Nigerians have embraced season films as the new sitcom in town. This is not unexpected since those seasons are well scripted, produced and sub-titled. Amongst these seasonal films that had won the hearts of Nigerians are Prison break, Lost and a more recent one ‘Legend of the seeker’. An aficionado of the latter will be familiar with the carnival troupe comprising of the seeker of truth, wizard of the first order, mother confessor and the evil turned good mordsith.
I will like to take every reader that is exposed to this piece on a voyage of imagination. Nigeria, our beloved country is bedeviled with so many ills and evils which we are desperately praying to God to send someone to cleanse and stop. How interesting will it be to have the carnival act fighting to a standstill the problems we are encountering?
Nigeria will really be the better for it if a seeker of truth is named. This seeker of truth will snuff out every evil player in the country. He would fight armed bandits, kidnappers and assassins. With him around, people all over the country will be able to afford a sleep with both eyes firmly shut just like the people of the midlands did in the film.
Imagine a mother confessor in Nigeria. All the celebrated rogues that keep slipping out of the grips of the law and the ones that the long arms of the law have failed to catch up with will be punished in a jiffy. In the movie, the mother confessor bends people to her will (usually to do good) and makes them confess and reveal truthfully things they had done. Imagine having this in Nigeria. All the treasury looters will be confessed and ordered to return the loot to the treasury and pick up a honest work, not the large scale pilfering.
A wizard of the first order? This will be a great acquisition for the country. In the sitcom, the great wizard, Zeddicus Z’ul Zorander was endowed with great powers, wisdom and wits. What he lacked in frame, he made up in analysis. Nigeria will really go far having an old head like that instead of the selfish, greedy and irresponsible oldies that parade themselves as elder states men.
The mordsith! In the sitcom, the mordsith was a fearsome character for many reasons. The agile wielded by them brought unbearable pain to the person holding it not to talk of the person it is used on. I remember vividly the first time the seeker of truth picked up the agile; he dropped it almost immediately because of the painful effect. The mordsith tortured their victims so as to bend them to their will and they also have a reviving power (breath of life) with which they revived recent corpses. With the mordsith in Nigeria, the passage of great people could be prevented and the dead could be given a second lease of life.
Even though, the characters of the film are purely fictional, how I wish they existed. If they did, I would have done all my best possible to bring them into the country. If they could terminate the reign of the diabolical dictator (Darken Rahl) and extinguished the raging fire of the keeper of the underworld by sealing the rift, then, they can cage Nigeria’s monster (CORRUPTION).
Friday, September 10, 2010
THE POWER OF RECOMMENDATION
The advanced learners dictionary of the English language defines ‘recommendation’ as ‘suggestion for something (role or an office), make appealing or highly desirable’. Recommendation is something we do consciously and unconsciously. At almost every juncture in life, this power is evoked (we might be evoking it or someone is doing it in our favour).
Researches have shown that we are a number of people away from where we want to be or who we want to meet. This means that all we have to do to get to a place of our dreams or shake hands with our dream celebrity is getting to know someone or some people. Your dream place is someone’s relaxation center and that enigmatic person is another person’s pal.
Recommendation takes place everywhere; politics, career, relationship and even religion. The day Barack Obama received the public endorsement of Senator Edward Kennedy; he overtook Hillary Clinton in the opinion poll of who should clinch the presidential ticket of the Democratic Party. Also, he enjoyed the recommendation of Oprah Winfrey.
We have seen spouses that met each other through the recommendation of dear friends.
The power of recommendation is as important as the person making it on your behalf; it is not advisable to long for something so much that you ask someone that does not enjoy high respect to do it for you. If this dear mistake is made, you might loose it even before you lay your hands on it. Edward Kennedy and Oprah Winfrey are two people that enjoy in no small measure the respect of Americans; their public endorsement did it for Obama.
Biblically, there are examples; Joseph being an evergreen one. Despite the fact that he was destined for the post (prime-minister), he still had to depend on someone putting in a word for him (recommendation), little wonder he told the king’s cup bearer not to forget him when he again took his place among the king’s retinue of servants.
Recommendation does not happen in a vacuum, it depends on some vital principles;
The principle of relationship: this principle states that you cannot vouch for someone you do not know. Hence, for you to enjoy someone’s word on your behalf, you have to command the person’s confidence and confidence comes only with relationship. No man is an island of anything, if God could say ‘come lets reason together’ and sauntered into the garden to have fellowship with man who is a man to say he does not need others?
