WHYTE HABEEB IBIDAPO'S COLUMN

NEXT LAGOS : PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION REVOLUTION

2014-05-27T09:30:00.002-07:00

Lagos state is the development pilot of Nigeria as the nation's nerve centre. Lagos must therefore continue to take the responsibility to pioneer solutions to most pressing national crises such as education. The tremendous achievements of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in laying the solid structures upon which Babatunde Raji Fashola built must be commendable in this respect.

Significant improvements were made in the past 15years of democracy by Lagos state which has the highest population of pupils. New schools were established to decongest available ones and provide for increasing population of children, classrooms were constructed or renovated in most of our schools while teaching aids, teachers' remuneration, examination fees of final students, etc have been attracting a great percentage of state revenue as our free education policy has been sustained.

My Philosophy of Child Education is synchronized with my philosophy of governance and forms my strongest motivation to join the governorship race. Lagos state has children population of about over 4.5million with about 2.5million schooling in our 1,597 primary and secondary schools with over 3,000 number of teachers. Any right thinking person must agree that matching schools, teachers, teaching aids and other needs with the growing population of our children can only be a gradual process with successive administrations making significant contributions and raising the bar of achievements.

The growth and development of every society is dependent upon the contributions of her citizens. When a society has greater percentage of its productive population making positive and constructive contributions to the society, the society is bound to develop. In order to attain this feat, the society must take total responsibility to train its children from childhood into youth age giving them the best character and moral orientation, ethical values and then professional and occupational instructions. The society will only reap at adult ages what is sowed into its children in their formative ages.

Training our children so as to bring responsible and responsive citizens out of them is therefore not a kind gesture to the masses but a fundamental duty of any government to the state, the nation and humanity at large.

The next Lagos must therefore respond to the following challenges, taking it from where present administration left it.

ý OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN.

Significant percentage of our children, about half their population, is out school in their formative ages. This does not portend a pleasant future for our state. We must continue to shift the balance heavily to the asset side. The next Lagos will set the agenda to take the balance of schooling and out-of-school children from 60% to 40% to 85% to 15% within 4years.

Our key strategies will be massive increase in school structures and facilities to triple the capacity of our school system. China and India tackle this population challenge by applying integrated school system with a school accommodating as much as 2million pupils distributed into sub-schools within the same school. The school has overall principal with sub-school principals heading small school units within for administrative convenience.

Next Lagos will under-study this system and adapt in response to our schools population challenge. In as much as all children must go to school, schools must not be made a mob circle where we rather mis-educate our future leaders.

ý UNDERPERFORMING CHILDREN.

The issue of academic underperformance is a system problem. Teacher to pupil population does not support optimum learning. Learning cannot effective when a teacher has a class size that puts him or her under distress.

We will expand capacities of structure and facilities and employ more teachers to decongest classes. More support staff such guidance counselors, cleaners, etc will be employed toward performance enhancement.

ý Inadequate facilities; classrooms, teaching aids, instructional materials, conveniences, transport and logistics, etc.

We will employ our strategies below to mobilize resources to improve facilities.

ý Inadequate staff; teaching, counseling, sports, vocational, administration, medicals.

ý Standby repair and maintenance board will be put in place to respond quickly to repair needs in order to avoid rapid deterioration.

The strategic responses of next Lagos shall include but not limited to;

COST REDUCTION TECHNIQUES.

Significant percentage of expenditure and even budgets will reduce if cost reduction measures are applied at every stage of project planning, supplies planning, execution and implementation. Cost reduction techniques are today a major strategy of corporate organizations in saving revenue on overheads.

COST SHELVING STRATEGIES will enlist out-of-box thinking to bankroll programmes without using stipulated public funds.

PURPOSEFUL CRS DRIVE. Corporate Social Responsibility is a major strategy of helping societies not to be starved by exclusive capitalism. Through CSR, capitalist businesses have turned in part of the fortune made from their operating environment. The past administrations have tapped into this provision to large extent including the security fund of the last administration but next Lagos while sustaining the security fund will initiate a similar programme for primary and secondary schools. With almost all companies doing business in Nigeria having corporate presence in Lagos, there is still great fortune yet to be tapped in CSR.

PHILANTHROPIC GRANTS. World over and in Europe and America particularly, philanthropies are made to associate with development of education by funding with due acknowledgement the renovation of schools and or provision of facilities. The next Lagos must tap into this untapped area to meet our challenges.

SCHOOLS VOCATIONAL ENTERPRISES. Schools in Lagos now run vocational training programmes with impressive responses from all stakeholders. The next Lagos will tap into this further by making vocational studies to evolve into big educational business by stimulating our students to produce or invent market worthy products that will compete for market globally. Revenues from this will add to educational development fund.

Our strategies will consider the models that are working for the Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Korean, etc who have products selling in Nigeria that are produce by vocational classes in these countries.

BUDGETING AT UNICEF STANDARD. The next Lagos will complement these and other funding ways and means with UNICEF education standard of 26% in annual budgets.

INTEGRATED ENTERPRISE PROJECT. The next Lagos will convert roofs of these schools into solar flats. The energy generated will be deployed for schools and uses of other places. This will save the money been paid to PHCN.

Continuous assessment and evaluation for teachers to build and sustain standards. Guidance and counselors will be provided in each school.

Medical facilities will be provided in each school.

Annual performance rewards and motivational incentives will be instituted for both staff and pupils.

We have prepared elaborate action plan on this and we have taken it as one of our core programmes in four years.

Bi oju o bati eyingbeti, Oju oni ti Eko

Ipinle Eko oni Baje o

@HABlagos

HON. HAKEEM ALOBO BAKARE

THE NEXT LAGOS (1) ---- @hablagos

2014-03-21T11:39:00.001-07:00

Every society desires to enjoy peace, harmony, growth and development at all times. It desires that her children grow into responsible and responsive law abiding citizens, contributing positively to the wellbeing of the society.

The ills in the society are been perpetuated mostly by the youths likewise all the virtues. The youth age is the one in which man enjoys tremendous energy, zeal, passion and strength to unleash the stuff the mind is made of. They constitute significant size of the workforce and the most influential elements in families nuclear or extended.

Yesterday, Lagos state enjoyed from the ingenuity of His Excellency, Senator Bola Tinubu who worked assiduously to ensure a solid foundation is created for our democracy and made Lagos the model state for progressives in Nigeria.Asiwaju erected structures for unparalleled grassroots infrastructural development reflecting in all sectors of the economy and put the intimidating trend of youth unemployment under check. He applied heroic wizardry to transform Lagos state into a mega city of envy, self-sustainable and gained for us the lost glory of Lagos as the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria.

Today,His Excellency BabatundeRajiFasola (SAN) leveraged the achievements of Asiwaju to actualize Lagos megacity through intimidating infrastructural development. BRF successfully created a very wide gap for non-performing governors in Nigeria by widening the performance gap. BRF cleaned Lagos state of security threats and seemingly unhelpable pollution problems and made our dear state a toast of good governance.Lagos state in a span of 15years of good and exemplary democratic governance recorded transformational standards that justified the democratic yearning championed by Lagos in defense of June 12. Nigeria’s democracy might not have won the battle to stay without Lagos state as the reference to the ideals of democratic development.

Tomorrow, the tremendous achievements of Asiwaju and BRF in all areas of economy beckon for sustainability and the transit of our dear state to the next level. The next Lagos will make meaningful contribution to the trend and standard already established, if Lagos is driven as citizen-centric. Lagos of yesterday created the foundation and structures, Lagos of today erected infrastructures. Because we needed resources to achieve the yesterday and today’s Lagos, citizens paid for the gains. The next Lagos is the Lagos that will pay citizens. Lagos that will create direct gains for the people.Hence, peoples’ Lagos.

The next Lagos will pay little more attention to infrastructural development, giving attention to the health sector. It will focus more on generating material and thought resources to enrich the people through social schemes that will reach out to even the poor and the poorly poor of Lagos state.

Next Lagos will constitute and recognize avenues where the masses could channel their thoughts and ideas to government. Such avenues will include occupational groups’ parliament, mothers’ forum, people with disabilities forum, and community technology centres. We want to transmit Lagos to one where government will not be the one to tell the masses their problems and proffer solutions. We will create platforms where the people will analyze their circumstances, identify their collective problems, draw their priorities and tell government what to do and when.

The next Lagos will establish youth centred empowerment schemes that will make provision for training, skill acquisition and accessible start-up capital. The capital will be provided with the goal of helping our youths to create jobs that will absorb teeming unemployed youths. It will therefore be collateral free and comes at zero interest. The Community Technology Centreswill be established in each Local Council Area and will also provide facilities for manufacturing, packaging and marketing.

The next Lagos must also review pollution laws to ease the burden of citizens. The past governments have done significantly well by providing transportation facilities that is expected to reduce use of private vehicles and consequently reduce number of vehicles plying our roads. The expected ease intraffic will be realized by next Lagos through strategies of reducing cars on our roads.

The next Lagos will engage youths through entrepreneurship training and start-up capital provision and with interest free advantage to ensure profiting, so as to fulfill our obligations towards them and reward them for the pains of the transformation years.

Lagos state shall remain a key role player in the development of the most populous black nation. Nigeria’s unity in diversity shall draw the next Lagos to continue to exercise religious and tribal liberality in all matters.When the sleeping giant wakes up, it will still remain a big brother to active dwarf.

Bi oju o bati eyingbeti ,oju oni ti Eko ,Ipinle Eko oni Baje o

@HABlagos

@Hablagosyouth

ARE WE PATRIOTIC by ODETOLA ABIOLA

2014-03-01T17:20:00.002-08:00

I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good Nigerian because I like to form my own opinions.

During my primary and secondary school days, I recall singing the Nigeria National Anthem and Nation pledge with vigor and passion. Little did I know that it's fast going to become one of the normal Nursery rhythms . Years later upon graduation from the University, at NYSC orientation ground, I observed most of Nigeria youths say the pledge because they have to, I noticed some friends deliberately skip some lines of the NYSC oaths and

I did not bother till this morning when I asked myself the question am I patriotic? Has Nigeria failed already or have we(Nigerians) failed our nation?

A country whose parent were full of hope at birth is fast becoming the black sheep or human abattoir and the custodian of the country watch in isolation.

They wrote in the olden days that it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country but this age, people hardly discus or speak for their country.

