INTERNET; A ROSE FULL OF THORNS

  The world is moving so fast these days that somehow it could make anyone who wants to slow down to get giddy. Ultra-modern technology is at the fingertips of just anybody today irrespective of their age, gender, social status, academic qualification and all, but like someone once said, the more we are technologically inclined, the less human we are becoming.  A lot of our men appear to have turned even crueler and monstrous than they used to be; today it has become unfathomably normal to see boys stealing nude photographs of their dates, love conquests and girl friends for subsequent online publications. Many homes are being broken and so many marriage proposals cancelled because of nude photographs gone viral on the internet. In our own days it used to be very shameful and embarrassing for a man to kiss and tell and gentlemen were regarded as those who are able to keep their mouths shut after doing it with a girl. But these days I have this weird feeling that there are no longer gentlemen outside there, in fact, sometimes I doubt if there are even men out there at all.

  What kind of a man would take the private or personal photograph that somehow was meant for him and decide to make it a public photograph just to punish his girl friend, date or sugar mummy? What a lot of us do not know is that the injurious images and videos shared on the internet would possibly be there forever and even though they appear to be fun for some of us today, they might turn around to hunt us tomorrow. I don´t know why I have this feeling today that less crimes are physically committed these days than cybercrimes and I think that most governments are not equipped enough to pursue or prosecute these unconventional criminals. Because for all I still know, libel, impersonation of character especially with the aim of perpetrating a crime, malicious crime against some other person´s character and so on all constitute a crime in most countries but many criminals appear to be going scot-free with damaging other peoples reputation online and even encroaching on their privacy without their consent.

  Just yesterday, a girl who felt jilted by a boy sneaked into his Facebook account to publish what she claimed was the boy´s private part on the boy´s wall, ignorance of the law should not be an excuse, by this act; the girl has committed at least two punishable crimes, 1, Using the boy´s identity falsely and 2, consequently defaming the boy by posting what was supposed to be his private photograph in public without the boy´s consent. People should not think that by hiding under the anonymity of the internet to commit a crime they are exculpated or justified. A virtual crime is also a crime especially when other persons are connected to it without their consents or when they are maligned and denigrated gratuitously.

  This may sound outrageous, but I think that a lot of us need a very conscientious education on the proper usage of most of these ultra-modern devices. They are not toys and should not be mistaken for toys; we should mind how we push the “send” button, because once sent, a lot of things become very difficult to retrieve or delete. These devices are supposed to enhance our everyday livelihood, but a lot of us are misusing them, it is not the same thing to use a video image to report or denounce a crime and to use it to commit a crime. A lot of us are so much concerned about getting the breaking news or publishing exclusive news that we appear to have lost all our humanitarian characteristics. I see people these days, hell bent on getting a perfect shot or a vantage video coverage of a drowning person than actually trying to save a soul. People no longer step in to try to hold a fight, once they smell an argument they are very swift to press the record button even if one of the fighters is dying in the fight, this is the zenith of heartlessness.  

  It all boils down to how human beings can use a positive and a developmental device negatively and to their own destruction. Like medicines which must only be taken with due professional prescriptions, I think it is beginning to get to that time when human beings will begin to be issued a prescription on how best to use today´s communication devices and if discovered that they are using it wrongly, it should be confiscated from them and a ban placed on them for a period of time or a prison term placed on them depending on the magnitude of the anomaly they have committed.

  And those of you young girls who are very quick to post your nude photographs on the internet, especially you under-aged, I know that youthful exuberance can cause you to do many crazy things but the truth is this, the world unfortunately is a patriarchal world, don´t ask me why, but for some reasons, boys who post their nude photographs online are not seen in the same light as girls who do the same, so it is always advisable to be very sure of what you are doing, think before you hit the “send” button. And mind how you allow your boyfriends to record your sex tapes or take complicating or implicating photographs of you because you never can tell, the fun of today can become a multi-headed monster tomorrow that will torment you all your life. A word is enough for the wise.             

