Omoluwabi Okebadan

Beyond transactions and allocation of subsidy. The economics of value

2012-01-09T16:50:00.003Z

Long time and New years if you still check this place out.

It seems that our government has chosen to handle a profound change from the manual on how to score own goals and make a bad situation worse. Much has been said about this whole mess but for me, putting this Nigeria and its existence at risk is unpardonable. Nigeria is much more than just for those who hold her passport and are born within her borders. It is the boldest African experiment, her success is the dreams, the wish of every well-meaning African and those all over the world who do not subscribe to the inferiority of the people of this continent. It is a sacred trusts that if it fails it confines generations to come to abject inferiority complex. For Nigerians, Africans and the truly committed across the world we owe them the best in us. Worse still we are all trustees by birth and have a profound fiduciary obligation not just to posterity but also to the rest of hopeful and faithful world. As such we are obliged to reflect and respond with a sense of deep responsibility.

Much has been made and rightly so of the Government’s total failure in making a credible case or engaging Nigerians or even preparing them for this policy on ‘subsidy removal.’ It seems to me that they failed the most profound test framing the issue as a technical economic issue hence pushing their economic team out but ignoring that this is a profound adaptive challenge and it is not really their work but the people’s work since they bare the profound effects of this change. I will not use much time on this not because it does not deserve it but because the blaming of personalities ignore a more egregious and deeper challenge. If the government or its advisers bothered they will know that we are trapped in a pattern of immunity to change ,the architecture of which is not fully mapped out either by the Government or its wide ranging popular opposition. It is consistent that we treat one of the most complex countries in the world like a simplistic engine, which with a competent technical authority can be instructed correctly. The consequence is a systemic dysfunction, which drags well-meaning people across all sections of society into desperate and damaging choices.

Our broad economic system of extraction of natural resources, its market exploitation and distribution of the proceeds through proximity and access is no longer fit for purpose. On either side of the subsidy debate the issue is still allocation and management of the proceeds. The fundamental issue is that the system worked for the colonials and partly the 1970s because the numbers worked. A population under 100 million, largely uneducated with lower expectations, each group of elite were able to paternalistic allocate and share opaquely. In the 21st century this cannot and will not work. No matter how you cut the cake and reduce wastage, manage corruption and change Governments the system of rewarding for anything other than value creation, adding value and productivity is doomed to failure. The formal economy that is totally dependent on this transactional changes had by 2002, across all sectors, below 5million jobs. Even if doubled by deregulation in the past 10 years you still have below 10% of the population supported by its expansion. It is woefully inadequate. The true transformation in the short term is not tinkering with this part of the economy but wholesale transformation of the informal economy that involves nearly 90% of Nigerians. It is in this transformation that lies the solution to corruption. If we make the informal economy active, involved and supported we ensure its transparency. We will expand the economy, diversify its capacity, embed real value and uplift lives across the country. With improved capacity for mechanics, tailors, traders and organizing them into effective clusters we improve the tax base of government and inevitably increase citizenship. Much can be done in the short term starting with the markets. For example every member of the National Assemblies community allowance should be conditional to the infrastructure and development of the markets in their local areas.
We must arrive by 2014 to a place where majority of Nigerians have income traceable to productive and legitimate activities in that period government can work to delivering a plan of similar productivity improvements in the public sector and so called deregulation in the organized private sector. In the short term on this issue of subsidy we should have a set of options framed in terms of questions put before a referendum. Government can use the same markets and telecoms organization with overseeing ombudsman or team to decide where we go on this specific policy issue.
It is time to put Nigeria ahead of all our allocating divisions and resources competition we should build her towards the future we want for our children. For me it has to be a meritocratic place of equality of opportunity and wisdom about complexity. We have no right to put her at such risk and we should be humble enough to work beyond or our allocation obsession and our life of entitlements.

Stop the Musical Chairs in Oyo State

2011-04-20T08:59:00.001+01:00

First as part tax payer in Lagos State I give my unreserved support to Governor Fashola to continue his pursuit of excellence and maintain the role of Lagos as the benchmark for the rest of the country. I however have my eyes set on the other side of the expressway.

Oyo state in general and Ibadan in particular holds a unique and special place in the National consciousness. In spite of recent erosion it is still the capital of research and publishing in Nigeria. In recent times Ibadan and by extension Oyo state has been greatly reduced in the National consciousness to regular political conflicts (not unusual) but also a provincial backwater. Her sons and daughters leaving in droves to record the unacceptable credit of being the only urban metropolis to record a drop in population as urbanisation across the country increases annually by 5.8%.

Oyo State has three front runners for the post and role of Governor. They are the current Governor , Chief Adebayo Akala, Ex Governor Rasheed Ladoja and Former Senator Abiola Ajimobi. Whoever becomes Governor has their job truly cut out for them as politics as exploited the differences amongst people especially pitting those who would zone Governorship to Ibadan people against some other areas. The issue should never be where you come from but the merit and potential that you have to effect change, transform lives and inspire collaboration with the citizens. It is worthy of note that no matter how bad it has been in Ibadan the most neglected part of Oyo state has been Oke Ogun.

The incumbent Governor has had more than the four year term set out constitutionally to make his mark. He at best has tried to conduct targeted management of decayed and decaying infrastructure. He has been bereft of ideas and shown very little capacity to transform the state. His treatment of public servants has been nothing short of irresponsible. The capital city has become a disgusting panorama of hastily constructed, badly maintained, ad hoc shop fronts. There is total lack of any civic authority to manage the excesses of people desperately seeking subsistence in the face of an ’owambe’ government. Mechanic yards strewn major thoroughfares, trailers have their way across the expressway within the city limit, Iwo road is a bottle neck of deep road craters and scrambling motorists without any intervention from any traffic authorities. The markets which are the heartbeat of the city are all in constant devolving cycles. The Government trots out Mapo Hall and roads across the old town as accomplishments. If that is all it has achieved then it is a depressing picture of lack of competence.

Nothing the incumbent Governor has done was done without the active and tacit support of some in the city of Ibadan. In fact Governor Akala became the Governor through the choices of two sons of the City of heroes. The late Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu and the Ex Governor Rasheed Ladoja. Ex Govenor Ladoja an accomplished entrepreneur and a proven original thinker enters this contest with an interesting and attractive manifesto. His record in office has been largely transactional and obscured by his successor. His progress in human development in the state is undermined by his failures on infra structure maintenance. However worse he has a record of poor judgement. In his alliance with Alhaji Adedibu, his choice of Chief Akala as his Deputy Governor and now his decision to split the Ibadan vote by seeking office in the face of the opportunity to leverage this largest block of votes so that the state can move on from the legacy that he and Alhaji Adedibu have saddled on its back.

Former Senator Abiola Ajimobi is a proven executive as a former CEO of National Oil (now Conoil). He is also a proven civic minded individual with successful social entrepreneurship through his Vocational centres across the land. He represents a real opportunity to move beyond the musical chairs in Agodi between Chief Akala and Alhaji Ladoja. Like Ladoja his manifesto is ambitious and encouraging. Unlike Ladoja he represents a new way ahead. Some want to vote Ladoja because he paid salaries on time . It is like calling me Father of the year because I paid my children’s school fees. It is my obligation as it is the responsibility of Government to meet its obligation to public servants. It is a mark of how low the standards have fallen in Agodi that this is considered a selling point.

It is arguable that both Alhaji Ladoja and Governor Akala will benefit from the Constitutional immunity from EFCC prosecution in cases that are still going through the court system but we need a clean break. We need a competent executive in Agodi and the choice is Abiola Ajimobi.

Power over or Power with

2011-04-12T13:35:00.000+01:00

Nigeria will vote into power over the next few weeks and the key determinant of people’s choices will be based on analysis of the fundamental challenge of this greatly loved and often vilified country. For many who believe her problem is corruption and indiscipline they will choose General Buhari retired, an honest and strict man who oversaw the worst drop in the countries economic history and ran one of its most authoritarian dictatorships. For those who see the key challenge as generational they are most likely to cast their vote for Mr Ribadu , a post independence poster child who ran one of the most successful intervention against corruption even though many saw him as just a political attack dog. For those who want to end the irrational and badly engineered hegemony of tribal as well as sectional majorities well the current President is their choice. Then you have the articulate performance of Mallam Shekarau who seemed to have captured those who wanted someone with the Presidential command of an audience or subject.

As we look at the rest of the world days before this election however what lesson is the challenges and standard raised and flying across the Middle East teach the Nigerian voter? What lessons is emerging at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century? What is clear is that the 21st century abhors hierarchy . It is also through that it is not impressed about the size and range of your hardware. What emerges is that the challenge of the 21st century is power with; rather than power over. so how do our Presidential candidates fare as 21st century leaders who can enable the best angel of Nigerians so they can transform their country. Make no mistake about it the transformation of Nigeria will not be done in Aso Rock or even in the respective state houses but in the shacks, face me I face you , bungalows and duplexes of the 28 million Nigerian families. On the key issues that Nigerians have raised as priorities which are employment/economy, Power and education.

On Econmy

The Buhari/ CPC manifesto is the most specific and detailed on the economy and has key highlights especially integrating the informal economy as well as reform of the Land use Act both of which can be transformational. The Ribadu principle of creating macro economic discipline is similar to the Jonathan approach both are broad brushed and appear transactional however therein lies the challenge. The Buhari principle assumes that government has power over the economy rather than creating the climate for enabling the private sector. On the other hand lack of greater specificity in both the Ribadu and Jonathan are more focussed on the enabling environment.

On corruption

The Ribadu manifesto is the most transformative recognising implicitly the issue of equality of opportunity and the need for a system of creating value over concentration on the efficient and transparent distribution that underpins both the Jonathan and Buhari outlooks. The Ribadu manifesto looks at Corruption as challenge not just in Government but in all sectors of society and commits to enabling a value creation culture that will open up responsibility. In fact Ribadu of the three has the real not imagined track record for the best intervention against corruption in Nigeria.

On Power

The Ribadu manifesto is by far the clearest statement, setting out an agenda for capacity improvement and the increase in energy sources. It specifically engages the longer term and sustainable needs of Nigeria. The Jonathan manifeto is short on facts but maybe relies on the Energy Policy of the Government which recognises the role of the Private sector as does the Ribadu position. The Buhari or CPC manifesto is focused solely on increased capacity with a broad statement on alternative energies.

All the manifestos ignore the most sustained and profound trend in the Nigerian landscape i.e. the issue of urban migration or urbanisation and its implications for the future. It currently grows at about twice the rate of population growth ie. 2.8% per annum population growth and 5.8% Urban population growth. They also ignore the unsustainable nature of the population growth and its effect on the ability to provide quality life. Far more revealing is their position on Women’s development. Jonathan’s plan is totally silent on Women’s issue or their special role in transforming the country. In the Buhari/CPC manifesto it appears Women are an afterthought . It essentially guarantees that women have their constitutional rights and representation. The Ribadu Manifesto puts the women’s agenda at the top of their list setting out the implementation of all international commitments to the development and transformation of the lives of women. It is also the only Manifesto that gives specific focus to the majority of the Nigerians, the young people.

The Presidency of the Federal republic of Nigerian is not a place for temper tantrums. It is a sacred role to enable the dreams of nearly 150 million Nigerian for a society in which they can pursue prosperity. The challenge is to find the leader who recognises we need authoritative engagement, not authoritarian pronouncements, that inspires ownership not encourage dependency, one that understands that it is ultimately to share in our power not have power over us.

The Nation Builder

2010-12-10T20:46:00.001Z

The world is watching somewhat befuddled as the inspirational Obama mantra ‘Yes we can ‘ has become reduced to ‘Damn he couldn’t’. What was supposed to be a call for national commitment to a collective aspiration towards to ‘audacity of hope’ has been reduced to ‘we expected him to walk on water and he didn’t so take him to the stockade’. I suppose that is the choice in the US but only that it gives lie to this constantly refrain here in Nigeria, if only we had that leader.

As 2010 draws to a close and we get ready for the ‘race tracks’ of 2011 it is worthwhile to step back and reconsider what it would actually take to truly transform Nigeria. Lets start with the nature of our challenge. I think many commentators totally underestimate what it would take to truly transform the lives of over 100 million people. In fact in my estimation only two countries have done it with legitimacy and genuine development i.e. China and India . The others such as US, Russia have used degrees of exploitation and abuse of others and used the resources of ‘colonies‘ that they are models that cannot truly be replicated. Indonesia which is closest to Nigeria in key characteristics has in spite of its progress loads yet to do, similarly Brazil to name just two. Pakistan is in arguably a worse state than Nigeria. So very few countries have fully been able to truly meet the challenge of that size population effectively. However those who have show certain qualities; a culture of enterprise; a commitment to excellence; an obsession for transformation and yes desire for experimentation and innovation (especially in the economic space). In the case of both China and India there is corruption as well as tyranny of different sort in the public space. Their leaders are no paragons of virtue and their governments are not simply as open and as accountable as the Western standards that we parrot daily.

Nigeria is also different to most others with the exception of Indonesia in that it is extremely complex in its composition and in the mix of organisational elements that it tries to wield into a cohesive system of operation. Worse than most of these other countries the language it tries to use to inspire, communicate and organise the transformation is borrowed and alien to her people. Simply the work of transforming Nigeria is a phenomenal task that must have at its foundation a lot of original thinking. It is therefore unfortunate that two orientations most prevalent in the way everyone and especially the elite of all stripes and ideology thinks and behave are the complete opposite of what is required. Nigerians are transactional in everything even when talking revolution as well as cut and paste in approach. You can blame transactional orientation on the fact that we come from mostly trading traditions and most of our ancient city states evolved from primarily trade. However this has worsened through the extractive and distributive system that funds our government and underpins our formal economy. It is unproductive and ineffective for the unique and enormous challenge of a nation in pursuit of excellence and prosperity in the 21st century. Yes , we cut and paste all the time. We borrow as consumers ideas fashioned out of hunger and experimentation in the West and import them wholesale into our context without any genuine adaptation or cultural fit. We assume westernisation is the only modernisation but both China, India and even Indonesia disprove this.

We have pursued letters behind our names and passed many exams to achieve this but the effect has not been education or curiosity or even embracing innovation. It has been a people so regimented and conservative in thought that in spite of evidence of failure they cling to infallability of borrowed ideas. Nigerians have no business in the extolling of traditions or being in the girdle doctrines . Experiment or be dammed , innovate at all cost should be our mantra.

To truly transform as we must we all need a new mindset. We need to move beyond this dance of criticism and commentary to the orientation of nation builders. Looking for so called leaders in government is a failure to understand the 21st century. A time where hierarchies fall daily , a period where it is not about the intelligence of the few but the wisdom of multitudes. We must be the ones who set the agenda clearly so that we are agreed and understand the standards on which we will elect governments who deliver our will. To get to that clarity we need our churches, mosques, associations, unions, clubs and community groups refocus on ideas and their importance in shaping new paths. This starts with us taking responsibility for finding solutions, the more original the better. It starts in the family giving voice and platform to the curiosity of our children rather than smothering it with oppressive ageism. We need a communal space that is active , engaged and oriented towards finding sustainable solution. It is the individual, family and community that are the building blocks of a nation . It is time to take responsibility and build our nation and transform our lives, that cannot be the job of government and even it is they are uniquely incompetent for it. To transform, a good government will help but we need a generation or two of committed nation builders. Now that is the revolution that will not be televised.

Repost from Article of Leonard Shilgba , A Nigerian Citizen and Nationalist.

2010-10-07T07:21:00.004+01:00

Nigeria, the North, And How It Will All End

By Leonard Karshima Shilgba, PhD

Wednesday, 06. October 2010

To the families of Nigerians that lost their lives in the dastardly bombing act on October 1, 2010, I can only express regrets that with unabashed abandon, elders such as Adamu Ciroma and his colleagues, under a nondescript organization called NORTHERN POLITICAL LEADERS FORUM, are exploiting their misfortune and that of the nation to make as much political capital as possible.
I am a Tiv man from Benue State, who happens to be a Nigerian by the craftsmanship of the British. I am called a Northerner by geographical convenience. Accordingly, I shall open my heart and speak advisedly on some serious issues that have beset us as a nation most lately. I appeal to the reader to follow me carefully and thoughtfully as I make reference to some statements I have made in some previous articles for elucidation.
I saw and wrote about what I saw in November 2009 in an article entitled: "On Yar’Adua’s Incapacitation, the Constitution, and a Dream" the following words:
"It was Sunday night on November 22, 2009. I went to bed and had what you may call an open vision or a dream. Nigeria’s president at the time, Mr. Umar Yar’Adua had died. I saw that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the Vice-President assumed the position of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There was uneasiness, particularly in the northern part of Nigeria. In this dream, Dr. Goodluck declined the request by the North not to contest the presidential elections in 2011. Then, the unease turned to something inexplicably dastardly."
The bomb blasts on October 1, 2010 and the near euphoric reaction by people like Adamu Ciroma, the "Northern Political Leaders Forum" and their supporters did not come to me as a surprise. But I know exactly how the drama shall play out. Nigerians, we must not forget so soon:
When Boko Haram struck in 2009, Ciroma and his "Northern Political Leaders Forum" did not ask the late president (Umar Yar’Adua) to resign. When the leader of Boko Haram was killed in the custody of Nigerian security agents in an extra-judicial manner, apparently to silence him in order to protect his sponsors, Ciroma and his collaborators did not ask Yar’Adua to resign. How dare Ciroma and his collaborators to insult the intelligence of Nigerians!
Repeatedly, Nigerians have been butchered and killed during "religious riots" in Northern Nigeria, the latest and most recurring being the Jos and Plateau State pogrom. Ciroma and his group were silent and did not ask President Yar’Adua, who was president during the peak of the crisis last year, to resign.
I am sure Ciroma was in Nigeria when the first act of bombing was carried out in Nigeria under the dictatorship of General Babangida, when Dele Giwa was killed. I don’t know if he called on the General to resign.
We have lived in numerous crises orchestrated by the generation of Adamu Ciroma; I am not aware that Adamu Ciroma has reacted passionately, calling on the president or Head of State during those crises to resign.
Just recently, when the late President Yar’Adua left the country without a leader, and so in crisis, it was people like Adamu Ciroma, who threatened that nobody should remove Yar’Adua. He has never shown any interest in the preservation of this country, Nigeria.
We know exactly what the generation of Adamu Ciroma is trying to do. We know what exploiters of the nation’s recent misfortune are eager to accomplish. They seek to sow seeds of discord and split further the north and south. They seek to cut off whatever remaining emotional attachment between the north and south. To what use is our education if we fail to see through this? They want to sustain the politics of divide that has left our nation swooning. They delight in holding the back of the mirror before us and yet abusing us for our inability to see our faces. They use religion to separate us while by their acts and utterances they show they aren’t religious at all. But the end of the present drama shall depend on how President Jonathan handles issues. I shall provide some insight into what he can do and should do if Nigeria will survive this latest onslaught:
Avoid Distraction: The end has definitely come for those veterans of divide-and-rule politics. President Jonathan should desist from making further comments about the on-going investigation into the bombings of October 1, 2010 and allow his aides and relevant security officials to address us on the progress of the case. The reason is simple; whatever he says shall be misconstrued by professional politicians who want to mock the nation and distract from hunting down killers of our patriots who innocently lost their lives on October 1, 2010. Take, for instance, his recent statement that MEND did not bomb Abuja on October 1, 2010, but "terrorists" did. I listened to him. He went further to say that "terrorists" such as bombed Abuja and engaged in kidnapping recently in Nigeria committed such heinous acts, not for any altruistic reasons such as the liberation of the oppressed, but for personal selfish gain. An objective listener understood what the president was saying, "Don’t hide under a group such as MEND to commit criminal acts; you are a terrorist, pure and simple." The question is, who is MEND that bombed Abuja? Let us see his face. If some criminals claiming to be MEND have refused to show their faces, but rather chosen to hide behind some four-one-nine-like emails, and others, who have been known to be MEND’s leaders have publicly disassociated themselves from the crime, then it is not difficult to say MEND did not commit the act but "terrorists" did. And once investigations unearth sufficient evidence, those individuals shall be charged to court in their names and not in the name of some faceless MEND. What the president said was deep, but people choose to hear what they may.
Avoid deceit: In an article, "Nigeria: Interpreting Times And Events", I warned, based on what I saw at the time, that we were living in a period of great deception; that the mutually assured destruction of politicians, who shall betray each other leading up to the 2011 elections, shall lead to the liberation of the good people. I then warned that Jonathan was not clean. If President Jonathan will help himself and therefore, Nigeria, he must not use any information at his disposal, which should have been used to free Nigeria, to rather score for himself political points and blackmail his political opponents. He must not allow himself to be frightened from taking decisive steps simply because some people may impute wrong motives. If he does, he is done for. The law must strictly take its course, whosoever is affected.
Avoid destructions: Why will the president go beyond the INEC’s request for extension of time to seek further amendments to the electoral Act 2010, which shall allow his aides, ministers, Ambassadors, Chairmen of Boards of parastatals etc., to vote in party indirect primaries? This is exactly what I was wary about when I wrote the article "INEC Should Stop This Distraction and Confusion!" President Jonathan must not shred any existing laws for the immediacy of self-service.
No zone or region of Nigeria presently has a stable and strong leadership to guarantee a convenient split-up of the nation. I therefore, believe that should Nigeria be forced to break up by the provocations of elders such as Adamu Ciroma, who have lost self-control, the consequences of further break-ups shall make every mile a country in the aftermath. The North (of which I am a member) has no right to decide who should run for an elective office or not. Besides, no man or woman, elder or youth has the mandate to speak on behalf of the North in the same way no man presently (post-amnesty) can speak on behalf of MEND. Ciroma and his "Northern Elder Politicians Forum" do not speak for me and many other Northerners. I understand that Dr. Iorchiya Ayu, a fellow Tiv man, is a top official of that forum. He and all his colleagues in that forum do not speak for Dr. Leonard Shilgba and Northerners in general. And I believe that given my training and passion, I deserve to be heard and my views deserve to be examined too. Ciroma speaks for himself; and his group must not arrogate to itself the responsibility to speak on behalf of the North. I will surely speak at the polls just like any Northerner or Nigerian from whatever region can do if they so choose. When I reach out to cast my vote, at that moment I have the power to decide politically who shall govern me. Enough of this nonsense! These are people that have destroyed Nigeria, left our children dying before they reach the age of five; left the amajiris of the North uneducated while they send their children abroad and to expensive private schools in Nigeria; left the north far poorer than any region in this country; left the north with horrible roads just as in other regions of Nigeria; and left our country with poor social services. They cannot deceive northerners of my generation, not with our education at least, unless our degrees are as useless as their arguments have been.
As I conclude, permit me to make some profound assertions:
There shall be no military take-over of government in Nigeria.
Many politicians will make a snare and fall inside. Some shall pay with their lives. Stray arrows shall get them.
The mystery woven shall be broken; the faces shall be revealed. That is the task of President Jonathan. If he deviates an inch from the true rule of law, betrays compassion, yields to pressure from "Traditional rulers" and "stakeholders", he himself shall be consumed. Remember King Saul. If you spare King Agag, the throne shall be taken from you. I have spoken. He that has an ear let him hear.
I speak to King Agag. Although you say in your foolish haste, "Surely the bitterness of death is past," you are deluded. For you shall be hewn down, even if not by the hands of a disobedient President Jonathan. "As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women." You shall be blown up in pieces.
These are no ordinary times.

Leonard Karshima Shilgba is an Associate Professor of Mathematics with the American University of Nigeria and President of the Nigeria Rally Movement (www.nigeriarally.org ).

Ibadan regeneration (ongoing)

2010-09-16T15:29:00.003+01:00

Over the past few days remarks made by Mallam Ribadu the former Chairman of EFCC during his lecture at the late Bola Ige birthday event has earned caustic response from the Oyo state government through Chief Gbade Ishola. Without rehearsing both angles I think it is a welcome thing that regeneration of Ibadan has become a topical issue. It is however an issue that requires a different discourse than that of a partisan political nature. I will avoid choosing sides because what is at stake is far more significant than who is right or wrong nor is it about the coming election.

The city of Ibadan represents a totally unique space in the history and potentially future of the nation. It has been the largest indigenous city of its kind in Africa but also the intellectual cradle of the Nigerian state. If we valued anything in our current transactional mindset it would be this city that evolve through a unique, meritocracy into a warrior republic using a constitution experiment that remains largely intact today. She carries three powerful dimension for our future, a habit of cultural innovation that includes the first television station; a platform for intellectual curiosity and academic expression that spawned the first university; a network of informal commerce that is translated into scores of open air markets including the largest market for indigenous textile in Oje. To say that Ibadan has regressed is not to focus blame on any one party in what should be a partnership to preserve her legacy and generate a vision to renew her.

Ibadan is perhaps the only city in Africa that is bucking the trend in urbanisation especially in the number of young people she has lost. The downward trend for the city started with the much vaunted Structural Adjustment Programme of the Babangida regime in the mid 1980s. This policy that decimated the Nigerian middle classes destroyed the vibrancy of Ibadan which was the most middle class of all cities in Nigeria. The disdain in which the universities, research institutes and that almost uniquely local focus i.e. ‘publishing was treated wiped out the intellectual values, skills and industries. The lack of priority for education also destroyed the place as an education destination from across the country. The middle class values of community , perseverance and long term effort were killed and replaced with neo liberal individualism leading to the triumph of the hustler class. Shame died and became replaced with wanton materialism. Ibadan has never recovered. Subsequent governments, local and national have neither had the desire nor have had the resources to prioritise Ibadan above other things they feel necessary . It does not start with the present government in Oyo sate. There is of course the inevitable structural problem of a potential ‘world centre’ in a largely rural, agricultural state. Maybe the challenge of renewing Ibadan might be a drain to ‘development’ in other parts of the State?

These challenges have not been helped by the false division amongst the citizens of our metropolis. The identification of indigene versus resident is a very poor choice. The founders of our great city came from all over Yoruba land to find fortune through valour and might rather than from birthright and bloodline. Nowhere is merit more forcefully enforced as the standard of excellence than in the ancient home of Oluyole. We as citizens have also failed our city in not creating a large enough umbrella as is our tradition. We failed to make talent, excellence and love for the betterment of our land as the only standard for determining whether one qualifies as Ibadan or otherwise. No great city is a creation of government alone but a result of the collective vision and contribution of her people , businesses, civic organisations and government in partnership. Even if the Oyo state government believes it has done some things the honest truth is that there is a lot more to do. Our city now has a shop front in every house, our roads struggle to absorb traffic because of the number of cars struggling for space. Nowhere is there more research institutes than Ibadan but they are not connected by the highway of this century in fibre optic broadband. The publishing industry in magazine road is a very pale shadow of the ‘capital ‘ of west africa that it was. I know from Mallam Ribadu’s comments that he cares and i know from my limited interaction with Chief Gbade Ishola that he is passionate about Ibadan. We can have a civil dialogue about the best way ahead.

