Sunday 5 May 2013

Greatness Comes With Obsession ~ by Famuyide Olawale


Greatness Comes With Obsession ~ by Famuyide Olawale

As usual, I came on twitter to see what is happening around me, sincetwitter has become my news and learning app. Then, I saw these tweets from @omojuwa and they got me thinking.
Hard not to get what you daily obsess about if your obsession is backed with effort” – Omojuwa
Sir Alex Ferguson keeps winning because he is obsessed with winning. Greatness comes with its obsessions” -Omojuwa
Arsene Wenger only needs to be obsessed with winning a trophy as he is with getting a top 4 finish” – Omojuwa
What readily come to your mind when you hear the wordOBSESSION? Is it the image a guy who can get enough a lady? A higher percentage of people believe that obsession is evil, dirty vice. Obsession is a powerful force that gives focus and clarity.
Life also has activation costs. There are many pursuits that require a minimum threshold of effort to make any improvement at all. Getting over that activation hurdle is often the hardest part.  In order to attain the desirable success, I need to be temporarily obsessed with that idea of success. Healthy obsession that often leads instead to success.
My obsession for success is my ability to devotes the major portion of my conscious thoughts and efforts to the attainment of reaching my goal.
My Definite Purpose became more than a mere wish; it became my Burning Desire! Am so willed so succeed, so obsessed with the idea of success, it’s what drives me to be more than I initially want to be.
The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.” Napoleon Hill
Becoming obsessed in your goal will make you more and more invested in your goal, and direct all of your energies towards its achievement as quickly as possible. I need to be totally engrossed with my object of obsession so as to create a spark of success. The movement upward gains speed and acceleration to achieve the result, fuel by my commitment, thereby becoming more efficient and persistent in reaching my desirable destination. My obsession is where my priority lies, it where I derive to energy to accelerate toward my goal.
When you develop an obsession for your lifes assignment, your success will become automatic and unstoppable” – unknown.
Whatever you focus on long enough, literally becomes the reality that you create.
Wriiten by: Famuyide Olawale. @famuyideolawale on twitte

OPINION: Poverty in Nigeria – Two factors we should never blame ~ by Richard Chilee


OPINION: Poverty in Nigeria – Two factors we should never blame ~ by Richard Chilee
On my flight from Abuja to Port Harcourt, this intelligent lady engaged me in a conversation about the reasons Nigeria is still poor. She centred her argument on two major factors – foreign aid and colonialism. According to her, the British government have not given enough aid to appease the ills done to Nigeria during the colonial era and that the colonial masters are the cause of our problems.
As sound as her argument was, I vehemently disagreed.
I believe that any discussion that centres on Nigeria’s poverty, with respect to foreign aid, has to consider its relationship with the rest of the world. In Africa, there has been little correlation between foreign aid and rapid growth. Most countries that receive lots of foreign aid do not always perform better than those that received practically nothing. Why is this so?
One reason is that foreign aid keeps governments lazy and dependent; it also kills their drive for work which is the greatest means of survival and building sustainable developments.
Another reason is that rapid growth is not always the donors’ first priority while giving these aids, even where they are,  it ends up in the pockets of some thieving politicians who divert these monetary aid to their own use rather than energetically pursuing sustainable developments.
What Nigeria need is qualitative trade and investments, not monetary aids. Trade and investment are better than foreign aids. Rich countries should tear down their trade barriers to boost trade with our markets. Trade allows specialization on a larger scale and countries increasingly prosper through these specialization.
When these trades and investments come into Nigeria, they will surely come with qualitative ideas too. With no foreign competition, local firms have no one to learn from and little incentive to make their own products better. Better trades bring new products which could be taken apart and be copied by local companies.  Foreign direct investments spread and encourage skills and technology.
In South Africa, Chrysler and BMW have a building plant which trains South African engineers and transfer expertise to local suppliers. This is what we need in Nigeria. But before then, we have to create the enabling atmosphere for trade and investment. There is a huge correlation between openness to trade and economic growth. Trade openness boosts a country’s growth and productivity.
However, it would be too simplistic to cut out foreign aid entirely. If we must receive aids, donors must make sure their suggestions are carefully evaluated; projects must be approved if only the receivers could demonstrate that they are sustainable, as Botswana did with their diamond bonus. Aid programmes must be transparent as shown by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Donors must come and inspect the project and observe how their money is being spent.
On colonialism
Like my lady friend in the plane, many Nigerians think that the colonial masters are the major cause of our poverty because of the 1914 amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorate. This pattern of erroneous thinking is what I consider one of the greatest impediments to our development; it has also kept us from taking responsibility for our own actions.  I hear this argument from various facets of the Nigerian environment, from academicians to political activists to lawyers and journalists. In secondary school, my government teacher supports this line of argument, he once insisted I wrote an essay titled “The British exploited us; they came for our goods, not for our good.”
Let’s be clear that Nigeria’s modern problem and drastic poverty is not entirely the fault of the colonial masters. I beg to ask a question; are the colonial masters responsible for the outright carelessness and wanton greed and brazen corruption demonstrated by our political class? Are they responsible for our lack of basic infrastructures? By all means no! I stand by the fact that the greatest force holding us back is our own crooked and incompetent leaders whose idea of investment is to spend heavily on some frivolous projects.
History has shown that no country is going to create sustained wealth if the leaders continue to exploit the economy to enrich themselves and their cronies, or if the heads of major authorities are corrupt. Great developments depend on great leaders and a sane political environment. Good and responsible leadership, with a touch on global and best policies, are the ingredients that can unlock our potentials to great discoveries.
Nonetheless, I believe, though it’s gradually fading, that Nigeria can be prosperous. Any country can make that transition from poverty to immense riches; I know this because various countries have done it in times past and most of the technologies needed to make this transformation is already in existence and are almost free. Most of our policies are not yet on the right path but a few are at least pushing through the undergrowth, looking for that path of prosperity. When are where exactly that path will lead is entirely up to us, only us can choose what kind of economy we want to have and what kind of society we want to live in. But whatever the details of the society are, most Nigerians foresee it’s an industrialized and enhancing one.
I have not met any Nigerian who does not want Nigeria to be like the European or American countries. Everyone wants that because we often compare Nigeria with the more advanced America. This is good but we must understand that industrialization takes time, it’s not magic, it begins with little and strategic changes which compounds into big and beautiful changes. And, nations do not become industrialized by talking alone neither do they become so by praying or being plainly irresponsible.
If Nigeria really wants to enjoy like the modern and industrialized world, we have to do two things. First, we have to responsibly endure the pains of discipline that the modern countries endured before they became modern. Secondly, we have to start now, we have to fold our sleeves and think, work, save and invest.
But then, how willing are we?
——
Written by Richard Chilee. Follow @richardchilee or mail richardchilee@gmail.com

