Do Africans Know It's Christmas?

Do Africans Know It's Christmas?

http://www.hayibo.com/yes-we-know-its-christmas-say-african-musicians-as-they-finally-record-a-response-to-band-aid/

This is an important and commendable response, although long in coming. Westerners, no thanks to Africa's leadership deficits, has assummed this obtuse stand of being experts, even in African culture. Conflicts and wars across Africa and their attendant humanitarian crises have created a picture of a continent litered with hungry, stupid, and poor people. This is sad and unfortunate. The West may never know the truth about Africa. A little while ago, CIA predicted that Nigeria will pull apart in 15 years! As clairvoyant as CIA, IMF, World Bank, UN, etc claimed to be, the on-going economic melt-down coursing through America and Europe escaped their crystal balls. So did 9/11. Yet, they are the West, we are Africa! The logic is simple: colour them bad to justify why millions of aid must flow from Washington, Berlin, Paris, and Switzerland to private pockets in the name of aiding Africa! Was UN not on the run as Rwanda pulled apart in the 90's? In Sierra Leone and Liberia, was UN any better than Nigeria's ECOMOG? Is racism not as strong as ever before? Ask Anton Ferdinand and Patrice Evra! Yet, African leaders still look up to clueless West, who cannot cure its own malady, but must profess to be lord and saviour over Africa where AIDS/HIV, infant mortality and morbidity, etc rage daily. Look at the statistics: figures of what ails most African states almost halved their population, yet people are still walking and living in those nations and not in the graves! Economic crises is bitting the West because its people hardly do anything by themselves. They live on aid and subventions, credit cards and loans! That way, they alone can know of Chrismas. Why must Africa know Chrismas; is it not litered with sick, stupid and malnourished children? A Georgian asked me only recently how I came to know about Gorbachev. Africans must be stupid, hungry, and sick to be African! The West needs to know that we know it is Chrismas, and we also know that Christ was not born in December!

Religious Hypocrisy in Contemporary Nigeria (Part 2)

‎Dear Dolapo Akinola-Omojola,

"All issues emanate from the spiritual realm, only the spirit has answers to all things. Wisdom is a spiritual exercise that is translated to the mind and the ability of the mind to interpret its message is understanding-which is a function mind/mental function. All messages transmitted to the brain start from the mind, and those that go to the mind is created from the spirit realm. The spirit understands all things because it transcends brain and comprehension otherwise you and I will understand the source of the sun and moon and what keeps life consistent on earth. All things have their source in the Spirit."
Dolapo Akinola-Omojola, November 28th 2011

Permit me to ask you some few questions regarding your comment to Rolu’s earlier comment, which I will reproduce as I go on.

 There appear to me the time-tested argument on ‘mind’, ‘spirit’, ‘soul’, ‘brain’, and ‘body’ argument, which no philosopher has been able to answer in your comment. In fact, it will be a great one for me to refrain from thinking that you are in a great confusion (you may not even know) as to where all these existential phenomena are in the human frame. For instance, there is the simple error that because the brain is in the head, the mind is in the heart or other parts of the body, which would technically elicit another question: where is the soul in the human frame? In relation to all these, one can also ask: which of these body parts, if we agree that they are inside of man, is the seat or abode of the spirit?

For anything to be spiritual, it must come external to the human body, as the human body is governed by the mental part of man, which technically relates to all body parts as against the Yorùbá/African mentality of ORI, head, as the governor of the body. Science has told us that dendrites, neurons, pupils, and motor nerves pick data from the outside the human body either through touch, sight or feel and transmit them at more than the speed of light to the brain for processing, where they become information. Because all these begin and complete in split seconds, we take no notice and we confuse everything that emanates from man as necessarily the activities of the brain or head. Hence, the Yorùbá would say: ‘Ori re kop e”, even if it is your eyes or hair that failed to transmit the right message and thereby getting wrong results out of your brain. We can pardon the confusion, especially because until the body is brain-dead, science will not also declare a body dead, a situation which can be confused as the verdict from the most important part of the body. Despite science’s seeming error in this, I want to tell you that until the brain cannot pick data from other body parts, it cannot die.

I think if you apply this analysis to your comment, you will see how confusing those beautiful words of yours are. For instance, if all matters emanate from the spiritual realm and we cannot say, in particular, in which parts of the body is this spiritual realm; then we will run into two more troubles. One, is this spiritual realm within the body? If so, how much of its functions and activities are guided by insights from other parts of the body? Like the brain, which depends on other body-parts for its activities, is the spirit insulated from other body parts? Unless you want to preach, I see no yes or no answer open to you. If we argue that the spiritual realm is external to the body, then we will sacrifice human agency in all matters and man would stop being moral agents, responsible for their actions. Yes, we have evidence of these in our daily lives. When Bode George stole our money, he also said ‘ise esu ni’ and so also Cecilia Ibru and you and me. Once, we are caught, pant down, in our evil ways; we pass the bulk. I remember other variants of this: ‘awon aye lo nse’ and by extension, ‘amuwa olorun ni’. So, where is this your spirit realm and how does it link up with man? Don’t play Okotie here by telling me 'through the spirit'. It won’t sell.

Second point of your intervention is that: “Wisdom is a spiritual exercise that is translated to the mind and the ability of the mind to interpret its message is understanding-which is a function mind/mental function.” What is wisdom? Simply put: the application of right knowledge at the right time. How can this be spiritual? By your name, I gather that you are Yorùbá, but your comment is in English language; did you learn English Language in the spirit or in school? Were you told in the spirit to respond to Rolu’s comments? To worsen the matter, you just committed a blue murder by asserting that wisdom is spiritual, as it is tantamount to saying that only the spiritual are wise. Please, be corrected: knowledge gives wisdom and enlightenments and it is not a function of any spirit. It is just application of right knowledge and at the right time.

Your third gaffe is that “All messages transmitted to the brain start (sic) from the mind, and those that go to the mind is created from the spirit realm.” This is a big lie. Sensory nerves, dendrites, motor nerves, neurons, etc. are the means through which messages (even if you want to play the pastor by saying spiritual messages) are transmitted to the brain. You are confusing ‘brain’ and ‘mind’ again. Our ‘hearts’ are not our ‘minds’ and the heart is not the seat of the mind. Your argument can only sell if the mind is also external to the body or an abstract place elsewhere in the space. But if we agree that they are in human beings, but we don’t know where they are, we can then raise the argument of who invented those words in the first place. Because of our fear of the unknown, we have invented heaven and hell, mind and soul, etc. and these human inventions, which have no basis in reality, cannot be greater than man. To argue otherwise is to commit heresy, as I will quickly point you to God and man!
 The last point on the above deals with the equally confusing binaries: message /understanding and mind function/mental function. Message and understanding are clear and ease to grab, but allocating them to different sphere in human-created mind and mental states is ridiculous. Is mind-message responsible for mind-function? Is mental-message responsible for mental-function?

