NIGERIA....MY BELOVED COUNTRY

Ethel Enwy

• Where our mothers use ice cream bowls to store pepper in the fridge
• Where ladies don't accept flowers for valentine or birthday.
• Where lizard go look ur eyeball, node head say "notin dey happen guy"
• Where a blind beggar will reject a fake naira note.
• Where Groundnuts are sold in BOTTLES and WATER is sold in SATCHETS.
• Where parents claim they were always first position in school.
• Where You Can Be A Driver For Years Without A 'DRIVER's LICENCE'
• Where government officials don't know the national anthem.
•Where Gala and Lacasera are d best options wen stuck in traffic.
• Where you are jailed for stealing Maggi and given a chieftancy title for stealing millions.
• Where we fight for everything. To gain admission to university, to get a job and worse still to enter a bus!
• Where u are robbed of your phone and the robbers come back for ur Pin code n charger.
• Where ur type of GENERATOR shows how RICH you are.
• Where you can easily blame your family members in the village for your problems.
• Where rich men must have pot belly.
• WHERE IF U DO ANYHOW U GO SEE ANYHOW.
• Where generator is a social amenity.
• Where people dey collect change for beggar hand.
• Where igbo men produce Toyota camry jeans and Dr'dre slippers
• Where the man who had no shoes is the president.
•Where bb torch is sold in traffic for N12k!!!

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ANIOMA AGENDA 2015-URHOBOS, FOES OR IN-LAWS?

 

Lauretta Onochie
Delta State is, so to speak, a mini Nigeria. Recently, I travelled to many parts of Delta State and was appalled, to say the least at the state of decay across the state. Urhobo people, have been sold a dummy that Anioma area is fully developed because we have the state capital. Our Anioma people have been left with the impression that the Urhobos have taken all the developmental projects to their land because they are more pushy than Anioma people. The evidence on ground points an accusatory finger to the political elites of these two ethnic groups. They are the ones to blame for the backwardness that have pervaded these two areas.

The truth of the matter is that Anioma people marry more Urhobos than any other ethnic group in Delta State. Again the sworn enemies of the Urhobos, (except in looting public funds) are the Itsekiris, not the Anioma people. We must never forget that Anioma and Urhobo politicians are the ones who convert funds for developmental projects for their areas into private use, not their people.

I do understand the feelings of our people and the sentiments they express when they think of the preferential treatment accorded Oghara by James Ibori. But we must all bear in mind that we cannot hold the whole of Urhobo land responsible for Ibori's selfish use of public funds, after all, the rest of the Urhobo land was neglected too. In the same way, it would be absurd for anyone to infer that Anioma people are fraudsters simply because Fred Ajidua is an Anioma son.

Now, if we ever get to 2015, I hope not, how do we plan to clinch the governorship seat in Delta State without the backing of the Urhobos? Do we approach them as enemies, which they are clearly not, or do we collaborate with them as our in-laws/political allies, working with Urhobo leaders of like minds?

THE FATE OF BOKO HARAM

Kenneth Adeyemi

The most high God is:

-driving d nothern army into a parched and barren land.

-The eastern ranks will drown in the red sea.

-The western ranks into the mediterrenean sea.

-Their stench will go up.

-Their smell will rise.

* Joel 2:15-20: " ... But I (God) will remove far off from, you (Nigeria) the northern army (Boko Haram), and will drive him into a land barren and desolate ( land of low rainfall), with his face toward the east sea (red sea is on the east of Nigeria), and his hinder part toward the utmost sea (upwards of Nigeria is the mediterrenean sea), and his stink shall come up, and his ill savor shall come up, because he hath done great things." (emphasis mine)

*THE UPWARD ROUTE; Nigeria through chad, and through Libya to the mediterranean sea.

NOTABLE FACTS: The northern portion of Chad is hot and arid. Libya, a country in northern Africa that borders the Mediterranean Sea. The Sahara, the vast desert of northern Africa, covers much of the country. Tripoli, located on the Mediterranean coast, is the capital and largest city.

