It begins with me.

One constant with humans,is a strong desire to decline responsibility,or to exculpate oneself from responsibility for our actions! It is a very strong desire. It is a desire to escape punishment,including legitimate punishment.


When my daughter was three years old,she was fond of playing around the power extension cable.


It was scary.We did not live in a palatial mansion,so space was a premium.We did our best to hide the cable,but somehow,when you come to the living room,the young woman is merrily playing beside the extension cord.


She just seemed to gravitate towards it.


I was grooming her to obey me without my resorting to any form of physical coercion.(Read as beating, in Africa we are still allowed by the law to spank our children.That is why we do not have a lot of antisocial behaviour as they do in the UK!) 


So I would tell the little girl to avoid the cable,and the next minute she would be on it. 


One day I was really angry so I raised my voice at her,the girl looked at me with her cherub like,innocent face,and softly said in that voice that melts every first time father's heart, "Daddy I did not touch it,my leg touched it" I had to admire her wit,and quick thinking on her feet. I had to smile!


From a very early age,we learn,and perfect how to shift responsibility for actions.


We are even told in the Bible that Adam blamed his wife for the forbidden fruit he bit,chewed,and swallowed with his own mouth!


The wife must have digested it as well!


Nigerians are wonderful at appreciating people! We are wonderful!


We are always thanking God,and praying for people that we see doing something positive to change Nigeria. What we fail to recognize,is that that fellow is just giving us a challenge,and showing us the way forward.


That is why I have mentioned in this blog,and on Facebook,that I will always admire,and respect,Chief Gani Fawehinmi.


If Nigeria had ten people with his pugnacious determination to see justice,and rectitude prevail,even at  cost to his person, we would have become a better country.


He put his money,and personal safety, on the line to serve us all!


The elections are coming,what are you going to do about it? Are you going to register to vote,or not? Are you going to leave politics to the touts,and louts,as usual?


Please register to vote,take a step further,and find out what the candidates stand for. If possible,pose questions to them on Facebook,and any other fora you may have. Where do they stand on abortion,resource control,or any other issue you hold dear.


You may find that  the candidate who would best address your concerns,lost the election by one vote! The tragedy would be if you did not vote for her,or get your friends to do so.


The elections of next year are a watershed moment for Nigeria. We may be sold into slavery for sixteen years,or we could finally elect the messiah as president!


But it begins with you and I,registering to vote.


As you do,
MAY GOD BLESS NIGERIA,OUR NIGERIA,FOREVER!

Single Term Presidency:A Radical Idea.

I have thought hard and long on this matter,would our problems with election malpractices,particularly with the presidential elections
 be solved, if we had our president serve only one term in office?


What if our presidents served for seven years? The time is long enough to plan,execute,and deliver meaningful developmental projects. As we currently stand,we are effectively getting only three years from every president's first term.The last year is usually distracted by campaigning for reelection. It would also save us the cost of an election,although the cost component is not a crucial factor.


Furthermore,a single term would ensure that an incumbent does not use the resources of the state to prosecute a campaign! 






As things stand now,it is not a fair contest,the president gets massive media exposure,every official function is a platform to campaign. While his functions are carried free of charge by the state owned media institutions,his opponents have to pay millions without even getting a percentage of the same thing. How fair can such a contest be?






I know someone would tell me the same thing happens in America,and Britain,but there are strict unbiased watchdogs monitoring campaign contributions over there.


With the level of debilitating poverty here,tell me which civil servant would jeopardize his job to censure his president? He must be either insane,or someone with a death wish. He would loose his job in a flash,before the memo he wrote on the matter gets to the presidential villa.

In addition to this,you have the awesome power of patronage the president wields. He has power to influence the award of oil blocs,he can singlehandedly influence the award of an airport project. forget about the lies they tell us on television that the federal executive council met,and awarded a contract. It is a big joke! The president does the major awards.All the others are high profile hungry yes men!

The Zoning Question.

"My brother! Let us call a spade what it is. When we "legislate" before an election,that some section of a country cannot field candidates,that is not democracy,neither is it expanding the borders of democracy. 

We cannot reinvent the wheel.And that is what zoning seeks to do.I do not care where our president comes from,all I want is someone capable.

Would you take your expensive benz to a mechanic from Ogbona simply because he is from your area? Or would you rotate the servicing of your car between the good mechanic,and the bad one,for the sake of equity?

