(From Diary: 2005)
In the Nigeria of today, there is a dire need for an attitudinal change. Psychologists may assume that this require a strenuous collective effort from the society, the environment and the forces that manage and control both the society and the environment. One may have no problem in accepting this idea, but will be left to ponder much on how it is all going to happen.
Clearly presented before our eyes is a tried and true theory that said; a country ridden by tribalism, nepotism and despotism is no doubt a country prone to chaos and confusions that defies explanation. Unity is the force behind many successful revolutions, and the surest foundation upon which several civilizations were laid upon.
Greediness, selfishness and the entertainment of tribal or racial sentiments are condemned by both religion and common sense. Tribalism, nepotism, racism and the likes are the most degradingly subscribed to products never to be advertised to civilized and responsible societies needless for them to be sold to morally-bonded societies like ours. But the astonishing irony is that, it is from this morally-bonded society that these ugly products are churned out and allowed to mutate themselves at a rate that is horrendously supersonic.
We are all equal in the eyes of God. Hence we are only to be branded as Blacks, Whites, Colored, Hausa’s, Igbo’s, Yoruba’s, Northerners, Southerners, Westerners and whatever in this world for reasons of identification, understanding and consolidation of our collective challenges and striking differences.
Now back to basics.
The disease ‘tribalism’ is caused by the dreaded ‘Hatred-Inducing-Virus (HIV)’, a virus that is incomparably deadlier than the much debated and much feared HIV-AIDS virus. People that are dying of the disease caused by this virus are at an all time 15 million high annually, if you are in doubt call to your mind the number of innocent lives that perished in Rwanda between 1994 and 1996, the poor people that perished in Uganda, Angola, Cote D’ Voire, Ethiopia, Darfur, Afghanistan, Eritrea and so on. Hatred-Inducing-Virus was first discovered by Dr. Rational Blindness and Professor Satan Mislead All. Dr. Rational Blindness and Prof. Mislead All spent many years developing, mutating, cooking and nurturing this dreaded virus in their Despotic Laboratory situated at ‘Innocent Heart Centre for Emotional Control and Manipulation.’
To delve a little into how this virus enters and damages the human mind’s morality, common sense and rationality defense system, the virus will first have to be present in a morally-blind carrier who will then knowingly or unknowingly spread it through unprotected communication intercourse that is achieved verbally, electronically, by employing the use of sign language or using pen and paper. The virus then enters the victims’ mind, shrouding his common sense, it then mutate and replicate itself at an unspeakable speed. It will by this time start to damage the human mind’s morality, objectivity and rationality defense system and from there pumped out like blood pumped from heart to reach out to other parts of the body rendering the victim blind to rationality, blind to humility, blind to objectivity, blind to spiritual and social maturity and worst blind to mutual understanding. No, don’t you ever think of using condom to tame the spread of this disease as all it requires is good and exemplary conduct, because I know by now you may likely be thinking of switching your radar to the chemists.
Having said that, we have to re-invigorate the doctrine of been our brother’s keepers into our beliefs and ideologies else we remain forever the most retrogressive society and a force not to be reckon with in today’s competitive world.
This writer on one occasion ran into a young Nigerian who belonged to one of the major ethnic group in Nigeria and an ethnic group different from that which the writer belongs to. This young man was back from the United States of America full of pride and showcasing his manly belligerence for he has at then just fetched his B.A from the prestigious Harvard University (for this is what he’d said to the writer prior to the writer’s pronouncement of the word ‘journalist’). The writer was on that day out to fish a story to feed their 24 months old entertainment magazine and he’d got this idea in mind that he is to hear from this young guy how good or bad it is being an African in an all white host community. As the writer introduces himself to this guy, the last thing the writer recalled this young man uttered was “get lost, get outta ma sight, you psycho, wussy, sketchy jackass, damn you almajiri (for at that moment I wore on my tradition Babban Riga (agbada)). One would lack words at that time to fire back legally and am quick to realize that, yes, even if I am not a loser at that time, the outing was the unluckiest I’d have in the year 2005.
Never a time I blame this young man for his lack of respect because it is my belief that his actions was just a true mirror image of the sort of orientation he had been given by his parents. Thus, to disrespect and disregard any person not of his tribe.
Hugh Dalton of Britain once described us blacks as “Syphilitic N****rs.? An insult indeed, but why not get ourselves together, respect one another, and forge ahead as partners in progress?
During the times of our nationalist leaders tribalism of any sort had no place in their scheme of things, but what is obtainable today is a clear irony of that obtained during those years of glory, victory and camaraderie. Today ‘Federal Character’ is selfishly squeezed, squashed, twisted and reshaped into a tool for serving the interest of one section of the society at the expense of the other, and with this trendy act creating and promoting hostility of one group against the other. What was unpatriotic then is patriotic now.
Dirty politicking is now in place, excess show of materialism the order of the day, deception the deadly weapon mostly used, with deprivation been the by-product of these ungodly systems. To be aware of the trend is to be ready to bear and to take extra care, if not; you will definitely be prone to moral wear and tear!