What I see here is that we fail to understand the process through which human brain processes and stores information. Those finer thoughts that we ascribe to ‘mind’ and ‘mental’ are all products of our brains. While we sleep, it keeps on working and storing away information for retrieval whenever the need arises. So, when we think what we say, write, or do is out of the body; the brain simply picked from its stores those ‘knowledge’ it stored away when we least know for our use. These are what we christened mind-messages and mental-messages. Those idiots that say there is no God missed this critical point on how the brain functions, which is synonymous to how the universe is ordered.

 The last two points in your comments are not as kind as those I have mentioned and analyzed above. Stop making us imbeciles, please. We cannot be daily assaulted on the roads, malls, churches and mosques and still won’t be allowed the necessity of cyber-space by preachers-without-borders.​ How can you think and say that we cannot understand the source of the sun and moon? Haven’t people landed on the moon? Remember that the Bible credited Joshua to have stopped the sun from setting when he was killing and maiming and raping Jews enemies! But today we know that it was a lie and that the earth, not the sun rotates. What else do you want to hear? Man has done so much with their God-given mental capacity and the sheer fact that you cannot reason out of the box is not enough to limit others’ capacity to transcend mundane pastor’s homilies. If the spirit transcends understanding and comprehension, then you who are led by it are doomed. But thank God, we, who are of this world, can comprehend God and His creatures. What better way to comprehend God than inventing airplanes, computers, laser surgery, etc. Other than empty words and sexed miracles; what has the spirit-filled, spirit-comprehending pastor/imam invented?

 Perhaps your last point is the most ridiculous. “All things have their source in the Spirit.” Like rape, murder, stealing, or what? I fear you don’t even know the meaning of what you just said. If all things have their sources in the spirit, then human beings should not be punished or praised for anything, whether bad or good. We should just praise or blame the spirit. Even if I don’t know anything, I know my illiterate great mother knew and taught us that nothing has its ‘source in the spirit’. She will tell us: ‘aigbo ifa, la now oke, ifa kan ko si ni para’ and also ‘oni iya, ni yo je gbogbo e’. God bless her soul! She knew that it is the delusion that religion impose on us and our mentality. It is the simplest dungeon that humanity is cast; only a few will get out of it in their life-time.

Religious Hypocrisy in Contemporary Nigeria

Facebook Interventions and Comments

"What does it mean when Christians say that certain matters are spiritually discerned? In my thinking, the spirit does not have a brain and all matters of comprehension and exposition must of necessity be accessed via the brain. Also, "understanding" is a mental function. How then does one spiritually discern a matter and why do some people like to insist that only the "spiritual mind" can understand some doctrinal issues? Can somebody please explain this to me?" Rolu Adebola, 27th November 2011.

"If Jesus were alive today, he'd be more comfortable among beer drinkers than with religious pple. In his days, he was more comfortable among wine drinkers than with religious ppl. I've found beer drinkers to be far more reliable than religious pple. And what "unbelievers" will do for u for free, the church won't & will still charge you." Rolu Adebola, 26th November 2011.

Dear Rolu, I don’t know anyone who can explain it without as much as preaching as Bayo Gbadehan did above. And, for me, that is where the problem is. The writers of the Bible loaded the book with so many caveats that, even crooks, can find good use for it. Nothing in the Bible, and therefore in Christianity, is logical. To be a Christian, you have to be gullible and unthinking. It is only in Christianity that 'spirits' have 'minds'; 'understands', and those other crabs. In these last ten years, I noticed that, except in Africa, people are realigning with rationality and critical thinking rather than with spirituality. For me the result is that developments, even on spiritual things, have tilted to the rational side than to the spiritual side. I remember that Nigerian pastors celebrated, some years back, the fact that only 10% of Africans were Christians early in the 20th Century and by the 21st Century, only 10% are non-Christians. I shudder to think about this, as it shows how lost to reality these people are. For me, only 10% are still Christians, the rest are simply church-goers and bench-warmers and pretenders. They are the crooks that are giving the religion a bad name today. To the issue you raised, I think it is fraud to have a set of values that stop people from reasoning. Religion is aimed at doing just that: stop people from thinking so that they will be amenable to socio-economic and political control of the ruling class. If you trace the history of the world religions, they all aligned with the courts. From the Dark Ages till now, religions and the courts, do not be deceived by the separation of both during the Enlightenment, work in the services of each other. The church asks us to be obedient to the leaders, who are milking us dry, and that our rewards are in heaven where no 'roaches' and termites will touch them. Paradoxically, the court and the church laid up treasures for themselves here on earth. So, by asking us to allow the spirit to 'think' for us; by asking us to 'be spirit-filled' and 'spirit-led'; the church/holy books, are making us amenable to state control; preparing us for the kill! The sheer number of congregants in churches and mosques today shows how readily Nigerians are in obeying pastors and imams than even the state. And the schools, by this I mean any educational system, is aimed at achieving a balance between 'what is Caesar’s' and 'what is God's' in you. The less rational we are, the more we pander to the churches and mosques and the state suffers. So, the aim of the educational system is to work out a harmonious balance. The more rational you are, the further you go away from the churches and mosques. To rein you in; religions label you as 'unbeliever', 'omo-esu', etc. and through blackmail, the churches and mosques plants, right in your house/heart, a monster that keep dangling before you a 'paradise' that you will miss, if you continue being rational, which they termed 'in your evil ways'. My father and wife have kept faith in ensuring that they call my attention to how much the 'devil' has achieved in steering me away from 'God'. Your monster may be your father, son, daughter, or wife. The greatest of the monster, I tell you, is not your father, wife, son, daughter or the society, but the uncritical surrender of your will to self-reflect (introspection). Look at it this way, Bayo and one or two other friends of yours have asked you to 'give' yourself to God for direction. But the embodiment(s) of God that you readily see around are the Bible/Quran and the Pastors/Imams. As a Classicist, you know that 'Jerry Boy' Oyakhilome and 'wordsmith' Okotie are clowns that bamboozle people with Latin words, some of which are not just tangentially different from what they had in mind, but also carry different meanings from the pastors' intention; and you wonder if this is 'God' playing the fool with you. Same as me when, as a lecturer in RUN, I saw Kenny Martins everyday in company of Pastor Adeboye at the same time the EFCC/Federal Government declared him wanted for financial impropriety. Just as many of us felt repulsed at Rev. King burning congregants and T.B. Joshua sexing up miracles, etc. etc. in the name of Jesus Christ; so I felt repulsed at the church (Pastor Adeboye) palling with Kenny Martins, Cecilia Ibru and Erastus Akingbola. You see through all these and many more and declared them, at first, in your heart, as emptiness with no compare. If you say it out (if you decided to be yourself), someone turns up the corner and tell (challenge, preach, etc.) you that you are wrong and that (at the very height of it all), you should make Jesus/God/Allah/heaven your focus. If you surrender your will and see it through their lens, then you trade your earlier bad name-tag for a new one - a born again! If you refuse to surrender your will, then you should go for anointing, deliverance, etc. As I am writing this piece, temperature on the street is -1 and I have revved up my room temperature to +20; this is my reality, which no pastor or imam and no monster can change. Rolu; that is my reality and religion!
Oyeniyi, Bukola Adeyemi, 28th November 2011

