Little conversations about everyday living.
March 14, 2011 2 Comments
Excited that we Nigerians can finally take a journey into the minds of those who want to lead our dear nation. This affords them an unscripted opportunity to respond to issues that border on the “What is next?” for the country. I have posted the links below for the full interview. Enjoy!
March 11, 2011 Leave a comment
I agree to a certain extent with the analysis of some who claim a Ribadu-Adeola (Muslim-Muslim) ticket will not fly because of the primitive tendencies of the voting population. This is political realism in Nigeria due to the abuse ordinary Nigerians have suffered from our early politicians who chose to play ethnic and religious politics rather than on ideals and purpose. Its no surprise then that at a time when we should be allowing the intellectual likes of Pat Utomi and Donald Duke create a niche for idea-politik, we are still grappling with ancient and tactless strategies.
For those who premise the similarity of this ticket to the Abiola/Kingibe ticket of 1993, they forget too soon that the political reality then is far removed from what it is today. Every Nigerian was united in booting out the military by any means; even if it meant a Gorilla from the forested slopes of the hinterland was to be presented on a party platform, we were ready to vote it in. So we are in a different season, when the heterogeneous filaments and antennae of the average voter is hyper-sensitive (as some commentaries have already sounded the marginalization of Ibos). Things are different now and we shouldn’t ignore this reality.
But since I assume that everyone in this localized cyberspace is rich in comprehending matters of higher concern to the nation, we must never at any time be tempted to disregard the ideal and trade it for existential issues. Yes Ribadu and Adeola are both Muslim, but does that really matter? Shouldn’t we in this heavy discourse be analyzing thoroughly what their manifestos contain to see how strategic these men are in articulating the desire of the common Nigerian? Since our universities have failed to exert influence on the system by organizing national debates as done in other countries, then we as verified loyalist to Nigeria’s cause must raise this issue to the fore and educate ourselves before we make choices based on cosmetic ratings.
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October 1, 2010 Leave a comment
Nigeria will not fall into violence over his decision to stand for elections next year, President Goodluck Jonathan said in an exclusive interview with CNN. “I can tell you very clearly that violence will not break out because of my interests. I can tell you very clearly,” Jonathan said in a wide-ranging interview at the presidential palace in Abuja ahead of October 1 celebrations marking 50 years of independence.
In September, Jonathan declared his intention to run in the October presidential primaries for his party, the People’s Democratic Party. Under Nigerian “zoning” rules, power must rotate between the north and the south every eight years. Jonathan — a native of the Niger Delta region in the south — was vice president under President Umaru Yar’Adua, from the north, when he died in May three years into his first term. “In the first place if this country had agreed the presidency rotates between north and south I would not be the president today. I couldn’t have been if there is an agreement in this country that it rotates between north and south,” Goodluck reasoned. “I couldn’t have been the president the day Yar’Adua died — another northerner would have taken over and I could have continued as the vice president. Goodluck acknowledged that Nigeria is grappling with limited resources, corruption and high poverty, despite being a world leader in oil production.
However, he said, “one thing that I know and I feel Nigeria will celebrate is continuity and peace. Yes we experienced civil war that lasted 13 months. Some other countries experienced civil wars that lasted for years.”
June 17, 2008 5 Comments
Would you kindly for a moment glance through the pictures shown below. While doing this think about what kind of facility this is. After that please read through the note below the pictures. I will make it short enough and directly buttress my point to allow more discussions on the matter.
I am carefully reminded of one of the greatest questions of all time: What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? whereas the answer is obvious, the question also points to a greater reality which I want to highlight here and make inferences about my country, thus provoking our thinking on how we can reverse a societal ill that threatens to reduce our future possibilities as a people. I am by no way conclusive on anything but on what we must do to to change a existing wrong that I seem not to know when it made an inroad into our values system.
There is nothing on the face of the earth as precious as a human life and no argument can alter that position. This is why the summation of all human struggles is simply to improve the conditions of human life and living. Whether living or simply existing, there is a constant quest to improve the parameters for which such realities are nurtured. These struggles for a better life can be seen either on the group level like in most African societies, or on the individual level as evident in most western nations. This shows that there is an innate value that every person carries, which is recognizable by we all as we engage each other. We work to ensure our kids have a better life, our parents live well in their old age, we can give ourselves anything we want, and that nothing about us or ours should be devalued.
Although pricelessness of a person is most important to us, we somehow manage to downplay the value of another to create and enhance our own concepts of personal value. The ‘misms’ and ‘isms’ of our personal agendas messes with the value we then place on the next person we see, seeing them as a non-responsibility or over-responsibility in our path to give betterment to our human person. This is so real in Nigeria that people now have a blatant disregard for one another because we have lost the sense of value we each carry. We are primarily blinded by each ones absolute engagement with the race up Maslows’ ladder and seem to display an uppity in our attitude towards each other. Crazy! People don’t even mind packaging powdered chalk into capsules and sell as drugs for others to buy and assuage their ails when it’s not a placebo.
I am so sorry that these has become even the predominant attitude of even the government. When it comes to the point that people groping in darkness is of no concern to the powers that be, we can easily assess the level of value they place on their citizen. Some things are just not discussable because they are tied to the fact that humans must be valued. Electricity, Housing, Water, Food, Health, Transportation, Justice, and Jobs are not to be celebrated when provided. These are a must simply because Nigerians are human beings who must be valued. Public officials in the assembly are busy voting huge budgets to add value to their living conditions and allocating lands in the Capital city for their cronies, while the yawning wastes in our infrastructures lie as an epitome of a broken government and dysfunctional leadeship and you tell me they value Nigerian??? See how much they spend to secure political power. Of course their intentions are not to fight for people but their abdominal desires and debased ambitions.
If you haven’t seen the pictures above before I am sure you would guess wrong as I did after seeing the first few images. Those are pictures of a Prison in Austria. Prison??? Yes I wil say it again PRISON!!!!! If you like slap your face. I reckon that that society must definitely value the lives of its citizens including the social misfits. When will Nigeria start valuing people like this abeg? I am tired of Nigerians looking down on each other and placing no value on the life of others. We insult each other, shout on the streets, have no courtesy towards another, defraud each other, smear ourselves, and worse steal the justice of the poor. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE SHOW US HOW TO VALUE US!!! If we don’t value ourselves, how do we expect someone else to value us?
Very frankly my friends, there is a veracity in this claim: SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THE NIGERIAN MENTALITY!!!
I ANGRILY REST MY CASE.
