Tuesday, August 31, 2010
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: STORY, STORY (2)....ACROSS THE NIGER BRIDGE BY FER...
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: STORY, STORY (2)....ACROSS THE NIGER BRIDGE BY FER...: "...At our family level, some of the information here would help you to continue with your ‘Family Tree’ project. As much as I can recollec..."
STORY, STORY (2)....ACROSS THE NIGER BRIDGE BY FERRY.
...At our family level, some of the information here would help you to continue with your ‘Family Tree’ project.
As much as I can recollect, I remember my father travelling with myself and my brother (uncle Sunny, your cousin Benjy’s father), in a vehicle with a lot of people inside it.
I cannot remember whether we travelled from Aba, or from Port Harcourt, but we were travelling to Lagos.
This was early in 1965; just about five years after Nigeria got her independence from Great Britain.
We left my mother (grandma), my brothers Dede (big Daddy), Ade (Bj’s daddy), Innocent(your cousin Ada’s daddy) and Victor(your cousin Erinma’s daddy), and my sister Meg (your cousin Kachi’s mummy, big Aunty).
My grandmother and grandfather, and Uncle Chidi and Aunty Gloria were also with them back in the east in Omoba.
As we travelled farther away from them, I missed my mother.
But I was excited because I was going on a journey with my father, and I was going to start school, and to see the other members of our family in Lagos.
The journey seemed endless, and I slept most of the way.
One of the times I was I awake, I remember I saw a lot of water, my father said it was River Niger. We waited a long time by the river at Onitsha, and it was dark when what I now understand as a ferry came and vehicles and people got on and after some time, we were on the other side of the river at Asaba. You remember the place where we stopped to take photographs by the bridge, when we travelled to see grandma in Osa-Ukwu with the black Golf in 2006?
That is the Niger Bridge head at Asaba. Asaba is the town where we all slept in 2005 as we were travelling to see grandma with Bj, his daddy, Dolapo, Olaachi, and their mummy, when the Pathfinder got spoilt on the way because of the flooding that also made us, to sleep in Benin city two days earlier.
There was no bridge across the River Niger from Onitsha to Asaba when I travelled with my father then...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
As much as I can recollect, I remember my father travelling with myself and my brother (uncle Sunny, your cousin Benjy’s father), in a vehicle with a lot of people inside it.
I cannot remember whether we travelled from Aba, or from Port Harcourt, but we were travelling to Lagos.
This was early in 1965; just about five years after Nigeria got her independence from Great Britain.
We left my mother (grandma), my brothers Dede (big Daddy), Ade (Bj’s daddy), Innocent(your cousin Ada’s daddy) and Victor(your cousin Erinma’s daddy), and my sister Meg (your cousin Kachi’s mummy, big Aunty).
My grandmother and grandfather, and Uncle Chidi and Aunty Gloria were also with them back in the east in Omoba.
As we travelled farther away from them, I missed my mother.
But I was excited because I was going on a journey with my father, and I was going to start school, and to see the other members of our family in Lagos.
The journey seemed endless, and I slept most of the way.
One of the times I was I awake, I remember I saw a lot of water, my father said it was River Niger. We waited a long time by the river at Onitsha, and it was dark when what I now understand as a ferry came and vehicles and people got on and after some time, we were on the other side of the river at Asaba. You remember the place where we stopped to take photographs by the bridge, when we travelled to see grandma in Osa-Ukwu with the black Golf in 2006?
That is the Niger Bridge head at Asaba. Asaba is the town where we all slept in 2005 as we were travelling to see grandma with Bj, his daddy, Dolapo, Olaachi, and their mummy, when the Pathfinder got spoilt on the way because of the flooding that also made us, to sleep in Benin city two days earlier.
There was no bridge across the River Niger from Onitsha to Asaba when I travelled with my father then...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Monday, August 30, 2010
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: STORY, STORY (1)....ACROSS THE RIVER NIGER BY FERR...
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: STORY, STORY (1)....ACROSS THE RIVER NIGER BY FERR...: "...Dear Didie, I was too young to understand why some of the things am about to tell you happened they ways they did. But I as much as ..."
STORY, STORY (1)....ACROSS THE RIVER NIGER BY FERRY.
...Dear Didie,
I was too young to understand why some of the things am about to tell you happened they ways they did.
But I as much as I can remember, we had a very happy family, and everything seemed just fine, just as you, your sisters and maybe your friends feel they are now, in your families and environments.
The difference is that, while I was about five years old at the time this story begins and about eleven when it would end, you are already eleven now.
I am writing you, so that you can always remember these incidents, make up your mind that as you grow up, you are not going to be a part of anything that would create rumours, and then conflicts, and then, the kinds of scenarios that I am about to narrate to you.
That is not all. I also want you, to encourage your friends and peers, to join you to do things that would led to the benefit of all Nigerians.
You need to know that war destroys things, separates families, stunts development and the lives of a lot of people. Nothing about war is good.
War stops everything else but war. War kills people, ordinary people, and civilians, dead!
When there is war, everything you take for granted, like going to school, work or eating what you like (if you can afford it), moving about freely and keeping the things and people dear to you (toys, cars, houses, and even your family members, both males and females), become impossible. Soldiers just take whatever they want to take in war situations. And nobody can stop them.
You also need to understand that to be caught up in a real war, is not the same thing as watching war movies, or watching real wars in other places like the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, Sierra Leon or Somalia from television reports, or DVD docummentaries.
Wars terribly affect the lives of ordinary people caught up in them, and not just the lives of the soldiers who fight in wars...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
I was too young to understand why some of the things am about to tell you happened they ways they did.
But I as much as I can remember, we had a very happy family, and everything seemed just fine, just as you, your sisters and maybe your friends feel they are now, in your families and environments.
The difference is that, while I was about five years old at the time this story begins and about eleven when it would end, you are already eleven now.
I am writing you, so that you can always remember these incidents, make up your mind that as you grow up, you are not going to be a part of anything that would create rumours, and then conflicts, and then, the kinds of scenarios that I am about to narrate to you.
That is not all. I also want you, to encourage your friends and peers, to join you to do things that would led to the benefit of all Nigerians.
You need to know that war destroys things, separates families, stunts development and the lives of a lot of people. Nothing about war is good.
War stops everything else but war. War kills people, ordinary people, and civilians, dead!
When there is war, everything you take for granted, like going to school, work or eating what you like (if you can afford it), moving about freely and keeping the things and people dear to you (toys, cars, houses, and even your family members, both males and females), become impossible. Soldiers just take whatever they want to take in war situations. And nobody can stop them.
You also need to understand that to be caught up in a real war, is not the same thing as watching war movies, or watching real wars in other places like the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, Sierra Leon or Somalia from television reports, or DVD docummentaries.
Wars terribly affect the lives of ordinary people caught up in them, and not just the lives of the soldiers who fight in wars...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: ARE THE 'HUSBANDS' GOING MAD AGAIN???!!!
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: ARE THE 'HUSBANDS' GOING MAD AGAIN???!!!: "...Sometime in 1984, the University of Lagos Students’ Union week was fast approaching. I was approached by the Social Secretary, to write a..."
ARE THE 'HUSBANDS' GOING MAD AGAIN???!!!
...Sometime in 1984, the University of Lagos Students’ Union week was fast approaching. I was approached by the Social Secretary, to write and present a play for the Week. The Student Union President at that time, was Niyi Akinsiji.
About a year earlier, in concert with three of my friends, we had formed The Theatre 15, and invited some of our other friends who included former Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Jonas Agwu, Dr. Kayode Fayemi,…to join us as we performed plays(including Ola Rotimi’s OUR HUSBAND HAS GONE MAD AGAIN!) in the University of Lagos as well as three other universities in the south west of Nigeria; the University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and the University of Ado-Ekiti.
I chose to write and produce a pantomime, portraying the trials of civilians through military decrees and Tribunals, under the Generals Buhari and Idiagbon regime, which someone had termed ‘kangaroo courts’. The title of that play is Fragile Fury.
I have not reproduced that play here because it is in another book, CAMP BODINGA: NOT A WASTED GENERATION, my recollection of my National Youth Service Corp experiences in Sokoto State between 1985 and 1986.
As we were rehearsing the play, I noticed that the players started to disappear one by one, up to the point that it became impossible to continue with the rehearsals.
I got to find out that my friends had heard rumours that State Security Service operatives were trailing us as we rehearsed, and so they were apprehensive of being arrested, and getting Theatre 15 banned.
I had to look for other players outside of Theatre 15, and we went ahead to rehearse and produce the play during the Week, albeit hush-hush.
