Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Lesson Notes From Niger Republic
So last week, the government of the Republic of Niger decided to increase salaries for all her workers in both the public and private sectors. But that isn’t even what got my attention; the prices of electricity and water were reduced for those citizens who were at the bottom of the ladder, precisely those who consume, for example, about 30 cubic meter of pipe borne water monthly.
A friend of mine from the country who works for the private sector was quite excited about it, as for me I was a bit amused by his sudden demeanor of contentment or even triumph, but then at the time I was only curious to know why the government offers huge subventions to civil societies, non-governmental organizations as well as Private Media.
Of course, in his state of delight, he told me that the government feels obligated to do so because all these organizations are only supporting the government’s efforts, and byextension , doing what the government should have been doing, which includes providing gainful employment for citizens! Although he looked satisfied with his exposition I managed to keep a straight face and keep my cynicism to myself but then it occurred to me! They now have crude oil!
There is more than meets the eye!!
You see, in spite of the hunger threats and low literacy levels that form part of the way of statistically indexing Niger, the citizens are anything but docile owing to the manner in which they fiercely challenge their government. Shortly before the “Nigerian fuel subsidy gate” a rancor broke out in Niger over fuel prices because the citizens thought the official pump price was too expensive and not affordable. They complained that as an oil producing country, products should be subsidized for them, but because the government had already seen the negative impact of subsidy in neighboring states it was adamant. Needless to say, the subsidy removal in Nigeria now became a blessing in disguise to the government, because the rancour stopped as quickly as it came after Nigeria increased her own pump price, but it is important to note the difference here, which is that the government still listened and was forced to provide another form of relief through salary increment and subsidized electric and water bills. Is somebody still clamoring for an increased minimum wage?
The current president Mouhamadou Issoufou came to power in 2011 although he had stood for election at every presidential race since 1993 until he succeeded. As an opposition leader, he forged an alliance with other opponents and together they won the confidence of the electorate until he came to power. Niger is becoming something of a fascination for me, so I find me self now trying hard as I can to adequately acquaint myself with the country whose economy is concentrated around subsistence agriculture and exports of uranium ore and which consistently scored at the lowest ranks [186th out of 187] of the United Nation’s Human Development Index.
Government provides incentives to all Organisation, Public and Private
I earlier mentioned that the private media receives money from the government, this is in addition to an annual assessment that the government carries out to gauge their performances after which they are givencash prizes to invest and expand their operations. This raises a question of media independence, but hard as it is to believe, reliable evidence shows that the media challenges the government to the extent that most of the reporters have at one time or the other faced threats of imprisonment, in the course of duty.
Part of the media independence is defined by the ease of entry into the industry, especially with regards to how easy it is to get the license to start up a media outfit. Until recently when the authorities started to collect an equivalent of 60, 000 naira as administrative charges, it had always been free. All these made it appear ludicrous to me to understand that media regulators in Nigeria collect over 5million Naira for license and still charge renewal fees.
Originally Published in Premium Times Newspaper
A friend of mine from the country who works for the private sector was quite excited about it, as for me I was a bit amused by his sudden demeanor of contentment or even triumph, but then at the time I was only curious to know why the government offers huge subventions to civil societies, non-governmental organizations as well as Private Media.
Of course, in his state of delight, he told me that the government feels obligated to do so because all these organizations are only supporting the government’s efforts, and by
There is more than meets the eye!!
You see, in spite of the hunger threats and low literacy levels that form part of the way of statistically indexing Niger, the citizens are anything but docile owing to the manner in which they fiercely challenge their government. Shortly before the “Nigerian fuel subsidy gate” a rancor broke out in Niger over fuel prices because the citizens thought the official pump price was too expensive and not affordable. They complained that as an oil producing country, products should be subsidized for them, but because the government had already seen the negative impact of subsidy in neighboring states it was adamant. Needless to say, the subsidy removal in Nigeria now became a blessing in disguise to the government, because the rancour stopped as quickly as it came after Nigeria increased her own pump price, but it is important to note the difference here, which is that the government still listened and was forced to provide another form of relief through salary increment and subsidized electric and water bills. Is somebody still clamoring for an increased minimum wage?
