Changing the Nigerian Spyche

Emeka, a close friend of mine, who once attended a foreign training where participants from different countries also attended. During the cause of the programme, as they were having lunch one particular day, a co-participant from India called Rajev, knowing Emeka is a Nigerian, asked him if he had noticed that the loudest in the class are Nigerians. "They ask more questions, comment the most on issues, but obiously understand very little about the subject under discussion because they spend most of their time talking, and during test, they make the lowest grades," Rajev said. 

Haven't you ever thought of why we are so loud and noisy, and always in a hurry, rushing to nowhere? We are always looking for short cuts and like cutting corners. We always aspire to be the one that gets that job opportunity by all means, even when we are the least qualified for the job, and always wanting to be on top, but never taking the pain to go through  the mills to achieve excellence. We want to win every contest even if we have to cheat to do so. That is the reason why we often field over-aged players in our youths tournaments yet we never perform well. Parents often rush their children through school, skipping classes and changing school just to be ahead and graduate early enough to move on to higher education.

Despite all the rush and hurry, we always find ourselve performing disappointingly in almost every aspect of our lives. Take our traffic situation for instance. You find car driving recklessly and driving on walk ways, taking one way, climbing culvets, break all speed limits just to beat the traffic and at the end, they end up crashing their cars or get arrested by the traffic offices, therefore loosing even more time and encurring cost of repairs both of their own vehicles and the other car, and even paying fines for traffic offences.

We need to stop this mad rush to nowhere. We have to retrace our steps because, we are getting everything wrong. Our educational system is wrong, our health care system is terrible, the security agencies are under-performing and the political structures are in shamble. The trader in the market is not left out of this embarrasing social degeneration. Traders often stock fake and substandard products and sell for the price of geniune ones.

Our artisans and apprenticeship training structure which used to be reliable and strong in the past, has degenerated. Half baked drop-outs are all over the place. From hairstylist, vulcernizers, mechanics to tailors can hardly provide quality services to the public. These quacks are now the ones training our young apprentices, thereby passing half-baked knowledge to these set of young Nigerians. Things are so bad that, many employers of labour look outside Nigeria to recruit technicians and labour workers.

Our own people, apart from lacking the pre-requisite skills, also are not trust-worthy. As they have been found to be involved in un-wholesome practices in the workplace.

I am still wondering why we like to shunt, yet always getting late. There is something fundamentally wrong that we need to address. We are all looking up to the government for this social re-engineering. But the sad thing is that the government too is neck-deep in this quicksand of shame and are themselves also struggling to remain relevant in the national polity. How could a government engrossed with so much problems and confussion have the time to notice these social vices grinding the nation into a halt, while other countries are making rapid growth and are progressing.

The power to change our situation lies in our hands. We most endeavour to always select the right candidates to represent us in political offices, starting from the primaries to the actual elections. We must always vote only tested and trusted contestants because there lies our hope for a better future and a strong and united Nigeria.

The Street Soldiers

After a whole day in the traffic, racing and shunting with a poly bag packed full of assorted soft drinks weighing over 50 litres, Chike reclined at the roadside kerb, one hand over his packed drinks, and his chin resting on the other, exhausted from the heat of the sun and the weight and exertion from chasing moving vehicles in traffic back and forth, trying to sell his products.

"Another bad day", Chike sat there, pondering. Sales had been very poor again today, after a long week. On a Friday and the day, far spent, Chike is worried about how he will provide for his family back home.

This is reminiscent of the life of a hawker on every street all around the country. There are hundreds of thousands of them clustering the corners of our streets and in traffic on highways trying to heck out a living selling items ranging from groundnuts, handkerchief to cheap immitation electronic gadgets.

The very sight of such large numbers of grown adult in traffic hawking just to make a living fills me with fear. I am afraid because I imagine how much profit can come out of selling oranges in a day. Maybe a few hundreds of Naira, for all that work in the hot scourging sun.

We hear stories of car owners being robbed of their valuables in traffic, and the unfortunate onces dispossessed of their cars, beaten up or sometimes murdered. Security reports have often times, warned road users of crimes perpetuated by hawkers in designated black spots around the country.

They are hawkers during the day and at night they turn to street orchins. The verocity and brutal manner they go about dispossessing car owners and pedestrians of their belongings, shows that they are a very big threat to society.

Armed with cutlasses and guns, these hudlums are not afraid of even armed security personnels. In some notorious areas, the Police take extra caution when confronting them. They are more or less street soldiers.

Sometimes, I look at the faces of these hawkers in traffic, and all you see is anger, and they are not hesitant to vent their anger on unsuspecting road users. I wonder how easy it would be for men of the underworld to recruit these guys. Giving the large number of strong young men lurking around the streets ready to do anything to make a living. I am therefore not surprised how criminal gangs are able to assemble large groups of young men of up to fifty or more in number during a single robbery operation.

These elements pose a big threat to lives and property in our towns and cities, and are indeed a serious security risk to the nation. If things are left the way they are presently, the security situation will get worse and there will be more violent crimes carried out in our towns and cities.