Last year we started this process with Mesiogo initiative (outside of government and politics) to work across stakeholders for a long term regeneration for our city. We have a draft plan from robust dialogue that includes survey of nearly 5,000 citizens and a town hall meeting that involved all works of life. Lets continue this dialogue and effort without succumbing to self serving partisanship. No one has a monopoly of ideas or responsibility as we strive to continuously evolve Ibadan not just to the greatness of her pioneering past but also higher to the possibilities of prosperity for many more generations to come.

Join us : www.ibadanmesiogo.com

Amplification

2010-08-20T10:06:00.000+01:00

Let Love become you. Her pain , her vulnerability , her passion. Let her service be your kindness and her longings become your poems. Let your third eye shine the light of the eternal within you so you can fully see your beauty and majesty. Then never let anyone tell you otherwise not even yourself when you drink in dark places and wake up soiled by fear of what you might have done. Always dance in that shimering light for the beauty that is within is the guide to your purpose.

Back! Please Complete!

2010-08-19T09:17:00.004+01:00

My friends and mirrors here I am. I wonder if you will spare a few minutes to complete this questionnaire and spread it widely. It is an effort to start something that will set an agenda for our future rather than the constant pain we share about the failings and failures of Nigeria. It is totally anonymous. A stab at something which will be followed by a more improved effort if this pilot works. Thanks for taking the time. Loading...

Mamdami Lecture @ Odia Ofeimun 60th Birthday

2010-03-17T20:43:00.005Z

There are few times someone can credibly challenge the Nigerian intellectual elite with a new perspective or eyes that fully shows the lack of original ideas and the damaging group think that is destroying the possibilities of a great country. Professor Mamdami does it with class and intellect. Read below

Congo and Sudan: Lessons for Nigeria

Mahmood Mamdani
Columbia University

Text of talk delivered to the Nigeria Institute for International Affairs on Tuesday, March 16, 2010.

How should we think of political violence in Africa? This is the question that I want to address today.

When it comes to making sense of political violence in Africa, most of us take the cue from how the international community reports it. By the international community, I mean those who speak in the name of the international community: that is, the corporate media, the international NGOs and UN agencies.

For that international community, Congo is today the paradigm case of senseless violence. The proof is said to be two-fold: first, the sheer numbers of the dead; second, the evident lack of reason for the violence.

Let us begin with the astronomical numbers of those said to have died in the violence. Beginning in 2001, the prestigious New York-based International Rescue Committee carried out multiple surveys of war-related deaths in Congo since the start of the conflict in 1998. According to the IRC, there were 1.7 million war-related dead in Congo from 1998 to 2001. These estimates climbed to a staggering 5.4 million by January, 2008. If correct, these figures would represent about 8 percent of DRC’s current population. Thus the Congo war was termed “Africa’s First World War,” the title of Gerard Prunier’s recent book on the Congo wars.

But how correct is this comparison? About 8.5 million troops were killed in the actual First World War. In contrast, the estimate of those who died of direct violence in the Congo wars is less than a hundred thousand. The balance, over five million, were said to have died of “war-related” causes, such as infectious diseases, malnutrition, disruption in vital supplies, and so on.

Your count of “war-related deaths” depends on your estimate of those who died of the same causes – such as infectious diseases, malnutrition – before the war. In October 2008, two Belgian demographers, André Lambert and Louis Lohlé-Tart, were invited by the European Commission to assess the 2005-06 voter registration process in the DRC. They drew on the data they had gathered, and whatever else they could muster, and wrote a devastating critique of the IRC estimates: they concluded that the excess death toll between 1998 and 2004 was roughly 200,000—which is one-twentieth of the IRC’s 3.9 million excess death estimate for the same period.

Their findings triggered further reviews. WHO commissioned a peer review, which concluded that the IRC “estimates” had been based on “extrapolations” that were “speculative at best”. A WHO-affiliated unit, called Health and Nutrition Tracking Service (HNTS), said the IRC’s estimates of mortality rates before the war had been too low. Another reputable source, the Human Security Report, used a more realistic baseline rate for the period May 2001 to April 2007 and found the results led to a very different conclusion: “The best estimate of the excess death toll shrinks to less than one-third of the IRC’s original figure––from 2.83 million to 0.86 million.”

At this point, then, we have several wildly divergent estimates of war-related dead in Congo: they range from the IRC’s sensational 5.4 million to the Belgian demographers subdued 200,000. Where does the truth lie?

Let me turn to Darfur, where there were equally divergent estimates of war-related deaths. In this context, an audit agency of the U S Government, called the Government Accountability Office (GAO), got together with another reputable U. S. institution, the U. S. Academy of Sciences, and put together a panel of experts. The GAO had compiled six different studies, which ranged from a high estimate of 400,000 dead, coming from Save Darfur-linked researchers, to a low of 50,000 to 70,000 dead, by the World Health Organization. The panel of experts agreed unanimously that Save Darfur estimates were the least reliable, because Save Darfur researchers had extrapolated the figures from a survey of refugees in camps in Chad and had generalized them to the whole of Darfur. The experts said that a more reliable estimate may be closer to 118,142, as calculated by CRED, a WHO-connected research unit in Europe, and not 400,000, a quarter of the Save Darfur figure.

As in Congo, there was a second distortion. WHO reports suggested that many of the deaths in Darfur may not be war-related as much as drought-related, for one reason. WHO estimated that 70-80% had died from the effects of drought and desertification; that these were mainly infants and children who had died mainly from diarrhea and dysentery. More importantly, the drought had preceded the war.

The GAO report was sent to the State Department which agreed with its findings. It then made its way to Congress and then to the GAO’s internet site. Just as the reassessment of the dead in Congo has had little effect on media reports, so did the GAO’s reassessment have little effect, either on media reports or on Save Darfur’s continuing claims, relayed in full page ads in New York Times as well as in subway and bus posters, on the numbers of the dead in Darfur.

We know that data collection is among the first of casualties in any social crisis. When international NGOs confidently continue to put forward figures even after their reliability has been expertly questioned, we have a right to question their motivation. I suggest that this practice reveals more about those making the projections than about the places they write about. Is the deliberate exaggeration of figures part of an NGO fund-raising strategy, or is the motivation more sinister, meaning more political? I frankly am not in a position to tell.

Please do not misunderstand me. My point is not that the numbers who have died from African conflicts are miniscule and not worthy of concern. The number who have died are too many by any yardstick, so much so that there should be no reason to exaggerate them.

The International Community does not just tell us how many have died in African conflicts. The also interpret the violence behind these deaths.

Think of the reports on the violence in Congo. Even as responsible an organization as Human Rights Watch ascribes the deaths to “anarchy”. Anarchy evokes meaningless, gratuitous, repetitious violence. In Africa’s World Wars, Gerard Prunier describes Congo’s “rebels” as “first and foremost armed movements without ideology, without any large civilian constituency, and without any sort of unified cause … more akin to vampires than to soldiers.”

Read a human rights organisation report on violence in Congo or in Darfur, you will find that the structure of the report is basically the same. The report begins with a page or two on history. The bulk of the report is given to documenting atrocities. The real point of the report is to identify perpetrators. The technology of human rights activism is summed up in one phrase: “name and shame”. The report concludes with a set of recommendations. These inevitably call for the perpetrators to be punished.

Here is the problem: contemporary international human rights reports show hardly any interest in the issues that drive the violence. In situations where the violence is not a stand alone event but part of an ongoing cycle, where there is a history of violence in which victims and perpetrators have tended to change sides, it is more important to identify and address the issues that drive the violence than to demonize the latest group of perpetrators. If we are interested in bringing the violence to a stop, we should be interested not just in crime and punishment but, more so, in reform.

To make my point, I would like to focus on one event that seems to recur in African conflicts: ethnic cleansing. The political history of post-independence Congo is marked by ethnic cleansing: in Katanga and Kasai in 1961, and then again in Katanga three decades later, in 1991; and then, in Ituri and in Kivu. The political history of Darfur is also similarly chequered: ethnic cleansing first surfaces in the 1987-89 civil war between the sedentary Fur and nomadic ‘Arab’ tribes and then in the 2003-04 counter-insurgency that overlay the rekindled civil war. A look at the Rift Valley in Kenya or northern Ivory Coast is enough to tell us that Congo and Sudan are not exceptions. Ethnic cleansing has become a central part of political violence in post-colonial Africa.

The events in Congo and Sudan suggest that ethnic cleansing is not anarchical,but methodic. Nor is it the result of sheer conspiracy from above, for the simple reason that violence on such a scale requires the coming together of initiatives from both above and below. It requires joining elite conspiracies to popular organisation. The challenge is for us to understand the popular dimension of this process. We need to understand the historical processes and the institutional practices through which these agencies were shaped.

I would like to trace this historical development step by step through the colonial period. Colonial authorities claimed that Africans have always lived in tribal homelands. At the same time, they told us that Africans have always been on the move, whether as nomads on hoofs or as farmers practicing shifting cultivation – or just running away from perennial wars and slave raids. If even a little of that is true, then there must have been at least some places where ethnic groups were mixed up. How were these places turned into tribal homelands in the colonial period?

The answer is: administrative force. Take the example of Katanga, where King Leopold, and the Société Générale de Belgique, Belgium’s largest corporate concern, partnered with British interests to form Union Miniére du Haut-Katanga (UMHK) in 1906. Their object was to exploit Katanga’s mineral resources. For this, they needed to squeeze labor from hinterland populations. This required a firm administrative grip on rural populations.

suggest that we distinguish an ethnic group – a group that speaks the same language – from a tribe, a group defined by a common territory. I am suggesting that we view “tribalization” as a colonial administrative project. In Katanga, a series of decrees were passed, in 1906, 1910, and then 1933, requiring that each ‘tribe’ be identified, separated, and resettled, each in its own ‘homeland,’ each supervised by its own Native Authority. One District Commissioner complained: “Batshioko, Lunda and even Baluba are totally jumbled and it will be very difficult to organize them into separate chefferies.” The separation was accomplished between 1925 and 1930. “Customary” chiefs were charged with supplying designated quotas of labor and food, at first to the mines and, later, to European farms and administrators.

Like Katanga, Ituri too was the site of lucrative gold mines, Kilo and Moto, to which King Leopold’s men were lured as early as 1903. As in Katanga and Kasai, so in Ituri, colonial pacification began with a policy they called “regroupement”. Over nearly two decades, from 1916-17 to 1930s, the authorities separated the predominantly pastoral (Hema) from the predominantly agricultural (Lendu) populations, herding each into its own homeland (territoire) supervised by its own tribal authority (chefferires).

A census tagged every villager as a tribesman or woman, as a ‘native’ of a particular tribal homeland. Those living far from their “natural” leaders were targeted as “runaways” from tribal homelands. When the Lendu moved away from drought struck areas in the mid-30s, one District Commissioner wrote that force would be necessary “to maintain the regroupement which was under threat”.

Each tribal homeland was run by a Native Authority. This power was not elected; nor was it appointed from all those who lived in the administrative unit. The Native Authority was appointed only from the “tribe” said to be indigenous to the land. Non-indigenous groups were required to pay tribute to “indigenous” chiefs in the Native Authority. The Native Authority system politicized ethnic identity gave the name “tribe” to this politicized group. As a political identity, tribe became the basis of systematic discrimination between groups: only tribes officially acknowledged as “indigenous” were entitled to “customary” rights, which included the right of access to land and the right of participation in local governance. This system of discrimination was sanctified as “customary” and was enforced by law.

The colonial system rested on a dual system of institutionalized discrimination: race in urban areas, and tribe in the countryside. Whereas racial discrimination was justified as reflecting a civilizational hierarchy between colonizers and colonized, tribal discrimination was said to recognize cultural difference between natives.

What is the connection between the system of power I have just outlined, the Native Authority system, and ethnic cleansing? So long as the tribal system of power continued to discriminate between ethnic groups, all institutions came to bear a tribal imprint. Recruitment for the mines or the civil service or the army was driven by tribal identity. Not only competition but also resistance developed along tribal lines.

Let us return to Katanga. Labor migration gave rise to a triangular relationship within Katanga, with each group classified as indigenous or not. The interesting thing is that there were two ethnic groups but three different classifications in the “tribal” system. The first were the Lunda, said to be indigenous to Katanga. Then came the Luba immigrants from Kasai, who were divided into two groups. Those who had moved to Katanga before colonialism were considered ‘indigenous’ and were identified as Luba-Katanga. In contrast, those who had arrived during the colonial period as labor migrants were tagged as not indigenous and were known as the Luba-Kasai.

All three groups organized as separate political parties. Alongside, there was a fourth party, representing Belgian settlers in Katanga. In the mines of Katanga, the Belgians confronted the Luba, organized in militant unions. With the development of militant nationalism, Belgians promoted an alliance of the settler party with the indigenous Lunda, known as the alliance of “civilizers” and “authentic Katangans”. The alliance first targeted the Luba-Kasai, and then all the Luba.

It is the logic that the identity of the native was tribal, not only when it came to exercizing power but also when it came to resisting power. It is the logic that fed the dynamic to secession and, ultimately, ethnic cleansing. As the alliance between “civilizers” and “authentic natives” gelled, the colonial establishment – the church, the state and business – took to backing “nativist” tribal movements, in both Katanga and Kasai. With Belgian support, each mounted a separate drive for secession, first in Katanga (11 July 1960) and then in South Kasai (8 August 1960). Branded “aliens” in both places, the Luba became the first target of ethnic cleansing in both South Kasai and Katanga.

This is the context in which the first major political crisis in Congo’s history unfolded. The new government responded to the secession in Katanga by sending the army to suppress it. On their way to Katanga, troops of the Congolese National Army were ordered to put down the South Kasai secession. They went on a rampage, slaughtering civilians.

Nzongola Ntalaje, the Congolese political historian, has argued that Lumumba committed his “first major political blunder” when “as the number one national leader, instead of seeking to heal the rift in a bitter inter-ethnic conflict”, he chose to side with one group against another. Thus he provided political enemies the opportunity to corner him politically and eliminate him physically. Immediately, Dag Hammerksjold, the UN Secretary General, accused Lumumba of being responsible for “genocide”. That same day, 5 September, Kasa-Vubu dismissed Lumumba as Prime Minister.

The Native Authority system continues to drive the crisis of citizenship in Congo today. Driving a wedge between two politically defined groups – indigenous and not indigenous – it continues to fuel the dynamic leading to ethnic cleansing. The prophetic round of ethnic cleansing began at independence, with Katanga as he paradigm case, but it was repeated on a more dramatic scale in 1992-93, again in Katanga, then in Ituri in the conflict between Hema and Lendu, and finally in Kivu.

The political crisis in Congo is today at its most extreme in eastern Congo, in Kivu, where the Native Authority system pits ‘indigenous’ tribes against the Banyaruanda minority. The Banyaruanda are the speakers of the language Kinyarwanda, identified with the historical kingdom of Ruanda. Along with speakers of Kirundi, its sister language, they number roughly 40 million. Mainly resident in Ruanda and Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and Eastern Congo, the Banyaruanda comprise the largest language group in the region, if we exclude the trans-ethnic speakers of Kiswahili. Since most Banyaruanda live outside Rwanda, they face the crisis of citizenship in its most acute form: wherever the mode of governance is defined by the Native Authority system, the Banyaruanda are defined as ‘non-indigenous’ outsiders. Even if born where they live, they remain without ‘customary’ rights, whether to land or to appointment in a local authority.

As with Lunda migrants into Katanga, the Banyaruanda in Kivu were also divided between those who came before Belgian colonization and those who came after. The former were considered indigenous, but not the latter.
Denied ‘customary’ access to land, the Banyaruanda took to purchasing land as private property, and refused to pay tribute to customary chiefs. The result was a contest between two different notions of rights: on one side the right of the citizen, and on the other “customary” right. The political dilemma became acute where the Banyaruada became a majority, as they did in Masisi and Rutshuru by 1958. The conflict between the Banyaruanda and the indigenous groups broke out in 1963 and turned into a wider contest: immigrants demanded ‘democracy’ and the indigenous groups called for ‘custom’ to be upheld. Known as La Guerre du Kinyarwanda, this conflict lasted two years.

So sensitive was the citizenship status of the Banyaruanda minority at independence that the Roundtable Conference in Brussels was unable to fix its juridical status. The Fundamental Law the conference passed left the citizenship status of the minority unresolved; instead, it called on the Congolese people to settle the issue at a future date. The 1964 constitution famously declared that only a person with an ancestor who was “a member of a tribe or part of a tribe established in the Congo before 18 October 1908” would qualify as a citizen of Congo. The consequence was to bar all colonial era labor migrants from citizenship.

The most important dimension of the citizenship problem in Kivu is the failure of the indigenous majority to work out a political principle that would accommodate developments on the ground and extend citizenship to migrants, thereby constantly redefining the political community. The consequence of this failure was that migrants into Kvu increasingly sought protection from an outside power, initially Mobutu and then, after Mobutu, neighboring Rwanda.

Even the internal opposition, a gathering of over 100 political parties and over 400 civic groups, which came together as the Sovereign National Conference in Kisangani in 1991-92, failed to address this question. In contrast, Mobutu tried, as in 1972, when his reform extended citizenship to those who had immigrated to Congo during the colonial period. Called upon to think of a principle other than ethnic descent as the basis of citizenship in Congo, the CNS failed.

It is this failure that ultimately led to the collapse of the CNS. The failure was tragic because the CNS began as a spectacular success. Its proceedings were televised throughout urban Congo. The effect was to inspire further initiatives. There was a mushrooming of civic organisations, thickening the texture of the internal political opposition. The Sovereign National Conference was closed abruptly on 6 December 1992 when it was ready to deal with two of the most politically sensitive dossiers: one on ill-acquired goods and the other on political assassinations. The failure of the CNS to reopen pointed beyond the regime’s strength to internal weakness of the opposition.

The opposition was faced with the dilemma of managing internal tensions within its own ranks, the very challenge that had undermined Lumumba’s position in 1961. The more it failed to manage these tensions, the more the opposition fragmented. The worst outcome was in Katanga, where events were sadly reminiscent of 1960. As in 1960, the Lunda and the Luba had organized under separate political roofs, the former in the Katanga-based party, called Union des Fédéralists et des Républicains Indépendants (UFERI), led by a relative of Tshombe, Jean Nguza Karl-i-Bond (Nguza), and the latter under UPDS, led by Etienne Tshisekedi, himself a Luba from Kasai. Initially, UFERI joined UPDS to form Union Sacré, the most important opposition bloc in CNS. But this was an inter-ethnic unity of two separate ethnically-based organizations. Intent on splitting the opposition, Mobutu first appointed Tshisekedi as Prime Minister and then replaced him with Nguza. It was Nguza who closed the CNS in 1992 on Mobutu’s orders. On its heels followed the second episode of ethnic cleansing in Katanga, on a scale much larger than in 1960. This time, over a million Kasaians expelled from Katanga.

Let me turn to Darfur and Sudan. Since I have traced this history in detail in my recent book, Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics and the War on Terror, it should be sufficient to underline key developments in this lecture. The first was the creation of tribal homelands under British colonialism.

The British faced several crises during their centuries-long imperial venture. The most serious of these was in mid-19th century when two revolts, the 1857 Uprising in India and the Morant Rebellion in Jamaica, rocked the empire at its two extremes. The next great crisis was the Mahdiyya in Sudan. When the British returned to defeat the Mahdiyya and colonize Sudan, they were determined to fragment the colony as effectively as possible. Thus began the program of “tribalization”, beginning with the creation of tribal homelands. From the very outset, this was a political program. It favored British allies against those who had joined the Mahdiyya, and then it favored settled over nomadic groups, since the former were easier to control. So the colonial power created “tribal homelands” – called hakuras – for peasant groups, and smaller ones for cattle nomads who were semi-sedentary, but none for the wholly sedentary camel nomads.

This did not seem to matter much until drought and desertification hit the region. Studies by the United Nations Education Program, released a few years ago, show that the southern rim of the Sahara expanded nearly a hundred kilometers over four decades, from the mid-1940s to the mid-1980s, pushing the northern nomadic tribes south in search of better land. The result was a classic ecological conflict between nomads and peasants over the best land in an ecological disaster zone.

I was a consultant for a year for the Darfur-Darfur Dialogue and Consultation, a unit created by the African Union after the Abuja negotiations. The DDDC carried out a research on the dynamics of the conflict. Its findings showed that the conflict had spread over two axis: a north-south axis that pit nomadic against peasant tribes, and an east-west axis in the south that pit two kinds of nomadic tribes – those with homelands and those without – against one another. The media focused exclusively on the north-south axis of the conflict which it portrayed as one between ‘Arab’ and ‘African’ tribes.

There are two problems with this portrayal. The first is that the driving force of the conflict was not ethnic identity but the search for land in an ecological crisis. Whoever controlled the land would survive the crisis, whoever lost control over land would parish. But because land had been defined as “tribal homeland,” the fight for land turned into a fight between tribes. This is how most observers on the ground understood the logic that fed the growing brutality in the conflict. As in Kivu in eastern Congo, the conflict in Darfur pit two notions of rights against one another: the camel nomads claimed the right of the citizen to settle anywhere in the country, whereas peasant groups laid claim to tribal “customary” rights to land and local governance.

Second, there is no single history of “Arabs” of Sudan. In particular, the history of “Arabs” of northern Sudan and that of Arabs of Darfur is radically different. Whereas the “Arabs” of northern Sudan include immigrants from the Arab world, the “Arabs” of Darfur include immigrants from West Africa, mainly the Fulani who are known as the Fallata and identify as an “Arab” tribe in South Darfur. There is also a difference in the relationship of Arabs to the slave trade in different parts of Sudan: the slave trade in the Sultanate of Funj in the North was driven by an “Arab” elite, but in the Sultanate of Fur was driven by a Fur elite. The result was that whereas most former slaves in the north tended to identify as “Arab”, most former slavers in Darfur tend to identify as Fur.

The elite in northern Sudan today is mainly “Arab”, but the elite in Darfur is not. The Arabs of Darfur are in fact its least privileged group, with the lowest levels of income and education and the least representation in the state. If Darfur is marginalized in Sudan, the “Arabs” of Darfur are doubly marginalized.

Let me return to my main point: the Native Authority system and how it generates the dynamics that tends to lead to ethnic cleansing in times of political crisis, and the need to reform it.

When he faced the internal opposition in Congo, and its spectacular success as witnessed in the launching of the Sovereign National Conference in Kisangani in 1991, Mobutu launched a counter-offensive, disguised as a reform of the state. This is when he advanced a new federal principle for Congo. Geopolitique, as he called it, was an attempt to elevate ‘nativism’, hitherto the basis of organization of the Native Authority, into a principle for the reorganization of the central government. Having already passed a resolution that every aspirant to Congolese citizenship demonstrate an ancestral connection with Congo prior to the Berlin Conference, Mobutu now declared that new heads of Ministerial Departments represent their ‘native’ provinces. By calling for regional quotas as the basis for recruitment at the center, Geopolitique further entrenched indigeneity as a principle and institutionalized ethnic competition. Mobutu then went on to demand that “delegates [to the CNS] represent only provinces to which they could be considered autochthon”.

he CNS lost the political battle the day it succumbed to this demand. In Ituri this logic was picked up and used by the Hema against Nande competitors. When a 1995 decree declared all Kinyarwanda- speakers as foreigners, the momentum of ethnic cleansing shifted from Katanga to Kivu. On 7 October 1996, the governor of South Kivu ordered all Banyamulenge to leave the country within a week, or else they would be interned in camps and eliminated.

I have often wondered whether Nigeria’s post-civil war constitution did not emulate the substance of Mobutu’s “geopolitique”, particularly in its inclusion of the “federal character” clause, requiring that key federal institutions reflect the federal character of Nigeria. As I understand this requirement, the key federal institutions are three: the federal army, the federal civil service, and federal universities. For these institutions to reflect federal character, enrollment is driven by a state-based quota system whereby the quota for each state is in proportion to its share of the federal population. Finally, the right to compete for this quota does not belong to all those who live in a state, but only to those who can claim to be “indigenous” to the state in question, meaning that not only they but also their father be born in that state.

It is possible that this provision was adopted as a form of affirmative action for those parts of the country which had lagged behind in educational and social development during the colonial period and that its purpose was to ensure them fair representation in key federal institutions, one proportional to their weight in the population. The question I have in mind does not concern motive, but consequence. My question is: have the unintended consequences of this provision – its costs – come to outweigh its intended benefits for Nigeria?

The federal character principle has extended the colonial principal of Native Authority to key institutions in the federal state. Its unintended effect has been to turn federal citizenship into an extension of ethnically-defined membership of Native Authorities, thereby eroding it. By dividing Nigerian citizens into “indigines” and “non-indigines” – not of Nigeria but of individual states – for purposes of participation in national institutions, it has disenfranchised a growing number of Nigerian citizens, those who do not live in the states where they were born.

That Nigeria is increasingly integrated into a global economy, and has been the subject of market reforms, has intensified the contradiction between the market and the state as currently organized in Nigeria. The tendency of the market economy is to move more and more strata of the population away from the locality where they were born. This includes both rich and poor Nigerians: on the one hand, businessmen, industrialists, and professionals, and on the other, unemployed workers and landless peasants. The state system, in contrast, disenfranchises precisely those who move. The state system penalizes precisely those the economy dynamizes. The least dynamic sectors of the population respond to this situation by calling for a defense of their “customary” rights, and the most dynamic rally around the principle of a “national” citizenship. One lesson of Congo and Sudan is that it may be time to rethink the legacy of both the colonial past and the reforms you undertook to end the civil war.

Sufi Story (Or Nigerian future foretold)

2010-03-14T14:34:00.002Z

A certain man was believed to have died
and was being prepared for burial , when he
revived. He sat up, but was so shocked at the
scene around him that he fainted. He was put in
a coffin and the funeral party set off for the
cemetery. Just as they arrived at the grave, he
regained consciousness, lifted the coffin lid
and cried out for help. “ It is not possible that
he has revived,” said the mourners, “because he
was certified dead by competent experts.”
“ But I am alive,” shouted the man. He appealed to
a well-known and impartial scientist and jurisprudent
who was present. “Just a moment ,” said the expert.
He then turned to the mourners, counting them.
“Now we have heard what the alleged deceased
has had to say. You fifty witnesses tell me what
you regard as the truth.” “He is dead,” said the
witnesses. “Bury him,” said the expert. And so
he was buried.

This reminds me about the resounding chorus of Nigeria the so called 'failed state'. I pray it does not end this way for us and our country. You never miss the water until the well runs dry.

Honouring Women

2010-03-08T20:55:00.005Z

I am as remote as one can decently be from being a feminised male. A father of three boys, a brother of five and in all cases the only women in my life have adjusted to the Testosterone fueled existence that is normal in masculine environment. My mother, sister and wife are honorary men without doubt socialised by the necessity of relationship with men. In fact all my adventures with the opposite sex has never been much with the frilly, girly types. It is with that background that I write about the disturbing discrimination and abuse reserved for women here in Nigeria. The cover of the latest Economist Magazine shouts out Gendercide looking at over 100 million female babies disappeared in India and China because of abortion prompted by advancement in technology i.e. Scans with consequence that preferences for male children are now more efficiently exercised before birth. This is an extremely disturbing situation that not only is worthy of challenge but crosses into the most extreme evil human are capable of committing. In Nigeria it is neither that simple nor does the problem register for National Hysteria.