IKEMEFUNA ~ by Collins Uma


IKEMEFUNA  ~ by Collins Uma
I am sitting in my friend’s house at Ogidi, Anambra state and I am looking around wondering how this community was in 1930 when Albert Chinualumogu Achebe was born. Of course, so much has changed. I do not think that the Afor-Igwe market across the road, for example, was here then. I had earlier gone round the town, in company of my host, to try to understand the influences behind Achebe’s opera magna comprising of Things Fall apart, No Longer At Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of The People, and Anthills of the Savannah. One question that lingers in my mind is ‘Where is Umuofia?’ A few kilometres away are Umunya and Nawfia, but no Umuofia. The name could have been changed. Recently, the people of Ifite-Ukpo, close to Ogidi, decided that they would prefer their town to be known as Ifite-Dunu. The reasons are still unknown to me.
One thing that has remained unchanged is Ikemefuna, a character Achebe created in Things Fall Apart, and what Ikemefuna represents even today. Ikemefuna, according to Achebe, was a ‘doomed lad who was sacrificed to the village of Umuofia by their neighbours to avoid war and bloodshed’. The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves had pronounced Ikemefuna’s death but Okonkwo, the main character under whose shelter Ikemefuna lived, was to have no hand in his death. Okonkwo however, turned out to be the one who struck the blow that ended the young lad’s life.
I see similarities between Ikemefuna and the Nigerian youth.
Like Ikemefuna, we have people we look up to as ‘elders’ and we even call some ‘father’ but they will not hesitate to truncate our existence just to score cheap political goals or prove a point to their fellows.
Like Ikemefuna, we work hard to contribute our quota to the development of the society we have found ourselves in but there is always an ‘Nwoye’ being groomed to take over leadership regardless of his qualification for that role, or the lack of it.
Like Ikemefuna, we are in limbo, a midway state, and we belong to neither here nor there.
We have not helped ourselves though, the Nigerian youth. We have not articulated what it is we actually want. We do not yet have a banner behind which we can all rally. Like Ikemefuna, we just sit and await the decisions of the elders.
The tragedy of the Nigerian youth is that we have been so mentally pummelled over the years by the oligarchs that we have come to believe that we are what we are not and we dare not attempt to reach higher than the level on which we are at the moment. This is why it now seems like an unheard of achievement among young people to be appointed as a personal assistant to a government official or even an aide to an aide. This is in the same Nigeria where Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart, the most widely read book in modern African literature, at the age of 28. This is in the same Nigeria where Joseph Sarwuan Tarka got elected into the House of Representatives in 1954 at the age of 22, became the President of the United Middle Belt Congress at the age of 25 and got appointed as Minister of Transport at 34. This is in the same Nigeria that Yakubu Gowon became Chief of Army Staff at the age of 31 and Head of State before he was 32. This is in the same Nigeria where we had a Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who obtained his Masters’ Degree in History from Oxford University at the age of 23 before joining the Nigerian Army from where he later got appointed as Governor of the Eastern Region at the age of 32. Yes, in this same Nigeria, we have Patrick Okedinachi Utomi. At the age of 26, Pat Utomi was already a senior Special Adviser to President Shehu Shagari. The list goes on. Chude Jideonwo started Red Media in 2004 at the age of 19. YNaija and The Future Project are fruits of that enterprise. In February 2013 he was named by Forbes as one of the top 30 under 30 entrepreneurs. Onyeka Nwelue wrote his multiple award-winning book, The Abyssinian Boy, at 21.
If young people in Nigeria could stand out this way against all odds, what is it that restricts us from taking the reins of leadership in this country and directing this ship in the way it should go? Arguments have been heard both for and against direct participation in partisan politics by young people. Those for it say this is the need of the moment as this is the only way we can influence decision making. Those against say we do not all need to become politicians for change to happen. Valid points, all. It is true that we can create the needed change without becoming members of political parties; however it is high time we started putting our money where our mouth is. Registering as a member of a political party gives one a greater sense of responsibility before, during, and after elections. Rather than just wait to become ‘special’ assistants, it is high time we had young people aspiring for the highest offices our age brackets allow us to aspire for. To do this, we must first locate the nearest office of the political party of our choice, walk in there and announce our intention to become members. What do we have to lose by doing this? Nothing! What do we gain? The chance to influence decisions within these parties and, by extension, the country. As has been said, if you have no interest in politics then you should have no complain when you end up getting ruled by fools.
2015 will soon be upon us. The future awaits us. Posterity is getting ready to judge us. Are you waiting to step into the future created by others for themselves or are you going to take action now and decide how you want that future to look? Are you going to fold your hands and wait when you can join a party and do something? Now is the time. Today is the day.
I leave you with this Igbo proverb from Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart ‘’When a man says yes his chi says yes also’’.
I am on twitter @CollinsUma

How to Outwit NEPA and Other Tips ~ by Ayo Sogunro


How to Outwit NEPA and Other Tips | By Ayo Sogunro
It’s that time of the year when we revisit electricity supply— the lack of it, that is. And just in case you’ve forgotten how to adjust to the blatant surrealism of a life without electricity, here are our not-so-well researched pro-tips.
  1. 1.       Give a dog a good name and then go ahead and hang it. You see, it doesn’t matter whether you call it PHCN or ECN. “NEPA” is “NEPA”. I have observed people who force themselves to mouth the cumbersome PHCN—in the typical African superstition that the name will make a difference to the personality of a person. This reversion to the traditional idea that the name of a person foretells his destiny is very unnecessary. Go, on, test it out. “‘O PHCN! Great shall you be!” That sounds very pretentious, and it’s not just you. The truth is: a dog is a dog. At least in Africa. Also, NEPA is easier to pronounce, sounds like the name of an old but cherished friend.  And so, here’s the first rule in dealing with your electricity problem: Recognise NEPA for what it is, Never Expect Power Always. So for the purpose of these tips, let’s just give the dog the bad name and stick to NEPA. Got that?
  1. 2.       Electricity is a relative thing: Ask Einstein. If you don’t know Einstein, ask your local nerd. You really do not need electricity at all times. It is simply the artificial scarcity that makes it a precious commodity. Like gold. We’ve all heard the tale—or a variation—of the grasping pirate shipwrecked on a treasure island with all the gold and other treasure he could ever want, and no food. And that’s the fact: gold is useless when plentiful, electricity is also useless when it comes in huge amounts. That is why you can survive without electricity—because too much of it becomes boring. NEPA understands this. You should understand that too. In fact, once you understand this, you need not bother reading this piece further. You’re fully qualified to write your own “how to survive NEPA” tips.
  1. 3.       Every country has its cross: Are you still reading? Then you are a die-hard, electricity addict. Let’s proceed then. When dealing with NEPA issues, a good way to come to terms with it the problem is to understand that there is a tragic flaw that runs through the history of every country. This tragic flaw is eventually what makes it into a great nation. It is the struggle it undergoes to remove that flaw and rise above it’s limitations that makes it unique as a country. Read your history textbooks, and you will see that Nigeria is in good company. America had its slave trade, Britain had its colonialism, Russia had communism, South Africa had apartheid, Nigeria had, has—electricity. That came out wrong! But you get the point.
  1. 4.       Being pessimistic does not solve anything: I have also come across a strange attitude. People believe that the more they are abusive and pessimistic about the failings of NEPA, the better it will become. Like the irate parents to a wayward child. Take the typical scenario: you are on your way home after a long and tiring day, as you approach the house, you begin to curse NEPA mentally, secretly hoping that by some metaphysical or spiritual juxtapositions, your internal disapproval would propel the forces of electricity to connect your house to the grid instantly. You get home, no light. Why do you feel disappointed? NEPA is immune to correction. On the other hand, optimism doesn’t solve anything either.
  1. 5.       There will always be a brief period where electricity will be unbearably consistent: Maybe once in your lifetime, maybe twice, maybe more. But you will experience it. A time when NEPA will be so consistent in service, it will make you angry. You will ponder and wonder. At first, you will expect the light to go off at any minute. It will not. You rush around doing all the things you need to do with the available electricity, and ten hours later you realize in astonishment that the light has hardly blinked. You will discover that you fridge has the capacity to freeze, that your iron can actually burn clothes, that your mobile phone’s battery is not so bad after all, that you have no more movies to watch, that your laptop is quite boring, and that all TV stations should be shut down for poor entertainment value. This is the time when you will forsake the pleasure of your music player for ordinary gossip. But when you begin to hope that things are finally changing in Nigeria, the light will go off. But that’s normal. You’ve had your moment in the sun. The moral here is: you will experience it. Wait.
  1. 6.       There will always be an unbearably long period of total blackout: A converse of the last principle I stated. Everyone is used to three hours of electricity, one hour, even some thirty minutes. Maybe everyday or every couple of days. You will be surprised at how much activity you can cram into those few moments. But always prepare yourself for that period in the year, when for maybe two weeks or even six months, you will not have a glimpse of electricity, as dished out by NEPA, in your house. Once you conclude you are in that scenario, don’t commit suicide. It’s just a passing phase. Like a rite of passage, we will all go through it.
  1. 7.       You will be targeted: At some given time, your house will be on the target list, NEPA’s literal Blackout Book. This happens when you discover that everyone on the street has light, and you are in darkness—for no apparent reason. Your bills are paid; you are on the same line as other folks, your wiring has no problems. Yet, no light. Nothing. Why? You ask, Why me? Again, don’t be frustrated. Today, your number has turned up. Tomorrow, it will be someone else’s turn.
  1. 8.       There’s always an electrician who can fix the tension wire: So why are you worried about the fact that your line has been cut?
  1. 9.       Don’t bury your head in the sand: There is no light. That’s the plain ugly truth. Maybe you have been at your desktop computer in your workplace for the past nine hours. Not once have you been interrupted by a power cut. The generators and inverters are doing their work nicely. The AC units are wonderful, and life is good. But don’t kid yourself. There is no light. That, again, is the plain truth. Don’t let the fantasy of generator plants deceive you. Look everywhere: office skyscrapers, affluent residential estates, five star hotels, private mansions, it doesn’t matter. There is no light, no light at all. You may not know the costs, but ask the person who pays the diesel bills; he is cursing madly, somewhere.
  1. 10.   If all else fails try the coal iron: Ignoring electricity is the best revenge against NEPA, and when you go back to the basics, you will discover a whole new world of substitutes for your electricity problems. Like ironing. Not everyone has a powerful generator that can power those small monsters. If you allow NEPA to get to you, and you wear wrinkled attire to work, on the same day an European delegation is coming to finalise a contract…
Anyway, just try the coal iron—it really works.
Follow Ayo Sogunro on twitter for more unsolicited tips on Nigerian life via@ayosogunro.