There were no arrests.
We were not confronting individuals, but an unacceptable system of justice, which could cause social unrest, and then stunt development, which actually did happen.
A few years later under the General Babangida regime, Mr. Fred Agbeyegbe a Lawyer, started Ajo Productions, a theatre company and through a hugely successful Ajofest in 1986, that brought people like Richard Mofe-Damijo, Anter Laniyan, Tunji Sotimirin, Jide Ogugbade, Ben Tomoloju… to the limelight, produced among other plays, BUDISO which portrayed among other issues of our national life at that time, some of the issues in Fragile Fury.
I followed the performances as I reviewed them for my contribution in the arts and entertainment section of a Lagos Newspaper then, as a freelance.
There were also rumours that State Security Service operatives also trailed that production, as it was believed that the title BUDISO represented names of some personalities in the previous regime.
And Ajo productions some how stopped producing plays, which was really sad.
Why was it sad? Apart from the employment opportunities for theatre practitioners that Ajo Productions provided at that time, their productions offered us opportunities for us to laugh at ourselves and get rid of some of the anger and disappointments, which is one very big problem area of our national life. We do not know how to laugh at ourselves.
This has also hindered creative works around the issue areas of our national life. The revolution for the performing arts and allied professions that happened with what has come to be known as Nollywood only a few years ago, would have happened much earlier and we would not have been only bombarded mainly with themes of rituals and the occult as is the case now.
One more win-win opportunity for Nigeria lost...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
About a year earlier, in concert with three of my friends, we had formed The Theatre 15, and invited some of our other friends who included former Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Jonas Agwu, Dr. Kayode Fayemi,…to join us as we performed plays(including Ola Rotimi’s OUR HUSBAND HAS GONE MAD AGAIN!) in the University of Lagos as well as three other universities in the south west of Nigeria; the University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and the University of Ado-Ekiti.
I chose to write and produce a pantomime, portraying the trials of civilians through military decrees and Tribunals, under the Generals Buhari and Idiagbon regime, which someone had termed ‘kangaroo courts’. The title of that play is Fragile Fury.
I have not reproduced that play here because it is in another book, CAMP BODINGA: NOT A WASTED GENERATION, my recollection of my National Youth Service Corp experiences in Sokoto State between 1985 and 1986.
As we were rehearsing the play, I noticed that the players started to disappear one by one, up to the point that it became impossible to continue with the rehearsals.
I got to find out that my friends had heard rumours that State Security Service operatives were trailing us as we rehearsed, and so they were apprehensive of being arrested, and getting Theatre 15 banned.
I had to look for other players outside of Theatre 15, and we went ahead to rehearse and produce the play during the Week, albeit hush-hush.
There were no arrests.
We were not confronting individuals, but an unacceptable system of justice, which could cause social unrest, and then stunt development, which actually did happen.
A few years later under the General Babangida regime, Mr. Fred Agbeyegbe a Lawyer, started Ajo Productions, a theatre company and through a hugely successful Ajofest in 1986, that brought people like Richard Mofe-Damijo, Anter Laniyan, Tunji Sotimirin, Jide Ogugbade, Ben Tomoloju… to the limelight, produced among other plays, BUDISO which portrayed among other issues of our national life at that time, some of the issues in Fragile Fury.
I followed the performances as I reviewed them for my contribution in the arts and entertainment section of a Lagos Newspaper then, as a freelance.
There were also rumours that State Security Service operatives also trailed that production, as it was believed that the title BUDISO represented names of some personalities in the previous regime.
And Ajo productions some how stopped producing plays, which was really sad.
Why was it sad? Apart from the employment opportunities for theatre practitioners that Ajo Productions provided at that time, their productions offered us opportunities for us to laugh at ourselves and get rid of some of the anger and disappointments, which is one very big problem area of our national life. We do not know how to laugh at ourselves.
This has also hindered creative works around the issue areas of our national life. The revolution for the performing arts and allied professions that happened with what has come to be known as Nollywood only a few years ago, would have happened much earlier and we would not have been only bombarded mainly with themes of rituals and the occult as is the case now.
One more win-win opportunity for Nigeria lost...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Saturday, August 28, 2010
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: WE REALLY DO NOT VALUE WHAT WE HAVE OR WHO WE ARE!...
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: WE REALLY DO NOT VALUE WHAT WE HAVE OR WHO WE ARE!...: "...I do not believe I am a Nigerian by accident, or that I could have been better off anywhere else. I believe and affirm that this is the b..."
WE REALLY DO NOT VALUE WHAT WE HAVE OR WHO WE ARE!!!(2)
...I do not believe I am a Nigerian by accident, or that I could have been better off anywhere else. I believe and affirm that this is the best ‘seat’ in the planet fashioned by the almighty God for the benefit of all Nigerians, and all true friends of Nigeria.
In 1999, I went to Kenya for a training programme on development media materials design, development and production, with support of the UNFPA.
As part of the programme we (there were participants from eleven African countries) for the component that had to do with electronic media materials, at ACE Communications, a Kenyan company. While there, I noticed a product that there were advertising that interested me. It was indoor advertising display systems, the types that are all over the place now in banking halls and such places. There were not available in Nigeria as at that time. I approached some Ace Communications staff about it, and they said they would set up a meeting for me with their Managing Director, Mr. Raphael Tuju, which they eventually did.
As we sat over tea, at the Country Club in Karen, Nairobi to discuss business, the first thing that Mr. Tuju said was, ‘You Nigerians…’ I said to myself, here we go again! ‘…people either love you or hate you. But no one can afford to ignore you…’
Considering that this was just a few months into our ‘new experimentation’ with democracy, I was encouraged.
This is a proof of endorsement of the value of our ‘seat’ on planet Earth. Mr. Tuju eventually went on to become a Member of Parliament in Kenya...
----BIAFRA: LEST WE FORGET!
In 1999, I went to Kenya for a training programme on development media materials design, development and production, with support of the UNFPA.
As part of the programme we (there were participants from eleven African countries) for the component that had to do with electronic media materials, at ACE Communications, a Kenyan company. While there, I noticed a product that there were advertising that interested me. It was indoor advertising display systems, the types that are all over the place now in banking halls and such places. There were not available in Nigeria as at that time. I approached some Ace Communications staff about it, and they said they would set up a meeting for me with their Managing Director, Mr. Raphael Tuju, which they eventually did.
As we sat over tea, at the Country Club in Karen, Nairobi to discuss business, the first thing that Mr. Tuju said was, ‘You Nigerians…’ I said to myself, here we go again! ‘…people either love you or hate you. But no one can afford to ignore you…’
Considering that this was just a few months into our ‘new experimentation’ with democracy, I was encouraged.
This is a proof of endorsement of the value of our ‘seat’ on planet Earth. Mr. Tuju eventually went on to become a Member of Parliament in Kenya...
----BIAFRA: LEST WE FORGET!
Friday, August 27, 2010
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: WE REALLY DO NOT VALUE WHAT WE HAVE & WHO WE ARE!!...
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: WE REALLY DO NOT VALUE WHAT WE HAVE & WHO WE ARE!!...: "...South Africa has just hosted a flawless and lucrative Football World cup. That might not have happened had former President Thabo Mbek..."
WE REALLY DO NOT VALUE WHAT WE HAVE & WHO WE ARE!!! (1)
...South Africa has just hosted a flawless and lucrative Football World cup.
That might not have happened had former President Thabo Mbeki insisted on challenging the pressure for him to step down, from his party members. He stepped down, and President Jacob Zuma replaced him. There were those who did not like the idea. But there they are, moving on as the Republic of South Africa.
That is at the ‘macro’ level of things in South Africa. At the ‘micro’ level, they still have their own problems just like we do.
In 2004, I went to Cape Town in South Africa, to present some papers at the 4th International Entertainment Education Conference. For some reasons I still cannot explain, I travelled with only traditional attire for that trip.
In the hotel I stayed at, I noticed that one of the staff, a coloured young man (the ones we call ‘half-cast’ in Nigeria), made extra efforts to be of assistance to me as I sat at meals, or just seated in the gardens to rest or savour the scenery.
Eventually, I sought to know what made him so eager to come to my aid, even when he was not on duty. Well I got to know that he liked my attires(two days later, I found out he was not the only, as I was embarrassed with an award as the best dressed male at the conference, during the gala night!), that he is a Fashion Designer; he showed me a catalogue of some of his works.
Very creative and beautiful designs, if I had had the means I would have dragged him to Nigeria.