The principle of diligence: it said that we should not be weary in well doing and further says a diligent man will have his place among kings and princes. This shows that if you keep doing what you know how to do best in your closet, it is only a matter of time, you’ll soon catch the attention of people and by extension enjoy their recommendation.
Researches have shown that we are a number of people away from where we want to be or who we want to meet. This means that all we have to do to get to a place of our dreams or shake hands with our dream celebrity is getting to know someone or some people. Your dream place is someone’s relaxation center and that enigmatic person is another person’s pal.
Recommendation takes place everywhere; politics, career, relationship and even religion. The day Barack Obama received the public endorsement of Senator Edward Kennedy; he overtook Hillary Clinton in the opinion poll of who should clinch the presidential ticket of the Democratic Party. Also, he enjoyed the recommendation of Oprah Winfrey.
We have seen spouses that met each other through the recommendation of dear friends.
The power of recommendation is as important as the person making it on your behalf; it is not advisable to long for something so much that you ask someone that does not enjoy high respect to do it for you. If this dear mistake is made, you might loose it even before you lay your hands on it. Edward Kennedy and Oprah Winfrey are two people that enjoy in no small measure the respect of Americans; their public endorsement did it for Obama.
Biblically, there are examples; Joseph being an evergreen one. Despite the fact that he was destined for the post (prime-minister), he still had to depend on someone putting in a word for him (recommendation), little wonder he told the king’s cup bearer not to forget him when he again took his place among the king’s retinue of servants.
Recommendation does not happen in a vacuum, it depends on some vital principles;
The principle of relationship: this principle states that you cannot vouch for someone you do not know. Hence, for you to enjoy someone’s word on your behalf, you have to command the person’s confidence and confidence comes only with relationship. No man is an island of anything, if God could say ‘come lets reason together’ and sauntered into the garden to have fellowship with man who is a man to say he does not need others?
The principle of diligence: it said that we should not be weary in well doing and further says a diligent man will have his place among kings and princes. This shows that if you keep doing what you know how to do best in your closet, it is only a matter of time, you’ll soon catch the attention of people and by extension enjoy their recommendation.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Anatomy of a Winner.
A winner is not someone who has not lost but one who does not quit in moments of failure with the belief that with improvement, he would get it right someday. A winner is also not someone who wins seldomly but someone who has made an habit of winning, a winner does not see impossibilities, rather, he turns them into steps to reaching his goal(s).
In life, we all have reasons to fail; Clinton never knew his father but still rose to the exalted position of America's president, Obama was black and no black before him had got the nod of any of the major political parties ( Democrats and Republican) for the office of the president, yet he not only became the flag-bearer, he won the election and of course, the rest is history.
Jose Mourinho, a football manager with an attitude that courted him enemies everywhere he went but still succeeds despite the cloudy atmosphere of hatred. He is enroute becoming the greatest manager ever having won league titles in 3 different countries ( Portugal, England and Italy), he has moved on to Spain hoping to turn it into another of his conquests.
Great men and winners are those that arm themselves with an axe and head for the rock. He keeps smashing at the rock until the rock gives way. Everybody appreciates gold simply because it is scarce and only a few find it, the others buy it.
Winners are not born,they are made. Every living person ( white or black) have chances to win in life. Victory in life does not favour a particular skin colour , race, religion, age or even language.
To win in life. all that is required is grit, determination, belief, obstacles and luck. Life is like a football match in which a keeper is faced with the daunting task of keeping a clean sheet. For 90 minutes, he foils the attempt of players of the opposition to score against his team, he throws his body , jumps and a times, gets injured but still manages to continue. We are all goalkeepers in life.
Obstacles bring out the best in us. You will never know how fast you can run until your very life depends on it ( Imagine facing a very hungry lion). It is usually good to embrace obstacles and challenges for they only make us better.
Luck is literally good fortune but literarily, it is labouring under correct knowledge. With the right preparation, success and greatness will be achieved. Consider carefully what you desire and ask the very important question 'what is the necessary ingredient?
Let us all equip ourselves with the requisite knowledge and the success that has been far-fetched will become hand-reached.
In life, we all have reasons to fail; Clinton never knew his father but still rose to the exalted position of America's president, Obama was black and no black before him had got the nod of any of the major political parties ( Democrats and Republican) for the office of the president, yet he not only became the flag-bearer, he won the election and of course, the rest is history.