Urgent redress is inevitable. The immediate introduction of a systematic method of taking these young men and women off the streets should commence. Firstly, the Labour department should take a censors of unemployed youths to ascertain the number of unemployed persons in the country, before progressing to actual creation of jobs to remove them from the streets.

To make urgent and meaningful impact, a massive recruitment exercise must be carried out by the federal and state governments, in areas such as agriculture, construction and manufacturing. Other employment channels in the ministries and government parastatals should be opened to graduates, particularly from the NYSC scheme.

We are Better of United, Than Break Up

There are very many people who feel strongly that there will not be peace until the country disintegrate. While some are pushing for the creation of more States, believing that it will bring about peace, economic independence and development, other extremists are agitating for secession. On both side of the divide, the considerations are very strong. Some want greater autonomy of the federating States while others want outright self determination.

In theory, it may appear justifiable and possible to implement, but in practice, it will lead to anachy and division. The same imbalance experenced by the different tribes and sections in the society today will continue and will mutate into small cells conflicts amongst disgruntled and dissatisfied communities in these new autonomous nation States.

It is paramount that even if the country is divided into 36 different entities, it will never bring about stability, rather there will be strife and agitations of the minorities ethnic groups within these new independent States.

We do not want to visit the past and start recounting the ugly experiences that occured as a result of some parts of the country attempting to secced. The civil war, of course is still fresh in our minds. The castigation and extermination, by the federal government, of the Ogoni freedom fighters, lead by Ken Saro Wiwa can not be easily forgotten. Why do we have to spill more innocent blood agitating, when self-determination on its own, does not profer a solution.

The solution to Nigeria unity is not in secession, self-determination nor division, rather, all these will only result in the multiplication of the problems currently plaquing the country, and this will lead to a broader regional insecurity. Apparently, the solution lies in good governance, justice, fare and equitable distribution of our national wealth, which will in turn bring about peace, reintegration and development.

Early in the 18th century, the American society experienced many brutal conflicts. First between the American settlers and native Indians. Later came the slave trade, a bitter period of crime against the black race. Even as efforts were made to end this inhuman trade of persons, several groups kicked against ending the lucrative trade at the time, leading to the emergence of white supremacy groups such as the notorious Clu-Clux-Clan that went around executing and burning black families and setting fire on their homes and farm lands.

Today, America is united and stronger because of the introduction of the rule of law, which discouraged racism, sectionalsim and propagated peace, justice and equality of all men before the law.

The solution to Nigeria's unity is therefore by introducing the rule of law and de-emphazing tribalism, sectionalsim and separating religion from the State. Rule of law will foster peace and justice, equality and verile society. The country will be  stronger and united as one indivisible entity.

When I Become the President

 

Man does not live by bread alone



As a child who grew up in the village, I saw chickens cry to their chicks to take cover every time the kite shows up. It is the same way the tug boat is feared by farmers who called out to their farm partners to paddle close to the river bank to avoid sinking by the high waves of the tug boat.

The tug boat is designed specially to move and carry heavy duty oil company equipment and barges around the creeks of Niger Delta. These boats have tremendous engine capacity so powerful that they are used to help turn around large vessels in the harbor. On top speed, the tug boat can create waves of over four feet high and enough to instantly sink any canoe on its path.

Farmers returning from their farms and whose canoes were loaded to the brim with farm produce and firewood, are often the victims. When the time approaches 4:00 O’clock in the evening time, families and especially children, start gathering in the water front, waiting to welcome their parents from the farm and to assist them in off-loading their farm produce.

On one sad and unforgettable day, my mother, like most other women, set off in the morning to the farm to harvest her yam farm in readiness for the feasting and fishing festival just a few days away, and was paddling upstream back home with her boat loaded to the brim with firewood and yam. The practice usually is for farmers to paddle very close to the bank when returning from the farm, so that if the waves become too violent, they can berth and wait until the waves subsides. And they continue this way until they get right opposite their family quarters in the town before making a quick final dash across.

And on this day, as my mother makes this final dash and was approaching the middle to the river, the thunderous zoom of the tug boat covered the air and behold the boat was approaching on high speed, and as was customary with them, they will never slow down. And there was my mother, looking confused and scared. You can see women at the water from in the town raising their hands over their heads, while the young active men jumped into any available canoe, losing and trying to hurry to provide any form of help.

You can see the giant waves as the tug boat approached, and instantaneously without thinking, I dived into the river, as if trying to loose a canoe will be too much waste of time, and started swimming towards her. I have barely made three strokes when the humming boat sped past, and as if the boat swallowed my mother and her canoe, she disappeared with the waves into the river.

Stick in hand, one step to the right and then another frightened step backward; as if the first was a bad move, fumbling and groping with both hands and feet like a blind man without a helper. I woke up from a dream, in the dead of the night, in a room so dark I had to reach out with my hands to find the lantern. The lantern went off as there was no oil in it. I reached out to the window, exactly as it was in the dream. My eyes wide open, and sleep nowhere near my eyes.

So many things ran through my mind, I am really worried, more for my people than for myself. When will this oppression stop?  I stood by the window, looking out to the riverside and beyond the mangrove palms across the Nule River not too far away was the glow from somewhere not too far away.

