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.

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!!