MADIBA MY AFRICA

Africa is here for once as a pilgrim

Our regrets for a fallen Robben island pilgrim
Here today our revered and sullied homage
That was our price for an Africa in bondage
Madiba’s soul is journeying to the Pantheon
Will Mourners tears, unknowns allay?
Mandela was South Africa
Now Madiba is all Africa
We will not our din cast in the past
But our trophies and hopes are vast
David Diop was Africa my Africa
Madiba is my Africa my Africa

There is 'still' a country.

After taking the trouble to read Achebe's memoir "there was a country" which, with the intention of reviewing realized that it wasn't worth the effort. This memoir I must say, although is an elaborate depiction of what transpired before and during the war, it however PRIMARILY presented a tribe misconception and beatified the Igbo tribe above the other tribes in Nigeria.

I really do not need to exhume the ghost of the Biafra war or exclaim the inhumanity therein but the racist impressions borne by Achebe killed my courage to review the book. Some may review this piece of mind of mine as a candid review but i hold it a trickle of aspersion for the book. 

I do understand the betrayal Achebe suffered as a young man who believed in enhancing the development of a young country, until he was faced with either annihilation in Lagos or return to the safety of his home region. I also understand the campaign for a sovereign Biafra that failed. It was a bitter pill that had to be swallowed for no cure that had to be forgotten. The book if you manage to read it, although showed Achebe as one the greatest writers Nigeria could ever have but i must say it also wanes my belief in him as one of the greatest minds in cultural and traditional sustenance. 

The true Pan-Africanism spirit is lost in the book. This is not the kind of book our peace-fragile nation needs at this time. It is a kind of book that spurs young bloods to war and revive the dust of Biafra. What we need at this point are books to unite us as a country and not further put asunder to a wandering nation. No wonder Achebe has turned down many of the National Awards proposed to him. He was living in the fragmented world of Biafra. His ideal cultural limbo which, never did survive champions the basis of this so called memoir. 

Nigeria as a nation has come to stay. Any attempt of secession would appropriately lead to another civil war. At this point of our lives, this is not what we want. If Achebe hopes to invoke the spirit of vengeance in the youths, as he massages his approach to the great beyond, then he must very well have a rethink.

The World at Full Speed

They say the world is going to an end. I don’t think so; I will rather say we humans are pushing the world to its end. Although the bible proclaims doom on the world in the book of revelation speaking about the end of time, I believe that the world is sooner approaching that end than that biblical appointed time.

I am not merely concerned about the chaos caused by our insatiable demand from nature. Neither am I ruffled about the unnecessary and insignificant wars and political imbroglio that have managed to keep the world in a state of fragile peace.

My concern exactly is the rape of morality in our society today. An institution that our forebears have suffered to build and sustain over the years; from the fall of the dark ages to the rise of the medieval era is today being riddled to the ground by so called right of freedom; that value today counts for nothing; the very foundation on which our society stands. A wise man once said that “The loss of Morality is the gain of crises”

Right of freedom and freewill are the very vice that are truly ruining the world. The former, a human given right and the latter God given talent are both taking their tolls on the values of human existence. It is right of freedom that gives some bedeviled humans to call for right of same sex marriage (legalization of gayism). Our world will soon lose the very civility that keeps it in harmony. Isn’t it true that what goes up must surely come down? Our civilization is beginning to reach its climax, its elastic limit, its diminishing return that is why our rage to reunite our time with the stoneage where chaos was the count of character seemed inevitable.

Sometimes I try to discover the unsavory legalization of same sex marriage. Just because some lost souls deemed the union of opposite sex extinct and found salvation in anal sex does not mean we should break the backbone of morality to uphold some evil right. To some I may sound personal in my position but I ask of what value is this law to human advancement and value. I think these are the substance that nourish our civilization.

I seek to wonder if these countries that fall victim to legalization of same sex marriage would also amend their constitutions to accommodate marriage between man and animal. For as far as I can tell both are similar cases. What these governments do not understand is that some humans are like children and still need that ‘parental’ guidance on how to spend their civil right. Unfortunately bad habit is far more contagious than good habit. No sooner had gay marriage been legalized, did many people rocked their world in its frivolous party. I am not going to blame the devil in this. We know what is right. In the innermost abyss of our hearts we know that it is grossly immoral and unrighteous. If not why do they labour to write it into constitutions.

