tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66616433752198161412024-02-08T09:30:07.090-08:00NigeriaTodayOBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-30479605261805440512013-04-21T13:31:00.002-07:002013-04-21T13:33:20.918-07:00From Dialogue to Amnesty: Where is Negotiation?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The media in Nigeria has been awashed with reports of request and counter-request for the GEJ-led government to dialogue with Boko Haram. In most of the reports, two important things stand out: the general confusion by both parties that dialogue is the same as negotiation, and the overt conclusion that once dialogue is initiated, amnesty for Boko Haram must follow. In conflict resolution and peace building, dialogue differs markedly from negotiation. While dialogue can lead to negotiation, negotiation does not necessarily lead to outcomes such as amnesty.</div>
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Dialogue, as conflict resolution experts would affirm, enables not only conflict mitigators, but also parties-in-conflict, the opportunity to know and understand the views and positions of parties to any conflict. It is after this, that issues of trade-off (negotiations) can follow. The on-going efforts to (i) read the rights of the only surviving Boston Bomber to him and (ii) to interrogate him is best understood in the light of trying to know and understand, as much as possible, the views and positions of the bombers. In this specific instance, negotiation will take the form of court process.</div>
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As far as the discourse on Boko Haram is concerned, I do not think we, as a nation, know as much as we ordinary should know. As such, negotiation and amnesty should not come in at this point. Terrorism, globally, is a conscious choice. It is a political strategy aimed at achieving an end. In the case of Boko Haram, what is or are these ends? Who are members of Boko Haram? What are its objectives? It is not enough to conclude that since it was founded by late Mohammad Yusuf and now headed by Shekau; then issues of ownership and responsibility are settled. A number of issues make ownership and responsibility important.</div>
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Between 2002 and 2007, a number of CDs, DVDs and pamphlets were readily available on the stores and at various locations where such were sold, wherein intense debates were carried on between Mohammad Yusuf and Jafar Adams on three main issues: the Islamization of Nigeria, discarding western education and values and the religious responsibility of Muslims not to serve in any government not directed by the Sharia. Both Yusuf and Adams were erstwhile members of <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Jama’atul Tajdidi Islam (JTI)</span> and both met with violent endings. While the case of Yusuf is common knowledge, an assassin killed Adams, as he was preaching to his followers. In both cases, Nigeria Police has no answer to give.</div>
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In one of the CDs and DVDs, Adams make a star-statement: that his group met with Yusuf in Saudi Arabia in 2004, asking him to dump his views to the Quran, especially his views on Western education as forbidden to Muslims and working in a non-Sharia government. What happens to this important leads? Why is nothing heard of the discourse and the revelation that Boko Haram arose from an internal dialogue within fundamentalist Islam in Nigeria? Or, is this not important as clues to ownership of Boko Haram? Is this not a clear pointer that there are some people or groups in Northern Nigeria who may know more than is available to the public about Boko Haram? How much of such information are available to the security agencies in Nigeria? One thing is clear from all these, more is still shrouded in mystery and dialogue becomes attractive to unravel some of these issues.</div>
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If Boko Haram’s main issues are (i) the Islamization of Nigeria; (ii) western education/values and the religious responsibility of Muslims not to serve in any government not directed by the Sharia; then it stands logic on the head for anybody with any knowledge of Nigeria’s composition to ask government to negotiate with Boko Haram. Negotiations are about trade-offs. The crust of Boko Haram’s agitation bothers on Nigeria’s secularism and pluralism. It therefore makes little or no sense for government to negotiate with Boko Haram when the stated objectives of Boko Haram are not achievable by trading off the objective of the government to ensure that interfaith dialogue and plurality of Nigeria is preserved at whatever the cost.</div>
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In the first place, can it be said that Boko Haram is actually fighting against the government of Nigeria? A look at the group’s origin will serve as a good starting point to engage this question. What are the group’s objectives and how much of these can be achieved?</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Yusuf, in his sermons, argued that to the extent that Western education brings anti-Islamic socialization, it is religiously forbidden for Muslims. For Yusuf, any education that impacts knowledge different from the Qur’an and Sunna, such knowledge be rejected. He posited further that where any knowledge neither supports nor contradicts the Qur’an and Hadith, Muslims are at liberty to either accept or reject such knowledge on their own merit or as circumstances may dictate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">Although the above appears simplistic, a closer look at Yusuf’s examples showed that they however have deeper dimensions. For instance advances in the sciences – medical, technological, communication, human security etc. that are not found in either the Qur’an or the Hadith are forbidden, even if such knowledge was non-existent during the times of Prophet