With almost all the needed intelligence, tools, and modern technology and science, the Nigerian populace has turned deaf ears and shut their eyes to the uprising in other nations of the world, we have decided to only watch as our future is been ravaged and destroyed.

We unlike our fore-fathers will leave the affairs of our nation in the hands of few hands(competent or incompetent) and read as current affairs.

We watched as the enemy within becomes more powerful and dominating. Corruption came like a worm and ate the sane part of our system. We have forgotten that we must always be ready to defend our country against his government.

Our silence is the real jailer of our freedom and the enemy within.

How many people has died since the beginning of Boko Haram insurgence? As at 2013 some 1,224 people have been killed in Boko Haram related attacks" since May, add the 200 deaths( this does not include, military personnel as well insurgents killed by security forces repelling attacks) registered already this year and do the maths in your head my brothers and sisters. How much has gone missing from the Nigeria treasury over the years? The World Bank has estimated that since independence half a century ago, at least $400 billion has gone missing from government’s coffers this includes the $49.8Billion that recently got missing. In addition to this, the African Development Bank (AfDB) in 2013 had disclosed that an estimated N390 trillion ($2.6 trillion) is stolen annually through high level corrupt practises in Nigeria and other African countries.

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. Obama said "and in the face of impossible odds, people who love this country will change it. Hence, my question do we still have people who love Nigeria?

It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen. Aristotle

Let's have our country back.

Name: Odetola Abiola Olamelekan

Twitter: @habiholah

IG: @habiholah

Email: habiholah07@yahoo.com

POLITICAL IRONY BY CHARLES NWAIMO (@chaxdawg_909)

2013-09-03T10:20:00.001-07:00

Our nascent democracy is a tale of irony, it is so sad that those at the helm of affairs have turned our governance to a contract of sort - as they go, they hand over to their children and cronies. Not only do they engage in corrupt practices, they also make rules and defy such rules.

What can one say of a government that puts in place laws and constitutional rules that, no one in the public service should keep foreign accounts. The punishment for this is removal from office. This is provided for by the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which wrote in Section 1, Part 1 of the 5th Schedule that the President, his Vice, Governors, Ministers, Commissioners, Local Government Chairmen, Councilors, etc., should not keep foreign accounts.

However, the IRONY is that, in the same constitution: Section 308 states that those at the highest helm of affairs have 'IMMUNITY CLAUSE' whereby they cannot be tried while in office. Perhaps that is the reason why they behave the way they do, arrogantly flouting the former constitutional provision.

Furthermore, Section 143 of the same 1999 constitution clearly states that even the President can be removed from office when to have 'grossly misconducted' the office. But the immunity clause of Section 308 got into their heads that they feel they can dispose their selves while in office, anyhow. Example was the OBJ/Lagos State Local Government non release of their funds then, even after the highest court in the land had ordered him to release the funds. We all know what he did was constitutionally illegal, yet he saw out his tenure.

Another is the GEJ/Amechi/Rivers State House of Assembly debacle where blames of who caused what and what are pointed at different people. They all should just resign already, they cannot govern their people.

Hence, this shows that our democracy is being ran with a dictatorial colouration. This type of democracy does not follow her laid down constitution to the letter. A nation that provides laws to guide her, laws which her leaders defy is going nowhere, it is IRONICAL and a pity.
By Charles Nwaimo ... @chaxdawg_909

ISLAM AND CLOTHING BY ADEBANJO OLUWASEYI

2013-07-19T08:06:00.001-07:00

A woman on hijab

Clothing is a textile material worn on the body. The wearing of clothes is mostly restricted to human. The types of clothes we were always depend on circumstances and consideration. This might physical, social and geographic considerations. Some clothing are gender specific.

Islam teaches us how to dress. This is evident in Surah 24 (An-Nur) Ayah 30 – 31;

In Ayah 30, the Quran says: Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them: And Allah is well acquainted with all that they do.

It went further to state in Ayah 31: And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty and they should not display their beauty and ornaments except (ordinarily) appear thereof, that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband’s fathers, sons, their brothers or their brother’s sons or their sister’s sons or their women or the slaves whom their right hands or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no carnal knowledge of women, and they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And o ye believers! Turn ye all together towards Allah in repentance that ye may be successful.

So also in surah 33 (Al-Ahzab) Ayah 59: O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when out of doors) that is most convenient, and they should be known (as such)and not molested and Allah is oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.

What the above is simply saying is that the women should draw their cloaks close round them, that way they may be recognised as Muslims and would prevent them from being harassed.

There are certain conditions of a Muslim’s dress code and they are as follows:-

(a) Clothing must cover the entire body, only the hands and face may remain visible that is according to some scholars while others only the face may remain.

(b) The material must not be so thin that one can see through.

(d) The female’s clothing must not resemble that of the male’s clothing.

(e) The design of the clothing must not resemble the clothing of the non-believing woman.

(f) Clothing should not be worn for the sole purpose of gaining reputation or increasing one’s status in the society.

The reason behind all this conditions is not far-fetched. It is to protect the women from the lustful gaze of man, she should not attract attention to herself in any way. It is permissible for a man to catch a eye of a woman, however it is haram for a man to look twice as it encourages lustful thoughts.

My sincere advice to all my sisters in Islam; You might not want to wear the hijab and cover up properly at this moment in your life, but just remember this, one day you will be covered up properly from head to toe and lowered into the grave, don’t let your last day on earth be the first day you cover up properly.

Also to my brothers in Islam, refraining from looking at that which we are not supposed to is the best.

Allah does not obligate anyone beyond his capacity. Don’t be fooled by shay tan into thinking that it’s impossible to control your gaze due to the times we live in. May Almighty Allah grant us all the ability to refrain from looking at that which is prohibited to look at as lowering the gaze strengthens the Iman.

The writer of this piece can be reached on +2347061947454

THE ORDER

2013-06-28T11:55:00.001-07:00

It is said that blood is thicker than water. It is what defines us, bind us and curses us. For some, blood means a life of wealth and privilege. And for others, it is a life of servitude. A man should take pride in what he builds, but it should be remembered that what he does to where he hails from is the only real wealth he can claim. I am not immune to distress and like most real Nigerians, I find it hard to shake the feeling these days that our celebrated democracy has gone seriously awry. All thanks to the big destructive daddies. They are the set of leaders who practice a brand of politics that goes beyond the greed for lucre. The evil they commit is never lost; each evil act has a root, and every bit of evil they sow, in time will always bear fruits. I can’t help feeling that the politics of today suffers from a case of arrested development.

It is not simply that a gap exists between our professed ideals as a nation and the reality we witness every day. In one form or another, that gap has existed since Nigeria’s birth. Civil war have been fought, laws passed, systems deregulated, unions organized and national protests staged to bring promise and practice into closer alignment. All good efforts have been interrupted by bad deeds of the ‘oga at the top’ or the other. The main trouble is the gap between the magnitude of our challenges and the smallness of our politics, and the ease with which we are distracted by petty and trivial things and chronic avoidance of tough decisions, our seeming inability to build a working consensus to tackle any big problem. It should be noted that the country’s tectonic plates had shifted. Politics is no longer simply a pocketbook issue but a moral issue as well, subject to moral imperatives and moral absolutes. This is why it is the business of everyone. We do not have enough time to wait for a politics with maturity to balance idealism and realism, to distinguish between what can and cannot be compromised. Whenever we dumb the political talks or interest, we lose. For it’s precisely the pursuit of ideological purity, the rigid orthodoxy and the sheer predictability of our current political talks, that keeps us from finding new ways to meet the challenges we face as a country.

But even then in depth of my grief, not all was darkness. I found the socialize medicine that can be used to cure Nigeria’s present predicament if put into proper use. This medicine was gotten from the books of history that relates to Nigeria as a country. History has it that Nigeria is a great country and has produced great people. One of the striking accounts related was the age of her good leaders. History has it that Muritala was just at his early twenties when he ruled Nigeria before he was murdered. It was also revealed that Gowon was twenty when he ruled Nigeria. She also said that Obasanjo who was next to Muritala as at the time of Muritala’s regime was thirty eight when he ruled Nigeria as a military man. Whether these are true or not is not my concern, but the fact that the era Nigeria has had the best governance is that which fell between the youthful ages of her then rulers. It shows that Nigeria was best ruled by the youths. The poser now is where are the real Nigerian Youths with guts? I mean guts for genuine leadership tussle and not gut for the love of the full package pocket filled with the remains of a looted treasury. What are the youths doing to help restore the image of this country? I learnt from the books that an individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

It can be well argued that the youths are trying their best through their various initiatives. Being busy is not the same as accomplishing something. These organizations are set up with good paper work but when they start operation, it is nothing to write home about. They are only dedicated to find their way to a politician that would use them as tool of destruction during electioneering processes. Afterwards, they give awards to them for looting their country’s treasury and making the entire citizens hopeless. Though, some are pretty doing well by pursuing the goals of their initiative and they never compromise standards. They all exist around us, whether for good or for bad.

It is time for the youths to wake up to the reality and forget the theories. It is time for us to act what we say. It is time for us to stand up for Nigeria. It is time for us to come together and support good initiative that would further the course of this noble country. It is time to create the real order which is ‘change’. We are the true leaders and it is through us that the true leaders can emerge. The real time for sacrifice is now. The law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be effective, it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless. It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face was marred with dust, sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and come short again and again; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end what triumph of achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor loss. The dream of our great nationalists who fought for Nigeria’s independence from the British imperialists must be restored. They envisioned a nation anchored on egalitarianism, justice, fairness and good governance. It is our duty to make change our new order of pursuit. We must arise and obey the call in full to serve with heart and might so that we can build a nation where peace and justice shall reign.

WHYTE HABEEB IBIDAPO

@whytehabeeb

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM BROADENS OBJECTIVITY – DAPO IPOOLA

2013-06-17T07:33:00.003-07:00

DAPO IPOOLA, AN INDIGENE OF EKITI STATE is a young and talented political analyst. He loves discussing politics alot. He shares his view on the state of the Nigeria's polity and the APC Merger.

YOU ARE A POLITICAL ANALYST WITH A DIFFERENCE. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN YOUR ANALYSIS COMPARED TO OTHER ANALYST?

It is incontestable that I am an analyst spiced with a difference. The difference in my analysis is that I don’t hold a brief for anyone. I don’t give a gift of gab for anybody irrespective of their social status. I don’t analyse on the mantra of my political relativity. I don’t analyse on sympathetic or apologetic state to emotion. I always base my analysis on constructive and engaging issues; because it is in this that we can explore and define ideas. I believe in constructive criticism because it broadens objectivity.