WHY BOKO HARAM CHOSE BORNO STATE

  Sometime around 1987, I visited Borno state for the first and the only time in my life, I had gone on a business trip and that visit would leave a very distressful and phantasmagorical image in my mind till date. It was actually the first time I felt I had travelled far away from my comfort zone, like I was in a foreign land that was not part of Nigeria, and where I felt that I had no control at all over anything. Let me say that before then, I had travelled to other parts of the country; I had been to Jos Plateau State, Kaduna, Zaria, and almost all the states in the west and some in the east, but in none of them did I feel so strange and so unfamiliar, as I felt in Borno state.

  It might logically appear that I am saying all these because of the terror that has overtaken parts of Borno State today with the constant terrorist activities of the dreaded Boko Haram sect. but those of you who know Borno State very well would know places like Gashua, Baga, Gambaru, Kukawa, Giri-giri etc. As a young boy I had heard about Gashua before finally having the opportunity to visit it, it was the town where the Despotic Nigerian military government took social and political activists and opposition members to, for detention, our own version of Guantanamo bay if you like. A very hot and inhospitable desert town where people appear to be ages behind civilization.

  In fact, I remembered we stopped at Gashua in one small hotel which name I no longer remember to pass the night before leaving for Giri-giri, it was months before the Muslim Id el Kabir and we had set out to buy a trailer load of rams we intended to sell in Lagos since we were informed that they were cheaper in this part of the country, but what I was not expecting was that Gashua would even appear a paradise compared to where we were going to be eventually buying the Rams and goats. We were taken in a jeep to a desert border town between Nigeria and Chad, known as Giri-giri. My God, never before then had I suspected that a place like that could be part of Nigeria. It was such places where you never stopped to ask yourself how on earth the people there were surviving, no edible fruit bearing trees, no farms… just an arid land.

  I am sure that the only time the Nigerian government at the time remembered that this part of the country falls into the Nigerian landscape was only when they arrested persons like the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti and other political activists and political prisoners and desired to make life much more unbearable for them at the Gashua prisons, otherwise, the people here were abandoned to their fate, I can almost also swear that even some of the state Governors who have ruled Borno State do not know and have never been to some of the so called remote towns in the state. Little wonder why President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was asking where Gwoza is in Nigeria, recently.  

  As we got to Giri-Giri, we selected the animals we wanted and two Fulani Herdsmen were appointed by the local chief to help us lead the flocks to a nearby town where they would be loaded into the truck for onward journey to Lagos. I noticed the many loopholes on these border town, people trooped in and out that one could not tell who were Nigerians and those who were not. Everyone who spoke Hausa or Fulani language was considered a northern Nigerian especially in the south where I come from but that is far from the truth because nomads cross the Sahara desert every day from neighboring west African countries like Ghana, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and other places into Nigeria through the porous northern border, in fact the northern Nigerian people in Borno State and other northern border towns still continue to maintain a biological relationship with their counterparts in our neighboring countries.

  To most northern Nigerians, I am most likely a foreigner compared to a Hausa speaking Chadian, or a Hausa speaking Nigerien or Cameroonian, so Boko Haram could not have thrived better in any place other than these border towns where they will always have the assistance and collaborations of their siblings on the other sides of the borders. I can almost also assure you that majority of those fighting on the sides of the Boko Haram are not Nigerians but foreigners who have entered into the country with the connivance and assistance of some unpatriotic Nigerians. True, poverty and ignorance are two catalysts in this problem called Boko Haram but there is no doubt that there is a political undertone to the nefarious and ghoulish activities of the Boko Haram.

