Xchange 2.0

Just before I'm gone again..

2008-09-16T15:56:00.003+01:00

..I'll succumb for once to the urge I've been fighting not to put up a post here since I last wrote one a couple of months ago.
I assumed it would take a while to come back to blogging, but truth be told, not this long.
The convinction that the world was not missing much kind of kept me going.
But the intervening period has been nothing short of fun, especially if you like political conventions (American -style), the Olympics and Russian invasions.
That about sums up what I might have offered my 2-pence opinion on.
So while we contemplate who among Sarah, Barack, Joe or John makes it to the White House and Number One Observatory Circle respectively, or the possibilities of warming up for another cold war, let us be rest assured of one thing - your beloved Xchange 2.0 will try not to break its avowed silence on those issues.

Reason: There are a lot of other more important things going on in the world.

And we'll bring them to your attention here starting in full next week, when I come back from a short family visit.

To keep you going till then, consider this: The colour of your skin could mean a higher interest rate from your lender. It's one of some suprising insights I stumbled upon here from the world of social science research.

Adieu: Humanitarian Intervention

2008-06-11T16:58:00.004+01:00

There's talk that the era of humanitarian intervention is well and truly over before it ever gained full lift-off. The concept was championed in the late 90s and the early parts of this decade by the likes of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. But Madeleine Albright (who was Clinton's Secretary of State) has written an obituary of sorts in an OpEd in today's New York Times.

Simon Jenkins writing in the Sunday Times echoed the demise of this concept with a caption that said it all: "You’re safe, Mr Mugabe; we will not act".

So why is the case that in 3 of the 'low hanging fruit' scenarios for humanitarian intervention, Zimbabwe, Burma & Sudan, the champions of yesterday have been merely content with issuing statements and making all the usual noises today?

FP Passport sees the reason for this as being the China Factor. Hear them:
"Guess who is not too enthusiastic about humanitarian intervention in places like Burma, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, and guess who's vastly more powerful than in the 90s?"

Commentariat Index (CI) - 200508

2008-05-20T15:15:00.004+01:00

The biggest story out of Africa his week has to be the xenophobia raging down in South Africa.
Justice Malala, one of South Africa's leading commentators opened his piece in yesterday's Times of South Africa with the following words:

"President Thabo Mbeki and his ANC successor Jacob Zuma were refugees in London, Zambia, Nigeria, Swaziland and Mozambique, among other places, between 1962 and 1990.
I mention this for those of my countrymen and women who have short memories. We should be ashamed that it is us who are today raping, looting and killing foreigners apparently because they “steal” our houses and “our women”."

The rest of his column is here

The highly regarded Charlene Smith weighs in with a revelation that the source of the violence against foreigners can be traced to the upper echelons of South African society.

"The attacks on foreigners have brought shame to our nation. And again, it is the result of not acknowledging a problem, as well as one of xenophobia within the cabinet. A senior member of cabinet told me shortly after returning from exile, “we must never allow Nigerians into our country, they are criminals.” Another privately referred to the dignified wife of one of our most revered statesmen as a “kwerekwere” — disparaging slang for a foreigner"

Christi van der Westhuizen goes for the jugular: Listen to her

"This is us. No miracle nation. No rainbow nation. Just us: violent; intolerant of difference — hitting where it hurts. Let’s not try to sweet-talk ourselves. This is who we are. Let’s look ourselves in the eye."

Some of the heavyweights of the Nigerian Commentariat are out in full voice today. Though not about the events in South Africa. They rather focus on issues closer to home:

Pat Utomi (The Guardian): Nigeria's public space and reason embattled

Tunji Bello (Thisday): Power Probe: The Obasanjo Defence – An Appraisal

Azu Ishiekwene (The Punch): The shocking truth about power

Olatunji Dare (The Nation): Ogbulafor: Only 60 years?

Just back in...

2008-05-15T22:34:00.002+01:00

...from a drink and munch at my friends' in the next street. What a great day this has been.

This is the beginning (not the end) of a great day.

Thanks to everyone who got in touch today, I truly appreciate you all.

The pick of the pack was Folasade's 4 year old niece wishing me "Happy Many Returns"

You need to watch this

2008-05-15T14:13:00.002+01:00

In continuation of my study of Martin Luther, I just watched this brilliant documentary on the Protestant Revolution.

I highly recommend it. It sheds light on the fascinating journey of what has come out of one man's understanding of an idea, and his decision to share such with others.

Watch here

Live blogging an anniversary

2008-05-15T10:49:00.004+01:00

A few of the thoughts that I've been coming across lately now seem to be coming together and I'm trying to figure it all out as best as I can.

So in between working, listening to great music on klove and clearing out some clutter, I'll be liveblogging my birthday this year. Do check here often today.

Let me share 2 of these thoughts of mine. Lately, I've been reading up on Martin Luther and the influence of his thoughts and writings on the way we all live today. His 'big break' moment, we hear came with the discovery of a sentence from St. Paul's letter to the Romans. The Good Book records it in Romans 1:17 and that verse ends with these words: "The Righteous will live by faith."

This connected with a reference that a prince once made to faith. This morning, I read an account of that prince's role in a successful military campaign. His words: "Come let's go over to the enemy's outpost...perhaps the LORD will act on our behalf."

This new year, I've made up my mind to step up and do what's on my mind, who knows, perhaps a Greater Force will back me up. Will you do the same?

The Power of the Commentariat

2008-05-09T13:11:00.003+01:00

On Wednesday, a report titled 'The Power of the Commentariat' by Julia Hobsbawm and John Lloyd was published. The report was focused on the British commentarati and it's a compelling read for government personnel, party officials, policy wonks and evryone interested in the media's influence on politics.

There's a pdf version of the report here

Game Changing Tuesday

2008-05-06T16:04:00.002+01:00

What is my own? It can only be game changing for Barack or Hillary, but how does that affect or concern a Yoruba boy 'biding in Northern Europe?

Truth is, whoever becomes POTUS among them two will take decisions that affect the rest of the world. (Did I hear me say - give us a break?). So here's the real truth...tell me who doesn't just like the spectacle of this political contest. Fascinating stuff my peeps!

In the lead up to the vote today, Obama's former best pastor has been an issue, and now Christopher Hitchens really thinks Michelle is the reason why Barack hadn't 'rejected and denounced' Pastor Jerry earlier, hence she is "responsible for this whole fiasco"

If by any fat chance anyone is reading this in IN or NC, then David Brooks comparison and contrasting of Hillary's Combat and the Composure of Barack might just make you change your voting game plan. That's if you've not already put both candidates through the 8 question test.

May the best man win today's game.

No, that wasn't a typo as James Carville already told us about her cojonnes!

Commentariat Index - 060508

2008-05-06T13:44:00.005+01:00

The first 4 of today's selection have an economic bias. I'm not sure it's unconnected with today being my economist 'twin sister's' birthday. Maybe that's why my mind is somewhat selective in its choice...my way of saying Many Happy Returns.

Micheal Nyamute (East African Standard): How cottage industries can lead to more growth

"Indeed the role and importance of small-scale industries has equally been felt even in developed countries, with big business and industrial set-ups. How much more, then, should the developing economies pay attention to this sector?
It would be prudent for a developing economy like ours to turn attention and resources to ensuring this sector plays its rightful and vital role in uplifting the rural economy."

Tunji Bello (Thisday, Lagos): Before the Presidential Rice Arrives

"There are two critical issues we need to take up with the federal government on this matter. The first is that the issue of 500,000 MT of rice from Thailand is unrealistic and looks more of a public relations stunt. Thailand, currently the world’s largest producer of world rice, produces about 30 million tonnes yearly...
So how can Thailand now export about 17 per cent of its annual production to Nigeria alone? Certainly something is seriously missing in the so-called food emergency plan."

Thompson Ayodele (Mail & Guardian): Drug patents are beside the point

"As long as healthcare delivery remains in the hands of dysfunctional governments, the health of the poor in developing nations will not improve. Aid groups and policymakers must instead enlist the help and expertise of the private sector. The advantages of this are two-fold. First, it would reduce corruption, which certainly exists in the private sector as well, but private enterprises with ethical problems risk exclusion from the next round of programmes and contracts. Second, competition governs the private sector. Firms that fail or receive low marks from customers or aid organisations will lose out to competitors. Market participants are forced to improve productivity and patient care or face extinction."

John Moyibi Amoda (Vanguard, Lagos): Generator economy and the power crises

"Corruption is in the very structure of government and its routine practices. Once in a while the veil is taken away, the clouds are dispersed and we are face to face with corruption but fail to recognize it for what it is because of the ideas we have about it.
And because we cannot recognize it, we therefore cannot understand it, and we therefore make our own idea of corruption the reality of corruption. No wonder the more things seem to change, the more they remain the same."

Ernest Kofi Adu (Ghanian Chronicle): Should Criminal Libel be Revisited?

"News communication across borders, we are told, does not automatically lead to better understanding; often it results in enmity and distrust, since the profound political philosophies and differing social ideologies of individuals and parties that have characterized the nation so much prevent agreement on what is legitimate news, hence, the description – dangerous and criminal – for the practice of journalism in Ghana."

Michael Madill (Daily Monitor, Kampala): A government of whores; who is to blame?

"Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy the whores are us. These words of American journalist P.J. O'Rourke inspired a recent contribution to this newspaper in which the author wore the spirit of the words. I propose Ugandans consider their meaning for they weigh heavily, or ought to, on democracy."

