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!
(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!
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