The Future Nigeria

The use of words is such a rare craft or talent as it may seem. Sometimes it comes so beautiful that it gives vivid description of the state of the mind just like it’s a picture. It becomes so graphic at times you wish you could hold it. If you appreciate literature, Paronomasia or Pun wont come as a surprise to you.
Retrospect at movies. There are certain movies and sitcoms you watch and you just want to grab a piece of paper and put that one liner down. You get so enthralled with the adequate use of idioms and sometimes just the alliterations sweeps you off your feet. Limericks when fabulously composed become so rich you feel words are so fantastic.(Have you seen KRS1 describing what hip-hop is before?, then you would have an idea of passion of words)
‘Good news, agent Mahone. Due to the untimely demise of Señor Juan Nieves, I have now been promoted manager in charge of retail distribution and customer liaisons’. If you followed the series “Prison Break”, then you would remember T-Bag saying that just to say “He now supplies crack” That character was basically a raconteur.
Let’s move on into the movies proper. “V for Vendetta”. This movie is one I have seen for the umpteenth time. The movie brought out the real beauty of words in the 10 series-comic of Alan More. “ Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation…” O.K .I hear you say , wow that’s just too complex for communication, even the lady in response to that statement in the movie could only ask “are you a crazy person or what”. What I m trying to get at here is just the beautiful compositon of words that make you want to replay a particular scene over and over again. The careful use of alliteration in this scene was so beautiful virtually everyone who had seen it loved to listen to it again.

When you read poems like “I carry you in my heart” by E.E Cummings, dang!!!, you feel the warmness around you .probably it was inspired by a true to life situation but you can roll along with its meaning. Words have set people free and words have incarcerated people. A good view was delineated by “The great debaters” No wonder the phrase, “Pen is mightier than sword” .More often than not you can determine the spirit of a writer or the mood with which he writes from his compositions.
I also love this from ‘Finding Nemo’ – ‘’Of course I like you. It’s because I like you that I don’t want to be with you. It’s a complicated emotion.’’
In Herzog’s ‘The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser’, the child-man Kaspar and his guardian, an intellectual, had a debate on whether objects have wills and motive powers of their own. His guardian attempts to demonstrate that they do not by showing that he would stop an apple rolled by his colleague with his foot, and therefore the apples movements and arrest of movement only occur as a result of outside influences. The apple bounces over his foot and rolls into the grass.
Kaspar: ‘Clever apple! It jumped over your foot and ran away!’
Not really the complex use of words as could be seen in the above but just the way it comes, the way its composed and the meaning it carries at that particular instance.
Then I ve got this crammed in my brain by Prof Nash in “A beautiful mind” – See if I derive an equilibrium where prevalence is a non-singular event where nobody loses, can you imagine the effect that would have on conflict scenarios?
What about this? “If we all go for the blonde and block each other, not a single one of us is going to get her. So then we go for her friends…” if you’ve seen the movie, you wont confuse it, that analogy gave birth to the famous “Game theory”
I would end with these from a great mentor: Albert Einstein, “I don’t know what World war 3 would be fought with but I know world war 4 is going to be with stick and stones” and “Gravity is not responsible for people falling in love”

