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President Muhammadu Buhari’s romance with Niger Republic has become an affront to the national interest of Nigeria. When he was sworn-in as an elected president in 2015 he went to Mamadou Issoufou’s presidential palace in Niamey, Niger Republic, to celebrate.

 They gave him the reception of a conquering Fulani warlord: a white horse and sword.
I found that curious. How can a Nigerian leader celebrate his electoral victory in a foreign country and not Daura, his supposed hometown in Nigeria?
Answer has since been provided through Buhari’s policy actions in the past 5+ years. We have since learnt that Buhari is a first-generation Nigerian whose father, Ardo Adamu Buhari, a duck seller, had migrated from Niger, settled in Nigeria and married a Nigerian woman, Zulaihat.
The borders defined by the European colonial masters mean nothing to typical Northerners. When you hear that Nigerian borders are porous, what it really means is that there is no intention in the minds of Northern Nigerians and their elite to create an effective barrier between..
them and their kith and kin in the neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad and Northern Cameroun. Meanwhile, the Southern borders are strictly monitored (within the limits permitted by the selfish interests of corrupt Customs and Immigration officials).
When Buhari’s government in August 2019, “closed the borders” it was the Southern borders that were actually closed. Fatuhu Mohammed, a nephew of President Buhari’s, who represents Daura/Mai’adua/Sandamu Federal Constituency in the House of Reps alerted during a plenary session..
that smuggling was still freely thriving at the Daura border, 13 kilometres from Buhari’s country residence.
It is no secret that Niger Republic nationals are regularly smuggled in to vote in Nigerian elections.
It was in this dispensation that the political leaders of that country threw caution to the wind and attended Buhari’s rallies in Kano with large contingents led by governors of Maradi and Zinder provinces! If you thought these were inconsequential and harmless cultural...
exchanges, Buhari has proved you wrong. He has taken several concrete policy steps that showed his engagement with Niger is longer a joke. Early in 2018, the Federal Ministry of Transportation revealed plans by the president to build a railway line from Kano through Daura & Jibia
to Maradi in Niger Republic.
I wrote an article condemning the project, but of course, they pressed ahead with it. The Federal Executive Council in September this year, announced an award of $1.9bn contract for the project.
The money is part of the numerous loans Buhari’s government has been freeloading from China. Also in June this year, the Federal Government announced the award of contract for the construction of 614-km gas pipeline from Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano with eventual termination in Morocco..
through Niger Republic worth $2.8bn.
The latest story in town is that on November 20, Nigeria signed an MOU to import petroleum products from Niger. The shipments will be coming from Soraz Refinery in Niger’s Zinder oilfields. The refinery, which is jointly owned by China...
(60 per cent) and Niger (40 per cent) has a daily output capacity of 20,000 barrels. Niger’s domestic consumption requires only 5,000 barrels per day. The surplus 15,000bpd will be taken up by Nigeria to service our adjoining Northern fringes.
Ordinarily, there is nothing wrong about buying refined products from neighbouring countries if our countrymen in the Northern fringes will find that cheaper and more easily available. However, there is a shameful, or is it personal impunity factor at play here.
Buhari who as Petroleum Minister in the late 1970s oversaw the construction of the second (150,000bpd capacity) Port Harcourt Refinery, Warri and Kaduna Refineries; has been his own self-appointed Petroleum Minister since 2015.
He had promised to fix our refineries during the...
campaigns. When he took up the Petroleum portfolio, his supporters said he was bringing his “wealth of experience” to reform the sector. Almost six years down the line, the industry remains comatose. Even the reforms proposed by the PriceWaterhouse and Coopers, PWC, audit...
exercise in 2014 has been altogether abandoned. Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, continues to import fuel while Nigerians are forced to swallow the bitter pill of the full deregulation of the downstream sector.
The first question is: What exactly has Buhari achieved with his position as oil minister? The first audit report of the NNPC in 43 years revealed that the Kaduna Refinery gulped N63.4bn without generating a kobo in 2018.
Also in September 2020, another NNPC report disclosed that three refineries reportedly swallowed N140bn to produce less than 40 metric tonnes of crude oil. There is no clear picture about anything being done to bring back our refineries.
Rather, we await for Dangote and other private refineries.
What “magic” is Niger employing to refine petroleum that Nigeria’s President and Oil Minister, Buhari, cannot deploy in Nigeria? Why aren’t Nigerians complaining about Buhari’s incompetence as Oil Minister and the use of
Nigeria’s largely borrowed funds to develop his father’s country when our own infrastructural deficits are among the world’s worst? The $1.9bn railway line to Maradi was never taken to the National Assembly for approval; it was an act of naked impunity.
It is an impeachable offence, but who will bell the cat?
Buhari is using our scarce, borrowed resources to service his cross-border selfish interests with resources mined mainly from the Niger Delta and the Lagos business districts.
He is going beyond developing Northern Nigeria; he is working for Niger Republic too. Is this regime all about Buhari’s interests? And why are Nigerians who will repay the loans letting him get away with these?
These are issues that should concern Southern political leaders, elected representatives and statesmen. Rather, they struggle to be selected as leg men to serve the interests of a foreign country. It is a shame and a pity.