Mohammed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">In one of his sermons, Yusuf argued that modern science taught that rain falls through condensation and saturation of vaporized water, a teaching which contradicts Qur’an chapter 23 verse 18, which says: ‘And We sent down water from the sky according to (due) measure, and We caused it to soak into the soil; and We certainly are able to drain it off (with ease)’. Yusuf, in his outright rejection of this scientific explanation, explained that Prophet Muhammed in the Hadith noted that whenever it rained, he would go outside and touch the rain because it was fresh i.e., created anew by God. Without as much as citing the specific portion of either the Quran or Hadith to support his teaching, Yusuf also condemned the view that the earth was spherical. Similar to his view on rainfall, Yusuf also condemned the time scales that measure the age of the earth and the various deposits within it. As against scientific claim of four million years, Yusuf called attention to Quran chapter 41 verse 9, which states that God created the earth in just two days. In addition to the above, Yusuf noted that Allah, in chapter 50 verse 38 affirmed that God created the universe in six days as against ‘one billion, six hundred million, three minutes and one second years, as claimed in the Big Bang Theory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">On human creation, Yusuf faulted Charles Darwin’s evolution theory by asserting that Quran chapter 23 verse12 holds that human beings were made of clay and not evolved from lower forms of life and are still evolving. In yet another teaching, Yusuf countered chemists’ claim that energy is not created and cannot be destroyed. He called attention to the Quran in chapter 55 verses 26 and 27 that only God is eternal and uncreated. He went further to assert that ‘Everything/everyone on earth perishes. Only the face of your Lord of glory and honor endures’.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">Many more are Yusuf’s teachings. For Yusuf, Muslims should reject all aspect of Western education that contradict the Quran and Hadith and accept only those that support or do not contradict the Qur’an and Hadith. Equal in other to the above, Yusuf, like other Salafis, also rejected co-educational system, as it brings about the mixing of males and females in the same learning environment, he claimed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 36pt;">These ultra-Salafi doctrines, with its heavy reliance on Ibn Taymiyya - a fourteenth-century Islamic scholar regarded by Salafis and Wahhabis as one of their most prominent authorities - endeared Yusuf to many, especially the impoverished and uneducated Muslims, across Northern Nigeria. Could thesew be the core of people agitating for amnesty for members of Boko Haram? How and what do government negotiate amidst all these?</span></div>
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OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-18141573026999015592013-02-03T23:38:00.000-08:002013-02-04T03:44:31.974-08:00Nigeria, this morning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In the news this Monday morning are two important items: OBJ and GEJ met at Aso Villa Chapel and CAN Ibadan urged politicians to deliver on promises. As part of our nation-building efforts as a people, these news items are important and views and comments are welcome.<br />
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In the first place, why will and should anybody feel concerned about OBJ and GEJ? Are they not from the same party? However, a deeper analysis of recent developments in Nigeria suggests that we take a closer look at these two issues. OBJ berated GEJ recently over the spate of violence and insecurity in Nigeria. OBJ faulted GEJ's handling of Boko Haram and criticized the carrot and stick approach the government has adopted over the past years. GEJ's team loudly replied over the weekend that perhaps OBJ has lost touch with reality and, permit me to add, that his sojourn these few years in his Ota farm, has dulled his reasoning. Prior to now, OBJ reminiscenced on his days in power and how he ordered a few places, including Odi and Jesse towns, to be levelled by soldiers. He touted this as the right approach to the Boko Haram's terrorist group.<br />
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As an expert in the field, i know that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem and that leaders owe their subjects, including Boko Haram, responsibility for protection. As such, OBJ's view to solving the Boko Haram's problem is not necessarily right and may not even yield any result. He may have deployed maximum force in Odi and Jesse, but Boko Haram is not limited to a particular social space. If we take OBJ's approach, then we will deploy soldiers to all Northern states in Nigeria and kill innocent people! That will be madness!<br />
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That said, OBJ cannot be totally dismissed. No body facies GEJ's approach to the problem so far! We seem to know what he would say next. He has given us, Boko Haram inclusive, reasons to believe that he and his handlers are clueless on the matter. At every turn, Boko Haram was winning until US/UK intervention. How long were we to cope with leaders who, at every opportunity, turn to the West for solutions?<br />
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This leads me to the second news item - CAN Ibadan asked political leaders to deliver on promise. It is heart warming to hear that CAN, after the debacle of Catholic Church pulling out, to inject itself into the national space and asking its members in government to deliver the goods for which we voted for them. CAN should do more. In the Baptist Mission, we yearly call on members to swear that we are not cultists. CAN should take a leave from that. It should mandate its members to take the political class to task by asking them to publickly declare their rape of the country; to stand up to their constituents and account for their stewardship. Islam shoul do like wise. It is only in this way that Nigerians can localize accountability.<br />