“It’s not you that has a problem; it’s me!” That has been voted the most popular breakup line across the world in an online poll. Apparently, people use it a lot when they want to end a relationship because it tends to make you look like you are taking the blame when in reality; you have just dumped someone, pure and simple!
There has never been a good way to breakup with someone or end a relationship, long or short. It is almost impossible to dump someone and make that person feel good about it. Same way I also feel that it is almost impossible for two parties to end a relationship mutually. I always laugh heartily (mostly inside my head) when I hear people say they just ended a relationship “and it was mutual”. While it may seem that the both of you may have talked about it and decided to end it, you know that one party was made to bend or concede at the end of it all; probably on the spot or over time. ‘Mutual’ and ‘breakup’ are strange sentence fellows.
At a much younger age, I always had this fantasy of meeting my first love and marrying her on the long run. Why would I want to break anyone’s heart? Why would anyone not want to be with me forever when all I needed to do was to make her happy and most importantly, keep it that way. My first slight taste of a breakup came while in primary school. There was a girl in my class whom another guy Nosa (I wonder where he is now) also wanted to be friends with. Of course at that time, it was not about getting into a relationship but more about just hanging out with the hot girl in class. She seemed to like the attention as Nosa and I would subtly always want to tell her stories at break time or just sit with her and hopefully make her laugh.
It was a battle of the wittiest and sometimes; a battle of whom could come up with the best lies to feed her fantasy. Stories like; “When I travelled to America for the holiday, I was sitting near Michael Jackson on the plane.” Of course, there was no way for her to verify that. Or; “My Daddy and the governor are best friends. Tell your daddy to allow you come with me to his house one day.” That always worked because you knew that there was no way on earth that her father would let her leave the house to go anywhere. It all seemed like fun but I also knew it was a serious ego battle.
Interestingly, I seemed to have an advantage over Nosa because I shared my desk with her. It did not matter that we hardly said a thing to each other when classes were on. It was just enough for my self esteem knowing that I actually spent more time with her. Then one day, it all just went downhill. She came into class and told me that she wanted to change her seat because she did not like me anymore. I could not understand what she meant. Knowing what I know now, I probably would have tried to sweet talk her out of it but with my relationship-less brain then, I just stood there looking at her without saying a word when deep down, I was crying blood and also cursing her out.
She told the teacher some days later that she wanted to move to a seat closer to the blackboard because her sight was not very good and she needed to see the board better. Of course, she got her wish but thankfully was not moved to Nosa’s seat. I probably never said a word to her after that because I could not understand why she did what she did. The pain was really hard and like grownups whose lives take a dip when heartbroken, my academics suffered for a bit as I dropped 3 places in class that term. I would later understand that I had learnt two tough lessons about life; I would almost never understand women; and breakups always equal heartbreak.
If I had a chance to vote for my most ingenious breakup line, it would have to be ‘I love you but I am not in love with you.’ That sentence is packed with honesty, sarcasm, arrogance, love, hate and downright heartbreak rolled into one. It is like telling someone; ‘You do not smell but something smells every time you are around.’ Terrible yet polite!
Then there is the mostly Nigerian one; ‘My parents say we cannot get married.” I have gotten that one before so I know exactly how it bites. Yes, we know that in Nigeria, when you get married, be ready to get married to your partner’s entire extended family. But there is also the fact that for the most part of that marriage, your parents will not be in the room with you when their own candidate snores the night away to your irritation; or they may and will most likely die way before you; leaving you with that annoying partner whose laughter just makes you want to rip his/her throat out. When I was hit with that line, I believed it; not because I knew her parents disliked me that much but mostly because I got her message clearly; ‘I am done with you Ebuka’.
Those nice lines like; ‘You are a wonderful person, you deserve and will meet someone better than me’; or; ‘We are at different points in our lives and I think it’s best we concentrate on those points.’ Or; ‘I think you are a great person but I’ll rather just be your friend’, are actually not as nice as they seem. It boils down to the same thing; “I do not want to be with you.” Why would you need a great friend when you can have one great friend and life partner put together? Maybe the person is allergic to spending their lives with great people. They like taking greatness in bits of friendship. Story!
Some of my favourites are those ones that make the dumper look like he or she is confused; ‘I don’t know what I want’; or; ‘I need a break to clear my head’; or; ‘I think this relationship is getting in the way of our careers’; or; ‘I think the heat has died of. Maybe we should call things off?’
Then comes the almighty; ‘Maybe we need a break.’ What are you taking a break for? As far as I am concerned, you are either in our out of a relationship. Breaks are just an excuse to cheat and date other people. Thus, a break is a full breakup coated in deceit. In as much as people need space sometimes, it has been proven that problems are solved better when people stick together not when they decide to stay apart. Apparently, that theory does not apply to relationships.
But then, does the fact that a breakup is almost always heartbreaking, mean that it is a purely heartless act? Is it not possible that the reasons the person gave may actually be true? Like the girl from my primary school class for example; what if she actually honestly did not like me anymore and had also developed an eye problem at the same time? Is that not possible? I for example went from being a huge lover of egusi soup to now eating it only under duress or inducement. If that can happen with food, why then can it not happen with human beings?
When she says she is the one that has a problem and not you, is it not possible that she actually has a problem? She may have an undiagnosed mental condition that makes it impossible for her to fall in love. I have never heard of anyone with that problem but maybe they do not even know they have it; so she may be the problem not you!
What if you are suffocating him a little too much and he really finds that it has started affecting his financial life. Of course he would breakup with you and tell you that ‘you are getting in the way of his career’ and nothing more. Or is there a better way to paint it.
If he tells you; ‘I was never in love with you and never will be’, yes he may seem heartless but may also be honest. He may have gone into the relationship hoping to fall in love as things grew but eventually found out that it would not happen. Is it not fairer on both parties that he ended things instead of letting you live in a delusional world?
I am all for people falling in love and staying happily ever after at it. But I also believe that when you think the fire has stopped burning, move your pot and go fetch new fire wood. No amount of kerosene poured on the charcoal will light it up!
But all of these should come after both parties have tried to work things out. Do not say you realised yesterday that she was not the one for you anymore and decided to call it quits after 2 years. Hard to explain how in 24 hours you reached that decision. If she was so ugly all this while, you should have known all along and not just in a day.
In all of this, I think the best breakup line should hold both heartlessness and honesty strongly. There is hardly ever any balance. The more you try to sound nice, the sillier and patronizing you may seem. There is nothing worse than looking like a liar and weakling while breaking up. Make your point simply and as honestly as possible and move on.
So next time you want to end a relationship and you have no way to put it nicely, simply walk up to your boyfriend or girlfriend and say with a straight face; ‘It’s over. Deal with it.’ It does not get any more honest than that…
                           ANSWERS ANYONE?
Have you said a prayer today for President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s health?

