The Educated Ones Hold Nigeria to Ransom

The people the politicians use to carry out their nefarious political activities, beginning from electoral mobilisation to fraudulent acts, are mostly the uneducated and societally segregated ones. They are mentally helpless and economically hopeless. They don't dream of a country that will compete with China or others in the world. They just want to live, eat and die one day. They are religiously caged too. No religiously neutral person can win in their enclave. After the political victory, the politicians would turn to the educated hyenas on the prowl to permanently stamp the governance infamy. 

In the course of this hocus-pocus and shenanigans, the glimmer of hope ought to reside in the intellectual capabilities of the genuinely educated and enlightened minority. The crucial rescue mission usually rests on their shoulders. They are the ones who can galvanise the uneducated ones towards a mission of liberation. However, the Nigerian situation is almost seemingly completely irremediable and irredeemable because the educated ones are either in cahoots with the oppressors, support one form of oppression against another or wait patiently for their time to be the oppressors. 

Those with conscience are either running out of the country or simply doing their best to survive within the contraption because they have been mentally weakened with no enthusiastic vigour left in them. The last group simply stick to social media to keep talking and talking with no visible solutions or progress. Everybody has been beaten to the game. The country has been organised into a massive garrison where people simply wait for orders and dramatic activities from their so-called leaders. The failure of Nigeria in the 21st century is the EDUCATED ONES. They are the ones who understand how the world works, the development in other places and on the global scene but they are either in support of the oppressive system, waiting for their turn to oppress or they are just weakened to do anything tangible. 

Let us prepare as our lifeless brain creates the foundation for the re-colonisation; beginning from Macron's cultural diplomacy at the African Shrine to Theresa May's economic penetration and the combination of both cultural diplomacy and economic servitude by Angela Merkel. Don't forget after Merkel, we went to China to sign off the remaining piece. Slavery is surely interesting!

£3,000 UK Visa Deposit: FG, Reps kick against new policy

By Vicoria Ojeme

ABUJA— The Federal Government, yesterday, vowed to defend the interests of Nigerians, following the introduction of a new visa policy by the British government. The policy requires Nigerians travelling to the United Kingdom to produce a cash bond of N730,000 (3,000 pounds, $4,600 or 3,500 euros) before they enter the UK.

The Sunday Times newspaper had reported that visitors from Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Ghana whose nationals are deemed to pose a “high risk” of immigration abuse will be required to produce the bond which they will forfeit if they overstay in Britain after their visas have expired.

Reacting, yesterday, while rendering account of his stewardship at the Radio House in Abuja, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olugbenga Ashiru, said the Federal Government was yet to receive any official communication from the UK government.

“We have received no official communication from the UK government. When we receive communication from them, we will study whatever proposal they bring and know what to do.

“But I can assure all Nigerians that the Jonathan government will defend the interest of Nigerians by whatever means we can. So, when we get their proposal, we will study it and we will see how we can guide the ordinary Nigerians,” Ashiru said.

UK Visa bond unacceptable —House Committee

House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, has also condemned the new British visa policy, saying it is discriminatory and unacceptable. Chairman of the committee, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje, in a statement issued in Abuja, said such policy was not in the best interest of Nigeria and Nigerians.

“This is totally discriminatory and unacceptable. It is targeted at non-white Commonwealth”, she said.
Ukeje (PDP-Abia) said as a Committee on Foreign Affairs, the House of Representatives would take a critical look at the policy as it affects Nigerians and come up with a way forward.

According to her, “they should realise that it is not in the best interest of UK. We will, as a country, look at it vis-a- vis our citizens and come up with a decision. We agree totally with the UK Foreign Minister that the policy is totally unworkable and impractical.

It is contrary to the commitment made to our President by David Cameron during their last meeting. We believe it is for political reason ahead of general election. We seek that our long historical relationship should take precedence over political expediency,” Ukeje advised.

The pilot scheme of the new visa policy is scheduled to commence in November. According to the Sunday Times, the controversial move by the UK home secretary, Theresa May, to introduce the Australian-style system reflects her determination to show that the Conservatives are serious about cutting immigration into the UK .

Ms May said: “This is the next step in making sure our immigration system is more selective, bringing down net migration from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands, while still welcoming the brightest and the best to Britain .”

She added: “In the long run we’re interested in a system of bonds that deters overstaying and recovers costs if a foreign national has used our public services.” The Home Office is targeting countries which have high volumes of visitor visa applications and what it deems to be relatively high levels of fraud and abuse.