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How do we solve the Boko Haram problem? Carrot? Stick? or Carrot and Stick? Your views are of great importance. Thank you.<br />
Oyeniyi</div>
OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-34875415448899098282013-02-03T22:08:00.000-08:002013-02-03T23:44:53.810-08:00Baba Suwe, Oil subsidy, Nigeria<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The arrest and detention without trial of Mr. Omidina, popularly known as Baba Suwe by Nigeria's NDLEA early in October 2011 is to say the least mind-boggling. Baba Suwe was suspected to have ingested substance believed to be HARD DRUG and was consequently detained at the Muritala Muhammed Airport, Lagos pending when he would excrete the supposed hard drug. Baba Suwe has insisted that he did not ingest hard drug and has gone to court to seek, first, his freedom, then justice against his fundamental rights. In the midst of this, NDLEA went to court to obtain permission to detain him for another 15 days.<br />
Local and International Media, most especially BBC and CNN carried the news of Baba Suwe's arrest as breaking news, which puts the matter on the international spotlights. Up till the time of writing this piece, it is not clear if Baba Suwe has excreted any substance, which casts so much doubt on NDLEA's claim and puts the country up for recrimination.<br />
How are we sure that NDLEA's scanning machine, which i have had the unpleasant pleasure of been on, really functioning? If functioning and it actually and correctly discovered Baba Suwe's stomach to be harboring substance believed to be drug; then why has he not excreted it, even after medical intervention to get him to do so? A number of people have also raised the absurd point of a possible Drug Baron 'remote-controlling' of Baba Suwe's stomach from somewhere and preventing him from excreting the stuff. No matter how stupid this may sound, we live in a country where Yar' Adua, a serving president, enlisted the services of witch-doctors to cure kidney diseases. Remember also that late Abacha did similar thing before he passed on. In the same garb, OBJ suggested the use of 'juju' in fighting apartheid!<br />
Alternative argeument could be that peradventure a Baron had paid someone to help Baba Suwe out and that the NDLEA is no chasing shadows. Almost all these issues are possible, especially in a society as corruption ridden as Nigeria.<br />
Whatever may have happened, I think Baba Suwe's arrest and detention is a big call on Nigeria's judicial system. How long will Baba Suwe stay behind bars on suspicion of drug trafficking? What does the law say? The common thing people from my side of the law knows is that suspects can only be detained for 24 hours. From the look of things, this may have been a lawman view of the laws, as the court granted NDLEA 15 more days to keep Baba Suwe. What if, after 15 days, Baba Suwe still would not excrete drug? How would have the NDLEA cope with the scandal? What would become of NDLEA?<br />
A number of questions could be asked on this matter, especially why NDLEA is still holding on to Baba Suwe. Did NDLEA receive any tip that Baba Suwe was traveling with drug? As it appears that his arrest was premeditated.</div>
OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-42052764660556933882013-02-03T22:06:00.003-08:002013-02-03T22:17:44.057-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>Thief na Thief.</b><br />
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<b>Not too long ago, a Police Pension thief who has been standing trial for sometimes now was ruled guilty and his punishment was a 750, 000 naira fine for stealing 27 billion naira.</b><b> Earlier on, the same judiciary jailed a young man who stole a blackberry phone of about 25,000 naira for three years.</b><br />
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<b>From these two cases, i believe it is safe to say that Nigeria judicial system, like the political system, is a joke - awada kerikeri.</b><br />
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<b>A number of Nigerians have expressed displeasure at the judgment. I however had a different view. In the first instance, i think we need to know what the law books say. What minimum and maximum punishment is prescribed? If the law books prescribed such a 'no-punishment' for the big thief and such a 'sledge-hammer' punishment for the small thief, i think we need not to revamp the books, but burn them.</b><br />
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<b>If the law books were clear on a longer and stiffer terms, we need to know what prevented the judge from acting in line with the books. We need to know if the judge has also exhausted his quota of punishments on the judgment day. Afterall, when Bishop Akinola was raining curses on those that were saddled with the responsibilities of building Nigeria and the President could not say 'Amen', his media man, Dr. Reuben Abati was quick to say that he had exhausted his quota of Amen for the day. Could it be there is a protocol in the law books that imposes such a limitation on the judge too?</b><br />
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<b>We need also to know if the plea bargaining with the EFCC was to the effect that such a punishment was mutually agreed before it became public. </b><br />
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<b>If nothing of these nature are in the law books, are we save to think that the judge may have been corrupted or compromised to give such a ridiculous judgment? If the EFCC agreed to the plea bargaining and buckled when Nigerians reacted, then how true is the organization in its fight against corruption?</b><br />
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<b>What lessons are here? Is this the way top fight corruption? </b><br />
<b>Your views are welcome.</b></div>
OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-50698572546323234102012-04-20T08:59:00.000-07:002012-04-20T08:59:16.911-07:00Mr. Oyedepo Dragged to Court for Slapping Congregant!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> Let me start by saying that I will not dignify Oyedepo by calling him a pastor, as he is not one. Jesus Christ told us who a pastor is: he leaves 99 sheep to look for one missing lamb!<br />
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Jesus Christ chased away moneychangers and bussinessmen from the temple, whipping and flogging them as they fled. With bosterious wind blowing away their flowing gowns, he upturned their trays and tables and fling their wares! That is Jesus, the true Pastor!<br />
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Mr. David Oyedepo, the General Overseer and Founder of Winners' Chapel, Covenant University and Landmark University among many other institutions in Nigeria, is undoubtedly a cult-hero to many Nigerian pentecostal (perhaps pente-rascal) Christians. Mr. Oyedepo owns the largest Church Auditorium in the world. Besides these, he has no other claim to fame! <br />
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In Nigeria, this credential is more than that of Professor Toyin Falola, an Ibadan-born, OAU Ile-Ife-trained History professor who has written and edited more than 200 African History books. It is more than that of Prof Wole Soyinka, the nobel laurate! It is more than those of Achebe and Ayi Kwei Ama, the literature greats!! <br />
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However, prior to now, Mr. Oyedepo stopped students of his university from graduating for being HIV positive and for not being virgins. Only pressure from the civil society pressured NUC to stop him! <br />
Among many other attrocities, many who work in his university have claimed that he, like Jesus, also washed heads and feet of lecturers and staff of the university (and taking the water away). Those who allow him to wash their feet and head are paid a 'worship fee' while those who will not are not paid.<br />
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As these videos show, Mr. Oyedepo has been slapping and tramping on people's rights for very long and he often boasts of this special service. <br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/">http://www.youtube.com/</a>watch?feature=player_embedd%E2%80%8Bed&v=jvKRjETbIRg<br />
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Today, Robert Igbinedion, a Lagos based lawyer, has taken Oyedepo's ass to court for infringing on the rights of a female congregant. The lawyer is praying the court to cause Oyedepo to pay the girl N2bn as 'general and exemplary damages' and also to publish an open apology to the girl in many Nigerian newspapers and other foreign media.<br />
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It baffles logic that in Oedepo's church and schools, money changers like Ibori, Lucky Igbinedion, Bode George, Erastus Akingbola, Cecilia Ibru, etc. recieve warm embraces, open adulation, special prayers with annointing, etc. He, of course, set up his numerous schools for their children!<br />
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The difference between the hapless girl that Oyedepo slapped and the likes of Ibori and Cecilia Ibru is simple: they pay fat tithes, bring assorted goods, and build large auditoriums for the pastor and church. <br />
What can a poor girl give Oyedepo, a multi-billionnaire! <br />
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I trust the Nigerian Judiciary; Oyedepo will return with no verdict of guilt in the same way an Asaba Court returned Ibori as a saint only for a UK Court to jail him for 13years after a self-confession.<br />
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Oyedepo may claim to be a man of God and his worshippers may see him as one; certainly he side-stepped our laws, the Nigerian laws, by slapping that girl. The fact that the girl walked into his church and also came to the front on her own volition has never mauled her rights. Oyedepo is a shame to Christianity and it beats my imagination that CAN and PFN can fold their hands, keep their mouths shut and remain 'characteristically' silent on the matter.<br />
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By the way, what right has a pastor to declare a congregant candidate of/for hell or heaven? On whose authority? Did we not read of one of the condemned robbers who got saved as Jesus was dying on the cross?<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/">http://www.youtube.com/</a>watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jvKRjETbIRg</div>OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-90174311336484882102012-04-09T05:17:00.000-07:002012-04-09T05:17:47.248-07:00On Kaduna Bombing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed">Dear All,</div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed"> </div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed">At this point in our nation's ascent, certainly we need peace more than anything else. If the current explosion in kaduna is also by Boko Haram, it is no longer North against South or Muslims against Christians, but a deep seating problem that we all must face. For crying out loud, bombs are different from guns. Guns and bullets aim at specific targets, unless accidental discharges; bombs, when us<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">ed by untrained people, aims at all and sundry. Certain bombs and explosives can be selective in their choice of targets and impacts, but certainly IEDs are not. They are crudely made, hence, they are lethal in their impact. <br />
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When the dust settles, i hope government would not sit back on its arses again and start a spirited defence of the Nigerian state? This is not a matter of one group arming and preparing to defend itself, as those that were killed so far were not from any particular group or religious affliation. They are Nigerians. They are one of us. They are some people's family members and therefore, we have to transcend ethnic or religious chauvinism if we have to solve this problem.<br />