I dare say that the role of America in this matter is symptomatic of their psychic for a free world. Nevertheless this does not guarantee lack of common sense in disposition of authority. I guess it is their ways to ‘lie the truth’ to themselves. I was an ardent supporter of America for their bill of right until recently. Some things are just not right.

It is a greater shame on the Christian society. We cannot even rely on our so called canons in the Christendom to abhor such demonic attitude. They had to be the first to rear it. No wonder Muslims will always refer to Christians as Kefirs (Unbelievers). For how can you be a believer, a priest for that matter and accept gay marriage. It is not compulsory to be a priest and remain celibate. It is merely a sacrifice of pleasure for pain to gain holiness.

This world is finished.

How Gaddafi Lost His Battle For Libya

One would wonder how easily Gaddafi let go Libya after his promise that " No hostility from rebels will make me step down. I will take back MY City from these outlaws and then crush them on the streets of Libya". This statement today seemed to hold no water as the rebel forces NTC seemed to be winning the war against him. The rebels have taken all the vital cities in Libya. They are gradually taken over Tripoli. The rate at which they are going they are sure to take the whole of Libya within the next 30 days. So why and what happened to Libya's tyrant promise to hold on to mantle inspite of the rebellion commanding him to stand down.

The answer is not far fetched. On the 13th July, 2011. Gaddafi made financial commitment to some Sudannesse and Somalian Mercenaries who promised to help him take back Libya plus he gave money to a Russian Fidelio Servio Rasnokovic to supply him arms. This decision was made after a larger chunk of his military top brass officers no longer supported him and deflected to the rebel's camp to fight against him. And Realizing that his command of Libyan military and Arms have been lost to an internal mutiny within the military and without any feasible significant chance of ever surviving the rebellion with all his warfare gone and with all the arms now in possession of the rebels as well as intelligence, he resulted to external assistance.

An arrangement was made for him by his aide Saheed Husman Abeed (deceased) to meet the head of a Sudanesse Mercenaries from the North (Bashir Al Seidou Ah-him) nick named THE BARON to help him hold and stamp out the insurgency in his country. According to my source The Baron promised to help him recruit more fighters from across Niger and Somalia and he was to pay them $3,220,000usd mobilization after a successful campaign he was going to pay them the balance of $1,800,000usd.

The sum of $3,220,000usd was handed over to the Baron in Austria on the 13th July 2011 by a woman (name unknown) who was said to be head of Gaddafi's fund managers. Likewise an undisclosed sum was transferred to Fidelio for supply of arms. Fidelio made good his promise. On his way some of the ammunition were seized by NATO and some of Fidelio's men were killed in the process. As for the Baron, he merely neglected the campaign and did not return the money. For this his Aide Saheed was executed for Conspiracy against Gaddafi. My source disclosed that the reason perhaps why the baron failed to fulfill the agreement was due to the fact that Gaddafi had earlier agreed with the baron that he was going to have him supply the ammunition as well as mercenaries to fight for him. According to my source the baron wasn't happy when he learnt that the ammunition contract had been taken from him and given to Fidelio, the Russian. He had called Gaddafi that nobody does business like that and Gaddafi had discounted it with the wave of the hand

The Baron's treachery and Fidelio's arm loss to NATO buried Gaddafi's Campaign. To make matters worse, Libya foreign investment had been frozen by The UN. He had no funds to commit to his resistance or canvass any support. The locals that were loyal to him; his town's people were beginning to desert him as they feared the fate that awaits them if they are captured. So they decided to make good their escape before the rebels. get to their province. With almost 85% of Tripoli under the control of The NTC, Even Gaddafi knew it was all over.

oRACLE

dAYO pHILLIPS

"Between Obscurantism and Oblivion"

My impression on Courtenay’s “Between Untruth and Apology” on Soyinka’s “Between Truth and Indulgences”