Russia wants Nuclear Reduction from all Possessing Countries

Russia is trying to expand the coast and island of the nuclear states, away from the United States 'limited' acceptance of reality. The US is tactically interested in discussing with Moscow alone on reduction of nuclear missiles while Russia believes the reality has gone beyond the Cold War strategic balance.

The response of Russia to Barack Obama's proposal on the reduction of missiles in their nuclear arsenals is to tell the US to take note of the contemporary international order in nuclear distribution and arrangement.

Russia says it would discuss further strategic nuclear arms reduction if all countries possessing nuclear weapons were involved, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He added that this includes not only the five members of the “nuclear club”, but all nations with the nuclear capability. 

The comment came after US President Barack Obama suggested that Russia and the US scrap one third of their strategic nuclear arsenals and possibly dismantle tactical nuclear weapons. 

The US, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea officially have atomic weapons at the moment, and Israel is widely believed to have a secret nuclear arsenal. Iran is speculated to be building its own though Tehran has strongly denied any interest in such missiles.

London mosque burns down, arson feared over discovery of EDL ‘stamp’

A two-story Islamic centre (Al-Rahma Islamic Centre) burned down overnight in north London in an incident being treated as possible arson. Rescuers found ‘EDL’ scrawled on the building’s remains, fueling fears of a racially motivated revenge for the bloody Woolwich execution.

The fire broke out at around 3:15am local time at a mosque in Muswell Hill, north London, an area which also contains the Al-Rahma Islamic Centre and the Bravanese Centre. All had existed undisturbed for at least 20 years.

“The place has been absolutely destroyed. The community is shocked and very distressed because they have been here in peace for the past 20 years,” Mohamed Ali of Somali charity BritSom told local newspaper the Evening Standard. He said that he was certain the event was linked to the Woolwich attack.

Some 35 firefighters in six different fire engines were called out to battle the blaze, with locals also reporting the presence of helicopters. Police and fire officials said that it took around an hour and a half to bring the blaze under control.


“There were several fire engines and I think even a helicopter. It was terrible. This will really shake the community up,” one witness identified as ‘Nurein’ told the Evening Standard.

A statement released by the local metropolitan police commander said “We are at the very early stages of investigating what happened in the matter,” and reiterated the importance of the Bravanese Centre in the local Somali community.

No injuries were reported as a result of the blaze, although one woman suffered from shock.

Anti-Islamic hatred has spiked in London since the brutal killing and beheading of Lee Rigby, 25, by two men who said the murder was motivated by the UK’s involvement in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

The UK saw Islamophobic sentiment intensify in the wake of the killing, with the English Defense League (EDL) arranging thousand-strong marches and religious campaign group Faith Matters reporting an explosion in calls related to incidents of anti-Islamic violence.

Two men have already been arrested for firebombing a mosque in an Islamic district of the northeastern seaport of Grimsby on May 27, fueling fears that a divide between Muslims and non-Muslims in the UK’s cities is deepening.

Courtesy: Russian Times

Advancing Cancer Research Through Smartphone Game

Scientists from a British Cancer charity are teaming up with technology giants Amazon, Facebook and Google to design and develop a mobile game aimed at speeding the search for new cancer drugs.

The project, led by the charity Cancer Research UK will design applications that anyone with a smart phone and five minutes to spare will be able to investigate vital scientific data at the same time as playing a mobile game.

A preceding phase is for 40 computer programmers, gamers, graphic designers and other specialists to take part in a weekend "GameJam" to turn the charity's raw genetic data into a game format for future so-called "citizen scientists".

"We're making great progress in understanding the genetic reasons cancer develops. But the clues to why some drugs will work and some won't are held in data which need to be analysed by the human eye - and this could take years," said Carlos Caldas at Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Institute while speaking to Aljazeera.

"By harnessing the collective power of citizen scientists we'll accelerate the discovery of new ways to diagnose and treat cancer much more precisely."

Cancer already kills more than 7.5 million people a year and the number of people with the disease worldwide is expected to surge by more than 75 percent by 2030, according to the World Health Organisation's cancer agency IARC.

The objectives of the CRUK's scientists are to identify the genetic faults that drive cancer to try to find new ways of diagnosing and treating patients in a more targeted way based on their genetic profile and that of their tumours.

Mali and the Burnt Manuscripts : A blow to History, Culture and Civilisation

Despite the claim by archivist that precious manuscripts have been safely moved earlier from Timbuktu to Bamako, some precious artifacts and manuscripts must also have been lost due to the destructive activities of the islamists in Mali.

