Nigerian bus driver kills four Barca supporters

You be Barca "fans"? Me I be Man-U "fans" o! Ha, after wetin una do us, just pray make I no catch u for "bending corner" when nepa take light - I go do you strong ting!

Okay, the next time my team loses a match, I'm really gonna get pissed and do something. I'll probably jump into my bulldozer, crank it up and drive straight into the nearest PDP secretariat. Yeah, I know they're not a rival club, but right now they seem to symbolize everything that's wrong with Nigeria to an extent.

Anyways, PDP aside, we're in the news again. And for all the wrong reasons.

A bus driver in Rivers State (a Man United supporter) decided to vent his frustration on some innocent people. Apparently ticked off by his team's loss of the Champions League title to Barca, the guy drove past a group of jubilating Barca supporters, made a u-turn and then plowed into them, killing four and injuring more than 10 people.

Seriously, this is getting annoying. Our football fever is rapidly turning into a case of cerebral malaria! Lots of people are taking their love for the game too far.

First, the Arsenal fan who hung himself when they got knocked out, and now, this crazy danfo guy who obviously seems to have lost the plot. All those innocent people died just because some unstable punk decided he was in love with Manchester United (which he doesn't know the first thing about, and probably can't spell anyway!).

Your team loses once, and you kill four people? Thank God he isn't an Arsenal supporter - he would have become a serial killer!

It's scary, and also sad at the same time. Someone please tell those soccer fans out there, it's not a do-or-die affair. I enjoy being alive, and I'd like to remain that way. I think I'll just have to resort to watching football at home, even if it gets boring. At least I won't have to worry about domestic violence (everyone in my house supports the same club - and no, I won't mention it here :) ).

You don't become a fan because it seems fashionable to be one - you become a fan because you love the club, or for some other genuine reasons.

Anyway, that's one more splat for Dora Akunyili to clean off Nigeria's already battered image. That's one hell of a job she's got there.

The Prodigal Blogger Is Back

Hey there. It's been almost a year with no updates, and to say the truth, I'm a bit ashamed (one full year, for crissakes, what was I thinking?).

I'm still wondering what went wrong. I mean I couldn't even get myself to put up a single post. A personal blogging recession, that's what it was, but thankfully, my blogging abilities have been restored :).

Anyways, I'm back. Vive la NaijaRuns!

Back again

Sorry people, I've been off the blogosphere for so long. Every time I try to blog, I somehow find a way to dodge the task. Maybe it's because work leaves me fatigued at the end of the day. Right now, I'm sitting hunched over my computer, and it's 1 o'clock in the morning. The things bloggers do. I'm trying to get my lazy fingers to cpmlete this post. Don't blame me if I spell everything backward.
A whole lot has happened in the short while that I've been away, with various people around me trying to outdo themselves with attention-grabbing and sometimes downright outrageous acts.

I don't even want to say anything about the state of affairs in the country right now, before I start to sound like one of those political journalists or whatever they are called. I heard Baba Iyabo was told to come and explain how he spent the Power Sector money, and he became "sick". Atiku Abubakar, on his own part, suddenly could not find a flight from Dubai to Nigeria in time for the hearing, and asked for another opportunity to make his case. Good for them.

I have some scintillating news though. A 22 year-old Nigerian was sentenced to 18 months in prison for hacking into a NASA employee's computer. I'll write more about that later in the day. Right now I'm too groggy to type any more.

Before I go, here's a nice pic to make your day. Pictures like this remind me of just how unique Naija is. The slippers are obviously owned by a very careful individual. Talk of maximum security, lol.

Contractor Overpaid By N224 Million - Some things just don't make sense!

I've stopped trying to figure this country out. Seriously, it's a total waste of time. In a country with such vast resources as ours, it's a shameful thing to say that the missing Wings Aviation plane has still not been found.
Even more embarrassing is the talk about Fulani herdsmen being hired to look out for the plane's wreckage. There's even some whispers about herbalists or seers being asked to pinpoint the location of the aircraft. It's Crazy. NEMA should also employ squirrels and other animals to unite and find the missing plane, if that's the extent of their foolishness.
Such sorry situations just expose our inadequacies, and make us seem very incompetent. There's been a flurry of probes, allegations and counter-allegations going on in the power sector, and that on its own is another can of worms.

I read in one of the national dailies that a company handling the 561 megawatt station in Calabar was overpaid N224 million by the National Independent Power Project (NIPP), after collecting the actual contract sum of $151million.

How's that for starters? An extra N224 million.

The 561-megawatt power project is located along Calabar-Itu Road, in Onim Ankong, and was flagged off by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on March 6, 2006 and was to have been completed by November 2007. It still hasn't been completed.

The company in question is Marubeni International, a company that has been involved in the construction of the Kainji dam and other power projects in the country. According to the paper, as at the time of visit by the committee, less than 30 percent of construction work had been done on the project.

The National Independent Power Project (NIPP), in its records, showed that Marubeni had been paid the actual cost of the project and then paid an additional N224 million for reasons that could not be ascertained.

I think I am falling in love with the Yaradua administration - as long as they take steps to correct these mistakes that have been uncovered.