One in every three Nigerian women I have met have been victims of rape, incest or sexual abuse before they reached the age of 18. Most of these actions were inflicted by trusted family, friends or domestic help. In most cases as it is in a society where a woman is one step from being a Jezebel the shame of the experience is hidden from any adult for the fear of the blame or disgrace that might visit. I remember when i was growing up in Ibadan that there were a group of boys notorious for gang banging unsuspecting girls and denigrating them afterwards. None of these men were ever prosecuted and many hold responsible positions even though what they did around town is still very public knowledge.

For those who never suffered the abusive indignity there is another one reserved for them which is that no matter how successful a women is in our society if she has never been married she has failed. The constant prayers and vigil of parents to their late 20s daughters and God forbid 30s unmarried 'girls' is a constant painful reminder whether it is the regular match making efforts, the sympathetic stares or the suspicious trailing by married friends. It is never ending humiliation and reminders of foretold loneliness. The assumption that marriage cures this malaise is ignorant at best. Domestic violence or more bluntly wife bashing is a past time for large numbers of men in our society with no shame for the perpetrator. As I speak a friend is on his way from the UK to save his sister from a husband who uses her as a punching bag daily after a bottle or two of Gulder. Make no mistake the husband is not an Okada rider but a very rich Phd whose idea of masculinity includes total de-humanization of the mother of his children.

We reserve a special venom for women in our public life from the constant sexual attention in the workplace as if being in employment is advertising sexual availability. The everything goes invective that we pour on any woman who dares position themselves for power. I remember Speaker Etteh who no doubt did wrong but was analysed in ways that made every part of my skin cringe with the thinly disguised sexism on parade. I am not suggesting that women are saints in this matter , in fact some of most disgraceful acts of abuse and disrespect come from women themselves but what about men? There is a difference between an adult male and a man. A man takes responsibility wherever he finds it. Real men engage in honourable competition and assertive integrity in the most combative circumstances they might find themselves with women. Nothing can justify abuse, denigration or humiliation. It is time for real men to stand up for women in Nigeria without whom we will perpetually be an underperforming and embarrassing joke.

Haiti and teaching the Power of Love

2010-01-20T11:23:00.004Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLn6TxIpqaI

Jeanette and Her Husband give us the most powerful lesson in life and love. This is a lesson that should go round the world and should never be forgotten. The people of Haiti may be poor but they are rich in character, love and relationship. If what gives them this is a pact with the Devil , then I am going to get me some of that.

Passes for Christianity

2010-01-14T14:02:00.003Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XuG68GGVSk

Say what you want about Fox but Shep Smith is the only class act in that Network.

Underwear exposed

2010-01-05T17:21:00.004Z

The decision to put Nigeria on the list of 14 nations to receive secondary screening from the US is bad policy. It discriminates very badly because if it will lead to greater detection maybe it could be justified but it will alienate millions without making the US safer. Unlike many who focus on the underwearbomber as the the reason for this decision the official excuse is the alleged laxity in Nigeria airport never mind that the journey began in Ghana and he had more opportunity to load up there than in Lagos. It is also now article of faith by US liberal powerbrokers like Senator Feingold, Senator Schumer who are briefed by the so called Nigerian progressives who have helped by carrying their cynical perspective all around for all to hear. The tragedy here is that they have turned their development at the ridiculous government we have into an indictment of everything Nigerian. Now they have to reap the wind that they have sown. In the same way that they were apologists for the kidnapers and bunkerers in the Delta. They are then shocked that the kidnaping is spreading like a cancer in all areas where former robbers can now realise greater returns and lower risks by holding the lives of successful or popular people to ransom. No matter what age this people are like little children, they no longer just inhabit the daily news, they are spread over the internet and have homes in facebook, saharareporters et al. Their initial response to the underwearbomber is to get into tribal and geopolitical finger pointing . Addicted to the adrenalin from arguing and besotted by the heat and lack of light in their opinions.

It is quite a fearful time for those of us who truly love Nigeria and are decidedly committed to realising its greatness. We have ended up with most irrelevant and incompetent National government and any assumption that we had the national, or civic pride will prompt everyone to take responsibility has faded to nothingness. granted it is easier if you had a good government to transform a society but all the energy criticising and running commentary can be used to change individual lives, family possibilities, communal aspiration and cities as well as towns. we are in national crisis and everyone who cares needs to take position wherever they find themselves to help build and develop us out of this hole government or not. Governor Fashola is a good example he could have spent time getting into the AC versus PDP thing on a daily basis but he has used his bully pulpit to inspire and deliver. nations do not change from criticism but they sometimes do from inspiration and that does not only come from Government.

I will be changing the direction of this blog and active working to create new stories and focus towards the kind of society I want my grandchildren to be part and citizens off. I have failed my children but I am blessed to be alive to make things happen for my grandchildren. This decade cannot be wasted talking it will be about what we do fail or succeed.

Ire O

Bloomberg Third Term

2010-01-02T00:46:00.003Z

Mayor Bloomberg sworn into a unprecedented third term by changing the rules so he can run. Obasanjo discredited by Nigerians for seeking a similar move. Maybe it is not the 3rd term that is the problem it is who is seeking it?

David Brooks on Terrorism, An Adult guide

2010-01-02T00:42:00.003Z

Please read for an truly adult perspective and contrast with Maureen Dowd childish screed both in NY Times. By the way Happy New Year and a new opportunity to write history in a new decade, do not waste it, completely rock it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/opinion/01brooks.html?hp

Mesiogo 09

2009-12-19T00:03:00.005Z

We went to a place no one has ever gone too about an African city. In due course I will write but for now enjoy the images through this link below:

http://gallery.me.com/omoluwabi#100033

The Tiger High Road

2009-12-18T23:59:00.004Z

A truly hopeful commentary on the daily efforts to dismember Tiger woods. It is by a Lisa Fritsch well worth a read. http://www.nationalcenter.org/P21NVFritschTigerWoods91209.html

Racism and the President

2009-09-16T05:17:00.004+01:00

To most people watching the passionate and sometimes rabid protests against anything President Obama does there is a troubling reaction that his election is not a transformation in the issue of racism that they desire but just a milestones on the dreary and long journey to prove the obvious. There is only one race the Human Race should be trite and accepted. There is however a problem that every time there is an issue or event that can be viewed as evidence of this racism a powerful group of pundits and commentator use that to further to argue that those who see racism are themselves playing a race card. The President himself is very consistent , he sees anything but Race driving any issue. I think its not that simple.

The basic issue here is that President Obama has been in his role for less that 1 year in which he inherited a lot of crisis from the prior administration and even though he has formal authority to deal with these things, the apparent support for his informal authority i.e. credibility was very soft as its quick erosion has shown. There are many possible explanations for this including the much vaunted lack of experience but that does not explain the visceral opposition, the level of organisation and the persistence of Fox News in attacking him. There is an edge to all this especially from a people who made the mantra of any criticism of a President during a war being the same as disloyalty to the troops and hatred of country. Most of the policy criticisms seem to deal with perception of what the President will do i.e. so called Death Panels, allowing health benefit for illegal immigrants amongst many others. Simply it is an issue of credibility.

This is the first African American President therefore it is a new challenge for many US citizens. These are people who are finding it difficult to see ultimate power exercised by someone from a group for whom they have little respect and interaction . Why is there any surprise they do not trust or give any credibility to the potential of that person to have integrity or transform their lives positively. Layer this with political differences as well as the obvious class and panache of the guy then this becomes even more hateful. Finally throw in cheerleaders like Limbaugh, Beck, Hannaty with the subtle and not so subtle support of the rest of the Fox News Network and Talk Radio rabble then we are off to the races. It is a complex and volatile cocktail and many of those who participate are in so much denial that they have buried any racial motivation deep into a sub- conscious a natural defensiveness with an issue and label that carries so much social disdain.

When the word racism is used to describe this pattern it is an oversimplification and it groups a broad range of people widely divided across the spectrum into one stereotype. It also makes it even more difficult because it is an emotional red card that introduces a knee jerk defensiveness and also absolves the President (if he wants it) from critical problem solving. Any relationship is co-created the President has his challenge truly cut out. Thankfully he knows the solution and can deliver it. By the way racism is live and well but it does not manifest itself independent of a reasoned disagreement it actually acts as an exacerbating factor that distorts the quality of interaction and engagement. It is therefore a false debate as to whether something is racist or reasoned disagreement actually it can and often is both. The tinge is found in the tone, tenor and the persistence of opposition almost in absolute disproportion to the facts.

The President as always must respond with unrelenting pursuit of excellence without excuse or self pity. He has raised the bar and the consequence must be institutionalized. Is it Racism? No matter it is still a challenge to turn it around.

Join France! We need true Outcome measures.

2009-09-15T04:58:00.003+01:00

As a lapsed economist I am always mystified by the failure to recognise the difference between output and outcome measures. This might sound like semantics but it has profound consequences on the macro-economic indicators that determine which country is progressing or failing. One of the most powerful illustrations of this is the idea that GDP, GNI et all actually measure progress of a country. They are at best process or out put measures they do not really tell you what the consequences are of such a shift. It is like using the amount of money you have in a bank account or how hard you work to determine your quality of life. It is a poor measure of whether you are physically healthy, emotionally flourishing, intellectually stimulated, spiritually thriving or even financially growing. It is the same for a country. Surely the test of a society's prosperity lies in the life opportunities of its citizens, their capacity to pursue unique aspiration, their environments robustness, the fitness to survive and thrive, the social capital that underpins their interaction, the quality of what they produce as a result, the added value of such production to them and the world around them.

France intends to introduce new additional measure as a result of the work of eminent economists like Stiligtz and Sen. It will include, well being, happiness, environmental sustainability. Forget the Nigerian 7 point agenda setting the right outcome measures gives us an agreed objective standard to judge the contribution of all sectors and aspects of our society especially government. Then we can truly start to have a discussion about where we fail and where we prosper and what needs to be done to drive the progress we seek.

Inalegwu 'Journey to Idomaland' continued

2009-09-08T09:58:00.005+01:00

Inalegwu 'Journey to Idomaland'

2009-09-08T08:06:00.008+01:00

The pics are part of a travel dairy to the Nigerian heartland out of the cacophony of competition between Yoruba, Ibo and Hausa fight for dominance to one of the Minority ethnic groups the Idoma. A week in Otukpo . I also met the legend Bongos Ikwe . It was another Nigeria. More later enjoy pics.

Becoming a Nigerian

2009-09-08T05:57:00.003+01:00

Lets put this bluntly I am tired of cynical, opinionated, formally educated, elitist buffoons who constitute the greater portion both formal and informal commentators on this country Nigeria. The new sexy is that this is a failed state a new form of what their leader taught them that Nigeria is only a geographic expression. Never mind the fact that the peoples of this so called geographic expression belong to two, maximum four linguistic families. Nothing shows connection more than etymology and even more importantly they have inter-married, have shared histories and even similar mythologies. Perhaps more mind blowing is the archeology of the area links them so emphatically. It is true this pundits never let a fact come between them and their assumptions, a classic definition of bigotry. Of course it appears a curious thing that people can be bigoted against the country of their birth but this is not really true if you review it dispassionately. Most people born in this country have never matured to become Nigerians. They are largely individuals whose fear of failure and disappointment from expectations of greatness has turned them from grasshoppers to locusts. The true shame is that they hide behind the guise of failing governance to perpetuate their wanton destruction.

Take a look at Lagos State by all account with a Governor and Governance that has captured the public imagination with vision, commitment and dedication ably backed by the most Nigerian form of evidence of progress, shiny new infrastructure. Roads being built, refuse being cleared and new shiny buildings all the time. In fact parks are being thrown in for good measure. There are very few people who do not admire the government of Governor Fashola. Now that is my point can you see any change in the behaviour of the elite? Are they any more law abiding in lagos? Do they rush to pay their taxes? Are there any attempts to stop putting their debris on the roads or even the most dangerous behaviour drive against traffic when no one is there to stop them? By common agreement this is a committed government but where is the corresponding response of goodwill from the ever complaining educated, widely travelled and opinionated elite?

It takes more than citizenship to be a Nigerian, it takes an awareness of the privilege that it is to be part of this incredible aggregation of people. It demands a commitment to elevate oneself and fellows from the doldrums of self congratulatory mediocrity towards a relentless pursuit of excellence. it asks not for blind loyalty or patriotism or reflexive criticism but genuine insightful and seriously analysed perspectives both positive or negative. Perhaps most importantly it behoves a sacrifice for generations to come that does not absolve by blaming governmental failure but by accepting onerous duty that comes from the many lives lost in the creation, maintenance and defence of the idea of this most complex and improbable country.

God one day let me truly become a Nigerian.

Ibadan regeneration

2009-09-07T16:13:00.001+01:00

Times

2009-08-24T05:32:00.008+01:00

I have missed the few, the wonderful few that read these postings. I have been out their in the sojourn of my conscious delivering on two legacy pieces that I have committed myself to this year. The first is the completion of my manuscript on the organising principles of Omoluwabi for the 21st century. Now those of you have written books know that deadlines are killers of inspiration but they have to be given so here we are the backbone or spine delivered to publishers and ideas already flourishing for Omoluwabi 2.0. The second somehow related is the agenda for regeneration of Ibadan as an experiment or pilot in transformation of Nigeria. We will be doing the first ever stakeholder visioning exercise for a city in the African continent as part of Ibadan Week on the 18th of November. The preceding activities includes a survey that engages the broad section of residents and indigenes in expressing their own perspective all which will be put into the pot for our co-travellers GroupPartners to capture using their exceptional 4D social technology. Those who might be interested can visit www.mesiogo.com our emerging website and for more on GroupPartners technique visit www.grouppartners.net.

Many things have happened during my posting hiatus most of which are topical and demand comments but at the same time I had some extraordinary experiences that demand sharing with you. First I will have to complete my Apeke Lessons and I have the perfect cypher since I just had the painful pleasure of releasing one of my closest friends and mentors, Ifeoluwatari Ajadi to a new world and life far away from our regular access and interaction. The lessons of putting him in school at UWC in New Mexico to new influences and direction knowing fully our bond of living by similar codes and ideology which most do not understand, accept or even acknowledge might not survive this new experience. I watch President Obama struggle within his new role living by a similar code and watch the misrepresentation and misunderstanding that passes for analysis of his position and how that fuels the drop in his poll numbers. More later in my posting on the transition including the impression of Alburquerque and Santa Fe (I love).

On the other hand their was my trip within Nigeria from Lagos to Otukpo in Benue state with my friend and brother Amali Amali. It was quite an education about Nigeria and especially about why Lagos is not Nigeria and vice versa. I have some pictures here and more later.

You must be MEND

2009-07-24T09:11:00.002+01:00

Now MEND showed its true colours in the bombing of Atlas Cove in Lagos . It is a terrorist and criminal enterprise full stop. It kidnaps, kills and destroys public property and now not just in Niger Delta. The death of 7 in Lagos is just the kind of lack of boundaries I often warned about in this so called fight for resource rights. I often wonder out loud what added value those who are fighting have put into the particular resource. There is no doubt the Delta should be developed but to what avail with the kind of attitude and addiction to 'Deve'. Deve if you do not know is the slush of funding going to so called programmes which are often extorted by ' Youth' for their personal benefit. This funds come from Government, Oil Companies and International donors without really demanding any productivity or accountability. Now the Federal Government is about to institutionalize Deve. Whilst 27 soldiers are given life sentences for demanding allowances for serving the country under the UN, these killers and kidnappers will get allowances to reward their illegal and murderous enterprises. Wow this is truly the elevation of Rule of Law.

The President, Africa and the Gates

2009-07-24T08:46:00.004+01:00

President Obama's visit to Ghana and speech has had the Nigerian press and the so called progressive wing of the National politics excited. They use the visit and the so called tough love message to beat the PDP government around the head. No doubt this is a do nothing National Government which is a throwback as i suspected to the Shagari Government of the second republic. With GDP down to nearly half of what it was in the last term of the Obasanjo Adminstration and debt burden increasing at a rate not seen since early 1980s, a projected budget deficit for 2010 we are in macro-economic danger zone. Nevertheless there was nothing more patronising than the speech President Obama gave in Accra. In my opinion it was condescending and self indulgent. There it is. For someone who understands nuances and challenges of a complex continent it was a uninspiring effort that could have delivered by any of his predecessors. I am sure he will come back and hopefully with something that starts to explore with Africans how they can help shape a new world order that takes into consideration African cultural intelligence and heritage. Nothing short of mordernising through Aficanisation will suffice. The President cannot and should not address the African continent like he is lecturing African American males on fatherhood . It will not do. What happened to his respectful and challenging tone in his address to the Islamic world? We should not accept anything less.

I also think Mr President has reached a stage in his presidency where he needs the kind of wisdom he showed in the Pastor Wright incident during his campaign. He has in front of him one of the most critical legacy challenges in Domestic politics of the US, the issue of Health Care reform. He should not have commented on the Professor Gates incident even though I think his comment was on point. His powder needs to be dry and his focus on the priority. He has wasted some much needed political capital on an issue that could have been ably picked up by others. I continue to wish President Obama well but he needs a second wind or else he will find that things just get harder not easier.

The Fox Extremists

2009-06-05T19:32:00.001+01:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Looking for Comity in the Muslim World

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Economic Crisis

Listen to the wise Latina Woman

2009-06-01T17:46:00.005+01:00

So President Obama's Supreme Court Nominee Justice Sotomayor being quoted out of context appeared to suggest that a Wise latina woman is more likely to come to better judgement than a white male. She is labeled racist by some and asked to explain herself by others. Even the President sought to excuse her choice of words and find ways to soften the meaning. For the record Judge Sotomayor is absolutely right a wise Latina woman by virtue of her status in the hierarchy of ethnicity in the United States is more likely to see a perspective of society that is not only more exposed but also more informed about the lives of the common people. Most importantly a Latina woman has to know white mainstream culture to survive along with her own culture for not just the interest but for her economic survival. A white male does not require any such thing except if he is motivated by exceptional circumstances. It is political correct claptrap to suggest that this opinion is either racist or malicious in any way.

The Obama Israel Challenge

2009-05-29T19:23:00.003+01:00

This is the father or mother piece at Foreign Policy. Seems Barack is truly assertive rather than aggressive.

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/05/28/netanyahu_what_the_hell_do_they_want_with_me

Amazing and frank interview with Former American Ambassador to Isreal Indyk

2009-05-29T19:18:00.004+01:00

This is a must for anyone truly interested in the layers of play in the US/Israel relations and its effect on Middle East peace opportunities. Frank, open and honest a genuine rarity. Published by the Israeli Policy forum.

http://www.israelpolicyforum.org/blog/ambassador-indyk-tells-all-pretty-amazing-interview

For those who like to groove (Tune out and tune in)

2009-05-27T05:11:00.000+01:00

The Omoluwabi Podcast » Blog Archive » Interview with TK
By omoluwabi
The Omoluwabi Podcast. Discussing the applications of Omoluwabi to organisations and self. « Wale Ajadi Talks with Funmi · Interview with TK. Adewale Ajadi discusses Omoluwabi with TK. Listen Now: ...
The Omoluwabi Podcast - http://omoluwabi.podbean.com/

A star dies . The Passing of Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem

2009-05-25T09:55:00.008+01:00

Taju was one of the most fascinating people that I have ever met. Relentlessly witty, incredibly eloquent and naturally charming. Always caught between bombast and genius, he could hold court like Oscar Wilde and challenge like Marlon Brando. In fact he reminded me of Marlon Brando in his later life, a man of great awareness and wisdom resting in the presence of unachieved possibilities. Taju was my brother even though he had a suspicion of me as a consultant. He was a true African , a rarity amongst those of us who project that desire but never actualize its actions. Taju loved Awo at least in our debates and my love for Penkelemese, Adegoke Adelabu was one of our running discussions. As chairman of CDD he and kayode Fayemi gave me the space to return to a Nigeria in which I could attempt transformation. Born to the people of Ogbomoso, taju spoke yoruba without the cold hands of Lagosian corruption and spoke Hausa elegantly from his upbringing in the north. Those large eyes would never leave my heart, that extraordinary wit would never stop ringing in my ears. The passing of such greatness is a course for all of us to mourn.

A day of Infamy in Ekiti

2009-05-05T19:39:00.002+01:00

As predicted Ido/Osi used by a compromised INEC official to bring a day of Infamy for the people of Ekiti, the aspiration of Nigerians and the failing Federal Government. We are in for a torrid future and for those of us who see a future party politics this might be the nail on that coffin. We are a truly compromised nation.

Ido/Osi the only game in Town

2009-05-03T17:33:00.004+01:00

The Ekiti Rerun has proven that I am truly a very naive person.In my genuine hope that people would not recklessly throw away the possibility of a great nation called Nigeria, i unlike most commentators focussed on the organizational failures of the 2007 elections especially because this was a litmus test on whether you can have a civilian to civilian hand over in Nigeria. It was too much of a relief to my nationalistic heart that i could not bear the rigging is the only explanation brigade. I have watched slowly and gradually as the current Federal Government whittle away at any goodwill that might be available to them punishing anyone who seemed to bear any Nationalistic interest, Northernising the Federal government and gradually moving everything back to 1982. As usual the obvious is the Ekiti rerun awash in violence, deception and manipulation but we have 27 International peace keepers headed for jail for life for nothing other than protesting the embezzlement of their pay. We know about the persecution of Nuhu Ribadu and El Rufai even though not saints but true servants nevertheless. Our Government has started borrowing without any focus on productivity increases or any serious focus on stringent efficiency standards or economically robust vision. The scene is set for another self inflicted National crisis.

Most observers have focused in relation to the rerun in Ekiti on the suspended Oye vote in two wards or even the drama of the resigning and reinstated family member of INEC the resident electoral officer in Ekiti State. Very few have focussed on the main game which is the PDP loaded ballot boxes that where collated and collected outside INEC supervision and without AC sign off in IDO/OSI. This blatant attempt at fixing an 11,000 votes deficit is the backbone credibility gap in the rerun. With the Resident Officer seemingly back on message we no longer hear of lack of PDP confidence in her. The conversation is now exclusively about Oye Ekiti's 2 wards. We are suddenly back in June 12 where just the sheer bold face of official brigandry is about to play itself out. This cannot stand , the people of Ekiti , the truly Nationalistic Nigerians, All those people of goodwill cannot allow this to stand because if it does it mocks the possibility of any credible standards for our future interactions. It is time for the post 1960s Generation to reclaim and reposition our nation from this constant rape and abuse. It is enough.

Ekiti Rerun 'Why Fayemi is Salvation for nation'

2009-04-19T18:00:00.005+01:00

Here is a audio purported to be of a sitting Governor planning the subversion of the Constitution of Nigeria. This is the impunity that has to be stopped in Ekiti State in particular and Nigeria at large. It is time to challenge the Power at any cost brigade or else we will lose another Republic. Vote Fayemi to save Nigeria from impunity of the PDP.

Holding the Pentecostal Movement to Account is a must.

2009-04-15T17:18:00.004+01:00

I have posted many times about those who use God to exploit the sentimentalist amongst us. It is time for those who truly love Christ to stand up against those who use his name for their own material comfort and consumption. It is especially time to rescue Nigerian society from the corrosive influence of a religious movement that suggest that passivity and supplication is the road to material success which is in turn the standard for spiritual redemption. We have monitized God the ultimate rent seeking agenda is now being played out by those who are middle men or arrangees fro the 'Almighty'. Say what you might about South Africans at least they stand for something other than the fulfillment of their stomach. Read below.

South Africans vow to sack Christ Embassy… As authorities humiliate Chris Oyakhilome at airport

“As South Africans, we will not rest until Chris and his cohorts are out of our country. We have fought very hard to release this country from the clutches of apartheid not to have hoaxes like them come and rape our economic and social system.”
This was the touching expression of despair by a South African and a former member of Christ Embassy who now thinks that the church is one big hoax. There had been tales of stage-managed miracles at Christ Embassy but now a number of sources close to the church confided in huhuonline.com that some of the tales may be true after all. They narrated a number of incidents that has compelled them to doubt the authenticity of the Christ Embassy Church in South Africa .
Our source gave an instance of a lady that had been sitting on a wheel chair in the healing line, she had been sitting there for hours while waiting for the man of God to come and minister to her. When nature called, she forgot she was supposed to act paralyzed. And there she was standing and running to the toilet. Minutes after that, she received serious tongue-lashing from the Healing School pastors for the great embarrassment she caused. No one really understood this because she was not allowed to return to the wheel chair as people had seen her dash off to the toilet. Her empty wheel chair was wheeled out of the room.

