The people from this great African nation are also known to excel when exposed to the right environment and have made great impact in the world through art and music.
Nigerians have also made great strides in the field of innovation and inventions that have made the world a slightly better place. Here are five top inventions made by Nigerians;
1) Philip Emeagwali - Program for world's fastest computer
Dr-Philip-Emeagwali (Credit: How Africa News)
Born in Nigeria, Philip Emeagwali grew up to become a computer scientist who gained global recognition for his groundbreaking invention. Emeagwali is credited with the invention of the Connection Machine (CM).
This machine uses computational fluid dynamics for oil-reservoir modelling. It utilises 65,000 computer processors linked in parallel to form what is recognised as the fastest computer on Earth - performing 3.1 billion calculations per second, which is faster than the theoretical top speed of the Cray Supercomputer.
2) Seyi Oyesola - Hospital in a box
Seyi Oyesola (Credit: Glazia)
Seyi Oyesola is a Nigerian medical doctor who co-invented what is popularly known as “Hospital in a Box” or CompactOR.
As the name implies, Hospital in a box is a mini hospital that is a solar-powered life-saving operating room which can be transported to remote areas of Africa and set up within minutes. The renowned medical doctor gained his inspiration from shortage of power in rural places in Africa.
3) Emeka Nelson - Urine-Powered Generator
Emeka-Nelson (Credit: The Interview Nigeria)
Another Nigerian with a notable invention is Emeka Nelson who invented a urine-powered generator. This device converts urine into hydrogen gas, which is then used to produce electricity.
Nelson's invention solves two key problems - waste management and energy scarcity. This innovation showcases Nigeria's commitment to addressing environmental challenges through creative and practical means.
4) Otu Oviemo Ovadje - Emergency Blood Transfusion System
Otu Oviemo Ovadje (Credit: Innov8tiv)
After years of watching women die from internal bleeding during pregnancy, Otu Oviemo Ovadje, a medical doctor, invented the Emergency AutoTransfusion Device also called the Eatset.
This device is used to recover blood from a patient’s internal bleeding organs and then reinfuse the blood back into the patient’s blood system. Dr Ovadje's device works without electricity and forestalls blood loss, especially among pregnant women.
5) Mohammed Bah Abbah - Pot-in-pot Refrigerator
Mohammed Bah Abbah
Using knowledge from his grandmother, Mohammed Bah Abbah invented the pot-in-pot refrigerator - a refrigerating device that does not use electricity. Also known as zeer, this device allows perishable food to extend their shelf life rate. For example, meat can be stored in this device for up to two weeks instead of a few hours.
Aside from these notable Nigerians, others recognized globally for their inventions include; Arthur Zang (Cardiopad), Olu Atanda (self-lubricating layer for a data-storage device and disk), Nkiru Nwankwo (Digital drum), Brino Gilbert (Counter Collision Gadget) and Aloysius Anaebonam who holds 12 US patents for inventing different devices among others.
In all these inventions, one notable thing to note is that Nigerian inventors have consistently demonstrated their ability to address pressing global challenges through creative thinking and innovation and this cuts across different fields.
Some citizens of Gabon have taken to the streets in the country to jubilate over the military coup in the early hours of Wednesday which ousted President Ali Bongo from office.
A video that has gone viral on the internet shows citizens of the country in the streets of the country celebrating the removal of Bongo.
As earlier reported, Gabon on Wednesday, became the latest African country in recent times where the military has executed a coup to remove the democratic government from power.
The Gabonese President, Ali Bongo, was deposed by the military on Wednesday 30th August 2023, days after winning the presidential election in the country.
Soldiers were said to have appeared on Gabonese national television in Gabon to announce that they had taken power.
The coupists also announced the annulment of Saturday’s election and the dissolution of the democratic institutions in the country.
Speaking on Gabon 1 and Gabon 24, the spokesman of the coupists said he was speaking on behalf of the “Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions.”
Following the development, some citizens were seen on the streets of the country jubilating and celebrating in apparent support of the military takeover.
Before Ali Bongo came into power, his father, Omar Bongo had ruled Gabon for 42 years. In total, the Bongo family had been in power for 56 years.
