NIGERIA: ONLY KNOWLEDGE CAN SAVE US, NOT CRUDE OIL

Bill Clinton once marvelled at how Japan, a country that produces no steel, manages to churn out a great deal of durable and competitive steel based products. We all wonder how countries like Malaysia and Thailand in East-Asia are recording so much success without a huge reserve of resources driving their economy. We must also not suffer in amnesia or forget the Asian Tigers like Singapore and Taiwan. It may be shocking to discover that in the 70’s the USA economy was about 4.9trillion dollars, but today it’s over 15 trillion dollars. One thing that we need to account for is what the major economic activity was in the different periods. The 4.9trilllion period was dominated by exchange of goods, the 15 trillion dollars period was dominated by exchange of goods and services, but services accounted for most of the growth. The core of this text is to provoke the question as to what accounted for the success of this various nations without huge reservoir of natural resources or failure of its employment? It’s called knowledge, yes knowledge. In an era that in increasingly globalized, where countries are involved in international trade and financial markets are intertwined, a country’s investment in telecommunications, education, innovation and appropriate economic incentives gives it the competitive advantage. Many countries have moved from the resource based economy to the knowledge based. It seems to me that the primary reason for human existence is to be productive, to be innovative and create wealth, not to depend on nature’s reservoir. Though I don’t agree with much developmental rhetoric peddling of the fear that crude oil reserves would dry, I believe we need to harness knowledge, innovate disruptively and reap economic benefits like countries such as India. India derives 42 percent of its revenue from selling of services to other countries. This is possible because of the presence of human capital quality there. Many American countries have outsourced filing of taxes, Human resources functions, software development and customer care service to India! In an increasingly globalized world, the phenomenon of Average, according to Friedman is over! Malaysia for palm-oil seedlings from Nigeria and today they are the largest producer and exporter of the product. Israel a small nation of 7 million people is phenomenal with innovation and export of services. Many information technology firms like Intel, microchip producers and Google; search engine giants have recorded major breakthroughs in the Israel outfits. The Google suggest was developed in Israel, a country constantly at war. Back home in Africa, many professional jobs are outsourced to South-Africa, Ghana and Togo and Benin even provides artisans for Nigeria’s local industry which lacks the requisite skills and knowledge to get even menial jobs done. Nigeria, through its Federal Government outsources jobs worth 960billion naira to neighbouring foreigners and the likes. What is NOTAP and the other agencies doing? We still import software to the tune of 1billion dollars yearly according to the National ICT Policy draft, trust me that is fair.I guess the figure is larger. From the points made heretofore it is apparent that there is a huge gap in our creation, production and distribution of knowledge. This is what the knowledge economy is all about, creating knowledge just like power and distributing for economic gains. It is interesting to note that the government has this within its frame of thinking as the need to become a knowledge economy is included in the Vision 2020 document and the Vision for the National ICT Policy draft is to become a knowledge based economy. The problem with this is that the seriousness is not aggressive. South-Korea has a ministry for knowledge economy, South Africa has a document for knowledge economy policy and Malaysia has one. The Chinese have theirs also. Our knowledge economy policy should not be lost in another policy. Besides, Oil and Gas has PIB and knowledge economy has greater potentials that Oil and Gas if properly worked. The pillars of the knowledge economy are: i) Education ii) Innovation iii) ICT iv) Economic Incentives. This was developed by the World Bank. Our education system no doubt needs a serious overhaul, with rapid improvements in curriculum to meet present day challenges. We need to revive vocational centre and encourage private innovation. Thomas Friedman in his book: Lexus and the Olive Tree espouses that transportation encouraged economic growth in past centuries with construction of huge railway lines and creation of retail cars for mass market. Today, telecommunications with miniaturization, computerization, fibre-optics, GSM and the internet in place, opportunities abound for people to interact and conduct business worldwide. The mystery of capital is such that opportunity and time creates it and telecommunication advancement just ensures that borders are almost non-existent