Saturday, 25 June 2011
Friday, 24 June 2011
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Nigeria and Africa Renaissance Initiative Inc.: Nigeria; Change/Transformation is coming!
Nigeria and Africa Renaissance Initiative Inc.: Nigeria; Change/Transformation is coming!: ".....you can't stop a CHANGE/TRANSFORMATION whose TIME has come!!! Federal Republic of Nigeria, 'you' will be CHANGED/TRANSFORMED by all me..."
Nigeria and Africa Renaissance Initiative Inc.: Nigeria; Change/Transformation is coming!
Nigeria and Africa Renaissance Initiative Inc.: Nigeria; Change/Transformation is coming!: ".....you can't stop a CHANGE/TRANSFORMATION whose TIME has come!!! Federal Republic of Nigeria, 'you' will be CHANGED/TRANSFORMED by all me..."
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
THEIR BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS
THEIR BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS
The youth corps members that was killed in the quest of serving their fatherland during the election time in Northern areas of this junk called Nigeria, there blood on your hands.
Are you a president who could not preside on the truth, a leader who leads others on the ruinous path? Are you the governor who armed them, used them when it was right to do so? Did you dupe and dump them afterwards? Are you that who was friend to them yesterday and now betray them? Are you the fire-eating critic of today after you shamelessly urged them on the day before? The blood of these victims will hound you, I assure.
Are you a teacher who taught others to do what you would never have your children do, or instructors on that which is vain and unwholesome? Then you share a part of the guilt, their blood will haunt you for ever.
Are you the marabout who prescribed poison to the motherless; the herbalist who dished hemlock to the uninitiated? Are you the doctor who recommended untested potions to others; and raked in the gain from their makers? Your days are numbered; the dead are planning their revolt. Their blood, you should know, is on your hands.
Maybe you are the security agent, asked to get the facts to nip the bud, but you cook what is farce and present them as if that is the fad? You are paid to protect but you guide those who rape the souls in your care. You call the thief unto roguery and then sound the alarm to alert the householder. Then, your day of reckoning is nigh. Someone would have to pay for the innocent blood, that you shed everyday; the reggae man sang long ago. That someone is you.
Are you the journalist: the columnist, who compares the incomparable, befuddles others with lies; leaves the truth in search of falsehood; more fanatical than the fanatic and yet hides under intellectual sanctimony? Are you? Your day of judgement will soon come. The blood is flowing. And when it meets at the tributary of nemesis, it will down the voices of the mongers of falsehood. Yours will be chief, because their bloods is on your hands.
Are you the leader of that ethnic group? The one who stokes hatred in the unwary and reaps from gun-running to quell their rebellion? Are you that who made them poor and turned their poverty into your prosperity?
The blood of those turned into common felons; of those you made orphans, of the fathers mowed down long ago, of the mothers rendered childless in your bid to hold on to power, they are here to haunt you; you, you and you. Remember you sheared the lips of the suckling child from its firm grips on the crying mother’s breast. His wall was sweet music to your sick ears. Now, the blood is on a mission of vengeance. And your hands bear traces of the waste.
You were the pastor who divined midnight sacrifice to your blighted god, in the name of the true God; the Mallam who taught children to turn other’s laughter to sadness with no compulsion. You made butchers of the innocent and turned them on the sinless, then turn round to mow them down; the innocent and the sinless. There is blood dripping from your hands.
Neither the refutation of a million years, denials in hidden and open places, appeasement of unknown gods, nor the purchase of the conscience of many, will remove from your guilt. You are guilty without being charged, for the punishment you mete unto the blameless.
You could hide in exotic abodes, swathe yourself in pretentious grandeur or cover your emptiness in garbled logic, the truth is sure to find you out. Time will definitely unmask you. You will be rendered naked; your inheritance will be laid to waste, for you plotted evil against the guiltless.
The tongue you profess will not save you, your religion will not be a relief, the colour of your skin will not shield you; the geography of your origin will not secure you. When nemesis comes in rampaging angst, you and yours will not be spared. North, South, West, East, North by South or South by the Midwest; where you come from will count little. What you have will not matter, for it will soon be judgement day.
Some will say we have heard this before, it will never come in our time, even though I speak not if the second coming, yet I mean the final coming; when you can no longer change what you are, you can no longer decide what you will be. Then the full weight of the blood you have shed; by your actions or inactions, your silence or your rants and all that you did in between, will come crashing on you and your house of straws.
To the youth corps members that died in the Northern areas for serving their fatherland: may your rest in perfect peace. My heartfelt sympathy goes their families. R I P. E Sun re ooo…………..
Article culled from Thenationonlineng.net (2006).
Re-edited by: Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
The youth corps members that was killed in the quest of serving their fatherland during the election time in Northern areas of this junk called Nigeria, there blood on your hands.
Are you a president who could not preside on the truth, a leader who leads others on the ruinous path? Are you the governor who armed them, used them when it was right to do so? Did you dupe and dump them afterwards? Are you that who was friend to them yesterday and now betray them? Are you the fire-eating critic of today after you shamelessly urged them on the day before? The blood of these victims will hound you, I assure.
Are you a teacher who taught others to do what you would never have your children do, or instructors on that which is vain and unwholesome? Then you share a part of the guilt, their blood will haunt you for ever.
Are you the marabout who prescribed poison to the motherless; the herbalist who dished hemlock to the uninitiated? Are you the doctor who recommended untested potions to others; and raked in the gain from their makers? Your days are numbered; the dead are planning their revolt. Their blood, you should know, is on your hands.
Maybe you are the security agent, asked to get the facts to nip the bud, but you cook what is farce and present them as if that is the fad? You are paid to protect but you guide those who rape the souls in your care. You call the thief unto roguery and then sound the alarm to alert the householder. Then, your day of reckoning is nigh. Someone would have to pay for the innocent blood, that you shed everyday; the reggae man sang long ago. That someone is you.
Are you the journalist: the columnist, who compares the incomparable, befuddles others with lies; leaves the truth in search of falsehood; more fanatical than the fanatic and yet hides under intellectual sanctimony? Are you? Your day of judgement will soon come. The blood is flowing. And when it meets at the tributary of nemesis, it will down the voices of the mongers of falsehood. Yours will be chief, because their bloods is on your hands.
Are you the leader of that ethnic group? The one who stokes hatred in the unwary and reaps from gun-running to quell their rebellion? Are you that who made them poor and turned their poverty into your prosperity?
The blood of those turned into common felons; of those you made orphans, of the fathers mowed down long ago, of the mothers rendered childless in your bid to hold on to power, they are here to haunt you; you, you and you. Remember you sheared the lips of the suckling child from its firm grips on the crying mother’s breast. His wall was sweet music to your sick ears. Now, the blood is on a mission of vengeance. And your hands bear traces of the waste.
You were the pastor who divined midnight sacrifice to your blighted god, in the name of the true God; the Mallam who taught children to turn other’s laughter to sadness with no compulsion. You made butchers of the innocent and turned them on the sinless, then turn round to mow them down; the innocent and the sinless. There is blood dripping from your hands.
Neither the refutation of a million years, denials in hidden and open places, appeasement of unknown gods, nor the purchase of the conscience of many, will remove from your guilt. You are guilty without being charged, for the punishment you mete unto the blameless.
You could hide in exotic abodes, swathe yourself in pretentious grandeur or cover your emptiness in garbled logic, the truth is sure to find you out. Time will definitely unmask you. You will be rendered naked; your inheritance will be laid to waste, for you plotted evil against the guiltless.
The tongue you profess will not save you, your religion will not be a relief, the colour of your skin will not shield you; the geography of your origin will not secure you. When nemesis comes in rampaging angst, you and yours will not be spared. North, South, West, East, North by South or South by the Midwest; where you come from will count little. What you have will not matter, for it will soon be judgement day.
Some will say we have heard this before, it will never come in our time, even though I speak not if the second coming, yet I mean the final coming; when you can no longer change what you are, you can no longer decide what you will be. Then the full weight of the blood you have shed; by your actions or inactions, your silence or your rants and all that you did in between, will come crashing on you and your house of straws.
To the youth corps members that died in the Northern areas for serving their fatherland: may your rest in perfect peace. My heartfelt sympathy goes their families. R I P. E Sun re ooo…………..
Article culled from Thenationonlineng.net (2006).
Re-edited by: Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
The Time Has Come
The Time Has Come
I believe that the time has come to honour the legacy for which so many gave their lives.
I believe that the time has come to honour the legacy for which so many gave their lives.
- The time has come for change.
- The time has come for hope!
- The time has come for a return to values that characterise clean governance.
- The time has come – and it is long, long overdue – that our people have food security.
- The time has come for efficient delivery to serve the people of Nigeria.
- The time has come to create a society that fulfils its promises to its young.
- The time has come to create an authentically non-racial, non-sexist society.
- The time has come to create a Nigeria where public servants at every level serve the public and not their own pockets.
- The time has come to create a Nigeria where crime does not daily threaten the lives and possessions of our people.
- The time has come for people to hold their parties and government in check.
- The time has come to ensure that, institutions of our society, like the Judiciary, INEC and the Constitution are afforded the respect due to them. When these institutions are undermined, society disintegrates.
- The time has come for a clear distinction to be made between party interests and state responsibilities.
- The time has come for members of all political parties to have the right to gather in a violence-free environment.
- The time has really come to be free from democracy dictatorship.
- The time has come to make Nigeria a better place to live.
- The time has come to build a New and Better Nigeria.
Nigeria we hail thee!
Nigeria we hail thee
Our own dear native land
Though tribe and tongue may differ
In brotherhood we stand
Nigerians all and proud to serve
Our sovereign motherland
Our flag shall be a symbol
That truth and justice reign
In peace or battle honour
And this we count as gain
To pass unto our children
A banner without stain
O God of all creation
Grant this our one request
Help us to build a nation
Where no man is oppressed
And so with peace and plenty
Nigeria may be blessed.
If only we can have it as above?
The Old National Anthem.
Our own dear native land
Though tribe and tongue may differ
In brotherhood we stand
Nigerians all and proud to serve
Our sovereign motherland
Our flag shall be a symbol
That truth and justice reign
In peace or battle honour
And this we count as gain
To pass unto our children
A banner without stain
O God of all creation
Grant this our one request
Help us to build a nation
Where no man is oppressed
And so with peace and plenty
Nigeria may be blessed.
If only we can have it as above?
The Old National Anthem.
Nigeria Of My dream.Only REVOLUTION Can make It Happen Great Nation!
Together they produce one thing.............A GREAT NATION! Nigeria, a great nation Rich in natural resources and not disasters A people with one voice United in diversity and not divided A large population But with strength in our numbers Our leaders, ever ready to serve Always willing to make sacrifices With determination in our minds And love in our hearts The sky is but our beginning We stand out from the crowd We stand out the best GREAT you shall remain! A Teacher teaches pupils A Lawyer defends clients A Trader buys and sells goods A Nurse cares for the sick A Soldier protects the people A Policeman maintains peace and order A Tailor sews clothes A Driver drives vehicles A Cleaner cleans-up dirt A Photographer takes pictures A Mechanic repairs cars .....Different jobs but one purpose.....SERVICE Solving problems and meeting needs None is better; None is best Each one is important Each one is necessary For together they produce one thing.A GREAT NATION! Nigerians must learn one important lesson. We must only appoint people to sensitive government positions on MERIT. OUR ELDERS FAILED TO DO THIS. THAT IS WHY WE ARE IN THIS MESS TODAY.With united Nigeria we get there Yes We Can! Join Forces of peaceful revolution ,ant-Enemy of progres Together We Can Save Nigeria,People Like IBB must stay away from Nigeria Politics,To give young people with new idea chance of developed Nigeria and Africa.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1.