Musings: Behold the New Messiah! – By Efe Wanogho


Behold the New Messiah! – By Efe Wanogho


Efe Wanogho
The seemingly fruitless and interminable wait for the end of the present scheme of things in the Nigerian geopolitical space, wherein mediocrity and corruption, as well as extreme disregard for the rights of the commoner, is at an end. The long awaited arrival of the Moses-like deliverer, in biblical terms; or the champions of freedom and responsibility in public office like the departed Gani Fawenhinmi, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Beko Ransome-Kuti, Martin Luther King Jr, Thomas Sankara, Kwame Nkrumah, to name a few of the finest breed of their kind; is finally upon us.
Going forward, Nigerians are to be freed from the menace of thieving and incompetent politicians and sundry office holders, as the much-sought-after torch bearer, is finally here. Alas, sanity is soon to returnto our public space. We can go to bed with two eyes closed, rest assured that the rampaging ravages of all manner of criminals; the self-centered greed-driven rule of opportunist and godfather-dependent cum rule-circumventing leaders, nay rulers; the debilitating adventures of ethnoreligious champions and their co-travelers who are involved in sectional intolerance and sheer bigotry; the self-inflicted reign of accidental – and I dare add, unprepared – public servants, apologies to Mallam Nasir El Rufai, is at the point of being permanently banished from our shores. The new Messiah would stand up to the many ills occasioned by having square pegs in round holes all across our public space. The common good, as opposed to the myopic and limited narrow and parochial interests of self-serving public servants, shall begin to be the guiding principle for the country.
The gains of the arrival of the Messiah must be trite knowledge and as such, self evident. The question that must be begging for an answer, now, in the mind of the reader; is: who is this new messiah? Who is this individual that has come to liberate us from the shackles of irresponsible governance? Look no further. The Messiah is you. The entirety of the good people of Nigeria, who are ready to make the necessary sacrifices for the growth and development of the country; collectively constitute the messiah. When treated individually, we only have a minute spark of the powers of this messiah. When we come together, united by an unprecedented zeal and patriotic fervour; we unleash the dormant powers – which absence, have propelled sheer criminality in the land – necessary to birth and berth the long elusive new order of citizen-centered governance.
In this new era, the post-Arab Spring dispensation, we cannot continue to wait for a Moses to lead us out of Egypt, as we are individually, the constituting parts of the Moses. We do not have to look very far for extraneous forces to rise in our defense. That age is no longer fashionable. In this new age, we must reach across to fellow compatriots across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria, to stand up for change. We must dispel all politics of divide and rule. What should begin to count for us, is credibility and competence of anyone who must hold any public office. Issues of ethnic, regional, and religious affiliation, must begin to be relegated to the background.
Having located the long lost messiah, what is left for each of us is to stimulate and propel our collective readiness for change; for then, and only then, can we get to the Eldorado, where the citizen is king.
Are you ready?
If not you, who?
If not now, when?
The fact is: no one would, and should, do for you, what you ought to do for yourself.
The writer is on Twitter as @efewanogho.
Laus Deo!