and people can now endow other areas with their knowledge. Innovations in other ICT areas such as broadband, fibre-optics increase in micro-processor power-Moore’s law and software development must be encouraged in Nigeria. We need research facilities that would be manned by our cream of professionals and academics. General Electric has a facility in India that is staffed with over 1,800 people, a quarter of this have PhD’s. Yet our private institutions are enjoying the services of just 40 percent of lecturers with PhD’s. We need to wake up. We don’t have a purposeful innovation system. The other countries I have highlighted do. Israel’s innovation system is driven by a military-civil complex. The military facilitates most of the growth in terms of innovation. The same is to be said of the world powers. Most of the innovations in manufacturing, finance, management and particularly operations research for producing war equipment were created during the Second World War. What role is our military playing asides maintaining peace in neighbouring African countries? What has happened to our agricultural research institutes? IITA has fared better than them. What about our lecturers and professors? Something revolutionary needs to be done. Economic Incentives come in the form of research grants, technology development grant, protectionism, access to credit and favourable fiscal , legal and other policy frameworks. However, the most important economic incentive is national marketing of local innovations. What is the essence when local innovations suffer from the popularity of Chinese products and other American innovations. Finally, it is important to bear the facts mentioned in mind for calling our leaders to the table of accountability. Labour and natural resources used to ensure adequate welfare and sustainability. Today knowledge does that better, not because it has never been there but because the world is now hyper-globalized and you are a citizen trying to compete with an Indian, Chinese, American, British, Portuguese. The knowledge economy is real and it would be delusional to depend on bottles of crude oil for spiritual and welfarist satisfaction.

THERE WAS A COUNTRY: AN INTERTEXTUAL REVIEW

If history does anything, it nags. Every historical account provokes opinions and creates new public spheres. The variety of direction can be appreciated with various account of any phenomena or event. The same dynamics is not divorced from Chinua Achebe’s “There Was a Country”. The book is widely accepted in Nigeria, but on impulsive ethnic and tribal outrage. The book no doubt betrays Achebe’s sentiment about the economic and material Hercules of his Igbo group, but it accounts for much more than that. He holds that the Igbo’s dominated government services and the economic landscape of the nation. For that reason they were suspect and usually disdained, a fact which can be confirmed by a northern conjecture nurtured by the late Sardauna himself, Sir Ahmadu Bello who in a video described the Igbo’s as rats who like to take over everything. I watched this video personally on You-Tube. There Was a Country can be referred to as the Renaissance book of Nigeria’s history. Every country has defining moments that serve as pivots from which the older and future generations look at for introspection and subliminal admonishments. For USA it’s their fight for independence in 1776 and the civil war prosecuted by Abraham Lincoln. Today the Gettysburg address by Lincoln is still recorded as one of the best speeches ever made. That address is beyond speaking, it’s beyond record keeping. It represents a social contract for reference and action to stay under a union for American citizens. For China it’s the Cultural Revolution orchestrated by Mao. Germany had Hitler moments. For Nigeria, the defining moment which always threatens or calls for unity of this nation is the BIAFRA WAR, prosecuted by two fine military officers, one loved by the Oxford elite and intelligentsia, the other a Sandhurst fine man, loved by the British royals- Ojukwu and Gowon respectively. For a long time, there have been different insights and accounts into the war. There also has been a lack of itch to write and produce this account for it to resonate in the minds of every Nigerian citizen for didactic purposes. Achebe has surely endeavoured to fill this void. Achebe begins with the pre-colonial on the left hand and the colonial on the right. He recounts how the British imperialism infiltrated our religious clime and how he a son of a catechist tried to understand the conflict between old traditions and dogmatic infallibles of Christianity. He also portrays the level of scholarship and ambition of his own family as typical construct of educational aspiration. Achebe relives what his perception on the role of the artist is in society. He argues for a participation in politics and active citizenship. He also stokes the charge for any generation to endeavour to explore the role it should play