The amount this man received is completely and totally insulting. How is this acceptable?
Lawrence McKinney was convicted of burglary and rape in 1978.A
neighbor was raped by two intruders. She testified that McKinney was
one of the men who raped her. He received 115 years in prison for the
conviction.In 2008, DNA tests proved that he was wrongfully convicted.The Innocent Project obtained evidence that he could not have been one of the rapists. He was released from prison in 2009.Naturally, the state of Tennessee owes him money for all the years he lost in jail.For
31 years, he rotted away in prison as an innocent man. That's a stain
on the entire justice system. He deserves fair compensation for his lost
years.For his time in jail, McKinney received $75.The state cut him a check. Because he had no identification, it actually took him three months to obtain that pittance.He is also appealing for a formal exoneration, which was rejected by the Board of Parole of Tennessee.Amazingly,
they unanimously voted 7-0 that there was no convincing evidence that
McKinney was innocent, despite the DNA evidence proving he was not one
of the attackers. The odds of this DNA test being wrong are about 1 in
1000000000.For his part, McKinney is not bitter about his time spent in jail.He
is looking to move forward with his life. He had met a woman and gotten
married. He just wants money to start a life. Being in jail since he
was 22, he has no education, training, or any real ability to support
himself.The state should compensate this innocent man fairly, not with the insulting $75.It's
outrageous that the state would not help this innocent man get back on
his feet. As a society, we should feel obligated to help the wrongfully
convicted.
File photo
Following
the invasion of Abbi Community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government area by
Fulani herdsmen who allegedly unleashed mayhem on the residents, a
brother and sister were slaughtered and about seven houses and several
motorcycles were razed down.
According
to a report by Vanguard, a total of at least 19 persons were declared
missing in the community even as several others were also wounded with
machetes by the invaders.
Reports
revealed that the Fulani herdsmen numbering over 30 emerged from the
bush, and began to attack the people in the community last Thursday,
killing their victims and maiming others with machetes before fleeing
into the bush unharmed.
The
two relations who were killed were identified as Fidelis Okeja, 45, and
his sister Mercy, 50. Fidelis and Mercy were sitting outside their
compound around 6.30pm discussing when suddenly, about 30 masked Fulani
herdsmen emerged from nowhere and them instantly.
They
later went ahead and attacked other members of the community with
machetes, burnt some houses before retreating into the bush.
Investigations
by Vanguard, revealed that sporadic shooting by the suspected Fulani
herdsmen sent shivers into the inhabitants of other parts of the
community who scampered for safety amid confusion.
While
speaking with a correspondent, a reliable source in the community, said
that the people were taken unawares by Fulani herdsmen, adding that the
police and members of the local vigilante group were yet to respond to
cries of the people before the invaders escaped into the bush.
"The
most worrisome aspect of the Fulani invasion of the community was that
about 19 people are still missing as nobody can give account of them.
Those missing were last seen on the fateful day. The community formed
search parties in groups, combing bushes within and outside the
community for days now, yet no sign of success has been recorded.
"We
have lodged formal complaint at both Adani police station and Police
Area Command Nsukka, but no arrests have been made over the matter. The
Fulani herdsmen were armed to the teeth with dangerous weapons when they
invaded us.
"Two
people killed while 19 missing, several others brutalised with deep
machete cuts now lying critical down at different hospitals. The corpses
of the deceased Fidelis and Mercy have been deposited at Bishop Sanahan
Hospital, Nsukka while the search for the missing 19 people continues,"
he said.
A
senior officer at the Police Area Command, Nsukka who spoke on the
condition of anonymity confirmed the story describing the attack on Abbi
community "as pathetic and sorrowful as two biological relations were
killed and several others wounded among others."
He,
however, said that full scale investigations has commenced to unravel
the circumstances surrounding the barbaric attack on the community.
A cute Nigerian couple recently got married and their pre-wedding photos tell an interesting love story.
The
groom, Lieutenant Oseyi and his bride is a practicing law who has been
called to bar. The two decided to dress as the profession requires in
their pre-wedding photos.
She is an expert in the law and he enforces it so it's easy to tell they will have a lot in common.