COMMENT
I can understand how you feel, Mr. Yemi, but I must tell you that you cannot kick out the God Factor from our existence. You see, a lot of beasts have hijacked the temple, still I make bold to say that there are still those who constitute a "remnant". They are just not so obvious because like "the 7000 in Elijah's day who had not yet bowed to Baal or kissed him", they seem so anonymous to the point of even being invisible or, worse, non-existent. I used to think like you too, but I know better now. It's easy to forget and overlook, but there is a judgment. And it will INESCAPABLY come! Right in our lifetimes and not in some big blue yonder, in the great by-and-by. Although that also has it's own thing to do with too. As for Nigeria, Nigerians and the Nigerian situation, consider the fact that all Nigerians have been brought up, time immemorial, in a culture of hypocrisy and so the "Pastors" know just what to tell these gullible people ion order to get the worst or best out of them for their own greedy gains. But hear the words of Thomas Jefferson: "Disobedience to Tyranny is Obedience to God!" You cannot deny that what we have here in Nigeria today is nothing but first class tyranny. And this is what I mean about people misinterpreting the Bible deliberately for selfish ends: Yes, the Bible talks about Government being God's idea, and rightly so. And the Government exists solely not to take care of the p[eople but to lay a proper foundation whereby the people can now take care of themselves as MATRURE, RESPONSIBLE and FREE people, anywhere in the world, should be able to do. Now this is the important issue: when government stops doing what it was supposed to originally do and neglects its' "raison d'etre", then it becomes the GOD-GIVEN right of the people who know their rights and their God to stand up and abolish and overthrow that government for it has become an oppressive tool not just of human oppressors but ultimately of the devil himself. If you argue with me about this, then just take a critical hard look at Nigeria, Nigerians nad the Nigerian situation. And by the way, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and even those who influenced them from years earlier such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes were ALL TRUE Christian believers. The truth is that, simply, in Nigeria, we practice AFRICAN CHRISTIANITY which is nothing, for the most part, but a form of STYLIZED WITCHCRAFT. Take a hint, friends, most Nigerians, especially Christians, are bewitched by the razzmatazz of their Churches and Pastors and all the attendant hoopla. I rest my case, friends.
Oluseyi Imah, 28th November 2011.

Makerere University successfully tests electric car! Why Nigeria Cannot Emulate Makerere University!

Makerere University Successfully Tests Electric Car! Why Nigeria Cannot Emulate Makerere University!

I am impressed by Makerere's feat! I was just asking myself if this can happen in Nigeria. As a university teacher, I can say without mincing words that for this to happen in Nigeria, we will have to move to another planet. Nigerian lecturers are too concerned with riding jeep and using blackberry and I-Phone 4 than any life-changing research! We have the worst and most dysfunctional education system in the world. Some years ago, under Professor Segun Oke, at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso; one Muda achieved similar feat in Computer programming. Lautech celebrated him and he finally landed at Microsoft. Till date, Lautech cannot reproduce such feat simply because, Muda was a self-made student and not institution-made. University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, etc. have not recorded anything of Muda's caliber in the last 20 years and will not; i beg to be challenged, in the next 20 years. I am not a pessimist, but as an insider that daily witness and marvel at the madness going on in our university, I know that innovative research is far from us.

Let me illustrate this with a personal experience, Mope, as an undergraduate at the Redeemer's University, submitted a topic that bordered on a community in Yorubaland where two kings, one male and the other female, ruled simultaneously, as her B.A. History and International Relations Long-Essay. For me, it was one giant step, as it was not the general run of things that we see in the university system. Sadly, our professor saw a totally different thing. He openly canvassed that she and her fellow graduating students should go to the various libraries across Nigerian universities to look for already done projects to see what they can adapt. Mope's insistence almost cost her her degree. In the public university, the case is perhaps worse. Students of Olabisi Onabanjo University daily troop to UI to 'use the library', where they copied out entire theses and resubmited same under their names to their university for graduation. To another example, at Joseph Ayo Babalola University, only the poor student would fail. The system is that if a student fails a course or if he or she knew he would not perform well in an exams, all such student needs to do is to stay away from the exams and re-enroll for it in Summer Class, where no teaching was done for the entire one-month period, for 15, 000 naira per course. The least mark she or he can get at summer class is 40 or 50. Public universities in Nigeria are littered with teachers and administrators who are just marking time. Only a handful should be there. In the private school, the case is pathetic. In better climes, just a few of them should operate. A charade called university education in Nigeria cannot achieve such feat as Makerere just did. While those in the sciences will keep complaining of 'poorly-equipped laboratories' and their counterparts in engineering, who could not assemble a mere solar panel, despite that the rudimentary knowledge to do so is freely available on YouTube, would bore you with litany of why 'this and that won’t work'.

In the Humanities/Arts, the usual noise remains 'poorly-equipped libraries'. Yet, look around the university campuses and the number of exotic cars, especially SUVs, that you would see will shock you. Permit me to mention just two names, Professors Ayodele Olukoju of University of Lagos and Olawale Albert of University of Ibadan, are perhaps the few ones doing any meaningful researches in South West Nigeria today. Unfortunately, Prof. Olukoju has dumped University of Lagos for Caleb University as Vice-Chancellor, which is still part of the problem. Prof. Olukoju is perhaps one Nigerian professor that stayed at home and he is 'dusting' those hyper-hubris-driven American-based Nigerian professors, who had all the resources of this world to even be in the moon. Same goes for Prof. Isaac Albert. Others are almost everywhere taking adjunct positions, sometimes, in five universities at a time. How would they have time to read, let alone do researches and pioneer innovative research? In most Nigerian universities today, professors specialize in pushing away talents through frivolous excuses.