in society. Perhaps Achebe’s role has traversed generational shifts and he happens to have migrated from one generation to the other- the colonial generation and the post-colonial. There was a country’s plot was a protest to the humanitarian misdeed against the Igbo’s during the war. Most importantly, underlying this protest was a valid negotiation that goes back and forth and operational within the present for tribal/ethnic existence. The pogroms by the muslim north after the first military coup executed by Major Nzeogwu, Ifeajuna and the likes served as preludes to the war. Achebe’s book evidenced the ease with which various ethnic groups could easily gather to take defence and retaliate, as in the case of the Muslim/Hausa-Fulani north dealing Aguiyi-Ironsi to death and the other adjoin ethnic groups like Efik, Ibibio, Ijaws having distrusts against the Biafra campaign and usually betraying strategies of the Biafran’s . All these beg the question of our existence as a Nation and the often silenced or ignoring themes such as True Federalism, review of the 1914 amalgamation and amplified ones on North-South rotational presidency. Achebe didn’t fail to report his educational exploits, his performance in the University College entry exams which led to an award of a scholarship for him. Achebe also accounts for members of the golden generation with whom he was probably privileged to school with. They are Gamaliel Onosode, Christopher Okigbo, whom he regards as the best poet of his time, Grace Alele Williams etc. He was elitist in his structure of his report in terms of the account of his personal life. There Was A Country can be dubbed to be an autobiography of Achebe and some his war trials, except that, he was privileged and had privileged friends. He probably didn’t have friends who found it difficult to climb the ladder of educational and professional upliftment. He probably never had a friend who was a trader. There also seems to be a conflicting dialectic about who really organized the coup Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna seemed to differ on who the true hero was. Ifeajuna handed a manuscript to Achebe which was never published. Achebe regrets this till date. The war was bloody of course and several countries took different sides. Britain stood by Nigeria and countries like Tanzania, Ivory Coast and France supported Biafra. Julius Nyerere was the first to announce his support for the Biafra cause. France had a rivalry policy of disintegrating British economic post-colonial hold and cultural hold also. Thus, Ivory Coast under Houphet Boigny perpetuated that policy by supporting Biafra. Achebe records several aids being blocked by Nigeria. There were records 30,000 children, women and men massacred by Ibrahim Haruna during the war. It’s a surprise that Haruna has agreed to this publicly without remorse. He has also not been charged for war crimes, perhaps that would be retro-active. The Biafran army soaked the pressure from all fronts and employed the best use of propaganda during the period. People like Wole Soyinka who tried to facilitate a truce were jailed. One of the most disappointing moments was when Nnamdi Azikiwe withdrew support for Biafra owing to disagreements with Ojukwu and his style of not not listening adequately. Ojukwu according to Achebe didn’t consult widely before declaring war. The Aburi Accord was not implemented and this led to further hostilities between both side. Achebe’s account was not short for the admiration of Zik and his influence and inspiring leadership. Zik till date can be regarded as the most detribalized amongst the early leaders of Nigeria. Achebe had said of Tafawa Balewa to be lukewarm, Sardauna to hold back to pursue the Northernization policy on Awolowo to plot to decimate the Igbo people who he considered to be a threat to the advancement of his people-Yoruba. This has been the centrepiece for discussion in this book and has attracted repudiation from eminent Yorubas and commentators. Many have labelled Achebe has an insatiable tribalist. I disagree, because everywhere its survival of the fittest. Americans, Jews, Europeans are all negotiating their existence through the block of identity. Achebe feels wronged, because his people have been wrong and the man is entitled to his own opinion. That was his opinion of Awolowo. Besides didn’t Awolowo trump the ethnic card against Nnamdi Azikiwe in the western region? It’s all about the dialectics of politics. Chinua Achebe should be given credit for shedding light on our historical recluse. He has exposed historical gaps and has provoked the needful which is a fervent and passionate discussion of the past with the roles of various actors. Achebe has also called for many patriotic and pragmatic efforts to help Nigeria. Indeed “There Was A Country” and there is still a country called Nigeria. What we need is serious people and responsible leadership. There Was a Country and the Igbo’s are still a part of it. Long live Nigeria.