Article 2.
Article 3.
Article 4.
Article 5.
Article 6.
Article 7.
Article 8.
Article 9.
Article 10.
Article 11.
Article 12.
Article 13.
Article 14.
Article 15.
Article 16.
Article 17.
Article 18.
Article 19.
Article 20.
Article 21.
Article 22.
Article 23.
Article 24.
Article 25.
Article 26.
Article 27.
Article 28.
Article 29.
Article 30.
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1.
- All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
- Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
- Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
- No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
- No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
- Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
- All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
- Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
- No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
- Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
- (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
- (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12.
- No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13.
- (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
- (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
- (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
- (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
- (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
- (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16.
- (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
- (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
- (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
- (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
- (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18.
- Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.
- Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
- (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
- (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
- (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
- (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
- (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22.
- Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 23.
- (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
- (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
- (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
- (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
- Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
- (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
- (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
- (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
- (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
- (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27.
- (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
- (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
- Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
- (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
- (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
- (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
- Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
PREDATORS AS PHILANTROPISTS
They were not armed, save for some indecipherable skills and or pretences to them. There was no age barrier or limit. From the young to the not so young, the able and the slightly or totally challenged, they were beggars at a recent social function. The casual observer will hardly understand the deadly manifestation of the societal decay captured by their reality.
It was a battle ground in which an army of prey was being shadowed by a legion of predators. The apparent prize was some Naira notes in different stages of disuse. The real price however is the moral value of the society. The conclusion a dispassionate observer could draw is that we are further down than we are all prepared to accept.
The group dishing out music from the bandstand was excellent by all local standards. The tunes were coming from well-handed musical instruments even when the songs were ‘remix’ of other people’s hits. The dancers and the ‘prayers’ were well decked in ‘Proudly Nigeria’ Ankara, at least most of them. But the hoards of people heckling and pestering the dancers for money or other things were quite an eyesore. In their dressing, business approach and etiquettes, one needs little more to conclude that all is not well.
There is nothing wrong with getting some loose notes from a willing spender you would say, but when young children, offspring of peoples within the locality, get involved in shameless begging at social functions; when able bodied men harangue guests in provincial Yoruba land, then something has gone wrong with what we hold dear about our society.
A predator is an organism that feeds on another living organism or organisms known as prey; so one learnt from elementary ecology. There is the possibility that the prey is killed in such biological interactions during or after the act of feeding on them. Mutualism, a form of symbiosis, is a relationship of mutual benefit to the prey and its predator.
No where is the reality of the prey and predators better reflected than in the Southwest where such was hitherto strange? Here in the bowels of the Southwest, where dignity and respect used to be prime values, the sight of young children, contesting for leftovers was most difficult to bear. When did we sink this low? They were a different brand of predators, or preys as it really is. Cool and calculating, in one instance, daring and menacing in another. But that is not the distinguishing factor. Their preys or predators, though obvious of their nuisance capacities, lived with them enjoying their patronage. They were tolerated by their‘preys. Mutualism and not more, both felt. The reality is that one is always loosing and both will never gain.
What is creeping dangerously into provincial Yoruba looks on the face of it, like one that benefits both the prey and the predator? The young beggar, the old alms taker, the drummer and the women of the family see themselves as taking from the spenders as a way of sharing in the loot. The ‘Owambe’ spender feels that by doling out crisp naira notes, he is dispensing goodwill and displaying generosity. They are right so it seems. But is it really the way it appears.
In getting involved in begging, the beggar, particularly the able bodied one, shrinks his or her horizon for self actualisation. He incrementally disregards the attraction in toiling to survive. The premise is that the society is full of good people, who will always give to those who beg.
The giver beliefs that there will always be beggars; men who have become so self demeaned as to depend only on crumbs from others as a way of life. He wants them to remain beggars than become givers. He gives enough to discourage an honest day’s work but never enough to get the beggar off his misery. He would not stop giving so the beggar will not get sober enough to quit begging. Here is the pivot upon which what looks like a symbiotic existence is hung. But the Yoruba beggars one came across in the social event have dangerously close examples around them.
Since a misinterpreted form of mainstream politics has been forced down the throat of the Yoruba, the urge to affect lives progressively has been doused. Known means of survival for the states that make up the region have been thrown overboard. The economies, education and health realities of the people have become functions of federal allocations which we must agree have raised with the dollar fortunes of the country.
Rather than empower the people therefore, improved’ salaries, ‘better’ conditions of service and outright bribe of the elite have become the order of the day. Where ant mention is made of developing agriculture, forestry and other traditional means of generating revenues, it is always in position papers and programmes of action that end up inn government archives.
But the worst manifestation of the predator-prey relation is the use to token social service works as qualifying conditions for political office. Here, there and everywhere, you hear of office seekers who have paid school fees, bought Jamb forms and or provided drinking water. Those who make such provisions in their private capacities are most often found in parties and formations where provisions of such basics are hardly given serious consideration.
Worse, when they find themselves in government houses; most of the time by crook; they remember little of these needs. They argue unabashedly that they have paid enough as pre-election investments. The predators that they are have preyed on the appreciative nature of the people to get the more than commensurate worth for their ‘investments.’ The public till is seen then only as a pool from which dividends of pre-election investments could be drawn. They are in truth the predators and the people the prey. Even at that, symbiosis exists only in the imagination of the unwary.
The people ought to reject these crumbs served as generosity. The beggar must reject the hand downs of criminals dressed as philanthropists.
It was a battle ground in which an army of prey was being shadowed by a legion of predators. The apparent prize was some Naira notes in different stages of disuse. The real price however is the moral value of the society. The conclusion a dispassionate observer could draw is that we are further down than we are all prepared to accept.
The group dishing out music from the bandstand was excellent by all local standards. The tunes were coming from well-handed musical instruments even when the songs were ‘remix’ of other people’s hits. The dancers and the ‘prayers’ were well decked in ‘Proudly Nigeria’ Ankara, at least most of them. But the hoards of people heckling and pestering the dancers for money or other things were quite an eyesore. In their dressing, business approach and etiquettes, one needs little more to conclude that all is not well.
There is nothing wrong with getting some loose notes from a willing spender you would say, but when young children, offspring of peoples within the locality, get involved in shameless begging at social functions; when able bodied men harangue guests in provincial Yoruba land, then something has gone wrong with what we hold dear about our society.
A predator is an organism that feeds on another living organism or organisms known as prey; so one learnt from elementary ecology. There is the possibility that the prey is killed in such biological interactions during or after the act of feeding on them. Mutualism, a form of symbiosis, is a relationship of mutual benefit to the prey and its predator.
No where is the reality of the prey and predators better reflected than in the Southwest where such was hitherto strange? Here in the bowels of the Southwest, where dignity and respect used to be prime values, the sight of young children, contesting for leftovers was most difficult to bear. When did we sink this low? They were a different brand of predators, or preys as it really is. Cool and calculating, in one instance, daring and menacing in another. But that is not the distinguishing factor. Their preys or predators, though obvious of their nuisance capacities, lived with them enjoying their patronage. They were tolerated by their‘preys. Mutualism and not more, both felt. The reality is that one is always loosing and both will never gain.
What is creeping dangerously into provincial Yoruba looks on the face of it, like one that benefits both the prey and the predator? The young beggar, the old alms taker, the drummer and the women of the family see themselves as taking from the spenders as a way of sharing in the loot. The ‘Owambe’ spender feels that by doling out crisp naira notes, he is dispensing goodwill and displaying generosity. They are right so it seems. But is it really the way it appears.
In getting involved in begging, the beggar, particularly the able bodied one, shrinks his or her horizon for self actualisation. He incrementally disregards the attraction in toiling to survive. The premise is that the society is full of good people, who will always give to those who beg.
The giver beliefs that there will always be beggars; men who have become so self demeaned as to depend only on crumbs from others as a way of life. He wants them to remain beggars than become givers. He gives enough to discourage an honest day’s work but never enough to get the beggar off his misery. He would not stop giving so the beggar will not get sober enough to quit begging. Here is the pivot upon which what looks like a symbiotic existence is hung. But the Yoruba beggars one came across in the social event have dangerously close examples around them.
Since a misinterpreted form of mainstream politics has been forced down the throat of the Yoruba, the urge to affect lives progressively has been doused. Known means of survival for the states that make up the region have been thrown overboard. The economies, education and health realities of the people have become functions of federal allocations which we must agree have raised with the dollar fortunes of the country.
Rather than empower the people therefore, improved’ salaries, ‘better’ conditions of service and outright bribe of the elite have become the order of the day. Where ant mention is made of developing agriculture, forestry and other traditional means of generating revenues, it is always in position papers and programmes of action that end up inn government archives.
But the worst manifestation of the predator-prey relation is the use to token social service works as qualifying conditions for political office. Here, there and everywhere, you hear of office seekers who have paid school fees, bought Jamb forms and or provided drinking water. Those who make such provisions in their private capacities are most often found in parties and formations where provisions of such basics are hardly given serious consideration.
Worse, when they find themselves in government houses; most of the time by crook; they remember little of these needs. They argue unabashedly that they have paid enough as pre-election investments. The predators that they are have preyed on the appreciative nature of the people to get the more than commensurate worth for their ‘investments.’ The public till is seen then only as a pool from which dividends of pre-election investments could be drawn. They are in truth the predators and the people the prey. Even at that, symbiosis exists only in the imagination of the unwary.
The people ought to reject these crumbs served as generosity. The beggar must reject the hand downs of criminals dressed as philanthropists.
NIGERIA’S CANOE SINKING
Nigeria is a canoe on the stormy ‘River Nigeria’ depending for its survival on the cooperation of all its passengers and crew. The crew rotates but seems forced on the passengers by the more powerful who boast, bribe and intimidate. Any one of the passengers can sink the canoe by standing up, dancing, fighting, and shooting, rioting or stealing. If too many of them, rich or poor, stood or sat on one side of the canoe it would capsize and sink.
In other words, many passengers choose not to sink the canoe in spite of the humiliations and insults they receive. Perhaps I would prefer to compare Nigeria to the Titanic as it headed towards the iceberg, blinded by arrogance and circumstance. Our own River Nigeria has no iceberg but it does have rocks which are man-made, deliberately placed to destroy our canoe.
Our canoe even has those aboard in it, our people in America, UK among others. We are all in the sinking canoe and so is our wealth and we are not as poor as politicians say. In fact, Nigeria is very wealthy. Look at the load in the canoe- food, fruit, fish, oil, minerals, tourist attractions, internationally acceptable intellectual wealth earning billions abroad, common business sense- now called entrepreneurial skills- keeping alive pensioners and workers unpaid for years where their pension funds etc. were raped by government political appointees. The problem is that the wealth is not going around. We are not our brother’s keeper but the murderer of our brother’s children.
Behind our canoe is a huge raft of the possessions of the secretly wealthy at our expense. They are the financial criminals with funds made by denying the dead typhoid children preventive care and now in banks abroad or with fronts in major corporate interests in Nigeria.
The canoe does not make progress because while many are rowing forward, others are still rowing backwards. They wrongly think that Nigeria’s salvation lies in the old feudal ways of the ‘King and I’ when unitary government allowed kings to phone the CBN governor for cash and contracts that were never to be executed.
While man was inventing railways to move man and machine at minimum cost and maximum safety, these rowers backwards killed the railways in favour of personally owned trailers and tankers on every road, ruining the road and clogging it with traffic. Ruining the railways was the back-rowers specialty preventing even intra-city Lagos railway. Such backward ‘leaders’ are nationwide.