If it is not good for your car,how can it be good for Nigeria? -Julius Umogbai


Many have asked me what I think about zoning. I had a stimulating back and forth with a dear brother and friend;and I defended my stance on the matter with the quotation above.


I am not against zoning now because Goodluck,a man from the South South will benefit from it. 


No!


I am also against a system that does not give every part of this country a realistic,fair,equitable,and unbiased, shot at the presidency. It means we are not a nation yet,we are a feudal system pretending to be a democracy.


Our battle should be,how do we make Nigeria a nation "fair for all" like the British Labour Party loves to say.


Nigeria is not fair to all,she is not fair to all,and in that respect,she is not fair to herself.


We need to save Nigeria from harming herself. The self-flagellation has gone on for fifty years. Are we not tired of the pain and bloodletting? What are we fighting over? 


A chance to deny our brothers the good that is theirs by right of belonging to this entity called Nigeria?


We need to set higher standards of behaviour for ourselves, we have been failing even with the low standards we have impelled,compelled,and sentenced, ourselves to aspire to.


Maybe we have been aiming too low,let us aspire Nigeria,let us soar! We belong with the eagles in the jet streams,not with the turkeys in the undergrowth.


ARISE NIGERIA,YOU CAN GO HIGHER, GO UP!

Musings of a Father ( A tribute to all long suffering fathers out there)

It is the Sallah holiday. I have finally agreed to take my daughter to "Atama Amusement Park".


If you live in Abuja and do not know where it is,you are forgiven. It is actually Maitama Amusement Park,but her four year old tongue has not figured out how to pronounce Maitama yet.


I know some people from the South West who pronounce Gwagwalada,an area council in Abuja,as Gbagbalada!

If you decide to take a four year old to an amusement park,be prepared for an emptying experience;of you wallet,your strength,and your patience!

As we got to the gate she saw some folks exiting the park and remarked "why are they going home,the park has not closed yet! 


I knew I was already in trouble!

We bought our entry tickets,and as soon as we entered the venue,she took off like someone who was late for an important appointment. 




I could barely keep up,it was like trying to walk six bull mastiffs at once,without falling down!

The first ride she pointed to was one contraption that looks like what they use to simulate gravity at NASA!


It is curiously called the Frog. 


It slowly lifts you up vertically,and suddenly drops you from about twenty feet! 




Just contemplating it scared the hell out of me.There was no way I was going to allow her to ride on that thing! 




I told her her mother would need to be around,and consent,before she could go on it.


Later that day at home,I found out that my wife had equally declined the same offer to allow her ride the Frog!

A modern day amusement park is the closest thing to a legal "shakedown" you will ever find. Most of the rides do not last more than three minutes,and the children do not seem to tire quickly enough! 


Their roaring rambunctious rough housing seems to ebb one's energy while theirs increases! 


It would have been nice if God had fitted us with a speed setting:idle, normal,and slow!

Please remind me not to attempt to have a child at sixty. I wonder how Larry King copes?

In between balancing the contradictions of trying to give your child a treat, managing you money without looking like a skinflint to yourself,and trying to actually be the parent,you begin to wonder what crime you committed in your past life to find yourself in this predicament.

When we were growing up,all we knew were swings (which we called Jangrover),and they seemed to suffice. 




These days,the new fangled mechanical contraptions go as fast as your money disappears,quickly!

And then you have those annoying vendors who allure you child into wanting everything on offer.Books you have already bought,and toys they already have;the child does not seem to get it:our needs and our wants are different! 


The poor child,not knowing that you are on your last nerve,and leg,falls for them and begins to chant "Daddy buy this! Daddy buy that! And you being the adult,have to carefully,but firmly coax them from the temptations on offer!

There should be a law against such shameless behaviour. Using a child to put pressure on a father who is already worse for wear from coming to the park alone!

Equally worthy of condemnation are the ride operators. They attempt to collect money from you without issuing a ticket! Come on! I am not happy spending this money,why do you think I would give it to you to enjoy. If I cannot keep it myself,neither can you!

And all too soon,you arrive at that inevitable moment of crisis when you tell your child it is time to go home;everyone around would know how horrid a parent you are from the well-aimed tantrum!


It is almost as if you have not even allowed her to look at a ride,let alone ride on the ten she has experienced!