A building housing over 60 thousand manuscripts from the ancient Muslim world and Greece was set aflame, raising fears of further damage to the country's cultural heritage after months of destruction by Islamists.

Timbuktu mayor Halley Ousmane, who is in Bamako, confirmed the fire at the Ahmed Baba Centre for Documentation and Research, which housed between 60,000 and 100,000 manuscripts, according to Mali's culture ministry.

"I spoke to my media officer this morning. What has happened in Timbuktu is dramatic," he said.

Ousmane said he had also been informed that Islamists had "burnt alive" a resident who had cried out "Vive la France".

The Ahmed Baba institute was set up in 1973. A new building was opened in 2009 following a bilateral agreement with South Africa to promote the conservation, research and promotion of the manuscripts as African heritage.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Monday indicated Rome was scrapping plans to provide logistical support for French-led forces in Mali due to a failure among the main parties to reach a political deal ahead of elections next month.

"I asked the leaders of the three parties of the majority to give their views but we did not receive the support we had hoped for," Monti, who is himself running as leader of the coalition of centrist parties, said in an interview with La7 television.

Defence Minister Giampaolo Di Paola last week said Italy would send a refuelling plane and two transport planes to carry troops and equipment in the conflict against Islamist-led rebels in Mali.

While expressing Italy's "strong support" for the operation, however, Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said that "internal political conditions" meant Rome could not offer concrete backing at the moment.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that London was "keen" to contribute more in addition to two transport planes and a surveillance aircraft which have already been provided.

The manuscripts are very crucial to West Africa as well as African civilisation and history. Most of them represent the earliest objective and undiluted accounts and experiences of travellers; most especially Arab traders and Islamic missionaries.

France has so far done the best. The French troops have successfully taken over Kidal, the last stronghold of the Islamists. Reports have it that some of the main leaders of the Islamists have escaped into neighbouring countries especially Nigeria.

Iran and World Powers should stop Bickering - Lavrov

Russia's foreign minister has taken a quick and smooth swipe at World powers and Iran. Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Global powers and Iran should "stop behaving like little children" and agree a date and place for new talks on Tehran's nuclear programme.

European officials have accused Tehran of circumventing the arrangement of a meeting with the six nations, including Russia, that are trying to prevent Iran from developing atomic weapons. Tehran says its nuclear programme is entirely for peaceful purposes.

"Some of our partners in the six powers and the Iranian side cannot come to an agreement about where to meet," Lavrov told a news conference after talks with Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders.

"We are ready to meet at any location as soon as possible," Lavrov said. "We believe the essence of our talks is far more important (than the site), and we hope that common sense will prevail and we will stop behaving like little children."

Three rounds of talks in the first half of last year between Iran and the six powers - Russia, the United States, China, Britain, France and Germany - produced no breakthrough, increasing speculation Israel could attack Iranian nuclear installations.

Talks had been expected to resume after the U.S. presidential election, possibly as early as this month. An Iranian news agency reported this month that talks might resume on January 28 and 29, but the EU said there was no agreement.

Iran continues to perform her war games in and around the Strait of Hormuz in preparation for a possible 'attack' if possible by the U.S. and Israel. The U.S. too and other allies have also performed similar war games around the strait.

Over 40 Nigerians Repatriated from the United Kingdom and Spain

The United Kindom and Spain have repatriated over 40 Nigerians. Speaking at the London Immigration Office, a Nigerian immigration officer, Issa lawal said those repatriated are people who have been jailed for a long time and have completed their jail terms. Others include illegal migrants most especially those with fraudulent papers.

The UK has her own internal economic quagmire. She has not fully recovered from the recession and has been trying to meet the employment demand of her citizens. Spain is also battling high unemployment rate. Her citizens are emigrating more to South America. The last thing they need now is to habour 'misfits' and those who will strain the insatiable social amenities the more.

Nigerians have always being repatriated and sometimes killed with impunity in some countries. The Nigerian government has never seen this as a shame for it to make moves to make the country conducive for Nigerians so as to fulfill their dreams and aspirations in their homeland.

Nigerians are being exterminated in Libya after the killing of Maummar Gaddafi under the watch of the same TNC Nigeria supported because of the West and NATO yet the government remains mute.

More Nigerians will still experience this fate because no country says Nigerians should not determine their destiny by shaking up the corrupt system to its foundation and get rid of the thieves who circumvent the country's bliss and advancement. This must be done for Nigeria to take her pride of place among the commity of nations.