We Nigerians want to know whether the back-rowers can move forward. Nigeria is not sacrosanct. It is just a canoe and it needs all of us to stay afloat. We no longer row as slaves. For the past 11 years, we have rowed through very rough waters. Nigeria has been sold several times on the brink of liberation. Will it happen again? We are tired of sweet promises without delivering.
This time if things are not improved, the canoe will sink, but some of us have life jackets. Can the real leaders’ willing to help row Nigeria forward please stand up? Think where the canoe called Nigeria; railways and electricity would be if we had rowed in the same direction since the 60s.
In other words, many passengers choose not to sink the canoe in spite of the humiliations and insults they receive. Perhaps I would prefer to compare Nigeria to the Titanic as it headed towards the iceberg, blinded by arrogance and circumstance. Our own River Nigeria has no iceberg but it does have rocks which are man-made, deliberately placed to destroy our canoe.
Our canoe even has those aboard in it, our people in America, UK among others. We are all in the sinking canoe and so is our wealth and we are not as poor as politicians say. In fact, Nigeria is very wealthy. Look at the load in the canoe- food, fruit, fish, oil, minerals, tourist attractions, internationally acceptable intellectual wealth earning billions abroad, common business sense- now called entrepreneurial skills- keeping alive pensioners and workers unpaid for years where their pension funds etc. were raped by government political appointees. The problem is that the wealth is not going around. We are not our brother’s keeper but the murderer of our brother’s children.
Behind our canoe is a huge raft of the possessions of the secretly wealthy at our expense. They are the financial criminals with funds made by denying the dead typhoid children preventive care and now in banks abroad or with fronts in major corporate interests in Nigeria.
The canoe does not make progress because while many are rowing forward, others are still rowing backwards. They wrongly think that Nigeria’s salvation lies in the old feudal ways of the ‘King and I’ when unitary government allowed kings to phone the CBN governor for cash and contracts that were never to be executed.
While man was inventing railways to move man and machine at minimum cost and maximum safety, these rowers backwards killed the railways in favour of personally owned trailers and tankers on every road, ruining the road and clogging it with traffic. Ruining the railways was the back-rowers specialty preventing even intra-city Lagos railway. Such backward ‘leaders’ are nationwide.
We Nigerians want to know whether the back-rowers can move forward. Nigeria is not sacrosanct. It is just a canoe and it needs all of us to stay afloat. We no longer row as slaves. For the past 11 years, we have rowed through very rough waters. Nigeria has been sold several times on the brink of liberation. Will it happen again? We are tired of sweet promises without delivering.
This time if things are not improved, the canoe will sink, but some of us have life jackets. Can the real leaders’ willing to help row Nigeria forward please stand up? Think where the canoe called Nigeria; railways and electricity would be if we had rowed in the same direction since the 60s.
I WEEP FOR NIGERIA, MY BELOVED COUNTRY!
“I pledge to Nigeria my country, to be faithful, loyal and honest, to serve Nigeria with all my strength, to defend her unity, and uphold her honour and glory, so help me GOD”
These are the words/vows that majority of Nigerians have been taught to recite from childhood, almost all daily basis, during our primary and secondary school days.
Even our leaders of today had to recite this oath repeatedly during their school days, even when the Bible says who makes a vow and did not pay it is a fool. The pledge was and is still the foundation of all Nigerians who have been opportune to pass through primary and secondary schools.
Imagine the wordings of the pledge, imagine the sincerity and dedications in which they are daily recited, imagine the innocence at which this vows are doled out, imagine the products of this vows that span through years. These are indeed vows for a beloved country. A nation we all love to support. A location we love to defend and call our own.
Today I weep! I weep for Nigeria, my beloved country. I weep because our dear leaders have failed us, leaders that are so insensitive to the pains, labours and heavy laden of the led. Nigeria is in pains and our leaders are feasting. Our country is sick and our leaders cannot diagnose. Nigeria needs healing from her diseases, sicknesses and pains. Nigeria needs a surgical operation.
I weep, because truth, righteousness, modesty, zeal, excellence, hard work and the likes, have disappeared like the dew from our beloved country. A country where men of integrity in the beginning toiled day and night to lay her foundation and build.
Nigeria! A country where excellence is no more appreciated or encouraged, A country where servants now throw caution to the dustbin, A country where the likes of the Baloguns and Alams are celebrated and even worshipped. A country where evil doers are hailed as angel of light. Nigeria is my country, there no doubt about that.
And fellow Nigerians, I weep when everywhere I turn there is something to weep for. For Nigeria, my beloved country, I weep.
These are the words/vows that majority of Nigerians have been taught to recite from childhood, almost all daily basis, during our primary and secondary school days.
Even our leaders of today had to recite this oath repeatedly during their school days, even when the Bible says who makes a vow and did not pay it is a fool. The pledge was and is still the foundation of all Nigerians who have been opportune to pass through primary and secondary schools.
Imagine the wordings of the pledge, imagine the sincerity and dedications in which they are daily recited, imagine the innocence at which this vows are doled out, imagine the products of this vows that span through years. These are indeed vows for a beloved country. A nation we all love to support. A location we love to defend and call our own.
Today I weep! I weep for Nigeria, my beloved country. I weep because our dear leaders have failed us, leaders that are so insensitive to the pains, labours and heavy laden of the led. Nigeria is in pains and our leaders are feasting. Our country is sick and our leaders cannot diagnose. Nigeria needs healing from her diseases, sicknesses and pains. Nigeria needs a surgical operation.
I weep, because truth, righteousness, modesty, zeal, excellence, hard work and the likes, have disappeared like the dew from our beloved country. A country where men of integrity in the beginning toiled day and night to lay her foundation and build.
Nigeria! A country where excellence is no more appreciated or encouraged, A country where servants now throw caution to the dustbin, A country where the likes of the Baloguns and Alams are celebrated and even worshipped. A country where evil doers are hailed as angel of light. Nigeria is my country, there no doubt about that.
And fellow Nigerians, I weep when everywhere I turn there is something to weep for. For Nigeria, my beloved country, I weep.
Only Nigeria Does Unexplainable Things
Only Nigeria Does Unexplainable Things
It is sad that our country has become a laughing stock, though am not surprise because this is the only country that does unexplainable things. Imagine! This is the only country that runs a gold mine at loss. This is the only country that is importing what it has in abundance.
This is the only country where there will be fire outbreak but fire fighters would have no water to save the situation, despite being surrounded by water. This is a country where oil productions are produced at disunity. Her textiles are houses for rags dumping hall instead of being a new cloth production centre.
This is a country where there is no security, but sends troops to keep peace in another man’s land. This is a country that has dams, but no water. So, citizens drink ‘pure’ water that smash up their viscera. This is a country that has enormous tracts of land and vast volumes of water, but cannot feed itself.
This is a country that is blessed with vegetation that can sustain farming all year-round but have not been able to harness the resources effectively. The lands are fertile but we choose to import foods and commodities. This is a country that can produce anything, but import everything.
This is the only country that mints its currency abroad at a cost more than the value of the currency itself. This is the country where darkness persists while the countries we gave electricity enjoys it (despite the abundance resources). This is a country that runs her economy with generating sets which is even detrimental to human health, with fumes so hazardous to the environment. This is the country where its leader prefers to pay millions of dollars for medicines abroad than fixing the hospitals back home.
This is a country that has hospitals without doctors, medicines or power. All the nurses have left the country and the rest are already preparing to leave. It has the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world and future generations are dying before her. She’s hopeless, hapless and helpless and even every other ‘less’.
Our land is dead because of deforestation; over-flooding destroys property worth’s of millions during raining season because the drainage systems are bunged up; the fish are dead because the oil companies dump waste in the rivers; our communities are being eroded by erosion, and nothing is being done.
This is a country that has been sucked dry. She produces rice, but don’t eat it. She has millions of cows but no milk. Her citizens drive the best cars in the world but have no roads, so she crush her best brains in the caverns, craters and crevasses they crash into daily.
This is a country where the roads are pit of hell. The roads are full of drum holes not even pot holes. The railway corporation is begging for attention and the water transportation is no more. To climax it all, there is no good transportation network in this country. This is a country where transportation has become a risky business.
This is a country where its school has no teachers and its classroom has no roof and its students listen to lectures through windows. Her classrooms have no chairs and table, so students sit on the floor. This is a country where we have million candidates craving to enter universities, but our prison can only accommodate a tenth. This is a country where its professors have gone abroad, and the rest are awaiting visas. This is a country where we produce university graduate, but almost all are illiterates. Educated illiterates are all over this country.
This is a country that her youths have no past, present nor future. Her youths are now political thugs used by the desperate power seekers in paving their ways to the seat that belongs to the people’s choice. The youths are now ‘James Bond’, walk the streets of all cities. Imagine! The futures of this country are hustlers, drunkards and drug addicts. The young ladies have been trafficked to abroad for God-forbid business. The youths are now skilled and professional kidnappers.
This is a country that those who looted the public money walk the land with haughty strides and fly the skies with private planes. They have looted the future of generations unborn and have more money than they can spend in several lifetimes, but their brothers die of starvation. They ought to live the rest of their lives in ‘kirikiri’ (a prison with tight security in Nigeria). This is a country where corruption is rearing its head virtually from every angle of the national life.
Her traditional rulers are intensely corrupt, Godless and very dishonourable in their conducts. They placed priority on money and wealth acquisition even to the detriment of their positions and the society at large. This is a country that has dullards as constitution makers and irresponsible lawmakers which are also lawbreakers. They want mind-boggling allowances as members of the legislative houses; they want to get paid for laws they never get to make or even obey. This is a country where there are selfish Federal Executive Council members.
Her political platform is filled with old folks. Her political ladder is climbed by rogues, daft, imbeciles, nonentity, social misfit, social miscreants, street urchins, nuisance, vagabonds, nincompoops and the likes. Her politicians are the greatest disappointment on the global political highway. Her leaders failed to protect citizens from human tragedies of corruption, greed, violence, war and inability to organise a free, fair and credible elections.
This is a country where the leaders don’t want to work. President wants to ride executive jets and feel nothing about providing basic needs. Their wives live big and they see other people wives toil day and night for stipends. They want to build houses in places of choice and so be able to protect themselves from the nuisance that the rest and exhaling to let out frustration and take rational decisions.
Her leaders’ indiscretion, predilection for corruption and wealth acquisition, jaundiced policies, lack of visionary and robust leadership at all levels; nepotism and godfatherism have been the bane of her development since independence in 1960. Her political ‘heroes’ are people who jump from poverty to extreme wealth rather than those who give up their riches and positions to voluntarily serve the poor.
This is a country where the citizens can do anything to get title; those who find it difficult to get a diploma do buy a Honourary Doctorate Degree. We now here of pastors before preaching, they introduce themselves as Senior Apostle, Prophet, Primate, Evangelist, His most Superior, Deacon, Deaconess, Reverend, Canon, Oniwaasu and the likes. Even a mere councillor can make your stay in the village a bitter one if you forget to add Honourable when calling him, since he his addressed as ‘Area Father’ by his thugs.
This is a country that is ruled by men in mufti, but not a democracy. This is a country where big men stay in their houses and write elections results. Her elections are won through intimidation and brutalization of people, snatching of ballot boxes and killing of opponents. Her elections are won by men and women who are unfit to win an election into their wives and husbands bedroom. This is a country where the electoral system is nothing to write home about but some politicians are using this defective system to get to power.
Her Police Force has a historical knack for corruption, consistency, torture, blackmail, armed robbery, suppression, oppression, repression, extortion, intimidation, murder et al. The policemen are all criminals, they aid public misconducts. They are like a rotten carcass. This is a country under robbers’ siege; their weapons are the best.
