AUSTRALIAN MAN LETS THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG

  Many Nigerians were taken aback on Thursday when an Australian negotiator who had worked with two past Nigerian heads of states and was recently assisting the present Nigerian government to negotiate the release of the 200 Chibok girls, mentioned that the Nigerian politicians were behind the sponsorship of the Boko Haram and even dared on a live television news program to announce that the former Borno State governor, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff and the former Nigerian chief of army staff Lt-General Ihejirika were some of those many sponsors of the Boko Haram.

  We are very grateful to Stephen Davis for confirming the suspicion of a lot of us, it is not normal that in a country like Nigeria with an army battalion that is among the most respected in the world can be so cheekily ridiculed as we have been seeing since the aggravation of hostilities by the Boko Haram on our dear nation: our men of the armed forces running and abandoning the weapons and barracks at the arrival of the Boko Haram fighters, the constant lack of coordination amongst our armed forces, the continuous failure to heavily clamp down on the insurgent group, the constant complaints by our junior military officers that the their superior officers often order them not to attack when they have the Boko Haram men almost rounded up, so that they helplessly watch the Boko Haram regroup themselves, outnumber and overpower our military men eventually.

  There is nothing new in what Stephen Davis is telling us, even our own president had said on several occasions that his government has been infiltrated by the Boko Haram group which makes the Boko Haram always a step ahead of the government in intelligence gathering, logistics and even many of its successful and uncontained attacks. But what is unbelievable today after more than five years of unceasing murder and manslaughter of innocent Nigerians in the hands of these unrepentant killers is that not one single person has been indicted as the political face of the group or its sponsors.

  Senator Ali Ndume was arrested on the tip off of a notorious Boko Haram member, Kabiru Sokoto who was for many months shielded by some government agents while he was wanted by the police for his involvement in many Boko Haram attacks, the senator was later released by our security personnel and has since resumed his seat in the senate, free of all charges.

  I am not saying that Senator Ali Ndume may not be innocent, but what we can never rule out is the involvement of notable politicians, ex and serving military officers in all the mess going on right now in Nigeria. It is not enough to say that the Boko Haram sect is an Islamic fundamentalist group that is aiming to carry out the Islamic agenda like some other Islamic fundamentalist groups around the world, yes probably, but what is certain is that they are enjoying the collaboration of influential persons in the country for most of their activities, including their financiation and that is the real area where we are not seeing any great work from our government. Sponsors are not disclosed, arrested and indicted.

  For some queer reasons, someone appears to be treating this very contemptuous and condemnable issue with white gloves and using inexplicable and unnecessary sentiments in its management. Now that Mr. Stephen Davis has mentioned two persons he claimed his Boko Haram contacts told him are involved in the activities of the Boko Haram, as sponsors and target fixers, one would expect the State security operatives in Nigeria to immediately channel their line of investigation towards this allegation and begin to arrest and question people. Frankly, I think that the Nigerian people and its government does not yet truly know the real magnitude of the dangers that is brewing on our soil, until some more heartless terrorist groups finally team up with the Boko Haram and turn our blessed nation into another Afghanistan or Irak.

.... AND TO THINK THAT MY FATHER CALLED MY 80s COLLECTIONS RUBBISH

  Wanting to talk about the 80s and its music is making me feel like I am embarking on a prehistoric journey because of the things I see in today´s music. Music or what is referred to today as music has changed so much and so rapidly that what we referred to in our own youthful days as music now appears to be anything else but music. Anyone still remember groups like The Jackson 5, Soul II soul, The Gap band, The Whispers, Shalamar, Lakeside, Dynasty and a host of other solo artistes like the now late king of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, Anita Baker and a host of other talented and beautiful singers of the time, whose music continue to be classic and evergreen even today.

    I knew, like it had also happened between me and my father that a day would come when I would have to defend everything about my youth days before my children to see which was better and particularly more sophisticated between my days and theirs. I knew they would want to question and even laugh at my choice of music and especially too my mode of dressing, which was often the trend we copied from any of our favorites stars in those days.  Our hair cuts were replicas of the ones our stars wore on their heads then, There was the afro hair style which gracefully and happily has come back to be a tendency today among many black boys and girls. I still have friends who wear the brothers Johnson hairstyle today, because they cannot imagine their faces in other style of haircuts, friends who appear to have stuck in the past without any regrets. I have succumbed to the vicissitudes of life, cutting my dreadlocks off and wearing a skin cut that started surfacing in the early 90s with the new rappers who came to retire the very talented and revolutionary ones of the 80s.

 Today everything is changing at the speed of light, music inclusive. I don´t want to sound so drastic as my father did to my own 80 songs; because he would say without mincing words that those were not music but total rubbish, haven heard the music of the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. Let me be honest, some grooves today are still worth my very special and expensive ears but a lot of them would rightfully take my father´s adjective, rubbish.