Jose Mourinho, a football manager with an attitude that courted him enemies everywhere he went but still succeeds despite the cloudy atmosphere of hatred. He is enroute becoming the greatest manager ever having won league titles in 3 different countries ( Portugal, England and Italy), he has moved on to Spain hoping to turn it into another of his conquests.
Great men and winners are those that arm themselves with an axe and head for the rock. He keeps smashing at the rock until the rock gives way. Everybody appreciates gold simply because it is scarce and only a few find it, the others buy it.
Winners are not born,they are made. Every living person ( white or black) have chances to win in life. Victory in life does not favour a particular skin colour , race, religion, age or even language.
To win in life. all that is required is grit, determination, belief, obstacles and luck. Life is like a football match in which a keeper is faced with the daunting task of keeping a clean sheet. For 90 minutes, he foils the attempt of players of the opposition to score against his team, he throws his body , jumps and a times, gets injured but still manages to continue. We are all goalkeepers in life.
Obstacles bring out the best in us. You will never know how fast you can run until your very life depends on it ( Imagine facing a very hungry lion). It is usually good to embrace obstacles and challenges for they only make us better.
Luck is literally good fortune but literarily, it is labouring under correct knowledge. With the right preparation, success and greatness will be achieved. Consider carefully what you desire and ask the very important question 'what is the necessary ingredient?
Let us all equip ourselves with the requisite knowledge and the success that has been far-fetched will become hand-reached.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
GOLDEN RULE.
GOLDEN RULE.
Biblically, ‘love your neighbour as thyself’ is said to be the most important law but philosophers have proposed a rule which is perceived as golden and it is ‘do unto others what you will have them do unto you’.
In life, we frown when we are at the receiving end of some actions but not when we dish them out. Each and everyday, we do things to others that make them clench their fists and gnash their teeth in agony. Sometimes, they retaliate, other times; they do not owing to our perceived superior placement.
Have we ever thought of what life will be if we treat others the way we would want to be treated if roles were swapped? Most humans if not all are hedonists (pleasure seekers), thus, they would not want to embrace pain or forms of it.
Someone would owe others gladly but when he is indebted to, he will go around swearing and cursing bitterly. I ask why would you owe or defiantly refuse paying if you cannot stand being owed?
To a person paying assailants to hunt down another for whatever reason, I put it to you that how would you feel if you are the reciepient of that fatal coup de grace. No matter how rich you are, there is someone richer who can afford to pay hoodlums to cut you down.
There are some I call ‘smooth operators’. They boast about snatching others partners, sleeping with the spouses of others, ruining relationships that took long to nurture and build. To you smooth operators, how would you feel if someone else does exactly the same thing to you? You find your partner in the warm embrace of another! It is pertinent to note that no matter what your best is, it can be bettered. Be it good or evil. If you are such a good orator and feels that your tongue can cause any lady to fall, I say someday a better orator will sweep your lady off her feet and cause you eternal emotional pain. Always know that your best is someone else’s beginning and your revelation is another’s genesis.
The golden rule though simple, let everyone observe it and the world will be an eldorado.
Biblically, ‘love your neighbour as thyself’ is said to be the most important law but philosophers have proposed a rule which is perceived as golden and it is ‘do unto others what you will have them do unto you’.
In life, we frown when we are at the receiving end of some actions but not when we dish them out. Each and everyday, we do things to others that make them clench their fists and gnash their teeth in agony. Sometimes, they retaliate, other times; they do not owing to our perceived superior placement.
Have we ever thought of what life will be if we treat others the way we would want to be treated if roles were swapped? Most humans if not all are hedonists (pleasure seekers), thus, they would not want to embrace pain or forms of it.
Someone would owe others gladly but when he is indebted to, he will go around swearing and cursing bitterly. I ask why would you owe or defiantly refuse paying if you cannot stand being owed?
To a person paying assailants to hunt down another for whatever reason, I put it to you that how would you feel if you are the reciepient of that fatal coup de grace. No matter how rich you are, there is someone richer who can afford to pay hoodlums to cut you down.
There are some I call ‘smooth operators’. They boast about snatching others partners, sleeping with the spouses of others, ruining relationships that took long to nurture and build. To you smooth operators, how would you feel if someone else does exactly the same thing to you? You find your partner in the warm embrace of another! It is pertinent to note that no matter what your best is, it can be bettered. Be it good or evil. If you are such a good orator and feels that your tongue can cause any lady to fall, I say someday a better orator will sweep your lady off her feet and cause you eternal emotional pain. Always know that your best is someone else’s beginning and your revelation is another’s genesis.
