October 16, 2006

Lives on our Roads: In the Hands of our Vulture Class

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Our roads are so bad, they claim so many unreported lives as a result of foreseeable accidents. Even more dreadful are deaths at the hands of robbers and armed forces. There are very few people in Nigeria that has not been accosted by gun flinging policemen or witness a case.

My experience during the war at face to face with the barrel of the gun during a soldier’s spot check still leaves a disgusting memory. A few years ago, my wife also saw a pointed gun up close. We heard about school children being shot aimlessly because drivers did not submit to 20 Naira bribe. Appalled, a visiting friend was slapped so hard two years ago by a soldier, passersby had to calm him down for his own sake.

The total lack of respect for the sanctity of live bothers every human being, even those who perpetrated these massacres of their fellow citizens. But a few rationalize it as pay back, or the problem of the other guys. Well, police are now killing one another, soldiers are killing police and we are now renting ammunition from them to kill one another. It is fair to ask about the type of Country we live in. Has killing become so habitual on our roads that it is no more a big deal in our Country?

Roads were not that great in those days either, but with fewer vehicles we can safely travel from Lagos to Kano or Onitsha without the fear we express these days. Not only the fear of accidents or robbers but also at the hands of those who are supposed to keep us safe. When I read about the eye witness death of Mr. Victor Okonkwo, the Atiku security aide, all my fears came back again. As if we do not have enough problems, jealousy amongst police can be easily manipulated into political killing between Ali Baba and the forty thieves, ethnic killing or turf fight. It is a good example that if we wait until air crashes to cry out in the form of National disaster, Nigerians will never appreciate peaceful driving. We take lives of others too casual because it is not ours but then, ours are next. We maneuver to avoid pot holes, accidents, armed robbers, police and soldier.

Road contracts are the easiest and one of the most common forms of corruption in our Country. It goes to friends, relatives and dear selves. Newly constructed roads are not passable and maintenance is almost non-existence. Though we have discovered solar street lights in a few model villages, one would think that it would be nationally applied to our roads for safety and security. But when friends, relatives and dear selves refuse to deliver quality roads, are we surprised that it is those friends, relatives and selves that die on our roads? Yoruba say “ipa npa arare, oloun npa aja.” Indirect self-annihilation.

People ask all the time why black people are so wicked to one another. If we can not love, give and take, and respect our precious lives, how can anyone that we claim we are related to outside our continent respect us? I have for many years struggled with the same question and it boils down to comparative poverty. Not only will I never be poor again, my children and grandchildren and their greats will never be poor again. See how we selfishly fool ourselves? Some of us live in these fabulous houses but once we step out onto the street, it is right into the rubbish filled gutters and death-trapped roads again.

Comparative poverty can create different meaning for different people. I have seen cash driven poverty in the southern part of USA that I have never seen in Africa. Yet, they do not realize how poor they were until they come up north. Life can be rich, peaceful and loving with family and friends around us. A simple life does not mean a poor life. Until we compare our lives with others, we do not realize how poor or rich we are.

Growing up in Nigeria in those days, I thought we were very rich. Rich? We had to share a room with relatives’ and friends’ kids. Children of our parent’s friends who went to schools near our house live with us in the same room for boys or for girls–(No way Jose!) Sometimes, we switched houses, especially during holidays. I still remember that I stopped eating in the same plate with my cousin because he used to “short my ration”. All we eat is rice, rice and gari, in combination with beans and stews. Meat and fish, oh yes, but I preferred isan (ligament) or ora (fat). We disliked amola and iyan that has become my favorite food now. We loved sausages, bacon, butter and ora that I now consider poisons. We loved sara – “eyin omo kekeke ewa je sara!” Children, children, it is time for food party. Nobody at home knew I ate sara. Omo okele. So what made me think we were rich?

We were comparing ourselves to other children, what they wore and what they brought or did not bring to school. Some of these children turned out far better than us, while some of us fell by the way side depending on rents if the inherited houses have not been sold. Generally, Africans pray that the next generation do better. The parents or children of depression teach the next generation how to manage the little they have. The vulture class is different; they want to make sure nobody but them do better. Unfortunately, the poorly trained, unlettered and uninformed ones are some of the ones swearing that their children and greats will never be poor again.

Our fore-bearers were very concerned about animals and their environment. They have certain ceremonies they perform when our animals and environment are desecrated. This is what we see in the western countries these days. The rational behind it is not necessarily out of sympathy for the animals or our environment but for us. If our surrounding is threatened and marked for extinction, we are next. Do unto others as you want others to do unto us have both religious and historical meaning.

So when I see soldiers ruling the Country and policemen killing and assaulting us on the street, I wonder if they are paying us back from the years of neglect and humiliations we used to subject them to. Our vulture class relishes the position they find themselves today and are willing to do anything to retain it. We may be going through some sort of silent revolution without realizing it. Hooligans control our transport, our roads. However, if they did not like what we did to them or how we used to look down on them, what makes them think we like what they are doing to us now? It is a vicious circle that has to stop.

When was the last time the vulture class respect Sultan, Oba or Obi? If they become too independent, they are dethroned. Rankadede has no permanent loyalty. Abinibi is different from ability. That is, those who were born with silver spoon in their mouth are different from those who pull themselves up through the barrel of the gun and those are different from those who pull themselves up by their boot straps. Our roads can be dangerous to your seemingly exalted position. It is not the place for settling of old scores.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)

September 16, 2006

Losing Weight while Gaining Fatso

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- I love to eat and I get jealous when I see people who love to eat more than I do put on no weight whatsoever. Every little food I overeat shows up on me so I have to watch everything I eat. There are so many enticing foods that I used to eat, but as I get older, those ones, I can not even eat anymore.

If I do, it has to be very little and only once in a while. For the fact that I can not eat them as much or as often as I used to, it becomes a craving. But what the hell, life is not fair anyway. There are people with lots of money that can not buy as much food as they want with it.

There are genes specially made for food. Some on the extreme, who no matter what they eat, never register on their bodies, have inefficient digestive processing system. Some pregnant women can be easily spotted from a distance, of course if their belly is showing. I do not mean those ones. Women develop certain characteristic even when the belly is not showing. There are some that are heavily pregnant; one may not know looking at them from the rear. As soon as they have their babies, they bounce back into shape. But they hardly bulge in pregnancy in the first place. I am talking about naturally gifted women and men who can eat anything and the women even get pregnant and still remain in shape. Ask some of them how they do it, they claim that they work hard at it. Sure!

They are the exercise guru that come out and tell the rest of us how to get in shape. Please give us a break! What gets me is that, if they are lucky to be a celebrity, they come up with all these video about how to get in shape as if they have ever been out of shape in their life. Apart from a few that juggles back and forth in weight gains, these celebrities, physicians and exercise gurus tell the rest of us what they can not do in our skin. A Few of the actresses have been caught performing tummy tuck immediately after delivery of their babies. Working hard at it, eh?

There is nothing more profitable these days than putting up a sign as an expert on Weight loss. Unfortunately, the real experts in this area, Nutritionist, are the least profitable. We do not have to be a nutritionist to be educated patrons of weight loss programs. The most dominant profiteers are the actors, actresses and exercise gurus. Some talk show hosts and psychologist have joined the bandwagon. There is no doubt that celebrity counts for everything, anywhere. The physicians are the next in line, not because it is their field but because everyone listens to their doctors and by extension to physicians on nutrition. I must say physicians as many scientists, have the background in clinical chemistry, physiology and anatomy among other subjects in understanding nutrition. However, the nutritionists are the best on advice about what to eat.

Many diets have gained prominence including the Atkins Diet by a cardiologist. The end result of all the diets is that none of them fits everyone. We have all tried variety of foods and abstained from variety of foods with the hope of loosing weight. Many of us end up frustrated because we gain the weight back after some months. Some people cheat of course, but some of us who have held rigidly to the rituals also fail. What can be going on can be attributed to many factors.

One of those factors is how body regulates any food that we eat and turn it into fuel or energy necessary to perform our daily bodily functions. No matter what we eat in the form of protein, fats and carbohydrates, our body needs energy. Whether we starve or not, the most readily available food that can be converted to energy is carbohydrates. The next form of energy source is fats before that protein is converted. In terms of efficiency, carbohydrates are the best source of energy. In reverse to starving, the body can also store the excess food we eat from the three categories of carbohydrates, fats and protein.

The problem of evidence of good living, as we commonly say, is not necessarily going above our weight to height ratio. As we gain weight, excess food is being stored by the body for later use. In many cases, that later use never materializes especially for those who always have enough to eat and drink. This is where we have problems. How can you store what you may never need?

There are so many psychological and ritual attachments to food. How can we have our money and not be able to eat? Food is part of many ceremonies and the art of preparation itself can be sociologically fulfilling. Comparisons have been made between different Mediterranean diets, French and American diets. Apart from African and Asian diets that are very rich in fiber, which is now regarded good for the prevention of colon cancer, there are other many advantages. African foods are also known to be medicinal, as in bitter leaves, okro and other vegetables like “agbo.” The recent breakthrough, like many, made in sickle cell anemia drug in Nigeria came from refined traditional “ekrube”.

We generally agree now that over processed foods as in flour can trigger high triglyceride that is not conducive to good functioning of the heart. I have friends who have cut rice and potatoes completely out of their diets. Some opt for brown rice. But I look at people in Asia who eat rice with or without chop sticks (how much rice can those pick up?) everyday and they are not obese. The Irish, like everyone else made use of potatoes very well to get them out of famine. There has to be more than eating rice and potatoes to blame for obesity.

Protein diets has now lost the previous popularity because the body has a way of converting any food we eat in excess up to a point until it becomes a problem. The French are known to eat more fats in the form of butter than Americans and they do not have the type of obesity prevalent in American population. It has been postulated that the size or portion of European servings are smaller that that of American. The Mediterranean diets are credited for their variety of fruits and vegetables as the reason we do not see the excessive body weight.

I have come to the conclusion that the best diet is African. Before you call me biased which I am not denying, I think many types of food in moderation are the key to our problem of obesity. I will be the first to admit that many times our food in Africa can be monotonous. If we vary what we eat night and day, we may be able to offer the rest of the world a solution to this problem of obesity. Some of our foods are “hits” outside Africa if some of you had noticed at parties while out of the Continent. Moi-moi, jollof rice, peanut soup, edikaikong. We have other different vegetables; millet, gari and yams in different forms, bush meat, esi-ewu and beef. They complete all the needed ingredients and energy needs for healthy functioning of the body.

It is a conclusive fact that too much fat in the food will lead you to a cardiologist. Some people have tried vegetarian diet to stay away from animal fats. There are essential fats that can be moderately left unsaturated in the body compared to saturated fats that clog the arteries. The point I am trying to make about African foods is that they are not as finely processed retaining most of their fiber and nutrients. Same is true of Asian foods.

Another important factor about our diets is our behavior to over consume because of greed and availability. African man must feel fufu bulging through before his bellyful.
Are we really hungry for triple deck burger or all you can eat when we are out? We know we always deny that we eat too much, even when we do. Do we really need a guru to tell us that we have to exercise and be active, the primary reason we need energy derived from food? It may be too simplistic to say the less energy we use, the less food we should consume. We do realize that brain function as thinking, worrying and anxiety require energy. It boils down to what we overeat is what we see as Fatso. After all, we can notice evidence of too much grass consumption in a fat cow.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 01:45 AM | Comments (0)

August 31, 2006

Torn Between EFCC and Due Process

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- The Economic and Financial Crime Commission has come under fire lately for the rough but Nigerian ways of dealing with looters. Of course, I am concerned about due process. I am even more concerned about those who think they can get rid of Nuhu Ribadu and would like to give a dog a bad name before they hang him.

I hear hypocrites’ cries about how “his” war against corruption is sectional and a tool for Ali Baba, I mean Baba Iyabo, against his enemies. But when he asked how many Nigerian Head of State has allowed anyone to go after his friends, they go deaf and dumb. Remember, Nuhu dared not go after Tafa Balogun because Tafa knew too much about Ali Baba.

Even if this entire tirade against Nuhu Ribadu is justified, what stops him from going after a former President hoping he does not die in office, as he sometimes wished for Nigeria? Due Process is a very important part of equity and fairness as I wish for if my butt is on the line. Ladies and Gentlemen, guess what happens when our butt is on fire, we replace due process with extraordinary powers. Yet, these are people who value due process more than Nigerians. They do the unthinkable, kidnapped innocent folks with unmarked planes in foreign countries in collaboration with people outside the law; they create special prison camps and abuse innocent folks. It is the reason they always use to justify fighting their greatest fear of evil, threatening their privileged way of life.

If I may ask, what are the greatest challenges facing Nigeria? Many of us will agree that corruption is one of them. Where else would a dictator who stole the country blind with impunity, dislocate people’s free choice and installed his cronies, plan a come back in a free and fair election but Nigeria. Whenever Ribadu swears never again, people cry -Aba. Fellow Nigerians are we sincere about cleaning up corruption or we are waiting for our turn to chop? We know that we can loot enough money to fight Ribadu in a court of law to a stand still with a smirk and a wink on our face. Whenever I take position like this, I feel so uncomfortable realizing that it can be used against innocent people.

Corruption may not be our greatest evil as some would like to justify its investment inside the Country, as in the case of Adenuga. The fact is many Nigerians looters who have no fear of God, now fear EFCC. That is progress my man. Many of them are so old, someone must have promised them that they need the cash to buy their way into the bosom of the goddesses in heaven after death. I hear about the distinction we make between those who invest at home and those who hand over coal to Newcastle. In other words, as long as some of us benefit from the resources of all of us, chikena! Another excuse is – it is our money, he is our son. Yet the area in support of their sons is floating with pollution and toxins, not milk and honey to justify however “meager” their allocation. As long as a few obsequious and “oloshious” fellows benefit from their loot.

Yes, there is hardly any country in the whole world that is free of corruption. There is something, somehow that is unique to Nigeria. It is egregiously right in your face. Not only are they worshipped, they become god-fathers of Governors and anointer of a President. Someone has to turn against them and say enough is enough. Looted money is free money that is spent freely. That is why it is easy to gamble big with free money, invest in foreign localities without any stake, invest big in shallow businesses that never survive their owners, squander big time in favor of academic prostitutes and endeavors that can justify their voracious appetite for unsubstantial grandiose projects.

Some progress stoppers have a way of curbing doers in action, knowing full well they have no good intentions. All they want to do is nip progress in the mud – “Oh I do not mind Nuhu Ribadu at all, I just don’t like the way he does it.” If not him, who? If not now, when? The same was said about the old country lawyer Senator Sam Ervin, the United States Chairman of the House Watergate committee that probed President Richard Nixon and later became a hero. It was said about Archibald Cox, the Special Counsel appointed and ordered fired by Richard Nixon when he felt the heat in his lap.

Many of their sympathizers have invoked the names of our founding fathers as bribe takers who laid the building blocks for poverty in Nigeria. I hate to ask the god of Thunder to strike anyone, but where is the comparison of ten percent bribe to 120 percent bribe. They collect the extra 20 percent from the following contract until we all loose. Some lay the blame on the ease by which we got our Independence. Ease? Ask the children of those who never live to see it and died in labor strikes or those who were incarcerated for opposing colonial mentality, at home and abroad. No wonder, some of our children say they have no heroes.

Since many of us take our car to mechanics, how would we like it if the repairman came back to us and offer us 50 percent of the same money we gave him, to go and repair our car ourselves? Would you like your contractor to give you 70 percent of the money you gave him to build your house back, asking you to build it yourself? That car or that house is Nigeria my brothers and sisters. There is no justification for any form of corruption. As we turn a blind eye, we encourage it and it gets bigger and heavier on our shoulder until we all sink with it.

I do not know of a country that becomes economic power based on natural resources alone. There are many that depended on cheap labor though. It suffices to say that people ingenuity make a country a lasting economic power. One of the problems with oil riches that have become a curse for Nigeria is that it breeds complacency. It encourages and breeds laziness by example. Since the man outside of power wants in to loot his own, he looses his thinking faculty to use his skill to be productive. Since the new generation sees how easy it is to become rich, they loose their motivation to build a solid foundation for progress of our Country. Without a solid foundation, we lack the sturdy platform needed for economic take off.

Every one of us including Nuhu Ribadu needs some form of balance and check. He has been blamed everywhere in Nigeria for his excesses, including his village when he went after the Chief Executive of the Bank of the North. However, that is exactly the language Nigerians understand. As long as the rule of law exists, EFCC will be checked by a proper court of law. Which court of law is going to check a corrupt Dictator? Please give EFCC the support they need.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 07:32 AM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2006

How Arrogance of Power Predicts the End of the World

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Those religious fellows who are predicting apocalypse forget that the world is so old; the number of years the world exits compared to our time here is less than a fraction of a second. If politicians who create moral vacuum were smart, they could have learned from Oyo Mesi cabinet that showed the Alafin, who misbehaves, the calabash or could have learned from the Ogiso brutality which resulted in the invitation of Oba into Benin from Ife or learned from the rise and fall of Genghis Khan dynasty or Napoleon or the demise of British Empire or the miscalculation of the Communist.

The capitalist system, with its vulnerable disenfranchised class is on trial until opposition parties reinvigorate equity back into the system. In Africa, it is what Yoruba call – “Igberaga ni o n’siwaju Iparun”. In Fela Kuti’s parlance, trouble sleep yanga wake am.

There is this deadly game between the rulers and the ruled. In the game process, those who promise salvation are born again Christians and Muslims fighting in the name of Crusade or Jihad. While followers close their eyes in prayer, they are busy commanding the people’s soul and tithe in the name of God or Allah. Eventually the people would outwit their rulers but after a great deal of suffering and blood sheds. There are pessimist who see their Countries in particular and the world in general in the worst light. Nobody denies every atrocity results in the end of the world for some. Fortunately, there are optimists who work on expanding the silver linings.

Religion is supposed to instill the fear of God in us and civilize us in our behavior towards one another. Many religious bodies provide sustenance for the soul, activities for both young and old. They are alternative to everyday hustle and bustle giving respite to the mind. Once they delve into politics and wars, they sponsor others, loose objectivity and become desperate for power. They claim divine knowledge, predicting calamity unless they have their ways. They are called prophets of doom that make sure it happens.

These religious fundamentalists are predicting the end of the world by waiting for power to fall into their hands. They come in all shades of people all over the world quoting the holy books of Bible, Torah and Koran as they were written centuries ago. They jeer and fan problems in the Middle East. They perform fake miracles on televisions, patronize shrines and babalawo; but also establish schools and hospitals and care for the sick and tired. It is therefore not surprising that they attract crowds all over the world.

In Nigeria, some of the biggest buildings are houses of worship filled with people tired of the raw display of power and arrogance in governance. Turned off by political robbers or assassins? In Somali, religious clerics have turned into army of gods because people who claim common forefathers and speak the same language are slaughtering one another for many years with no end in sight. Is the God of Abraham not the God of the Isaac Jews and Ishmael Arabs brothers? The same God they pray to, before launching at one another.

In America, Rev. Jim Jones took the disfranchised to Guyana to end their lives and David Koresh clashed with authorities ending the lives of his followers, all in the belief that the world is about to end and not worth living. Who are we to call these people crazy, when we preached Christian Crusade or Holy Jihad or clash of civilizations? So Hindu, Atheist, Krishna, etc point to wars, Sodom and Gomorra as written evidence that the end is nigh?

Nigeria holds the title of the most religious Country by default, yet we can never be so further away from God. On the politicians’ way to Church, Mosque and shrines Country wide, they send out assassins and pray for forgiveness. Their people only seek their basic needs of food, water, shelter, love, pursuit of comfort and peace. It is not surprising that we tend to gravitate to those who promised these to us. So if religious fanatics open their arms and promise relief from our sins in either heaven or earth, we fall for it.

To complicate matters, we have lost the doctrine of equal and opposite force or of nuclear deterrent principle of President Reagan to keep the world peace by increasing the budget for Star Wars. The former US Speaker, Tip O’Neil put it well that Conservatives spends on weapons, Democrats spends on people. When ever a national Czar thinks he can not be challenged in any part of the country or the world, arrogance of power rears its ugly head. Unfortunately, it is at the risk of his country’s demise pushing his people into the hands of religious fundamentalists.

Both attract children of the poor, the adventurers and the believers in wars, while they selfishly dread the same call to duty. They enjoy followers’ sacrifice for their cherished way of life promising the fallen rewards in heaven. Call it freedom, socialism or Sharia. The preachers are the worst offenders and when they are caught red handed, are never subjected to the same punishment they dish out to their followers.

Religious fundamentalists are filling a vacuum created by dereliction of duty for fairness, equity, empathy and compassion for fellow human beings. In our desperation to hold on to something or grab a savior before the world ends, people find themselves flocking into holy armies. Well, some of us are not ready to go to heaven yet. Indeed, we and our great grandchildren are still going to rock this world with no foreseeable end. As one preacher asked how many amongst us, were ready to go to heaven to stand up, he was surprised to see a few people still sitting down. Because they think there was a bus waiting outside to take them! When we think we are helpless, disrespected and deserted, instead of loosing any dignity left, we fall as prey to fanatic fundamentalists, shrines and babalawo.

In Nigeria, it was Jesu Oyingbo that started to exploit people’s weakness in those days, the latest of which is Rev. Emeka King who put his followers on fire resulting in one death. You can not but wonder why a reasonable person would go to them. Have you ever been childless and desperately looking? That may give you some clues. Many of the mullahs and reverends are as rich as the politicians. They exploit the same people and deny them of their resources. Ribadu just found five billion naira in the account of one of the dead Christian preachers in Nigeria. Why would a preacher need so much money for heaven’s sake? Keys to unlock the almighty Gate?

While Jimmy Swaggart defrocked Marvin Gorman for extramarital affair with one of his parishioners, he called Jim Bakker’s affair along the same line “cancer in the body of Christ”, only to find out he outdid both of them paying prostitutes in different hotels. These are the men of God who preached to us every Sunday.

An article by Jafaar reminded me of the ruler of Ivory Coast, Felix Houphouet-Boigny who built Africa biggest church laced with gold and diamond but not African biggest factory to create work for his people. We have Sharia Governors in Nigeria who claim Mosque and free grants to Mecca as their achievements in order to divert attention to their miserable failings of providing jobs and education for their people. One of them, Zamfara’s Ahmed Sani Yerima tried to bribe Nuhu Ribadu, the anti corruption crusader.
Running into 419’s hand, he commissioned mullahs to fast and pray for Ribadu’s death.

In Saudi Arabia or some of the countries in the Middle East, any form of indulgence is totally banned except if you belong to the privileged family, you can have all the alcohol and women in different colors, clandestinely. In some cases, there is only one religion, any other is not tolerated. But when they are outside their countries they ask for tolerance they refuse to grant other religions in their own base.

The punishment for the common man is swift and can result in loss of arm, leg, and lynching depending in whose jurisdiction or sphere of command. Most of the people that fight their wars are common man and now, common woman. They are all rewarded with virgins or citizenships in heaven, while hypocrites enjoy theirs on earth.

There are many main stream religions that benefit and civilize man as I stated earlier, it is when the power has gone into their heads and they see themselves as politicians who can close and open the gate of heaven for their followers that create problems. It is bad enough being politicians, combining it with the power of god breeds arrogance that spell the beginning of the end. The principle of giving what is unto Caesar to Caesar and what is unto God to God or separation of religion and state works better.

The solution is not entirely in our past but we must learn from our past to redefine the future challenges. A situation where only one power can not be moderated by other powers is dangerous for our well being. We now have a situation where nuclear proliferation is the new game in town because people have been humiliated to death and are desperate for deterrent that can act as opposite and equal force.

These nuclear games have filled the moral vacuum in the form of scud missiles, precision bombs and increasing tolerance for carnage as a form of defense. On the streets, children do not throw or exchange blows anymore, they get better and bigger guns. In the world stage, nations brag about their ability to destroy the world tens times or many times over.

Are these not scary enough to predict apocalypse? We want better times and it is not beyond us. Extremism in any form is not conducive for world peace. Fortunately, people of goodwill are more than the very powerful few that want to throw us into darkness. There is a cycle of extremism and we are swinging back to the middle.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 08:21 PM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2006

Signs of Happy Days are Here Again

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- There was a story of a happy camper who found a little fortune and bought some expensive dishes and ornaments with it. He then planned that after selling all the ornaments and dishes, he would invest in houses, gold, silver etc. The turn over from all the real estate might even turn into mega businesses.

As he was laughing and day dreaming of how rich he was going to get, he kicked up his legs tripping all the dishes and ornaments and breaking everything in the process. May Providence grant our wishes and not turn it into sorrow. Please turn to the person near you, say –Amen, Ami o, Isha la.

I am constantly looking for something to hold on to in our God (f~ken) given Nigeria. I have written about our poor pensioners are dying on the waiting lines in the sun after traveling from their villages hoping to collect their pension. I have seen homeless soldier turn our GRA Ikoyi into waiting station until their pension was paid. There were our teachers or professors who could not afford to buy a new bicycle, forget about cars. As I wrote before, middle class was wiped out with a stroke of the pen called structural adjustment. We were led by many able Finance Ministers with heavy degrees from Harvard, Yale, Cambridge and Oxford preaching economic miracle at the time.

If any of you wants to be remembered as Finance Minister in Nigeria, would you rest your legacy on structural adjustment, foreign debt pay off or internal domestic debt pay off? The difference can be simply put as starving at home or feeding coal to Newcastle. I used the “simply” because some of us are not technically sound enough to appreciate the finesse of feeding strangers while we stave at home. Indeed, certain positions should not be entrusted to foreign trained or Diaspora Nigerians. Yes, you read me well.

I was celebrating Charles Soludo for narrowing exchange rate and maybe bring down the cost of the dollar when someone cautioned me to wait for the fall of the dollar itself, not black market rate. Well, I am going to celebrate Nenadi Usman for paying pensioners, and making it as her priority. According to her, Ali Baba, sorry, Baba Iyabo asked her when the pensioners would be paid. She got on it.

Are these signs of good things to come? Why is Baba Iyabo concentrating on this in the dying days of his administration? Some of you may have notice that he even chided the Governors of the Delta States on their concrete achievement. His proposal for many years, when he is out of power, and the money that is suddenly being pumped into the Delta States at this last hour has even been praised by his arch enemies. Are these signs of happy days? Or it is too little or too late.

