BRING BACK THE REAL SUPER EAGLES

  I was trying to explain the evolution of Nigerian football to my six year old boy yesterday when he asked me frankly what Nigeria had won in football and why he has never heard about any world class Nigerian footballer. I didn´t really know where to start, I tried to start from the very last big thing that Nigeria won, which was the nations cup in 2013, but I realized that even though we won that competition, there was really no world class player I could mention in that victorious squad whom I could be able to play his action video shots on youtube that will wow my little boy.

  I looked around the whole of the European leagues and I just couldn´t find any above average Nigerian player plying his trade in any first class European league, one that makes the headlines at least twice a month in big football magazines in Europe. It was then that I realized that our lack luster performance at the national team level in recent times is due mainly to the fact that our national team is packed full of mediocre players, some of who are not even regular players in their teams in Europe.

  But how did we get to this sad situation where in the last five years we do not have any world class player that can be rated among the top 50 best players in the world in their positions. How can I now convince my six years old son that there was a time when we had JayJay Okocha, George Finidi, Mutiu Adepoju, Kanu Nwankwo, Victor Ikpeba, Taribo West, Sunday Oliseh, Rashidi Yekini, Samson Siasia, Daniel Amokachi, Jonathan Akpoborie, Celestine Babayaro…. just to mention a handful, who were always making headlines with their weekly superlative performances in their various leagues all across Europe. Then you could bet with anyone and win that there will hardly be a week when a Nigerian is not mentioned in the course of football news across the globe.

  Today, our so called best are saddled only among the rest. There is no top Nigerian player anywhere in the world that deserves any special attention and that is responsible for our recent bad performances at the national team level.

  After fidgeting on youtube for several minutes and seeing nothing of notable football value that will hold my boy spellbound, I finally settled for the video of two of Nigeria´s best football talents in the last two decades, JayJay Okocha and Kanu Nwankwo, two of our most creative players, who in their time could decide a match with one very extraordinary play, and since yesterday my boy who always called himself Diego Costa while playing around with the ball, now tells me to call him Okocha.      

EVERY NIGERIAN MUST HAVE THE SAME GOAL

  The Nigerian political institution is not well defined along ideological lines like is expected in a democratic dispensation, so because of this and coupled with the fact that our leaders are not tested and demonstrated leaders who had undergone leadership trainings and proved their leadership mettles in tested fields before being ascended into public offices, the idea of voting a party into power in Nigeria is absurd. Because no one party in Nigeria is different from the other in terms of ideologies and the real predisposition to apply its manifestos.

  What Nigerians should be concerned about are the individuals being presented to them, especially the possibility and ability of these ones to be able to deliver the dividends of democracy to them, it is unfortunate that Nigerians are not used to asking questions and their leadership is not responsible enough in most cases to be accountable to Nigerians. It becomes almost forbidden for a Nigerian to raise up his hand at any public function and formulate a question before an elected public servant and expect a clear response to his questions especially if it is a question that makes the public servant a bit uncomfortable, there will always be other Nigerians present at the same occasion who will quickly want to oppose the person asking the question, then also would be the teeming group of sycophants usually gathered around all public servants in Nigeria like flies on a rot who too will be preventing any access to the man whose office naturally obliges him to be at the service or better put at the beck and call of every Nigerian.

  Sometimes, one risk even physical aggression in the hands of the many thugs, official bodyguards, aide-de-camp… and even security forces all paid from our public funds but who out of ignorance and selfishness act as unnecessary encumbrance to our elected public servants. How many political parties in the history of Nigeria have stuck to their manifestos on getting to power? What makes any Nigerian political party different from the other? If you take a detailed look at these questions you will discover that unlike in the developed nations where democracy is practiced on the bases of at least two alternative ideological choices; one conservative, the other progressive, one right wing, the other left wing, right center, center left and all that….. Signifying what to expect from any elected one amongst them, in Nigerian we only have a conglomeration of mostly dubious persons without any ideological bearing, who have formed a party lacking any form of ideology simply for the purpose of contesting an election because a candidate need to contest under the auspices of a party.