The golden rule though simple, let everyone observe it and the world will be an eldorado.
PURE INSANITY OR AN ACT OF TERRORISM
There are surprises; pleasant and unpleasant. In Nigeria, recently, we have been having a deluge of the latter. Firstly, a brief medical check-up of the president in a first-class hospital turning into a sabbatical and French leave in Saudi hospice. Secondly, while the world was grappling with the Christmas season, a Nigerian attempted to blow a US bound plane. Thirdly, the imbroglio about the refusal of the president to transmit power to his vice, pressures from quarters for him to do so, the unexpected presence of a cabal blindly loyal to the president ( sick or not) and the eventual though belated conferment of acting status on the vice-president. It is obvious that these infamies are becoming one too many.
The crux of this writing is the shocking occurrence at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar in which a man attempted to blow up a plane belonging to Arik fleet by driving straight to the runway and ramming it into the plane. When news flittered in that a Nigerian gentleman had stopped being gentle by attempting to blow up a US bound Detroit plane and the consequent inclusion of Nigeria into America’s terror watch list. We all cried wolf saying Nigerians are not and can never be terrorists. We came up with the argument that though Mutallab was a Nigerian by name, he was not at heart and no true Nigerian will want to die even if he was promised a mansion full of cosmopolitan virgins. How do we now explain this recent fateful development? The cab driver at the eye of the storm declared stupidly that he would come back and round off his unfinished business. The action of the cab driver did not only jeopardize the lives of the 200 people on board, it also raised some critical questions as to the safety of our airports vis-à-vis the runways. It was also in a Nigerian airport that we saw a herd of cattle running onto the runway. Is the runway a green field where cattles graze? It must be in such a deplorable state for cattles to mistake it for grazing field.
This recent ‘punisher’ has successfully proven that there are terrorists in Nigeria and I doubt if the white house will grant us the reprieve we brazenly crave for.
I have a few suggestions that if implemented, will put a stop to these spates of shameless occurrences in our airports.
All the security men that were on duty at all the gates when the cab driver did his stunts should be sacked and made the feel the full wrath of the law. They were negligent of their duty and by allowing to ride unchallenged as there was no report of gate crashing, they are all accomplices to his crime.
The national assembly should pass a bill that would make it a criminal offence to ride straight unto the runway. This law should be binding on the rich and the poor alike as what is good for the goose is certainly good for the gander. If you are too rich to queue with others at the terminal, then get your own aircraft and international airspace license and if you do not want to miss your flight, go on time to the airport for your flight.
Security should be tightened at all the airports. The airport is not a market. The airports project the image of the country to a visitor. If it is rowdy, the visitor will assume that the country is unstable and if it is serene, the visitor will have just that impression.
The crux of this writing is the shocking occurrence at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar in which a man attempted to blow up a plane belonging to Arik fleet by driving straight to the runway and ramming it into the plane. When news flittered in that a Nigerian gentleman had stopped being gentle by attempting to blow up a US bound Detroit plane and the consequent inclusion of Nigeria into America’s terror watch list. We all cried wolf saying Nigerians are not and can never be terrorists. We came up with the argument that though Mutallab was a Nigerian by name, he was not at heart and no true Nigerian will want to die even if he was promised a mansion full of cosmopolitan virgins. How do we now explain this recent fateful development? The cab driver at the eye of the storm declared stupidly that he would come back and round off his unfinished business. The action of the cab driver did not only jeopardize the lives of the 200 people on board, it also raised some critical questions as to the safety of our airports vis-à-vis the runways. It was also in a Nigerian airport that we saw a herd of cattle running onto the runway. Is the runway a green field where cattles graze? It must be in such a deplorable state for cattles to mistake it for grazing field.
This recent ‘punisher’ has successfully proven that there are terrorists in Nigeria and I doubt if the white house will grant us the reprieve we brazenly crave for.
I have a few suggestions that if implemented, will put a stop to these spates of shameless occurrences in our airports.
All the security men that were on duty at all the gates when the cab driver did his stunts should be sacked and made the feel the full wrath of the law. They were negligent of their duty and by allowing to ride unchallenged as there was no report of gate crashing, they are all accomplices to his crime.
