A friend of mine who recently returned from Paris to Umuahia, Abia state, shared a fascinating story about his experience driving around Umuahia using Keke Napep.
He said aside from the positive energy from the people to the new government, What struck him the most was the evident happiness among Keke drivers in Umuahia, stemming from the payment arrangement that significantly improved their working conditions.
According to him, in Umuahia, these drivers make a one-time payment for a week, granting them the freedom to operate in the city without facing harassment from Agberos, who used to extort them in the past. He said one guy who's a graduate said he wouldn't have delved into this if not for the new policy as he can now save more of his earnings which enables him pay school fees and house rent while also enhancing their overall quality of life.
However, the situation takes a stark turn when one comes into Anambra state, particularly in the bustling city of Onitsha.
I was in Onitsha yesterday, Keke drivers here find themselves caught in a seemingly endless cycle of extortion and harassment by both Agberos and the police, despite the initial promise of a hassle-free environment upon paying the one-week fee by Soludo led government.
This has led to a chorus of lamentations from these drivers who feel maltreated and cheated in the system.
One particularly distressing scene witnessed by myself involved a Keke driver being demanded a hefty fee of 1000 naira by an Agbero early in the morning. I intervened, with the Agbero to finally accepting 200 naira instead.
Their is another type of problem I witnessed around the Upper Iweka area, where individuals wearing green vests loiter around vehicles, harassing drivers for fees.
This situation is very disgusting and unacceptable. This is the gateway of Eastern region many people who are coming into this region for the first time is always greeted with this harassment backed by the authority in 2023.
It raises questions about the efficiency of governance and the need for urgent intervention to rid the city of this outdated and unjust practice.
I am calling on the Anambra state government, to immediately remove these individuals from the roads and to reform the system.
Dear @ccsoludo you promised to build a fairer, more prosperous, and liveable Anambra.
Kindly start by making life easier for Drivers in the city.
Our Food is Pois@n... Yes you read right.
What we eat in this country is almost equal to knowingly & unknowingly eating Poison!
Have you been to our Cattle Slaughter House?
Or our Poultry Farms & processing centres?
The food preservatives used by our value chain players?
The amount of antibiotics our poultry farmers load the poultry
Take a few seconds & think, have you ever thought about how the food you eat are preserved?
From Using Sniper to preserve Beans, to dirty slaughter house, to indiscriminate use of antibiotics on livestock to dirty cooking environment in our eateries and road side food vendors.
Salmonella in our poultry products, Ecoli in our meat, contaminated Vegetables etc
Who's safeguarding our food?
Who's ensuring sanity in our animal processing centres?
Who's testing our food before consumption?
Is anyone hearing me at all?
If you'd please take a a day off and go experience our abattoir, or our poultry processing centres. Tell me if you'd like to eat those again.
If you have the chance, go watch Poisoned on Netflix & see we haven't even scratched the surface of food safety in Nigeria.
Who knows the cause of the series of Kidney issues at our hospitals? Do you think it's bcs those ones drink Agbo or Smokes or drink alcohol? Have we traced if its as a result of food contamination?
Since there's no one helping Nigerians around food safety
My advice - Ensure you cook your food well enough, No rare, No medium rare or medium well nonsense. Cook well your food to avoid these issues.
God Abeg!
- THE NEW MAP OF BRICS -
That’s nearly 70% of global oil production and they’re all moving away from the USD - because if they don’t, they can someday be sanctioned, just like Russia. See? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
You know, back in the days, the global economy used to run on something called the “gold standard.” It was a system in which a country’s currency was linked to the value of gold. For instance, in those days (about early 20th century), US$1 meant 1/20 of an ounce of gold, which implied it would take 20 dollar notes to purchase an ounce of gold, and if you had an ounce of gold, you automatically had US$20!
Great right? But they ended it.
It started with Roosevelt who forced Americans to convert their gold coins into US dollars during the Great Depression and president Nixon who, under the influence of colonial Europe, ended the practice permanently in 1971. Others followed.
But guess what? Just two years after ending the gold standard, in 1973 the petrodollar system was created through a deal between the US and Saudi Arabia. The two countries agreed to price and trade oil in U.S. dollars. With oil standardized in terms of dollars, any country that purchased oil from Saudi Arabia would have to use the U.S. dollars to make that happen. Given that Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter, many other oil producing countries also standardized their own oil prices in U.S. dollars. So, it was no longer Saudi Oil that you had to buy with US dollars, it was now oil from virtually all the member states that make up OPEC - and so, the petrodollar system was born.
Nations abandoned their own currencies and traded oil/energy and so much more in U.S. dollars. The dollar kept swelling in popularity and dominance, unchallenged, until recently.