Ochereome Nanna
Vanguard Newspapers
#Nigeria
#Buhari

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1995 ‘coup’: How Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Gwadabe were maltreated — Ex-EFCC chairman.
A former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri has given a fresh insight into the 1995 alleged coup during the Gen. Sani Abacha regime.

Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Col. Lawan Gwadabe and Senator Chris Anyanwu were all tried and ended up in jail on the strength of the allegations against them.
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The Amazons of Dahomey.

It is noon on a humid Saturday in the fall of 1861, and a missionary by the name of Francesco Borghero has been summoned to a parade ground in Abomey, the capital of the small West African state of Dahomey.

He is seated on one side of a huge, open square right in the center of the town–Dahomey is renowned as a “Black Sparta,” a fiercely militaristic society bent on conquest, whose soldiers strike fear into their enemies all along what is still known as the Slave Coast.

The maneuvers begin in the face of a looming downpour, but King Glele is eager to show off the finest unit in his army to his European guest.
As Father Borghero fans himself, 3,000 heavily armed soldiers march into the square and begin a mock assault on a series of defenses...

designed to represent an enemy capital. The Dahomean troops are a fearsome sight, barefoot and bristling with clubs and knives. A few, known as Reapers, are armed with gleaming three-foot-long straight razors, each wielded two-handed and capable, the priest is told, of slicing...

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Biafra’s forgotten children.

The claim that Gabon’s president Ali Bongo is actually Nigerian has shone a spotlight on a subject not many were aware of, that of the children airlifted out of Biafra, and Nigeria, some never to be reunited with their families. Now they are adults.

In his latest book titled Nouvelle Affaires Africaine (New African Affairs), French writer Pierre Péan claims that Gabonese president, Ali Bongo is not actually from Gabon and that he is of Nigerian heritage. He claims that Ali Bongo was adopted from the secessionist state...

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According to the Constitution of Gabon, no one born to foreign parents can be president. It should be clear that these are all unsubstantiated claims. Ali Bongo ascended to the presidency in the 2009 elections, following the death of his father Omar Bongo who was President of...
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The story of Aare Ona Kakanfo Afonja, and the fall of the great Oyo Empire is absorbing. If you're interested in this beautiful history of pre-colonial south western Nigeria, keep a date with me later tonight. 🙏🏾

The Kakanfo and fall of Oyo Empire.
Thread.
Of the 14 Kakanfos so far, the tenures of three of them who were military commanders considerably impacted the history of, first, the Old Oyo Empire, and by extension, the rest of Yorubaland.

The three Kakanfos were Afonja of Ilorin, Kurunmi of Ijaye, and Obadoke Latoosa of Ibadan. The last two of the 14, who were civilians and honorary holders of the title nevertheless impacted the history of Yorubaland, and also the entire Nigerian nation.

Aare-Ona-Kakanfo Afonja:
In the mid-1700s, around 1750 and thereabouts, a powerful Oyo warrior was growing in stature; a man called Afonja. His father was Laderin. Laderin himself was the son of Alugbin, who himself was the son of Pasin.

Alaafin Majeogbe ruled Oyo from 1754 to 1770, and was succeeded by Alaafin Abiodun same year. Abiodun was on the throne for about 19 years, until 1789 when he was murdered by his own son, Aole.
Aole became Alaafin, and ruled from 1789 to 1796.
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Later today, I'll be tweeting on the origins and history of the Ika people of Anioma. Please turn on notifications if you're interested.

The Origins And History Of Ika People of Anioma.

Ika communities mostly comprise the following: Agbor, Owa, Umunede, Mbiri, Abavo, Orogodo, Otolokpo, Igbodo, Ute-Okpu, Ute-Ugbeje, Idumuesah, Akumazi, Ekpon (Edo State), Igbanke (Edo State), Inyelen Edo State).

The Ika people are specifically located in the North-West of Delta State but some like Igbanke, Inyelen and Ekpon are presently located in Edo State.
Other Ika communities found in Edo State are Owanikeke, Owa-Riuzo Idu and Igbogili.

Specifically, Ika people occupy Ika North East and Ika South Local Government Areas of Delta State and a land area of about 117.45 square kilometres. Since the 2006 population census did not stipulate the official figure for ethnic groups, the total population figure of the Ika..

people remains officially unknown.
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Today in pulp I look back at the world of Soviet women's fashion!

It's not all berets, but it mostly is...


Now you may think that fashion and the Soviet Union go together like Groucho Marx and Friedrich Engels. However that is to misunderstand the nature of the Commad Economy: if she commands it, you'd better buy it for her!