By their own accounts, the gang of decayed elites we have, be they Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western whatever, throughout their history have explored, exploited and are still cunningly exploiting any and all means for the control and manipulation of Nigerian masses. The most typical tactics being the use of ‘divide and ruin’ and not what every one of us would have expected, namely, ‘divide and rule.’
Each faction is hell-bent on seeing to it willy-nilly that his own is considered the best no matter how bad or ruthless he or she is. If we are really serious about keeping Nigeria united then one will see no reason why the likes of ACF (Arewa Consultative Forum), OPC (Odua Peoples Congress), MOSSOB (Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra) will exist and still be existing. Some if not all only represent a faction of elites that failed Nigerians when they were given a holistic opportunity to give their best to Nigeria and Nigerians. They now formed groups in a quest to protect their interest and minimize further embarrassments caused by their past crimes against humanity. Some of these power-drunk elites use money to lure youths into doing diminutive and self depriving dirty jobs in a view to furthering their cause or even for the simple but all important reason of protecting their prestige and positions.
The sad revelation is that, the youths blinded by the get-rich-quick syndrome have failed to quantify their worth and cowardly shun away from taming the puzzle-like contemporary challenges that present themselves to them; lure of riches and political manipulation inclusive. Most of us youths don’t think deeply about things we see or hear vis-à-vis the challenges of nation building and the consolidation of our dear fragile-like future. We search for money to do whatever kind of a job and not for a second realizing that the money is so little and never enough to meet-up our needs with the risk so high. The enjoyment is for a short period of time and the suffering a prolonged one. Most of us don’t think in those particular terms as to where the money comes from (looted from the treasury of course), it is always what we are going to do with the money that matter to us.
The youths, our destined future leaders are the ones seen on our streets come rain come shine chanting the slogans of ‘death and destruction’ enough to trigger violence and uproar whose results is lost of innocent lives and a blow to Nigeria’s human capital. The youths are oppressed and exploited. Never a time is their lack of foresight and predicaments justifiably judged and looked into by the powers that be in a view to prospering solutions to their problems. We can’t run away from the truth that most of these youths branded as epitome of failure or uneducated fellows by those who come from high social-classes are poor class intellectuals whom society had denied them their constitutionally-binding rights to showcase their god-given talents.
To me, this matter has illustrated how far our values have shifted in just a couple of years. Tribalism, despotism and nepotism has became so proliferated, so much legalized, so politicized and so much a tool used by the heartless and egocentric elites to quench, suppress and subdue the will, determination and aspirations of the masses.
Conclusively, I know and believe that as a scrupulous reader you will forgive this writer for daring not to mention anything about the ‘third term drama’, the ‘power shift palaver’, the ‘debt relief confusions-loaded-revolver’, the ‘post UME test misnomer’, the harsh ‘economic reforms hangover’ and the 2007 political Casanovas, as this will only add insult to injury. So help us God, ameen.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Of The Complicit Bank Executives And Bad Leadership In Nigeria
Power is literal and the lust for it evidently natural. The lust for power and control is as old as humanity itself and has played a pivotal role in steering the course of history.
Being powerful and able to wield enormous power is one thing and the ability to channel power into useful corridors of the mechanisms of leadership is another. Misuse of power is what has characterized various tasteless and equally lamentable Nigerian leaderships, reference to a gang that helped in no small ways in suffocating the collective dreams of helpless Nigerians, their dream of living a decent life, a universal right as enshrined in the popular United Nations' Human Rights dictum.
Contrastingly, a lot has been said about the ability of the Nigerian masses to swallow the purposeless incapacitation and nonsensesical behaviors of their leaders at all levels. Egocentric leaders that see little or no logic at all in breathing sense and health into the so-called Nigerian system and by all extension, into the Nigerian state, a fact that led many to designate Nigeria as a 'failed state'.
May be, one can see the reason behind the ability of the masses to swallow all these depressive negativities in the concept of 'undue patience'.
Naturally, in patience there is some strength, a sense of self-control and a soothing feel of latent power. The more one is able to shun his aggressor and the accompanying aggressive behaviors, the more one can be able to tidy up his ability to shoulder the excesses of the aggressor. Ability to weather a storm can be said to be a byproduct of patience that comes naturally or developed through experience.
Unlike patience that comes naturally, undue patience is always born out of necessity and most notably where limited choices are involved. One can easily conclude that the Nigerian masses are left with little or no choices at all; hence they almost always painfully embraced the undue patience, a patience that has proved to be an accumulative burden!
While our banking system and its ever complicit bank executives are busy further enriching themselves, their kith and kin and the rich and famous in our society, a poor fellow that worked very hard under the most unfavorable business conditions that prevailed in Nigeria to earn and deposit or rather save his meager fortune in the system will solicit for a meager loan from the banks in order for him to prop-up his business only to be told that the effect of the global economic meltdown has necessitated the system to ask him to surrender some ridiculous collaterals which he don’t have and to equally agree to pay an unimaginable interest on the loan which cant afford, practically denying him the opportunity of accessing the much needed facility.