El-Rufai on Friday | These Cowards – Olusegun Dada


El-Rufai on Friday | These Cowards – Olusegun Dada

Dada-Olusegun1
The rising popularity of social media among young people has become such a nightmare for Nigeria’s rulers that are afraid of openness and information symmetry, that the Jonathan administration is spending a whopping $40 million to read their emails, romantic exchanges and other ‘subversive’ exchanges. Interacting regularly with young people on Twitter and Facebook gives the older generation both hope and concern.
‘Dada Olusegun is one of those young people that have been making positive contributions in cyberspace. He is just 25 years old! He attended Awori Ajeromi Grammar School in Lagos and graduated from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Ogbomosho with an honours degree in Pure and Applied Chemistry! Yet like many of the multi-talented youths we have introduced on this column, Dada writes as if he studied humanities, the social sciences or even literature.
Dada was very active along with Yemi Adamolekun, Japheth Omojuwa, Chinedu Ekeke, Seun Fakuade, Zainab Usman, Momoh Adejoh and Amina Saude Mohammed and numerous others during the #OccupyNigeria movement that successfully resisted the imposition of the surreptitious Jonathanian tax called ‘fuel subsidy removal’. He is a talented writer cum social change advocate. He is a regular political columnist on #EkekeeeDotCom and contributor on numerous online blogs and newspapers. He is a gifted public speaker who is also involved in youth empowerment and enlightenment.
Today, Dada issues a call to action and appeals for Nigerian citizens to end their lethargic acceptance of bad governance, looting and impunity by claiming to be neutral. Indeed, Dada thinks such people are simply cowards. Do you agree? It is my honour and privilege to introduce another vigorous young voice, Mr. ‘Dada Olusegun for your weekend enjoyment.
                                    – Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai
Let me put it this way: I have seen many things in my life. I have seen certain people who treat passivity as some kind of heroic action. There are people who say, “I just want my job, my family, and my religion and I will leave politics out of my life.” Passivity isn’t heroic, it’s cowardly! It’s the lazy man’s easy way out. But I see it beyond laziness.
Let me say this to those people: you’re idiots! While you’re asleep in front of your own life, they are screwing you. While you shut your mind to national issues, they are mentally gang-raping you. While you’re living out your life, they are ripping you off; they’re pulling the carpet from under you, tripling national debts that your children and grandchildren will not be able to pay till they die.
You’re idiots for closing your eyes exactly when your eyes should be open. You’re morons for thinking that the present day government will take care of the people if not put on their toes and forced to do so. You’re blind for thinking that the corruptly rich will not do everything in their power to keep their stranglehold on you; you cannot be passive while the missiles of corruption fall on your head and the heads of your children. You cannot be passive while they destroy your life and the lives of your children. You cannot sit there and pretend to be neutral. You cannot be passive when people thousands daily die due to negligence of government. You cannot be passive when the military sworn to protect your lives and properties kill and maim you and your children on the altar of the war against terror. You cannot afford to be passive. No you cannot.
Your destiny is in your hands, the destiny of your generation and the generation after yours. Let me tell you this: it’s either you become politically active or you risk a complete destruction by those in power. You either become politically active or your unborn children and grandchildren will curse you even in your grave because politics is too important to be left in the hands of “the politicians”. It is even worse to leave it in the hands of criminals who know no difference between state purse and personal pocket. Who will loot the entire treasury, in the drop of a hat.
Our direct participation in politics both now and during and after every election is compulsory for the growth of the society and the welfare of the humans living in it. Our contract must never stop with voting anyone into power, but prevailing upon them to perform. Only with our direct participation in politics will power truly belong to the people.
Enemies of Nigeria are on the prowl, only our combined voices can throw them out. The Edo and Ondo state gubernatorial elections have shown that it is possible for us as a people to resist all forms of electoral malpractices.
I also understand that your ilk, the Mister-mind-my-business, didn’t participate in the Edo election. Your church and family and job and business and holiness and righteousness were all more important to you than the good of the society you live in.
When the vigilance of those you call fools now cause those in power to get responsible and build roads, you will want to drive past them. When they build good schools, you will want to pull your kids out of the low-quality but unreasonably expensive buildings called private schools, to put them in the government owned ones.
We saw how your ilk in performing states pulled their kids out of those private schools when they saw that a responsible government can actually build good schools.
You sit under your religious leaders who enjoin you to honour thieves in government with their silence and you swallow such messages without thinking them through. What they fail to tell you however is that without the Reverend Martin Luther Kings’ of yesterday, there could never have been a Barack Obama today.
You are an enemy of this country.
But the country must move on with or without you or your cowardice masked in passivity. We will defeat all the enemies and put our nation back on the path of growth and change.
Did I hear you say I insulted you? Well, whatever I say here will be better than what your great grandchildren will say on your grave, if this nation fails.
Wake up, my friend, wake up!

Tolulope Akinsola: The Type Of Revolution We Need


The Type Of Revolution We Need


Occupy-vs-Jonathan-TS-300x336
Revolution- Merriam-WebsterDictionary:
a: a sudden, radical, or complete change
b: a fundamental change in political organization; especially: the overthrow or renunciation of one government or ruler and the substitution of another by the governed
c: activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation
d: a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm
Just as the words ‘corruption’, ‘condemn” are thrown around by our present government, as individuals we also throw the “revolution” word around without giving deeper thoughts as to the consequences and outcome of such. Revolutions as we have seen in other countries have turned out bloody with or without the desired quest for change. As Nigerians, we have had our opportunity at creating awareness for a revolution through the Occupy Nigeria protests held about 15 months ago.
A lot of us have taken home with us lessons from this act. It showed us that yes, indeed, while we may seem a timid generation, we all desire one thing- CHANGE, anyhow it comes. We want our leaders whom we have voted in to be accountable. We want the rate of corruption to drop and drastically too. We want persecution of public offenders. We want, we want and we want. But in all of these wants, have we all taken a step back to decide and engineer how we want these changes? And when we get these changes, how do we intend to sustain them?
While revolution might come as the definition in ‘a’ and ‘b’ above, it could also come as (and which we must push for) ‘c’ and ‘d’ above.
Ours has been a generation who were taught that the future belongs to us but alas, we still have the same people from our days in kindergarten and primary schools that were in power, still occupying positions of power and have rubbed off on newcomers along the years.
The next elections are just around the corner- December 2014 as someone has stated. While we all look forward to change, now is the time to stop complaining, grumbling and getting angry on social media sites. NOW is the time to take the change in our hands. Not by a bloody revolution but by a mass awareness of the ENTIRE populace.
A lot of us in the cities who thankfully have access to a phone and internet connectivity have been made aware that the time for change is now. But what about that man, woman, girl, boy, who do not have these privileges because their present government-elect will not take development to them? A certain Senator wishes he had done so much more than he did when he was Governor because he has more feedback from better advisers around him. And that is just one out of so many. How long do we intend for this to continue? How long do we have to wait for them to get out of power before they know what they should have known? How long will the man in his village have to wait till elections are near and have the popular politician who is an indigene in his village come home to stay with them for a week with promises of ‘doing better’ for them the next time he is voted in only for his hopes to be dashed again? How long, how long, how long?
You can cast your mind back to all the elections we have had and find out where these politicians get most of their votes from. They ‘prey” on the unknowing and get their votes by hook or crook. If only they knew that whatever promises they get from their “son of the soil” will not get fulfilled, you think they will still vote him or her in? They know he only comes home to solicit for their votes once in 4 years and when they are asked to table their request for development in the community; he goes away with the promise of “it will be better this time”.
The cry for a revolution should begin now. With your house maid, your gateman, the vigilante, the local newspaper store around the corner, your hometown, the guys at the slums, the studio… it is time to educate the people at the grassroots and spread this awareness so they know what rightfully belongs to them without being cajoled. Like the Bible says, “an heir will continue to be a servant until he knows that the entire kingdom belongs to him”. So until the people at the grassroots know this, those of us in the cities who have access to information will only begin to churn out article after article, tweet after tweet, facebook post after post and so on. The average politician can get to the rural areas and convince them to vote for him in a matter of days prepped with the resources. It will take us longer to reach these same set of people, to earn their trust and rub their minds off the legendary “what can we do? We are powerless against them” mentality that has eaten so deep into the communities.
The time to act is now. The time to make the change is this minute. The time to weed out ‘sell-outs’ and make whoever gets into power again accountable is now. The time to vote out sentiments is now.
Just as Mordecai said to his niece Esther in Esther 4 vs 14 “…yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Your kingdom and mine this day is Nigeria. Will you spread the gospel for good governance? Will you wait for your child to come of age and ask what your generation did to change the mentality of his kinsmen? Just as we spread the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, spread the gospel of good governance too…
The writer is @yelecapri10 on Twitter.
Credits- @mrenclave, @waleflame, @kwamiadadevoh, @survivor17, @dolusegun