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I have been arguing this before now, but no one listens until Boko Haram took over the reins of power from Yar'Adua and now Jonathan. Recently, a Colonel from the War College mailed to say that he stumbled on my writings from 2005 on this problem and would want us to chat. Medicine after death, i would say! <br />
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There are ways to know these terrorists among us. There are ways to predict their next targets and why. There are ways to fish out their sponsors and their networks of suport, training and operations. Researches that could help abound, but nothing in Nigeria is research-driven, so i can understand why we are caught pants-down by these men and women who believed they can kill and main and go scot-free.<br />
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It is now too late for, say, Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa, etc to prevent the raging inferno called terrorism, even in their cities. It is too late to stop them, however, it is not late to control their activities.<br />
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Terrorism, to start with, is a weapon of the weak. It is a bargaining technique by the weak with the strong. As such, those requests placed before the Nigerian state are not the real intentions and agitations of the terrorists. They are smokescreen aimed at legitimating their parochial demands and gain supports from otherwise innocent bystanders. <br />
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It must also be added that those guys bombing everywhere are mainly foot soldiers, the real terrorists dine and wine with us. They are writing in the newsparers and advising government. They provide the cover that has prevented government from achieving any meaningful success in the fight against terrorists so far. <br />
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Take a cue from this: althrough George Bush years and his fight against terrorism, did he as much as achieve an inch of what Obama achieved so far? No! The reason is simple, overt operations will normaly scare the big guns into hidden whereas intelligence and covert operations catches them unawares. <br />
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Everyday, government tells the terrorists we are coming after you along Sagamu road. Even if they are fools, would they not run towards Kaduna? So far, the arrest made was borne out of intelligence not out of brute and senseless force. El Rufai recently made a point, which many criticized. He argued that deployment of soldiers would not help. Pat Utomi, among many others, argued against him. He also made a valid argument that when and where lives and property of innocent people are threatened, government reserves the right to order police or army actions to restore order. <br />
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How often do we hear and say that some things are expedient but not necessary and some things are necessary but not expedient. As a logical solution, force will achieve nothing. Neither will dialogue. <br />
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Since we broker peace witn Niger Delta militants and even offered them pardon, has there been peace in the region? <br />
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The fist step in combating Boko Haram and similar problems across Nigeria lies in empowerment. People are poor and are therefore easy prey to many things, especially religion. <br />
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In Northern Nigeria as well as in the south, people have become too gullible that anybody can deceive them and get them to do anything in the name of religion. Are people not worshipping Adeboye, Kumuyi, Olukoya, etc in the south as almajiris daily troop to madrasas in the north? What is the rationale for trooping to RCCG camp everyday if not for the much sought after material gains? Poor people troop after God, religion and pastors and imams because they are poor. <br />
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Poverty, as used here, needs a broader conceptualization. Many rich people you find in camp and other religious assemblies are there for one thing or the other. Many are seeking solutions to problems that science has solved in other parts of the world. If they are not poor in thought, why cannot they seek cure in foreign land rather than GO's favour and mediated and, oftentimes, sexed miracles? <br />
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The poor hopes that by serving God wholeheartedly, their state would change. The pastors and imams knew that their situations can only change if they pay more attention to why they are poor, but if they are they are told this truth, will they believe? In addition, how will Olukoya, Adeboye, and others pay to park their aircrafts if these gullible idiots are wise? <br />
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It is this simple truth that Boko Haram and others are profiting from. For Boko Haram to kill christians, they know where to find them. To kill muslims, they know where to find them. To make their impact felt, they target markets on market days. They target Nigerians on independence days because we glory in shows and glamour. Independence days afford us opportunity to steal, so we gather people together to celebrate so that we can smile to the banks. In otner parts of the world, terrorists, until Bush smoked them into openly attacking people, attack icons and national monuments. Nigeria's terrorists would not attack any monument because we do not value them. They will attack churches and mosques and markets because we glory in them. It is all about value chain.<br />