*THE EAST SEA ROUTE; Nigeria through chad, and through Sudan to the red sea.

NOTE: The northern portion of Chad is hot and arid. Sudan, republic in northeastern Africa. Has a dry, desert north.

Sudan is bounded on the north by Egypt; on the east by the Red Sea, Eritrea, and Ethiopia.

THE INSTRUCTION

* FAST AND PRAY: "Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning... Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare,  thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?" JOEL 2:12, 15-17

*TURN TO GOD WITH A REPENTANT HEART: "... And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil." JOEL 2:13

*PREPARE FOR A HARVEST:  So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem (Nigeria) be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house, of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim (shittim means:acacia trees; and refers to our natural resources). Egypt (Egypt means: the people in Nigeria that subject Nigerians to slavery) shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem (Nigeria) from generation to generation." JOEL 3:18-20 (emphasis mine)

THE TIMING

*1 CHRONICLES 27:1-15: "Now the children of Israel after their number, to wit, the chief fathers and captains of thousands and hundreds, and their officers that served the king in any matter of the courses, which came in and went out month by month, throughout all the months of the year, of every course were twenty and four thousand..."

* THE FAST: June 2012 is the month for the fast.

Verse 9:  "The sixth captain for the sixth month (June) was Ira (means: wakefulness;alert, vigilant, on guard, attentive, aware, on the lookout, watchful) the son (a product) of Ikkesh (means: perverse;aberrant, irrational, deviant, abnormal, contrary, disobedient, rebellious, unreasonable, contradictory, difficult) the Tekoite: and in his course were twenty and four thousand." (Emphasis mine)

* THE HARVEST: starts July 2012

Verse 10: "The seventh captain for the seventh month was Helez (means: strength;power, force, might, potency, muscle, vigor) the Pelonite, of the children (a product) of Ephraim (double fruit): and in his course were twenty and four thousand." (emphasis mine)

GOD BLESS NIGERIA! GOD BLESS NIGERIA!! GOD BLESS NIGERIA!!!

MKO, What Can Nigerians Learn From His Life?

 

Wande Ben Agunloye

 

As you may already know there is currently a huge brouhaha over renaming University of Lagos after Moshood Kashimawo Abiola the President Elect of the annulled June 12, 1993 elections. The reason a lot of this needs to be spelled out is because Nigeria now has 40% of its population at an age of 35 or below who were not alive to witness June 12 as voters!

A lot has been said about his role in NPN as the financier responsible for Awolowo losing that election! However there is more to MKO than his wealth, traditional titles, and alleged reputation as a financier of military coups, his love life or his love of sports. In fact there is a lot more the present Core Leadership in the North could learn as well as many others over the rest of Nigeria.