Permit me to wade into this matter as a historical idealist , although I do not hope to rewrite the past but indeed intend to make a sound judgement or settle an apology for what I have always deemed the ‘enforced connivance’ of the slavers and slaves. Many are full of difficult expression yet with little knowledge to dissect the truth from the past for in truth, much have been said by historians that do not depict actual happenings of the Atlantic slave trade; but have successfully as commercial entrepreneur feasted on the oblivion of a primitive nature. Besides, subjective rejuvenation of a story that was not historical had been a licensed tool to haunt the minds of the likes of Wole Soyinka, hence I find it hard to throw a schmaltz at the ‘obsessed’ professor
To a large extent Courtenay, I have stumbled upon books that tell different versions (tales) of the Atlantic slave trade. From Johannes Postma, Philip D Curtin, Timothy Wells, they have all told it from different stand points, perhaps relevant to what they had witnessed yet all accounts differ.
The “enforced connivance” leaves a primary and secondary perpetrator. The west were the primary and the African leaders whose people and culture were being enslaved were the secondary. Although the west and the African leaders share a common border, what is common as human wants, hence one cannot totally absolve the African leaders of not committing crimes against their people.
In the past I had been a staunch critic of the Trans Atlantic slave trade. Perhaps then, I would have been a more abrasive candidate antagonizing Soyinka on this matter. Not that I have lost my vigour, instead I find almost all stories chronological to the time of slave trade sensitive to the state of minds and not in actual sense. Some indeed like Walter Rodney’s “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” sounded too fictitious even as the erudite scholar managed to complement the opinionated beliefs of compounded historical tales.
Soyinka, you must understand is an iconoclast who always like a broken piece of mind would play a surreal character on the stage of comedy. I will always laugh at his disturbed genuineness. Like Okonkwo of “Things fall apart” he spits fire only to keep the world from feeling his waning embers.
Nevertheless I am quick to understand your dissatisfaction of Syinka’s polemics, logically because you see him as a traitor, I don’t know if that is good enough to suggest he is a traitor but I do know that even though he is a professor, he supports mediocrity, which is why you sometimes find toys in his hands (If you understand what I mean).
Enough of the jabbering on the ‘mindful’ Professor Courtenay let us fold our arms and hear how much we have failed from the mouth of the “GURU"

DAYO Phillips-arogbokun
©2010

Down to Earth

To think that Some banks such as Union Bank, Fin Bank and Afribank could get their MDs fired is unavoidable but for Intercontinental and Oceanic, it is quite disbelieving. If i were to rate banks in my candid and rather inexperienced statistics, I would put both Intercontinental, particularly Oceanic bank on the A list. It is indeed both painful and disappointing to know that Oceanic bank which was voted twice last year by three different institutions as Bank of the year is actually managing to stay afloat. This once again shows that what dazzles is not necessarily golden. This i believe is not limited only to the banks whose MDs are fallen, very soon more interesting and shocking revelations would unfold by the day if Sanusi keeps the torch burning and the flag flying. I hope he will not be daunted like his predecessor who saw the truth but rather allowed the camel swim. Although some people are beginning to chant a disapproval of the move taken by the gallant governor. They claim that he was being one-sided in his decision and action; that there are banks with more debts than the affected banks, yet they are untouched. This has always been the cry whenever the truth is being said in this country, even though the truth hangs against their rebuffs. Besides, Sanusi had promised us that eleven more are going under the knife soon. So that is a strong signal to the other banks who have no rhetoric in the ideal scheme of loaning their incredulous customers money. Anyway, I don't blame the 'big boys', it is generally the ways of business men. It is the duty of the bankers to cut their excesses. Imagine if you have a place you could always run to to salvage your bad business initiatives without any form of deed to bind your insatiable demand for pecuniary salvation to keep your wrecked business afloat even though it is not doing well in the market, wouldn't you rather do business with ease

Am i not rather surprised that Jimoh Ibrahim, the patriach of Transcorp and Global fleet is among the list of debtors. How about Aliko Dangote, the one time number one richest man in Africa, little did his admirers knew he was in debt than he was in riches. His brother Dantata who succeded in buying Chevron could have at least lent him some money (who knows if he too is not indebted to some banks) As for Otedola, I had a hunch A.P wasn't doing as well as it looked, (and to think that he just bought a new Airplane worth $500 million).

I do believe this is a clear instance of the problems of the elites brought to confront the fabric of the economy. Whenever a 'big boy' is doing bad in business, the banks are always there to salvage them from going under water and we ignorant observers do not know that our hard- earned money is being used to monetise the stupidity of some 'big boys' somewhere. It is indeed a dry land that needs to be watered so that the nourishmnent it deserved might once again flourish. And i believe that Sanusi is on the right path.