Binyavanga Wainaina (Mail & Guardian): Pinned & wriggling on the wall

"Wikipedia: according to a British medical journal of 1972 haemorrhoids "are common in economically developed communities, rare in developing countries and almost unknown in tribal communities, where the influence of Western countries is slight."
This is not true. Mugabe is a haemorrhoid. He is not Aids, cancer, leukemia or malaria -- those things that can kill you"

Azu Ishiekwene (The Punch, Lagos): Again, the trouble with Africa

"Like immigration or globalisation, debating how Africa is reported is often a vexatious subject; it provides many people a good chance to enjoy an argument with a closed mind. It’s either you come to the debate feeling that in spite of Sean MacBride’s commission over two decades ago, all reports about Africa in the western media will continue to be about death, disease, despair and destruction; or you are asking whether this whole business is about Africans wanting a separate code of journalism that denies its own reality. It’s black or white, and no room in between for any shades of grey."

Nicholas Sengoba (Daily Monitor, Kampala): The road accidents and realities of failed states

"It is in these surroundings and circumstances that one comes face to face with the way citizens cope with some of the realities of a failed state. You get to know that the one who builds a road that ends up with potholes is not just corrupt but to many he makes decisions that gravely impact on the livelihoods of multitudes.The one who knocks road users off the road contributes more than statistics that add up to the tally of hit and run accidents. He is the beneficiary of weak, under funded and undermined state institutions such as the police and the judiciary which will never make him pay for the severe crime he unrepentantly commits as he recklessly uses the road."

Commentariat Index - 050508

2008-05-05T11:32:00.004+01:00

FROM THE AFRICAN PRESS:

Justice Malala (The Times, Jo'burg): Wake them up before you go-go

"This is a great country. It is great that journalists like me practise without fear. We raise our voices high and loud. We are ignored by power, but we are free.
What do we now need to make this country better? We need a leadership that peels off sentiment and begins to lead with purpose and resolve. We need a leadership that must pick a course and stay with it."

Mahmud Jega (Daily Trust, Abuja): Too many Cooks...

"Although there have been many spectacular probes at Federal, state and even local levels in Nigeria in the last 50 years, most of the reports ended up gathering dust on shelves in bureaucratic offices. In Nigeria here, thousands of people who were indicted by probe panels over the years are still walking the streets as free men and women; more than that, many of them ended up in even higher positions of authority, often through the instrumentality of "ill-gotten wealth," to use General Murtala Mohamed’s favourite phrase."

Edward Mulindwa (Daily Monitor, Kampala): Opposition Politics in Africa

"If Africa as a continent has to become “democratic” as per the West’s dictates, this policy must be across the board! Looking at the recent Zimbabwe’s elections, the West is not concerned about democracy in Zimbabwe at all.
All they want is to show Mugabe that what he did in 2000 about the land reforms did not please them and so, they want to have a Morgan Tsvangirai to right the wrongs. Democracy in the image of the West is good for Zimbabweans, but not for Ugandans, Gabonese, Egyptians or Libyans!"

Ebrahim Harvey (Mail & Guardian): What is the 'black struggle' really about?

"Mngxitama says 70 000 black children die before they reach the age of five. He implies that is purely because of continuing white racism. But it is, rather, the result of a much more complex story of deracialised neo-liberalism since 1994, which has produced Motsepes alongside gruelling black mass poverty"

Sam Omatseye (The Nation, Lagos): Comedy of Fear

"Laughter is closer to the darkness of our civilization than we may imagine.
"The difference between tragedy and comedy," remarks Aaron Allstoy, "tragedy is something awful happening to somebody else, while comedy is something awful happening to somebody else." Spot the difference."

Yesterday's Commnetarati

2008-05-05T10:28:00.005+01:00

In spite of the usual saying that yesterdays newspaper is only good for wrapping today's fish & chips (or Boli & Suya in my case), I gleaned some interesting thoughts from 3 of the commentarati heavies that appeared in yesterday's papers. I've considered them worthy of sharing today beacuase they are sure worth a lot more than holding my chips and suya!

Ali Mazrui (East African Standard): African development, Islam and Afrindian experience
"While I do think cultural factors are profoundly relevant for development, I have been advising African policymakers and educators that it does not follow that more Western culture in Africa will mean more development. A combination of Western technique with indigenous culture is the secret of dramatic modernisation and development. Higher cultural westernisation in the Third World has not necessarily meant higher economic and developmental returns."

Thomas Friedman (New York Times): Who Will Tell the People?
"If all Americans could compare Berlin’s luxurious central train station today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II.
How could this be? We are a great power. How could we be borrowing money from Singapore? Maybe it’s because Singapore is investing billions of dollars, from its own savings, into infrastructure and scientific research to attract the world’s best talent — including Americans."

Shashi Tharoor (Times of India): Were the doomsayers right after all?
"This has finally begun to stir the consciences of the world's politicians. Finance minister Chidambaram has called environmentally-justified crop-substitution a "crime against humanity". Outgoing Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi recently declared that "something must be done to ensure [that] both the United States and Europe stop producing fuel in competition with food". Prodi was blunt about the political motivations for such heartless policies: "People can no longer be allowed to starve to death in Africa simply because some people in the United States or the European Union consider that the votes of farmers or landowners are worth more than the survival of millions of men and women." "

Fred Khumalo (Sunday Times, SA): All grist to the mill of Obama-bashers
"The US has got much to offer the world, and that excludes war.
That’s all Obama tried to convey in that memorable speech of his. It’s a message which, like Martin Luther King jnr’s “I have a dream” speech, will unfortunately not be appreciated today. But future generations will pay it the respect it deserves, by which time much damage would have been done by political administrations with an oil-and-conquest mentality."

Gary K. Busch - nigeriavillagesquare.com: When a Drum Begins to Play a Higher Pitch, It's About to Break

"Tsvangirai and Biti announced, to the horror of the security chiefs in the Army and the Police, that the MDC would give back the farms which had been taken from their owners by ZANU-PF. Irrespective of the merits and morality of such an action a precipitate dislodging of the current occupiers would present the authorities with a security nightmare they knew they couldn’t control.. It was a recipe for conflict which no one could control. The security forces were alarmed. Even worse, when the issue of a transition to a possible new MDC government arose at the meeting in Lusaka, the MDC leadership told the African presidents that there were British Special Forces standing by at a ‘secret airbase’ in Botswana run by the Americans who would come in, arrest the Zimbabwe security chiefs, and take over internal security until order was re-established."

Commentariat Index - 010508

2008-05-01T12:49:00.003+01:00

Happy New Month everyone. Pls pardon the 'naked' link left at the end of yesterday's post. None of such among today's offering. Apologies in advance for excluding the synopses today.

The pick of the African press

Edwin Madunagu (The Guardian, Lagos): Doubts and prospects

Karoli Ssemogerere (Daily Monitor, Kampala): The Pope is unveiled a second time to the world

Florence Mutesi (The New Times, Kigali): When Political Parties Suffered Suffocating Burden of a Despotic Regime

Edward Ssekabanja (New Vision, Kampala): Talk Back - Your Safety Starts With You

Jide Osuntokun (The Nation, Lagos): Nigeria’s national interests and strategies for national unity (3)

Charles Onyango-Obbo (The Nation, Nairobi): How African Country Folk Hit Back At Urban Snobs

From the rest of the World

Nichola D. Kristof (The New York Times): Can We Be as Smart as Bats?

Blessing-Miles Tendi (Guardian, UK): Arms and the man

Commentariat Index

2008-04-30T10:23:00.002+01:00

FROM THE AFRICAN PRESS

Dele Agekameh (The Nation, Lagos): Time to rattle the 'sacred cows'

"In the last nine years, a lot of under-the-table deals have taken place. Those whose grandfathers and great grandfathers never came into contact with anybody in the Niger Delta Region are those now profiting from the oil resources of the region. Nigerians will be glad to know who these vampires are."

Seumas Milne (Mail & Guardian): Why do Zimbabwe and Tibet get all the attention?

"What has made human rights edicts by the US and Britain since the launch of the "war on terror" even more preposterous is that not only are they themselves supporting governments with similar or worse records, but they are also directly responsible for these outrages themselves: from illegal invasions and occupations to large-scale killing and torture -- along with phoney elections -- in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Anton Harber (BusinessDay,SA)- After Mugabe: the media challenge

"That the opposition has been able to win parliament in a situation where they have had almost no media platform, and faced the naked hostility of powerful state media, is a remarkable achievement...Much of the opposition communication has also been via SMS, another new technology hard for the state to control. In the words of my colleague, Tawana Kupe: “Zimbabweans have become masters of alternative communication and media strategies as surrogates for mainstream media.”"

Stephen T. Maimbodei (The Herald, Harare): Jendayi’s safari exposes Western hypocrisy

"Last December, she did it in Kenya, and now she is doing it in Zimbabwe, despite assurances by ZEC chairman Justice George Chiweshe that all electoral results are on the way.The outside world remembers that it was the US government through their top African diplomatic official Frazer who were the first to congratulate Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki as the winner, after the controversial December 27 2007 election, only to have the State Department backtrack from her statement a few days later."