Look at Nigeria this way. Third Term was trounced, Interim Government will die the same way, no return of looters according to Nuhu Ribadu, Census was finally done, police dirty laundry is out in the open, and Nigerians will not tolerate another Army take over. There are signs that consensus is being built by people of goodwill in the North and South of the Country that presidency will go to those who have been denied before.
Somebody have to pinch me that I am not day dreaming before I raise my legs and kick all my dishes and ornaments. Slowly but surely we are claiming back our Country.

Nenadi Usman started talking about creating the middle class again by putting money in the hands of the discarded, Oby Ezekwesili exposed corruption by the oil companies and Dora Akunyili cleaning up fake drugs. These are powerful distractors in the development of Nigeria that these women are taking on. Who woke up Obasanjo from his slumber? He actually started well and we expected heaven and earth from him. Not you?

Nigeria is matching through the right path to progress and none of those old militricians who turned our Country upside down will be allowed at the mantle again. We have new crops of leaders who were mad at the rot in the Country and are willing to do everything in their power to bring back the glory of our Country where the reasons for hate that pervade our society will be side lined to extremists.

If I am getting carried away, please forgive me. It is just that I want to see goodness in Nigeria, today, today. We can not spend all our life hoping against hope and fighting one another. We need to rally round a cause and give devil its due, no matter how much we disagree. One of the worst problems in infrastructure is the lack of electricity. We can not do exactly or go through the phases of the Western World. There have to take radical short cuts as the development of solar power in small measures in some villages North and South of the Country. Imagine if we were still waiting for Abiola to install convectional phone lines, laying pipes through broken roads they never fix back? They used to display those signs “SLOW MEN AT WORK’. There was a comma after slow.

Nevertheless, there are friends who are planning to leave Nigeria as it gets close to the election so that they do not get caught in crossfire. We can also turn our fear into NEVER AGAIN and let them know the Country belongs to all of us. There is this conspiracy, call me crazy if you want, that some of us are too weak to stay in Nigeria. We run whenever we can and by default leave the Country to them to do as they wish. We must prove them wrong. Nigeria belongs to all of us.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 07:25 AM | Comments (0)

July 28, 2006

Funso Williams Left Politics to the Dogs

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Political assassination in Nigeria has become so common regardless of party affiliation; it makes one wonders who in his or her right mind would dare into such a dangerous game. There are “nest of killers” alright, but not in Lagos as if it is not part of Nigeria. They got Funso the same way they assassinated others.

This has struck too close to home because Funso was a childhood friend. Politics never had a good name even in my childhood days. However, there is some good feeling when ordinary people like us go into politics. You feel being part of the system without really being involved.

I have never been close to Funso since those childhood days. But I was home when he was in the Lagos State Ministry of Works. He spent most of his career there as a senior civil servant until he became the Commissioner. We met at parties thrown by our friends. Yet, I had some reservation about going to him or anybody for anything. Our friends would always say Funso was in that ministry, in case you need a problem solved, I shied away. That he was there and if I need something, I could go to him was enough. It is the same feeling we all have in case of anything to know we have somebody there.

It should not be a surprise that he eventually went into politics. Funso peaked in his career very early and human beings always look for the next challenge in life. There is certain section of Lagos, especially those from Popo Aguda that always looked down on politics as the profession of Boma Boys. If you are well bred as Funso was, why would you go into politics? During one of his campaign, a mutual friend of ours asked me for donation. It boils down to the fact that we can not complain if we refuse the opportunity to serve and if we can not all serve, we should sponsor capable people.

Many of us were bitter that he lost to Tinubu. As people would later say, he was rigged out of that primary. How could Funso be rigged out in Lagos? Politics is a game of numbers. Needless to say, that is now history. Funso has been rigged out of life. They went to his house in the morning and ended his life. Is politics that important? How many people are they going to scare out of the race of the dogs?

I can see the silent majority reinstating their warning that politics is for the dogs, that is “ko si omoluwabi la rin won”. In some cases, it works in reverse. For that reason, I hope many youths will see this as a reason to take control from these callous killers who will stop short of nothing to snuff the day light out of decent people. It is not a reason to give up but a reason to clean the animal stable.

Funso, we will miss you. Your accomplishment even in your boyish days will always be something our children will look up to. You came and you accomplished. Your time and your spirit will remain for ever. Every dog has his own day, that is, Kokumo, baba e da? May his soul rest in peace. Funso sun re o!

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)

July 26, 2006

Soccer Like Life: Only the Number of Goals Counts

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Nice guys finish last as the saying goes. It is so true, it hurts. I watched Ghana teach Brazil the game of football, as we call it. In the first half I felt real g-o-o-d! As it turned out, Ghana lost by three goals. How could that be? Yeah, find all kinds of excuses – weak shots etc. We were thought that the slow and steady horse wins the race. Ghana was steady but by no means slow.

Each time I flipped to that Spanish Station with that famous announcer some of you may have seen shouting his brand of G O A L! I felt some pain. He probably thought that he is Ishola Folorunsho! One of the world’s best in his days.

Zenedine Zidane of France got thrown out for unruly behavior in the final game with Italy after he was provoked by raining abuses on his mother and sister. We all know, no matter where you come from that if you do not mean business, there are certain words you do not use like mother, the N word or P word as in pig or the B word as in bitch or bastard. Say what you want about anything but not mother. There is a special attachment to sweet mother. If you do not come back on a vengeance, no be him mama born am!

Yet some of us have been trained to reach for higher ground. After all, they say bones and stone may break your bones but words do not hurt. Sure right, they only send you mental. I got to learn bad words in Nigerian major languages in primary school. As we used to stand against one another and exchange words, I realized that when my opponent ran out of words against me, he devised a trick of answering me with only one word. All of a sudden he was getting more laughter than me. So I later asked my supporters what had happened. They told me what that one word meant, my mother. From then on, I mastered bad words in major Nigerian languages; but was never used in front of girls.

Life itself is not supposed to be easy and if you mix it up with soccer, it can be the most exhilarating experience or the worst of it. I felt disconcerted when I watched and read about the African player in Europe that was shown banana and called all kind of names. He finally broke down and cried. It was easy to identify with him. In my first couple of years in Diaspora, I was lucky to get one of those jobs that paid very well but I had to quit when school load increased. There were all kinds of ethnic jokes about Irish, Jews, Indians, English and of course Blacks. My primary school training jokes came to the rescue. All I had to do was twist their jokes around and applied it to them. One lumber jack as we called him then got so mad because I got more laughter, he went for my throat. He thought because he was bigger he could knock me down, but I hardly saw a black man loose a fight. Abi you ever see Dick Tiger or Hogan Kid Bassey or Rafiu King Joe loose a fight, apart from magomago? He found himself on the floor. Everyone saw him come after me, instead of loosing my job, we were warned.

Children, things are different these days. Nobody fights with fists anymore. They use guns. Moreover, racism is more subtle but just as devastating if not more these days. I think the French Captain was so provoked, he lost it. The African player who broke down and cry never expected that amount of racism. He was not prepared at home because we only expose the best part of Europe and America. If many of us were as honest and worked as hard in Africa as we did in Diaspora, Africa would never be a place to run away from risking death in the desert. We squandered passed legacy from our parents.

Hypocrites would ask you not to react violently in the face of racism, after all you are well paid and there are adequate due process of the law one can follow to report such insulting behavior. Sports itself can be a violent game. Indeed, soccer is a game that can be easily emotional. We know that from our primary school days. We used to beat opponent sometimes, win or loose. Some of my friends got suspended for that. As we moved to secondary schools, it became more civilized but still emotional. I think we left all those behind by the time we left high school anyway.

It may be more difficult to explain the behavior of the English hooligans that are known and banned from stadiums in their Country and outside their Country. So when we see unruly behavior among professional teams, we are surprised and my brother who broke down crying must have been equally caught unaware. Could it be the same Europe he had wished for all of his life to get to?

It is the same Europe where Teslim Thunder Balogun played. Can you imagine what they absorbed in those days? When he went to Europe, he was a star in Nigeria but decided to learn about Printing before he found himself in Peterborough United. Whenever there were important games, he was flown home to play for Nigeria. Nigeria was a hot football arena right from those days, even before my time. It was a matter of debate among many Nigerians whose shot was more powerful - Thunder Balogun or Etim Henshaw shots.

Violence in football/soccer then was if that shot would kill a goal keeper who dared to stand in the way. Before people call me to order and remind me that there were more violence than that, let me open up. The police team always played Ayo Olopa in those days. All they did was shooting to the sky trying to score in the heavens. Once they lost, everyone had to scatter for cover because of indiscriminate arrests. As for abuses, we used to play marble, and stations an agbalumo seed. If one missed by a whisker of the finger resulting in a weak shot, we exclaimed – esun gbe omo ale!

However, we enjoyed the game most of the time. There was a shocker in Lagos in 1953 that I was too young to remember. Kano XI was a selection of players from the City and they were the first to win FA cup from outside Lagos. In case you are wondering what the big deal was, they defeated Lagos Dynamos made of “timber and caliber” like Thunder Balogun, Dan Anyiam and Baba Shitu. I was too young to know if my parent gave me food that night or if they ate because all parents talked about the defeat for a long time.

Luckily I got old enough to witness none violent games that we were all proud of. Most of the world class players were flown in like Thunder was. Onyeali comes readily to mind. The home boys were not less skilful either. It was Olu Onagoruwa or Ezekwe at the goal post. Olu was calm and gentle but Ezekwe was one crazy magnet. There was Baba Yara and Onyeama at the back. I did not know how any Ghana player passed them. Fabian Duru and his free kicks was something else. Dejo Fayemi was just too good so were Dongo Yaro, Nnamokwo, Onyewuna, Omokachie, Fregene and Naquapor. If Blackson ever got the ball in front of him, nobody could catch him on the run. We had so many I can not remember now from different parts of Nigeria. Referees like Badru never tolerated nonsense as the Russian referee who threw out four players in 2006 World Cup.

Soccer did not just rise up in Nigeria. We were practicing from our mothers’ the womb. That is why our pregnant mothers complain of kicks. There were play grounds all over Nigeria and when there was none, we turned streets into one, especially dead ends. It was our recreation that kept us out of trouble. In Lagos, it was Onola, Campus Square, Evans, Elegbata and when we move to that bush in New Lagos, there were adequate space at Ifelodun and one by Olaiya Stadium Hotel. We also had Boy & Girls clubs where girls played net-ball. During excursion to the North and the East, we played soccer with our hosts, after the game, win or loose, we had dinner and fanta drinks together. Obviously, the same pattern of the game was demonstrated in all nooks and corners of the Country. Life was so good, one of my childhood friends threatened his dad that if he did not bring him back from London, he would just appear. Now think; the kids were in foster care.

There were some players in high schools in those days that also come to mind. Amu of St. Gregory’s was like Duru and his free kicks. His name would be called from the time he kicked the ball until it landed in the net. Lateef Gomez was also a high school goal keeper. It was Indiana Asiodu of Kings College we knew that if he could not score a penalty kick, nobody could. He was suspended for one game after he missed a penalty. Bode Lawal of Baptist Academy was simply “ball control”. Of course, Osode of Ahmadiya College with his rascality, Tunde Disu, Empire Kanu, the other Asiodu of Igbobi College, I think. So many of them made football fun in those days. How can I forget the IONIAN colleges in the West that glamorized competition for us? There was a boy from Christ the King College, Onitsha. After paying in Lagos, he was hijacked into Kings College for Higher School Certificate. Boy, he mesmerized Lagos.

Amu of St. Gregory must not be confused with A. K Amu, the 220 and 100 yards runner during the era of Akraka Water, Idowu, Erin Ile the huddler and David Ejoke that gave us their best at UAC playground in Surulere.

Before I get carried away with the old days, violence still reign not too long ago when Nigerian won the World Olympic Cup. Those boys were just dazzling, teaching the world how to play soccer. There were some skeptics at the beginning when the referees would call every tackle by African players. The commentators would say our players lacked international experience. The calls got to a point when I almost punch one of them in the TV. I think we defeated Brazil first before we went on to beat Argentina. Our Embassy was set ablaze in Brazil. Well, Brazilians live, breath and worship soccer. I did not remember hearing from Nigerians in Brazil if they were treated differently as a result of the Nigerian team prowess. But I could imagine then that they were on their best behavior in order not to attract hooligans into their space. In Columbia, Escobar who mistakenly scored into his own net during international match was shot dead when he got home.

Soccer is the world’s most important game. We should not be too dismay that violence has gone into it. It is also a very emotional game that has been highly commercialized. The scandals recently exposed and that is being investigated in Italy may also tarnish the game. But most of us just enjoy the game and must not loose focus of the togetherness and joy it brings us. I find it highly fulfilling when any African team is playing and we all unit behind “our“ team, even when we have been individually defeated. It does not matter if it is a Jamaican or Zimbabwe team.

Some of us have our reason for supporting the French team alright but the type of racist comment from an Italian politician that the team is made up of Muslims and Blacks is uncalled for. That is what leads to violence. As the women joined world class soccer, men have women to look up to for gentle and milder reactions. We tend to behave better around the ladies.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)

July 07, 2006

Distinguished Igbo Among the New Crop of Leaders

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- There are many behavioral patterns that continue to amaze me. As life long professional student, I have always wanted to know more. Alas, the more we learn, the more I realize how much more there is to learn and how little we know about one another. Many of us have given up on Nigerian leaders especially the hypocrites that shout at the top of their lungs only to change when in power.

There are many Igbo leaders in position of power today who are bent on, and swear that they are going to change the status quo in Nigeria. They have proved skeptics wrong. In spite of the hate mongers, the new crop of Igbo leaders are as dedicated Nigerians as anyone can possibly be.

I know that some people will point to disgraced Senate leaders and some money prostitutes that dance to money bags. These are the type of relatives most Nigerians avoid when 419 is mentioned. Anambra does not paint a pretty picture either, but we have Anambra in every part of Nigeria. During some of the riots in the North, I have watched some of my Hausa brothers looking for places to hide their head, crying – not again! Please do not hide, speak out.

The Igbo leaders we see and hear about are the ones in Obasanjo’s cabinet and they are doing one hell of a job, except the only one I disagree with in policy. Indeed, she is the one everyone loves best, Okonjo-Iweala. Let us wait for her foreign policy. However, Charles Soludo has produced some result. Everyone of our leaders make promises, result is what we are interested in. By skillful management, Soludo liberalized the foreign exchange rule gradually, equaling official and parallel market rates to foreign currencies. Time will tell if this is sustainable. Do we need to dwell on the fear expressed when he replaced the Governor of Central bank? There are no sacred positions based on ethnicity or for only traditional bankers. Thank Obasanjo for that.

I must hastily point out that Igbo as Anyaoku or Akunyili are not the only new crops of leaders, there are Nuhu Ribadu, Dangote, Oshiomole, Adenuga, Randle, etc that most people know. There are others across the spectrum in the universities, press, commerce, in villages and towns all over our Country.

Ironic as it is, democracy does not always produce the best candidate. We are all happy that it works for Peter Obi but why do I still miss Ngige? This is a man who had no intention of becoming a Governor but was found by faith. As Anambra boils, I miss him. It is not that he could have performed miracle, he had his hands full too, but that we wished it was him that was there. Well, there must be something wrong with me. This is the same guy that Chris Uba anointed? Please bear with me; I hope this is not the case of someone who enjoys the infliction of pain. There has to be a way to get those guys we “feel” are competent into power. If you think I am looking forward to 2007 in Anambra, you are right. But guess what, I can not even vote in Anambra.

I am baffled by Ojukwu’s open criticism of his Governor, Peter Obi on one hand. On the other hand, it shows that Ojukwu is a leader not limited to only Anambra or if Obi might have rejected his counsel. In a difficult time like this, I expect Ojukwu to call all the various groups involved and squeeze out some solution that can be applied Nation wide. The economics involved in Onitsha is not limited to Anambra. If each vehicle pays 1,000.00 naira and another 500.00 for badges, that is a lot of money and I will not blame Peter Obi if he wants a piece of it to provide services for the people. His ban, shoot to kill order have infuriated Igbo as the Yoruba when Obasanjo gave the same order in Lagos.

There was an article I wrote about detained Ethnic militias in Militricians Taku. Some of those who never read the article wondered why I (me, an ant o) did not write about Uwazuruike. He is not the only crop of new Igbo leaders. As much as I disagree with his goal, I respect his cause. There are many leaders like him whose goals are different but do not get as much notice. Even he can be called upon for brain storming in crisis this deep. Some of us still remember Ray Njoku, Empire Kanu, “Indiana” Asiodu, Kenneth Iwugo, etc they must be somewhere leading in their own way. They are not in the fore front for the same reason nobody knows many of us.

MASSOB in all Eastern States, were not the only one banned in Anambra, we can not put all the blame on them. Usually workers form unions as protection from business Owners in a “master servant” relationship. The purpose of NARTO, the National Road Transport Owners may not be to protect themselves from greedy workers but to squeeze as much money as they can out of them. NURTW, the National Union of Road Transport Workers are happy that the excesses of the owners are curbed by the combined force of Army and Police who are in turn accused by MID, Movement for the Defense of Igbo, of mayhem.

If we have all these new crop of Igbo leaders, it is only fair to ask why they can’t solve the problem in Anambra instead of jumping on, and blaming others. We can ask the same of Nigeria as a whole. We should look at Anambra as a representative sample of Nigeria. If Anambra aches, Nigeria aches. If Anambra burns, Nigeria burns. If we solve the problem in Anambra, we have done Nigeria a big favor because the solution will be applied in the North and the South. Those who contribute to the problem in Onitsha, contribute to the problem of Nigeria. Some fingers are pointed to mischief makers in Abuja, those are, the supporters of Chris Uba and Alhaji Adedibu.

Of course we all play the blame game. We can point to certain people in Onitsha that are responsible, so can we point to others outside Anambra that are responsible. We have to ask one another the serious question of responsibilities as brothers’ keeper. People who are full of hate and mischief inflict it close to home before we notice it outside. At home we dress it up and call it pranks. Why is Anambra in every part of Nigeria?

There are people who are afraid to step into Lagos for fear of losing their lives. Many of us are familiar with horrible stories many years ago, 10 years ago, a year ago and only yesterday why you should not go back home. They asked – what good is a Country where you can not sleep well at night? There are hooligans, armed robbers, area boys and Ethnic militias. Yet, those who left many years ago, 10 years ago or yesterday said Nigeria is worse now than when they left. What about those of us who have no where else to go or hate being outside Nigeria!

Anyone who reads newspaper or watches television seeing the story of his home on fire and wants to jump on the next bus home must be a fireman or superman. That home could be Onitsha, Zaki Biam or Ife. Again, do we love each other? It is the starting point.
There are some Countries helplessly burning fueled by indoctrination - arms aid, religion, communism, democracy, or if those do not work as accelerators, direct intervention. This is not what we want in any part of Nigeria. If Anambra hurts, we all are hurting.

People are complaining that their husbands are disappearing in the hands of soldiers, children are afraid to go to school anticipating bombs and many others deserting their towns. How do we explain to people in Onitsha, Kaduna, Erin-Ile that there is no more war. A grown man like me still dream about atrocities of war, though the closest I ever came to one at Ore was when I was in Ondo in the late sixties scared to death of what will happen to us or those we were hiding from the soldiers. But then, I was so proud of myself when a soldier pointed a gun at me asking me un-Nigerian question. I was more disgusted at him even as a boy than the fear of death, before he was ordered away. Today, our children are caught in crossfire because of twenty naira during shake down on roads.

As a solution, many have asked for State police. Some of us have asked for both State and Federal police as we used to during the time of special constable and local police. Times have changed since then. Unconfirmed and unknown to so many of us is the use of different Ethnic police and soldiers in trouble spots all over the Country. Accusations have been made in the past that some of the police and soldiers sent to troubled spots have taken sides with their kinsmen. Yoruba made that accusation against Hausa soldiers called in to rescue victims in Idi Araba. That type of problem would not materialize if we use our God given Ethnic diversity that is more than three groups in Nigeria. This God’s blessing gives us the privilege to pick and chose which Ethnic force to send to rioters.

As much sense as this makes, there are few disadvantages. If Hausa police are sent to Anambra, will that back fire on poor Hausa traders there? If Igbo police are sent to Ife and Modakeke, will they take revenge on Igbo traders? As people become aware that the law enforcers are not their Ethnic group, we have to sensitize Nigerians to the fact that the alternative will be United Nation Peace keeping force. The last time I brought this up, I was challenged. It was not the objection that surprised me, it was the fact that people do not realize it is being done already in some selected cases.

We have to discuss this by educating the public that if we start mischief, our kin in the force will not side with us. We still have to deal with who has substantive authority to order these men around. We do not want to get into a situation where the Governor’s police force may be shooting at the President police as that almost happened at Ado Ekiti sometime ago when Fayose sent police to the house of the former Governor of the old Western Region, Adebayo, for hosting Tinubu and co. former AD Governors. It is this lack of understanding that compelled some of the Governors to hire or maintain private force as Ngige did with Anambra Vigilante Service when his security was withdrawn.

The bottom line is that oppressors have come to realize that there are more money to be made from traders and transporters. They have to devise creative ways to shake them as money trees while the more powerful and connected go for the treasury. It is passed on to the common man and woman by paying more for transport, products and inadequate services. Call them Agbero, Omo Onile, Area Boys, NARTO, NURTW, etc they change from private to official forces. These days even robbers find their way into official forces.

No matter which camp, we are the casualties in collateral damages, the horror we see is the horror of the dead that chills blood of the living. The root cause of most of their problem is economic distribution and who has control over it. Our leaders can reform and regulate them, but as their personal guardian devils, will not. After all, Adedibu boasted that he is not known for anything else apart from trouble. Let us join hands in Onitsha and watch the fear on the faces of thugs all over Nigeria.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 12:21 AM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2006

HIV Prevalence in Africa Distorted by Statistics

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- I almost hit the roof when I saw a recent study presented in Durban, South Africa that 20 percent of the richest Africans have higher prevalence rate of HIV than the poorest 20 percent. This conclusion on its face may seem right because of the number of people interviewed and the amount of blood samples taken.

The reputable Researcher, Vinod Mishra, raised eye brows because of the interpretation. Statistic is a wonderful tool in scientific study, but sometimes we get carried away by skewed data that is in variance to local established socio-economic culture leading to wrong interpretation.

The bigger picture that came to me was that of pharmaceutical companies that President Clinton has lobbied so hard to convince to forgo some of their profit in order to supply their expensive drugs to the very poor around the world. How do we shift focus to the richest 20 percent in Africa?

If this was a study that was limited to professional or scientific literature where it could be sorted out among peers, it would be hard to swallow and I would be less concerned. It has gained notice in newspapers and must have caught the attention of individual donors, many Non-Profit organizations, as well as generous businesses who donate to the poor countries. In United Stated States, the largest source of donors in 2005, are individuals who contributed over 76 percent of the total charitable relief gifts.

At the schools of Public Health, vital statistic is exactly that, vital in its interpretation of morbidity, mortality or incidence and prevalence of diseases. There has to be a deep understanding of what you are interpreting scientifically and socially. For instance, in a community where most of the infectious diseases have been eradicated, a few out-breaks of one of these exotic diseases may be declared as an epidemic with some experts set out to arrest the plaque and others running for cover. To gain the same status in an endemic environment, it would be more than a few break-outs.

The best way to put this into perspective is to ask who the 20 percent richest are in Africa. Can they be the ones that make more than a dollar a day to survive? Or we are talking about the one percent that steal the treasury blind and are seen as the rich in the Western world? They can also be the small business people that live the same way as most working class in the Western World but are seen as rich in Africa because they provide their own bore holes for water and generators for electricity with old Mercedes or BMW to match. Their fortunes change as the weather. Can you see the misunderstanding of underlining local socio-economic culture can affect straight statistical study?

We can illustrate the underlining sociology by extrapolating to the developed countries with some very poor areas. Since many of the grant donors also come from USA, New York or Boston or Los Angeles will do. The first noticeable prevalence of HIV in the United States was in the middle class gay communities in Los Angeles until it starts spreading to the poor areas. As the disease became poor people’s disease, the white middle class gays were able to take care of themselves because of access to health care and health insurance. They could also afford expensive drugs that kept them alive.

Indeed conservative attitude among blacks might have been responsible for lower incidence among them compared to rich or middle class gays at that time. So if a study was done then in a poor location where there were many Blacks or Hispanics, you could have guessed what statistic would show: A lower HIV prevalence among poor than among the middle class or affluent gay men.

In the Black and Hispanic communities, the virus itself spread more rapidly killing many before they could gain access to health care and many had no insurance anyway. The determinative factor that blacks are more conservative in the area of gay sex disguised the macho bisexual men with the virus not to reveal their sexual life style in the community. In many cases, by passing it on to their unsuspecting wives and girl friends resulted in higher incidence in this class and their children. In addition to drugs by needle sharing.

Back to Africa, the researcher gave reasonable reasons for the higher prevalence among the richest 20 percent as: men with multiple women, enough money to buy sex and afford travels. But that is true anywhere, not only in Africa. Western countries need to get off their high horse about the so called many wives. Women are women, no matter how many you have, and where. Sex is the end result and men seek that anywhere in the world as long as they desire sex and can afford it. Because Africans take equal responsibility for all their children and their mothers, some called those mothers many wives. They refer to their own many women as girl-friends, mistresses or the “other woman”.

In terms of the lowest or the poorest 20 percent in Africa or the lowest 40 or 60 percent, there is hardly any difference. It is when we start talking about 80 to 20 percent that we may start noticing some but not much difference. We have to realize that unlike other developing countries and the developed worlds, most of Africa’s middle class have been wiped out by imbalance trade and structural adjustment of their currencies that makes foreign products expensive. They can not join the rich clubs of the world and sell their products and when they do, they sell raw natural materials at buyers’ dictated price, except oil. It is then resold back to them as finished products at sellers’ price. The consequences of which, more is taken out of them than exchanged.

This study may have different interpretation if the next 20 percent is better off than the preceding 20 percent as in other countries. It is not so in most African countries. In that case, the study was actually comparing 80 percent of poorest Africans with 20 percent of not so poor. If we were talking about 90 - 99 percent of poor Africans to 1 - 9 percent of middle class and one percent of rich Africans, the study might have given opposite result.