This is a country where corruption has progressed from Arithmetic progression to Geometric progression. This is a country where most of the people are corrupt; they look at every action taken as part of the things flowing from corruptive tendencies and system. This is a country that has yet to overcome the bogeys of mindless corruption, sectionalism, ethnicity, religious, bigotry, and self-serving politics of intolerance and lack of commitment to national ideas since 1st of October 1960 (Independence Day).
During election time, her people behaves like the pastor who was admonishing the congregation to follow Jesus, in rain or sunshine, in peace or war, or whether fire is burning or whatever, but when a rat ran past his feet in the pulpit, he jumped out and was screaming ‘the blood of Jesus’ and calling the names of the angels, from Gabriel to Raphael, to Raphael, to Michael and Uriel.
Her judiciary is like a house divided against itself, one side doing the job the way it should be done and the other side vertically sabotaging the reputation of the judiciary. The reputation of her judiciary is coming and going like the death and rise of ‘ABIKU’ and this portray her judiciary as another ‘ABIKU’ in disguise.
This is a country that the future of her judiciary is without focus. The rays of justice are gradually fading out. The tom-tom of justice, vindication and of hope that uses to beat in the heart of the citizens wherever a landmark judgement is delivered suddenly went silent. Court judgements are also rigged. This is a country where judges now become perverse of justice.
Her Christians and Muslim cleric are now sycophants of desperate office seekers. They fraternise with the public office holders without telling them the raw truth about the unprecedented depravity and poverty imposed on the majority of 140 million-plus people of this country. Pastors and Evangelists has left the truthful way and now leading the people to Sodom and Gomorrah (the land of destruction). Her Gospel Musicians are sons and daughters of Jezebel. They are now the latest and hottest harlots.
This is a country where a man elevates himself to the position of God; hardly can you convince him of his mortality; that he is just like an ordinary being.
This is a nation where money is better preferable to good name. This nation is not just a haven of different species, but a ‘nation and people’ wallowing in the quagmire of absurdity.
Governance has failed in Nigeria and we have failed ourselves also.
WE NEED TO RE-THINK. IN THIS COUNTRY
It is sad that our country has become a laughing stock, though am not surprise because this is the only country that does unexplainable things. Imagine! This is the only country that runs a gold mine at loss. This is the only country that is importing what it has in abundance.
This is the only country where there will be fire outbreak but fire fighters would have no water to save the situation, despite being surrounded by water. This is a country where oil productions are produced at disunity. Her textiles are houses for rags dumping hall instead of being a new cloth production centre.
This is a country where there is no security, but sends troops to keep peace in another man’s land. This is a country that has dams, but no water. So, citizens drink ‘pure’ water that smash up their viscera. This is a country that has enormous tracts of land and vast volumes of water, but cannot feed itself.
This is a country that is blessed with vegetation that can sustain farming all year-round but have not been able to harness the resources effectively. The lands are fertile but we choose to import foods and commodities. This is a country that can produce anything, but import everything.
This is the only country that mints its currency abroad at a cost more than the value of the currency itself. This is the country where darkness persists while the countries we gave electricity enjoys it (despite the abundance resources). This is a country that runs her economy with generating sets which is even detrimental to human health, with fumes so hazardous to the environment. This is the country where its leader prefers to pay millions of dollars for medicines abroad than fixing the hospitals back home.
This is a country that has hospitals without doctors, medicines or power. All the nurses have left the country and the rest are already preparing to leave. It has the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world and future generations are dying before her. She’s hopeless, hapless and helpless and even every other ‘less’.
Our land is dead because of deforestation; over-flooding destroys property worth’s of millions during raining season because the drainage systems are bunged up; the fish are dead because the oil companies dump waste in the rivers; our communities are being eroded by erosion, and nothing is being done.
This is a country that has been sucked dry. She produces rice, but don’t eat it. She has millions of cows but no milk. Her citizens drive the best cars in the world but have no roads, so she crush her best brains in the caverns, craters and crevasses they crash into daily.
This is a country where the roads are pit of hell. The roads are full of drum holes not even pot holes. The railway corporation is begging for attention and the water transportation is no more. To climax it all, there is no good transportation network in this country. This is a country where transportation has become a risky business.
This is a country where its school has no teachers and its classroom has no roof and its students listen to lectures through windows. Her classrooms have no chairs and table, so students sit on the floor. This is a country where we have million candidates craving to enter universities, but our prison can only accommodate a tenth. This is a country where its professors have gone abroad, and the rest are awaiting visas. This is a country where we produce university graduate, but almost all are illiterates. Educated illiterates are all over this country.
This is a country that her youths have no past, present nor future. Her youths are now political thugs used by the desperate power seekers in paving their ways to the seat that belongs to the people’s choice. The youths are now ‘James Bond’, walk the streets of all cities. Imagine! The futures of this country are hustlers, drunkards and drug addicts. The young ladies have been trafficked to abroad for God-forbid business. The youths are now skilled and professional kidnappers.
This is a country that those who looted the public money walk the land with haughty strides and fly the skies with private planes. They have looted the future of generations unborn and have more money than they can spend in several lifetimes, but their brothers die of starvation. They ought to live the rest of their lives in ‘kirikiri’ (a prison with tight security in Nigeria). This is a country where corruption is rearing its head virtually from every angle of the national life.
Her traditional rulers are intensely corrupt, Godless and very dishonourable in their conducts. They placed priority on money and wealth acquisition even to the detriment of their positions and the society at large. This is a country that has dullards as constitution makers and irresponsible lawmakers which are also lawbreakers. They want mind-boggling allowances as members of the legislative houses; they want to get paid for laws they never get to make or even obey. This is a country where there are selfish Federal Executive Council members.
Her political platform is filled with old folks. Her political ladder is climbed by rogues, daft, imbeciles, nonentity, social misfit, social miscreants, street urchins, nuisance, vagabonds, nincompoops and the likes. Her politicians are the greatest disappointment on the global political highway. Her leaders failed to protect citizens from human tragedies of corruption, greed, violence, war and inability to organise a free, fair and credible elections.
This is a country where the leaders don’t want to work. President wants to ride executive jets and feel nothing about providing basic needs. Their wives live big and they see other people wives toil day and night for stipends. They want to build houses in places of choice and so be able to protect themselves from the nuisance that the rest and exhaling to let out frustration and take rational decisions.
Her leaders’ indiscretion, predilection for corruption and wealth acquisition, jaundiced policies, lack of visionary and robust leadership at all levels; nepotism and godfatherism have been the bane of her development since independence in 1960. Her political ‘heroes’ are people who jump from poverty to extreme wealth rather than those who give up their riches and positions to voluntarily serve the poor.
This is a country where the citizens can do anything to get title; those who find it difficult to get a diploma do buy a Honourary Doctorate Degree. We now here of pastors before preaching, they introduce themselves as Senior Apostle, Prophet, Primate, Evangelist, His most Superior, Deacon, Deaconess, Reverend, Canon, Oniwaasu and the likes. Even a mere councillor can make your stay in the village a bitter one if you forget to add Honourable when calling him, since he his addressed as ‘Area Father’ by his thugs.
This is a country that is ruled by men in mufti, but not a democracy. This is a country where big men stay in their houses and write elections results. Her elections are won through intimidation and brutalization of people, snatching of ballot boxes and killing of opponents. Her elections are won by men and women who are unfit to win an election into their wives and husbands bedroom. This is a country where the electoral system is nothing to write home about but some politicians are using this defective system to get to power.
Her Police Force has a historical knack for corruption, consistency, torture, blackmail, armed robbery, suppression, oppression, repression, extortion, intimidation, murder et al. The policemen are all criminals, they aid public misconducts. They are like a rotten carcass. This is a country under robbers’ siege; their weapons are the best.
This is a country where corruption has progressed from Arithmetic progression to Geometric progression. This is a country where most of the people are corrupt; they look at every action taken as part of the things flowing from corruptive tendencies and system. This is a country that has yet to overcome the bogeys of mindless corruption, sectionalism, ethnicity, religious, bigotry, and self-serving politics of intolerance and lack of commitment to national ideas since 1st of October 1960 (Independence Day).
During election time, her people behaves like the pastor who was admonishing the congregation to follow Jesus, in rain or sunshine, in peace or war, or whether fire is burning or whatever, but when a rat ran past his feet in the pulpit, he jumped out and was screaming ‘the blood of Jesus’ and calling the names of the angels, from Gabriel to Raphael, to Raphael, to Michael and Uriel.
Her judiciary is like a house divided against itself, one side doing the job the way it should be done and the other side vertically sabotaging the reputation of the judiciary. The reputation of her judiciary is coming and going like the death and rise of ‘ABIKU’ and this portray her judiciary as another ‘ABIKU’ in disguise.
This is a country that the future of her judiciary is without focus. The rays of justice are gradually fading out. The tom-tom of justice, vindication and of hope that uses to beat in the heart of the citizens wherever a landmark judgement is delivered suddenly went silent. Court judgements are also rigged. This is a country where judges now become perverse of justice.
Her Christians and Muslim cleric are now sycophants of desperate office seekers. They fraternise with the public office holders without telling them the raw truth about the unprecedented depravity and poverty imposed on the majority of 140 million-plus people of this country. Pastors and Evangelists has left the truthful way and now leading the people to Sodom and Gomorrah (the land of destruction). Her Gospel Musicians are sons and daughters of Jezebel. They are now the latest and hottest harlots.
This is a country where a man elevates himself to the position of God; hardly can you convince him of his mortality; that he is just like an ordinary being.
This is a nation where money is better preferable to good name. This nation is not just a haven of different species, but a ‘nation and people’ wallowing in the quagmire of absurdity.
Governance has failed in Nigeria and we have failed ourselves also.
WE NEED TO RE-THINK. IN THIS COUNTRY
A Paradigm Shift in the Way we Think in Nigeria is Urgently Needed
We Need a Different Thinking in Nigeria
In this new century, many of the world's poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved and in chains. They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.
-- Nelson Mandela
Globalization has improved the lives of people throughout the world, but it has also widened the gap between rich and poor...Working to end poverty will make the world safer.
-- Robert Alan
I got out of bedroom this morning thinking about Nigeria and little did I realize that tears were already rolling and crawling down from my face. I quickly wiped it off before it gets too far for anyone to notice. It was all about Nigeria. Instantly, a question came to my mind that, can we ever have a poverty free society? And if so, how can this poverty free society be achieved? I therefore have to ask myself if really, we are really on the correct path. Are we pursuing the correct paradigm? Are we properly philosophized? What is that we are doing correctly and what is it that we are doing wrongly?
I came to a conclusion that, we have a wrong paradigm and we have for the most part of our lives listened to the wrong teachers. We have, through all these abandoned our own cultural teaching for the mere fact that they where not documented. If we keep the paradigm we have now, then the poor will remain poor and the rich will get richer. "Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit."
We are now trapped in a paradigm that promotes personal success and enrichment at all costs. We are characterized by rotten appetite for accumulation of personal wealth. We have learnt to call our neighbour’s lazy and ourselves hard workers.
To make things worse, our early cultural error is worsened rather than rectified. This error is the error that says, “If I can only take care of my biological family then I’m done”. This is an error that promotes and validates biological relationship more than any other, worsened by familiarisim. This is why you will see the whole family working for Government and only people connected to those working for government getting JOBS and TENDERS from government.
I’m convinced that we need a complete paradigm change. It is no wonder we experience so much fraud and corruption in a government whose role was to care for and protect the poor. Because of this hypothesis that says that ‘Success is about self’, people will do what ever it takes to look successful and to make those that they are biologically connected to look super. Now, people are not ashamed to enrich themselves through the taxpayer’s money. They are not afraid to look rich on the expense of the poor. We therefore need a paradigm overhaul.