Niger Republic military leaders have stopped electricity and water going to the French Embassy in Niamey.
No food is getting in either, according to Turkish news source Anadolu.
The same actions are happening at French consulates in other cities like Zinder and Dosso.
Elh Issa Hassoumi Boureima, head of a national support committee, has asked partners of French bases in Niger to halt supplies of water, electricity, and food.
He was quoted to have said, “We ask Nigelec and SPEN (SEEN)) to cut off water and electricity in the French Embassy, in the French consulates of Zinder and Niamey.”
In addition, the military coup leaders in Niger have warned that helping France with supplies will make you an “enemy of the sovereign people.”
The decision of the coup leaders comes after a 48-hour deadline for the French ambassador to leave Niger ended on Sunday.
Diplomatic ties have been shaky between Niger, some Western countries, and the West African group, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) since the July 26 coup.
France on Friday evening refused to follow the order against its ambassador, saying it doesn’t recognize the military’s authority.
The coup on July 26 threw Niger into chaos when Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has already surpassed the U.S. in missile development and its number of warships and air defense systems under the Chinese Communist Party’s plan to achieve dominance by 2049, the Defense Department said in a sobering report.
The ultimate goal of the People’s Republic of China, or PRC, is to “develop a military by mid-Century that is equal to — or in some cases superior to — the U.S. military, or that of any other great power that the PRC views as a threat,” the DoD’s annual report to Congress said.
To that end, the PRC has “marshalled the resources, technology, and political will over the past two decades to strengthen and modernize the PLA in nearly every respect,” the report said.
Under the national strategy pressed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the result has been that “China is already ahead of the United States in certain areas” essential to its overall aim of progressing from homeland and periphery defense to global power projection, the report said.
“The PRC has the largest navy in the world, with an overall battle force of approximately 350 ships and submarines, including over 130 major surface combatants,” the report said.
That’s compared to the U.S. Navy’s current battle force of 295 ships.
In addition, “the PRC has more than 1,250 ground-launched ballistic missiles (GLBMs) and ground-launched cruise missiles (GLCMs) with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers,” while the U.S. currently fields one type of conventional GLBM with a range of 70 to 300 kilometers and no GLCMs, the report said.
In some respects, China is also ahead on integrated air defense systems with a mix of Russian-built and homegrown systems, the report said.
“The PRC has one of the world’s largest forces of advanced long-range surface-to-air systems” — including Russian-built S-400, S-300, and domestically-produced anti-air systems — making up “part of its robust and redundant integrated air defense system,” the report said.
Despite the advances, the PLA “remains in a position of inferiority” to the U.S. in overall military strength, said Chad Sbragia, the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for China.
The 173-page DoD report “does not claim that China’s military is 10 feet tall,” but the Chinese Communist Party wants it to be, and has the plan and resources to reach that goal, Sbragia, a retired Marine officer, said at an American Enterprise Institute forum on China’s military.
At an earlier Pentagon briefing on the report, Sbragia said Beijing’s military strategy was driven by the view that the U.S. has decided upon a long period of confrontation to counter the global spread of China’s influence.
He said that China “increasingly views the United States as more willing to confront Beijing on matters where the U.S. and PRC interests are inimical.”
“The CCP leaders view the United States’ security alliances and partnerships — especially those in the Indo-Pacific region — as destabilizing and irreconcilable with China’s interests,” Sbragia said.
The DoD report, titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China” comes on the heels of China's increasing political and military influence in the world and the South China sea respectively.
The 23rd annual report on China by DoD noted the “staggering” improvements in China’s ability to build, coordinate and project power since the first report was issued.
“DoD’s first annual report to Congress in 2000 assessed the PRC’s armed forces at that time to be a sizable but mostly archaic military that was poorly suited to the CCP’s long-term ambitions,” the report said.
In 2000, “the PLA lacked the capabilities, organization, and readiness for modern warfare,” the report said. But the CCP, it added, recognized the shortcomings and set about with determination to “strengthen and transform its armed forces in a manner commensurate with its aspirations to strengthen and transform China.”