Then, what was he doing working in a hotel instead of running his fashion business, with all the business support opportunities available in South Africa?
His face fell, sullen and saddened.
When he eventually spoke, his story was that he had problems accessing support for his business because of the colour of his skin!
Financial institutions headed by blacks felt he was not black enough, those headed by whites felt he was not white enough, according to him.
So, he is working at the hotel (a bed and breakfast lodge really), to make enough money to leave for Europe to pursue his fashion career.
In South Africa of 2004?!!!!
Well, they are still there getting along with themselves somehow...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
That might not have happened had former President Thabo Mbeki insisted on challenging the pressure for him to step down, from his party members. He stepped down, and President Jacob Zuma replaced him. There were those who did not like the idea. But there they are, moving on as the Republic of South Africa.
That is at the ‘macro’ level of things in South Africa. At the ‘micro’ level, they still have their own problems just like we do.
In 2004, I went to Cape Town in South Africa, to present some papers at the 4th International Entertainment Education Conference. For some reasons I still cannot explain, I travelled with only traditional attire for that trip.
In the hotel I stayed at, I noticed that one of the staff, a coloured young man (the ones we call ‘half-cast’ in Nigeria), made extra efforts to be of assistance to me as I sat at meals, or just seated in the gardens to rest or savour the scenery.
Eventually, I sought to know what made him so eager to come to my aid, even when he was not on duty. Well I got to know that he liked my attires(two days later, I found out he was not the only, as I was embarrassed with an award as the best dressed male at the conference, during the gala night!), that he is a Fashion Designer; he showed me a catalogue of some of his works.
Very creative and beautiful designs, if I had had the means I would have dragged him to Nigeria.
Then, what was he doing working in a hotel instead of running his fashion business, with all the business support opportunities available in South Africa?
His face fell, sullen and saddened.
When he eventually spoke, his story was that he had problems accessing support for his business because of the colour of his skin!
Financial institutions headed by blacks felt he was not black enough, those headed by whites felt he was not white enough, according to him.
So, he is working at the hotel (a bed and breakfast lodge really), to make enough money to leave for Europe to pursue his fashion career.
In South Africa of 2004?!!!!
Well, they are still there getting along with themselves somehow...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
THEY DO NOT 'BAKE' BUT 'SHARE' THE NATIONAL 'CAKE'...
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: THEY DO NOT 'BAKE' BUT 'SHARE' THE NATIONAL 'CAKE'...: "...‘…Their icon would not win the presidential election under the Labour Party against PDP!’ I asked why, because to my mind, Labour is fa..."
THEY DO NOT 'BAKE' BUT 'SHARE' THE NATIONAL 'CAKE'!!!
...‘…Their icon would not win the presidential election under the Labour Party against PDP!’
I asked why, because to my mind, Labour is far larger, and has something common binding its members across the country from whom they could pool resources, much more than any other party.
He said wrong. Labour is not united!
I said fine, then the icon should work at uniting Labour to make it a potent political force that can speak for Nigerians, someone did the same in Poland, and that if that was the only thing he could achieve, I believe it would have been a far greater achievement for Nigeria.
Well, that did not happen. You know the rest of the story from that election. His Excellency Comrade Adams Oshiomole eventually became Governor in Edo State, South-South Nigeria.
And to think that the song they sing when they gather, says something about ‘solidarity’!
Another win-win opportunity for Nigeria lost.
Here, politicians are neither interested in ‘baking’ the ‘cake’, nor creating enabling environments for willing ‘bakers’. They are only interested in, ‘their slice of the national cake'...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
I asked why, because to my mind, Labour is far larger, and has something common binding its members across the country from whom they could pool resources, much more than any other party.
He said wrong. Labour is not united!
I said fine, then the icon should work at uniting Labour to make it a potent political force that can speak for Nigerians, someone did the same in Poland, and that if that was the only thing he could achieve, I believe it would have been a far greater achievement for Nigeria.
Well, that did not happen. You know the rest of the story from that election. His Excellency Comrade Adams Oshiomole eventually became Governor in Edo State, South-South Nigeria.
And to think that the song they sing when they gather, says something about ‘solidarity’!
Another win-win opportunity for Nigeria lost.
Here, politicians are neither interested in ‘baking’ the ‘cake’, nor creating enabling environments for willing ‘bakers’. They are only interested in, ‘their slice of the national cake'...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: OH, THESE POLITICIANS!!!
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: OH, THESE POLITICIANS!!!: "...Our problem has always been with incompetent, selfish, greedy and largely unpatriotic civilian politicians (and not tribe, not religion),..."
OH, THESE POLITICIANS!!!
...Our problem has always been with incompetent, selfish, greedy and largely unpatriotic civilian politicians (and not tribe, not religion), who polluted the military class between 1966, and 1999, by getting them involved in politics.
This is not just me talking. Not too long ago, I watched a documentary on NTA 24, which was on Nok Art or Tera Kota. In the course of the programme, the District Head of Nok, while trying to explain that the Nok people never worshipped their art objects, also said that even with the advent of Christianity, and then Islam, the Nok people lived peacefully together with themselves and their neighbours until the advent of politics.
Though he did not use the term politicians, but I do also believe that politics is a socialization tool made up of concepts and principles applied by people, just like communication. It is even more ‘static’ than communication, because its principles and concepts still need to be communicated. It is in communicating these concepts and principles that politicians come in.
If I was too young to know what led to the military class getting involved in politics in 1966, I have read some of the scattered accounts about that coup in some books and media reports. I am however, old enough to have witnessed how unpatriotic civilian politicians have been, since 1979.
The military class really needs to work at educating its rank and file about the need to resist any further pollution by civilian politicians, so we stop having military politicians.
If you are a parent, and you have children who make it a habit to quarrel and fight, and then keep calling you to intervene each time that happens, and you oblige them, it is very unlikely that the children would ever learn how to resolve their differences by themselves. And then, you as a parent would eventually be neglecting your primary duties, while concentrating on the distraction of settling quarrels and fights.
I am not however, suggesting that the military are our parents, in Nigeria.
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
This is not just me talking. Not too long ago, I watched a documentary on NTA 24, which was on Nok Art or Tera Kota. In the course of the programme, the District Head of Nok, while trying to explain that the Nok people never worshipped their art objects, also said that even with the advent of Christianity, and then Islam, the Nok people lived peacefully together with themselves and their neighbours until the advent of politics.
Though he did not use the term politicians, but I do also believe that politics is a socialization tool made up of concepts and principles applied by people, just like communication. It is even more ‘static’ than communication, because its principles and concepts still need to be communicated. It is in communicating these concepts and principles that politicians come in.
If I was too young to know what led to the military class getting involved in politics in 1966, I have read some of the scattered accounts about that coup in some books and media reports. I am however, old enough to have witnessed how unpatriotic civilian politicians have been, since 1979.
The military class really needs to work at educating its rank and file about the need to resist any further pollution by civilian politicians, so we stop having military politicians.
If you are a parent, and you have children who make it a habit to quarrel and fight, and then keep calling you to intervene each time that happens, and you oblige them, it is very unlikely that the children would ever learn how to resolve their differences by themselves. And then, you as a parent would eventually be neglecting your primary duties, while concentrating on the distraction of settling quarrels and fights.
I am not however, suggesting that the military are our parents, in Nigeria.
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: THERE IS NO PERFECT COUNTRY OR GOVERNANCE ANYWHERE...
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: THERE IS NO PERFECT COUNTRY OR GOVERNANCE ANYWHERE...: "...Why is it not possible for us to go for win-win situations for all to benefit, even when opportunities exist for such situations? Why a..."
THERE IS NO PERFECT COUNTRY OR GOVERNANCE ANYWHERE!
...Why is it not possible for us to go for win-win situations for all to benefit, even when opportunities exist for such situations?
Why are we refusing to talk about our painful and unpleasant experiences, what are our Historians doing? There is an Igbo adage for child grooming that says, oku taa nwata mbu, ya hun oku ozo, ya kpoo oku ufu.
I could go on and on with such questions, but I am persuaded to stop because I have come to the conclusion that Peter Tosh must have had Nigerians in mind when he sang, ‘…everyone wants to go to heaven, but none of them wants to die…’.
We have been being challenged by conformity, not cowardice. Nigerians are no cowards, but conformity is making us look and act like cowards.
We want good things, but are very unwilling to make sacrifices in order to bring the good things we want about. We want ‘fast food’, but even fast food takes some time and committed cooks, to cook.
We have chosen to be blind to, or to simply ignore some recent events in some of the nations we want to be like.