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF SEX: IN DEFENCE OF FAT GIRLS

It’s good to be back, my muse contacted me that I have been forgiven, albeit with a condition. The condition was derived from a sentiment and truth, through an observation of global social landscapes. The sentiment is that being fat, chubby, big as a woman is never culturally wrong. What is true is that we are being mediatised to believe that slim does it for women and that it’s the ideal. The method I would employ in my analysis is gotten from my age long belief that nothing truly exists, everything is created. Its borne out of my suspicion of truth and my admiration of lies. It’s a sociological perspective I don’t want to bore anyone with. Back to the issues we; readers and writers are gathered to digest. If we remember and if we reflect, there was and confusingly is a love for women with “big stuffs”. Men relished big women and in the fashion of the Igbos, the George wrapper can only be fitting if a woman had big buttocks and a sizeable frame. This was the social order in terms of how the female sex was projected, constructed and consumed. One morning we woke up and realized that the tastes of men had changed and switched to slim women. Interesting as it is, it became even appealing to women also. These days everyone, movie producers, music makers, health professionals, everyone in society on a global plane lends credence to the art and science of weight loss and the art of admiration of women who keep to size and who manage to lose weight. This aspect of our culture has gained much prominence, especially in a country like Nigeria where woman has been constructed as Lepa or Orobo, with the former receiving more admiration and the latter socially relegated and social outcasts. It is so bad that many big/fat women try all sorts of defence like calling themselves chubby and giving other descriptions that I call sub-constructions. Some just give up and contribute to the gym business and other diet and weight loss schemes. For the avoidance of doubt and relation with reality, I am not supporting unhealthy living. My defence and narrative protest against negative social constructions of fat women is based on the following beliefs, call it conspiracy theories. If we look critically, weight loss industry is a big one. It includes the materials used for sit-ups, thread mills, gyms, certain food categories, and even the apparel and clothing industry itself. T he point is this, the argument against fat/chubby/big women is more of an economic than health one. Capitalists rule through propaganda and tweaking of societal values. They communicate subtly through various means that are conscious or sub-conscious. When you go to the market and hardly find your size and your slim friend has a variety of choices to make, that is a sub-conscious communication that you should adjust your waistline. Then when everyone begins to scold you based on your weight without concrete medical facts other than the one that uninformed people tell them, then that’s a conscious one that has been designed to be so. My analysis stems and progresses this way; its more convenient and cost effective for a capitalist to produce clothes at a particular size for the market, he needs not make use of large quantity of materials because everyone is fat, all that he needs to do is make most for people in a particular range and few for the big ones. Then media seeds are sown by communication through various platforms that being big is bad. They select slim actors and actresses. They use people that are extra slim in modelling competitions that the whole world sees. Then they use a slim “figure 8” in beauty pageants. I fat/big women have responded with their own pageants, shops and magazines. You see events such big and bold. Does that say something about protest and re-affirmation of personhood? The” lose weight industry” is a big one that thrives on media messages against big/fat people, especially women. You may start to wonder whether the media has such powers. The media has more than that. Dependency theory posits that people depend on the media to make sense of their existence. The funny part is that you see slim housewives and their disgust and pro-weight loss advice for big/fat women. They usually advice that such women lose weight else their husbands would look out for a slim woman. The ironical thing is that the husbands of slim women look out for the fat/big women. Sorry that’s based on my inference through local investigations. Finally, I advocate for a certain level of media literacy and close observation and investigation of sources of cultural change. We woke up one morning and slim women became the leading socially constructed elements of official sexuality. We need media literacy and not jump on bandwagons without probing.

Nigeria: The Sociology of True Federalism

The recent deadlock between the federal government and organized labour, the inefficient allocation of resources and endemic corruption in Nigeria is symptomatic of one thing-Little presence of consciousness on the part of Nigerian citizens. These things didn’t happen overnight, they are a product of many years of deliberate and undelibrate ignorance. It’s reminding of the danger in Longe’s farm, Longe was actually the threat. The grassroots through their ignorance have become their own problem. Many years of indulgence with the political class has cut the political class away from social reality. The people slept on their rights, the political class slept on their duty. One day they say is for the thief, another for the owner. The people of this nation are now awake and are asking questions they ought to have asked since 1999.11years travelled and would never return. It took the removal of fuel subsidy for the owners of this country to ask the occupants of the exalted position to give account of their stewardship. They have asked for this through the series of concurrent protests across the federation. They are actively occupying their own country; the mob is asserting its divine machismo.
