Undergraduates make fortune scavenging in Lagos waste dump

 

It is mostly believed that only a mad person or somebody who is psychologically demented that would go to a heap of dirt, relax and patiently rummage the dirt with hands and legs and analyse what he picks at the dumpsite.

But in Nigeria, it is not just the mentally deranged that go to the waste dump, sane, able-bodied men and women get their daily bread by scavenging at  dumpsites.

They could easily pass for mentally deranged people in their dirty clothes. But a closer encounter with them would give them away as normal Nigerians merely looking for survival.

Felicia Aje (not real name), a student of Lagos State Polytechnic, is one of them. Aje spends her holidays and mid-semester breaks at the Oko filling waste dump in Igando (Lagos), picking used bottles of soft drinks, water and canned containers. Aje doesn’t even care that she is  being ridiculed by her mates who see what she does as dirty and menial for an undergraduate. She confided in our correspondent that others scavenging with her were undergraduates from different institutions.

While some other undergraduates would be having fun, traversing from one joint or cinema to another enjoying their holidays, Aje is at a waste dump, scavenging, while hoping she would get a junk that she could sell.

Her fate is not any different from so many Nigerian youths and even older men and women who have turned to waste dump scavengers in order to earn a living.

These people pick empty bottled water, peel off the label, put them in a sack and get them ready for buyers which are mainly recycling companies.

The steady rise in the unemployment rate in the country has forced many people to dwell and work at waste dumps so as to make a living. While Lagos residents pay to dispose their wastes through the compactor trucks, they, indirectly, feed these scavengers whose daily meals come from what they make from the used bottles and junk they gather from waste dumps.

B’Haram: Outdated weapons hinder military operations

 

 

Boko Haram

There are strong indications that the ongoing military operations against  insurgents in the North-East may have been seriously hampered by lack of modern military hardware and the prevalence of aging equipment in the Armed Forces.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that the military had been faced with the difficult challenge of using mostly refurbished military hardware in the critical campaign against the deadly members of the Boko Haram sect.

It was learnt that a good number of the military hardware in the country such as the Armoured Personnel Carriers, the Alpha Fighter Jets, the MIG Fighter Jets and the Helicopter gunships that were being used in the ongoing fight against the insurgents were acquired between 1979 and 1982 by the Alhaji Shehu Shagari regime.

A very senior military source, who spoke to one of our correspondents on Thursday, on the condition of anonymity, said that the successive military administrations that took over the governance of the country did not pay adequate attention to the importation of military tanks, fighter jets, helicopter gunships, APCs and other hardware.

It was further learnt that the situation persisted from 1999 under President Olusegun Obasanjo to the Goodluck Jonathan administration. It was gathered that Shagari had obtained the hardware to position the Nigerian Army as a force in the sub region.

Our correspondents gathered that a good number of the APCs deployed during critical military operations against the Boko Haram insurgents had either failed to fire or had broken down in the middle of action.

The source said that the APCs which looked new with their bright paints were merely mostly refurbished.

It was stated that the situation had resulted in the deaths of some Nigerian soldiers in the hands of the insurgents.

Beyond the ‘valentine’s day’…

Chukwuneta Oby

The body language between a couple is enough to give one an idea of how close they are. A ‘trained eye’ can also detect a ‘shallow public display of affection’ from afar. While at a restaurant (on that ‘V’ day), a man held his woman by the hand as they walked in. Ordinarily, the sight of a couple (walking hand in hand)shouldn’t have elicited a special interest in anybody on that day…considering the enough ‘show of love’ all over the place. However, something about the couple is another huge lesson (from life) to me. I kept stealing glances at them- every once in a while…they seemed to laugh a lot with each other. And when it was time for them to take their leave, they left the same way they came in…with him holding her, as she ‘limped’ along…she had some kind of deformity on the leg.

I told ‘somebody’ that the most beautiful sight I beheld all through that ‘V’ day wasn’t the brightly dressed men and women (painting the town in red and white) in the mood of ‘love’ but that man that held the hand of his ‘limping’ woman, in a manner that should make the rest of us question how much of a ‘pillar of support’ that we have been to our loved ones…especially at ‘not so rosy’ moments.

That beautiful sight took my mind back to the message that a lady sent me, sometime back. The deformity(on one of her legs) turned out to be the cause of cruel remarks from her husband (the father of her children), who never wasted time in reminding her (at the slightest opportunity) that he actually stooped so low-by marrying her. I can’t even find the right words to describe how broken those cruel words left that lady. Eventually, the man left her and went in search of what he called ‘a complete woman.’ Same man came running back to the wife; shortly after…he never lasted with any of his ‘complete women.’ I hear he is now a changed man.