This type of paradigm shifts our focus from being concern about the pain of others to being merely concern about our cravings and our wants. The error we are in needs a different type of political leadership across Nigeria. It needs a leader that cares.
In the olden day as my grandfather told me, when you Join politics, the first teaching is that, you are not here for personal gain but to serve and contribute selflessly. But as soon as people join the Government, they forget this teaching. They turn to focus on their own personal image and the wellbeing of their biological family and friends, forgetting that their main ROLE is not really to work, but to care for the society.
But, Alli Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Femi Otedola etc are lauded as the better of Nigerian people, not on emphasis of what they have done for Nigeria, but on emphasis on how much money they have manage to accumulate. This is a sickness of our era that consumes us all.
When the President (Goodluck Ebele Jonathan) bought a Jet worth of billions, he was not at that point thinking about people in South West, he was not thinking about people in South South, he was not thinking about people in South East, he was driven by the thinking that, he will look successful and respected among African Presidents and the world at large.
We have indeed entered a very dangerous phase, while the people on the ground protest for service delivery, the National Assembly Members controls the resources of those people and mostly they are not driven by the passion to serve the people, but by their eager to succeed and self-enrichment and personal aggrandizement.
We need to start to say; I can’t eat, while my neighbours sleep hungry. I refuse to drive a 10 million naira worth of car while there is a community without running water. This sounds like too much, but is not. We need to dedicate the next years for poverty eradication. Politicians in government must trim down and use their own cars to go to work, live in their own houses, like any other employee who lives on their salary.
When we say we don’t have the money to provide for free education, we must also say we don’t have money to maintain people’s extravagant life styles, or build extravagant stadiums that’ll soon be pink elephants. We must limit the allowances of politicians, why can’t we do this? Unless we have accepted that the poor deserve to live in the conditions they live in, and we don’t view their conditions as urgent because our own families are living a better life, our kids go to good schools and we have graduated from three meals a day, as we can spend any amount for food per day while some of the people we serve struggle to make ends meet.
We need to move from the paradigm of self enrichment to that of community success and prosperity. We need to start saying that my neighbour is my family, irrespective of their biological genes. To say if I can take a neighbour’s kid to school, I would have succeeded.
The Government must then be poverty alleviation machinery in the true sense of poverty alleviation instead of been a poverty elevation machinery. It could have a list of extremely poor communities and their most urgent needs and the deadline on which those need must be met. Honourables, Senators, Governors, Chairmen, can cut their benefits and a portion of their salary in dedication to a community in which they come from.
My aim is not to castigate anybody but Nigerians can boldly say that the current politicians in government do not have the passion to serve the people; they are more focused on their own personal success, both Careerist and financial wise.
Even those who do well are mostly motivated by trying to look good in the eyes of the countrymen, or to impress the people than anything else. That is why when they do something significant they will go to the media to advertise themselves. We’ve fallen into a narcissist culture. If you give a deep personal scrutiny you will realize that they careless about the wellbeing of poor people especially infrastructural and educationally. This is an error in thinking.
The first thing to do fix is to force government officials to reside in the poorest community they serve, so that they can be reminded of the conditions people live in daily. And people can bother them daily about their concerns. As soon as that community is uplifted they must move to next poor community. Doing this and not ignoring other community, but imposing a constant reminder on our public servants that more needs to be done.
We need a different thinking, we need fresh leadership. President Goodluck Jonathan must realize that talk is indeed cheap, and pretending to be doing something while you are doing nothing, it’s very dangerous.
There is a need to review government revenue and spending to see if we can’t do better in channelling resources towards alleviating poverty. Let’s build our communities and be proud of them.
We need a serious Paradigm Shift in the Way we think in Nigeria.
In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.
-- Confucius
Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
In this new century, many of the world's poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved and in chains. They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.
-- Nelson Mandela
Globalization has improved the lives of people throughout the world, but it has also widened the gap between rich and poor...Working to end poverty will make the world safer.
-- Robert Alan
I got out of bedroom this morning thinking about Nigeria and little did I realize that tears were already rolling and crawling down from my face. I quickly wiped it off before it gets too far for anyone to notice. It was all about Nigeria. Instantly, a question came to my mind that, can we ever have a poverty free society? And if so, how can this poverty free society be achieved? I therefore have to ask myself if really, we are really on the correct path. Are we pursuing the correct paradigm? Are we properly philosophized? What is that we are doing correctly and what is it that we are doing wrongly?
I came to a conclusion that, we have a wrong paradigm and we have for the most part of our lives listened to the wrong teachers. We have, through all these abandoned our own cultural teaching for the mere fact that they where not documented. If we keep the paradigm we have now, then the poor will remain poor and the rich will get richer. "Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit."
We are now trapped in a paradigm that promotes personal success and enrichment at all costs. We are characterized by rotten appetite for accumulation of personal wealth. We have learnt to call our neighbour’s lazy and ourselves hard workers.
To make things worse, our early cultural error is worsened rather than rectified. This error is the error that says, “If I can only take care of my biological family then I’m done”. This is an error that promotes and validates biological relationship more than any other, worsened by familiarisim. This is why you will see the whole family working for Government and only people connected to those working for government getting JOBS and TENDERS from government.
I’m convinced that we need a complete paradigm change. It is no wonder we experience so much fraud and corruption in a government whose role was to care for and protect the poor. Because of this hypothesis that says that ‘Success is about self’, people will do what ever it takes to look successful and to make those that they are biologically connected to look super. Now, people are not ashamed to enrich themselves through the taxpayer’s money. They are not afraid to look rich on the expense of the poor. We therefore need a paradigm overhaul.
This type of paradigm shifts our focus from being concern about the pain of others to being merely concern about our cravings and our wants. The error we are in needs a different type of political leadership across Nigeria. It needs a leader that cares.
In the olden day as my grandfather told me, when you Join politics, the first teaching is that, you are not here for personal gain but to serve and contribute selflessly. But as soon as people join the Government, they forget this teaching. They turn to focus on their own personal image and the wellbeing of their biological family and friends, forgetting that their main ROLE is not really to work, but to care for the society.
But, Alli Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Femi Otedola etc are lauded as the better of Nigerian people, not on emphasis of what they have done for Nigeria, but on emphasis on how much money they have manage to accumulate. This is a sickness of our era that consumes us all.
When the President (Goodluck Ebele Jonathan) bought a Jet worth of billions, he was not at that point thinking about people in South West, he was not thinking about people in South South, he was not thinking about people in South East, he was driven by the thinking that, he will look successful and respected among African Presidents and the world at large.
We have indeed entered a very dangerous phase, while the people on the ground protest for service delivery, the National Assembly Members controls the resources of those people and mostly they are not driven by the passion to serve the people, but by their eager to succeed and self-enrichment and personal aggrandizement.
We need to start to say; I can’t eat, while my neighbours sleep hungry. I refuse to drive a 10 million naira worth of car while there is a community without running water. This sounds like too much, but is not. We need to dedicate the next years for poverty eradication. Politicians in government must trim down and use their own cars to go to work, live in their own houses, like any other employee who lives on their salary.
When we say we don’t have the money to provide for free education, we must also say we don’t have money to maintain people’s extravagant life styles, or build extravagant stadiums that’ll soon be pink elephants. We must limit the allowances of politicians, why can’t we do this? Unless we have accepted that the poor deserve to live in the conditions they live in, and we don’t view their conditions as urgent because our own families are living a better life, our kids go to good schools and we have graduated from three meals a day, as we can spend any amount for food per day while some of the people we serve struggle to make ends meet.
We need to move from the paradigm of self enrichment to that of community success and prosperity. We need to start saying that my neighbour is my family, irrespective of their biological genes. To say if I can take a neighbour’s kid to school, I would have succeeded.
The Government must then be poverty alleviation machinery in the true sense of poverty alleviation instead of been a poverty elevation machinery. It could have a list of extremely poor communities and their most urgent needs and the deadline on which those need must be met. Honourables, Senators, Governors, Chairmen, can cut their benefits and a portion of their salary in dedication to a community in which they come from.
My aim is not to castigate anybody but Nigerians can boldly say that the current politicians in government do not have the passion to serve the people; they are more focused on their own personal success, both Careerist and financial wise.
Even those who do well are mostly motivated by trying to look good in the eyes of the countrymen, or to impress the people than anything else. That is why when they do something significant they will go to the media to advertise themselves. We’ve fallen into a narcissist culture. If you give a deep personal scrutiny you will realize that they careless about the wellbeing of poor people especially infrastructural and educationally. This is an error in thinking.
The first thing to do fix is to force government officials to reside in the poorest community they serve, so that they can be reminded of the conditions people live in daily. And people can bother them daily about their concerns. As soon as that community is uplifted they must move to next poor community. Doing this and not ignoring other community, but imposing a constant reminder on our public servants that more needs to be done.
We need a different thinking, we need fresh leadership. President Goodluck Jonathan must realize that talk is indeed cheap, and pretending to be doing something while you are doing nothing, it’s very dangerous.
There is a need to review government revenue and spending to see if we can’t do better in channelling resources towards alleviating poverty. Let’s build our communities and be proud of them.
We need a serious Paradigm Shift in the Way we think in Nigeria.
In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.
-- Confucius
Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
The Time to break Silence in Nigeria
The Time to break Silence in Nigeria
I do ask myself why in Nigerian politics the debate of who to be the next president always poses a problem of factionalism. The easy answer is the fact that Nigerian politics in general have a leadership crisis. There are no genuine leaders who inspire independent thinking and self-determination on others. Instead, what you find in Nigerian politics are people who feel threatened by signs of vital intellectual capabilities of those they lead.
Independent thinking and the accompanying power for self-determination thrives only in an environment that is not afraid of constructive critique, and shuns sheepish loyalty. To achieve this, political leadership must be able to empower others to understand complexities of modern human society without ulterior motives, like expectations of blind loyalty. Nigerian political leaders should draw lessons and inspiration from the liberation theology that stimulated thinking for critique against especially a Christian tradition that had distorted ethical and moral standards of the Christian message. The liberation theology proponents went with boldness and assertiveness against a well established Roman church, and in the end their message prevailed with the church structure.
Nigerian politics need to exorcise the demon of fear of internal critique, and learn to question the wrongs done either by leaders or political parties. We should reject the political psyche and tradition that makes citizens to be objects of abuse by those who are in the upper echelons of levers of power. We should be empowered to be masters and mistresses of our fate, taking charge of our life and walking tall without being apologetic for constructively criticising those in power. We should be liberated from ignorance that leads to fear of the other. The culture of self-assertiveness and confidence must be inculcated on us. This process is termed enlightenment, and is a prerogative of any political party that calls itself progressive.
Enlightenment will not come over-night; it is a process that requires self-motivation and moral courage. Enlightened consciousness and the humanistic approach is the path a progressive party must take towards the restoration of moral uprightness within the profound of Nigerian ethos of humanitarian. This is only way to restore a caring nation, fair and just society. Even criticism, no matter how assertive, must also be based on our compassionate philosophy, that “a person is a person through other persons”.
The first steps towards building this country is by liberating our psyche from the psychological distortions the Liberation Movement that wants to exercise hegemony at the expense of the progressive social spirit of our nation. We need to be liberated from being slaves to fear and material gain that comes with following powerful forces within society.