The government has through the coordinating minister of the economy Ngozi Okonjo Iweala (NOI),craved the indugence of Nigerians not to imitate Greece in future sufferings and my question is,what more can we suffer?Its only the modern economy that favours multinationals and elites that is thriving, the informal and traditional sectors are not doing well. People are already suffering, Greece is better. Nigerians must occupy the injustice that has romanced them for over 11years.They must no longer brook corruption. They must occupy with accountability and constant probing.Anniko Briggs said we must not only occupy Jonathan, we must occupy the state governors, they are getting so much, yet they are not creating wealth, in the words of Prof. Pat Utomi.Many may not get the point. The point is that the state governors are responsible for our current fuel subsidy woes and many are not aware. They blame Jonathan solely. That’s the sociology of a unitary government in practise. If the roads are bad, or health facilities are not functioning we blame the federal government. The local governments in Nigeria got 7billion naira in 2010; that’s the budget of Rwanda, Togo, and Burkina-Faso and together, they are supposed to stimulate community development and generate wealth, but in the corner of the eyes, state governors invented the state-local joint account, thereby the governors disburse and hold the local councils to ransom. The governors also have a strong hold on the state independent electoral commissions. This way the aspiring chairmen cannot readily express their free and goodwill in serving the local masses. The federal government is a culprit, the governors are greater culprits; the sociology of a unitary government favours and covers their political misdemeanours. Around the world, local governance brings governance to the people; a good product would be readily accessible to you, if the production plant or means of distribution is efficient. How would I know if you are bleeding, if I am not close to you? How would you be a good parent if your child is in United Kingdom and you are in Nigeria? It’s difficult, you would agree. Governance is far from the people, Abuja is not close to Lagos, except through phone calls.
If we are interested in good governance, if we crave for optimal allocation of our resources, we must embrace true federalism. True federalism would ensure that states control their resources. We can also call I fiscal federalism. It’s beyond the economics, beyond the politics. True federalism is sociological in true function. It would ensure that blames go to the right quarters; it would reduce the grand scale sycophancy and rent seeking we have in Abuja. People would find it easy and straight forward to demand accountability. Can protesters easily walk to Abuja.Alausa is not far, if its Lagos.Imo citizens would ask questions from Owerri with convenience. Our eyes would be on these governors who blame Jonathan readily. They shared money from the excess crude account and said they could not pay the minimum wage. They then asked for subsidy removal. Let this government devolve from a unitary one to true and fiscal federalism and let’s see what the governors would do with resources in their various states? It is obvious federal government is not efficient. The federal government should attend to issues of foreign policy, security and monetary policy. The state and local governments should be allowed to ensure rapid development. The sociology of true federalism would then be in force. Citizens of this country can them blame the right people, at the right place, at the right time.

THE SALVATION OF NIGERIA-THE CHEETAH GENERATION VERSUS THE HIPPOS

Generations have come and gone, legacies have been left; good or bad.Today,in Nigeria, like every African country, the problem of bad leadership has left citizens despondent, whether they are conscious of it or not. This piece is a reflection from the thoughts of George Ayitteh, a Ghanaian economist, who is also the founder of Free Africa Foundation. It was at a conference put together by TED, with the theme as marketplace. He opened his speech by asking “Do you think that African leaders would put this type of conference together”. If they decide to do, they would ask for foreign aid. He further explained that Africa’s begging bowl is leaking. He produced facts that Africa loses 148billion dollars annually to corruption, 80 billion to capital flight. For a continent that used to export food; Africa now imports 20billion dollars worth of food. Foreign aid according to him is not bad, but sometimes could be like the blind leading the clueless.
Ayitteh averred that the Cheetahs are the only ones who can save Africa, the cheetahs according to Ayitteh is a new breed of Africans who understand what accountability and democracy means. The salvation of Africa rests on the backs of these Africans. These Cheetahs brook no corruption; they understand how to turn things around. This is against the Hippos-early postcolonial African leaders who led Africa from independence to further dependence on foreign aid whose begging bowl is perpetually leaking. These leaders led Africa into Swiss bank socialism-A form of governance where money of the people ends up in private names in Swiss banks. They can’t reform the system because they benefit from the rot! He recalled how he asked colleagues on an internet forum to name 20 good African leaders from independence. People were only able to come up with 15, Idi Amin of Uganda inclusive. This obviously is a far cry for a continent of 54 countries, with over 204 leaders from independence that has been let loose from the shackles of colonialism for over 5 decades.