Wednesday 1 May 2013

Governor Amaechi, President Jonathan like the two black birds – Japheth Omojuwa


like the two black birds – Japheth Omojuwa

Rotimi-Amaechi-of-Rivers-State-360x225
Governor Rotimi Amaechi has been severally praised for his results as Governor of Rivers State. Most of these are well deserved. He certainly makes the 8 years spent by Peter Odili look like nothing but wasted years for the people of Rivers. It is only normal that many see his success as enough reason to involve him at a higher level of governance, say the vice presidency. There is a danger in an idea like this; if Rotimi Amaechi is being touted as a possible vice president in 2015, he certainly cannot be working under a Goodluck Jonathan presidency considering the federal character factor – the president and her/his cannot running mate cannot come from the same geo-political zone. Every time anyone touts Rotimi Amaechi as a possible running mate to anyone, President Goodluck Jonathan is automatically being touted to lose his job.
Speculations are fine and normal. Permutations and combinations are the hallmark of politics. Even the United States gets to deal with the 2016 elections politics once in a while. What is wrong is to see two people, already entrusted with leadership disgracefully scramble for more power without decorum or pretense at showing some class. It becomes even more annoying to see unadulterated politics play out where the needs of the people cry for attention. The best way for a serving political office holder to stay at the same job or move to a bigger role is to perform. While Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan schemes his way into the 2015 battle, he has not even used up fifty percent of his current mandate. The President still has more time to spend in this term than he already has. Should this term be his primary concern? Is it? No. Almost every other news story or sound bite from the presidency either has 2015 coloured all over it or has the 2015 election somewhere in its mix. This is not just a betrayal of trust it is also disgraceful. The President is wasting time playing politics with his mandate apparently not realizing that his mandate was about nothing but time; here, take four years of our nation’s life and make a difference with it. What you don’t waste is time!
On Governor Amaechi’s part, he believes his own hype too much. He talks too much and does not make sense half the time. I was listening to him at the Future Award Symposium and wondered how a Governor could be so crass and without decorum in speech. He felt so good with himself about that but if he had a clue, he’d have felt bad instead. You cannot believe your own hype too much else you start thinking every nonsense you pout from your mouth is a word of wisdom! The young people at the said event mostly shook their head in disgust at the Governor. That very cameo performance was just a perspective of the complete persona that has since become the major distraction in Nigeria, an unnecessary distraction.
Place Goodluck Jonathan side by side with Rotimi Amaechi, most will take the latter if the question is about who understands leadership better. Jonathan had a forgettable period as Governor of Bayelsa state while Rotimi Amaechi is making strides in Rivers. They are worlds apart when it comes to performance in office but Governor Rotimi Amaechi has now descended to play the president in a game of “who’d act more childish?” In this game, they are one and the same; desperate politicians looking to make personal wars look like it has something to do with the interest of the people.
Like the two black birds fighting in the skies, Nigerians should not be bothered about who wins or loses out in this game. Goodluck to Amaechi, whatever happens this was always about personal interests and the wise had better not take sides because when they finally settle their fight, the two black birds will feed from the same nest under the same umbrella.

Baga – The Village Of Ghosts – By @Obajeun


Baga – The Village Of Ghosts – By @Obajeun

baga
Explosion spree in Borno. Baga! The name sounds explosive. The village has exploded. Baga ghosts are subscribing to the graveyard. Graveyard is full, dead bodies piled high, waiting for new graveyard to be commissioned by His Excellency. There is tears in town, sorrow resides on the streets of Baga. Landscape is desolated, fumes of blood everywhere. Families vanished with the sound of guns. Everyone in Baga is a ghost. Those alive are living dead, waiting for the next explosion, expecting no help and getting no help. In Baga, help is dead! In Abuja and Lagos, life continues, business continues. No one bats an eyelid, no one is interested in another person’s life. Brotherhood is dead, sisterhood is dead.
Things cannot just go on as usual. If it is a question of aborted hopes, the country could live with that. In its short existence, the ill-led nation has had to cope with many betrayals and aborted hopes. Somehow, and like a stumped lover, it had always found the strength, the fierce energy to move on. Baga too will move on. But this time the omens of national regeneration are murky. While the FG is wasting “presidential pardon” on rogues who have stolen our blood in drums, something fundamental is also taking place. The spirit of the nation has decayed too. Having passed the point of morphine-assisted rebirth, Lugard’s contraption, christened by Flora in one of her many nights of emotional tete-a-tete with Lugard, is gradually expiring before our very eyes. We are in trouble.
Alas, succour has come the way of Baga, there is a statement from Abuja. Investigation must happen. Committees have been set up to pay up Baga’s tormentors. In this logic, while Baga dies, its tormentors will get additional life, furnished with unending cash flow, state appointments for juicy positions, life aesthetics and have presidential backing to live large. Baga’s tormentors will brag on the streets of Baga, sending sneers and jeers to the ghosts of the village. “We have arrived,” they will bark at the hapless living ghosts. They will build hills and live on mountains, dialing presidential phone numbers to call for political food like manna. They will blast siren on the streets of Baga, deafening the living dead and waking up the “dead” ghosts.
Consolation has come from the governor, he told the remains of Baga that it was God that came to destroy them, imploring the village to accept it as an act of God. It was God who became a demon and took over human flesh. It was God who built the Improvised Explosive Device that sent children to their premature grave. It was God who triggered hundreds of AK47 to destroy his own handiwork. It was God who led the gun dwell that consumed the whole of Baga because he was blood thirsty. It was God who wanted 185 souls has sacrifice, razed down 2000 houses and 62 vehicles. This is blaspheme! As a matter of godly gesture, the governor is donating N5m to revive the lost 185 souls. Let some people be prepared to be consumed by their own sheer ignorance.
A hitching history, a haunting tale, and hazy dreams, all conspired to define nothing and yet, they defined Baga. Nothing is life; Baga is now nothing, a conspiracy theory of pains. Pains, feelings of anomy, of gruesome fear, of tears cascading in bitter drops and of a grin smile full of sorrow. Now there is evil in Baga’s thought, evils of the mind and of feelings. Baga is mourning, Baga is rolling in tears, Baga is sobbing,  Baga is gnashing teeth, for everyone in Baga has witnessed to tears.
In addition to these woes, we have the alarming situation in which ordinary and normal protests or disagreements are condemned through the prism of religious and ethnic coloration.  We have a ruling class that has become a byword for a bizarre and berserk variant of kleptocracy. Unfortunately, the Nigerian post-colonial state has proved itself to be incapable of arbitrating or mediating anything, except when it comes to the deployment of gratuitous and autistic violence against different constituting units and nationalities. Like a childlike monstrosity, the Nigerian bandit leadership is frozen in conception as an instrument of Colonial Terror against captive nationals, like in the case of Baga, utterly incapable of coming up with an organic structure that will satisfy the yearnings and aspirations of its captured natives. Presiding over all this is a president who reminds one of a boy-emperor handed an empire as a toy rigged with explosives.
Baga will come out of this and move on. But Baga will not forget that it was once tormented and its tormentors were being begged to be rewarded. It will also not forget in a hurry that it once had heartless protectors. Like a friend said, we need to wait till 2015 to know if there are also no heartless voters in Baga. At the moment, Baga please take heart and move on.
By Jonah Ayodele Obajeun. He blogs @www.obajeun.com. Reach him on twitter via @Obajeun

