Thursday, January 31, 2008

News from everywhere - Jerome Kerviel Makes History

Well, it's been quite an eventful week, with some spectacular things happening.
First, some relatively unknown guy rips off Societe Generale, France's second-biggest listed bank, and then a Nigerian lawmaker eats his own words.

In just a few hours after the Societe Generale incident, Jerome Kerviel went from backroom boy to a full-blown celebrity. Call it what you will, but this guy has made history.

According to Reuters, The 31-year old banker was brought into police custody in Paris on Saturday, suspected of causing a $7 billion loss through rogue trades at Societe Generale.
Kerviel worked as a trader at Societe Generale, and somehow managed to lose almost €5 billion in a series of complex, concealed deals on European stock derivatives. Kerviel's colleagues described him as a "computer genius" who was allegedly able to hack into the bank's computers and hide his reckless trading.

The funny thing is, in the wake of the whole ruckus, the number of Kerviel's friends listed on the Facebook networking site also gradually disappeared. Well, so much for friendship.

As for the amount, that's quite huge. I wonder how long it would take I and my pal Meesuan to blow that much cash. Mon amico, whatcha think? I'd run for president or something, and you could get that Yacht you've always wanted.

Well, on the Nigerian front, Senator Nuhu Aliyu has chickened out and apologized to his fellow Federal legislators, following his allegations against the National Assembly. The former Deputy Inspector General of police had claimed that the National Assembly was harboring some fraudsters and that he would name them.

He later ate humble pie, apologizing and citing legal reasons for not being able to name them. Well, good luck to him.

In football, Liverpool fans are set to make an ambitious plan to buy the football club from its American owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks. The group, called "Share Liverpool FC", will present a plan to organise the buy-out by 100,000 fans of the club.

Share Liverpool FC hopes to raise £500 million from the 100,000 fans, each paying £5,000 for one share in the club. This is to enable them purchase the club and build a new stadium.

The group intends to launch a website to attract the interest of Liverpool's supporters all over the world.

Those behind this buy-out idea are football business lecturer and Liverpool fan Rogan Taylor, former director of communications at the Premier League Phil French, and Kevin Jacquiss, a lawyer.

Sounds interesting, but I don't really see much coming out of this buy-out bid of theirs.
That's all for today. More stuff coming up tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

At last, a win from nigeria

Well, this is quickly turning into something of a football blog.
The Super Eagles finally managed to save themselves from elimination with a 2-0 win over neighboring Benin republic. This means they have sailed through into the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations, and will have to face hosts Ghana.

This has averted what would have been a very embarrassing exit for the Nigerians, and we hope they will learn a lesson from this. We seem to like doing things the hard way.
This performance has restored a bit of our National pride and many Nigerians have found their voices again.
Ivory Coast also beat Mali 3 - 0.

In other news, Wigan Athletic lost to Middlesbrough 1 - 0, while Arsenal returned to the top of the Premier League with a 3 - 0 win over Newcastle United. Another round of beautiful football from Arsenal.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Nigeria vs Mali - Another Pathetic Result

The Super Chickens (sorry, Super Eagles) of Nigeria, in another pathetic performance this evening, succeeded in showing the whole world that they don't have what it takes to win the African Cup of Nations.

I watched the match in a "joint", and the barrage of invectives that was hurled at the Nigerian players and their coach was enough to make even a seasoned bus conductor flinch.

The players were at their laziest best, and the football was just terrible. Completely uninspiring, and a complete waste of time. Who on earth ranked these guys as the best in Africa? In my opinion, they don't even come among the first 15 teams. Enyimba would easily thrash them.

For those who felt the first half was bad, the second half was utter rubbish. The players were busy strolling round the pitch, and the Malians were having a field day, taking their time to punch holes in our seemingly non-existent defense.

One thing I couldn't help noticing was the constant look of amusement on the assistant referee"s face. The guy was always grinning at our feeble attempts at goal. I can't blame him anyway. The whole Nigerian team is one big joke.

Congratulations to Seydou Keita for his stellar performance, and (of course) congratulations to our own Yakubu Aiyegbeni for finally figuring out how to put the ball inside the net, even if it was an offside goal.

I just can't understand Aiyegbeni, but of course the same still goes for the whole team. I feel like channeling my fury at Berti Vogts, but fortunately for him, he's in Ghana.
Berti, if you can hear me, when you finish, don't even bother to come back to Nigeria. We'll ship all your leftover stuff to you.
I think this kind of result from a foreign coach will teach the NFA to appreciate Nigerian coaches.

I won't even waste any more of my time talking about those guys. I hope they actually get to watch replays of their game. They're a sad lot, our Eagles. Very sad.