POTTY FINGERED SENATORS

I had promised myself that i will not be caught dead discussiing or reffering to the unresolved state of corruption in this country. however, much against my willed desire i am constrained to issue a slim statement after seeing a video of what our so called senators receive as their monthly take home salaries. It is an understatement to say that i was shocked, for indeed i almost suffered a cardiac arrest at the enormous figures mentioned as salaries of these blood sucking senators. Did you know that a senator of the federal republic of this country takes as much as these at the end of every month.

Basic salary: N2,484,242:42k (two million four hundred and eighty four thousand, two hundred and forty two naira forty two kobo).

Allowances

Wardrobe 25% of basic salary= N720,000

Recession, 10% " " = N248,000

Accomodation, 200% " " = N4.5 million

Utility 30% " " = N900,000

Domestic 75% " " = N1.2 million

Entertainment 30% " " = N900,000

P.A 25% " " = N750,000

Vehicle 75% " " = N1.2 million

Leave 10% " " = N248,000

Hardship 50% " " = N1.2 million

Furniture 300% " " = N7.2 million

Severance 300% " " = N7.2 million

Custom 250% " " = N6.2 million

all these added to the basic salary and of course some fringes and perks

Relieve them; they are yet to find…

Perhaps the Nigerian Society is yet to be delivered of a stock of youths that will reciprocate the available offers of its political institutions and incidents. Rather, only a wave of star eyed, explosive, randy, glitzy and funky youths litter and rock the floor of this inbred society. Except for some frustrated ones, in an outlandish manner, campaign their frustrations and noble background, with no exceptional output from the government. Yet the youths of this country are becoming more and more confused.

You may want to say that the teeming population of the Nigerian youths contributes largely to the corrupt practices that pervade the status quo. Do you blame them, When the only factor that could have presented them as responsible youths have been deprived them by the lack of good employment in the society. In the recent past, between the early 60s and close of the 80s, the desire to go to school was popular because there was the fine certainty of securing a fine future. Today a certain proportion of the Nigerian youths do not see the relevance of going to school. Even those who have the fixed idiosyncrasy are consciously engaged in academic malpractices. They merely dabble into. A stroll along the streets of the nation presents you with a chagrin maze of confused youths parading desultorily, smoking hashish with a configured head in expectation for a deux machine of opulence. Do you blame them, when those that preceded them have nothing to show for it but have become gladiators in the labour market, seeking a job that recedes in an apparition before them?

Nevertheless, some have been able to beat the need for education to survive. The progressive state of the music industry in the country has evolved a vibrant parvenu class of both professional and fledgling musicians all over the nation. They have opened a flood gate to address their socio-economic demands. This as well has projected Nigeria as possessing talented youths. Some of such images are Tuface, D-banj, 9ice, Durella, Timaya, P-square etc. the film industry has its impact on the youths as well. With the current pace at which Nollywood is going, it will rock the attention of the world and a craze by youngsters for the film industry as participants and schedulers is at an unprecedented spate.

What is more, the youths flagrant desires for the premiership and other European leagues show avidly that their hearts are no longer with the country. If they could have their ways, they would dump Nigeria for greener pastures. Their ways mimic in every way western values, properties and elements. You will agree that every Nigerian youth wants to become a model. Go to the higher institutions and you can bear me a witness. You will see clownish, repulsive looking ensembles that would remind you in quick flash cartoon and sometimes sardonic characters. Hence, the attention of youths is gradually being dragged away from more important issues such as political and leadership aspirations. Most seem less concerned about the frame work. They probably feel they lack the foundational strength to survive the harsh bureaucracy of political parties and subsequent party demands.

Jeffery Jackson’s description of the Nigerian youths; “a revolutionistic tendency in the future” might sound gloomy, offensive and grossly abrasive on the personality of the Nigerian youths, it however aptly defines the present nonchalant youths as a redefined and purposeful object of wind of change in the fabric of the distasteful apolitical system government the nation into what would then be known as the new Nigeria.

