What better way to capture the moment than this?

The first prize winning photo in the Spot News Singles category of the 2007 World Press Photo Contest, by Reuters photographer Akintunde Akinleye, shows a man rinsing soot from his face after a gas pipeline explosion in Lagos, Nigeria December 26, 2006. The prize-winning entries were announced on February 9, 2007.

A Nigerian man rinses soot from his face at the scene of a petroleum gas pipelineexplosion near Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos, Tuesday, December 26, 2006.

A ruptured petroleum pipeline burst into flames while scavengers were collectingfuel from the underground pipeline punctured overnight by an armed gang whosiphoned fuel into road tankers, leaving behind a stream of stray petroleumgasoline for hundreds of resident scavengers. The Red Cross said the fire killedat least 269 people and injured dozens that were trapped and burnt on the groundnext to a ramshackle automobile workshop and a saw-mill in the densely populateddistrict of Abule-Egba, an outskirt of Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos.

Nigeria, Africa oil giant, is the eight largest producer of crude oil in theworld and its earnings soared by the rise in the world market, allowing it tobuild up to 40 billion US Dollars by the end of 2006; but it is also one of theworld poorest countries with a large number of its 140 million people enduringextreme poverty amid widespread graft that makes a handful of people wealthy.This inequality motivates those who sabotage oil pipelines and the villagers whopilfer the fuel for sale in the black market where it is sold three-fold.
While the response of the emergency fire service equipped with leaking water hosesdelayed, other villagers assisted in using water collected in buckets, to subduethe fire that lasted four hours.

Akintunde Akinleye Reuters, Lagos, Nigeria.

Akintunde Akinleye (36), Nigeria, started in photography at high school, later graduating with a Bachelor of Education degree in Social Studies from Ondo State University. He enrolled at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, for a post-graduate diploma in Journalism in 1999, and in 2003 completed a master's degree in educational technology at the University of Lagos. Later in 2003 he was employed as a staff photographer on Nigeria's Daily Independent, moving on to a job at Reuters in 2005. He has had work published in such newspapers as such as The Washington Post, International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In 2005 Akintunde was a participant of the first photojournalism course organized by World Press Photo in cooperation with the Nigerian Institute for Journalism. In January 2007, he had a solo exhibition at the gallery of the School of Art, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. www.akintunde1.com See Akintunde Akinleye talk about his work. Click here to start the flash film

BIG BROTHER AFRICA 2

Lights, Camera, Action! The show is on! Everybody is glued to thier TV screens. The Much awaited second season of the Big Brother Africa Show is back with a bang. It promises to deliver much more entertainment with the competing personalities that were carefully selected from 12 African Countries. For those who wonder why just 12 and not all the African Countries? These are the countries that have much dstv subscribers. Its all about the business behind it isnt it?

The action is on already! Loads of different personalities. Each one unique as they were ushered into the house. Allowed to say quick farewell to family, boyfriend, girlfriend, wife before the door is closed behind him/her for 98 days. Phew! thats a long time of not really being yourself in your real environment and familiar people instead of stark strangers that are out for the same 100k goal.

My fingers are crossed!

See Me See Wahala! Make I send Zenith Bank Reshage Card. Processing Fee Ko Processing Fee Ni

I woke up this morning and as I switched on my Phone, viola! a text message arrives (standard Nokia text message tone). Some times when I hear this text tone, I get excited because its either of two things. A client wants me to meet up with him to give me a job or some other good business news. Not that bad news dont come but for a text message to come through my business mobile line, it must be good especially on a monday morning.

This particular message came into my phone and got my attention immediately. It read like this:

"Congratulations! you have won N150,000.00. Your No. is among the 42 lucky winners of Lacasera Drink Bonanza, Ticket No. V020. Call 07031093502 or 08066859617 to claim your prize."

For a few seconds I was excited! I've never won any bonanza before or anything like it. But wait a minute! I never entered for any Lacasera Bonanza? O-yeah! na wah! for this Naija sef! .

Ok. I decided to play along and see how far it all goes. So I've got a few units on my phone to spare. I called the Number and a guy answered.

Now I dont know how or why this guy had to be sounding like he is from Jand (you know how a deep yoruba accent combiness with a wannabe american accent. His entire A and H are interchanged).

Here is our conversation:

Mr. 419: 'ello. Aow ha you ma frend!'

I said: 'Hello. emm, I got a text this morning that said I should call this number.