Africa: Libyan Militants Supported Algerian Islamists

The interconnectedness among various militants and Islamist groups in Africa is growing nauseously. The militants who seized an Algerian gas plant before they were killed in a bloodbath received logistical aid from Islamists in Libya, a well-informed source told AFP on Tuesday

International media groups, including AFP, were able to get from Islamist circles based in Eastern Libya telephone numbers of the kidnappers as they last Wednesday overran the In Amenas gas plant in the deep Algerian desert.

37 foreigners were killed in the 4-day siege of the remote desert gas plant, some of them executed with a bullet to the head, Algerian premier Abdelmalek Sellal said on Monday. He said that a total of 29 militants were also killed and three captured in the siege, which got concluded on Saturday when Algerian special forces stormed the gas complex.

Algeria said its special forces managed to free 685 Algerian and 107 foreign hostages, most of them on Thursday, during their first rescue operation. During the deadly standoff, several media outlets had talked of a “Libyan connection” to the siege.

Algerian website TSA cited a security source saying the kidnappers had entered Algeria from Libya in official Libyan vehicles, while other outlets argued that the weapons the kidnappers used came from Libya.

When questioned by AFP, Libyan officials simply reiterated the words of their prime minister, Ali Zeidan, who denied that the kidnappers entered Algeria from Libya, saying the Libyan territory was not being used for launching operations that threaten security of neighbouring countries.

Algerian premier Sellal on Monday that the militants had crossed from Northern Mali. The Libyan source said that Libyan Islamists had no organisational link with the group, “Signatories in Blood” which led the four-day siege of the gas complex.

The group is led by one-eyed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, one of the founders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM ). Belmokhtar left Al-Qaeda in October to create his own group. Jaber al-Abidi, an analyst, has no doubt Libyans were involved.

“It is clear that there is a link between Libyan extremist groups and those who led the In Amenas operation,” said Jaber al-Obeidi, an analyst and political activist. “Libyan extremists are present in northern Mali and helped carry weapons from Libya after the fall of the regime” of Gaddafi, he added.

The “Signatories in Blood” group had said that its attack on the gas complex was in retaliation for French intervention in northern Mali. Algeria’s Sellal dismissed this, saying the assault had been planned for nearly two months, long before France intervened in northern Mali.

Since the fall of Gaddafi’s regime in October 2011, Libyan Islamists have gained influence and inherited a large military arsenal from the conflict that ousted and killed him. Their ability to strike was illustrated by the murderous assault launched September 11 on the US consulate in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi that killed the American ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans coupled with attacks on security men.

According to the Libyan source, the Islamists who attacked the gas facility entered Mali “transiting through Niger and Libya from the Salvador triangle,” a barren stretch of desert that borders Libya, Algeria and Niger. Libya has long struggled to monitor its 4,000-kilometre (2,500-mile) land border. Boko Haram is also said to be strengthened by the various Islamist groups around Nigeria, in the Sahel and Sahara.

Royal Fashion and Pregnancy

The fashionable Kate Middleton who recently has been promoting fashion in the UK and worldwide is pregnant.

Fashion news have woven around her lately and more to come during this pregnant season. Her maternity gowns and wears will be closely monitored.

Palace officials say Prince William and the former Kate Middleton's first baby is due in July and that her condition is improving.

The Duchess of Cambridge had been hospitalized earlier in her pregnancy for acute morning sickness.

Officials said Monday she is feeling better. She made a rare public appearance last week and appeared to be healthy. The infant would be third in line for the British throne.

France in Somalia and Mali

A second French soldier has died from gunshot wounds after an attempt to rescue a French agent, Somalia's al Shabaab rebel group said Monday. The spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters that the group will display the bodies of the dead men.

French forces went into southern Somalia by helicopter on Saturday to try to free Denis Allex, held hostage since 2009. French President Francois Hollande said on Saturday the operation had failed despite the “sacrifice” of two soldiers. Musab claimed Allex was alive and his fate would be decided later.

David Cameron has reiterated that the United Kingdom will not drop boots on the ground in Mali. The UK has provided two C17 transport planes to aid the French effort. One is expected to leave France for Mali on Monday after having flown from the UK on Sunday. The aircraft is reported to have developed some mechanical faults.

The two missions have been surprises to France. Al Shabab proved to be very daring and dangerous. The fighting spirit, training, weapons and level of sophistication of the Ansar dine rebels in Mali is also alarming to France. France promised to leave Mali within weeks. The fear in West Africa should be the resultant effect it will have on insurgency in the region has Nigeria still battles Boko Haram.