  But then, it is still not all bad news as it eventually depends on the practical outcome of the party in the hypothetical case that it gets to power. The truth is this, Nigeria as a nation cannot afford to be divided into just two interest groups as we normally see in most advanced, democratic societies, our problems are multifaceted, in fact, no under-developed nation can afford itself the impudence to do that. Nigeria therefore by its nature should have parties with the same ideology which is no other than speedy development. If you ask me, I do not think that Nigeria needs politicians as much as it needs patriotic technocrats, we need a blue print and persons committed to pursuing the outline developmental agenda with all urgency and vigor. Take for instance that a government comes into power in a nation like Nigeria, following a pre-tabled and underlined major problems facing us as a people in the scale of their preferences and decides in its 4 year tenure to fix two very major and outstanding of all the underlined problems rather than diversify its energy in dealing with a million problems that we have and eventually carrying it over to the next government worse than it was before he inherited them.

  What I am trying to say is this; the key problem in Nigeria today and always has been corruption and mismanagement of public funds, what if we have a government that makes this its major agenda and works vigorously to uproot the existing impunity characteristics of our government in recent times as regards this issue of corruption. What if the only success of President Goodluck Jonathan in his tenure was efficient and constant electricity supply? Imagine if in the 4 years of any president in office in Nigeria, there is constant power supply for 4 years; Nigerians will no longer mark the Xmas or the Id-el Kabir festivals but constant electricity day.

   On a more serious note, I think that we are continuously and helplessly left as a people in the hands of those who play politics with our well being as a nation rather than those who are really willing to sacrifice themselves for the growth and progress of our nation. We all know what our problems are in Nigeria, our leaders should begin to face and resolve these problems and stop once and for all this useless game of bamboozling Nigerians and unnecessary time buying. Nigeria is a nation endowed to be great, mediocrity should therefore not be an option.                 

"EL CLASSICO" IS HERE

  It really does not matter the form in which the players of two century old rival clubs like the Real Madrid and Barcelona gets to a derby, nor are there any other ways to motivate the players to be in their best forms for matches of this category, the motivation is almost a natural thing that comes on its own. The fact that the two teams are meeting is itself sufficient motivation for any player wearing the colors of any of the two teams.

  The players are aware that this is not just another match, and although there are three points to be won or lost at the end of the day, the pride of winning such a world class derby is much more than the three points at stake, in fact no matter how bad any of the teams in such matches may be on the league table, sometimes a victory in a match like this helps put aside a rather unsuccessful and gloomy season.

  Lucky for the supporters of both teams and football fans all over the world, Real Madrid and Barcelona are going into this match in a similar form; both teams appear to be at their very optimum at this stage of the competition. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are breaking and setting new football records every day, records that are out of the reach of human footballers except galactic stars like them.

  There will also be very many other stars to watch out for as both teams will be using their best football weapons to try to outwit and beat their opponent, Luis Suarez who has been on suspension all through the season due to the suspension slammed on him by Fifa for biting Chiellini at the world cup may be having the opportunity of playing his first official league match this season for Barcelona against no other rival than Real Madrid, Iniesta, Neymar, Ivan Rakitic, Xavi Hernandez and other Barcelona stars along with James Rodriguez, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Isco, Benzema are stars to also watch out for in the game which no doubt promises to be scintillating.

  Let us just hope that the passion from the footballers of both teams will not be so much as pushing them into engaging in none-footballistic and controversial issues as we have seen in other times. They should do what they are best at doing, play football and playing it very well for the good of the game.

  I wish both teams the best of luck and may the better side win at the end of the day.       

NIGERIA IS MORE THAN CAPABLE OF SURVIVING A WORSE OUTBREAK

  Although Nigeria is seen by many as a mere geographical expression, experience has continuously proved the contrary, the 100 years this year of inter-relationship between what used to be the northern and the southern protectorate of the British empire now Nigeria from 1960, has shown that Nigeria is much more than a mere geographical expression, unfortunately though most self-centered politicians and their cohorts inside and outside the shores of our great country are using our rich and positive diversity to create unhealthy tensions that have in recent times jeopardized and compromised the unity and the continuity of our nation as one indivisible entity.

  But Nigerians are a very special kind of people with a very uncommon mental capacity to surmount their myriad problems no matter how insurmountable they appear at first. Like every country, we have our challenges, the most important of all being bad leadership and corruption. And that is the area every Nigerian is expected to focus on and not the trivialities that our corrupt political elites are always selfishly diverting our attention to for their insatiable benefits at the detriment of our common good.

  Experience has shown that each time Nigerians come together and patriotically face their problems, we always come out victorious and the amount of Nigerians managing and leading important world institutions with the highest level of efficiency and professionalism shows that Nigeria as a nation is not short of credible, efficient and well trained persons to assume any leadership position within and outside our country. What is apparently wrong then is the status quo installed in our country by a handful of antipatriotic Nigerians most of who selfishly work to defend foreign interests at the expense of our nation.