I will not peregrinate any analysis that is objective vacuous or vacant. Analysis on sentiment or bias is to me an act of shenanigan. There was an analysis I made about Hon. Aminu Bello Tambuwal on one of our local radios; the analysis was roundly infallible that many callers could not fathom that I am a progressive minded analyst. I always have a faculty in recognizing the truth without being economical. It is in one of my analysis that I unflinchingly commended the hunky dory performances of Governors Rotimi Amaechi, Emmanuel Uduaghan and Rochas Okorocha. And yet, these governors belong to another political party that I so much have an unquenchable acataleptic animosity for. One of the differences in my analysis is that I always call a spade a spade and I don’t give a hoot of whose ox will be red. My analyses are always clinical and pure compared to some analysts who are always sycophantic and adulatory in analysis. I love to cement and foundate my analysis on every issue with objectivity. I have a puritanical dislike for analysis occasioned with high-falutin encomium. It is not in my character of analysis to be parochial and myopic when some indubitable staggering facts are begging for clinical dissection. With my uncompromising style of analysis, I think I really stand tall among our today’s feckless analysts.

WHAT IS YOUR STAKE IN THE POLITY OF THE NATION?

With sincere honesty, the state of the nation is so incongruous. Things are in a state of turpsy-scurvy. The affairs of governance are so cacophonous that things and the henchmen in the saddle are in blatant scrimmage. I can’t really cry wolf because the administration now at the federal level is torpidity and tepidity typified. The present administration now is so clueless about the myriad of problems plaguing Nigerians. The floods of problems we have now are traceable to our ideas bereft leaders. They are not creative in thinking and neither are they productive in innovation. Security is so porous that the president himself is denuding in every sense. Poverty is so pervasive that the poor cannot sleep and the rich too are awake because of the poor’s insomnia.

Unemployment is gaining an insurmountable rise as the flotsam and jetsam of our society are indecorously and ingloriously scheming vices that are undignifying. Power supply is so erratic and epileptic despite billions of dollars spent. Roads are so cratered that travelling on our roads now involves fervent fasting and prayers.

Corruption is now an endemic idol venerates in both public and private organizations. Corruptocracy and kleptocracy have become the second government of practice. Government officials are so gluttonous and avaricious that they pilfer with condemnable swagger of disdain.

Our judicial system is so penetrable that justice is now elusive if you are not financially buoyant to secure it in both crook and hook means. Our politicians are fastidiously sitting tight in the laps of byzantine luxury. Our leaders feigningly turn bland expression to our agonies. Our hospitals have become mere consulting clinics due to lack of incentives for health workers. Our ivy leagues are now glorified secondary schools due to lack of fund. And yet, our leaders are carousing with women of easy virtue and sending their wards abroad at the expense of our tertiary institution in total derelict and neglect. The crass and sophisticated ignorance of today’s men in power is so disgusting. The present health of our nation is now in sore strait as social maladies keeps festering and metastasizing. Our leaders are so insouciant that they lack any twinge of moral decency.

DO YOU THINK APC IS THE SOLUTION TO NIGERIA’S PROBLEM?

Circumventing the democratic and progressive credentials of the parties involved, one would never doubt their grasping prosperity. Is it the political genuses in the merger voyage that is not convincing to trade optimism?

I see the present party at the lever of power as a square peg in a round hole. I also see the people that constitute PDP as a bunch of disoriented charlatans without any modicum of administrative blue – print. Even the NGF election is a pointer that PDP as a party has over-stayed its welcome. The fuel subsidy brouhaha signaled PDP as a party that is not people oriented. The subsidy hullabaloo shows PDP as a party that is not masses friendly. It is very disheartening and heart-rending that we produce 2.5million barrels per day and the current price is $133 per barrel and daily sales is $282.5million and the monthly sales is $8.47billion where the yearly sales is $101.7billion which when converted to naira is #16.272trilion naira and our budget is #4trilion naira. Ask me, why must any considerate government tinker with such thing that only makes have a sense of belonging as an oil producing nation? If Obasanjo could govern Nigeria with the production of 700,000barrels/day, why must Jonathan fondle with the removal of fuel subsidy? Why is Jonathan feeding with one billion naira annually? Can he eat a bag of rice at a goal? Is he so rapacious to scoff a cow at a goal? My brethren, what do you call that? A sheer avarice and inordinate greed, you are right.

To me, APC is the answer. And I would like to crave the indulgence of the parties involved to polarize and neutralize pecuniary interests.

RECENTLY, AN ARTICLE WAS ATTRIBUTED TO YOU ABOUT YOUR SUPPORT FOR FAYEMI’S SHOW-STOPPING PERFORMANCE HAS MADE ME TO SUBSCRIBE TO MAXISM THAT SAYS THAT “ONE GOOD TURN DESERVES ANOTHER”.

All that was centred in his eight point agenda encompasses the social needs of the haves and have-nots. Fayemi’s aggressive developments in Ekiti-State speak volume. The article detailed his genuine transmogrification of Ekiti-State from a reckless abandonment to an enviable height. His social security scheme is its first in Africa. It is under his holistic watch that Ekiti is now a construction site. His stellar performance in road network is something more than impressive. His managerial prowess is heartwarming. Before the advent of Fayemi’s administration, Ekiti IGR was a paltry sum of 109 million naira, but today Ekiti is generating over a billion naira monthly. His laptop initiative to each and every secondary student is laudable. His health and agriculture enhancement are praiseworthy. The article chronicled his prudency and thirst for justice which makes him to be the first governor to sign into the freedom of information bill and the payment of minimum wage.

The article gave the graphic and chronological detail of his unstinting and unflinching commitment to social contract that he signed with Ekiti people. So that was why I advised the over ambitious politicians in Ekiti to patiently wait for their time. I called these rebellious ones as a spanner in the wheel of development of Ekiti State. I see these ones as Judases of Ekiti. Irrespective of the age of their experience, they do not have anything in stock to offer Ekiti people. Even if the age of their political experience is as old as Methuselah, they are political neophytes compared to Fayemi’s eclectic exposure.

YOUR BEST FIVE NIGERIAN LEADERS AND WHY?

If I must be sincere, I will unmistakenly mention Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu because of his democratic doggedness. I must commend him for his tenacity and pertinacity in entrenching good governance. I doff my hat for him for daring the ferocious powers that be. Despite the political witch hunt and mudslinging he never pandered to the whim and caprices of intimidation.

I also adore Dr. Fayemi’s disposition to politics. I cherish his humane character, I love his leadership foresight. He is a leader who sees more than others see who sees farther than other and who sees before other do. I also like the puritanical and meticulous disposition of Gen. Buhari’s politics. He is so upright and transparent. He is the only former head of state that doesn’t have a house in Abuja. He is the only chairman of PTF that has no filling station. I love the political lifestyle of Ekiti State chief of staff, Chief Yemi Adaramodu, he is a politician of enviable scorecard. He is a politician that never gets inebriated of power despite the fact that he became a local government chairman at age twenty nine.

I am an admirer of Hon. Samuel Rotimi Ajidara’s politics, his kind of politics is humility and magnanimity typified. He always exemplify wisdom and rare understanding. His unquantifiable contributions when he held sway as member of the state house of assembly and ALGON chairman was impressive. And now as SSA to governor Fayemi on Local Government, his robust contributions are inexplicable and ineffable. Hon. Dino Melaye’s radical politics is what I so much marvel at, his crave for egalitarian society is immeasurable. He is a politician with rarity of courage and boldness.

AM AN AGENT OF CHANGE ------ HABIB AKEWUSOLA

2013-06-12T11:13:00.000-07:00

INTRODUCTION: HABIB AKEWUSOLA is a young and talented Nigerian. He has displayed this creativity through his pen by writing poems in various Nigeria Newspapers. He is an agent of change and a future Nigeria Leader. I present to you a little chat that I had with Mr. Habib.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

I am Habib Omolade Akewusola, 100l Islamic studies University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara state, Nigeria. I am also a poet with various publications in National dailies in Nigeria.

YOU’VE BEEN KNOWN FOR POEM WRITING IN NIGERIA. HOW DO YOU FEEL AS A POET?

Let me give glory to Almighty Allah for the continuous flow of inspiration. It should also be noted that the Nigeria community is presently in a problematic state. As a poet, there is continuous cry and protest of emotions through my 26 letters. I also feel fulfilled for the caliber of great minds I meet on a regular basis.

MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT LITERARY APPRECIATION IS DYING IN NIGERIA. WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON THIS?

Yes I will agree that literary appreciation is dying gradually in Nigeria. The community we find ourselves isn’t an organized one. Nigerians now forget art is the backbone of humanity. The creation of man itself is a wonderful work of art. We the writers/ artists should fuse in together development of the physical life directly into our work so as to reflect directly into every contemporary human mind. Our government must reignite cultural events; festivals should also become a regular practice.

ARE THERE DISPARITIES IN THE POEMS WRITTEN BY NIGERIA POETS AND OTHER POETS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES?

No, there can’t be disparities. The great Achebe (rip) said: ”when a man that eats another type of food, wears another colour of skin different from yours, reads your literary work and their seems to be a sense of communication then you just crossed barriers”. This made me understand poetry is the same everywhere you go, one can either write to fight or express love for your immediate society or you write for the same cause universally. Every writer has a divine style, once you remain original and dream well then your work will go fathered than your thoughts.

IT’S BEEN NOTED THAT YOU ARE EMBARKING ON A PROJECT THAT WOULD SEE TO THE DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION IN ALL ASPECT ON CAMPUS. WHAT IS THE INITIATIVE ABOUT?

Yes, very true, a balanced youth newspaper to be named CAMPUS VAPOR is on the pipeline and by next session October/November 2013 a test run copy of about 4,000 Copies would be printed and distributed to relevant agencies for comments. Lots of literary brands would be popularized by this same time, like WORDS SO SWEET (Strictly for publication of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and short stories) . It already has a facebook fan page/group page plus a twitter handle. This dream would be transformed into prints soon. There’s also this big project which would be the testimony of change and total brainwashing of Nigerian youths to hold tightly her valuable position in our Nigerian community. Am not in the best position to talk about much about the laudable initiative but I can assure you our positive virus would soon consume the entire Nigeria youths. This initiative is all about change in the whole system. I am an agent of change.