“More striking than the PLA’s staggering amounts of new military hardware are the recent sweeping efforts taken by CCP leaders that include completely restructuring the PLA into a force better suited for joint operations” and for “expanding the PRC’s overseas military footprint.”
The PLA has already established its first overseas military base in Djibouti, about a mile from U.S. Africa Command’s main base on the Horn of Africa.
In its commentary on the DoD assessment, the American Enterprise Institute noted that the report also stressed that “The PRC has likely considered locations for PLA military logistics facilities in Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Seychelles, Tanzania, Angola, and Tajikistan.”
Despite the progress made by China’s military over the past two decades, “major gaps and shortcomings remain” in readiness and operational capability, the report said, but China’s leaders are acutely aware of the problems and have detailed plans to overcome them.
“Of course, the CCP does not intend for the PLA to be merely a showpiece of China’s modernity or to keep it focused solely on regional threats,” the report said.
“As this report shows, the CCP desires the PLA to become a practical instrument of its statecraft with an active role in advancing the PRC’s foreign policy, particularly with respect to the PRC’s increasingly global interests and its aims to revise aspects of the international order,” it added.
CC™ Opinionscope - By Amritha Mohan A statement allegedly made by Professor Tasuku Honjo, Japan’s Nobel prize winning Professor of Medicine, that Coronavirus is not natural has gone viral on social media.
But did Honjo say so?
Honjo, co-winner of Nobel Medicine Prize in 2018, was quoted as saying: “If it is natural, it wouldn’t have adversely affected the entire world like this. Because, as per nature, temperature is different in different countries. If it is natural, it would adversely affect only those countries having the same temperature as China.
“Instead, it is spreading in a country like Switzerland, in the same way it is spreading in the desert areas. Whereas if it were natural, it would have spread in cold places, but died in hot places.
“I have done 40 years of research on animals and viruses. It is not natural. It is manufactured and the virus is completely artificial. I have worked for 4 years in the Wuhan laboratory in China.
“I am fully acquainted with all the staff of that laboratory. I have been phoning them all, after the Coronavirus surfaced. But all their phones are dead for the last 3 months. It is now understood that all these lab technicians have died.
“Based on all my knowledge and research till date, I can say this with 100% confidence – That the Coronavirus is not natural. It did not come from bats. China manufactured it.
“If what I am saying today is proved false now or even after my death, the government can withdraw my Nobel Prize. China is lying and this truth will one day be revealed to everyone.” The post was first made on Facebook by Mir Monaz Haque late on Friday.
Haque is a Bangladeshi based in Germany. Facebook has already flagged the post as fake.
However, when NewsMeter reached out to the professor, he refuted all the claims. In an e-mail, a Ph.D student working under the professor, gave out this statement in behalf of the professor:
“Prof. Honjo never gave any such statement. Each and every sentence of this post is completely false and has no connection with truth. Prof. Honjo never worked in Wuhan laboratory. He never called there. He did not work on virus origin and functions and other related issues. All the contents are just concocted and nothing else.”
As claimed in the viral message, Professor Tasuku Honjo, has not worked in any laboratory in Wuhan, China, for the past four years.
His biography, accessed from Kyoto University’s official website, showed that the professor has been teaching full-time in Japan’s Kyoto University, from 1984 to 2005.
Currently, he is a professor at the Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine, Kyoto University. Secondly, a Google search on media reports after April 22 (the date of the message) regarding the statement ‘coronavirus is not natural’ did not yield any results leading to Professor Tasuku Honjo.
In fact, the professor gave an interview to Nikkei Asian Review, a news portal based in Japan, published on April 10, 2020.
The professor said in the interview that “the illness originated in China, but the country will be the first to recover from it, too. I can’t say whether this will boost Chinese influence or whether the world will shun China, but there’s a possibility that the global order will shift after the outbreak.”
The professor did not mention anything regarding COVID-19 being a man-made virus.
Amrith Mohan first published this piece in newsmeter.in
The African Union said Tuesday it had suspended Niger until civilian rule in the country is restored and would assess the implications of any armed intervention in the troubled Sahel nation.