During
their white wedding, as they exited the hall, the Nigerian armed forces
crossed their swords to honour the Lieutenant and his new found bride.
The photos were taken by Goru Wilson photography:
Drag and Drop system of website building is a matter of moments
spending with real interest. It is exciting that today making a website
is quite easy and simple without writing any code. You just drag the
blocks into place, configure and edit the copy, and then your website
will be constructed. It’s a browser based website building tool that
uses the ready-made building blocks to make the website simply and
quickly.
Here there is no hassle of coding of HTML for designing and
developing a website. It will provide you an innovative idea of creating
a website in a short span of time. Here you will get a better
experience than before you have. You can start the drag and drop site
building with log into your control panel and by clicking the Drag and
Drop Site Builder option.
Though you will be familiar with plenty of drag and drop website
builder, you should be keen in selecting one for your own. Following are
the 6 innovative and work worthy drag and drop website builders tool;
you will of course be more cheerful at working with them;
The Grid
The Grid is a pioneering drag and drop system of website building
platform. It provides the power of artificial intelligence to take all
the things you throw at it. For example, these are videos, text, URLs
and such. And it mechanically shapes the things into a custom website
distinct to you. The algorithms of the Grid expertly analyze your media
and apply color palettes. It keeps your messaging steady and exclusive.
It also able to detects color contrasts, automatically adjusting
typographic color to increase reader friendliness. So be with the Grid
to explore your ideas through its amazing features.
2-DesignModo
Developing and designing of the website is the most repeated volume of
trendy work. You can enjoy here with the most celebrated the DesignModo.
The DesignModo has been exploring itself with a wide range of task
variety of design, web development with premium products and quality
freebies. It’s the greatest place of informative material for designers
and web developers. It provides highly rated user interface packs of web
design and development, tips and tutorials,
WordPress and such. But you will feel more comfortable with its drag and drop system of website creating.
3-Macaw
When you are looking for an expert on the HTML and CSS, you should
remember the services have been delivered by the outstanding website
builder the Macaw. It provides writing of semantic HTML and notable
laconic CSS along with the preferable editing task. The powerful
design-to-code engine ‘Alchemy’ of it is able to convert a design into
usable HTML and CSS. It is quite intuitive to use and you might by
chance write beautiful and semantic code. It has the responsive offer
and global style that is interactive in respect of drag and drop system
of websites building.
4-Webflow
As you are eagerly searching for a responsive tool to make your desired
website, you can choose the Webflow for getting a professional one
without writing any code. It’s the well professional drag and drop tool
constructed for developing a website. It has been using responsive web
design best practice. Through this innovative platform, you can create
the social plug-ins, contact forms, animation interactions and such. So,
get one of the responsive website templates today from Webflow.
5-Avocode
An integrated work of the designers and the developers can produce a
best quality website. But the drag and drop system of website building
is able to create a time and cost saving manner in constructing a good
approach website. In this respect, the Avocode plays a vital role in
bridging between designers and developers of the website. Just get the
colors, image assets, fonts, text,CSS, sizes and dimensions by
subscribing the Avocode. The time consuming exporting assets for
developers is more quick and easy now with the Avocode.
6- Blocsapp
Since you love the simplicity of web developing, your best platform is
the ‘Blocsapp.’ It has the simplest way to build a well looked website.
It brings a fresh new approach to build modern, quality, static websites
without the need to understand or write code. It is quite able to
deliver a new level of clarity and focus helping you build websites
faster. Enjoy the intuitive, fast, responsive and easy to use approach
of the fantastic kind of website building site that is Blocsapp.
Therefore, keep your website upgraded with enjoying the usability
delivering by the above mentioned innovative and high fashioned drag and
drop system of website builders. Your valuable time and money will be
more interactive with these responsive and quality tools. Well approach
and user friendly features you will of course appreciate the website
makers with getting the practical experience.
Two weeks after a plane crash in Colombia killed 71 people, a Brazilian
soccer player, who was one of the few survivors, woke from coma over the
weekend but has no idea of what happened. Helio Hermito Zampier Neto,
31, was one of the six survivors of LaMia Flight 2933 that crashed in
Colombia on November 28.