Interestingly enough for all concerned, while their counterparts in the countries genuinely devastated by the effects of the meltdown are grazing down interest rates to almost zero percent, the powers that be in the Nigerian banking sector are busy devising means to charge ridiculous interest rates on loans and to lace the same loans with hidden charges and costs with some degree of sophistication and by so doing rendering the whole process dubious!
As a colleague once inferred ' it is a well documented fact that what keeps the black race behind is our pre-occupation in playing the blame game instead of working our way out', and this is very true.
Banks will use the global economic meltdown to scare poor loan solicitors away from a loan facility and will ironically pamper and invite the greedy and stupendously rich (now rich debtors) to shamelessly rape the system and drain it of funds.
On the other hand, shameless government officials will use the idea of over speeding to excuse preventable deaths caused by needless and repairable pot-holes on our highways. The same government will use a vividly short term drop in the price of crude in the international market to justify a long term and possibly permanent increase in the price of refined hydrocarbons sold in the local market and the same government cannot do the other way round when the price of the black oil skyrockets in the international market.
Sadly, it is the same government that will attribute widespread corruption for non-implementation of projects and budgets, while by all logic and sense it is the government that is entertaining a severe type of moral corruption for not acting or rather dealing squarely with the corrupt officials that are standing between Nigeria and its anticipated progress, selfish people that are strangulating the Nigerian state to death while pursuing their obsessive greed.
While richest people once considered the untouchables, people that are by all measure stupendously richer than our government-pampered rich and famous that are guilty as charged in the recent distressed banks debacle, people like Sir Stanley of Stanley Bank and Bernard Mardoff of the United States of America are busy warming their seats in their respective jails for committing similar offenses , offenses rightly considered by the US government as an avid threat to its economic and social security, it is no surprise that the inverse proportional of the same punishment meted on the likes of Sir Stanley is obtained in the Nigerian case.
Laughable enough is the fact that some of the rich debtors that almost suffocated the affected Nigerian banks to death are allowed to preside over sensitive financial institutions like the Nigeria Stock Exchange and Nicon Insurance and it will come as no surprise if before the expiration of the year the accused ladies and gentlemen of the private sector and their accomplices in the banking sector are conferred with now infamous Nigeria National Honors.
Besides, in Nigeria it is that any absurdity can happen, little wonder the 'Re-Brand Nigeria' project is evaporating into oblivion.
Indeed, it is time we become masters of our own destiny and stop blaming anyone and everyone but ourselves for our corrosive misfortune.
Being powerful and able to wield enormous power is one thing and the ability to channel power into useful corridors of the mechanisms of leadership is another. Misuse of power is what has characterized various tasteless and equally lamentable Nigerian leaderships, reference to a gang that helped in no small ways in suffocating the collective dreams of helpless Nigerians, their dream of living a decent life, a universal right as enshrined in the popular United Nations' Human Rights dictum.
Contrastingly, a lot has been said about the ability of the Nigerian masses to swallow the purposeless incapacitation and nonsensesical behaviors of their leaders at all levels. Egocentric leaders that see little or no logic at all in breathing sense and health into the so-called Nigerian system and by all extension, into the Nigerian state, a fact that led many to designate Nigeria as a 'failed state'.
May be, one can see the reason behind the ability of the masses to swallow all these depressive negativities in the concept of 'undue patience'.
Naturally, in patience there is some strength, a sense of self-control and a soothing feel of latent power. The more one is able to shun his aggressor and the accompanying aggressive behaviors, the more one can be able to tidy up his ability to shoulder the excesses of the aggressor. Ability to weather a storm can be said to be a byproduct of patience that comes naturally or developed through experience.
Unlike patience that comes naturally, undue patience is always born out of necessity and most notably where limited choices are involved. One can easily conclude that the Nigerian masses are left with little or no choices at all; hence they almost always painfully embraced the undue patience, a patience that has proved to be an accumulative burden!
While our banking system and its ever complicit bank executives are busy further enriching themselves, their kith and kin and the rich and famous in our society, a poor fellow that worked very hard under the most unfavorable business conditions that prevailed in Nigeria to earn and deposit or rather save his meager fortune in the system will solicit for a meager loan from the banks in order for him to prop-up his business only to be told that the effect of the global economic meltdown has necessitated the system to ask him to surrender some ridiculous collaterals which he don’t have and to equally agree to pay an unimaginable interest on the loan which cant afford, practically denying him the opportunity of accessing the much needed facility.
Interestingly enough for all concerned, while their counterparts in the countries genuinely devastated by the effects of the meltdown are grazing down interest rates to almost zero percent, the powers that be in the Nigerian banking sector are busy devising means to charge ridiculous interest rates on loans and to lace the same loans with hidden charges and costs with some degree of sophistication and by so doing rendering the whole process dubious!
As a colleague once inferred ' it is a well documented fact that what keeps the black race behind is our pre-occupation in playing the blame game instead of working our way out', and this is very true.