Tony Marinho (The Nation, Lagos): Reversing Nigeria’s ‘fiscal political and corporate cultural castration’

"Our nation has the arts and culture it deserves – cheap and a disgrace and unexportable. More money is spent on buntings, balloons and populist Star Quest, a good project in its own right giving musical voice to the voiceless, than on Soyinka or Achebe in their life time. The real ‘money making’ culture remains comatose. Arts and culture worldwide are exactly like agriculture, needing not only government budgetary ‘subsidies’ but ‘financial fertilizers’ from the private sector to bear rich fruit and bring profitable harvest

Allister Sparks (BusinessDay,SA): Outrage and consequence in the twilight of a tyranthttp://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A758766
What brought about this sudden capitulation? One can only speculate, but the surge of public disapproval throughout the region, and particularly in SA, has undoubtedly played a role. As long as the disapproval came only from the “imperialist” west, Mugabe could brush it aside. But the surge of outrage in his own backyard shook him and opened cracks in the Zanu (PF) leadership

Plane Racism? - A PR crisis all the same

2008-04-29T16:24:00.005+01:00

I'm not a PR man, but I don't need to be one to recognize a Public Relations crisis when it happens.

Commenterati - 290408

2008-04-29T13:32:00.004+01:00

No, this is not just a play on the words- Commentariat & Index, but as in Glitterati, it's a pronoun describing the tribe of the commentariat.

Here's some more of today's better servings from them:

Olatunji Dare (The Nation, Nigeria): Encounters with Gani Fawehinmi

"It is given to only a few to know how their contemporaries and the larger society will remember them when they depart this mortal world. Gani Fawehinmi, our own Gani, can now count this gift among his sundry blessings"

Luke Onyekakeyah (The Guardian, Nigeria): Visioning for 2020: Constraints to national development

"With such uninspiring history of steering committees and national development, it would have been better if there were a change in the modus operandi in this dispensation. We have remained at the same spot over the years doing the same thing repeatedly. We need to move from the status quo that has not worked to something more proactive."

Prince Mashele (Businessday, SA): Imagination needed to avert looming crisis

"In international affairs, SA might not again attain the high esteem in which it was held in the first 13 years of democratic rule. The glory associated with the first decade of freedom made most of us proud to introduce ourselves as South African wherever we went."

Michael Nyamute (East African Standard): Markets can help pay for education at universities

"In Africa, many a government finances are in dire straits, but the demand to provide at least basic education is still strong. Government financing is insufficient for universal basic education, let alone higher education. Radical changes are required in the financing of education worldwide...Securitisation is one such option."

Tony Leon (BusinessDay, SA): Depressing consistency in Mbeki’s stance on Mugabe

"Although the endgame in Zimbabwe remains unknown, the locust years, which saw the destruction of one of Africa’s greatest economic success stories and potent symbols of democratic reconciliation, yields no end of lessons, most of them sombre.
The relative ease and speed with which Mugabe could plunder his country and starve his people is the most obvious. But Zimbabwe also demonstrated the severe limits of SA’s willingness, or ability, to lead the African renaissance to which Mbeki committed his presidency. In the words of Harvard’s Samantha Power, faced with a real test he “flunked it”."

Commetariat Index

2008-04-29T07:06:00.004+01:00

I must admit that I spend considerable time everyday reading opinion pieces and commentaries in Newspapers, Magazines and increasingly these days on blogs.

Recently I came across a word that describes this community of op-ed wrters, columnists and commentators who fuel mine or others daily indulgence. This word is none other than Commentariat (aka Commentorate).

Starting today, this blog will attempt to put a link to some of the best the commentariat has to offer especially those offerings with an African bias.

Welcome to the first post on the Commentariat Index

Raenette Taljaard (The Times, SA): We should all be up in arms

Mick Hume (The Times, UK): Zimbabwe: keep your nose out

Is Atiku still the VP?

2008-04-08T17:11:00.006+01:00

Yes, according to President Yardy's photographer. The words in black are from Aso Rock's website

PRESIDENT YAR'ADUA RECEIVES CHAIRMAN OF EXXON-MOBILMar 29, 2008, 13:51

FROM LEFT, VICE PRESIDENT ATIKU ABUBAKAR, PRESIDENT UMARU MUSA YAR'ADUA, MR. REX TILLERSON, CHAIRMAN/CEO EXXONMOBIL AND ALHAJI RILWAN LUKMAN, HONOURARY SPECIAL ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT ON ENERGY DURING MR.REX'S VISIT TO THE STATE HOUSE ABUJA ON FRIDAY.

Let's hope they notice this error in time.

Books as Romantic Deal Maker or Breaker?

2008-04-02T14:24:00.001+01:00

It's the ultimate bookworm dilemma

African Soccer - My Missing Memories

2008-03-20T10:29:00.004Z

I wonder why I woke up this morning with the feeling that I was missing something.

By the time I was getting through breakfast, the name of Emmanuel Maradas popped up in my head.

Mr. Maradas is a FIFA Media heavyweight these days, but in his former job he was the editor of the now rested African Soccer Magazine.

The only relic of that by-gone era is this link to what used to be the website.

What I am missing is the collection of that Magazine that I built up from my under graduate days at Ife. I hope it's still where I left it in the store at my parent's home in Nigeria. The only thing is I really doubt it.

I'm looking for anyone who is willing to part with old issues of African Soccer Magazine - please leave a comment here if you know of any.

Henry Okah: Connections in High Places

2008-03-07T19:15:00.004Z

Following the Nigerian Government's decision this week to charge the Niger Delta freedom fighter/rebel/arms dealer (take your pick) to court, my curiosity has led me to find out a bit more about him and his network might be wider than initial media reports have suggested.

My search has been made easy because news about him pops up everywhere you turn. They've ranged from the interview with his wife, Azuka which someone described as "saying very little yet painting enough of the objective picture". ( 'objective' in that quote is very subjective if you catch my drift). His brother has also been speaking. Even his children haven't escaped this PR blitz to let us all into his private world.

But all that didn't satisfy my curiosity, so the search went on. Global Guerillas even ran a revealing profile on him. But the Financial Times have today pointed in the direction of my suspicions by suggesting a link with Arms Dealer Extraordinaire Viktor Bout, who was arrested in Bangkok yesterday

"Most recently, he[Johan Peleman, an arms trade expert who works for the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo] added, law enforcement agencies had been investigating possible ties between companies associated with Mr Bout and militant groups in Nigeria, whose sophisticated weaponry has made it difficult for the federal government to re-establish control over the oil-producing Niger delta." (FT, 07/03/08, page 8)

If their claim is established, then Henry Okah might have to provide a more water tight alibi than what is presently making the media rounds.

Adios Netscape

2008-02-29T16:37:00.003Z

Tommorow marks the end of an era in the Internet's story. Netscape goes down tommorow.

Thanks to the guys behind it for the memories while it lasted.

Can't get enough of him

2008-02-28T10:22:00.002Z

If like me, you can't seem to get enough of Barack Obama in spite of the deluge from the media at every corner you turn to, then you've got to see this website by a Photographer who has covered him for the past FOURTEEN MONTHS.

Justin Webb thinks the site is as cool as the owner - a certain Scout Tufankjian and I wholeheartedly agree.

FLS, there are messages for us on slide 7 of the 155 of the Barack Obama link under Barack Obama campaign. If he can, Yes we Can!

The day after our own whatever-you-call-it Tuesday

2008-02-27T13:28:00.005Z

So now that the Nigerian version of Super Tuesday has turned to Black Tuesday, most folk are just focused on getting on with their lives after the intrusion of the live broadcast from the Abuja court room.

The words of Solomon Emifa in today's New York Times seem to capture the mood.

“For us to gamble on another election is not what we are willing to take right now. We have in the back of our minds what is taking place in Kenya, in Somalia, Chad. No one here wants to have that kind of experience. No one wants to die because of a political crisis. Because at the end of the day, these guys are very rich, so we are the ones who are really going to suffer.”

All Hail the Power of Online Graphics

2008-02-26T20:36:00.003Z

This has got to be one of the coolest charts I've come across so far. (by way of the New York Times)

What is your Nigerian Age?

2008-02-23T13:22:00.003Z

While watching the Liverpool v. Inter game on Tuesday with a friend, he reminisced about what could have been if he took to playing football rather than study for a university degree. During that conversation the idea of him still considering the football option came up, all he needed to do was shave off a decade from his actual 28 years of age.
Everton Football Club's manager, David Moyes has now voiced what many have always thought but wouldn't say.
That many Nigerian and African footballers are actually older than they claim to be.
Moyes had this to say about his striker Yakubu Aiyegbeni -
"What people don't appreciate is that he’s only 25, albeit a Nigerian 25, and so if that is his age he’s still got a good few years ahead of him,"
This same allegation has come up before and something tells me it won't go away quietly.

Why do you blog?

2008-02-19T15:55:00.004Z

I'm starting a little effort today to answer this question.

My first respondent to this question is Ayo Oladejo - the name behind HAYSPIRATION and here's his take

"There is an African proverb which says that a dead old man is like a burning library.
Some people might not be so lucky to write an autobiography.
A blog will ensure that one leaves a trail on the sands of time in a very accessible way even when one is long gone, so that the African proverb can be made irrelevant"

Is blogging a waste of time, or the internet an inanity?

2008-02-19T11:39:00.012Z

Doris Lessing, the current Nobel Laureate thinks so. She says it loud and clear in her acceptance speech.

"How will our lives, our way of thinking, be changed by the internet, which has seduced a whole generation with its inanities so that even quite reasonable people will confess that, once they are hooked, it is hard to cut free, and they may find a whole day has passed in blogging etc?"