I kept staring at what appears to be a horizon from flaring gas. I stood there holding back my tears from my eyes. How can I be so richly endowed, yet be so poor? Oil is called the black gold, and eyes shot away from the thatch hut grandfather left behind, which provide shelter for me and members of my family I could see the wicked exploit of our resources.

I will be graduating from the University with a Bachelor of Sciences in Mathematics. I planned to work in the oil sector. It won’t be too difficult to get a job there provided I come out with good grade, I wished.

Its 1:30 a.m., eyes still ajar, I have to read for at least two hours before dawn. Exams are at 9:00 a.m., and I have to try and catch some sleep before dawn as well. Where am I going to get oil to keep my lantern burning? It’s too late in the night to even find a candle to buy. I raised my head and the flame from the flare in the nearby oil field depresses me. I can’t even oil my lantern despite the abundance being flared to waste, not even to talk about providing electric power for the indigent communities.

 History has it that when the slave masters came to our land, our leaders gave out the strongest of our men and the most beautiful of our women in exchange for gun powder and mirror. That was then, but now our leaders trade oil for bride money, fat foreign accounts and visas for their families to sojourn abroad to experience the good life and dine in the same table with the slave masters. There has not been much change since the time of our great grandfather.

I hate travelling by boat. Four hours of rocking and splashing through the waves shivering from the cold breeze from the early morning dew. Sitting five in a row in a tightly packed wooden bench, that hurts your butt as though there is sore from the extreme long hours of sitting still.

I will be lucky to catch the first bus to Lagos. Thank God the buses don’t get filled up early in the Lagos Park. I will be staying with my uncle in Lagos during my service, and I will be hoping to secure a place in one of the oil companies. I heard that oil companies are a very closely nested environment where senior management staff secures every available vacant spaces for their wards and relations.

For five years now uncle Joe has been hoping that he would be converted to a staff having read geology with a 2, 1 from the university of Port Harcourt. The oil companies have their offices in Abuja and Lagos with operational bases in secluded communities and offshore. These companies are dominated by people outside the oil communities. Success comes painstakingly in a hostile environment.

They say indigenes often do not have the pre-requisite qualification and skills, but I know uncle Joe has. I have heard him say that it is difficult for him to be absorbed into full staff because there are very few junior level and a couple mid-level staff from the oil producing states in oil companies, most of which has little on influence and are often intimidated by the share number and more influential superiors who are from non-oil producing regions.

What is happening now is economic slavery. It is a case of government trading our resources in connivance with foreign trading partners, who would only invest in no other sector than the oil industry, and that is because of the substantial returns they make from the sector.

One day when I become the president of this country, all these issues would be addressed. For now, I just want my uncle to be given a respectable job so that he can earn a decent living. As for me, I have nobody to look up to for assistance in securing a place for me in my service year. But I am confident that if I am given a fair chance and allowed to compete with others, I certain that I will come out successful.

If wishes where horses, I would not have been in this abandoned oil producing community thinking about oil for my lantern, while gas is been flared across the river.

Why do I have to grope in the dark when electricity is on 24/7 on right across the river? Why do I have to travel for five hours by boat when oil companies in my community fly workers in by choppers? Why do I have to be unemployed because I do not have my tribe’s men in the oil companies? Why must I suffer from the effects of spill and yet not be considered a place to earn a decent living from oil production? Why are our leaders not recognizing that they are making the same mistake our fore-fathers made during the slave trade era? Why, why and why are the oil companies hostile to the people from whose land they benefit so much?

When I become the president, will seek answers to these and many other questions.

By March Oyinki

The 419 Scourge - Symptoms of a Failed Nation

We live in a society heavily burdened with notoriety -- advance fee fraud (419 – referring to a section of the criminal code relating to advance fee fraud), corruption, bad governance, human right abuse, child trafficking, drug trafficking, money laundering, cannibalism, female genital mutilation, armed robbery, ritual killings, religious riots, the list is endless. These negativities coupled with poor infrastructure, has deprived us of trust and respect from the international community.

The eradication of the enigma known as 419, which has eaten so deeply into the marrows of our society, and has caused us so much damage it requires more than just the efforts of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to win this battle. The entire society, the lawmakers, the judiciary, the higher institutions, and the church, everyone needs to be involved in this war against advance fee fraud. We are paying too much a price from their criminal activities. It’s time we turn that resources around to fight them.

Every society has its fair share of societal ills. There always bad and good going side by side. Those who are perpetuating evil, afflicting the innocent, the unsuspecting and frail members of society with grief for their parochial and selffish pursuit of power and riches, do live amongst us. Thieves they say, steal from only people they know.

When a person you have never met suddenly sends you a business proposal involving large amount of money, be wary nine out of ten will turn out to be fraud. They come pretending to be a helpers, and in the process, you end up helping them with all you have sadly sometimes, some people pay with their lives.

I have learnt never to trust strangers, and I am careful in my dealings with them. This indeed is my first rule of life – ‘A stranger is not your neighbour to be loved as thy self.’ Perpetrators of this crime, go about collecting information about their potential victims.