Chris Oyakhilome
Another source recalled that a similar incident had transpired in the Healing School when another supposedly bed-ridden faithful was pushed to the toilet by a church member who had volunteered to help at the Healing School . On getting there with the helper, she stood by herself and went in. The helper screamed, rejoicing that a miracle had already taken place. She was shocked to see this patient also receiving serious reprimand for standing without aid.
Huhuonline.com also gathered that an old woman who ministers next to Pastor Chris , called Deaconess Pat, many refer to as mommy in South Africa, who lays hands on women on Chris’ behalf and instruction was said to have warned some South Africans not to bring their children nor give their money to the money making scheme. Her words were, “this is not a church”. She also made mention of the fact that her own children are in full time church ministry but none are in Christ Embassy. She was quoted as saying that she is only at Christ Embassy because it is a job for her.
There is an interesting sub-unit in the Christ Embassy Church called the ‘Haven’. It largely consists of select members that fund Chris Oyakhilome’s minisry in South Africa and beyond.
South Africans that belong to this group have suffered tremendously through the insane donations demanded from them by Christ Embassy . Many have had to take children out of schools to be able to keep up with the Christ Embassy demands .
While South Africans are committing their hard-earned money to the Christ Embassy projects, their pastors are indulging in an unimaginable life of luxury.
Pastor Ken Oyakhilome drives a Lamborghini Murcielago, Austin Martin DB9, Porsche Cayenne, amongst his five expensive vehicles. All of this luxury life in Houston , Texas is funded by what is called the “American Initiative” .
Another fake, is one Olatunde Oyediran who claims that he lives for Chris Oyakhilome’s vision and ministry and that is where all his money goes, yet he drives a Toyota RunEx.
Meanwhile, Immorality is not a scarce commodity in Christ Embassy, South Africa . Tomisin Fashina, a Senior Pastor in the Sandton church, South Africa , is said to have children from different women in his congregation. Fashina is said to have taught his congregation that it was more evil to bring a fatherless child to the world than to abort. This has raised the suspicion that he may be impregnating women in his church and asking them to abort.
His wife, Tolu Fashina, on the other hand is alleged to have embezzled the Healing School funds when she and one Taiwo Adenubi, a senior pastor in Pretoria , just outside Johannesburg had been given a construction contract by Dr. Diolla who is the head of the Healing school.
They were exposed by a worker who had taken his share of the loot, when they tried to blame it on him. Apparently, this guy, a Nigerian national confessed his own sins but said that he had learnt from the best, being Tolu and Taiwo.
In 2007, the Christ Embassy Randburg branch got a member called Funi Silinda, a business woman. She gave no less than R100,000, a month. On months like the American Initiative, she is recorded to have given approximately R600,000. She bought a lot of first class tickets for most of the Christ Embassy, Randburg leadership to attend international conferences in Nigeria . She also paid for many of them to be in good hotels .
For partnership like the Healing School , she gave about R30,000 a month . She built a computer centre in Randburg, furnished it with state-of-the-art computers and accessories. Funi paid for the Christ Embassy TBN contract. She was led to believe that it cost R100,000 a month .Yet she faithfully paid for a whole year.
It came as a shock to many when Funi announced that she was leaving Christ Embassy because she had run out of money. She said that all the donation she made in Christ Embassy were financed by business projects she received prior to coming to Christ Embassy.
It became obvious that Funi was tired of being used which is something she said in the end. The final straw was when she was told that she has been personally invited by Chris Oyakhilome to attend his birthday party on the 7th of December, 2007.
Tunde Oyediran started working on her, telling her of how she would need to compete with others at profligacy when she gets to the party as they habitually auction Pastor Chris’ suites for anything up to R1million .
That day, she realized that Christ Embassy was nothing but a 419 scam. It was then speculated that she cancelled the flight and went back to her home.
Then another fake, Dolapo Layode, who is often postured by the church as the highest giver and donor in the church came to South Africa in 2007 to share a very far-fetched testimony.
Dolapo told the meeting that two Angels came to her room asking to be dispatched. And she had told the angels to get her a license to lift oil in Nigeria . In two weeks time, she had not only gotten this license, but also a scholarship to London where she studies about the business she was about to embark on.
In less than a year, Dolapo was telling people that she has trucks with her names running around Nigeria transporting oil . She never mentioned planning to be in the transportation business as well.
That was when some people realized that Dolapo and her kind , in Christ Embassy were a grand part of the whole extortionary scam. No one can out-give them and it is meant to be that way. Dolapo shocked people even more when she said that when she prays for money, she finds it everywhere in the house, in her wardrobe and within clothes.
However, it appears, this grace for money or ability to mint money as it has been termed, only works for the Nigerian members of “the Haven” group.
South Africans are loved because they work and earn a lot of money and have easy access to credit according to one Pastor Efeoma, a former ‘Haven’ President.
In all these, many South Africans have had to use desperate measures to finance the deep pockets of Christ Embassy hoping to avoid being shunned.
They use credit cards, overdrafts, personal loans, second bonds, missed car and house payments to meet the church’s demands. As a result many are blacklisted by the credit bureau, their cars are repossessed while they are evicted or watch helplessly as their houses are auctioned.
In the ‘Haven’ group the only people who seem to have testimonies of being millionaires are Nigerians while South Africans face liquidation and other financial crisis.
It is no longer secret that the South African authorities are not leaving any stone unturned in its investigation to get to the root of the many outcries against the activities of Christ Embassy in South Africa . This was demonstrated about a month ago when Pastor Chris Oyakhilome came for the Healing School . He was literally frisked and not a single stroke of nicety was spent on him. It was real business and objectivity. His Private Jet was thoroughly searched at the airport. He was asked to fill in forms standing on the counter as the airport officials apparently refused him to use the VIP lounge to do all that.
Chris was said to have been very angry at Ose, wife of Ken Oyakhilome, who has been running Christ Embassy aground by her immoral and uninspiring conducts. Chris was also said to have threatened to stop coming to South Africa as he blamed Ose for poorly managing matters in South Africa . Chris who came to South Africa from Texas was said to have gotten the same treatment there.
South Africans strongly feel that Chris made the worse mistake by coming to South Africa in the first place. The investigators handling the matter already have the support of many countries, including Nigeria . They have met with some Nigerian officials who are passionate with fighting crime. A meeting of all religious groups in South Africa was convened penultimate Friday in Kwa-Zulu Natal to discus the notorious activities of Christ Embassy in South Africa .
And as the South African authorities step up investigations, into the activities of Christ Embassy, the people are aggressively mobilizing to stamp out Christ embassy from their country for good.
Memo from a meeting of all religous group, held in Kwa- Zulu Natal last friday, to dicuss Christ Embassy atrocities in SA.

Obama as Omoluwabi 'a follow up'

2009-04-08T06:10:00.002+01:00

I have this theory that President Obama is a the first International leader who is an Omoluwabi. I am not going to define the word again has there are may postings on this page about this but here is a piece by the ever delightful Maureen Dowd of the New York Times that extend the level of 'Oju Inu' that the man uses on the political and international stage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/opinion/05dowd.html?_r=1&em

What is real?

2009-03-15T03:54:00.003Z

Now it has been a little while . It is Lagos quite a demanding mistress, she wants you running around as if she is the only thing that matters in your life. She call and text at all hours demanding money for this, cash for that and attention for the next thing. Her expectations are far beyond her role and capacity even your wife is not remotely that demanding. Lagos is aggressive but full of adventure with ideas above her station . Yes it is Lagos officially the worst place to work according to ORC for Expats. So pray why the heck do they come ? They sit in the upper class section bitching about the country get whisked through the formalities at the airport, get guided through traffic in the face of millions looking for a way at of no way. How is it the Government in Britain is saying British jobs for British people and yet it is exporting its social misfits to lord it over here in Nigeria. This takes all kinds of forms. I was in the Gym on Ozumba drive after all the Bankers and power hustlers had left, something happened that brings to sharp focus this issue. Let me tell the story.

My gym instructor is a regular Nigerian brother on the hustle but kind of laid back with it. We had a session with loose weights and I was rocking Verve remix on the Ipod (as you do) and oblivious to the drama of the Indian woman who claimed she had called him and he had not responded ( the Instructor). She then proceeds to bawl him out without any restrain or respect. I did not notice initially but luckily another fellow steps to the plate to challenge her response. I got in on the act and this woman had obviously expected support in treating this young man like a sub-human. Not surprisingly the first man to step to the plate was a Returnee like me then everyone did the ritual disembowelment of different elements of this behaviour some going as far as racial and national stereotypes of different expatriates and how they treat Nigerians. I had to step to them as well because without them setting this standard of abusive behaviour with their domestic workers, drivers et al, no one will find it acceptable to come to Nigeria and do such.

For those of us who have had to go into the West to make fame and fortune very few of us were welcome in any way. No one gave us accommodation (rarely) , cars and schools for our children. I had to start from the bottom and build up. Been homeless, driven taxis, been a bouncer all after being a Barrister and practicised a little. On the other hand taxi drivers from South East london are met at the airport and whisked through any formalities and provided condos et al.

Now that stinks. Why will they not misbehave.

Emerging green shoots of Transformation

2009-03-01T22:13:00.004Z

I can never forget where I was when the call of the Ekiti Appeal court judgement came in neither can I forget what I was doing when the verdict came in Ondo State. It says no less of either former Governors Agagu and Oni but says more of the evolutionary power of a nation that perseveres in pursuit of self actualisation. As I walked through the helpless cold of Holborn , onto the Strand onwards towards Euston my thoughts extended to what had become conventional wisdom over the last few years. The assumption that power went with the ruling party , that rigging and money was the only way to get victory, that the judiciary was so compromised that money and safety would lead to the support of the so called party of power. Somehow the judiciary which is perhaps the most conservative element of the Nigerian establishment would grant insurgent opposition candidates the opportunity in spite of time elapsed and the seeming capacity of the PDP to hold its power in the face of a diverse opposition base.

The judiciary in the Appeal court has given the nation a chance of a living constitution that can meet the aspirations and concern of Nigerians. Through its ruling it has given pause for thought in the cynical politics of impunity and disdain for the participation of the citizenry. Surprisingly it has granted the PDP a chance of legitimacy at the very least through the Presidents avowed commitment to Rule of Law . Perhaps quietly the diversity of political coat of arms sets the scene for idealistic people like Dr Fayemi, Mimiko, Mr Oshimole , Mr Fashola to redefine politics towards a new generation. The true test is what happens in Ekiti re-election whether the citizenry grasp the opportunity to view the future with a broad range of possibilities through a Fayemi or leave bravery to courts whilst voting patronage for safety.

The time is now for a stronger union based on variety of thought , the respect for capacity rather than genuflection to age. A time when our ideas should be central to our politics rather than just who the powerful forces are that you can unleash. I never bet against the Nigerian in all of us. The judiciary has shown that it is a wise choice I make.

NY Post and the Chimpanzee , John Legend response

2009-02-22T13:38:00.002Z

Making Obama appear to be a crazed Chimp worthy of shooting is not truly noteworthy from my part even though the NY Post tries to make his an unintended racism issue. What is noteworthy is the intelligence and sophistication with which John Legend responds to this challenge. By the way I am neither a fan of his music or knowledgeable about is character but as a result of this I have become a loyal believer that he is an excellent and eloquent soul. Please read and critique.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29302056/

Happy Birthday Dokita

2009-02-16T16:32:00.001Z

In 2004 long before the now celebrated speech of President Obama at the DNC in Boston, I was with Dokita (as I call him) in the middle of one of our debate sessions where we take a subject completely apart, boiling it down to the raw essence. As is usual I took a disruptive thought and turned it into my platform, while he built a simple idea into a powerful iconic bridge ( memories are now vague). I do not know how but he raised the prospect of a man called Barack Obama who he had recently met and disagreed with but for whom he saw a great future. As is usual I came away with much more than I brought to our conversation. Dokita is Dr Kayode Fayemi and he had just come back from Sabbatical at NorthWestern University. In his usual unassuming way had opened up a world of possibilities that the rest of the world is now belatedly recognising. In fact in that year he wrote an article about Obama for one of the Nigerian dailies. I wish then his perspective and truly caught on and that is far more true now that it has ever been.

I have had the fortune of working with many people from many different backgrounds and with may different qualities but Dr Kayode Fayemi stands out as a truly cultured, sophisticated and intellectually astute person. As a social entrepreneur he took risks for transformation as he did with the Centre for Democracy and Development from inception through building its institutional capacity to the total transition from the United Kingdom to Nigeria. The higher level risks that he took against the Abacha regime are already a matter of public record whether with Radio Kudirat or his ‘diplomatic mission’. So when he decided to respond positively to the call of political office I initially thought it was one risk too far although I never told him. I worried about his somewhat shy and calm personality and I reasoned that he did not exhibit the common touch that often leads politicians to be all smiles but little substance. In fact I loved him as a ‘policy wonk’, I worried that the tricky nature of our politics would devour a man of integrity and he would suffer greater betrayal than he faced as a community organiser or as a social entrepreneur. He once again surprised me.

Dr Kayode Fayemi at 44 is the possibility that a truly nationalistic Nigerian prays for in the 21st century. A politician who is an independent intellectual, curious , considerate and committed. An eloquent global citizen whose world class capacity is sought across the major capitals in the world not just as a truly accomplished African mind but also as a serious thinker on the issues that affect all human beings. From the challenge of treating citizens with dignity to the focus of providing them with life opportunities, this is a man who has chosen to serve something greater than his appetites. At this time in the history of Nigeria, in this moment of our collective aspiration, in this period of unfulfilled promise Dr Kayode Fayemi stands as one of the few real transformational characters from the post independence generation. Whatever the decision of the Appeal Court in Ilorin on his application for recognition of his election as the Governor of Ekiti State, we must recognise who he is and want he stands for. Kayode Fayemi is an answer to the that which makes us constantly rebrand our country , he is the solution that we seek in the many presentations for Foreign investors, he is the response to the persistent power outage. Dr Kayode Fayemi is a Nigerian citizen at his best, genial to strangers, caring to dependents yet masterfully in the pursuit of excellence. Happy Birthday and Good luck Dokita.

Global Standards indeed

2009-02-03T12:28:00.002Z

My apologies life has taken over completely from blogging but this is too much to ignore. The global crunch/recession/depression now shows that standards that the West has pushed for years especially during the Structural Adjustment Programme has always been a flag of convenience. These are policies that decimated African industries and Education reduced their societies to playing ground for Multinationals and their governments to beggars for International AID and FDI. In the same token that Human Rights were only universal standards until the War on Terror. The same way that democracy is only fundamental in Zimbabwe but not when conducting a coup against Aristide in Haiti or even recognition of HAMAS or more brazenly in Florida 2000. We now know that when the economies of the West are in danger free market also goes into the toilet and what is left is a mixture of protectionism and nationalisation. Wow! The adage that human beings have infinite capacity to self justify is far more true for Western Nations than anyone else. In a world where knowledge is diffused the trick of making meat disappear by chewing is now in everyones gift. Below is a BBC blog about the British emerging protectionism. I wonder what will happen if Nigerians applied the same principle to their only key export Oil and argued Nigerian jobs for Nigerians instead of seeking revenue derivation. Now that is a revolution that we would televise!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2009/02/total_and_the_wimbledon_effect.html

To Parahrase George W Bush; I had to give up principles of capitalism to save the capitalist system ( With no irony)

Ire O

Scary CNN

2009-01-18T22:40:00.005Z

Apparently George W Bush revolutionised health care in Africa making extremely popular across the continent in a way that he is not anywhere else in the world.This courtesy of a CNN bulletin today. In fact he is so popular based on this report that the incoming Obama administration could not match this in any way. The only evidence alluded for this broadcast is the comments by a retired US diplomat and a reporter from South Africa. I suppose anything is possible since Africans are the 'wretched' of the earth. You must really wonder if CNN actually thinks Africans are from a parallel universe. George Bush follows Bono and Bob Geldof another white male saviour for the hapless Africans.

Harry and the pursuit of British Education

2009-01-14T05:31:00.006Z

So Prince Harry calls his fellow soldiers Paki and Raghead what is new? Anyone whose children have had a British Education in recent years is either blinded by its brand or acutely aware how truly inadequate it is for a successful 21st century mindset. This is especially true of those of us seduced by a romantic notion of the British 'Public ' or Independent School system. I had to learn the hard way. Like most middle class Nigerians dreams of acquiring the frisson of British 'proper' education was part of my aspiration and did I play with my children's life for that B.S. The short version is that the education system is not designed for the emerging multi-polar or interdependent world. The more exclusive the school the greater the possibility that your child is being indoctrinated into 19th century pseudo-victorian world view with dubious intellectual grounding and extreme dollops of self loathing. I have stories about lectures still categorising people into Caucasian, Negroids et al or the everyday class profiling especially of the working classes. This perhaps would be insignificant if the core curriculum were truly about evolving young minds but bully by the time they are finished Africa is an Aids factory, they know more about the wives of English Kings than any awareness that Chinese Industrial revolution pre-dated western one by centuries.

None of the above would truly not matter if it was really truly preparing them now for a world smaller, interdependent and globally competitive. Whilst such a limiting education might work for a white British child cocooned into reflected glory from the past it is intellectual death to any African child with any eye for 21st century leadership potential. I actually do not believe the damage is ever truly repaired but it can be tempered by an active effort to de-programme. The shame is that many Nigerian parents are throwing good money after bad . There has to be an alternative to British education and we have to find it fast. Just look at Harry.

It breaks my heart to see Israel's stupidity by Rabbi Lerner

2009-01-06T09:01:00.004Z

Read via the link below . It is consistent with all the postings on these pages.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5446519.ece

If Obama is serious he must get tough with Israel

2009-01-04T21:53:00.004Z

When in the middle of writing an article someone more eloquent gets it right you concede. Here is such a piece from Newsweek magazine by Aaron David Miller . The link is below.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/177716

Eyes of the heavens shed tears of blood

2009-01-04T14:37:00.003Z

I often wonder what hardens the heart of people to the pain and destruction that war delivers that they choose it as a position or policy on which to build a future. I also wonder how the strong and powerful find justification in the humiliation of the weaker competitors? I wonder what memories we expect the children of Palestine to take away from the humiliation and destruction of their already wretched communities? Then there is the incoming President and I watch how is two beautiful black girls glide down the staircase of the plane to Washington DC whilst two similar sisters wrapped in cloth are carried through the streets of Gaza. I feel impotent, paralysed and heart broken. It hurts so much this time more than other times. I know now that cynicism has taken the Presidency away from Obama , I sincerely hope that he can find ways to get it back. Below is a voice of Wisdom from the Isreali part of this conflict.

From Haaretz.com - Israel News ast update - 02:05 04/01/2009

And there lie the bodies

By Gideon Levy

Tags: Israel, Gaza, Hamas

The legend, lest it be a true story, tells of how the late mathematician, Professor Haim Hanani, asked his students at the Technion to draw up a plan for constructing a pipe to transport blood from Haifa to Eilat. The obedient students did as they were told. Using logarithmic rulers, they sketched the design for a sophisticated pipeline. They meticulously planned its route, taking into account the landscape's topography, the possibility of corrosion, the pipe's diameter and the flow calibration. When they presented their final product, the professor rendered his judgment: You failed. None of you asked why we need such a pipe, whose blood will fill it, and why it is flowing in the first place.

Regardless of whether this story is legend or true, Israel is now failing its own blood pipeline test. As Israel has been preoccupied with Gaza throughout the entire week, nobody has asked whose blood is being spilled and why. Everything is permitted, legitimate and just. The moral voice of restraint, if it ever existed, has been left behind. Even if Israel wiped Gaza off the face of the earth, killing tens of thousands in the process, as a Chechnyan laborer working in Sderot proposed to me, one can assume that there would be no protest.

They liquidated Nizar Ghayan? Nobody counts the 20 women and children who lost their lives in the same attack. There was a massacre of dozens of officers during their graduation ceremony from the police academy? Acceptable. Five little sisters? Allowed. Palestinians are dying in hospitals that lack medical equipment? Peanuts. Whatever happened to the not-so-good old days of Salah Shahadeh? When we liquidated him in July 2002, we also killed 15 women and children. At least back then, moral qualms were raised for a moment.

Here lie their bodies, row upon row, some of them tiny. Our hearts have turned hard and our eyes have become dull. All of Israel has worn military fatigues, uniforms that are opaque and stained with blood and which enable us to carry out any crime. Even our leading intellectuals fail to speak out on what havoc we have wreaked. Amos Oz urges: "Cease-fire now." David Grossman writes: "Hold your fire. Stop." Meir Shalev wants "a punitive operation." And not one word about our moral image, which has been horribly distorted.

The suffering in the south renders everything kosher, as if the horrible suffering in Gaza pales in comparison. Everyone is hungry for revenge, and that hunger is excused by the need for "deterrence," after it was already proved that the killing and the destruction in Lebanon did not achieve it.

Yes, I know, war is war. After all, they brought this on themselves. They are a terrorist organization and we are not. They want to destroy us and we seek peace. Still, is there nothing here that will stop this blood pipeline? Even those whose hearts are hardened by "moral righteousness" will have to momentarily halt the bombing machine and ask: Which Israel do we have before us? What will become of its standing in the world, which is now watching the events in Gaza? What are we inflicting on the moderate Arab regimes? And what of the simmering popular hatred we are sowing throughout the world? What good will emerge from this killing and destruction?

It is doubtful whether Hamas will be cut down to size as a result of this wretched war. Yet, the face of the state has been cut down to size, as have civilian elites who are apathetic and scared. The "peace camp," if it ever existed, has been cut down to size. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz authorized the Ghayan killing, regardless of the cost. Haim Oron, the leader of the "new left-wing movement," supported the launch of this foolish war.

Nobody is coming to the rescue - of Gaza or even of the remnants of humanity and Israeli democracy. The statesmen, the jurists, the poets, the authors, academe, and the news media - pitch black over the abyss. When the time comes for reckoning, we will need to remember the damage this war did to Israel: The blood pipeline it laid has been completed

Vacancy! 21st Century Leaders required.

2008-12-24T11:10:00.004Z

All over the world everything Obama is now celebrated and interesting. I vaguely remember being laughed off many dinner parties and drinking arguments amongst Nigerians in at least two continents or four different countries on account of my belief that the then Senator Obama will become President. I remember the derision that met with my pronouncements starting with a post here as far back as 2004/2005. The cynicism with which the possibility of an Obama Presidency was viewed in the sitting rooms of the Lagos Cognisenti was quite painful and dismissive. If however you have been a Nigerian idealistic Nationalist as I have been all my life you live with derision and disdain as a matter of course. Now they shamelessly shout hosanna Obama.

The point of that little tirade is to bring this back to some core set of issues for us in Nigeria about what the President Elect actually represent. Many locate victory and possibility in his ethnicity, his Charisma, his vision and organisation and all of this is part of the truth but very few recognise that he is the first of his generation to rise to this exalted office. A President unburden from the cultural battles of the 1960s, fashioned in the pragmatic 70s, evolved to majority in the Reaganomics of the 80s, inspired by the dotcom of the 90s and now in full service to shape the 21st century. A timely fruition of a Pragmatic radical whose commitment is unwavering but not hobbled by any ideology, a true commitment to by any means necessary.

In Nigeria where I live we have had many leaders who are in the mainstream of the Neo-colonial awakening that has had us in thrall since independence. At the core is are the following assumption that:

- formal education is the only credible problem solving tool and passing exams certifies true learning.
- westernisation is modernization
- development especially through infrastructure as well as industrialization is the main indicator of progress
- to achieve all of the above leaders through government can and if effective will orchestrate transformation leading to all of the above.
-all these will happen with the right leader who will ensure that this is all done within a few months of being elected.

These assumptions are what has led to or have been excuses for coup detat in the country. The orthodoxy of these assumptions is only tempered by the fact that there are two camps; the afromarxists who believe in all of the above but want it done through a centrally managed process and ; the arrangees who use the pursuit of the above to maintain the tradition of patronage and rent seeking. To my mind neither is better but a read of Adegoke Adelabu's Afica in Ebullition is quite insightful and still accurate on these people

We truly lack 21st century thinking not even the 22nd century one that we will truly need for transformation. The job description for what we lack are the following :

We need leaders with the following characteristics:

Curiosity: A true interest in our history and anthropology especially pre-colonial history as we seem to have the pattern of repeating them.

An Idealist sorrounded by competent managers

Complexity and Systems thinking: A basic understanding that we are and reside in a place where things are emerging and interlinked often requires the humility to see clearly what is emerging rather than confuse activity with progress.

Identifying the key questions: The humility to recognise that the challenge is not to find answers but to discover the real questions that we need to collectively answer as a nation.

Help us to discover our priorities

Free the people to do work that matters for the next generation

Execute at moments of clarity like a ruthless warrior

Recognise that we need to jump the stages to a new Africanness that is totally unprecendented

Build the links for the people so that they can interact and cooperate of their own volition

Inspire Nigerians to be Nationalistic not necessarily Patriotic

Elevate our women from the oppression of pre-set roles

Put the pursuit of ideas at the core of National discourse

Define excellence in terms of productivity

Recognise there is no Justice , there is Just us.

At the core of all of this is a core and respect for who we are , who we are from and who we can become.

If you are out there somewhere then it is time to set forth. We cannot afford not to take steps even baby ones. I remember that in 2004 while jogging to Barack Obama's DNC speech my heart told me that this was the future President of the United States how I wish I have the same view of any Nigerian in Public life. To be fair Governor Fashola represents a bridge to this role but I suspect we will not know fully till his second term. He has been bold and resolute, disciplined and focussed which is a rarity amongst our public office holders. He deserves quite a lot of support but we need more than one person and we need a movement. The median age of Nigerians is 17 we need a generation of leaders imbued by the spirit and competencies of this time. They need not be saints but must be obsessed by the need to transform our society in a sustainable way. Nothing less will do.

Here is a truly interesting Nigerian

2008-12-17T13:11:00.003Z

Leonard Karshima Shilgba, PhD
Thursday, December 11, 2008

shilgba@yahoo.com
Yola, Nigeria

ANNOUNCE THIS ARTICLE
TO YOUR FRIENDS

* Do you want a Nigeria that works for you? * Do you know the leader in you? * Do you wish you knew what you could do?
Well then, come to the NIGERIA RALLY.
DATE: Friday, December 26th, 2008. VENUE: Bays Garden Hotel, Gboko, Benue State, Nigeria.  TIME: 10.00 am-4.00 pm [Plenary session]; 4.00 -6.00 pm [Planning session] KEY SPEAKER: Dr. LEONARD KARSHIMA SHILGBA
[AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA]
http://www.nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/shilgba
For a Nigeria that works for us all
*********************************************************************

DID YOU KNOW…

1. that over N6.5 trillion was spent to pay salaries and allowances of Nigeria's 18,000 [s]elected and public officials between 1999 and 2008 while Nigerian workers receive peanuts as salaries?
2. that about half of Nigeria's annual revenue is spent to maintain the lifestyle of Nigeria's 18,000 [s]elected and public officials while national minimum wage remains at N7, 500?
3. that the 150 million Nigerians, of whom you are an important family member, are expected by the fortunate 18,000 officials to do nothing about this?
4. that our public schools will continue to deteriorate if you do nothing?
5. that the children of the 18,000 officials don't attend the public schools you or your children attend?
6. that the children of the 18,000 officials shall come back to rule over your less and under educated children if you do nothing?
7. that graduates of public schools stand little chance of getting good jobs in Nigeria compared to those of better funded private schools both within and outside Nigeria which neither you nor your children can afford except family members of the 18,000 officials?
8. that Nigeria's bad roads, poor electricity, collapsed health system, neglected agriculture and industrial sectors like her public education will not improve if you do nothing?
9. that "vision 2020" shall go the way of "vision 2000" and "vision 2010" if you do nothing?
10. that those [s]elected and public officials who may have employed you as a thug send their children to expensive private schools both within and outside Nigeria, and your children shall become thugs to their children in the future should you do nothing?
11. that the option of doing nothing is too costly and not a good option for you to even consider?

WHAT CAN YOU DO, AND HOW CAN YOU DO IT? COME TO THE RALLY AND FIND OUT.
The desired change we seek can only happen through organized revolutionary action. But for long, Nigeria's rulers have urged them to "pray" while they prey on the hapless masses. Yes, we believe in divine intervention; but faith without works is dead. God has always worked with and through men and women who match their faith with necessary action. God will pull down our walls of Jericho, but He MUST have us walk round it 13 times. Are we ready for the WALK-LONG WALK TO FREEDOM?
***********************************************

For Nigeria the beautiful

2008-12-14T16:26:00.001Z

Corruption 'The Nigerian excuse for failure'

2008-12-10T02:54:00.005Z

Give any so called Nigerian thinker a few minutes they will complain to you about corruption in their country as if they have a monopoly over this human condition. At the same time they will locate this problem in others almost ignoring the fact that sometime in the past few days they have got an advantage over others through relationship, gifts or sheer bribery. As I watch the Governor of Illinois being arrested for amongst other conducts trying to sell the US Senate seat vacated by President elect Obama I am amazed even further. What are Nigerians try to get away with? This arrest is not unusual in the politics of the United States, Rep Jefferson of money in the freezer, Senator Stevens of Alaska amongst many others in the past year. In fact all the above are neither repentant nor did they go quietly out of public life. My point is that these things happen in a society that plainly delivers to its citizens and produces economic as well as social excellence in which many institutions work for the greater good. Across the world there are examples of how deep corruption operates as symbiotic within the national fabric of most countries. In Japan pretty much across the board, in Great Britain watch what happened with Al Yammamah, in South Africa well the whole Zuma saga is yet to play itself out, in India, Thailand you can name it this is a human condition. This is not a carte blanche for corruption but neither should it be an excuse for failure. It is a symptom that has to be managed, parasite that lives in the body politic that can only destroy the host if it is not managed because it can only survive if its host survives as well.