  We are currently living in one of those rare seasons when it is a worldwide trend and a pride to be related to Nigeria, our nation, often regarded as a third world country with very limited infrastructures but that has been adequately able to contain the spread of the Ebola virus that came into our country through a Liberian infected patient. The lesson from that is that Nigeria and Nigerians are more than capable of making things work for our common benefit if we so desire. We must therefore apply the same zeal, the same level of patriotism, professionalism, sacrifice and love exhibited during this dreadful Ebola outbreak to fight other mortal and devastating viruses that are equally killing our people and withholding our advancement as a nation, such as Ignorance, corruption, intolerance, disunity, impunity, nepotism, favoritism and all other vices, especially used by undesirable elements in our political field to ensure that the real dividends of democracy does not get to the people.

  The message is clear; if we can beat the Ebola we can beat any other challenges on our part to a long overdue greatness. Let us prove to those who doubt that Nigeria will survive the 2015 deadline that Nigeria has come to stay.     

A WORSE BUHARI IS BETTER THAN THE BEST OF THE OTHER CANDIDATES

  There have been some relative mixed feelings and reactions since Rtd Major-Gen Mohammadu Buhari announced his renewed intention to run for the presidency in the oncoming General elections in Nigeria under the platform of the APC. The former Head of state who ruled Nigeria from 1983 to 1985 is being accused by his detractors of being one of those who masterminded a military coup that put an abrupt end to the second republic and a democratic government in Nigeria, an action they argued was responsible for the predicaments of our nation today, saying that if not for the military intervention, Nigeria would have advanced democratically and developmentally today much more than is the case.

  The Military is seen to have retrogressed Nigeria below acceptable standard considering our unquantifiable and numerous human and natural endowment. The military government in Nigeria is accused among other things of curtailing the rights of Nigerians and for creating despotic rulers who siphoned the wealth of our nation at the detriment of our people for decades. Although Rtd. Major- Gen Muhammadu Buhari is one of the few Major Generals who a lot of Nigerians exonerate from any registered corrupt case during his short period as the Military Head of State of Nigeria, but the fact that he had previously served in other administrative capacities without a functional legacy to show for it is what a lot of people are using against him.

  It would be recalled that Rtd. Major-Gen Muhammadu Buhari was the governor of North-eastern Nigeria between august 1975 – March 1976; he also served as federal commissioner for Petroleum and natural resources from March 1976 – June 1978. His last public office was under the despotic leadership of Late Gen Sani Abacha where he was appointed to serve as the chairman of the petroleum trust fund (PTF) between 1995 and 1999. National and international economic observers have lauded his contribution during this period, pointing it out as no doubt one of the few positive things that could be related to the unpopular and dictatorial government of Sani Abacha, although critics also faulted the 20% allocation to the military from the PTF fund under the chairmanship of Rtd. Major- General Muhammadu Buhari. But if anything, no single Nigerian government or government worker has been able to accuse this man of any act of corruption while serving in any of the many public offices he has served in.

  In a nation where corruption is almost tradition and every public servant sees the public office as an opportunity to loot public fund, I think that Nigerians are not being just to this man, Muhammadu Buhari, except of course that anyone has any proof that could implicate or indict him in any corruption case in the history of our nation.

  For those who are saying that he had been a governor and had nothing to show for it, the record shows us that Muhammadu Buhari was governor in the defunct north-Eastern state for less than a year, from august 1975 – March 1976, not even enough time for any governor to be acquainted with his office and environment, much less to begin to transform things in the state. As federal commissioner for petroleum and natural resources under the General Obasanjo led government, Buhari was also only in office for two years enough time for Gen Olusegun Obasanjo to eulogize him for his uprightness. As Military head of state, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari was only in office for two years during which Nigeria witnessed a change from the old ways of doing things in our country, the Buhari/Idiagbon tandem for the first time in a long while instilled a sense of patriotic pride into Nigerians all over the world. The tandem also made the fight against indiscipline a cardinal point during the two years period it ruled the nation.