The Ghanaian economist explained that pre-colonial Africans despised tyranny and that was why societies like the Igbo, Somali, and Kikuyu were organized in tribes with no central leader. In the Asante kingdom, the leader was surrounded by councils upon councils. In Oyo Empire, democracy was existent with the Alaafin of Oyo, put in checks by the Oyomesi, led by the Bashorun; the Oyomesi was also put in check by the Sango, Esu and Ogboni cults.
There was a form of capitalism in existence, as Timbuktu was noted to be a large marketplace like wise other areas in Africa. The Hippos, instead of going back to pre-colonial Africa, in order to recreate society embraced the aberration of Swiss bank socialism. Ayitteh brandished them with different adjectives such as; an assortment of military fufu heads, crocodile liberators, vampire elites, Swiss bank socialists.
LESSONS FOR NIGERIA
The salvation of Africa cannot be divorced from Nigeria, considering her foreign policy thrust on Africa which has been followed by magnanimity and a great contribution to building of enduring African institutions such as the AU and ECOWAS.The role of Nigeria in the anti-apartheid movement cannot be underscored. With countries like Botswana, South-Africa and Ghana thriving in their democracies, Nigeria obviously has a lot to do. This is the time of the Cheetahs. The time of those who want to occupy Nigeria with the recent and fraudulent removal of subsidy. It is time to wrest Nigeria from the hands of the Hippos. Enough is Enough! They claim our economy would suffer, if government keeps subsidizing fuel. What happens if government keeps subsidizing political office holders with VP Sambo getting 45milllion naira for newspapers in 2012 alone, Patience Jonathan collecting billions to build a complex; when the constitution does not even recognize her role? Would our future be better when Jonathan feeds 1billion in 2012 and many Nigerians go to sleep without food or garri in their stomach? Its obvious that Nigeria has become a a Vampire state, where the leaders share the wealth with their cronies and kinsmen, leaving every other person to suffer. In many cases according to George Ayitteh, the leader is the chief bandit. The buck stops on Jonathan’s table, he should be blamed. What happens when the cabal has been pardoned, when Dimeji Bankole’s case has no head, where Akala and Gbenga Daniel are smiling with their stolen billions and the weight of the law has not fallen upon them? If we can’t trust them with little, how can we trust them with more? According to Fela Durotoye, does more money make one prudent? Would a rotten brain function, after a nice hair cut? Nigerian youths, enough is enough. We must occupy.
The onus falls on the Cheetahs to get themselves involved in creative capitalism; social business. From there we can start showing the Hippos in our society that the Cheetahs who brook no nonsense are in town. Let the Hippos face justice, Let the Cheetahs prevail. Occupy Nigeria!
Cheetah Onikoyi Babatope Falade
ARE YOU A CHEETAH OR HIPPO IN THE MAKING?
IF YOU ARE A CHEETAH FOLLOW @OCCUPYNIGERIA @OMOJUWA.@OGUNDAMISI, @ROSANWO, @GED, @TOPEATIBA, @EKEKEE@TOPEFALADE @EL-RUFAI ON TWITTER.

AT THE TOWER OF BABEL-THE TALES OF RELIGION IN NIGERIA

The road to perdition is hardly cleared, it’s never smooth. The road to perdition is also difficult to travel through. Nothing good comes easy, nothing bad also comes easy. The moral of the story, nothing comes easy. It occurred to me that religion has been malfunctioning in Nigeria. It is still an art that the colonialists left for us. If something loses function it becomes an art. Paintings from Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh had a function of expressing messages, but today they are auctioned at high prices at Christies and Sotheby’s. Why? Because they have lost function to mass communication and have become an art. When the colonialists came they missionized Africa in a paternalistic manner, caring for outcasts in the Igbo society and the dejected all across the nation. The religious institution they created was an art form. Much progress has been made though to express function, especially by the Pentecostal churches who offer deliverance from metaphysical connections that in local terms are obstacles to human well being. They have also fostered entrepreneurship by encouraging people to be independent and hope on God for financial success. But there is one important thing religion has not done-adequately contributing to shaping power relations in the society.