In Nigeria, yes there is a matter of scale but that has a lot to do with a failure of having any organising principle that truly balance the host / parasite basis for the symbiosis that seems to lead to a more productive results in other jurisdictions. For example the perpetual probe and hysteria that has paralysed the House f Representatives in Abuja from doing any of the peoples business. It will be certainly interesting to know how many laws are on the statute book in this current session of the House. I venture that there are no serious policy or statutory improvement on the other hand we have had one speaker after the other under microscope and the absolute obsession with acts of the Obasanjo regime. The same is true of the Executive branch caught in its own paralysis by constant policy reversal of its predecessor without any real strategic progress. All the excuses to destroy Nuhu Ribadu another anti-corruption fundamentalist who even though got the host / parasite balance thing out of kilter still worked in a Government with momentum and purpose that at least gave context to his role.

We must stop this Nigerian exceptionalism and stop finding excuses for failure especially when we blame all others than ourselves. Corruption will not go away what we need is a process that can deliver the dynamic equilibrium necessary for the growth and evolution of our society. In my own view we can achieve this by taking the following steps:

- Establish the key indicators for excellence for Nigerian society call it 2020 vision or anything else so long that it captures the imagination of the multitudes of Nigerians rather than the 'jones' of a few eggheads.
- Evolve operating principles and standards that are based on context as well as understanding of the different cultures that make up Nigeria into the foundation of how we will organise our society into the future. Once again this cannot be top down process.
- Start a national campaign of productivity and meritocracy to put equality of opportunity at the core of the Nigerian experience.
- Prioritise transparency with banks and other institutions rather than just criminal punishment especially using the tax code as the mechanism for reward and sanction.
- Criminalise unexplained and unproductive wealth.

There are of course many other ways in which this can be done however we cannot continue to celebrate consumption especially extravagance and yet wonder why the obsession with personal amassing of wealth at any cost or means. We have put wealthiness as the greatest aspiration in our society, promoted in Churches and Mosques every day and relegated service, innovation as well as productive excellence out of sight. Enough excuses I am sure there is corruption in Calabar but it is a clean city and it is Nigerian so how come my beloved Ibadan is so filthy? In Calabar the Okada's wear helmet for themselves and passengers. Come on guys no more excuses.

President Elect of US a culmination of the Legacy of Malcolm X ?

2008-12-07T14:32:00.007Z

There is palpable change in the air as you come into the United States. I swear the immigration officers at Mcmarran Airport in Las Vegas were almost welcoming. The one thing that the Bush Administration and it Fear Factor presidency has achieved is to turn this great nation into an insecure and fearful place. In any case the new President is on nearly all newsstands, the media using every opportunity to exploit his photogenic qualities and his hopeful disposition to fill the gaps in their post election circulation fatigue.

Everyone claims Obama including a Bedioun clan who recognise his smile (yes smile) in their lineage. The one name that is rarely ever mentioned in the Obama connection is that of El Hajj Malik Shabazz or Malcolm X aside from the psychic halitosis by Al Qaeda second in command Al Zhawairi . It is shocking even in that case that none in the media bothered to claim Barack as a culmination of Malcolm even then. As for me I have hesitated because there has always been a gross over-simplification of who Malcolm was or became especially at the time of his death. There is a tendency to caricature him as a darker spirit of the African American fight for Equal Opportunities and Civil rights. To many he was nothing other than a radical militant , to others an angry black man exemplified. The truth is that Malcolm was that and more, President elect Barack Obama has more in common with Malcolm than any other Black leader in the United States past or present. People better deal with it.

It is true that the then Senator Obama's post partisan, post racial message on the face of it is the realisation of the Marin Luther King message. It is also true that the media can embrace his meritocratic electoral success as finally judging by the content of character rather than colour of skin. On the other side of the equation President elect Obama represents things phenomenally in line with Malcolm X including the almost uncanny similarity in characteristics, ideology especially a truly African American world view. Lets examine these things.

The similarity in characteristic starts with a fierce intellect which engages and asserts the primacy of human dignity that emerged from an adventurous youth full of experimentation and self discovery. An almost uncanny physical similarity both being tall and lanky on the edge of being skinny. Their approach to speaking are extremely similar with an appeal to reason whilst Malcolm was a lot more eloquent and far more quick witted , the cadence and accent are quite similar if not identical.

Then there is the worldview which was manifested in different ways even though both are made from the same ingredients, the pragmatic radicalism captured by Malcolm's by 'any means necessary'. This is often reduced by the misunderstanding of others as a call to violent revolution only, in fact it meant any means that effectively delivered transformation. They were both community organizers, Malcolm in the Nation of Islam especially his work in the Mosque and neighbourhood of Harlem, NY and Barack in the South Side of Chicago. Unlike the rest of the civil rights leaders Malcolm was the first literal African american leader whose travels and interaction was not only inclusive but engaged the continent of Africa directly in his evolution quite like Senator Obama and his engagement of his father's continent. Both defined themselves with an authenticity on the issue of Race that is captured by Malcolm's 'I am the man you think you are' and updated in Obama's response to the Pastor Wright controversy. They both exude an authentic warmth and assertiveness that rarely needs to escalate to prove manhood. Both share an exposure too and understanding of Islam to prove a common humanity and engagement. Unlike most American leaders black or white they where both open enough to redefine themselves and their environment in eclectic ways including living and uprooting into new places and communities in which they developed deep and meaningful roots. In short they share an adaptive leadership.

This is a cursory exposition of an aspect of the Obama persona that most are blinded too and the mistake of the Al Qaeda second in command is similar to the blindness of his enemies on the American side the tendency not to see from many perspective or accommodate nuances. Maybe if both sides actually followed the true Jihad which is the internal battle for evolution and growth that both Malcolm and Barack seem to have embraced they would entertain possibilities that exemplify life and abundance rather that death as well as scarcity.

The burial

2008-11-18T16:46:00.006Z

My friend and muse Lelethu 'Leza' Lumkwana was sent to the home of homes last saturday. Here is what our connection was about this was one of my last Instant messages to her. This the result of what we both called walethu our creative force and connection.

"We live to die we need not fear just walk our path. So live like there is no tomorrow. Love dies and becomes peace, peace sleeps and become simplicity and she comes back as passion. Circles and cycles. the night is the father to the morning light and rain is the child from the womb of the sea. The powers that make life come forth is the belly of our choices as well as the sigh of finality. As I move on I invoke the night to be your friend so that you awake to the powers of your tomorrows without the concern of what you might eat because the fish opens its mouth so the master can pay his taxes. You will never want for that which will nourish your boy or grow your soul. Gnight" Wale 11.00am July2008

Admiral's Escort Beats Woman

2008-11-05T16:34:00.000Z

If only you knew Leeza

2008-11-04T05:17:00.008Z

1984-2008

Yesterday a star stopped lighting up the sky, She was 24. Even at such an early stage she had branded the hearts of all she met as if in haste to lay a map of her trajectory. Lelethu Lumkwana at 24 was a courageous and loving mother to Zenande who is 3 years old. Lelethu is the only child of Ma Lumkwana.

She had such an hunger for life that she became the Editor of True Love Babe, South Africa at an age when many would be exploring their options. She wrote as she lived as if to capture every minute of her presence here. I hope many remember her evoking prose about her visit to Lagos that was posted on these pages. She was my friend , my protege, my running mate. Infuriating, exquisite, exasperating, exciting, she fully understood that complexity is not complication. She was complex and quite driven to express it.

Lelethu, God has been forgiving, life exciting and love fully expressed. Sleep well lovely Zim. You are now part of the wind that travels the world, the blazing rays of the sun, the gentleness of the morning dew, the depth of the late night. You my friend are now beyond the mundane, the pedestrian, the daily grind of averageness. You my friend are now part of the great oneness that is GOD.

Sun re!

What if Obama loses? The Genius of the groundgame.

2008-11-01T17:13:00.010Z

I write this with my heart in my mouth. I have just watched my team Arsenal lose twice this week. Once losing a seeming impressive lead to our failing neighbours and now to lowly Stoke City. I worry this is an omen for Tuesday because there are many similarity such as talent, eloquence and capacity which have not delivered close to any expected results. Granted Arsenal is b no means the favoured team in the Premiership neither are they quite as organised as the Obama campaign has been. If on Tuesday Senator Obama loses unlike most I will not put it down to racism or any such like thing but say that in spite of the odds he came so far and completely rewrote the rules of organising a political enterprise or to be precise ' a start up political machine. He has literarily created a political machine that has vanquished most challenges before him in a little under two years. lets review:

1) The Challenges

These were forever a moving feast such as during the primaries, he was not black enough so African Americans would not vote for him; he was not capable of passing Super Tuesday since Iowa was a fluke and North Carolina was too black; he could not succeed in primaries like he did in caucuses; he could not overcome competition between African Americans and Hispanics; he could not win over blue collar white voters; He will not win white women's vote. In all cases he met and exceeded the challenges and the press moved on to the next set of hurdles for the National elections, he cannot heal the wounds from the primaries or win over the Clinton supporters; we should all watch out for the Bradley effect; Small town voters will never warm to him not after the 'bitter' remark; Reverend Wright will undo him; he can never close the deal. The focus, discipline and dignity with which the Senator met each challenge is a testament for those who say 'it is all small stuff, don't sweat it.

2) The Funding

Much has been said about his record breaking fundraising of over $640 million . The phenom is over 3 million contributors that form a large and significant part of the overall purse. It is quite a transformational process full of possibilities for the future. It started with Governor Dean but it is perfected by the good Senator redefining the capacity of the small contributor to empower candidates and reduce dependency on a few powerful individuals.

3) The Volunteers

Another record breaking model which uses the enthusiasm and networks of the multitudes to deliver a personalised marketing strategy ably supported by a phenomenal database of people and their interest in the Campaign. From all over national and international and not unlike the freedom riders people young and old are working to the mantra of 'Change we can believe in' . It is their movement but yet they do it with the discipline and focus that is unreal when one considers how tough it is to get a 15 people on message. There are 20,000 team leaders in the Obama machine overseeing 5.1 million volunteers ( that has to be a record).

4) The net- relations itself is mindboggling on Facebook alone there are over 2 million directly signed off 'friends'

5) The ground game includes another set of records which are 700 offices across 50 states with 13.3 million solid contacts and registering 1.9 million new voters. For the first time a Democratic candidate competes with his own evangelical team and volunteers. The same is true with Native Americans.

6) The Mediums there is a lot said about the 30 minute informercial but advertising on digital games is itself quite an innovation.

Senator Obama has confirmed an abiding mantra for those whose journey over adversity has been aborted by the expectation of fairness and justice. Simply the only answer to vilification, racism, sexism, unfair competition et al is excellence. There is no space for sentiment but time for the extraordinary. Whatever happens no one can take that away from Senator Barack Hussein Obama. He has answered all the doubters with extraordinary genius of his organisation.

Wassuup 2008

2008-10-29T03:50:00.002Z

New African trading bloc

2008-10-23T06:40:00.003+01:00

Three regional African blocs merge for a trade free zone from Cape to Darfur with 26 countries this might at last be the basis of a surge in Intra-Africa trade. here is the link :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7684903.stm

From the pages of the Sowetan to Gods ears

2008-10-22T09:04:00.004+01:00

Why breakaway party has appeal

22 October 2008
Zoleka Ndayi
The ANC being dominated by leftists will not sit well with foreign investors and the international community at large

The “anger”, “dented egos” and “selfish political ambitions” of the “disgruntled” versus the “arrogance” and “limited intellectual capacities” of the new ANC leadership and the PAC split from the ANC could not be used as the only points of reference in testing the viability of a breakaway party in the current scenario.
The policy and principle informing the split as well as the era during which the breakaway occurs are equally if not more important than the widely publicised personality elements.
Domestically, white conservative nationalism that informed the National Party and the resultant intensification of discrimination, segregation and repression led to the split of the ANC. The split was a response to white conservatism or dominance.
The radical elements within the ANC were to respond by espousing black conservative nationalism in the form of the PAC on the one hand, while the ANC, on the other hand, took a soft approach and embraced multiculturalism, hence the Freedom Charter with emphasis on equality.
But the current breakaway from the ANC is informed not by policy but principle. It is wildly held that the ANC under former president Thabo Mbeki excluded those who had alternative views. The centralisation of power meant the marginalisation of the lower party structures.
In a bid to change the status quo the Polokwane conference saw the excluded and marginalised becoming the centre of power.
But the new centre now tries to maintain the status quo by excluding and marginalising the former centre through “purging” them from the party and government structures.
In response, the former centre breaks away from the mainstream party by openly calling for the observation and restoration of the principles of the Freedom Charter, some of which the former centre itself did not respect during its tenure.
In tackling this challenge, the new leadership hides behind the “ANC culture”, the “ANC traditions” of internal debate, forgetting that political stability is a question of national interest and not necessarily party interest.
This stance was clearly demonstrated by ANC president Jacob Zuma on national TV when he objected to Mbeki’s challenge to a public debate about the reasons for his sacking from the highest job in the country.
This objection has the potential to strengthen the support of the breakaway party not only from within the ANC but among the citizens at large.
From an international perspective, the era of globalisation means that any political and economic agenda that seeks to attract the attention of the international community should embrace liberal principles. It seems then the breakaway party could be more appealing than the ANC.
The current leadership of the party includes such leftists as the South African Communist Party’s Blade Nzimande.
Though Zuma constantly assures the business and international community that there will be no policy changes under his government, it remains to be seen how the left will lead or live with neo-liberal ideologies.
This doubt is further supported by the feeling that the party is “dominated” by the SACP. On the other hand, the pioneers of the breakaway group are members of the middle class that espouses neo-liberalism, the principles of which dwell well with foreign investors and the international community at large.
Three main actors in the transition period, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Allan Boesak and Mosiuoa Lekota, played an influential role in attaining a democratic South Africa.
In the eyes of the international community and South African citizens this could add a score on the credibility of this trio’s venture outside the ANC.
This means those who hold on to the ANC through sentimental attachments, despite their lack of trust on the capabilities of the new ANC leadership, and those who are skeptical about its arrogance, might soon follow the three aforementioned leaders.
Mbhazima Shilowa on his own is an asset to this “outside-the-ANC” venture. Besides his struggle credentials and having been part of the mass democratic movement, he has a wider network in business domestically and internationally. He has a good track record of delivery during his tenure as Gauteng premier.
In addition to being appealing to the middle class, all these factors are in line with the interests of foreign investors, and add weight to the credibility of the breakaway party.
lThe writer is a lecturer in the department of international relations at Wits.

Time to know we do not know, what we do not know

2008-10-16T17:54:00.005+01:00

The House Thabo built

2008-10-14T20:53:00.006+01:00

Something to make you think about how truly we never have proper standards to judge good leaders. Our love for populists in Africa and our addiction to instant gratification makes us very vulnerable to demagogues. Black Diamonds well Mbeki shaped the market and nurtured them with his policies here is their success so far. The desire for all or nothing makes Good the enemy of better and Better hate best. To Thabo Mbeki a true son of Africa and a true hero of every true African thinker.

Black diamonds sparkle on
Article By: Marcia Klein
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:36
SA's new middle class is still growing despite economic slowdown, writes Marcia Klein.

For the first time, the spending power of the three-million people that make up South Africa's black middle class has matched the spending power of the country's white population.
The latest Black Diamonds research by UCT Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing and TNS Research Surveys shows that the black middle class has grown by 15 percent to three-million people over the past year, while their annual spending power has mushroomed nearly 40 percent to a massive R250-billion.
Black Diamonds are still growing in number, despite the economic woes that surround them.
Resilient to rates

A surprising finding of the research is that the black middle class has remained fairly resilient to the interest rate and inflation hikes that have put pressure on many South Africans.

Professor John Simpson, director of the UCT Unilever Institute, said that despite predictions of the black middle class reeling under debt pressure, the opposite is true.
"The most astounding evidence of their financial resilience can be seen in a 39 percent increase in spending power — from R180-billion in 2007 to R250-billion this year."
Rudo Maponga, Black Diamond research manager at TNS Research Surveys, said that, despite perceptions, the black middle class is not highly indebted. Almost half of them have a debt to income ratio of less than 50 percent.
Maponga said if economic conditions had been more favourable Black Diamonds numbers would have seen greater growth. The sector grew 15 percent in the year, but by 30 percent the year before.
She said growth had also slowed because the base was getting bigger, "which means growth will inevitably slow in percentage terms. What's also significant is that, despite the downturn, their spending power continues to grow, which suggests that this segment is also becoming wealthier."
Simpson said interest rate and inflation hikes had affected Black Diamonds, as they had everyone, but the effect had been patchy.
"But one thing is clear: they are less indebted than people thought they were."
Black Diamonds are managing their finances better and are far more financially astute than they once were, Simpson said.
The fact that the number of people has not increased as much as their spending power has suggests that people established in the middle class are getting better jobs, and that companies are attracting people of colour.
The study showed appreciation within the sector of the difference between good debt (like a home and investments) and bad debt (buying chocolates with a credit card), Simpson said.
Less than 10 percent of Black Diamonds have had anything repossessed.
"Life stages"

Paul Egan, managing consultant to UCT/Unilever, said the Black Diamond group is not homogenous, and includes people at different "life stages" — those with children who have been working for longer and are fairly established, and those who are still playing catch up, using income and, perhaps credit, to acquire assets.

He said the 2007 study had shown a huge migration from townships to suburbs, averaging about 1200 families, or 60 000 people, a month.
This slowed in 2008. This could be partly because of the increasing cost of housing and the high cost of borrowing, but could also be due to the densification of townships and investment within them, such as the construction of shopping malls.
Egan noted that there is a high percentage of black middle-class families with two earners, and a significant percentage with more than that.
The change to democracy and enabling legislation have enabled black women to move swiftly into the middle class.
Black Diamond women

Black Diamond women represent more than 40 percent of the R120-billion in female consumer spending.

"Many women respondents revealed that their earning power had a significant impact on decision-making when it comes to making purchases — not only for grocery shopping, but with regard to larger purchases such as household appliances, investments and cars," Simpson said.
Maponga said almost half of the women interviewed said they earned more than 50 percent of the household income and more than 80 percent said they were the main household decision-maker.
She said women's aspirations are higher than their mothers and grandmothers, and women are far more ambitious since 1994.
Sunday Times

Obasanjo Legacy ignored

2008-10-12T15:24:00.004+01:00

As the world goes through the death throes of the debt purge many people will forget who the authority was that strengthened Nigerian Macro-economic fundamentals to the extent that there is such negligible impact so far from the credit crunch, bank failures and the falling oil prices all within the context of drastic erosion in production. Here are some things to chew on:

- World bank confirms that Nigeria will only be minimally affected by this global turbulence because of the limited role of foriegn investment in the banking system about 5% compared to the 40% in many other developing economies.

- The same consolidation that was attacked as overreach by Obasanjo administration has also shored up the independence and institutional fortitude of the Banks against this turbulence.

- Less than 1 % dependence on International aid is quite an helpful factor

- The $60 billion in foreign reserve surplus as against the the sea of National deficits is a bonus

- An economy that grew from 5.5% circa to 6.9% in the last quarter mostly from non-oil sector especially banking is exquisite

The naysayers cannot see any of these they are addicted to a sense and notion of failure. The other usual pains are there for them to celebrate , roads, power , education amongst all. The economy is alive and growing and that rocks

Lagos boat markets

2008-10-12T07:32:00.005+01:00

Lagos Islands

2008-10-12T07:26:00.003+01:00

The first set of pictures are Lagos from the Atlantic Ocean side, industrialised, turbulent and urban on the other set his agos from the lagoon and how I imagine Lekki was not too long ago, tranquil, rural and green. There are many aspects to Lagos that is unexplored and even unrecognisable from the caricature of chaos and urban decay. The recent article in Time magazine and the hatchet job that is regularly done in CNN always tallies with the cynicism of elite Nigerians. I celebrate this great city and its possibilities. There is a lot more photographs to share enjoy.

More Lagos Islands

2008-10-12T07:07:00.006+01:00

Lagos from the Sea eye

2008-10-12T06:49:00.006+01:00

Comments from Mzansi

2008-10-12T06:37:00.001+01:00

Here is a truly refreshing article in the Times in South Africa it captures more eloquently the spirit and rationale for the split in the ANC.

http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Insight/Article.aspx?id=861105

Now Mzansi, It is time.

2008-10-06T08:49:00.005+01:00

Talk of a split in the broad church that is the ANC is long overdue. This is not a Zuma versus Mbeki discuss but a allowing the two forces that underpin the future direction of South Africa's black majority to emerge. One force I identify with Mbeki and my younger brother Siphiwe Mpye is quite an open Africanisation that seeks dignity and a common humanity grounded in intellectual curiosity. They see South Africa as one of the forces for an African Renaissance as well as challenging western hegemony. They identify that there is a nuanced evolution required for change and they are willing to adapt their positions so long as the vision is not lost. They do not necessarily seek popular acclamation and do not suffer fools gladly. They recognise that not everyone will move at the same speed. On the other hand there is the Jacob Zuma exemplified and reflected in my brother Pious Kasolo who express an African stereotype of populist and traditional expression of power in which authority is by position not ideas and have an Mzansi exceptionalism couched in superior infrastructure and fear of mass migration or swamping. They project an activism of the lowest common denominator seeing the Anti-apartheid struggle as an insular battle won by the good over the bad. Their lessons from that is that Mzansi is got theirs and the rest of Africa well they should get on their bikes. They fight a class war that suggest that the poor are entitled to a good life rather than they should be given the opportunity to work for a good living.

For the sake of Mzansi and those who love it the ANC must split there has to be the competitive and co-operative dynamic equilibrium that is the basis of evolution. It is time for new possibilities and this is not only true in Mzansi but the same is true of the Power Dinosaur that is the PDP in Nigeria. It seems now the purpose of this massive parties is just the accumulation of power rather than the generation of a framework of ideas and ideals. Lets have a new dawn in Africa lets have truly competitive parties in fact we need a space where people with ideas can run as independents. We need to open this stuff up especially the ANC.

Intra Africa trade

2008-10-01T08:22:00.003+01:00

Apparently the figure for Intra Africa trade as percentage of exports for 2007/2008 is 8 %. I wrote an academic analysis of this in 1999 and then it was 9 %. This is a very scary figure it means self loathing trumps the drive for economic growth. I have included a link to the bulletin below

http://en.afrik.com/article14510.html

Greatly loved but often misunderstood.

2008-10-01T07:59:00.003+01:00

Paul Coehlo published a book called the Valkyries to explore why we kill what we love. So it is with Nigeria and Nigerians. We argue and discuss it till blue in the face, most of us cynical at its prospects but secretly rooting for its success but quite unwilling to sacrifice our comfort for its success. Yesterday night was not different and as usual or discuss was ably lubricated by the best of Cognacs, beers and wines. Happy birthday old lady we all truly wish you well at 48 for many you are on the way to hell in a bread basket but don't sweat it. Let me remind you of the words of one of your true lovers wrote this in 1952 in the hope that you would be set free in 1956 , he never saw either but he said

" It is here in West Africa, the black man's paradise, here in Nigeria, the heaven of the negro race, here in Western region, the chosen land for a modern Shongay, here in big, lucky, vigorous Ibadan, that apartheid, the moral enemy of our race , must be grabbed, must be fought, must be vanquished and annihilated; so that our descendants may live in peace, prosperity and freedom. Nigeria must be free, completely free, independent, independent without any reservations before or in the year of our Lord, one thousand, nine hundred and fifty six."

Honourable Adegoke Adelabu , Africa in Ebullition

The greatest gift for your birthday is to rekindle the spirit, thoughts and letters of this Great Lover of your possibilities what he lost in his prediction was more than provided for in his ideas and eloquent pursuit of the realisation of a great Nation nicely cradled between the gushing Niger and the sedate Benue. Happy Birthday Old girl.

Buying the Bridge to nowhere

2008-09-26T16:26:00.007+01:00

Watching the American Investment Banks fall like a pack of dominoes it brings back memories of the Saving and Loans fiasco of the past two decades or so. There is this tendency for the US to sell everyone a pig in the poke and for the Brits as their greatest cheerleaders to ensure it resonates across the world.

Mwalimu Nyerere is reputed as saying that there should be universal principles with local standards unfortunately the US sells its aspirations as universal standards. With the help of its 'objective' media and the support of its 'rational allies' who are all committed to the good things whilst any deviation is an insistence on a lifestyle of debauchery. How else can you explain how so called objective media oversaw the invasion of Iraq building consensus for the fantasy of WMDs or even the perversion that is Guantanamo detention without trial or Abu Graib or even the somewhat callous use of open bribery to get the Northern League to fight the Taliban I suppose everyone thinks that this is just in the field of International politics surely it does not extend to any other field or does it ? Think about it the working assumption is that free markets or Market Capitalism is the universal standard that the entire world should live by. The same was said for Democracy until 2000 when it was convenient for the US supreme court not to count votes and to support an openly rigged election. It is the same kind of selective application of standards that is at work in this financial mess.

The people who brought us free unfettered markets forgot to tell us that when their backs are to the wall well to hell with the standards to which they held all of us. It is those who ask others to open their markets to any type of investors that shut their ports to the Dubai Investment company or even prevent the Chinese from taking specific slices of their economy. For years the there has been aggregation and leveraging of debt. It is repackage and sold to consumers whose need for instant gratification far outweighs the capacity to pay has been the engine room for growth in the US as well as the UK. The shouted this notion of consumer led economy whereby the media made a lot of advert revenue by selling everything as a must have. Every sale was a bargain, every gadget was editorialised like a cure for cancer. For all this greed there was credit on offer whether you could handle it or not. This dangerously designed and poorly executed attempt to lazily maintain growth was accompanied with the freedom to roam and gorge without regulation given directly to financial institution. Capital crossed borders in search of fresh kills with very little concern for its underpinning.

As it falls apart spare a thoughts for Nigerian Banks whose unintelligent mimicking of this failed policy is now starting to take root. Banks here give credit to business in ways that will make Shylock blush but offer the middle classes all kinds of credit to easily purchase Plasma TVs , cars even home furnishings. The cheap takings from funding consumption rather than production as become the business model. In spite of less than 20% of the population having bank accounts the same banks put pressure on their staff to seek additional accounts from the same middle classes who already have accounts. Their requirements are so onerous for the Woman in Oja Oba or Epe Fish market that it is only the very same 20% that now have four or five accounts from different banks.