The current president Mouhamadou Issoufou came to power in 2011 although he had stood for election at every presidential race since 1993 until he succeeded. As an opposition leader, he forged an alliance with other opponents and together they won the confidence of the electorate until he came to power. Niger is becoming something of a fascination for me, so I find me self now trying hard as I can to adequately acquaint myself with the country whose economy is concentrated around subsistence agriculture and exports of uranium ore and which consistently scored at the lowest ranks [186th out of 187] of the United Nation’s Human Development Index.
Government provides incentives to all Organisation, Public and Private
I earlier mentioned that the private media receives money from the government, this is in addition to an annual assessment that the government carries out to gauge their performances after which they are given
Part of the media independence is defined by the ease of entry into the industry, especially with regards to how easy it is to get the license to start up a media outfit. Until recently when the authorities started to collect an equivalent of 60, 000 naira as administrative charges, it had always been free. All these made it appear ludicrous to me to understand that media regulators in Nigeria collect over 5million Naira for license and still charge renewal fees.
I am not aware of subventions given to NGOs in Nigeria but at the risk of sounding cynical, I am aware that health intervention programs for diseases like polio and tuberculosis might have come to stay because the more the intervention efforts increase, the more the diseases spread. Talk of how extremely difficult it is to secure counterpart funding for these projects from the government even when they have been budgeted for! This is what prompts us to cry until we get husky in the face of severe need but for which the donor agencies option has dried up.
There are cogent and crucial lessons to learn from Niger, and as a Kenyan proverb puts it, you don’t teach a grown up monkey how to climb a tree. I think it is either he knows how to climb or refuses to, or he never paid attention at the age he was supposed to have mastered the tricks of climbing the tree in the first place.Originally Published in Premium Times Newspaper
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Nigeria's real nation-building assets
As Albert Camus, the French-Turkish writer and journalist, notes: “Perhaps we cannot make this a world in which children do not suffer, but we can lessen the number of suffering children, and if you and I do not do this, who will?”
Taking our point of departure from education, especially as it concerns the training of the younger generation, I will argue upfront that there is no nobler preoccupation so crucial to building a nation. But look around you, gone are the days when education was education. As I write this, I find it difficult to articulate the depth of pain I feel that as glaring as the problem is, official recognition of the crux of this problem appears complicated, leaving one to the worrying displeasure that the prospect of redemption is hardly within sight.
Without over-drumming the relevance of education, whether academic or social, and byextension the importance of imparting knowledge on our vulnerable youth, it is disheartening to note that every single thing that is associated with the deteriorating state of our education is simplified in the code-word the “system”.
Starting from the foundations, Nigeria has struggled with a lot of educational programs which have only served as conduits to transfer money to corrupt political leaders and their allies. For example Universal Primary Education (UPE) born in 1976 met a premature death; Universal Basic Education (UBE) which is on-going might be suffering a terminal disease because it isn’t functioning as effective as it should.
Not very long ago, the government attributed the falling standard of education to shortage of qualified teachers. As Ogbeifum and Olisa opined in theVanguard online of July 1, 2001, about 23% of over 400,000 teachers employed in the nation’s primary schools do not possess the Teachers’ Grade Two Certificate, even when the National Certificate of Education (NCE) is the minimum educational requirement one should possess to teach in primary schools. Does anyone need a prophet to connect the dots that the result of this directly leads to producing half-baked students that could mean, by extension, a potential danger to our community?
Then there is the question of creating policy mirage. Looking at the federal budget for education from 2010 to 2012 illustrates this problem where we have a curious fluctuation because 2011 which was higher than 2010 and another dip in 2012, much lower than the two previous years, constructed to denote progress in the sector in terms of capital expenditure, but which in real terms translates nothing concretely in the physical development of educational infrastructure on the ground.
A brief tour of some primary schools will reveal the inhumane way children are taught, under trees, collapsing classrooms, or dilapidated school furniture, sometimes with a single complete block which apparently is only standing to bear, of course in a bold inscription, the logo of the donor organisation that funded the project.
A few weeks ago, the Academic Staff of Universities Union (ASUU) called off their indefinite strike action due to poor conditions of service, and students were excited about it, some resuming for the first time to study, others tired of the irritating pauses and in a haste to put the whole process behind them, this is without forgetting how difficult it was to secure the admission in the first place.
Imagine the human capacity loss during this long strike. Who is to be held accountable? It again boils down to class warfare against the poor. The uptown kids either school out of the country or pay heavily for the private schools to avoid strike action. The result then is with the products from our schools. Does the system assess quality well? How does it absolve them into productive sectors for effective management of resources? Do they simply glide into the work force of developed countries?