  Most of the music today does not speak to the souls and the minds like the music of yore which I was lucky to listen to up until the end of the 80s, a lot of today´s music only go straight to stimulate your sex organs or directly to put your brain into disarray, with senseless and cheap lyrics, some of them very repulsive and annoying. In our own youth days, It used to be I am black and proud, today it is “nigger kill the nigger” and where in my own days you heard African American artistes call their ladies “queens” and “beautiful ladies”, today they are hos and bitches and somehow it makes them feel on top of the world. What kinds of girls are excited to be called hos and bitches? – Hos and bitches!

  And then this craze of singing naked, with just a string lost inside the asshole…. Or this trousers that drop on to the lap exposing the brief that has made thugs of all black gentlemen. I thought it was the voice that mattered when singing, why then are singers naked like slots these days? If when we danced like Mc Hammer in our days my father would say we were crazy, he is very lucky to have died before the doggy-style dance and now another debasing one, that consists of turning the back to the audience and going down while at the same time moving the butt like a propeller, they call it twerking, and it has become so popular that some whom my genaration called queens but who today are delighted to be called hos would drop their little babies anywhere once they begin to hear those hipnotizing beats comanding bitches to flap it or drop it. I sincerely wish I had not been around to see this level of black degradation. 

      

..... AND THEY KILLED AN INNOCENT YOUNG MAN

  When a confused crowd is led by a wrong leader, catastrophe becomes a must.  It is a confirmed fact that a crowd does not react automatically except it heeds the voice of a leader. The human race like all other animals needs a leader to enable it carry out its natural functions, otherwise its activities will be very chaotic and uncontrollable. But even at that, it will depend on a good leadership for a society or community of humans not to plunge into chaos and catastrophes.

  Have you noticed that in a normal gathering of persons it is usually one person that sparks off the issue that leads to confusion and sometimes a calamity? Their fatal intervention normally starts like a whisper or a suggestion thrown into the air that soon turns into a bomb if an irate crowd, a bunch of weak minded or impetuous persons picks it up. I was about 10 years when I witnessed the burning to death of a young, handsome, talented, promising…. and as it later appeared innocent Nigerian by an irate crowd. 

  The handsome young man as was subsequently revealed after his death had gone from the mainland to visit his girl friend that lives in the Island, those of us who are very conversant with Lagos, Nigeria, would know what I am talking about. After seeing the Girlfriend, this young man set out to return to his house in the mainland, but unknown to him, a boy who was also interested in the girl along with two of his friends had laid siege for him on the way.

  So as he appeared, they tried to attack him and he fought back viciously until they started overpowering him and he realized it was the best time to take to his heels, and as he did, the three boys ran after him, yelling out that he was a thief and that he had stolen something from them, almost immediately people in the neighborhood came out and joined in the chase and in a short while they trapped the young man and without asking any question, they began to lynch him.

  It was then that a voice came from the crowd suggesting that they got a fuel and a tyre to burn down our young man, who has been badly wounded and was mumbling out what appeared to be his last defense. In the twinkle of an eye a tyre and a bottle of fuel appeared on the scene; they put the tyre round his neck and poured the fuel all over him, then someone struck a match and that was all. A young man in his early 20s with a promising future has been killed by a mob lacking the capacity to think individually and act positively.

  It would take the courage of the girl friend and the confession under duress of the three boys months later to really understand what actually happened between the three boys and this innocent young man, but then it was too late.

  Since then I have come to understand the meaning of that epigram that says that those who follow the crowd will never go beyond the crowd. And I have come to realize that the crowd is not always right, and also that one good decision can save all of us from committing an incorrigible error. So, when next you find yourself in the midst of a crowd, planning to burn or kill a human being like you for whatever reason, learn to say no. Accused persons should be handed over to the pertinent authorities (The Police) for their presentation before the law court for appropriate prosecution.               

480 NIGERIAN SOLDIERS FLEE INTO CAMEROON DURING A BATTLE AGAINST BOKO HARAM

  I woke up this morning very disappointed and with my self esteem seriously daunted. I couldn´t believe what I was reading on the social media until I consulted with different online Nigerian newspapers to confirm the shameful story that was trending, that more than 400 Nigerian soldiers fled the battle against the Boko Haram into neighboring Cameroon Republic because of shortage of ammunition. Oh, my God, has our incompetence as a nation gotten this bad? A standby military unit fleeing from a nomadic terrorist group that needs first to regroup themselves before employing logistic support to move their weapons and their field soldiers into the battle field?

  What exactly is happening in Nigeria? Who are these Boko Haram people? And why does it appear to me as if they have better intelligence unit and even ammunitions than the federal government troops? Why is it that nobody on the Nigerian government side is honorably retiring for gross incompetence? And if it is true that all our neighboring countries; Niger, Chad and Cameroon have beefed-up surveillance in their sides of the borders, then how are these unfinished arms and ammunitions getting into the hands of the Boko Haram, so much so that our own federal government troops ran short of ammunitions and the Boko haram group did not run out of supply?