A friend who completed his PhD in University of Ibadan recently shocked me when he said "the external examiner from Unilorin was a bad man; he almost denied me the degree". When I probed further, what the professor from Ilorin queried was how a doctoral thesis on aberrant behaviours in Lagos could be done without any field work! For me, the fault is neither in the student nor the external examiner. It is with the professor/internal examiner in UI who, for me, is no better than a stalk illiterate. A young man, indeed, a very dear 'kid' friend of mine, studied Computer Science at Olabisi Onabanjo University. This young man cannot format a hard disk. He cannot load an Operating System on a computer. Anytime his computer has problem, not minding how minor this may be, it is either mine to fix it or a roadside 'engineer' who has no certificate of any sort!

Are these the people who are going to achieve the Makerere’s feat? Let’s call a spade a spade, Nigeria is a bad dream! The earlier we accept that, the better! A friend of mine, Obby Nelly 'Segun single handedly acculturated bacterial in an improvised biogas digester and power an entire four-bedroom flat with poultry waste! He is a secondary school teacher, not a university professor! Prof. Segun Oke, earlier mentioned, was the brain behind the cassava revolution that Obasanjo paraded before Nigerians for 8 years! He also has done jell-fuel with Cassava waste! Both cannot take out their invention beyond their homes because power generation is on the Exclusive List of the Nigerian constitution! So, cases of individuals who are doing well abound, but Nigerian universities cannot achieve Makerere's feat even if you empty World Bank for their use. Their priorities are different! They are not cerebral enough to know that SUVs and palatial homes, which they are financing with resources that they ought to vote on building libraries and sponsor projects, are all material things that would perish in one day. They are not cerebral enough to know that ideas, no matter how small, would live forever.

To my last example, Prof. J.F. Ade-Ajayi: he wrote more books and essays while in retirement than while he was in service. He built a library that could challenge University of Ibadan's Kenneth Dike Library anytime. How many such professors do we have in the system and what are their priorities? African Studies Center in Leiden, the Netherlands would not give as much as a paper to Nigerian professors because many have 'duped' them. Many other organizations have reported similar development. Please, do not see these examples as isolated cases, in fact, honest Nigerian university students and lecturers would tell you similar stories and, for me, these stories explain why Nigerian universities cannot rival Makerere. Currently, they are all madly rushing to put everything on the internet, even Joseph Ayo Babalola University that charges staff 18,000 and students 30,000 naira per annum for non-existing internet services, simply to curry 'better' university ranking! It is just stupid!

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/18833-Makerere-University-successfully-tests-electric-car.html

Blatter, just a handshake is not enough!

Blatter, just a handshake is not enough!

It is stupid to think that Blatter and FIFA were leading any campaign against racism. For clarity, Blatter, the President of FIFA, has demonstrated the capacity to be both a gentleman and a buffoon, both a sexist and a racist, long before now. How he kept coming back as head of FIFA can be gleaned from the recent corruption charge. For the records, Blatter made the following sexist comments about Women football and got away with it, perhaps after bribing out those who ought to call him to order.

 "Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men - such as playing with a lighter ball. That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?"

The above, said in 2004, about a game that many have spend nights and years and resources to develop is laughable, even if uttered by a toddler. But coming from the same man who is head of FIFA, world football governing body, is, to say the least, madness-in-disguise. From the wordings of the statement, to its very content, it is incontestable that Berlusconi and Blatter may after all be friends in casting aspersions on females, sex, and similar stuffs.  How he managed to get away, especially from the barbs and arrows of feminists scholars, is still a wonder.

On slavery, he was decidedly unbridled.  He not only likened Christiano Ronaldo, then World Footballer, to a slave, but also trivialised the institution of slavery, a sin perpetrated by the West against Africans and people of African descent; a sin that is the core of what Patrice Evra, Aton Ferdinand, Daniel Sturidge and many others have had to endure in 21^st century Great Britain.  Listen to Blatter:

"I'm always in favour of protecting the player and if the player, (he) wants to leave, let him leave. I think in football there's too much modern slavery in transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere."

English FA’s indictment of Luis Suares as a racist and Blatter’s corruption indictment could not draw any useful comment from Blatter than that:

“Players who are racially insulted during matches should accept it as part of on-field provocation and shake hands with their opponent at the end of the game and move on!”

What an insult!

Rio Ferdinand, whose brother was allegedly racially assaulted by John Terry of Chelsea FC and Captain of English National team, was perhaps too gentlemanly with Blatter when he wrote to the old man:

"I feel stupid for thinking that football was taking a leading role against racism, just for clarity if a player abuses a referee, does a shake of the hand after the game wipe the slate clean? If fans shout racist chants but shake our hands is that ok?"

One thing is clear, Blatter’s cup is full. His latest turn around statement that:

"My comments have been misunderstood. What I wanted to express is that, as football players, during a match, you have 'battles' with your opponents, and sometimes things are done which are wrong. But, normally, at the end of the match, you apologise to your opponent if you had a confrontation during the match, you shake hands, and when the game is over, it is over. Anyone who has played a football match, or a match in any sport, knows that this is the case."

Racism, which Blatter (and FIFA under Blatter) claimed to be fighting, should be a matter of serious concern than to be subject of gutter talk. He wanted to say! But he said just a handshake is enough! Football is a game of passion, so also other games. Racism speaks to inner values of the black people. Racism and Blatter’s comment speaks to our history, as peoples and as a continent. Let the world remembers: we were killed, maimed and enslaved on our own land; uprooted from our continent and dehumanized aboard European slavers’ ship and brought across the Atlantic to Europe and the New World. We bore the pains, the death, and the infamies with unequal dignity up to these days. With our blood and our toil; we built not just plantations, but also nations. We built your empires, your kingdoms, your cities, your homes. You fill your banks with money, blood money!

Uprooted, lonely, and dehumanized; we have no home, no nation and no identity! When machine’s labour surpassed our strength, you declared freedom for the slaves and pronounced the world a common heritage for all. However, at every turn, you reminded us our history, a sin committed by your fathers on our common humanity and for which you should be ashamed!

Just a handshake, Blatter, just a handshake to wipe aside 400 years of slavery! Just a handshake to wipe away the dead, the pain of more than 20 million souls! Blatter, just a handshake is not enough!

Rise, black people and people of African descent!  Rise!!

Damn Gadhafi, Damn His Will!

Damn Gadhafi, damn his Will!