At the risk of sounding a little bit philosophical, the Brazilian born writer Paulo Coelho in his 2008 book, Brida, captures the essence of what we are missing in our mission to build a new man in this end of the wood. “Knowledge” he said “was always the power that kept the universe in its place…That was the glory of man- to nurture and maintain knowledge; he went on to understand agriculture and movements…”
Reading this, one cannot help but recognize the fault in the value system, as well as the disconnect between what we prioritize as “resource” and how we manage it. Does anyone need to remind us that our human resource is the greatest asset available to us and it is the only resource we can mold to our own advantage even when crude oil, the groundnut pyramids and the cocoa plantations fail? Inescapably, knowledge will provide the ultimate succor to the country’s sustainability.
The title of a recent article I saw on Premiumtimesnng.com reads: “Nigeria spends N4.8 billion on school fees of ambassadors’ children”. Then it adds:“Nigerian lawmakers were shocked that the foreign ministry spends far above amounts approved for fees”.
These are the kinds of stories that normally stir up sentiments of positive resolve to challenge the system towards doing the right thing, or even give one a flicker of hope and you can dare to say “thank God the system is finally coming round” but the damper comes as quickly as well when you recall the credibility of the Nigerian political class.
However we frame it, and some may tag this as naïve, but the crumbling state of education plays well into the polarization of the country into cells of discriminatory cultural units such that admissions into tertiary institutions are characterized by the “who you know” syndrome as well as state of origin.
Talking concretely therefore about building the nation, how committed is the system to restoring the sector? Is it possible to have a sound democratic process without educated, critical, and creative minds? While some might be of the opinion that education is a western thing and that our forefathers lived without a formal version of it, it is also worth the while to remember that in the contemporary world, the challenge isn’t as much as making fat salaries, and getting to mix and mingle with the crème de la crème of society, but a way to find the right strategies to enhance the quality of human life and improve informative decisions capable of generating advancements. Thus, the man in the village will come out knowing that having few children is the best guarantee to offering them a better and quality life; and that populating the homestead is not a strong argument to prove virility or to keep the lineage alive.
Taking our point of departure from education, especially as it concerns the training of the younger generation, I will argue upfront that there is no nobler preoccupation so crucial to building a nation. But look around you, gone are the days when education was education. As I write this, I find it difficult to articulate the depth of pain I feel that as glaring as the problem is, official recognition of the crux of this problem appears complicated, leaving one to the worrying displeasure that the prospect of redemption is hardly within sight.
Without over-drumming the relevance of education, whether academic or social, and by
Starting from the foundations, Nigeria has struggled with a lot of educational programs which have only served as conduits to transfer money to corrupt political leaders and their allies. For example Universal Primary Education (UPE) born in 1976 met a premature death; Universal Basic Education (UBE) which is on-going might be suffering a terminal disease because it isn’t functioning as effective as it should.
Not very long ago, the government attributed the falling standard of education to shortage of qualified teachers. As Ogbeifum and Olisa opined in the
Then there is the question of creating policy mirage. Looking at the federal budget for education from 2010 to 2012 illustrates this problem where we have a curious fluctuation because 2011 which was higher than 2010 and another dip in 2012, much lower than the two previous years, constructed to denote progress in the sector in terms of capital expenditure, but which in real terms translates nothing concretely in the physical development of educational infrastructure on the ground.
A brief tour of some primary schools will reveal the inhumane way children are taught, under trees, collapsing classrooms, or dilapidated school furniture, sometimes with a single complete block which apparently is only standing to bear, of course in a bold inscription, the logo of the donor organisation that funded the project.
A few weeks ago, the Academic Staff of Universities Union (ASUU) called off their indefinite strike action due to poor conditions of service, and students were excited about it, some resuming for the first time to study, others tired of the irritating pauses and in a haste to put the whole process behind them, this is without forgetting how difficult it was to secure the admission in the first place.
Imagine the human capacity loss during this long strike. Who is to be held accountable? It again boils down to class warfare against the poor. The uptown kids either school out of the country or pay heavily for the private schools to avoid strike action. The result then is with the products from our schools. Does the system assess quality well? How does it absolve them into productive sectors for effective management of resources? Do they simply glide into the work force of developed countries?
