The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has shortlisted five foreign coaches in the race to get a new manager for the Super Eagles ahead of their preparation for the World Cup in South Africa.

After a lengthy meeting on Friday in Abuja, the NFF recommended Bruno Metsu of France, Peter Taylor of the UK, Ratomir Djugovic of Serbia and Louis Van Gaal and Guus Hiddink, both of the Netherlands for the position of technical adviser of the first team squad.

The federation said that it had not yet officially approached any of the managers but that a one month screening process would now commence with a view to appointing one of the shortlisted coaches as technical adviser.

It was also announced that the beleaguered head coach of the Super Eagles, Shuaibu Amodu, would not be sacked but would move aside to take charge of the affairs of the home based players. The move is largely seen as a stay of execution after the football federation announced their disappointment at the Eagles performance in the just concluded African Nations cup.

The announcement was made late on Friday night by NFF technical committee chairman, Taiwo Ogunjobi who added that the meeting was adjourned until Tuesday next week.

It is believed that Ratomir Dujkovic, who coached Ghana for two years, is the favourite to land the job. He is currently the manager of the Under-21 Serbian team and has coached in various parts of Africa.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) — President Jacob Zuma of South Africa apologized Saturday for fathering an illegitimate child, in the face of national outcry.

Critics say that Mr. Zuma, a Zulu traditionalist who practices polygamy and currently has three wives and 20 children, including the child he fathered with another woman, has set a bad example in a country with one of the world’s highest rates of H.I.V./AIDS.

“I have over the past week taken time to consider and reflect on the issues relating to a relationship I had outside of wedlock,” Mr. Zuma said in a statement on Saturday, acknowledging that it “has been a subject of much public discussion and debate.”

He said: “It has put a lot of pressure on my family and my organization, the African National Congress. I deeply regret the pain that I have caused to my family, the A.N.C., the Alliance and South Africans in general.” He said he reaffirmed his commitment to “the importance of the family as an institution.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Zuma, who married for the fifth time recently, confirmed reports that he had fathered a child with Sonono Khoza, whose father leads the nation’s World Cup organizing committee.

Ms. Khoza gave birth to a girl in October. The presidency has said previously that Mr. Zuma has 19 children. Mr. Zuma said Tuesday that he had formally acknowledged paternity and made a traditional payment of inhlawulo to Ms. Khoza’s family.

via Reuters

We are happy to announce that our largest G-Africa event yet, G-Nigeria 2010, will be held February 18 - 20 at the University of Lagos.

The agenda is as follows:

Day 1: Tech Day - For Software Developers (February 18, 2010)
Day 1 will focus on pushing the boundaries of web applications using Google developer technologies. Google engineers and web development leaders will lead you through one full day of in-depth sessions on the latest Google technologies and hands-on codelabs. The day will also be about bringing brilliant developers together to share their own ideas. [Registration form for Day 1]

Day 2: Business Day - For Marketing Professionals and Entrepreneurs (February 19, 2010)
Day 2 will be full of Google product demonstrations for businesses to help spur innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. We will discuss how to create local content using online tools, how to market them and how to monetize. Furthermore, we will discuss several tools to help better manage your business. In addition, we have invited several venture capitalists from around the world to talk about raising capital for your business. [Registration form for Day 2]

Day 3: Computer Science Students Day (February 20, 2010)
Day 3 will contain developer workshops and presentations similar to Day 1 and include a session with Nigerian venture capitalists. We will also cover some of the existing Google student outreach programs and opportunities. [Registration form for Day 3]

For more information about the event, visit their site: http://sitescontent.google.com/gnigeriaday2010/

The past year was filled with exciting events in Africa, including G-Mauritius, G-Senegal, Lagos Code Camp as well as participation in several African BarCamps. Stay tuned for more in 2010!

Nigeria gives new meaning to everything
- or perhaps, things just get done differently here, and wrongly too.
For instance, the whole idea of corporate social responsibility is to
tame the rapacious greed inherent in big businesses so that they can
show some concern for public welfare.

Companies are encouraged to see how it
is also important, and indeed in their interest, to plan with the
concerns of the communities where they operate in mind, and strive to
improve the welfare of the people.

As a basic practice therefore, it
proves that environment and the people are at least as important as the
profit motive - as the Federal Government and the oil companies in the
Niger Delta have now discovered, at great cost. You cannot keep taking
and not give back, something is bound to unravel.