It is not my intension to introduce statistics into an article like this but a very simple demonstration can not hurt even some of us not interested in mathematics or statistics.
In a population of a hundred, let us say we take 20 richest and 10 percent were HIV positive. That will be about 2 people. Among the 20 poorest let us say 5 percent of them are HIV positive. Say one person. The mistake here is to focus on 2 of the richest because they are more than 1 of the poorest. However, we are saying that the numbers of poorest with HIV are more if we realize that 80 percent of Africans fall into that same category.

Moreover, the 20 percent of the richest is fallacious because there are not that many rich as understood in, or compared to Western world. Indeed, more than 90 percent of Africans fall into the poor category since there are very few middle class left as stated.

Whatever the case, how are we going to sell the idea of cheap drugs or grants in the name of 20 percent richest people to individuals that contribute the biggest block of the funds? The principle of Public Health is to spend the greater part of the dollar/naira on the greatest number of people. Looking for rich people in Africa who hardly spend any time in African hospitals to spend money on is at the expense of the poor. If the reason is to reach them through health education to prevent the spread, they have more access to TV programs and news papers world wide than the poor. Saying that majority of HIV-infected people are the wealthiest in this study is nothing short of statistical distortion.

There is one good interpretation for the study though. If we take the same number of poor and the same number of rich people, it seems that the rich are more promiscuous than the poor. That makes more sense since the poor are too busy with the task of everyday living than the rich who have more leisure time to travel out of their commune to exotic places.

It also demonstrates the fact that HIV virus is a sophisticated disease introduced to the poor by the sexual exploration of the rich. In South Africa, sexual promiscuity and intermingling of foreigners was an attraction in Soweto where the Apartheid Government tried to create a homeland for some Blacks who in turn cater for tourists’ needs and their desires in town. This could be how the incidence of HIV virus filtered to the rest of South Africa. It may support the notion that, indeed, it was an imported disease.

Nevertheless, we must take care of everyone, rich or poor within limited resources. It is only fair that we ask the rich to pay more for their healthcare. That is why it will be extremely difficult to present 20 percent of the richest Africans to the rest of the world as in dire need of cheap drugs. Those rich enough to buy expensive drugs as AZT are part of the one percent rich class in many African countries. Most are already doing that without donors’ contributions and can afford to travel out for treatment.

As more African countries take care of their own destiny, there will be less need to ask others for drugs or foreign aides that can be generated within their own local economy.
Locally produced and generated wealth creates the type of percentile where one economic class may be easier to compare to another as it is done in the Western world.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 08:01 AM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2006

The Most Intelligent People on Earth cannot Elect a Skillful Manager?

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- We may prove many people right or wrong by Election 2007. Others are the ones saying that Nigerians are smart, intelligent and arrogant, not us. This is not self aggrandizement or chest beating, though I have heard Nigerians talk about Hausa humility, Igbo creativity and Yoruba civility.

Where, where are all these wonderful qualities in the polity? A rich man once asked an intelligent man – if you are so smart, why are you not rich? He fired back, if you are so rich, why are you so stupid? Anyway, common sense and education is not necessarily the same thing. But whoever has common sense would get an education.

In the early seventies, as advised, I did take a bus from Montreal to Toronto since I was not fluent in French. Weeks later, I was introduced to a church that welcomed immigrants because they gave appetizing hot breakfast on Sunday mornings. A visiting Reverend to the church was told I came from Nigeria. He assured them not to worry too much about me, that I would survive because Nigerians are very smart people. Boy, I was so mad!
On the first Sunday morning, I got to church early before the first service, only to be told breakfast was after all the services. My stomach growled and grumbled. Funny! Not then.

A good manager is the one that knows the strong and the weak points of each member of his team. Some of us have been in situations where some professionals we inherited were labeled as totally useless only to be reinvigorated by a skillful leader. If we need to drive a point home, we may need a familiar example. Once upon a time, there was this Country called Nigeria with a State called Lagos. A Governor was elected called Jakande. The same rotten eggs he met in the Civil Service were awakened by change of attitude. The bourgeoisie did not like him. But, performed, he did. Every contract was calculated for profit, materials and labor. Even hardened crooks, have to think twice to steal a little. But some of us, who managed grants, had to monitor them before evaluation of the projects.

We used to ask our principal in high school when Southern Rhodesia and South Africa would be free. He used to tell us time would solve the problem there. We could not wait for time; we wanted the whole of Southern Africa free in our lifetime. It became even more unbearable when Ian Smith and Hendrik Verwoerd would say change would come but not in their life time. Change came, and it was in their lifetime and that of their constituencies. We want change in Nigeria, now, in our lifetime. Relief!

If you have been through Austerity measures, Structural Adjustment, lay offs and Paris Club payments while we starve at home, hoping against hope, let me see your bellies. We want succor in 100 days after election 2007 and pragmatic projects before we die! Please do not tell us about sacrifices, young and old people have died making sacrifices at the demand of leaders after leaders, promises after promises and one rosy projection after another. If nobody owes us a living, why can’t we have encouraging environment?
Government can not create jobs and meet the needs of all the masses but decisions made at the top affect our businesses and our families.

Before the 2007 election, tell us why we should not risk our life to cross the desert to Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and as far places as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan we hardly know, with all our skill and training or lack of. Is there anything in Nigeria to live for apart from bogus contract, armed robbery and family support? Many of us are not member of the Corporate Bums who sell their government contract two or three times before they get to those who have little left to execute the projects.

Nigeria is one place where politicians brag in billions how much they spend on Power Holding Corporation (NEPA), Public Works (Roads) and Water, yet we see little evidence of them. Are we blind or taken for granted? If reasonable amount of power, roads and water are provided, think about how many small businesses will employ people and the amount of families that will not ask for Government handouts or allocations. There will be smooth transportation of buses, cars, people, good and services.

Food prices have hardly gone down in Nigeria. I once wrote about the price of food going down in some States, hoping that it will sail across to other States. Before that happened, prices went up again. Leaders after leaders have come to realize that we have bad storage facilities in Nigeria and some people hoard commodities for higher prices. Skillful managers anticipate this problem before they become reality, especially in our Country where it happens every year. Without regular supply of electricity, we have some parts of the Country where we can keep some commodity dry and other parts where we can keep commodities humid, apart from small scale farmers we never implement it on a grand scale to provide for the masses. Cooperative projects elude some private enterprises.

There are certain projects Government can provide leadership for private enterprises: turning garbage into methane gas, solar power as is now done in some of our States and training of our police by our College of Education as once offered by Professor Babs Fafunwa. Each of these can be done through tripartite cooperation. How else can we describe a Country where all leaders and the head of State know that police can not do without 20 niara bribe from motorist?

We know that if we are dying, the doctor and nurses would not treat us if their fees for survival are not paid. The lawyers do not represent a poor man who has no money to pay for their services, nor will an accountant prepare or cook books for the sign of the cross. Which profession would work for free?

Each time I think about Dora, my dear Dora Akinyuli, I pray for her life because of threats. I do not know the woman from Eve. We all agree that she does a wonderful job. There is another side that I explored before which is the creation, encouragement and stabilization of an environment for authentic drugs, soft drinks and herbal medicines that are made in Nigeria. Each of these industries can be retooled to produce more jobs, cause fewer threats by working with the owners for alternatives. We need careful deliberations since the last thing you want to do is reward criminals. Call it carrot or stick approach.

There is a conspiracy somewhere. I may be a little paranoid. The professors of pharmacy produce most of these herbal medicines sold on the streets, buses and flyovers because many of them work very well. Some are children of or herbalists. It’s hard to differentiate those from fake, and that is why my sister is not willing to play with people’s life. How can we force the professors out in the open - by patent, regulations or loans? We have managers in Nigeria who can figure this out. If that is being done already, why not in a grand scale so that Nigerians can live up to our reputation of being intelligent? Please do not ask for foreign exchange or material, we want local production.

In the eighties, we had Volkswagens and Peugeot assembly plants that were run out of business. Soldiers had Mercedes V class (and obokun) painted green as official cars before and after hand over. What were our decision makers thinking? Foreign cars ran local assembly of cars out of business! There is no freedom to paralyze local economy by any individual. America or Japan will not stand for that. We are not asking Government for handouts, we are asking for skillful manager who will think about Nigeria first.

All my life I have heard about Ijebu and Igbo made products. What is wrong with them? We need Onitsha made, Jos made, Calabar made Idanre made and Sokoto made to hotly compete with them so that they can reach perfection. Who in Government is providing the environment or the encouragement? Again, I am not talking about handout. What is the role of the local Government since everyone wants a piece of the Federal niara.

If the Government decides to ban spare parts, is there a local Bornu or Aba made that is being encouraged? Sometimes, by devouring uncooked advice, the Government gives itself diarrhea by the unripe decisions they make. These decisions affect business and families. Can anybody really convince the world that Nigerians can not reproduce spare parts to perfection if the necessary quality control is there or ask one of the foreign producers to establish a factory in Nigeria? The assembly line can come with spare parts production as part of the initial contract. Redirect people’s way of making a living.

If we need to export paki for foreign exchange, do we make provision for greater production so that we do not starve people at home of gari? Malaysia now produces more palm oil than we do but they are not more intelligent than us, they plan for the future better than we did. There is no agricultural technology that is imported from Zimbabwe that we do not know in Nigeria. Knowing it is different from practicing it. After all, we used to feed the whole of West Africa. Used to? Get real, about today!

It is not how intelligent you are that really matters. It is how persevering that determines success. As for our children, I always tell them I was not the smartest kid in primary school, yet some of the most intelligent ones never made it to high school. In colleges, some of the most brilliant students dropped out because of other interest. Only very few and very rare lucky ones, made it as Bill Gate. The same in graduate schools, some intelligent ones drop out because they can not persevere. It is not how intelligent we are, it is what we do with it. It is the same with football or soccer. Use athletic scholarships to learn in school as something to fall back on. Every one can not be a basketball player. Who knows, you may be called upon for an opportunity of a lifetime. Be prepared.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

June 07, 2006

Old Faces from the North will Help South-South-East Win

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Old faces are no longer popular in the North or South, but as money bags and their guns. There is a dictum laid down by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe that Nigeria can only be ruled by a permutation of North and South.

Anyone who disobeys this rule, does it at his/her own risk. Actually, the first person and only one to have ignored the rule was Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He was not a politician but a straight talker (Otito koro) who thought he could rule with Igbo as a running mate. Before then, he thought Azikiwe could rule with him as his deputy. It was not the best leadership formula.

That is why I snicker when I hear the call for the South to unite and separate from the North. We need the North as a peaceful force in the South and the South as a moderating force in the North, not the United Nations which we made the best peace keeping force in the world. There are those of us who grew up in metropolitan areas that are exposed to different ethnic groups with this expectation that it is the same relationship all over.

The Yoruba and Igbo for example get along very well, even in business, until politics of the Country comes in. At that point we need Hausa, Fulani or Kanuri to cool the tempers.
When that tempers flare between the Fulani, Tiv and the Kanuri, thank God we have the Igbo in Nigeria to cool the atmosphere. Sometimes it is between the Hausa and the Igbo; we call on the Yoruba to come to the rescue. It goes on and on between the Ilaje, Ijaw and the Itsekiri. Everyone knows the closest Army or Police barracks. Not even a President from the South-south will solve all these. Our diversity is our strength.

All Nigerians use the North for the convenience of discussion. You must have heard that there is nothing like the North, south of Kaduna. Well, you must also have heard of the North with one destiny. It is still the same North. One of the advances we made in Nigeria is the new intellectuals from the North and the South who have been able to articulate their needs in each of the local and foreign etiquettes by which we communicate with one another. In those days, when the investment was being planted, we were impressed on, that it was for the benefit of Nigeria. How true today.

We usually divide the North into progressive and the conservatives during elections. In the conservative camps are those Christian and Islamic scholars whose allegiance is not necessarily one-sided. It is very clear among the informed Nigerians today, that many of our leaders do nothing really, to benefit their areas of origin. This feeling has to permeate to the less privileged that are used as thugs for nefarious activities. If they provide them with good education and jobs, there would be less people to recruit. The message may be getting through. Evidence of this can be seen as masses stoned and disrespected spent politicians in the North, South, front and center. The disadvantage is that the innocent may be mistaken for a rogue.

There are so many diverse ideas and opinions from the North today that can marry that of the South into the form of government and a Country we want. I have on many occasions articulated the fact that the South-south and the North-central still do not understand their potential power that is so much of a threat to the Yoruba/Igbo/Hausa oligarchy. That this diamond cooperation has not been formed is a god-sent to the so called tripods. There are now common ideas on which to base our unity and reject those leaders who separated us.

Whichever region wants to present the President must wow, dance and court a region apart from his own in the opposite pole before the rest of the regions will fall on his lap. My feeling is that South-south has never tasted the presidency and South-east has tasted it least. However, I have to accept that it is the machinery of the candidate that wins, not fairness. It sounds like you get what you negotiate and not what you deserve. Since I have not seen people like Nuhu Ribadu campaigning for presidency from the North, there may be a good chance that the South-south or South-east may get the support of the whole Country, not by threat or blackmail but by persuasion.

It seems that the leadership of Civil Right Congress, The Northern Solidarity Forum and others from the North are calling for South-south President. This can be the fruits of similar ideas on fairness which is now emerging in our Country. We should not be surprised then if opposite and more conservative ideas are propagated. The competing ideas are good for democracy and for those of us looking for the best candidate without the constraint of ethnicity, naked thugs and moneybags.

Third term rejection regardless of ethnic affiliation has shown that if we stand together, certain leaders can not take us for granted. As for the South-west, they are still basking in their victory over the third term agenda. Their role in shooting down one of their own so that others can get a shot at the presidency must be commended. If every ethnic Nigerian can emulate this, we may have a Country to celebrate. I also know that South-west will not support a crook from any part of the Country. So they stand a good chance of tipping the presidency to a region with the best candidate.

I am not unaware of the TTA (third term agenda) flying saucer between those who have forfeited their birth rights to presidency, as if it was a regional fight; and those who retained their birth rights, as if nobody supported it from their region. Some of us have predicted exactly that fight. Then, those old soldiers stirring up storm in a tea port or pages of newspaper arguing about who won the war. You would think that this shameful past of ours would not rear its ugly head at this point.

No matter how you slice it, we are talking about brutes. Wars are fought when human beings have lost any form of decency, become uncouth and uncivilized reducing us to our primitive state. There are many books to read from blind men describing different parts of the elephants. What was done to the Igbo, what the Igbo did in the Mid-West, what the Hausa and the Igbo did in the North and the half job left undone? The Yoruba Generals agued about who brought the war to an end. Shame, shame, shame!

The gory detail is to provoke the unborn. So I am not surprised when those who hardly spend less than a year or two in the Country talk as if they are ready to kill again. When these arguments fly back and forth, foreigners wonder if we can be left alone with one another without another civil war. These are the same Nigerians who others countries hugged and kissed for threading and daring to step into chaos, saving lives, while the most powerful Country in the whole world waved from the shore.

Nigerians who should be spending their time or their thesis on ways to create a better Country, waste their time on research about how they are related to those whose civilization are more recent than ours, with a fraction of our population. There are Centers all over the world for Economic and Political researches, these academics or intellectuals can not volunteer their services, work for them or create one; but are ready to provide demeaning findings on our people. Here we are crying for political leadership, economic research, scientific research and MANAGERS to steer the Country into the right path. Some people spill their bile looking for relatives anywhere else except in Nigeria.

Please leave me with my Hausa brothers and sisters. I will not exchange them for anything. I also love my relationship with my Igbo brothers and sisters. Where will I be without the Efik, Edo, Kanuri, Fulani, Idoma etc brothers and sisters? Oh, how I wish to be a teenager again so that I can dream about which of them to marry. By the time our child declared for the presidency, nobody would know for sure which ethnic group to link him/her with. I’m sorry, may be it is the different ethnic food that fill my belly or the different ethnic drinks that tickle me. I have seen people, places and a few countries, none of them can compete with my Country men and women in these places.

It was the Yoruba that were crying about their women being married by other ethnic group yesterday, today the Igbo are crying, and tomorrow the Hausa will be crying. I used to think talking about women would debase and dilute our discussion about unity and presidency. I have come to realize that Nigerians attach important ties to women being married by other Nigerians. It has to be discussed as it has proved equally emotional. There is the story of a young man who thinks all he needed was money and no need for education. The same young man would love to marry a woman with a PhD. He was told if he did not study hard, other ethnic group with education would marry his girl.
He hits the books!

In many Countries including our own, women have managed to rise to power only to get bloody in the process as sleeping their way all the way to the top. Since there are more of them in colleges in the Western countries than men, it is only a matter of time before that happens in Nigeria. Luckily, we now have competent women performing at per with men if not better. There are whispers that they are less prone to corruption than men. Where am I going? I just arrived. We want women from all parts of Nigeria to contest for the big job. Why not Madam President?

The benefits are enormous. The fact that they would be less corrupt in itself is a great deal. They can not flaunt men the way men flaunt women and get themselves into responsibilities that drive them to steal. Who knows? May be when we see our women performing better than us, we may retrace our steps and start wondering where we went wrong. As for women who are trying to be like men, you will be displaced like men.

We need to get to that level where we can chose the best individual to lead our Country out of hatred, distrust and hopelessness instead of relying on spent individuals. That is lack of confidence in our persons as a Country.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa

[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)

May 27, 2006

Obasanjo is Not that Desperate Afterall

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Some people do not know when to stop chasing a snake until it turns back and strike with venom. By Nigerian standard, leaders who were desperate for power sacked democratic houses with all their Federal might, slaughtering students and anyone in their way until Heaven took its course.

That Obasanjo was humbled by the senate was not enough? We all know the history of gloating, celebrating and parading the spoil of atrocities after the fall of men of “timber and caliber.” We were always matured; we just changed for the better. Most of us fought against third term without regard to ethnicity or class. But watch out, vultures are going to hijack our unity, cause confusion in the name of impeachment or whatever, while hiding their true motive to steal our mandate.

We have to count our blessing sometimes. There are on going argument about what we might have lost during the campaign for third term. But I also breathe a sigh of relief that it could have been worse. We know that many Nigerian dictators campaigning today would send out troops to force us into compliance. Never mind that it could result in suicide for them. What about the poor souls that will die with them? Are their lives less precious than that of you and me? We have enough people dying already in our Country.

Nigerians are still licking the old wounds of war, ethnic massacres and marginalization. Yet gloaters will not learn. The unintended consequence of such behavior is a backlash, and a misplaced sympathy. Instead of beating our chest to a coma, we should save our energy and remain united against greater evils that have formed coalitions with lesser evils. We can not leave our thinking cap at the door of a dead issue while beating a dead horse. For those who remember Roberto Duran v. Sugar Ray Leonard fight, what part of no mas don’t we understand?

So many of us including this writer have called Obasanjo all kinds of names and he has so acknowledged in his speech asking all Nigerians to move on and reconcile our differences for the benefit of the Country. He showed uncharacteristic humility. We have to demonstrate that we have nothing personal against him, his family his career as a militrician or his kin. All we are after is for Nigeria to live up to its potential. Whoever is in the way, may he be a militrician, vultures or an alien from space; we are ready to fight all the way to realize individual and collective potential of Nigeria.

As much as I do not want Obasanjo to play the role of god-father, the best option for him at this point in his life is to seek the role of order and peace maker. Our transitions, even in the civilian days, can not be called peaceful. In his reflection on the failed third or fourth term, he can still be remembered as the President for justice among the down-trodden. It all has to do with how the next election is conducted and who succeeds him.

Since Obasanjo has no personal interest in the presidency anymore; Nigerians expect the best of all the effort and able hands we can get to conduct a freer election than the ones that brought him in. He should be able to go anywhere in the Country and look decent people in the eye claiming he did his best during his own time. No magomago.

The South-south and the South-east have been crying for justice and power sharing in our Country. It is now speculated that the President is ready to punish those who derailed his insatiable quest for power. This is a man who has always claimed that he never sought it but always thrust upon him. While it is true that he can not please everybody, no region of the Country should feel punished because of failed blind ambition or over zealousness for that power. Neither the North nor the South has anything to fear or loose as long as our unity is for just cause and fair share of political power.

All indication from Nuhu Ribadu is that corrupt contestants will be disqualified from holding the title of Presidential candidate. We need to stop fooling one another about letting people and election decide who is clean or guilty. Not in Nigeria, and we know it. This is the Country of Adedibu and Uba. A Country where certain citizens set bad precedence, refused the call of justice, still remain gullible and garrulous. Nevertheless, we have enough people in our Country who are clean to contest as candidates. Most Nigerians are hardworking people and that is why we succeed outside. Unfortunately, that God given intelligence is sometimes used for mischief. I hardly know a crook personally, a far number from the speculation that most Nigerians are crooks. Are we?

Fortunately, some young Nigerians are now coming out to contest for the presidency. We need more of them to shame the “old soldiers never die.” Some people have to realize that at certain point in life they are out of step and out of line. The main attraction, which is the treasury, must be secure by the tightest form of check and balance. It is still too easy for the Executive to dip into the treasury. Our accountants and auditors need to come together to find a way to secure the treasury. Only Nigerians who can beat any system can fix that. It is like bee hives attracting unpleasant people that sting us to death.

Some hard work has gone into the amendment of the constitution. We can all sort rice for cooking (if some of you still remember) or grain from the shaft. Whatever is just and fair especially in the case of South-south and South-east must be reintroduced. It is important that we remain fair in our time. Not only do we need to be fair, we have to seem fair.

Every little child in Nigeria must be able to aspire for the highest office in the land. This sense of fairness is needed to drive home the point that any region that has not tasted power at the pinnacle, must be able to vie for it with the cooperation of the whole Country. The same goes for our women. Women with power can still be beautiful and competent at the same time.

Nigerians are very sensitive to outside critics, no matter how constructive. Those who have raised their voices have met equal and opposite tantalizing force, Africans or not. In some cases they do not know what hit them. Nigerians have to realize that some of these people know our potentials because they attended the same schools with us or the same clubs inside and outside Africa. They should be mad at us if we do not live up to expectation of producing a leader, not only for Nigeria but for the black world. That is not too much to ask of Nigerians.

It is an insult on a Country like Nigeria to see our citizens focused on in news magazines as perpetrators of high technical crime or as abusers of foreign aids living on other people’s taxes. Many us of know how much in billions of dollars and resources is taken out of Africa only for less than one percent to be returned in foreign aids, a trickle per year for the next forty years. These changes and awareness have to start from the very top. Is there any African that is not proud of the prestige and straight talk of Nelson Madela? He has nothing to loose.

This is the time for Obasanjo to play the role of a great African by putting his house in order. No matter how brilliant or how hard working and peace loving we think we are, charity begins at home. If we can not put our house in order, all our contribution to world peace will be ridiculed by our distractors. Enough talk about Nigeria exporting what we do not have at home – peace all over our land. It is the greatest gift Obasanjo can give us.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa

[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 09:09 PM | Comments (0)

Nnamdi Azikiwe and M. L. King: As Dreamers, Doers or Builders

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- A controversial leader once renounced the tag of prophet. The days of dreams and prophecies are long gone. The time for action is now. The Ikemba of Nnewi, an eloquent and intelligent orator of our time called Zik a dreamer compared to Dr. M. I. Opara. I do not question the good intention of Ojukwu but to erase any aorta of doubts in the minds of opportunists and the younger ones, this poor little soul has to set some records straight.

A dreamer Azikiwe might have been, he was also a builder and a doer who got down to substantial projects.

There is no doubt that Africans in Diaspora pay their dues to Martin Luther King, a dreamer of the first order and still probably dreaming. Nobody will insinuate or underrate his remarkable achievement in Civil Right in the US. He provided an avenue for peace makers and alternative for those in power to negotiate with. As much as Martin gained recognition, credit has also been given to the Black Panthers Party, Rosa Park’s defiance, Thurgood Marshall legal prowess, Elijah Mohamed and Malcolm X Muslims revolts.

Azikiwe was no Martin, he never turned the second cheek for abuse but also a calculated fighter who knows when to dodge. No matter what, Azikiwe and Ojukwu are not in the same sphere or in competition for a trophy. Yet, both of them were born in the North and were brought up in Lagos where they attended Kings College and Methodist Boys High School at different periods.

They agreed up to a point and disagreed when one thought the other was going too far. I remembered that Ojukwu recalled Zik home during the war for “consultation.” Zik was his father’s mate not his. When two kids are chopping a tree in the bush, only the elders know where the tree will fall, says a Yoruba proverb.

Apart from our parents, there are very few heroes these days. Azikiwe, dead or alive (there are some sightings) qualify as our hero. Up to the first part of the war, Ojukwu was still a hero to many Nigerians. It was more than the usual sympathy for the underdog. He hardly spoke and when he did, we all marveled. As a boy, I was fascinated. We used to sing along with Radio Biafra:

You come by road, we finish una
You come by sea, we finish una
You come by air we finish una

Even after the war, on his way back home to Lagos, Nigerians were apprehensive. We all wanted to just catch a glimpse of him in Lagos. Many Hausa were happy because it was supposed to close a chapter in the act of magnanimity, Yoruba were happy because he was missed dearly and the Igbo were happy because a son had returned home. Sorry, I mean it was a mixture of all these amongst majority of each Ethnic group. How did he squander this goodwill?

He joined a political party! We all tried to rationalize it as a condition for his release. Fairly or unfairly he never got elected. We know better and we should have known better then. Nobody tells Ojukwu what to do! A man who was welcomed and visited every part of Nigeria on his return later became any other politician, parading thugs as Ikemba Front divided his base. Now he is seen as one of the Igbo leaders, and propagates himself as the only Igbo leader looking for someone to pass his baton. Well, that is for others to judge.

But when anybody insinuates or may be misinterpreted on the Zik of Africa, there are Igbo and Africans that will stand up. We all have our faults, so was Zik and some of us have pointed that out. Not only did he dream, he made them come true. He defended his coalition with NPC as a way to save the Country. In the process, not only did he achieve his aim for Nigeria, he carved a niche for Ndi Igbo, some of whom are (mis-)interpreting Ojukwu comment today diverting us from our esiewu, cold palm wine and that third term. For an ordinary folk like me to say enough, many can not take anymore put-down.