My personal experience:


It is said that it is the greedy and careless that often fall victim of 419. That to some extent is true, but, the perpetrators of this crime are highly skilled, and they use modern communication gadgets. It is sometimes so convincing you are forced to believe their lies. In my case, they went as far a re-routing a call through Taiwan, and the number displayed on my phone, showed that the call is actually coming from Taiwan. They even spoke with Taiwanese accent.

Some of those who are involved in advance fee fraud are very rich and highly respected people in society. They are also well connected, and have collaborators even in EFCC. That is why we need to fight this scourge with all we have, so that we can regain the trust of the international community, which will make life easy for everyone once again.

It all started with an email from someone who called himself Matthew Choung Lin, claiming to be a Rotarian from Taiwan. He said he got my name from the Rotary International Directory, and as a “fellow Rotarian” he prefers doing business with me.

He is the President of Export Solutions Inc. and is interested in buying garnet stones from a dealer in Nigeria. He has approached the Nigerian Embassy in Taiwan, and they gave him the contact information of a dealer in Abuja and helped with the initial contact to get him Mr. Lin a quote. But he prefers dealing with a ‘trust-worthy’ person such as myself, especially being that I am a Rotarian.

He then told me what he would want me to assist him with and gave me the contact name of the garnet dealer and his phone number. He wants me to
contact the dealer by the name of Emmanuel Okilo and to ascertain whether the products are available and to confirm the prices, which the Embassy in Taiwan helped to get. He offered paying all the expenses including phone and travel with additional 10% commission as their agent. Indeed, he said the board of his company have decided to appoint me as their representative if I offered to assist them with this purchase.

It looks acceptable to me at this point, so, I called up the Mr. Okilo, confirmed the product availability and actually got a price reduction and quickly pass the information to my ‘Fellow Rotarian’ and future business partner.

His reply was even more exciting, he offered to visit Nigeria in a week and make the purchase through me as their agent in Nigeria and Africa. All the legal papers will be signed when him and his team arrive Nigeria. After the signing, they will then release the money to me with which to purchase the garnet stones. To facilitate their travel, I should get from the dealer, International Exportation Code Number that they need to secure a visa. He requested for my contact information so that he can talk to me on phone, and I obliged.

Quickly again, I contact Mr. Okilo, who agreed to release the IECN, but said that it attracts a registration fee of $650 and my personal appearance in Abuja for sighting. But if business would not permit me to make the trip, I should send two passport photographs of myself through any of the night buses providing courier services. The money he said I can send through money transfer from a local Bank. At this point, he triggered my alertness.

Engineer Choung Lin kept calling to receive updates, and at one point, asked me if I am married and have children. I said yes and told him the number of children I have. He then offered to bring for my family some gifts when he arrives Nigeria. That evening, I sent him an email telling him what Mr. Okilo said, and asked what he would do?

He replied saying I should just get him the IECN if possible by that same evening, and reassured me that the company is willing to off-set all expenses on his arrival. But if I decide not to continue with this purchase, I should let him know so that he can ask his other contacts to assist with the purchase.

Now, I was expected to send the registration fee. Mr. Okilo, the garnet dealer, kept calling. At this point, I knew I had to do something to stop them. And that is exactly what I did. I sent an email to Mr. Matthew Choung Lin requesting that he send me his Rotary ID number, club registration number and meeting venue. I also told him I have commenced a background investigation on Mr. Emmanuel Okilo to ascertain the genuineness of his operations. After that email, as if there was a power cut, they seized communicating with me.

Intellectual Property Infringement in Nigeria

Intellectual property owners in Nigeria gathered at the National Theatre during a protest rally displaying placards. The practitioners made up of musicians, actors, writers etc. are embarking on what they described as hunger strike which they claim will continue until they get the attention of government.

The protesters are calling for the short-down of Alaba International market in Western Nigeria, which it is believed remains the single largest international piracy cartel in sub-Saharan Africa. As part of their protest, high powered delegation will be sent to the National Assembly in Abuja. They also announced a plan to ask all radio and television stations nation-wide to stand-down all music programs for twelve hours starting from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. This action is too driving in the importance of music in our lives.

This is the first time ever that such a large gathering of intellectual property owners have come together to protest against copyright abuse.

These Nigerians deserve the support of every Nigerian and the authorities. I appeal to the National Assembly to receive their protest letter with open mind and work towards addressing the issues raised. I also believe the international intellectual property owners and producers should give their support to this new effort because it is for the protection of the interest of both local and international intellectual property rights.

It is imperative to consider the claim by intellectual property owners that this industry is bigger than the oil industry in terms of revenue generation. This makes the sector one to reckon with. This means that government stand to benefit if the industry is developed and the appropriate controls are put in place. Government can raise huge tax revenue from music, software, movies, books etc.

It is therefore pertinent to remind us that while we are protesting and craving for better controls and management of the industry, it should be made clear that we should be ready to pay taxes on these intellectual property materials as well as our personal tax returns. That is how government can directly benefit.

Rebranding Nigeria Project

Beddes and Grosset Webster define brand as trademark; a particular make or kind of goods. Therefore, branding is essentially about products; and a communications function of design, packaging and publicity.