CITY CRAWLER IN LOVE!!!!
Im a fool in love! Ask my sister. When im in love I fall completely, sometime with the danger of loosing myself. I talk about the object(or subject) of my love constantly, I call, I write, I buy gifts, I think and dream .you know that ‘’I love to see him coming, and I hate to see him go’’ feeling?. it is so cool, so right, so sweet, so gooey. And for me, so long as it is reciprocated, this feeling last a long long time.

I have found love.

Very few people are lucky in their life time to do the things they would love to do, several reasons, environmental restriction, religious restriction, parental restrictions, relationship restriction and most of the time fear of taking that bold step.i have been very lucky, i have non of these restrictions and im doing what i love doing and what i was born to do. A friend of mine asked me last night ‘what drives you I.J.’? I will not tell you the answer, I will tell you why he asked.

The why…. Because im always selling something. im in PR(duh). (Just so we are clear, my love interest can be an object or a subject and unfortunately subjective love died a long time ago so if u think this is I.J.’s love story expose you can stop reading now)

So that I don’t talk too much, let me just tell you about my latest discovery and that which is the object of my latest lovessession(new word). If you live in Abuja, or anywhere else in Nigeria actually, you will understand where this is coming from. Do u ever prepare yourself for a night in the town? for guys: nice new haircut, new drags, Hennessey money and a tank full of fuel ready to crawl your way up to the AM. And for girls: that sexy new dress you bought even though u were broke because you knew deep down in your heart that u had to have it for Friday night, all the right assessories, spray glitter and all you can do to glam up for an evening out. And then you head out to your usual places and your evening goes down hill from there, why? because its the ‘same shit, different night’.