But Andrew Sullivan does a brilliant job in laying out an informed case against the notion that the internet and "Youtube, is making America stupid."

Yes, blogging can be a time waster just like anything else done without the required discipline or restraint. But it has far greater value than Ms, Lessing dares to give it credit for.

What are your thoughts on blogging?

photocredit: Martin Cleaver/AP

The End of Literacy? Don't Stop Reading.

2008-02-18T13:28:00.006Z

I'm moving house this week and with that comes the necessary and tedious task of putting away the books into boxes. While getting ready to leave for work today, I decided that it was better for me to send back some of the library books I'd borrowed before moving. The only challenge was that I've had these books since early Januaary and haven't gone halfway with any! Still they will have to be returned. My default thinking is that I need to consume & process the daily feed from the web, TV and newspapers as the books will always be there anyway. This thinking needs to be challenged.
Then, during my lunch break, I came across an article by Howard Gardner, a Harvard professor of the Multiple Intelligences fame. In the brilliant Washington Post piece he makes the case that books may not always be here.

Two aspects of the traditional book may be in jeopardy, however. One is the author's capacity to lay out a complex argument, which requires the reader to study and reread, following a circuitous course of reasoning. The Web's speedy browsing may make it difficult for digital natives to master Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" (not that it was ever easy).
The other is the book's special genius for allowing readers to enter a private world for hours or even days at a time. Many of us enjoyed long summer days or solitary train rides when we first discovered an author who spoke directly to us. Nowadays, as clinical psychologist Sherry Turkle has pointed out, young people seem to have a compulsion to stay in touch with one another all the time; periods of lonely silence or privacy seem toxic. If this lust for 24/7 online networking continues, one of the dividends of book reading may fade away. The wealth of different literacies and the ease of moving among them -- on an iPhone for example -- may undermine the once-hallowed status of books.

The ability to achieve a fine balancing act in making sense of information and improving literacy will be to think of and adapt to media as they were, are and will be.

In Prof. Garner's words, "maybe there's a technology, just waiting to be invented, that will help us acquire this invaluable cognitive power"

I really hope there is.

Note: The title of this post was borrowed from Howard Gardner

Can He be Nigeria's Obama?

2008-02-17T23:18:00.006Z

While weighing up the possible fall-outs of Yar A'dua's election being voided, Sonala Olumhense wraps up his column in today's Lagos Guardian with these words:
"Pat Utomi: In 2007, he was the outsider who could have engineered a fundamental difference. He found, however, that Nigerian politics had not left the realm of money and rigging. Since then, however, a young man called Barrack Obama has emerged. His terrain might be the United States, but globalization has made him an international and Nigerian subject. If anyone is to benefit locally from Obama's emergence and message, it is Utomi."

Will his 'insurgency' have any chance of survival this time around?

Who else do you think fits the bill? - comments welcome.

photocredit - kwenu.com

Kofi Annan On the Record

2008-02-14T17:35:00.002Z

So what is it with Africa? Yeah. I posed this question in Rwanda after the genocide: what is it in our society that makes us periodically turn on each other? Not only do we turn on each other, but then we blame the outside. I say this is a cancer from within that we need to fix.
...I was criticized for it. But it is a fact. It's good to have the support of the international community and all that. But the root of the problem is here. We know what the problem is; we know what needs to be done.

- Newsweek Interview, Feb 18, 2008 Issue

French Democracy mirrors Nigeria's

2008-02-14T14:39:00.009Z

In the closing paragraphs of his piece last Sunday , Lagos Guardian's star columnist, Reuben Abati situated The Barack Obama Phenomenon currently sweeping America against the reality of politics in Nigeria.

Here are his words: "In Nigeria, party primaries are a charade. They provide an opportunity for party chieftains, self-appointed Godfathers and their band of thugs to impose candidates on the party and the people. Here, the voter is callously discounted and abused."

He might as well have been speaking about the Parisian suburn of Neuilly. According to the blog - Certain ideas of Europe, the elections for local mayor there "reads more like the machinations of a tin-pot republic than those of a serious democratic municipality"

Nicolas Sarkozy is allegedly playing the Chris Uba role in this instance. The drama playing out is "filled with late-night telephone calls, last-minute press conferences and statements cooked up on street corners, exposing all the elements at work in the Sarkosphere".

With elections holding next month, we'll know then if Sarkozy truly pulls it off. Whether the swanky people of Neuilly let their former mayor get away with it is another matter.

photocredit - Reuters

Putting Lagos on the Spot

2008-02-13T13:44:00.006Z

Watching Channel 4's evening news yesterday, I was particularly interested in an extended piece they did on Lagos as part of a wider discussion on the growth of urban centres in the developing world. The film was presented by Keme Nzerem and you can see it here

In an interview with Jon Snow straight after the film, our man in London - Ambassador Dozie Nwanna gave good diplomatic answers , he however appeared sketchy on the specifics of the plans being put in place to address the serious challenges in a city that has grown from 3oo Thousand in 1950 to 13.4 million in 2004 and is estimated to reach 25million in 2015.

I thought he would have detailed more aspects of the plans being worked on between President Yar'Adua and Gov. Fashola's governments. Or did Aso Rock and Alausa not brief him? Maybe they are still secret as Lagos newspaper - The Champion reports it here.

This question of explosive growth in Lagos needs some serious answers. We need to bring them forward quickly.

Asa's Jailer

2008-02-12T00:34:00.000Z

I no fit get enough of this song. I don look all over Youtube

She dey sing am for concerts here and here

But the tightest rendition for me na this TV studio performance here

This chic looks set for massive things!

Check out this revealing interview wey she do with Funmi Iyanda.
She take time talk about life and the inspiration behind her music.

photocredit - Andreas Terlaak

ASA's UK Release

2008-02-11T13:30:00.000Z

I've been so waiting for the release of the 'Fire on the Mountain' single from ASA ( pronounced as ASHA). And she found her way on to my radar this morning.

It came out in the UK today. Listen to a sneaky from some tracks on her Album on a link in here

Or better still watch the video here

Here's a profile on her by the Jo'burg Times

Can SMS Novels save our Reading Culture?

2008-02-08T13:24:00.000Z

In the early years of GSM Mobile phones in Nigera, many were numbered among the Association of exclusive flashers, texters and recievers.

My attention turned to the texters among them when I came across this story on how their Japanese Associates are driving up Novel sales.

Maybe the efforts of the likes of Bibi Bakare and Mukhtar in unearthing Nigerian authors and encouraging reading could be helped by these texters. It might take time to catch on, but it might be a useful way of channeling some latent talent to a useful purpose. Or it could all just be for the fun of it!

It's the Economy, but don't be Stupid

2008-02-08T08:52:00.000Z

Robert Samuelson makes the case:

"Sensible voters should look beyond the cheery or dreary economy of the moment. They should recognize that if presidents could control the business cycle, recessions would never occur, there would always be "full employment" and inflation would remain forever tame. Instead of judging prospective presidents on what they can't do, voters ought to concentrate on what they can do. There are plenty of real differences among the remaining candidates. But (James) Carville is probably right. For many, it will be the economy, and it will be stupid."

Happy Chinese New Year

2008-02-07T12:10:00.000Z

Chinese year 4706 begins today.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Those born in the Year of the Rat (1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2030) are noted for their charm and attraction for the opposite sex. They work hard to achieve their goals, acquire possessions, and are likely to be perfectionists. They are basically thrifty with money. Rat people are easily angered and love to gossip. Their ambitions are big, and they are usually very successful. They are most compatible with people born in the years of the Dragon, Monkey, and Ox

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar.

Mobiles Can Hit your Sperm Count

2008-02-07T08:37:00.000Z

Today's Straits Times reports that:
Spending hours on a cell phone each day may affect the quality of a man's sperm, preliminary research suggests. In a study of 361 men seen at their infertility clinic, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic found an association between the patients' cell phone use and their sperm quality.
On average, the more hours the men spent on their cell phones each day, the lower their sperm count and the greater their percentage of abnormal sperm.

If I don't pick your calls again, pls understand why. I never do my share!

Even Kenya refuses us Visa

2008-02-07T06:41:00.000Z

"I am made to understand that the Kenyan High Commission has been the most difficult embassy in recent years for the purpose of getting a visa. Yes Kenya, the same Kenya! Why would Kenya discriminate against Nigerians? They probably have their reasons. Recently I learnt that Sao Tome and Principe, not to talk about Equatorial Guinea are usually afraid and reluctant in granting visas to Nigerians! Our people must search themselves and ask why everybody is against us."

-Prof. Jide Osuntokun - Columnist, The Nation, Lagos - 07.02.08

A Chorus that can't be Ignored

2008-02-06T14:23:00.000Z

"We know that what began as a whisper has now swelled to a chorus that cannot be ignored."It is a chorus that will not be deterred; that will ring out across this land as a hymn that will heal this nation, repair this world, make this time different than all the rest. Yes. We. Can."

Listen to the Hymn here

photocredit - Chicago Tribune

Is Kanoute the Winner? Or is Drogba just a whiner?

2008-02-05T21:21:00.000Z

CAF awarded the African Footballer of the Year 2007 to Mali and Sevilla striker - Freddie Kanoute (first from left). But the runner up and 2006 winner - Didier Drogba has cried foul. Is this a case of sour grapes? Or is there any truth in his allegation?