A pro-democracy leader (Mahatma Ghandi) stated very clear when in explaining the fall of the Soviet system, he said:
…the emancipation of humanity can never be permanently halted. It can be temporarily, forcibly, or otherwise adjourned. But it can never be everlastingly arrested. Emancipation is the freeing of people from the covert or overt conditions of constraint, imposed by others, which limit the ability of people to develop their capacities and talents to the full, individually or collectively. It means equal status of individual citizens in relation to the state, equality before the law, regardless of religion, property, and other private characteristics of individual persons. Emancipation also carries in its meaning in tolerance and equality of otherness. For it to find its fuller scope it requires the acknowledgement and coexistence of difference, free association, social interpretation and above all equality.
We Nigerians are not free so long as we still fear to speak our minds without concerns of political retribution. As long as the ruling party speak the language of calling those with different political views by evil names. We generally need freshness and breathing space, and emancipation from fear to air differing viewpoints freely without intimidation. We need peace of mind.
All this is in their power to guard against tendencies of dogmatising views, and accommodating only opinions that agree with them. Nigerian politics need to develop a culture of respect and tolerance for varying views. Leaders who do not want to be criticised tend to be those who follow the path of endemic corruption, moral decay, break down of the rule of law, lagging behind of service and housing delivery. This in turn lead to a chaotic situation where frustrated citizens look like headless chickens, running around venting their anger in one name or the other, like the so called service delivery protests. Meantime government and political leaders opt to put our heads between legs.
Genuine leaders would channel the anger of the people to the right direction. But now in our case opposition parties’ fear to be labelled as counter-revolutionaries and so keep quiet. Those within the ruling party who like to speak are intimidated and closed up. Others are in comfort zones sitting in the middle not wishing to jeopardise their chances with a governing faction. If you talk (think loud) your career is in jeopardy, you may not get a job or prosper or get a tender from government, so many of these choose to let the status quo to remain.
In general the status quo violates the freedom of association enshrined in our democratic constitution? The political uncertainty is rife in Nigeria and this has infected and affected the broader society. Most political leaders have ceased to think out of the box, the struggle is about securing the turf for the sake of comfort zone and all this is not sustainable.
OLUWATOMILOLA K. BOYINDE
I do ask myself why in Nigerian politics the debate of who to be the next president always poses a problem of factionalism. The easy answer is the fact that Nigerian politics in general have a leadership crisis. There are no genuine leaders who inspire independent thinking and self-determination on others. Instead, what you find in Nigerian politics are people who feel threatened by signs of vital intellectual capabilities of those they lead.
Independent thinking and the accompanying power for self-determination thrives only in an environment that is not afraid of constructive critique, and shuns sheepish loyalty. To achieve this, political leadership must be able to empower others to understand complexities of modern human society without ulterior motives, like expectations of blind loyalty. Nigerian political leaders should draw lessons and inspiration from the liberation theology that stimulated thinking for critique against especially a Christian tradition that had distorted ethical and moral standards of the Christian message. The liberation theology proponents went with boldness and assertiveness against a well established Roman church, and in the end their message prevailed with the church structure.
Nigerian politics need to exorcise the demon of fear of internal critique, and learn to question the wrongs done either by leaders or political parties. We should reject the political psyche and tradition that makes citizens to be objects of abuse by those who are in the upper echelons of levers of power. We should be empowered to be masters and mistresses of our fate, taking charge of our life and walking tall without being apologetic for constructively criticising those in power. We should be liberated from ignorance that leads to fear of the other. The culture of self-assertiveness and confidence must be inculcated on us. This process is termed enlightenment, and is a prerogative of any political party that calls itself progressive.
Enlightenment will not come over-night; it is a process that requires self-motivation and moral courage. Enlightened consciousness and the humanistic approach is the path a progressive party must take towards the restoration of moral uprightness within the profound of Nigerian ethos of humanitarian. This is only way to restore a caring nation, fair and just society. Even criticism, no matter how assertive, must also be based on our compassionate philosophy, that “a person is a person through other persons”.
The first steps towards building this country is by liberating our psyche from the psychological distortions the Liberation Movement that wants to exercise hegemony at the expense of the progressive social spirit of our nation. We need to be liberated from being slaves to fear and material gain that comes with following powerful forces within society.
A pro-democracy leader (Mahatma Ghandi) stated very clear when in explaining the fall of the Soviet system, he said:
…the emancipation of humanity can never be permanently halted. It can be temporarily, forcibly, or otherwise adjourned. But it can never be everlastingly arrested. Emancipation is the freeing of people from the covert or overt conditions of constraint, imposed by others, which limit the ability of people to develop their capacities and talents to the full, individually or collectively. It means equal status of individual citizens in relation to the state, equality before the law, regardless of religion, property, and other private characteristics of individual persons. Emancipation also carries in its meaning in tolerance and equality of otherness. For it to find its fuller scope it requires the acknowledgement and coexistence of difference, free association, social interpretation and above all equality.
We Nigerians are not free so long as we still fear to speak our minds without concerns of political retribution. As long as the ruling party speak the language of calling those with different political views by evil names. We generally need freshness and breathing space, and emancipation from fear to air differing viewpoints freely without intimidation. We need peace of mind.
All this is in their power to guard against tendencies of dogmatising views, and accommodating only opinions that agree with them. Nigerian politics need to develop a culture of respect and tolerance for varying views. Leaders who do not want to be criticised tend to be those who follow the path of endemic corruption, moral decay, break down of the rule of law, lagging behind of service and housing delivery. This in turn lead to a chaotic situation where frustrated citizens look like headless chickens, running around venting their anger in one name or the other, like the so called service delivery protests. Meantime government and political leaders opt to put our heads between legs.
Genuine leaders would channel the anger of the people to the right direction. But now in our case opposition parties’ fear to be labelled as counter-revolutionaries and so keep quiet. Those within the ruling party who like to speak are intimidated and closed up. Others are in comfort zones sitting in the middle not wishing to jeopardise their chances with a governing faction. If you talk (think loud) your career is in jeopardy, you may not get a job or prosper or get a tender from government, so many of these choose to let the status quo to remain.
In general the status quo violates the freedom of association enshrined in our democratic constitution? The political uncertainty is rife in Nigeria and this has infected and affected the broader society. Most political leaders have ceased to think out of the box, the struggle is about securing the turf for the sake of comfort zone and all this is not sustainable.
OLUWATOMILOLA K. BOYINDE
12 Years of Demokrazy in Nigeria
12 Years of Demokrazy in Nigeria
The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
Everyday I wake up and think about how to move my beloved country (Nigeria) to a greater height. At times I do ask myself that are we heading to the right direction of making a better Nigeria? Its twelve years on that we practice democracy in this country but I also ask myself that are we really practicing democracy or demokrazy?
A democracy that can’t guarantee it’s citizens one-square meal a day, a democracy that can’t guarantee 20 minutes of electricity daily, a democracy that can’t afford to keep lecturers on strike for as long as it lasts, a democracy that can’t guarantee a free, fair and credible elections, a democracy that is standing on its head, a democracy that takes one step forward and three backward. Can this be called democracy?
It is twelve years of democracy, in which leaders emerge by money, mayhem and murder, by imposition and selection but never by election proper, can not by any means qualify as democracy. When the sanctity of the ballot is diminished to the superfluity of nothingness, then rascals rule over the righteous. It’s autocracy that rewards the ruthless and repress the resourceful not democracy. Nigeria’s twelve (12) years of systemic and sustained bungled ballots politics, has more then exposed our collective lies to being a democratic polity merely because we adjudged ourselves so based on the superficiality of existence of structures.
All eleven years democracy which brought unprecedented socio-political cataclysms, economic cirrhosis and cultural enema cannot by any means qualify as democracy.
It’s 12 years of bad leaders, of wayfarers as invaders, of illiterate of plunder, sinners from hell, meretricious saints, glorified thugs acting as messiahs, predators as philanthropists, false leads, moronic follower ships, Lies as sacrament, lascivious looting, ceremony of violence. Twelve years of ruling by Plunderers and Destroyers of Polity.
This people fool us daily with promises and demagoguery and believe us to be super suckers which is why they daily promise us good life but they’re inflicting economic hardship on us instead. Instead of delivering the dividends of democracy to us, they have been stealing our collective money to build mansions, buy expensive jeeps and add wives and concubines to their harem. Aren’t they aware that some day, they will discard their earthly cloaks and take their places in vaults? Then, their children may fight one another to death over the formula for sharing their ill-gotten wealth. Aren’t they, the architect of our woes the worst fools on earth?
Matters are worsened by the fact that even though we run a democratic system of government but free, fair and credible elections are far-fetched.
What have we gained for twelve years of democracy in Nigeria? No electricity, no security, no running water, industries are closing, education is collapsing, no good roads, kidnapping is rampant, stealing (mostly by the leaders) carries the day and all other vices and we call ourselves giant of Africa, On what level?
Leadership is Nigeria’s main problem and it is the only thing that is badly needed and the only thing that is sadly lacking.
Our democracy is in danger. That is danger has its roots in money, power, social structure and history.
Our democracy must be freed from the suffocating grip of an all-knowing typical African Big Man. Mko Abiola, Saro Wiwa, Rewane and others too numerous to mention did not die for us to have a civilian dictatorship. They died so that we can be free; they died so that we can reap the abundant benefits of democracy. Think of the names named above and others who died when fighting for our democracy. We spit on their graves when we let democracy slip away into the sewer of illegal money.
Nigeria is a country ready to be taken—in fact, longing to be taken—by political leaders ready to restore democracy and trust to the political process.
Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and honourables and government officials, but the voters of this country. The government is us; we are the government, you and I.
We are very hungry for something new. I think we are interested in being called to be a part of something larger than the sort of small, petty, slash-and-burn politics that we have been seeing over the last several years.
Quotes
"Democracy" is one of the most important principles for a better world. In its truest sense, a democracy is a community in which all members have an equal say in the running of that community. Unfortunately in reality, democratic societies have fallen short of this ideal. Nevertheless, because of its very nature, once a democracy is established, its citizens can work together to make their society more and more democratic, if they choose to do so.
-- Robert Alan
Democracy is the ultimate, positive revolution because it gives each and every individual the power to control their lives. And we can work together to create a just, sustainable world.
-- Bill Blackman
Democracy is not just a question of having a vote. It consists of strengthening each citizen’s possibility and capacity to participate in the deliberations involved in life in society.
-- Fernando Cardoso
Everybody counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchasable voice in government.
-- Carrie Chapman Catt
The road to democracy may be winding and is like a river taking many curves, but eventually the river will reach the ocean.
-- Chen Shui-bian
Democracy doesn't recognize east or west; democracy is simply people's will. Therefore, I do not acknowledge that there are various models of democracy; there is just democracy itself.
-- Shirin Ebadi
I understand democracy as something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong.
-- Mohandas Gandhi
To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness.
-- Mohandas Gandhi
The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within.
-- Mohandas Gandhi
In true democracy every man and women is taught to think for himself or herself. -- Mohandas Gandhi
The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular.
-- Mohandas Gandhi
"The freedom and human capacities of individuals must be developed to their maximum but individual powers must be linked to democracy in the sense that social betterment must be the necessary consequence of individual flourishing."
-- Henry Giroux
The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It's not our job to cozy up to power. We're supposed to be the check and balance on government.
-- Amy Goodman
“We need to be activating deep democracy because democracy is fleeting through our fingers, and most people are unaware of it. Democracy is about dispersing power among the interconnected people. As a people, we need to rise to the level of forcing our leaders to abide by our stated principles - really exercise democracy, not only on our behalf but on behalf of the world. We need to continue, as part and parcel of the American experience created by the founding forefathers, and now the foremothers, to insist, "We want democracy to work, and that means every voice counts."