Where are the Njoku, Nwachuku, OkotiEboh, Akinjide, Akinloye, Benson, Balarabe, Rimi ... defending Zik? If Zik did not do anything for Igbo, who did? If it was not for Zik, with all respect we did not know Dr. Opara in NCNC. As far as the National politics of NCNC was concern, Zik brought him from no where, it was not his turn. That Dr. Opara came and performed wonders as many Igbo feel, should not discredit his benefactor. We have enough room to credit both. There is no doubt that Sir Ojukwu, a notable successful Lagos businessman, discussed politics with Zik but he was no politician of Azikiwe stature. He was not in the position to instruct Opara on implementation from great architectural designer or dreamer of the East. That was the man himself, Azikiwe.

Some people need to speak up. It was Zik’s house that was attacked and we said no rational Igbo man would do that. Well, well Awolowo statue was disfigured in Ibadan, it could not have been done by a rational Yoruba we thought. Even during Zik lifetime, Okadigbo called him “ranting of an ant” and Zik had wisely advised Asika to enjoy his time in the sun. My fear is that young men and women are listening, reading and wondering if this is the same Zik, we are talking about. This is not an Igbo thing, it is an African thing. When we were kicking out the children of Nkrumah in the eighties blaming everything that was wrong with Nigeria on them, it was Zik who raised alarm. Has Nigeria gotten better since then?

This comment and the discussions generated are not limited to the beer parlor, parties or internet. Our future leaders, our children are discussing it. They do research for school papers that may not be deep enough to explore all angles. We may sensitize them to the uninformed views of the maligned promoters. It is hard to build but easier to destroy.

I still see a vivid picture in my memory of the leaders sitting down on the carpet for dinner at the invitation of Sir Ahmadu Bello in Kaduna. Some of us wondered in those days why we fought one another when these leaders were amicable to one another eating and drinking. What they do behind the scene might be different but leaders owe one another some amount of civility, at least when speaking in public.

I find it very hard to believe that some Igbo figured that Zik never did anything for their benefit. He was not a saint, nobody is, but that this great icon of our time did not benefit the old Eastern Region is absurd. It says more about their selective and convenient memories than about Azikiwe’s deeds. He built the foundation and the progressive educational environment on which Ndi Igbo stand. If he had named every project after himself, would anyone deny him today? What did detractors build in the East?

I do not personally know about Zik childhood days in Lagos but my parents, aunties and uncles told me stories. A town boy, who mingled and spoke the parlance language. He was a ladies’ man who chased those Lagos girls because he was smart in school and handsome though not as rich. I still remember one of them, Aunty Esther, my mother’s classmate. She hated Zik for hanging around all those Popo Aguuda and Saro girls at the Brazilian quarters and not Igbo like her. Aunty probably lost the battle to others at Queen College because Zik ended up with a girl from home. Ironically Ojukwu’s rascality was not very different from that of Zik in Lagos.

Zik was destined to be a leader because he exceeded in many things he did. The neighbors loved him before and after his American sojourn. He was so loved, he was elected from Ikeja to the Western House. As a loyal lieutenant of Herbert Macaulay in NCNC and members of the Lagos elite who brought Nigeria into the modern day nationhood, the Igbo gained from him than from anyone else I can think of. Of course there were local heroes in the towns and villages, none of them gained the advantage and clout Zik had to negotiate or pull up his Ethnic group into positions. Man pas man, position pass power.

I think the Igbo have to be careful how they tear each other up. There were days Yoruba complained about the lack of discipline amongst themselves. They would say: Go to the North, if Ahmadu Bello said one thing, the Hausa/Fulani united under him. If Azikiwe said one thing, the Igbo united under him. The same was true of Professor Eyo Ita amongst his kin. If Awolowo said anything, Yoruba were ready to question him.

Well, those days are gone. We have all turned inside out tearing our home into pieces. If it is not good for the Yoruba, it can not be good for the Igbo, Efik, Tiv, Ijaw or the Hausa. Some people have even gone further that it is worse amongst Igbo. They point to a saying – Igbo enwe’eze. The interpretation has gone wild from Igbo has no king to Igbo has no leaders. The fact is Nigeria has no leaders. Dead woods dictators keep on recurring.

Any leader or anyone that is put in the position of respectability will pull himself down if he does not respect those before him. We are now at a stage where we have lost African civility for our elders. Yes, in the City of Umofia where age is respected, reverence is given to hard work, if Things Fall Apart served my memory right. We neither respect the hard work of those before us nor the achievement of the young.

As a little boy, I noticed the difference between those elders who prayed that we would supersede them in all our endeavors and those who wish the young never made it to their standard. Both the young and the old can draw benefits from their achievements; there is no need for one to trivialize the other.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa

[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 03:21 PM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2006

3rd Term Funeral: Give us Step by Step Middle Class Revival Plan

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Third Term Pall Bearers are back again fighting for who is going to be the President. There are more of them to go and more work ahead of us as celebration is too early. Keep your eyes on the prize which is our middle class. These politicians do not have to learn from their misdeeds since we hardly hold them responsible.

We were brought to our knees with a single stroke of the pen by pulverizing our middle class with “structural adjustment.” If it was the Colonialist that did it to us, we might have had a target to stab. No sir. They got sleek, they left the Neo-colonialist at the helms of our affairs and they wiped us clean of our skipper class. Is there any country in this world that has done any good without the middle class? Nigeria has very few, it is time to search for a new savior who is going to give us a detailed road map for reviving our precious class.

As I was watching one of the last interviews of the great Canadian American economist, John Kenneth Galbraith; my take on it was how the communists failed and how to move forward. It boils down to unproductive middle class. They do not even have to sell their heavy and strategic industries to regularize their economy. It is the creation and duty of the middle class to man the service and manufacturing industries. We could have listen to Professor Aluko on heavy industries on one hand, as well as other professors against structural adjustment rather than giving our most important industries to the same ruling club all over Nigeria who do not give a hoot about their people except in words.

Most of our graduates deserve the life of the middle class. They should be able to take over the manufacturing industries to provide the goods we need and compete with one another to balance low price with reasonable profit. If that need reorganization of some of their curriculum, so be it. One of the biggest industries begging for action as I have written before is the maintenance sector. We still lack maintenance mentality and those heavy industries that should encourage it embezzle allocated funds for it (o die e). As much as we have patriotic Nigerians returning home to start businesses, most Nigerians still live at home and must be encouraged into business of providing for others. But there must be a buyer environment to encourage a seller.

There was a region in Nigeria that did very well without the Federal Government. Indeed, the same region competed with the Federal Government in its capital. They created wealth amongst the middle class by “co-operative management”. This was in Nigeria, not oyinbo country. Middle class flourished all over Nigeria until ten percent bribe became fifty percent, increased to hundred percent, family support to book me down, then 419. Concentration of money and power in Abuja breeds corruption, dissonance and disable local initiatives. There must be some decentralization of federal might.

People create wealth not government. The amounts of money that can be generated by private sector dwarf that of government. Mind you, government contracts are also very important. The middle class can create wealth without Abuja handouts but its enabling environment is necessary. Easy oil money has blinded our ingenuity and we blame government too often for our procrastination. State and Local Governments in Nigeria collect taxes from the people but not very much to show for it, not even good roads.

Why do we invent only stuffs that need government handouts, foreign exchange and materials? What happen to our natural resources that others use as raw materials, and esusu contribution Africans are known for throughout the world? Sometimes, I develop fears that Chinese, Koreans, Indians etc will use their esusu contribution to create wealth for themselves in Africa as they do elsewhere. What? Oh, they are already doing that!

Professional people – professors, doctors, lawyers and not so professionals like contractors, traders and skill men who had saved all their lives for businesses, retirement or education watched their Nigerian pound became naira and naira became useless with a stroke of the pen. Those who were changing clothes every day started wearing it every other day until they fade into tatters, those who had houses started selling them to eat and those with cars never bought another one. They could not feed or send their children to universities. Our old people, pensioners and their families started dying on the queue waiting for money that came too late or never came. Even when they got the money, it could not satisfy their basic needs. These are middle class who are repaid for their contributions in cowries.

Nigeria became a Country of the haves and the many have-nots. We know how we got here. Who is asking who the questions about how to get out of it? If we do not know where we are going, as the saying goes, we know where we are coming from. The problem with dictators is that they think they know everything and only they know Nigeria well well well. Some even claim God is on their side. In their move to what they call free market, they sell the whole store to themselves. What matters at that point is not their ethnic group but their club. As soon as someone is shortchanged sharing their stolen loots, he remembers his ethnicity and call on his people! Like fools we answer!

If you had an abusive husband or a wife that had duped you once or twice and of all people available in the Country, you are attracted to the same type of person to marry and keep your treasures again, you deserve what you get. There is certain attraction to abusers and losers. Those are our militricians. Do we deserve them because they are products of our society? In our case, it is more complicated than “every country deserves its leaders.” There are heavy foreign influences at play in our psyche. What is even worse is that it is infectious and debilitating to those who never left home. We keep on asking failures or misplaced successful aliens to lead us. Some of the same middle class who are their bureaucrats dance and tell militicians whatever they want to hear. Ask them why? Who would argue in the face of jungle justice or seek justice that is selectively complied with?

Look at the older age, qualifications and the caliber of people daring to flee Nigeria now and cry for our Country. Look at the age and specialties of those who refuse to go home and pity our Country. Some of us spend six months on each coast. They call us visiting professors, visiting lecturers, temporary agency manager or accountant, security guards, taxi drivers, Mac Dee etc at a point we should be nurturing our Country and preparing our young at home for the challenges of the future.

After a long conversation, I had to agree with some friends of mine that the only benefit of staying outside the Country is that nobody knows your business as long as you corner three square meals a day. If you can not do that in Nigeria, you are a disgrace to your family and a nuisance to your neighbors. Otherwise, why would a middle class Nigerian be outside or an elder outside his base? Man does not live by bread alone have meanings?

Once you take away the middle class, the brain of any society, who are the children idolizing? I always tell the story of a friend of mine who used to boast that his children would grow up in his village. If you don’t, how could your children? Another friend who spends six months on each coast refused to bring his family over and promised them the best of what they want in Nigeria. Then there are those who think the best solution is to let them attend high school in Nigeria and go back for university education. Do we have any guaranty that they will come back home?

Going back to Nigeria has never been easy and I remembered we were scared to death in spite of the fact that we had had it and ready to go bananas. A little smiling and suffering in Nigeria cured that! Honestly, at a point we can not tell where we want to be. That is why some of us can not stay put in one place. There is no place like home and so we can not surrender the place to only the very rich and the very poor.

Look at children who should be in school, selling all types of materials, food and drinks in the traffic or in the market. In order to pass the buck, we argue about whose and where they belong instead of looking at our future in them and wondering about ourselves. You will see a young man who can neither read nor write. If there is one thing Africans can be proud of after independence, it is the amount of children educated in broad variety of fields instead of dictated areas by limited school. Under our watch, all that gain is slipping away. It is not too late, if we rescue our middle class.

Our politicians do not have to do their homework on what they will sell to the masses. All they have to do is whip up ethnic sentiments. Even then, we know that no single region can win or rig election in the whole of Nigeria. We fail each time to demand or ask for accountability from these politicians and they know us very well.

So please do not be taken by any celebration of some crooks fighting amongst themselves. Seek out those who can tell us how they are going to reproduce middle class in Nigeria. It is the only way we can return to planning, reasonable provision for the future of our children, adequate preparation for option B and C if A fails. Nigeria, no matter what the intention of those planners always fails woefully.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa

[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 09:46 AM | Comments (0)

April 30, 2006

How to become any Ethnic Africana

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Ethnicity is the word we used today to delineate ourselves into local groups, regions, tribes, sometimes into countries and races with little meaning, just that others can be grouped as aliens from space for immigration purposes.

But then, if you go into space, you will find Nigerians. They adapt to everywhere! Whether we like it or not, ethnicity is a reality today in the different environments we find ourselves. How we assimilate depends on our approach to the host community in most cases.

It becomes more difficult if you are white trying to pass for black or vice versa. There is that one drop of black blood rule among whites and behavior rule among Africans even when you are African. The amount of tolerance among Africans is unprecedented compared to anywhere else, which has been blamed for the ease by which we were taken slaves. Those who know how to adapt sincerely to local African culture gain their reward by their assimilation. Whites, who submitted themselves to African culture, were accorded African hospitality than Africans in Diaspora who have taken acceptance for granted. Is that the case for spouses?

Hastily, I have to add that this is not the same as economic advantages in Africa where foreigners are not there with their hearts but for their pockets to make money in a jiffy. If Africans are so generous in accepting others into their local culture, we may ask, how come we have all these Ethnic conflicts all over the Continent? Greed.

In this day of ethnic patriotism, it is not unseemly for an American President to visit his ancestral home in Ireland or wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, for Mexican President to visit Spain or Canadian Prime Minister to visit France. In Nigeria, we call for Ibibio, Ijaw, Igbo, Hausa and Nupe Presidents too. This visceral magnet can be combustible to a point. It was only yesterday that the father of President Kennedy wondered aloud why an Irishman and a Catholic was not American enough to become the President of United States. This ethnic pull can be so strong; it may deprive us of being a Roman in Rome.

Yet, there are many Nigerians who are lost in Europe and America. As hard as it is to become French, some Nigerians find their way into their bosoms. I read a story about Africans trying to pass for Black Americans in Japan because of the respect anticipated. Believe it or not, in spite of the riots in Nigeria, there are Southerners that are not seen as such in the North because no one can tell the difference. The same is true in the South and between the localities where their ethnicity melts into the host culture.

This is an impossible feat for the rest of us. Even when we want to, that ethnic magnet resists. There were cases where someone that had just submitted to being a Roman, would ask those there, generations before him, where he came from. In the States, it is not unlikely for a new European immigrant in his heavy accent, to ask an African who had been there before Columbus, where he came from.

The first time I brought my son home, he was about nine years old. I made the mistake of not getting him a visa, do not try it these days. (A friend of mine who did witnessed the dollar dance.) As we got to the Airport we ran into problems. While we were arguing about deportation, one of the immigration Officers asked him what he is. He exclaimed – I am an African! A few days later, I took him to Bar Beach for the first time, he asked me what those many white people were doing there. I was surprised because some of those whites were Africans and he just got into Africa, claiming the place to himself.

Nevertheless, there are so much ethnic conflicts about turf in Africa. If we know what to do and how to fit into foreign lands, it takes less effort to fit into our host communities in Nigeria or Africa. That will mean respecting host culture and custom to become part of them but retaining the story of our sojourn for our children. There is a lesson in the recent demonstrations in the US. By carrying the flag of Mexico in your face, as it seemed, the silent majority was repulsed. As the tactic changed to white tee shirts and American flags, all colors joined. We noticed a change of minds in public opinions. It is called submission and inclusion of the host community. It is not, who had the land then, but who has it now!

There is that fear in us as we grow older about who would inherit our primordial culture if we give it up completely for that of host community or if we can perpetuate it on the host community. The balance between the two or how far one should swing is the problem we have in Nigeria. The extreme solution would make us indistinguishable from Kanuri in Kano, Igbo in Oweri or Yoruba in Ibadan. That may kill diversity and secular beliefs but some habits have to give way to gain the confidence of the host community.

During the Back to Africa days of Marcus Garvey, many blacks developed a sense of worthiness and gained enough confidence to establish their own businesses including a shipping line. This flowed into the days of Macauley, Nkruma, Azikiwe, Awolowo, Kenyatta etc influencing many blacks back to Africa. Those were the latest waves of Africans that came home and they were assimilated into the local cultures as a result of which, one can hardly distinguished them today apart from history from their children. That their parents were West Indians or Americans did not retard their progress. Stockley Carmichaels went from a Trinidadian to American Civil Rights worker to New Guinean.

Before them were the freed slaves returning home from Americas and Europe. Some of them eventually returned to their local homelands while others settled anywhere as in Liberia which was the cause of another conflict still ranging today. It started between the indigenes and the returned slaves who see themselves as Americans back to wrestle away leadership, but were actually arrogant Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa that missed road. Others did not need DNA to come back to their localities. They spoke the language or dialect and remember their names with their European or Arabic names given to them. Their assimilation into the culture they left behind was not as incongruent as in Liberia. Those that never made it back knew for sure what localities they came from. They spoke, wrote and invoke their culture in their struggle abroad.

One of them was Mohammad Ali Ben Nicholas Said, a Kanuri from Bornu in Nigeria. He traveled to many European and American Countries as a free man speaking and writing in different languages. He was a Sergeant in the Abolitionist Army in Boston, a Professor who established schools of learning for blacks in Alabama. He wrote his autobiography in 1873 that has now been resurrected by Rasheeda Muhammad and Allan Austin’s book.

Gustav Vassa Olaudah Equiano was a well known Igbo slave who gained his freedom in1766. He was a writer of many books. He wrote a vivid description of his Africa home,
and the way slaves were maltreated. He was a war hero who petitioned the Queen of England in 1788 and published his popular autobiography a year later. From his days as slave going through the tribulations, ups and down of living and making it outside his continent to his prosperous days, he encountered obstacles that would destroy many of us today. He was briefly part of the Igboland in Virginia. He died before he could complete his mission to Sierra Leone or made his way back home.

Samuel Ajayi Crowder was captured in Osogun, Oyo State in 1821. He made his way back to Sierra Leone and later returned to Abeokuta where he became the first African Bishop. Like the other two Abolitionists above, he spoke many languages. Furthermore he taught in Hausa, Igbo and other “Native” languages. He translated the Bible into Yoruba, wrote the first primer in Igbo in 1857and Nupe in1860.

Lady Phyllis Wheatley from Gambia was the first black poet whose writing became a big deal in Boston in the 1760s. In 1791 an escaped slave Boukman invoked Voodoo in the name of Ogun, the god of iron and war among his followers to liberate his people in Haiti from oppression of slavery. There are so many African survivals stories in all localities.

These Abolitionists, despite all odds were able to fit into each of their local communities and rose above injustice, hatred and love of their hosts teaching the rest of us lessons of life. We can learn a great deal from others in Nigeria, in Africa today on how to adapt to and excel in any community we find ourselves. So why can’t we respect our hosts' customs, culture and adapt in friendly localities that spread welcome mats?

I entered a Cuban store in the US some years ago and noticed that the music was in a deep Yoruba dialect. Then a Cuban Babalawo was invited to give a lecture I attended. I was moved that Yoruba, Igbo, Ibibio and Hausa languages are still spoken by those who had not been to Africa for some generations. Without DNA, they know exactly their own localities. Those who do not are tracing their family trees back.

I always say that my name hardly identify me as an African. That is why my oriki, Omo Aresa is used after my name. It is an indelible mark like an ethnic mark on the face that most Yoruba recognize as the son of the soil originating from Ife to Oyo to Isale Eko. The Awori, Saro, Brazilian and American slave descendants in my family have married and succumbed into Yoruba culture of Lagos. If most Africans embrace their local communities as many of us did, the amount of conflict we have in our Country and in Africa in general will be greatly reduced.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa

[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 05:55 AM | Comments (1)

March 30, 2006

Militricians Taku!

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Sadly, Charles Taylor saga overshadowed US press questions on third term after Bush meeting with Obasanjo. The silence by Obasanjo versus the return of Babangida while the sudden death of any of the Ethnic militia leaders still loom are back on our lap.

They had complained of not getting the medical care they need in prison. One thing is to volunteer to die for Nigeria in the army but not in paradise, I mean in office. It is a different situation altogether if one dies as a martyr for the cause of his people as Saro Wiwa.

My fear is if Nigeria is dislocated by economic invasion today, we may miss the loyalty of some Nigerians standing up to fight for the Country. Audu Ogbe had asked: with the population of Nigeria, which Country can take in its refugees? It is true that a reasonable leader will curb the excess of the Ethnic militia all over the Country. But a problem when that militia is more popular than our police, and in many cases appointed leaders. There are warnings on the wall that the fight against militia can not be won by artillery because each of them has deep sympathy within the community that is stronger than that of our armed forces. Some of them get involved in nefarious activities that can not be condoned but are tolerated in the community because the alternative is worse.

I hardly have anything good to say about our militricians apart from bringing looters to justice but that does not mean all of the Armed Forces are bad. Indeed, I am very proud of their constitutional duties and their unrivaled best peace keeping duties in the world.

When Ironsi became the head of State, one of my uncles who was his comrade in Congo told us how a perfect gentleman and a soldier he was. As a kid, I translated that to mean that if my uncle did not leave the Army as a nurse, the type we call health officer today in Nigeria or physician assistant in the US, he could have been a leader too. Unknown Nigerian soldiers, especially from the North took part in all the World Wars but never got any marshal dividend as promised. As Ironsi stood out, so did Fajuyi who died with him.

Nigeria peace keeping role in Liberia and in the World is second to none. We stood up on land while others waved from the ocean. Our role in removing Charles Taylor as nobody would take him is commendable despite the atrocities he committed against Nigerians. At that point, they just wished him out. He relied on our promises with the support of world leaders then. Our word in peace keeping role in Africa is important. They do not want him back in Liberia where we got him. Outside influence and threat forced him out of Nigeria into Liberia and Sierra Leone. I am also proud of the role of General Victor Malu as ECMOG Commander, the oppressor of Odi who became the oppressed in Zaki Biam.

Nevertheless, Nigeria export peace which we do not have at home. The only achievement that militrician pride themselves on is the ability to keep Nigeria one. It is only Obasanjo that can do this, it is only Babagida that can do that. Enough and thanks, do not insult our intelligence because we do not control the guns into Treasury. It is not enough in itself to keep Nigeria one, it must be kept one for a reason: to be the greatest, the fairest and contented in each region. Extremists can be isolated by their unreasonable demand, from the majority of their base. It can not be done by military tactics, but by civilian prowess.

I do not think every Igbo agrees with Uwazurike on secession from Nigeria but even those that disagree with him are not too happy with their status quo. This President, more than those before him, has made his mark on Igbo appointments. He has to, so that those Igbo who support him can demonstrate some dividends. Gone are the days of Fawehimi’s cases in Court to get the Igbo into the cabinet. Those with hard earned popularity in their community, not only have to be treated fairly; they have to be seen as being treated fairly by their base. After all he was able to declare a strike in most parts of the Southeast. He has tapped deep into grievances that are now being addressed. We have been humbled, that no matter how brotherly our love for Igbo is, only Igbo can articulate Igbo cause.

Asari Dokubo even generates more sympathy within his community. Never mind that he does not represent the rest of the Ethnic groups in that area, they agree with him up to a point. Short of the point where he starts boasting of dominance over the others in the area because he was uncannily elevated by Presidential invitation. That they are heavily armed is not the real threat but if equal and overbearing force is used against his militia causing too much heavy collateral damage; it becomes indistinguishable from the abuse of force and power. Future generation will see him as Abiola who died in prison. So we have to take caution as expressed by leaders of the Nigerian Navy. These are not terrorist, most Nigerians understand their cause. Delta oil of course was in Bush/Obasanjo discussion.

When you see a frog in the day, as the Igbo saying goes, there must be something after his life. A 70 years old accomplished medical doctor, who can be comfortable for the rest of his life as Fasehun, do not become an activist and a militia if there are no burning reasons. In 1999 there was a rumor of Obasanjo’s death. He sent out a warning that it must not happen, if they were testing the waters. Should he die in prison under the watch of the same man? If you want to hang a dog, you give it a bad name. It is the Court that determines his case, but this Administration presented false alarm against him in court. It was under Obasanjo’s watch that Matriarch Funmilayo Anikulapo died, as it turned out, Obasanjo had nothing to do with it.

In spite of our differences with ethnic militia, we have sought them or used their name to make our points. When negotiation fails, leaders are known to claim that their youth will fight for what is theirs as a matter of right. Indeed, some of them have been financed and armed by the same leaders only to loose control. They have also done a better job than our almighty police in the area of security. The police are so jealous of their success in this area, they turn them into enemy. Instead of eliminating armed robbers, the police fight militia for territory. They always show up at the end of home invasion by robbers.

I do not think that Northern leaders found it funny when the Arewa youth turned against them. The youths demonstrated and even pelted the leaders with stones at one of the gathering, calling them barawo. Nigerians were impressed when all the Nigerian youth organizations met and pledge peace after some riot some years ago. One may be tempted to ask if it is easier for the youths of various Ethnic groups to come to terms than for our leaders to see eye to eye. However, some of them are so full of untapped exuberance we have to make sure they do not negotiate the unity of the Country or get carried away.

There are too many issues on fire right now and care must be taken to prevent explosion. We need fire fighters that understand the needs of Nigerians both at the local and at the National levels. Not those who rub their hands with spit(e) when they can utilize water by the ocean and hose down burning issues. When it gets to the point where hell can break loose, who is going to blink first or bear the brunt of it, our cause is already lost.

We are now at a point where certain powers are warning us about third term, only God knows what they are encouraging in secret diplomacy. They are negotiating directly with our youths because we have abdicated our responsibilities. Do we know what they are promising them? Which of the youth militia are they going to negotiate with next?

While the Ethnic militia leaders are concerned about local issues that are important to the welfare of their people, hedonist leaders are concern about how to stage a come back or how to prolong their rule by hook or crook. Politicians must compete for the love of their people with militia leaders. It is probably the same as competing for votes. The danger is if the votes can be rigged, it destroys the propensity to clamor for the love of the masses creating a default for the militia to run away with.

The third term campaigns all over the Country by some Governors, and the shakers of power, plus the recent silence of the President, have created only one Ethnic casualty. Now we know how the Hausa/Fulani feel in other shoe when leaders who never benefited their people parade themselves as saviors of Nigeria. We lump every Northerner together as if they have raided only our pockets forgetting that the ones that suffer worse than us, on the streets are also Northerners. Uneasy lays the head that wears the crown. During coalition Governments, those in opposition never wish for heaven to fall and Nigeria to break into pieces until they were denied their free, fair and hard earned election victory.

Akintola did not call for the break up of the Country but for the right to share a piece of the action at the Federal level. He cried that Yoruba could not be in opposition for ever and decided to be part of Federal Government. The situation has changed in this last seven years in the history of Nigeria. Obasanjo has invited insults on his people. There are rumors of grand design to rule Nigeria forever by Obasanjo and by association the Yoruba. Since when have they been the power house of Nigeria politics? Please do your cronies a favor, Obasanjo tell them to stop this madness called third term so that you can preserve your Yoruba name in history. The love of Nigeria is not based on what Yoruba can get from the resources or gains of others but on what Yoruba have been contributing.