The Nigeria rebranding project therefore is out of focus and faulty and requires urgent redefinition of the entire process. Rebranding in the context of the Nigeria experience should focus on our national identity, which in this instance are our products. Our national identity includes and not limited to our national anthem, flag, name of country, currency, crest and emblems, uniforms of our police and armed forces, our national colours etc.

It is after the completion of the rebranding process that publicity and public relations commences. It is during this process that image laundering, and to put more aptly, 'social re-engineering' can be introduced. As it is practiced now, we are simply putting the cart before the horse. We need to re-align the process with international best practices.

Popular opinion is against the 'Rebranding Nigeria' project as it is currently practiced. Though 'social re-engineering' should be an integral part of the rebranding project, it is believed that the process of governance should be seen to have purged itself of its bad past of corruption, lack of integrity and bad governance, which have been identified as the root cause of our slow development, youths restiveness, incessant strike actions and sectionalism in the body polity.

The Ministry of Information is currently expending tremendous time, resources and energy in driving the rebranding project. They mean well but their energy is directed at a totally wrong concept. With just a little process re-definition, I believe they will get it right.

Quelling Militancy in Post Amnesty Niger Delta

The success of the amnesty programme of President Musa Yar Adua is not in question any more. What is in question however, is the fear of skeptics of the sincerity of the federal government in delivering its post amnesty pledges. It is also true that government largesses are not keeping quiet about government good intentions for the people of the Niger Delta.

The recent federal government pronouncement that ten percent of oil derivation will be given to oil producing communities was received with a lot of excitement by people from the South South region and by followers of the Niger Delta crisis. Causing even more excitement is the federal government intent to include this ten percent derivation policy to oil producing communities in the Petroleum Industry Bill currently in the National Assembly.

All hail President Yar Adua. “PDP – progress for the people.’ For once in more than twelve years since the party came into existence, have they been seen to be doing the right thing. Good as it may look, there are questions about this federal government pronouncement of relinquishing to the oil producing communities a whopping ten percent of oil revenue. The question is, which community falls under the classification of 'oil producing?

I was just wondering how the oil companies under the GMoU arrangement are able to categorise communities in the Niger Delta as oil and non-oil producing communities. If a particular community is given a development grant based on the premise that an oil company operates in their home land, what happens to the many other communities which suffers from oil spills, destruction of farmlands, aquatic and marine lives, and pollution of their source of clean drinking water?

I can not understand the logic whereby you give money to community A as oil producing, whereas community X, Y,Z gets nothing and yet suffers from the effects of oil producing activities in its neighborhood. A situation such as this is bound to spell doom.  Obviously, the so called ‘oil producing’ communities will be happy, the oil companies will enjoy relative sporadic peace from beneficiary communities, but other non-oil producing communities suffering from the effects of oil production activities which are not beneficiaries of such grants from oil companies and the federal government will be agitated.

A larger proportion of the restive youths in the Niger Delta who are now fighting in the creeks are actually from the so called ‘non-oil producing communities. Both the oil companies and the federal government should know that there is a big price to pay if this issue of ten percent derivation to oil producing communities is not well managed.  The situation may degenerate into intra-communal clashes leading to a retraction of militants to the creeks.

The success or failure of the post amnesty programme largely depends on how the oil companies and indeed the federal government is able to structure the distribution of the ten percent derivation to oil producing communities. 

Nigeria Will Not Be 'Fool At 50'

Happy Independence Day! I celebrate with you as Nigeria clocks 49 years. We have a few things to be happy about and celebrate. Surely, we can celebrate one Nigeria. At least we can still say we are one 'indivisible' entity. I am not celebrating accomplishment, but us, because you and I are still one family. We have passed through thick and thin, and have had our differences and engaged in several battles. But today, 49 years after, we stand strong as one 'happy' family. Kudos! You deserve more and I believe in the coming years you will earn your deserved rewards.

There is a bright future ahead of us and there is great hope that together we can make it. Let us remain one family and relinquish religious bigotry, sectarianism and tribal divisions. It is only by so doing that we can take head-on the very many opulent challenges before us.

The need to redress our developmental concerns should be the focus as we strive to strengthen this luscious family of ours and tackle the poor power supply situation. Provide good medicare programmes and upgrade our medical facilities. Construct roads and build bridges. Produce enough food to feed our families. Introduce quality education for our sibling and effective transportation system. Provide clean drinkable water and conducive living environment, and most of all, free and fair electoral process that will promote equity and justice.

These goals are attainable and I indeed strongly believe so. But, we must be united in one purpose, to strengthen our resolve to make this great Nigeria family one truly indivisible one that every one of us will cherish and guide jealously. As we look ahead to the future, I wish you good health, wisdom and patience. You can always count on my support.

Finally, don't forget that we have common enemies, and we must support all efforts to eliminate them. Key amongst them are corruption, bad governance, electoral fraud, 419 scam, child abuse and human trafficking, and not forgetting armed robbery and assignations.

Again, wishing you God's blessing.

Happy Independence Day!

