Buhari marks National Day with Army in Maiduguri
The political undercurrents, which precede every ballot, sprouting bile partisanships, crafted and disseminated by a few opportunistic, opposing politicians would have skipped me.
At such times, less thoughtful personalities usually find themselves in the dilemma of sieving the chaff from the grains. A volley of mounting media hype, from motley of propagandists and antagonists, assail the senses. They doggedly and determinedly scheme to peel the skin off every public office holders.
It’s usually a season of blatant lies and falsehood, freely hurled, as some vulnerable Nigerians easily forget the realities of yesterday by the anointment of the falsehood of today. And lethal critics set out to chain the genuine convictions of the gullible.
President Muhammadu Buhari is receiving enough of the senseless bashings. When the opposing assailants cannot get his voice or convince Nigerians, they shift grounds to his focal appointees, assisting his salvation mission of Nigeria.
The Nigerian Army has come under such senseless fireworks from these arm -charm critics. I hear pleasant internal voices praising soldiers led by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and leader of the counter-insurgency war, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai for assisting civil security in restoring peace and security to hitherto troubled parts of the country. The voices are loud and razor-sharp in appreciation.
I have chosen lately to admire the Nigerian Army as one cannot afford to be left out of another selfless deed to take back Nigeria from its enemies within and outside. I have decided to undertake a special inquest into the reasons our military is being celebrated across the globe and in specific terms how Gen. Buratai’s leadership of the Nigerian Army has consistently posted rewarding results in the war against terror.
The world is at best overwhelmed with victories songs and the defeat of Boko Haram terrorists. And the winning streaks of Buratai’s foot soldiers have effectively berthed in both north and south poles of Nigeria against all subsisting and budding terrorists sects and their activities against humanity.
A voyage into Gen. Buratai’s leadership of Nigeria’s most priced armed force, the Nigerian Army, revealed very interesting insights. I discovered that his magic yesterday, today and tomorrow has remained his prioritization of troops welfare. Expectedly, Nigerian troops in the warfront have replicated his leadership splendor with loyalty, patriotism, zeal and courage, resulting in the series of victories against all acts of terror or local armed conflicts, previously at the cusp of pulling down Nigeria’s sovereignty.
Some Nigerians may doubt me. But history does not lie. Experiences do not peddle falsehood, but invade the conscience indelibly. We have seen or heard Nigerian troops in the battlefield against terrorists committing mutiny, by not only disobeying their field Commanders, but pulling the trigger against them in rebellion. Nigeria has experienced its worse, as Nigerian troops effeminately retreated from the battlefield field against insurgents.
Much more, we heard tales of Nigerian soldiers femininely scampering to take shelter in foreign lands and dumped their weapons; they became unwanted guests to communities and villages in the republic of Cameroon. And at the heart of this physical and psychological revolt was the issue of neglected welfare of soldiers in the warfront.
But Lieutenant General Buratai has changed the narrative in the last two years. Nigerian soldiers prefer to now sacrifice their life gallantly than bid a retreat to Boko Haram terrorists in the field of battle. This is because they have seen reason to live for our country. Our troops have successfully navigated previously dreaded Boko Haram enclaves, like the Sambisa forest. These parriotic officers and soldiers under Gen. Buratai do not wait to swear on the shrine of their ancestors, before responding to distress calls from communities trapped by insurgents like in the recent case of Madagali LGA in Adamawa state. They move with the speed of a thunderbolt.
And Gen. Buratai’s secret for commanding a loyal, patriotic and effective Army is his unpretentious focus and expeditious treatment of welfare issues affecting soldiers. He did not only imbibe the philosophy of famed Chinese war leader, strategist and tactician, Gen. Sun Tzu, but has exhibited mastery of its application for best results. This Great War philosopher believed that “The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.”
Therefore, Buratai’s preparation of troops for war deployed many known and unknown strategies. And welfare was key to his pre-war plans, having imbibed Sun Tzu’s philosophy that “Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.”