Oil is not worth dying for. It was the Arab embargo in the seventies that turns oil to gold. Otherwise they will still be buying it for very little. If the choice is between oil and the brotherly love of fellow Nigerians, take the harmony and run. Since men in uniform tasted power in the sixties, it seems they can not let it go for too long. They show no fundamental remorse, only changed from khaki to agbada to retain power. Khaki no be leather. We need a virgin (in sin please) from a new region to lead Nigeria.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 01:52 AM | Comments (0)

March 27, 2006

Census 2006 Counts some out of Lagos, Again

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- On my way back to Nigeria some years ago, I was advised by a lady that I would not find a civilized person living in Lagos. Since I was hired by the Federal Government, I might not have a choice over my station. Luckily, I was stationed in Lagos.

On my visit to Campus Square, my old neighborhood, one of our uncles there told me if I walk from Tokunbo Street to Lafiaji, nobody would know me even if I told them my name. Can you imagine going unrecognized in your village? The fact is Lagos has changed for the worse. It simply can not handle the number of people trooping into the City.

One can easily be a good Nigerian and a dedicated Lagosian just as one can come from any place in Nigeria and be a good Nigerian. Nobody that has lived in Lagos in the fifties or sixties would go there today and not feel sorry for a fallen City. Yet I hear about how much others have contributed to Lagos. They live there, have children there, build their houses there, established businesses and pay taxes there. As soon as there is a Muslim or Christian or Ethnic festival, they vamoosed. That is the only time I can recognize the old Broad Street, and Nnamdi Azikiwe Street. Martins Street is so congested, it flows into side Streets. I could not even locate the tombstone of my great grand Father moved to Ita Akanni from Martins Street because it has been crowded over by the market.

In spite of the announcement by the President and the Governor of Lagos State that people should be counted where they live, Lagos has been deserted again. The Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Ibibio, Kanuri, Fulani and many more have taken to their heels back to their State of origin. Why have you forsaken Lagos you claim to love so much? Are you coming back to run for office in the same State you turn your back on?

Actually, Many Lagosians claim they love it when everyone leaves hoping they will not come back again. It is the only time Lagosians can breathe some fresh air. I was surprised that Tinubu did not leave. At one point, the Governor, the Chief Justice, the Head of Service were not from Lagos. As soon as higher political offices open up in their States, they desert Lagos and run home. Where can Lagosians go? Oh, Jakande, a bona fide Lagosian who claimed he is Tapa from Kwara because of politics. Well, so was the mother of Shango, Oba Koso a Yoruba King known all over Africa. Aiye gba Tapa, o kole Igunnu. Out of complacency in Oshodi Lagos, they established a masquerade.

I have decided to ask my brothers from Onitsha, the Yoruba-Igbo to make some land available to some of us to build. The same will be asked of my Hausa-Fulani brothers in Sokoto. If that fails, I will have to petition both the Obi of Onisha and the Sardauna of Sokoto. It has got to the stage where some of us can not afford to buy or build houses in Lagos. In case you are wondering what happened to all our land in Lagos, I will ask you to please let our dead fathers and uncles rest in peace. They sold houses to enjoy fine wine and women and they hardly worked. We have rained enough abuses on them. One of my uncles sold so much houses and land; he sold the one he was living in!

We have to be careful about how we now lease and rent to avoid any form of discrimination against fellow Nigerians. A few Omo Eko were raining curses at those who sold or lease those houses out. One of my sisters was on a visit listening to us. As I was laughing at the fools who gave away family houses, she turned to me and asked me if I know that the first floor of our family house at Enu Owa in Isale Eko had been leased out. My laughter at the fools ended immediately. The joke was on me.

Greed can kill some Lagosians. When people started leasing houses, still better than selling, they would only lease to the highest bidders. So traders from outside realizing this, would bid very high and for three or five years. The problem was that it would be the last money collected for a long time. When they go home for census, on vacations or ceremonies, they lock up without paying rent or lease.

The only way to get the house back was through lengthen litigations. Now that many owners realize this, they stopped their greed and lease or rent to reputable people with surety. This created a charge of discrimination. When the allegation was looked into, Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa landlords refused to rent to Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa that are opportunists to avoid problems. So it was not one Ethnic group against another.

I came to realize what a girl was telling me one day at the library. She told me she is a Lagosian, but I know her name is not from Lagos. So I told her to mention her compound in Lagos. She said it was in Isale Eko. I later realized that she could have been born in one of those compounds rented or leased out. I grew up with so many Nigerians who adopted the name of the compound they were born. Some of them know no other place but Lagos and marry into Lagos families. They will be counted during census and can hold any position. Those with European and Arabic names like ours know that even if we marry into that culture, we can never be fully assimilated as in most African cultures. Yoruba will even accept the Tokunbo and Omowale from overseas.

There is a friend of mine who starts his introductory greetings to me with: Omo Eko living under Carter Bridge, selling houses to eat, too lazy to work, fine dressing and so much pride. Please do not say that to me, this is my close friend. I will not tell you how I greet him back. The next minute, he wants me to sell him land if there is any left. He was the same one I met in school in our first year in college. He wondered aloud what Omo Eko was doing in the University when I could be driving a Mustang.

Some people have told me they do not live in Lagos but live in Lagos State, so Census should not matter to me since many Lagosians discriminate against those who live across Carter Bridge. That is true because I remember people were very upset that University was built in a swap at Akoka with all the land in Lagos. But all that changed when we were forced to move to Surulere, New Lagos. Now I have cousins who live at Alagbado Okokomaiko, Ipaja, Aboru, Ijaije, Opeilu, Meiran and other strange names in those days. Yes, that is Lagos now. My friend’s daughter asked the Dad how I can be a Lagosian and do not know all those places. As a kid, it took me a while to realize that Iga and Ibeshe were actually Towns in the West, I thought they were slang, please forgive my ignorance.

The problem is Lagos can not plan for the people that are not counted. If ten people are counted during census, there is no way the State can accommodate 100. It means that the resources meant for ten will be utilized by a 100. It is the reverse where people fled to. They will inflate the number of people there. That way people in those areas will be enjoying planning meant for more people than are actually there. This may be the reason we have many local governments in Nigeria without people. They all live in Lagos!

We have to find solution to this problem. There are many things we can do. The most obvious will be to block all the roads into Lagos and tell them to go back to where they were counted. That will be crude and Lagosians are not crude.

Many people brag that they pay a great deal of taxes in Lagos. It may not be unreasonable to tell them to show receipt of those taxes before they are allowed back into Lagos. That will mean we have to create another group of bribe takers who will not deliver the money into the State coffer.

The problem with taxes in Nigeria as a whole is that people only pay when they need services from the Government. Unfortunately, poor people do not get Government services, only rich people ask for Government services for their houses, cars or permits to export. Even then, there are fake receipts and fake tax collectors.

Another idea is what I will call exchange program. For every person that comes into Lagos. The State s/he comes from must take a Lagosian who would like to settle there. Well, talking about One Nigeria. That will be a way to go. Everyone born in Lagos must take a Yoruba name or be adopted into one of the Lagos family. The same goes for those who are exchanged into Borno or Aba, they must take names there. That is what many of us did outside Nigeria to “blend” in. Did we?

If none of the above works, Lagos must secede from the rest of the Country and join with Calabar that used to be the capital or Port Harcourt, another cosmopolitan City. What about Abuja, Jos or Enugu?

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 04:49 AM | Comments (0)

Our Hedonist Leaders Lack Local Voters' Desired Qualities

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Nigeria has been blessed with local populist leaders displaying impeccable qualities that can rule any country in the world but they have failed to win national elections. We end up with National leaders in variance with our desire who sometimes appoint our local leaders.

If all politics are local, it must not have taken almost the end of term for Appeal Court to confirm Peter Obi as the Governor in Anambra. There are many local heroes that you would vote for like Peter Obi in Nigeria and that have never made it to the center.

These unknowns were very much like Aminu Kano, Michael Imoudu, Udo Akpabio, Sam Mbakwe, Adelabu Adegoke. While they did not occupy the center stage, they were heroes that were respected in their chosen areas worthy of their causes. This is not about their wives, children in Abuja, Houston, Kent, or Cairo. It is not about Peter Obi per se or leaders that have been written about too many times. It is about local heroes. The way to understand why these patriots never became the ruler of Nigeria is to look at someone in your village, a local hero as Aminu Kano but undiscovered. How can they lead Nigeria?

Their impacts are better felt only at the local levels throughout Nigeria. The difference in US or Britain is that local leaders in those countries gain local prominence that propel them into center stage where they have been able to use their program for the benefit of the majority of the population. Their politics is local, with the Federal interest. Tafawa Balewa apart, our appointed leaders compete with local heroes, displaying Federal might.

Many of those who made it to National level anywhere else contested locally but could not take populist idea for granted as shown by Walter Mondale and Ronald Reagan debate. Those who thought Mondale won and would win the election were wrong, it wasn’t him they wanted. The same could be said between the debate of Al Gore and Baby Bush. When Harold Wilson left as Prime Minister of Britain, some of those who desire someone like him later got Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher. Throughout these reigns, the populist whose program could have benefited the poor and the down trodden, lost elections. Petroiska and the fruit of glasnost failed the populist in Russia.

There are certain amount of self righteousness, arrogance and complacency on the part of the populist that they can appeal to the basic instinct of fairness of their people and just win elections as in Western Nigeria in 2003 or Lagos State with the election of Otedola. They ignored other factors that were also important thinking they could take us for granted with populist label. In Nigeria most people will tell you that they want a good leader, not necessarily their ethnicity that has not benefited them. Sure right!

One factor that is very common amongst conservative is symbol of nouveau riche. They dangle it with the hope that each and everyone can attain it if they try. They also preach prosperity by displaying their heavy weights that had made it. Who no wish for better days? Indeed, many Nigerians will tell you frankly that if they get there, they will chop.

Whether we accept it or not, hedonism is an intrinsic part of us, a doctrine of Aristippus that pleasure or happiness is the best thing that ever happens to man. John Milton exploration of the means and ways of its attainment has been questioned even amongst Yoruba whose philosophy I am more familiar with that predated foreign philosophers we quote. Simply put, the means does not justify the end. So when politicians display their own hedonism, we buy into it without thinking about if it will last us until the day after.

There was this story about Aminu Kano. He was offered a generator in his modest house. He said he did not like the noise, so they offered him one without noise. He asked them if everyone in his neighborhood would get one, if not he did not want any. The fact is he never wanted it in the first place. He did not want to live in comfort in the midst of poverty. His followers and admirers could have bought him off to a luxurious life. In case some of you may not know, there are houses in Nigeria where once you step in, forget you are in a slum until you step out again. You would think you are in Potomac, where those rich Nigerians we envy buy houses in US.

The same story can be told of Michael Imoudu who suffered physical abuse in and out of jails while leading the labor movement or Adelabu, a lawyer who prefer the company of the so called “illiterate”. Sam Mbakwe was labeled a crying Governor because of his heart felt message of his people. We have even forgotten Ibang Udo Akpabio, a prominent man who went to the same Lincoln University with Azikiwe. None of them were propelled to the Country leadership. Do they lack the appeal of the heavy weights that sunk Nigeria because they are populist, not hedonists?

In the defense of conservatives, they appeal to orderliness, just and normal society free of aberration. They ask for status quo. While their opponents get too tolerant of permissive society, they hold on and warn of Sodom and Gomorrah. We all know the role the fear of homosexuals in Ohio African Churches played in 2004 Presidential election in the US.

We are now glorifying the return of military men and colonial masters! In the case of the military men, they established law and order which the society needs to function. We missed the colonial days where planning and sanitation reigned. It seems some have given up on themselves, lost their confidence and would function better if we were ordered like zombies. We still have a vigorous press that are not maimed and killed at will militarily, but still muzzled. At least activists live in, and travel into the Country.

No matter what, justice delayed is justice denied; Uba is happy, but local winner Obi lost valuable time. We can not be proud of the way our courts of law are being disrespected and its ruling ignored or intentionally misinterpreted, laying a very bad precedent for future democracy in our Country that may come back and hunt this Administration. The same way its precedent decrees were used against it in the past. Every dog has its day.

This attraction of the conservative in their feverish principle of what they believe in, not necessarily what they practice has its faults. We have the case of religious schools that discriminate against certain segment of the society. Yet, we are all children of God. There are countries that proclaim one religion but are ready to invade other countries with their religion. There are those who prescribe castration for rapist only to find out they take the wife of followers and sodomize children. By their belief and devotion, no one questions their hypocrisy and lacks of populist ideas but they espouse conservative values we love.

It is with the same passion they win elections. They know their goals and make calculated plans of how to achieve it, then, worry about the consequences later. This is what we have in Nigeria. I have been told since the seventies that Nigeria will never elect a progressive government. A progressive government may flourish at the State or regional level but not at the center. All it takes are the display of wealth of the party members, expensive gifts and promises during the election and if any of these do not work, the use of the Supreme Court as in the US, or outright rigging. They overshadow local heroes.

Religion is meant to educate, civilize and instill the fear of God in us; so that we can be kind to and love one another. It has been hijacked as instrument of war in the name of crusade and jihad by those seeking superiority complex. They clad themselves in religious robes, cassock, military uniforms only to find out with time that they are hedonists worse than those they replaced.

Communication across our Country is much easier now than it has ever been. We have educated people in any language, religion or cultures all over Nigeria. We have discussed these problems as we should in the newspapers and on the internet. It is about time we discuss solutions. How can we transfer our desire to our leaders so that local ideas can be reflected in the decision making of our Country? Start village and grassroots discussion.

Some years ago, while engaged in one of that academic diarrhea of the mouth, one of my cousins asked me if those at home in Nigeria were better than me. This was in the days we had a burden of guilt if we did not go home as soon as we finished school. My own guilt never rested until I got on the soil and started working.

Alas! Situation has changed. People do not say, come back home before you kill your mother anymore. They ask you to get them out of here. When you are at home and it gets to a point where you start complaining about the bags of gari, rice, beans and corn flour being depleted too fast, which you never did before. They know it is time to go back and make money overseas, if you still have the citizenship you obtained to get certain grants, scholarships for school or for certain jobs. Today some dangle citizenship to inform us they have pledged to take up arms against Nigeria. What else would they do?

As long as we go on generating conversations about our views and misconceptions and start looking for ways to solve it, we may start propelling local political heroes who would do what most of us wanted instead of taking care of their hedonistic values. Nigerians are now sponsoring politicians from overseas to go home and reflect their views. Some of them get elected and some of them come back empty. If we do not want to get into politics personally, we can make our views and ideas known in the villages and our neighborhoods. Someone may be motivated to run and express those ideas.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 04:19 AM | Comments (0)

Nigerian Unity on Earth, Not in Heaven

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- There are so many events lately that have given ammunition or might vindicate those who pledge for the break up of Nigeria. One of the new friends I made urged me to join them in the break up of my beloved Country. The sad part of these events is that it is not new.

These are recurring problems after which committees are set up; promises made to investigate culprits that would be swiftly brought to justice. It’s all talk and little action.

Even more distressing is the caliber of people who are fed up of defending the integrity of the Country. People are becoming indifferent. The younger generations have a bigger stake than those who want to seat tight until they die in power as African leaders are known for. If you are one of those who would die for Nigeria, people would tell you they are not ready to clean up your mess. Please go home and die in bed peacefully. Is Nigeria that much of a burden to carry? One only lives and dies for the Country one cherishes.

There have to be solutions to these barbaric acts to gain economic, political and self deluding awe in the name of Jihad, Crusade, Democracy and Ethnocentrism. We have lived like this for many years and still can not find solutions. We know the problems but we wait for God to either give answers or let us separately go our own ways instead of killing one another. If the answers are that easy, it would have been implemented a long time ago. We can leave God out of this for now, since He did not create our problems.

For a start, we have to stop fooling ourselves. These killers are not morons or crazy, they are average men on the street instigated and worked up by headless leaders using human blood as sacrifice to test and flex their muscles. These leaders are known and courted as power brokers or godfathers, thereby becoming untouchable. We have them in every part of Nigeria bragging of mayhem unless they get their way. They were thugs who lost their sense of direction, reincarnated themselves as politicians turned money missed road. In some cases they unwittingly loose control of the Frankenstein they created. As soon as they perform their unholy act, other politicians line up to spin atrocities in their favors.

Nigerians from Maiduguri to Warri know what provocation is in the case of Onitsha, and they have so expressed in different fora. We know Onitsha area to be the most cosmopolitan area in Igbo land. While the Igbo have no kings, the Onitsha people do as the Benin or Yoruba. They are related to other Nigerian Ethnic groups. See THE FATHER OF ALL NIGERIAN ETHNIC GROUPS. So it is ironic that retaliation came from there. Those who think they are the real Igbo, watch out for the Igbo of Onitsha. We can not take people’s gentility for granted.

This is in not an endorsement of violence. If anything, all the areas that have remained calm throughout any of the crisis have not gotten their due respect and encouragement. There are so many law abiding places in the Northern, Eastern and Western parts of Nigeria. Nobody flood those places with investment projects and showcase them in the evening news. We may need to give awards and start recruiting peace activists from these areas to other parts of Nigeria that continually burn. Nigerians of different Ethnic groups get along well and care less about separation there. Indeed, Muslims and Christians marry one another so much that it may be difficult to start any problem along religious line.

It is not easy for anyone to relocate and start all over again after spending youthful life building safety nest in another part of the Country, only to be disrupted by hooligans when one should be enjoying his past labor. Come back to the village, come back home, come back to what?

If we want to break up into City States again, we have to agree on what to separate into. Some people do not learn. Before we were Nigeria, we were mini City States or Nations as the Ethnic groups name themselves. We wage war against one another, took one another slaves sometimes over minor incidents as the chiefs’ voracious appetite for women. After we were invaded, we exchanges mirrors for gold, sold one another into another world where we were previously respected as Kings and Chiefs. Finally, we were cut into pieces on negotiating table belonging to England, France, and Portugal etc.

As we became Gold Coast, Ivory Coast, Slave Coast, Pagan Coast, Unbeliever Coast etc, we started dividing ourselves again. Some wise men in Nigeria wanted creation of States as the solution to all our problems, so we started creating them for political and economic reasons. Other wise men wanted their own local government, so we created so many local governments; some of them have more members in the council than their villages. We have more administrators than what to administer. Yet some of my brothers are saying let us try it again as if we have never gone through all these stages before. We will never be satisfied until every village head becomes a Head of State.

Some of my brothers dreamed about a small State like Belgium, Taiwan, and Luxemburg as if those do not have protectors and masters they trade with. What about Trinidad, Jamaica, St Lucia, Cape Verde, Haiti? Which Black Country in this wide world would we like to be like? I know many black countries that envy Nigeria. If we divide North, East, West or Niger Delta into Urhobo, Ijaw, Itsekiri and Anioma Nations; would that solve our problem? Did that solve any problem in Lebanon or Yugoslavia?

Every month or so each of these States and Local Governments ask Abuja for their allocations as if the money is coming from their backyard. On top of that, they complain about lack of infrastructures in their backyard as if they are generating internal income. Taxes, they refuse to pay. After taking their “share” and mismanaging a good part of it like a drunken sailor, they want to separate from the same finger that is feeding them.

Has anyone ever wondered what happened to “First in Africa” in the West; all the coal, discoveries and inventions in the East; all the groundnut pyramids in the North? We still have abundant herbs in our gardens or forest but no adequate teaching laboratories in our Universities to turn them into world class products. They have been replaced with easy oil money that has caused war and misery in our land. Niger Delta is the only backyard that takes less than it gives. They have a right to demand all their money and let the rest of Nigeria feed on their sweat. If they start starving, they may be preoccupied with solutions as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh did. They still fight along their borders.

Niger Delta is not the Gulf around Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi where billions are made from oil in the mist of poverty. Before the people can get out of Hurricane Katrina, the oil rigs came back to live. That is the might of oil as in Niger Delta. Those who call them all kinds of names and give them labels are pots calling the kettle black. If they are lazy, what are we, the collectors? We all know they get world attention when they vent. By venting, we can reason, rather than kill. We can map out solutions through this worthy media created by young men and women many of whom are loosing money now.

Where are the persuasive spirits of Azikiwe, Awolowo, Aminu Kano, Tarka etc that persuaded the North to see reason for a United Nigeria? Where are the untiring guts of Ukpabi Asika, Issac Boro, Saro Wiwa, Effiong etc that chose Nigeria in the face of human suffering? Let us invoke their spirit if there is something like ekurube magic. Nigeria, the land of the brave, the mighty, the intelligent, the arrogant (ask any African) and the clever, we need to put the brain we are recognized and known for throughout the world into use to stop destruction of lives and property. Nigeria is not our enemy; we are one another’s enemy. Hatred is not in our stars but in our mirrors. It must stop.

Here we are, trying to formulate the Continent into a Country while others are trying to break it into pieces. Go to any Country in Africa or outside and see how Nigerians are disrespected and treated as aliens out to destroy their economy with clever tactics. We have been killed, booted out of every Country in the World including the smallest African Country but we can not send our police to restore our rights and status there.

Now we want to treat Nigerians as aliens in their own Country? But then, how much can we say about a Country where its budding men and women are ready to risk death crossing the desert into anywhere knowing they will be treated as alien without right or status? When our Country breaks into pieces, we may not need to travel far to become the same aliens in the place we claim these rights, status and demand justice as Nigerians. We need to think again. If we are so smart, they ask, why is our Country falling apart?

Some of us have never been out of our backyards or been to other African Countries before finding ourselves in Europe and America. Africans are just beginning to trade with one another. It used to be more expensive to fly to East or South Africa than to fly to Europe. There was no need to facilitate communications, trade or diplomacy. We used to pride ourselves as English, French or Portuguese Africans. Before Kofi Annan became United Nation Chief, the French and the English tried to create artificial barrier as to whose turn – English or French African. They took us for a ride, stop blaming them; we are now taking one another for a ride.

If we can not find anyone to trade or play with, there are enough people in Africa and other people of goodwill around the world to play and trade with. If Nkrumah had his way, we will be talking about one Continent, one Country and one Destiny. If Nigeria can not save itself, how can it save the Black World? Nigeria, heal thyself!

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 03:09 AM | Comments (0)

There are Three Investment Ratings for Nigeria

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Investment ratings are the best way to attract money to a Country, a project, or a cause. The way to grow out of poverty is through substantive investment, not promises. In an environment of relative peace and secured life, we may fit into these three investments: Paris Club ratings, Niger Delta Club ratings and Western Union Money transfer ratings.

Each of these generates foreign capitals, hard currency as we call it in Nigeria. So we should not be surprised at the celebration we witness recently in Abuja regarding FIS and S&P; ratings. They were BBB or B minus, on par with a “respectable” junk bond or a little above. The celebration could have been even more but for those of us who know very little, wondering about the big deal on the previous jubilation. I did not see any celebration when we were rated the happiest people on Earth.

The best rating to attract business from another country or other parts of Nigeria is by providing safety for people’s dear lives, good roads, and good sanitation including clean water. You never know when wanton destruction of lives and property will rear its ugly head in Nigeria. We have the rating of being very religious in our back pocket, yet two foreign religions kill more in Nigeria than where these religions were imported from. Before the Slave Trade, one of the religions was used to spy and baptize us. Later to bless us as departing slaves. The other religion of Mohamed Ali from Egypt destroyed Great Sudan, while Songhai Empire was sacked by Moroccans. The killings for gold must stop.

It was a few years ago they were holding Ghana as the postal Country and Rawlings actually bragged about how far they had come only to find out that Ghana sold off its jewels in return for nothing but apologies about World Bank wrong policies in the developing Countries. Only those with extra cash or discretionary income, looted funds and money to blow would dare try this type of B rating investment portfolio even in Paris Club countries. Ghana had to ask Abacha who thumbed his nose at World Bank for loan.

Do not be fooled. Most people stay away from risky junk bonds and third world countries because of uncontrolled crime rate, unstable government, and endemic corrupt practices. In the case of Nigeria there are 419 and amenities that are taken for granted else where but are luxuries in my Country. Nevertheless, people do business in countries at war as long as the price is right. Others do business in unlikely places out of desperation. Take the case of mine workers or the night soil men who went against the activists trying to improve their working environment. There has to be real money or desperation to go to certain places for business. So Nigeria may not need BBB ratings to attract desperadoes.

According to Nuhu Ribadu when asked if he feared for his life, he said anyone living in Nigeria is taking a risk. Armed robbers can invade your space; take your life and property anytime. Our love for Nigeria is beyond comprehension. As for moi, as long as I can pump some water into the tank, fine. The best use of my car is to find water when I can not pump because of NEPA, oh PHC. Who am I anyway, what about those who are stuck or “world happiest” in Nigeria anytime? What rating from Fitch or S&P; will change this?

What bothers me is the amount of effort that went into getting these ratings. We have to pay $13 billions plus commission of about $100.000.00 a month to foreign technical experts to help us navigate our way. We also have to sing, dance and wine them into favor. By the end of this wahala or rub my back I will rub your back, how much will flow into Nigeria? What dividend? You can not spend money you don’t have.

Right now we do not know the billions of dollars left from those Paris Club Countries that have forgiven the odious loan and those who still insist on payment, like Britain. Thanks to unrelenting Nigerian cries and pressure echoed on their members by religious bodies and International Non-Profit organizations. More pressure is needed because the way unmoved Nigerians leaders do business, corruption and commission of “technical experts” may eat up that difference! We are watching carefully, Ribadu please take note.

I have worked with some of the experts in Nigeria. They are a little above Peace Corps in the States or CUSO in Canada (Canadian Unemployed Shipped Overseas). Sorry Canada. Now we have them from India, China, and Russia etc. I once met one of these “technical experts” while in St. Louis, Missouri USA. He told me I could be making more money in Nigeria than wasting my time outside. He said there was money to be made in Nigeria as long as you could hold your nose. We could have been partners if I had cooperated. So I am not surprised that you can get a higher return in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world, going by recent Standard & Poor ratings. Gold diggers are still present in Nigeria!

However, our biggest and surest source of investment, Delta, gets no respect. Trillions of dollars that can never be made anywhere else has been made from that area. In order to get good ratings from Niger Delta Club, you would expect that we would sing, wine and dine our relatives there. Can they manage their 50% demand any worse than Abuja? One thing about Paris Club is that no matter what they think about our black ass, they will hold their nose and kiss it until the money runs dry. That is one of the qualities of a shrewd businessman. Somehow, we forget how we invested money and educated South Africans in our schools during the time of Apartheid, why not Boro’s and Wiwa’s Delta?

