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After months of unnecessary grandstanding, Ms Etteh has stepped down.
I just pray that now, they make the right decision and pick someone who is God-fearing and has the interest of the nation at heart.

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Here is a heart-warming story of Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi, a 24-year-old physics undergraduate in Northern Nigeria who builds functional and operational helicopters with spare parts of old cars and trucks. His chopper have actually flown briefly on 6 different occassions. One is fitted with a Honda Civic car engine and seats from an old Toyota car.

Here is a brief excerpt of the story:

For a four-seater it is a big aircraft, measuring twelve metres (39 feet) long, seven metres high by five wide. It has never attained an altitude of more than seven feet.

The cockpit consists of a push-button ignition, an accelerator lever between the seats which controls vertical thrust, a joystick that provides balance and bearing.

A small screen on the dashboard connects to a camera underneath the helicopter for ground vision, a set of six buttons adjusts the screen’s brightness while a small transmitter is used for communication.

“You start it, allow it to run for a minute or two and you then shift the accelerator forward and the propeller on top begins to spin. The further you shift the accelerator the faster it goes and once you reach 300 rmp you press the joystick and it takes off,” Abdullahi explained from the cockpit.

He said he learned the rudiments of flying a helicopter from the Internet and first got the idea of building one from the films he watches on television.

But as usual, the government has not been useful in any way. They saw the demo and were excited then. But till date, no one has lent a helping hand.

When will we start honoring and helping our own people who are making such magnificent and note worthy efforts?

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Just 6 weeks after leading the Nigerian U-17 team to the U-17 World Cup, Coach Yemi Tella has died of lung cancer. He died on Saturday at LUTH.
Farewelll, Coach Tella.

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Group A (Accra)
Ghana
Namibia
Guinea
Morocco

Group B (Sekondi)
Nigeria
Benin
Mali
Ivory Coast

Group C (Kumasi)
Egypt
Sudan
Zambia
Cameroon

GROUP D (Tamale)
Tunisia
Angola
South Africa
Senegal

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 When will this shame end? The saga sorrounding the Speaker of the House of Representatives continues. The speaker, Ms Etteh has refused to resign over the contract scandal. And now there is the story that Honourable Aminu Safana of Katsina dies during a scuffle during the house of represenatives session debating Ms Etteh’s case?  I am forced to ask - how many people must die for her to do the right thing?  

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Samuel Peters beat Jameel McCline over the weekend to retain the world heavyweight title. He survived three knockdowns during the match. But after the 4th round he was on fire and went on to win the remaining 8 rounds and eventually the match.

Below is a tribute in the Guardian Editorial to Samuel Peters.

Samuel Peter is ‘king of the world’

In the early hours of yesterday at the fabled Madison Square Garden, New York, a boxing arena which has hosted the most memorable and historic title fights, Nigeria’s own Samuel Peter became the “king of the world” after deservedly defeating American giant of a man, Jameel McCline in his first defence of what the World Boxing Council (WBC) calls “an interim heavyweight champion of the world”.

Interim or not, there is no one, whatever country they may come from, who can deny that “the Nigerian Nightmare” is not a worthy champion of the world. Nobody today, can lay a better claim to the world’s most credible heavyweight boxing championship crown. For sure, no one has ever been made to work harder than the 27-year-old pugilist who hails from Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria.

For the records, it is not found in the history books of world boxing, that a contender needed to win a world title elimination bout twice against the same fellow contender in order to get a shot at the world title belt. But this is what happened in Peter’s case.

As if the WBC was astonished that a young boy from the African continent could rise to the pinnacle of sport just like that, the body ordered a re-match between Peter and American James “Lights Out” Toney, whom the Nigerian had beaten convincingly on all the judges’ score cards. The world, particularly his fellow countrymen, cried blue murder and daylight robbery.

For Peter, that “robbery” was just one of the hurdles he needed to scale over in order to reach the ultimate goal, or an occupational hazard. A confident Peter agreed to fight Toney again, and defeated him, this time even more convincingly. The stage was thus set for an exciting title fight between the WBC champion, Oleg Maskaev of Russia and the number one contender for the title, Samuel Peter.

But this was where the “game of tricks” began. First, staggering monetary offers were made to Peter so he may trade away his immediate chance for the title, and allow Maskaev to fight someone else. Peter refused and held his ground. Again, Maskaev complained of an injury and asked that the inevitable encounter should be delayed. It was perhaps at this point that the WBC came to terms with what almost everyone had all along known for a fact. Maskaev did not trust his chances against the Nigerian. Quickly, the WBC and Don King Promotions found a substitute, in an American, Jameel “Big Time” McCline, who boasted of a decent 38-7-3 (23 KO’s) professional record, and was trying to be fourth-time lucky after three failed previous attempts.