Nigerian Youths: Historic Challenge to Nation Building – Salihu Moh. Lukman


Nigerian Youths: Historic Challenge to Nation Building – Salihu Moh. Lukman

nigerianYouth
“If you wanna be somebody, if you wanna go somewhere, you better wakeup and pay attention” was the message of Whoopi Goldberg to her exuberant young students in Sister Act. At a time when everything was crashing, lawlessness became pleasurable, conventions no longer tenable and all initiatives end up producing negative outcomes, something different was needed. What? And how? These are issues that needed very practical, not hypothetical responses. In the context of a rigid Catholic setting and without really planning for it, a Whoopi Goldberg, acting as accidental Sister Mary Clarence, who on account of running from a criminal gang found shelter in a Catholic school offered unique and ingenious services that saved the school from closing.
That is the situation Nigeria require today. It is a situation that is best reflected in the lives of our young people – Nigerians under the age of 35, people born between 1978 and today. Unfortunately, these are category of Nigerians who have never experienced anything near a functional society, a society with guaranteed water, power, healthcare delivery, quality education, etc. Many, although born in our so-called urban centres, have never witnessed water flowing from public water source. They have never seen electricity from PHCN (NEPA) uninterrupted for up to 6 hours, sometimes less. Hospitals have regressed from what Gen. Buhari while overthrowing Alh. Shehu Shagari in December 1983 described as consulting clinics to public mortuaries and in the circumstances therefore most Nigerians when they are sick look for Babalawos of all types of miracle/magical healers across all religions rather than go to hospitals. The narrative is endless and pathetic. It basically mirror the lives of the exuberant youth in Sister Act, requiring something different to pull Nigeria out of its current mess.
One of the major challenge is the expectation that government initiative is what is needed to produce something different. In the circumstance, there is a dominant attitude among young people concentrating energy towards contracting relations with government, largely because of the notion of government being a reservoir of “free money” on account of which being in government or close to people in government may not be more than access to “free money”. And since our curriculum of education at all levels is increasingly becoming abstract, government for our young people is fictional and at best obtainable in foreign, mainly European, North America and in some ways Asian and South America countries with emphasis on China and Brazil. It is hard to explain to this category of Nigerians that our educational institutions were among the best in the world in the 1960s and 1970s. At that time, our Ahmadu Bello University, University of Ibadan, University of Ife and University of Nigeria Nsukka were in the league of Cambridge and Oxford. This is now Tales by Moonlight as even graduate from these universities produced in the 1960s and 1970s have to (or believe they have to) garnish their qualifications with some, often short term (in some cases one week) certificate qualifications obtained from leading commercial educational centres, mainly in the US.
Since the notion of government is that it is a reservoir of “free money”, politics simply means being part of the team that lead to the reservoir and eventually control it. The leaders of this political teams are mainly ‘successful elders’, mostly these graduates of 1960s and 1970s with few among them products of the 1980s and rarely any of the 1990s. These ‘successful elders’ provide the finances largely based on personal aspirations for political offices, if you like aspiration to control part of the reservoir. Being a reservoir therefore it just means unregulated supply, not tied to any projected outcome other than transfer of ‘free money’ to ‘political loyalists’, which are often unreceipted. Because of the absence of projected outcomes, almost everything goes. Qualification is first and foremost raw courage and formal education, as they often say in human resource language, it is an advantage but not a requirement.
In the context of Nigerian politics whereby the major preoccupation of politicians is not about winning the support of citizens but preparing to rig mainly through ballot box snatching, writing results of elections, voter intimidations, etc. and against the reality that many Nigerians are unemployed or under employed with poor means, our young people become a major source of patronage. Based on this reality, it can be argued that politics is today the biggest industry, perhaps more on account of the amount of resources being expended but hardly on account of employment. It is an industry that is in the real sense worse than the informal sector of the economy. No records are kept, nobody engaged has anything near formal contract.
In terms of our young people, it is an industry that destroy virtually everyone on accounts of the dirty job of ballot box snatching which requires some levels of insanity on the part of the individuals carrying out the task. Insanity produced more by substance abuse. Alcohol are weak and not attractive. Like some officials at federal levels have promoted certificates from Harvard, etc. as attracting some jumbo pay package, at our local levels, the equivalent of Harvard is drugs and substance consumption by young people which enables them to execute all the dirty work for our politicians.
As a result, we have in our major cities serious cases of abuse of young Nigerians, resulting in high disorientation, psychological and psychiatric incidences among young people. Unfortunately, these are incidences that have assumed a reality of normalcy. Those affected are regarded as normal human beings with many protected by powerful politicians and sponsored to offer ‘protection’ to these politicians, which may include violent conduct.
This is predominantly our unfortunate reality today around which majority of our young people find themselves. This is a situation created by the generation of Nigerians that had good education provided exclusively by public schools, Nigerians that enjoyed good healthcare services while growing up, in summary, Nigerians whose humanity was guaranteed by a state that was responsive and responsible to all irrespective of status. Unfortunately, years after, these Nigerians have collapsed into a hobbesian state of mind and downgraded citizens, especially Nigerian youths to nasty and brutish condition thereby shortening their lives. It is a situation whereby our leaders regard government as their private estate and every other citizens, apart from members of their family, are animals that deserve no dignity. It is just about crude obedience without any decorum, more to produce a political victory resulting in taking control of position in government.
In the circumstance, our youths are coerced or drugged to playing very critical dirty role. Can this be halted? Is it possible to create a new reality similar to what we have in this country in the 1960s and 1970s? If the common saying that “the youths are the future” is anything to go by, negative answers here simply means that Nigeria is doomed. Already, the signs are evident and traumatising.
Perhaps, we need to remind ourselves that Nigeria as it is today is a product of inspiring interventions of young Nigerians into politics of the country. Names of people like Samuel Akinsanya, Ernest Ikoli, Kofo Abayomi, H. O. Davis, Adeyemo Alakija and even Nnamdi Azikiwe were young Nigerians who in 1933 formed the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) that challenged and ended the political dominance of the National Democratic Party led by Herbert Macauley. By October 1938, the NYM won elections for the Lagos Town Council. The same year, they launched the Youth Charter and in it they articulated their demands, which included opposition to the British indirect rule.
One of the important attributes of the membership of NYM was its diverse orientation, comprising leaders of other groups such as students, trade unions and other associations. Rather than being a source of division, it strengthen them. They utilise their diverse membership in these various groups to build an effective national campaign for Nigerian independence. A major plank of strength was their ability to give new radical orientations to Nigerian trade unions, students organisations and other associations based on which the campaign against British indirect rule and for Nigerian independence was given an active life.
Up to today, the political legacy of the generation of Nigerian youths of 1930s still has expression in our national life. It was a legacy that is manifest in especially the radicalism of Nigerian trade unions and students movement. More fundamentally, it was a legacy that was stimulated by levels of formal education. In many respect, it could be argued that the collapse of formal educational system in Nigeria since the mid 1980s accelerated the process of extinguishing radicalism out of Nigerian youths. Partly, as a result of poor access, but more on account of crash of standards, the energy, vibrancy, adventure and aspirations of Nigerian youths are weak, shallow and peripheral, if any at all.
Like the Nigerian leaders, aspirations is limited to material acquisition, which hardly go beyond cars, houses, marriage (in the case of men) and pilgrimage. It is hardly about development in terms of production, services, etc. which come with the requirement for infrastructural development. Everything is about personal consumption without even the modest effort to attempt to influence the source of supply. Against the background of high oil revenue in the country therefore it is possible to earn without labouring and many Nigerians accept this reality as normal.
A reality that is apparent is that such a perspective leads to the destruction of all organisations. With politics mainly about individual aspirations, organisational objectives are limited to the promotion of individuals. This could include sabotaging organisational activities resulting in death of organisations. On account of this, many organisations have crashed, some of our militant and radical organisations have lost their edge. New form of radicalism, very close to, if not terrorist, have emerged. Our old radical organisations have lost their youthful colouration either on account of completely being run by old guards or become appendages to interests that regards young people only as tools.
Organisations such as the Nigerian trade unions and student movement, which since the 1930s served veritable national political agenda have been reduced to legal expression with hardly any substance with respect to meeting the expectations of members. That is the unfortunate state of Nigerian trade unions and student movement. It is a situation in which even their primary responsibility of improving the welfare and lives of members has been compromised if not sacrificed. It is a sad complex reality that leaves Nigerians with virtually hopeless situation. It is a situation that requires something different!
As a nation, we need new organisations. These new organisations must have clear vision and driven by committed and selfless Nigerians. Above all, the organisations must be political. The truth is that as a nation, there is a deficit of national youth organisation with a clear political objective. The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), which played that role in the 1980s and early 1990s is today a commercial enterprise. None of our parties has bothered to develop framework for tapping the energy of Nigerian youths. The approach has always been short term, limited to using young Nigerians, often drugging them, to promote the personal aspirations of politicians.
Producing something different therefore should translate into getting any of our political parties to develop a clear framework towards the organisation of young Nigerians on a national scale. For such a framework to come with potential of contributing to pulling Nigeria out of its current mess, it has to have a component that seek to mobilise Nigerian youths around a demand for quality educational delivery, mass employment and social welfare programmes. These are issues that should be developed into charter of demands similar to those of NYM of 1930s and NANS of 1980s and early 1990s.
Like the NYM, it should have strong political objective. With more than 60 million Nigerians being young people below the age of 35, majority of whom are today unemployed, such a political demand has potential to produce the winner of any election if backed by strong organisation. A major drawback has always been that it is very easy to express all these but very difficult to get anything started. This is where our opposition parties negotiating the current merger to produce APC can produce superior commitment and to that extent as part of the rollout plans for APC produce a national youth political framework.
It can be readily predicted that this will not happen if initiative is to come from the leadership of the parties. What will make this to happen will be a situation whereby some young Nigerians are able to take the initiative and develop the framework and some organisational strategy. In order for this to be effective, it has to be nationally oriented. For instance, as part of the strategy to give the framework and strategy national coverage, in order to promote the demands for quality education, mass employment and social welfare on a national scale, seek to produce party youth leaders who are guided by the organisational strategy at all levels. In addition, since the challenge of achieving the implementation of these programme require budgetary allocations, it then means some representation in the legislative arm of government. Could such a framework and organisation come with a commitment to ensuring some minimum number of APC candidates for House of Representatives and Houses of Assembly in all states? Also, could the framework and organisation include strong mechanism for delivery?
These are not questions that should be answered with hypothetical answers. They require practical answers with clear vision, leadership and organisation. They are not answers that can be satisfactorily answered based on virtual activism. APC just need to shape the way forward and reincarnate the glorious achievements of Nigerian youths of the 1930s.
Nigerian shall be born again!