Missiles on Wheels

Sadly, only a couple of weeks ago, I lost a close family friend in a ghastly car crash along the Lekki - Epe expressway, involving a commercial vehicle,  whose driver, probable drunk and driving without head lamps, ran across the road to the other side of the road, causing a head-on collision with her official vehicle.

Every day, we see many commercial vehicles and tipper trucks, driving along the Lekki Expressway without head lamps at night.  I have seen a big truck drive on this road with two of its rear tires completely absent, and was rolling on bear reams. Believe it or not, the road safety officials are all over the place. Whether they themselves see these things or not is not left for me to say.

Another very dangerous practice by commercial bus drivers along the Lekki - Ajah axis, is that they disconnect the fuel tank of their vehicle and use a plastic container which they keep at the booth of the vehicle with a hose connected directly to the engine.  This same vehicle transport school children and workers and some lapping the other.  Obviously, this vehicle is a dynamite waiting to explode.

The rate of accidents on the Lekki - Epe expressway is worrisome. The authorities are completely overwhelmed and appear to be helpless while we loose our loved ones to car accidents on a daily basis. The lack of government presence in the Lekki Peninsula axis is very visible, and it time for government to increase it presence.

I am also calling on the traffic agencies to be more committed to their duties and take up the challenge of safe-guarding the lives of our loved ones and family members who ply this route and patronize these commercial vehicles daily.

Let there be Peace in Bayelsa

It is a pity and indeed shameful that Bayelsans are busy fighting themselves while other States are pushing development with all vigour. The same thing happened during the Awolowo - cocoa era. While Awo was busy developing the West, other regions were busy engaging in political wrangling.

Let us be wise and stop fighting. We should concentrate and seek ways of developing Bayelsa State. Presently, States like Lagos, Aqua Ibom, Cross Rivers, Enugu and some others are focused and are busy developing their towns and cities, and here we are busy fighting.





The time will come again in future as it is now, when we have to give account of what we did with the resources available to us now. As usual with Nigerians, then, shall we again start putting the blame on the federal government? We have every opportunity now to move our people forward in the political, economical and fiscal arenas.





I really pity us, because, I hear all kinds of degradating comments about how "we like enjoyment too much," "we are lazy people," "we are illitrates," "we are trouble makers," so on and so forth. Really, when you pause and look at how our people behave, how we manage our resources, and how we run the government of the State, you can not but wonder whether all these negative lies and not true afterall.





Are we really serious at all? Bayelsans, let us be wise. Let us stop the fighting now. We should rather focus our energies on other areas. We should for instance capitalize on the Amnesty programme, and start deploying effectively the resources of the State and massively develope our infrusture with the seriousness it deserve.





Individual wealth will not get us anywhere. Personal wealth dies when you the owner passes away, but infrastructure remains as a legacy for our children. We should drop ergoism, selfishness and party differences and we should all put our hands on the plow without looking back.





We can not always be the back benchers in the affairs in the Nigeria federation. Now is the time to make a change. Peace to all Bayelsans and happy holidays.

Why Are Media Houses in Distress?

The emergence of new media in modern communications has lead to the development of wide ranging applications and opportunities in the ICT environment globally.

In Nigeria however, the impact of new media in our local media is greatly masked by the ineptitude of employers to provide adequate incentives to practitioners, who are poorly remunerated and often owed back log of salaries.

The implication of this is the lack of interest by new media practitioners to seek gainful employment in media houses and therefore unable to contribute to the expected growth and development of the practice in the sector and the country at large.

Until employers and other stake holders in the media industry pay adequate attention to these concerns, the expected positive impact and economic growth the country stand to benefit will continue to be elusive.

Though this is arguable, the truth however is that a lot of media houses worldwide are already paying the price for not embracing new media. Many are shutting down because they cannot keep-up with competition and are unable to key in and deploy new media technology in their operations.

Essentially and without over-emphasizing the fact, our local media houses are responsible for the dearth in new media practice in the country.

Power Supply, Key to Malaria Prevention

Malaria is transmitted by mosquito, a tiny blood sucking, desperate and often annoyingly noisy insect particularly around the ears.  Malaria is the number one killer of children in Nigeria and a major cause of weakness and fewer in adults. Malaria is traced to the cause of poor performance of the general work force and low productivity in mosquito infested environments.

Efforts by researchers in Nigerian universities and drug manufacturers have not yielded any appreciable result in the prevention and treatment of malaria. The national rate of malaria infection is still very high. Malaria control still remains a challenge in Africa where 45 countries, including Nigeria, are classified as malaria endemic regions, and about 588 million people are said to be at risk, according to the WHO, World Malaria Report 2008.

Nigeria is visibly the focus of global efforts aimed at eradicating this deadly malaria parasite. The recent disbandment by the federal government of Nigeria of chloroquine, a popular anti-malaria drug commonly used for the treatment of malaria, and introducing in its place, new sets of drug called artesunate, artemisinin, artemether and lumefantrin as substitutes. This is a major research effort by Nigeria universities and scientists to eliminate the deadly malaria parasite currently ravaging the region.