Since the deregulation of the telecom
industry in Nigeria, the business has thrived beyond the wildest dreams
of the service providers. Despite enormous challenges, including the
poor power supply which forces owners to rely on generators, the
turnover has been stupendous, no thanks to the high tariffs customers
are charged.

Some of these operators have, in their
version of corporate responsibility, frequently organised promos and
game shows where they promise huge benefits for customers who get
lucky. Occasionally too, viewers can actually see the prizes being
given out on television, and the tales of poor people who came with
nothing and left with fabulous gifts, including brand new cars, only
serve to titillate the desire of many who think they can become
millionaires overnight by doing nothing.

So, right from the beginning, one of
the things wrong with this method of showing appreciation to so-called
loyal customers, is that it risks encouraging a culture that waits on
miraculous wealth rather than hard work.

Now, a sordid dimension has been
brought to the activity. Conmen, ever alert to opportunities, have
taken advantage of the method to perpetrate their scams. They are able
to hack into the systems of service providers to send mail to
unsuspecting subscribers informing them of their “winnings” and asking
for account details, recharge cards or bogus processing fees to
facilitate the process.

For most people, it is an annoying
waste of time, but there are many gullible and desperate people out
there and they have fallen for the scam. And while it is tempting to
say it served them right for trying to collect money in game shows they
never participated in, the truth is, the matter is not so simple.

They are victims of a system that has,
over the years, shown that rewards don’t have to be earned. Moreover,
neither the regulatory body nor the operators of the networks have done
enough to protect the people from harm. There is a general lack of
willingness by the service providers to spend money on the requisite
software that will make their systems more difficult to hack into. It
is the same apathy that attends their efforts at upgrading their
machinery to ensure that their services improve, particularly in terms
of connectivity.

As we wait for the SIM card
registration exercise in March, which will hopefully make it easier to
trace less sophisticated scammers, a few measures can meanwhile be
emplaced to help reduce the incidence of scams. Service providers
should ensure that they send periodic alerts to their customers,
warning them about the methods of the fraudsters. They should also
endeavour to publish the names of winners of their game shows in
newspapers so that it becomes easily verifiable. It is even more
important, however, that they evolve a more responsible method of
practicing corporate responsibility, one both altruistic and
utilitarian.

But even in the best of circumstances, it would be naive to place
the welfare of the people in the hands of companies that were
established for profit. We must therefore call on the Nigerian
Communications Commission, the industry’s regulatory agency, to be more
alert to its responsibility to protect the people from the excesses in
the system. They should continue to discourage these promos that have
become virtual lotteries on television by liaising with the National
Broadcasting Commission, which successfully banned pastors from showing
their ‘miracles’ on the screen. This sin should be placed in that same
category.

via 234next

Egypt extended their record Africa Cup of Nations run to 14 games without defeat when securing their quarter-final berth with a 2-0 win over Mozambique on Saturday.

"We are very proud of this record," said Egypt skipper Ahmed Hassan. "But most importantly, we won today against a very strong Mozambique."

Earlier, in the first leg of Saturday's double header from Benguela, Nigeria moved closer to joining the champions in the last eight with a 1-0 defeat of Benin.

Egypt went ahead after Dario Khan scored an own-goal - for the second successive game here in Angola - one minute after the restart.

Substitute Mohamed 'Gedo' Nagy put the game beyond doubt in the 81st minute to ensure The Pharaohs' progress.

Egypt, who cannot be dislodged from top spot in Group C, join competition favourites Ivory Coast, who assured their qualification from Group B 24 hours earlier.

Mozambique's Dutch coach, Mart Nooij, commented: "We made it very hard for Egypt, who are the reigning African champions.

"We gave away a goal early in the second half and so had to chase the game, otherwise it would have been a lot more difficult for them to beat us."

After their opening loss to champions Egypt, Nigeria went into their game with enormous pressure on their shoulders, and duly netted the match winner after 42 minutes.

Everton striker Yakubu Aiyegbeni was the man on the spot, converting the penalty awarded after Romuald Boco handled a goal-bound header by Osaze Odemwingie.

The goal atoned for Yakubu's miss earlier in the first-half, when put through on goal by Kalu Uche after 15 minutes, the big striker drilled his shot from inside the box inches away from the target with goalkeeper Rachad Chitou beaten.