(This piece is in reaction to series of comments to the Nation’s piece on Gadhafi’s Will)

Prior to the Arab Spring, Greenwood Publishing Company of USA commissioned, as it always does, a book on Customs and Culture of Libya to a US-based Nigerian History Professor (names withheld for security reasons)  who decided to incorporate two other people, one his graduate student, an American, and my humble self, a Nigerian University lecturer, to write this book. Perhaps, my inclusion in the project originated from the fact that I have always been involved in field activities, so my experience becomes necessary to writing the book. I was in Libya before the crisis and had plenty of time to comb everywhere for data for the book. This field activities and the quality of data obtained are what formed the bedrock of what the book will present to the world next March when the book will go on sale globally. 

The field activities, secondary literature, and practicalities on ground in Libya would not forgive Gadhafi, no matter how catchy or strongly-worded his Will may be. Permit me to say that, there is nothing like a benevolent dictator and no matter what we say or think; dictatorship would always end badly. Granted that Gadhafi, perhaps in modern Africa, would remain a shining light on achievements, but I must inform you that underlining his achievements were Libyan bloods! 

For the records, Gadhafi started out as a young, people-driven leader. He sacked the monarchy of Ali, the man who, with others, assiduously fought and got independence for Libya. He was accused of being a stooge of the West. As an historian, I will suggest caution here. Libya was without oil then and it was difficult for it to survive without aid! It was under the care of the UN after the Second World War and everyone was apprehensive how it will survive as an independent nation without aid! Thank God for CRUDE OIL!

However, following Gadhafi's take-over, he instituted policies that drove not just Americans and British away, but also indigenous Berbers, Tuaregs, Jews, etc. British and Americans, as part of post-World War II geopolitics, maintained military bases in Libya to check Soviet’s ambition in North Africa; indigenous Berbers, Tuaregs, Jews, etc. were native Libyans, who stood against Roman, Greek, Ottoman, Spanish and Italian occupations at different times. They fought and defeated ‘almighty’ America too! The Jews, most of whom were Israelis, had settled for hundreds of years in different parts of Libya and most of the architectural masterpieces you find today in Libya were the handiworks of these Jews, the various invaders that made Libya their colonies at one time or the other. Many have erroneously believed that they were built by Gadhafi. If not for Gadhafi, Libya (and Africa) would have remained the home of indigenous and, perhaps, the oldest Jewish community on earth. He not only sent them away, but also nationalized all their assets, some of which were shared by the Revolutionary Council that Gadhafi led. 

He banned literature, arts, music, media, English and French (languages), novels, prose, poems, etc. and pronounced Libya an Islamic state. The only Radio and TV stations in Libya under Gadhafi were state-owned! Same applied to publishing house! They were controlled by his children! Professors, poets, dramatists, etc. who must publish, must publish with him and their works had to be vetted for subversive elements! Their writings must eulogize the Gadhafi-led government! If Nigeria were to be under Gadhafi, would there have been people like Wole Soyinka, Achebe Chinua, Hammed Yerima, Kole Omotosho, Ade-Ajayi, Jide Oshuntokun, Chimamanda Adiche, etc.? Would any of them have written anything worth the salt? I bet it with you; many were the talents that Gadhafi sent to their early graves. Yes, there are Libyan writers, but they all cut their teeth in the Diasporas, where they were/are tolerated, but not accepted! Until the Libyan book is out, I would not be able to mention names, but I know many would be shocked to know what sort of bestiality went on in Libya under Gadhafi. Gadhafi was killing people at home, sponsoring terrorism abroad! Thousands of professors, radicals, journalists, teachers, musicians, actors and actresses - people that we love and many emulate here in Nigeria, were either executed, disappeared, or forced into exile in Gadhafi’s Libya. Those who fled were hunted to death.

As bad as Babangida and Abacha were in Nigeria’s military history, Obesere Omo Rapala, the doyen of Asakasa, was never prohibited from singing! As wicked and mindless as Obasanjo is, St. Janet, Gordons, Ali Baba, etc. still lampooned him and sleep at home, not in the coffins! Banning literature, as we all know, is banning creativity. 

Gadhafi went further than that: Libya started out in 1951/2, as a secular state, although it still proclaimed itself as an Islamic Republic; Gadhafi made into a Sharia state. He initially laid the foundation of his new Libya based on the Sharia laws, but later detoured and wrote his own master-sheet upon which he ran the affairs of the country. The 3-volume book, The Green Book, became the unofficial constitution of Libya under Gadhafi. The Ulamas were disbanded and, in nationally-televised state broadcast, he denounced the Quran, Imams and Ulamas; saying that you do not need the Imams and Ulamas to understand and interpret the Quran. This step was the harbinger of his Green Book.

The atrocious acts were too many; I can go on and on and on. Perhaps I should not end this section without talking about his reforms in the banking sector. He commanded all Libyans to deposit all their monies in the national bank, claiming that a new currency was to be introduced. After the deadlines, he announced that no one in Libya would have private accounts again and that the state would be responsible for their upkeeps. That was the end of the reform. No money (old or new) was returned to anybody, everything was confiscated by government! Savings, from that moment, were banned! I repeat; all Libyans' monies were taking away from them by official/government subterfuge! What a reform!!!!

Yes, he constructed modern Libya along socialist lines; what he called Arab Socialism, which brought landmark achievements in Arabic/Islamic education, infrastructural development, housing and urban development to Libya. He constructed aqueducts that transport water from under the deserts to the cities. He, until 1994, employed all educated Libyans, but never allowed them to use their ingenuity on anything other than state-controlled things! 

Permit me to add that his description of Libyans at the outset of the revolution as rats, dogs, and cockroaches adequately summarized what he reduced them to. He masked all his atrocities in our eyes with public service and infrastructure. These were all what we know/see that gave us the erroneous impression that he was a benevolent dictator who did well for his country. More than a million souls were ordered killed by this man. For me and many Libyans who helped in my study for the book, Gadhafi was worse than Adolf Hitler! Perhaps, the political trajectories are different, therefore, we cannot compare Gadhafi with Abacha, but I still think Abacha was a child’s play. I am sure that more of his acts would come to light now that he is gone. 

Damn Gadhafi, damn his Will!

Boko Haram: Everywhere You Go!!!!

Boko Haram: Everywhere You Go!!!!

I called MTN Customer Service earlier in the day and the following exchanges with both the auto-repsonder and the staff elicited this absurd question:

How would Boko Haram Customer Service Department have handled a call to its' department?

May be something like this:

Graaaaaaannnnnnnn, the phone rings.