The main issue I liked about Abiola was his philanthropic efforts as well as his religious tolerance! MKO would quote extensively from both the Bible and Quran with ease which showed he was conversant with both religions intimately. In fact he provided financial assistance which resulted in the construction of 63 secondary schools, 121 mosques and churches, 41 libraries, 21 water projects in 24 states of Nigeria and was grand patron to 149 societies or associations in Nigeria. In fact prior to Abiola and indeed after him no single Nigerian has been able to match the extent of his generosity!
In these days of Boko Haram where many individuals go about committing terrorist acts claiming they have knowledge of what God would have wanted for his devotees it was far better to have a leader speak to what was common with both religions. Jesus said he who does not gather scatters! Now we have leaders like El-Rufai display insensitivity on a level which frankly is unbecoming of anyone who would want to rule Nigeria. In order to understand the type of person MKO was, look no further than the recent bombing of a church in Jos, MKO would have given money to the families of the deceased, visited the bomb site and demonstrated with deeds and action what we would expect from any true leader instead of what people like El-Rufai were doing with Op-ed pieces which demonstrated his lack of empathy for the deceased.
In terms of philanthropy just go around the United States visiting college campuses and you will understand what made that Country the greatest in the 20th century. In many colleges you will notice that many of the buildings were built with endowments or gifts from many of their illustrious citizens. As an example let’s look at Emory University in Atlanta the business school in the university called the Goizueta Business School (GBS) (pronounced goy-swet-ah) is a private business school. It is named after Roberto Goizueta, a former president of The Coca-Cola Company. The Rollins School of Public Health was established by a donation from O. Wayne Rollins who was a self-made business entrepreneur and innovator. In 1964 he orchestrated the purchase of Orkin Inc., often recognized as the first leveraged buyout. With his brother, John Rollins participated in numerous successful business ventures including radio and television stations, pest control, oil field services, truck leasing, boat manufacturing and real estate. Following his death in 1991, his sons, Randall and Gary Rollins, have continued to build the Rollins companies. Several members of the Rollins family have served on the Emory University Board of Trustees. The Candler School of Theology, Emory University, is one of 13 seminaries of the United Methodist Church. Founded in 1914, the school was named after Warren Akin Candler, a former President and Chancellor of Emory University and a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing was named after a female. Woodruff began volunteering at Emory University Hospital because of her excellent skills, she was the only volunteer allowed to work in the maternity ward. Mrs. Woodruff again donated many hours of her time to the Red Cross. She worked as a nurses' aide in hospitals and also recruited other women to nursing.
The point of using Emory University as an example is very clear, some received the honour cause of what they donated to the school, others cause of the fact they worked at the school and others cause of what they did to aid others in obtaining an education at the school. Now let’s go back to MKO, what is his connection to Unilag? He worked there as a senior accountant at the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital. What about education? He donated N1m (equivalent of N40 million in 2010) to each State University, N50, 000 (N2 million in 2010) for student welfare, N20, 000 (N800, 000 in 2010) to the libraries of each Federal University and N25, 000 (N1 million in 2010) to each Polytechnic apart from the fact that he established Abiola bookshops to help students get access to affordable text books produced in Nigeria. In addition, he would on occasion supplement the bursary of many Ogun State students who schooled in other Universities all around Nigeria. Let us name one other single Nigerian who has done that? The leaders in the Core North, many of them just as wealthy have not matched this level of philanthropy. In fact not one has matched half that level. God's rule is love the Lord your God with all your mind, body, soul and spirit with the second rule being love your neighbour as yourself. Now name one Muslim in the core north who has built a single church or contributed to the building of one. So why would Boko Haram not bomb churches? They have leaders who don't respect God as well. MKO was a Muslim who did just that and that is why on June 12 the election was declared Nigeria's freest and fairest presidential election by national and international observers, with Abiola even winning in his Northern opponent's home state. Abiola won at the national capital, Abuja, the military polling stations, and over two-thirds of Nigerian states. The reason why the election was so historic was because men of Northern descent had largely dominated Nigeria's political landscape since independence.
The fact that Moshood Abiola (a Southern Muslim) was able to secure a national mandate freely and fairly remains unprecedented in Nigeria's history. It also demonstrates that the citizens of the core north knew a Muslim when they saw one! There are two things the Honorable Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) always told his followers, “do not attack Christians and look after your fellow Muslim”. These are lessons that MKO would teach all Nigerians today. Renaming the University of Lagos - Moshood Abiola University is a honor on University of Lagos not one the University is placing on MKO! After all before the announcement what had become of University of Lagos? Not much!

LETTER TO PRESIDENT JONATHAN BY A CONCERNED CITIZEN OF NIGERIA

Dear President Jonathan,

My friends call me Sokii, but you, well just call me Segun. I have watched you in the last one year jump from pillar to post under the pretext of governance; clinging to the inconsequential and deliberately ignoring that which the times demand of governance in today’s Nigeria. From the moment you were sworn in as an elected president, it’s been a galore of gaffes and conscious distraction of Nigerians from the things that actually do matter to them. Within weeks of your Presidency, your first executive move was to amend the constitution so as to allow for president and governors to serve just one term of six years in office. Not sooner than the dust raised by that move settled, you declared an economic war on the Nigerian people with an imposition of fuel tax, called fuel subsidy removal, which was just a way designed for you to avoid confronting your friends and officials who defrauded the country you preside over.