At the risk of sounding a little bit philosophical, the Brazilian born writer Paulo Coelho in his 2008 book, Brida, captures the essence of what we are missing in our mission to build a new man in this end of the wood. “Knowledge” he said “was always the power that kept the universe in its place…That was the glory of man- to nurture and maintain knowledge; he went on to understand agriculture and movements…”
Reading this, one cannot help but recognize the fault in the value system, as well as the disconnect between what we prioritize as “resource” and how we manage it. Does anyone need to remind us that our human resource is the greatest asset available to us and it is the only resource we can mold to our own advantage even when crude oil, the groundnut pyramids and the cocoa plantations fail? Inescapably, knowledge will provide the ultimate succor to the country’s sustainability.
The title of a recent article I saw on Premiumtimesnng.com reads: “Nigeria spends N4.8 billion on school fees of ambassadors’ children”. Then it adds:“Nigerian lawmakers were shocked that the foreign ministry spends far above amounts approved for fees”.
These are the kinds of stories that normally stir up sentiments of positive resolve to challenge the system towards doing the right thing, or even give one a flicker of hope and you can dare to say “thank God the system is finally coming round” but the damper comes as quickly as well when you recall the credibility of the Nigerian political class.
However we frame it, and some may tag this as naïve, but the crumbling state of education plays well into the polarization of the country into cells of discriminatory cultural units such that admissions into tertiary institutions are characterized by the “who you know” syndrome as well as state of origin.
Talking concretely therefore about building the nation, how committed is the system to restoring the sector? Is it possible to have a sound democratic process without educated, critical, and creative minds? While some might be of the opinion that education is a western thing and that our forefathers lived without a formal version of it, it is also worth the while to remember that in the contemporary world, the challenge isn’t as much as making fat salaries, and getting to mix and mingle with the crème de la crème of society, but a way to find the right strategies to enhance the quality of human life and improve informative decisions capable of generating advancements. Thus, the man in the village will come out knowing that having few children is the best guarantee to offering them a better and quality life; and that populating the homestead is not a strong argument to prove virility or to keep the lineage alive.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
The Gandhi Principle
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| Picture culled from google |
In a memorable scene captured in the
Suddenly, like one who’s had a “Eureka” moment, the reporter looked up and said to Gandhi “You’re going to Pakistan!” It came more like an accusation than the question it was meant to be, but acting a bit indifferent, the old sage answered in the affirmative, and, wearing an amused wrinkle on his face, he shot back at the reporter, asking if she thought he was unduly courting risk. Horrified, she replied that this was perhaps the craziest thing to do. “No” shot back Gandhi. “I just want to prove to them that the only devils that are running around are the ones in their hearts”.
It is impossible now to ignore the relationship this draws to my troubled homeland. My mind went into a rapid picture sorting session: the heated agitation from the removal of oil subsidy; the total collapse of security in every unit of the country; the inadequacy of virtually all machinery of government; the lack of basic infrastructure, and not to talk of the pervasive corruption that has enveloped the land. My mind simply sank. Where does one even start to ask where we went wrong? It sounds so ludicrous because here is a country that has all going for her but which appears to have chosen simply to self-destruct.
Nothing is scarier than the notion that our predicament is devoid of a diagnosis, no thanks to our media which have been saturated with shallow analysis and porous insight on how to make a head way out of this confusion. If I attempt to say that the real problem is selfish interest I bet it wont take time describe me as naïve, with my background [such as state of origin and religion] brought into service to ignore the substance of the debate.
But facts are stubborn things and the infamous Boko Haram offers a classic example of the complexity of how to manage diversity. While it is true that in a country with multiple cultures, religious and social backgrounds groups like these are expected, but the essence of democracy and a multi-party political system is that if you feel strongly about your ideology and principles, and you disagree with the general norm, you have the right and choice to register your group, campaign and build up your platform and make it strong enough to offer you the majority that you need to implement your goals and policies in a civilized manner.
Secondly, the so-called intellectual class cannot absolve itself of responsibility for all the problems. Although they remain absent for the better part of the time with respect to effective engagement, however when it comes to debate, oratory and analyses on what the problems are, they are experts at the
How about talking concretely about poverty? Is it so difficult to locate the fundamental root of this problem in poverty? It sounds simple, but poverty is the worse form of humiliation everywhere and unless we all stand up against it, its shock effect will ultimately consume us all, certainly not sparing the so called intellectuals who already suffer their own version of intellectual poverty. We can help matters by infusing a little more rigour in our analysis, and by moving beyond the simple blame game of holding an amorphous cabal for the failure to provide a life of dignity for our brothers and sisters.