Banks will use the global economic meltdown to scare poor loan solicitors away from a loan facility and will ironically pamper and invite the greedy and stupendously rich (now rich debtors) to shamelessly rape the system and drain it of funds.
On the other hand, shameless government officials will use the idea of over speeding to excuse preventable deaths caused by needless and repairable pot-holes on our highways. The same government will use a vividly short term drop in the price of crude in the international market to justify a long term and possibly permanent increase in the price of refined hydrocarbons sold in the local market and the same government cannot do the other way round when the price of the black oil skyrockets in the international market.
Sadly, it is the same government that will attribute widespread corruption for non-implementation of projects and budgets, while by all logic and sense it is the government that is entertaining a severe type of moral corruption for not acting or rather dealing squarely with the corrupt officials that are standing between Nigeria and its anticipated progress, selfish people that are strangulating the Nigerian state to death while pursuing their obsessive greed.
While richest people once considered the untouchables, people that are by all measure stupendously richer than our government-pampered rich and famous that are guilty as charged in the recent distressed banks debacle, people like Sir Stanley of Stanley Bank and Bernard Mardoff of the United States of America are busy warming their seats in their respective jails for committing similar offenses , offenses rightly considered by the US government as an avid threat to its economic and social security, it is no surprise that the inverse proportional of the same punishment meted on the likes of Sir Stanley is obtained in the Nigerian case.
Laughable enough is the fact that some of the rich debtors that almost suffocated the affected Nigerian banks to death are allowed to preside over sensitive financial institutions like the Nigeria Stock Exchange and Nicon Insurance and it will come as no surprise if before the expiration of the year the accused ladies and gentlemen of the private sector and their accomplices in the banking sector are conferred with now infamous Nigeria National Honors.
Besides, in Nigeria it is that any absurdity can happen, little wonder the 'Re-Brand Nigeria' project is evaporating into oblivion.
Indeed, it is time we become masters of our own destiny and stop blaming anyone and everyone but ourselves for our corrosive misfortune.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Western Media and Africa: Balanced Reporting?
When Negative news dominates African coverage!
Journalists around the world are hailed for the enormous role they played in championing and sustaining a good and mature democracy, nation building and the protection of human rights and human dignity worldwide through their interminable campaigns to point out the dangers posed by dictatorial rulers whose main pleasure is derived from depriving the masses of their legitimate rights to live a peaceful and well-enjoyed way of life.
This understandably reflects on the journalism profession, but to our utter dismay, today, journalism has taken a new and peculiar dimension and a horrendous definition in the Western world or in the so-called much advertised "free and civilized" world.
Regrettably enough, the once valued and highly regarded Western media have disgracefully slipped a bit from its renowned tradition of fair and balanced reporting, most especially when it comes to reporting issues pertaining to Africa and Africans. It is a living reality that nobody except a fool can underestimate the strength of the mass media, be it print, electronic and otherwise to peoples, communities, societies, races, countries and continents. But how are we going to separate facts from sentiments as regards our adopted culture of incessant listening to news in radios, viewing them on televisions and also reading it in the print media.
In reality, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, pamphlets, etc. give information to the public; sometimes they give facts, and sometimes the facts are presented in a seemingly biased way. If not for bias or for a grand-propaganda campaign aimed at suppressing, black-listing and condemning a particular continent, its peoples and tribes the issue of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe's stance on the much controversial land reform and the West's boisterous response couldn't have been reported in such a manner that it is reported today in the Western media. Every now and then the issue of Mugabe and the white settlers remains bread on toast, while the issue of the calculated racism in disguise in Europe has bogged down and one hardly reads a critique of the Europe-born fee-status imposed on international students mostly Africans by European universities, despite their knowledge of an African student's financial history. In my own view, Africans are better off in the war-ruined Africa than in the inhospitable West.
This single act of fixing a fee-status to be collected from an African student and the heavy taxes collected from African immigrants in the UK and the rest of Europe while in reality back here in Africa, Western manipulation and exploitation machines such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have marshaled the evil schemes of devaluating the local currency and destabilizing the African economies renders the atmosphere unpropitious for him or her to pursue his or her academic endeavors.
Africans were reduced to doing menial and very degrading low-level jobs in Europe and the rest of the Western world. They are constantly harassed and embarrassed by the immigration officers and nothing is done. They were on several occasions stoned and maimed by their hosts and they always stand the probability of being hit or smashed by a spit from inhospitable Westerners. In Africa, white settlers are enjoying the highest degree of immunity and they live in peace and enjoying every bit of their lives without a threat of being harassed or embarrassed by the host black African communities.
This so-called civilized and professionalized Western media failed to point out or even criticize or publicize the illegitimate ownership of black African lands by the minority white population despite the fact that for over a century, since the slave-trade era Africans have been deprived of utilizing their lands for the betterment of their families and they are piteously punished in return by an unceasing tapping of their resources and the total subjugation to slavery and back-breaking labor in their hijacked lands. Isn't this racism in disguise? Why should the West panic when President Mugabe resorted to giving his best to his people, thus, making them comfortable with their own resources?
