ATM CARDS(DEBIT CARDS) ; WHICH IS WHICH?

     This is based on the outcome of my recent research. In the survey,seven out of every ten,eighteen out of every twenty and forty-five out of every fifty Nigerian, did not know the underlying difference amongst the verve,visa and MasterCard debit cards. While the educated rightly note them as debit cards,the parlance ‘ATM card’ is the most widely attributed name to the lay man. Many could not even not the difference in nomenclature let alone the underlying ones. A quick view on wiki’s definition to debit cards; A debit card (also known as a bank card or check card) is a plastic payment card that can be used instead of cash when making purchases. It is similar to a credit card, but unlike a credit card, the money comes directly from the user’s bank account when using a debit card.  The notable difference is that the verve is a local debit card which cannot be used for international transactions, especially online payments while the Visa and MasterCard debit cards serves in the local market and beyond, they can make international payments. More details,
        VERVE CARD
This card was a specially made for the Nigerian market and remains readily and only acceptable in Nigeria. The Verve card allows you to conveniently pay for goods and services on all automated Teller Machines (ATM), Point of Sales(POS), Web, Mobile, Kiosks and bank branches connected to the Interswitch network.
With a Verve card, you can pay Prepaid PHCN bills, pay Dstv bills etc ,buy Virtual Airtime Top-Up, do money transfers to different bank accounts and on the Quickteller platform and more enabled transactions.

VISA CARD
Originally founded as BankAmericard from Fresno, California in 1958, Visa came of age after Bank of America’s 18 year experiment with credit cards was rebranded to Visa in 1976.
Now based in Foster City, California, a corporate restructure created Visa Inc. in 2007. Visa is popularly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange following an Initial Public Offering traded in 2008, listed under the stock shorthand ‘V’.
This card is acceptable internationally. With a Visa Card, you can pay for things on US websites like Amazon or China based websites like Aliexpress. It is also acceptable on most ATMs and for making POS payments. It is as well accepted on Interswitch, powered websites like Quickteller, Jumia and Konga etc

MASTER CARD
     MasterCard was established in 1966 with its product names the Master Charge: The Interbank Card. By 1979 it was renamed MasterCard.
Based in Purchase, New York with its global headquarters in O’Fallon, Missouri, MasterCard was previously structured as a cooperative owned by over 25 thousand financial institutions.
     This card is acceptable internationally just like the Visa card. It’s also accepted locally on interswitch,websites like Quickteller, Konga and Jumia as well as international sites like Amazon and Aliexpress.

NOTE

I.Each of the cards carry electronic chips which should be handled with care.
II.They have validity period and expires with the specified period.
III. They are all polymer(plastic) compounds.
IV. They all come with specific card numbers and three digit CVV numbers.
V. It is directly linked to a given account.
VI. It must be signed by the institution of return before deemed valid.
VII. They are pocket-sized and very portable.

      Credit; Wikipedia
     ©Okoye Ebukris

FEMINISM TAKEN TOO FAR!

    It has turned customary and infact a norm in our society, the persistent hue and outcry by different people who chose or rather still choose to be addressed as gender activists and or conversely as feminists to level the parity between the men and women gender in the society. Now, such outburst of a copied charade is what will bedevil the black continent in decades to come.
      When we chose to imitate every Western standard with no tangible rational, we become the family that called their in- law a waste bin, the whole neighborhood makes such in- law a trash can, they pack and dump in what ever they choose therein. We blame no one for making our heritage dump-sites since we called for it.
When they chose copying the Western style of appearing on men’s apparel, feminism was afar the description. It crept to struggling for equal leadership slot between the men folk and women. Truth has been, the women had for long stood equal with men in such areas these people agitate for. There’s no exception to the constitution barring contest to electoral portfolios upon any gender, everyone can. Why rope the masses who vote with the accusation of negligence to the women folk when they have been approved by constitution as majors to undertake such tasks?
    They will agitate of even answering to their husband’s name, foolery of the greatest degree. Make sure you let him know of such stance before he proceeds with tying the nuptial knots. Don’t enter his apartment with such untoward bearing.
Feminism is nothing but a concept borne of sheer jelousy,greed and inferiority carriage. It is prejudiced and biased view. One that needed scholars to sit round table and research on. If campaign on abuse and domestic violence should be waged, nice,but never this calumny of feminism. Feminism is a revived twenty-first century scam,the movement is yet to give tangible objective.
    © Okoye Ebukris