NIGERIANS ARE THE BEST --------ADEBANJO OLUWASEYI HALIMAH

2013-05-13T01:59:00.001-07:00

AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ADEBANJO OLUWASEYI HALIMA, 200LEVEL LAW, UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN

INTRODUCTION

Adebanjo Oluwaseyi Halima is the founder of the organization called SEND A GIRL TO SCHOOL. She’s also the recipient winner of Youth Advocate of the year Award (2013) in Nigeria and also the Nigeria representative at the Global Change makers Youth Summit in United Kingdom. She also doubles as a life member of Global Changemakers UK and also a volunteer at the British council, United Kingdom. A 200level Law Student of Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

Am Adebanjo Oluwaseyi , 200l law, University of Ilorin

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR ADVENTURE IN RUNNING A NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION AT THIS TENDER AGE OF YOURS?

I must say it has been very challenging because in Nigeria NGO is not something people love, most people don’t believe in sponsoring or supporting Non - governmental organization, especially when it comes to an NGO that is gender sensitive. Apart from sponsors, the youths are not left out. The youths of today are not ready to spend their time advocating for the right of others. Most of them believe that it is a waste of time since they would not get payment in return of their service to humanity. Running an NGO is all about interest. My biggest challenge is not sponsorship but getting more youths to work with me. It is a collective responsibility that makes change occurs in a society. The adventure has been interesting because it has opened so many opportunities for me. I have work with big personalities, organizations and got several awards on this platform. I also met like minded youths across other countries.

YOUR GIRL CHILD ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN IS A PRODUCT OF WHAT?

My campaign is very easy to identify from the name of my NGO. The name of my organization is SEND A GIRL TO SCHOOL. It is a product of passion and change that I desire since my secondary school days. It is a body championing a course that is set towards a better life for the female children. A girl child must be educated. I made this decision after I visited some communities in Nigeria and I discovered that the ratio of girl child to that have boy that are been sent to school is just 20 to 80. This should not be so because every child has a right to education and it must not be limited to anyone. In the course of my advocacy I realized that ignorance and poverty are the main reasons why this is happening. When a problem is identified, it is half solved and part of the solution is a product of my NGO.

WOULD I BE RIGHT TO SAY THAT YOU ARE A FEMINIST?

Yes, you are right. I am a feminist. As a feminist I believe in equal treatment for all. A female child deserves to be treated equally as a male child. A female child has social, economic and political rights like a male child has. I belong to the school of thought that everyone should be treated equally.

HOW CAN YOU DESCRIBE GIRL CHILD ADVOCACY IN OTHER COUNTRIES TO THAT OF NIGERIA

Basically the Girl Child initiative in Nigeria is totally different from other countries though both campaigns are tailored towards achieving the same feat. Since my three years on this journey of advocacy, I have realized a whole lot of things. There is always an established institution in other developed countries that looks into issues like this but in Nigeria few Ngos making this campaign barely last for five years. Through my research, I discovered that only very few people are inspired and motivated to join in fighting for the right of a girl child. Nobody is ready for selfless service either by making a case for a girl child or sponsoring the girl child campaign. This is not obtainable in other countries. An average American teenager is ready to fight against violations not for the pay but for peace and equality to reign in the society.

The government of the day in other countries are ready to support and promote initiatives that are geared towards stopping or eradicating inequality and violation of the girl child right. Examples of such organization that have government support in other countries include ‘Change and react’ which was founded by teenagers and supported by establishment like Nike foundation, British Council etc.

YOU WON AN AWARD RECENTLY ON YOUR GIRL – CHILD INITIATIVE IN NIGERIA. HOW WAS IT LIKE?

That award was given to me by an NGO initiative as the Youth Advocate of the year. Twenty six youths were nominated initially for the award but I thank God today I became the recipient of the award in Nigeria. I never believed it when I was declared as the final winner. It’s not like I was the best but it’s all God’s favour though I know I have been trying my best to a large extent in advocating on the Girl child’s right and I pray God would continue to strengthen me the more. The award actually opened so many other opportunities and made me got sponsors for my project. God has been wonderful to me.

YOU’VE LEFT THE SHORES OF THIS COUNTRY TO FAR AWAY UNITED KINGDOM TO REPRESENT NIGERIA YOUTHS ON THIS GIRL CHILD’S RIGHT CAMPAIGN. HOW WAS THE EXPERIENCE LIKE?

Two of us were chosen to represent Nigeria in United Kingdom for the Global Changemakers Youth Summit. I must say it was an amazing experience. It is the peak so far in my campaign opportunities. I met different people of my age with like minds. I got to know new things, new ideas and how I could make improvements in my country. I made my project known to the world through that medium and I was able to get people to join my organization. I have international members working with me on my project. I never wasted the opportunity I had and as Nigerian I believe we are good at that. We are the best.

I went on a visit to the British council headquarters, where we all dine and wine with top executives and ambassadors from different countries including our country ambassador. I also delivered a speech and I was able to talk to the conscience of people on the need why everyone must advocate on a Girl child’s right. Here, I was given grants and I was inducted as a life member of Global Changemakers UK and also a volunteer at the British council.

I also had the privilege to visit several Ngos founded by youths of my age. It was a life changing experience. I gained a lot of ideas which I have started putting into place in Nigeria. Though it is not an easy task and it’s a very long process but I know at the end of the day my aim would be achieved.

EDUCATION REFINES TALENT - OYEDEPO ELIJAH

2013-03-08T10:26:00.001-08:00

WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

My name is Oyedepo Elijah Oluwaseun, 300 Level English Education, University of Ilorin

YOU’VE SPOTTED ON CAMPUS AND AT SEVERAL EVENTS PLAYING INSTRUMENT ESPECIALLY DRUMMING. WHAT’S THE PASSION FOR DRUMMING ABOUT?

Drumming has been part of me since my early days as a child. I grew up to discover drumming as a God giving talent. I love drums. I develop a major interest in percussions and I discover it to be more fantastic. I feel so good and comfortable anytime am with the drum sticks. It’s an inspiration. I get my own inspiration from drumming just like a writer gets inspiration from his pen. I am the custodian of the stick just like the pastor is the custodian of the bible and the alfa for the Quran.

YOU’VE BEEN CHRISTENED AS STICK. HOW DID YOU COME ABOUT THIS?

The name ‘stick’ was given to me by my very good friends. The secret behind this is that am always with my drum sticks. I keep them in my bags while going to school. When my friends discovered this they gave me the name Ej- Stick. It means Elijah Stick but later on the Elijah was removed and now I bear Stick as a nickname.

WHAT IS YOUR ASSESSMENT OF CAMPUS FELLOWSHIP IN UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN?

Campus Fellowship in University of Ilorin has been doing well. I believe the right things are been done by the various fellowships on campus. I don’t attend all but at least to a reasonable mind, they all doing well. I attend my own fellowship frequently and I know the right things are been done. Since fellowship is like calling people to be closer to God, I do not see any reasons why some fellowships should discriminate on the basis of parish. This is an important area that I want all parishes to check and correct. I have heard several stories of people not wanting to attend a particular fellowship on the basis that there members are more attended to than the others. It is one love and that is the essence of Campus fellowship.

SCHOOL ACTIVITIES AND YOUR TALENT. HOW DO YOU COPE?

I want you to know that no matter how talented you might be, you need education to refine such talent. I take my studies very important. I plan and i don’t get distracted by encomiums that I receive from people through my ability. I play for lots of people but whenever the schedules are going to affect a class or an assignment I go for the priority. My Monday to Friday is for my school and my weekends for music and drums. I have always known that the world out there is not smiling. You need to back your talent up with a certificate. It is not just a certificate but a good one. Nobody is interested in your talent when you don’t have a good education. The talent would just be a waste. I prioritize a lot.

ADVICE TO FELLOW STUDENTS

To everyone out there, please discover yourself. If you do that, the sky is your starting point. Don’t try to be like someone else rather try to know what makes the person. I always believe that it is good to keep away from people who try to belittle your dreams. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you, too, can become great.

A SHOT AT GOAL

2012-12-24T01:02:00.000-08:00

A SHOT AT GOAL

Life, I want to be quoted to have said that is for two set of people. The successful and the unsuccessful. That I would be successful is not a thing of the mouth but a conviction comes to the mind and put into reality. I have seen so many people struggle in life to succeed. They do everything possible to be successful. To them success depends only on the amount of hardwork they can put into their work. This set of people in their chosen fields. But it is sad that they don’t get the required result. There is another set of people who believe success is meant only for certain classes of people. This set of people believes they cannot and will never achieve success no matter how hard they try. To them their names have been removed from the success book.

A successful person is somebody who has been able to achieve an aim, fame, wealth or social position. A successful person is somebody who has been able to start a project and see it to the end and should be guided quite a number of people to bring their own project into completion. Success is one of the cheapest commodities you can get to buy in the market only if you have the right negotiating skills. You bargain for whatever kind of success you want. Whether short term or long term because there is a thin line between hope and fear. While the foolish allow fear to weaken them, the wise take advantage of the lesson that is learnt between consequence and circumstance and keep how alive. The difference between a successful person and others is not necessary lack of strength or knowledge but rather a lack of will.

A successful man always looks for opportunities where others see nothing. They find a lesson while others only see a problem. They are solution focused because they consciously and methodically create their own success, while others hope success will find them. I always know that the successful mind is as fearful like everyone else, but they are not controlled or limited by fear. They ask right questions- the ones which put them in a productive, creative, positive mindset and emotional state. We gain strength, courage and confident by every experience when we stop to look fear in the face. We must do the things which we think we cannot do. Fear cripples more than physical presence of danger. If you want to develop courage dare to do the things you fear and keep on doing them until you have a record of successful experiences behind you. That is a sure way to conquer fear. You can conquer almost any fear if you will make up your mind to do so. Remember, fear does not exist in the mind of the one who fears.

Winners of the Coca Cola/ The Nation CampusLife Awards

Let’s look at the reality between hope and fear. I t does not help to keep looking at your fears, focus on your hopes and dreams. Think not about your frustration, concentrate on your potentials, concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is possible for you to do. Be busy, productive and proactive. Lie on your couch, planning, over – thinking, sit on your hands and generally go around in circle and get the job done. For a man to be successful, align yourself with like minded people. Understand the importance of team work and create a win-win relationship. It is better you innovate rather than imitate.