This quintessential Army Chief has accorded attention and handled troops’ welfare as his first and last cardinal weapon against the enemy. His emphasis on welfarism has impacted positively on the psyche of Nigerian troops both in the Northeast and in other parts of the country, where troops are engaged in special assignments and military operations.
Military strategists brand this disposition as military-welfarism, which has effectively served as a potent tool anywhere in the world towards achieving higher goals and objectives in warfare. He has used it to successfully tread on grounds, where others failed.
When I freed my instincts and delved into dissecting the foresight and vision of Lieutenant General Buratai upon assumption of duty as COAS, it stared at me that he inherited an Army in complete shambles and disheveled. He could not get his mind off the dire necessity to re-professionalize, re-discipline and re-orientate the Nigerian Army. The results are the global accolades and encomiums that President Buhari has continued to receive from Nigerians and the diplomatic circle.
The Army boss introduced reforms that have evidently raised the portrait of the Nigerian Army to admirable levels. He has been able to instill the culture of respect and dignity into the institution, as reflected in its cordiality with other arms of the Nigerian military and security agencies in Nigeria. It is the tonic for the seamless field operations which have raised the bars for Nigeria on the global map of war against terrorism. Respect and subordination to civil authority and the sanctity for the respect of human rights of Nigerians is in its historic all-time high, with a functional Human Rights Desk at the Army headquarters, Abuja.
The Army Chief untied the knot to the months of cumulative unpaid salaries to Nigerian troops on the warfront or any other destination in Nigeria and abroad. The operational allowances that became the pepper bonus for top military officers are now paid to troops regularly and promptly. His leadership became the guardian angel to families of Nigerian soldiers. He regularly met and interacted with them at different military formations, and remedied problems that should have ordinarily been the responsibility of their spouses.
At the warfront, Nigerian soldiers witnessed new levels of courtship in welfare. Soldiers injured in battle were given swift medication attention. Military hospitals in military formations across the country were instantly rehabilitated and stocked with drugs and other medical accessories for excellent medicare services to soldiers and their families. Any Nigerian soldier unfortunately gunned down by the bullets of the enemy was accorded dignified burial and their families consoled by the Nigerian Army in multiple ways.
The establishment of a housing scheme that would enable every soldier that served in the counter-terrorism campaigns to retire into a personal home after years of meritorious service to fatherland is one of the hallmarks of his sterling leadership . There are rare welfare incentives that can only take rare foresight and extraordinary vision to conceive.
The impact on the morale and psyche of troops on the warfront has been evidently tremendous. It explains why the streak of victories against insurgents has been sustained. It is the chief reason for the fruitless attempts by Boko Haram to bounce back to reckoning. Terrorists spirited efforts to reclaim territories in Nigeria have been met with stiff resistance and rebuffed with equal and higher measure of strength by Nigerian troops.
In effect, under Lieutenant General Buratai, the Nigerian Army has ventured into new realms of knowledge and exploits in warfare, which are likely not to escape the attention of Wikipedia’s grandeur collection of words and axioms from the battlefield for posterity. And the singular reason would be Nigerian Army’s uncommon exploits and amazing defeat of terrorism, which the entire world has deployed its best brains in war laboratories and research institutes to evolve strategies to unravel.
What other nations under the spell of terrorism for decades could not achieve, the Nigerian Army has impressively conquered the world of Boko Haram terrorism very speedily. Gen. Buratai has remained for me an enigmatic soldier in military-welfarism; his unsung formula for victories in terrorism warfare.
Okpabi, a post-graduate student of Peace, Conflict and Strategy Studies at Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja and can be reached at Ezegwuokpabi@gmail.com
The post Troops Welfarism as Buratai’s Art of War appeared first on Within Nigeria.
The industry has undergone a huge transformation over the last years with the birth and growth of streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, etc. By making it very easy to access their content from almost any conceivable device and very competitive prices, they are not only changing the way we consume entertainment (Who doesn’t like binge watching an entire season on Netflix?) but also changing the industry all together by literally taking over it, stepping into territory that had been dominated for decades by the traditional Hollywood studios; fear is afoot.