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To end this sad commentary, let me say that these conditions are important for terrorism to fester: discontent stock, real or imagined differences, real or imagined inadequate resources, supportive diasporas, ethnic and religious polarization. <br />
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In real term, only the gullible would accept that we have ethnic and religious polarization in Nigeria. What we have is ethnic and religious pluralism.<br />
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Pluralism is about choices amidst many options. Ethnic and religious fractionalization is not the same as ethnic and religious polarization. When a thing is polarized, it is divided into two distinct categories. Yes, islam and christianity are two religions, but are they the only two religions in Nigeria? Same goes for etnnic groups. <br />
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Polarization leads to violence and conflict (same for terrorism) when two diametrically opposed groups can only achieve their objectives by liquidating each others objectives. What are the objectives of the religions, and are these attainable by liquidating each others objectives? Same goes for ethnicity.<br />
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For polarization to graduate into conflicts and wars, one group or religion must be large enough to swallow the other. Once this occurs, the smaller group or the swallowed group, would necessarilly use terrorists tendencies to express its voice. <br />
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If the above is true and logical, can we then find out if Islam and Northern Nigeria are the smallest ethnic group and religion in Nigeria and why are Boko Haram members solely from the north and are entirely muslims?<br />
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Can we also argue that their attacks on fellow muslims, irrespective of whether they are from the North and are equally muslims who may share in their religious fervour, not acts of religiously and ethnically polarized state? After all, they ought to be in the same group.<br />
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Those who are advising government in Nigeria needs to be educated and the same goes for Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikwe Jonathan! <br />
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I commiserate witn those who lost loved ones and invaluable property to this latest act of brigandage in Kaduna. May the dead finds peace, and may the nation never witness this again.</span></div></div>OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-38659790853387227432011-12-24T06:47:00.001-08:002011-12-24T06:47:28.746-08:00Do Africans Know It's Christmas?Do Africans Know It's Christmas?<br />
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http://www.hayibo.com/yes-we-know-its-christmas-say-african-musicians-as-they-finally-record-a-response-to-band-aid/<br />
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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!OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-22742050811880540232011-11-28T03:29:00.000-08:002011-11-28T03:29:48.156-08:00Religious Hypocrisy in Contemporary Nigeria (Part 2)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/oyeniyiba?sk=notes#!/moroluwayo" target="_blank">Dear Dolapo</a> Akinola-Omojola,<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><em>"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."</em></span><br />
<u><span style="color: #0066cc;">Dolapo</span></u> Akinola-Omojola, November 28th 2011<br />
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Permit me to ask you some few questions regarding your comment to Rolu’s earlier comment, which I will reproduce as I go on.<br />
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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?<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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!<br />
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? <br />
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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.<br />
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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?<br />
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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.</div>OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-13641521135130111682011-11-28T03:08:00.000-08:002011-11-28T03:08:39.774-08:00Religious Hypocrisy in Contemporary Nigeria<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><strong><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/oyeniyiba" target="_blank">Facebook Interventions and Comments</a></strong></span></div><br />
<em><span style="color: red;">"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.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="color: red;">"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.</span></em><br />
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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!<br />
<em><strong><u>Oyeniyi, Bukola Adeyemi, 28th November 2011</u></strong></em><br />
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<strong><span style="color: blue;">COMMENT</span></strong><br />
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.<br />
Oluseyi Imah, 28th November 2011.<br />