Neto however has no
memory of the accident. He and his teammates (19 of them died) were on
their way to play the championship of a South American tournament when
the crash happened, and he asked about the outcome of the game when he
awoke from coma.
Doctors and psychologists at the hospital are withholding information about the crash from Neto, until he is stable.
MMM Nig. Since the commencement in Nigeria have been able to put smiles in the faces of most Nigerians even going against the odds from the Federal Government warning.
The system as of today,
decided to freeze it's community's account. This seems to have put a
divide in the trust and hope many has in MMM.
MMM says;
“One-Month Freezing of Confirmed Mavros
Dear members!
As usual, in the New Year season the System is experiencing heavy
workload. Moreover, it has to deal with the constant frenzy provoked by
the authorities in the mass media. The things are still going well; the
participants feel calm; everyone gets paid – as you can see, there
haven’t been any payment delays or other problems yet – but!.. it is
better to avoid taking risk.:-)) (Moreover, there are almost three weeks
left to the New Year.)
Hence, on the basis of the above mentioned, from now on all confirmed Mavro will be frozen for a month.
The reason for this measure is evident. We need to prevent any problems
during the New Year season, and then, when everything calms down, this
measure will be cancelled. (Which we will definitely do.:-))
We hope for your understanding.”
Administration
When I got home that night as my wife served me dinner, I grab her
hand and said “I have something to tell you.” She sat down and ate
quietly. I watched and saw the pain in her eyes. Suddenly I did not know
how to open my mouth, but I had to tell her what I was thinking: “I
want a divorce”. She did not seem upset by my words and asked me softly,
why? You’re not a man?
That night we did not talk, and she cried. She wanted to know what was happening to me …
-It was something with our marriage, but I could not answer what
exactly. It happened that she had lost my heart, and I had another woman
named Joan. I no longer loved my wife, but I pitied her. With a great
sense of guilt, I wrote a divorce agreement and with this agreement she
got the house, the car and 30% of our business.
She looked at the agreement and threw it away. She spent 10 years of her
life with me and now we were like strangers. I pitied her, for all the
lost time, energy was not the same but it could not change. I loved
Joan. Suddenly she started screaming. The idea of divorce was now
clearer to me.
The next day I came home and I found myself writing at the table. I did
not eat dinner and went to sleep, I was very tired having spent the day
with Juana. When I woke up, my wife was still writing at the table. I
did not mind, I turned around and continued sleeping. In the morning my
wife introduced me to divorce conditions: She did not want anything from
me, but needed a month’s notice before the divorce.
She asked me for a month, we would have to live as if nothing
happened. Her reason was simple, our son had whole month of tests and
she did not want to bother him with our broken marriage. I agreed, but
she had another request: to agree upon me carrying her to our room like
the day we got married. I thought she was going crazy, but that this
alone was accepted.
My wife and I had no physical contact since I expressed my intention
to divorce, so when I took her to the front door the first day, we both
feel bad. Our son walked behind with clapping and saying: Dad is
carrying mom is his arms! His words gave me a lot of pain.
I walked the 10 meters with my wife in my arms. She closed her eyes
and said quietly: do not tell our son about the divorce. Then I went to
work. I drove alone to work. The second day, we were both more relaxed.
She leaned against my chest, I could feel the fragrance of her
blouse. I realized that I had not looked at it carefully. I realized she
was no longer so young, had some wrinkles, some gray hairs … that was
notable a damage of our marriage. For a moment I thought and I ask: what
was it I did? The fourth day, I felt some affection was returning
between us. This was the woman who gave me 10 years of her life. In the
fifth and sixth day, it continued to. I said nothing about Joan.
Every other day it was easier to carry my wife and month was
running. I thought I was getting used to her weight. One morning, she
was looking for what to wear. She had tried many dresses on, but all of
them were too big. It was then that I realized she was very thin, and
that was the reason that I did not feel her weight load. Suddenly I
realized that I had provoked much pain and bitterness.
Without realizing it, she touched my hair. Our son entered the room
and said, Dad, it is time that you take Mom to the door! For my son,
seeing his father day after day carry her mother to the door, that had
become an essential part of his life. My wife hugged him, I covered my
face. I was afraid I changed my thinking about divorce. And holding my
wife in my arms to the door, it felt like the first day of our wedding.