With this kind of a situation on ground, Mr. Mugabe's defiance is no doubt to the betterment of the deprived and oppressed black population. The whole Wild-Wild West have to think inwards, because it goes with the wise saying that says "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself." If the leaderships in the West think they are natty, Mr. Mugabe is not accidentally smart. And no amount of blame-shifting, psychological warfare or misinformation in the media can change his resolve.
Africa, a continent blessed with world's brightest brains and abundant natural endowments has been destroyed by both internally and externally influenced and imposed conflicts and hardships, hunger, abject penury, lack of security of both food and life and the list goes on and on. On their own sides our unskilled, visionless African looters and not leaders are well versed in diplomatic languages that have the grand capability of triggering war and confusion. Give a second thought to the war in Liberia and the attitude of the deposed President Charles Taylor, the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the attitudes of the presidents of neighboring Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, the war in once peaceful and harmonious Cote d'Ivoire, the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the war between the SPLA and the government in Sudan, the war in Angola, the genocide in Rwanda and the war in Somalia.
The West bore heavy direct or indirect responsibility in exacerbating this hardship to an alarming state. From endemics, epidemics to pandemics, today it is malaria here, AIDS/HIV there, polio here, ebola there, cholera here, starvations, malnutrition and ethno-religious violence elsewhere. By so doing, the black race was reduced to an endless struggle for survival and nothing good in this respect is expected from the Western media but rather a mere self-centered and biased report? Africans were left with nothing to cheer them up in their countries of origin, so they resorted to total and forced vagrancy, constantly searching and dreaming for a greener pasture, which translated into human trafficking, child abuse and all forms of abuses visibly manifesting and militating against the development of this great and blessed continent, Africa.
Africa, a continent with about 56 countries is yet to secure a single seat in the United Nations Security Council since its inception about 30 years ago. By this, Africans were told that France, Britain, USA and the rest of the UNSC members are to decide on their breakfasts, lunch and dinner and hence they knew what we wore on our bodies, what we ate and what we are to eat and also our belongings and possessions. Whenever a down-to-earth leader emerges from an African country the whole West counter-attacked him and brand him a bandit, a looter and more sinister a threat to the free world. This is because what they always need for Africa is dream and nothing but dreams.
Journalists around the world are hailed for the enormous role they played in championing and sustaining a good and mature democracy, nation building and the protection of human rights and human dignity worldwide through their interminable campaigns to point out the dangers posed by dictatorial rulers whose main pleasure is derived from depriving the masses of their legitimate rights to live a peaceful and well-enjoyed way of life.
This understandably reflects on the journalism profession, but to our utter dismay, today, journalism has taken a new and peculiar dimension and a horrendous definition in the Western world or in the so-called much advertised "free and civilized" world.
Regrettably enough, the once valued and highly regarded Western media have disgracefully slipped a bit from its renowned tradition of fair and balanced reporting, most especially when it comes to reporting issues pertaining to Africa and Africans. It is a living reality that nobody except a fool can underestimate the strength of the mass media, be it print, electronic and otherwise to peoples, communities, societies, races, countries and continents. But how are we going to separate facts from sentiments as regards our adopted culture of incessant listening to news in radios, viewing them on televisions and also reading it in the print media.
In reality, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, pamphlets, etc. give information to the public; sometimes they give facts, and sometimes the facts are presented in a seemingly biased way. If not for bias or for a grand-propaganda campaign aimed at suppressing, black-listing and condemning a particular continent, its peoples and tribes the issue of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe's stance on the much controversial land reform and the West's boisterous response couldn't have been reported in such a manner that it is reported today in the Western media. Every now and then the issue of Mugabe and the white settlers remains bread on toast, while the issue of the calculated racism in disguise in Europe has bogged down and one hardly reads a critique of the Europe-born fee-status imposed on international students mostly Africans by European universities, despite their knowledge of an African student's financial history. In my own view, Africans are better off in the war-ruined Africa than in the inhospitable West.
This single act of fixing a fee-status to be collected from an African student and the heavy taxes collected from African immigrants in the UK and the rest of Europe while in reality back here in Africa, Western manipulation and exploitation machines such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have marshaled the evil schemes of devaluating the local currency and destabilizing the African economies renders the atmosphere unpropitious for him or her to pursue his or her academic endeavors.
Africans were reduced to doing menial and very degrading low-level jobs in Europe and the rest of the Western world. They are constantly harassed and embarrassed by the immigration officers and nothing is done. They were on several occasions stoned and maimed by their hosts and they always stand the probability of being hit or smashed by a spit from inhospitable Westerners. In Africa, white settlers are enjoying the highest degree of immunity and they live in peace and enjoying every bit of their lives without a threat of being harassed or embarrassed by the host black African communities.
This so-called civilized and professionalized Western media failed to point out or even criticize or publicize the illegitimate ownership of black African lands by the minority white population despite the fact that for over a century, since the slave-trade era Africans have been deprived of utilizing their lands for the betterment of their families and they are piteously punished in return by an unceasing tapping of their resources and the total subjugation to slavery and back-breaking labor in their hijacked lands. Isn't this racism in disguise? Why should the West panic when President Mugabe resorted to giving his best to his people, thus, making them comfortable with their own resources?