The Peace and Security Council “requests the AU Commission to undertake an assessment of the economic, social and security implications of deploying a standby force in Niger and report back to Council,” the bloc said, following strong differences on the matter.
Army officers toppled President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26, prompting the West African regional bloc ECOWAS to threaten to use force to reinstate him.
ECOWAS — the Economic Community of West African States — agreed to activate a “standby force” as a last resort to restore democracy in Niger.
It has said it is ready to act, even as it continues to pursue hopes for a diplomatic solution.
The AU last week held a meeting on the crisis against a backdrop of divergent views within the bloc over any military intervention.
The coup has heightened international worries over the Sahel, which faces growing jihadist insurgencies linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Niger is the fourth nation in West Africa since 2020 to suffer a coup, following Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali.
The juntas in Burkina Faso and Mali have said that any military intervention in their neighbour would be considered a “declaration of war” against their countries.
The coup is the fifth in Niger’s history since the impoverished landlocked state gained independence from France in 1960.
Bazoum’s election in 2021 was a landmark, opening the way to the country’s first peaceful transition of power.
He has been held with his family at the president’s official residence since the coup, with growing international concern over his conditions in detention.
By Kevin Love (NBA Champion and five-time All-Star)
Being depressed is exhausting.
That’s one of the cruelest ironies about mental health. When you’re in a dark place, everyone around you — all your friends and family — they just want to see you doing what you love again, being happy, being “the old you.”
Sometimes it feels like the world is looking at you saying things like, “Come on, man, just get over it. Don’t think like that. Just move on.”
But what people on the outside don’t always understand is that it takes all of your strength and willpower just to exist. Just to keep on going. Battling depression, battling anxiety, battling any mental health disorder … it’s all just so unbelievably exhausting.
That’s been on my mind a lot lately, considering the millions and millions of people around the world who have lost their jobs, or lost their loved ones, or who are just dealing with the unprecedented anxieties of being a human in 2020. I know so many people out there are suffering right now. I’m no different. I’m still going through it. Even after all the work I’ve tried to do on myself over the last two-and-a-half years, some days are just brutal.
Even after all the work I’ve tried to do on myself over the last two-and-a-half years, some days are just brutal.
Let’s just call it what it is. Some days are total shit, right?
It feels good just to say it.
Even in the best of times, my default setting was often dread. That’s just the way I’ve been wired since I was a kid. It’s like there’s a constant, low-level threat that I can sense in the pit of my stomach from the moment that I wake up in the morning. It’s like this white noise humming in the background, and it’s saying, Something bad is going to happen, any second now. That sense of dread would often be amplified by something in the news or by social media, and at any point could send me into a spiral.
The best way I’ve ever heard it described was in the HBO documentary on Robin Williams after his death. He was talking about the only way he could combat his demons was to wake up in the morning and ride his bike until he had absolutely nothing left in the tank, and then at night he would go up on stage and do a two-hour stand-up set and just pour all of himself into it — every single ounce of himself, until he was just totally wrung out, mentally and physically.
Anything to stop the thoughts. Because the thoughts can be disturbing.
That resonated with me so much. Ever since I was a kid, I’d often put myself through hell in the hopes of numbing my mind. I used to think of it as going into my “pain tank.” If I wore myself out to the point of exhaustion, then I’d be mentally on empty, too. It was like I had to wring myself out completely so that at the end of the day I was just blank.
Everybody who goes through mental health issues has a unique story, but for me (and I think this is probably true for a lot of people), my entire identity was tied to one thing in a really unhealthy way. Way before I was in the NBA or even in college, my self-worth was all about performing. I was what I did, which I think a lot of people can relate to, whether they’re a chef or a lawyer or a nurse or whatever the profession. I just happened to play basketball.
When I wasn’t performing, I didn’t feel like I was succeeding as a person.
I didn’t really know how to be comfortable in my own skin. I could never just be unapologetically Kevin, walking into a room. I was never in the moment, alive. It was always the next thing, the next game, the next, next, next. It was like I was trying to achieve my way out of depression. And so I guess it’s not surprising that some of the darkest moments of my life happened when that crutch of basketball got taken away.