As research efforts continue to produce new discoveries of better and more effective malaria drugs, we should not also ignore alternative and traditional malaria prevention methods. The campaign for the use of mosquito treated nets has not gaining wide spread acceptance, particularly in the urban cities because of the claim that it causes heat and heat rashes for children which is a result of poor power supply. There are not very many homes that use mosquito treated nets as a result.

Most urban dwellers prefer closing their windows, particularly at night and keeping their air-conditioning system or electric fans on through the night to keep mosquitoes away. This is a very effective method of preventing malaria infection, because the breeze from the air-conditioning system or electric fan blows away the mosquitoes thereby preventing it from perching.

This unconventional method is cheap and bio-friendly, but requires constant supply of electricity for it to be effective. It becomes expensive if power is provided by an individual through power generating sets. Therefore, it is imperative for the federal government and research institutes include power supply to  homes as an integral part of the malaria elimination campaign in both rural dwellings as well as in the urban areas of the country.

I am therefore calling on the World Health Organization, Unicef and all other local and international agencies in the forefront of efforts toward the eradication of malaria in African to increase pressure on the federal government of Nigeria to hasten efforts towards improving electricity supply.

Pull Down The Wall

Nigerians from all parts of the country, across sectoral, cultural, religious and political divides are strongly against any form of separation or division of the federation. The scares of the Odumegwu Ojukwu led Biafra civil war is still very fresh in our memory.

Insinuations recently by Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi calling for a split of Nigerian into Christian south and Muslim north was largely seen as repulsive and condemnable. Federal government’s spontaneous reaction and recall of the Ambassador to Libya Alhaji Aliu Mohammed, was supported by both Christian and Muslim leaders.

Obviously, Nigerians want to remain as one indivisible entity. However, there are calls for a sovereign national conference to bring about a truly federal constitution. Nigeria is regarded by a school of thought as a mere ‘geographical expression” of the British Colonial masters, brought about by the amalgamation of the north and south when leadership was conceded to the Muslim north under Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa. The British Colonialist did not follow a genuine process of unification as there was no call for a referendum therefore the absense of a consensus amongst the federating regions. This lack of sincerity of purpose on the part of the colonial masters and the lack of consensus by the different sections in the Nigerian state left us as strange bed fellows.

Nigeria is made up of diverse religious, tribal, sectional and political groupings. The killings in March 2010 of over 500 children, women and the elderly in a village in Jos Plateau in Northern Nigeria, by suspected Fulani hardsmen, was suspected to have religious inclinations. The United Nations constituted investigation into the killings fearing possible genocide.

It has become more imperative for us to seek a permanent solution to the frequent riots and clashes amongst different tribes, religious groups  in the country. It is important for us to also start to de-emphasizing those things that causes separation amongst us and consolidate those things that brings us together as a people.

The promotion of one Nigeria by the National Orientation Agency and the Rebranding Nigeria Project along cultural and political lines should be given prominence. Those attributes that tend to divide us should be masked and relegated.

For Nigeria to remain as one indivisible nation, the contraption called ‘three major tribes’ should be eliminated from our body polity. Emphasis should be on majority vote and not majority tribe. This will effectively detribalize the polity. Same applies to religion. Government should stop using tax payers money to fund religion. Rather, it should fund a new cultural revolution aimed at promoting the unity of all tribes and cultures.

Recent accusations leveled against Multi-Choice’s African Magic channel by the Igbo Youths Congress that the network is marginalizing the Igbos by not showing their local movies while giving Hausa and Yoruba films considerable prominence. Such agitations are solemn pointers to this demon called ‘three major tribe. The separation of a people along tribal lines stirs up nothing but conflicts and distrust amongst the people.

You can envisage what will happen when Multi-Choice creates an Igbo channel, people from other parts of the country will start their own agitation as well, and we will never get to the bottom of it. The solution to this, I believe is the creation of a single Movie Magic channel that broadcast films from all parts of the country regardless of region, provided they meet the required standards.

Nigeria needs to step up. I advocate a new ‘One Nigeria’ campaign that will promote peace and justice amongst the. Creating a truly one-people, one-nation ideology whereby we will no longer count tribes but votes. A new society whereby the Muslim and the Christian will become equal. Let us create an harmonious society devoid of acrimony and rancor.

When East and West Germany wanted to unify, one of the most impactful of all the things they did to achieve their reunification was the historic pulling-down of the Berlin Wall. What are our own Berlin Walls that we need to pull down?

If Nigeria were to be a man

If Nigeria were to be a man, he would live in a one room wooden ramshackle in Gbondu waterfront in Port Harcourt, with no toilet, no ventilation, and in a mud-filled, garbage littered pedestals that can not take even a bicycle. Yet he would have a satellite dish hunged over his roof of rusty dilapidated metal sheets and a hummer jeep parked out on the streets.

A weird mixture of poverty and affluence is what you see all around you, under the bridge at Ojuelegba, you see families so poor they receive alms even from beggars. They can neither feed nor afford the rent of a single room even in the slums of Ajegunle. Their children, some of school age, roam the streets begging for alms in the heavy traffic, running after flashy luxury cars, often wound-up and driven by people living in high-brew areas the likes of Ikoyi and Lekki.