This was Nigeria's third win in as many Nations Cup clashes with their neighbours and it moves the Eagles up to second on three points.

The result cost Benin striker Razak Omotoyossi 25,000 dollars after he struck a private wager on the game with his best friend, Nigerian striker Obafemi Martins.

"It was a tough match, we did not expect anything less because there are no longer small teams," said Nigeria coach Shuaibu Amodu.

"We are the more experienced of the two teams and we needed this game more. We won and that has now built confidence in the team after we lost our first match."

Benin skipper Damien Chrysostome said his team had been unfortunate.

"We were unlucky because we hit the bar twice. We tried what we could but at the end we lost. That is the reality," he said.

THE first privately constructed submarine cable transmission link between Nigeria and the rest of the global community arrived in Lagos at the weekend.

Known and styled as Glo 1 undersea cable, the project owned by Globacom Limited was constructed at a cost of $800 million.

It links telecommunications services, including voice, data, broadband Internet between Nigeria and the rest part of the world.

It covers 9,800 kilometres sea route between Nigeria and other parts of the global community.

It was constructed by Alcatel-Lucent Technologies of France and it is believed to be first of its kind in terms of size and funding by any private company in the world.

Glo 1 submarine cable is the second to debut in Nigeria after the South Atlantic (SAT-3) submarine cable owned by Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and 33 other national carriers and multilateral organisations in Africa and elsewhere.

The cable, with a current capacity of 640 gigabytes per second and final capacity of 2.5 terabits per second, has landing points in UK, Portugal, Ghana and C�te d'Ivoire.

The contract was awarded two years ago to Alcatel Lucent to bridge the much-talked about digital divide and enhance connectivity and bandwidth capacity needs of Nigerians, Executive Director of Globacom, Mr. Adewale Sangowawa, said at the commissioning at the weekend.

"This is the first individually owned submarine cable network in the world and Globacom is re-writing history," Sangowawa explained at the seaside ceremony at the weekend.

Glo 1 submarine cable connects West Africa to the world via a United Kingdom (UK) port, and has landing points in Lagos and Bonny in Nigeria, Bude, in London and Lisbon in Portugal.

Besides these, it also deploys 16 branching units to connect the West Africa sub-region particularly in Cotonou, (Benin Republic), Accra, (Ghana) and other nations within the region where Glo Mobile operates.

Sangowawa explained that Glo 1 will complement SAT-3 optic fibre cable and fulfil the present and rapidly increasing high data requirement in the West African sub-region.

Alcatel Lucent will provide one optical SubMarine Cable Systems (STM-64) network capacity from the U.K. to New York to link Nigeria to the United States (USA) for crystal clear voice calls and high speed data/Internet transmission services.

Glo 1 is the first such project embarked upon by any single organisation in the world. The practice all over the world is for organisations or countries to team up and build such a facility.

The cable, which is of the 32 STM 64 type, has virtual infinite capacity and therefore offers sufficient capacity for traffic for the Globacom's mobile, fixed and Internet telecommunication services.

It offers 99.9 per cent up time reliability, world-class long distance voice, video and high-speed data communication services to the African customer.

Glo 1 caters for long-term bandwidth requirements for voice and data transmission in the West Africa sub-region. Currently, West African countries have a high dependability on satellite-based operators for fulfilling their bandwidth requirements. At present, bandwidth providers are retailing bandwidth they procure in bulk, which invariably is very expensive. Glo 1 fills this vacuum and will narrow the digital divide between Nigeria/Africa and the rest of the world.

It provides a cost-effective voice, data, video and e-commerce services across Africa, Europe and rest of the world. It will also carry traffic for other operators that would lease the service.

The Glo 1 project would reshape the face of telecommunications in Nigeria by offering unparalleled services to Nigerians, Sangowawa said.

It further enhances Nigeria's capacity to provide telephone hubbing services for the rest of the world.

Glo 1 enables Globacom to have a clear distinction in providing quality services through multiple and high quality direct links to various countries across the globe and allows it to interconnect with several international and local networks and leading traffic carriers in the world.

Landing points will also be extended to other West Africa countries soon. There will be a total of 18 branching units along the route upon completion of the project, Sangowawa added.

