Nigerian Times

This is my rejoinder to the report on Former Bush Aide: McClellan Is Getting Ripped For Telling The Truth posted on Huffington Post . Any dummy can write a book on how President George W. Bush and his goons lied and misled America into one of the dumbest wars in history. The Downing Street Memo and Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson have already shown us the facts, so any dummy writing another book on it is only desperate to fish in the troubled waters and make money from the political Fiasco of Dubya. Writing best selling books on the falsehood of the mission to Iraq is medicine after death. If President George W. Bush had been impeached in 2005, thousands of American soldiers would have been saved from dying in the war in Iraq. In fact, I condemn all the office holders in the American government for misleading America into a wrong war in Iraq. From the messenger who filed the classified lies of the Weapons of Mass Destruction to the President who told the lies, they are all guilty. A...

29 May 2008 09:00 Africa/Lagos Africa's Mobile Industry to Pay $71 Billion in Tax By 2012 JOHANNESBURG, May 29/PRNewswire/ -- - GSMA Says Cutting Mobile-Specific Taxes Would Boost Government Revenue The mobile industry will generate $71 billion in tax revenues in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2000 and 2012, but that figure would be higher still if governments removed taxes that treat mobile phones and services as luxury goods, according to research commissioned by the GSMA. The research by Frontier Economics found that uptake of mobile services in the region is being held back by mobile-specific taxes on handsets, airtime and telecom equipment, which increase costs for consumers and deter investment by mobile operators. If all mobile specific-taxes in Sub-Saharan Africa had been removed in 2007, an additional 43 million people in the region would be connected by 2012 leading to an increase in overall tax receipts of $930 million between 2007 and 2012, according to the research....

I have read Reuben Abati's "Disasters, Crocodile Tears And The Next Tragedy" and I wish that every literate person in Nigeria will sit down and read it and meditate on it. Then look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself the question of how much your life is worth as a Nigerian. How much are you worth to Nigeria? How much have you done to separate yourself from the dogs and pigs in Nigeria? Who Are the Dogs and Who Are the Pigs? The dogs and pigs are those who have no scruples and would careless to do anything to belong to the Joneses. They have no dignity and no integrity. They will say anything and do anything to ape the Joneses. Only Nigerian fools will boast of living in mansions while they cannot boast of good and safe roads. Only Nigerian fools will boast of going to Nigerian universities when they cannot boast of any Nigerian university among the top 30 universities in Africa! Only Nigerian fools will boast of the Nigerian parodies of American TV reality shows...

28 May 2008 13:00 Africa/Lagos From Peru to Nigeria, Entrepreneurs are Battling Poverty Lessons from the Poor Examines Success Stories from Around the World " . . . fascinating . . . profoundly hopeful . . . " -William R. Easterly Professor of Economics, New York University Former Research Economist, World Bank " . . . important . . . informative . . . " -Mark C. Casson Professor of Economics, University of Reading OAKLAND, Calif., May 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Can the billions of people living below the poverty line teach the world a lesson about economics that most politicians and academics don't seem to understand? Internationally acclaimed political analyst and author Alvaro Vargas Llosa says they can. In Lessons from the Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit (May 30, 2008/The Independent Institute/ $16.95), Vargas Llosa and a team of economists examine a series of success stories from around the world. Their case studies show how entreprene...

"Last time I was on the roundtable I was trying to make a point about Senator Clinton's toughness and strength, which I respect, and I chose the wrong words and the way to say it and, you know, I'm sorry I said it that way, it was the wrong thing." You can watch the full video by clicking on the video player .