I will pick events from four of such countries, namely The United States of America, the United Kingdom, Poland, and South Africa.
Maybe I do not understand politics, but my understanding is that the election between former US President George Bush Jnr. and former Vice President Al Gore was not one of the elections Americans are very proud of, nor would want to remember. But there it was; it happened!
I can still remember former Vice President Al Gore’s speech to accept former President George Bush Jnr. as winner that election, in the interest of their constitution, democracy and their country. He did not call for America to break up because he did not win, even when it was possible that some Americans would have wanted him to continue to challenge the result of the election. That is called personal sacrifice for the general good.
More recently, we watched history colourfully painted on American canvass, as President Barack Obama, an African - American got elected, and eventually sworn-in.
I am not an American, but I was deeply concerned for him, through the elections, to his declaration as the President-elect, to his inauguration.
Why was I concerned? Well, for some people, it was unthinkable, unacceptable and then I felt maybe he would never get to be sworn-in.
We saw his opponents, notably among them Senator John McCain, stand up in his defense even before hostile Obama opposition.
And so, the hitherto unthinkable happened, an African-American calling the shots from The White House! It does not matter whether it is for only one term or the whole eight years, ‘yes they did’!
Senator McCain did not play the race card, as we do often play the tribe or religion card here, just to win elections at all cost!
He believes in something bigger than party, religious or racial differences (as he went back to the Senate to continue with the business of lawmaking), The United States of America!
Maybe we should change our name to USN; we did change our national anthem and currency at some points!
Much more recently, we watched the hitherto unthinkable, happen in the United Kingdom, the Conservatives forming a government with the Liberal Democrats, and they are still there, (well, as at the time of writing this book).
Never mind me; I do really believe they are going to work together for quite a while. Even if they do not, they have shown that nothing should be impossible in the interest of the common good.
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown got the message, took his personal belongings out of 10 Downing Street, cleared his table as Labour Party leader, and headed home.
He did not work against Cameron and Clegg getting to form a government, nor did he insist on leading the Labour Party even when other party members and their party constitution say no, nor go ahead and form his own party, as would have happened here.
And all of these took just days, not weeks, months or even years with several trips to the courts, not to talk of the huge amount of money that would have been wasted along with some precious and innocent lives, limbs and sanity, had it been here.
Did all Britons like what happened? Of course not! But they all went along with the arrangement.
Why, because their focus is on something far bigger than party, ideological or individual differences, The United Kingdom!
It does look like there is something about that word ‘United’, that we should really consider incorporating into our name.
I got interested in Poland during the communist era because of one man.
I am not a politician, nor am I a historian, but I studied history, and love to observe, and follow events as they unfold around me.
Right from my secondary school days, through the ‘World News’ columns of the News Papers that my father bought, I admired the courage, determination organisational qualities of Lech Walesa the father of ‘Solidarity’ and 1983 Noble Peace Laureate, as he struggled to pool the labour and civil society movements together against an oppressive system of governance in Poland.
He eventually became a president in post-communist Poland, but he worked for it. It did not happen in one day neither was it at no personal costs to him. I might be wrong, but I believe that today, Poland has benefitted from his many trips to jail, facilitated by an oppressive system of governance.
He succeeded in uniting the labour and civil society movements, to become a potent political force in Poland peacefully, as Walesa himself commented years later, ‘…"Why did we do all of it?" ...."To launch a new epoch, one without divisions. Without one shot, our generation was able to do it...’
And he even got commended by one of his former arch-enemies and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who said, ‘We all live in a free Poland, and there would be no free Poland without you. ... Twenty-five years ago, I did not stand on the same side together with you, but today I have no doubts that it was your vision of Poland which led us in the right direction."...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Why are we refusing to talk about our painful and unpleasant experiences, what are our Historians doing? There is an Igbo adage for child grooming that says, oku taa nwata mbu, ya hun oku ozo, ya kpoo oku ufu.
I could go on and on with such questions, but I am persuaded to stop because I have come to the conclusion that Peter Tosh must have had Nigerians in mind when he sang, ‘…everyone wants to go to heaven, but none of them wants to die…’.
We have been being challenged by conformity, not cowardice. Nigerians are no cowards, but conformity is making us look and act like cowards.
We want good things, but are very unwilling to make sacrifices in order to bring the good things we want about. We want ‘fast food’, but even fast food takes some time and committed cooks, to cook.
We have chosen to be blind to, or to simply ignore some recent events in some of the nations we want to be like.
I will pick events from four of such countries, namely The United States of America, the United Kingdom, Poland, and South Africa.
Maybe I do not understand politics, but my understanding is that the election between former US President George Bush Jnr. and former Vice President Al Gore was not one of the elections Americans are very proud of, nor would want to remember. But there it was; it happened!
I can still remember former Vice President Al Gore’s speech to accept former President George Bush Jnr. as winner that election, in the interest of their constitution, democracy and their country. He did not call for America to break up because he did not win, even when it was possible that some Americans would have wanted him to continue to challenge the result of the election. That is called personal sacrifice for the general good.
More recently, we watched history colourfully painted on American canvass, as President Barack Obama, an African - American got elected, and eventually sworn-in.
I am not an American, but I was deeply concerned for him, through the elections, to his declaration as the President-elect, to his inauguration.
Why was I concerned? Well, for some people, it was unthinkable, unacceptable and then I felt maybe he would never get to be sworn-in.
We saw his opponents, notably among them Senator John McCain, stand up in his defense even before hostile Obama opposition.
And so, the hitherto unthinkable happened, an African-American calling the shots from The White House! It does not matter whether it is for only one term or the whole eight years, ‘yes they did’!
Senator McCain did not play the race card, as we do often play the tribe or religion card here, just to win elections at all cost!
He believes in something bigger than party, religious or racial differences (as he went back to the Senate to continue with the business of lawmaking), The United States of America!
Maybe we should change our name to USN; we did change our national anthem and currency at some points!
Much more recently, we watched the hitherto unthinkable, happen in the United Kingdom, the Conservatives forming a government with the Liberal Democrats, and they are still there, (well, as at the time of writing this book).
Never mind me; I do really believe they are going to work together for quite a while. Even if they do not, they have shown that nothing should be impossible in the interest of the common good.
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown got the message, took his personal belongings out of 10 Downing Street, cleared his table as Labour Party leader, and headed home.
He did not work against Cameron and Clegg getting to form a government, nor did he insist on leading the Labour Party even when other party members and their party constitution say no, nor go ahead and form his own party, as would have happened here.
And all of these took just days, not weeks, months or even years with several trips to the courts, not to talk of the huge amount of money that would have been wasted along with some precious and innocent lives, limbs and sanity, had it been here.
Did all Britons like what happened? Of course not! But they all went along with the arrangement.
Why, because their focus is on something far bigger than party, ideological or individual differences, The United Kingdom!
It does look like there is something about that word ‘United’, that we should really consider incorporating into our name.
I got interested in Poland during the communist era because of one man.
I am not a politician, nor am I a historian, but I studied history, and love to observe, and follow events as they unfold around me.
Right from my secondary school days, through the ‘World News’ columns of the News Papers that my father bought, I admired the courage, determination organisational qualities of Lech Walesa the father of ‘Solidarity’ and 1983 Noble Peace Laureate, as he struggled to pool the labour and civil society movements together against an oppressive system of governance in Poland.
He eventually became a president in post-communist Poland, but he worked for it. It did not happen in one day neither was it at no personal costs to him. I might be wrong, but I believe that today, Poland has benefitted from his many trips to jail, facilitated by an oppressive system of governance.
He succeeded in uniting the labour and civil society movements, to become a potent political force in Poland peacefully, as Walesa himself commented years later, ‘…"Why did we do all of it?" ...."To launch a new epoch, one without divisions. Without one shot, our generation was able to do it...’
And he even got commended by one of his former arch-enemies and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who said, ‘We all live in a free Poland, and there would be no free Poland without you. ... Twenty-five years ago, I did not stand on the same side together with you, but today I have no doubts that it was your vision of Poland which led us in the right direction."...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Monday, August 23, 2010
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN ...
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN ...: "...We find it difficult put our issues out in public, to take jokes resulting from our mistakes, laugh about them, learn from them and move ..."
DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN NIGERIA?
...We find it difficult put our issues out in public, to take jokes resulting from our mistakes, laugh about them, learn from them and move on. This has helped some of the nations we want to be like.
Many Nigerians argue that nothing has changed in Nigeria.
Maybe that is true, depending on what their definition of ‘change’ is, as well as the areas of our national life to which they refer, and from what time period.