Boko Haram Customer Service:
Welcome to Boko Haram. Your call is important to us and may be recorded for quality service improvement.

For suicide bombing, press 1.

To plant a bomb in your area, press 2.

If you have any information where to plant bomb in Nigeria, press 3.

If you can manufcature bomb, press 4.

If you want to enlist, press 5.

To speak with a Boko Haram agent, press 0.

If you have information about people talking and planning to hunt us down, PLEASE HOLD while your call is being forwarded to BOKO HARAM National Headquarters.

(Would the organization also have a signature-line?)

Boko Haram: Everywhere You Go!!!!
              OR
Boko Haram, Rule Your World!!!!!!!!!


It is a joke, dont laugh at it!

OBA, 20/10/2011 

Nigeria, a Waving Flag!

  Nigeria, a Waving Flag!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Today, I remember October 1st 1976. As a Primary 4 pupil of L.A. Primary School, Bola, Oyo, Oyo Town; I joined other pupils from my school to attend the Independence Day celebration at Durbar Stadium.  Penultimate week to this date, those of us who would participate in the March Past, were taught the new National Anthem. Before this time and even a little after the Independence Day, some of us still find it difficult to recite the new anthem. We were sold on ‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee, Our Own Dear Native Land” and found it difficult to understand why we were asked to change to “Arise, O Compatriot!”  Looking back today, I have reasons to believe that while the old anthem celebrated our new found independence, the new anthem challenged us to the task of nation building. With the new anthem, we were told to rise up and heed the call to build a new Nigeria. We were told to open our eyes to the task of nation building, as the euphoria of independence wore away.

Need one say that the pitiable state we found ourselves today was built during those memorable years!

Rather than building the state, our leaders – Obasanjo, Babangida, T.Y. Danjuma, Shagari, etc. – were building mansions. As a primary school pupil, I carried with me memories of those days.

Xmas of 1977 was particularly fresh. Obasanjo banned importation of cloths to stimulate local production and to revamp the ailing economy. However, prior to the ban, my mother had bought ‘Won’yosi’, one of the banned stuffs, as our Xmas cloths. Resplendent in this new dress, the first locally-made dress I ever had, we went to church and were eagerly waiting for my father, the Pastor of our Church, to dismount the pulpit so that we can rush home to kill the Xmas fowls. 

My favourite pastime then was killing fowls. I was too eager to get home ahead of my siblings so that none of them would beat me to my pastime.

Why my father’s sermon was short that day, I cannot remember. But I can recall vividly that a Police man cut our joy of the moment short when he arrested the three of us for wearing contrabands! How old were we, you may want to know? Wale, my brother, was 6; Kemi, my senior sister, was 11; and I was 9. We were detained on a Xmas day!

How our father knew of the arrest eluded us. My only recollection was of a commotion at the Police Station's counter and people restraining my father. He was furious! Slapping this, tearing at the other; he was completely beside himself. He cared not if he was shot for beating a police man right in the police station. His concern was for us, his children! However, he was lucky that it was in 1977 and not in 2011.

We got home only to meet all fowls, four of them, already killed. The arrest meant nothing to me. It was the fowls. I felt so bad that I never bothered to ask mother who killed them. It was a very bad Xmas, I must say. Anyway, 1978 Easter was another day. I refused to go to church not for fear of another possible arrest, as we wore another locally-made material, but for fear that some other thing may prevent me from killing the fowls.

Sardine and Titus (canned fishes) were prime things then. Despite that my father was rich by the standard of the time; nothing will stop us from stealing one or two tins of those canned fishes for Easter Picnic at Galilee, which was located at Kosobo Area in Oyo town. Thank God Mum is dead now; she would have  been shocked to read that we normally stole her Sardine and Titus despite that she usually packed our stuffs so well that we never lacked anything at any Easter/Galilee.

Sardine and Titus were not the only lure for Galilee: the sheer fact that we would be together with our peers, away from the watchful eyes of both our parents and teachers, for an entire day made Easter and Galilee different in our lives. I miss my Easter and Galilee!

It is normal to forget a pair of shoes or even a shirt, as we play around. Many a child would not know the actual location of her/his family members and would wonder around a whole day looking for them. There were no armed robbers then! No arsonists! No bombers! No kidnappers! No OPC! NO MEND! No BOKO HARAM! So, we can wander and wander till our legs felt numb. Wale, my brother who is now a big RCCG Pastor in Abuja, once got lost! I felt so bad. I cried profusely. I cannot bear the thought of losing my only brother. I am sure now that he will be reading this; he will be shocked to know that I have always loved him, even more than myself. When we found him, I could not contain myself. I was just crying. Shedding tears of joy! Tears of reunion, of the fact that he would be by my side when I wake up for school the next day.

The day after Easter, which for us is nothing than Galilee and Sardine and Titus and Bread and play, unlimited play, was Tuesday. We will rush to school to recount and share the joy of Easter with our schoolmates. The girls, funny enough, would still come with their ribbons, hairdos and make-ups that their mamas forced on them the day before. Our Muslim friends and classmates, looking at us with amazement and jealousy, would rue such opportunities, which normally come when they also observed their two ‘Yidi ceremonies’.

Where were those days? Will my three musketeers ever experience such days in their lives? Yes, today they have DSTVs, Wiis, NITENDOs, etc. that were non-existent in our own days. But can these compare with the love, the joy and the freedom we shared and enjoyed and some of us still nostalgically crave for? 

What about the friendship we cultivated in those days? I remember Akintayo Oraka, Segun (Adisa), Taiwo Oladokun, Tunde Olashinde, Olawuwo Rasaki, Segun Bolarinwa (Atuka), Mayowa Adeosun, Kayode Oyedoja, Niyi Segilola, Niyi Okeola, Joseph Abraham, Dele Olaegbe, Dele Obaseki, Abu Tijani Ademola, Ayodele Japhet, Arinade Yomi Adejumo, Kayode Adeyanju, Rotimi Adeyanju, Chidume Sunday, Kayode Fakunle, Tunde Fakunle, Dayo (omo Mama elemu), Yaya, Alade (Survey House) Tundun and Saki (in front of Agboye Baptist Church), Shade Ohu, etc. They were some of the boys and girls that we shared Galilee together! We remain till today. 

Yes, we went after our different passions. We competed without hating one another. Oraka is now a big gun in GLO! Segun Adisa is at a Local Council in Ogbomoso, Taiwo Oladokun is now a Director General with the Federal Government, Tunde Olashinde is with Ministry of Culture, Olawuwo is a big time Lawyer, etc. etc. Will my son, Bayo, in ten years’ time, recall the friends he shared all kinds of games with when he was in Class 4? I think and strongly feel, he would remember his PSP pad than his friends of 2011 come 2021!