  But the good news is that the sect is mostly based in Borno State especially in the Border towns and around the Sambisa forest where it often sets out to carry out a guerrilla kind of operations, which means that if there is a honest commitment on the part of the Nigerian government, the opposition, the entirety of the people of northern Nigeria, our armed forces and our neighboring countries, a joint and a coordinated attack from all fronts, with accompanying air strikes can be carried out on the stronghold of this group to destroy them once and for all, the continuous overtaken of towns in the region by Boko Haram is a very bad news to all of us. There is no way that I will also believe that influential persons in Nigeria are not involved in the activities of this dreaded sect which is why it is really proving difficult to carry out a convincing attack on the group. Like I have warned severally except if the government of the day has another plan, vis-à-vis the dissolution of the Nigerian entity, if not I think it is dangerous to continue to concede any part of the Nigerian territory to the Boko Haram, it is not only a shame but a ruin on the part of our government as it could become the empire of terror as the Al Qaeda controlled zone in Afghanistan, moreover we are still on time to be able to flush out this group before they are joined by other similar groups and it becomes even more difficult to be able to manage the situation. The issue of Boko Haram should not continue to be treated with stupid sentiments and blatant passivity and submissiveness on the part of the Nigerian government.              

APC a party with Janjaweed ideology has been promoting terrorism - PDP - Vanguard News

IT IS UNFORTUNATE THAT THE NIGERIAN POLITICAL ELITES CONTINUE TO USE A VERY SERIOUS AND COMPLICATED ISSUE AS TERRORISM TO PLAY POLITICS IN NIGERIA, IN OTHER COUNTRIES THAT HAVE BEEN HIT BY TERRORISM, ALL THE POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE COUNTRY OFTEN COME TO A CONSENSUS TO MAP OUT A COMMON AND A CONCERTED WAY OF FIGHTING THE COMMON ENEMY (TERRORISTS) IN NIGERIA THE TWO MAIN POLITICAL PARTIES CONTINUE TO THROW BLAMES AND COUNTER-BLAMES ABOUT WHO THE REAL SPONSORS OF THE TERRORISTS GROUPS ARE.... IF THERE IS A PROOF OF THE INVOLVEMENT OF ANY PARTY OR PERSONS IN THIS MACABRE ACTIVITIES, PEOPLE SHOULD BE OFFICIALLY INDICTED AND TRIED TO PROVE THEIR INVOLVEMENT. APC a party with Janjaweed ideology has been promoting terrorism - PDP - Vanguard News

Tanker drivers threaten strike over state of roads - Vanguard News

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THAT I AM SEEING A PROFESSIONAL UNION IN NIGERIA AGITATING FOR A NOBLE PURPOSE THAT IS IN THE INTEREST OF THE NIGERIAN COMMUNITY AND NOT MERELY THE USUAL SELF-CENTERED INTERESTS PURSUING PURPOSES;

Tanker drivers threaten strike over state of roads - Vanguard News

JAMAICA, ANOTHER VICTIM OF SEXUAL ENTERTAINMENT

  Nobody would believe that this is the home of most of the world highly respected music icons and the world most celebrated reggae music ambassadors of all time, notable among them of course, the great and legendary king of reggae music, the late Robert Nesta Marley popularly called Bob Marley by his worldwide fans. Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Bunny Wailer and a host of other old school reggae artistes who helped to put the small island of Jamaica on the international map with their philosophical and revolutionary music that first started as Skar and developed into King Music (Reggae music) 

  The very first exponents of the music understood the importance of music as a massive tool for the propagation of the voice of the down trodden in Jamaica, what they did not know was that the music would immediately cross the borders of Jamaica to become a world anthem for all the down trodden masses of the world. Its swift and soft rhythm connected immediately with every race and culture worldwide. It became easy to see an Arab humming the tune of Bob Marley even though he does not understand what the lyrics says, the same could be said in China, India, Australia, America, Africa and all over the world. Reggae music immediately became the in thing, and even the aesthetics of its players became a worldwide thing, the Rastafarian culture which the reggae music promoted became a trend all over the world. 