  It is past a 130 days since Boko Haram abducted some innocent Nigerian girls from their school where they were writing an examination and up till now, our internationally highly ranked military men and women have not been able to free the girls or subdue the assailants. What happened to the Nigerian military´s responsibility of upholding our integrity and defending our nation? Do we still have a nation? Why is it that our military officers keep announcing beforehand how and when it plans to attack the Boko Haram, is this the latest military strategy, tell your enemies how you plan to get him so that he can escape or re-enforce better than you before you arrive?

  Honestly, one is forced to smell a rat everywhere and suspect every single person in government in Nigeria. Who are the people sponsoring the Boko Haram? Definitely someone is responsible for their feeding and their several other needs including their arms and ammunitions, who are these persons? Are we truly fighting a group of Islamic fundamentalists or a region with a political agenda? The secrecy and the silence with which the issue is being treated by those who should be more concerned and more worried is inciting every sort of suspicions. How can any group turn themselves into the visible government of any zone in the country and the very prominent indigenes of that region are quiet about it.

  Are these people fighting under the guise of a fundamentalist group not members of the society? Are they ghosts? For how long are we going to continue deceiving ourselves and sacrificing innocent Nigerians for selfish and senseless reasons? Whoever is responsible for drafting the Nigerian soldiers to this mock war, should stop ridiculing our soldiers, we either arm them to the teeth to fight and fight very well, or they be made to stay back in their Barracks while our politicians look for ways of cleaning up their mess.   

I SUGGEST A MIXED WORLD CUP

  AFTER WATCHING THE FALCONETS PLAY AGAINST GERMANY IN THE FINAL OF THE UNDER-20 WOMEN WORLD CUP IN CANADA AND SEEING THE LEVEL OF SKILLS AND IMPROVEMENT DISPLAYED IN THE COMPETITION, I AM BEGINNING TO ENVISAGE A SITUATION WHERE WE COULD POSSIBLY HAVE A MIXED WORLD CUP COMPETITION OF FIVE MALE FOOTBALLERS AND SIX FEMALE FOOTBALLERS IN A TEAM REPRESENTING THEIR COUNTRY. THE GOAL KEEPER, TWO OF THE FOUR DEFENDERS, ONE MIDFIELDER AND ONE ATTACKER BEING THE MALE PLAYERS IN THE TEAM WHILE THE REST WOULD BE FEMALES.

  IF THAT IS DONE, NIGERIA STANDS A VERY GREAT CHANCE OF GOING FARTHER THAN IT HAS EVER GONE IN ANY SENIOR WORLD CUP, IT WILL MEAN THAT INSTEAD OF MIKEL OBI WE WILL HAVE A PLAYER LIKE OSARENOMA IGBINOVIA WHO TO ME IS BETTER THAN MIKEL OBI TO ASSIST OGENYI ONAZI IN THE MIDFIELD, FORGET THE FACT THAT SHE IS A GIRL, SHE IS FASTER WITH THE BALL AND HAS A CLEARER IDEA OF WHAT TO DO WITH IT AT EVERY POINT IN TIME COMPARED TO MIKEL OBI. WE WILL HAVE OUR GOLDEN GIRL, ASISAT OSHOALA MAKING DARING RUNS INTO THE OPPONENTS VITAL AREA AND LAYING DOWN PASSES FOR EMENIKE TO STRIKE, WE WILL HAVE COURTNEY DIKE ASSISTING EMENIKE IN THE ATTACK LINE, AYINDE WILL BE THERE TO ADD QUALITY TO OUR GAME, SARAH NNODIM AND THE FALCONET´S CAPTAIN EBERE OKOYE WILL LEAD OUR DEFENCE.

  I CAN´T WAIT FOR FIFA TO BEGIN TO EXPERIMENT THIS IDEA, I KNOW THAT A LOT OF ARAB NATIONS WILL KICK AGAINST IT ON THE GROUND THAT IT CONTRAVENES THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, IT IS IN THEIR RIGHT NOT TO PARTICIPATE BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT EVERY DAY, MEN AND WOMEN, ESPECIALLY IN NONE ARAB NATIONS ARE ENGAGED TOGETHER IN THE SAME PROFESSION ALL OVER THE WORLD, SO WHY NOT ALSO IN FOOTBALL? ESPECIALLY IF IT WILL PLAY TO THE FAVOR OF NIGERIA AND IMPROVE OUR CHANCES OF WINNING SOMETHING GREAT AND SPECIAL IN FOOTBALL.

  MAYBE THE RULES OF THE GAME HAVE TO BE MODIFIED A BIT TO SUIT THE NEW SITUATION, BUT THE QUALITY OF PLAY THAT I SAW IN YESTERDAY´S FINAL BETWEEN NIGERIA AND GERMANY WHICH GERMANY EVENTUALLY WON BY A LONE GOAL SCORED IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE EXTRA TIME HAS NO REASON WHATSOEVER TO ENVY WHAT IS APPLICABLE IN MALE FOOTBALL. 