Where were those days and why cannot I give my three musketeers the same experience? Why are the times different? 

I remember my mother, a Pastor’s wife. Her friends were basically members of our church, mostly wives of my father’s friends. She could not be a banker! Who would take care of us? Who would watch over our first faltering steps? No woman of her time would work with MTN, Glo, Etisalat, etc. They were too consumed with what sort of kids we were and what sort of adults they would mold out of our prankish selves to pursue such careers! Not that they were not educated, but the society needed (and still needs) better citizens and they were nation-builders in their own rights! They and their husbands were not consumed with the passion to ride Hummers, 4-Matic, My X5, End of Discussion, Honda Allah, etc.! They were content with motorcycles, VWs, 404s, 504s, and Citroens!

Little wonder none from my generation is a 419er; none understood yahoo-yahoo! None of our girls are prostitutes. See Arinade today, beautiful as of old. She is going 50 and gracefully beautiful. Little wonder working hard and not cutting corners still make us happy and fulfilled! We would not know yahoo+, because our fathers and mothers had their eyes fixed on us and not on Agodi, Alausa, and Aso Rock! They come home from work every day to the warm embraces of our mothers! We know the humming of their motorcycles and VWs! We watch them leave home in the morning. They sometimes drop us in our schools before journeying unto their offices! They cannot come home at night when we are fast asleep. We share siestas together at 6.00 PM! We waited on them to turn on the TVs at 9.P! Remember those TVs with 4 knobs? Volume, Contrast, V and H knobs! They were with no Remote Controllers! They were simply ANALOG! We watched Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie pouring out their souls on those TVs. We watched Edison (Edson) Arantes 'Santes' do Nascimento (The Great Pele), Maradona and our own Odegbami, Owo-Blow on those TVs! I started following Manchester United since then. My favorite club was however ICC. In Oyo Town, Olivet Baptist football team were the best. They beat us 11-0 one day. The date was also 11. I was in secondary school at this time. 

We did not have Videos and DVDs, but we also watched Baba Sala’s ‘Come and See, American Wonder” at Akesan Town Hall. Alaafin was with us in 1978. There was no security fuss around him. Even in 1983 when Alex Ekwueme visited Oyo, we lined up the roads to welcome him. No one tried to kill him. We were no such kids! We had no such youths! No such adults! We did not aggregate around Manchester United FC, Arsenal FC and Chelsea FC; yes, we knew them and some of us loved them, but we did not see them as ours. We love ICC, Water Corporation, Gaskiya, Stationery Stores, etc. But Bola Ige rallied us around ‘Kekere Akin” – the Young Pioneers. And I remember that we, the Young Pioneers, built Durbar Stadium in Oyo! We were nation builders, because our parents were ones and taught us to be too!

Let me also tell you, we had no fences, but hedges. No barbed wires on our walls and no burglar-proofs on our windows. We had flowers and trees and everywhere was green. We buy banana and oranges on roadsides with no one at the stands. We simply picked the bananas, dropped the money inside the basins and went on our ways!

Today, we have all things and nothing! We have bombers, poverty-ridden people, rapists, kidnappers, hostage-takers, etc. Today, pets eat on tables while millions of people pick their daily breads from the garbage cans! We have Freedom of Information Act, Satellite TVs, CNN, etc.; but million of nairas disappear from tiny offices without a single trace. We had cocoa, palm oil and groundnuts and Awolowo built the first TV and Radio stations in Africa! Need we add Obafemi Awolowo University and Liberty Stadium! Today, oil money flows in trillions of dollars, yet Oyinlola could not build a ten-kilometer road in Iresi! Rather than crying in disgrace, Akala is bleaching gleefully over the place! First TV and Radio stations, Obafemi Awolowo University and Liberty Stadium, etc. were services to the people! Today, pot-holes, dried-taps, unemployment and looting of treasury are the ‘dividends of democracy’ that we got! How many houses did James Onanefe Ibori buy in Dubai after how many years in government? Did Sardauna of Sokoto build a hut for himself, despite fighting, with Zik and Awo, against colonialism?

Please allow me to cry for my Nigeria, I have struggled so hard to hold back my tears! Who took away my Nigeria? Who ruined so great a promise? Where is my Nigeria? Yes, even as bad as it is today, please, take away the Abujas and Agodis, the DVDs and DSTVs, the NITENDOs and PSPs, the BLACKBERRYs and NOKIAs, the Hummers and Camrys! Just restore to me my stolen Nigeria. It is mine, please. Restore to me that old national anthem! Let me rejoice in my freedom once again!

Jonathan Ebele Goodluck, restore Nigeria to me, please. I have missed her so much. I will make do with what is left of it. A nation is forever young. A nation, I repeat, is forever young. The older it gets, the younger it becomes. It is like a flag, when good wind blows it, it flutters in the air. When adverse wind blows it, it recoils and folds on its pole. Jonathan, Nigeria’s flag recoils at you and folds on its pole; if only you can restore it to me, it will flutter again. It will rise and stand up to its name and greatness once again! If only you can restore it back to me!

Please, my brothers and sisters do not just sit and watch this rape on our collective intelligence, join the train for change now! Join the Nigerian Spring!

Bukola Adeyemi, Oyeniyi
17/10/2011

Join the trail for change! Join the Nigerian Spring!

Join the trail for change! Join the Nigerian Spring!

Fellow Nigerians, do not despair that Nigeria is currently as bad as it can be. A nation, suffice to say, is forever young. The older it gets, the younger it becomes. It is like a flag, when good wind blows it, it flutters in the air. When adverse wind blows it, it recoils and folds on its pole.

We may be at the worst end of the stick now, we will rise and stand up to our name and greatness.


Join the trail for change! Join the Nigerian Spring!

Terror Attack on Gomber Police Headquarters!

Terrorist Attack in Gomber Police Headquarters!
At about 2.20 am Nigerian time on Sunday morning, terrorists and arsonists invaded and bombed the Mobile Police base in Kwame, Kwame Local Government Area of Gombe State. According to the Commissioner of Police, Mr Orubebe Ebikeme, three people died in the attack.

The terrorists, before bombing the place, carted away arms and ammunitions. It has been confirmed that the administrative block of the base and hundreds of motor vehicles were completely burnt.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Only Education, not Religion or God, will save Nigeria!

Re: Can the Eagle Fly Again? 