Sonny Okosuns (1947-2008) The Ozzidi King of Nigerian Afro-Highlife music passed on last Saturday May 24, 2008, at the Howard University Hospital, Washington D.C., United States of America, after protracted illness. He was one of the legendary icons of modern African music whose protest songs became popular for the liberation struggle in his native Nigeria and many other African nations. He became a household name in South Africa when he lamented about the evils of Apartheid in Papa's Land and Fire in Soweto . His song Free Mandela was inspirational in the campaign for the freedom of Nelson Mandela . Click here to watch the video of Sonny Okosuns Power To The People on Kisses & Roses

In memory of the children of Ijegun Comprehensive High School, Ijegun Nursery and Primary Schools who lost their precious lives in the Pipeline Explosion on Thursday May 15, 2008, in Ijegun, Lagos, Nigeria . This is for all the children in Nigeria as I join them to celebrate the Children’s Day . The nostalgia of my childhood is overwhelming, because the unforgettable memories of growing up in the loving care of my parents are now flooding back to me. I love my childhood. I had a happy childhood after the Nigerian civil war. I grew up in a happy home at #28 Obalende Road, Obalende, Lagos. I love children, because as Whitney Houston sang in The Greatest Love of All , they are indeed our future. Nigerian School Children in class. Photo Credit: Khaled Hassounah 85% of the children in Nigeria are from poor families who are mostly in the rural areas. When I travel to different states in Nigeria and I see the children in their dilapidated houses and bad roads, I feel sad and disappointed, be...

25 May 2008 16:10 Africa/Lagos NEWSWEEK Cover: Obama, Race And Us Despite Decades of Progress, Race Is Still an Issue for Many White Americans as Well as Some Democrats Newsweek Poll Shows Misconceptions About Obama May Be a Hindrance to His Campaign but There Are Ways He Can Overcome Challenges NEW YORK, May 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Barack Obama's success on the campaign trail indicates that the United States may be ready to elect its first non- white president. A recent Newsweek poll, however, suggests that although he is poised to secure the Democratic nomination, Obama is still facing problems winning over white voters. In the June 2 Newsweek cover package "Obama, Race and Us" (on newsstands Monday, May 26) a team of Newsweek correspondents offer an open memo to Obama, with suggestions on how he can overcome race issues and convince doubters, of all skin colors or backgrounds, that they will be better off during an Obama presidency than a McCain presidency. Newsweek pollste...

25 May 2008 17:29 Africa/Lagos Africa day - great reasons to celebrate this Africa day! London, 25 May/GNN/ -- DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT News Release issued by The Government News Network on 25 May 2008 DFID MEDIA BRIEFING Every year, the African Union celebrates Africa Day. This year, people in the UK will join in the celebrations at the Mayor's event in Trafalgar Square on Monday 26th May. It is a chance to celebrate success across the continent and the contribution African people and countries make to our world. The continent still faces many ongoing challenges but aid from the UK - funded by British people through the Department for International Development (DFID) - is having a real impact towards changing Africa people's lives for the better. Here are just a few of the successes we can be proud of: 1. Combating preventable diseases in Kenya... Malaria is one of the biggest killers of children across Africa. It kills more than three children every m...

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy ( November 20 , 1925 – June 6 , 1968 ), also called RFK, was the 64th United States Attorney General from 1961 to 1964 and a US Senator from New York from 1965 until his assassination in 1968. Robert F. Kennedy Associates Gather for a Look Back at '68 Campaign Associates and observers of Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign will examine what made that endeavor significant and what lessons are to be learned 40 years later from Kennedy's brief but transformative run for the White House. "To Seek a Newer World: A Symposium on the Life and Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy" will be held May 27 at the Freedom Forum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Freedom Forum, Vanderbilt University and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, the program will begin at 1 p.m. with an introduction by Kennedy's eldest daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, followed by two panel discussions. The symposium is being...

>> Will you tell CNN to take responsibility for their on-air talent? Dear Friend, Is it ever acceptable to use the term "bitch" to describe a woman? CNN political contributor Alex Castellanos seems to think it is. On Wednesday's edition of The Situation Room , moments after CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin referred to a column in The New York Times that "talked about some of the humor in the campaign, and the punch line was a line that was -- that Hillary Clinton was a 'white bitch,'" Castellanos asserted, "And some women, by the way, are named that and it's accurate." Hard to believe? You can check out the Media Matters for America item below or watch the video for yourself here. It's time to hold CNN and Castellanos accountable for his horribly sexist remarks. I hope you'll take a moment to contact CNN today and demand an on-air apology from Castellanos. >> Make your voice heard -- Contact CNN today and demand...