OPEN LETTER TO JOSEPH BLATTER (FIFA)

Dear Blatter,

  It is with great resentment that I write you this letter, I have noticed for some time now that the institution that you head is gradually  nose diving into great disrepute, due to different world scandals, including the alleged bribery of some of your electoral delegates that eventually gave Qatar the hosting right of the 2022  world cup. Some of us are still wondering today why FIFA decided to concede the hosting right of the next world cup 2018 to one of the most racist country on planet-earth, Russia. With all its sad stories of human rights abuses and what not. Yes, I know you always maintain that football is different from Politics, an argument that holds no water because if it were true then we can equally take the world cup to the Taliban territory in Afghanistan.

  As a Nigerian and a black man, I think your institution is not doing enough to really kick out racism from football, like all other politically inclined world institutions, your organization is always characterized with its double standard every time there is an important decision to be taken. The punishments given to footballers who insult their colleagues with racists’ connotations are not stringent enough.

   I do not like the fact that you are always in favor of our corrupt football governing body in Nigeria the NFF and always threatening to sanction us each time we try to put our house in order, if really you are honest about the growth of the game and the none interference of government in football issues, you should make it a primary requirement in all countries that anyone aspiring the office of the chairman or the president of any country´s F.A or football federation must be an ex footballer/coach or football club owner.

  Are you not worried that in some countries, my great country Nigeria included, the chairmanship of our football federation, the NFF, is left in the hands of football ignorant persons who are not allowing the game to grow? Does it not bother you that a nation that won the maiden edition of the Under-17 world cup 29 years ago has still not gone beyond the 2^nd round stage of the world cup proper? - Oh, I have forgotten that you are also not an Ex footballer/coach/or football club owner.

  Don’t you demand a football league standard for all member countries? What are you really doing to promote the game and the quality of the game especially in Africa? How are you ensuring that the interests of the professionals are protected at all times? And how do you deal with issues like the failure of a football governing body like our own NFF to settle the allowances and bonuses of its footballers and coaching crew on time? To avoid the international ignominy that most African nations subject their countries to during big football events as the ones we saw in Brazil involving Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria where they almost walked out of the competition because of financial disagreements with their various national football federation?

  Sir, I don´t want to begin to suspect that you do not care a hoot about football development in Africa, if you must know, football in Africa is not what it is in your Europe, in Europe, people play the game for the fun of it, in Africa football is much more than that, it is the unifying factor for most of us, it is what helps a lot of Africans to forget the hardship and crisis surrounding them at a particular point in time, it is the hope for a better tomorrow for millions of African families and i can go on and on.... so you see, football here is interlocked with politics, economy and even religion, it is a way of life. So don´t sit over there in your office in Switzerland telling us how to address football issues here in Africa. You don´t know anything about us.

                                                                         Thank you very much for your time 

                                                                        signed: an agrieved Nigerian football fan     

IT IS OUTRIGHT SACRILEGIOUS FOR SHAKARAU TO BE NIGERIAN EDUCATION MINISTER

  The present Nigerian minister of Education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, has proved himself, morally unfit to serve in any government capacity, much less in the ministry of Education. The same man who saw President Goodluck Jonathan as lacking vital ideas to rule a country like Nigeria and even dared to run against him in a general election because of his belief that President Goodluck Jonathan is incapable of governing Nigeria has now suddenly made an all round turn of 360 degrees to serve under the “incompetent” leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan.

  It would be recalled that the same Malam Ibrahim Shekarau who today is Nigerian minister of education ordered and even participated in the public burning of intellectual works; books and movies he claimed contravened the Islamic laws of Kano State while serving as the governor of the State. It appears as if we are always fast to forget that up till today, Nigeria remains a secular country and not a Christian or a Muslim nation, and that the right to freedom of expression is salient and cardinal in the day to day administration of our nation.  

  It is only in Nigeria that a bias and despotic Islamist like Shekarau can be given a sensitive office such as the education ministry to manage. Because for education to be truly educational in any country it needs to be free of any level of sick censorship or autocratic control especially as regards religion. Nigeria should not forget to protect the rights of all Nigerians irrespective of their creed or any other ideologies.

  People like Malam Shekarau are the reasons why some people try to impose their religious beliefs on others today in Nigeria and are even killing innocent persons in their bid to instill fears into them and oblige them to be mono-religious. People who must be assigned into political or administrative offices in Nigeria should be people who can guaranty their impartiality, patriotism and general protection of all Nigerians, irrespective of creed, race, tribe or political affiliations and apparently, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau is not one of those persons.     

HOW NIGERIANS PERMIT THEIR LEADERS TO TREAT THEM INSIGNIFICANTLY

    My encounter with Nigerians some days ago in Madrid, Spain, during the shameful police character report exercise showed me some of the reasons why it would be difficult for our leaders to do the right thing. I observed that Nigerians are very afraid of constituted authorities, afraid to ask questions, afraid to demand their rights…. So, most of the times, they resort to side talks instead of coming forward and formally making their grievances known and seeking a redress for any infringement on their rights.