My people say: “when a needle falls into a deep well, many people will look into the well, but few will be ready to go down after it! Truth is that the alleged “Giant of Africa” is the needle now in the bowels of the well. Gandhi died before he could remove India from the well but at least there was an effort and there were disciples. Now it is our challenge to see democracy not only as a system of government but an active mechanism for conflict resolution and the management of diversity.
Originally published in Premium Times
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Out and About!!
It's nearly the end of July already! at the begining of the year I made a couple of resolutions, whether I have kept them entirely is another story. One of them though is to swim. Well, my status on that hasn't changed much but I have given it a few tries. The first time, it was still winter and I went to an indoor pool which was very warm and cozy. It had a "learning" area carved out of the main pool, but was only seperated by a single barrier which carried a sign that told the experts to stay clear, but apparrently they had no regard for that! the experts kept scaring me off in the "learning area" as they came with their intimidating strokes from the other end to complete the long strech of the pool, some even splashed in from the jumping boards, doing so repeatedly and effortlessly, almost as if it didn't take anything to achieve it, which made me feel like I only came to fool around in a swim suit.
My teacher was a friend of mine that came from Hambourg, I decided to have a little of "private practive" before I went full time just so I can have more confidence by the time I joined my other adult beginners. Thankfully, I didn't drink the pool water or attract any risk of drowning, Infact, I was so good a student that even the safety guards in the pool area assisted me in making my feeble attempts at breast strokes, but deep inside I did all I could to keep my sense of humour to myself when by way of illustration I was urged to be still and release my body as a duck, let myself glide in the water like a fish and try to move my legs just like the frog does it lol.
Peter and Paul
I looked forward to more swimming lessons when I went to visit my friend in Hambourg but unfortunately we didn't have enough time however, I think it was worth missing....
The City Tour
My teacher was a friend of mine that came from Hambourg, I decided to have a little of "private practive" before I went full time just so I can have more confidence by the time I joined my other adult beginners. Thankfully, I didn't drink the pool water or attract any risk of drowning, Infact, I was so good a student that even the safety guards in the pool area assisted me in making my feeble attempts at breast strokes, but deep inside I did all I could to keep my sense of humour to myself when by way of illustration I was urged to be still and release my body as a duck, let myself glide in the water like a fish and try to move my legs just like the frog does it lol.
Peter and Paul
I looked forward to more swimming lessons when I went to visit my friend in Hambourg but unfortunately we didn't have enough time however, I think it was worth missing....
First we were at a reggae party the night I arrived, which was bursting at it seems with people, most of the Africans were friendly and eagerly smiled their greetings, "Hallo! alles klar?" there was reggae music alright as the title of the event suggested, but nothing prepared me for the other songs that followed. Hmmm.. there was TuFace, AY.Com ..., all Nigerians! ok let me give the account calmly... First of all a song by P. square, Nigeria's famous twins when it comes to "Naija R and B" came on, and I was the only one that seemed to be standing with my mouth open, It was a song that the twins sang featuring J. Martins "E no easy o!" the excited club gave a yelp of approval when the song started, meaning it's that familiar! and a few seconds later when the verses started the DJ scratched the disc and went silent on some parts of the music which were echoed by the excited clubbers, to my shock (a delightful one anyway) rather than amusement I must say, because I was like, what?? in this very German enviroment.... broken english?? the parts of the song echoed are still in my head, it says ....e no easy eh! oh oh oh oh to dey sing and dey dance and the people dey rejoice eh oh oh oh oh oh I say ........no be today oh oh oh oh oh lol (highlighted parts were the echoed ones). That day I realised I never really gave much thought to the song that seems to be really appreciated by these clubbers that are so far away from the context of the song thus, i decided to enjoy the song and make up for what I had been missing.. my favourite part of the song goes like this:
"No be everybody wey sleep the night wake up see the light yeh
See the future is bright yeh, and e dey enter for eye yeh
Make you do your best yeh, Papa God go do the rest yeh
Even if you no get money,eheheh dey jolly dey shake body. ahahahah"
(notice the rhymes)LOL
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| Trying to strike a Pose with the Rathaus |