Many failed in life, many would still fail and many are still failing all because they did not have important decisions. They don’t deal with problems and challenges quickly and effectively, they put their head in the sand. They run away from risk and never improve their selves and at the end of the day, they blame everyone and everything but themselves for their failure. The failed to understand that between hoping times and worrying days there is a yawning gap. True there are times when things happen which will have no control over but those are the times when we stand up and clinch to our hopes. Blaming others however, make us bitter, confused and angry. This weakens us. While many people are pleasure junkies and avoid pain and discomfort at all costs, successful people understand the value and benefits of working through the tough stuff that most would avoid. They have balance. They may be financially successful, they know the terms money and success are not interchangeable. They understand that people who are on a financial level only, are not successful at all. Unfortunately we live in a society which teaches that money equals success. Like many other things, money is a tool. It’s just another resource. Unfortunately, too many people worship it. Understanding the importance of discipline and self control is a key and a way to be travelled by.

The real world is upon us has long as we have breadth in us. We would be in vain to ignore this because pride and precedent cannot over shadow reasoning. There is no easy path to glory. There is no easy road to fame. Life, however we may view it, is no simple parlour game, to enjoy its reward you have to fight, endure and the main generally rugged. I used to think that the best shot at success lay in avoiding challenges and seeing failure as an enemy but I have learnt that when a man continues to hope and fear failure, he would remain obscure.

Many things happen under the sun, but how sad we settle for second best and live lives of mediocrity – all because we refuse to search within us and come up with what is refuse to search within us and come up with what is buried. So, what do we see? People pretend they do not need ‘much’ money when they do; some say that they can manage any job but we crave for better. We become mendicants. What a wasted live!

Where are those with guts to give success, real success, a shot? Guts are combination of confidence, courage, and conviction, strength of character, stick-to-itiveness, aggression and resilience. These are mandatory for anyone who wants to get to and stay at the top. Having an exciting destination is like setting a needle in your compass. From then on, the compass knows only one point – the targeted goal. And it will faithfully guide you there through the darkest fiercest storms. A friend once said to me, ‘I AM TIMELESS”. This can be translated to mean the fact that while the dart times and storms come and go, I remain. Those we celebrate as great became great not because they have two heads but because they faced their fears and overcame their challenges. If it is to be, it is up to you.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year in Advance...........Whyte Habeeb Ibidapo

THAT WE MAY BE NIGERIANS

2012-09-25T08:22:00.003-07:00

This piece is dedicated to Ngozi Nwozor Agbo...may her gentle soul rest in perfect peace.

I would start this piece with the great words of the lady that gave my pen a voice. The Late Ngozi Agbo said on her daily CampusLife column on The Nation newspaper PUSHING OUT titled Behind failed fathers and children on April 12, 2012 and I quote that ‘whenever I hear government officials and agencies making political gain out of what compensation/offsetting hospital bills they pay to victims and families of the dead. I get furious. I do not know that person, even the laziest, who would prefer any compensation to being spared the expectation in the first place. And that is what the government should do well to concentrate on: saving us the recurring anarchy and carnage.’’

The above quotation expressly shows the kind of country we are. A country where we have bunch of incompetent leaders; who are totally clueless. They would have killed before resign; and even when you ask them to step down, they would rather engage in all manner of the shenanigan. Nigeria, with all due respect is a place where nothing works. My heart right now like that of Reuben Abati (of the good days) is moved to tragedy because we have a group of power mongers who keep using our country to play the game of ludo. They throw the dice, and they play what it comes up with, meanwhile they are buying time privately and pursuing their own their self-interest. Some have even argued that the game of ludo on Nigerians as extended to that of chess. Nigerians are the pawns i.e. the element of small attack with no special strength and are very gullible.

The fundamental question is, for how long shall we stand and watch our future eroded in a wasting generation; for how long shall we stand in a place where men are deprived of what is their own?

In everything we do in Life, there is always a method to go about it, even in madness. Life is all about making an imagination to produce a good result. Imagination sets the goal which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of will, as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination. My joy drowns in my grief has I have started imagining that there may not be a place for the coming generation to stay. Nigeria has been plagued with a viral disease called “National Incompetence”. The title ‘Giant of Africa” remains on our lips by precedent and not by what we used to have. We operate the best system of government and yet we remain at the extreme corner of the world. Democracy’s world is rich and multifaceted. It is a system that combines the centrality of laws and values but yet all the values have gone into extinction in my fatherland. We live in a state of emptiness where no one can predict well what the country is ready to offer talk less of what to offer. Emptiness is a symptom that one is not living creatively. You either have no goal that is important enough to you, or you are not using your talents and efforts in striving towards an important goal. Yes, we are blessed with all manners of blessings under the sun but the blessings and geniuses in us are hundred but because of corruption occasioned by the priority and perpetuation of self above the interest of the citizenry, we remain at the extreme corner of the world. Few states can boast of recent developments but the remaining states can show case to the world power tussle between political opponents, maiming and assassination, religious bigotry, lawlessness, pipeline vandilization etc. The modesty in us as Nigerians is already fading out as we know longer command the respect of other countries rather we get embarrassed in different countries as Nigerians. Does this not worth a shame?

Development is on strike in Nigeria. Every good thing is in a standstill. All we get is various and incompetent reports of constituted committees that are full of individuals with tired brains and not active and articulate ones. Our problems are enormous that not even the solutions suggested by the committees are effective. We want to see actions and not paper works. If nations of the world are to be judged by the well-being of their people, by the provisions that is made afforded to the growing minds and bodies of children and by the provision that is made for those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged. Nigeria would be ranked among the worse.

The process of a nation building should commence for the purpose of posterity. Instead of saying man is the creature of circumstance; it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance. At this moment I would say that those who have nothing but guns for the hungry and think of nothing but death and dying, let them spend our earth’s fortune harvesting blood from the fields of war and corruption. The last banquet shall be their children’s blood. Charity is no longer enough, there should be an extension of hands full of love and help to change the unenviable lives of citizens ravaged by diseases. We should always remember that earthly treasures are not ours to keep. Our dollars, naira, Euros and pounds are of little use if not invested in the future of our fatherland. The fight for superiority is not a day process and it is time we get a cure to the viral disease that has crippled all spheres of endeavour in our country.

Agbo Agbo said on the PUSHING OUT Column on the 19^th of July, 2012 in his piece titled In the throes of failed leadership, and I quote: ‘When leaders refuse to be change in the world they wish to see, they not only lose, their nations lose as well. I recall with some nostalgia the exploit leaders, such as Chairman Mao of China, Ho Chi Ming of Vietnam, Josep Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Winston Churchill of Great Britain, Madiba Nelson Mandela and F.W De Clarke of South Africa, Nwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, and the great Marthin Luther King. I f you study the lives of all these great leaders, one thing that is common to them is their willingness and convictions to truly represent the change in their country they wish to see. They not only talk the talk, they walk the talk. They truly practice what they preach and use themselves as role models.’’

Nigeria needs good leaders that would stir the affair of the country for better. I call on the sleeping giants of today, to please rise up for the challenge to save our father land. The youths are sleeping while some people are awake to loot our treasury. No matter what we want of life we have to give up something in order to get it. The good we do is never lost, each kindly act takes root, and every bit of love we sow, in time will bear its fruits. I expect the youth to pass through this life but once. If, therefore, there can be any kindness any one of us can show, or any good thing that we can do to make Nigeria a better place, let us do it now as we shall not pass this way again. We need to do our best for our country so that we may be the Nigerian we claim to be.

This piece is dedicated to Ngozi Nwozor Agbo...may her gentle soul rest in perfect peace.

WIZKID BATTLES DAVIDO

2012-08-25T16:08:00.002-07:00

THIS IS TRULY NIGERIAN..GOOD PEOPLE, GREAT NATION

Rave and Azonto crooner,Wizkid is enraged by media statement making the round that he is jittery over Davido’s status update.
http://recessonline.blogspot.com/2012/06/wizkid-draws-battle-line-blasts-davido.html
The musician is angry at the suggestion that he is frightened by the fast rising profile of the Dami Duro crooner and wondered how he,an acclaimed musician and piece of the future could get frightened by Davido’s claims to limelight.
"Honestly,I don’t know how someone could imagine that I’m afraid of Davido’s entrance into the Nigeria music scene.For me not to make it personal I think it’s something referred to my team."

Even the report had it that the whole of EME is jittery over his debuting
Continuing,Wizkid who pointed at Naeto C of being the exponent of his three hot singles questioned HKN,Davido’s record-label when he enthused," how many crew members does he have in HKN? I mean in EME we have Skales,Banky W and so many of them"

"For example,I have songs in an album,but he just released two or three singles with the help of Naeto C.Then how could he say that EME crew is having jitters about competition" he queried.

SOURCE ::

The Looters’ Anthem – by Ogunyemi Bukola

2012-08-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

The Looters’ Anthem – by Ogunyemi Bukola

The Looters’ Anthem

Arise O Lootatriots

The looter’s call obey

To loot our fatherland

With greed and zest and verve

The booties of our looters past

Shall never be recovered

To steal with patience and vigour

One nation ruled by bandits

Crooks and bribe-takers

O God of subsidy

Protect our bribery scams

Guide our looters right

Help our greed the loots to steal

In debts and terrorism we grow

And looting day and night

Fat foreign reserves plundered

To build a nation where luck

And cabals shall reign

PLEDGE:

I pledge to the umblerra of my party

To be greedy, clueless and corrupt

To loot Nigeria with all my strength

To defend our lootitude

And uphold our mansions and billions

So let us loot

Ogunyemi Bukola

Follow me on twitter: @zebbook

Blog: www.zebbook.com

Nigeria Disgraced In Oslo By Norwegian Customs authorities - By Uzoma Ahamefule

2012-08-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

Juliana Salzer: Photo taken in one of the fast food

restaurants in Enugu during her visit to Nigeria in December 2011

Juliana Salzer is an Austrian lady living very comfortably and coming from a very comfortable home. But her sad experience and humiliation in the hands of the Norwegian customs authorities at the airport has made her to ask many questions why people should be treated not based on the content of their character but on race and religion.

She visited her friend J. E. in Nigeria in December 2011 and in return invited her to Austria for a holiday and also planned to travel to Oslo in April 2012 with her as a city she said that she had travelled to many times and had loved so much. But this time at the airport in Oslo she got what she had never bargained because she had a Nigerian friend as a co-traveller and as such was suspected for drugs and money laundering, detained in the name of interrogation for hours and told by a Norwegian customs officer that Nigerians were bad people and liars because of their country.