He can lay all this to rest if he leads the Ivory Coast team which he captains to lift the Nations Cup. That will be the best reply possible.
photo credit - Reuters

One Super Duper Tuesday morning

2008-02-05T13:17:00.000Z

As America wakes up to this day that Political Pundits have christened Super Duper Tuesday, one gets the feeling that this day could be significant or maybe not.
Having spent the better part of the last year campaigning from the beaches of Florida to the vineyards of California, the Republicans and Democrats candidates are likely to have a clearer sense of who will win the party nomination for the general elections later in the year.
The buzz around these elections is the most frenzied I can remember since I began paying attention to these matters at the time of the Dukakis nominantion in 1988.
Two comments from Arianna Huffington form the book ends in the shelf of opinion and commentaries that have flooded the media since the primary season began in Iowa till date.
On the night of Barack Obama's suprising victory on that January night, she opened her article by saying
Even if your candidate didn't win tonight, you have reason to celebrate. We all do...
Because tonight voters decided that they didn't want to look back. They wanted to look into the future --- as if a country exhausted by the last seven years wanted to recapture its youth.
Yesterday, she alluded to what may yet be an underlying motive for voting one way or another for those who go out to the caucuses and ballots later today.

"The 2008 Race for President", she said, was "the Search for our Better Selves."

You may agree or disagree with Ms Huffington's opinion, but what you can't discount is the extent to which the world beyond America is watching these events closely in the hope that maybe those same feelings can be engendered in our politics. As those of us non-Americans can't vote to decide who wins this race, the best we can hope for is that the same buzz can be generated in our nations and communities. But again, its a case of maybe or maybe not. Whatever happens, we can always look back to this Tuesday morning in historic terms.

Image - Courtesy of HuffPo

Jose Mourinho: Lessons from a Sacking

2007-09-20T12:52:00.000+01:00

Caveat: This post is about much more than football- read it to the end to see why.
Unusually, I read the story of Jose's departure from Chelsea rather late at 10.15am today.
My immediate instinct in typical Arsenal fan fashion was to taunt some of my friends who were Chelsea fans. And I tried my best, with the help of my keyboard and google compose page to put some spiteful words together. Here's what I wrote:
Dear Chelsea fan,
It is with great JOY that I send my condolences to you on the loss of the best thing that has ever happened to your football club.
The departure of 'El Special One' from Stamford Bridge in the early hours of this morning is without doubt a moment of significant proportions that will reverberate for a long time.
Without a doubt Jose had a big-mouth, big-head and big ego...but he helped to give your team of some 'big for nothings' a sense of direction never seen before and am afriad unlikely to be seen again.
The lesser mortals ( eg John Terry and Roman) that he's left behind will soon see the folly of their action when you guys struggle to make it beyond the group stages of the Champions League and come home empty handed this season.
To Avram 'who the hell is that' Grant - welcome to infamy!

Regards,
Ashaye
on behalf of the Returning Kings of London

As if that wasn't enough- I sent another one:

Dear Chelski Fan,
You guys waited for 50 years to smell d premiership and just because the guy drew a game - u send him away? What a bunch of tossers!
In any case, the tributes for the best thing to ever happen to your club are coming in in their droves...
Here's one that just went out on one of the office speakers.
After this song, Can we pls stand up for a moment of silence to mark the passing away of the glory days of Chelski!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBniDRCcciI

But the first response I got from Ayobami Oladejo- one of the recipients of my 'spite', put the whole episode into a better and more relevant perspective. Here's the gist of what he said:

... for a man to walk out of his job and leave with 10 Million Pounds - it is no mean feat and to say that this same man will soon get another club. How many of us can boast of that? .... All the same, it is a lesson to us all - know your job well, say your mind, enjoy yourself and when you refuse to take nonsense - you will have the last laugh!

Real food for thought I hear you say.

So long Jose, see you in another dug-out soon!

PhotoCredit: www.soccerword.com

Beautiful Female Bankers as Endangered Species

2007-09-13T11:43:00.000+01:00

I just came across the story below on the Reuters Wire.

My first reaction was to ask when it became a crime for a female banker to be good looking and attractive.
A quick visit to the homepages of all Nigerian bank Websites however revealed that 18 of the 25, ( that's a good 70% plus) prominently displayed such beautiful women. Will the Senate President's 'order' also have an effect on this aspect of Bank's marketing efforts too?

Nigerian banks told to stop using women to lure clients
Thu 13 Sep 2007, 8:41 GMT

ABUJA, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Nigerian banks must stop using attractive women to persuade customers to open accounts, Senate President David Mark was quoted as saying in Thursday's newspapers.
Mark said that despite a consolidation of the sector in 2005 that reduced the number of banks to 25 from 89 and was supposed to make them more efficient, many banks still used women to attract new business.

"Banks have made it a policy to employ beautiful ladies and give them targets to meet," Mark said during the inauguration of the new Senate committee on banking and insurance on Wednesday.

"This is unacceptable and must stop. You ordered the consolidation, so I think you must do something to stop it," he said, addressing officials of the central bank.

"We thought that with the consolidation in the banking sector, the banks will have enough money and capacity to get customers. Why is it that all these girls are now moving around hustling as if they are looking for something other than money?"

The consolidation, triggered by the central bank's decision to raise the minimum capital base for banks twelvefold, has been hailed by the Nigerian government as one of the major successes of a broader programme of economic reforms.

Banking stocks have boomed on the Lagos stock market since the consolidation, but analysts say many of the banks remain weak because they are reliant on deposits from government agencies and do little retail business.

Photo Credit : www.ecobank.com

I Hope that Someone gets my Message in a Bottle

2007-09-10T19:53:00.000+01:00

The heading of this post has come about largely because a song of that title by 'born again' music band-The Police, has been ringing in my head all day. I've even had to download the song on to my mp3 player this evening and I've been inflicting its sounds repeatedly on my eardrums.

But before I caught the 'message in a bottle' bug, I read an article in today's Lagos BusinessDay that brought back the memories of an idea that might lead to other concrete answers to Africa's power situation.

In the article, Funmi Omogbenigun of the telecommunications company MTN was reported to have said that they had spent 12billion Naira on Generators and the diesel that fuels them over the last year. Vast amounts you might say, especially if you multiply that by the four Big Telcos in Nigeria. The scale of these sums become more boggling when seen on a continental scale. It is without question that Africa is Mobile Telephony's remaining Klondike Gold Rush territory and the MTNs of this world are jostling for every inch of space.

But back to the idea I spoke of earlier on. A certain Big Brother of mine once suggested and I agreed with him that a good number of Generators in Nigeria did not operate at full capacity. Many generators in homes and companies generate power that ends up not being fully utilised, yet the power situation across Africa remains dismal.

With companies like MTN running mini Power generating 'subsidiaries', isn't it time that we begin to think about ways of harnessing some of this spare capacities and feeding it into the power gird for distribution. In the first instance, distribution could be channeled to the immediate areas surrounding the Generators. An incentive for the companies/ homes who own the generators could be in the form of diesel rebates or direct payments for electricity they generate.

These are just my initial thoughts about a 'half-bread being better than none' solution in the interim before he Bretton Woods + Private Finance Initiative on reducing energy poverty comes to stream.

The song is still singing in my head......

I'll send an SOS to the world,

I hope that someone gets my

I hope that someone gets my Message in a bottle!

Conversations in Mandarin

2007-08-17T18:58:00.000+01:00

Caveat: this post is 20 hours overdue and if it appears inconclusive, it is deliberate.

One prime motivation for studying for another degree after my Nigerian Bachelors was the chance to hook up with the other natives of this global village beyond my father's backyard.

Fast forward to the present, and one of those other natives ( he's now become my friend), sent me a text on monday that he was back from his trip home to China. He doesn't come empty handed but bearing gifts. Not just of the material kind, but with some of the 'rubbing of mind' variety (apologies Femi Akinrotimi).

So over coffee on Tuesday evening, we chat about a wide variety of issues - private and public. Soon our chat veers in the direction of China's role in Africa & the reactions it generates from Africans, their 'leaders' and the landlords ( i.e the US & their EU cousins ).

The out takes of that conversation are revealing. I'll share this one: "While China has its eyes firmly set on Africa, she won't invest heavily in areas where she might be seen as challenging the US/EU interests until such a time in the next 30-50years when she will square up to them"

My thots: The Chinese will sure get a chance to propose the toast at the party, but it will most likely take place at the Landlord's residence.