The national assembly should pass a bill that would make it a criminal offence to ride straight unto the runway. This law should be binding on the rich and the poor alike as what is good for the goose is certainly good for the gander. If you are too rich to queue with others at the terminal, then get your own aircraft and international airspace license and if you do not want to miss your flight, go on time to the airport for your flight.
Security should be tightened at all the airports. The airport is not a market. The airports project the image of the country to a visitor. If it is rowdy, the visitor will assume that the country is unstable and if it is serene, the visitor will have just that impression.
CORRUPTION, WHO IS AND WHO IS NOT?
When the word ‘corruption’ is said, politicians and top government officials come into mind as if they are the only ones who are corrupt. The word ‘corruption’ as defined by the Encarta dictionary is ‘dishonest exploitation of power for personal gain.
In the light of the above definition, can we search ourselves and still say we are not corrupt? Everybody that engages in any form of exploitation for personal gain is corrupt and this I say without any apology to anybody. Nigerians are great hypocrites who points to a broomstick in another’s eyes when an iroko lies unattended to in their own eyes.
The motivation behind this write-up was an incident that took place at the weekend. I had a business to attend to in Lagos, so early in the morning I went to the park to board a bus to Lagos. This I did at 420 naira. At the end of my business in Lagos, I headed for the park to board the one heading for Ibadan and it was at this place that I got the shock of my life. The bus I had taken less than 8 hours earlier had skyrocketed to 1,500 naira without a corresponding increase in the cost of fuel. I had only 2 options staring me in the face; pay the highly inflated fare or stay back in Lagos until that momentary madness was healed and because I did not have the luxury of the second option, I grudgingly took the first. If this is not corruption, then what is?
In Nigeria, if a politician embezzles 100 million, Nigerians will call for his head but what should we do to cab drivers that exploit and extort commuters? All through the journey, my heart was in my mouth because the bus was literally flying as the driver was moving at top speed just because he wanted to get to Ibadan on time to pick more passengers. In short, he wanted to maximize profit at the expense of the passengers’ lives.
So much for drivers, what about market women that dubiously shrink the container so that it would accommodate less at the normal price. We all need a change of orientation and attitude. It is not the amount that defines corruption; it is the motive behind it.
When the word ‘corruption’ is said, politicians and top government officials come into mind as if they are the only ones who are corrupt. The word ‘corruption’ as defined by the Encarta dictionary is ‘dishonest exploitation of power for personal gain.
In the light of the above definition, can we search ourselves and still say we are not corrupt? Everybody that engages in any form of exploitation for personal gain is corrupt and this I say without any apology to anybody. Nigerians are great hypocrites who points to a broomstick in another’s eyes when an iroko lies unattended to in their own eyes.
The motivation behind this write-up was an incident that took place at the weekend. I had a business to attend to in Lagos, so early in the morning I went to the park to board a bus to Lagos. This I did at 420 naira. At the end of my business in Lagos, I headed for the park to board the one heading for Ibadan and it was at this place that I got the shock of my life. The bus I had taken less than 8 hours earlier had skyrocketed to 1,500 naira without a corresponding increase in the cost of fuel. I had only 2 options staring me in the face; pay the highly inflated fare or stay back in Lagos until that momentary madness was healed and because I did not have the luxury of the second option, I grudgingly took the first. If this is not corruption, then what is?
In Nigeria, if a politician embezzles 100 million, Nigerians will call for his head but what should we do to cab drivers that exploit and extort commuters? All through the journey, my heart was in my mouth because the bus was literally flying as the driver was moving at top speed just because he wanted to get to Ibadan on time to pick more passengers. In short, he wanted to maximize profit at the expense of the passengers’ lives.
So much for drivers, what about market women that dubiously shrink the container so that it would accommodate less at the normal price. We all need a change of orientation and attitude. It is not the amount that defines corruption; it is the motive behind it.
Monday, April 12, 2010
LEGENDARY MESSI
LEGENDARY MESSI.
He busted onto the scene in 2005m at the Fifa youth soccer championship held in Netherlands where he won the golden shoe and golden ball for the highest goal scorer and most valuable player of the tournament. Then, people saw an innocent and probably docile young boy but now call Messi and defenders the world over will cringe.