According to Juliana Salzer, when they were called at the airport for control she thought that it would be a normal routine check that might take 5 or a maximum of 10 minutes to end since they were as pure as snow, but alas, they ended up spending close to 3 hours, humiliated and their egos punctured.

She said that during the interrogation she and her friend had been separated in 2 separate booths at the back of the customs office at the airport where they had been told to eat and drink so that they could empty their bowels. The height of their humiliation, according to her, was when the interrogating officers wore white plastic hand gloves and ordered them to undress completely and bend down. Not done with that they were forced to go to the toilet and to answer the call of nature with the customs officers right inside the toilet collecting and crosschecking the waste papers. At a point it got to a provocation level when one of the customs officers started asking her again “What are your parents doing? What are you doing for a living? Are you married? How did you get to know your friend? At a point it turned into aggression as the customs officer stood up and pointed her finger at her face as if she had committed a crime saying “[…] I am talking about washing money.” Juliana remained calm and said that she had told her that she had enough money and her parents had enough also, so, she did not do such things. The customs officer again threatened her this time as she said to her “Now listen, wherever you go and whatever you do we will see it. Whenever you take or put money in your account we will see it for the rest of your life. You had a Nigerian boyfriend before and now you are in Oslo with a Nigerian, you should know that Nigerians are very bad, they are lying all the time, all the time about everything and this is because of their country.”

Juliana asked rhetorically that if she could be treated like this just simply because she had been with a Nigerian, what would happen if she was a Nigerian, and said that Nigeria had got a very, very bad image. She believed that the way she had been controlled as European citizen without any criminal record had been a shame. She also said that she did not care if people were controlled but to treat people the way they had done to her like a common criminal without doing anything wrong than being a friend of a Nigerian was ridiculous. Therefore, she said that Nigerians were targets and advised any Nigerian planning to travel out to be prepared to show a lot of confidence and be well informed about his/her rights and she also advised Nigerian leaders to do something on the image of their country.

Uzoma Ahamefule, a concerned patriotic citizen writes from Vienna , Austria
Mail: uzomaah@yahoo.com
Blog: http://globalreportes1.blogspot.com/
Phone: +436604659620

Subsidy Thieves Will Go Scot Free- Obinna Akukwe

2012-07-31T10:22:00.000-07:00

The recent clamor for subsidy thieves to be prosecuted is as illusionary as hoping that Lucifer will betray the Queen of the Coast. I have reiterated in an earlier piece, ‘Shut Up! Nigerian Government Cannot Prosecute Subsidy Thieves, those who hoped that subsidy thieves will be prosecuted will be disappointed at the crash of their optimism. Recent events have shown that successfully prosecuting those who stole N1.7 trillion naira that belongs to the Nigerian people under a fraudulent subsidy regime as revealed by the Farouk Lawan led Subsidy Probe Committee of the House of Representative reports and the recent Aigboje Aig-Imoukhede Presidential Review Committee is a mirage and can never happen.

The CBN was first contracted to rubbish the report, later the NNPC joined fray. Their attempts to discredit the subsidy probe report failed to impress both the Nigerian people and the Nigerian media. They changed tactics; the Attorney General of the Federation came with his own version of the understanding of the report and was short of calling it an ill prepared document which needs proper reconstruction. Nigerians ignored him and continued with calls for the prosecution of oil thieves. The Lawan $3 million dollars bribery scandal came and Nigerians refused to be distracted from the substance of the matter. Now the government has directed the EFCC to investigate the reports and prosecute offenders. That is where the matter will finally die due to imbecile prosecution.

The EFCC have buried different cases of corruption due to inconclusive investigations or haphazard prosecutions. In some cases there is deliberate collusion between the EFCC, the suspects and the Judiciary to encumber the cases so that nothing will come out of it. What happened in the Erastus Akingbola case where the Judge dismissed the suit for incompetent prosecution is a case at hand.

The only achievement of the subsidy probe is information. This information will be vindictively handy in the day of revolution or reckoning when the Nigerian people will reclaim their commonwealth from the hands of thieving leadership. The second gain is that the thieves will reduce their tempo and this reduced tempo will save the nation billions of dollars of hitherto stolen funds.

The expectation that Goodluck Jonathan will prosecute the fingers that fed his presidential election is wishful thinking. During Obasanjo era, the former president refused to surrender Babangida for prosecution. The Dr Pius Okigbo Committee report on the squandering of $12 billion dollar gulf oil windfall disappeared from all public records during the tenure of Olusegun Obasanjo. All attempts by the Nigerian people to pressurize Obasanjo to prosecute the Babangida fell on deaf ears because the later was the leader of the people who dragged Obasanjo into the State House in 1999.

Umaru Yaradua was not able to surrender James Ibori for trial. He frustrated all earlier attempts by the Metropolitan Police to arraign James Ibori for money laundering charges. He sent a high powered letter and delegation from Aoondoaka, then Attorney General and Minister for Justice of Nigeria to convince the British police that Ibori was a clean man. Ibori had used Delta State funds to bankroll his presidency with the permutations that Goodluck Jonathan will be dropped as Vice President after Yaradua’s first tenure.

There is yet no record in Nigeria where a political godson led the arraignment of the godfather for corruption related matters. Godsons and godfathers quarrel in Nigeria over control of state resources but their disagreement has never degenerated to the extent of the godson and incumbent dragging his benefactor to the courts for fraud related matters. It is a no go area for Nigerian politicians. Goodluck Jonathan cannot be an exception. He cannot be different from the tradition that trumped him up.

Goodluck Jonathan would still have won the 2011 presidential elections without the assistance of the huge funds deployed at the time. The hawks convinced him that without a huge financial chest, his presidential dream is finished, and such reasoning commenced the process of the looting of national treasury unprecedented in the history of Nigeria. Therefore, the people who used different guise to mobilize those funds cannot be victimized through fraud related prosecutions. Funds were mobilized from Fuel Subsidy bills, Pensions, Capital Market, Customs, Federal Inland Revenue, Ministries, Departments and Parastatals of Government. The fronts refused to surrender the privilege even after the elections had been concluded. The presidency preferred to confront the masses by removal of fuel subsidy than face the blood sucking oil mafia.http://www.osundefender.org/?p=35478

The earlier this government runs affairs by telling the truth, the better for all. The opposition Action Congress of Nigeria had earlier called on President Jonathan to apologize to Nigerians over the subsidy scandal. This is the best he can do under the circumstances. Let him apologize to Nigerians for allowing his party men and their friend’s costly indulgence in endless sharing of subsidy national cake and promise to block all loopholes whereby such thievery will occur in the future. Nigerians will likely appreciate an admittance of wrongdoing and a verifiable evidence of preventing future occurrence than the current circus show.

The politics of N1.7 trillion naira subsidy thefts is a time bomb which will likely explode on the thieving politicians and their business associates in the not too distant future. Equally, the possibility of Goodluck Jonathan betraying his helpers is rare and such optimism is an expensive mental exercise. This cartel is so oiled and powerful that crumbling the Jonathan administration will take them a few weeks and for a president already frightened by Boko Haram Jihadists, he cannot afford another battle with the oil thieves.

The Art of Complicating Simple Things By Okey Ndibe

2012-07-31T04:20:00.000-07:00

THIS IS TRULY NIGERIAN..GOOD PEOPLE, GREAT NATION

Last week, at a book party in Atlanta, Georgia I had an interesting conversation with another Nigerian about (what else?) the perplexities of Nigeria. The other man had just returned to the US... after he and his family spent two years in Nigeria. He’d given up a well-remunerated job on Wall Street and relocated to Nigeria, determined to make a conscientious effort to lend his expertise (he’s a Harvard-trained lawyer) to the expansion and entrenchment of human rights in Nigeria.

After a series of man-made obstacles were put in his way, he reluctantly gave up and came back to the US.

This is no place to go into the details of the frustrations this man faced. But his story reminded me of another Nigerian friend’s illumining perspective. According to this friend, Nigerians – especially public officials – are geniuses in the art of complicating things that ought to be rather simple. And we have a concomitant flair for simplifying things that should be extremely complex.

The massive fuel subsidy scam offers an example of Nigerians’ capacity for complicating the simple. Last year, the Nigerian government squandered close to N2 trillion in fraudulent payments to a handful of fuel importers. These highly connected rogue marketers over-inflated their invoices for imported fuel and often claimed multiple payments for the same shipment. Thanks to the importers’ nefarious schemes (and the collusion of bureaucrats), Nigeria spent several times more than the N245 billion originally budgeted for subsidy payments.

Catching these unconscionable plunderers should be a fairly simple task. After all, there’s a registry for international maritime traffic. That registry discloses the movement of registered vessels in international waters, complete with their freight. If a fuel marketer claims that a fuel-laden ship arrived at a Nigerian port on any given day, Nigerian authorities should quite easily verify whether the importer’s claims are true.

Besides, refineries around the world keep impeccable records of their export sales. In effect, the Nigerian police or some other agency should be able to establish where and when marketers bought fuel, and when the ship left for or arrived in Nigeria.

Nigeria boasts many educated and knowledgeable people. Why, then, allow the payment of scandalous subsidies based on obscenely bloated invoices? I’d hazard that it’s because powerful interests have recreated Nigeria into a space where corruption is the default mode of operation. A perverse form of “natural” selection informs the recruitment of the political and top bureaucratic class. A certain moral shamelessness and stomach for knavery are prized in the men and women selected for enthronement in high political offices.

Fuel importers did not fool the Nigerian system; rather, the system fertilized the fuel subsidy scam. If anybody, from President Goodluck Jonathan down to the custom official at the wharfs, were interested in scrutinizing the invoices, it would take just a minute or two to cotton up to the importers’ expensive, criminal game.

In many countries, the embezzlement of public funds by government officials is a highly difficult, complex art. In Nigeria, it’s the simplest of things. For any Nigerian president, governor, commissioner or local government chairman, there are many easy ways of stealing public funds. In a way, they simply take whatever is within sight – and much that isn’t.

Everywhere in the world, governments use budgets as tools for setting developmental targets and measuring accomplishments. In Nigeria, budgets serve an altogether different purpose: a ritual divorced from development but driven by a desire to steal and steal more. There’s little or no interface between what the (usually) long, bombastic budgets say and what state, local or federal governments attempt to do. For the most part, Nigerian budgets are meant to be quickly forgotten as the various layers of the state machinery carry on with the primary task of plundering the treasury.

