled Nigeria.Your father defiled us. Your father defiled us and then pressed some change into our hands. And he then tried to marry us forcefully, too. You may think all this is well and good—but then you’ve never been defiled before.
But we now live under a democracy—the kind your father denied us—and so you are free to talk. And so you are free to insult the people who ensured that your father had sleepless nights. Had the revolution your father rightly deserved happened, you—and the rest of your family—would have been lined against a wall, before you could pen one article, and shot.
And we would probably have cheered.
But we live under a democracy now—a system of government where even the scions of former oppressors can talk, and write freely, about the benefits of dictatorship. That’s a democracy. A concept your father wouldn’t have understood.
Regards,
Ayo Sogunro

Bomb Found Inside First Bank Branch in Osun State



Scene  of  the  incident
Tragedy was averted on Tuesday as a security guard attached to a branch of First Bank Plc in Osogbo, Osun State discovered an explosive substance wrapped in a polythene bag inside the banking hall.

Immediately the discovery was made, bank officials and customers were quickly evacuated from the bank.
 
Some customers of the bank said that a senior official announced to them that a substance suspected to be a  bomb had been discovered where it was planted.

Officials of Police Anti-Bomb Squad were later deployed in the bank.

They were said to have detonated the bomb and cordoned off Station Road, where the bank is located.

It was learnt that as soon the information about the bomb spread, many shop owners in the area hurriedly closed their shops, while some left their wares and ran for safety.

However, a few minutes later, the customers were asked to leave because the bank was not ready to resume operations.
- See more at: http://topeorekoya.blogspot.com/2014/03/bomb-found-inside-first-bank-branch-in.html#sthash.ivjtCaia.dpuf

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