2007-08-15T22:16:00.001+01:00

Return of the blog

2007-08-15T21:44:00.000+01:00

Stuff really happens when I want to restart my blog after a rather long break. Having typed up some 'beautiful' prose, I accidentally delete it all. But I will soldier on. In the words of the song - "I have decided to ..., no turning back, no turning back"
The only reason why I am back at it today is due to Folasade's yabs. While I might hate to admit it, any other explanation will amount to an untruth.
These are her exact words - " what are you going to do with all these things you are reading"? And over these past months, the end of my academic pursuit hasn’t doused the need to feed my eyes and mind with pages of ink on paper. So much was the craving that I’ve had to go join a library to take the place of my expired student library card. While Folasade’s question might have a hint of altruism to it, I notice that the fervour with which she voices it increase whenever I make the mistake of using any of my books, magazines or newspapers to ‘disorganize’ the tidy arrangement that her room usually is.
So what have I been reading and more importantly, what I have learned that might be useful for sharing?
A quick look into my bag reveal these titles that I’m pouring through at the moment.
In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz (An insightful book on Congo)– Micheala Wrong
The Trouble with Africa – Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working – Robert Calderisi
Here’s an excerpt that caught my eye this morning from Calderisi’s book. In it he quoted an Ivorian journalist who said
“This continent is really cursed. We may even have to accept that Africans are a bad copy of the human race. We always make ourselves look ridiculous in the eyes of others. What have we done for our Creator to have poured such uncompleted beings into these green spaces. We can only wait for evolution to change us. Until then, all we can do is cry…”
Now before the comments start rolling in accusing me of sharing his sentiments. I make it clear that I don’t. In the midst of the gloom, there is also hope. But he only seems to echo the anger and frustration that many from Cairo to Cape Town face. One of such was this angry post I read on Funmi Iyanda’s blog after her encounter with Lagos Police.
"Policeman: where are you coming from?
FI: work, we just dropped off a friend and are going home.
Policeman: So why you dress like this?
Bose and FI: like how?
Policeman: (shouting and waving a copy of PM News) una no hear wetin Fashola (gov of Lagos) talk abi? Una no hear?
FI: (keeping tight rein of rising bile and anger) hear wetin?
Policeman: (jabbing his finger at us and spitting the words out with disgust) na so una suppose dress, why you dress like this?
FI: what do you mean? This woman here is a doctor, a mother and wife, this is her husband.
Policeman: If na married woman why she no dey her house, all these useless women! "
She concludes

"…I didn't sleep that night nursing my injured dignity and wondering if l wasn't doing my daughter injustice by raising her in a society that so denigrate women. One where a policeman is resentful of the educated and hateful towards women".

That Journalist’s question and the answer to it will bring me to my next point…tommorow. Before I go, The photograph is of Residents scooping fuel from a fallen tanker at Mowe, Ogun State, Nigeria yesterday morning. PHOTO Credit: EMMA OSO, TheNewsng.com
This blog has returned!

Saro-Wiwa's prophesy fulfilled?

2006-11-11T19:22:00.000Z

On this weekend of the 11th anniversary of Ken Saro-Wiwa's execution, a befitting bus sculpture in his memory has been unveiled in London, thousands of miles away from his beloved Niger-Delta. (Click here for images of the sculpture - http://arts.guardian.co.uk/flash/page/0,,1944783,00.html )
The work of art by acclaimed sculptor Sokari Douglas-Camp brings fresh fire and meaning to the words of the late writer on the condition of the Nigerian state. In his penultimate days, he voiced out : "We all stand on trial, my lord, for by our actions we have denigrated our country and jeopardised the future of our children: as we subscribe to the subnormal and accept double standards, as we lie and cheat openly, as we protect injustice and oppression." In Jonathan Glancey's words "Saro-Wiwa still has something to say, and Camp's bus sculpture memorial lends him a characterful and memorable voice."
A dissection of each of those words among many others he said point at the present ills facing the Niger-delta and by extension-Nigeria today.
In the midst of all the political games being played with human lives across our nation in the lead up to elections in 2007, isn't it time we pause and take considered steps to stem this tide of 'denigration' and 'jeopardy?'
Meanwhile, on the front page of today's Guardian of London, Oliver Burkeman referred to a nation branding masterclass attended by 65 reps of various governments in London yesterday. In his piece, the Masterclass coordiantor pointed out gut associations that people make when they hear a country's name and the first association made was that of Nigeria and 'those scam e-mails.' The association of a country like Uganda in my gut is with the legendary dictator - Idi Amin. And a soon to be released film - The Last King of Scotland will reinforce that association just like Borat is doing 'wonders' for the image of Kazakhstan. But here's my point , that might soon be the lot of Nigeria if today's Los Angeles Times editorial is anything to go by. ( see below). Our present rulers might want to consider some of the points highlighted therein before we all become victims of not just a bad image problem, but internal fightings of unprecedented proportions.
May the labours of our heroes past not be in vain.

Los Angeles Times
EDITORIAL
Nigeria's savior, and menace
The leader of Africa's most populous nation is endangering not only his own legacy but his nation.
November 11, 2006
OLUSEGUN OBASANJO has done more for Nigeria than any leader in its modern history. Now that legacy is endangered — by none other than Obasanjo himself. Nigerians and the international community should keep the pressure on Obasanjo to step aside.Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and the United States' fifth-biggest source of imported oil, was a basket case until Obasanjo was elected in 1999. Since then, he has reformed the nation's chaotic banking sector, battled its endemic corruption and built a foundation for democracy in a nation that has never seen a peaceful transition from one elected leader to another. But he also is nearing the end of his second and final term as president, and he has shown a worrying reluctance to step down as planned in April 2007. Five months ago, he tried to rewrite Nigeria's constitution to allow for a third term but was rebuffed by parliament. Other recent actions look suspiciously like the machinations of a budding dictator, and they may not only undo most of the good Obasanjo has accomplished but perhaps plunge his country into civil war.At the core of the troubles is Nigeria's crusading Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, a 3-year-old agency that already has sent about 2,000 people to prison on corruption charges. (According to the commission's chief, Nuhu Ribadu, an estimated $380 billion has been stolen or wasted in Nigeria since independence in 1960.) Yet as the commission has started taking on the country's 36 state governors, many fear that Obasanjo is using it to target his political opponents and disrupt the April elections.Even if the financial crimes commission isn't on a political witch hunt, there is no way to avoid the appearance of one so close to an election. Obasanjo should suspend the panel until after April. He also should beef up the elections agency. If he doesn't, and voids the elections to maintain power, a bloody civil war is almost certain to follow.Which course the Nigerian president takes will affect more than his legacy and his nation. An armed insurgency in the country's south cut oil production by 25% this year, playing a key role in the run-up of crude prices that only recently began to ease. Obasanjo has a chance to become a respected elder statesman who could influence continental politics long after leaving office and bring much-needed international attention and aid to Africa. Or he could be another in a long line of Nigerian despots, cursed by his people and forgotten by history

Action Movie?

2006-08-12T12:45:00.000+01:00

When Nuhu Ribadu (pictured left), Nigeria's anti-corruption czar read the riot act on corrupt Nigerian leaders at a lecture in Lagos on Thursday, I wasn't quite sure what he wanted his listening publics to make of it. But am sure there were questions in the minds of Nigerians on how far he would go, if he made any big hits at all.
He had said his commission would surprise corrupt leaders. “We respect people but there is no reason why people should respect a thief. If the leaders reduce themselves to cheap goat, we will discipline them,” he pointed out. But would the percieved selective nature of EFCC's arrests in some quarters take on broader significance in the light of the upcoming elections of 2007?
It seems that the answers might have begun to unfold if the lead story from Saturday's edition of Thisday http://www.thisdayonline.com/ is anything to go by. Mohammed Babangida's arrest and the connection with Mike Adenuga's previous arrest will no doubt generate a lot of media pages in the days to come.
At this early stages of Mr Ribadu's discipline putsch, his words and more importantly actions will be closely followed.
I will be glued to the proceedings of the action movie that will hopefully unfold from Ribadu's scripts in the days ahead. The hope is that it will be a major box office hit raking in sanitising revenues for our polity without any unnecessary selective focusing of the heated 'discipline'.

The Supply Chain of Kilts

2006-06-24T21:08:00.000+01:00

During the course of the outgoing week, one of the major headlines in the United Kingdom was the beating of an English fan by some Scottish thug. His offence was showing his support for his team by donning the strip and flying the St.George flag on his car. While, it's no secret that there is no love lost between the Scots and their cousins further south, such acts of 'racism' have been condemned in many quarters, not least on the floor of the UK parliament by Tony Blair. Could this incident be linked to Scotland's First Minister? In the light of Scotland's absence from the World Cup, the First Minister, Jack McConnell declared his support for England's opponents.
Before you begin to ask how this links up with Kilts, I'll take you there in a minute. I used the one hour break during yesterday's summer school schedule to attend to some business on Union Street, Aberdeen's main high street. On my way back to the Uni, I noticed this guy wearing an England top over the Scot's traditional dress- the kilt. He drew a lot of looks, mine and others. But on asking him what he was up to, he revealed his part in a Sunday Times opinion gauge in the light of earlier developments in the week. "Most people" he said " would just look, smile and walk on, or just make a joke, but nothing nasty had been said or done to me" A brave man I think he is. I told him about my desire to wear my Nigeria Strip on a kilt as well. But while these events are on this side of the world the relevance shouldn't be lost on the Motherland. My mind also goes back to the issues of race and tribalism in Africa. The truth is that, all of us irrespective of our 'exposure', sophistication, education or a lack of it, still live in a society where thse issues of racism are our daily fodder. ( U remeber the movie-Crash? I saw it yesterday) We might not beat anyone up with our fists, but we do so with our mouths and minds and by our actions and inactions.
There is a benefit, and I dare say a blessing in us being different - lets not just go past each other with our deep rooted biases, but seek to engage on a deeper level and who know what we might find that could inspire, benefit and challenge us to new things.
My simple encounter with that guy somehow led to the choice of the kilt as the product that my team is working on for the coursework element of a Summer School module. Written and oral presentation are lined up for the coming week and the task is to find out the intricacies of the Supply Chain ,and how to optimize it.
I look forward to lessons to come forth. I will share in the knowledge. In the time being, I'd beta head off and catch up with my readings and research.