For those of you who are well travelled (summer in UK and dubai to buy things doesn’t count) im talking Ibiza(not area 11 bibza oh, u see u never travel), st tropez, monaco etc and for those of you who have experience the ultimate clubbing experience and want to re-enact that night, I will only say this once, I have discovered Abuja’s best kept secret, drumroll please…. EDEN VIP! I don’t know how despite my city crawling ways, I could have missed it??? i will not describe it so I wont look like im over hyping it but, I saw drinks that I have only seen in jayz music videos and maybe rick ross(yes I am a bush girl I agree sue me, at least I have dstv aand I run my own company, he he). I love the thing they do when u buy a don perignon magnum, there is a fanfare of being a big spender and it will be all yourz for 15minutes. Cool.

Abeg let me not spoil it for you. This Friday and saturday, Fashion TV(FTV) in Nigeria for the first time, hosted to the biggest party in Abuja. me and my people. We know how to do it on a Friday night, no stalling, no forming, no gocking.no frills, just thrills( see me rhyming, watch out M I) having fun has become a religion and the best thing about this folks, they are the best in their choosen career so u cant fault then. Ok enough said.

I know some slowies will wonder what this blog is really about, ok let me explain it to u like you are an 8 year old, I.J. is in love and when I.J. falls in love, she sells the object or subject of her affection. Lucky EDEN VIP, you take center stage.

Friday night live!

SHUN MEDIOCRITY, FOLLOW THE WHITE RABBIT….

IJEOMA OKEAGU
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
WHITE RABBIT CONCEPT NIG LTD
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Miss Japan guaranteed a top spot in the Miss World Final

Miss Japan, Eruza Sasaki, proved that she’s a firm favorite for the title of Miss World when she was named Miss World Sportswoman in Port Elizabeth at the brand-new Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium today. The 21-year-old beauty triumphed in a number of sporting disciplines including athletics and soccer and received her prize from Chief Executive Officer: 2010 LOC Danny Jordan. Eruza now automatically makes the Top 20 of the Miss World pageant. Eruza’s hobbies include dancing, watching sport games and she received the record for the female high jump at the Junior Olympics organised by the Japan Olympic Committee. Her goal is to become a sports journalist when she finishes her studies. Eruza describes herself as cheerful, full of energy and her personal motto is “Never give up and keep a happy smile”. Second in the Miss World Sportswoman mini-contest was Miss Jamaica, Kerrie Baylis, with Miss Hungary, Orsolya Serdult, in third spot. The remaining 111 contestants still have a chance of a guaranteed spot in the Miss World Final if they win one of the following four fast track events – Miss World Talent (Sunday, November 22 at the Victory Theatre in Johannesburg), Miss World Beach Beauty (November 25 at the Valley of Pools in Durban), Miss World Fashion (Saturday, November 28 at the Turbine Hall in Johannesburg) and Miss World Beauty with a Purpose (to be announced at the Miss World finale on Saturday, December 12 at Gallagher Convention Centre). These will culminate in the crowning of Miss World in a not-to-be-missed extravaganza at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand on Saturday, December 12. The two-hour final will be broadcast live to more than a billion viewers around the world. The City of Johannesburg is hosting the spectacle for the second year running and will be showcasing its charms as well as those of the 112 contestants each representing her own country.

Introducing The Sentinel Literary Movement of Nigeria.

On November 15, 2009, the Nigerian chapter of Sentinel Poetry Movement known as Sentinel Literary Movement of Nigeria (SLMN) became a reality.

It is our vision to make SLMN the most vibrant community of writers in Nigeria. We will initiate and stimulate the discussions, debates, and critiques that will form building blocks for the future of Nigeria’s literary arts through our Blog, Discussion Forum and quarterly online magazine; SENTINEL NIGERIA which will be published on the same day as the Sentinel Literary Quarterly currently published by Sentinel Poetry Movement.

Sentinel Nigeria (SN) is not intended to replace Sentinel Literary Quarterly (SLQ) and will not attempt to be a clone of it. Whereas SLQ will carry on providing publishing opportunities for writers from all over the world, SN will focus on Nigerian Literature. We would like to state upfront that we don’t necessarily mean Nigerian literature by Nigerian writers for Nigerians. We will welcome intelligent perspectives on all aspects of Nigerian literature by writers from any part of the world. We will certainly be excited by essays that offer comparative studies of Nigerian literature with the literatures of other parts of the world.