So you threaten,bluff,cajole,and negotiate,order,pull,push,shove,and finally scream your way out of the park, until the next installment!

Christmas time,and it is barely a month away!

I may just dodge that one with a well aimed trip out of town!

Naah! I actually enjoyed every moment. It is what we live for!

Cheers!




(First written in November last year. Happy Fathers' day everyone)

Corruption As A Quasi Class War.

When we consider historical instances of class wars,one quickly remembers the Bolsheivic  Revolution,and the French Revolution. They were clear instances in which two distinct classes,the upper,and the lower,went to war,and one prevailed over the other.

It also led to wealth redistribution in one,and social re-engineering in the other. 


At the heart of every revolution is a dissatisfaction with the status quo,and a desire to right actual, or perceived, injustice.

That there are two distinct classes in Nigeria is obvious for all to see.


There is no middle class. They have either migrated upwards,or fallen through the social cracks to make their beds with the humbled! This lack of the middle class,is the source of social and political inertia currently witnessed in Nigeria today.

The people who ought to drive the change that we need do not exist. They have either been bribed with stupendous wealth,or hounded out of livelihood.

I have said in many fora, that the individuals who are qualified to win government contracts worth two hundred million naira in this country today,are not up to one hundred thousand! 


They know themselves,or know people who know other members of the group.


The rest of the country are rank outsiders,and they do not get a look in at all. They are like a chicken longing for grains in a bottle!

Membership of this elite group is by invitation,not by aspiration,or excellence! That you are professionally qualified is not enough qualification. Your Ph.D counts for nothing where you are concerned. You must just belong. 


One needs a godfather,or mentor to join. Membership can also be inherited,fathers pass on membership to their children. That is why certain names seem to perpetually circulate in government circles.


It is not because those families enjoy permanence of brilliance,rather,it is their birthright!

It is this same group of people that are responsible for ninety 99.999 percent of corruption in Nigeria!


Membership cuts across political,ethnic, and religious lines! They determine who gets what,and when. They decide how much government pays for contracts.They belong to the same cults,or social clubs!


When upstarts,and interlopers, attempt to barge their way into this group,they are usually destroyed with the resources of the state.

That is why we sometimes see a government policy seeming to targeting a single individual! It is because they want to send a message to others! Beware,we are in charge!

When Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was president of Nigeria, certain Nigerians were mentioned as being receivers of huge sums of money from a foreign company. The list of individuals resembled the annual national honours list! 


Everyone,who was someone in Nigeria,was on that list.If you were not on that list,you did not matter! Yar'Adua instructed his Inspector General of Police then Mike Okiro,to investigate the matter. They did. It was too hot to handle,or publish! They could not even recommend a clear course of action. 


Two lists have actually been circulated of individuals who collected bribes,one from a German based multinational,and the other from an American Fortune Five Hundred multinational. The lists were actually a litany of those who matter,or their proxies that front for them.

There were more than four former heads of state on that list, we only have six former heads of state alive today!

People thought,for a change,that something would finally happen, nothing did.


In the only case that went to trial,government has discontinued  prosecution. It was a case involving one   small,insignificant,and inconsequential fellow on the list,a personal assistant!

We have gone back to business as usual. It is the Nigerian way. 

There is a programme on Nigerian Television that promotes illegality. It is sponsored by the Nigeria police force,it is called Crime Fighters. 


In it, they usually parade individuals arrested by the police for petty,and other horrible crimes. 


One would be pardoned to expect that the common qualification needed for being on the programme, was the committal of a crime; that is far from the truth.Rich people do not get their five minutes of fame on it,only the poor get the glory! 


I believe the programme is illegal because it judges people before they have had their day in court,and prejudices their case before a judge has even heard it. It makes nonsense of the trite legal maxim coined by the English lawyer, Sir William Garrow, the view that an accused is "innocent until proven guilty"

I have never seen any national figure of note,accused of some malfeasance,or convicted of same,paraded on Crime Fighters! 


It is as if when a poor man steals fifty thousand naira,it is a more heinous crime,than a bank chief executive who steals one hundred and fifty billion! 

Curiouser still,is that fact that while rich people always come up with a medical report declaring the need for the court to allow them "holiday",sorry serve, their sentence in a five star designer hospital of their choice,the presence of a life threatening injury like a gunshot wound, or matchet cuts, is no excuse to prevent the poor fellow being remanded in maximum prison custody!

