Month: January 2006

It is unbelievable that this mega Nigerian online community has operated below most peoples radar for so long.  But for the more than twelve thousand Nairaland members, it is a towering monolith that keeps growing everyday.  Nairaland, an online forum for Nigerians founded by Nigerian webmaster Seun Osewa and could be found at www.Nairaland.com.And who is Seun? Seun has been in the online business since 2003.  He started out in web publishing with a weblog about life as a webmaster in Nigeria.  And then, in a bid to help with the GSM customer service crisis, he founded the Mobile Nigeria Forum  a discussion forum for mobile phone users in Nigeria  at www.mobilenigeria.com.

Though Mobile Nigeria was quite successful, the insuppressible spirit in him would not rest or be satisfied.  In March 2005, Seun created the Nairaland Forum and that marked the start of a mega community.  With this feat, Seun is gradually inching his way to join legends such as Tom Anderson of MySpace mythology. Surprisingly, this article is providing more information about Seun than what he has on his personal website, www.seunosewa.com.

Seun is the first child in a family of three. His dad is a pharmacist by profession, who works at the Nigerian German Chemicals Plc.  His mum, also a pharmacist and graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University, is a proprietress.  His post-secondary education consists of a 4 year stint at his parents Alma matter, which ended abruptly in 2002.  He has refused to work for any company, even turning down several job offers, and claims to make a decent living from his website.
 
Nairaland is definitely the largest Nigerian online community, and should also rank among the largest black online communities out there. And if I tell you that Nairaland is full of mad people, believe me!  Mad not because they are roaming the streets naked but because of the explosive creativity and hyperactivity that characterize Nigerian youths on the Internet.

Some outstanding hot jocks include hot-angel, a 16 year old femme fatale who lives in the US. She spends practically all her life on Nairaland, and that explains her 15,000 posts!   Then theres nike4luv and Queenzy – the peacemakers, layi and snazzydawn – the cynosures of all eyes on the land, WesleyanA  teenager with a 30 year old feminist mind, K2DaC  the Photoshop lady and wife of Ramsey Noah, and alheri  a woman whose true life stories are very hard to believe.

The Nairaland borders are inching beyond cyberspace as members are turning into real life friends. Others are calling each other regularly. I bet some members will get married to each other soon and who knows, the marriage may be conducted online!  Its interesting to note that while 3200 members have been active on the forum, the top 10 posters are responsible for 31% of all conversations.  They must be basket mouths! (This writer can never resist a good opportunity to yab someone)

Nairaland is powered by a heavily modified copy of the Simple Machine Forum engine which is based on PHP and MySQL.  Without any advertising, it has picked up about 12500 members, 4850 topics, and180,000 posts in about 10 months.  On a typical weekday, it generates 400,000 hits (50,000 page views) from 7000 visits – very significant for a Nigerian website with no corporate backing.
 
On the Nairaland Forum, members discuss issues like Family and Marriage, Romance and Sexuality, Politics, Business, Career, Education, Health, Religion, Travel, Fashion, Books, Music/Radio, TV/Movies, Jokes etc, Poems, Sports, Games, Computers, Phones, and of course Internet.  There are sections for Developers, Webmasters, Job seekers, and a bulletin board for Adverts.

As the only moderator on the site, Seun often has to wade in to instill discipline as members, like everyday people, often cant resist the temptation to get unruly.  For example theres a really annoying brat who lives in the US, an Ivorian who comes to the board to threaten the life of Nigerians over President Obasanjos interference in their country, and several Niger Delta and Ibo youths who seem to believe that the spilling of more blood will bring prosperity to their people.

And where is Nairaland going from here? I dont really know as that is closely guarded by Seun but based on his antecedents, it is probably something explosive.

So when you are less busy and you need to unwind; head to Nairaland and get yourself a citizenship.

Do you know that more people go to the BBC website than the CNN website? Interesting find out more at http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=lang&lang=en

Someone toiled nights and day to write a lovely piece of blogging software (powering this website) and gave it out for free. Then another person woke up one day, stole the code and started reselling it as his own.

What do you call such a person? A mad man. A donkey with 2 legs.

The person is Ray Horn. Read more about what he did.

Today will mark the begining of a new life as my new baby girl gets a name.

She was named Adeolu Oluwadarasimi Oluwabusolami Oreoluwa Oluwapelumi Oluwanifesimi Oluwato’oni Naomi Deji-Olowe. Pretty long name but you can be sure some will drop along the line. Expect the short name to be Deolu Dara Deji-Olowe.The day started as usually with me running all over the place buying this and that. The mum was not left out too. So many came around to help. Thanks to Nike ‘Terror’ Adeyemo who was the commander in chief of the home forces. Special thanks to Mama Otta (Mrs Adeyemo), Sanjo ‘Hammed’ Olowe, Mrs Oyindamola Esan (My mother’s first girl), Sade Adeyemo, Mrs Mo, Yetunde Adebanjo, Moyo, Ireti Popoola, Mrs Sade Oluyemi, Abdulahi the naughty gateman, Debola Lewis (Yinkus Rentals).

The naming proper was cool. My boss, Sina Joseph and a colleague, Lekan Omodara, were pastors for the day. Seems God’s got many guys in my department. We had a live band to sing for us. Some days, KSA will lulu si wa n’ibadi’. Nike ‘Terror’ Adeyemo had her friends who brought drinks and helped out.

I was so tripped and misty-eyed about how people came around to help and all the gifts and money they gave to the baby girl. I have never been that nice to anyone like that. It made me take another look at my life with a determination to be a nicer person. My mother’s sisters actually came all the way from Ibadan. Man, I flipped!!!!

Some of my friends made the cut. Guys like John ‘Johnene’ Ntekume, James ‘The Mad’ Crown, Sanmi ‘Shorty’ Oguntominiyi, Lekan Sule, Moses ‘The Menace’ Ayoola, Morka ‘MorkaE’ Emmanuel and wife, Tope ‘Oga Tope’ Ojo, Adeola Oladeji and wife, Bose Ayelotan, Bukola, Bimbo Adeyemo, Alison Egwu, Kenneth ’10K in 1989′, Dayo Akadiri, Mariam Beyiku, Dire and Ayo Haastrup, Nnamdi ‘Rubber Punk’ Okafor, Tayo ‘Omoba’ Aileru, Ekene, Yetunde ‘Mama Ademi’ Adebanjo, Kunle and Nina Adaba, Mrs and Mrs Babajide, and so many people that I can’t get to mention all.

And to all my friends that didn’t come, Ojomo, Niran, Obiz, Yemi Ojo, etc. They can be sure am gonna fry their arse for that somedays. Just kidding. I understand.

The day didn’t finish without its quirks too. NEPA was mad, and my gen decided to act up. The pastors didn’t come on time. My wife wouldn’t want to dance. The servers were serving only water! Man, I almost went gaga but it was fun all the way.

Now that my baby’s got a name, I guess am back in business…

nThat Gbenga Obasanjo has stirred up the hornet’s nest is no news but have you read the rest of the interviews? Just plain juicy. Read it all at The Nigerian Village.