This is still hard to talk about, but I feel like it might resonate with people out there who are going through something right now. People who have lost their jobs (and their sense of purpose) during this crisis. People who … I don’t know … maybe just need to hear this.
It was like I was trying to achieve my way out of depression.
Everybody knows about my anxiety attack during the Atlanta game back in 2018. That’s become, over time, easier to talk about. Especially with the overwhelming support that I’ve gotten. In a way, it’s almost ironic that I’ve become known for this one incident, because that was the first and — thank God — the only time that I’ve experienced a debilitating panic attack in public like that. But that moment, as terrifying as it was, was just the tip of the iceberg, in a lot of ways. It was the culmination of years and years of me suppressing a lot of issues. I’ve never really talked about the other side of my mental health issues, which is a much more complicated and subtle battle with depression.
Five years before the panic attack that everyone knows about, I was probably in the darkest period of my life. I’d only played 18 games with the Timberwolves that season, breaking my right hand twice, and that was when this whole … I guess you’d call it a facade or a character that I had sort of built up …. it all started crumbling. I was in a cast. My identity was gone. My emotional outlet was gone. All I was left with was me and my mind. I was living alone at the time, and my social anxiety was so bad that I never even left my apartment. Actually, I would rarely even leave my bedroom. I would have the shades down most of the day, no lights on, no TV, nothing. It felt like I was on a deserted island by myself, and it was always midnight.
Just … dark. Dark and alone with my thoughts. Every. Single. Day.
And I want to make it clear that I know how fortunate I was, compared to most people. I knew then and I know now. I didn’t have to worry about my bills, or kids, or anything like that. But none of that mattered. My whole sense of purpose was tied to my job, and with that gone, every little thing that went wrong, no matter how small, just started compounding and compounding.
That’s the thing that people on the outside don’t fully understand. Nothing major has to happen to start a spiral. It can happen over the smallest thing in the world. Because when you have depression you can fall apart at any moment disproportionate to the circumstances.
Then it’s just…. Shame.
It got to the point that year where I was simply paralyzed with depression. And of course, I’m not about to show my weakness to anybody, right? I was tucked away in my apartment, and nobody could see me suffering. The only time I would leave my apartment was to work out, because that was the only place where I felt like I added value to the world, period. To those around me, I would put on a brave face.
Fake facades are hard to keep up.
The future started to feel meaningless. And when it gets to the point where you lose hope, that’s when the only thing you can think about is, “How can I make this pain go away?”
I don’t think I have to say much more than that.
If it hadn’t been for a couple of my closest friends, I don’t know if I would be here today telling my story. And 99.9% of the people in my life probably don’t know how bad it got for me. But as hard as that might be for them to hear, I feel like I need to get that off my chest for the people out there who might be in a similar situation right now.
If it hadn’t been for a couple of my closest friends, I don’t know if I would be here today telling my story.
When I was sitting in that dark room, I just couldn’t see how things were ever going to get better. And if there’s somebody out there right now who is reading this — even just one person — who is sitting in that same dark room, having those same thoughts….
All I can say to you is this:
Talk to somebody.
You would be amazed at how freeing it is just to talk to somebody, and tell them the truth about what you’re going through.
And listen, I’m not trying to sell you some fairy-tale version of mental health. It took me years and years — hell, it genuinely took 29 years for me to realize what I needed.
I needed medication. I needed therapy.
I still need those things now, and I probably always will.
There are still days where I look at social media, or I see the news, and my anxiety gets triggered. But sometimes I get triggered by almost nothing at all. Just simple negativity is enough to start a spiral of overgeneralization.
Oh, my coffee was shit this morning? I must be shit. I’m a horrible human being.
There are days when I don’t want to get out of bed. That’s just the truth. And that’s why I wrote this.
I think that sometimes — because of all the incredible support I’ve been given, and because of my platform as an NBA player — people see me as some kind of Finished Product. Or some kind of Success Story for Mental Health or something. They see the curated version of me, and not the real person.
The fact is, the real person is still dealing with his deep-seated shit every single day. The real person is still trying to learn how to control his anger and anxiety. And the real person, by the way, never would have been able to tell his story in the first place without the courage of DeMar DeRozan, who blazed that path for everybody in the league today.