On the Editorial Board of Sentinel Nigeria we have Professor Kanchana Ugbabe who will serve as our pioneer Fiction Editor. Multi award winning poet, Unoma Nguemo Azuah will serve as the Poetry Editor while young essayist Sylva Nze Ifedigbo will be the Features Editor. Supporting these wonderful people is a board of Contributing Editors including the art critic Ikhide Ikheloa, poet Chuma Nwokolo, poet Toyin Adewale-Gabriel, Uche Peter Umez, Tade Ipadeola, Ibrahim Ahmed Waziri, Ivor Hartman and Chude Jideonwo of NEXT.

The first edition of our online magazine Sentinel Nigeria is due out on January 31st 2010 and a call for submissions has been made already. Sentinel Nigeria Magazine will accept submissions across the genres of Poetry, Prose, Drama, and Literary Criticism. Full guidelines may be read at http://www.sentinelpoetry.org.uk/nigeria/magazine.php and in the literary pages of Nigerian newspapers as well as online social networking and information dissemination media.

We look forward to branding Nigeria positively by certifying the sterling of the country’s intellectual output.

Sentinel Nigeria. . . . Magazine for Contemporary Nigerian Writing!

After visiting Abuja, Yola and Kaduna, Nigeria’s biggest youth event, The Future Awards, under the umbrella The Future Project, continued its national tour of the six geo-political zones of the country, taking its youth town hall meetings to Enugu, Port Harcourt and the Ghanaian capital, Accra.”On these visits, we have tried to see that we can reach individual young people directly and practically. We don’t just want these crowds of people, we want to ensure that message goes through to the attendees – we had them, not just talk about Nigeria and then know how to nominate outstanding young people, but also to make them ambassadors in their communities for the values we hold dear – entrepreneurship and value creation,” Chude Jideonwo, the Creative Director, said.The Port Harcourt Town Hall meeting had the awards’ Business Owner of the Year speaking to the youth, while Enugu had finalist for On-Air Personality of the Year (Radio), the popular Chuks d Spaceman of Cosmo FM. “Courtesy of support from HiTV for these town hall meetings,” Jideonwo, who was also in Enugu, said, “not only do we have our own events, we also visit youth events, clubs and gatherings of young people in those areas to spread our message of hope and change.” Click to read more

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So he gets one whiff of her…he’s overwhelmed.

Its the best damn thing he’s ever smelled – it drives him CRAZY.

So he stays away from her ‘cos he can’t control himself, yes, we’ve all either read it or seen it.

Then of course he goes back, he can’t stay away from her anymore.

He loves her too much, they’re meant for each other….touching isn’t it?

And here is the point we must begin to apply our faculties to answer

When did he fall in love with her? Let’s forget HOW ‘cos how anyone in the world falls in love can never be understood.

While he was avoiding her perhaps?

Oh yes of course… absence makes the heart grow fonder doesn’t it? Hey she fell in love with him in this time as well. Why? Typical girl wanting the guy she can’t have maybe?

Unless of course,

Yes… that’s it… love at first sight.

Or… as in this case… love at first smell.

Yes!

That’s it!

Now girls, all you have to do is find a vampire who wants to eat you… or rather drink (and no not sexually) more than anything else in the universe and you’ll have the happiness u’ve always wanted!

Guys, hey we can’t be vampires but we can go round sniffing girls who aren’t scared of being ingested right?
They seem to like it.

Alright that’s the problem I’ve got with the whole story… it all seems a bit too ridiculous for someone like me. Maybe I’m too smart to enjoy anything…hmph.
But then after reading the book “Twilight” and wondering what the fuss was about, I put my hopes in the movie.
One word for it in my opinion: drab.
The acting was all a bit too bland for me really and the director apparently made no effort not to make an already weak storyline any less absurd.