Yes we are not where we should be, in many areas. But we have made some progress. And you need peace and stability to make any type of progress, whether personal or national.
Be that as it may, may I remind us again that we have only gone about eleven years into this ‘experiment’.
I stand to be corrected, but I think this is the longest period of time (1999-2010) as a nation that we have had civilian rule.
We have managed somehow, to change the occupants of Aso Rock three and a half times. We are warming up to try for the fourth time, which I see as another opportunity for a win-win situation for Nigeria if the WAZOBIA politicians somehow find it in themselves to think ‘Nigeria’ first, not party not zone!.
But is that going to happen? Well, let’s wait and see.
Change, is a process and requires some time. It is not an event. It is our attitude and behaviour, coupled with the consistency we apply towards the discharge of our civic and other socio-economic responsibilities as individuals, and then collectively as a people, that is the key to the development we all crave.
An eleven year old child that graduates from a university programme with first class honours, would be considered, and would indeed be a genius.
Political office seekers or holders in Nigeria need to understand and exhibit to the rest of us, that national interest is far bigger than personal, tribal, religious or party interest.
They do really need to stop practicing what I think it was the late Mallam Aminu Kano that referred to it as the ‘politics of bitterness’, which is portrayed in scenarios like if they ‘win’ an election, destroying or discarding everything done by their predecessors, even the good ones; and if they lose, they engage in endless selfish court cases, with individuals working at folding political parties into their pockets, and should they fail to achieve that, tear up the party, cross to another one or form their own parties and glide right back to the ones they had worked at tearing up, at will, with the people they had left welcoming them back with open arms. And then go right ahead to quote to the rest of us, ‘…in politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies. Only permanent interests…’
I am still trying to understand what those ‘permanent interests’ represent for Nigerian politicians. But to my mind, it should be Nigeria. It however does not seem so, so far.
The tragedy of this kind of attitude and disposition is that they apply the same strategy to national issues, and our nationhood.
They work at folding the country into their pockets, and should they fail, they start to play the tribal and religious cards, beating drums that call for tearing Nigeria apart screaming ‘marginalisation’, and then encourage the military to come and take over.
And then we start all over again, wishing and waiting, for ‘Godot’ Maybe...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Many Nigerians argue that nothing has changed in Nigeria.
Maybe that is true, depending on what their definition of ‘change’ is, as well as the areas of our national life to which they refer, and from what time period.
Yes we are not where we should be, in many areas. But we have made some progress. And you need peace and stability to make any type of progress, whether personal or national.
Be that as it may, may I remind us again that we have only gone about eleven years into this ‘experiment’.
I stand to be corrected, but I think this is the longest period of time (1999-2010) as a nation that we have had civilian rule.
We have managed somehow, to change the occupants of Aso Rock three and a half times. We are warming up to try for the fourth time, which I see as another opportunity for a win-win situation for Nigeria if the WAZOBIA politicians somehow find it in themselves to think ‘Nigeria’ first, not party not zone!.
But is that going to happen? Well, let’s wait and see.
Change, is a process and requires some time. It is not an event. It is our attitude and behaviour, coupled with the consistency we apply towards the discharge of our civic and other socio-economic responsibilities as individuals, and then collectively as a people, that is the key to the development we all crave.
An eleven year old child that graduates from a university programme with first class honours, would be considered, and would indeed be a genius.
Political office seekers or holders in Nigeria need to understand and exhibit to the rest of us, that national interest is far bigger than personal, tribal, religious or party interest.
They do really need to stop practicing what I think it was the late Mallam Aminu Kano that referred to it as the ‘politics of bitterness’, which is portrayed in scenarios like if they ‘win’ an election, destroying or discarding everything done by their predecessors, even the good ones; and if they lose, they engage in endless selfish court cases, with individuals working at folding political parties into their pockets, and should they fail to achieve that, tear up the party, cross to another one or form their own parties and glide right back to the ones they had worked at tearing up, at will, with the people they had left welcoming them back with open arms. And then go right ahead to quote to the rest of us, ‘…in politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies. Only permanent interests…’
I am still trying to understand what those ‘permanent interests’ represent for Nigerian politicians. But to my mind, it should be Nigeria. It however does not seem so, so far.
The tragedy of this kind of attitude and disposition is that they apply the same strategy to national issues, and our nationhood.
They work at folding the country into their pockets, and should they fail, they start to play the tribal and religious cards, beating drums that call for tearing Nigeria apart screaming ‘marginalisation’, and then encourage the military to come and take over.
And then we start all over again, wishing and waiting, for ‘Godot’ Maybe...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: IS CORRUPTION NIGERIA'S PROBLEM?
BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET_ WE NEED PEACE IN NIGERIA!: IS CORRUPTION NIGERIA'S PROBLEM?: "...Some people say that Nigeria’s problem is corruption, but I do not agree! Not that I am in support of corruption, or that I am saying the..."
IS CORRUPTION NIGERIA'S PROBLEM?
...Some people say that Nigeria’s problem is corruption, but I do not agree! Not that I am in support of corruption, or that I am saying there is no corruption in Nigeria.
I disagree because to my mind, corruption is a symptom of a social disease that stunts development. That disease is known as parochialism.
We have been having challenges with combating corruption in Nigeria, because we have been focusing on the symptom of a disease. And then eventually like now, it becomes like the egg and chick dilemma – which is first. If the rest of us cannot speak about issues with one voice, and act on them with one resolve, then, corruption will be with us big time, for a long while!
Politicians in Nigeria have found out that so long as they can find ways to keep the populace divided along parochial lines, they will always get their ways by playing their game cards along those lines, and removing the focus of the populace from issues through which they, the politicians can be held accountable by the populace.
Issues like how people are elected into any political office in Nigeria.
If Nigerian politicians are really voted for, and they get to win elections based on actual votes from legitimate electorates who know what they want, who they voted for and why they voted for those persons, when those politicians get to whatever offices at which they need to serve the people that voted them into those offices, they will behave themselves because, they know they would have to get back to ask those same electorates, to vote for them again.
But that is not the situation right now. Nigerian Politicians are accountable only to a flawed electoral system characterized by an unreliable voters’ register, multiple single persons’ thumb prints of ballot papers and illegally stuffed ballot boxes, as revealed by former Cross River State governor Donald Duke; and they had been smiling to Aso Rock, and then to their banks, stashing away funds with which they continue to legitimatize parochialism.
Why, because they can afford to take a largely ignorant and divided electorate for granted, since the politicians did not need them to get ‘elected’ in the first place.
This is one of the reasons why we need to have a credible, and constantly updatable voters’ register.
It is also a reason for which all Nigerians that are qualified to vote at elections should go out and vote, at all elections, like happened in 1993.
When we are able to conduct credible elections, and politicians become accountable to a legitimate electorate, corruption that is linked to politics (which is actually the largest form of corruption, and the one that directly impacts on development in Nigeria), should die a natural death.
Simplistic you say?
I do not think so...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
I disagree because to my mind, corruption is a symptom of a social disease that stunts development. That disease is known as parochialism.
We have been having challenges with combating corruption in Nigeria, because we have been focusing on the symptom of a disease. And then eventually like now, it becomes like the egg and chick dilemma – which is first. If the rest of us cannot speak about issues with one voice, and act on them with one resolve, then, corruption will be with us big time, for a long while!
Politicians in Nigeria have found out that so long as they can find ways to keep the populace divided along parochial lines, they will always get their ways by playing their game cards along those lines, and removing the focus of the populace from issues through which they, the politicians can be held accountable by the populace.
Issues like how people are elected into any political office in Nigeria.
If Nigerian politicians are really voted for, and they get to win elections based on actual votes from legitimate electorates who know what they want, who they voted for and why they voted for those persons, when those politicians get to whatever offices at which they need to serve the people that voted them into those offices, they will behave themselves because, they know they would have to get back to ask those same electorates, to vote for them again.
But that is not the situation right now. Nigerian Politicians are accountable only to a flawed electoral system characterized by an unreliable voters’ register, multiple single persons’ thumb prints of ballot papers and illegally stuffed ballot boxes, as revealed by former Cross River State governor Donald Duke; and they had been smiling to Aso Rock, and then to their banks, stashing away funds with which they continue to legitimatize parochialism.
Why, because they can afford to take a largely ignorant and divided electorate for granted, since the politicians did not need them to get ‘elected’ in the first place.
This is one of the reasons why we need to have a credible, and constantly updatable voters’ register.