QUALITY HOUR - (1745 to 1845)

2006-05-23T19:26:00.000+01:00

I had a look at the computer clock and found out that I had spent exactly one hour chatting with one of my eternal friends. In the light of my present exam study realities, I DID NOT plan to spend so much time away from my books. My excuse for getting up from my reading position was to get a journal article photocopied and then I thought to myself - 'why don't you just use the opportunity to the library gound floor to check your mails at the computer pool there'. But I have done more than just check my emails. While I will have to wrap this entry up pretty fast - (that journal article still needs to be read), the hour wasn't wasted by any means. We took time to talk about a lot of the issues that had been on my mind for a couple of weeks now. Interestingly , when I woke up this morning, I had this strong craving and massive urge to get on the phone to some of my top people in Nigeria and get some perspective on the Nigerian project as well as share my thoughts. The lack of the appropriate tools however handicapped me.
Nigeria is dear to my heart, bone and marrow plus my spirit, soul and body and all the recent events in the polity have drawn me back to seeking answers to some of the more foundational questions that are before us individually and collectively. ( more on the details of this in the coming weeks).
At this very instant there is a lot of hopefully positive news coming out of Naija on the leaders who will give beter direction to our aspirations and yearnings.
Like I said, I'll come back to the details very soon. But here's what I've learnt todat - the key that will unlock the doors to our desired future - individually and collectively lies in the quality of our relationships on a micro and macro level. Candid, beneficial and inspiring conversations like the one I just had remain the fulcrum on which all this hinges.
You will hear from me soon...I hope you are also saying that
The Nigeria of our dreams and desires is not far off

Thank You So So Very Much!

2006-05-19T20:03:00.000+01:00

For all your prayers, songs, calls, texts, emails, cards, gifts, hugs and kisses on my birthday...I say a MASSIVE THANK YOU!!!

2006-05-19T19:07:00.000+01:00

These few thoughts that have been on my mind.
Am over the pain of Arsenal's loss. The reality of how much work I needed to do on an essay which I turned in today cleared my eyes of whatsoever 'tears' were lurking.
But all of that blurred away when I read on the front page of The Independent, the story of Ese Elizabeth Alabi, the 29 year young mother of thre who was allowed to die by the dodgy bureaucracy at the NHS, Uk 's hospital service. full story at http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article485917.ece

Pls did anyone know this beautiful woman? My heart reaches out to her family and those young children she's left behind.
Her death shouldn't just go like that now? I hope the Nigerian government has registered at least a protest with the UK government.
They should have time for such important things as saving the lives and dignity in death of our compatriots , at least the 3rd term wool on their eyes has been removed by the senators...
Pls don't ask me what the link is, I am just pissed about this. I dey vex! and
I dey go before I talk stuff wey I no suppose

the final seconds to glory...

2006-05-17T18:56:00.000+01:00

I will need to do this under 6 minutes. Midweek fellowship is in 20 minutes and I still have to catch the bus to town. but before I go, just a few words on my own countdown to tonite's big game for my gunners...I just sneaked at the bbc site for the latest news and confirm that Pires & Ashley Cole are starting!
The frenzy isn't only at the Stade de France but also in Aberdeen here!
I've donned my Arsenal kit, taken off the Ronaldinho photo on my wall, off to church and then on to a pub to catch the second half...
What's all this about by the way?
Two things
1. I love my football and The Arsenal, but 2 and more importantly I love Jesus even more.
I won't stab church for soccer not even Arsenal's Champions League finale versus Barcelona.
Go Gunners, I am with you in spirit and in truth...
am out!

Memo to our wives, girlfriends, sisters-in-law, mistresses and every one in between

2006-05-05T13:39:00.000+01:00

Its been a while...and I thought my absence from this blog would be longer, and then I ran into this Memo on one of my 2 weekly MUST-READS (Segun Adeniyi's THISDAY column on Thursday). I couldn't better the contents in anyway, so I tweaked the original title a little bit. The copyrights remain Mr Adeniyi's.
I must however warn at this point that taking the contents of this light-hearted memo too lightly might not pay you too much o! U too know, abi?

One proposition I have not had the courage to tackle in a 'rational' manner in the last couple of weeks is: choose between me and Arsenal. As most husbands would agree with me, the intimidating manner in which such ultimatum is usually posed leaves no room for any unpalatable decision. But perhaps to prevent further trouble, especially in the coming crucial month, some husbands have got together and come up with this memo which I recommend to our darling wives. So that there may be peace in our homes:
From 9 June to 9 July 2006, you should read the sports section of every newspaper so that you are aware of what is going on regarding the World Cup, and that way you will be able to join in the conversations. If you fail to do this, then you will be totally ignored.
• During the World Cup, the television is for us, your husbands, at all times, without any exceptions. If you have to pass by in front of the TV during a game, we don't mind, as long as you do it crawling on the floor and without distracting us. If you decide to stand nude in front of the TV, we won't even see you and please make sure you put clothes on right after. Because if you catch a cold, we won't have time to take you to the doctor or look after you lest we miss the next important match.
•During the games we will be blind, deaf and dumb, unless we require a refill of our drinks or need something to eat. We know you would not, at this most crucial period, expect us to listen to you, open the door, answer the telephone, or pick up the baby that just fell on the floor....It won't happen!
• You are welcome to sit with us to watch one game and you can talk to us during half-time but only when the commercials are on, and only if the half-time score is favourable. In addition, please note that we say 'one' game; hence do not use the World Cup as a nice cheesy excuse that we 'spend time together'.
• The daily World Cup highlights shown on TV every night are just as important as the games themselves. Do not even think about saying 'but you have already seen this...why don't you change the channel to something we can all watch?' We don't care if we have seen them or we haven't seen them, we want to see them again. Many times.
• Please, inform your friends NOT to have any babies, or any other child related parties or gatherings that require our attendance because: a) we will not go, b) we will not go, and c) we will not go!
• But, if a friend of ours invites us to his house on a Sunday to watch a game, we will be there in a flash. And finally, please save your expressions such as 'thank God the World Cup is only every four years'. We are immune to these words. Because after the World Cup comes the Champions League, English Premiership, Spanish La Liga, Italian League, CAF Champions League, CAF Cup, Copa Liberterdores, WAFU CUP, COSAFA Castle Cup...

Performance Management

2006-04-21T19:12:00.000+01:00

I've got to post this in five minutes or else I would have drifted into that period of internet time wastage. Have you been there before? You know that your main work is done on the net, but you're just hanging around...maybe for one of your fans to come on messsenger or skype or one of those otherwise good tools that could sometimes become a distraction.
So what has performance management got to do with all these? It was thetopic of a lecture by my Singaporean HR professor this afternoon and during the course of that lecture he made mention of a few points on the relevance of influences in defining Performance management issues in organisations.
I' won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say that he made reference to the infamous Steve Jobs' lecture to some Stanford chaps the other day. In it, Mr Jobs talked about the influences that he encountered in the course of his short journey thru a university campus and the lessons for all of us in there. If you've seen it before, here's another chance to refresh your mind on some of the salient points. If you haven't, pls avour the next couple of paragraphs...you wouldn't regret it, I can promise you.
Have a great weekend guys!

by the way, I exceeded the 5 minute mark by 3...I hope it wasnt a waste of time.

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

This had better not be true

2006-04-11T12:14:00.000+01:00

FG planned Taylor’s escape – Ex-UN prosecutor
The Punch, Tuesday April 11, 2006

A former Chief Prosecutor of United Nations Special Court in Sierra Leone, Mr. David Crane, has alleged that the pre-trial escape of the former Liberian President, Mr. Charles Taylor, from his seaside resort home in Calabar, was masterminded by the Nigerian presidency.

The Nigerian government had in the last one week dismissed such claims, which officials described as a figment of the imagination of those making the allegation.

Crane, according to a report published by a Liberian Newspaper, The Analyst, on Monday, spoke as a panelist on Friday at an event organised by the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. on the topic, “Charles Taylor on Trial.”

According to the report, which was reinforced by Jacques Paul Klein, former Coordinator of the United Nations Operation in Liberia and currently a visiting lecturer in international affairs at Princeton University; among others, the Nigerian government feigned Taylor’s escape and then recaptured him to avoid a looming political backlash.

“As soon as President (Olusegun) Obasanjo realised the political blow-back that was about to happen in the United States as well as the international community, they (the Nigerian government) found Charles Taylor,” Crane reportedly told the audience.

He said President Obasanjo was forced to thwart Taylor’s escape after realising the political implications such plot would have on him in the United States and the international community.

Crane painted a scenario he alleged to have occurred during Obasanjo’s working visit to the U.S. late in March to justify his claim.

He said the President, who was scheduled to meet George Bush on March 29, was told by a senior member of the Bush government that he would not see the U.S. president if he did not find Charles Taylor. “Guess what, few hours later, they found Charles Taylor,” he told his audience.

Jacques Klein and the legal advisor to the Liberian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Good Governance, Philip Banks, said in their own presentations that Taylor’s foiled escape was an attempt by Africa leaders to maintain the old order.

The Nigerian presidency had before now denied involvement in Taylor’s disappearance from Calabar, where he had been on asylum for close to three years. Speaking during his U.S. visit, the President said, “Those who said that (Nigeria may have helped Taylor to escape) are wrong and should apologise.” He added that if his government were part of the escape plan, the former Liberian president would not have been arrested and turned over to the government of Liberia.