These rantings are all against the backdrop of the newly released movie in the series “New Moon”.
Once again I have put my hopes in this movie, hoping it doesn’t disappoint me like the last one. Foolish maybe?
Well, till I see the movie.

Network/Data security in Nigeria is a very big problem in Nigeria and it’s a very big issue to talk about. The network in Nigeria is a place of all possibilities and very vulnerable to intruders.

For example, it’s a place one could clone ATM cards of others and use without being caught, it’s a place I could do website phishing and get away with it, a place I could use other people’s internet services and steal their data and even data of their clients without being noticed, it’s a network I could ride on other people’s back and use their phone applications and even make calls using their units via Bluetooth connection and I cannot be traced, a place I could make online transfers from others’ bank accounts into mine and leave no traces, this same country I could make all airline schedules jam and there won’t be any airline to fly for days, this same place I could change all financial institutions (online banking) and e-commerce websites into pornographic sites and all will be shocked because we are leaving in a country where everything is possible.

These are the words of a CERTIFIED ETHICAL HACKER, COMPUTER HACKING FORENSICS INVESTIGATOR, NETWORK SECURITY ANALYST AND LICENSED PENETRATION TESTER living in Nigeria.

Others will say even the advanced countries too face the same problems but it’s only reduced and people can be traced easily because foreign countries have certified Network Security Analysts working with the government and other agencies to curb cyber terrorism and cyber crime. It’s a pity in Nigeria we have just 1 (ONE) Licensed Penetration Tester and he’s not even being recognized because the society doesn’t see any reason for that yet.

Maybe because we’ve not heard or seen a mega cybercrime or cyber war like the one that happened between the USA and North/South Korea some months ago that affected even the White House and other e-commerce sites in the US.

Hackers don’t care what kind of business you are into; they just want to use your computer. If your data is altered or stolen, a company may risk losing credibility and the trust of their customers. Businesses most at risk, I would say, are those handling online financial transactions. We are all happy we are going online and the country is developing but have we ever sat down to think about the risks behind our development technically. I know so many of us that are certified in Nigeria as ethical hackers who could do all these exploits and know our weak points and penetrate into any kind of networks and make fast money. But I believe every one of us still follow the strict code of conduct being given as an ethical hacker.
We are told that phishers and spammers harvest money at will from the online population. Even those without skills can buy what they need and sell what they produce on hacking forums. Estimates of the size of this underground economy vary, but common to most accounts is that it is large and growing rapidly.
In a careful examination of the evidence, we find that these claims are speculations, unsupported by evidence. Estimates of the cybercrime economy are enormous extrapolations from very noisy and poorly-sourced data. Reports that exploits like phishing and spam are worth billions appear to be off by orders of magnitude. Our analysis suggests that the laws of economics have not been suspended. Phishing and spam are subject to the tragedy of the commons so that returns are kept low. Hacking forums are infested with rippers so that buying and selling is hard.

Cybercrime is a ruthlessly competitive business and low-skill jobs still pay like low skill jobs. Much as in the regular economy, to do well you need a rare skill or a barrier to entry.

However cybercrime is still a very big deal. The externalities (indirect costs) are far larger than the direct losses. For example, unskilled phishers still causes significant economic damage, even if he doesn’t gain much. The direct costs and externalities are often borne by different parties, leading to misaligned incentives. Ironically, defenders (i.e. the white hat security community) energetically recruit their own opponents: by promoting the easy money mantra they ensure a steady supply of new entrants.

If we are planning to reduce cyber crime in the country, we’ll need to work with the certified security experts so as to trace and track all online attacks and frauds.
A company (Cybaron Networks INC.) is working on bringing Network Security Experts together early next year (2009) in a conference/seminar to see how they can work together on the issue of cyber terrorism/cyber war and cyber crime.
Experts are to come around and save the country from cyber threats. Because HACKERS ARE HERE, ARE YOU READY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.