  It would really be under the evil government of Late General Sani Abacha that Major-General Muhammadu Buhari got enough time to make an impact in government for his appointment as the chairman of the petroleum trust fund between 1995 and 1999, although many of us still would not understand why an incorruptible and ideological man like Buhari agreed to serve under such a corrupt, despotic and unpopular government, but till date, no government audit on the petroleum sector has indicted or found any atom of corruption allegations against this man, in a nation where every Nigerian public servant has investments, properties and millions of dollars attached to their names abroad.

  Another criticism that Major-General Buhari has suffered is his government´s clampdown on the press in the period he ruled Nigeria, the failure to allow for press freedom and the many persecution that Nigerians especially the people opposed to his government decisions suffered during his reign as Head of state for which many are doubting whether this apparent uncompromising ex-military officer demeanor, will ever come to fully imbibe democratic principles and allow for dialogue in the tackling of national issues . Others directly point at his dogmatic religious ideology nearing fanaticism and argue that such a bias Islamic viewpoint may not be beneficial to foster peace and stability in a diverse nation like Nigeria especially at this complicated period in our history. Another opinion poll says that Major-General Buhari has in some instances put his ambition to rule Nigeria before the peace and stability of our country especially when he was quoted to have advocated for bloodshed in the turn out that there was any form of rigging or irregularities during the national election, an irresponsible statement that has been blamed to be behind some of the upheavals and the destruction of lives and properties, especially in the northern part of Nigeria. Another point of conflict is the age of Major General Mohammadu Buhari, at 70 a lot of Nigerians, think that the ex-military man should forget about his political ambition and give room for younger and more dynamic persons to rule our nation.

  But with all the underlining condemnation of some of the unwholesome acts and errors of Major-General Buhari, it is a non-contentious fact that of all the candidates that have been presented to Nigerians at least since the return to civilian rule in 1999 till date, none can match with the ex-major General in terms of honesty and rectitude. It is not every day that you see a candidate in Nigeria disposed to probe the past leadership of the country, and that speaks massively in the favor of Major-Gen Muhammadu Buhari, it is a proved fact that no government in Nigeria has been able to fight corruption efficiently because no incorruptible leader has been discovered so far, and that incorruptible leader could well be Major General Mohammadu Buhari. Corruption can never fight corruption and since we all agree that the great obstacle on the part of our progress as a nation is corruption, we must be willing to push aside our tribalism and fight this national enemy squarely and convincingly.

  Because collating the pros and the cons put forward by those in favor and against the presidential candidacy of Maj-Gen Muhammadu Buhari, the only candidate in the modern history of our country who has seriously come out to say he wants to rule Nigeria unlike all the other accidental rulers which we have had in recent times, I cannot but ask the question, why the phobia for this man, Buhari? If we have allowed Gen Olusegun Obasanjo, the “father of corruption” in Nigeria and a former military head of state to rule Nigeria again as a civilian President for 8 good years, and have also allowed a sick and a weak person like late Umar Yar ardua to rule us for three years and permitted to be governed by a clueless president as President Goodluck Jonathan, can risking another four years to see the real intentions of Major Gen Muhammadu Buhari be worse than the 15 wasted years already spent in our democracy? Honestly, i think that those who are afraid of Buhari are those who have skeletons in the cupboards and those who do not have good intentions for our country.                           

COACH STEPHEN KESHI, HOW STUBBORNNESS KILLED A DREAM

  Coach Stephen Keshi is now history in Nigerian football, although that is not to say that the door of coaching the Super Eagles is closed to him forever, as it is custom in Nigeria, it is possibly not a good bye but a see you later thing, because the day his Godfathers or avid fans return to commandeer the NFF, the football governing body of our nation, Keshi will also return with them.

  I cannot now hide my head; I am one of those who supported Coach Stephen Keshi, “The Big Boss” as some of us who know him from his football playing days fondly call him. At the time he was signed on to head the super Eagles, Nigeria needed a coach with a vast understanding of the game and possibly one who can instill discipline into a crop of over-blown mediocre players who had become headstrong and very pompous especially after the retirement of two of Nigeria´s most creative and skillful players in decades, Jay-jay Okocha and Kanu Nwankwo.

  After seeing the way these set of arrogant players rubbished Coach Samson Siasia and the shameful participation of our team at the first ever world cup to be staged in Africa, (South Africa 2010) it became imperative to overhaul a sport that had for many decades in the past won our nation international recognition and glory, so the choice of the big Boss was a very accurate one at the time.