  The only people that found the music rather uncomfortable and inappropriate were those who benefitted from the unjust status quo and would rather the system which change the music is clamoring for remained the same. Then the only real thing that chased people away from the music was its justification of the use of marijuana or cannabis as it is known is some areas. World authorities began to persecute world teeming followers and lovers of the music especially the trend it promoted, people were arrested in some parts of the world for letting their hairs grow into dreadlocks, a symbol of revolution which Rastafarians attached spiritual denotation to, so many people were killed even in Jamaica by the Jamaican authorities who together with some other authorities in the world unjustly linked reggae music with crime, people were arrested and prosecuted for being in possession of cannabis, a drug then outlawed by almost all the countries in the world but that has become the source of wealth for so many countries today among them the U.S.A, the Netherlands and so many other countries that have become the legal suppliers of the drug after several decades of prosecuting people in possession of it.  

  I must admit that I grew up listening to reggae music and some of my philosophies in life have a lot to do with the effect and above all the great awareness that the music stimulated in me. Although I am a Nigerian, reggae music especially in the 70s and the early 80s was like a school for me; its struggle on behalf of the African race and all the down trodden people of the world was a dignifying and admirable thing to me, it awoke the urge in me to know more about Jamaica and its great people. I began to know about one of the greatest Pan-African leaders, Marcus Garvey. I respected the level of awareness about Africa that this people maintained even though their fore-fathers were stolen away into slavery hundreds of years ago by the white colonialists. Reggae became the cultural link between this little island and the world, especially the bridge between Jamaica and Africa.  

  But unfortunately, this king music like everything that begins with the intention of dignifying the African people all over the world and seeking for a redress to the injustices perpetrated against them has ended up becoming the most dishonorable element for the further ignominy of the black people. The Jamaican youths who took over the mantle of leadership after the demise of many of the great names in reggae music, like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and the retirement and in some cases the sidelining of the founding fathers such as Jimmy Cliff, Bunny Wailer, Mutabaruka etc, have transformed the music and the culture it represents into an unfathomable disgraceful thing.      

  Musicians like Shaba Ranks, Cutty Ranks, Yellow man, Lady Saw and a host of others were some of the very first set who began to make the king Music an obscene music they dubbed Rub-a-dub and later dancehall which diverted totally from the ideologies of the original reggae music and its uplifting messages as well as its struggles against constituted authorities and constituted injustices, ironically too, this coincided with the period in Jamaica when cocaine and heroin unfortunately replaced marijuana in most sectors of the ghetto. The likes of Bounty killer, Beenie man, Buju Banton, Shaggy… all began to capitalize on its obscenities to make for themselves huge sums of money abroad at the expense of good reggae music and the direct messages it embodies.

  Today, things have grown even worse with the arrival into the scene of artistes like Vybz Kartel, Tiana, Spice, Konshens, kalado, J Capri, cham and many more. Now the spectacle is repulsive, with boys and girls of different age groups in Jamaica disgracing themselves monumentally with infrahuman dance steps, one of which they tag "Daggering". It is painful that reggae music has been defeated by those who felt that the original music was a direct attack against them and what they represented, they have employed the same tactics that was employed against the Hip Hop culture in the U.S to bring Reggae music down and in it stead give the people a sexual entertainment while ensuring the death of their minds and making them numb and dumb.   

THE AFTERMATH OF SADDAM HUSSEIN AND MUAMMAR GADDAFI

  I never expected that a day would come when a question like this will ever cross my mind for whatever reason at all, but the reality of the moment demands of all of us to reminisce on the not too distant past of two oil producing countries, Iraq and Libya. Each time that I see Iraq and Libya in the news these days, with all the lawlessness, brutality, barbarity and impunity that has become a tradition there, I cannot but ask myself if these two countries, now hell, were not better off with its two notorious devils at the helm of affairs than they are today.