-- Dr. Azizah al-Hibri
Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.
-- Abbie Hoffman
The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.
-- Robert Maynard Hutchins
The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
Everyday I wake up and think about how to move my beloved country (Nigeria) to a greater height. At times I do ask myself that are we heading to the right direction of making a better Nigeria? Its twelve years on that we practice democracy in this country but I also ask myself that are we really practicing democracy or demokrazy?
A democracy that can’t guarantee it’s citizens one-square meal a day, a democracy that can’t guarantee 20 minutes of electricity daily, a democracy that can’t afford to keep lecturers on strike for as long as it lasts, a democracy that can’t guarantee a free, fair and credible elections, a democracy that is standing on its head, a democracy that takes one step forward and three backward. Can this be called democracy?
It is twelve years of democracy, in which leaders emerge by money, mayhem and murder, by imposition and selection but never by election proper, can not by any means qualify as democracy. When the sanctity of the ballot is diminished to the superfluity of nothingness, then rascals rule over the righteous. It’s autocracy that rewards the ruthless and repress the resourceful not democracy. Nigeria’s twelve (12) years of systemic and sustained bungled ballots politics, has more then exposed our collective lies to being a democratic polity merely because we adjudged ourselves so based on the superficiality of existence of structures.
All eleven years democracy which brought unprecedented socio-political cataclysms, economic cirrhosis and cultural enema cannot by any means qualify as democracy.
It’s 12 years of bad leaders, of wayfarers as invaders, of illiterate of plunder, sinners from hell, meretricious saints, glorified thugs acting as messiahs, predators as philanthropists, false leads, moronic follower ships, Lies as sacrament, lascivious looting, ceremony of violence. Twelve years of ruling by Plunderers and Destroyers of Polity.
This people fool us daily with promises and demagoguery and believe us to be super suckers which is why they daily promise us good life but they’re inflicting economic hardship on us instead. Instead of delivering the dividends of democracy to us, they have been stealing our collective money to build mansions, buy expensive jeeps and add wives and concubines to their harem. Aren’t they aware that some day, they will discard their earthly cloaks and take their places in vaults? Then, their children may fight one another to death over the formula for sharing their ill-gotten wealth. Aren’t they, the architect of our woes the worst fools on earth?
Matters are worsened by the fact that even though we run a democratic system of government but free, fair and credible elections are far-fetched.
What have we gained for twelve years of democracy in Nigeria? No electricity, no security, no running water, industries are closing, education is collapsing, no good roads, kidnapping is rampant, stealing (mostly by the leaders) carries the day and all other vices and we call ourselves giant of Africa, On what level?
Leadership is Nigeria’s main problem and it is the only thing that is badly needed and the only thing that is sadly lacking.
Our democracy is in danger. That is danger has its roots in money, power, social structure and history.
Our democracy must be freed from the suffocating grip of an all-knowing typical African Big Man. Mko Abiola, Saro Wiwa, Rewane and others too numerous to mention did not die for us to have a civilian dictatorship. They died so that we can be free; they died so that we can reap the abundant benefits of democracy. Think of the names named above and others who died when fighting for our democracy. We spit on their graves when we let democracy slip away into the sewer of illegal money.
Nigeria is a country ready to be taken—in fact, longing to be taken—by political leaders ready to restore democracy and trust to the political process.
Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and honourables and government officials, but the voters of this country. The government is us; we are the government, you and I.
We are very hungry for something new. I think we are interested in being called to be a part of something larger than the sort of small, petty, slash-and-burn politics that we have been seeing over the last several years.
Quotes
"Democracy" is one of the most important principles for a better world. In its truest sense, a democracy is a community in which all members have an equal say in the running of that community. Unfortunately in reality, democratic societies have fallen short of this ideal. Nevertheless, because of its very nature, once a democracy is established, its citizens can work together to make their society more and more democratic, if they choose to do so.
-- Robert Alan
Democracy is the ultimate, positive revolution because it gives each and every individual the power to control their lives. And we can work together to create a just, sustainable world.
-- Bill Blackman
Democracy is not just a question of having a vote. It consists of strengthening each citizen’s possibility and capacity to participate in the deliberations involved in life in society.
-- Fernando Cardoso
Everybody counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchasable voice in government.
-- Carrie Chapman Catt
The road to democracy may be winding and is like a river taking many curves, but eventually the river will reach the ocean.
-- Chen Shui-bian
Democracy doesn't recognize east or west; democracy is simply people's will. Therefore, I do not acknowledge that there are various models of democracy; there is just democracy itself.
-- Shirin Ebadi
I understand democracy as something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong.
-- Mohandas Gandhi
To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness.
-- Mohandas Gandhi
The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within.
-- Mohandas Gandhi
In true democracy every man and women is taught to think for himself or herself. -- Mohandas Gandhi
The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular.
-- Mohandas Gandhi
"The freedom and human capacities of individuals must be developed to their maximum but individual powers must be linked to democracy in the sense that social betterment must be the necessary consequence of individual flourishing."
-- Henry Giroux
The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It's not our job to cozy up to power. We're supposed to be the check and balance on government.
-- Amy Goodman
“We need to be activating deep democracy because democracy is fleeting through our fingers, and most people are unaware of it. Democracy is about dispersing power among the interconnected people. As a people, we need to rise to the level of forcing our leaders to abide by our stated principles - really exercise democracy, not only on our behalf but on behalf of the world. We need to continue, as part and parcel of the American experience created by the founding forefathers, and now the foremothers, to insist, "We want democracy to work, and that means every voice counts."
-- Dr. Azizah al-Hibri
Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.
-- Abbie Hoffman
The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.
-- Robert Maynard Hutchins
For Your sake, Nigeria will Survive
For Your sake, Nigeria will Survive
Please read the text below, and for the story to be relevant to you, put your name wherever you see “Abraham” and put Nigeria wherever you see Sodom or Gomorrah
Text: Genesis 18:16-33
“Should I hide my plan from Abraham?” the LORD asked. “For Abraham will certainly become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. I have singled him out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just. Then I will do for Abraham all that I have promised.”
So the LORD told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.”
The other men turned and headed toward Sodom, but the LORD remained with Abraham. Abraham approached him and said, “Will you sweep away both the righteous and the wicked? Suppose you find fifty righteous people living there in the city—will you still sweep it away and not spare it for their sakes? Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked.
Why, you would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”
And the LORD replied, “If I find fifty righteous people in Sodom, I will spare the entire city for their sake.”
Then Abraham spoke again. “Since I have begun, let me speak further to my Lord, even though I am but dust and ashes. Suppose there are only forty-five righteous people rather than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?”
And the LORD said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five righteous people there.”
Then Abraham pressed his request further. “Suppose there are only forty?”
And the LORD replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the forty.”
“Please don’t be angry, my Lord,” Abraham pleaded. “Let me speak—suppose only thirty righteous people are found?”
And the LORD replied, “I will not destroy it if I find thirty.”
Then Abraham said, “Since I have dared to speak to the Lord, let me continue—suppose there are only twenty?”
And the LORD replied, “Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”
Finally, Abraham said, “Lord, please don’t be angry with me if I speak one more time. Suppose only ten are found there?”
And the LORD replied, “Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”
When the LORD had finished his conversation with Abraham, he went on his way, and Abraham returned to his tent.
Reflection
Abraham interceded for the salvation of Sodom and Gomorrah on the contract that the city will not be destroyed if God could locate 50 righteous people in the land.
Abraham was not sure if there could be fifty righteous people in Sodom, so he negotiated with God from fifty people down to ten people.
God said he will not destroy Sodom for the sake of ten righteous people in the City; unfortunately there were no ten righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Nigeria is blessed to have you and me interceding for her at this time. For our sake, God will spare our nation and give us victory over poverty, corruption, mismanagement of our recourses and the shedding of innocent bloods. I know Nigeria would rise again. Lets us come together to pray, do thanksgiving, lament, reflect, forgive, humble ourselves and seek the face of God.
This is to include all believers of every religion i.e. Traditionalists, Muslims and Christians; whoever you are, whatever you believe in, as long as you are a human being and a Nigerian; you are welcome.
Let us call the nation to a stop to rethink. Let the president come down to his kneels, let the kings and chief depart their thrones for these three days, let the officials, governors and political parties weep for the bloods they have shed.
Let the Priests, Imams and Traditionalist ask for forgiveness for not holding out the truth and live within the tenet of their faith.
Let each citizen wail for their share in "the National Cake" which is almost ruined.
The Souls of our ancestors are calling! The Souls of innocent bloods which have been shed are calling! The Souls of victims of religious and ethnic civil war in Jos and several other part of the nation are calling. Above all the Souls of the unborn generation are calling on you people of God to arise and pray for this land.
We have April elections to know the fate of our dear country, whether we will still continue the Israelites trip or getting to the promise land without confusion. Let us shout it aloud; let the media carry the news, let the news reach the ears of our leaders, send text messages, add and invite your friends on facebook, use emails, announce it in churches and mosques, discuss it among your friends! Use your various positions and influence to bring Nigerian to their kneel and recognize the Almighty God as God.
It is time to seek the face of God and admit our failures. It is time to repent; it is time to rebuild the walls of our Jerusalem "Nigeria".
I trust God to heal our land as we humble ourselves before Him.
God bless you all.
Re-edited by:
Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
Please read the text below, and for the story to be relevant to you, put your name wherever you see “Abraham” and put Nigeria wherever you see Sodom or Gomorrah
Text: Genesis 18:16-33
“Should I hide my plan from Abraham?” the LORD asked. “For Abraham will certainly become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. I have singled him out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just. Then I will do for Abraham all that I have promised.”
So the LORD told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.”
The other men turned and headed toward Sodom, but the LORD remained with Abraham. Abraham approached him and said, “Will you sweep away both the righteous and the wicked? Suppose you find fifty righteous people living there in the city—will you still sweep it away and not spare it for their sakes? Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked.
Why, you would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”
And the LORD replied, “If I find fifty righteous people in Sodom, I will spare the entire city for their sake.”
Then Abraham spoke again. “Since I have begun, let me speak further to my Lord, even though I am but dust and ashes. Suppose there are only forty-five righteous people rather than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?”
And the LORD said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five righteous people there.”
Then Abraham pressed his request further. “Suppose there are only forty?”
And the LORD replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the forty.”
“Please don’t be angry, my Lord,” Abraham pleaded. “Let me speak—suppose only thirty righteous people are found?”
And the LORD replied, “I will not destroy it if I find thirty.”
Then Abraham said, “Since I have dared to speak to the Lord, let me continue—suppose there are only twenty?”
And the LORD replied, “Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”
Finally, Abraham said, “Lord, please don’t be angry with me if I speak one more time. Suppose only ten are found there?”
And the LORD replied, “Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”
When the LORD had finished his conversation with Abraham, he went on his way, and Abraham returned to his tent.
Reflection
Abraham interceded for the salvation of Sodom and Gomorrah on the contract that the city will not be destroyed if God could locate 50 righteous people in the land.
Abraham was not sure if there could be fifty righteous people in Sodom, so he negotiated with God from fifty people down to ten people.
God said he will not destroy Sodom for the sake of ten righteous people in the City; unfortunately there were no ten righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Nigeria is blessed to have you and me interceding for her at this time. For our sake, God will spare our nation and give us victory over poverty, corruption, mismanagement of our recourses and the shedding of innocent bloods. I know Nigeria would rise again. Lets us come together to pray, do thanksgiving, lament, reflect, forgive, humble ourselves and seek the face of God.
This is to include all believers of every religion i.e. Traditionalists, Muslims and Christians; whoever you are, whatever you believe in, as long as you are a human being and a Nigerian; you are welcome.