The real person’s story didn’t end when the Cavs won an NBA title, and suddenly it was all good, and then the credits rolled, the end.
No. The truth is, the deepest sense of joy and peace that I’ve gained in my life doesn’t have anything to do with basketball. It definitely doesn’t have anything to do with money or fame or achievement.
You don’t achieve your way out of depression.
No, as sweet as it was to win an NBA title for the city of Cleveland, that wasn’t the happy ending. That was my job, which is now a different thing from my identity and my self-worth. One of the best days of my life happened after I started working through my issues with a therapist, and I walked into a room for the first time and I was just 100% my authentic self. I was comfortable in my own skin. I was alright with just being Kevin. I wasn’t thinking about the next thing. I was just in the moment, fully alive. And I can tell you from experience that you can live for years, but not be really alive and fully present for 30 seconds at a time.
If you would’ve told me back in 2012, when I was at my lowest, that I would ever feel at peace like that, walking into a room, I just wouldn’t have believed it. I was coming off a season where I was an All-Star, All-NBA, and won a Gold medal at the London Olympics. But I was completely unaware of the darkness that was about to consume me.
Look, I’m not trying to sell you some happy ending. All I can do is just be as honest as possible about a really dark period in my life.
So here it is.
When I was lying on the floor of the trainer’s room during my anxiety attack back in 2018, it was probably the single scariest moment of my life. I was gasping for air, and my heart was pounding out of my chest, and I really thought that death was a possibility. And I’ll never forget how our trainer, Steve Spiro, he just kept asking, “Kevin, what do you need? What do you need? What do you need?”
What do you need?
That’s the question, isn’t it?
That’s everything.
I spent 29 years trying to figure it out.
What do you need?
For me, I guess what I needed was to talk to somebody.
For me, what I needed was to know that I wasn’t alone.
If you’re struggling right now, I can’t tell you that this is going to be easy.
But I can tell you that it does get better.
And I can tell you that you are definitely not alone.
The Abia State Police Command, Thursday, confirmed the death of a female evangelist in an Aba hotel during a sex session with the General Overseer of her church, Timothy Otu last Saturday night.
According to the Police Public Relations Officer, Chinaka Maureen, “On the 13th of August, 2023, at approximately 09:30 AM, Mr. Godwin Akpan (male), residing at Jubilee Guest House in Ovom village, Obingwa LGA, reported to the Isiala Ngwa Police Division that an incident had occurred.
“It was revealed that on the evening of the 12th of August, 2023, around 09:25 PM, a clergyman named Timothy Otu (male), associated with Agape Evangelical Ministry at Obikabia Junction in Obingwa LGA, had checked into the guest house along with a woman named Happiness Echieze (female) from Isialangwa LGA, Abia State. Happiness Echieze was 43 years of age.
“ Further details provided by Mr. Akpan indicated that on the same date, around 12:00 AM, he entered the hotel room of the aforementioned clergyman and discovered the lifeless body of Happiness Echieze. She was found unclothed, and a white substance was emanating from her mouth and nose. Regrettably, the clergyman was absent from the scene.
“We hereby inform the public that immediate preliminary investigations have been launched into this matter. The deceased’s body has been transported from the location and is currently at the SDA Mortuary in Aba, awaiting an autopsy examination.
“ Additionally, we wish to convey that the suspected individual, in this case, has been apprehended and the case has been transferred to the State CID for discreet investigations.”
The married church evangelist and mother of five was found dead in a hotel room, allegedly during a marathon sex session with her church overseer in the guest house.
Naira inched close to a 15 per cent gain against dollar in the parallel market within a week, trading around N820/$ in Lagos and Abuja yesterday evening.
Reliable sources informed The Guardian that traders at major market clusters were hurriedly dumping dollars yesterday as fear of a further slide in the value of the greenback gripped the market.
A trader, who confided that he was desperate and looking for an opportunity to offload his hoardings said the naira could appreciate to around N700/$ this weekend. It sustained the rising momentum seen since the beginning of the week.