Believe we already bought the bridge and surely whether there is credit crunch or not we cannot sustain the journey. This group think has to stop.

Race Election 2008 (AP copy)

2008-09-22T10:41:00.004+01:00

Here is one explanation for the Palin factor and the closeness of the opinion polls so far. It is not he only one though. It is worth a complete read.

Poll: Racial misgivings of whites an Obama issue

Sep 20 07:57 PM US/Eastern
By RON FOURNIER and TREVOR TOMPSON
Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) - Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks—many calling them "lazy," "violent" or responsible for their own troubles.
The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004—about 2.5 percentage points.
Certainly, Republican John McCain has his own obstacles: He's an ally of an unpopular president and would be the nation's oldest first-term president. But Obama faces this: 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents.
More than a third of all white Democrats and independents—voters Obama can't win the White House without—agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, according to the survey, and they are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don't have such views.
Such numbers are a harsh dose of reality in a campaign for the history books. Obama, the first black candidate with a serious shot at the presidency, accepted the Democratic nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, a seminal moment for a nation that enshrined slavery in its Constitution.
"There are a lot fewer bigots than there were 50 years ago, but that doesn't mean there's only a few bigots," said Stanford political scientist Paul Sniderman who helped analyze the exhaustive survey.
The pollsters set out to determine why Obama is locked in a close race with McCain even as the political landscape seems to favor Democrats. President Bush's unpopularity, the Iraq war and a national sense of economic hard times cut against GOP candidates, as does that fact that Democratic voters outnumber Republicans.
The findings suggest that Obama's problem is close to home—among his fellow Democrats, particularly non-Hispanic white voters. Just seven in 10 people who call themselves Democrats support Obama, compared to the 85 percent of self-identified Republicans who back McCain.
The survey also focused on the racial attitudes of independent voters because they are likely to decide the election.
Lots of Republicans harbor prejudices, too, but the survey found they weren't voting against Obama because of his race. Most Republicans wouldn't vote for any Democrat for president—white, black or brown.
Not all whites are prejudiced. Indeed, more whites say good things about blacks than say bad things, the poll shows. And many whites who see blacks in a negative light are still willing or even eager to vote for Obama.
On the other side of the racial question, the Illinois Democrat is drawing almost unanimous support from blacks, the poll shows, though that probably wouldn't be enough to counter the negative effect of some whites' views.
Race is not the biggest factor driving Democrats and independents away from Obama. Doubts about his competency loom even larger, the poll indicates. More than a quarter of all Democrats expressed doubt that Obama can bring about the change they want, and they are likely to vote against him because of that.
Three in 10 of those Democrats who don't trust Obama's change-making credentials say they plan to vote for McCain.
Still, the effects of whites' racial views are apparent in the polling.
Statistical models derived from the poll suggest that Obama's support would be as much as 6 percentage points higher if there were no white racial prejudice.
But in an election without precedent, it's hard to know if such models take into account all the possible factors at play.
The AP-Yahoo poll used the unique methodology of Knowledge Networks, a Menlo Park, Calif., firm that interviews people online after randomly selecting and screening them over telephone. Numerous studies have shown that people are more likely to report embarrassing behavior and unpopular opinions when answering questions on a computer rather than talking to a stranger.
Other techniques used in the poll included recording people's responses to black or white faces flashed on a computer screen, asking participants to rate how well certain adjectives apply to blacks, measuring whether people believe blacks' troubles are their own fault, and simply asking people how much they like or dislike blacks.
"We still don't like black people," said John Clouse, 57, reflecting the sentiments of his pals gathered at a coffee shop in Somerset, Ohio.
Given a choice of several positive and negative adjectives that might describe blacks, 20 percent of all whites said the word "violent" strongly applied. Among other words, 22 percent agreed with "boastful," 29 percent "complaining," 13 percent "lazy" and 11 percent "irresponsible." When asked about positive adjectives, whites were more likely to stay on the fence than give a strongly positive assessment.
Among white Democrats, one-third cited a negative adjective and, of those, 58 percent said they planned to back Obama.
The poll sought to measure latent prejudices among whites by asking about factors contributing to the state of black America. One finding: More than a quarter of white Democrats agree that "if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites."
Those who agreed with that statement were much less likely to back Obama than those who didn't.
Among white independents, racial stereotyping is not uncommon. For example, while about 20 percent of independent voters called blacks "intelligent" or "smart," more than one third latched on the adjective "complaining" and 24 percent said blacks were "violent."
Nearly four in 10 white independents agreed that blacks would be better off if they "try harder."
The survey broke ground by incorporating images of black and white faces to measure implicit racial attitudes, or prejudices that are so deeply rooted that people may not realize they have them. That test suggested the incidence of racial prejudice is even higher, with more than half of whites revealing more negative feelings toward blacks than whites.
Researchers used mathematical modeling to sort out the relative impact of a huge swath of variables that might have an impact on people's votes—including race, ideology, party identification, the hunger for change and the sentiments of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's backers.
Just 59 percent of her white Democratic supporters said they wanted Obama to be president. Nearly 17 percent of Clinton's white backers plan to vote for McCain.
Among white Democrats, Clinton supporters were nearly twice as likely as Obama backers to say at least one negative adjective described blacks well, a finding that suggests many of her supporters in the primaries—particularly whites with high school education or less—were motivated in part by racial attitudes.
The survey of 2,227 adults was conducted Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.
___
Associated Press writers Nancy Benac, Julie Carr Smyth, Philip Elliot, Julie Pace and Sonya Ross contributed to this report.  Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Malice and Self Loathing in Mzansi

2008-09-22T06:01:00.003+01:00

Finally the forces of anti intellectual , xenophobic and kraal blockade have won in South Africa. As i watched the Mbeki resignation on television it seemed the final plan to reduce South Africa to its lowest common denominator has been achieved. The 'Activocracy' that runs the country has always hidden behind populist posturing to cover its ethnic loathing of the dominance of the Xhosa in political and intellectual life. This is quite simply a Zulu coup but this is Mzansi the prejudice never speaks its name it only shapes policy. Funny it is the same root cause that led this ungrateful and self denigrating bunch to kill their African cousins that also leads them to take out a man who is more instrumental to their liberty from Apartheid than the sainted ' Madiba'.

It was Thabo who helped turn the ANC into a global radical chic . You remember the concerts in London and boycotts cross the world. It was the same Mbeki who helped to shape the Nigerian interaction that drove the UN Anti -Apartheid committee which was by far the most critical international institution Maintaining the support for the Sanctions regime in the UN and pressure that led to the unravelling of the now vilified system. It was this same man who negotiated with the white businesses that led to final talks and arguably this approach was the child of his genius without which Mandela would not have been released. He more than anyone has his fingerprints on the transformation of the country from a blood bath waiting to happen to effectively an African powerhouse within the sisterhood of nations on this continent.

Maybe it is time for Mbeki to leave but a country which rewards years of service in fact a life of sacrifice with indignity and disdain is a country that deserves no less than the same. For me this beautiful country has fallen so far down my esteem and respect that I wish it the direction it seems to have chosen a descent into gradual irrelevance and insignificance on the continent.

For the Love of God ( Resonance by Olu Alake)

2008-09-09T21:00:00.004+01:00

Now this is an email i got this morning and has the provocative capacity to open further thoughts and reflection from Olu.

With absolutely no sense of irony whatsoever - God bless you for that piece! I spent a good part of yesterday debunking notions that otherwise intelligent people insist on regurgitating ad nauseum because some under-informed, self-styled 'man of God' (emi nko o? - man of Satan?) said so. Some of them made the mistake of trying to engage me in a debate about tithing as a Christian obligation...oh boy, did that get me started! I am perpetually amazed by how in this day of a wealth of information readily available at literally a push of a button, some people wilfully refuse to engage in any intellectual discourse or research of their own about something that is of such vital importance as their own spiritual welfare. I wouldn't trust my car to a mechanic of dubious expertise, so why would I my soul to a pastor who refuses to make the reasoned arguments?

I find so much of contemporary 'Christian' teachings so un-Christ-like that it fills me with such an inner rage. And you are right - by all measures of real Christian teaching, Nigeria is actually one of the most unGodly places on earth! (No charitable collective soul, no brothers being each other's keepers, unheavenly worship and appreciation of money and instant gratification especially in church (pastors measuring their success not by how many souls they save but by whether and how quickly their church can buy them a BMW, no sense of public service or sacrifice, lack of humility,... I could go on.).

There is a reason why churches have been Nigeria's biggest internal economic growth industry for the past 20 years - because the owners/leaders have cynically exploited the morass of political and economic misfeasance that successive corrupt hegemonies have left behind to peddle that most essential of commodities - hope. It is no wonder as well that the prosperity gospel, that despicable emphasis on material riches being an earthly manifestation of heavenly treasures and divine reward, found such fertile ground in Nigeria especially and across Africa in general. It appeals to the base nature of self-aggrandisement and individualism that has been festering away in our collective psyche as a result of our mass sodomisation by evil military-civilian and civilian-military regimes. It is obviously not in anyone's interests to observe that by the measures of this dodgy doctrine, Jesus Christ Himself would have been held as not an example of what is right but a manifestation of all that is wrong in the world. Or that it is unbiblical, ungodly and counterintuitive to believe in a beneficent God that especially provides a spectacularly return on material investment with a direct linear relationship between material input and output rather than the elevation of our higher purpose and selves, and then 'all other things coming unto us' as the good book itself promised.

What is really sad is that rather than engage in any critical thinking on these issues, the very considered opinions of the likes of you and I are now going to be dismissed as the devil-inspired rantings of the unGodly heathen. I love my country, I no go lie...

For the Love of God

2008-09-08T10:17:00.005+01:00

Now the nature and disposition of God is the most abused cover for scoundrels I have ever experienced. As a Nigerian living here in Gidi it has developed into the basis of the most corrosive exploitation of the National psyche. The uncritical nature of the 'It is well' crowd is quite in line with their American cousins who gave us 8 years of a US Government whose policies has rained more munitions on the earth surface than any other in recent memories and caused the most deaths of non-combatant civilians in any war in the 21st century. They have achieved this through the direct use of the 'happy clappy' crowds and platforms to ensure an uncritical support for their policies. The loyalty of the believers who are enthralled into waiting and wanting for prosperity, saddled in polite bigotry and wallowing in unconscious incompetence is never in doubt. Their guilt and fears regularly topped up ever Sunday will ensure that any critical thinking is aborted before they are fully formed.

Let me first set forth that until recently i would have qualified as a believer in the mode of those I criticise. I shared the sanctified, tongue speaking, natty dressed , Sunday morning, social engagements. Quite a few times it was an uplifting experience, generally it was passively mind numbing and sometimes it was decidedly an insult on any intelligent mind. For many months my brain was in full conflict with my guilt and worry about my relationship with God. This in spite of the total lack of credibility of many of my co-religionist to my world view. Imagine the same people who brought us George W Bush now offer us Governor Sarah Palin. I feel sick to my stomach for my own collusion. I have watched as the large body of Nigerians finally capitulate to the Cultural assault launched by the fringe Scripture Union when I was in University and ably supported by our own culture of consumption rather than production into this adulteration that masquerade as commitment to God. How come we do not associate God with critical, challenging and direct thinking. I know there exceptions to the positions I am articulating but it does not serve the purpose of disrupting this wider pattern to focus on those. on the contrary it promotes complacency. In the same token it is easy to blame the Pastors but this is mostly about the laziness and total foolishness of the congregations.

I was born into the Islamic tradition and even though I am not a Muslim I have a healthy respect for the discipline and way of the faith. I have watched it however in its attempt to match the enthusiasm of the Pentecostals go into the new Fatwa narrative . I now know that Nigerian Muslim's issue Fatwa's over those that do not conform to their interpretation of proper Islamic practice like the man with 86 wives. The government watched from the sidelines as a Nigerian citizen was threatened with death and banishment by a dubious body without constitutional authority but with the name of God firmly in tow. There were very few voices to be heard to challenge this Fascist decree. The man was never before any authority nor asked to put any case. How did we get here?

For most of my life I have been very coy about the nature of my spiritual interests and even though i am adventurous in all other aspects of my life and openly challenge convention, i have been by my own standards quite conservative in my spiritual evolution. Yes , Khahil Gibran is a saint to me and his book the Prophet never leaves my thoughts, mind and daily crosses my lips, true I have read all Paulo Coehlo's books from page to page but I have been quite restraint in my dialogue about God in my life. That is until i started thinking for myself in this area. On my way to Lagos being driven to the airport, my colleague and friend Simon Mcintyre (now Simon Smethurst- Mcintyre, after he got married) challenged me on God. Being a committed Atheist he had an intellectual freedom and openness that was quite refreshing. I was forced to articulate for myself without any authority who God is to me. Here goes.

God is the embodiment of human connection and co-operation when it is bonded in love and driven by something greater than just self interest, elevated to create and humbled by emergence. God is the magic of the multitudes in the process of greater creativity and production for beneficial service without thought of recompense. God is the fullness of the complexity of all things in interaction, which completely surpasses the sum of the parts at a level and scale that the individuals cannot observe. God is innate purpose pursued, self interest submerged and love unbridled. God is possibilities untamed by the need for subsistence. God is our humanity unfettered, unsimplified, unintimidated in the pursuit of the pain and joy of a life committed to love.

Ok, enough . But there is method to this ranting. You see I love Nigeria with my heart and passion. As I now reflect it is a place that exhibits the least love of God in my understanding. You see where God is present then the sum total is more than the aggregation of the parts. Here in Nigeria with the level of individual excellence, the sum total is less than the aggregation of the parts. Yet we are listed as being in the top 10 in the world who believe in God. Go figure!

Whatever you do read his speech entirely

2008-08-29T06:06:00.005+01:00

AP has put a corrupt analysis of Senator Obama's speech out there. Part of the danger is that it is what will circulate. Read for yourself and engage a vision that is quite exquisitely crafted to truly elevate a people and a nation. Brings me to something close to rapture. Here is the next President of the United States in his own words.

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama "The American Promise" Democratic National Convention August 28, 2008 Denver, Colorado
As prepared for delivery
----
To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation;
With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States. . Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest - a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.
To the love of my life, our next First Lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia - I love you so much, and I'm so proud of all of you.
Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story - of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
It is that promise that has always set this country apart - that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.
That's why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women - students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors -- found the courage to keep it alive.
We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.
These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land - enough! This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we'll also hear about those occasions when he's broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.
But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives - on health care and education and the economy - Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made "great progress" under this President. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisors - the man who wrote his economic plan - was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners."
A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.
Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.
For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy - give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.
Well it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America.
You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.
We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President - when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.
We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job - an economy that honors the dignity of work.
The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great - a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.
Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.
In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships.
When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.
And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. She's the one who taught me about hard work. She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well.
I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as President of the United States.
What is that promise?
It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.
It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.
Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves - protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.
Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.
That's the promise of America - the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.
That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President. . Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.
I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.
America, now is not the time for small plans.
Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don't have that chance. I'll invest in early childhood education. I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I'll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American - if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.
Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.
And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime - by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less - because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy.
And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our "intellectual and moral strength." Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility - that's the essence of America's promise.
And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.
For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell - but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.
And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush Administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.
That's not the judgment we need. That won't keep America safe. We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice - but it is not the change we need.
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans - have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.
But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism.
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America.
So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.
America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose - our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we have to restore.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.
You make a big election about small things.
And you know what - it's worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.
For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us - that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it - because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.
America, this is one of those moments.
I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming. Because I've seen it. Because I've lived it. I've seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work. I've seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.
And I've seen it in this campaign. In the young people who voted for the first time, and in those who got involved again after a very long time. In the Republicans who never thought they'd pick up a Democratic ballot, but did. I've seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise.
This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.
Instead, it is that American spirit - that American promise - that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.
That promise is our greatest inheritance. It's a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours - a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.
And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.
The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things. They could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.
But what the people heard instead - people of every creed and color, from every walk of life - is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.
"We cannot walk alone," the preacher cried. "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."
America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.

Quick Shots

2008-08-29T05:01:00.006+01:00

Back in Gidi and on the way to Osogbo for the festival and some additional research on my yet to be completed novel. Just some quick thoughts on recent developments:

- My Friend Dr Fayemi lost his Tribunal challenge to the last election for Governor of Ekiti state but I believe he will win the war. The discipline and professionalism of his campaign as well as hamdling of his case is quite unusual in the Nigerian political terrain. He is a truly thoughtful, caring and committed leader who deserves a truly impartial panel. All those who have the onerous duty of adjudicating the election tribunals have my initial respect unless something else comes to light that challenges their impartiality. In the end either through appeal or otherwise the country needs more of Kayode Fayemi not less.

- Another Obama Foreign Policy astuteness is being ignored by the press in general and the US media in particular. His position on the dispensability of General Musharraff as an ally and his concern about the policy that ties the US to his regime rather than allying with the broader aspirations of people of Pakistan is emerging as the wiser counsel as well as position. On the other hand McCain's position is that anything that undermines Musharraff puts US interest at risk. Well Musharraf is gone. Also the press in general applaud McCain's tough stance in support of Georgia never mind his total lack of credibility or impartiality as a paid supporter of the policy position of the current President of that country. I suspect many people in the West including the present occupiers of No 10 Downing street have not scaled up enough to see what is emerging. I suspect Senator Obama might have a clue with his more nuanced position. Russia is not Zimbabwe and China is not the Sudan both countries have a world view independent of reactions to the west that is backed by social, economic and increasing military power. How long will it take before they realise if they align more closely they can redefine leadership in many parts of the world away from the US and the West . The West's assumption of superiority sounds increasingly hollow as their economies wane, their military is held down by irregular and largely untrained forces, their principles are compromised in the face of insecurity and fears, their people are polarised in bitter cultural wars. Why should China whose successful Olympics was in spite of all attempts to derail it in the West or Russia which has regained its footing in spite of efforts to surround it with NATO lackeys feel any obligation or interest to listen to the West?

- The Nigerian Stockmarket is on a downer right now and it is not helped by the fact that we have a reactionary Federal government who is hell bent on structural intervention without spending anytime understanding the dynamics or even mapping the processes. If the newspapers are anything to go by the new idea is a government panel on the stock exchange. Not sure that the total sum of the vision that is Law and Order amounts to more than a piece of Akara from Osu. We will see soon but the incompetence of the Government might itself be a God send because it leaves room for the private sector to step up its game. The problem is that the Nigerian private sector is almost entirely transaction driven rather than transformation oriented. Watch this space.

Any way in all white and off to the Osun festival. Expect some pictures and lest i forget a big shout out to Tari who had a A* and A in his early GCSE's thank God you got your mothers brains not mine!

Enjoy

2008-08-21T10:18:00.003+01:00

My Country or bust! The sequel

2008-08-14T09:55:00.005+01:00

On the 4th of August I arrived at Muritala Mohammed Airport about 7pm for travel to the UK. In spite of the 3rd Minland bridge closure I had already had a fairly restful day. I thought I had prepared myself fro the likely tribulations of International travel but that was nothing short of fantasy. The Nigerian summer travel madness with crazy prices and overbooked planes was playing itself out and I could not get a seat on my usual Virgin Atlantic for love or money. I ended up with KLM via Amsterdam and proceeded to experience a travellers nightmare.

The flight was belatedly cancelled because the co-captain was ill! This was after 3 hours of standing at the gate waiting to board. I had comforting visions of a full blown air rage with possibilities of a bloodied machete by the time I left Muritala Mohammed airport. I had to get out before I blew a gasket or something else. There is a lot more about KLM and this trip for another time because this post is about something far more significant. The point of the scene setting was to locate my tired body in Planet One Hotel in Maryland on the morning of the 5th of August and rushing to make the delayed flight. I made it with moments to spare having had the help and support of the hotel staff along with a comfortable ride on one of their lease cars. It kind of reminded me of my mad dash to the airport the last time Joy ( Onitemi or wife ) and I had a holiday in Florida earlier on in the year and in the process I lost my PDA with all my business contacts et al. In these cases ( I am a veteran) there is always a calmness after the initial adrenaline rush which suggests something is amiss. On this day as i stood at the gate my instincts prompted a body search and as per my Florida experience I had mislaid my wallet with about £4,000 and $2,000 as well as the most viable of my debit and credit cards. I looked at my watch and I had 30 minutes before the flight was due to leave. In my mind the only possible place for me to have left the wallet was at the security screening area. I ran flat out back to the security area and as I steamed down all my worst nightmares were playing out. In Florida I never found my PDA even though I knew where I had left it , here I was in Lagos with a worse reputation and my heart sank even though I have never had anything other than love from my people. I got to the security gate in 5 minutes bags trailing and everyone staring as i must have been quite a sight. I was now caught between the panic of my situation and the tactic that would deliver my desired result. As I ventured to query the security personnel, I met the initial defensiveness then followed by a quick area search without delivering any wallet. My hear sank into the pit of my stomach and I felt ill. I now started contemplating damage limitation actions, like cancelling cards and plugging holes in my finances et al.

As if on cue my phone rang I nearly did not pick it up but thankfully it was Planet One. The driver of the car that brought me to the airport had found my wallet in the back of his car and had reported it to the hotel. Remember am a veteran , i have lost things in every continent apart from Asia and Australia, I have never had them returned. One of my most painful was in 2000 i left a $800 Donna Karan leather Jacket in taxi from Miami International . Damn! that was a fine jacket and I still miss it. Then there was my custom made diamond from Amsterdam that I left fro 30 minutes at the W hotel behind the Warldof Astoria a gift from Onitemi. I am lucky to have my head attached to my body.

I gave my apologies to the Security guys and explanations took another 5 minutes of time so i now had 20 minutes before departure. To further blow my mind the driver had resorted to an Okada (motorcycle taxi) in order to try and get my wallet to me before the flight. I could let you into the suspense of the wait and the concern about choosing between wallet and flight nevertheless he made it and i caught my flight. It took an heroic effort on his part and incredible integrity that can only be understood by the fact that the contents of my wallet was more than a years salary for him. There is also no way i could have known my wallet dropped in his car and far more exceptional is that all the contents of my wallet was there in the manner I would have put it there. There in the middle of Lagos , a city stereotyped without much basis and a people maligned into a caricature by themselves and others, this honourable man had brought the dignity that I experience in the interaction with masses of Nigerians onto a platform for me to express. There is no doubt that many others would have taken the money and never admitted it and that it is exceptional but many others would also do what he has done.

My initial financial reward will be followed up with something more concrete and lasting. For me the drivers and the staff of Planet One represent the Nigeria that I know and still meet everytime I am there even though it is often mixed with the stereotype one especially amongst the elites. It is in the service people whose humility and sacrifices make my every step possible, the culture in which visitors are treated like royalty, the sweet flirtatious help of the market women, the open complement of the admiring young people who embrace my creative divergence.

I started this post a while ago in Milton Keynes but I am now back in Lagos. In the period when I was in the UK I suffered from a form of allergy that is yet fully identified leading to having an inhaler and medicines. I spent all the two or more weeks coughing and sputtering. I got to Lagos yesterday and in spite of its pollution and traffic my coughing has nearly disappeared only emerging when I am in an air-conditioned environment.

I can only say that i aspire and am inspired to be a Nigerian not by virtue of birth but by evolution of character. Nigeria for me is that most creative of possibilities and even the most innovative of aspirations in which many ancient peoples are put into a holding space of millions of desires to marinade into one powerful vision. The inevitable pains of trying to synthesis these disparate drivers into one systemic and dynamic 'Organation' is often distorted. It is the exuberance of the indoctrinated whose individual success in the western propaganda matrix prevents them from curiosity that destroys authentic standards and replaces it with badly constructed caricatures of western facsimiles. They, the Nigerian elite have lost interest in what is and could emerge from this noble experiment. Not for me . It is an honour and privilege to be in the mix when things are not resolved and there is still many things to pioneer. It is the ultimate accolade to one day be regarded as a Nigerian who earned the citizenship of this great human experiment. In my humble opinion the driver from Planet One has truly achieved that accolade , he is a Nigerian.

Is this the Nigeria Story?

2008-07-25T21:12:00.002+01:00

Law and Order Public Notice Lagos State (A response to its criticism)

2008-07-22T07:00:00.002+01:00

The recent Law and Order notice from the Lagos State Government has become the kind of discourse that the Nigerian chattering classes love. A seeming intellectual attempt to selflessly protect the ‘common man’ from a rampant state whose unbridled exercise of power threatens to destroy democracy as we know it and return us to the Militaristic dark ages. Never mind that all these comments only thinly disguises their own interest in the impunity that masquerades as driving on the roads of Lagos. How else would anyone in their right minds hold brief for such egregious and dangerous acts like driving against the flow of traffic? Recently a friend of mine driving along Obalende landed herself in the trap that the status quo currently lays for the law abiding. Two Okadas vying for primacy driving against a one way system collided spilling one of them into the path of her oncoming car. The inevitable consequence was a fatal accident in which one of the riders died. She has not only spent far in excess of the N250,000 that is the penalty of the offence that the Okada riders committed. In fact she has spent double aside from having to sleep in a police cell and still going through a court case in spite of being entirely faultless in the case.

Our elite and their chattering, nattering , negativity are the bane of responsible governance. The target in this case the Fashola government which came to power with a clear agenda and mantra of “Eko O ni baje” and pursues it with the vigour we have all desired and dreamed. They won the election on this mandate and have through the peoples representatives in the House of assembly prioritised rescuing the public spaces from all the uncontrolled excesses of the past which has made the city of Lagos and its surburbs into a far more dangerous sight that it is in reality. I often joke that in Lagos you either do business or become the business and for many years we Nigerians have reduced the City and by implication the state to a byword for chaos. This government in line with its goals and priorities has decided to reclaim the public space from shameless acts that threaten life and limb on a daily basis and not a day too soon.

The most quoted critic of the new Law is the Assizes law firm’s long and legalistic argument . It is at the very least a great positioning or excellent PR tactic for the firm however through their widely circulated article by design or otherwise they are doing a public service. A discussion of the merits of a law is an end in itself but it is a shame this was not done when it was still a bill in the Lagos State house of Assembly. Nevertheless we are where we find ourselves with debating after the fact. This is itself a very good reason for active citizenry and proper accountability of constituency representatives during their tenure not after the four year term . The Law firm through Chinua Asuzu’s much publicised article must congratulate itself on incredible publicity it is getting. Unfortunately the dubious populism that it uses does not mask the failure to truly consider the issues that the Notice seeks to address. The article reeks of myopic self interest without any comment or concern about the many thousands that die on our roads everyday.

The first problem is that the writer admits that he has neither seen or read the legislation he is challenging. The risks of distorting the facts through the lens of his own perception was not caution enough more disturbingly he refuses to address the public policy imperative that makes such a law desirous. I actually think the failure to enact such a law is a severe dereliction on the part of any government that is worth that name. The FRSC recently released the figure of 60,000 for Okada related deaths and serious injuries which in my opinion is a gross undercount. One of the greatest causes of death in the African continent and Nigeria specifically is road accident. It takes the numbers of people off the streets in line with a low intensity war. I could set out the toll on my family and others of untimely deaths on our roads. Many promising and talented people lost to excesses and self indulgent drivers with no recourse. It surprises me, in fact I am totally flabbergasted that the Government is being criticised in this area where it should have given number one priority, the protection of life and safety of its citizens.