Let us call the nation to a stop to rethink. Let the president come down to his kneels, let the kings and chief depart their thrones for these three days, let the officials, governors and political parties weep for the bloods they have shed.
Let the Priests, Imams and Traditionalist ask for forgiveness for not holding out the truth and live within the tenet of their faith.
Let each citizen wail for their share in "the National Cake" which is almost ruined.
The Souls of our ancestors are calling! The Souls of innocent bloods which have been shed are calling! The Souls of victims of religious and ethnic civil war in Jos and several other part of the nation are calling. Above all the Souls of the unborn generation are calling on you people of God to arise and pray for this land.
We have April elections to know the fate of our dear country, whether we will still continue the Israelites trip or getting to the promise land without confusion. Let us shout it aloud; let the media carry the news, let the news reach the ears of our leaders, send text messages, add and invite your friends on facebook, use emails, announce it in churches and mosques, discuss it among your friends! Use your various positions and influence to bring Nigerian to their kneel and recognize the Almighty God as God.
It is time to seek the face of God and admit our failures. It is time to repent; it is time to rebuild the walls of our Jerusalem "Nigeria".
I trust God to heal our land as we humble ourselves before Him.
God bless you all.
Re-edited by:
Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
WE ARE GETTING WORSE, NOT BETTER
WE ARE GETTING WORSE, NOT BETTER
I hope my observation is not skewed. My observation is: Precedence is set and the wagon of moral rot is moving at high speed. I have also observed that, our current leaders are not quotable, they mostly hit from the heap.
What for example would this lesson teach us, the children who are watching and learning from both their words and action?
The present Nigerian political leadership is uninteresting and uninspiring. They currently simply operate from a materialistic point of view. They are words and deeds show little in as far as our vision and anticipated future is concern. It only demonstrates that we are indulging in the present.
However, events nowadays showed that our political leaders acted worse with opportunistic concentrating only on political point scoring. They keep promising and the poor keep hoping.
My logic tells me that to turn around the situation we have to emphasise on education, entrepreneurship, discipline, and ethics in governance, moral regeneration and productive patriotism. It would be better to encourage unity against poverty.
As it is now we are disintegrating by the lead of our government; our words are shallow and lack wisdom. Instead of inspiring us to better our lives, our leader’s words frustrate us and inspire our racial anger; make us feel guilty, inefficient, in adequate and unpatriotic. They make us hate, not love, aggressive not humble.
Our leadership have failed to inspire a mentally attitude to build our lives. It does not encourage us to feel capable and able. In short, they do not inspire hope in us.Our political leaders in general are mostly approaching issues two dimensionally. They seem to be draining their energy focusing on trying to get into government, rather than focusing on shaping the thinking of the Nigerians so that Nigerians can be self sufficient. Even those that are within the ruling party, who are level headed like something else, make statements which are merely meant to appeal to the public, rather than words that can transform and inspire the public.
Maybe you are asking, what exactly are you looking for?
Compare the wisdom of their words and see which you find wanting. We must just accept that we have taken a wrong turn and are in need to stop and reassess ourselves. We need to make a quick U turn. We need to reshape the way we see the world.
A friend recently asked me I have a feeling that the current leadership we have cannot make the turn we wish to make, this call for a completely different way of doing things. We need new hands.
The change we need can be agitated by individuals outside the formal organizations that are stifled with power struggles and bureaucracies.
The situation calls for the modern radicals that will portray an unapologetic attitude. People who are not primarily motivated by wanting to be in government. These are the type of activists that will be able to shake the core of the society and return it to its original form.
Fearless, ruthless, principled and dangerously motivated by the eager to see the lives of Nigerians improve for the better. Maybe we can turn the tide and start to be better.
Let’s join hands together to make a better Nigeria!
Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
I hope my observation is not skewed. My observation is: Precedence is set and the wagon of moral rot is moving at high speed. I have also observed that, our current leaders are not quotable, they mostly hit from the heap.
What for example would this lesson teach us, the children who are watching and learning from both their words and action?
The present Nigerian political leadership is uninteresting and uninspiring. They currently simply operate from a materialistic point of view. They are words and deeds show little in as far as our vision and anticipated future is concern. It only demonstrates that we are indulging in the present.
However, events nowadays showed that our political leaders acted worse with opportunistic concentrating only on political point scoring. They keep promising and the poor keep hoping.
My logic tells me that to turn around the situation we have to emphasise on education, entrepreneurship, discipline, and ethics in governance, moral regeneration and productive patriotism. It would be better to encourage unity against poverty.
As it is now we are disintegrating by the lead of our government; our words are shallow and lack wisdom. Instead of inspiring us to better our lives, our leader’s words frustrate us and inspire our racial anger; make us feel guilty, inefficient, in adequate and unpatriotic. They make us hate, not love, aggressive not humble.
Our leadership have failed to inspire a mentally attitude to build our lives. It does not encourage us to feel capable and able. In short, they do not inspire hope in us.Our political leaders in general are mostly approaching issues two dimensionally. They seem to be draining their energy focusing on trying to get into government, rather than focusing on shaping the thinking of the Nigerians so that Nigerians can be self sufficient. Even those that are within the ruling party, who are level headed like something else, make statements which are merely meant to appeal to the public, rather than words that can transform and inspire the public.
Maybe you are asking, what exactly are you looking for?
Compare the wisdom of their words and see which you find wanting. We must just accept that we have taken a wrong turn and are in need to stop and reassess ourselves. We need to make a quick U turn. We need to reshape the way we see the world.
A friend recently asked me I have a feeling that the current leadership we have cannot make the turn we wish to make, this call for a completely different way of doing things. We need new hands.
The change we need can be agitated by individuals outside the formal organizations that are stifled with power struggles and bureaucracies.
The situation calls for the modern radicals that will portray an unapologetic attitude. People who are not primarily motivated by wanting to be in government. These are the type of activists that will be able to shake the core of the society and return it to its original form.
Fearless, ruthless, principled and dangerously motivated by the eager to see the lives of Nigerians improve for the better. Maybe we can turn the tide and start to be better.
Let’s join hands together to make a better Nigeria!
Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
Where Were You When Nigeria Began To Degenerate?
Where Were You When Nigeria Began To Degenerate?
Dear Compatriots!
It is another moment to read my write up again.
Brothers & Sisters, fellow citizen of this great Nation,
we have now come to discovered and agreed that we are the only
one that can build our nation. So, we have to join hands together and participate in the nation building by doing what you know best in moving the country forward so that history will not pose a question to us.
• If you are a famous young writer, and you do not write about the plight of the poor, history will ask: Where were you, and what did you do when Nigeria began to degenerate?
• If you are a prolific young journalist, and you say nothing about corrupt politicians who embezzle public funds, posterity will ask: Where were you, and what did you do when Nigeria began to degenerate?
• If you are a flourishing young entrepreneur, and you do not contribute to the improvement of the lives of the destitute, future generations will ask: Where were you, and what did you do when Nigeria began to degenerate?
• If you are a singer, and you do not sing in defence of the downtrodden masses, history will also pose a question to you: Where were you, and what did you do when Nigeria began to degenerate?
It does not matter what kind of work you do, there is a role you can and must play to stop the perversion of our society. Your success will mean nothing if it is not connected with the general advancement of society!
Finally, I must end my goodwill message with the famous quote of John Fitzgerald Kennedy that says “Let us not ask what our country should do for us, rather let us ask what we shall do for our country” and this way, I think that we will be on the right path to building a greater nation. It is not about how late we start, it is all about starting first that defines our goal, motive, mission and vision to building a great nation “Nigeria”. (It is not how far, but it is how well).
Where were you, and what did you do when Nigeria began to degenerate? Will you be able to give an answer to this question when future generations ask you?
God Bless You All!
Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
Dear Compatriots!
It is another moment to read my write up again.
Brothers & Sisters, fellow citizen of this great Nation,
we have now come to discovered and agreed that we are the only
one that can build our nation. So, we have to join hands together and participate in the nation building by doing what you know best in moving the country forward so that history will not pose a question to us.
• If you are a famous young writer, and you do not write about the plight of the poor, history will ask: Where were you, and what did you do when Nigeria began to degenerate?
• If you are a prolific young journalist, and you say nothing about corrupt politicians who embezzle public funds, posterity will ask: Where were you, and what did you do when Nigeria began to degenerate?
• If you are a flourishing young entrepreneur, and you do not contribute to the improvement of the lives of the destitute, future generations will ask: Where were you, and what did you do when Nigeria began to degenerate?
• If you are a singer, and you do not sing in defence of the downtrodden masses, history will also pose a question to you: Where were you, and what did you do when Nigeria began to degenerate?
It does not matter what kind of work you do, there is a role you can and must play to stop the perversion of our society. Your success will mean nothing if it is not connected with the general advancement of society!
Finally, I must end my goodwill message with the famous quote of John Fitzgerald Kennedy that says “Let us not ask what our country should do for us, rather let us ask what we shall do for our country” and this way, I think that we will be on the right path to building a greater nation. It is not about how late we start, it is all about starting first that defines our goal, motive, mission and vision to building a great nation “Nigeria”. (It is not how far, but it is how well).
Where were you, and what did you do when Nigeria began to degenerate? Will you be able to give an answer to this question when future generations ask you?
God Bless You All!
Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
The Time is Now!
The Time is Now!
I believe that now is the time to honour the legacy for which so many gave their lives.
Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
I believe that now is the time to honour the legacy for which so many gave their lives.
- The time is now for change!
- The time is now for hope!
- The time is now for power!
- The time is now for peace!
- The time is now for progress. We’ve waited enough and we can’t wait anymore.
- The time is now for a return to values that characterise clean governance.
- The time is now for efficient delivery to serve the people of Nigeria.
- The time is now to create a society that fulfils its promises to its young.
- The time is now to create an authentically non-racial, non-sexist society.
- The time is now to create a Nigeria where public servants at every level serve the public and not their own pockets.
- The time is now for us to stop the under development, mass impoverishment, kleptomania, stagnation, etc”.
- The time is now for this nation to depend on more than one source of revenue generation.
- The time is now to create a Nigeria where crime does not daily threaten our lives and possessions.
- The time is now to ensure that, institutions of our society, like the Judiciary, INEC and the Constitution are afforded the respect due to them. When these institutions are undermined, society disintegrates.
- The time is now for a clear distinction to be made between party interests and state responsibilities.
- The time is now to be free from democracy dictatorship.
- The time is now for us to unite.
- The time is now for us to have a Nigeria that order will be part of our national life.
- The time is now for us to have a Nigeria that basic need of life will be readily available.
- The time is now for us to have a Nigeria that health care can be accessible by all.
- The time is now have a new Nigeria and put a stop to a nation (Naija) where corruption has been institutionalized and connection placed above merit.
- The time is now to put a stop to Official corruption & corrupt practices.
- The time is now to stop corruption at all levels, change our characters, behaviours and our mentality.
- The time is now for the new Nigeria without greed that we have been yarning for.
- The time is now for us to be free from the law that protects the rich and powerful while punishment is for the poor and voiceless.
- The time is now to put a stop to a nation where the unskilled get the job of the skilled.
- The time is now to move out darkness into light (to have stable electricity).
- The time is now for our educational sector to have a good run.
- The time is now to stop discriminating.
- The time is now to stop the illegal killings in the Northern part of this nation.
- The time is now to make Nigeria a better place to live.
- The time is now to build a New and Better Nigeria.
- The time has finally arrived for we the youths to rule this great nation. As long as we are given the chance to rule, I believe there will be a landmark change.
- Let’s make good thing happen.
- Let’s make a change.
Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
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