Mr President, you may recall that last October, during a church service to commemorate Nigeria’s Independence Day, you lamented that we condemn you at home while Obama commends you abroad. Even then, we argued that Obama’s commendation of you – whatever it was meant to achieve – was ill-timed and ill-informed. We reasoned that we were the ones who elected you our president and so were best qualified to assess your performance in office. Today, the table has turned. Does Obama still commend you? Just in case you haven’t heard, the United States government has seen you for whom you are – a president who presides over a criminal empire without making any meaningful efforts to curtail corruption. Before you dismiss my message as another baseless rant from a disgruntled opposition member, kindly read this, Sir:

In its year 2011 report on global human rights released Thursday by the State Department, the U.S. said the three tiers of the Nigerian government was ridden with “massive, widespread and pervasive corruption,” that failed to receive appropriate punitive response from the authorities. “The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption; however, the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity,”the report, submitted by Secretary of States, Hillary Clinton, to the U.S. Congress said. “Massive, widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government and the security forces,” it continued. So this is what your government has come to be known for.

Still in that church service, Sir, you told Nigerians that God was the captain of the Nigerian ship. So I had expected you to show more than a passing interest in surrendering the fight against corruption to God. But I was surprised that when the rare opportunity came, last Sunday, during another church service – this time to commemorate your one year in office – you refused to support the man of God who pleaded that you and your administration officials took the fight against corruption to the alter of God. What were you afraid of, Mr President? That, Sir, speaks volumes about your sincerity in the corruption war. And that brings me to the role you played in the hurried moving of N155 billion out of our account under a questionable circumstance. It was done a day before Okonjo-Iweala resumed as your Finance Minister. And the characters involved in the transaction, the Etetes, is the reason I will need your explanation on this.

I will go straight to your Democracy Day speech. As expected, it could not boast of any visible achievement other than economic indices and statistics that were quite divorced from the stark realities on ground. You showed an amazing excitement when you announced your administration’s empowerment of 1200 youths who benefitted from your Youth Enterprise with Innovative Programme, YouWin. I was surprised that such was considered an achievement by you, Sir, let alone being included in your anniversary speech. Mr President, may I humbly inform you that 70 per cent of the Nigerian population is comprised of people who are thirty five years and below. Each year, Sir, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) churns out at least 100 thousand young Nigerians who throng into the labour market in search of nonexistent jobs. This is in spite of the fact that a larger percent of those who passed out before them may not have gotten jobs. So why should we be excited about 1200 people in a population of 160 million? Is it a deliberate celebration of mediocrity or just an attempt to appear serious with the job we elected you to do?

In reference to electricity supply, you said, “By mid-2010, the national power output was about 2,800 MW. By the end of 2011, we reached a peak of more than 4, 000 MW. A National Gas Emergency Plan has also been launched to redress the problem of gas supply which are essentially due to poor planning.” Curiously, you didn’t tell us where we were by end of May, or mid-May, the period you were reeling out the achievements. So I ask now, Mr President, where are we on power generation? How many megawatts have we achieved between 2011 and mid-May, 2012? Where we are on electricity generation, Mr President, is on the region of total darkness. The wattage is negligible. Nauseating sound of generators still buzz in my neighbourhood daily, and darkness is the light in the villages where poverty even bites harder. That must be why you jumped it.

The efforts you put in advertising your cassava bread, if not tragic, would have been funny. You cannot re-write history, Sir. Cassava bread is not novel. Your constant efforts to lay claim to it as your achievement in office is worrisome. For the records, on 1st July, 2005, Obasanjo’s government made it mandatory for bakers to include 10% of cassava flour in the production of bread. I followed that administration closely. Yet even at that ,you cannot force people to eat what they do not want. Telling us you eat it makes no difference in our lives. Our billions are stolen by the day, anyway; and you watch without taking any punitive action against the criminals.