Recently, a pastor came to my house and prayed with us, in the course of the prayer he said, In Jesus name even if they remove the subsidy, your grace is sufficient. I felt this was selfish, for our responsibility is not only to ourselves, it is also to society. Hence, the biblical saying “Love thy neighbour as thyself”. What finally struck a chord in me was when I saw a catholic priest in Madala, in one of the churches that was affected by the bombs telling members of the church to pray and not worry. I asked myself, what happened to the functionality of religion? Why can’t the affected churches take a protest to Jonathan? Many who don’t understand functionality of the church from my point of view need to understand the role that the church played in modifying and adjusting social and political relations in the world, especially in Europe. King Henry had to break away from the Catholic Church to marry a new wife. In United States Martin Luther King jnr fought against racial discrimination vigourously, Malcolm X also did same. Archbishop Desmond Tutu helped to pull down the apartheid system in South Africa. What is happening in Nigeria? People are asked to pray when they should take to the streets to protest against corruption.
Many of our leaders go to religious leaders for prayers on regular basis; I wonder what they tell them? I think they may not be telling them enough. Our religious leaders should invoke the powers of trust that their congregations repose in them to bring about change in this country. They should stop asking people to pray for wealth and prosperity, when greater problems would arise that would make any improvement in their lives meaningless. I am a Christian and I am not saying prayer is not good. But we must tell ourselves the truth, if it was by prayer alone, the various prophets and apostles in the bible would not have gone for wars or engaged in civil disobedience by engaging in acts against the law of the land by preaching the gospel. That s what religion stands for; defiance, rigour, improvement in societal values and norms. The beauty is that religion in countries where it came from is not an art form, it is functional. The King James Bible went through a lot of process before it was finally published. But many here practising religion in art form would stand on the portion that says if anyone removes from this book, his name shall be removed from the book of life.
Even the Pope, makes calls against inhuman leadership and sufferings. Archbishop Olubunmi Okogie and Reverend Father Kukah have also tried in ensuring functionality of religion by speaking against dictatorships and bad civilian leaders. Imagine the number of Christians that attend retreats and camps. Imagine the number of people who troop for deliverance services and regular services. Imagine if they are mobilized against bad leadership, not to carry arms. But to demand accountability, to shun corruption by whistleblowing.Imagine if Christians are encouraged to ask their councillors and local government chairmen questions. The other day people got whim of a prayer and fasting Pastor Adeboye of redeemed ask them to do. A lot of people had said their prayers in the evening only to hear while eating that it wasn’t true.
If religion has such potential to gear citizens to action, what is it still doing? I think many of us need to redefine what we want as a society. We also need to identify what role religion plays as an art form or function has been playing. We need to responsible to society. Religion should be borne in the society, not society in religion. Our problems are peculiar, thus religion must function in a peculiar form that doesn’t violate religious precepts or foundations.
The true function of religion is to make the society a better place. It is not to serve self alone; others are also to be served. How can you serve people in Adamawa, whose voices can’t be heard by praying alone? I think prayer has turned to routine for many of us, such that when we should speak up, we pray, even while our loved ones are being killed we pray, when Jesus asked the apostles to protect themselves. We must to pray alone! We must Watch and pray! Let’s start watching, we have prayed enough!

NDUKA AND THE TOWN HALL:THE TRIALS OF SUBSIDY

The town crier made the announcement but I barely heard. I think it was one of those times I was trying to get something to eat or when I was trying to buy a bottle of deregulation. I thought it was an alternative to palm-oil. What then is deregulation, when it has been over flogged beyond recognition?
There were so many roars at the other end; I rushed to catch a glimpse of the obviously exciting spectacle. Behold it was subsidy that was on trial for what it had not yet done. He was charged with being a good and bad man at the same time and there were many plaintiff and defendant lawyers, and there were many judges and citizens in the town hall. The clerk was the egberipapa of newspaper, the chairman of Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, Nduka Obaigbena 1.I almost didn’t recognize him, and his tummy had increased again. The last time I heard, he travelled abroad to drain some of the deregulation in his tummy. He had obviously been taking too much of deregulation again.