It would seem the Assizes firm is more concerned about the people who are made responsible under the Order and the level of penalty imposed. About this people the writer makes the point about vicarious liability claiming an unfairness or injustice for the Employer who would be liable for the misdeeds of his or her driver. This argument is not only disingenuous but it suggests that the writer is motivated by other subjective interest rather than serious public concern. In fact Vicarious liability is a staple of strict liability traffic offences across many jurisdictions. The principle that acts committed during the legitimate discharge of employment that would invariably benefit the employer should be also be the liability of this benefactor. Most drivers exercise haste and recklessness to deliver their employers in a timely manner through the crazy Lagos hold ups. It cannot be effective to punish the driver whilst the employer who benefits goes off free. In public policy terms the intention is to make these acts so prohibitive that not only is the driver deterred , no one (not even Oga) contemplates them. Also those that commit the offences are isolated and lose the outlets and comfort that their networks especially employers can give them. It should be the employers obligation to recruit those with the knowledge , skills and attitude necessary to be good drivers on the roads. Quite simply they are responsible and accountable for those they unleash on other road users.

It is the same principle that applies to the passengers. They are active participants in the actions of the driver. Their passivity is no excuse, most passengers are active by either raising objection or egging on the drivers intransigence. Unlike the obvious case of the employer their role as benefactor is probably case specific however the Nigerian public space is so fraught with permissiveness and impunity that the initial interventions will have to be a bit oppressive to disrupt the culture that has evolved. The law makes sure all the direct contacts and beneficiaries of the drivers actions are themselves at risk leaving no outlet for anyone to accommodate or encourage such behaviour. The benefit of such an approach and the level of punishment are quite perceptive of how deeply ingrained the malaise is on our roads. I would rather lives are saved than protect people from the economic pain and inconvenience of paying large fines when they do what is obviously destructive. I would go as far as to treat such cars going against traffic with the legal assumption that it is prima facie evidence of intention to kill others. It is quite similar to someone packing a gun along to an argument or fight the likelihood of use makes it beyond recklessness. There should be a presumption of intent. Tough and aggressive?This is exactly what is needed.

The writer makes a key point abut the lack of officially sanctioned driving tests and I think this is a critical area for government to set standards and ensure only mentally, physically fit people with acceptable competencies drive on the road. I believe that plans are afoot for this incredibly important issue. The same applies to traffic signs which there is already the first step of new street signs implemented. In the meantime we need to avert the everyday carnage that occurs because the worst excesses of road users are not curtailed. Instead of using this Public notice as a basis for hyperventilating the Assizes firm and similar newspaper pundits should spearhead education about the dangers of certain behaviours in the public space. We are all partners and benefactors in a better public space. Now that would be newsworthy. The elite truly involved in transformative activities that matters rather than being armchair criticism. That will be without doubt a turn for the books worth

The Media Spin

2008-07-19T19:47:00.004+01:00

The post on the Mianstream media spin on the US general elections . There is a perspectiveis that they want a close race to sell their spaces and get ratings but it is up to you. Here is Media matters take on the same thing your humle correspondent picked up on The Washington Post? ABC polls.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200807170011

Then there is the point of what is being ignored as the Bush and Mccain move towards Obamas Foreign Policy as covered by Talking Points Memo in the link below.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/204646.php

Then today the Iraqi PM just endorsed the 'Rookie" Senators withdrawal plans guess what that means. Soon it will all have been Bush? Mccain's idea all along.

DARC gene and the politicisation of HIV/AIDS

2008-07-17T07:46:00.001+01:00

Apparently there is something called the DARC gene which is allegedly carried by 90% of Africans South of the Sahara which makes us more susceptible to HIV infections and also helps us to survive it a little longer. The gene is supposedly a genetic mutation or response to Malaria. It supposedly leads to an 11% more HIV infections in Africans. There is a book called Survival of the Sickest one of the best books on Epigenetics and complexity as well as a brilliant read, it lays down some of the most lucid thinking in this area.

I have always posited that we are yet to truly discover the story of HIV/AIDS that most of the thinking here is of the Laboratory technician variation rather than true science. As Gary Zukav suggests in his book the Dancing Wu Li Masters true science is about revelation of emergent aspects of the natural world not its reduction into parts that are captured in smaller parts within the abstractions of a laboratory test tube.

Anyway this news was accompanied by spin on both sides of the Atlantic with BBC pushing it as UCL discovery and in reality it was led by University of Texas. More importantly it was based on an American sample without any from Africa itself included. It becomes once again the story of the Kenya prostitutes who were apparently immune to the virus then we were led to believe the solution from this was coming out of efforts in the university city of Oxford ignoring the African scientists whose work it is primarily . This is no accident, there is a lot of money involved, prestige and national credibility but more importantly it is the that powerful narrative that those of European descent are superior in areas of intellectual and scientific pursuit. So long everyone buys into this narrative then the hegemony will continue and they set the rules. We will see if it can continue. By the way the lead Author is a Professor Sunil Ahuja,

What is the media role in this election?

2008-07-16T06:44:00.006+01:00

Quick post! It has been sometime since I commented on the US elections, the primaries was delightfully exhausting and I am still processing the dynamics.

I watched my usual battery of News Channels yesterday and came away with an impression that the new narrative is that Senator Obama is an innocent abroad and naive on foreign policy. This even though quite openly Senator McCain was at the same bulletin stealing his opponents policy clothing by prioritising Afghanistan as security focus and increasing troops there. None in the media pointed out that if the candidates were political pundits, Obama had called Iraq right, his point on attacking Al Qeida in Pakistan and challenging President Musharraf efforts as an ally that Mccain called naive also turned quite right, his call on making Afghanistan the real war of National Security also turning out to be quite accurate. On the other hand McCain appears right on the surge in Iraq working because it has reduced but not eliminated violence. Looking at this record how can anyone be the more savvy of the two. Even though i do not agree with Senator Obama on Zimbabwe it is his voice that is on record, the same applies on his view of America budget deficit and its security implications. Is it that the media cannot actually analyse fine points of policy or it chooses no too? For me racism as an explanation is to easy , a low hanging fruit .

In fact CNN and BBC perhaps the more worldly news networks actually locate Obama as struggling to define his Foreign policy pitch even though his major speech was given a subsidiary tag to Senator Mccain's speech in response. I thought this was itself just an issue of my timing in watching the bulletin until this morning. My usual quick check of the polls in http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/ showed the ABCnews/ Washington Post polls as Obama up 3% points on Mccain. If you do read the Washington Post today you will see it as a 8% lead. Which is true?

The reality is that they are both true but Real Clear Politics a blog in Time magazine always chooses the most negative spin on any Obama situation since the primaries. 8% is the gap when looking at all registered voters but 3% is the difference on likely voters ( a more subjective test). In the same vein CNN reported that Mccain does better with voters 47% to Obama's 45% on Iraq in another poll without saying that this is actually within the 3% point margin of error. Add this to the so called satire in the New Yorker you start seeing that the corporate media has an angle it is playing and it is not 'fair and balanced' although they are all yet to go as far as Fox News in being totally without credibility where Obama is concerned.

My warning to you all before Senator Obama morphs into Robert Mugabe choose your media poison with the garden variety scepticism fully at touching distance. It is not the broader reporting but the sting is the spin.

Niger Delta ' check yourselves before you wreck yourself"

2008-07-16T01:48:00.003+01:00

Once again Oga Tunji 'the famous' making a guest posting. Since you people gave him so much love the last time sending the number of hits on this blog out into Orbit well we will have him here weekly. This post or article might have had showing on some Nigerian dailies but still worth your serious reflection. He actually says he his not a Latte Liberal but a Star beer guzzling progressive. Go figure!

The Niger Delta: Crisis or Opportunity
By Tunji Lardner

The “Niger Delta Crisis” always so simplistically framed in our national political debate is much more complicated than the present brouhaha over the selection of the Chairmanship of the proposed Presidential summit on the same issue might suggest. To be swayed by the frothiness of the advertorials in our newspapers masquerading as informed and enlightened commentary on the issue is to entirely miss the point.

The point is not whether a Gambari, Kukah, Clinton, Carter or Mickey Mouse chairs the summit, but whether a new way can be found to begin to address an old and pernicious Nigerian problem. A Nigerian problem that now has far reaching international complicity and implications, and so to restate the blithering obvious here, “the Niger Delta Crisis” is NOT just a Nigeria Delta problem, but is in fact a National Niger Delta Crisis, key word, “National as in Nigeria” with growing National Security implications that can if inadequately addressed unravel our fledgling democracy.

The extrapolation of this crisis however does not in anyway diminish the geographical ownership of the problem after all most Nigerians are cynically indifferent or benignly ignorant of the environmental and ecological damage wrought upon the good people of the delta by fifty years of rampant, corrupt and under-regulated oil drilling. (More on this point later.)

It is clearly with this understanding of the complexity of the Niger Delta crisis that Mr. President last year approached the United Nations for assistance with this issue as well as the other hobgoblin of our political life, electoral reform. That direct request for assistance to the United Nations Secretary, Ban Ki-Moon is the reason a year later after many bureaucratic hoops, that Ibrahim Gambari has been seconded to help the Presidency provide a new direction and engagement with this issue.

In the intervening year, the crisis has not abated and indeed it has worsen punctuated last month by the spectacular attack by so called “militants” on the Shell Off-shore Bonga facility, cutting Nigeria’s daily oil output by a further ten percent and bringing the country closer to a possible civil war.

Again from his vantage point possibly looking at the enormity of the challenges before him, President Umaru Yar'Adua has again reached out to the international community for help. According to a BBC report “Speaking at the G8 summit in Japan, President Umaru Yar'Adua drew comparisons between oil "bunkering" and the trade in "blood diamonds".
He said an international effort must be made to stop the trade, which fuelled unrest in the Niger Delta.
The smuggling cartel includes officials at the Nigerian state oil company, government, and the military and international oil companies, according to Delta activists. Trying to stop the trade must be an international effort, the president says, because the people driving the market are companies looking for cheap crude to feed international markets "Stolen crude should be treated like stolen diamonds because they both generate blood money," President Yar'Adua said. "Like what is now known as 'blood diamonds', stolen crude also aids corruption, violence and can provoke war."

An international smuggling cartel, a corrupt systemic and institutional cabal of government, military and oil industry officials, a growing restive, armed and sometimes criminal gangs of ex-political thugs, all in the business of “bunkering” adds up to a recipe for war… if left unchecked. Hmmm… sounds suspiciously familiar.
Mr. President’s insightful comparison to “blood diamonds” immediately throws up the harrowing memories of Sierra Leone and Liberia not too long ago, and Nigerians had better remove their collective ostrich heads from deep in the sands of denial and fully understand that we are not exempt from the horrific logic of war spawned by the Dutch disease.
If there was any doubt as to the underlying reason why some people DO NOT want any solution to the Niger Delta Crisis, Mr. President’s statements on “Blood Oil” provides impeccable proof that there are powerful forces in and out of the government and in collusion with international carpetbaggers determined to stop any open, transparent, and accountable process that could lead to a peaceful resolution of the Niger Delta crisis. Indeed one can logically argue that their strategic intent is for Nigeria to actually go to war over “ blood oil.” Why? Sky high oil prices means more “bunkering” profits, diminished ability of the Nigerian State to receive oil payments and rent, as well as brand new opportunities for selling arms to all sides of the conflict.
In my opinion, Nigeria today is the Niger Delta writ large, complete with the perils and promise of a potentially great nation unfortunately saddled with historically bad, no, really spectacularly bad leadership and a disengaged, cynical and frightful citizenry with no concept of or collective will to fight for their own enlightened interests.
I believe we cannot solve the many problems of Nigeria without first addressing the problems of the Niger Delta in an open, transparent, accountable and compassionate manner. For just as crude oil is the “blood,” (with apologies to Mr. President) that energizes and animates the Nigerian body politic, so the Nigeria delta can be compared to the heart that pumps that life giving blood, and to think that both entities are separate and can exist one without the other is to imagine a heart without a body or a body without a heart, without each other, both would die.
And so we are confronted with yet another national opportunity to mend our heart (absolutely no pun intended) and heal our body politic. The historic significance of our fiftieth anniversary in 2010 only adds to the urgency of a collective commitment to charting a new and positive direction for Nigeria. While to be sure it will require bold, visionary and even risk taking leadership in both our public and private lives, and most especially from the Presidency, it is a challenge for all Nigerians everywhere.
The easy route is to trot out the “Niger Delta Crisis” trope, as if it is something happening elsewhere, far, far away from our own respective daily grind. Well at this point that will not suffice; the Niger delta is part of us and its so-called “crisis” is actually a national catastrophe that has and continues to plunge Nigeria into deepening darkness, quite literally and figuratively. It might not immediately occur to the reader that one of the reasons why we have such a dismal power supply problem is simply the mechanical challenge of piping natural gas to various gas powered stations, especially when those pipes are routinely blown up by so called militants. So every time we are mired in darkness we have all those people, Mr. President alluded to in his statement to the G8 to thank.
So do we continue to curse the darkness or light a candle, see the Niger Delta situation as an intractable Gordian knot that can never be unraveled, or see through the current fog of confusion, fear, revenge, greed and deception a new and possible golden opportunity to sincerely tackle this “Niger Delta” crisis? The choice is ours to make. History cynically suggests that we will chose the path of least resistance and self righteously curse the darkness, but if we chose the latter, then I humbly suggest that we reflect on the following points:
 1)
The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.
Attributed to Albert Einstein,
There is a thoroughly misguided tendency among Nigerians to reduce the complexities of their private, public and national lives into simplistic nostrums that they believe - in spite of strong empirical proof to the contrary - will solve their many problems. This abject surrender to faith over and above reason in every instance is a peculiar feature in our intellectual lives, but it does not always solve our problems. The prevalent sense among some members of the political elite that all the problems of the Niger Delta have been duly identified and that the solution is the immediate development of the blighted areas, preferably by throwing money at the problems in that venal Nigerian way that we are all so familiar with. At his point it is pertinent to ask when throwing money at our problems have actually solved them on the long term? If so the billions of dollars spent by the Obasanjo regime over eight years on the power sector would surely have guaranteed that Nigeria would not be in perpetually darkness. The only beneficiaries of this approach are the legions of thieving rent-seekers extracting filthy lucre at every link of the value chain, or “licking oil” as the practice is informally called. While there is a genuine and urgent need to fix the infrastructural and ecological problems in the Niger Delta, through initiatives like the much touted “Marshall Plan,” we must understand that even that will take time, planning and meticulous and accountable execution. The original Marshall Plan was an ambitious post –war initiative to rebuild a destroyed Europe as well as create a bulwark against creeping Soviet communism. It took the entire financial, intellectual, administrative and industrial resources of the victorious Allied forces lead by America to rebuild Europe. Simply touting a Marshall Plan as is being blithely suggested does not make it happen. Or as my niece would say “no be yam” We must manage the expectations of a quick makeover for the Niger Delta and be truly honest with the people about what the real challenges are and what is expected collectively of all of us to right this historic wrong.
The Niger Delta crisis has been festering over the last fifty years stoked by greedy, visionless and predatory leaders of all stripes, it will take a new kind of leadership to even begin to address the fundamental issues and root causes of the problem. To begin to address the problems will necessarily require a much higher quotient of intellectual, moral and competent leadership that have historically set the agenda of the Niger Delta and for Nigeria for that matter. I this vein I think it is important to note that this is the first time in Nigeria’s history that we are being governed or ruled by University graduates and not artillery officers with a penchant for shooting first and asking questions later.

2)
Again, it must be said that the Niger Delta Crisis is a Nigerian problem. While as stated earlier that unfortunately the geographic ownership and therefore the ecological brunt is limited to that space, the responsibility of resolving it must necessarily be shared with the rest of Nigeria. In the same vein some of the historical responsibility for the crisis must be placed squarely at the doors of some of their political elite who have connived to further impoverish their own people. Many of them are still deeply involved in supporting the predatory and dysfunctional culture of victimization that has evolved over the last fifty years of oppression. There are no angels here. Very few if any of the so-called political leaders or “Elders” can claim any higher moral authority or even have the political will or aptitude to begin to address the problem. They know it and the people know it and yet… And yet they are allowed the fig leaf of quasi-legitimacy by their own people. Why? Simple human psychology, when facing off a larger and external threat, in this case federal government, people will reflexively band together to fend off the enemy. With the searing experience of decades of brutal military hegemony, whatever trust might have existed between the people of the Niger Delta and the Federal government has all but eroded. Given that Nigeria has evolved to become a cynical low trust culture, the challenge now in moving the Niger Delta agenda forward is largely about establishing a new basis of trust between the people and those who govern or rule them. Compounding this is the absence of the rule of law as a dispassionate arbiter people’s legitimate grievances. The clamor for an “international figure” to mediate this new attempt is really an expression of mistrust of government’s intentions, and deeper than that, a deep and abiding mistrust of ourselves as Nigerians. If we cannot trust ourselves, even for a moment to put aside our cynicism and look at this problem anew, then we cannot and will not progress. Ironically this missing ingredient is the most important aspect of resolving this issue. The government both federal and state must begin to earn the trust of the people of the Niger Delta, and they in turn must lift the shroud of victim-hood and begin to engage the rest of Nigeria with self-reflective honesty as well as a shared sense of destiny, purpose, and resolution.

3)
Mirror, mirror on the wall…
Honestly. We have to stop and simultaneously take a collective and individual look at ourselves in the mirror. Who are we really deceiving? The world? Our neighbors? Our selves? This lack of introspection and reflection of our true condition is as disingenuous as it is dangerous. It is disingenuous because deep down we know that we are all culpable in varying degrees for this mess that is Nigeria, and dangerous because our sanctimonious religiousness prevents us from looking at our many challenges squarely in the face, rolling up our sleeves and getting straight to work at solving the problems. Instead we prefer to outsource all our problems and challenges to God. I have often wondered aloud why one of the most avowedly religious countries in the world is also one of the most corrupt. And contrary to what many people believe, God is NOT a Nigerian, and I seriously doubt if he or she loves Nigeria more than any other country on this God given earth. After gazing long and hard into the mirrored reflection of our true selves and the refracted image we prefer to show the world, we all must ask ourselves this one question; do we really want a solution to the Niger Delta crisis?

Tunji Lardner is a budding writer and can be reached at agenda@aol.com

Ajegunle ' We full ground'

2008-07-09T07:21:00.001+01:00

My Country or bust!

2008-07-06T08:17:00.002+01:00

There is nothing basically wrong with Nigeria
By Our Reader
Published: Sunday, 6 Jul 2008
On the morning after Murtala Muhammed seized power in July 1975, public servants in Lagos were found “on seat” at 7.30 in the morning. Even the ”go-slow” (traffic) that has defied every regime vanished overnight from the streets!

The new ruler‘s reputation for ruthlessness, discipline and hard work was sufficient to transform the style and habit of Nigerians in the course of only one night in the then unruly capital. That the character of one man could establish that quantum change in a people‘s social behaviour was nothing less than miraculous. But it shows that social miracles can happen.

There is nothing basically wrong with Nigeria‘s character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land, climate, water, air or anything else. Nigeria’s problems is the unwillingness and the inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility and challenge posed by personal examples, which are hallmarks of true leadership.

Nigeria has many thoughtful men and women of conscience, a large number of talented people. Why is it then that all these patriots make so little impact in the life of our nation? Why is it that corruption, gross inequities, noisy vulgarity, selfishness and ineptitude seem so much stronger than the good influences at work in our society?

Why do the good ones among us seem so helpless, while the bad ones are full of vile energy? Nigeria needs patriotism this time around. What is your own contribution? Are you a caterpillar or a builder?

Patriotism is an emotion of love directed by critical intelligence. A true patriot will always demand the highest standards of his country and accept nothing, but the best for and from his people. He will be outspoken in the condemnation of their shortcomings without giving way to their despair or cynicism. That is my idea of patriotism.

The government cannot do everything. Nigeria as a country needs more of this gesture from philanthropists and patriots.

Akin Agunbiade,

P.O. Box 2265, Dugbe Post Office, Ibadan,

Oyo State.

Mr Agunbiade is part of a minority of Nigerians who do not use the excuses of past failure and present inadequacies to excuse their failure to see the possibility , probability and capacity for a great nation that is in the Nigerian soul and reflected in its characteristics. We often hide behind the hideous simplicity that stereotypes the country as a 'failed state' . The people who specialise in this kind of comment are the people who have benefited the most and enjoyed its best. Their expectations so out of all order to its true starting point. Their comments often shaped by their own disappointment with where they are and where expect to be virtue of their positioning. They hide behind what they regard as a good old days when things worked. The fact that this is mostly fantasy and that the demographics of the nation has most of its population in non economic active age is actually not factored into the debate. Of course one agrees that there is a lot to challenge a saint about present day Nigeria but what are we going to do about it? In fact what are you doing about it.

I read about a Tanzanian police chief responding to the killing of albinos for a form of ritual medicine. He blames these acts on Nigerian home movies. The New York Times in its coverage does nothing to challenge what is obviously a disgusting excuse for nothing short of the most extreme criminal behaviour. Nigeria and Nigerians have never learned the power of a brand and how it shapes motivation, attitude and behaviour. Everyone and anyone can expresses the most vicious indictment of the country. We participate, often in legitimising these views whether it is accurate or not.

Nigeria is not a failed state or even a failing state , it is an emerging state. It has been phenomenally slow to evolve to a level where it can use the productive energy of its people to power itself to the elevated status it should rightfully have as the largest population of Africans and black people in the world. Surely it is in the interest of every African and in fact every black person that the extraordinary experiment that is Nigeria succeeds. Its success is the ultimate nail in the coffin of inferiority complex, stereotypes of disease, destitution, destruction. It is the confirmation of the promise of the 21st century becoming the African Century.

With all these in mind the f**k**g b***s*** in Niger Delta must stop at all cost. There is no excuse for allowing the extreme behaviours of some to define the destiny of the many. If these guys kidnapping and killing can show how they add value to the oil then by all means give them what they want. This is not their argument , their shtick is this comes out of our peoples land. The question is whether their people are not Nigerians? So it is now legitimate to take up arms against your country because you feel resource allocation is unjust. It is time to straighten this s*** out. For those of us who are down for the future of a Nigeria undivided and working together for greater good it is time to stand up and start a movement that reflects our ideas, ideals and ideology. It is time to get in print against an elite intelligensia whose negativity and nagging, paralyse good faith public officials trying against the odds. It is time to attack the zero defect merchants against the constant probe the last man/woman mentality and impeach at first disagreement behaviour. It is time to hold people to account without kidnapping the future of the country in the populist and pandering politics of gestures. It is time for relentless efforts at transformation driven by intelligent, practical and sustained actions of people of goodwill. It is time for my country or bust where are you in this?.

Baracking A Father

2008-06-17T05:31:00.003+01:00

“Dad,

Happy Father's Day! Thank you for everything you have done for us, and everything you are doing now. I speak for all of us when I say that you are our role model and our hero. You make our days brighter with your advice and your voice and your aura, and we know that we can come to you for anything, and that knowledge has made my life so much brighter. Thank you for being so open and caring, and showing us the way to be true to ourselves and our family. You have taught us so much, from how to appreciate good music to how to appreciate life in general. We know you are working hard to provide for us, and we appreciate that so much. For that and everything else, we are deeply grateful.

We love you.

From Tari, Ola and Ami.”

Dedicated to my three teachers who have thought my soul the dignity of manhood.

That was my fathers day gift from my boys, personal, vulnerable, open and powerful. It came about the same time as I read Senator Obama’s speech on absent fathers. I have resisted writing about the good Senator for a while because as he closed in on the nomination I thought it was time to get on the ‘balcony’ and observe the broader patterns at work. It was time to move away from the skirmishes and horse race to see how the forest behaves different fro the trees. There are certainly differences such as Senator Obama is culturally as American as Chino’s for casual wear. He is mainstream in ways only the rest of the world can see and only his fellow citizens can ignore. His speech at AIPAC signified that he intends to position himself to the centre for the General election. However one should expect no less from him if he wants to win. One area where the voters in the United States have not been given credit that they deserve is in their commitment to seek renewal. The coalition of higher income, higher education, Younger people, significant minority identity groups that delivered him the nomination are a powerful representation of a potential 21st century renewal. The nomination is a victory for their commitment to renew American leadership in the world by re-engaging the only thing that matters its enthusiasm and commitment to opportunities over the fear and insecurity of the past 8 years. I wish them well.

On Friday, here in Lagos I closed for the day at 12 noon to hang out with one of my boys. We had decided that we would go to a spa , get a massage, manicure, pedicure, drink and go to a concert. It was totally unlike him and it is nearly not me as often as I would like. I have the great fortune of being honoured by my friends as a source of counsel in troubled times. It was troubled times for both of us whose wives are our contemporaries, who found life’s purpose in honouring duty, who are the go too for many people but had really nobody to go to. In my case and like my father before me i am trained to be a provider and no one expects less across my vast family in at least three continents. I feel honoured and elevated by it, wanted and centre of attention. It also means that there are few places where I can be

vulnerable or needy. No one want to see the person is their backbone, their person of last resort without the fortitude or even the courage that they rely upon. In the same token my boy was hurting, sad as he confronted the fact that in his attempt to be the father, husband and son that Senator Obama so eloquently seeks amongst African Americans he had buried a critical part of himself. The part of him that seeks adventure, that discovers possibilities and explores alternatives. Now in his 40’s that part of him awakens with a vengeance and will not be denied. He is angry and also confused but where he goes from here? Who does he speak too? What can this mean for his family? Where can he cry openly?

Here in Nigeria I suppose men don’t cry without a physical reason. They just drink hard and live hard hiding behind the ‘big man’ mask. We end up using sex, drink and work as the drugs to deaden the trap that the ‘stereotype’ of the good man has turned our lives into. We had a ball by the way. The spa thing was a blast and the concert afterwards well Haruna Ishola is the blues cure for wounded soul. I will be back for a massage this Friday.

Senator Obama like many other domesticated males over-simplifies the challenge of manhood in the 21st century. He ignores the natural disposition, reducing the social complexity and seeking part solution. No one can ever absolve any man from the responsibility and obligation of being the best father they can to the children that life, choices and sometimes circumstances have delivered their way. Nobody ever said it would be easy. The email I got from my 15 year old son also shows it is a privilege when the souls put in your custody flower to full and sweet smelling bloom there is no greater love. The Senator however is obliged to understand that the sociology of his country and increasingly the rest of the world portends a crisis of manhood which leads different men to make very difficult and sometimes destructive choices. They range from the increasingly bitter and dishonourable battle between the sexes that neither will win but when two elephants fight the grass always suffer and this are our children. It also includes the feminisation of family law and jurisprudence that institutionalises the simplistic split of the sexes into primary carer and resource provider. All these in a world where working class men have seen the workplace flourish to women’s emotional intelligence and stereotyped competencies. At the same time as their manufacturing domains disappear almost comletely.In the African American communities these issues are further polarised by an history of Slavery as well as a tradition for racial fear of black alpha males and their competitive potential. If one doubts the global crisis of manhood, explore the despair of increased suicide, murder, antisocial lifestylles and even extremism amongst young men in the western world. In the UK, it is street killings, in Scandinavia its suicides, in South Africa and Jamaica its guns, in US well take your pick, Middle East its extremist politics.