The third rating is from Nigerians performing all kinds of tasks to send money back home through Western Union and other means. They invest their money in Nigeria not because of what they can take out but because of what they can put in, the satisfaction of starting his own business. These are not JJCs who look for gira where they can get gari in Nigeria. These are Nigerians who contribute whatever they can into the Country.

All of us can not start a business, but we can still contribute in our own way. I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Adeniyi-Jones after he left international organizations. All he asked for was a small office space at UNICEF Marina, Lagos in order to contribute his expertise for the second time around.
Many Nigerians will certainly qualify as small business persons that create more jobs all over the world these days than the big corporations that are downsizing. Small business can turn as big as Microsoft, Federal Express, Google, KF Chicken, Ebony did in the US.

If you have sent money home recently to buy a land, start a foundation, send school fees, start a trade for a brother or sister, you are one of them. Others have gone further by opening repair shops, restaurants, stores, buy okada and taxi for a relative. The multiplier effects of each and every one of these are creation of jobs for some one who would buy and sell. It has now been estimated that the amount of money sent back home is more than all the foreign aids we get from Paris Club countries. Many developing countries can not survive without these transmittals. Where are their investment ratings?

You may have heard about trade fairs in Nigeria where the best foreign products are displayed and my Country has nothing to sell. Since we spend a great deal of money to attract foreign credit ratings and product, how about some of that money in the direction of Nigerians bringing their sweat equity home? Dedicated Nigerians will invest in our Country, no matter what, but we can still encourage them which will multiply the number of those doing good for their soul and their Country.

The amount of money you spend to attract business must not be more than the worth of business. Nigeria recruited farmers from East Africa to Kwara State because our talented indigenous farmers take incentives and spend it on intangibles. Lately some of the youth organizations are going into cooperative farming, like OPC farming in Kwara. There must be MASSOB, MEND, AREWA, BAKASSI BOYS cooperative farming too. Give them something to contribute instead of killing one another and watch our ratings soar!

One of the presidential candidates during the 1999 election promised to give loan/grants to those graduates who wanted to start businesses. Even if one third of them were successful, they would employ more people than all their colleagues plus many high school graduates. These are incentive that multiplies many times over.

Nigerians have to realize that it is not the money generated from the oil alone that will lift us out of poverty but what we do with our brains to invest in ourselves and trade with fellow Africans. It is only then that we can break world trade barriers. Japan and Korea are doing it. China and India are feeding their large population again.

I do not want to pretend that all these are easy; there are difficulties and road blocks on the way. I have stories about people sending money home only to become failed contracts. Some will not sell the products you bring until you leave. Even mothers would give your money to your siblings promising to pay you back if you complained too much.

Of course we have to trade with foreign companies and multinational corporations. India or China made a deal with Boeing for airplanes with stipulation for repair parts and training in the Country instead of flying them out. We have been producing oil for about half a century and we are still importing refined oil products. How much crude oil does it take to import the same amount of refined oil? African, Blackman what is wrong with us?

Posted by Administrator at 02:23 AM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2006

No Single Ethnic Group can and will Carry Nigeria

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- A tree can not make a forest. Nigeria has to be carried by each and every Ethnic group in our Country for the sake of Africa, for the sake of blacks in this world. I pride myself as a dedicated Nigerian but sometimes I find it easier to be an African.

I must confess that I was ticked off by the recent headline that Yoruba have betrayed the Igbo AGAIN. The fact is Yoruba have never betrayed any Ethnic group, have never sought territorial advantage or dominance on others’ soil and have never craved the ambition to rule others in their domain. Indeed the Yoruba, who coalesced from many African Ethnic groups by long tradition of accommodation and tolerance, has found itself in a position of fighting to retain its own in Nigeria.

The statement Awolowo made still stands today. Yoruba can not and will not carry Nigeria alone. If the Hausa or the Fulani or the Kanuri decides to leave Nigeria today, Nigeria has lost its meaning. If the Ijaw or Ibibio or the Idoma or Urhobo decides to leave Nigeria today, Nigeria has no relevance to the world. It has to be seen as the beginning of the end. As secondary school children we cried when we were told we would need passport to cross to Biafra. How could our brothers and sisters suddenly become foreigners to us? I watch with dreaded sympathy how families are separated by wars of demarcation all over the world. Right here in the Delta and North-East between Nigeria and Cameron, families cry and protest about separation.

Heated discussion any where does not bother me. Highly coded message from people who are supposed to be responsible leaders to generate fear and hatred pissed me off. I have decided to agree to disagree on Awolowo with some of my brothers. Only hypocrites who knew the effort of Awolowo through his helicopter campaign all over Nigeria and his desire to make Nigeria what he made the West will doubt his sincerity. How can anyone grudge a man for that? All his life, he insisted on working with every Nigerian and the Igbo in particular loosing some of his colleagues in the process. He finally gave up his campaign when his life was threatened in the East.

This same man has been portrayed as ethnocentric, and worse still a racist. Somehow, it was traced from the time educated Yoruba dominated elite Nigeria Youth Movement in the thirties and forties when Awolowo supported Ernest Ekoli, an Ijaw and Zik supported Chief Samuel Akinsanya. The fact that Awo supported Ekoli and not Zik turned him into tribalism champion. Anyone can read whatever they want into that.

If it was about the war, Yoruba did not declare war against Biafra. If it was about the war, Zik the biggest Biafran asset deserted, refusing to destroy the house he helped built. So it has to be about what Awo did and nobody else could have done for the Yoruba. He offered to do the same for every Nigerian but was “the best President that we never had.”
In a way, attacking Awolowo as a leader that was chosen and loved by the Yoruba is one thing, lumping him together with Obasanjo that was chosen and elected by those who denied Yoruba their chosen leaders is chicanery.

There are brothers and sisters claiming that the only stars in Obasanjo’s administration are Igbo. How wonderful? It was only yesterday that all Nigerians of goodwill claimed that Igbo were excluded from the scheme of power in Nigeria. This may not be enough, but it was about time. Does he get any credit? I doubt it.

I saw the picture of powerful women of all Ethnic groups posing after some meeting. They looked glamorous, confident and proud. When was the last time we had so many women in the cabinet? Does Obasanjo get any credit? I doubt it. So no matter what a Yoruba man does, chosen by Yoruba or by them, forget about credit and do your best. One may have to thank his maker if the same people who got appointed by Yoruba do not come back and attack. A colleague of mine thought I was naïve to have given away jobs.

Each time Yoruba will is twisted; they look for a clever Yoruba lawyer to interpret two third. How many Yoruba supported Akinjide interpretation of two third and to whose benefit? He defended his client vigorously as a lawyer should. They are using the same two third to over throw Ladoja and blaming - you guess who. Did Obasanjo/Adedibu represent the will of the Yoruba as Obasanjo/Uba represented the will of the Igbo? People forget that Yoruba chosen leader’s chance to rule Nigeria has not come but were resigned to the will of fellow brothers and sisters, yet the label of tribalism did not leave.

Years in opposition did not eradicate the in built fairness Yoruba are known for. That is why the strongest critics of the third term agenda of Obasanjo’s cronies are Yoruba. Most Yoruba have given up on presidency and one of their chosen leaders, Falaye indicated that Obasanjo has wasted Yoruba’s chance. So which credible Yoruba is fighting for it?

We can not live together and not tell one another how we feel but do we have to exploit old wounds for our children? Nobody has monopoly on grudges. It is usually that the Yoruba has not done this or has done that. What has anyone done for the benefit of the Yoruba in his backyard? Yoruba has suffered everywhere in Nigeria including their own backyard because when nobody protest, it is the Yoruba that stand up. Dearly they have paid, in some cases with their lives. Even when the beneficiaries are not Yoruba.

Someone did ask Wole Soyinka to apologize for the Yoruba. If the person has any moral, knowledge about Nigeria, or not mischievous, would he point to Soyinka of all people? It was only yesterday that Yoruba were in perpetual opposition in Nigeria and still managed to survive. Yoruba were called cowards who could not fight. They were ridiculed. There was a brother from the North-west who claimed that if Yoruba was serious about fighting Abacha, they would have put up a presidential candidate against him but did not. When he was reminded that Tunji Braithwaite, a respectable lawyer and Activist, came out as a Presidential candidate. He laughed – A Lagosian, who would take you seriously?

Indeed, Yoruba would rather deal with traitors amongst them than go out and fight others. But there is a limit to human endurance and when push came to shove, Banjo who led Biafra soldiers into his fatherland was routed accordingly. It is true that OPC enjoys some sympathy in Yoruba land but Abacha created them!

Go to anywhere in Nigeria where Yoruba are, they are domicile and humble to their hosts. There are other parts of Nigeria that one would even see fewer of them because of hostility and restriction on what they can sell in the major markets. Yet in Yoruba backyard, people are so complacent, they violate the custom and culture of their host sometimes with impunity.

The JJC never fail to compare us to Britain and USA where everyone is free to live, work and assume political leadership anywhere. How naïve? They need to ask the owners of the soil or the bread and born Japanese in those places how they end up in “camps”. JJC you better keep your Nigeria passport and pray for the unity of the Country instead of speaking katakata.

In Lagos, our parent told us to be accommodating. I still remember older folks saying if a stranger enters Lagos in the morning, he would be fed and clothed before the night. One high life music claimed – you get money you no get money o, Lagos na so so enjoyment.

If I have to rely on the stories Yoruba tell us about their sojourn in other parts of Nigeria since my visits were brief or on working assignments, history will also bear out the fact that the safest place for all Ethnic groups to intermingle is in Yoruba backyard.

Herbert Macauley trained and brought many of the politicians that ruled Nigeria into prominence without thinking about Ethnic groups. When people talk about Yoruba, they conveniently forget the role of this Nationalist who formed Nigeria National Democratic Party. The first and the last Yoruba President of the National Council of Nigeria and Cameron. It was after him that Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe became the leader of NCNC.

It is unfortunate that the Yoruba are the object of the most virulent attack in Nigeria, yet they can not be accused of either calculated mutilation of leaders or genocide against others. They have just started to fight back after years of humiliation in opposition.

There used to be a time Yoruba could take all the attacks and brush it off. However, the time has changed and Nigeria has lost most of its useful resources resulting in the fight for ones’ life. Yoruba youths are now wanting and hungry just as everyone else. This situation has diminished tolerance everywhere including Yoruba backyard. Only fools do not realize that crude oil from the Delta is a limited resource. That is why we can not blame people from that area fighting tooth and nail to grab their resources before we waste it on ourselves while they remain poor and desolate. The income on oil can not and will not carry the whole of Nigeria for now or for long.

It is still my wish that we do not pass on our grudges, prejudices and open old wounds to our children. We have enough problems as it is, why create more? Nigeria will survive all of us in one form or another but hopefully as a just society. We have spilt enough blood to clean many generations to come.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)

January 27, 2006

Forgive our Violence to Women our Creators

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Africa values relatives or community support system throughout the onerous miraculous period of child birth in recognition of women unique reproductive power.

The same may be true in Asia or old European countries. The more industrialized the country is, the less the support system at the perinatal period of our makers. Western European countries and Canada make up for this African hospitality by providing working mothers paid-time off during this awe inspiring function they render us.

In spite of all the laws and protection available to women in the Western countries, many of us are surprised that American women do not enjoy the benefits provided to Western European women. I was surprised that a judge waiting to be confirmed for United States Supreme Court claimed that he did not realize the intention of Family and Medical Life Act is to provide women with more required time at home from work. A subtle but important point made by Senator Joseph Bidden. Yet more Americans champion women’s right outside United States.

There is no doubt that we have to channel our strength to more productive endeavors. If we trace the origin of raw power that alienates us from our lifelong partners, we will find out that women have always been able to neutralize it by superior prowess or maturity. Even the Abraham religions taught us about how Eve was able to get Adamu to taste an agbalumo, the spices of life we live today. Delilah betrayed Sampson by disclosing the source of his power. It is not clear if we got any smarter since then. We do not know whether to do with or without women. Once we get to the stage of doing without one another, it is the end of procreation. Yet, there is much more to our relationships.

It is this incredible prowess of women that makes it difficult to understand how the sheer brute force of men have kept our makers at the background for so long or if this is a new phenomenon developed in the last few centuries. Dr. Spencer, one of the researchers on X and Y chromosomes told us that the Y for men came much later than the X for women. Some cultures have blamed power on the environment that permits polyandry (a woman with more than one man) in some cases or polygamy in many cases, resulting in power reversal between men and women. I do not want to go deep into animal behavior: asexual amoeba, bisexual worm or black widow spider that devours its male partner after mating.

A friend of mine landed at Murtala Muhamed Airport in Lagos after many years abroad and kissed the floor. He exclaimed – welcome to Nigeria where men are men and women are women! Most Nigerian girls were married in the seventies and he fought hard to keep his, sent from home. Many of us had some disagreement with our non-Nigerian partners at that time but never had to fight in public or in front of anyone. In my case, it happened with only one woman. You see, no woman put her finger at the face of an African man. I slapped the finger and whatever was nearby. As I recalled, I recoiled in embarrassment. These days, there is no cause for fight or any set up used to throw our young men in jail. Before that stage, seek elderly help. If you can not settle it, take a walk on the good side.

I had a principal once who would come to school with fat lips. We all knew whenever he got a beating from his wife. When I told my Dad, he said they used to rescue him when they were working under the old Western Region. That was even a bigger joke amongst the students, than a shameless boy fighting a girl.

The fact is in any society where a man controls the economic resources, most women prefer a good provider to a loafer. It has been suggested that some women do not mind fighting a good provider because making up is sweeter. I had a girlfriend once who wondered why I never fought her. How could I?

Abuse of women can be subtle as in emotional pain where both partners suffer in silence. Some claim that this is worse than physical abuse. One may even lead to another. Luckily women and the society are better sensitized to these signs than ever. One has to be careful about underlying causes that can be treated, like an alcoholic. In a few cases, some men would come home and take out their job frustration on their partners. The other extreme are those who encourage women of color to leave home for any little problem while they stayed with their own husbands until they get killed. They leave children without fathers in the home leading to multiple of social problems.

Obviously, men are built stronger than women. I do not think the purpose of this strength over women is to bully them to comply with the norms dictated by, of course men. It is to provide for the family and protect them from home invaders. Aliens invaders from space?

There are too many shootings in American cities and women are no exception to this violence at home. I nearly claimed that Africans do not kill our women but for a few cases where Nigerians have done so outside Africa, that would make me a hypocrite. I just could not understand the link between sex and violence then. It was strange to me.

Why this animalistic rage against our makers? Can it be based on Freud sex theory, jealousies, retaliation message, crime cover up, or lost investment? Some African (American) women use these as reasons to marry men from other races, ethnic groups or travel to Caribbean or Africa to find their grove. The same is true of some white men who think that American women are too liberated. They travel to their old countries too to find a mate. In Nigeria, you find all kinds of imported suzies from as far away as Australia, China and India. After the novelty wears off, these men and women find out that people are people adapting to an environment. Any man can leave you pregnant and barefooted.

Some women also complained that some African men in Diasporas are not the marrying type. Why? They are too domineering, some are gay, or with criminal records, and the rest of them are married. So there are more of them in jail than in the universities. Is that the fault of African men or the oppressed society they live in?

Some years ago a friend at work took me into confidence after asking me if he was prejudice. He was not because he hung around Africans? He told me about this African who always got the best blonde girls in town. He was jealous and hated him for that. This reminded me of Vicky when we were in college, who preached to those who went for white girls. One of us, like the guy complained about had an excuse. He was doing to white girls what their great grandfathers did to our great grandmother during slave trade.
Vicky would not buy that excuse: unlike your grandmother, these girls were having fun.

Growing up in Nigeria, I heard stories of boys’ fantasies with Fulani, Calabar, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa girls etc. As a Yoruba, I also know how disgusting some people feel when a Yoruba girl marries outside her ethnic group. I later became familiar with how disgusting other ethnic groups feel when a girl marries an outsider. I read some ranting, and laughed at serious complaints of guys about “our” women dating other men. This feeling about preservation of culture, including the use of brute force by men, is universal.

While it might be easier for the oppressors, usually men to break the norm, how do we explain the African mating with the mistress realizing that the punishment for allegation of looking at white woman was hanging by the tree during slavery? The King of Monaco has assured his Kingdom that his African son will never be king. They must be reminded about the history of their African rulers from Sudan and Egypt including Roman Emperor Septinus Severus, Irish King Gormund, African Popes Victor, Gelasius and Mechiades. Europeans still have drops of blood from African Moors’ melanin visible on their skin.

It does not stop there; we also have the class system within our ethnic groups forbidding marriage. The real owners of Africa, the ORU, ERU or OSU depending on where; are like the American Indians or the untouchables of India that are relegated to the bottom of the social class after their lands have been taken over and treated as captured slaves.

A lady once said that when she was growing up, she prayed for a man who could buy her a house and a car so that her children could be happy. Alas, she can now buy her own house and her own car. So what does she need a man for? With better education and jobs than ever, women can provide for themselves, do they still need us? As for kids, the extremist are now saying they can replace us with sperm banks. Ouch!

Africans in diasporas are only too happy if their children can marry one another and do settle for any responsible boy or girl. After all the parties and gathering so that they can meet one another, they end up marrying who they want. One boy refused to date a beautiful girl that just came from Nigeria because she had an accent - like his parents!
Actually with the divorce rate in Western countries about fifty percent and even more amongst Africans there, Africa still looks like a safe environment for marriage.

The Igbo and Yoruba culture are very familiar with Moremi’s beauty and the wonders that came out of it. The Yoruba throughout their history have powerful women that have
been Queens. Apart from Bilikisu Sungbo, the Queen of Sheba, Africans have warriors that fought and captured men. Queen Nzingha of Angola fought against slave trade. Indeed many lines of Kings and Queens all over the world chose the line of their mother to ascend the throne for obvious reason that a bastard will never gain the kingdoms.

Even Zsar Zsar Gabor could teach us a thing or two, that a smart woman never let a man know she is smarter. She leads him on to belief he is the best. That culture of women entered the nursing profession where experienced nurses know how to nudge on the fresh doctors just out of school but not contradict them.

Women have made some progress everywhere. We have women head of state with executive powers in some countries including our own Helen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, Eva Morales of Chile and the powerful African US Secretary of State Condo Rice. They convey the message of do not fool around me because I am a woman. They have to work twice as hard to prove that they can just be as strong as men or as super mum. We had Golda Meir who was just as willing to wage war or Indira Gandhi or Iron Lady Thatcher.

Nigeria with all its faults has a great deal of respect for women. While some men may abuse their wives in the house, the same men will not tolerate it in a public place. Call them hypocrites, but they follow the general norm of the majority in the society. We had cases where some unruly man would slap a woman in public. Most passersby would give immediate discipline to that man as it is forbidden in our culture. No respect for them.

Since Nigerian leadership went to the dogs, we noticed another new phenomenon in our midst. Many Nigerians up to today can not understand why the wife of Abiola had been murdered in cold blood. Another happened recently, wife of Abubakar Rimi. Even hired mad killers reject women assignments in our culture. The militarization of our polity has reached a stage that has bastardized our culture - wiping women on our street, attacking women demonstrators and bundling them into cars while their family fear disappearance.

I noted the fight between soldiers and female police officers, in Effurun, Delta State over traffic offence. The female traffic officers were dragged, beaten and bloodied by soldiers. Whose children are these soldiers and who raised them? Could they have been cloned or products of text tubes, amoeba, worms or spiders? It seems to me that they could not have been children of our makers because if they were, they would have mothers and sisters.

Violence begat violence and Nigerians can only take so much before we apply mob discipline. Since the police are now in charge of collecting twenty naira, soldiers have been jealous that they are cut out of the show. So they take it out on police at any time they feel like. But these are female traffic police! Don’t provoke naked demonstration!

The treatment of women in any society reflects the civility of that culture adapting to times. Africans have a great deal of respect for women which provide a healthy environment for our dignified children, seeking progress and success. Any society where a man has lost his ability to function as the protector and provider of the family sees an aberration in the behavior of women and children. A man is a man who respects the aspiration of women towards the furtherance of the good of community.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 07:56 AM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2006

Don't Give Corruption a Good Name: Emulate the People of Anambra

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- This fight against corruption is now taking a new turn that must be guided against before we throw out the baby with the bath water. The people of Anambra have demonstrated to us that they can tell the difference between goats and sheep. Most Nigerians are very decent people even though we are sometimes misled by the unscrupulous leaders.

There are differences between the fight against corruption going on in Anambra, Oyo, Bayelsa and Plateau States. If the writing on the wall is right, we expect more State Governors to fall by the way side this year. In the process, the Federal Government may truncate democracy by shooting itself in the foot. Whatever PDP does, the buck stops with Obasanjo. He has to give account to Nigerians why his ruling house is not in order.

Corruption is an endemic disease in our community and most Nigerians are looking for solutions. So when the Government asks us to join the fight against corruption, we breath a sigh of relief hoping salvation is gradually creeping up. The good people of Anambra begin to smell something rotting when Chris Uba wanted Ngige out because the Governor would not mortgage Anambra to him. Since it is now known that the election was a ruse, it became imperative to choose the less of two evils. If Ngige was corrupt and stole local government money, the sympathy he got would not be there because it would have been easy to nail him.

It has now come round to Oyo and Ladoja. It could not have been that difficult to impeach Ladoja according to laid down rules of the game. It is unfair to take 18 members out of 32 to impeach an alleged rogue when the game called for two third. Most Nigerians had reservations but support the process when Alamco was removed because he stole the treasury blind as confirmed by the British money laundering law. So was Dariye, the Governor of Plateau State going by the same law. However, the process in our Country is intentionally crude and daring, favoring those who are uncultured.

This is why it baffles me why the Federal might, find it difficult to prove Ladoja’s guilt instead of using Kangaroo court or dubious rules to remove him. The fact that Ladoja denied the legislators their “five life” in the amount of half a million naira each until they reinstated their five suspended colleagues did not make it right. His treatment turns the stomach of decent Nigerians and bolsters the argument of disrespect for the Judiciary. Unfortunately those against the removal of Alamco or Dariye will now point to the crude manipulation of rules without due process in Ibadan. I find it hard to believe that the Government is in such a hurry and within a day or two to humiliate the Judicial system, not Ladoja. The Governor was given less than two hours to submit his response.

People will of course point to a similar pattern seen in Bayelsa and express fear of its repetition. It was well planned with the help of the police and a public holiday declared by whom? If the Chief of Police knew nothing about it as they claimed in Anambra, he should be fired. And who does the Chief report to?

Yoruba say a pe e lole, o ngbe omo eran jo. (Demonstrating evidence of alleged theft). This Government has decided to obey only the court orders they wanted and ignore others. I do not understand how the hatchet disfiguring of the rule of law in Ibadan has supported the process. It is true that impeachment process is a political matter not a legal one but we are still guided by the same rule of law.

There is no form of government we have not practiced in Nigeria. We need to admit that the problem is not in the form of government but in ourselves. Those who practice these forms of governments are not better than us. This notion of our young democracy is patronizing to say the least. Incidentally, the old Oyo Empire practiced cabinet form of government while the parishioners of our borrowed democracy were still in their political infancy. We must accept that as clever and smart as Nigerians are, we also apply our intelligence to beating any system. So no amount of amendment will cure our appetite for mischief in pursuit of greed and power.

My fear is that this Government may give the fight against corruption a bad name. Instead of people praising this Government in its fight against corruption, it is giving ammunition to those who claim the fight is selective. Even though Nuhu Ribadu is dedicated in this fight, there are those who are trying to derail him from within. He has to distance himself to retain credibility. His office has claimed that, so far they have nothing to do with Ladoja. Ribadu is in the mist of big time thugs and he must dissociate himself from their influence. Do not soil our young patriotic Nigerians.

The people of Anambra, like other Nigerians stood with the Government to fight corruption, only to be disappointed when the same government could not distinguish between the hero and the villain. Just to prove them right, Chris Uba has just been rehabilitated by the PDP. Who were the crooks who rehabilitated Uba when he should be in jail? We have to learn from the people of Anambra.

This leads to the god fathers who are so desperate for influence and money that they are ready to run down the State unless they get their pound of flesh. They turn State Governors into errand boy boy. Chris Uba and Adedibu in spite of the wide age difference between them graduated from the University of PDP. That party has been called all kinds of names including “nest of killers”. Those who have benevolent stake in that party need to rescue it from destroying itself and our dear Country.

If Ladoja has any sense, he better starts singing now about what he stole if he did, how he became Governor and how the election was manipulated, if indeed it was. Learn from Ngige. When he told us how much Chris Uba wanted from him, Anambra people faced their enemy head on and not even Obasanjo could do anything about it. But never count him out though. There was no way the Government of Anambra could have paid Uba and still function. The only reason Ngige is still the Governor today, I do not about tomorrow, is the support the people of Anambra gave him in spite of Federal might.

Those who sleep with elephants or ride on the back of a lion, end up as victims. Akala, your time will come if you can not remember the naked fighters who stripped you at the convection.

Ibadan people rightly feel that they never had the opportunity to finish their term in office. This time they have to thank Adedibu, Arisekola’s partner that wanted to know if receipt was exchanged when it was time to vomit their loot from Abacha. This has nothing to do with Ibadan or Ogbomosho. Do not be used against one another. It has to do with god fathers’ greed and influence. Man pass man, position pass power.

Unfortunately, we have turned the law of our courts into political game. We have respectable judges ignoring order of their superior courts. There is no judicial discipline among out honorable men. Granted that there may be conflicting judgment sometimes, the principle of stare decisis among the courts is important and that is why we have higher court to resolve differences. Shopping for judges, like candies, to give desirable order demean the credibility of our judiciary.

The way we are going by disobeying our court of law, politicians bragging about fighting naked and the President claiming ignorance, Nigeria must not crash. Obasanjo is arming those who do not wish him well. He has a big task but I think at his age and stage in life the best he can do is to be honest with himself and Nigerians. The role of a god father is now beneath him at this point in his life or in 2007.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa

[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 05:52 PM | Comments (0)

December 30, 2005

Blaming the North, while Excusing One Another

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Nigerians have to learn how to accomplish individual tasks before we can move forward as a Country. By blaming someone else, we relinquish responsibilities and render ourselves helpless waiting for heavens to help us. It is a perfect situation for those who are afraid to compete fairly but comfort self by tagging along.