Mr. 419: 'Oh! Congratlasions! I shee you ha wan hof the Lacasera lucky winners.'

I said: Yes, Really? ...Ok.

Mr. 419: Ok. The Celebrations is hon now. We will like for you to follow our instructions so has to redeem your prize. So call me back in five minutes.

Click!... and he went off the line.

After like 15 minutes I called him back and he went through the same rehearsed 'ello! aow ha you ma frend. So I told him I was asked to call back.

Mr. 419: 'Congratlations once again! Now lisen carefully to this instruction on aw to redeem your prize of N150,000.00

I said: Am listening.

Mr. 419: We need you to send your name, age, mobile phone no and account No. as text message to this particular no. hand hin hoda for Zenith Bank to process your prize money, you will scratch N3000 Globacom resharge cards and send to this no. By the way Zenith Bank his the official bank that pays the prize money. This hiss to enable Zenith Bank sell the resharge cards and use the money to process your prize money to send to your account.

In my mind, am like: Ekwe! Sweet melody! Sing on broda! Since when did Zenith Bank start stooping so low, abi all na recapitalization techniques?

So I said: Abeg! call me back ma credit do finish so we go fit round up.

He called back!

So I said: Wait a minute Oga! I believe that Zenith Bank as "small a bank"as they are would not want to be collecting recharge cards instead of money as payment for services.

(Even Dundees Do 419. Naija don scatter finish)

Mr. 419: (Full of confidence) Ma frend, you can some over to hour hoffice in No.(somewhere in Lagos) So you can join your fellow celebrants to celebrate.

And I said: I dont Live in lagos (in my mind i said: "Oh! so recharge card no do you, you also wan cut my head and private part wey you go take do juju for money. your fada").

Mr. 419/Ritualist: It will be nice for you to come over so the money will be handed over to you in person. But anyway as you are not in Lagos. Just send the resharge card. No problem.

So I said: Can we do it this way (my naija sense kicking in). I will send my account No. Pay in N147,000 and pay Zenith Bank the remaining N3000. That way its a lot easier for both of us. Better still, just give me N100,000. Take N47,000.00 and give Zenith Bank their 3k. If you no gree for that one, make we split the money 50/50 just give me ma own share i no dey greedy.

Man did I get a click? The loudest for that matter. The line went dead!

MAKING ONLINE MONEY OR STILL THINKING ABOUT IT?

Just coming across one statement on the internet created a whole new quest in me these past weeks. The statement read: "Make money online: work at home and earn more than you could ever get at your present work place". Now i cant remember which site i was on but i was tempted to click on the ad. At that i discovered a whole lot of Work at Home Websites, thousands; millions of them scattered all over. Most of them asking you to part with some cash in exchange for the tips and secrets of internet money making.

That same period i just registered this blog and put up my first post. I stopped everything i was doing and started a 2-week long research that took every spare time i had.

The Goodnews
In all my research i found out that:
1. Yes there are so many avenues one can make money online

2. There are a lot of people making unbelievable amounts of money

3. It is possible to make it just like they are (the gurus)

4. You dont have to pay anybody to get materials to learn with. There are a lot of articles and reviews that talk about the good and bad internet money programs. You just need to take out time doing some reading and research before you ever take a step to getting involved.

The Bad News
1. For some of you who think you just sit there and money comes, its easier said but some hard work would have to go before you reap.

2. There are a lot of scammers that promise you heaven on earth only to leave you with loads of materials that wouldnt be as useful as you doing the research yourself.

3. Most of the "Work at Home" Online jobs are true but are country or region specific. So you will find out that as you are located in Nigeria, you will not be relevant to a Paid Survey that is sponsored by an american firm, for american audience or customer base (Paid Survey is one out of the work at home jobs).

In a nutshell, no matter how we see it, our counterparts out there put in a lot of work and planning towards everythings they do. One very import thing i will leave with you is you might have to spend some money also but make sure you spend some time studying every lead before you spend your money.

I know one out of many ways of making money online that works and that is blogging! So am back to my blog and i intend to make it rich and interesting.

Cheers!

I Found a Giant

Like i wrote on my welcome statement, I would really like to see a generation of Nigerians who are proud to be Nigerians and ever ready to chart a course to making our beloved country greater again.

In my quest to seek out one Giant at a time, I found this giant. Though in a far away country, he has his motherland so dear to his heart as he constantly shows in his blog. Omodudu is a Nigerian Economist living in NY. Read his informal take on the world at Omodudu.com.