   I realize that most Nigerians do not like their faces or names to be associated with any struggle or disconformities with constituted authorities. And what is even worse is their ease at applauding the sweet talks of their leaders who are experts in telling them just exactly what they love to hear but never versed in doing what needs to be done; A new person steps into power or prominence and he begins to promise heaven and earth and immediately you see naïve and impetuous Nigerians applauding him for promising to do what he should and will eventually end up not doing. Even when you are bold in their midst to stand up and ask the questions, you see other Nigerians looking at you as if you´ve just farted in public or as if you have done the abominable by having the guts to ask their Oga sir or Oga Madam a question.

  What Nigerians do not know is that they are the Oga sirs and the Oga madams and that the persons they are afraid to come close to or even ask a question are just their chosen servants. In fact, some Nigerians try to discourage and even impede you from asking any question…. They immediately begin to say it is enough even before the government official has had enough time to convincingly answer your question. Those of us who are bold enough to remind the government and its agents of their responsibilities are immediately made to appear as anarchists and even booed sometimes.

  In a country like Nigeria where it becomes a luxury and a privilege to have the opportunity to be in the midst of those who run the affairs of our country, no stone should be left unturned in the effort to get them to answer the many yawning questions regarding their offices. If you are not clear about any issue, you should insist in its clarification. Sometimes, the masses are the cause of their own injustices and the ones who permit their leaders to treat them insignificantly.         

SIGNS YOU DO NOT HAVE A GOVERNMENT

IF IN THIS MILLENNIUM THESE THINGS ARE STILL NORMAL WHERE YOU LIVE, THEN YOU DON´T HAVE A GOVERNMENT, YOU HAVE A GROUP OF CRIMINALS AT THE HELM OF AFFAIRS IN YOUR COUNTRY. YOU CANNOT BE LIVING IN THE 17^TH CENTURY IN 2014. THERE IS NO SANE JUSTIFICATION TO WHY ANYBODY SHOULD LIVE UNDER THESE INHUMAN CONDITIONS;

GRINDING PEPPER ON STONE

PRIMITIVE FARMING TECHNIQUE

FETCHING WATER FROM THE WELL

COOKING WITH FIREWOOD

WITHOUT ELECTRICITY

WITHOUT AN AFFORDABLE QUALITY HEALTH SYSTEM

CHILD LABOUR

WAR

STOP THE ICE BUCKET THING, NOW!

  I love and appreciate the fact that many people are responding massively to this social awareness call to ALS, especially world superstars. I must be honest that prior to the ice bucket thing I did not know anything about the ALS myself, I believe it is among the sicknesses that are unjustly classified as unknown or strange because only a little percentage of the world population suffer from it which is why a lot of world governments and even world rich organizations do not allocate any or enough money into its scientific investigation for the purpose of finding a cure for it.

  But after this massive publicity stunt, I am sure I will never forget what the ALS stands for, my heart will always be with those who suffer from it, and most importantly too, I shall try to donate my little widows might, especially financially to the cause, notwithstanding, I must admit that I am waiting eagerly to see the person that will put an end to the ice bucket challenge thing that has suddenly turned into a trend, where some people are grossly bastardizing the good intention of whoever it was that started the honorable feat in the first place. We cannot do this forever, there are other issues affecting the world that needs part of our attention too, with all due respect to ALS victims. ALS is a sickness which cure is yet to be discovered but the cure to the millions of persons dying in the world today as a result of hunger is known, FOOD, and in some part of the world we still continue to throw edible foods into the dustbins, in fact, one school of thought says that more food are wasted in the western world than what is actually consumed in some part of the world.

  People are dying everyday in one unjust war in some part of the world, what are we doing about it? in what way are we pressurizing our government to cease selling or handing weapons to those who are using it to terrorize innocent world citizens?

  I know it is cool to have the world see your name mentioned and then see you take up the ice bucket challenge, but after the ice bucket challenge what next? Some people are even eager to do the ice bucket thing even if they were not nominated in the challenge chain just to hype their status, how much have you given to the cause? Why do we like to be seen giving to the needy? Or presuming to assist others while only arrogantly satisfying our ego? People need assistance every day, some stars have their families and community members going through worst situations, but they won´t assist them because the world won´t see them on social media and because a camera won´t be there to showcase it.

  The positive side of the whole hype about the ice bucket challenge is that it has proved that the world is a small community and that if we really desire, we can all be interconnected somehow. I hope to see us use the opportunity that the social network has given to us to bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots, to continue to genuinely feel a part of this same world, to rise every day and at every moment to defend the cause of the powerless against their oppressors, to stand constantly and not occasionally against injustice, to step forward every now and again in the favor of those who cannot stand for themselves.

  Please, enough of this ice bucket thing and let us attend to other world problems too.