Another dealer, who revealed that he was still hoarding a substantial part of what he bought at an average of N920/$ last week, noted: “as we speak, there is no fixed rate. People sell at the slightest opportunity as they are not sure what the rate would be tomorrow. And the speed at which the hard currencies are falling against naira is too high. This is the cause of panic, and it is real.”
But even amid panic selling, The Guardian understands that trading volume is still very low, underpinning the level of illiquidity.
Hence, many observers have dismissed the uptrend of the value of the local currency as emotion-driven as opposed to strong market fundamentals.
The Guardian had reported that about 48 hours after President Bola Tinubu and Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Folashodun Shonubi, held a crucial meeting on the state of the foreign exchange (FX) market, there appeared to be a breather for the troubled currency as it recorded a moderate gain, trading at about N880/$ at the black-market mid-week.
Dollar had spiked last week hitting an all-time high of N950/$ at peer-to-peer (P2P) and parallel market amid fresh concern over scarcity.
If the current momentum is sustained, official and unofficial markets could achieve parity, converging around the same value, in the coming days. At the current rates, the arbitrage has narrowed to below N100/$.
Last week, the premium on the black market hit N200 per dollar for the first time since the June market liberalisation that was aimed at harmonising the multiple exchange rates.
At the height of the crisis last year, the premium rose to 100 per cent, the highest ever recorded since the country’s return to democracy in 1999. During the military era, the margin widened to over 100 per cent, triggering wholesale widespread manipulation, with banking licences procured for foreign exchange deals.
In the popular Zone 4, Abuja, yesterday, there was lamentation, as dealers groaned over losses of over N100 per dollar in some cases.
Adamu Alhassan, who is a bureau du change operator, said: “I am not happy about what has been happening since morning because most of us have lost some money. The rate was N950 just last week. But now, we are buying at N820 and selling at N850. We are not sure what to expect next.”
When reminded that the bureau de change operators enjoyed the boom while it lasted, he said: “Of course, what do you expect?”
Samuel Itodo, who came to buy dollars, was ecstatic about the gain recorded by naira in a few days and hoped it continued.
“I am very happy with what is happening with the dollar. Who will believe that the rate can crash to the level within days? I was apprehensive about the effect the falling exchange rate will have on the costs of living.
“As an import-dependent country, any rise in the dollar will automatically mean higher prices and higher cost of living. But can this be sustained on a longer term?” he said.
“You see, I make love to men daily, but in the imagination,” Obama, then 21, wrote to Alex McNear in November 1982.
Written 40 years ago to an ex girlfriend, saved all this time, and just now coming out because of a biographer uncovering it. A letter written by Obama describing how he has daily gay sex fantasies and that he muses about androgyny. He's married to a woman and has been for a long while but there have long been rumors of bisexuality, some connecting him romantically to a gay musician at his church who was murdered. (Donald Young, and Larry Sinclair is in there somewhere, I'll have to see if I can dig up the old threads here on that).
Who cares, you say. Yeah. Not many people actually care if someone is straight or bisexual or homosexual anymore. I suppose this could be of interest to biographers, psychology buffs, history buffs, and to LGBTQ warriors who like to point out famous successful people who are LGBTQ. Anyways, it's in the news so here is a thread to discuss it.
Barack Obama's gay sex fantasy confession is revealed in unredacted letter to ex: 'I make love to men daily, in the imagination'
- Obama, then 21, wrote to Alex McNear in November 1982, with whom he had been in a relationship during his time at Occidental College in Los Angeles
- He delved into the topic of homosexuality and confessed that he 'loves making love to men daily, but in the imagination,' according to the redacted letter
- He described homosexuality as a way to detach from the present and potentially evade the recurring theatrics of earthly existence.
Former President Barack Obama wrote of his own “androgynous” mind and “mak[ing] love to men daily, but in the imagination,” according to the redacted portion of a now-notorious 1982 letter, obtained by The Post.
The more than 40-year-old letter to an ex-girlfriend recently resurfaced after Obama biographer David Garrow gave a long and winding interview on the one-time commander-in-chief.