With this kind of a situation on ground, Mr. Mugabe's defiance is no doubt to the betterment of the deprived and oppressed black population. The whole Wild-Wild West have to think inwards, because it goes with the wise saying that says "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself." If the leaderships in the West think they are natty, Mr. Mugabe is not accidentally smart. And no amount of blame-shifting, psychological warfare or misinformation in the media can change his resolve.
Africa, a continent blessed with world's brightest brains and abundant natural endowments has been destroyed by both internally and externally influenced and imposed conflicts and hardships, hunger, abject penury, lack of security of both food and life and the list goes on and on. On their own sides our unskilled, visionless African looters and not leaders are well versed in diplomatic languages that have the grand capability of triggering war and confusion. Give a second thought to the war in Liberia and the attitude of the deposed President Charles Taylor, the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the attitudes of the presidents of neighboring Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, the war in once peaceful and harmonious Cote d'Ivoire, the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the war between the SPLA and the government in Sudan, the war in Angola, the genocide in Rwanda and the war in Somalia.
The West bore heavy direct or indirect responsibility in exacerbating this hardship to an alarming state. From endemics, epidemics to pandemics, today it is malaria here, AIDS/HIV there, polio here, ebola there, cholera here, starvations, malnutrition and ethno-religious violence elsewhere. By so doing, the black race was reduced to an endless struggle for survival and nothing good in this respect is expected from the Western media but rather a mere self-centered and biased report? Africans were left with nothing to cheer them up in their countries of origin, so they resorted to total and forced vagrancy, constantly searching and dreaming for a greener pasture, which translated into human trafficking, child abuse and all forms of abuses visibly manifesting and militating against the development of this great and blessed continent, Africa.
Africa, a continent with about 56 countries is yet to secure a single seat in the United Nations Security Council since its inception about 30 years ago. By this, Africans were told that France, Britain, USA and the rest of the UNSC members are to decide on their breakfasts, lunch and dinner and hence they knew what we wore on our bodies, what we ate and what we are to eat and also our belongings and possessions. Whenever a down-to-earth leader emerges from an African country the whole West counter-attacked him and brand him a bandit, a looter and more sinister a threat to the free world. This is because what they always need for Africa is dream and nothing but dreams.
Global Warming: The Shadow Over Africa
In Africa poverty and want are prevalent, hunger and needless war becoming more and more incessant, and the rigor of bad and irresponsible leadership is eating away the souls of its inhabitants.
Prior to the emergence of globalization with its gospel of exposing developing nations to the logic of free trade, which as a result gave rise to an alarming rise in the influx of costless, used and, in many instances, substandard products like the so-called "Belgium cars" (a catch-phrase for used cars in Nigeria), e-waste in the form of used and hard-to-dispose-of computers and their accessories, etc., the continent of Africa has been a so-called "heaven on earth" and an irresistible tourist destination for many years. It boasts its prowess and grandeur by being the host to so many endangered species, calm waters, culture and centuries-old traditions, and most importantly its hospitable people.
As a young man working in a media consultancy firm in Kano State in 2005, I have been a part of a massive sensitization campaign carried out in conjunction with the Office of the Special Adviser to the Executive Governor of Kano State on Nongovernmental Organizations with sole aim of sensitizing commercial motorcyclists popularly known as Achaba on the dangers of reckless driving and how good and careful driving will contribute toward curbing the rise in the number of casualties recorded as a result of daily motorcycle accidents. Being a coordinator in the project, I had the opportunity to go through the results of research surveys that sought to achieve the objectives of the project and it is there that I came face to face with a striking but horrendous revelation -- a revelation that is casting a very big shadow on the future of this most populous state in Nigeria. A head count was carried out on the number of motorcycles available in the state, and the result showed 3,000,000 plus or about 30 percent of the state's overall population with about 87 percent daily on the streets. This means about 2.7 million motorbikes emitting CO2 daily on our streets! This number is reflective of what has been obtained in 2005, which means the numbers of motorbikes emitting CO2 today have quadrupled considering how politicians are importing these motorcycles in large numbers from China for distribution to their cronies and subjects.
Many will say global warming is the creation of the most developed nations as a result of their all-swallowing appetite for energy. People subscribing to this notion may likely be right in their assertion. But one cannot easily with the wave of a hand dismiss or rule out the complicity of African governments in the global rise in global warming. This is more evident in the fact that these governments care less to formulate and put into action good, effective and earth-saving import policies and regulations. As in the case of Nigeria, the politicians are happily or rather naively contributing toward global warming by squandering state resources in importing motorcycles unwittingly in large numbers for distribution to the young party faithful in order to buy their votes and loyalty.