 

WHEN LATE CHIEF OBAFEMI AWOLOWO MADE A SIGN OF VICTORY IN THE MOON IN LAGOS

  I was around 9 years old then in Lagos, when I realized that if you gave men the chance; they can control your mind. It was sometime in 1979 - a little before the general elections that ushered in the 2^nd republic in Nigeria. I had never actually known what it was like before this period to be ruled by men who would be wearing the native Nigerian attires instead of military uniforms, I never believed that it was possible for men in civil attires to rule Nigeria even though my parents and my elder ones had shared an experience that confirmed that Nigeria had once been ruled by civilians, during the first republic. In fact, as our social studies book puts it, these civilian men and women were actually the ones who obtained our independence from Great Britain in 1960. So like many other Nigerians, I was very optimistic and enthusiastic to live the experience.

  My first real experience about the military rule in Nigeria and the manner in which they ascend to government had been very terrible; it traumatized me and many children of my generation at the time. As a child, our only yardstick for measuring good government was that when you asked your parents for money you wouldn´t get an excuse in return and that when they gave you the money which at that time was usually coin(s), it was always sufficient for you to buy yourself a pack full of candies and sometimes buy yourself a bottle of soft drink and still get back some change. And the Head of state we had at the time, at least the moment I began to understand my environment was General Murtala Mohammed, and at that period, the coin(s) my parents gave to me, were still very powerful, so I did not understand why a group of undesirable persons in the army led by one notorious Colonel Buka suka Dimka would kill a man who ensured that my father´s salary was constant, and by so doing that my demand for coin(s) was also constant. So, I have always hated military coups, because the moment General Murtala muhammed died in that botched coup of 13^th of February 1976 and General Olusegun Obasanjo, now retired, stepped into his shoes as Head of State I began to notice some changes in the economy of my house, the coin(s) became insufficient to satisfy my needs as a child.

  As a child then, like most children of my generation I was really ignorant and uninterested about the many technical economic innuendos that the so called economic experts talked about then and now. Our evaluation of the economy  like I said before was purely based on our direct personal experience with the economic situation in our homes; if papa´s salary was constant and sufficient to handle the many economic challenges we had at home and if mama made sufficient gains in her petty trade, then the economy was buoyant.  With the coming into power of retired Gen Olusegun Obasanjo, I began to observe that my father started complaining about constant cuts in his salaries, my mother too about how she no longer makes any gains in her petty trade and worst of all my own demand for coin(s) were no longer satisfied and even when they managed to come, they no longer had the buying powers they had under General Murtala Muhammed.

  So when General Olusegun Obasanjo subsequently announced that he would hand over power to a democratically elected government in 1979, our hopes brightened up again, moreover, when I realized that most of the men contesting in the election were the same whose photographs were all over my social studies textbook; the living legends, the heroes of our time and times gone by, among them Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and a host of others.

    

  People had complained bitterly that the first coup d´etat in Nigeria and the fact that it quashed civilian rule in the country and gave room for the military to come to power with the consequencial 3 years civil war that came with it was really what dealt a devastating blow to the socio-economic and political growth of a nation which many saw at the time with a real potential and a credible possibility to rule the world or at least be among the greatest world economic powers.

  At that time and even now I did not know much about politics, my experience would mark my ideology concerning the game of politics even till date. Politics to me is a system of government characterized by lies and mostly empty promises which are never fulfilled. Those who play this game are called politicians; men and women who are often selfish but love to sell the false idea that they are concerned about the common good of all, then again comes the worst group; their supporters, a massive group of bamboozled disciples, who constantly and eternally appear to be under the influence of a spell or a hypnotization.

  I soon began to notice strange things in my community; some of the suspicious street urchins in my neighborhood returned sometimes with blood stained clothes from political rallies and sometimes with broken heads and badly bruised faces, suddenly, I began to observe with great awe how some known hoodlums in the community began to make huge sums of money from dubious relationships with some of the very notable politicians in the society. But I was still too small to directly link this to the political atmosphere that was brewing.

  I remember that before this period, when I was a little younger and always stared into the full moon in the dark nights of Lagos, I always appear to see the image of a man, breaking firewood with an axe and always believed that every other person saw the same thing until the supporters of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo came up one night and started shouting that even the heavens have endorsed the presidency of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, popularly called Awo by his teeming supporters, and that to show its support, the heavens have put the image of the Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the moon raising up his two fingers in a sign of victory. I remember staring so hard and so much that slowly, my firewood splitter that I had always seen inside the moon appeared to begin to transform into every other thing except Chief Obafemi Awolowo raising up two fingers in the sign of victory, but the clamor of Up Awo! all around me continued, I even received some knocks on the head from some grownups until I was forced to say that I had seen what they claimed they saw, they pointed at his peculiar pair of small-hole round glasses, his cap and even his agbada and to avoid another hard knock I nodded that I could see everything so clearly.