This unhealthy cacophony of extreme poverty and flamboyance in our towns and cities all around the country is infuriating at the least, and can be attributed to the vexation being expressed by these deprived population in the form of brutal robberies, militancy,  kidnapping and aggression towards those perceived to be the ‘rich’ in the society, and who are often accused of amassing illegal wealth through corruption, importation of fake and substandard products or outright stealing from government treasury.

Though these extremely affluent people are often fenced out by high perimeter estate walls or live in exclusive government reserved areas with security everywhere. And very often the poor share the same neighbourhood, ride on the same road, shop in the same market and suffer the effects of the same poor infrastructure such as power, water, roads and healthcare. It is impossible to separate the rich from the poor.

Nigeria's increasing poverty profile is not out of lack of resources but bad governance and corruption. The causes of poverty in Nigeria are well known and the consequential challenges are shared evenly by both the rich and the poor. Having known the problems, what is expected is to find solutions to these challenges. To the amazement of all, we even know the solutions, but the big worry is no one seems to be committed to effecting this change.

In reminding us of the solutions, good government will take the front burner. Equal rights and justice comes next. The later is very crucial to the survival of the nation as it determines our basic freedom and liberties. De-tribalizing our body polity is essential create mutual respect and peaceful co-existence amongst the various tribes in Nigeria.

It is evident that the ills of the society can be corrected by fighting and rebellion but by the re-engineering of our social disposition and laws governing us. The constitution we operate was impossed on us and was never constituted by the people taking cognisance of our diverse social, religious, cultural and ethnic interest. That needs to be done if we need to enjoy enduring peace and harmony.

I am therefore strongly in support of the review of the constitution in view of the agitations and calls by pro-democracy groups for a sovereign national conference, as against insistence by government for the constitution to be reviewed by the National Assemble. I recommend a combination of both by way of the submission of referandums by pro-democracy groups and the various regional groupings to the national assembly for compilation and review through a public deliberation which will give the various groups the opportunity to defend their proposals.

The outcome of such a deliberation will produce a mutual document that can now become a bill called ‘the review of the Nigeria Constitution Bill 2010.” It is only when this bill is passed into law that we can claim to have a New Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.

Peace is what strenghtens a nation, war destroys it. In the heat of the struggle and agitations, let us remember our goal – one indivisible and virile nation, where peace and justice reign.

Solution to Fuel Subsidy Removal Impasse

The positions of the organised labour and civil society groups are quite clear and it is that government must revert to status quo the fuel pump-price. On the other hand, government is insisting that they will go ahead with the subsidy removal. These two strong positions between labour and government have created the present impasse. As usual, when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers and it is the poor masses who are the ones caught in the cross-fire.

To put a stop to the pains already inflicted on the populace by the sharp and sudden increase in prices of every conceivable item in the marketplace as a result of the fuel subsidy removal by federal government, and also stop immediately the labour imposed stoppage of commercial activities and it attendant hardship on the citizenry.

It is in the respect that I propose a compromise plan that will redeem the impasse and meet half-way both positions by labour and government; drive down prices of goods and services to pre-January fuel subsidy removal announcement by President Goodluck Jonathan, and take the striking labour workers and civil society groups away from the streets to the board room for continuation of dialogue.

My Proposals:

1.     That with immediate commencement, the federal government should instruct the NNPC to sell fuel to all commercial vehicles that are branded and registered under the national road transport workers union at the old pump price of N65.00 per litre in all NNPC Mega Stations across the country.

2.      By implication, the traffic in the mega stations will increase and to curtail that, sale of fuel by the mega stations to private vehicles should seize until the proposed palliatives by government for the subsidy removal are implemented and operational.

3.      Because of the anticipated congestion of the existing few NNPC Mega Stations across the country, the federal government should designate certain strategically located privately-owned filling stations in different parts of the country as NNPC Sales points which will sell only to commercial vehicles.

4.      The federal government should put in place a process to check abuses and corrupt tendencies  that may arise from commercial vehicle owners and filling station management by developing a database application to capture vehicle chassis numbers from the vehicle license registration particulars.

The database will also provide figures of total sales by vehicles and compute total accrued subvention for a period to be reimbursed as transport subsidy to individual NNPC Mega Station of designate outlets.

5.      The petrol attendants should be equipped with smart pocket devices with which they can within a few seconds capture the vehicle chassis number before dispensing fuel. The device will alert the petrol attendant of attempts of multiple purchases by the same vehicle in any of the designated NNPC Mega Stations and designate sales points across the country.

6.      The smart devices and database application must be low cost and easily manageable. If the federal government implement this proposal, by the very next day the strike will be called off and commercial activities will resume. And in another two weeks fuel will be available again at the old pump price of N65.00 per litre to commercial vehicles and life will return to normal. By so doing, the government would have effective sustained the fuel subsidy removal from the downstream sector and transfer some of it to the transport sector.

This new arrangement will remain until the proposed palliatives of new refineries and turn-around maintenance of existing ones are completed, reduction of the size of government, pay cut and review of allowances of National Assembly members, and senior government officials; introduction of low-cost fuel efficient mass transit system and invigoration of the fight against corruption.