He plies his trade with Barcelona fc in Spain and at only 22, he has won all there is to win at club level, sweeping individual accolades in his wake. The world of football had in the past seen the emergence and departures of great players like Marco van Basten, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo de Lima, Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Bergkamp, Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo mentioning just a few but I make bold to say that none has been like Messi.
Fleet-footed, creative, entertaining and fantastic in front of goal. He is not a striker but plays as a right winger in the triumvirate attack of the all conquering Barcelona but yet scores more than the arrow head of the attack.
After scoring 34 goals last season and emerging the top scorer in the Uefa champions league, he was voted the Ballon d’or and Fifa world player of the year winner. In this ongoing season, Messi has scored 40 goals with 10 still left. He has also made hatrick a mince meat. I do not think any player has mustered as many hatricks and ‘foursomes’ in a season as Messi had mustered so far this season. Also, he is the first player to net a foursome in a quarter-final match of the Uefa champions league when his man of the match heroics put paid to Arsenal’s champions league ambition. He is the strength of Barcelona , take Messi out and it will be like every other good team around but add Messi and Barcelona will be a huge distance ahead of other teams.
Messi might be a toddler going by football age standard at only 22 but besides his footballing heroics, he has displayed the wisdom of a sage. When Manchester city bankrolled by the Abu Dhabi dynasty dangled a massive financial carrot before Messi by asking him to name his price all in a bid to lure him from Camp Nou to Eastlands, he simply shook his head politely saying NO. by this, he has proven that football is not all about money unlike Nigerian footballers that make money their first and major priority when jumping club ships and switching allegiance. Mikel moved over to Chelsea in 2006 instead of Manchester united. Well people would argue that he is playing. Truly, he is playing but not at his optimum, he has lost his panache, long-range passing and vision and had taken on the role of a hatchet-man just to satisfy his erstwhile boss. Because of financial greed, Nigeria has lost the heir apparent to Okocha’s midfield throne.
Emmanuel Adebayor, though plays his international football for Togo, he has Nigeria’s undiluted blood flowing in his veins. He left the London emirates to join the Manchester eastlands just because of money in the summer. Is he happy? His recent statement in an interview sums it all up ‘I am frustrated’. Why won’t he be, no title to chase, no champions league football, no exquisite passes to waste and above all, no tolerant manager to stand by him.
Back to Messi, football managers say that a player reaches his peak when he is between 28 and 30 but how do we explain Messi’s performance at just 22? We can say he has not reached peak, so to defenders cowering now, I say the worst is yet to come and to Messi, I say keep on the ‘good’ work.
Some detractors would say that Messi only plays well for Barcelona but I ask with which team did he win the Fifa world youth championship and Olympic gold? Your guess is as good as mine. If there are still some doubting Thomases of his ingenious ability, wait until the 2010 Fifa world cup when Messi will be unleashed on the world especially the lazy, slow and lackluster defenders.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
JOS: HOME OF PEACE AND TOURISM OR VIOLENCE AND MASSACRE
JOS: HOME OF PEACE AND TOURISM OR VIOLENCE AND MASSACRE?
For every Nigerian state, there is a sobriquet attached to it. There is the ‘centre of excellence’, .pacesetter state’ and even ‘food basket of the nation’. Have they lived up to their names? That is a discourse for another day.
The crux of my writing is on Jos. This is a city that has become more popular than the state housing it. There are many towns in Plateau state but Jos has been grabbing the headlines and refusing to let go for a while now because of the prevalent violence for which there seems to be no end in sight.
Plateau state has the nickname ‘home of peace and tourism’ but that has been substituted of recent for ‘home of violence and massacre’ or how else will you describe the huge volumes of lives and properties that have been lost to the unending spate of senseless fighting ( ethno-religious).
Jos had been peaceful until some people ignited a sizeable chunk of gun-powder that sent the whole peace into a huge inferno in 2001. The violence of this year led to the brutal killing of Christians and Jos indigenes not dwellers on infamous roads like Bauchi road and Angwa –Rogo. Only an irresponsible head is not around when the house is on fire, unfortunately, that was the tale of the political head of government in Plateau state, he was out of town and didn’t return until many lives had been lost and properties ruined.
I was an ‘ear witness’ of the 2001 crisis but in 2008 , I became an eyewitness and it was God and mother luck that prevented me from being a victim. In August 2008, I was posted to Plateau state for the compulsory national servitude. After the orientation, I was posted to the Jos north axis of the state for my place of primary assignment. Initially, I struggled to get a peaceful accommodation but after a while owing to God’s favor, I was able to get a place to share with a big brother friend. The only ‘but’ in the place was that it was a predominantly Hausa and by implication Islamic environment. I did not see this as a fuss until after the crisis. What crisis? You might want to ask, I will be telling you about it shortly.