I didn’t catch much of the trial unfortunately; it was Olisa Agbakoba, the one who used to koba previous governments that had just finished speaking. I was able to listen to Oshiomole-the comradic one, Isa Aremu,Nigeria labour Congress Vice-president, Ben Bruce, the one who is most capable of every form of pageantry,coquetry,artristry and theatrics. Femi Falana, Ngozi, Sanusi, Diezani were also there. If you see the look on subsidy’s face? You would pity him.
The question was in whose interest is subsidy removal? Isa Aremu made a position for the masses, vigorously explaining that removal of subsidy would cause prices of household items to increase thereby making life difficult for poor Nigerians. Diezani pleaded for the removal to enable government divert the money into other areas with infrastructure deficit.Sanusi lauded Falana for their activism antecedents in school and Ben Bruce made a case for the poor. It would have been a good one, except that it was one of the links in a chain of public relations efforts to provide appeal and acceptance for subsidy removal. Christine Lagarde, president of IMF was in Nigeria to laud the transformation agenda and the town hall meeting was just sequel to that. The actors in this game have constructed their symbols very well; it’s left for us to understand them. They have successfully made a case for removal of subsidy, by reminding us of happenings in Greece. Sanusi said what we are seeing in Greece, may be a child’s play, if we don’t remove subsidy. Its possible.But, he who cannot handle little, can he handle much? What has happened to the lifeline given to other sectors? What happened to the billions of naira in the poverty alleviation programmes, the small and medium scale enterprises programme, and the power sector programme which gulped an untraceable 16billion dollar?
They made a case for the current trust deficit and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala asked Nigerians to trust them. I am forced to ask, what about recurrent expenditure? Why would Jonathan take over 120 people for the commonwealth summit amidst the lack they are emphasizing? Many nationals who come home to serve in places like India don’t get as much as Okonjo is getting.Okonjo was paid in dollars before she left the Obasanjo administration. Sanusi even confessed he doesn’t buy fuel. Amidst the subsidy debate, Jonathan appointed new special advisers. The short of the whole thing is that the three tiers of government are amassing much of our resources. Resources meant for all. It is the three tiers whose subsidy should be removed, not the subsidy on petroleum. The Nigerian case is not peculiar. Many countries including Brazil and China mandated their national oil firms to subsidize fuel for their citizens.
The most disappointing part of the event was when Sanusi said there is a cabal that is core to the gross inefficiency of the subsidy arrangement. What happened to law enforcement? What happened to auditing firms who are complicit in the doctoring of the books? Why has anyone not been charged? The question is that of corruption. If government cannot face the subsidy thieving cabal, then they cannot face the cabal that would be created in the areas they intend to channel the money. Because any fund, opportunity or programme gives birth to a cabal.Dimeji Bankole is enjoying himself, Akala is comfortable, and Tony Anenih whose ministry could not account for over 300billion is a godfather in Edo state. Chief Obasanjo whose name alongside many other influential people was mentioned in the Halliburton scandal is waxing stronger. Then you expect us to trust you with subsidy money? NO! If corruption is not addressed, the subsidy removal would not translate to any meaningful development. It would only be enjoyed by the new cabal.
If government goes against the wishes of the masses, then the materialist position of Karl Marx which says that social consciousness is determined by material condition’s would be activated and gradually reinforced. More youths would go into cyber-crimes, prostitution, stealing, robbery and many old people would die untimely because their children won’t be able to take care of their medical bills. The seed for a revolution would be sown. They (our leaders) should not think that a revolution is not possible. It would only come gradually.
Nduka Obaigbena has violated public trust in the journalism profession openly taking sides with the federal government. I don’t think he remembers that the press should be socially responsible to the society. His role should be that of an unbiased empire. He has obviously deployed his machinery to help Oshiomole campaign; help Ben Bruce display his theatrics while patronizing the poor.Obaigbena just violated the trust of the masses in the press by using the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria Platform to promote an unpopular policy that has been made an infallible dogma by Jonathan.
NIGERIAN YOUTHS, LETS SAY NO TO SUBSIDY REMOVAL.IT WOULD ONLY GIVE THEM MORE MONEY FOR THEIR HOLIDAYS, PATRONAGE AND PERPETUATION OF SYCHOPHANCY.

LONG LIVE NIGERIA
LONG LIVE THE STRUGGLE