But today, the Nigerian youths are yet to display the propensity in taking part in the fleeting path of rediscovery for the nation, instead they find themselves more useful in criminal activities; where they indulge in credit card bunkering, telecom hacking, and internet fraud popularly known as Yahoo Yahoo boys, who incubate themselves financially on the internet.

A cursory survey carried out on youths and crime by the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2007 revealed that 70% of youths that are neither students nor graduates have an insignificant means of livelihood. In other words, they couldn’t identify a reasonable source of income. Their investigation showed that 45% claimed they do contract jobs such as marketing imported goods and other inanities, while the remaining 55% could not identify any form of job, yet they adorned themselves in very expensive clothes.

There is no doubt the government has not been fair to the country and especially its generation next. Perhaps they forget they are the future leaders of this country. Except that they have fractionalize the society into an inbreeding system of leadership, I do not conceive any other reason why they should forsake those they are meant to cater for. Like disowned children, the youths seemed to have been forgotten and discarded and they likewise are acting like one. The government has no plans for them and they have planned themselves wrongly. It is a mystified shame that the network that ought to be the most vociferous, stimulating and disciplined have become ensnared by wedlock of political anomalies. Remember the 1953 Cuban revolution, the Norwegian 1932 youth march and of course the popular Kenyan Mau Mau revolution. All these were foisted by a depressed and changes seeking youths.

Finally, I dare say that the Nigerian youths are yet to possess the much needed trait of leadership. Like the unresolved youth of Leonard Cohen’s Letter , the Nigerian youths have become rustic, complacent and impervious to the political absurdities of our fuehrer. Nevertheless, I believe that one day, like the words of Rev. Jackson, they will finally awaken from their slumber and hold tenaciously the reins of politics consciousness. The prayer is that; when they are ready to dawn a new Nigeria there would be enough left to salvage.

IT HAPPENED TO SOMEONE I KNOW CLOSELY.

I have often been perturbed by the lack of human feelings for the spiritual. Man was fused in the maze of the mind, body and spirit. interestingly we seem to be more attainable towards the former two. It is not irrational, delusional or psychologically demerit for one to be informed of the spiritual ambience and forces that revolve around our stately being. after so many confusions about the components inherent in the manufature of man, scholars have 'managed' to agree that afterall there is indeed an extention of the metaphysical in every man. Whether one has learnt its admission or relate to its generative flux, matters less for a man could either utilize his spiritual force or have it utilized for him by a fellow man who understands and could even manipulate it.

People witness several grotesque things every day and they bother not to to talk about it, for they fear they would be reserved for the senatorium. which brings me to tell this story which actually happened to a friend of mine.

I remember that very cold afternoon clearly. It had rained heavily and the weather was bitingly cold. I was in a recumbent position on my bed when he bolted into my room, sweating inspite of the freezing air about. I equally jumped at his entry, in readiness for an attack. Although my position presented a man in no state to encounter an onslaught cause I was more frightened than defensive in my posture. But when I realized it was just him and he was the cause for alarm, he was visibly shaking all over like someone who had seen a ghost. And really, he indeed had. I slid of the bed slowly watching him cautiously. I approached him the way a lion would attempt its prey, touched him. His body was surprisingly cold. I motioned him to sit down but refused, shaking his head in rejection to my gesture. I left him for a while, went into the kitchen to see if I could fix him a hot cup of tea. But before I could walk out of the room, he began talking, like a record that was remotely set off, I listened. I will be presenteing his story to you in the first person, with every detailed punctuations and references to his exact expressions

Retire not resign if you want

it is quite a story to tell about the mismatch between the country and the president that has been selected to serve it. it is indeed a wrong idea at the wrong time all together. i dare say that the only thing the country is being served with is nothingness from the whims and caprices of a jejuned mind.
when Obasanjo inserted Yaradua into the presidency, arguably did we compromise the decision perhaps because of the indiciplined method by which he got his mandate, however more to that the man is just imcopetent
In well over 2 years Mr. President (servant and savant leader) had been as redundant as his predecessor when he first took power. the difference is just that his predecessor soon assumed the post of the foreign minister while in his own case became a guinea pig under the scalpel of surgeons.
i find it perplexing when i realize the indebtedness of our leaders to failure. they are practically glued to their offices while they imitate a finely defined work of art in their offices doing nothing.
it goes against my grain at such fissure of incompetence. a popular artist once said if you can't don't do it.