ASUU Gives New Demands.

Do you think this ASUU strike is for the betterment of Nigerian students?

After the last meeting ASUU had with the President, one had hoped that the lingering five-month strike would be called off very soon. Instead, ASUU gave the Federal Government a set of new demands which “must be met” before it will ever re-open our universities. The new demands include:

Going, Going, Gone!

Here are the latest pics of the demolished market of Umuahia. To read more about it, click: Umuahia Main Market to be Demolished and Latest Gist on Umuahia Main Market Demolition --- Man Dies in a Store.

ASUU Strike --- Flavour's “Chinny Baby” remixed to “ASUU Baby”.

This ASUU strike is strong. While I was listening to the radio this morning, initially, I thought I was hearing the remix of Flavour’s “Chinny Baby” but not until I heard “ASUU abeg o, when are you calling off the strike…or do we have to wait till November or December?” that I knew it has happened again --- somebody has been inspired! 

I learnt that the “remix” was sung by Alloy, a student of Uniport. I was able to record some part of it directly from the radio with my phone. Click on the video below to listen to the song by Alloy as I recorded it. 

Dowload the remix of "Chinny Baby" (290 kb).

#ASUU #Nigeria.

Latest Gist on Umuahia Main Market Demolition --- Man Dies in a Store.

There is this story that one man from Ubakala went into one of the abandoned shops on Sunday (27^th October) to remove its roofing rods but was killed when the roof crashed down on him. It is not yet clear whether the shop was his or not, but a popular opinion is that “he had gone to take what didn't belong to him”.

About half of the old market has been demolished.

People scrambling for store allocation at Umuahia Ultra-modern Market.

The Abia State Government provided buses that ferry people to and fro the new market, but it’s not free. You pay N30 only --- a difference of N20 less than what you’ll pay to private commercial bus drivers.

Passengers boarding a “market shuttle”.

Inside one of the “market shuttles”.

Motor Park inside the new market still under construction.

Business activities going on in the new market.

Business activities going on in the new market.

Business activities going on in the new market.

Welcome to “Malaysia” --- the Onuimo Market.

This is Malaysia.

I’m not kidding. That’s what the traders there call the market. Though the place doesn’t look anything like real Malaysia, I think its traders dubbed it “Malaysia” because it provides them with a place to do business far away from their homes in Umuahia --- a sort of the “market abroad”.

Malaysia Market Buildings.

Business activities going on inside “Malaysia”.

Business activities going on inside “Malaysia”.

#Malaysia of Onuimo #Umuahia main market.

UMUAHIA MAIN MARKET TO BE DEMOLISHED TODAY.

Sunday, the 20^th day of October 2013, was the last day the main market of Umuahia served the residents of the city as well as its visitors.

The traders of Umuahia Main Market were advised to move into the new Ultra-modern Market Ubani, which is about 5 kilometers from the old one.

 

Although traders have packed into this new market, some of them prefer going the opposite direction --- 8 kilometers away from Umuahia, to the market in Onuimo.

ASUU, FG 2009 AGREEMENT --- A COPY OF THE AGREEMENT.

Before I got admission into higher institution, I had been hearing of ASUU strike but never actually experienced it until I entered into the university. During my first year in school (in 2009) I had my first taste of ASUU industrial action --- a warning strike and then a full-blown strike that lasted for about three months. When it was called off and we resumed school; I had to trace my room because I couldn't remember my room number. I also noticed that some of my colleagues had forgotten their matriculation numbers.

Since then, it has been “one year, one ASUU strike” in our academic calendar. And now that I’m in my final year, ASUU unfailingly embarked on the annual fist fight with the FG. We heard that they had an agreement in 2009 before that year’s strike was called off. Nevertheless, the reason for this year’s ASUU strike was also the reason for that 2009 strike and had been the same reason for the series of ASUU strikes since that year. ASUU accuses the Federal Government of not implementing the agreement they had in 2009.

Just recently, I saw a post by +Nigerian News Portal  Portal that allegedly contains that same ASUU, FG 2009 Agreement.

Click here to view/download a copy of the ASUU/ FG 2009 Agreement.

#ASUU Strike #ASUU FG Agreement.

IMPOSSIBLE MISSION of a Nigerian Stowaway Teenager.

   

Young Daniel Oikhena.

   

   “Mission: Impossible”.

On 24^th August, young Daniel Oikhena embarked on a mission to reach the United States of America by an airplane. He was not going to board a plane through the front door, he was going to sneak in and there was no other part of an aircraft as private and secluded as the wheel well. He geared up with a backpack obviously filled with sustenance and a chapelet fluorescent for protection.

          “Time to Catch a Plane”.

While Daniel crouched down in a bush inside the premises of Benin Airport, he saw an Arik Air airplane: the flight W3 544, taxiing down the runway. Believing it to be headed for the USA, he dashed for the plane. Run! Run! Danny, run! On reaching the aircraft, he went beneath it and skilfully climbed into the well of the main wheel. When, the plane was air-borne, he must have said to himself: “Woo hoo! America, here I come”, but unknown to him he was in for only a 35-minute flight and was heading to somewhere else.

          “The Eagle Has Landed But Too Soon”.

When flight W3 544 touched down in Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Daniel might have wondered if the shuttle he boarded was a supersonic aircraft. Meanwhile, he initiated the final lap of his journey: Jump out of the main wheel and run for cover!

          “Mission: Failed”.

Luckily for young Daniel Oikhena but unfortunately for his futile mission, he did not reach America and was spotted by airport security that apprehended him.

Mission: Failed.

Though Daniel Oikhena may be disappointed that he did not land in America, some aviation experts believe that he was lucky that the flight was not headed for the USA as he would have died from cold or asphyxiation or both. Daniel’s survival in that small wheel apartment has also been attributed to his small body size and the miraculouschaplet he wore around his neck because most stowaways have been crushed to death inside an undercarriage compartment when the plane retracted its tyres.(Retrieved from +VanguardNews ).

Some Previous Failed Stow Away Missions.

•  In 2004, a man believed to be a Nigerian was found dead in the wheel well of a British Airways aircraft at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York. (Retrieved from +Seun Osewa ).
• In 2009, a federal jury in Mobile, Alabama convicted one Erik Banjoko of stowing away on a cargo ship that arrived in Theodore. (Retrieved from +Seun Osewa).
• In April, 2010, one Emeka Okeke sneaked into a Delta Airline plane’s tyre compartment but arrived in Atlanta as a mangled dead body. (Retrieved from +Seun Osewa).
• On 19^th September, 2010, the airport officials at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos discovered the body of a young Nigerian man the wheel well of an Arik Air aircraft that flew to Johannesburg the previous day. (Retrieved from +Seun Osewa).
• Last year, a Nigerian man’s dead body was discovered in the undercarriage compartment of an Arik Air aircraft. It is believed that he was crushed to death during the plane’s flight from Lagos to New York. (Retrieved from http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/news/latest/46626-nigerian-man-dies-under-new-york-bound-plane).

The way I see it, stowing away, particularly in the undercarriage compartment of an aircraft, is more like a suicide mission than an “impossible mission” considering the many dangers laden with it. Hence, the issue of this kind of airport security breach has got me thinking: Imagine that a stowaway was also an extremist (or a terrorist), somehow managed to wear a “jacket of firecrackers” instead of a chaplet, and he decided to warm up his “apartment” by igniting the firecrackers, you can guess what would happen.