In a partnership between Indian companies and some northern Nigerian state governments, about a million of tricycles are daily matching on our roads, thereby contributing their own quota to the rise in CO2 emitted from Africa and released into the already harmed atmosphere. If we add the carbon monoxide emitted by mostly ageing Europe-originating imported used cars, the result will come out to be horrendously overwhelming! Little wonder today that one finds people wearing masks that cover their noses on the streets of most northern Nigerian cities, especially metropolitan Kano; the mask selling business is also booming this days, but for how long will the mask be able to filter the air?
If our governments are serious about safeguarding the future of tomorrow's leaders, then large-scale importation of motorcycles and automobiles is not and will never be the right answer. Governments have experimented with Information Communication Technology for Development tools and the result has been very overwhelming. Youths with little or no formal education have been trained and empowered with ICT skills and they are doing well today, either by being gainfully employed or satisfyingly self-employed.
Empower the youths with education and never with overbearing CO2-emitting machines; this way governments can easily achieve the long-term goal of safeguarding the future of its youths and curbing global warming-instigated natural disasters that are claiming innocent souls, homes and shelters in Africa.
Prior to the emergence of globalization with its gospel of exposing developing nations to the logic of free trade, which as a result gave rise to an alarming rise in the influx of costless, used and, in many instances, substandard products like the so-called "Belgium cars" (a catch-phrase for used cars in Nigeria), e-waste in the form of used and hard-to-dispose-of computers and their accessories, etc., the continent of Africa has been a so-called "heaven on earth" and an irresistible tourist destination for many years. It boasts its prowess and grandeur by being the host to so many endangered species, calm waters, culture and centuries-old traditions, and most importantly its hospitable people.
As a young man working in a media consultancy firm in Kano State in 2005, I have been a part of a massive sensitization campaign carried out in conjunction with the Office of the Special Adviser to the Executive Governor of Kano State on Nongovernmental Organizations with sole aim of sensitizing commercial motorcyclists popularly known as Achaba on the dangers of reckless driving and how good and careful driving will contribute toward curbing the rise in the number of casualties recorded as a result of daily motorcycle accidents. Being a coordinator in the project, I had the opportunity to go through the results of research surveys that sought to achieve the objectives of the project and it is there that I came face to face with a striking but horrendous revelation -- a revelation that is casting a very big shadow on the future of this most populous state in Nigeria. A head count was carried out on the number of motorcycles available in the state, and the result showed 3,000,000 plus or about 30 percent of the state's overall population with about 87 percent daily on the streets. This means about 2.7 million motorbikes emitting CO2 daily on our streets! This number is reflective of what has been obtained in 2005, which means the numbers of motorbikes emitting CO2 today have quadrupled considering how politicians are importing these motorcycles in large numbers from China for distribution to their cronies and subjects.
Many will say global warming is the creation of the most developed nations as a result of their all-swallowing appetite for energy. People subscribing to this notion may likely be right in their assertion. But one cannot easily with the wave of a hand dismiss or rule out the complicity of African governments in the global rise in global warming. This is more evident in the fact that these governments care less to formulate and put into action good, effective and earth-saving import policies and regulations. As in the case of Nigeria, the politicians are happily or rather naively contributing toward global warming by squandering state resources in importing motorcycles unwittingly in large numbers for distribution to the young party faithful in order to buy their votes and loyalty.
In a partnership between Indian companies and some northern Nigerian state governments, about a million of tricycles are daily matching on our roads, thereby contributing their own quota to the rise in CO2 emitted from Africa and released into the already harmed atmosphere. If we add the carbon monoxide emitted by mostly ageing Europe-originating imported used cars, the result will come out to be horrendously overwhelming! Little wonder today that one finds people wearing masks that cover their noses on the streets of most northern Nigerian cities, especially metropolitan Kano; the mask selling business is also booming this days, but for how long will the mask be able to filter the air?
If our governments are serious about safeguarding the future of tomorrow's leaders, then large-scale importation of motorcycles and automobiles is not and will never be the right answer. Governments have experimented with Information Communication Technology for Development tools and the result has been very overwhelming. Youths with little or no formal education have been trained and empowered with ICT skills and they are doing well today, either by being gainfully employed or satisfyingly self-employed.
Empower the youths with education and never with overbearing CO2-emitting machines; this way governments can easily achieve the long-term goal of safeguarding the future of its youths and curbing global warming-instigated natural disasters that are claiming innocent souls, homes and shelters in Africa.
Africa: An Embarassment of Riches!
Africa is blessed in its people and its land.
From the rivers of the Rift Valley to the wild animals of the Kalahari Game Reserve there is more for tourists to see in Africa than anywhere else on Earth.
If you doubt this poor writer, kindly spare some hours out of your life to Google "tourism in Africa" and not "terrorism in Africa" and see the wonders for yourself.
Africa is blessed in its ability to nurse, nurture and preserve many of the world's most treasured and admired cultures and traditions. The Masai people and their robust culture prove my point.
Africans and people of African origin have done much to benefit the world. Think of Boutros Boutros Ghali and Kofi Annan of the United Nations.
They have also shown military prowess and skill in foreign policy. Think of the number of black military officers that fought in the two Iraq wars, or the likes of Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell.