She stroked my neck soft and naturally. I held her strong, just like
our wedding night. I hugged her and did not move, but she was so thin
and that made me sad. The last day I just hugged her and did not want to
move, I told her I did not realize that we had no privacy. Our son was
at school. I drove to the office, I left the car without closing the
door, I climbed the stairs, Joan opened the door, and I said, excuse me,
sorry, I do not want to divorce my wife.
Joan looked at me and asked me if I had a fever. I said:
My wife and I love each other, it was that we were doing everything
as a routine and boring. We did not value the details of our life since I
started carrying her to the room. Joan began to mourn, slapped me and
closed the door. Going down the stairs, I went in the car and went to
the florist.
I bought my wife flowers. The girl in the florist asked me what to
write on the card? I told her to put: I will carry you every morning
until death parts us. I arrived at my house with flowers in my hands and
smile, and ran up the stairs; when I went … I found my dead wife. My
wife was battling cancer, and I was so busy with Joan, so I did not
realize. My wife knew she was dying and that is why she asked for a
month’s notice before the divorce, so that our son will not have bad
memories of divorce.
At least in my son’s eyes, the memory of his father who was a good
husband who loved his wife will stay. These small details are what
matters in a relationship, not the house, the car, the money in the
bank. All this only creates an environment that you think will lead to
happiness, but really … is not. Try to keep your marriage happy, share
this story on your wall, you may be saving a marriage. All the stories
of failure are equal; they give up when they are about to enter to
success. We do not know what we have until we lose it…
If you are married or if you are still single, we hope this made you think a little.
MMM is trending here in Nigeria.
Every week, I get an average of five invites across all social media
platforms to join the MMM ‘movement’. In the unlikely event that you
have not heard of MMM, having just emerged from a cave to miraculously
run into this article, MMM is a platform which in summary claims to
operate a mutual aid programme requesting participants to provide money
to others and promising returns of 30% of such monies after 30 days.
It is a global platform touted as a Ponzi scheme
(as it obviously is) and reported to be operated by Sergei Mavrodi, a
Russian jailed in his home country in the late 1990’s when his earliest
schemes ripped Russians millions of Dollars and led to multiple
suicides.
Sergei Mavrodi
The Nigerian adaptation is an ingenious creation displaying an
understanding of the culture, beliefs and thought processes of the
typical Nigerian. Its model stands out as a lesson for all entrepreneurs
looking to push their products into new markets.
Apart from these lessons however I have had the opportunity to
discuss the platform with colleagues and there seems to be no debate on
the status of the platform as a Ponzi Scheme as it does tick all boxes.
See here for hints.
Regardless of its status as a Ponzi scheme however, I still get
people telling me how it is still a useful source of quick cash before
it crashes. For the following reasons, this position as pragmatic as it
sounds does not quite resonate with me and, I believe, a lot of
entrepreneurs out there trying to build a product.
Promise of big money consistently with little work
Entrepreneurs know that there are of course things that you can do to make money
without having to work all that hard. But, it’s just not possible for
everyone who joins a business to be able to make so much returns without
working. Making money takes work. Entrepreneurs also know that NO
business on earth can consistently provide such returns. Businesses have
ups and downs simple.
The Principle of value
Real entrepreneurs understand that real wealth is generated from the
creation of value and not from instantaneous windfalls resulting from
concocted trade-offs. They understand the paradox of the lottery
winner…money minus value does not equal wealth.
Understanding Money
Real entrepreneurs understand that money is really not valuable in
itself. It is valuable because people agree to make it a medium of
exchange for REAL value. Its utility lies in its use as current (hence
currency) for the movement of value thereby obviating the need for
barter. A system running merely on the exchange of money for profit is
nothing but a SCAM. Participating in such a system like that only lends
credence to the scam.
Not an investment
I have heard people liken the MMM system to investing in shares. The
comparison is laughable. When an investor buys shares, he is taking
real risks to contribute into an entity that undertakes in the creation
of some sort of value.