Candid Reflections With Debo Adejugbe: The Unknown Gunmen


Candid Reflections With Debo Adejugbe: The Unknown Gunmen


debo
We love the classics and the situations that abound points ominously to a case of classics being played out of our very lives as we live it out –fast-paced, colorfully, haphazardly egregious- meshed with our toxic cynicism of everything that governance represents. It is a marriage made in heaven and one that benefits the political class to no end.
The “Unknown Gunmen” comes in, wipes whoever or whatever needs wiping, disappears into the clouds and we are left with descriptions of how it all happened while their “majesties” were in action. So many unsolved murders, political assassinations, terrorist acts, insurgent attacks, electoral violence, officially sanctioned carnage and majority of crimes have been ascribed to this elusive group of ghosts. Our fears increase daily and the attacks never stop – it moves up a gear the next time our airwaves play that ominous soundtrack that accompanies the warfare.
Following political developments in Nigeria is bound to throw up more questions than answers. Questions no one –including those elected to answer them- is willing to answer. When Chinua Achebe’s “There was a Country” came out, I was devastated by the receptionamong those who ought to be better informed and critically look at the message rather than throw up tribal sentiments that betrays the intelligence we have come to ascribe to them. The Social Media climate was torn along ethnic lines, taking sides rather than looking at issues to objectively analyse them; proffering solutions that can be implemented in the long term and constructively opening up the shortcomings in the book.
The Nigerian-Biafran war was one of those periods in our history that we knew exactly who was killing whom; when those killing the others came up with several slogans to justify the massacre. After that war, we went back to “normal mode” and continued in the same mess that brought us to that very avoidable moment where we had to raise up arms against ourselves, justifying it and going to sleep easy and assuming nothing was ever wrong with Nigeria.
Look around the country; you will see in the faces of our youth and able-bodied young men the inscription “Unknown Gunmen”. Almost every one of them now sees crime as an avenue to make quick cash or get the government to notice them with a share of the national cake.
The facts on the ground support this line of thought. The militants, after destroying most of the oil installations in the Niger-Delta, were pacified by the amnesty programme and a promise of a budget bigger than the country’s health sector. Few more elites were made richer in the process and high-ranking militants were dished defense contracts to make their subjects fall in Line.
The same story applies to the South-West where Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) was awarded security contracts which in itself look like a pro-2015 bribe. The leaders of that outlawed body now dabble into issues of National importance to show they have arrived.
Now, the issue of our day is that Boko Haram has been offered amnesty. This amnesty in itself is not necessarily a bad thing if the right perspectives are applied but what are those perspectives from the government’s point of view? I will tell you.
The main reason why Niger-Delta militants were offered amnesty was to safeguard government’s investment in the region – Not necessarily lives or jobs or futures or anything that matters to the population in earnest. Just investments and Olusegun Adeniyi’s book “Power, Politics and Death” didn’t hide this fact as the basis why Yar’Adua felt the one “Positive” far outweighs all the “Negatives”.
In clear terms, this Boko Haram amnesty is one way this government is painting itself as caring and in the process trying to enrich few people affiliated to it. The scramble for 2015 is obviously a carrot in the grand scheme of shuffling that has followed the President’s visit to Borno in response to APC’s jamboree. Not long after that visit, the “Unknown Gunmen’ struck and these carnages have showed littlesigns of abating, prompting several committees to be set up in anticipation of our now templated “committee again?” rhetoric.
This government is not sincere about the problem of Boko Haram –just like every other thing- and the few facts on ground support this assertion. In possession of the president are several recommendations from his numerous committees on how to deal with the problem of BH and these reports are probably hidden in one of Aso Rock’s dusty cabinets. Add that fact to the insistence of the president that he knows those who are BH members and sponsors, alleging further that they are in his government.
The recent carnage in Baga further suggests that our toxic cynicism might not be far-fetched. The rate at which innocent lives are being taken calls for urgent attention and the subsequent manoeuvres by this government and its organs to cover it up clearly points to a lack of will and intent to critically assess the Boko Haram scourge and deal with it rightly.
A precedent has been set with the Niger-Delta militants – and in reply, Jonathan decided to dash OPC –in the west- and Boko Haram –in the north- their share of the loot. That, exactly, is the problem we have. We throw money and cynicism of reasonable thought-processes at issues of national security and blimey, they multiply and get out of hand. The militants are gradually turning up again……
This present unknown gunmen syndrome will continue and expand into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Why not? The JTF has joined the fray, and the government now has a willing participant and an ever ready accomplice in Boko Haram.
I’m @deboadejugbe

In Depth With Ademola Adeeko: In Nigeria, Sleeping Dogs Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Lie


In Nigeria, Sleeping Dogs Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Lie