Taylor’s spiritual adviser, Indian evangelist Kilari Anand Paul, last week alleged that Nigerian security forces encouraged Taylor to flee and helped him get to the Cameroon border, before turning around and arresting him in a double-cross.

Paul said Taylor told him in a phone call from jail on April 1 that agents of the State Security Service in two vehicles came to his Calabar villa on the night of March 28, escorted him north and then released him “in the middle of nowhere.”

But the Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, dismissed Paul’s claim, saying it was a scene from a movie the cleric had witnessed.

“The story is a far-fetched figment of his jaundiced imagination,” Fani-Kayode said. He added, “He (Paul) must have been reading too many James Bond novels.”

The president of the United Nations Security Council for the month of April, Chinese ambassador Wang Guangya, said on Monday that the council was likely to approve a draft resolution on transferring Taylor’s trial to The Hague this week.

Speaking to reporters after a round of consultations on the British draft, he said, “My hope is that we can do it some time this week.”

Wang, however, said there were yet some sticking points to iron out, including who would bear the extra cost of transferring the trial to the premises of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Taylor has been indicted by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone on charges stemming from atrocities committed during Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war.

The charges include murder, sexual slavery, mutilation and the conscription of child soldiers in Sierra Leone. The prosecution alleges that Taylor sponsored and aided rebel groups, notably in exchange for a share in the lucrative diamond trade.

e-arrival

2006-04-11T00:39:00.000+01:00

I just concluded my first e-commerce transaction a few minutes ago by buying cheap transport for my easter vacation trip out of Aberdeen.But beleive it or not, as if the PC knew, it chose that 'e-sacred' moment to hang! However that was the only 'hitch along the process-chain.
From getting the account opened to the delivery of the card to my door, everything took exactly 48 hours.
I am so happy that my long held desire of doing some extensive retail therapy on the malls of amazon.com and the likes is no longer a distant dream. It is real, here and present and alive.
Without a dime I had all of this done. Where I come from, that would not have happened. The only reason had to be the trust that the banking system has in the average Joe who walks in through their doors. Now as I ask myself why it's not as easy back where I come from, my mind turns to the need for this vital element of trust to be ressurected amongst our people.
More than anything it holds the key to the rennaisance and revival of our land.
May it happen in the not too distant phase of our life time.

What would you have done?

2006-04-08T02:44:00.000+01:00

I came across this video link yesterday.
All you just need do is to click the link below. After watching it, kindly come back to add your comments on how you would have honestly responded in the same situation.
It's pretty revealing!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/default.cdnx/id/11925653/displaymode/1157

The Arsenal machine rolls on....

2006-04-06T18:55:00.000+01:00

I had to put an abrupt stop to the blog I was writing yesterday on Nigerian politics. It will resurface soon. It was largely due to my sudden memory recall that it was time for the semi final clash between my beloved Arsenal Football club and Juventus of Turin. Everything had to be put on hold!
I rushed home hoping to catch it on ITV1, but alas, it wasn't on. I was kinda gutted, but watch the match I must. So I went scouring the bars of Aberdeen, which I normally don't frequent. After four bars, a chance encounter with a Malawian Gunner fan who was in my same dilemma, we arrived at the All-Sports cafe near the Harbour just as the second half began. It was nil-nil on the night and 2-0 on aggregate. It had to be.
The next 45minutes totally lived up to expectation as the Gunners played their hearts out for a well deserved first appearance in the last four of the most prestigious club football competition on the planet.

With some sublime passing , marvelous defending and the never ceasing eye for a fast break which almost resulted in a couple of goals, The Arsenal defense even broke AC Milan's record of consecutive shut-outs( no goals scored against them). The win over Juve was our eight consecutive one!
Juve were simply no match even with the fleet footed Ibrahimovic( or Ibracadabra as they love to call him in Turin) at his best. Their resort to aggresive play led to the dismissal of Pavel nedved, the heart of their midfield.
So the Gunner Machine rolls on and up next comes Spanish giantkillers - Villareal. We await them and we are ready. One interesting thought that occured to me ahead of the next round is on what the choice of colours would be for the 2nd leg at Villareal's home ground. Their home strip is yellow and our away strip is yellow/gold! Fingers are crossed!!!
By the way - eat your hearts out all you Gunner haters who are reading this!

When would all this nonsense stop?

2006-04-05T18:45:00.000+01:00

God's role
The National Assembly is due to consider more than 100 proposed constitutional amendments, including whether to extend the president's term in office from two to three terms.
Mr Kayode confirmed a report in the Washington Post that quoted Mr Obasanjo as saying that God would play a part in helping him decide whether to stand again.
But Mr Kayode said it was "not accurate to put it in the context in which it was put that it would be decided by God, as if to say there were no other considerations".
"We are not ashamed of that fact that we are a nation of believers... we believe that God rules in the affairs of men," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
Mr Kayode said that if the constitution was changed then the president would consult with others before making any decision.
"What he [Mr Obasanjo] said is that God is not a God of abandoned projects. What he was referring to are the economic policies of this nation. What he's referring to are the economic reform programmes that this administration has set in place," the presidential spokesman explained.
"It does not necessarily mean that that means that God is going to use him in the future."

The highlighted section is from a BBC story posted today.
I would normally not have bothered to comment on statements such as these, but here I am doing just that.
But why?
I am in the middle of a study on the lives people of positive influence, ranging across a broad spectrum. From the religious to the secular( Desmond Tutu/Nelson Mandela), from men to women(Festus Ugwu/ Dora Akunyili), ancient to modern( Daniel of the Bible/) ...
To be continued....

Charlie...you can run, but you can't hide!

2006-03-28T11:06:00.000+01:00

DEVELOPING STORY- Tuesday, 28th March, 2006 ( 11:22am)

I'm no good at predicting future events, but I had a hunch that Charles Ghankay Taylor ( "one of the 3 most important wanted war crimes suspects in the world", ex-rebel warlord, ex-Liberian president and unrepentant jailbreaker) would escape from the hands of those who seek to bring him to justice one more time! And yes he has done it again.
Unconfirmed reports ( a streaming news item on www.thisdayonline.com this Tuesday morning) have it that the mass murderer has escaped from his "gilded cage" as Elizabeth Blunt(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4849552.stm) described the Calabar mansion where he's been holed with his family for the past couple of months.
The details are still sketchy, as no other major news agency has picked up this story, but it is not an unlikely possibility. If Charles Taylor could escape form jail in 'almighty' America, how much more from Nigeria.
The timing of this particular one will have done his big brother and host's image no good at all. Obasanjo is expected at the White House on Wednesday, 29th March. And while the release of the American and British hostages in the Niger Delta may have earned him some brownie points with George Bush, the White House visit if not cancelled, is likely to be dominated and rubbished by this bad news!
Amidst various concerns raised by people such as the Chief Prosecutor of the war crimes court in Sierra Leone, Desmond da Silva, it is sad to think that another Alameiyeseigha style escape has been hatched right under the very noses of Nigerian security.
I will follow this up as much as I can from the corner where I'm writing from and do an update.
But listen up Charles, if you think you can run... you can't hide for long.
Your sins will find you out.
Your accomplices will know no rest either.
And whether you like it or not, you will be caught - dead or alive.
I think most of us will prefer the latter option, so that you can pay for your evil deeds, you bloody coward!

Broda Oju yin re e..O to'jo meta

2006-03-27T20:03:00.001+01:00

Its taken a whole month between my first( and last) blog and this one, not the 3 days that the title of this blog suggests.
Contributory factors to that one month leave have ranged from pressing deadlines for turning in coursework to forgetfulness. But the summary of all those excuses is explained in the phrase - Inadequate Planning.
This blog is for me a warning, reminder and wake-up call all rolled into one.
But in the space of this month a few interesting events have happened which I've been opportuned to be part of and then there have been the missed and highly rued opportunities. A bit of both will come in subsequent posts But first some background in this post.
I once heard someone describe Excuse along these lines.
Ex- is defined as out of; former
C- is roman numeral for 100
Use-To put into service or apply for a purpose.
Adding all 3 together reads something like: Out of 100% use!

By mine and every weight known, I have not stacked up!
My challenge is to step up my game very very very well...or else?
I am writing this as a sort of public "check urself b4 u wreak urself" Well, maybe the wreak part is saying it too seriously, but the message is this - Urgent Progress is required on this Work-in-Progress called Adeolu Ashaye.
Watch this space for the exclusive progress reports of him.
No more excuses!
Its time to live at Installed 100% capacity

20:49

Reluctant Blogger

2006-02-26T23:54:00.000Z

23:50

After all the resolutions and promises to my self and others...this blog of a thing is actually taking shape.
I am blogging!
I am a blogga!
Wow!
Honestly, its not that am raving or shouting or getting particularly excited where I am. I'm just punching away at the keyboard of the last computer in the first row of F84, Edward Wright Bldng at the University of Aberdeen.
I actually came here with the intention of doing some quality reading, but as it is obvious, am not doing so much of it. The title of the B2BR( Book 2 Be Read) is Charles Handy's The Elephant & The Flea... Insightful and easy to read book it is, but am not just reading it for the insights and ease.
I have to.
I don't have too much of a choice if I want to get a high score in my Research for Business Course.
So I'd better get on with that business and come back to the blogging bit later.
At least I've begun blogging...albeit reluctantly.
May I never stop!

00:06