Barack Obama is inches away from making history as the first African American to win the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. His victory in the Oregon Democratic Primary Tuesday gave him the majority of the pledged delegates for presidential nomination. 20 May 2008 Comment of Senator Patrick Leahy on Senator Edward Kennedy's Medical Condition DNC Statement on Senator Kennedy Pelosi Statement on Senator Ted Kennedy Statement of Paul Helmke on Senator Kennedy's Illness Statement by Lance Armstrong on Cancer Diagnosis of Senator Kennedy

Global Peace Index Rankings Compare 2007 2008 Country Rank Score Iceland 1 1.176 Denmark 2 1.333 Norway 3 1.343 New Zealand 4 1.350 Japan 5 1.358 Ireland 6 1.410 Portugal 7 1.412 Finland 8 1.432 Luxembourg 9 1.446 Austria 10 1.449 Canada 11 1.451 Switzerland 12 1.465 Sweden 13 1.468 Germany 14 1.475 Belgium 15 1.485 Slovenia 16 1.491 Czech Republic 17 1.501 Hungary 18 1.576 Chile 19 1.576 Slovakia 20 1.576 Uruguay 21 1.606 Netherlands 22 1.607 Hong Kong 23 1.608 Romania 24 1.611 Oman 25 1.612 Bhutan 26 1.616 Australia 27 1.652 Italy 28 1.653 Singapore 29 1.673 Spain 30 1.683 Poland 31 1.687 South Korea 32 1.691 Qatar 33 1.694 Costa Rica 34 1.701 Estonia 35 1.702 France 36 1.707 Vietnam 37 1.720 Malaysia 38 1.721 Latvia 39 1.723 Ghana 40 1.723 Lithuania 41 1.723 United Arab Emirates 42 1.745 Madagascar 43 1.770 Taiwan 44 1.779 Kuwait 45 1.786 Botswana 46 1.792 Tunisia 47 1.797 Panama 48 1.797...

20 May 2008 10:00 Africa/Lagos Global Peace Index 2008 Report Reveals: Global Upturn In Peacefulness Iceland tops the ranking of the world's most peaceful, Iraq rated least peaceful U.S. remains largely unchanged, ranking at 97 Angola, Indonesia and India are among the big risers Endorsed by Nobel Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Professor Joseph Stiglitz and Professor Muhammad Yunus WASHINGTON, May 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Most countries in the world are performing better against key measures of peacefulness compared with last year, according to the latest rankings of the Global Peace Index (GPI), now in its second year. This year the Index has been expanded to rank 140 countries - from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe - according to how peaceful they are, both domestically and how they interact with the outside world. The Index is constructed from 24 indicators of external and internal measures of peace including UN deployments overseas and levels of violent crime. It has wo...

All things being equal, the outcomes of Tuesday’s Democratic Primaries in Kentucky and Oregon are predictable from the polls, so Hillary Clinton should win Kentucky convincingly and Barack Obama should win Oregon. I do not foresee any upsets. I have monitored and evaluated the presidential candidacy of Senator Barack Obama since 2007 and the book of my analytical and critical thoughts and commentaries on him will be published and released before the presidential election on Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

Millions mourn China earthquake dead with air sirens wailing in grief The earth is cracking The clouds are wailing and many hearts are bleeding.

18 May 2008 18:54 Africa/Lagos Democratic National Committee Must Read: McCain Vs. Lobbyists WASHINGTON, May 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Just days after at least four McCain campaign aides resigned, three of whom after news reports revealed that their lobbying groups had worked on behalf of the repressive regime in Myanmar and the energy lobby, a new report shows that McCain's problems with lobbyists are not over. According to Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, McCain's "finance co-chair Tom Loeffler['s] ... lobbying firm has collected nearly $15 million from Saudi Arabia since 2002 and millions more from other foreign and corporate interests." Another McCain aide, finance director Susan Nelson, was paid $ 15,000 a month by Loeffler's firm while she was on the campaign payroll even though "Federal election law prohibits any outside entity from subsidizing the income of campaign workers." Time and again, McCain demonstrates that his calls for higher et...