  I know that so many people will be quick to say that whatever the price paid for freedom is a deserved price and that what is going on in these two countries is just the logical process after a long time of dictatorial regime and the consequent power vacuum created, but how many more people need to die for the price to be deemed satisfactory and sufficient? A week of heavy bombardment can take a nation back 20 years or more on the echelon of development. A quick picture of Bagdad or Benghazi today will show you how too expensive the death of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi is appearing to the Iraqis and the Libyans respectively. This is when the saying, “the devil you know is better than the angel you do not know” becomes a very wise saying.   

  When someone begins to compare and even begin to long for a fallen dictatorial leader in their present calamitous situation, then all is not well. A lot of Iraqis and Libyans would wish that Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were still alive and leading them today compared to the prevalent war and anarchy currently present in their countries. True there were blatant abuse of human rights under the two dictators but then there was a government in both countries, today there continues to be more cases of human rights abuse and a total breakdown of law and order.

  A lot of us honestly thought that the deaths of these two irritating personalities in our modern history will bring about instant progress, peace and stability to their countries, their people and the world in general. We were tired of seeing how they wielded unlimited and draconian powers on their people; we were tired of seeing how they deprived their people freedom and even the most basic of human rights. We watched with bewilderment how Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds to death without any remorse, Col Muammar Gaddafi on his part prevented the whole Libyans from haven a dignifying life except himself, his family and those who have found favor in his sight; he practically made himself a god over his people. Both leaders did not only subject their people to untold hardships, they sowed terror all through their regions and provoked political and economic instability in many neighboring countries.

  But what none of us suspected was that years later after these notorious leaders have been ignominiously executed, the problems in their countries and their regions would escalate to an uncontrollable and unimaginable height, much more than when they were alive, and unlike then when we knew who to hold responsible for whatever mess in their countries, today the culprits are somewhat anonymous, different terrorists networks have turned these two countries into the gates of hell, where innocent persons are killed and maimed with outright impunity in the name of the Islamic religion. The latest threat in the region is the I.S.I.S, a group that first presented itself as a rebel group fighting against the excesses and the nefarious activities of Syrian despot Bashar al-Asaad and even succeeded in rousing the sympathy of the west against the Syrian despot, who warned then that I.S.I.S was a terrorist organization that needed to be wiped out by every means. We saw how so many Europeans with Arab origins moved into the Persian Gulf to join the alleged victims of the Syrian war who later turned out to be the terrorists gathering momentum and seeking through a false-victim-playing-game to be fully equipped by the U.S and some European countries that feared that the Syrian government was spearheading a genocide.

  And once well armed, the I.S.I.S has turned into what it truly is, a terrorists group, a lot more cruel and much more devastating in its operations than even Al-Qaeda, trying to wipe out the entire Christian population in Iraq and its environs. People are even beginning to say that Saddam killed a thousand but that those who have taken over from him are killing tens of thousands; same thing applies in Libya with most of its cities turned into ghost cities. Now the question yawning for answer is this, should the west intervene and why is the Arab league never seen to be active in situations like this, since they are the principal affected people? Why are they never concertedly concerned about the problems in the region and why do they always wait for the West to intervene in their regional problems, the truth is this, Arab nations are bias and secretly supportive of most of the agitations of the extremists groups in the region but continue to play a double standard because of its business interest with the West.

  The Americans and their allied forces cannot now abandon the Iraqis and Libyans to their fate, because whether they like it or not, injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere and since they do not have a way of retrieving the arms and ammunitions they are very quick to supply to any group of their choice, most of them terrorist groups camouflaging as freedom fighters to gain universal support, they must intervene to clear up the mess they had directly or indirectly contributed in creating. Arab countries, particularly Muslims should make themselves participants too in the war to cleanse and exonerate their religion from atrocities committed to mankind, they must take a stand, because those who keep quiet or look away when an evil deed is being perpetrated are presumed to be giving their support to injustice.             