Your penchant for majoring in minor, if not entirely irrelevant issues, should worry every sound mind. Your change of Unilag to MKO Abiola University just by a presidential fiat betrayed your love for vanity; your lack of appreciation for substance. And as expected, it stirred up eruptions in the school. Yet rather than quickly reconsider your stand, you declared to many who think you made another gaffe; “no going back”. I know political expediency informed that decision. But unfortunately, that was politically incorrect. It has boomeranged, and will not shield you from the harsh verdict of your critics, which is that your first year in office as president was a total failure.

It was a shock to me that you ended your speech without making any mention of the fuel subsidy scam – the biggest in Nigeria’s history. You said nothing about your plans to prosecute the offenders. In case you don’t know, Mr President, the amount involved in that fraud is N2.6trillion, more than half of our annual budget. If that is not weighty enough to cause you to act, I wonder what will. I have a hunch some 19th century folks have been giving you lessons on how to rule Nigeria in 2012. They may have presented the IBB model and you bought it hook line and sinker. But that will be risky for you, Sir. Unfortunately, you are heading Nigeria at a time when there is only one way to face the task: fight corruption and shun patronage! You cannot do this job the way you want, or the way your predecessors handled it. The cumulative effect of the mess your predecessors put Nigeria into has saturated our landscape, forcing people to demand serious leadership from their president. Distractions will not just do. And you must understand this, Sir.

And talking about serious leadership; did you hear, Mr President, that Mrs. Joyce Banda, the President of Malawi – an African country – sold off her country’s presidential jet and fleet of 60 limousines? President Joyce declared that she was “happy to offload” the jet and the cars, and she would be traveling on passenger airplanes like every other citizen. Mrs. Joyce Banda understands basic economics and means well for her people. She appreciates the truth that a poor man who seeks future comfort must delay gratification. She is a living example of a serious leader. Can the same be said of you, Mr President? I will not wait for your response, Sir. I know it will never come. The same cannot be said of you. You do not mean well for Nigeria, Mr President. In 2010, you ordered 3 more presidential planes to increase an already over bloated fleet of presidential jets, underscoring your penchant for wasting public funds and downplaying the depth of poverty in our land.

You can’t mean well by having 10 presidential jets when the reality on ground demands that you travel with commercial planes. You can’t mean well with a feeding budget of almost 3 million naira per day in a country where 112 million people live on less than N300 (three hundred naira) per day. You can’t be seen to mean well with the number of cars in your presidential fleet. The British Prime Minister, who runs a civilization and economy that is light years ahead of yours, has no official jet.

You have effectively wasted the last one year, Mr President. And for a country with steady drop in life expectancy, we don’t have the luxury of time. We have the need for speed. We need a president who is ready to work, not distract us with an uninspiring campaign for cassava bread. We need Boko Haram’s onslaught on the Nigerian state to be addressed by your government. We need our people to be lifted out of poverty, not some phony statistics. We need leadership, not mediocrity. You, Mr President, have not been a leader in the last one year. But will you be in the remaining three years? I don’t think so. I only hope you prove me wrong.

Your body language tells me your eyes are fixed on 2015. But that is a tragedy on its own; for you maybe, not for me or Nigeria. Most of your moves are made with the intention of securing your seat in 2015. But I am also shocked that neither you nor your advisers understand that the surest way to winning re-election is to work and be seen to have worked. I will be glad to see you declare for re-election. The thoughts of having you as the first sitting president in Nigeria to be emphatically defeated excites me. Kindly follow your secret quest for re-election, Sir. I’d like to see the next sentiment your team will sell to the electorate.

You could see, Mr President, that I didn’t have time to pretend about the message I wanted to pass across. You already have enough praise singers to last you a lifetime. Pardon my directness, it was meant to deliver the message in a manner you will be stirred to act. Do have a great day, Sir. I hope the domestic staff will remember to not prepare imported rice for Sunday. Kindly remind them of your “resolve to always eat local rice”. Today should be for Abakaliki or Ofada. And lest I forget; happy anniversary, Mr President!

Written by: Segun a.k.a “Sokii”