  Coach Stephen Keshi came into the team and soon Nigerians began to feel his good presence in the team, some of us who had lost hope in our football and had resigned to fate that we will never win anything big at the senior level in football again began to see our hopes rekindled. Keshi did what a lot of us had been clamoring for a pretty long time; he encouraged hungry and often neglected home based Nigerian footballers and began to instill the needed discipline in the team, especially as regards our foreign based players who no sooner than sign for clubs abroad begin to think that they are better and more special than even our nation.

  For the first time since the exit of coach Clemence westerhoff, we saw a Nigerian team where everybody appeared equal and where everybody was running for the ball and not a team where the big boys only pointed out fingers on the field of play while others do the running. With this cogent philosophy of managing perfectly well some talented home based players and helping to reduce the ego of the foreign based players, coach Stephen Keshi led our team to win the much coveted African nations cup in 2013 against all odds. But like a typical Nigerian, somehow, coach Stephen Keshi allowed that victory to go into his head and disorganize his ideals.

  He eventually dropped some key home based players and some notable foreign based players who were instrumental in the nations cup victory and took some dead horses to the world cup in Brazil where Nigeria did not actually perform up to expectations. Power began to be visibly corrupt in Coach Stephen Keshi, he made himself an untouchable and like what he tried to wipe out of the team at his inception, he too became indiscipline before Nigerians, insisting on some off form players, notable among them, Mikel Obi against popular clamor to leave him out of the team so that a Nigerian team that was thought to be probably going to get an easy walkover in their qualifying group for the next edition of the nations cup billed to take place in Morocco, bowed in their first match to Congo in Calabar, drew with South Africa in Johannesburg, lost to Sudan in Khartoum for the first time since 1967 and recently managed to beat Sudan in the second leg tie in Nigeria. Jeopardizing as it were the chances of Nigeria defending the title it won in 2013.

  Today, the NFF has finally yielded to popular demand and has sacked Coach Stephen Keshi from his duty as Super Eagles coach. Personally I think it is good news, in football, the state of mind of a coach determines the spirit of his team, for some time now, Keshi appeared to have lost the hunger and passion characteristic of him in his first year and that too has become notable in his team.  

  But I do not think that Coach Amodu Shuaibu is the best replacement for Keshi even if we are being told that it is going to be on an interim condition, I am not faulting his managerial experience, but I just hate the tradition of recycling, I think we have seen everything that Shuaibu can do and would have really loved to see a new coach capable of bringing a new thing to the table, one that would revolutionize the team. I would have loved to see what someone like Sunday Oliseh can offer.             

BAN THE CNN, THE BBC, THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AND EVEN THE U.N FROM AFRICA

  There are very many racists instruments put in place in Africa by the imperialist powers to continue to subjugate and undermine the real sovereignty of the African people, some of these imperialists mechanisms are the CNN, the BBC, the national geographic, to mention but a few…. Although there are much more than that, these three institutions are supposed to be locked out of Africa because they only represent what they are; avenues for the continuous bamboozling and blatant defamation of Africa and Africans. Those who like vultures feast on the decomposing remains of direct and indirect victims of the imperialists and neo-colonialists.  They only serve to make you believe and accept imperialists’ propagandas, while continuously and conscientiously steering your minds away from the real truth.

  The U.N itself is another racist imperialist instrument, with all its composite organs and agencies. Africans need to wake from their slumber and really begin to take the reins of the African stallion in their own hands. The IMF, W.H.O, UNESCO and all other U.N agencies are not in any genuine way beneficial but prejudicial for Africa. They are all modern day slave ships for the perpetuation of white supremacy philosophies and agenda.

  Africans should come together once and for all and fight for the true and effective emancipation of our continent from these insatiable vampires before they systematically wipe us all out. They are all at the service of the same colonial powers. They are all composite participants in the preplanned genocide actually being perpetrated in the name of Ebola in Africa.

  Believe it or not, someone is not comfortable that if the birth rate in Africa continues as it is today, in the next couple of years we might see an African population close to outnumbering the Chinese, so the imperialists through their sham and wicked agencies, with the connivance of some bastard Africans are continuously unleashing one catastrophe after another on us with the same damn silly excuse that a very lethal disease has emanated from monkeys and being transmitted to humans in Africa…. Bullshit! Every epidemic disease that has affected Africa since the advent of colonialism was introduced into Africa by the colonialists for some cruel and capitalist motive, oftentimes the W.H.O, a U.N agency through some of their inoculation programs help infect unsuspecting Africans with diseases that later become pandemic.