(The Nation, Sunday 16/10/2011)

I write in reaction to the above piece where the Sport Editor of this Nigeria's newspaper blamed Osaze Odemwinge and Yobo Joseph over their remarks after Nigeria's Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2012 Nations Cup.

Why blaming Osaze and Yobo over their comments on Super Eagles failure to qualify for the Nations Cup? The truth is that a lot is wrong in Nigeria and with Nigerians. Religion is one of the greatest sins killing us. I am sure we all know. Look at the number of people trooping to Adeboye and Olukoya's churches on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway everyday. What do you see on their faces? I started my teaching career with Redeemer's University and saw the folly of religion while I was at the Redeemed Camp. I saw on the faces of the people HOPELESSNESS!

In Nigerians, I found a whole bunch of people whose god-given brains have malfunctioned. I found educated ones, even professors, who rushed to churches and mosques, manned by a secondary-school drop-out. The other day, a pastor was telling his church that they should stop bothering him with their problems. He sternly warned them to consult with him before they take decisions rather than rushing to him for prayers after errors have been committed. Sadly, this Pastor studied, many years ago, at Yaba Tech.

Currently, I am in Romania and I was impressed at the knowledge-base of the Romanian society. Young girls and boys, not listening to music on the phones, despite also having phones like our Nigerian youths; but reading books and patronizing bookshops. Bookshops are usually filled to the brim. In Nigeria, we dont read and we are consequently, not a thinking people.

Our ability to be rational is daily checked by the Adeboyes, Oyedepos and Kumuyis of Nigeria. To make matter worse, government pays due attention to the Adeboyes, Oyedepos and Kumuyis of Nigeria rathe than to professors and researhers in Nigeria. In better climes, results of researches drive nations and companies. Let me illustrate this with two personal experiences. In 2007, I was a member of a panel constituted by Ugandan government to research on Legal Empowerment of the Poor in Uganda. Bad as any militray-turned-politician can be, Museveni understood that education, not fasting and prayer, holds the key to development. As a delegate to the last Earth Meeting in Copehagen, I detailed how Al-Queda had infiltrated Nigeria and that young and money-driven Nigerians were being recruited for terrorist activities and that the world should beware. In December of the same year, Abdulmutalab proved my research right!

How many research is going on in Nigeria? In my humble abode in Sagamu; a friend and myself successfully cultured bacteria from poultry waste and we successfully produced BIOGAS. We powered an entire house with biogas. We successfully converted a 3 horse-power generator to use the same gas and it worked efficiently! How many Nigerian university can do such? This is a matter for another day!

Anyway, I am glad that a group in Nigeria has realized that research powers development! Wonder not about which group, for it is BOKO HARAM. Initially, Almajiris shout 'Allah akbar' on the streets, now they are improvising bombs rather than throwing 'tira'. The same can be said of Niger-Delta militants: Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa and his fellows were organizing matches and sit-ins; now his brothers across Niger-Delta are using explosives. In South-west, what do you get? OPC and its JUJU! Awolowo must be crying in his grave for a people, once respected and reputed for their latitude in education, but now whimping under guiles of the Adeboyes, Oyedepos and Kumuyis of South-West Nigeria.

The matter raised on Sports in today's the Nation newspaper is not just sports. It covers our entire life, as a nation. Yar'Adua died ignobly because Turai and others decided on religious solutions, as against time-tested and research-based medical solutions. By the time the latter came into the picture, it was too late.

Perhaps, the the Adeboyes, Oyedepos and Kumuyis of Nigeria have failed us more than the politicians. What with thousands of money paid in offerings and tithes; yet no miracles - on good roads, electricity, pipe-borne water, etc. To cap it all, Adeboye's Redeemed Christian Church of God is breaking Nigerian laws with impunity and no one cares! Lagos State spear-headed independent power generation, but OBJ-led PDP claimed that power generation is on the Federal Government's Exclusive list in the constitution. Tinumbu had to hand-over its generated power to the FG! Today, rather than praying to God for illumination, Adeboye is generating power by himself to power his RCCG Camp and no OBJ or his minnions can talk!

Two issues here: the idiots who follow the Adeboyes, Oyedepos and Kumuyis of Nigeria failed to see the moral lessons in generating power when Nigeria's NEPA/PHCN failed rather than praying and fasting for it. Idiots who follow the Adeboyes, Oyedepos and Kumuyis of Nigeria would not go to the hospital to treat common ulcer, they would rather fast and pray because Adeboye told them that he has not the hospital in only-god-knows years.

At the other side of the continum, CAC's dirty water - omi ariran - is working wonder, giving students Adenovirus infection, Gastroenteritis, Coronavirus, Hepatitis A, Poliomyelitis, and Polyomavirus infection at Joseph Ayo Babalola University and its environs. Yet, Professor Oshun and other CAC guys would want us all to go there to bathe and drink! How i wish a sample of the water could be subjected to laboratory study to determine the amount of pathogenic microorganisms in it!

As a people and a nation, we believe in voodoo. we may pretend about it, but for a fact, we are not religious as we love to appear.

So, if you want change of any kind, i think we must start with our belief system. A belief system that says a dead body is more weightier than a living body is a sulk belief system. A belief system that says 'God-Will-Do-It', a name of a Church at Bodija, Ibadan; is a belief system programmed to fail. I ask; since 1960; what has such belief system fetched Nigeria and Nigerians?

We are going to remain backward as a nation and as a people if we keep believing in HOLY WATER, ANNOITING OIL, ANNOITING SCARF, HOLY GROUND, HOUSE OF POWER, PRAYER MOUNTAIN, AJE, OSO, EMERE, ETC. From 1960 till date, this belief system has yielded nothing, yet churches and mosques are growing everywhere and with no respect for living spaces. The noise pollution they generate every other day is another thing!

It is sad, so sad, that Osaze blamed Super Eagles failure to qualify for the Nations Cup on T.B. Joshua. It is sad that T.B. Joshua is now seeing good vision and the paper, the Nation Newspaper, gleefully reported that Joshua has seen a better vision and that Nigerians and NFF will smile soon. De Gea, Nani, Jones, Giggs, Rooney and Chicharito played out their hearts to draw level after going down on Sunday at Anfiled rather than looking for one scapegoat for their failures.

Amazingly, late President Musa Yar'Adua admitted that the election that brought him into power in 2007 was flawed. He said so at his innaguration on May 29, 2007. But when Buhari challenged him in Court and Yar'Adua's self-confession amounted to nothing in the reasonning of the Court; Yar'Adua turned round and say 'It was the Will of God". Which God? Is God or Yar'Adua was fraudulent?

Only education, not religion or God, will save Nigeria!