So there is a rich history of fashion and fun (along with the tractor factories and endless ballet performances) in the old USSR. Let's take a sashay along it...


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Bellingcat and its investigative partners have established that Russian politician, Vladimir Kara Murza, was followed by a specialist FSB team prior to his suspected poisonings in 2015 and 2017.

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This is faulty thinking, because the direction of change itself is

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3️⃣ The combatants :
Iranian backed Supreme Political Council (Houthis)
  International recognized Government (Hadi-led government)
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4️⃣ The (allegedly Turkish and Qatari backed) Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Yemen Province (ISIL-YP)
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The last Hindu king of Pakistan.

The name Amarkot is known to all in our subcontinent as the birthplace of Emperor Akbar. When Humayun was fleeing from Sher Shah, Rana Prasad of Amarkot sheltered him and this is where Emperor Akbar was born.

#Thread
1/19
@talesofBharat


They have always maintained friendly relations with the rulers. The Mughal court and the Rana of Amarkot had special respect because Emperor Akbar was born in the shelter of Amarkot Raj. They did not even have to attend court regularly.

2/19

Dara Shikohar provided Rana supplies to Amarkot during his expedition to Kandahar.
But another reason why the name of this Amarkot is inextricably linked with the history of the subcontinent is the partition of the country.
Sodha is the family name of the Maharajas of..

3/19

Amarkot,They were originally known as Sodha Rajputs. Despite possessing a very small kingdom, he was far ahead in terms of wealth and honor. During the British rule, Rana Ratan Singh led the anti-British movement in Sindh. In 1753, the British occupied the state of Amarkot,
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which was his and his ancestral home, and hanged Rana Ratan Singh on a high platform on the walls of Amarkot fort. It hangs in front for a few days. Even today, a folk song called "Mor tor tilaya rana" is very popular in Sindhi language.
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NARHARI AND BHAGWAN PANDURANG/VITTHAL

Once a goldsmith by the name of Narhari lived in Pandharpur. He excelled in his craft. He had vowed not to look at Pandurang or visit his mandir ever, as he was a Shiva Bhakt.
One day, a wealthy merchant visited him.


He wanted a gold girdle studded with precious gems, to be made for Prabhu Vitthal. Narhari refused to make it as it was for Vitthal.
After many requests, he agreed to make the girdle but asked the merchant to bring the measurement from the mandir as he himself would not go there


The measurement was given n he made the girdle. When the girdle was put on Vitthal, it was loose. Narhari had to shorten it. Now the girdle became tight. So Narhari was forced to take measurement on his own. He had to go to the mandir but went blindfolded to avoid seeing Vitthal


In the Mandir, when blindfolded Narhari touched Vitthal, he felt as if he was touching Shiva with matted hair, the moon, snake in His neck and Trishul in His hand. Ecstatic with joy, he removed the blindfold to see Shiva but he found the murti of Vitthal with Rukmini there.


He realised the truth that there was no difference between Vitthal and Shiva. Narhari at once fell at the feet of Panduranga. He then took the measurement of the waist of Vitthal and this time the ornament fit the Murti perfectly.

Narayan Hari🙏🏻
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1/People I know on the Right tend to be obsessed with the idea of "crimethink", taboos, and the (supposedly) oppressive, omnipresent enforcement of liberal cultural norms.

Why?

My new theory: A lot of it is guilt.

2/It's true that in some circles - the media, universities, many big corporations - liberal norms *are* enforced to some degree, and the enforcement has probably gotten stronger in recent years.

But I don't think this explains all of the Right's obsession.

3/The stereotype is that people on the Right tend to be more threat-sensitive. That would help explain the perception that liberal norm-enforcers are lurking everywhere, ready to pounce and anathematize anyone who makes a misstep.

But I don't think that's all of it either.

4/And of course, it's always fun - whether you're on the Right or the Left, or playing a video game, or whatever - to style yourself as the brave iconoclastic rebel fighting against the oppressive forces of blah blah blah.

But I don't think this is all of it, either.

5/The reason I think it's more than these things is that even *in private*, people on the Right express their "crimethink" ideas very gingerly and hesitantly.

I get the sense that they're not just afraid of external censure, but have also internalized liberal norms.
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My dad led an organization of over 300,000 employees.

When I took on my biggest marketing & events team to date (35 employees) I asked him how the *heck* he did it. Here's what he said and what helped me every day. 🧵

Remember you're leading all the employees under you, but you're not *managing* them all. You're managing your direct reports, which should be 5-7 individuals max. Focus on them.

When you interact with the employees you don't manage directly, get to know them as people first, that'll be the most valuable information in leading them. Remembering everything you learn about them is hard, but doing so will make you a superhero.

If you're not going to empower the managers under you, why do you have them? If you see room for improvement, let the manager know and let them make the change on their teams and come to you with questions/concerns. This will save you SO much time.

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