Investing in shares takes careful thought, analysis, and
assessment. He does not expect consistent returns. By buying shares, the
investor expresses faith in the vision of the company and faith in the
management to execute the vision. It takes knowledge to avoid serious
burns. So NO, MMM is not comparable to investing in shares.
The issue of focus
Entrepreneurs are busy trying to create and perfect systems, solve
problems, devise innovative answers to challenges. They are bound to
look at a get rich quick scheme as a mere distraction in terms of the
time and resources to be expended into chasing a venture that provides
no ultimate value addition to themselves or the society.
The moral question
If you are sure that a system is a scam propped up by the resources
of naïve but trusting participants being manipulated by experienced
“confidence men” with an uncanny understanding of human greed and a
history of taking advantage of it, would you still support it with your
money?
The understanding of risk
Proponents of the scheme tout the cliché; “Nothing ventured, nothing
gained” because it paints the contrarian picture of a daring risk taker.
Entrepreneurs however understand the difference between gambling and
enlightened risk taking. A gamble is taken without the understanding or
control of the variables which determine the desired outcome.
Investing involves enlightened risk taking premised on an
understanding of key variables and a reasonable grasp of possible
eventualities. If I commit to give my money to a scheme over which I
have no control, because of returns of which I have no sight, I am not
investing, I am gambling.
The times are hard. Nigerians are seeing the MMM scheme as some sort
of saviour from the harsh realities of the current recession despite the
obvious signs that it is not. To all those who cannot resist the
temptation of quick easy cash, please proceed with extreme caution. To
all those who do not participate in the scheme as a matter of principle,
know that you are not alone.
We have come a long way from flying in Googlers
outside Africa to facilitate our events, to speaker sessions, and today we are
using local speakers for even a more technical events across Africa.
The Nigerian technology community is waxing stronger
through collaboration and community-powered initiatives. I base my
submissions on DevFest 2016 Season experiences across Nigerian Google Developer
Groups (GDGs).
Women Techmakers
GDG DevFests are large, community-run events that can
offer speaker sessions across multiple product areas, all-day hackathons, code
labs, and more. The official DevFest Season runs from September 1 through
November 30.
As a Country Mentor to Google Developer Groups in
Nigeria, I worked with my co-Mentor Femi Taiwo, GDG Leads and the Developer
Relations Team at Google Aniedi Udo-Obong and Charles Odili to plan and ensured
a successful clustered #DevFest16 in Nigeria.
Participants
We came up with strategies to ensure a more technical
event by raising the bar a notch higher in terms of technical contents, quality
of speakers and presentations, code-labs, Branding and packaging. This landed
us with 7 DevFests across Nigeria.
Host
Chapters
DevFest16 was held in clusters across geo-political
regions in Nigeria.
DevFest South West - Lagos
DevFest South West – EKSU, Ado-Ekiti
DevFest South South and South East – Port Harcourt
DevFest North East – Bauchi
DevFest North West – Kano
DevFest North Central – Abuja
DevFest Taraba - Jalingo
We had Delta State DevFest Roadshow, Asaba which was used to create awareness in the newly opened Delta State Innovation Hub.
Aniedi Udo-Obong (Googler), Prosper (GDE) and Hanson (Country Mentor)
Just like last year, we adopted the clustered approach
where GDGs within a region came together to organize their own DevFest instead
of everyone going to Lagos or having their own individual event in their single
chapter. In a situation where a chapter will travel more than 4-5 hours to the
hosting chapter, such chapter was encouraged to host their own event.
Participation
This year’s DevFest had 10% increase in women
participation. Port Harcourt recorded 1000+ participants, Ekiti State
University 600+, Lagos 350 and so on.
Speakers
We had Googlers within Nigeria, Google Developer Experts
in Nigeria, Entrepreneurs, Software Engineers and Software Developers who
handled various topics and code-labs on Firebase, Android, Progressive Web
Apps, Android Studio, AppEngine, Machine Learning, Robotics and Becoming a
World Class Developer. Developers and entrepreneurs also demoed their products and startups.