Many a faithful of the sport knew how dangerous a “last minute” substitute title challenger could be since all the pressure would be on the defending champion. As it turned out, McCline was very dangerous yesterday at the Madison Square Garden, at least for the first three rounds. In fact, Peter was only one flush punch to the chin away from being knocked out, and his title snatched. But due credit must be given to Peter, who was knocked down once in the second round and two more times in the third, before getting up to weather the storm and then went on to win the next nine rounds.

The judges’ scorecards told the story better. Billy Costello scored the fight 115-110. Steve Weisfeld scored it 115-111, while judge Julie Lederman scored the bout 113-112 for a unanimous decision in the Nigerian’s favour. And so, exactly 41 years after a Nigerian last held a world title, Samuel Peter has done his country proud by becoming only the third Nigerian, after Hogan “Kid” Bassey (featherweight) and Dick Ihetu Tiger (middleweight and light heavyweight) to wear a world boxing crown. And as if to justify his compatriots’ patient wait after all these barren years, Peter has won unarguably the biggest prize, not only in the sport of boxing, but in all of sports.

Peter deserves commendation for his discipline and single-minded approach, and value-driven character. He would have to remain disciplined, hardworking, and focused if he wants to keep the title for a long time just as the likes of Joe Louis Rocky Marciano and Larry Holmes (Americans all) did in their days. “If you are the world boxing champion in a weight category other than the heavyweight class, you very much belong in your class. But if you become the world heavyweight champion, you are the king of the world. You are second to no one.” Those were the words of boxing legend, Muhammad Ali (formerly Cassius Marcellius Clay Jr.), after his stunning knockout victory over the dreaded defending champion Sonny Liston some 43 years ago.

Those words: “I am the king of the world!” still echo in the minds of boxing faithful around the world. After a most eventful and storied career in sport, Ali, in the final estimation of everyone, was what he always screamed he was: “The Greatest.” The substance of Ali’s legend lies in his total commitment to his trade, his discipline and passion. Samuel Peter should realise that it is not enough to be “king of the world”, it is more important to remain consistently good.

Those three knock-downs, in the hands of McCline should remind Peter that life at the topmost level is not all picnic and fun. He should anticipate tougher times ahead, retain his focus and not allow the good things of life at the top blow him away from his goal to be Nigeria’s and indeed Africa’s ambassador in boxing.

When a world heavyweight boxing champion speaks, the world listens. We hope Peter will use this opportunity to speak for the downtrodden, his country, and his continent, at the world stage. Congratulations, Peter.

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Congratulations to Ngozi Okonjoa Iweala on her appointment as one of the World Bank Managing Director in charge of Africa, South Asia, and Europe and Central Asia regions..Her appointment has been favorably welcomed by different people. She is highly regarded the world over as a “Corruption-buster”. She has given speeches at the exclusive TEDS summit. She was even rumored to be in consideration for the World Bank President’s position.

Comments in the Salon magazine go to show how well she is respected:

There can be no doubting the résumé of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, named today by Robert Zoellick to a top position at the World Bank. A survivor of Nigeria’s Biafran war, she made her way to the United States at age 18 and received degrees in economics from Harvard and MIT. A 21-year stint at the World Bank was followed by a stunning term as finance minister in Nigeria during the administration of Olesugun Obasanjo. Among her accomplishments, negotiating a debt relief deal, tackling corruption, and boosting the nation’s cash reserves by billions of dollars.

Some enthusiasts pitched her as a replacement for Paul Wolfowitz. That didn’t fly. But the Financial Times’ Krishna Guha speculates that her appointment “is likely to be a popular choice with the bank’s staff and non-governmental organizations,” and that it “will be viewed internally as a signal that Mr Zoellick wants to press for reform by enlisting the support of bank staff.”

This should not be taken to mean that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is some kind of fire-breathing radical who will shake things up from top to bottom in her new role as one of the bank’s three managing directors. In many ways, Okonjo-Iweala represents down-the-line World Bank orthodoxy. During a presentation at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference in March, she drew a round of applause when she touted her efforts to privatize sectors of Nigeria’s economy, as she declared “the state should not be in the business of producing goods and services because it is inefficient and incompetent” with a flourish that suggested it wasn’t the first time she had delivered that sentence to positive effect.

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Samuel Peters faces Jameel McCline on October 6 in the world heavyweight fight. I wish him the best.

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Found the minibook, A Beginner’s Guide to Investing in Nigeria, on the Proshareng website.

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