In November of the same year, the state Government organized local government elections into Jos north and the day after huge crisis erupted. I awoke not to the usual hustle and bustle that should characterize a new day but to pandemonium, people running helter skelter for their lives. I owe mine to God and a big brother friend that persuaded me to run away fast since I thought it was just a harmless riot that would soon be put out. How wrong I was, that so-called harmless riot cost people their properties, took lives including three from the NYSC.
After the crisis, the government of the sate vowed to prevent any future occurrence and even the federal government said it would never happen again. In 2010, when every other person was saying happy New Year, residents of Jos metropolis had to scamper away from their homes to places of safety. This time around, the crisis was not limited to Jos north but it got to Jos south and neighboring villages. The loss of lives and properties was colossal.
The whole of Nigeria is still grappling with that when just some few days back, we heard that some Fulani herdsmen went to a village murdering innocent people in their sleep, women and children. I did not know the full import until I saw some gory pictures of some slaughtered women and children. A child’s head was slashed into two equal halves. Having given you a compressed download of events in that state, I will like to ask some pertinent questions.
- Are Jos residents vampires ( I mean blood thirsty)?
- Are security operatives in the state paid for doing nothing or how else do we explain recurring bloody crises occurring in the same location three times in a space of 10 years.
- Is the federal government happy seeing blood on the television screens and pages of newspaper, if the state government is negligent and the state governor inefficient should the federal government and the presidency follow suit?
I would really appreciate it if someone can give answers to my questions. They are not so tough, are they? If things continue like this in Jos, tourist might only remember and visit the place when they want to watch Nigeria’s version of horror movie.
ELECTION PETITION ONE TOO MANY
ELECTION PETITION ONE TOO MANY.
Mimiko, Oshiomole, Obi and some many others make the list of politicians that recovered their stolen mandate from the usurpers that had stolen them. It is no longer a tell-tale that there are some politicians who are currently occupying positions that do not belong to them.
The most shameful thing is that these bandits turned politicians know that they did not win the election but yet they keep appealing the judgments until they can appeal no more. The ready question is why do they do this? As complicated as the question seems, the answer is very simple and not far fetched. They do this to buy time, steal money and consolidate on their ill-gotten wealth.
This idea of reclaiming snatched mandate had and is still giving Nigeria a bad name, disrupting the political calendar of the nation and making the electoral commission very inefficient.
Elections are conducted every 4 years but this is disrupted by someone reclaiming a stolen mandate after 3 years and the new winner is sworn in to spend another 4 years which is his own tenure. This was a problem that showed up in Anambra during the 2007 general elections. Chief Andy Uba ran under the platform of the PDP and won the election but the incumbent Peter Obi went to the Supreme Court for succour, the apex court upheld the fact that Peter Obi had not yet expended his own 4 years and thus it was sheer stupidity on the part of INEC to have conducted a gubernatorial election in the state. This simply means that the Anambra gubernatorial election will never align with the timing of the Nigerian general election. This also goes for the other states that have the same political pattern.
This unholy political pattern will continue until some severe deterrent is put in place to check the vote robbers we call politicians. I will suggest a few punishments, they may seem too harsh but what else do you think can stop an armed robber if not the fear of being sent to face the firing squad.
My suggested punishments go thus:
That every politician that steals the electoral mandate should be sent to jail for twice the number of years spent occupying the stolen office.
A life sentence for every politician convicted of stealing the votes of the electorate to occupy an office.
In addition to either of the above sentences, they should refund all the salaries and emoluments received while occupying the office they never won.
I do not have the power to enforce this things but I hope someone that does will read this helpful article. Thank you.
Monday, February 15, 2010
UNIFORM NUISANCE.
Wonders they say ‘shall never end’ but I beg to re-phrase it as ‘ wonders shall not stop happening’. How can we explain the misuse of power by the so-called uniform men. Abuse of power was associated with only the military in a period we prefer to call the dark ages, but now, the other Para-military outfits have now started harassing, molesting, maltreating and in some cases, end up incapacitating their victims.