Hanson Johnson - GDG Nigeria Country Mentor
Prof. Nimi Briggs, Former VC UniPort
with Aniedi Udo-Obong, Programme Manager at Google
Segun Famisa, Android Developer at Konga
Jude Ben, Founder ShareCube facilitating Firebase Session on Android
Emem Akpanekpo, Founder/CEO Scholar demoing to Prof. Nimi Briggs
Alexander of SDN
Breakout Session
Benefits
People often ask me, how do you benefit from all this events you organize? My answer is always; I am a social entrepreneur, I pursue
innovative ideas with the potential to solve a community problem. As
long as the positive impact we are creating is felt, I am good. We also
benefited from DevFest as follows:
We had new GDG members.
Newbies learned how to get started programming.
People got associated with mentors
Entrepreneurs met partners and co-founders
The quality of our events and delivery got improved from feedback.
Developers learned how to make their apps smarter with Machine Learning.
Firebase and Progressive Web Apps were made simple.
Fans of Android Development smiled home with tools to help them
facilitate their learning process even when there is no internet.
People had a platform to demo their products.
We made new friends
What Next?
Many people indicated interest to get started
programming while some wanted to join the community to have access to tools,
right information and people to collaborate with. I will recommend the
following in strengthening our local ecosystem:
We should come up with strategies to welcome and
accommodate women. For instance, event topics should not be too techie to scare
female participation.
We should be more open in our dealings within the
participating chapters.
Inter-chapter collaborations should be encouraged.
There is need for a national virtual community to
accommodate developers, encourage collaboration and innovation.
Each chapter should have a sustainable system that can
welcome newbies and make them intermediates.
Events should be planned to accommodate all categories
of developers from Newbies, Intermediates to experts.
Intermediates and Experts should not be ignored either as they are
in critical stages of either getting jobs or bootstrapping their
startups.
What else am I suppose to recommend? Please add yours in the comment section.
I leave you with this reunion piece by PSquare because of my wish for you in 2017 tech year.
With the Nigerian music industry being really fast paced and
demanding a high level of energy, one would expect the industry to be
filled with either teenagers or performers in their early/ mid 20s.
However, there are performers in today’s music industry who are in
their 40s and are still keeping up and matching the energy and
activities of their younger colleagues in the music business.
While people say “Life begins at 40”, others would say: “a fool at 40 is a fool forever”. Having said this we profile 5 Nigerian musicians who are either 40 or close to the mature age. Like fine wine, these ones seem to be getting better with time.
They are: 2Baba
What can we say about 2Baba? You know the whole story. This pioneer put forth a huge concert – The Fortified concert to celebrate his 40th birthday last year. 2Baba, born in 1975 turned 41 on September 18th.
He has so far released 3 singles this year: Officially Blind, Mr Senator and Babylon featuring M.I Abaga.
Sound Sultan
Sound Sultan and 2Baba are contemporaries; they’ve been that way since the days of the Plantashun boiz and the old Kennis music. The Naija ninjas boss will turn 40 come November 27th. We don’t know if like his friend 2Baba, he’ll organize a concert to celebrate the big four and a zero. Timaya
Enetimi Alfred Odion aka Timaya was born on November 29th
1977. While he’s not 40 yet, Timaya is 2 years away from the ripe old
age of adulthood. Timaya has managed to churn out enough club bangers
that sees the ladies vehemently shaking their “ukwus” you would think such great works could only have come from a very mischievous young lad in his 20s. Kcee
The Limpopo crooner, Kcee has been in the music scene for a long
time. Aged 37, he was part of the music crew KC Presh which was formed
after the duo emerged winners at the Star quest competition. Fun fact:
Did you know Kcee is actually an elder brother to E-money? E-money is
the financial backbone of Kcee’s record label 5 star music group. JJC SKillz
Born April 4, 1977 as Abdul Rasheed Bello, JJC was a
prominent member of the UK afrobeat scene that saw to the discovery of
prominent acts D’Banj and Don Jazzy. JJC married actress Funke Akindele
of the Jenifa fame.
The list could go on and on but we’ll let you decide on what acts over 40 you think are doing great.
The Nigerian adaptation is an ingenious creation displaying an
understanding of the culture, beliefs and thought processes of the
typical Nigerian. Its model stands out as a lesson for all entrepreneurs
looking to push their products into new markets.