A few weeks ago, the Internet was abuzz with a specimen from Oyo State of the kind of bewildering decisions that Nigerian public officials make. In a state beset by devastating underdevelopment in every sector, the Oyo government decided that it made sense to fly the wives of its legislators to London. The junket was given what the government believed to be a noble varnish; the women were in London to undergo training on how to best support their legislator husbands!

As excuses go, this one was breathtaking and stunning. Was this trip included in the state budget, and did the legislators think it was an excellent way to invest highly scarce funds? What manner of support, exactly, did the women learn to lend to their husbands? If the state had indeed discerned the existence of a crisis arising from the incapacity of legislators’ wives to properly “support” their husbands, was there nobody in all of Oyo State who could have imparted the requisite training? Are the wives of British legislators offered the same treatment? And have British wives ever descended on Oyo to undergo this process of improvement?

Who decided that some British “trainers” sufficiently grasped the state’s cultural and political peculiarities to undertake the task of teaching these women their duties by their lawmaking spouses? Did this alleged training – but, in reality, jamboree – make social, cultural or political sense? If the state governor were running his own business, would he spend his hard-earned cash to send the wives of his management staff to London for a clearly spurious training? In other words, did the whole charade make financial sense?

Quite recently, I got a telephone call from a US-based professor who, like me, hails from Anambra State. He asked if I had seen a Youtube video titled “Horrible State of Public Schools in Anambra”. I had. It’s a wrenching video, a veritable portrait of the way in which innocent children in Anambra and other states in Nigeria are consigned to an environment so harsh and brutal that no meaningful learning can take place – period! The man then implored me to donate some cash to an “education” mission he and others were about to make to our state.

I explained my principled objection to such missions. Each year, Anambra and other states read budgets in which princely sums are set aside for the rehabilitation of schools. Yet, from year to year, these schools remain stuck in their tattered shape – and often come across as worsening.

For me, there’s something deeply disturbing about gathering books thrown away or discarded by American, British or Canadian children and libraries – and dumping them on Nigerian students. That habit is bound to foster in young Nigerians the idea that they are serfs in the world; that they are not deserving of the best their country can offer. In my book, that’s plain unjust and wrong.

One is willing to concede that those who spend time and energy gathering up the rejects of Euro-American students and libraries for Nigerian kids mean well. Even so, I’d argue that the loftier mission is to pressure Nigerian local government officials, governors and the federal government to exhibit greater transparency. We should focus on forcing Nigerian public officials to be less irresponsible, to steal less. That achieved, Nigeria will have more than enough cash to meet the promissory notes that drip from their budgets – from developing a healthcare system to building world-class roads. And the country won’t have much trouble meeting one of its most significant obligations: to offer the soundest quality of education to its youth.

Please follow me on twitter @ okeyndibe
(okeyndibe@gmail.com)

MUSLIMS LOVE ALLAH

2012-07-30T12:23:00.001-07:00

::♥:: Al Qur'aan - Without Doubt A Source of Peace & Delight for the Believers! ::♥::

“And We send down of the Qur'an that which is healing and mercy for the believers, but it does not increase the wrongdoers except in loss.” [Surah al-Isra’ 17:82]

Al-Haafiz Ibn Katheer said in his commentary on this verse: The Qur'an takes away the diseases in the heartsuch as doubt, hypocrisy, shirk, deviation and misguidance; the Qur’aan heals all of that. And it is also a mercy which brings about faith, wisdom and the pursuit of and desire for goodness. This is specifically for those who believe in it and follow it; for such it will be a healing and a mercy. Insha Allah! ♥

WE LOVE RAMADAN

2012-07-30T12:10:00.001-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/yemi.g.adefioye#!/media/set/?set=a.10151063657839496.448520.40569674495&type=1

."Don't Box Me In" - BY: Opemipo Adebanjo...

2012-07-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

The voice of our youth.....the voice of hope.....Read and share widely...."Don't Box Me In" - BY: Opemipo Adebanjo...

This is for you, if, like me, you have never felt good enough and though you’ve stretched all your life, you have never reached that bar that others have set for you. It may be your parents ,siblings ,friends, or even strangers. They poured you into their mould and you didn’t fit, they weighed you on a balance and you were found wanting. You just didn’t belong.

They try to box you in but you are a perfect circle, triangle or even a star. You just don’t fit. Maybe like me, you’ve never been good enough, no matter how much you try. For instance, in my first year in the University, I was determined to continue with my stellar academic achievements. I made my first GCE result while I was still in SS1, and A’s were not wanting. I was also the Head prefect (girl) of my school. So naturally, I was downcast after I found out that my first semester result in the university was a GP of 4.19.

My friends cheered me up and made me realize that it might not be the first class result I had hoped for but it was a good result by all standards and I could do better the coming semester. My bubble bust however after I told my mother the result.”Couldn’t you do better? At least your mates got a first class”. Needless to say, the rebel in me was born that day. After all, no one had ever acknowledged my past results that were great. No matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t just good enough.

It could just be the fact that you’re different that rubs them the wrong way. It may be the way you dress, your tattoo or your hairstyle that rattles them. Maybe they have said that you’re too quiet, nerdy or chatty. It may be that you were not as ‘brilliant’ as the other children in the family or they didn’t approve the career you chose for yourself. Whatever it was, they poured you into a mould, you didn’t fit and you were found wanting.

Good news is, no two human beings were created to be the same or achieve the same things. The fact that you deviated from the norm is not a crime. Who wrote the rules? Who said you must conform? This means that you don’t have to fit into anyone’s mould or let them ‘create’ you. You are free to give your personality full expression. They may get to you sometimes or even alienate you because you are different and you don’t meet up. Hard as this might be, do not let this get to you.

People are always afraid of what they do not know, what they do not understand, the unfamiliar or the different and that invariably turns into hate.(This has been the major cause of tribal wars and religious hatred throughout history).People only hate that which they see in others and which they want to be, but cannot achieve. A friend and I drifted apart for some years and then started to talk again recently, especially about the past. He said to me (in his exact words), “You know you used to be so independent and self-willed. I used to hate that about you. Now I know better and the same qualities I hated in you are the same things I now admire.”I was surprised, I didn’t even know he felt that way about me.

No man who ever blended with the crowd has ever achieved anything great. He has to beat out his own path, and stand out to achieve anything worthwhile.”Stand for what you believe in even if it means standing alone”-Unknown. Be true to yourself because there’s only one you. Colour our world with your difference for we all can’t be the same. That’s boring art. Be real, be you, stand out and go succeed. Peace.

Opemipo Adebanjo

@opesays on Twitter

Gunmen kill one at VP Sambo’s residence

2012-07-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

Perpetrators of deadly attacks in the country today took their battle further as they attacked the residence of the Vice President Namadi Sambo in Kaduna and killed a neighbor in the process.

The residence, located on Baba Ahmed Road, Tundun Wada in Zaria, was attacked by two assailants who came on a motorbike and shot at the policemen guarding the residence.

The presence of the mobile policemen on duty was said to have prevented the attackers from waiting for further onslaught as they sped away on their bike.

www.nigeriapoliticsonline.com/theContent.aspx?page_id=3&id=1825

Im a Muslim & Im Proud

2012-07-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

Read this dua and write ''ameen'' below.

O my Lord ,dispose me that I may be thankful for Thy blessing with which Thou hast blessed me and my father and mother and that I may do righteousness ,well-pleasing to Thee and make me righteous also in my seed ,surely I turn to Thee and surely I am of those who submit

رَبِّ أَوْزِعْنِي أَنْ أَشْكُرَ نِعْمَتَكَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيَّ وَعَلَىٰ وَالِدَيَّ وَأَنْ أَعْمَلَ صَالِحًا تَرْضَاهُ وَأَصْلِحْ لِي
... فِي ذُرِّيَّتِي ۖ إِنِّي تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ وَإِنِّي مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِين

Rabbi awziAAnee an ashkura ni Amatakallatee an amta alayya wa alaa waalidayya wa an aamala saalihan tarzahu wa aslih lee fee zurriyyatee innee tubtu ilayka wa inni minal muslimeen

Surah Al-Ahqaf ,verse 15

2012-07-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

THIS IS TRULY NIGERIAN..GOOD PEOPLE, GREAT NATION

The burial arrangements for Josephine Okoye, mother of pop stars Psquare have been released.

A statement released from the singer’s camp says the body, which is currently in a Lagos private mortuary, will be laid to rest in her husband’s house at Ifite-Dunu, Akwa Village, Anambra State on Thursday, August 2, 2012.

Shortly before the burial, there will be a lying-in-state in Umunachi, Umudioka Village, Anambra State, and a church service at St.. Gabriel Catholic Church, before the proper burial at Ifite-Dunu, which will also be the reception venue.

The one day funeral, as we reported earlier, will be anchored by M.I.C.

Mrs. Okoye died around 11PM on Wednesday, July 11, 2012, about five hours after a heart surgery in Apollo Hospital, India.

The family has disclosed that she suffered from diabetes.

http://www.timmynaija.com/ranking.php?mode=blog&message_id=1503&row_template=blogs.tpl

FEMALE PRESIDENT NEEDED IN NIGERIA

2012-07-30T03:59:00.001-07:00

THIS IS TRULY NIGERIAN..GOOD PEOPLE, GREAT NATION

Fellow compatriots, lovers of Nigeria and friends of Nigeria, the precarious security situation in Nigeria since after the declaration of Dr. Ebele Goodluck Jonathan as the president of Nigeria in 2011 has worsened. As a result of that so many Nigerians do not go out for their legitimate daily activities anymore without the fear of assassins, kidnappers, armed robbers or hoodlums as the situation continues to look hopeless on daily basis. Consequently, international communities have made statements at different occasions warning their citizens not to visit some parts of Nigeria or Nigeria as an entity till further notice.

President Goodluck Jonathan has as a consequence been branded different names like ‘Dull President’, ‘Incapable President’ and ‘Weak President’ etc. Dear concerned people, let us put a square peg in a square hole because people are judged based on performance and not merely on self-praise or sycophantic ethnic jingoism that is synonymous with Nigerians.