The morning was the very important part of the trip for me, we were to see the city especially the impressive Parliament which they call the Rathouse and I was going sailing...., with a life jacket of course given my status. However I must confess that although swimming is not a popular culture in my background, coming to Europe, I was often embarrassed to admit I couldn't until I decided to agree "it's ok to admit that you don't know". Once I did that it wasn't too embarassing but i had to answer the question "so how do you feel learning to swim as an adult? is it difficult?" And my answer is often "well, the trouble is letting go and blocking out the thought of drowning," and then I change the topic of conversation lol. Hence, that explains my delight when during breakfast, my friend suggested we take the bicycles to the city so we can have more control of our movement round the city. I was so pleased with that suggestion because I felt hmmm this is my turf! one cannot afford to remove bicycles when talking about the highlights of my growing-up days, I cycled like I was nursing an ambition to take part in Tour de France. I hurriedly finished my breakfast and I went down to choose the one I would ride, I climed it and turned the pedal to the right position with my right leg, then I cycled it a short distance, stopped it with my left leg and i did a 180 degree turn, then I came back to the starting point, this time cycling a little faster than I left and then I pressed the brakes abruptly. Lol I could see the look of approval on my friend's face, she seemed visibly impressed by my intuition of trying the breaks and she commended me in Deutsch saying "aha bremsen! sehr wichtig" i.e, aha the brakes! Very Important. I cracked a few jokes like confirming if i needed a "cycling liscence" considering how thorough the Germans can be, but she assurred me it was ok, even though we had to check the headlamp because the authorities are very particular about the lights lol.
I rode "thirstily" enjoying the breeze brushing my face and the breath of clean fresh air, relishing each moment especially nodding at other cyclers as we made our way through the cycling path, obeying the traffic lights e.t.c. Disappointingly though, after a few hours of riding my stamina started to wane and I began to roll the bicycle rather than cycle, I felt stiff and easily out of breath and couldn't wait to get to any spot just to rest my bones. Refusing to ruin the whole experience at first, I consoled myself saying my legs were too short and I couldn't reach the pedals properly, so all the energy I use to reach the pedals is what is weighing me down.....
I had started a low sugar and no fatty foods diet but the sight of an Ice Cream parlour gave me every reason to park my ride, secure the locks and make my way there, using only gestures to explain my goal at that particular moment. By late afternoon the only strength left was to roll the bicycle, this continued until it was time to go home finally and we had to roll our two wheelers to the river bank where we took the Ferry to the other side of town.... given my earlier enthusiasm I was shame faced by the time we boarded the Ferry
I rode "thirstily" enjoying the breeze brushing my face and the breath of clean fresh air, relishing each moment especially nodding at other cyclers as we made our way through the cycling path, obeying the traffic lights e.t.c. Disappointingly though, after a few hours of riding my stamina started to wane and I began to roll the bicycle rather than cycle, I felt stiff and easily out of breath and couldn't wait to get to any spot just to rest my bones. Refusing to ruin the whole experience at first, I consoled myself saying my legs were too short and I couldn't reach the pedals properly, so all the energy I use to reach the pedals is what is weighing me down.....
I had started a low sugar and no fatty foods diet but the sight of an Ice Cream parlour gave me every reason to park my ride, secure the locks and make my way there, using only gestures to explain my goal at that particular moment. By late afternoon the only strength left was to roll the bicycle, this continued until it was time to go home finally and we had to roll our two wheelers to the river bank where we took the Ferry to the other side of town.... given my earlier enthusiasm I was shame faced by the time we boarded the Ferry
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| The vehicles PS: Just incase you're wondering, Yes! mine is the red with white stripes |
Friday, June 24, 2011
After a Month
Just when I thought I was getting the hang of blogging, I took a month's break clinging to another bout of "writer's block" the perfect excuse these days! Assuming that my apology is accepted, I would really like to resume by writing a little about my birthday which was a month ago. For starters, being born on a children's day, i.e. the 27th of May made me feel like a celebrity once a year as a child because it always felt special considering the significance of the day in a child's life. However, it is now one of the things I really miss as I get older, reason being I am not allowed to fuss about the day as I would have liked to since it is obvious to all of all that I am no longer a child.