  Eventually the election came and went and rtd. Gen Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Michael Ani, the then chairman of the Federal electoral commissions FEDECO, as it was known then, who were at the time the two key persons that wielded the power to decide on who was really the endorsed person to rule the nation appear not to have seen or accepted the heavens endorsement through a live moon coverage of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and instead endorsed an unknown former school teacher Alhaji Shehu Shagari as the President of the 2^nd republic of Nigeria.

  Even today, when I revisit my childhood days, particularly that electoral period and all that hype and great fallacy of the appearance in the moon of Chief Obafemi Awolowo with a victory sign, it becomes even more preposterous to see the length that men can go to always try to control the minds of others to satisfy their lust for power.         

FAREWELL, ANGELIC AMAZON

Night stole its way home to us

and you jolted awake to light up its darkness

And make it turn to day

But underneath its cloak mortal pangs

that ´s come with loads of pains  

waiting to heap them on all of us

while we snore away in the deep of the night

you cared so much and opted to cure

an unfortunate victim of a deadly disease;

the very messenger that death had chosen arbitrarily,

you touched with your tender hands

the same that´s restored life to others

when hopes had long been obliterated.

caring for the sick

And uncaring about the danger

that hides behind the Ebola

but unknown to you Ebola loathes love and care

And like hate,

kills only those who care and share.

The messenger falls flat

And soon the doctor falls sick,

no cure, no care…. 

just a strange concern

as days came and went by

and suddenly your caring hands became frozen,

your eyes went to a heroine sleep;

where great names are engraved on ageless rocks

that will stand the test of time

Farewell, Dr Ameyo Adadevoh for intercepting the death meant for all of us.

Farewell, our angelic amazon.  

KUDOS TO THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT FOR ITS EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT OF THE EBOLA OUTBREAK

  Failure has become a constance in the Nigerian socio-political panorama that a lot of us have likened our great nation to a sure malfunctioning society where nothing positive ever works, but some individuals and a group of persons sometimes continue to prove that if there is a genuine will excellence can be achieved even with very limited means.

  I think that the Nigerian government and especially the Nigerian health ministry deserve an encomium for the functional way it is managing the Ebola outbreak in our country; information-wise and even in the management of confirmed Ebola victims. The reaction to the emergency has really been positive and very effective.

  I want to commend their good efforts so far and implore them to continue to work assiduously towards the prevention and the management of the disease pending the time that a vaccine or a cure would be discovered. So far, five diagnosed Ebola patients have been treated successfully by the Nigeria health workers following the W.H.O protocol of action in cases like this and have since been confirmed Ebola free, According to the health minister Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, none of the newly discovered antidote was used in the treatment of the patients, the Nigerian medical experts only used the primary W.H.O index treatment procedure.

  As we commend our government for a good job, we want to continue to advice our people to respect all the warnings and preventive measures put in place by the Nigerian health ministry especially that of washing our hands thoroughly, remember, prevention is always better than cure.                     

DAY 2 AT THE NIGERIAN POLICE REPORT EXERCISE IN MADRID

  As I was driving back home from the venue today, I kept thinking of an appropriate adjective to qualify what actually took place there. So many curse words came to my mind. Everything that transpired there today points to the very reason why a great potential like Nigeria has gradually retrogressed into becoming a failed state.

  It started initially well, at least I saw that two of the suggestions I made yesterday to one of the organizers were put in place today and it enhanced the smooth commencement  of the exercise until the very organizers themselves began to destroy the peace and orderliness with which the activity started; I had told one of the organizers yesterday that the first thing they should have done was use a rope to cordon the area from where they would be operating to make people not intrude into their work space, I told him too that to correct and excise people from thronging towards them rather than be seated, they should make use of the available microphones because I discovered that some of the persons who kept pushing forward and constituting a disorderliness were people who were not hearing the organizers each time they made their several announcements.

  Today, these two common but handy ideas were put in place and they made a tremendous difference compared to yesterday.  It would be recalled that yesterday when I left after being informed that the officers were only going to attend to a 100 persons; I had number 185 with me, hoping today that if they came early they would be able to attend to at least a 100 persons or more.

  Surprisingly at my arrival this morning, I learnt that the officers worked until around 22:30 yesterday, so when I came this morning I was given another number as a continuation from where they stopped yesterday on the list. The new number was number 30 although I was also made to know that there were about 25 persons carried over from yesterday´s exercise that logically would be attended to before me, so roughly I imagined that I would be within the first 60 persons that would be attended to.

  All through, I sat patiently as names and more names were announced to take their turns, until the names became endless and still it had not reached my turn. I stood up to go to the table to demand from the host organizers the point they were on the list, it was then that I saw that some of the organizers were smuggling in the forms of people whose turns it had not reached after possibly receiving bribes from them, at that point I lost it completely, I realized that only illegal persons are respected by Nigerians, those of us who had tried to act civilized and stick to the rules were treated as fools, I threatened to overturn their table and some people intervened before the matter got out of hand. The host organizers denied the accusation and even made me look a liar and a fool.