</div>OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-58811048590569209302011-11-26T00:24:00.000-08:002011-11-27T10:47:08.785-08:00Makerere University successfully tests electric car! Why Nigeria Cannot Emulate Makerere University!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><strong><a href="http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/18833-Makerere-University-successfully-tests-electric-car.html">Makerere University Successfully Tests Electric Car! Why Nigeria Cannot Emulate Makerere University!</a></strong><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am impressed by <a href="http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/18833-Makerere-University-successfully-tests-electric-car.html" target="_blank">Makerere's feat!</a> 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. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">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'. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">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.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">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! </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">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. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">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!<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/18833-Makerere-University-successfully-tests-electric-car.html<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-40477204725440742592011-11-17T09:16:00.000-08:002011-11-17T09:16:09.839-08:00Blatter, just a handshake is not enough!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Blatter, just a handshake is not enough!<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><strong><em>"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?"<o:p></o:p></em></strong></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">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. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How he managed to get away, especially from the barbs and arrows of feminists scholars, is still a wonder. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On slavery, he was decidedly unbridled. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> century Great Britain. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Listen to Blatter:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><em>"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."<o:p></o:p></em></strong></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">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:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><em>“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!”</em></strong> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What an insult!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">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:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><em>"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?"<o:p></o:p></em></strong></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One thing is clear, Blatter’s cup is full. His latest turn around statement that: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><u>"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."<o:p></o:p></u></strong></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">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. <u>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!</u> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">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! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>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!<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><em><u>Rise, black people and people of African descent! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rise!!<o:p></o:p></u></em></strong></span></span></div><br />
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</div></div>OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-83035161654363945222011-10-24T02:22:00.000-07:002011-10-24T02:23:42.009-07:00Damn Gadhafi, Damn His Will!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_119313539"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Damn Gadhafi, damn his Will!</span></a></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;"><a href="http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news/23916-gaddafi%E2%80%99s-last-will.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">(This piece is in reaction to series of comments to the Nation’s piece on Gadhafi’s Will)</span></a></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">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. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">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! </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">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!</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">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. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">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.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">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. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">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.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">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!!!!</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">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! </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">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. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Damn Gadhafi, damn his Will!</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div>OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-769279119274260892011-10-20T03:50:00.000-07:002011-10-20T04:00:39.855-07:00Boko Haram: Everywhere You Go!!!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"><strong>Boko Haram: Everywhere You Go!!!!</strong></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">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: </div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">How would Boko Haram Customer Service Department have handled a call to its' department? </div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">May be something like this:</div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"><strong>Graaaaaaannnnnnnn, the phone rings.</strong></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"><strong>Boko Haram Customer Service</strong>: <br />