DI MARIA: ...... AND THE ANGEL FLEW TO MANCHESTER

  There are some footballers on the field who solely do the work of the rest of their team mates and still do theirs but with very little or no appreciation from the managements of the team and a very large and important sector of the team supporters, Di Maria while at Real Madrid was one of such unfortunate and badly treated players. The argentine national team player who got to Real Madrid in 2010 has done better than anyone in the team to win a deserved respect for himself but unfortunately for him and for the Spanish league, he has had to pack his boots to ply his trade at Manchester united this season, for what still appeared to many football pundits and football fans in Spain as the greatest surprise transfer in a long while.

  Most of us are still asking and wondering today if Real Madrid would have won their 10^TH European cup finals if Di Maria was not in that team, some still doubt if Germany would have beaten Argentina at the last world cup finals in Maracana if Di Maria had been fit enough to play in that final match to render the needed support in the attack to Lionel Messi who was alone and could really not threaten the German defense line in that match.

  Di Maria, an explosive footballer with mesmerizing dribbling skills arrived Real Madrid from Sporting Lisbon and has since won himself the recognition of many football fans since then. The only player apart from Lionel Messi with almost a 100% probability of outwitting any defender any day with his dangerous incursions and skills, in fact, any ball that gets to Di Maria is synonymous with danger for the opponent, the best passer in the Real Madrid squad in the last decade, whose passes had allowed a player like Cristiano Ronaldo to emerge as two times European highest goal scorer.

  But unfortunately something outside football appear to have brought his professional Relationship with Real Madrid to an end this season, after so much obvious intentions to frustrate him with so many unhidden tactics that compromised his continuity in the first eleven. Fideo, as he is fondly called by football fans has had to contend with the sign-up of Gareth Bale, a player who plays in the same demarcation as Di Maria in a policy seen more as a marketing gimmick than a sporting policy.

  It is a known fact that Florentino Perez, the president of Real Madrid is a very business conscious man, to whom the ability of players to turn in money into the Real Madrid account through publicity and jersey marketing is much more important than their contribution on the field of play, this is the only obvious reason why anyone would refuse to improve the contract of a player like Di Maria who together with Cristiano Ronaldo are the two best and most decisive players in the Real Madrid line-up.

  The arrival of Columbian wonder boy, James Rodriguez; a skillful player but not as ground-breaking and decisive as Di Maria this season was another slap to the face of Di Maria, who despite the signing up of Gareth Bale last season, proved that he still had a place in the Real Madrid first eleven. It is no secret that James Rodriguez is the kind of player that is more appealing to Florentino Perez, a player whose 60% on the pitch is a pass mark compared to Angel Di Maria´s 90%, because James Rodriguez has much more possibility of being more financially proficient and profitable outside the field than Fideo.

  In the few weeks that James Rodriguez was signed on by Real Madrid, he has sold almost the number of jerseys that Di Maria sold in a full season.  It would be recalled that some seasons back, a similar thing happened to a Congolese born French player, Claude Makelele in Real Madrid, Makelele, one of the best defensive mid-fielders to ever play in Real Madrid had to abandon the team because he was not sufficiently appreciated by the management of the team. Even Zinedine Zidane in his best moment at Real Madrid confessed that without Makele behind him he would not have the confidence to be performing the magic he performs with the ball, but even at that, it was surprising to discover that players whose contribution to the team like Guti, Michel Salgado were half as much as the contribution of Claude Makelele were all paid much more than Makelele.

  Last season, in Real Madrid, it took the recommendation of Cristiano Ronaldo for Angel Di Maria to continue in the team, this is a great insult to a great player of the caliber and skill of Di Maria. In the three matches that Real Madrid has played so far since the exit of Di Maria from the team, they have shown a real lack of attitude and the capacity of reaction which were the inborn qualities of Angel Di Maria. Yesterday night against Real Sociedad in Anoeta, I saw a very vulgar team without any cohesion and lacking the attitude and the charisma necessary in a big team. They were eventually trounced by 4 goals to 2.

  All said and done, I wish Di Maria a splendid season at his new club, Manchester united. I am very sure that he will soon begin to make his impact felt in the English premiership just as we are feeling his absence now in the Spanish La Liga.