Crisis, however, is not necessarily bad; With huge amounts of money being invested in content development every year (Netflix invested an estimated amount of 8 billion dollars in development in 2017 alone) these companies have been able to create wildly successful shows that have left audiences asking for more all over the world. Some of these companies have even gone as far as setting up a lot of productions outside the U.S. for other markets such as South America. For instance, Netflix recently announced its intention to produce 10 different original content shows in Argentina for their 2018 lineup among others.
To get a different understanding of the repercussions of such developments we recently spoke to Argentinean Actor Federico Cibils who has lived in the U.S. for many years now but who spent a big part of his life there.
‘What a time to be alive for actors everywhere’, he says. ‘This is a topic of enormous complexity as the changes that we see in the way we consume entertainment and the kind of content that we consume are a mere reflection of much more profound social and cultural changes worldwide’, he explains. It is inevitable in an era of instant and massive communication that we mutate every year to a more homogeneous global culture, conserving a unique set of traditions, but with common values, goals and ways of life. As times goes by an increasing amount of people identify with the characters and the themes of the shows and thus the global audience grows.
As I actor I feel this presents enormous opportunity for everyone in the entertainment industry as the ever-growing number of productions by these streaming services create opportunities all over the United States and abroad as well.
For U.S. based actors, the rules of the game are changing a lot as new hubs of production develop quickly outside of California but also because of the decision of these companies to incorporate more “new and unknown” talent than ever before. Today your career can take a drastic change for the better if you land a part in a production of these new powerhouses for your potential audience is the entire world. Actors outside of the United States stand to benefit as well as big productions are being set up in countries all over the world. I’m not saying these countries such as my own don’t have a rich cinematographic history; they do. But the quality and amount of productions is bound to rise as these productions have more resources, better access to new technologies and a much bigger audience.
And here is exactly where I think the big opportunity for Hollywood is. More so than any other place in the world, Hollywood possesses cutting edge technical knowledge and creative vision. It probably has the highest concentration of directors, writers, producers and other industry related professionals in the world. The Mecca of filmmaking. In this capacity, Hollywood could take its right place as mentor and model for the rest of the world exporting all of these services and knowledge that it has, if it can refrain from fighting to keep the productions here. It could even manage to move part of those productions to its territory if, Hollywood as a whole, took a more active interest in developing these new markets and had a more open and friendly approach to outsiders since it already has some of the best infrastructure for it.
Recently Federico completed the film “Time Speech” in the role of Adam alongside co-star and Emmy winner Nick Moss; This upcoming film was local development by Brazil based production company Cinemakers. This is just one of a few examples of what I’m talking about; there is plenty of interest of producing content for other markets here in California in the realms of Hollywood, but there are many others that just have not been able to make it happen over bureaucratic reasons or costs
Hollywood is still “The” place to be for filmmaking, but it doesn’t adapt, the question is for how long?
The post Streaming services and the changes that is bringing about to Hollywood appeared first on Within Nigeria.
Fero Royale X2 is an elegant smartphone that seems to have buyers in the midrange segment of the market in sight. It flaunts an attractive design, an eye-catching battery with fast charge support, and a fingerprint sensor.
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Although Fero may not be a familiar name in the Android device market, the company produces an Android phone here that looks like what you’d expect from the more popular companies. It parades an all-metal unibody and the design makes it one that will be a joy to hold. The Fero Royale X2 boasts a curvy feel with 2.5D curved glass in the mix.
You will find a 5.2-inch display on the front of the Fero Royale X2. This puts it in the same class as the Xperia R1, size wise. The display uses IPS technology and has HD resolution. Dragontrail glass on the surface offers protection against scratches.
CameraThe Fero Royale X2 seems to have it going with what it offers in the camera department. It packs a 13MP primary shooter featuring 5P Largan lens, f/2.2 aperture, and dual LED flash. There is a night-scene mode for improved image capturing in dark settings.
High quality selfies appear realistic on this one, with an 8MP sensor donning the front. This camera has an 84-degree wide-angle lens for capturing more people into a shot. An integrated moonlight flash feature enhances quality in dim environment.