It is also a reason for which all Nigerians that are qualified to vote at elections should go out and vote, at all elections, like happened in 1993.
When we are able to conduct credible elections, and politicians become accountable to a legitimate electorate, corruption that is linked to politics (which is actually the largest form of corruption, and the one that directly impacts on development in Nigeria), should die a natural death.
Simplistic you say?
I do not think so...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
LET'S FIGHT!
...Why do we always have to resort to ‘let’s break it!’, anytime there are issues we do not agree with, or when things do not go our way?
The outcome of the Major Gideon Orka coup of April 1990 should have thought us that before anyone starts toying with the idea of breaking up Nigeria, the person or the individuals concerned should think again; and that even the might of the gun is not strong enough to break up Nigeria!
Well, I still remember a refrain from the broadcast on Federal radio during the civil war, ‘…to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done…’ People died to perform that task! Maybe some of us have forgotten that.
Whether he and his colleagues spoke or acted ‘hastily’ or not, it was not just those who were in the government that was being toppled that were horrified about their intentions. Ordinary Nigerians like myself, were terrified about the idea that Nigeria was being ‘sliced’ into bits, as we listened to his broadcast.
We certainly do have our differences. But we also do have more things binding us together, than those that seem to divide us.
So, why must it always be ‘…let’s fight..!’?
Why do we ‘mouth’ democracy, and dream of being where some nations are today, without wanting to take a deeper look at, or learn anything from the experiences they have had, and in some cases, are still having?
Why are we refusing to talk about our painful and unpleasant experiences, what are our Historians and movie producers doing? A Nigerian friend of mine who read excerpts of this book as was posting them on my status on Facebook said, ‘…actually (I) watched a series on Liberia and Sierra Leone(war),recently and I shudder to think if it were Nigeria". I repeat, Nigerians know next to nothing about very important aspects of our National history, while knowing quite some, about what happened/happens in other countries.
Why do we find it difficult, if not outright impossible to believe in or commit to anything, instead of ‘going with the flow’, or joining in the song ‘…if you can’t beat them, join them…’?
Sometime not too long ago, some parents forced their children to join the military. Not so they can serve Nigeria, but probably so they could maybe, get to be in the ‘right’ group, make a coup, and get to Dodan Barracks(it eventually became Aso Rock, via a hasty move to Abuja, courtesy of the Major Gideon Orka coup). Today, the thing in vogue is for parents and kinsmen to push their children to get into politics, targeting Aso Rock or the State Houses, not so they can serve Nigeria, but for purely selfish and greedy reasons.
I strongly believe that we need to do something, through legal and constitutional means, to make Aso Rock and the State Houses less attractive as they are now. That ‘something’ should not be the irritating 'calls' and insinuations, by those who are unable to get to Aso Rock, for Nigeria to be broken up. What is happening in some states, notably Ekiti, that is over ninety percent populated by Ekiti speaking people, should tell any right thinking persons that the solution to our challenges, is not for Nigeria to break up. It is like saying that the only solution to getting credible elections conducted in Ekiti, and get its impoverished citizens to get on with their lives, and enjoy the ‘dividends of democracy’, is to divide Ekiti State!
Some Nigerians are talking of a ‘Sovereign National Conference’, while what they actually mean is a ‘Religio-Tribal Conference’ to be attended by the same recycled and reshuffled politicians, without any clue as to how to focus on issues of national development, other than what which tribe or zone should get, or how to represent religious and other parochial interests.
Now, my question is this, if we could conduct credible elections and elect qualified and national minded individuals, who would respect the constitution and focus on real issues of national development and not those of personal, religious or sectional interest; then who needs any other conference?
Oh, I can hear you say that our Constitution is not perfect! But then, there is no perfect constitution anywhere.
The National Assembly if properly elected, can work at addressing any areas of concern in the Constitution, and then involve the rest of us to lend our voices, through referenda...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
The outcome of the Major Gideon Orka coup of April 1990 should have thought us that before anyone starts toying with the idea of breaking up Nigeria, the person or the individuals concerned should think again; and that even the might of the gun is not strong enough to break up Nigeria!
Well, I still remember a refrain from the broadcast on Federal radio during the civil war, ‘…to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done…’ People died to perform that task! Maybe some of us have forgotten that.
Whether he and his colleagues spoke or acted ‘hastily’ or not, it was not just those who were in the government that was being toppled that were horrified about their intentions. Ordinary Nigerians like myself, were terrified about the idea that Nigeria was being ‘sliced’ into bits, as we listened to his broadcast.
We certainly do have our differences. But we also do have more things binding us together, than those that seem to divide us.
So, why must it always be ‘…let’s fight..!’?
Why do we ‘mouth’ democracy, and dream of being where some nations are today, without wanting to take a deeper look at, or learn anything from the experiences they have had, and in some cases, are still having?
Why are we refusing to talk about our painful and unpleasant experiences, what are our Historians and movie producers doing? A Nigerian friend of mine who read excerpts of this book as was posting them on my status on Facebook said, ‘…actually (I) watched a series on Liberia and Sierra Leone(war),recently and I shudder to think if it were Nigeria". I repeat, Nigerians know next to nothing about very important aspects of our National history, while knowing quite some, about what happened/happens in other countries.
Why do we find it difficult, if not outright impossible to believe in or commit to anything, instead of ‘going with the flow’, or joining in the song ‘…if you can’t beat them, join them…’?
Sometime not too long ago, some parents forced their children to join the military. Not so they can serve Nigeria, but probably so they could maybe, get to be in the ‘right’ group, make a coup, and get to Dodan Barracks(it eventually became Aso Rock, via a hasty move to Abuja, courtesy of the Major Gideon Orka coup). Today, the thing in vogue is for parents and kinsmen to push their children to get into politics, targeting Aso Rock or the State Houses, not so they can serve Nigeria, but for purely selfish and greedy reasons.
I strongly believe that we need to do something, through legal and constitutional means, to make Aso Rock and the State Houses less attractive as they are now. That ‘something’ should not be the irritating 'calls' and insinuations, by those who are unable to get to Aso Rock, for Nigeria to be broken up. What is happening in some states, notably Ekiti, that is over ninety percent populated by Ekiti speaking people, should tell any right thinking persons that the solution to our challenges, is not for Nigeria to break up. It is like saying that the only solution to getting credible elections conducted in Ekiti, and get its impoverished citizens to get on with their lives, and enjoy the ‘dividends of democracy’, is to divide Ekiti State!
Some Nigerians are talking of a ‘Sovereign National Conference’, while what they actually mean is a ‘Religio-Tribal Conference’ to be attended by the same recycled and reshuffled politicians, without any clue as to how to focus on issues of national development, other than what which tribe or zone should get, or how to represent religious and other parochial interests.
Now, my question is this, if we could conduct credible elections and elect qualified and national minded individuals, who would respect the constitution and focus on real issues of national development and not those of personal, religious or sectional interest; then who needs any other conference?
Oh, I can hear you say that our Constitution is not perfect! But then, there is no perfect constitution anywhere.
The National Assembly if properly elected, can work at addressing any areas of concern in the Constitution, and then involve the rest of us to lend our voices, through referenda...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Friday, August 20, 2010
THE DRUMS HAVE STARTED!
...The thing that finally got me writing and quit ‘thinking’, apart from the fact that this is Nigeria’s year of Jubilee, was a mail forwarded to me by my wife about two weeks ago. She had travelled to Tanzania on some official business, and thought she should share the mail with me, before she got back. The mail was about the communiqué from the conference of a group of Nigerians in the US, who felt they had the right to speak on behalf of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. The mail was equally forwarded to her from an e-group to which she subscribes, Ekitipanupo. She had earlier forwarded a mail to me, containing the published address of former governor of Cross River State in South-South Nigeria, Mr. Donald Duke, in which he ‘revealed’ what was titled ‘The ABCD of Rigging in Nigeria’, in that mail.
When I read those mails, I was alarmed, and felt it was finally time for me to write this book. I do not have to reproduce what they said in their very selfish and thoughtless communiqué (that no group of Americans in the US where they live and held the conference, would dare to attempt) here, it is on the web. Be that as it may, I repeat, I was alarmed, and for good reasons...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
When I read those mails, I was alarmed, and felt it was finally time for me to write this book. I do not have to reproduce what they said in their very selfish and thoughtless communiqué (that no group of Americans in the US where they live and held the conference, would dare to attempt) here, it is on the web. Be that as it may, I repeat, I was alarmed, and for good reasons...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
CASUALTIES OF WAR
...BIAFRA: LEST WE FORGET!, is my recollection of the civil war that began in Nigeria in 1966 and ‘ended’ in 1970. I put ended in quotes because, yes that war has ended, but the effects of that war still linger psycho-socially, and if you like, there is still the economic angle to it. If you doubt me, go and read Professor Chinua Achebe’s THE TROUBLE WITH NIGERIA.