As this presidency term ends in 2007, politicians are jockeying for leverage, followers and free loaders. They hide behind third term rubbish, the turns of the North, South-east and South-south. Contrary to popular belief, no single region determines the election of the President; it has always been formulated by North-South special interest coalition groups.

What has always worked is where the majority of the regions or zones swayed. It takes astute politicians to accomplish that goal. Indeed, most of our fair elections have not been a landslide. There was always elbow room for backdoor negotiation that finally produced regional Premiers, executive President or Prime Minister. If you have been outwitted and outsmarted, blame yourselves not those who outclassed you.

In the early fifties, it was NEPU in the North that started winning local elections very early in the primaries before the colonial powers started replacing them with Native Authority officials whom Ahmadu Bello later assimilated to form NPC. Awolowo did the same in the West with IPP that was lured away from the NCNC to join AG. In the East, Azikiwe repeated the trend by charming over a seat in his hometown Onitsha and 11 out of 13 seats won in Calabar by independent candidates against NCNC. This power of persuasion, wheeling and dealing if you wish, continued at the federal level later.

Awolowo’s Action Group was the official opposition in almost all parts of Nigeria except the West. It was an accomplishment at its peak. In 1961 AG became the official opposition both in the North after an exhausting campaign that shocked Ahmadu Bello out of complacency canvassing for votes in his backyard since 1959; and also AG became the opposition Party in the East. No matter what you think about Awo, Zik and Bello political expediency or tactics, they united North and South politically. Better than what we have now. Zik was able to work with Aminu Kano, Awo was able to work with Takar. Ironically, Zik’s NPP was later reduced to Imo and Anambra while Awo’s AD was reduced to West in reverse tactics.

By the North, if you mean Fulani, say so, and if you mean Hausa, say it loud. Watch out for these contradictions on the way though. Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim from the North joined forces with Adeniran Ogunsanya, a Zik loyalist to form NPP. He lost control of the Party and Ogunsanya took it to Zik. Waziri later formed GNPP. Alhaji Aminu Kanu the leader of NEPU must also be included; he formed a coalition with Zik. Our political history illustrates a clear picture. Aminu Kanu and Waziri Ibrahim bolted from the interest group in the North. Why is this exaggerated power vested only in Hausa or Fulani and not Middle Belt where most of Nigeria’s leaders hail from? Do not get confused with the wonnabes who were of no use to their base.

If Gowon was installed by the powerful kingmakers, they must be trying to appease some people. If so, I wonder who? Could it be the moderates, Middle Belt, or the Southerners? Under this definition Takar, Danjuma, Babangida, and Abubakar are also anointed by kingmakers. Going by the Southern leaders calculation, North-central anchored executive leadership for 18 years; North-west for 11 years and North-east for 6 years – a total of 35 out of 45 years of Independence. The disparity in the number of years has never been an issue among them except in the Middle Belt or North-central, the longest rulers, while their base cry against domination; playing the blame game.

Gowon, Babangida and Abubakar do not come from an area that is typically referred to as “North”. So which North are we talking about? Does Danjuma, a kingmaker in his own right, belong to that sector? Oh, the conservative North-west. Could they be the same ones that tried or did get Obasanjo to sign a secrete deal in1999? After the election Obasanjo won without the same Sokoto region and in 2003 Buhari lost in Katsina his home State. That did not put a stop to the exaggerated influence of self appointed kingmakers.

I think the South need to find ways of courting North-central by learning how the rest of the North is doing it. They agreed mostly with the South until it came to resource allocation. Yet no power can compete with South-south and North-central coalition. Do they realize their potential power, and if they do what are they waiting for? The old special interest group can not wait. Actually the Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa powers are jittery, though North-central and South-south alliance power is not yet a reality.

The Power of Negotiation
It is true that some in the North had resisted being part of Nigeria in the first place and they were persuaded to stay. Azikiwe and Awolowo’s campaign all over the North helped. The power of Southern (or British) persuasion was strong and effective and the North succumbed to a united Country. That is now being repeated in the South.

In spite of all the skilful and highly educated Nigerians in the South, when it comes to power politics; emotions, ethnicity, greed and selfishness come to play. Why is it so hard to admit this? Political negotiation is almost impossible in the south. For Zik, it was just an uncomfortable endeavor with Awo.

Akintola saw his vindication with Ahmadu Bello, not with the East. He said whatever the East gained from their association with Balewa at the Federal level, he wanted the same. He was able to get the Federal Ministry of Education under Akinjide amongst other positions. If it was not for that move by Akintola, some would say, Yoruba would have lost everything at the federal level.

The fact is many Southerners in sober moments, always think that Northerners are straight forward and easier to deal with. This amounts to nothing but admission of trust. We admit to ourselves that many Southerners in good positions are conceited, arrogant and unapproachable. Those going to Abuja to transact simple business echo the same thing up to today. Of course Southerners have articulated displeasure about federal character and religious fanatics amongst our brothers. But federal character also works for all ethnic minorities.

There are many things we have to learn from our brothers in the North and there are others the Northern brothers have to learn from the South.

The North has never forced anyone from the south to join political association, they earned it. They use the power of persuasion, give up the (finance) money department, and their approachable lure gained support and power. Isn’t it? If the Southern leaders want Presidency, they must convince their Northern brothers by logic and reason, not by threats. Threats and force can only repress behavior temporarily, even against the South.

Indeed, the ethnic masturbation that is growing all over Nigeria these days may make it more difficult to reach out and build bridges across. The way some of these local champions have been touched were by presenting beautiful brides clad in nothing but looted funds. As they saw money bags, they buried their differences; North and South became irrelevant in full view of money bags. This time Presidency is more important?

Look, there must be something about the Fulani or may be the Hausa that we can hardly tell the difference. Yet they remain different and also agree to disagree among one another. When they fight, we do not report it and they hardly report it either. We have to learn something from them as they learn religious tolerance from us.

But the North is as ethnically diverse as the South.

Apart from religion, a great force I admit, the Hausa and the Fulani are not closer or related to one another than Yoruba and Hausa or Igbo and Fulani. Check out the Fulani-Fulbe-Pullo history and compare that with Hausa history. Whatever the case, they have learned how to fight and make up. That is something that needs to spread to the rest of Nigeria. No fair election can be won in our Country based solely on ethnicity.

The Blamers had opportunities
In this day and age, people still lament that it was the British who made our brothers our leaders and after the British left, they already had the system in place against the South.
Of course, Northerners ride on that.

Obasanjo has more time than the gods of Egypt and Greece and could have changed the system. Those from North-central in military uniforms, the Hausa/Fulani wonnabes – Gowon, Babangida and Abubakar - could have changed the system. Ironsi never had enough time but if he had changed the system, the consequences could not have been worse than what befell him and Fajuyi. Azikiwe could have been the Prime Minister by choice but decided to anoint Balewa, by definition he could have been the ruler instead of the kingmaker and change the system. Each of them did not in their wisdom or self interest because it might dislocate the very existence of the Country. So, why play the blame game?

Abiola was told there was no vacancy for Presidency in NPN after relying on earlier agreement when the party was formed. Instead of playing the blame game, he took the bull by the horns. He later changed tactics, made up with his base campaigned all over the Country. He won, only to be denied by a North-central ruler.

It is obvious that no power in this world has monopoly on violence. There is this threat of military might that defeated Biafra. Nobody repelled invasion at Ore but the Yoruba who prevented the overrun of Lagos. Those days are gone forever. The worst is a fight to a stand still with bleeding and waste on both sides. But where has violence ever won the hearts and minds of the oppressed today?

Fear of Neighbors
If the South-south wants to admit it, they feel more secured in an association with the so called conservative or progressive North than with any of the so called conservative or progressive Southerners. History has taught them that they will be cheated whereas they can rely on the promise made to them by whatever we call North. So who are we to blame the Deltans for their association with any ruling power, knowing that they could have been swallowed by their neighbors? They were not particularly happy with the Yoruba in the Western Region or with the Igbo in Biafra.

Both Igbo and Yoruba are quick to point out the length of time these associations existed compared to their association with the North. Whatever the case, if we have been treating our minorities right and realized that the Country did not belong to Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa alone, our situation may have been different.

Oil Resources versus Other State Resources
The mother of our disagreement with the North has to do with crude oil even though not all southern States produce oil. The reason is simple; oil is the main earner of our foreign currency. It has been argued, times without number that if the oil was abundantly located in the North, there would be no more Nigeria. Well, well, well I don’t know about that.

All these hard work by all our founding fathers can be torpedoed by this curse brought to us by crude oil? As we approach 2007, every Nigerian must ask him/herself if s/he would vote for a candidate who promised to let each state keep all its resources. Seriously, I do not think a single candidate would say that.

However, if we want to resolve our problem, every state has to produce oil (impossibility) or every state has to depend on its alternate recourses. Every part of Nigeria does not produce oil in commercial quantities but we all enjoy its receipts in the name of federation. No matter what, we can not be equally endowed. The solution about how to redistribute our income has to be first negotiated between our minorities in the South-south and North-central before it is introduced to the rest of Nigeria for general endorsement. Yes, endorsement.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa

[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 03:25 PM | Comments (2)

December 17, 2005

Baba Iyabo and the Forty Thieves

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Baba Iyabo, excuse me I mean, Ali Baba surely made enemies out of the forty thieves. If it was not for them, he would still be a modest farmer at Ota – siddon dey look. He would still be the philosopher farmer with constructive criticism that got him jailed and almost cost him his life. But for the forty thieves, he would still be in prison. He has since claimed - there is no sacred cow. Even more daring is his statement that if he got concrete evidence and refused to probe one of the forty thieves – no be him papa born am. Kai!

So it may not be far fetched to expect so much from him but we expect too much. He can not possibly take on the whole forty thieves and all their cohorts at the same time. Baba Iyabo has been blamed for everything that moves or stagnant under the sun. This is the price you pay when you retain the lion share of the oil receipts at the Federal level. If each Local and State Government relies on its own products and services, would there be no blame for the Federal Government or Baba Iyabo? I doubt it, may be less.

As for everything that moves, it is all tokunbos from okada, cars, trucks to air planes. Most of them are not well maintained. Nigeria has no maintenance mentality and we pay dearly with our lives on a daily basis on our roads, water and air space. Unfortunately, our poor innocent children through no fault of theirs also paid with their lives. You never know who is next. We also blame Baba Iyabo for all the used “goods” and substandard materials shipped from overseas and dumped on our shore as landfill.

Where are local and individual responsibilities? In return Baba Iyabo blames corruption. For everything? The maintenance industry is yet to be exploited in Nigeria. It is a lucrative venture that has very few patrons. The responsibility lies with each and every one of us. To be more specific, it starts from home. During my visits to many villages all over Nigeria, I was impressed with how clean the home surroundings were. People made use of that long broom very early in the morning before leaving home. There is enough blame to go round because we all depend on the oil money to do everything for us while the forty thieves circulate it only among themselves.

The forty thieves and their cohorts have now seized on the Third Term Agenda of Baba’s praise singers who would like to remain in the corridor of power for ever. Shamefully, the Student body, NANS has joined the praise singers. The forty thieves are recruiting left, right, front and center with the hope that only they can stop Baba Iyabo. While some may join the forty thieves because of 2007, the whole mess created may overshadow the anti corruption war. Eventually, I do expect Baba to resist any temptation to stay beyond his term unless he wants to mar his beloved reputation or pander to Neocolonialists.

No matter what we think about Baba Iyabo, fair minded people would tell you that he has never been a greedy man. He is arrogant we may say, because he always say he is the first Nigerian to do this and the first African to do that. That has more to do with his humble beginning than anything else. We have to remember that he was the Minister of Works under Gowon, a place most of the forty thieves made a killing. Not Obasanjo. He was a head of State after Murtala Muhammed and all they could come up with is that he diverted some of Operation Feed the Nation equipments to himself? He also stole some of the money the forty thieves gave to finance his campaign because he was broke?

He watched his subordinates spend money he could have stolen if he wanted and then he declared that who ever invested in him might as well consider their investment lost. Whose money was it anyway? They should have known that this man is a stubborn Nigerian who thinks he is more Nigerian than anyone else. Indeed, he wears it on his shoulder. He is ready to crucify a Yoruba man to prove his point. That is why he got a few votes during the 1999 election. It was even suggested that one of his wives did not vote for him in his village.

During the 1999 election, there were two Yoruba candidates because Abiola had been denied the mandate given to him across Nigeria in a free and fair election. The forty thieves decided to back Baba Iyabo. Most of the Progressives wanted Falaye, or as some would like to put it, the Yoruba candidate. Who in Nigeria did not know the backers of Obasanjo during that election?

Mr. Nigeria knew all along what he wanted to do. Why anyone would think that he would suddenly change and dance to their music is beyond me. A man who is ready to ignore his own people would dare anyone, sorry, almost anyone. Those who did not vote with the Progressive then became highly disappointed. But who could they have voted for? Falaye, a man they considered a Yoruba candidate?

Obasanjo first warning to the forty thieves was to appoint non-sponsored people from the North Central. The immediate cry was that it must not be done at the expense of the North, as if they represented the interest of the North. Middle Belt was not part of the North? What followed were the cries of marginalization from every part of the Country. Even more disturbing to those who rejected Falaye was that Obasanjo would appoint anything, not to talk about anyone from the West. He was elected to punish them for voting against him, not reward any one of them. The Yoruba wondered about what it was Obasanjo did for them to generate so much noise as if they were not part of Nigeria condemned to perpetual opposition before and after Independence.

Even Danjuma has his good use. How else could Obansanjo have retired all those military politicians without him? If Falaye or Bola Ige were the President, neither could have gotten away with that master stroke against power brokers. These forty thieves and their cohort who represent no part of the Country but their individual pockets are out to derail the war on corruption. Some of us still cry that Baba Iyabo must eradicate all the forty thieves and their cohorts. Who has ever succeeded for this length of time without being overthrown?

What we are witnessing these days is the real Obasanjo as we all knew him. A man dedicated to a cause which some of us may not agree with. Indeed, I have my own personal grudge against Baba Iyabo. I think he has been selective in his pursuit of justice. Does that word SELECTIVE ring a bell? I am talking about reading his own meaning to the judgment of the Supreme Court by denying Lagos State its share of money. I’m afraid he may not relinquish Ikoyi to the land owners since eminent domain no longer applies. I have to praise the guts of the Chief Justice Uwais who condemned this Government for selectively obeying Supreme Court judgments in a democracy.

However, pointing accusing hand at Obasanjo in the war against corruption for selecting the forty thieves is disappointing, to say the least. How can we sincerely clean up Nigeria when we refuse to credit those who have made some impact, no matter how little we think? I become weary when people start saying – I support him but not the way he is being selective. They have also picked on my man, Nuhu Ribadu about some mistress he has somewhere. I do not care. That is a clever distraction.

Again as I repeated many times before, Nigeria is not the place to espouse the notion that only those with clean hands should seek equity. Everyone is welcomed to seek equity as in justice – efulefu, devils, angels, vagabonds, 419ers, pastors, alhajis, police, soldiers, boma boys, prostitutes, etc reveal those you know. There is a place for you in heaven with as many wives or husbands as you desire, if you can only tell us your partners in crime against Nigeria. A frivolous allegation will fall on its face. Most Nigerians can read between the lines. We were not fooled when they tried to rope in Tam West or Solarin.

When Mrs. Oby Ezekwelisi, a formidable lady and presidential material first sounded the alarm that Governors were diverting local government allocations, she was challenged to a fist fight as if they did not know what she was talking about. Baba Iyabo kept quiet.

As Alamco was impeached and arrested, for some reasons, I was sad. It was not because I supported Alamco but because it had to get to that stage. This is a man who was released on bail with certain conditions after allegation of violating British law. He has since used looted hard currency in millions to dig himself further into trouble. Yet he has supporters in high places including intellectuals! Who did they blame? Ali Baba, eh, Baba Iyabo.

Why? These are folks who rightly think they have been marginalized in Nigeria but lost the fact that nobody should throw water into a basket. Granted that Nigerian Government has not done enough in the South-south, how can anyone feel the impact of whatever is done if all the money is taken out of the Country by the same people we trust to develop our backyards? Therefore, it is not unreasonable to postulate that if the money was channeled into development, there would be less anger and a little more to show and tell.

It will be hard for fair minded people to justify the military invasion of Odi, Zaki Biam, Warri or police action in Enugu and Yenagoa. Obasanjo also ordered “Shoot to Kill” against the Odua Peoples Congress in Lagos. Nigerians please do not be fooled; the people who are pushing Obasanjo and claiming these could not have happened during the time of Babagida or Abacha are now looking for strange bed fellows to discredit him. The irony fell on General Malu the invader who became the invaded.

I will not deny Obasanjo’s military instinct; that is his background. But for a long time his reason for inaction against Ethnic violence in his first term was blamed on repressed anger during past military period. Actually, Abacha gave birth to OPC. We have to be mindful of this military tendency and keep constructive pressure on him, not blame him for everything under the sun. Yes, uneasy lays the head that wears the crown. We detest Abacha who became immunized to critics, with the rational that no matter what, damned!

The Igbo have reasons for their anger against Obasanjo after they have been left out of favor since the war. They lost a great deal of business and properties all over Nigeria and were rejected even by their own considered kin, the Egbema and Ndoki in Delta states. Moreover, they voted for Obasanjo in1999 for reasons some Yoruba thought were selfish. However, Baba Iyabo, Mr. Nigeria was proud of his Igbo associates. He made a point to visit the relatives of Nzeogwu, one of the leaders of the first Nigerian coup to the dismay of some Nigerians. It brought back memories that he might have been part of the plot against the Nigerian elites that were murdered in cold blood.

What started as a noble cause turned into hate because it was bloody against those even Obasanjo admired - Ahmadu Bello, Ademulegun, Akintola, Ironsi, Fajuyi, Banjo, Issac Boro etc who paid with their lives. There was no love lost between Obasanjo and Ojukwu; and Soyinka who saw hell and came back – all for the sake of the principle of self determination. Before the first coup, Obasanjo was out of the Country and could not have dislocated the power sharing between the Igbo and Hausa/Fulani from which Akintola sought Yoruba’s share. The Hausa and the Fulani fight all the time but it is not reported. They also know how to make with any other Ethnic group.

The cold blooded massacre of poor civilians in revenge did not bring back any loved ones and remained the root of Igbo distrust of any Nigerian President who is not of Igbo extraction. Hard as it is, we have to forgive one another, may be not forget, if we want to move on. Anger can destroy self if not positively directed. Baba Iyabo has appointed Igbo as any other Nigerians to positions some considered “reserved”. Yet he has not made many more friends among Igbo. If there is any lesson to be learned about banking on Ethnic leader, learn that she/he can be chosen by outsiders.

We have to understand that when people form opinion against Baba Iyabo, it goes beyond the surface. It is deep rooted. That could be the reason some people see this war against corruption as selective. Others would like to make it Ethnic, yet Obasanjo feels well grounded among all Ethnic groups. He knows Yoruba are Yoruba’s greatest critics.

The third term agenda, contrary to what others would want us believe did not originate from Baba Iyabo. It came from praise singers who can not imagine themselves out of power. The strange bed fellows have now seized the opportunity to use it to unite themselves in spite of their wide disagreement on issues. The only advantage for Obasanjo and may be the reason he has not been denying it vigorously lately, may have to do with the fear of being a lame duck.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 03:41 PM | Comments (1)

November 29, 2005

Why the Paris Club Relishes the Pound of African Flesh

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- One may wonder about the benefit of 12 billion dollars to developed countries from an African Continent that is well endowed but rife with famine, poverty, corruption, lacking the basic structural necessities to provide a fraction of comfortable life others enjoy and take for granted.

It is not by accident that minority of world population consumes majority of world resources. The more the rich have, the more they want. If it does not come from the working poor or exploited natural resources in care of naive natives, where else is it going to come from? It is the law of international trickle down economics.

Where else can Paris Club make so much fast money by creative financing if not from poor staving African Country as Nigeria? How many hard working people will part with a hundred, a thousand, a million or a billion naira or dollars without a fight, except Nigeria or a Nigerian? Yet Nigeria still stands. It is actually a toss up between Paris Club and Kleptomaniacs. Most Nigerians just figure that if we do not pay now, it would just create opportunistic billionaires later. Moreover, how much say do they have? As much as they had during structural adjustment period – an academic diarrhea in futility. Just think about how much money Africans walk away from without a fight.

Dariye walked away and Alamieyeseigha walked away without putting up a vigorous defense, forfeiting millions in bail bonds while thumbing their noses at the British law as an ass. Other innocent respectable Nigerians, not VIPs (VagabondsIn Power) will pay dearly for it. Even the local law could not catch up with Makanjuola and his millions. Tafa Balogun got six months in jail but wanted a deal to keep the millions that has not been discovered. After all, Abacha’s son got a deal! Other Africans forgot their account numbers or die without passing on their secrete savings in Paris Club Countries. Indeed, we stand a better chance of recuperating some of our money by exposing hypocrisy of Paris Club than from our (Alamcos, A king does no wrong) kleptomaniacs.

How else can one explain the mentality of Abubakar who was a head of State for a few months running to the US for awards in return for establishing largesse in a university in far away Chicago, and buying foreign vacation mansion on a soldier’s salary? Luckily, Nigerians were there to embarrass him and his hosts. Which of the evidence against him made a dent or that against Babagida in Okigbo report? If I was a gambler, it is much easier to go after Paris Club than a Nigerian leader.

I have to congratulate some of those Countries like Canada, Italy, France, etc whose conscience allow them to forgive Nigerian loans as others bury their hearts in their alter egos named Paris Club. In essence, they grabbed black gold without paying, as they had done in the past and would continue to do in the future if we obliged.

The logic lies in “international standard” by which odious debts are paid. It is so “complicated” that only their accomplices who are trained and employed in their doctrine would understand. In Yoruba, we have owo ele. In other cultures, they call it usury, extortion by shylocks. It all boils down to odious debts. Do not be fooled by technicalities in the magnitude of rocket sciences, it is better called suckers, ass kissers, diplomacy or favoritism in the field of politics. Two countries can owe the same amounts and get different terms of repayment or loan forgiveness. What is scientific or technical about it?

The Finance Minister made that point by partly crediting United States Secretary of State, Ms. Condoleeza Rice who was linked to her by another Ms. Kruker of IMF, as she got to a sticky point during negotiation. It took who and who during that lousy negotiation.

If Japan or China decide to cash in their investment in the US today, there will be World recession or war. That is what is called leverage or clout in international market. Our ability to negotiate is not even proportional to that of Saudi Arabia taking their vast supply of oil to the US into consideration. During the oil embargo in the seventies, Nigeria was more important source of oil than Saudi Arabia. It boils down to: if you rub my back, I will rub your back, if you scratch my face, I will scratch your face.

Nigeria has nothing to show for all the money we made on crude oil but to go with calabash in hand asking Paris Club for money we know we were going to pay through our nose. I look at Venezuela and the way they carry their oil clout in the Americas with envy. They offered subsidized oil during Hurricane Katrina and to the poor in Massachusetts. In return, the gain respect, clout and score political points worth billions.

There are two Obasanjo. The one that philosophies during Babagida is OBJ I and the one that rules now is OBJ II. OBJ I recognized that structural adjustment should have had human face and condemned messengers of World Bank. OBJ II actually paid them in foreign currency while in the Nigerian cabinet. The reason for this lies with international acceptance and recognition at the expense of Africa. I do not think it is malicious. It has to do with our complexes. We are too eager to be part of the “civilized world”.

This problem starts with each of us right from primary school. Take the case of a kid who came back home from school asking the parent when they are going to take him on vacation to London. Why? One of his classmates was giving an account in class about how he spent his holidays. In my days, we were proud of excursions to different parts of Nigeria. What do you think they teach in the thousand or million naira or any currency private primary and high schools in Nigeria?

Some of the studies done in the US in the sixties among Black children showed that they prefer white dolls to black dolls. As a result of this study, a variety of beautiful black dolls hit the market, including dolls from many parts of Africa. Some of our leaders are still playing with white dolls, which was all they had or aspired for in their childhood.

We exude this behavior inadvertently. If we rebel against it, we are labeled radicals or extremist for trying to adhere to our culture. I was amused by the alarm raised in Abuja recently about pagan festival on behalf of ninety percent of Nigerians who are either Muslims or Christians. Who baptized us as Christians or Muslims in the first place and gave us names like mine?

I do not think they know that those who baptized us celebrate Halloween and Potato festivals in America. I would not dare ask the Arabs why they beat and mutilate themselves into frenzy during festivals, for the fear of being called culture-phobic.

As I point other fingers at myself, how many of us spoke pure Efik, Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba without English or American slang in Lagos? Two Nigerian parents would apologize that their children could not speak Yoruba in Nigeria! I was disappointed that neither Americans nor the English could understand my impeccable Queen’s English when I got out of Nigeria! I felt insulted when it was suggested I could change my accent by registering for the laboratory as I did for my introductory French. I was saved by my omo Campos Square pride (sakara). But wait, that got me out of Lagos to high school at Ondo. Yes ke. Our hearts were never far from Campos, even when we were living at Ikoyi, my dear Uncle brought us downtown a couple hours most nights. Campos and Ondo became useful anywhere, anytime. That was in the days Campos produced professionals.

So the problem is ingrained in us, that is why we seek international acceptance. Nkrumah wanted to be respected as an African, not loved. In the seventies outside Africa, we were respected as children of Nkrumah that were hard working and educated. Today, we are hardly tolerated, even on holidays, because they know we are economic refugees. It is some of the same refugees that go back home telling wild attractive lies about London, while others work hard to send more money directly to needed sources at home than either the so called foreign aid or loan Africans hardly benefit from.

Corporate Watch, Friends of the Earth, OXFAM, UNICEF and others have been trying to open our eyes to creative financing and economic injustice. Now former Presidents or former Head of States are now spending the rest of their life correcting injustice. What do they know now that they did not know when they were Presidents; could they have changed their system from within or from the outside?

Africans have been warning us even before international non-profit organizations. Out of many were Professor Bade Onimode who warned us about the evil deeds of World Bank and IMF; and Walter Rodney who wrote about how Europe underdeveloped Africa. Awolowo, forget your differences with him for now, warned us only to be dismissed as prophet of doom.