  But as time went by, they continued in their corrupt activity, smuggling in people from the back door and so on, until the whole of us gathered, caught them red handed. They had called on a girl who some people had seen arrive today not more than two hours before then and were about smuggling her in when someone raised the alarm that she had just arrived, so caught in their own net they had no option than to quash their decision. But as the girl returned to her seat she turned around to all of us, particularly to a lady who was the one who had complained bitterly and asked her to shut up! And before I knew it, chairs were flying and the two ladies and some of their friends were already engaged in a serious uproar.

  At 17:30, we learnt that the process would be terminated for the day because the church which is serving as the venue would be having a Church service. So, after over 8 hours, I had still not been attended to, I asked the officers how many forms they had treated already and they said they had done a little over 200, yet on the official list we were still around 147 persons which means that over 60 persons have been smuggled in by this corrupt Nigerians, who were supposed to be defending the good name of Nigeria and upholding her integrity.

My heart bleeds seriously           

ORGANIZATION: THE MISSING WORD IN THE NIGERIAN DICTIONARY

  My experience today at the police report preparation exercise in Madrid Spain was disgusting as it is disappointing. I had unofficially gotten the report that the police officers sent from Nigeria for the exercise were around and that the exercise would not be held at the Nigerian embassy as was expected but a lackluster warehouse converted into a church with no proper ventilation and lacking  the stipulated exit route in case of emergency.

  The exercise was slated to commence at 9:00 under the watchful eyes of the organizers and the providers of the space, The Nigerian national association in Madrid. I got there at about 9:25 due to the difficulty in locating the address. As at the time I got there, there were already about 184 persons on the list before me, amongst them mothers and their kids, some of whom I gathered came from other states in Spain for the exercise.

  The impression I got as I entered the venue was that of chaos and lack of adequate organization, which was made manifest as the hour stipulated for the commencement of the exercise went past with more than two hours during which the members of the Nigerian Nationals present did not have any cogent explanation on why the exercise had not commenced, according to their spokespersons, they had made several calls to the embassy to know why the police officers who were to conduct the exercise were yet to turn up at the venue.  
  More and more people started trooping in and putting their names down in the list made available by the host association, the Nigerian Nationals. Close to 300 names were written and corresponding numbers given to up to 129 persons on the list because the same group of persons responsible for the list allegedly discovered that some people were writing down their names as well as that of their friends and family members who were still at home sleeping on their bed while some people had already arrived at the venue as early as 6:00. It was also alleged that a prior list had already been drawn a day earlier by the church as well as persons close to the church and even members of the Nigerian nationals themselves, which was why at my arrival I already had 184 persons before me on the list even though there were physically half or a little more than half of that number of persons at the time of my arrival.

  My special concern as I persistently made it known to some of the host organizers was the issue of the Ebola virus, I could not understand why a multitude like that could be jam-packed in that inappropriate and chaotic space for so long, everybody shaking hands and embracing old friends despite the threat of the Ebola virus. I wondered why there was not even a sanitizer available despite the huge sum of money, 145 Euros for each person in the case of fresh police report and 115 Euros in the case of a renewal.

  It was not until 11:40 that the Nigerian police and the Nigerian embassy staff accompanying them arrived at the venue with their usual Nigeria superiority aura, walking majestically past a multitude of persons they had kept waiting for almost 3 hours. They marched pompously to a room upstairs prepared to serve as the operating office without even a formal apology to all the Nigerian men and women present.

  Precisely one hour after their arrival at about 13.00, the Nigerian nationals’ spokesperson came forward to declare the exercise open in the midst of the already generated chaos, without a clear-cut demarcation point or cordoned area from where they will be operating. I stepped forward to demand that before the event could start, at least an official of the Nigerian embassy needed to come down and tender a deserved apology to all of us for waiting for them for almost 3 hours but was surprised that the same Nigerians I was interceding on their behalf said it was unnecessary, I looked at them and shook my head. I understood at once why our leaders and those elected to serve us treat us as herds of cows and goats. When is the official time in Nigeria for the commencement of the day´s work in the civil service? Why have these government officials chosen to arrive at their place of work at 11:40 when they had earlier announced that the exercise was going to begin by 9:00.

  And again when they eventually kick-started the exercise, they said they would only attend to 100 persons on the list so the rest of us had to leave to return the next day (tomorrow) hoping and expecting that the list today will still be valid for tomorrow´s exercise.

  With what I saw today, I think that most Nigerians think that the head is only meant for wearing a cap, people get paid and demand money for doing nothing or for rendering a mediocre service to Nigerians, in their minds they believe that every Nigerian is a goat and deserve no better treatment than that reserved for a goat . The same document that the Spanish government give to their citizens for a tax payment of less than 10 Euros and you wouldn´t need to be on the queue for more than 20 minutes, is what the Nigerian authorities, and a referent Nigerian association in Spain cannot even organize laudably after charging as much as a 145 Euros.

Honestly, my heart bleeds.