This year the day fell on a Friday and I worked late, I was very careful not to mention it at work just incase I am not taken seriously for doing so lol since we all seemed "busy" and "serious". I received a lot of phonecalls from home which I tried to answer with discreet enthusiasm just to give the impression that I am much older now. I also got emails and text messages especially on Facebook, all the people in my Bible Study group called or sent messages, it was so sweet, two colleagues remembered to wish me Happy Birthday and a third the next day, who actually did so by asking if I made food just to be sure that he didn't miss anything. I love Fridays because one often gets to stay up late and sleep longer the next day, if you don't have to work that is, but since this Friday was special to me I had secret expectations that only a Fairy God Mother would have made true.
Meanwhile I only got home in time to have a bowl of noodles and watch back to back episodes of Ally Mcbeal! disheartening enough, the first episode I watched was the one that Ally turned 28... At the start of the episode she ran to the bathroom to look at her face and just when she spots a few wrinkles underneath her eyes her face dramatically changes to that of an 80 year old with the puffs and wrinkles in the right places, a slightly hunched torso and even the white thin cotton hair, imagine how i must have felt. All these made me remember my favourite birthday so far in my "brief sojourn", It was back in Abuja, I invited all my friends over and I made lunch, I wore a bright yellow dress with a green sash and I got a big squared cake with a lot of candles. I dramatically blew the candles off while the birthday song was sung. We wined, dined, danced and brought ourselves upto date, which wore on until late in the evening. At the time, one of my friends worked for Cool FM Radio and he sent me a shout out and played one of my favourite songs for that period, a Yoruba song performed by Nollywood stars but originally sung by Dr Victor Olaiya some 53 years ago. LOLOL
We finally rounded up our "party" with a visit to an open air garden which had a LIVE band, and incidentally, an unknown birthday mate of mine was also having a great time with his firends and family and the lead singer of the band seemed to be singing enthusiastically to the celebrant whose name was OKWUDILI. We figured this out because the lead singer called the name as he sang to all the tunes that were played by the band, apparently, the celebrant payed him a lot to do so.
Determined to keep me in the spot light, my friends "bribed" the lead singer as well and before you knew it we were all in the middle of the dance floor dancing to "baby Jowo" again as we sprayed the musician and the band increased in tempo and dynamics putting us right into the attention spot we coveted ...Loololol I still have that memory and am very thankful that my friends let me have it!
Above is a picture of my favourite birthday card this year, it's still on my bookshelf. I like it because it outlines 5 good reasons why it's good to be a Woman, the card is in German forgive me if the translation seems a little awkward lol:
1- At 30 you still have enough hair on your head
2-You can simply solve your problems in a woman magazine
3-You can cry at the press of a button and then forget about everything
4-You always leave the door open
5-You can use the same "loo" with a female friend without giving a damn about what people closeby think!
Friday, May 20, 2011
About my last Post
I read the comments on my last post "In 2011" and I also had the opportunity to talk about my views with some of my dear friends who had read the piece and I am happy because I gained alot. Although, apart from a sense of relief that we were able to expound on the issues satisfactorily, I also got the sense that my views about corruption being over-rated seemed a little "off-key" if you like, as such, i tried to reflect again, but in all fairness to how far I could go, I still maintain that it is overrated.
My point being that Naija is not the first corrupt nation in the world, i think the only difference if I am to compare with developed nations is the degree of sophistication and then in a positive light, respect for human dignity by way of basic amenities and the ability to "challenge" the systems and institutions.
A cynical friend of mine once said "If we consider super powers who fight wars in the interest of oil rigs but live permanently on huge budget deficits. Financial Crisis rocking countries home to ancient civilisation because they lied about their "Financial situation" in the first place. Embarassing sex scandals among the elite that look down on the African system of polygamy as well as deceit, abuse of public funds and tax payers money for the weakness that absolute power covets, then we know that Africa still has a long way to go".
1.Rights: as a result of failure to provide basic necessities.
2. Vision : for lack of an enabling enviroment to exercise ones mind in making things better rather than tailoring it to dwell solely on the need to survive.
3. Self respect and worth: insisting on a myopic way of doing things and in the process discrediting others to make them feel inferior and insignificant as long as it is skewed to satisfy a famous exposition by George Orwell "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others".