This is my comment on John Ridley 's Obama's Struggle With Typical Liberal Hypocrisy Political hypocrisy plagues American democracy. Barack Obama cannot please everybody. If Obama fails to win the nomination and the presidential election, the so-called American Liberals will be the Judas of his betrayal. What has made Barack Obama so successful so far is not his animated amplification of the politiical sound bites of his political spin doctors, but the big budget of his sponsors who used their mainstream media and proxies in the social network sites to launch their vicious campaign of calumny against the Clintons and maligned them so badly that they have done more harm than good to the Democratic Party in the long run of the presidential campaign. If the Clintons and their millions of supporters turn against Barack Obama and his sponsors in the presidential election, do not blame the Clintons. Most of those endorsing Barack Obama are doing so to spite the Clintons and have not ...

16 May 2008 17:03 Africa/Lagos African Diplomatic Corps Launches Its 2008 Africa Week Celebration and Commemorates the 45th Anniversary of the African Union WASHINGTON, May 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The African Diplomatic Corps (ADC), the group of ambassadors that represent 53 African countries in the United States of America, will announce its Africa Week Celebration and commemorate the 45th Anniversary of the African Union (AU) on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 2 p.m. at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The ADC is working collectively to update Americans on 21st Century Africa. Most Americans are unaware of Africa's progress, development and opportunities and have mainly been exposed to doom and gloom images of the Continent. African diplomats and U.S. elected officials will be on hand for media interviews to discuss the growth of the African continent and mark the uniting of African countries that form the AU. WHAT: Press Conference to officially launch the Afric...

16 May 2008 18:18 Africa/Lagos California Supreme Court Ruling in the Same Sex Marriage Cases SAN FRANCISCO, May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Waukeen McCoy, a San Francisco attorney who successfully argued the Gay Marriage case before the California Supreme Court commented that "this is a monumental victory for the civil rights movement; the California Supreme Court overturned voter-approved discrimination." McCoy was the lead Plaintiffs' attorney in one of the largest race discrimination case in US history, Carroll v. Interstate Brands Company, where the jury verdict awarded Plaintiffs $132,000,000 in August of 2000, and is very familiar with California and Federal laws which deal with discrimination in the workplace. Speaking by telephone from the Cannes Film Festival, McCoy continued, "This ruling is about excluding the government from our familial relationships. It is not the government's place to tell us how to love or whom to love. However, it is the governmen...

We are not alone. Whether you believe it or not, we are not alone in the universe. If you do not believe in ETs and UFOs , that logically means you do not believe in God. It was a space ship that came from heaven and carried Prophet Elijah away to heaven (2 Kings 2:1-18). I have written science fiction, but I know that ETs and UFOs exist. I do not need to write a long thesis to prove my hypothesis. I will not argue with anyone who has doubts.

Over 100 people have been killed in a pipeline blast Thursday afternoon, in the Ijegun suburb on the outskirts of Lagos. The fire started when the oil pipeline was ruptured by a road construction bulldozer. Several people, houses and schools nearby were engulfed by the flames and fumes of the pipeline fire as it spread. Many residents have fled the location and the injured have been taken to nearby hospitals in Lagos. More than 200 people were killed in a similar pipeline fire on Friday May 12, 2006, and they were given a mass burial. Pipeline explosions are common in the world's eighth-largest oil exporter where over 2, 000 people have been killed in previous oil pipeline explosions often caused by ruptured pipelines vandalized by illegal oil bunkerers. The oil pipelines run through the swamps and creeks from the Niger Delta and crisscrossing villages and towns to reach other parts of the most populous country in Africa where the majority of the people are poor and cut off fr...

United Steelworkers. (PRNewsFoto/United Steelworkers) PITTSBURGH, PA UNITED STATES 01/31/2008 15 May 2008 15:00 Africa/Lagos United Steelworkers Endorse Senator Barack Obama for President Join John Edwards in Growing Wave of Support PITTSBURGH, May 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United Steelworkers today issued the following statement of endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President: "When the presidential primary contests began last year, our Union felt strongly that because of Senator John Edwards's deep commitment to working people and because of our shared beliefs, he deserved our strong endorsement. His belief that unfair trade policies must be changed, his commitment to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) to restore workers' rights to freely choose workplace representation, and his proposal for universal health care were widely shared by our members. Senator Barack Obama "Today, by virtue of a unanimous vote of our International Executive Board, we f...