Hardware and SoftwareSomehow, Fero decided that a quad-core processor running at a maximum speed of 1.25 GHz is the right choice for the Royale X2. This is somewhat disappointing. But there is respectable 3 GB of RAM to provide extra boost in performance.
The phone offers 32 GB of onboard storage. It is not clear if you’d be able to expand this. The operating system of choice in the Fero Royale X2 is Android 7 Nougat.
Other Specs and FeaturesA headline feature of the Fero Royale X2 is the battery. This juicer boasts a capacity of 4,000 mAh. You can expect several hours of gaming, music playback and internet browsing from this one, considering the display and choice of processor. Fero Royale X2 boasts fast charging as well.
You can have peace of mind on the security of your data with the provision of a fingerprint scanner. Interestingly, Fero says you can link different fingers to different apps.
Pricing and availabilityFero Royale X2 is available in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. You can buy the affordable LTE phone at leading online stores in the countries. Fero Royale X2 Price in Nigeria ranges from 43,000 Naira to 55,000 Naira depending on your location in Nigeria.
The Fero Royale X2 Price in Kenya starts at around 11,999 KSh.
Here are a few specs of the Fero Royale X2:
General Features Platform: Android 7.0 (Nougat) Processor: Quad-core Processor: 1.25GHz A53 (MTK6737) GPU: ARM T720 Memory: 3GB RAM Colours: Gold, Mocha Gold Dimension: 148 x 71.9 x 8.5 mm Weight: 180 g SIM Type: Micro-SIM, Nano-SIM SIM Count: Dual SIM, Dual stand-by Display Display: 5.2 inch, HD IPS On-cell Multi touchscreen, 16M colors, 720 x 1280 pixels Screen Protection: 2.5D curved glass Camera Rear Camera: 13.0 MP Camera, f/2.2, 1080p HD Video@30fps Rear Camera Features: 5P Largan lens, Dual LED flash, HDR, autofocus, Geo-tagging, ISO, Panorama Front Camera: 8.0 MP Camera, f/2.4 Storage Built-in Storage: 32 GB Memory Card Support: Yes, up to 128GB Bundled Cloud Storage: – Network Support 2G GSM: Yes 2G CDMA 1X: – 3G WCDMA: Yes 3G CDMA EVDO: – 4G LTE: Yes Internet & Connectivity GPRS: Yes EDGE: Yes 3G/WCDMA/HSPA: Yes HSPA+: Yes CDMA EVDO: – 4G LTE: Yes WLAN: Yes, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Hotspot: Yes Bluetooth: Yes, Bluetooth v4, A2DP NFC: No Infrared Blaster: No USB Port: Yes, microUSB Messaging SMS/MMS: Yes Instant Messaging: Yes Push Emails: Yes Email Protocol: – Entertainment Music Player: MP3/WAV/eAAC/FlAC player Video Player: DivX/Xvid/Mp4/H.265 Player FM Radio: Yes Loudspeaker: Yes 3.5mm Jack: Yes Navigation Navigation: Yes, with A-GPS Maps: Yes Sensors & Control Digital Compass: Yes Accelerometer: Yes Proximity Sensor: Yes Light Sensor: Yes Barometer: No SpO2: No Pedometer: No Heart Rate Monitor: No Gyroscope: No Fingerprint Scanner: Yes (Front) Iris Scanner: No Face Unlock: No Intelligent Digital Assistant: – Motion Sensing / Gesture Control: – Voice Control: – Other Features Video Streaming: Yes Active Noise Cancellation: Yes Wireless Charging: No Built-in Mobile Payment: No Water Resistant: No Dust Resistant: No Image Editor: Yes Video Editor: Yes Document Viewer: Yes Document Editor: – Battery Battery: 4000 mAh Li-Po Battery (Non Removable) Talktime: – Standby Time: – Fast Charging: YesThe post Fero Royale X2 Specs and Price appeared first on Nigeria Technology Guide.