  African leaders should really wake up to their responsibilities and not submit their people as laboratory specimen for the propagation and test of laboratory bred diseases.           

SACK KESHI NOW!

       There is an Ibo adage that translated into English says something like this, “when a man runs to the point where he no longer knows where, he ends up being caught”. For some time now, I have been calling for the revocation of Keshi’s contract as Super Eagles coach, I think that after the match against Sudan in Khartoum this evening which Nigeria lost by a lone goal, there will be no excuse toying around with mediocrity. It is true that Keshi won the coveted nations cup as a coach barely a year and some months ago for us, but even at that, we were lucky to have a pack of footballers who were in their best form at the time, Victor Moses, Brown Ideye et al, coinciding with a bunch of hungry home based footballers led by one Sunday Mba…. But in football as in other sports, luck may help you sometimes, but not all the time.

  I don´t want anybody to say that I am feasting on the lack luster performance of this evening to pick on Stephen Keshi and our coaching crew, if you have read my other reports before now you would have known my position on Keshi and his team. It is out rightly unacceptable that after two years in front of the super Eagles as coach, Stephen Keshi does not still have a regular team nor a pattern of play, even though God gave him a team during the last nations cup. Brown Ideye and Emenike in our attack line at the last nations cup reminded one of those good days of yore with Rashidi Yekini and Samson Siasia upfront, one doing the playing and the other doing the scoring, Ideye and Emenike during the last nations cup appeared to understand each other to perfection, but Keshi killed that relationship during the world cup, Sunday Mba who was also instrumental to our success at the nations cup was also wiped out of the team.

  I do not want to talk about Ikechukwu Uche because his case was alleged by Keshi to be that of indiscipline and arrogance, for which his exclusion may be justified, but the insistence of Keshi in using Mikel Obi an off-form player as a regular in a nation that has at least over 20 million Nigerian youths playing football is intolerable to say the least, Keshi is not coaching Nigeria free of charge, he is paid to do the work and should not feel that because he has won the African cup of nations, that is the best Nigerians desire and deserve in football as a nation, our nation has more than enough potentials to win the world cup if well harnessed and if we have a coaching crew that lives and breathes football, that take their assignments home and not only remember that they are coaches two days before every match.

  Nigeria can no longer accommodate mediocrity, Keshi and his crew should be sacked with immediate effect, and any coach that should be signed on should first sign an undertaking before Nigerians that there will never be a national call up for Mikel Obi, and that other mediocre players like Ambrose Efe, Echiejile and the rest, with exception of Vincent Enyeama, Ogenyi Onazi, Oboabona, Omeruo and Emenike should do much more than what they are doing before they can deserve a call up. All this nonsense should stop; people should begin to learn to deserve to wear the green white green before they are allowed to, A national team that could not make three quick and continuous passes on the pitch cannot claim to have a coach who is paid millions of naira, if that is the best that coach Stephen Keshi can offer, we can as well pick on just anybody on the streets of Nigeria to be our coach.

  Nigeria deserve a coaching crew that can read the game before and during a match, who understands the technicality and the tactical aspect of the game, the fact that Keshi has played football and has successfully coached less known African footballing nations like Togo and Mali, does not mean he has what it takes to coach Nigeria. Football is a game of positive results and any coach who cannot guarantee that should be sent packing. I really think that the time to sack Keshi is now! 

NIGERIA VS SOUTH AFRICA; THE CONTROVERSIAL ARMS DEAL

  A wise adage says; “raise crows and they´ll gouge out your eyes”, the tensed situation between Nigeria and South Africa lately has taken my mind back to the era of Apartheid in South Africa and the colossal part Nigeria had to play in the eventual destruction of that unjust and inhuman government that had the original citizens of south Africa treated worst than animals on their soil by the white supremacist government.

  Today, both South Africa and Nigeria are on the verge to emerging into the privileged world economic League of Nations as they are undoubtedly the two greatest African economies. What is unfortunate though is that even now that the government of South Africa is led by a Black man, Jacob Zuma after centuries of white domination and the unquantifiable economic and human developmental assistance Nigeria rendered to her in all this period; South Africa appears to be fallen out with Nigeria, the same South Africa whose companies and investments are generating a huge turnover from the Nigerian market yearly.