“In regard to homosexuality, I must say that I believe this is an attempt to remove oneself from the present, a refusal perhaps to perpetuate the endless farce of earthly life. You see, I make love to men daily, but in the imagination,” Obama, then 21, wrote to Alex McNear in November 1982.
“My mind is androgynous to a great extent and I hope to make it more so until I can think in terms of people, not women as opposed to men. But, in returning to the body, I see that I have been made a man, and physically in life, I choose to accept that contingency,” he added.
Armed White Michigan protesters of COVID-19 lockdown
CC™ Introspective - By John Pavlovitz As a white man watching the Michigan protests of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders, all I could think was: Black people don’t get to do this. Muslims don’t get to do this. Latinos don’t get to do this. People who look different in any way don’t get to do this. They don’t get to swarm American capitol buildings in tactical gear with high-powered weapons, screaming in close proximity to police officers. They don’t get to dress up like Call of Duty cosplayers and attempt to physically intimidate politicians into bending to their wills. They don’t get to get to stop traffic in city streets decked out like they work at the Death Star and brazenly wield semi-automatic rifles. They don’t get to terrorize decent people and walk away. Only white people get to do this. This violence is a singular privilege afforded to caucasian men in America. People of color aren’t afforded this luxury. They can’t even get close to such ugliness. Heck, they barely get to breathe. No, they’re shot as 12-year olds walking through the park with toy guns. They’re choked out selling cigarettes on street corners. They’re assassinated while unarmed in their cars during routine traffic stops. They’re gunned down in their homes by uninvited police officers. They’re driven into the pavement by overzealous security guards. They’re demonized as mothers declaring that their murdered children’s lives mattered. They’re publicly vilified by white presidents for silently kneeling on NFL sidelines. Black people don’t get to to wear menacing masks or flash handguns on courthouse steps or accost strangers looking like dollar store stormtroopers, in an attempt to frighten people. They frighten people by simply existing in their blackness. They frighten people by lingering in coffee shops. They frighten people by eating lunch in their cars. They frighten people by standing in front of their own homes. In those places where they are simply and lawfully living, they are met with disapproving side-eye glances, greeted with clutched purses, and assailed by an army of terrified Karens, whose itchy text trigger fingers easily dial 911 when non-white young people congregate in a park or crowd their favorite Chick-Fil-A dining room. This privilege has always existed, but it’s been decades since it’s been afforded this wide a birth, this long a leash, and such kid gloves from leaders. The threatening displays of white rage around the country lately, are happening with such frequency and ferocity, because participants know that they have in this president, a dedicated advocate, a willing partner, a powerful accomplice. It’s no coincidence that in the middle of the fight to oppose stay-at-home protections by Blue governors choosing humanity over commerce, Trump tweeted out seeming non sequitur invocations to LIBERATE several cities and warned of second amendment encroachment. Though on their surface the subjects seemed unrelated to stopping the spread of the virus, these tweets were clear dog whistles for his snarling white base to suit up, strap on weapons, and provide the free muscle in his reckless push to reopen American in the throes of a pandemic, knowing they’d never be held accountable. This is MAGA America in its dawning renaissance of outward racism, showing us what is at stake as we approach another election. We aren’t just choosing a president or party to steward us through the coming years, we’re making a statement on what we will and will not tolerate as a people. What we witnessed in Michigan was an act of terrorism, by the very definition of the word. We have seen many such acts this week, and if November allows this malevolence another four years, they will seem tame. The self-appointed soldiers in the army of the lord will grow more brazen and become more violent in their holy war to make America whiter—so decent white people need to resist them in the streets, on social media, and at the polls. I fully suspect people of color will oppose this presidency in large numbers, because they see the disparity. What I hope and pray, is that more white people, especially those who claim to be Christian, will also stand to reject the supremacy and racism that yields such willful homegrown terrorism; that we will use the unearned currency of our privilege to declare this violence un-American and inhuman and unacceptable. White terrorists can no longer have a friend in the White House — not if we really want to make America great. Source/Credits: Jеff Kоwаlsky and Senator Dаynа Pоlеhаnki; Milwaukee Independent and johnpaplovitz.com
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