WISDOM BEYOND KNOWLEDGE

Someone may ask,wherein lay the difference between these two virtues; knowledge and wisdom? The answer remains very much aligned to the question itself. This is because the question is a borne and furnished form of knowledge seeking wisdom.
    A perusal through the dictionary may not be of huge importance, a rather concise definition will do. Knowledge is in having idea(s) pertaining a relative matter whereas wisdom is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight. Is wisdom therefore not more encompassing?
   I’d put it this way instead ; knowledge is having the idea that poverty be, wisdom is applying the odds never to be poor. Knowledge entails knowing fire can cause burns but wisdom is the furtherance to treating the burns when sustained or alternately avoiding the burns if so desired.
    Knowledge is in seeing the world as EVIL,wisdom is in reading it aback as where to LIVE. Ever seen a fire extinguisher? Simple knowledge let you know it can quench fire but wisdom is in using it extinguish fires. People know success exists, those that are wise end up being successful. Know how to wise up.
    ©Okoye Ebukris

THE THREE TRIBES OF HATE

I have been to the north,I have been to the west,in the East have I girded my loins as a youth. Have I not eaten akpu and onubu soup? Have I not priced Ewedu and Amala or you want to shove it to my throat to say I have forgotten the taste of tuwo and shinkafa? Do our people not have it in their proverbs that the traveller is many a time wiser than the grey haired? 
    Now tell me it is otherwise for someone that have spent years processing palm oil, someone that have walked the pathway of cocoa plantation and groundnut farms. This wisdom stems from someone that has said countless good morning in the region from which the sun rises, good afternoon where the scorching sun radiates and good night wherein the sun sets.
    I have trod these parts which we call our area and came to the conclusion that it is not truly "our" area. We are delusional in thinking so wrong. Nigeria is a mere figment of deceit, a geographical entity structured on lies. If not the so visible disunity, disharmony and brewing war among us for scores of years wouldn't be. No matter how they preach the oneness,we know we are afar it.
The hatred that the Hausa has for the Igbo is no child's play, same the Igbo in return,the Yoruba cannot be termed neutral albeit they look the least of the three evils. The disparity is glaring in the face,the Yoruba's,Igbo's and Hausa's have never seen themselves as one. Everything has been falling apart since the creation of the figment.
Nigeria not working has not been because it lacks committed leaders but because it is suffering from an age long defect of tribalism. Few years into our so-called independence, coup and counter coups started sprouting. One thing the people failed to understand was the intent driving these actions. No answer but tribalism, some would not let others lead them because they were not from their tribe although from the same perceived country. This went unabated until it led to the civil war,wonder why it wasn't instead called tribal war. We graduated from that to a yet another mirage,the era of ethnic cleansing, genocide from the north,religious cleansing and marauder's attacks. It is still raging on and getting more ravaging, like the harmattan wildfire.
    The same people that claim to be one see themselves uniquely as Arewas,Oduas and Biafrans but who is deceiving who? These three tribes has hated themselves so much that they can at best be described as having turned enemies of progress to each other.
When one is seemingly doing well,the other asks why it should be that another and not him. He manoeuvres his way to get there and the rest asks the same, works against him and usurps the position yet again. The cycle continues that way,even when we had people of great leadership repute,others had worked against their wonderful policies just because they weren't 'us' . When one is leading, the other works against him. Little wonder the recent threats of making the country ungovernable to someone, the threat of forming parallel government were all part of it.
    Tribalism is the bane that is about destroying Nigeria,the perceived looting and abuse of office which they term corruption cannot. The northern, southern and eastern Nigerian people are people that overtime has refused to blend. When my Father bought Atlas for me,he showed me the rivers Niger and Benue,the confluence and every other thing but told me to go through it and report to him why Nigeria has and is not working. I couldn't decipher such until he told me his reasons, that the main rivers divided Nigeria into three parts that need be on their own. He told me plain of the 1914 amalgamation referring to it as an experiment to bring sand,oil and water together which to him in honesty cannot work. If it must work, then there need be modifications. 
    For the geographical entity Nigeria to work,we would not need transformation or change agenda on anything other than the cause. We would only work on eschewing 'tribalism' amongst us. This is tantamount to impossible if truth need be told,it is something turning in- borne in us all. You know that, I know that, everybody is aware of it. Until then, civil unrest,militancy, insurgency and every of the other name with which we address the end- effect of the cause 'tribalism' , with will not cease.
                   ©Okoye Ebukris
This topic has an addendum..... soon to be uploaded