Welcome to Boko Haram. Your call is important to us and may be recorded for quality service improvement.</div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">For suicide bombing, press 1.</div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">To plant a bomb in your area, press 2.</div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">If you have any information where to plant bomb in Nigeria, press 3.</div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">If you can manufcature bomb, press 4.</div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">If you want to enlist, press 5.</div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">To speak with a Boko Haram agent, press 0.</div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">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. </div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">(Would the organization also have a signature-line?) </div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">Boko Haram: Everywhere You Go!!!!<br />
OR<br />
Boko Haram, Rule Your World!!!!!!!!!<br />
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<br />
It is a joke, dont laugh at it!</div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">OBA, 20/10/2011 </div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div></div>OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-85433181500882910542011-10-17T12:42:00.000-07:002016-01-18T18:55:48.877-08:00Nigeria, a Waving Flag!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> <b>Nigeria, a Waving Flag!</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Monday, October 17, 2011</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Need one say that the pitiable state we found ourselves today was built during those memorable years!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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’.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Where were those days and why cannot I give my three musketeers the same experience? Why are the times different? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">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!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Bukola Adeyemi, Oyeniyi</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">17/10/2011</span><br />
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OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-30578167904434798572011-10-16T15:40:00.000-07:002011-10-16T15:40:27.877-07:00Join the trail for change! Join the Nigerian Spring!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-Benefit-Network/229477117079072#!/oyeniyiba">Join the trail for change! Join the Nigerian Spring!</a><br />
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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. <br />
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We may be at the worst end of the stick now, we will rise and stand up to our name and greatness. <br />
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Join the trail for change! Join the Nigerian Spring!</div>OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-79176855254456545972011-10-16T14:15:00.000-07:002011-10-16T14:15:09.198-07:00Terror Attack on Gomber Police Headquarters!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><strong>Terrorist Attack in Gomber Police Headquarters!</strong><br />
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. <br />
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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.</span><br />
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<span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}">No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.</span></div>OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6661643375219816141.post-25476792168460056742011-10-16T11:05:00.000-07:002011-10-16T11:05:01.917-07:00Only Education, not Religion or God, will save Nigeria!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><strong>Re: <a href="http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/football-golf-boxing/22993-can-eagles-fly-again.html">Can the Eagle Fly Again?</a> </strong><br />
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<a href="http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/football-golf-boxing/22993-can-eagles-fly-again.html">(The Nation, Sunday 16/10/2011)</a> <br />
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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. <br />
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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!<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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!<br />
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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!<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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!<br />
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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.<br />
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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! <br />
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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. <br />
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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?<br />
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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!<br />
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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.<br />
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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?<br />
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Only education, not religion or God, will save Nigeria!<br />
</div>OBAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09225722315072556314noreply@blogger.com0