And the people now understand perfectly,there is one law for the rich,and another for the poor! 

And that is the dividing line between the poor,and the rich. It is perfectly good for you to steal if you are rich,your friends will protect you. God help you if you are poor,and are accused of a crime unjustly,you may spend seven years of your life in jail,on remand for an offence whose sentence is one year imprisonment!

The classes are at war,and right now the battle ground favours the rich. The poor can only grumble and foam in the mouth,it is their sad lot in life. 
But history teaches us that one day,the poor would strike back in dissatisfaction. When they do,it would not be with reason. They may kill the good, and the bad. The collateral damage would be cataclysmic,and epic! 


The only qualification for being a legitimate target then,would be wealth.

Whether we like it or not,things would resolve themselves with,or without our consent,it is the natural order. The only question now is when? And how far?


MAY GOD BLESS NIGERIA,MY BEAUTIFUL NIGERIA FOREVER!

Street demonstration, Petrograd, 18 June 1917.The banner in the foreground reads"Down With The 10 Capitalist Ministers/ All Power To The Soviets Of Workers', Soldiers',And Peasants' Deputies/ And To The Socialist Ministers/ [We Demand That Nicholas II BeTransfered To The Peter-Paul 

MAY GOD BLESS NIGERIA,MY BEAUTIFUL NIGERIA FOREVER!

Fuel For Thought.

I had cause to be about as early as four am this morning. It is interesting what  a person can see at that time.


Before I continue,let me put it on record, that I am not writing from Lagos where people do not sleep. 


I am aware that lives there are governed by the following seasons;traffic jams,early morning commutes to work,power outages,and a good dose of pot holes.


In contending with all these factors,as I did for one year, I discovered that  people do not even have time to pause, smell the flowers ,or see the wonderful sunset. My condolences!


I was coming from Nasarrawa state,and I was on my way home to Abuja. My family was with me in the car.


I saw a woman somewhere along the Abuja Keffi expressway,at a place curiously named One Man Village. Do not ask me why it is so named,all I can say is that I saw more than a man there,and I am also aware that there are women,and children living there too!


You know I am a photographer,and I am primed to see patterns,and shades of colour. 


It was the way her six yellow plastic jerry cans were arranged,that caught my attention;they had been carefully place before her in such a way that no one could pinch any of them without her knowing.


I wondered aloud what she was going to buy this early in the morning, I first assumed it was palm oil,but my wife disagreed,she was half asleep at this time,at the same time,we both exclaimed "kerosene!


Kerosene is more valuable than petrol,it costs more than diesel,and petrol on the black market!


A sixty centilitre bottle of kerosene costs two hundred naira! That is about one dollar thirty three cents. It does not sound like a lot until you hold it up against the light of the current national minimum wage,forty dollars!


Incredulous still,is the fact that a family requires about  two bottles every three days!


Unless the family owns a petrol station,it would need to engage in some alternative form of work to generate additional income. Sometimes,corruption is the easiest job available. It lubricates the wheels of family survival, and ensures that Nigerians would live,and dodge the bullet of hunger for one more day!


The woman was on her way to a petrol station,she was in a race with thousands of other women. Her going early would determine whether she would get kerosene to buy,and later resell,or not. 


Petrol station attendants were in the
habit of creating artificial scarcity at those times when the product was available.They did this to create the necessary environment for collecting bribes from the women. And sometimes,buyers could spend the whole day,and still not succeed in getting any!




In addition,kerosene is never imported in sufficient quantity to ensure availability;it is so because only the poor depend on it.


Nigeria constantly stumbles from one  scarcity to the other,it is a never ending story,with Machiavallian twists,and turns to match.


This is a country that prides itself as being one of the first seven producers of crude oil in the world.


While we produce crude oil,the evil cartels that rule our oil industry,have ensured that our people have been denied the benefits of cheap products.


So they export our crude,some of them to refineries that they own abroad,and re-import finished products at a higher cost. The people pay for the inefficiencies,and corruption in the system


Every misfortune in this country,is an opportunity for wicked people to make some more money. They fleece the poor to feather their own nests,and their nests are huge,ideal for the vultures that they are!


I  have lived in Northern Nigeria for over a decade and half now,and one problem that is preponderant,is that fuel for preparing food,is not cheap,neither is it available.