  Now the row is about an arms deal which the Nigerian government claimed was legitimately effected but which the South African authorities argue was illegally carried out for which reason the South African authorities have seized almost $15m belonging to the federal government of Nigeria on the pretence that the money was not declared at the point of entry and as such contravenes the monetary policy of the South African government. Yes, it is possible that the federal government of Nigeria, whose government has come out to confirm that it was really behind the arms deal and that it was not just some Nigerian individuals or any Nigerian terror group wanting to acquire arms for some illegal operations, committed some blunders in its modus operandi, but then where is the mutual brotherly relationship that had existed between both countries since immemorial times, that caused the Late Nelson Mandela to choose Nigeria as one of his first port of call after being released from Prison after 27 years incarceration by the apartheid regime.

  But for unknown reasons, the South African authorities are beginning to be very draconian, not only with the Nigerian government and the Nigerian citizens, residents in South Africa but other African citizens in South Africa as well but most especially Nigerians and Zimbabweans. A video report by Sahara Reporters recently, showed how Nigerian immigrants were treated viciously by the South African authorities on the queue in front of the South African home office as they try to regularize their immigrants status. Nigerians are constantly being tagged as criminals by the South Africans and seen as rivals in the few black jobs for grabs in South Africa, they are also discriminately deported without due deportation procedures.

  I must say that I am not very impressed with the kind of opposition that the main opposition party the APC is pulling in on this issue of the seizure by the South African authorities of close to $15m belonging to the Nigerian government. There are times when a nation has to show its dedication and patriotism especially in issues of this nature, that is not to say that consequently an investigation should not be carried out at home to clarify whatever doubts and above all seek to find out if any wrong doing or anybody could have acted unlawfully in the course of the arms deal and as such indict such persons, but the idea of publicly condemning and sentencing the government without first recovering our money, shows a blatant irresponsibility on the part of the opposition.

  We have been on our government´s neck for a long time, condemning and ridiculing the government for its inefficiency and incapability to resolve the Boko Haram problem and now that we are seeing that our military are beginning to be on top of the situation we would dare support an ungrateful country like South Africa that has been treating our nation and our citizens bad for some time now. I think it is time we began to love our country above all other frivolous reasons and issues. If the south African authority were to act in good faith as a brotherly nation, they would return the money to our government and probably open up some diplomatic consultations since the federal government of Nigeria has owned up out rightly to being behind the arms deal. We should not allow any nation to degrade our nation, much less South Africa.              

THANKS TO A FACEBOOK FRIEND, CHARLES KEHINDE ALASHOLUYI

 I do not know this young Nigerian enough to say that I want to write an article about him, in fact, I have never met him before in my life, our relationship is merely a technological one, like the one the whole world is conforming with lately, basically one which entails clicking on the like button when we see each other’s updates that we like, nothing extraordinary from the way we relate with the teeming number of “friends” if those we somehow find saddled among our friends´ list on the social media (Facebook) could really be referred to as friends.

  But the truth is, I am fascinated by the many informative and above all so many enlightenment projects with great conviction that this young man is carrying out with his blog and his Facebook account, especially as relates to the issue of the over 200 abducted Chibok girls. He is probably the only Nigerian today if not the only person in the world, at least that I know of, that has been keeping the daily record of the abducted chibok girls on his Facebook Updates from day 1 up till now. Although, I am also committed to this cause and have maintained my #Bringbackourgirls profile photograph until the girls are hopefully brought back to reunite with their families but then I want to seize this medium to laud the daily effort of this young Facebook friend, Charles Kehinde Alasholuyi for not giving up even when world momentum on the issue appear to have died down.

  One key thing lacking in most Africans is the spirit of resilience, we give up too soon and this is one of the areas where our local and international oppressors appear to have us constantly under control, they know we cannot resist for far too long and so they just hang on and wait for the momentum to pass away.

  This young man, Charles Kehinde Alasholuyi has proved that he is not the type of Nigerian to be taken so lightly or one that easily chickens out of his conviction and commitment. I cannot say more since like I said, I do not know him much more than I know everyone on my Facebook friends’ list, but I just want to show him that some of us Nigerians still know how to appreciate little but positive gestures. Thank you for waking everyday and showing you care about our abducted daughters.    

THE APC WILL SHOOT ITSELF IN THE LEG

  I remember that while APC was desperately recruiting corrupt and dubious fall-outs from the PDP as its strategy to get into power at all cost some of us who are not partisan but patriotic and only crave a positive change for our nation raised the alarm that APC was preparing to shoot itself in the leg.