4. Justice, equity and fairplay: creating an enviroment for only hustlers to thrive, enabling unhealthy competition and legitimising the "who you know syndrome"
I think I do not have to go on since I am already bitter from mentioning 4, however if I am to return to the safety of my naivity the hopelessness and exasperation often derived from all these, makes me willing to cling to a justifiable excuse which in this case is CORRUPTION so how do we deal with it? again my naivity says that this stems from a long standing principle of a divide and rule policy and for what it's worth, we have to know the past to understand the future- very articulate cliches if you ask me, but here again I am tempted to start listing corrupt leaders and blame them for everything thereby, losing sight of the goal. An Irish political philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke once said "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil (Corruption) is that good men do nothing." - the corruption in bracket was put in there by me.
I brought the issue of class to underscore the need to have a goal or something you believe in so that the "struggle" is legitimised in all ramifications and followed through. What i want to say is defining our society, political leanings, economic policies and what we stand for is a start.
For example, all I need to do here when writing or translating stories about politics is look at the name, colour or symbol of the party in question and I already know if they are pro or against war or what their policies are on the tax system, whether they lean more towards policies that protect the enviroment etc, it was a thorn in the flesh to master, but studying its evolution especially from the post war period was quite revealing, and I thought no wonder all we ever do is attack ethnicity and religion rather than apply our differences in supporting a noble cause for humanity..... maybe this is how it was meant to be but really what role does the ordinary man play in all this rather than playing the slave to "CORRUPTION"?
My point being that Naija is not the first corrupt nation in the world, i think the only difference if I am to compare with developed nations is the degree of sophistication and then in a positive light, respect for human dignity by way of basic amenities and the ability to "challenge" the systems and institutions.
A cynical friend of mine once said "If we consider super powers who fight wars in the interest of oil rigs but live permanently on huge budget deficits. Financial Crisis rocking countries home to ancient civilisation because they lied about their "Financial situation" in the first place. Embarassing sex scandals among the elite that look down on the African system of polygamy as well as deceit, abuse of public funds and tax payers money for the weakness that absolute power covets, then we know that Africa still has a long way to go".
Why am I Bitter?
One becomes bitter and emotional about Naija only because in our own case, the rich get richer at the expense of basic amenities and a literal robbery of :1.Rights: as a result of failure to provide basic necessities.
2. Vision : for lack of an enabling enviroment to exercise ones mind in making things better rather than tailoring it to dwell solely on the need to survive.
3. Self respect and worth: insisting on a myopic way of doing things and in the process discrediting others to make them feel inferior and insignificant as long as it is skewed to satisfy a famous exposition by George Orwell "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others".
4. Justice, equity and fairplay: creating an enviroment for only hustlers to thrive, enabling unhealthy competition and legitimising the "who you know syndrome"
I think I do not have to go on since I am already bitter from mentioning 4, however if I am to return to the safety of my naivity the hopelessness and exasperation often derived from all these, makes me willing to cling to a justifiable excuse which in this case is CORRUPTION so how do we deal with it? again my naivity says that this stems from a long standing principle of a divide and rule policy and for what it's worth, we have to know the past to understand the future- very articulate cliches if you ask me, but here again I am tempted to start listing corrupt leaders and blame them for everything thereby, losing sight of the goal. An Irish political philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke once said "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil (Corruption) is that good men do nothing." - the corruption in bracket was put in there by me.
About Social Class and defination of goals!
I haven't defined the social class I belong to, but from the top of my head, I'd like to think of myself as a moderate Socialist and a Conservative Capitalist but I have a weakness for some of Karl Marx's teachings and I love the following quotes: "The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs." or better still, "The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them."I brought the issue of class to underscore the need to have a goal or something you believe in so that the "struggle" is legitimised in all ramifications and followed through. What i want to say is defining our society, political leanings, economic policies and what we stand for is a start.
For example, all I need to do here when writing or translating stories about politics is look at the name, colour or symbol of the party in question and I already know if they are pro or against war or what their policies are on the tax system, whether they lean more towards policies that protect the enviroment etc, it was a thorn in the flesh to master, but studying its evolution especially from the post war period was quite revealing, and I thought no wonder all we ever do is attack ethnicity and religion rather than apply our differences in supporting a noble cause for humanity..... maybe this is how it was meant to be but really what role does the ordinary man play in all this rather than playing the slave to "CORRUPTION"?
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