I have traveled with civil servants on official trips,and seen how they assiduously pursued firewood at every stop we made,looking for a bargain.


Each time I saw this,I was forced to wonder how the poorest of the poor were surviving.


The same scene is played out in all the thirty six states,and the Federal Capital Territory. 


Each time you see a truck laden with firewood,do not assume that it is for some party,it is actually a supplier on his regular route.


While we fulminate,and foam in the mouth on our quest to become one of the twenty most developed economies by the year twenty twenty,we have not been able to solve a basic need,fuel for our people to cook! 


This tragedy is put in stark relief by the fact that we flare trillions of cubic litres of natural gas annually.


I have asked a very stupid question in the past,is it possible to pipe this gas to our rural areas,so that the poor could,at least,use it to cook? The answer has eluded me. 


While we pauperize our people by creating artificial scarcity of kerosene,and encourage the destruction our forests as a consequence:we may need to rethink what exactly it means to be a Nigerian,and what the obligations of the state are to us. 


All we seem to be hearing,are our duties,and obligations to the state;the last time I looked,this was still a two way street.


As we begin to demand,and enforce,the actualization of the obligations of the state to us,as citizens,


MAY GOD BLESS NIGERIA,MY NIGERIA,FOREVER!

Boys with twigs for firewood. Our primeval forests have
all but been destroyed through firewood extraction.

(If you are reading this on Facebook,you can also read more at my blog www.standupnigeria.blogspot.com, and make your views known,I would really love to hear from you)

Iranian Weapons In Nigerian Hands,A Seredipitious Discovery,Or A Sleight Of Hand??

Has MEND found a partner to fulfilling it's aspirations

Serendipity is defined, as a propensity for making fortunate discoveries, while looking for something unrelated.


It is what comes to mind when one considers the ongoing drama surrounding the discovery of arms in thirteen containers at a port in Nigeria. I am positive that our security agencies were not alerted by their Iranian counterparts:suspicions were raised when the agent meant to clear the goods,started acting in a manner that raised red flags! 


Is it possible that other consignments have already made it through?


I say this because while the 
Bible says "with God,all things are possible",in Nigeria,the saying is "with money,all things are possible!


If you have enough money,and the will,and imagination, to match,you can do anything in Nigeria,provided you can pay!


There are three principal actors in the drama,the Nigerian government,the Iranian business men,and the nation of Israel.


What is manifestly incontrovertible,is that someone is lying. Another,is that a foreign nation played a part,we cannot hazard  a guess as to the level of complicity,but we all know that arms are not apples,or mangoes that you just put in a container,and send to another country. A government,or a powerful agent of government,would have overseen the export.


It is globally acknowledge that the Qod Force,a shadowy,but powerful elite organization in Iran has the resources,and the operatives to carry out this operation. They have been blamed for many unsavory acts in neighbouring Iraq.


They are highly trained,very resourceful,and deeply motivated by patriotic fervour!


Is it possible,that they have now set their sights on Nigeria,as a new sphere for Iranian hegemony? 


Is there something of strategic importance to them here? Something we do not know,or see? It may be,that they want to tip the balance in religious matters,or it could be that,like China,Iran is branching out,and it does not want to play fair. 


Or do they want to increase the price of crude oil globally by fomenting trouble here? Such a sharp rise in the price of oil would harm America's economic recovery irreversibly! 


Why waste billions on a frontal war,when you can achieve the same goal with a few well spent millions to fund an insurrection in a different,but pivotal country?


While Israel is claiming that the arms were actually meant for the West Bank,the Nigerian Department of  State Security Services, the SSS,is claiming  that Nigeria was the final destination.


In Iraq,the Qod force has been blamed for a lot of incidents. They have been used,successfully,by the government,to evade the numerous international sanctions. They own businesses,and have been credited with bypassing all the sanctions that could have prevented the country pursuing her nuclear ambition.


But all these are suppositions,what we would like to know, is,why are these weapons in Nigeria?


While we bicker,and quarrel with each other over an election that many know will not be fair,our nation might just find herself an unwilling,but very usable pawn in an international game of cat and mouse!


MAY GOD BLESS NIGERIA,MY NIGERIA,FOREVER!


for more articles,read my blog: www.standupnigeria.blogspot.com