To be candid, since our independence in 1960 in my humble opinion, Nigerian past head of states or presidents have all raped Nigerians to impunity and abandoned them like a child without guardian and as such have been failures. Let us relegate them to bench warmers as it is in football clubs and bring in our second elevens, our women. You saw how Emmanuel Amunike came in from the bench and destroyed the Zambian national team in 1994 Nations Cup final tagged “Tunisia 94”. Because he was on the bench did not make him inferior to those that started the match. As a patriotic citizen that flew from Austria to Nigeria just to vote Goodluck Jonathan without expecting any return except good governance, it is with heavy pain in my heart to say that I am highly disillusioned at the turn of events in his administration.

Even though that he may not have performed as badly as he has been painted but I had hopes that he would make a very drastic change, I believed that he would approach issues holistically because of his background and boosted about it because I believed in him so much. Looking at the security situation in the country today and his approach to it; how wrong was I? Nevertheless, I refused to be cajoled into the activities of some unpatriotic groups of people and their agents who believe that the presidency is their birth right or that if their son is not the president of Nigeria that Nigeria must be ungovernable just to portray the president before Nigerians and international communities as incapable or as they have tagged him.

Frankly, these unpatriotic groups have succeeded greatly in painting the image of Nigeria black. Where were Boko Haram members during the time of Shagari’s, Babangida’s, Abacha’s, Abdulsalami’s and Yaradua’s regime? Or did they suddenly realize that they needed an Islamic country under a president from South South? There is a big problem in this country. I am simply disappointed in President Jonathan because of his non-declaration of his assets and his statements about it. Responding to press men on his assets declaration, the president had this to say “Assets declaration is a matter of principle. I have nothing to hide; I declared my assets as Vice-President because the President then did it. It is not proper to ask public office holders to declare their assets but if I must declare publicly, it means that every other public office holder in the country must do so and it is not right.

It is not the President declaring his assets that will stop Boko Haram. And what is the difference between when I was the vice president and president; what have I acquired since then?” This is one of the most un-presidential statements I have ever heard in the history of the world that is only second to a statement made by yet another president of Nigeria Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo in 2007 when he said that the 2007 general election would be a do or die affair. President Jonathan has cast too many doubts on his administration and his campaign against corruption with this statement and I would not be surprised if he loses some of his supporters with conscience. He may be far from where his detractors must have placed him but definitely his idea of raping the constitution and telling anybody that cares to go to hell is not only shameful but a slap on Nigerians and anybody who knows this and keeps quiet or defends it is evil. In a civilized world with this kind of statement he may never win any free and fair election again.

The problems of Nigeria started immediately that name Nigeria was imposed on us and pronounced without our consent by the British colony for their convenient administration in the name of amalgamation in 1914. But unfortunately our men have not been able to deal with these complex, multiple and diverse issues that emanated from this forceful marriage that need not only prayers to solve but sincerity and political willed leaders. History will never forgive Lord Lugard and his British colony for this heinous crime that wasted millions of innocent souls and is still painfully going on in this part of Africa. But how long shall we continue to lament and blame all our problems on our colonial masters that left us about 52 years ago? Is a 52 year old person not old enough to know wrong from right? The conclusion is that our male politicians have failed us woefully and as a result of that, let us give our female partners a chance.

As mothers, I strongly believe that they will not promote corruption, political murder and ethnic war like their male counterparts have done till now. Even though they are not saints considering what few of them have done in their various official capacities recently in Nigeria, but events have equally proved that they could do better owing to their motherly natures if given the opportunity. Our female counterparts are like spare tyres, you put the spare one when the main one punctures, and currently our men are the punctured tyres, let us change them and stop the risks of running with ordinary wheels. It has never paid and it will never.

Events support my hypothesis thinking that it will work because our men have destroyed every department of Nigeria by all ramifications since 1960 and as such have lost the moral ground to build again. They corrupted the executive arm of the government, made the legislature arm an epitome of corruption, turned the judiciary a place for cash and carry judgment, they corrupted the police, the army, the custom and they have even threatened and have in fact subdued our pressmen/women to submissions that we now get adulterated news against their conscience.

When the British people left us in 1960, even though they were evil, they left a good transport system including working railways but our male politicians corruptly destroyed them, they left us with standard drinkable water and steady power supply but our male politicians corruptly destroyed them, they left a standard education system behind with respected certificates but our male politicians corruptly destroyed them, they left standard hospitals but our male politicians corruptly destroyed them, they left good standard roads but our male politicians corruptly could not maintain them, they left a good working system with discipline and order but our male politicians corruptly made sure that nothing worked. Please they should pack and go because they have failed us and our women have warmed up enough. Scientifically speaking, we have not been told by experts that women are intellectually more dwarf than men, and since the political game is not a thing of physical strength, thus, it would be primitive and outdated for anybody to think that if our men could not do it that our women cannot even try it.

We cannot keep on trying a faulting engine when we have brand new ones in our women. Please this is not a men’s world alone anymore because our women have arrived. But before we give the mantle of leadership to women we must first cleanse ourselves from the polluted air of bribery and corruption by our male politicians before they also get swallowed up. Furthermore, we must restructure our political system, change our kickback mentality and ethnic mindsets and then try a female president, and who says that she cannot do better, after all what a man can do, a woman can do better.

What is impossible is that which has not been tried. It is not impracticable to have a female president in Nigeria. Male politicians have tried since 1960 till today without any tangible results if not chronic ethnic discrimination and epidemic corruption. Please, swallow your egos for our women seem to be our redeemers and they are ready and capable. We have refused to be forced again to accept what they want us to believe that they are and not what we are seeing that they are. They are abstract thinkers and that is why they are only theoretically powerful and pragmatically failures. They have vision to hoist Nigeria’s flag in the moon before 2020 but they have not been able to provide electricity and food on our tables. Please pack and go, our women are ready for the rescue mission.

Uzoma Ahamefule A patriotic citizen writes from Vienna ,

Austria Mail; uzomaah@yahoo.com

Phone: +4366o4659620

Blog: http://globalreporters1.blogspot.com

LETTER TO MY UNBORN CHILD BY WHYTE HABEEB

2012-07-30T03:42:00.000-07:00

THIS IS TRULY NIGERIAN..GOOD PEOPLE, GREAT NATION

This I know may seem stupid but as your father to be, I have been saddled with the responsibility of stabilizing you at various spheres of your endeavour even as at now that I don’t know who your mother would be. The feelings of fear, favour and failure is thick in the air and it can be overcomed through determination and hard work.

My hands must be on deck to save you from the stranglehold of those who don’t wish their fellow human being good in life and in hereafter. There's no easy path to glory. There is no road to fame. Life, however you may view it, is no simple parlour game; but its prizes call for fighting, for endurance and for grit; for a rugged disposition that will not quit.

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. This is just for you but for those that get to read this before you do, I say read between the lines. Child, man as distinct being from other beings is rational and has morals but insatiable. He has power to reason and differentiate right from wrong, good from bad, also justice from injustice. There are no great people in this world, only great challenges which ordinary people rise to meet. Friends are numerous like sand; they are semi gods which man must bow down to through conscience. There are people who live in hatred and can’t imagine an alternative. There are people who thrive in conflict and fears a time of peace. If I were forced to condense my ideas on morality into a single sentence: 'Live consciously, take responsibility for your choices and actions, respect the rights of others, and follow your own bliss. Live with intention.

Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Continue to learn. Appreciate your friends. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.

My efforts to do away with people remain intractable. You need them around you to grow and develop. The question now lies before you that who are the gladiators among your friends or who are the perpetrators of the kingdom of doom and evil? Nobody can tell except GOD. Everybody will always seem ill prepared for the enormous task ahead but like your grandfather would say easy does it.

A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose, a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve. I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced that they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another.

To be able to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue... gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness. You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. The danger lies in refusing to face the fear, in not daring to come to grips with it. You must make yourself succeed every time. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. Great minds have purpose, others have wishes.

In the days of your Grandfather, it was fashionable to heap all blames on the destructive intervention of peers in one’s life but in this silver age of mine, it is the love of aesthetic things but in your own time, I foresee the battle of supremacy i.e. the survival of the fittest. So also the brazen acts of criminality in various shades by friends has not yet been addressed by many parents but for me the earlier the better.

At the end, happiness shall run our face and our mouth and teeth shall live quietly in unison. The fact that my own generation feels comfortable with a mission of undecided future should be a challenge to you on how to make it in life than any of your age peers.

Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, and I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can. It is easier to start a quarrel with a friend than to end them.

It is likewise easier to blame others than to look inward ; to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share but you have to choose the right path not just the easy path. Cowards die many times before their death; the valiant only taste death but once. So you don’t have to be carried away.

I think it is very important that you should learn to make your own decisions and stand firmly on them. In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. You will be responsible for your actions, so you don’t have to blame other people. Just think and decide rightly.

The world is pregnant with fear of danger because the actions of men are bad. The only advice I would give is to prepare adequately well for all circumstance and don’t ever think a future exist. Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. You can be discouraged by failure - or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that's where you'll find success (on the far side of failure).

The future that you have is a today and be prepared because if you don’t prepare well fear, failure and favour will be your guest in comfort. Don’t be deceived by the fact that you can only become great when you clock a particular age but better still start making your own impact at the tender age of One; nothing is impossible. Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish. The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts. The reason for all this is that there is no man that lives who does not need to be drilled, disciplined and developed into something higher and nobler than he is by nature. Life at times could be unfair but what you should do is to look up to God for guidance, mercy and ability to handle every situation you find yourself.

Life is beautiful but it is ephemeral. Set a goal and strive to achieve your goals without regretting making any effort to be great. Personally, my own goal is to be an achiever that would have his name on the lips of endless generation. Set yours and achieve them because the ability to accomplish the task ahead is the beginning of been a real man. Why not think twice my dear baby. Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens. May your road be rough.

This is not a curse but the best prayer you can ever get from me. If you have a kobo with ease, you will spend it anyhow but if you have a penny that you laboured for, you manage it well and by then you already planning to live a good life. You must not depend on my labour when you are off age. I was taught very early that I would have to depend entirely upon myself; that my future lay in my own hands.

Strive for success. The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. They don't like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose. Child, your time has come to unleash the best; so make haste slowly in making me proud. I love you more than you love yourself. He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues it possesses. I will always wish you good luck in all your endeavours and encounters on planet in earth.

Child remember that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person. Climb high; climb far. Your goal is the sky; your aim is the star. I LOVE YOU.