A "huge" number of militants in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta have accepted an amnesty deal and given up their weapons so far, officials said Sunday.

The presidential panel overseeing the implementation of the deal said it was pleased with the progress of the amnesty offered to the armed groups, which began August 6 and ends October 4.

"The quantity, quality and sophistication of weapons ... so far surrendered to the presidential committee put in graphic terms the seriousness of the conflict in the area and the danger we all faced as a nation," it said in a statement.

"This and the huge number of militant leaders and their followers who have accepted the offer and those who have contacted us on the logistics for their acceptance of the offer is a strong testimony that the programme is a huge success," it said.

But the task force gave neither the numbers of weapons received nor those of militants who have so far surrendered.

President Umaru Yar'Adua last June declared an unconditional amnesty for all militants in the region who laid down arms to embrace peace.

In response, the most prominent militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), declared a 60-day truce.

While some of the activists have publicly denounced the militancy and surrendered their arms, there are many other groups yet undecided on the amnesty offer.

Militant activities have disrupted operations of oil companies in southern Nigeria, resulting in a sharp decline in production.

Groups such as MEND say that they are fighting to ensure that the people of the Niger Delta benefit from the oil income.

Prominent Nigerian lawyer and rights activist Gani Fawehinmi died Saturday after a prolonged battle with cancer, his colleagues said. He was 71.

Fawehinmi, a thorn in the flesh of successive Nigerian governments both military and civilian, died in his Ikeja home in Lagos, they said.

"Gani passed on this morning in his residence at Ikeja. We are saddened and devastated by his death," Joe Oke-Odumakin, president of the Campaign for Democracy, told AFP.

Another rights activist Shina Loremikan confirmed the death.

"I was informed by his family that he died early this morning," he said.

Fawehinmi, holder of Nigeria's highest legal title, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was an author, publisher, philanthropist, social critic, human and civil rights lawyer and politician.

He had been in and out of hospital both at home and abroad for cancer treatment in the past few years.

Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar?Adua said he received the news of Fawehinmi's death with sadness and a deep feeling of great national loss, his spokesman said.

"The president extends his heartfelt condolences to Chief Fawehinmi?s family," spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi said.

"He urges them to be comforted by the knowledge that the late legal luminary lived a fulfilled and remarkable life dedicated to the unrelenting pursuit of good governance, equity and justice for all Nigerians," Adeniyi said.

"President Yar'Adua joins other Nigerians in praying that Almighty Allah will reward Chief Fawehinmi?s earthly labours with eternal rest in paradise," he added.

Students in various Nigerian universities plan a protest against the continued closure of their schools in Abuja on Sunday, when Nigeria will host Tunisia in a crucial World Cup qualifier, but the police have assured the public that this will not disrupt the match.

The students are demonstrating against the federal government's withdrawal from talks with striking university lecturers over a review of their working conditions.

Abuja police chief, Wilson Inalegwu, told reporters that his command will ensure that law and order is maintained on match day.

"We will provide effective policing at the stadium. Any person who decides to take the laws into his hands will not be spared. The students should therefore be orderly and work within the laws," Inalegwu warned.

"We are also working round the clock to ensure that what happened in the World Cup qualifier against Kenya in June, when some spectators overwhelmed the security men and forcefully gained entry to the stadium, does not repeat itself."

The police chief announced that as part of the control measures, tickets for the match against Tunisia will not be sold at the stadium and on match day.

The Abuja police will also use this game to ascertain its readiness for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup, which Nigeria will host from October 24. The Abuja National Stadium will stage the opening match of the tournament as well as the final.

Source: Goal.com

A concerned user sent me a link to a very scanty review of RiRanWo! which he found via twitter, first of all he misspelt as RIRANWo then it turns out the writer probably never even visited the site for a thorough review,

you can find it here http://d7m76.th8.us

Xplore is a Nigerian content aggregator, not only blogs are indexed! RiRanWo! has a topbar that lets you search from any page upon logging in.

RiRanWo! has other interesting features like twitter integration, gratavar support, message board, and a lot of privacy features to ensure you remain in control of who sees what, the abilty to get RSS feeds for any thing you want to keep track of, one begins to wonder what you are reviewing if you didnt find out what RiRanWo! had to offer.

I want to suggest that the "review" is either updated after a thorough analysis or you DELETE it altogether.