  Rather than conform with using its governors in their governed states to prove that a real change was possible in Nigeria and limit itself to recruiting real progressives into its fold, it opened wide its gates for the incorporation of notorious and corrupt politicians fleeing from a long overdue justice and desperately seeking prominence in other parties, so much so that today as we talk, the APC in its quest to govern the nation at all cost has more adopted corrupt politicians in its fold than even the PDP from where most of these corrupt politicians emanated.

  Some people argue that in politics, some concessions and strategizing are necessary if a party is to win an election but experience has also shown us that the more a party goes out of its way to sign an agreement with the devil or sell its conscience to the devil, the evidently clear it becomes that the real positive change will never be possible. Although I do not personally like the leader of the APC, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu but at a time he appears to be surrounded in the party by many active and progressive persons whose contributions, especially at state levels spelt hope for our nation until the APC started incorporating the same persons who have been responsible for the catastrophic situation of our dear nation in the past decades of our independence.  

  There is no doubt that change is necessary in Nigeria and that the rulership of the PDP since the re-emergence of the 3^rd republic has been void of any tangible progress for our nation and our people, but if the change is going to be insignificant and not absolute as it appears with the prominent faces in the opposition party today then the tale of the devil you know becomes very salient, we cannot afford at this very complicated period of our history to risk jumping from fry pan to fire. The APC must prove to Nigerians that it is an alternative party, different from the corrupt government that has bedeviled our nations for close to two decades now and the only way to do this is to begin to scrutinize the caliber of persons they allow into the party especially to call the shots, otherwise the APC will end up shooting itself in the leg.       

NIGERIA SHOULD NOT LOSE ITS GUARD

  More than never before in the recent history of Nigeria have we received so much world acclamation as we have with our successful curtailing of the Spread of the Ebola disease that was brought into our country by a Liberian. In fact, I have never been so proud of being a Nigerian as I am right now, considering the fact that news emanating from our country before now has always been sad and painful especially as relates to the nefarious activities of the dreaded Boko Haram sect and the oftentimes corrupt activities of our elected government officials.

  Today, for the first time, the United States of America has come down from its high horse to learn something… anything at all from Nigeria. My God, never had I envisaged that a time was going to come when the Americans, the cockiest nation in the world would learn something from Nigeria, the average American would rather resort to science to learn how to cook Egusi soup than own up to a Nigerian to teach him to do it.

  But the news that the U.S is sending in some of its officials into Nigeria to learn how we were able to control the spread of the Ebola effectively is aggrandizing as it is preoccupying. Maybe I am an alarmist, but over the years we have seen declassified reports of what for several years were classified as top secret by the FBI and the C.I.A looking ludicrous as well as cruel. We have seen nefarious top secret deliberate infections of citizens of poor countries with different forms of diseases without their knowledge as a way of using them as true life experimental specimen to understudy the real effects of some strange diseases and also the consequences of some strange drugs.

  It is no news that for several decades and even till date, the U.S and some world powers are still sending their spies to different countries under the guise of being missionaries, medical assistants, voluntary workers and so on. Although it is exulting to know that the Americans are claiming to come and learn from Nigeria to see how we were able to successfully curtail the strange Ebola disease which started so abruptly in the west coast of Africa like an evil seed, sown on purpose, whose real sowers are still unknown and might never be indicted, My worry is that Nigeria is also close to the D-Day when the American secret service prognosticated the disintegration of our dear nation. A report allegedly released by the U.S intelligence unit says that the nation called Nigeria would not go beyond the year 2015.

  I do not have anything against any country, I understand that countries should first think of their own well being before that of other countries and that with this in mind, sometimes, nations use every means, legal and illegal to protect their interests, it is no news that if Nigeria manages her human and natural resources very well we would surely be in the struggle for the control of economic prominence in the world and this might not augur well with countries which might consider our rise as a threat to their own comfortable positions in the world economic league of nations.

  My advice therefore to my country Nigeria is that we should still continue to maintain the same intensity of check measures that enabled us to curtail the disease to ensure that visitors into our country do not come back and reintroduce the scourge into our country,  we should also be very vigilant and not trust any nation at all, the Americans and the British that could not ratify an arms deal with us to enable us successfully wipe out the insurgency problem we are facing once and for all might just not mean well for us after all. We should “torchlight” the movement and every step of the American officials claiming to come and understudy our method of successfully controlling the spread of the Ebola disease lest they drop a more devastating problem on our soil; a word is enough for the wise.