I was about seven years old when it started, and about eleven years old, when it ‘ended’. I am over fifty years now and still, the images and the effects of that war are still steely etched in my memory. They have refused to fade.
Some Nigerians (especially politicians) think that watching America bomb Iraq or Afghanistan (from the safety of their television sets via CNN or Fox or BBC) is what war is all about.
Our elders say that when two elephants fight, the grass suffers. I want to believe that you know who the elephants are, and of course, who the grass is? In case you do not know, the grass is all of us, and the elephants? Well, fill in the blank spaces, or do some math by adding or subtracting…not division.
In any case two of the ‘elephants’ that took part in that war, have already written books recounting their war experiences. One, General Olusegun Obasanjo called his book MY COMMAND. The other, Chief Emeka Ojukwu called his book BECAUSE I AM INVOLVED. A few others have also written about that war, notably, Alexander Modiebo; but all mostly from the view points of the military.
Well I believe the time is over due for the ‘grass’ to begin to speak. So, I am writing because I am affected.
I am the fifth of my mother’s children. Three of my elder siblings, my eldest brother, my sister (my mother’s only daughter), and my brother after her, participated in that war, albeit involuntarily. One of them, my eldest brother barely managed to escape the amputation of one of his legs after a bullet wound in active combat, just by the grace of my sister being around their area of operation, and then her intervention. He still walks with a ‘stylish’ limp. They are all alive today, and can be interviewed about their experiences.
I am writing because my generation that witnessed that war is hugely affected (go to the towns and villages in the South East, South-South of Nigeria and other areas which were ‘theatres’ for that war, and sample levels of livelihoods of fifty year olds who experienced that war). We lost out on going to school (I started school at about age 5, I remember my father had to go get my birth certificate, because I was finding it difficult to touch my left ear across my head with my right hand, which was considered proof for ‘old enough to be in school’ then, yet I graduated from secondary school at the age of twenty, even when I never repeated any class from the time I started school after the war), growing up properly, both physically and intellectually…
In 1988, I was travelling to Enugu, by road with Majek Fashek in the course of the MAMSER TOURS (which gave me an opportunity to travel round some towns and villages of this country and saw things for myself). I was Majek’s Publicist. My first published book later that same year, TRAILBLAZER, was about him. As we got to a stretch along the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway, we saw an army of limbless people on both sides of the road begging for alms, we stopped and chatted with them, Majek even pulled his box guitar, and played SEND DOWN THE RAIN for them. They are casualties from that war. That was the first time I thought of writing this book.
Like my son said, I am lucky to be alive. I do not want the same to be said of my son, and his generation…
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
I was about seven years old when it started, and about eleven years old, when it ‘ended’. I am over fifty years now and still, the images and the effects of that war are still steely etched in my memory. They have refused to fade.
Some Nigerians (especially politicians) think that watching America bomb Iraq or Afghanistan (from the safety of their television sets via CNN or Fox or BBC) is what war is all about.
Our elders say that when two elephants fight, the grass suffers. I want to believe that you know who the elephants are, and of course, who the grass is? In case you do not know, the grass is all of us, and the elephants? Well, fill in the blank spaces, or do some math by adding or subtracting…not division.
In any case two of the ‘elephants’ that took part in that war, have already written books recounting their war experiences. One, General Olusegun Obasanjo called his book MY COMMAND. The other, Chief Emeka Ojukwu called his book BECAUSE I AM INVOLVED. A few others have also written about that war, notably, Alexander Modiebo; but all mostly from the view points of the military.
Well I believe the time is over due for the ‘grass’ to begin to speak. So, I am writing because I am affected.
I am the fifth of my mother’s children. Three of my elder siblings, my eldest brother, my sister (my mother’s only daughter), and my brother after her, participated in that war, albeit involuntarily. One of them, my eldest brother barely managed to escape the amputation of one of his legs after a bullet wound in active combat, just by the grace of my sister being around their area of operation, and then her intervention. He still walks with a ‘stylish’ limp. They are all alive today, and can be interviewed about their experiences.
I am writing because my generation that witnessed that war is hugely affected (go to the towns and villages in the South East, South-South of Nigeria and other areas which were ‘theatres’ for that war, and sample levels of livelihoods of fifty year olds who experienced that war). We lost out on going to school (I started school at about age 5, I remember my father had to go get my birth certificate, because I was finding it difficult to touch my left ear across my head with my right hand, which was considered proof for ‘old enough to be in school’ then, yet I graduated from secondary school at the age of twenty, even when I never repeated any class from the time I started school after the war), growing up properly, both physically and intellectually…
In 1988, I was travelling to Enugu, by road with Majek Fashek in the course of the MAMSER TOURS (which gave me an opportunity to travel round some towns and villages of this country and saw things for myself). I was Majek’s Publicist. My first published book later that same year, TRAILBLAZER, was about him. As we got to a stretch along the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway, we saw an army of limbless people on both sides of the road begging for alms, we stopped and chatted with them, Majek even pulled his box guitar, and played SEND DOWN THE RAIN for them. They are casualties from that war. That was the first time I thought of writing this book.
Like my son said, I am lucky to be alive. I do not want the same to be said of my son, and his generation…
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Monday, August 16, 2010
WE DON'T TALK, THEY GET MISLED!
...Sometime in 2008, I was invited to speak to a group of young people in a youth camp in an outskirt of Lagos. I was to speak to them about assertiveness and self esteem.
As the talk progressed, we got to a point where I made a reference to a beauty pageant that took place in Lagos in 1987, expecting my audience to flow with me. And when I say ‘audience’, I am referring to a group of young people who from the profile given to me before I went for the programme included undergraduates and some graduates. So I was taken aback, when I noticed that they kind of were not flowing with me, as I repeatedly said ‘Omasan Buwa, 1987 Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria’.
Luckily, one of them raised a hand (and in my mind, I thought ‘relief’), and said ‘… sir, I was not yet born then...’
Those were her exact words. Then the thought of ‘relief’ disappeared!
Alarmed, I said to myself, ‘…you mean these young people do not know about an event that happened in 1987, and it is even a show business event!?’ So how would they know about civic issues or events that happened in the sixties and seventies…?
I looked and felt stupid. Because, I had assumed that they would know about what I was referring to, considering their physique, environment and educational backgrounds. How wrong I was, how wrong we are!
The ruling class assumes that the populace (at least those that can and do have the means to, which is usually a very small percentage of that populace) ought to know what is happening with governance by listening to, watching or reading the ‘news’ as presented by a largely compromised media.
You probably must have heard this before, am sure it would not hurt to repeat it here; communication has no life of its own, outside of what people in a communication relationship put into communication. In other words, if people are not informed about issues, they do not get to know about those issues. Or put differently, it is what we talk about that becomes known. On the flip side of that is an infamous word known as ‘rumour’.
Little wonder then, that our young people and indeed foreigners erroneously ‘know’ so much about Nigeria being a nation of ritualists and fetish beliefs, courtesy of Nollywood, and knowing very little or nothing at all about our national history and true ways of life!
As if the jolt from the young people at the youth camp was not enough, last month, my eleven year old son Didie, walked into my study and went like ‘…dad…?’, I knew something was coming up! So, I said ‘yep’. He continued. ‘…I’ve been meaning to ask…’ I said ‘…go on…’, ‘…eh, what made this (touching a scar on my forehead) hole on your head…?’
I said well, it is something that happened a long time ago, and that it is a long story. He asked me how long? And without thinking much about it, I said during the civil war…
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
As the talk progressed, we got to a point where I made a reference to a beauty pageant that took place in Lagos in 1987, expecting my audience to flow with me. And when I say ‘audience’, I am referring to a group of young people who from the profile given to me before I went for the programme included undergraduates and some graduates. So I was taken aback, when I noticed that they kind of were not flowing with me, as I repeatedly said ‘Omasan Buwa, 1987 Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria’.
Luckily, one of them raised a hand (and in my mind, I thought ‘relief’), and said ‘… sir, I was not yet born then...’
Those were her exact words. Then the thought of ‘relief’ disappeared!
Alarmed, I said to myself, ‘…you mean these young people do not know about an event that happened in 1987, and it is even a show business event!?’ So how would they know about civic issues or events that happened in the sixties and seventies…?