Brit Awards 2014: Jessie J regrets lilac lipstick but says she ‘can do whatever I want’

Jessie J doesn’t care what people say about her style (Picture: AP)

Exclusive: Jessie J doesn’t care what her haters say about her fashion choices because she can ‘do whatever I want’.
The 25-year-old – who lost out on the Brit Award for best female solo artist to Ellie Goulding – says she won’t let anyone stop her from wearing her favourite sparkly jumpsuit or a pair of stripper shoes if that’s the mood she’s in.
‘I’m a woman I can do whatever I want in my style,’ she told me at the Universal Music Brits party hosted by Bacardi at the Soho House pop-up venue under Waterloo Bridge.
‘If there’s a phase in my life where I want to be a little more tame and natural then I will,’ she added, ‘Or if I want to be more fiery then I will, depends on how I feel in the area of my life.’
But the Price Tag singer – who previously admitted she thought she looked like a ‘drag queen’ – says the days of her heavy make-up and ‘unapproachable’ clothing are long gone because she wants to be taken ‘seriously’.

Kitten suffered ‘horrendous’ death after woman, 23, cooked it in microwave

Laura Cunliffe’s kitten died a slow and painful death (Picture: Caters)

A 23-year-old woman killed her kitten by putting it in the microwave, a court heard, as she pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
Laura Cunliffe, 23, put her four-month-old pet Mowgli in the microwave for five minutes after it apparently attacked her goldfish.
Cunliffe, from Hoyland near Barnsley, then removed it from the appliance where the suffering animal was still alive, despite having its internal organs cooked.
‘The kitten was in a distressed state when Miss Cunliffe took it out of the oven,’ said Brian Orsborn, prosecuting for the RSPCA.
‘[It] could not get its breath and died about 90 minutes later. Miss Cunliffe made arrangements for the body of the kitten to be taken away to be buried.’
[Warning: Graphic image at the bottom of article]
He continued: ‘The RSPCA became involved and was able to trace the man who carried out the burial.’
As reported by the MailOnline, the defence for Cunliffe stated that she had suffered with depression and psychosis.

Facebook and Twitter should warn against NekNominations, local councils say

Facebook and Twitter should tell its users not to partake in NekNominations (Picture: Getty)

Social networks should warn their millions of users against taking part in the NekNomination ‘game,’ councils have said.
The Local Government Association (LGA) wants clear and prominent messages displayed on the likes of Facebook and Twitter to highlight the hazards of the drinking craze.
NekNomination is an online fad for which partakers down, on video, their chosen amount of alcohol before posting the footage online and then daring other people to do the same.
The craze has been linked to five deaths in the UK and Ireland, including Bradley Eames, 20, from Nottingham, who consumed two pints of neat gin.
The LGA, which represents nearly 400 councils in England and Wales, said that some schools have given warnings at assemblies and on notice boards, while a number of councils are launching internet safety campaigns, the LGA said.

Popular Comedian, Bright Okpocha, popularly known as Basketmouth is one to reckon with in Nigeria’s entertainment industry. He’s rated as one of the richest and best comedians in Nigeria and beyond, also reputed to have performed in many local and foreign shows. The Theatre Arts graduate from Delta State University is unarguably hilarious and has continued to dish out rib-cracking jokes to his teeming fans.

Basketmouth breaks continental record with Opel Insignia

Many people have also argued that, with basketmouth, one cannot maintain a straight face, which symbolises his outstanding excellence when it comes to comedy.

The father of two made history when he acquired a customised Opel Insignia in 2013, alleged to be the first in Africa to be so ordered, which cost him about N10m.

When he took delivery of the car, he tweeted, “She’s the first and only one in Africa, I built her from the scratch, as in…I cooked her like soup.”

The Opel insignia 2013 edition comes with a standard six-speed transmission which seems smart enough at picking gears. Propelled by a 2.8-litre turbo V6 engine, the Insignia huffs out 239kW and 435Nm. It has a fuel economy of about 10.9 litres per 100km. The hot Insignia takes six seconds to reach 100km from standstill and can reach a top speed of 250km/h. This model can be anybody’s for a shade under $60,000.

Interior

The Insignia boasts of 8-way power-adjustable and ventilated front leather seats, leather-wrapped steering wheel and gear-shifter. Compared to other cars in its class, the Insignia’s front seats are mounted 15mm lower to put both the driver and front passenger firmly in place and in a sportier position, which affords a clear view of both the instruments and the road ahead.

It has Bluetooth phone integration, iPod connectivity, USB audio input, a seven-speaker audio system, humidity sensor, 7-inch colour information display with satellite navigation which allows drivers to save points of interest and find the most economical route for their trip. It has a pre-installed application for streaming music and using internet functions.

The front camera, already fitted to the Insignia for traffic sign recognition and lane departure warning, now has the added feature of Following Distance Indication, which measures the distance to the car in front and helps drivers avoid rear-end collisions with visual and audible warnings.