What they do, they do in the name of being dutiful. The military protects the country, police offers protection to the populace, Yellow fever, sorry. Road Safety seeks to prevent accident but what is the VIO protecting, vehicle insurance? Your guess is as good as mine.
On a sunny afternoon when people were at work or preparing to close at work, the power-drunk VIO chaps descended heavily on an unfortunate victim beating him almost to a state of pulp. Questions from people brought out part of the true story which was that they requested the driver of the truck to stop but he wouldn’t or maybe he did not even hear. A few metres away, he stopped and they took a maximum advantage of the slip.
The question been raised is that in a country that her ill president keeps preaching the gospel of due process and rule of law should the law enforcement agencies keep taking law into their hands? If the ordinary VIO staff can barbarically deal with a citizen that has not been condemned, only God knows what the BIG OGAs can do.
It is in Nigeria that we see a trigger happy police officer shoot down a lawful citizen of the country just because of a paltry twenty naira. Anyway, hopefully, in no distant time from now, Nigerians will breathe the air of true freedom. Until then, my advice is that we should always be careful until God delivers us from these uniform PHAROAHS.
PREMIER LEAGUE, TWO HORSE RACE ?
That the premier league is second nature to Nigerians is no understatement. Many football loving Nigerians follow the English league more than they follow the local league. What’s the local league called sef? Is it GLO , MTN OR ZAIN, who cares to know?
Owing to the habitual poor performances of the ‘super chickens’ sorry Eagles, fans have taken solace in watching tactically sounds managed teams, disciplined and gifted players.
The 09/10 Barclays premiership season is the most closely fought season in a long while. This season, some teams have tried to push the traditional top 4 teams all the way for the coveted champions’ league football or even the league crown. Teams like Tottenham, Aston-villa and Man-city have attempted to crash the top 4 party.
As expected, top 4 is not about money but character of the teams and the caliber of players they pararde. The traditional elite teams in England pulled clear of the others expect Liverpool that unexpectedly suffered dwindling fortunes .
The race for the coveted trophy was at the beginning of the season narrowed down to three teams; Man-utd, Chelsea and Liverpool. Arsenal was totally discountenanced initially owing to the departure of Adebayor and Toure in the summer but the demolition of Everton at the Goodinson park made football aficionados to have a rethink.
Arsenal in recent weeks have suffered some embarrassing defeats to both title rivals in Man-utd and Chelsea. These defeats have made football analysts to rule Arsenal out of the running for the league. I want to state categorically here that the league is not won by the team that accumulates the most number of points from his battle with direct rivals but by the team that is able to beat the smaller teams well. My analysis is based on the facts of last season.
Last season, of the top 4 teams, Liverpool got the highest number of points from their top 4 rivals, amassing a total of 14 points. The breakdown goes thus;
Liverpool against Man-utd- 6 points
Liverpool against Chelsea- 6 points
Liverpool against Arsenal- 2 points
Arsenal got 9 points
Against Man-utd – 4 points
Against Chelsea – 3 points
Against Liverpool- 2 points
Man-utd got 5 points
Against Liverpool- 0 points
Against Arsenal- 1 point
Against Chelsea- 4 points
Chelsea got 4 points
Against Liverpool – 0 points
Against Arsenal- 3 points
Against Man-utd – 1 point.
With the above analysis, one would have thought that Liverpool should have won the league but they didn’t. The winner we all know. The reason why Liverpool couldn’t end their lengthy wait for the league crown was because they couldn’t beat the smaller relegation threatened teams. To remind you, Middlesbrough beat them and of course Middlesbrough now plies its trade in the nationwide league.
Beating top 4 rivals does not translate into winning the league, it only gives you an edge that if well managed, can give you the crown. Now that Arsenal has lost to their bitter top 4 rivals, I want to state categorically here that they are down but not out. If they can win their remaining matches, they could still win it if their conquerors can’t pummel the bottom teams. Both Chelsea and Man-utd have struggled against bottom teams ; Chelsea has lost to Wigan, drawn Hull and west-ham. Man-utd have lost to Burnley, drawn Sunderland and Birmingham.
To true Arsenal fans, I say keep the faith and let’s remain incurably optimistic, the league trophy can still be lifted by our Spanish maestro and be domiciled at our Emirates trophy cabinet.
To deluded Chelsea and Man-utd fans, I say the bird has not come home to roast yet. The final resting place of the league crown for the season has not been decide yet. It could be Old-Trafford, Stamford bridge or even the Emirates!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