I looked and felt stupid. Because, I had assumed that they would know about what I was referring to, considering their physique, environment and educational backgrounds. How wrong I was, how wrong we are!
The ruling class assumes that the populace (at least those that can and do have the means to, which is usually a very small percentage of that populace) ought to know what is happening with governance by listening to, watching or reading the ‘news’ as presented by a largely compromised media.
You probably must have heard this before, am sure it would not hurt to repeat it here; communication has no life of its own, outside of what people in a communication relationship put into communication. In other words, if people are not informed about issues, they do not get to know about those issues. Or put differently, it is what we talk about that becomes known. On the flip side of that is an infamous word known as ‘rumour’.
Little wonder then, that our young people and indeed foreigners erroneously ‘know’ so much about Nigeria being a nation of ritualists and fetish beliefs, courtesy of Nollywood, and knowing very little or nothing at all about our national history and true ways of life!
As if the jolt from the young people at the youth camp was not enough, last month, my eleven year old son Didie, walked into my study and went like ‘…dad…?’, I knew something was coming up! So, I said ‘yep’. He continued. ‘…I’ve been meaning to ask…’ I said ‘…go on…’, ‘…eh, what made this (touching a scar on my forehead) hole on your head…?’
I said well, it is something that happened a long time ago, and that it is a long story. He asked me how long? And without thinking much about it, I said during the civil war…
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
WE HAVE COME A LONG WAY!
...Events like the 1993 elections generally believed to have been won by Bashorun MKO Abiola, it’s annulment by General Ibrahim Babangida (a loss of a win-win opportunity for Nigeria), and the social unrest that followed across Nigeria, with the attending insight that Nigerians know what they want and that it is possible for us to act as one, to pursue a common interest. The General Sani Abacha years that followed, when any prominent or outspoken Nigerian that could or not be ‘settled’ to support the government had one of three options to consider – die (General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Bashorun MKO Abiola), go to jail (General Olusegun Obasanjo) or run away (Dr. Kayode Fayemi), with the attendant insights that God really loves Nigeria, and that no one is beyond His Divine will and control.
It might also be helpful, to remind ourselves of the events that followed from 1999, culminating in what I still consider a ‘transitional experimentation’ with democracy with some new additions to our word count like ‘godfatherism’ made prominent with elections in Anambra state, (we are just about eleven years into that, within which time we have not heard ‘…fellow country men…’!), with the attending insights that though things are not perfect yet (and there is no perfect nation for that matter. If there were, there would have been no need for such words as ‘referenda’, or such phrases as ‘constitutional amendments’ in reference to democracy and governance), that it is possible for any Nigerian outside of the WAZOBIA group to occupy Aso Rock, and that we would get to our destination if we do know where that is.
Somehow, I believe we will get ‘there’ sha one day, certainly not 2020!...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
It might also be helpful, to remind ourselves of the events that followed from 1999, culminating in what I still consider a ‘transitional experimentation’ with democracy with some new additions to our word count like ‘godfatherism’ made prominent with elections in Anambra state, (we are just about eleven years into that, within which time we have not heard ‘…fellow country men…’!), with the attending insights that though things are not perfect yet (and there is no perfect nation for that matter. If there were, there would have been no need for such words as ‘referenda’, or such phrases as ‘constitutional amendments’ in reference to democracy and governance), that it is possible for any Nigerian outside of the WAZOBIA group to occupy Aso Rock, and that we would get to our destination if we do know where that is.
Somehow, I believe we will get ‘there’ sha one day, certainly not 2020!...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
NIGERIANS NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAD HAPPENED, & WHAT IS HAPPENNING.
...Nigerians in rural and urban settings need accurate, timely, structured and sustained flow of relevant information on national issues, to make informed decisions about governance and development, which should include to vote or not to vote, who or what to vote for, or not to vote for during elections.
When this is not available Nigerians become suspicious, and dissatisfied with governance. And then, unpatriotic Nigerians exploit that gap and need for their selfish ends, thereby creating rumours and conflicts which do not aid development in any way.
The provision of accurate information about our national history and ways of life is not the responsibility of government alone, though the government has a huge role to play, which is to create an enabling environment for peace to reign which enables ordinary Nigerians like myself to go about our business of looking for our daily bread, and contributing to the national ‘good’.
We know so much about American history and way of life through the eyes of Hollywood, books and documentaries written and produced by Americans. There are thousands, if not tens of thousands of movies, songs, books, documentaries about the American civil war, and their struggles with development challenges ranging from organised crime, to drugs, to human or civil rights issues, with some focusing on those issues as they affect national policies while some focus on how they impact or impacted on individuals and families. They are not only for entertainment purposes, but also serve for historical and educational purposes.
The White House did not produce or commission the production of all of those movies, songs, books and documentaries...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
When this is not available Nigerians become suspicious, and dissatisfied with governance. And then, unpatriotic Nigerians exploit that gap and need for their selfish ends, thereby creating rumours and conflicts which do not aid development in any way.
The provision of accurate information about our national history and ways of life is not the responsibility of government alone, though the government has a huge role to play, which is to create an enabling environment for peace to reign which enables ordinary Nigerians like myself to go about our business of looking for our daily bread, and contributing to the national ‘good’.
We know so much about American history and way of life through the eyes of Hollywood, books and documentaries written and produced by Americans. There are thousands, if not tens of thousands of movies, songs, books, documentaries about the American civil war, and their struggles with development challenges ranging from organised crime, to drugs, to human or civil rights issues, with some focusing on those issues as they affect national policies while some focus on how they impact or impacted on individuals and families. They are not only for entertainment purposes, but also serve for historical and educational purposes.
The White House did not produce or commission the production of all of those movies, songs, books and documentaries...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
WHAT ARE WE "RE-BRANDING"?
...You are probably wondering where I am headed with all these talks about seats, furniture, clients, satisfaction or conflicts and ‘rebranding’?
Yes, that word - ‘re-branding’, that has become a very annoying cliché in reference to the Nigeria enterprise, as if Nigeria is a brand of beverage that needs a new label or packaging while the product contents remain much the same!
We need to change things from inside out. From the individual – the type, form, time and amount of information about national issues available to that individual, to the family…And not just a word or phrase flashed on television screens, or chorused by government officials.
We have far more serious issues than ‘new coats of paint’ on our national ‘wall’. The biggest of such problems to my mind, is our lack of sense for, or an understanding of our national history...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET
Yes, that word - ‘re-branding’, that has become a very annoying cliché in reference to the Nigeria enterprise, as if Nigeria is a brand of beverage that needs a new label or packaging while the product contents remain much the same!
We need to change things from inside out. From the individual – the type, form, time and amount of information about national issues available to that individual, to the family…And not just a word or phrase flashed on television screens, or chorused by government officials.
We have far more serious issues than ‘new coats of paint’ on our national ‘wall’. The biggest of such problems to my mind, is our lack of sense for, or an understanding of our national history...
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET
BECAUSE I AM AFFECTED
I believe in the Nigeria enterprise.
Biologically, and if you like genetically, sociologically and by conviction, I am a detribalised Nigerian.
My names are Richie Aderopo Chile Adewusi. My father was Yoruba from the present Ekiti State, and my mother is Ibo, from the present Abia state, and I, am a Nigerian.
I do not believe I am a Nigerian by accident, or that I could have been better off anywhere else. I believe and affirm that this is the best ‘seat’ in the planet, fashioned by the almighty God for the benefit of all Nigerians, and all true friends of Nigeria.
But then, seats can and do get dusty, even gold plated ones that are abandoned or left uncared for, for long periods of time. What do we do with such seats?
Throw them away, throw them into a furnace to melt or break them up?
Certainly not, though some might say yes to one or more of those options, depending on the resources available to them, but there is only one NAIJA!
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
Biologically, and if you like genetically, sociologically and by conviction, I am a detribalised Nigerian.
My names are Richie Aderopo Chile Adewusi. My father was Yoruba from the present Ekiti State, and my mother is Ibo, from the present Abia state, and I, am a Nigerian.
I do not believe I am a Nigerian by accident, or that I could have been better off anywhere else. I believe and affirm that this is the best ‘seat’ in the planet, fashioned by the almighty God for the benefit of all Nigerians, and all true friends of Nigeria.
But then, seats can and do get dusty, even gold plated ones that are abandoned or left uncared for, for long periods of time. What do we do with such seats?
Throw them away, throw them into a furnace to melt or break them up?
Certainly not, though some might say yes to one or more of those options, depending on the resources available to them, but there is only one NAIJA!
----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!
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