People of African origin have changed the fate of nations. Remember the boldness and charismatic energy of American civil rights activists Martin Luther King Jnr. and Malcolm X.
Other famous Africans include Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dr. Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Emperor Gabriel Hail Salasee and Sir Ahmadu Bello K.B.E. of Nigeria to name but a few.
In the field of the display of exceptional wit and intelligence, the exceptionally creative writer Professor Chinua Achebe, Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, Professor Emeritus Ali Mazrui and Nobel Laureate Wawuru of Kenya are just some of the many great African intellectuals and thinkers.
To cut a long story short, Africa is stunningly and stupendously blessed with both human and natural resources.
Africa is also rich in minerals. Diamonds and gold are buried beneath the fertile soils of South Africa and Ghana. Crude oil weeps profusely in Sao Tome and Principe, the Gulf of Guinea, Nigeria and the Sudan. Zambia and its neighbors are famous for their zinc deposits. Aquamarine, amethyst and other precious stones are scattered across the soil of Africa. The list goes on and on.
The so-called civilized people in the West used to brand Africa as the "Darkest Part of the World." Though painfully insulting, I find it very logical to agree with their assertion and their colossal condemnation of this blessed continent.
I agree simply because the larger part of Africa has been enclosed and enveloped by needless man-made wars and conflicts that tend to violently dwarf the socio-economic development of the continent.War has affected Darfur, the Congo, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leon, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Chad, Gambia and the oil rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
Greed, lust for absolute power and bad leadership bedevil Africa, and unless the situation is reversed the continent will forever remain the so-called "Darkest Part of the World."
However there is good news coming out of this ancient continent.
Nigeria's role as mediator relieved war-torn Liberia of its trouble and facilitated the installation through democratic means of the first African woman president in the person of Allen Johnson Sirlef.
African organizations like the Economic Community of West African States and the Community of Sahel-Saharan States have done a great deal of good by intervening in warzones as peace keepers.
Africa is important for everyone regardless of their color, race or religious inclination. Africa has the potential to be a business haven equal to Dubai. Let us hope that the great continent will rise out of its present chaos and assume its rightful place as one of the most marvelous places on Earth.
From the rivers of the Rift Valley to the wild animals of the Kalahari Game Reserve there is more for tourists to see in Africa than anywhere else on Earth.
If you doubt this poor writer, kindly spare some hours out of your life to Google "tourism in Africa" and not "terrorism in Africa" and see the wonders for yourself.
Africa is blessed in its ability to nurse, nurture and preserve many of the world's most treasured and admired cultures and traditions. The Masai people and their robust culture prove my point.
Africans and people of African origin have done much to benefit the world. Think of Boutros Boutros Ghali and Kofi Annan of the United Nations.
They have also shown military prowess and skill in foreign policy. Think of the number of black military officers that fought in the two Iraq wars, or the likes of Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell.
People of African origin have changed the fate of nations. Remember the boldness and charismatic energy of American civil rights activists Martin Luther King Jnr. and Malcolm X.
Other famous Africans include Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dr. Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Emperor Gabriel Hail Salasee and Sir Ahmadu Bello K.B.E. of Nigeria to name but a few.
In the field of the display of exceptional wit and intelligence, the exceptionally creative writer Professor Chinua Achebe, Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, Professor Emeritus Ali Mazrui and Nobel Laureate Wawuru of Kenya are just some of the many great African intellectuals and thinkers.
To cut a long story short, Africa is stunningly and stupendously blessed with both human and natural resources.
Africa is also rich in minerals. Diamonds and gold are buried beneath the fertile soils of South Africa and Ghana. Crude oil weeps profusely in Sao Tome and Principe, the Gulf of Guinea, Nigeria and the Sudan. Zambia and its neighbors are famous for their zinc deposits. Aquamarine, amethyst and other precious stones are scattered across the soil of Africa. The list goes on and on.
The so-called civilized people in the West used to brand Africa as the "Darkest Part of the World." Though painfully insulting, I find it very logical to agree with their assertion and their colossal condemnation of this blessed continent.
I agree simply because the larger part of Africa has been enclosed and enveloped by needless man-made wars and conflicts that tend to violently dwarf the socio-economic development of the continent.War has affected Darfur, the Congo, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leon, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Chad, Gambia and the oil rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
Greed, lust for absolute power and bad leadership bedevil Africa, and unless the situation is reversed the continent will forever remain the so-called "Darkest Part of the World."
However there is good news coming out of this ancient continent.
Nigeria's role as mediator relieved war-torn Liberia of its trouble and facilitated the installation through democratic means of the first African woman president in the person of Allen Johnson Sirlef.
African organizations like the Economic Community of West African States and the Community of Sahel-Saharan States have done a great deal of good by intervening in warzones as peace keepers.
Africa is important for everyone regardless of their color, race or religious inclination. Africa has the potential to be a business haven equal to Dubai. Let us hope that the great continent will rise out of its present chaos and assume its rightful place as one of the most marvelous places on Earth.
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