Ademola Adeeko
It’s a proverb I still remember like yesterday; back when I was a teenager. It used to pop up in several English language examination questions back in primary school. It’s a question I’ve never failed.
“Allow The Sleeping Dog Lie” might actually be a wise saying but it doesn’t fit into just any context especially NOT Nigeria nor its budding democracy.
This is the case study of the Vice-President of Nigeria who has since his swearing-in into office, faded into oblivion. I’m actually not angry or displeased about Dr. Namadi Sambo’s ghost-mode as it has become a norm in the Nigerian civil service. In as much as I will love to discuss the Vice-President’s apparent absence from office, I’m forced to address the complacence of Nigerians in this national embarrassment of a government. The assertion that deputies of public office holders shouldn’t be seen and heard is nothing but a fallacy which we should do away with.
The world has evolved. If we truly want the deputies of presidents to be oblivious to the public, why then do we allocate offices and money to them? The constitution does not provide an office, salary/allowances, political recognition for the Vice-President to be idle. He’s paid to do some work and offer assistance (where necessary) to the President.
During the campaign period that ushered in the 2011 elections, Dr. Namadi Sambo was seen everywhere adorning glossy pages of magazines and newspapers. Even posters and leaflets were not spared as their photo-shopped smiling faces flooded our streets, house fences, street lights and electricity poles. He was well decorated as the man who will complement Goodluck Jonathan as Vice to form a strong and formidable team of the Transformation Agenda otherwise known as The Breath Of Fresh Air. We were deceived, or should I rather say we deceived ourselves into believing this men will bring about a turn around in the situation of the country. As they both evaded political debates and interviews, their fan base waxed stronger with the help of Indomie noodles, recharge cards, ankara, rice and groundnut oil.
While some hungry elites drummed support for them, most kept quiet leaving a few of the experienced Children Of Anger warning against an imminent destruction. How could the voices of a very tiny minority reach 160 million people when money was already exchanging hands? The long and short of it is, the same man who could not hide his ’32′ during election campaigns is the same man we hardly hear of these days. Even VP Biden is seen taking up responsibilities despite Barack Obama’s ‘up and doing’ attitude to his work.
Nigerians can actually tolerate the presence of the absence of the vice-president of Nigeria because even Mr. President himself is nowhere to be found when it comes to discharging his duties as the country’s number one man. How do we explain a country that has more than 32 ministers whose absenteeisms are majorly felt as they contribute to further the woes of Nigerians? Most of these ministries are either defunct or heavily redundant while the ones that are seemingly active have nothing to offer. For instance, the aviation ministry is well known for releasing press statements and condolence messages whenever there’s a flight mishap. A few weeks after the mishap, nothing is heard of them any more. We cannot always ask for the head of Mr. President every now and again when the ministries are lying fallow doing absolutely nothing. What has happened to the ministry of women affairs? The ministry of sports and youthdevelopment only comes alive when there’s an upcoming international tournament involving Nigeria.
I bet they are only interested in the sporting aspect of the ministry in which they even perform far below expectations. What has happened to the development of youths? What do Nigerians remember about the ministry of internal affairs? Now that the MEND boys are back in their trenches, what has the ministry of Niger-Delta done about it?
Nigeria is running an excessively large government which makes it easy for certain ministries and parastatals to go moribund without the notice of the people and even those in government. We cannot keep running a government as large as this when we cannot even hold half of it accountable. It’s no use when we have redundant ministries which receive billions of Naira as monthly allocations to do nothing. We’ll be better off if the Nigerian government will go on a scrapping spree of some ministries and also merging some of them as their functions are just duplicitous.
The larger the size of a government, the easier it is for tentacles of same government to sink into oblivion without notice from the head of government and even the citizens. It’s high time the federal government and Nigerians as a whole wake up to the responsibility of making sure every dime that goes into government ministries and parastatals is accounted for. These redundant tentacles of government are the reasons the budget of the federation doesn’t seem to reach the people. We cannot have the federal government prepare budgets worth trillions of Naira every year only for the funds to be choked up in one redundant ministry or the other; stopping the flow from reaching the grass root.
In a corrupt government like Goodluck Jonathan’s, the fight for transparency and accountability shouldn’t be left to him alone. Well meaning and patriotic Nigerians should go back to their grassroot government to demand for accountability using the FOI bill. Its our call to make sure those in government are up to the responsibilities they’ve been ‘elected’ to carry. Its time to ask questions and keep them on their toes. The ‘Siddon-Look’ attitude of Nigerians has added the much needed ‘Valium-5′ to the sleep-mode of most government offices. The Standard Organization of Nigeria is nowhere to be found while NAFDAC seems to be very generous with their registration licences these days. Ever visited the Local Government Health Centre in your locality before? You’ll be irritated. Its time to go back to your Local Government Ward to ask questions. Go back to your Constituency Office and hold your representatives responsible. Demand for evidence of what has been done with your constituency allowance. Agree with me or not, the silence of you and I has majorly contributed to the rot in public offices and has helped this trend become a landmark.
2015 is fast approaching, some things have to give way to development. It is our collective duty as citizens to make sure we are lead properly. God bless you as you discharge your civic duties but remember, “Never Allow Sleeping Dogs Lie”.
@OccupyNaija

The Slow but Sure Death of SMS (And the Rise of ‘Chat Apps’) – Atumu Marho @azanor


The Slow but Sure Death of SMS (And the Rise of ‘Chat Apps’) – Atumu Marho @azanor


It seems like the time of dominance for the Short Message Service (SMS) is about to come to an end. Why? Because according to recent research, SMS was responsible for only 17.6 billion of the messages sent daily in 2012 compared to the 19 billion sent by chat apps. This might not seem like much of a difference but this is the first time in history that SMS has been surpassed as the preferred means of text communication on mobile devices. Add to this reports that more than $23bn (£15bn) of SMS revenue was lost in 2012 due to popularity of chat apps and it becomes clear that a trend is developing. Personally I think this trend is likely to continue because of the growing popularity of these ‘Chat apps’ and the support they’re getting from networks and phone manufacturers.
So what are these chat apps anyway? Basically they are internet based messaging platforms that in addition to sending and receiving text messages (with no 160 character restrictions), also have additional capabilities that give them an edge over the competition and in this case the competition isn’t only SMS but other chat apps too. One common feature is the ability to send and receive multimedia messages.
From the big corporations we have the likes of BlackBerry’s Messenger (BBM), Facebook Chat, Samsung’s ChatON, Apple iMessage, Google’s Gtalk and the likes. We also have strong contenders from smaller startup companies like WhatsApp, Kik, Viber and even African based services like Mxit and 2go.
In the last 5 years or so, Chat apps have seen a rise in popularity because of the advantages they offer over basic SMS, one of which is cost savings. Basically, if you subscribe for an internet data plan then you don’t have to worry about paying to send messages till your data plan expires. Another plus is that these apps use very little data so if you use your data plan exclusively for chat apps then you’re unlikely to run out of data before the plan expires. Some mobile networks that are aware of the rising importance of these apps have even made allowances for them, Airtel recently launched a partnership with WhatsApp that allows subscribers on its network unlimited access to the chat app for N100/month.
Even the phone manufacturers are in on the action too. HTC recently launched the HTC First which runs a Facebook overlay on top of the popular Android Phone OS and supports the ability to chat on Facebook from within any application on the phone. Nokia too has launched its Asha 210 which has a dedicated button for launching WhatsApp that comes preinstalled on it. The Asha 210 which also supports dual-SIMs is set to launch in developing countries in May.
With all this support, it’s not hard to see why SMS use is on the decline. The major users of SMS now fall under 2 categories: those who use phones that these Chat apps can’t run on and those who don’t know about the chat apps. As internet capable phones become more affordable and mobile networks continue to adopt and support chat apps, these categories of people are very likely to disappear entirely and with them, the popularity of SMS services.
Atumu Marho (@azanor)