But keep in mind that the new dollar that replaced the one backed with gold is now regarded as FIAT. Fiat in Latin is “fieri” which means arbitrary act or decree. It means that your paper money went from being backed with gold to being a legal tender backed only with government signature. That’s it. So basically, people who have abundance of gold, say in AFRICA who could’ve been able to use their gold to purchase any kind of good life they desire or pay off any debt they owed, will no longer be able to do that. Rather, a worthless piece of paper is printed, backed with nothing, yet used to purchase the gold that’s actually the real treasure from Africans. Oil and all manner of Treasure’s are purchased with the same useless piece of paper that you call money. The colonial exploiters of these Treasures store them in their own lands, build an army around the Treasures in our own lands, and all we have is their worthless pieces of paper in our lazy banks. This is topic for another day but gives you a glimpse of how they conquered us. I guess the conquest has now expired.
Today, BRICS is taking the global South and indeed our world back to Gold-Backed currencies, and in this case the proposed BRICS currency that’ll serve as an alternative to the dollar.
As you already know, BRICS + Six will be the greatest undoing of the American Economic might by the Petrodollar. With about 70% of global oil production now set to dump the dollar, I don’t see the US dollar standing a chance against the BRICS currency that’ll be backed with gold, whenever it shows up. I can see the United States hit with the kind of inflation the country hasn’t seen in many decades. I can see AMERICA returning to something close to the days of the Great Depression as the dollar finally sheds its glory and returns to the place of mourning.
Granted, this is a journey but it has just gained an unusual speed that even CNN admitted they didn’t see coming. I can confidently tell you that we’re now truly living in post-colonial days, and i am even more confident that my Africa’s freedom from colonial stranglehold will happen in my lifetime.
A warm welcome to the Multipolar World Order.
Nigerian Tweeps Demand Buhari, Emefiele's Imprisonment For Reportedly Using Foreign Reserve As Collateral For Loans | Sahara Reporters https://t.co/AMNo5jZVVG
Money has been sent to senators to enjoy their recess, says @oficialGAkpabio while Nigerians are dying from hunger, trekking many miles to work for lack of access to affordable transportation!!!😑😑
Unidentified gunmen have attacked and set ablaze the house of the traditional ruler of Okwuru, in Orsu Ihitteukwa, Orsu LGA, Ezekiel I. Nwokedi.
Confirming the incident, he lamented that his personal belongings were completely razed in the attack.
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Vessel Carrying Suspected Stolen Crude Oil And Escorted By Nigerian Navy Officers Led By Senior Commander Intercepted By Security Operatives | Sahara Reporters https://t.co/33gFVQO8cd
🇩🇿🇳🇪 Algeria will support Niger in case of external military aggression, according to the Algerian publication Intel Kirby. They reported on the potential invasion of Niger under the leadership of ECOWAS, stating that Algeria will not remain idle while its neighboring country faces an invasion.
There were already unconfirmed reports that the Algerian army has started increasing security measures and raising its level of readiness on the border with Niger.
FIFA Secretary General Tells Super Falcons Prize Money Will Be Paid Directly To Players Because Of Nigerian Government's Irresponsibility | Sahara Reporters https://t.co/rFZA3Tv2y8
Well...at least David Hundeyin is an alarmist.
Also well done to the NCAA for reinstating @MaxAirLtd's Boeing 737 fleet yesterday after grounding it for just 17 days, in what must be the fastest passenger aviation safety audit of all time.
Round of applause to everyone.
MONDAY EVENING REFLECTION – Each time you tell a lie, you corrupt your humanity.
1. Man is not made to tell lies.
2. This is why lies trouble the mind of liars even if they pretend about it.
3. The more lie people tell, the more their humanity weakens, and tends to become beastly.
4. If you observe carefully, you’ll notice that every notorious person – a thief, a robber, a rapist, an election rigger, an unfaithful partner, a slanderer, etc., hardened through telling lies.
5. The reverse is the case for people that want to turn new leaf in whatever bad ways they have been living; they must start by being truthful to themselves, and then to others, and little by little, they get renewed from their beastly nature, back to human nature.
6. Liars are self-made fools because they fail to realise that no matter the how long they have embraced lies, at the end of their lives, the same lies will reject and accuse them.
7. Each time you tell a lie, you corrupt your humanity.
8. Stop telling lies, even if everyone else does so. Try to remain completely human as you were made - without lies!
9. Have a blessed evening.
10. #AllEyesOnTheJudiciary
It is heartbreaking that we are struggling with allegations of fake certificates in the PEPT and we are having minister nominees with allegations of fake certificates and history of forgery.
Can’t we find people with genuine certificates for leadership positions in Nigeria?