Two Nigerians Fight Aboard A Moving Aircraft

Two Nigerians threw caution to the wind and exchanged blows aboard a Chanchangi Airlines flight. The aircraft was on its way to Lagos from Abuja, and was just preparing to take off from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

According to news reports, the fight started when a passenger refused to comply with the order from the pilot and cabin crew to switch off all cell phones. Totally oblivious to the events around him, he was still talking on his mobile phone and when he was asked to switch it off, he became abusive. This drew the ire of another passenger who confronted him.
The caller was said to have rained abuses on the other passenger, and the exchange of words soon degenerated into a fight.

With this new development, the pilot ordered all the passengers to disembark, and called for the immediate arrest of the two errant passengers. They were detained by the airport police, and the flight later left for Lagos without them.

Well, so much for Nigerians and their respect for law and order. Some people have such an overpowering sense of importance that they even flout simple rules which are for their own safety.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Super Eagles - Not So Super Anymore

I just didn't feel like blogging today. I watched yesterday's Nations Cup match with high hopes but the lackluster performance of the Super Eagles completely dampened my enthusiasm.

I guess they proved their critics right. The Ivoriens played against a somewhat slow Nigerian side which was at its disorganized best. There were some brief flashes of skill and all that, but the overall performance was poor. We even had one player (I think Aiyegbeni) tripping over a pass. He ended up on his face. That never happens to him at his club, Everton.
Nigerian players show little drive when playing for their country and they generally looked lazy on the field yesterday. They weren't in any particular hurry.

Cameroun suffered a 4 - 2 defeat at the hands of the Egyptians this evening, and it was another little shocker. Most people expected the Lions to do better than that. I guess the big boys have their work cut out for them in this particular tournament, if they intend to get anywhere near the finals.

I think I'll just sign off here.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Nations Cup Wahala - Here we go again

It's that time of the year when the streets empty in various parts of Africa and people congregate to watch the round leather game.

As our own Super Eagles file out to face the Ivoriens this evening, one question is paramount on the minds of the Nigerian populace; "Can the boys bring home anything?"
Opinions are divided concerning this. Some people are fanatical about the Eagles, and believe that they are quite capable of winning the competition.
Others are quite pessimistic, believing that the boys are up to no good.
The last category of people couldn't care less. They go about their business as if the competition is being held in Europe and they have nothing to do with it.

The Eagles have been quite consistent in the competition. In fact, a bit too consistent for my liking. They've been so consistent that they brought home bronze medals three times in the last three editions!
This does not mean that they're not appreciated, but getting to the finals would be a nice thing, and getting gold would be even better. We have done it before, and we can do it again.

I don't want to delve into all the problems of Nigerian football and why the Eagles might not win. That's just depressing stuff. For now, all I want to do is hope, and pray for them.

So, enough of blogging, I'm off to get myself a nice spot to watch the match with the guys.
Hopefully, our fans will soon be shouting; Gooooaall!!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

The Danfo Driver

A little boy sat in a danfo bus, on his way back from school and he was reciting the day's lesson at school.

It went thus:

if my father is a lion and my mother a lioness, i will be a cub
if my father is a king and my mother a queen, i will be a prince
etc, etc.

The bus driver was irritated by the boy's "noise", and he shouted at the boy asking him to shut up. But the boy continued.

Then the driver shouted;

"What if your father is an 'armed robber' and your mother an 'ashawo' (prostitute), what will you be?"


The boy replied;

"Then I will be a Danfo Driver like you!"

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Another one bites the dust?

The Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Enugu, Enugu State, nullified the election of Governor Sullivan Chime of the PDP on allegations of electoral malpractice, irregularities and non-compliance with the electoral act of 2006. This makes him the sixth state governor on the party's platform to be booted out of power.


In a three-hour judgement, the chairman of the tribunal, Justice Samuel Otta, said that the petitioners proved the allegations beyond reasonable doubt.

This seems like a wake up call for all our politicians. It is no longer going to be "business as usual".
The judiciary seems to have found its voice and is speaking louder than ever.
I think this bodes well for Nigeria's fledgling democracy. Things are really taking shape.

I finally pulled it off - My Naijaruns

This is my newest attempt at getting an uncomplicated blog. Now I can post without the restrictions of following a particular theme or style of writing.

That's what blogging is all about, isn't it? The freedom to come online and post all your ramblings, feel completely at home, and in between it all, hope that you're making sense out of the whole process.

The Naija word seems to be really catching up with others on the web. Now it's getting quite hard to get Naija-related domains and stuff. Seriously, "Naija" is getting to be such a hot item and I think it's a good sign. More like a nice way to market ourselves and our country.

Now we have Naija as a brand, and that means we have an identity;something that we can proudly identify with. We know how we do our "Naija runs"!