There are no excuses but the reasons are still there and must be understood for there to be sustainable solutions. The Senator has good intentions and disrupts the elevation of victimhood into a standard of pride. Nevertheless he is a much more nuanced person and far more aware of complexity than to stumble into this critical minefield without bringing in the best of himself. For some this is a great Sister Souljah moment for him for those of us who are fathers of boys whose entire lives are constructed by the question of how we restore a dialogue of mutual respect and curiosity amongst the sexes his speech only raises questions. The same questions I felt on Saturday as Asa serenaded her mother from the stage and I pronounce the formidable legacy of love from my mother on these . I suppose the Yoruba saying that ‘Iya ni wura, Baba ni digi’ which translates into Mother is the gold and father is the mirror comes to mind. Go figure.

COLOURS OF AN EMERGENT DAWN

2008-06-13T04:59:00.002+01:00

Their names read like ancient chieftains , OLOLU, ATIPAKO, ALAPASHANPA, AFIDI-ELEGE. They are prominent Ibadan masquerades whose role is critical to the divinities of the right. They are the embodiment of the lessons our ancestors want to impart and they play a key role in entrenching the body of theatre that carries historical memory. So when the ancients say ‘Ki a se bi won tin se, ki ole ba ri bi oti ri’ i.e. it reads, lets do it as it is done so we can get the results that we have always had. It has nothing to do with a slavish repeat of tradition. On the contrary it is a challenge that if you want the same results you should continue to do the same things. So it is with the death of Alhaji Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu. Lets open this evolving parable.

You see to my engorged brain the only book a Nigerian must read is Africa in Ebullition by Right Honourable Adegoke Adelabu the subtitle is “A handbook of Freedom for a Nigerian Nationalist”. It captures the root cause of the life and times of Late Lamidi Adedibu and holds our feet to the fire for the errant intellectual and spiritual fast food that has become the norm of our society. In Chapter Three titled Self Government ( it was first published in 1952) there is an analysis that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up and sends a chill through my spine in its incredible certitude and logical eloquence. He divides up the Nationalist front into three different camps of which only two have survived, they are:

The one which he believes gets most prominence but he wrongly asserts is the most vulnerable, the Materialistic camp. He describes them as a ‘motley crew of self seeking careerists’. They will be the primary focus in this post.
The camp he regards as most influential being the Intellectual camp. They still stand today as he saw them crying foul on the touchline, rarely risking limb and bone or if so incapable of understanding or accepting the self-serving, self-justifying nature of human beings they continue in their basic assumption. This wrong assumption he says (and I agree with every ounce of my being) “ .. is that the white man who wrote his book will be much impressed by arguments you lift from their pages. .......” I agree that this is the assumption behind our blind and pathetic penchant for borrowing western ways. Like the late and dear Alhaji I accept that the same white man whose, “... passion for domination has blinded and biased his judgement. His vested interest in your continued slavery has choked and suffocated his conscience.” So many things have changed and fundamentally are the same. We wave western standards in the face of a uniquely African hunger for improvements which should be fit for purpose and sustainable in our own environment. Now we have many prisoners of Phds and masters degrees throwing their discipline signs in no better ways than the Bloods and Crips gangs of Los Angeles with little or no transformative intervention.
The Camp he regards as the higher order which i will argue is now wiped in the Nigerian project are the spiritualistic segment. They are the People I call the warriors of light (term borrowed from Paulo Coehlo) . In Hon Adelabu’s words they are seers and prophets , heroes and saints. He reasons “ They abjure leisure, they embrace poverty, they quit castles, they adorn jailyards, they scorn the transient, they are loving. They are sublime, divine and immortal. His praise of this camp is unreserved and romantic but mine is not probably because i know of only one , the late Abami Eda , Eleniyan, Baba 70, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

If you are bored and tired by this introduction take a break, make a cup of tea and put on some music but come back to this because I suspect you will want a dose of my madness having bothered to read this far.

You see the same late Adegoke Adelabu ‘ Penkelemese’ is often put forward as a role model for Adedibu or even Busari Adelakun before him . In some way associating him with the stereotype of career thuggery and unprincipled politics that the latter two have been bound in the public imagination. In fact their mentor who is treated as a deity and has won the public lottery of iconised leadership as well as standard of the best we can do was the Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He is rarely mentioned in the reduction and deduction that these individuals are an entirely Ibadan creation. In a piece of genius postulations the late Penkelemese who if he had lived would have given Awo a much needed run for his money foretold the coming of the type of person that Chief Adedibu had come to represent. On page 18 he puts to the sword what we have now come to call ‘amala politicts’ he says

“These heterogenous crowds confuse material comfort with political freedom.They demand freedom only because they hope it will bring increased prosperity in its train.In freedom for its own sake they are not interested. They are ever ready to sell out, being offered big chunks of booty. Commonplace careerists that they are, they are pleased with their own cunning, cleverness and shrewdness when they have successfully bargained for a higher rung in a doomed hierarchy. They mistake contemptible positions of profit for the height of noble ambition. They are just as wise as beasts and birds who foray daily bread, take care of their young, and die vegetatively in their due season, unsung and unwept.They flower for a while and fade away at the appointed hour because they lack the stamina of moral rectitude.”

In my humble opinion so it was with the late Ashipa of Ibadan Chief Adedibu but who could blame him? His political mentors in the Action Group of Old had iconised and rewarded the crossing of carpets by members of the Ibadan Peoples Party rewarding political treachery and cowardice as well as institutionalised tribalism and errant regionalism of Egbe Omo Oduduwa. Unfortunately the passing of Penkelemese meant there never was any real competition for the worst of the excesses of the Action Group in the South West. It entrenched the cult of personality into the standard of Nigerian politics to the extent that today here is still none of the Political parties that have the three attributes that the late Adelabu ‘Penkelemese’ uses to define a true political party. They are idea, ideal and ideology. It is this that gave rise Alhaji Adelakun and Adedibu’s style of poltics. They who genuinely mastered the politics of those times and were amply rewarded for it and in due course applied with skill of artisans from their period of apprenticeship.

Adedibu was a father, Grandfather and possibly a great grandfather. He extended his largesse to many and Nigerians being who we are complicit in everything we blame him for doing. This true not just in Ibadan but across the nation. I thank God that he has now gone to the Ancestral home to explain his choices. My people reason that ‘ Oba mewa , igba mewa , nile Aiye’ that life is like ten kings, with ten reigns . The Ashipa of Ibadan’s time has come and gone, dwelling on the Abacha for life campaign, the Ladoja impeachment, Election machine kidnapping or the many lives lost to political violence and just sheer lawlessness we will find in him a perfect scapegoat. It does not absolve us of our roles in co-creating the society that we live in within the hills of Ibadan ‘mesiogo’ , ile Oluyole or this great human adventure that is Nigeria. Our complicity does not stop at passive observance but active experimentation with the same pursuit of power, reckless competitiveness and absence of principles in our choices.

I predicted two weeks before the death of the Late Sani Abacha to my friends in the democracy movement of the time that he would soon pass but then we will be confronting the fact that he is not the problem. Our problem was and still is the Abacha in each and everyone of us. I predicted similarly that Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu will vacate the scene to the greater stage but then what role will we play going forward. What happens when we perfect a similar role for someone else because we assign this roles by but omission and commission. ‘Awa ni a nda, awa na ni a npa’ we are the ones that create and also the ones that kills our creation. So like the lesser masquerades that in Ibadan are called Tombolo we are participants in this drama.

It is time to take responsibility and make new choices. It is time to take seriously the challenge of turning this great land into the beacon of possibilities that it can become. It is time for everyone who stands by the sidelines commenting and criticising to take risks for their dreams. It is time to start movements and fight for dreams that we cannot afford to let past. It is once again time for the warriors of light who would defer their gratification for the coming generation. It is time for a majestic dawn for my generation and those to follow. Oke Ibadan a gbe wa O.

I play myself out of this post with first reciting a little of the Oriki of Ibadan , Mesiogo nile Oluyole, omo a je igbin , je ikaraun omo afi ikiaraun fo ori mu. Ibadan maja, maja bi ose ko ara iwaju leru. Singing my new anthem , Ojumo ti mo, Ojumo ti mo mi nile yi O, ojumo ti mo , mo rire O! sing along if you know Asa’s exquisite tearjerker. Ire O!

Mobayonle

2008-06-09T20:17:00.013+01:00

I suppose the Yoruba have a saying for every situation , they say 'Iya ni wura , Baba ni digi'. Your mother is gold and your father is a mirror.

24 years ago yesterday my mother died at age 38. At that time I assumed a life that I live till today , open , difficult, challenging, dutiful , disruptive, intellectual all to honour her. She was quite a difficult person for me to get along with . She was truly a natural force whose humble beginnings led her to an arranged marriage with my father, one which blossomed into an unexpected love on her side and a certain one on his. My mother started her working life as a trader in the tradition of Muslim women in Ibadan. She always dreamed of being a doctor but getting married unexpectedly at 18 was not a good preparation and having myself just a year after compounded any such thoughts. She parlayed her start in the open market stalls of Gbagi to being a expert of all locations for lace in Austria, gold in Beirut amongst many other international travels. By the early 70s she was lifting oil out of Nigeria for sale in Korea ( saw a bill of laden/ invoice amongst her papers) an incredible rarity in those days. She started a road haulage company with over 300 trailer trucks carrying motorcycles, rice, generators across the country she still managed to be distributor for Lever Brothers amongst others. She never gave up her medical fantasy poring over medical books and throwing dinner parties with eminent surgeons and doctors at the head of the table so she could argue into the night about different medical procedures. The amazing thing is that she did most of these things in her late twenties, early thirties. Now that I am well over forty I can marvel about how quick and phenomenal her achievements were.

She was for quite a time secretary of market women's association but that was not a feminist position it was in the footsteps of extraordinary women many of them muslim but by no means exclusively so. The great and terrifying Efusetan Aniwura the famous Iyalode of Ibadan, Iyalode Abimbola, Iyalode Abeo or others like her contemporaries and mentors, Late Alhaja Simbiat Adedeji or ever present Alhaja Humani Alaga. I met a friend of my mum by a few years ago and she proceeded to tell me the story of how they met. She had been rear-ended by a Danfo driver (local bus) who are notorious as thugs and vagrants . She was completely intimidated by the drivers aggressive behaviour in spite of his culpability so she locked herself in her car as chaos rained around her then there was a sudden lull. My mother had apparently got out of her car and proceeded to slap the danfo driver who reacted by prostrating himself immediately and asking for forgiveness. she proceeded to bang on the window of this poor woman's car and berated her for letting herself down and women to boot. She told her this was a result of too much westernisation. My mother made an habit of extraordinary acts of kindness as such there were never less than 30 people in the house at any given time and sometimes up to 50 depending on how many poor people she chose to pick up for looking after. When many people see your mother as a saint you quite unconsciously rebel against it all.

For me the loss of my mother was the beginning of my manhood and it was the realisation that something unique had left my life that shaped it. Somehow I have moved from a depression about the loss to a rationalisation that includes a true abiding disrespect for death. Also as I saw other people's mothers grow into melodramatic and self absorbed 'nuisances' i imagined my powerhouse of a mother in a similar role and grudgingly said it must all have been for the best having married a woman with a similar temperament. I could not imagine the fight for primacy that would have occurred. I also love the man I had become because of her absence in my life. Yesterday it was different, I woke up and I missed her and my eyes have not stopped stinging with tears that are reluctant to step out or settle down to their home in the ducts. I am now older than she ever was but Apeke was more in many ways larger than life itself . I still strive to be the shadow of the person she was no matter how much we fought.

Sun re O! Apeke iti gbongbo Iyekan Isepe.

Hate that Love Bred Part 2

2008-06-09T20:12:00.001+01:00

I was in South Africa or Mzansi as the locals call it in February this year to participate and facilitate a workshop. As is usual with my trips there the seeming emotional detachment of the black people there is often a disconcerting experience. I suppose being a Nigerian with penchant for drama and diatribes it figures. The one thing we share with Jamaicans, Greeks and Italians is that we amplify and broadcast our passions with little or no permission. In all my visits to Mzansi I have always felt that there was something straining to lose control under this tight emotional leash.

My driver from Oliver Tambo unlike my usual Avis rental decided to engage me in long discourse especially when he realised I was Nigerian. It especially concerned him that ‘we took their women away’ and on the other hand that ‘ Nigerian women never dated none Nigerians’. His opinions included his fantasy about their libido ever since seeing them dance which he thought Nigerian women are unrivalled in sexual possibilities and their beauty unsurpassed but their prejudices are legendary. He complained about the Nigerian Hillbrow dominance, crime, prostitution, commerce that is unbridled but it seemed there was also envy and respect fighting for place in his perspective. I was too tired to do anything other than scold the errant Nigerian and distinguish them from the middle class professionals as if that would quell envy and diminish the jealousy. Unfortunately we were in the grip of a Lagos Island, Monday morning style traffic. It emerged that ‘load shedding’ i.e. electricity blackouts were the order of the day and something in me smiled. Here was t Disdainful from Mzansi sharing the infra-structure challenges that makes the rest of Africa submit to throbbing machines and foul fumes. I slept in his car with a wicked and satisfied smile on my face.

Few days after I attended a British Council dinner and I sat with a group of Mzansi men. It is very rare for me since I get a sense that I rub them off the wrong way with notable exception especially my adopted brother Siphiwe Mpye and a few others . Often time there is usually a quick visual assessment of me and an attempt at rudeness. I however never respond ever since I had learnt a very hard lesson about being an outsider. At age 19 I had the Italian Carabinieri hold a gun to my head in a dark corner of Da Vinci airport for arguing and swearing at a errant airline clerk. I have since known to pick my fights carefully in any foreign land. I settled down with my best non-threatening smile, something i never stooped doing in some of the more racist places I have visited.

My experience brightened somewhat when one of the men started engaging me with barely concealed excitement about Lagos. He had visited , loved the energy, in love with the people. He confessed the place makes him feel so completely alive. I opened up to him, sharing stories about our favourite parts of Lagos, swapping experiences and challenging urban tales. One of the others a completely empty suit, whose almost entirely malformed smile was covered in attempts at badly frayed second hand British etiquette like a badly sewn seersucker suit was weighed in. He and been noticeable all evening with attempts at sickening ass kissing of any European within sight. He had to have misconstrued a ‘cockney’ accent for a grand elevation of status as he used it with liberal disdain for its efficacy. He challenged my new friend in very disrespectful and disparaging terms. What could he have seen in the chaos, smell and rot that is Lagos? His tone so full of derision and disgust all the time looking directly at me. It occurred to me that any attempt to confront his bigotry would only serve to fan the flames.

In my little time hanging in Jozi I had made too many friends to let such a ‘Jerk’ ( technical word) adulterate the experience. However as I left the event it occurred to me that this was not something to do with personal relationships but a psycho-social phenomenon . I told my friend Leeza that i was worried there will be an explosion (I have raised such spectre on this pages in the past). When it is acceptable for the chattering classes to trade openly in bigotry then it is license for those at the bottom of the pyramid to act.

It is no surprise that over 50 fellow Africans were killed, property lost and many more wounded. Jozi was to be the ‘New African Jerusalem’, the only place were the continent met and you could run into anyone from Cape to Cairo, Zanzibar to Cape Verde they all worked their magic and all pursued a dream. It was to be the truly African city a citadel of many hues and shades all from across this great and patient continent whose kindness to human folly seems to know no bounds. Jozi who seen the pain of bigotry and the humiliation of the other who had acted in Soweto, Alexandra, Sophia Town to rebel against the dehumanisation of the other. Surely she knew better than anyone the ridicule that is bigotry. In Jozi they all came and found the infrastructure lacking at home bringing their best and worst. They sought to direct your car into rare parking slots, they patched up the shooter and shot in the hospital, they hustled dodgy crafts on street corners all on the streets where violence spoke in even and balanced tones. Never the raised voices like in Gidi.

How is it possible that this is where the baying demonic face of Xenophobia, Intolerance and hatred would turned up next? What is the real benefit to the perpetrators, their society and future relations with fellow Africans? What happens if this is just the tip of a bloody iceberg? It agonises but we need to dig deeper. Why did this happen ? Of course the intellectually lazy media have the ready made excuses and scapegoats. Mbeki and his ‘friend ‘ Mugabe their quiet diplomacy brought in millions of refugees and put pressure on scarce resources they said. The poor and dispossessed are fighting for their own crumbs of platinum from the post apartheid mining shafts. So if all these were true what of Kenya with millions of Somali’s for many years living as refugees . Why with their own political violence did they not target this millions of strangers who put more pressure on their resources? Why if this was about poverty is Kenya not a worse place considering they are poorer than the people of Mzansi? There is too much to say but this event cannot be a footnote for why if this was about visitors did they not attack the millions of white tourists in the land?

This is a posting that will be continued...........

This is quite an editorial

2008-05-26T16:36:00.004+01:00

As talking heads go this quite a forthright and eloquent perspective on the Clinton, RFK assassination flap. It is quite worth the 10 minutes watch. It captures HRC's capacity to push the margins of credulity and change rules to suit her competitive interest. Anyways enjoy .

New Obama

2008-05-20T20:39:00.002+01:00

BARACK OBAMA: Black man’s dilemma.

This is written by Oga Tunji Lardner a foremost journalist and a self confessed Latte Liberal . He is my brother and he rocks.

As a black man, more precisely as an African born black man, I am a bit conflicted about the exquisitely improbable presidential run of Senator Barack Obama. My ambivalence has it roots in a previous run for president by another charismatic black politician, the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

I remember how the news of Jesse running for the presidency of the US in 1984 impacted on our global political consciousness in Nigeria, literally a generation ago. As a young idealistic journalist working for a fledgling weekly magazine, and like the rest of my equally young and idealistic colleagues, the very idea of a black man as the president of the United States was a notion we readily accepted as a possibility After all this was “the United States” —with its self evident truths about the equality of man: the democratic ideal that we all so dearly wished for Nigeria, which was then in the grip of yet another predatory and distinctively vicious military dictator by name Ibrahim Babangida.

Looking back, I marvel at our naiveté and sense of moral certitude about the world ultimately being a good and just place. I suppose we were subconsciously projecting our hope and sense of justice and optimism on that great whiteboard called America. To look too closely at our selves, our country, indeed our continent would have been too painful and depressing. So we cast our eyes far, far over the rainbow to that mythical place where someone like us was running to be the leader of the most powerful nation in the world. Even so, a little voice now and then whispered in our ears, the cold calculating facts of American electoral politics, there was no way any Jesse was going to beat the “Gipper,” an extremely popular incumbent Ronald Reagan. Nonetheless we persisted in our little game of self-deception, knowing fully well that given the tortured history of race in America, it was highly unlikely that a Blackman, indeed any black man would ever make to Pennsylvania Avenue in the foreseeable future.

“From the outhouse to the White House.” That prospect was heady and intoxicating for all of us. At a deep personal level we understood the semiotics of having a black man in the White House—no matter how naïve or improbable it seemed. We came back to earth soon enough as Jesse’s theatrical run for president turned out to be, well, the audacity of hype.

But today it is different. A remarkable black American with the improbable name of Barack Obama is running for the office of the President of the United States, and that little voice is telling me that he stands a very good chance of becoming America’s next president. A black man who in his own words boldly declares “I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas… I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents.”

And I—even without the colorful heritage of miscegenation and the searing intellect, the laser focused drive, the bold self-assuredness, the charismatic personality, the moral courage, the balance, the poise, the words, or the audacious hope—totally identify with the brother; more or less.

I hesitate to fully identify with Barack Obama because I am still negotiating my way through the dark labyrinths of my own fears and self-doubt—the scars that I, along with, doubtless, millions of other Neo-Diasporan Africans, bear from the painful experience of unfulfilled ambitions at home in Africa, as well as in America. In the dark, arms outstretched I am tentatively feeling my way out by hand, even as I attempt to scrape away one sordid layer at a time, the baked accretion of the fears, uncertainties and doubts of being a black man in this world. With one hand, fingers splayed, I scratch at the indeterminate distrust that others project upon and that periodically shrouds me; with the other hand, claws drawn, I grate at the tectonic uncertainties that seem designed to keep me perpetually off balance; and with both hands, I rip away at the past setbacks that shadow me whenever I reach out to succeed.

Somewhat like Barack Obama, but quite literally, I inhabit multiple worlds as I commute between the US and Africa, and have to constantly weigh and balance my engagement in both. But unlike Obama, who clearly has found his way out of that maze, unified his universe, taken a firm hold on the three fates, woven his own design on the tapestry of his life, and lately stunned the world with the audaciousness of his hope; the worlds I inhabit, inhibit my aspirations in many ways. Or do they?

As I look back at my own continent’s fitful struggle for development and real independence I also wonder about my own culpability in my country and continent’s plight. No, this is not a quixotic desire to want to be like Obama. This cannot be, for after him, the fates broke the mold. Instead, this is a simple and all too human moment of reflective doubt, again, about my place in the world as a black man.

In urging Americans in his seminal speech on race in America, Obama states inter alia that “for the African-American community that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past... And it means taking full responsibility for our own lives…” He might as well have been speaking directly to us in Africa. He certainly resonated deeply with me.

That we have at this point in time another avatar rising from our collective blackness is quite profound. Obama is much more than the poster child that some in the mainstream US media so blithely describes, he has become the whiteboard or is it blackboard upon which the grand narrative of the black man is being written, and will continue to be so until another comes our way.

Nelson Mandela once remarked about how African men (and by extension Black men) are tentative about fully embracing their potential greatness, but not this brother.
As I marvel at the sheer chutzpa of the man, trying hard not to “hate the player, but to hate the game”—almost like loving the sinner and hating the sin—that niggling little voice is back, again. It is saying, and I render this with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, and bearing in mind the properly contextualized, albeit widely misunderstood rhetoric of Reverend Wright, “Damn you Obama… Damn you! Damn you for blowing our collective alibis as black men… Damn you for kicking away our pathetic crutches, now we must stand tall, with no excuses, and grab and shape the destinies of our people!”
This time I am responding to the imperative rather than the fearfulness beneath the surface of this dubious little voice. It is a new day. And there is work to be done.
 

The Hate that Love breeds (Part1)

2008-05-20T20:09:00.002+01:00

Watch a Kentucky Sequel coming to you at your local Clinton News Network (CNN)

Why does this not rival Reverend Wright Celebrity?

2008-05-08T16:56:00.004+01:00

Here is part 2

The media is in the tank for the establishment candidate but do watch these allegations whatever the merit they should be open to the broader American public.

Fat lady singing Opera

2008-05-07T10:07:00.000+01:00

Nigeria. Sovereign Wealth Fund Star

2008-05-03T22:17:00.005+01:00

Just spent the morning with two great financiers and got this Roland (Monzur) Sodeinde and Olumide Ajayi with their permission I will do a post on their incredible efforts to fund projects in Nigeria one of these days. Olumide turned me on to a great statistic that the fastest growing Sovereign Wealth Fund ( they are the new power replacing hedge funds and private equity funds) is the Nigerian one growing at a reported 291% over the last five years the second reported Oman is nearly 40% lower. The average growth of this powerful investment vehicle is 24% across the board. If you combine the predicted 9% growth in GDP predicted by IMF in Nigeria this year along with a $60 billion external reserve and the this figures then the macro economic position of the country is remarkable. At the very least the detractors of the Obasanjo administration should acknowledge what has been done right and maybe they will have greater credibility in challenging what the administration did wrong.

Below is the link to the source , thanks again to Olumide Ajayi

http://www.globalinsight.com/PressRelease/PressReleaseDetail12347.htm

Asa ' Fire on the Mountian

2008-05-02T12:54:00.001+01:00

Rock This

Wrigtheous Preacher

2008-05-02T06:22:00.003+01:00

" Were ni oma ba Gari binu, ti a so pe yanrin di jije" Haruna Ishola, Baba Ngani eto in his Album Oroki Social Club meaning :
"It is only a mad person who in their anger with Gari (Cassava cereal) decides to replace it with eating sand"

As usual Haruna Ishola's wisdom is so apt in general but also specific to the recent actions of Reverend Wright at the NPC. There is something egomaniacal about most Pastors that is rarely challenged by their congregations. I used to go to Church where one of the assumptions is that the Pastor is a man of God but i always thought that every human being was created in the Likeness of the almighty and that it is sinful to elevate anyone above you in your relation to the God. A very intelligent friend of mine always said in surprise at my critical dissection of sermons that once the Pastor says God revealed something to him he could never do anything but accept it in its entirety. I think this kind of subservient relationship which is quite peculiar in the Nigerian Pentecostal churches and reflected in some of their American relatives creates the Pastor as a Prima Donna. In a world where no one challenges your views and you have a platform to express them as you wish then it is almost inevitable that you do not know when to stop.

I remember in February whilst visiting Orlando, Florida hearing a skit on the Steve Harvey show which is quite appropriate to the Former Reverend of Trinity Church Chicago. In the skit the character talks about having 'Holds up', he used to copy a friend of his in class until a particular Test and then he had an 'holds up' moment that maybe he should just give it is best shot . When he did he graduated and the person who he always copied was repeating the same class. More interestingly he was coming home from work and he planned to enter his house naked and give his wife a powerful sexual discovery well he had an 'holds up' and when he walked into the room fully clothed his wife was in the middle of a church book club meeting. It was very funny but back to Reverend Wright where was his 'holds up'?

Is it not madness that a man that has fought for Black empowerment all his life was too blinded by his pain and disgust at being stereotyped by the media and reduced to a marginal bigot that he stepped to the plate to destroy the one man who could bring his aspiration into fruition. The problem for `Dr Wright is that victimhood has so become the metaphor for Black Life that when we wrap ourselves in its fond embrace it justifies any behaviour. It is as we Yoruba's say that what family members know as an illness is just sheer madness to outsiders. No country will ever vote into power anyone who is characterised as hating the very government he seeks. The funniest thing here is that Minister Farakhan who was directly denounced by Senator Obama had the wisdom not to make himself the news thereafter but Dr Wright was too seduced by the need to be right and in fact righteous that he has now created a lose-lose firestorm for Senator. It reminds me of the old Story of Ida and his master/ mentor who originally was given him as a slave but brought him up as his son. One day the King invited the master/mentor and as usual he had Ida with him. they were both feted as father and son as usual with everyone congratulating such a fine and well behaved young man . Ida started drinking heavily and he shortly started speaking loudly until he gave out the secret that he was originally a slave. His master was humiliated and exiled , ida once again became a slave. In my version Dr Wright like Ida does not have the wisdom to keep his mouth shut. Shame

Ire O