World resources are adequately distributed and Africa has been blessed with ours. But like a million dollar, if everyone has it, by the end of six months to a year, some would have billions and others would be poor based on individual decisions in life. Even religious books told stories of those who refused to use their talent. It was taken and given to those who made use of it.

The simplest way to make my point is by the neighborhood convenient store seller of coke. If two liters cost a dollar or100 naira in the market and 125 at the neighborhood store, 35-55ml in a can at 125 naira would sell faster. Poor people would go to that nearby store ten times a day to buy 55ml can for 125 naira. It is portable, sexy and easily payable. The same is true about some of the children of the rich who never worked for the money anyway.

However, the rich will go to the market and buy 2 liters for 100 naira, store it and drink it four or five times in the cup. The same is true in the black neighborhoods in America. They wonder how the owners of these convenient stores who are foreigners become rich.
As one person answered in that movie, Do The Right Thing - open your own store.

We can argue for the poor that he has no money to buy in bulk or enough space for cold storage facilities. One may even become thirsty in the Lagos traffic. After all, the can of coke looks sexy as the advertisements on TV. Or we can say he spends foolishly and live from one day to another hoping that heavens will provide for another day.

But Nigerian businesswomen or men work hard and know how to generate customers. They work from dawn to dusk advertising their products in Nigeria and combine two or three jobs outside Nigeria with school. Yet, these are the ones that never made it to the top in Nigeria of get into politics. They are the faceless Nigerians nobody heard about.

At some point we have to ask ourselves if our salvation lies with ourselves, outsiders or with heavens to deliver us from ourselves. We can never be like others if we follow their ways, their modernization, their products, establish in their domain blindly while forsaking ours. They will always tell us we are maturing democracy, still at infancy and developing progressively. Patronizing us like a babe. How can this be when we invented the philosophy, the Arts and Sciences they build on?

Russia, Japan, China and lately India that were starving a few decades ago had to throw out their bourgeoisie before they could even think of competing with Britain or US. Indeed, Gandhi and Nehru were well trained in world diplomacy before changing to robes in behavior and methodology. When are we going to wake up?

Acceptance of Paris Club doctrine is a dangerous hypothesis our leaders fell for in the eyes of those who are looking for their next victim. This obsequiousness has blinded our African consciousness.

Our Chi, Ifa, Allah or God will only help us if we learn how to build our confidence up on substance. Those people we negotiate with across the table are the same ones we went to universities with and probably copied our home work to pass. I always remember Bob who deserted our group in mathematics tutorial once and copied from another group. When he got seven out of ten, he ran back to us claiming he must have copied from a dummy.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa

[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 07:18 AM | Comments (1)

October 21, 2005

Avian Flu Pandemic Prevention Among Africans after the AIDS/HIV Blow

by Farouk Martins, Omoaresa --- The number of people the bird flu virus that is ranging from Asia to Turkey, Romania and Greece in Europe, may kill has been estimated from two million to 150 million. Every country is preparing on how to prevent this by head-on preparation. How many African people are prepared before it becomes another “African disease”?

The avian flu infection is a virus common in wild birds that can be transferred to domesticated chickens, duck and turkey making them sick enough to kill them. Before it can become an epidemic, it has to mutate (change) so that it can be transferred from man to man. Nevertheless, the infection has been reported in humans through live poultry or poultry not well cooked or from contaminated surfaces.

So far about 117 people have been infected and at least 60 of them have died.

There is no immunity for this virus and the effectiveness of the present antiviral drugs is not guaranteed. The drug manufacturers are now being courted by leaders in Europe and America to get set for mass production for immunization or combative drugs against the bird flu virus. The Swiss are ready to establish more factories outside. In countries where lawsuit can paralyze a whole industry, these companies are looking for immunity from class action suits.

Between the advice of Professor Blakemore of Medical Research Council in U.K not to panic and that of Dr. Nabarro, the UN Coordinator worst case scenario of 150 million fatalities, Africans still have to be apprehensive because we are the most vulnerable.

We still remember AIDS as the disease that started among certain groups of individuals with promiscuous lifestyles in California. Those who had watched Tony Brown’s Journal then were warned that it might be labeled the disease of the blacks. Before long, there was scientific quackery claiming its origin in African monkeys that was transferred to humans by all kinds of means.

The Lancet 10/29/60 had reported the demise of a sailor David Carr who died in England of unknown disease that was later retested 7/7/90 and found to be AIDS. Before he died, he had spread the disease on his way as he sailed, also to Africa. It became a controversy whether to credit him with the disease. Phillip Emeagwali, the super computer genius, noted this in a presentation.

Needless to say, AIDS have now become the disease of the poor all over the world, proportionally higher among Africans in and out of the Continent. Though many of us take our health seriously, the poor take food and shelter more seriously before thinking about health. Even the food we pick in many cases is of poor nutrition.

While strokes and cardiac diseases are leading causes of death among the rich, in poor countries, infectious and parasitic diseases kill more people. This is why any virus or bacteria that are endemic or impending can deal a deadly blow to majority of poor people no matter where they are in the world.

Please understand that these infections do not pick on poor people because they are poor. They also flourish among the young children and the senior citizens. It is the law of least resistance. The poor are the least prepared to fend for one another. This is why Africans must be prepared and take necessary precautions before the arrival of the bird flu.

There are people thinking loud already about how to prevent the birth of black children in order to decrease the number of crimes, as if most of the crimes are committed by them. As far as we know, blacks do not commit the majority of mass murders. Yet, no black would suggest that those who commit these mass murders should be prevented from being born. Studies are needed about these perpetrators to prevent mass murder. What some of the people discuss among themselves sometimes spill out inadvertently.

So Mr. Bill Bennet, the former Education Secretary under President Reagan might have just been thinking loud. It happens! In fairness to him, he stated that it would be morally wrong. The hint is enough for Africans. Not all the people who thought and planned heinous crime against humanity carried it out. Slavery, lynching, syphilis experiment were morally wrong but still perpetrated on Africans. Yet, there are people of goodwill all over the world devoted to correct past mistakes only to be blocked by a few powerful men thinking loud.

If we do not take care of ourselves, nobody would care enough about us. The reason they call some of these viruses and bacteria opportunistic infection is because they attack the weak and the helpless already with compromised immune system. In cases where overuse of antibiotic disturbed the flora balance in our bodies, bacteria that may normally behave themselves may cause diseases. So if we do not eat and drink well or where people are malnourished, there is no way we can prevent a higher number of people dying of flu that others may survive.

There are some cultural impediments that are no more relevant in today’s environment. Case in point, a man had sexually transmitted disease. Each time he was treated, he became infected again. So the public health doctor who was treating him refused to treat him again until he disclosed his sexual partners. He claimed it was forbidden!

African cultures always separate the toilet far away from the house. Now that both can be accommodated within the same house, we have to make sure that the two systems remain separate. Wells and bore hole must be far from the toilet.

In the face of an epidemic, isolation which may be mistaken for ostracizing a loved one may become necessary. This is why preparation and sensitization before an epidemic may be necessary. Africans have always bear the brunt of any disease. Health Education and Participation can not be over emphasized.

It is very critical to spend most the money for majority of the people. In others words, spend the greatest amount on the greatest number of people. This may be seen as socialized medicine. But those who have controlled infectious and parasitic diseases by adequate clean water and sewage system can only be imitated if we control ours.

Most African countries are still building big hospitals and laboratories we can not maintain. As a result of which privileged people are sent outside the country for headache while primary health care is lacking. That money can be used in the development of drugs and vaccines. There are simple technologies we can develop for our laboratory tests instead of buying these simple kits in Europe and America. Once we run out of them, we complained about lack of foreign exchange to import materials from abroad or broken equipment made abroad. In fact, a few of the businessmen are looking for way to buy vacation mansions outside the Country.

Nigeria banned importation of live and frozen poultry over a year ago but it is still smuggled into the Country by businessmen. President Obasanjo, who is a chicken farmer, said “everything must be done to protect the Country from bird flu”. Dr. Akerejola, a veterinary surgeon, welcomed the ban. Indeed, Dr. Jarhlet Umoh called for more surveillance and training against bird flu. However, action speaks louder than voice. Good proposals but no action. It is over a year, enough time to prepare for the imminent danger we face today.

Fortunately, some of these unscrupulous businessmen are few. They were the ones who imported adulterated oil into the Country causing upper respiratory infection in some people. These are the same people who imported solid waste into the Country. So we should not be surprised if they try to import all the poultries suffering from Avian Flu infection in Asia and Europe destined for destruction. We just have to watch out.

Bird flu virus may not be as deadly as 150 million casualties but there is no reason to take chances.

Farouk Martins, Omoaresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2005

Million More Rally Underscores New Orleans Big Contracts Over Aids Mentality

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- There is more to demonstration or rally these days than being recognized as a man. Please do not pity Africans to death; we want those big contracts to reflect the rainbow make-up of the areas affected.

It was Red Fox of Sanford & Son who said he was tire of Roots, he wanted the Fruits. It has nothing to do with quota, affirmative action or discrimination. It has to do with letting people help themselves. Each time millions or billions of dollars are flowing, Africans are always under-represented.

Africans are grateful for all the love and pity showered to those affected by Hurricane Katrina but where is the beef? There is no amount of dancing, Live Aids or telethons that can rival the billion of dollars in contracts in the affected areas. This is the opportunity to show sincerity to those who can create African empowerment through these mega contracts. In these cases Africans are the majority in these areas. Let them determine their economic survival through these contracts.

There is no doubt that any help from any of the foreign countries have to go through the Federal authorities. The Canadians were there and ready to help but I can not believe that they can not dispense certain materials like drugs in an emergency situation. The same drug the senior citizens make bus trip to buy in Canada? There was the story that German planes carrying emergency materials were turned back but later allowed in. The offer made by Venezuela to supply oil to the area were not accepted or not yet negotiated? Nigerian envoys were actually present distributing cash and material?

Excuse me, when you are in Rome, act as a Roman. In that part of the world, you make sure every African knows Nigeria was present and made materials available to the needy folks. After all, some Nigerians do not spray money at parties until people and video camera can witness it. If Nigeria was looking for ways to invest a little of that foreign reserve, that would be a good place. No amount paid to lobbyists in Washington can do a better job. It is not even too late to do more. Establish an enterprising zone and be a part of revitalizing factors. Our children will benefit from it. US, China, India, U.K, South Africa etc investments are in Nigeria. Seek honest Nigerians who know what to do.

These may be an embarrassment to the richest Country in the world but these helps from these countries would go a long way to some of the neediest people in the whole world. Nobody could tell the difference between New Orleans in the middle of Hurricane Katrina or Tsunami in Asia or affected part of Africa. America has a big heart and has demonstrated that all over the world, it does not mean that USA is too big to accept even the gesture of kindness from other countries.

We are now seeing a part of baby Bush that has not been seen for a long time – caring. Some would argue that it is public relation. But the history of the family will show that it has always been there, survival in the midst of conservative waves masked it. The Million More rally and Hurricane Katrina should open the eyes of the silent majority in the USA.

This is the time for those Africans in the Republican Party to show that they have some influence with the Federal Government to direct big contracts to Africans because they make up majority of those affected and displaced. It can be done by getting the Mayor involved. They need to cast aside political rivalry for now and work with people of goodwill across color lines for the benefit of their people.

We are aware of the story in New York Times about cronies and the well connected getting contracts. There is also television news about a luxury vacation ship getting paid for services under-provided. If you are curious about where some American trained Nigerian businessmen learned their skill, now you know. While the US Congress is looking into how these contracts can be efficiently executed, they must also direct the big contracts to the majority of the people affected. This is the time for inclusive free enterprises not exclusive club of the rich and powerful.

Partnership should be encouraged and created where African expertise may have been shut out. In spite of the cry that Africans would survive Nixon Administration, he created the minority business office that some people benefited from. Anytime billions of dollars are at stake, you find powerful sharks swimming around. We are less interested in their donation to charities after the fact; include Africans as part of the action now.

Law and Order

There is no doubt that everyone in New Orleans is on the edge these days. The Mayor is tasked to full capacity, the Police Chief resigned and the head of FEMA had resigned. Whenever the situation is this tense, Africans have to watch out; they usually get the short end of the stick. Tough on crime, yes but do not pick on Africans as examples.

I have seen coast guards at work. There are soldiers helping their Country in time of calamity. There is so much for soldiers to do these days that they are stretched. If they need any help, Nigerian soldiers are idle. They do not know what to do with themselves. They have been limited to either their barracks as staff in molue buses or retired into mufti ruling the Country in agbada. Once in a while they take out their anger on “bloody civilians” as they call us. There are other times when they have gone ballistic on other members of the Armed Forces.

Recently, it was another turn of the police to get a taste of their anger. They actually gave us a preview of what to come. In Surulere, they threw grenades into police barracks and destroyed vehicles then blamed it on area boys. A couple of my neighbors lost their lives as bystanders. Some years ago, I tried to get one of my sons to transfer from his college to a Nigerian law school. He looked at me and asked if I wanted to get him killed. He caught me unawares. I had been so proud of our participation and impute into our Jakande’s school as a model; I had bragged that my kids attended. That experience has vanished from his memory replaced by negative news about Nigeria.

Nigeria is very generous when it comes to peace keeping. We are well represented all over the world. When some of them misbehaved in Congo recently, they were recalled and punished. United States can have some of them at New Orleans. I may personally “grant- ee” (no guarantee) US Government that they will not go AWOL!

As for the police, I am not sure which is worse, New Orleans Police or Nigerian Police. One friend of mine in another US city who tried to bail his friend out of trouble was dealt with sometime ago and warned that he was lucky that he was not dealing with Nigerian police. Anyone who thinks Rodney King syndrome is behind us did not watch New Orleans police dealing with a respectable retired African teacher. I always tell my friends to stay away from the police even in the days of – I am black and proud. This Million More rally is for economic justice.

In a crowd of white people, if the police see a black doing the same thing as everyone else, it is like showing red flag to a bull. They will charge at you. So, I am not surprised that a respectable 64 years old man who quit drinking 25 years ago, was labeled rude and a drunk. He was lucky they did not see a “shining” object in his hand. Everyone in that area of Hurricane Katrina is on the edge these days.

African must Remain in New Orleans

Our history of displacement goes way back but that is another topic for a different day. Suffice to say that it is transcontinental. If the African leaders in New Orleans do not put their feet down and insist on the composition of enterprises, historical land marks, residential and recreational buildings, Africans will be displaced again. Speculators are never far away from “rehabilitated” areas.

Many of our youths in Africa mother land do not realize this in the so called greener pastures. They have all kinds of wild success stories at home, until they saw Hurricane Katrina in action. My brother even told me one about a classmate of his who was looking for a job. During the interview, he met a professor who had taught in Nigeria. As soon as the professor noticed that he attended University of Ibadan, he asked him about Professor Sosoandso. That was how he got the job. Bull!

Africans live in certain areas of the major cities in the US. My first amazement was in St. Louis, Missouri. As certain point, most of the people in the bus were whites. As we got to another point, most of the passengers changed to blacks. African unemployment rate is about twice that of whites and big contracts have been eluding us since quota and affirmative action became bad words. So the chances of renovating or maintaining their houses are not as great. If they are driven out of New Orleans, they would move to less expensive or less desirable area. The developers and big contractors would take over and rebuild. Only those with good income from big contracts and good jobs would be able to afford the rebuilt areas. Africans must be economically viable to remain in New Orleans.

Nigeria needs to create the same economic zones outside of the big cities to attract our youths who are willing to work hard. Cooperative societies have always worked in Nigeria. Agriculture is a good stating point. Today, food is a weapon. Africans who are desperate and running from hunger at home are thrown into Moroccan desert to die. They are willing to die by bleeding to death from the wounds of barb wires fence in Spain’s Melilla and Ceuta than return home. What does that say about our leaders at home?

Hypocrites complained about Robert Mugabe uprooting people from the slums in the Cities while they are doing the same thing in France where Africans die in substandard housing. They are thrown outside to live in the Parks if they are legal, deported if they are not. They have no jobs or big contracts to employ each other but live on generosity of passersby. Cunning politicians use their plight to cultivate conservative votes.

African Leaders Conference

I wonder if African leaders world wide do not compare notes. They meet in different fora but keep on making the same mistakes since slave trade era. But then, some would argue that slave trade is not over. It is now practiced between willing partners for the same selfish gains. There are more Africans outside the Continent willingly than ever. Foreign embassies in Nigeria are a sight of shame where we gather and we are dehumanized in our own Country. All this is for the sake of three square meals a day for the family:1-1-1.

One would expect that those who are educated and well read would lead the way. The answer is that it degenerates into political squabbles. As for African military leaders, their experience in Europe and America is pampered, skewed and narrow. They live on full scholarships, estacode and full salary. They never actually experience the daily life of gburu and work their way up against all odds.

There are also some of us that worked our way up but decided to change from the oppressed to the oppressor. I once asked a member of American Wives club about the difference in their life style in Nigeria compared to that in America. She confessed that she had no intention of suffering all her life as she did in the USA. You blame her?

It reminds me of a Rev Father who saw a guy he knew from the time he was a devoted religious worker for the poor. He was driving a Cadillac, so the Rev asked – didn’t you promised to work for the poor? He said: yes but did not promise to remain poor all his life. That is the difference!

We have to admit to ourselves that we have been outfoxed too many times and economic success as a people has passed us over and over. How can you explained the case of a continent as rich as Africa; yet creative financing is used to exploit the riches for the benefit of outsiders? How many Million More rallies and where, will solve that?

Nigeria has about 29 billion dollars in foreign reserve working to generate jobs and income for those who have no vested interest in the Continent. We are all scared that investing it at home will fall into the hands of kleptomaniacs, and we can not invest it where we want outside. A little of that in New Orleans and other minor Cities around the world including Nigeria may be a good start.

Posted by Administrator at 08:55 AM | Comments (0)

September 30, 2005

Most Wanted: A Brand New President among 130-million Nigerians

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Our Country needs a well cultured African whose exposure to the outside world is subdued, not a source of aggrandizement. I do not know how a Country such as Nigeria could have been ruled for so long by people trained only in the act of tactical warfare, in many cases uncultured and unlettered dominating civilized people, if not by the power of the gun. They have turned many people into images of themselves - Monkey see, monkey do. Is it any wonder that violence and greed pervade in our society and mediocrity rule?

Alhaji Ribadu who was the Defense Minister in the Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa’s Government would never have dreamt that the boys he wanted to defend Nigeria in the times of external aggression or natural calamity would be the same one bleeding us to death and perpetuating themselves in office by reappearing like a recurring decimal from khaki to agbada.

It is almost impossible to run for office in Nigeria if you have never stolen at gun point or get sponsored by some godfather who is connected to these armed robbers. Sad as it is, I am talking about powerful minority who have gained power over gentlemen of the armed forces and in the process corrupted many of them. It was Obasanjo who said he learned that there were no bad soldiers but bad officers. I refuse to believe that we have run out of choice among 130 million people.

Our youths who own the future of the County are confused – join the money bags as thugs or suffer as intellectual freedom fighters. Those of them who are products of 419 are small compared to the ones whose accomplishments get buried under the news. The silent majority must scream as loud as Obasanjo during Babangida’s regime, campaign as hard as Agbekoyas in the West, pray to any of the Heavens to show us the next President of Nigeria, as long as we realize that heaven helps those who help themselves. God will not come down to save Nigeria!

Nigerians are known to be very intelligent and clever. Both are not the same. Book knowledge is different from common sense. Those with common sense acquire knowledge by being self taught or through formal education. Nobody has monopoly of common sense. Since anyone can hire educated mercenary to actualize his primitive instinct, we may be limited to the choice of obsequious worshippers. After all, sound legal minds can argue favorable on either side of the coin and agree to disagree.

So it is puzzling that 130 million people watch a parade of former military generals that have neither monopoly on knowledge nor exclusive right to common sense, make presidency a no go area for others. These are the same caliber of people whose only experience is how they have brought Nigeria down to its knees or as one of them put it, wondered how Nigeria has not collapsed. Unbowed, they condemn their repentant colleagues who apologized for their misdeeds.

Instead of facing facts and stop worshiping generals, we blame a section of our Country for all the woes. We must not forget that this Country was ruled after Independence by the consensus of both North and South. The Prime Minister of the Country was anointed by a Southerner. In the wisdom of Azikiwe, it was better to have North and South representatives in the formation of Government. If he wanted, he could have become the Prime Minister but decided to become the Governor General. Others may interpret his motive differently, but his explanation is still practiced and holds until today.

One of the old politicians once boasted that there were two parties in Nigeria – NPN and the military. Some of us may disagree and claim that there is only one party – You Chop and I Chop Party.

Is it so bad that one can not pick some silver linings out of the deeds of the dictators? My fear is that, it may look like an encouragement because I am now hearing of third term for Obasanjo. Some of us did not even want him for the first term. If those who are asking him to return for a third term are his friends, it was the same friends of Gowon that propagated the same story until he was overthrown by his cohorts. Are those what you call friends?

Oh well, well, well! Yes, Obasanjo retired all those military politicians, confronted oil bunkering by bursting the balls of some powerful associates; and he is tackling corruption whichever way we may think. He has offered himself both locally to EFCC Chairman Nuhu Ribadu for investigation and internationally to British Auditors Hart Group to look into Central Bank, NNPC and Federal IRS. Can anyone remember in the history of our Country a Head of State that has exposed his own domain to such scrutiny?

The closest person was Murtala Muahamed who forfeited his surplus. He was killed by the same gang of armed robbers who fear a change of attitude in Nigeria. Please, Mr. President this is not an endorsement for a third term, it is calling a hoe a hoe.

My ambivalence about our policies is not limited to this Government. The smell of foreign intervention in either economic, political policies or mimicry of foreign government interest repulses me. After our foreign mercenaries sell out their Country, they run out to Europe and America for awards on a job well done as Nigeria bleeds on the operating table. How many awards did Michael Imoudu or Kwame Nkrumah get from them? Then I should condemn Obasanjo for involving foreign governments in catching kleptomaniacs outside Nigeria, right? No, I support him. See my problem o! This is the same man who denied Lagos State its money in spite of Supreme Court ruling which he interpreted his own way.

I know the humiliation innocent Africans in Diaspora are subjected to by law enforcers in those countries. Any Blackman, who thinks he is beyond these assaults and persecutions has not learned and if he has learned, must be fooling himself. Some years ago while on a field visit, I warned an African landlord who refused an order from a senior health investigator to clean up environmental hazard. A court warrant was out for him since he did not show up in court. He shot back at me – Blackman, don’t you know there is a warrant out for most of us? The US Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas who was the darling of the conservatives learned the hard way. He claimed “high tech lynching” during his confirmation grilling for the US Supreme Court. An “African European” claimed discrimination? I beg your pardon!

At the same time, I do not turn a blind eye to reality. Corruption is so ingrained in Nigeria that the little man has given up. Each time a rogue is caught red handed, look at the parade of men from high places (enia pataki, jakan jakan) that I even respect and admire file out to beg for mercy. If you do not know where I am going, think about these cases: When Tafa Balogun was arrested who were the people who followed him to court and eventually stood for bail? Who went to Abuja to plead for the son of Abacha? Who pleaded for Dariye? Who were the people who stood up for Osuji before he withdrew his case against the Government? Who are the people crying for Alamieyeseigha?

These are not the informed little people of Nigeria. They are beneficiaries of corruption and only prey on the pain of the hungry man to divert attention. If they claim they care, they are hypocrites. While it may be wrong to desert a loved one, it is wrong not to tell him the truth. Our parents used to tell us that if you steal, nobody would bail you out. If they help, you become an embarrassment in the neighborhood. You become an outcaste.

So why do we recycle men who have soiled their name and were deft at picking people’s pocket as presidential candidates? So that some of the crumbs can fall into our sphere of influence or so that we may survive for the day while our children become beggars of Live Aids tomorrow.

How many Robin Hoods do you know that steal money from poor countries and take it to the rich countries or that refuse to pay local debts in naira to pensioners, in salaries, legitimate indigene contracts, or welfare but rush to pay foreign debts in dollars?

Some of us go as far as invoking the name of those who died fighting for rights of the oppressed and just causes to defend “Hood Robbers” as if our heroes could have been bought or if they wanted to steal money, it had not been within their reach.

What happened to the days when you would not dare take a young handsome man or beautiful lady home to our parents because of only one flaw – the reputation of their grandfather in the village. Nigeria, we can distinguish just cause from corruption.

As much as I would want to see the day we can pick a presidential candidate from anywhere in the Country. I also know the reality and permutation on the ground in our dear Country, Nigeria.

South-south President
This is the only region that has not produced a President. It is about time. There is no quality that is present in the other parts of Nigeria that can not be found in this part of Nigeria. The men and women have served enthusiastically since the days of Okotieboh.

The fear that if they become the ruling class or President, they will allocate all the oil resources to themselves is that of a dreamer. Nigeria is much more complex than that. Any system of government that we have or may evolve into would not permit a region to hold others as hostages. If it was done in the past, we all encouraged it and the crumbs seekers are still around, comparatively broke but eager for another day that will never come. I submit that one part of Nigeria can not be economically viable without the other.

Canada encouraged staunch federalists from trade unions and radicals from Quebec, a Province that wanted to break off, into National politics. Two of them later became the Prime Ministers of Canada – Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chrétien. There are just as much federalist in the South-south as in the rest of the Country. Definition of a fair share may vary from one region to another but most of us believe in Nigeria as a Country.

Indeed, a President from that region can call off the bluff of the “oil farmers”, oil bunkers, “our son our money” and some so called freedom fighters who use the name of Issac Boro and Saro Wiwa in vain, with corrupt leaders. Where have they developed with their yields? I must say any President with the right frame of mind can cut their bluff.

However, some people are disturbed by some of the opinions coming from some groups in the region about negotiating for the position of Vice President in exchange for certain percentage on resource control. I think both should be mutually exclusive. A fair share of resources will and must go to the area that produces it. But a President of Nigeria, no matter where he or she comes from can not dictate that by fiat as it was done in the past.

Northern President
All Nigerians from any part of the Country must be able to aspire for the leadership of the Country. There are many young men and women from the North who can beat any candidate based purely on merit. The number of spent presidential candidates coming from this area has overshadowed the dedicated ones.

We must not forget that one of the purest Nigerian, Malam Aminu Kano is from the North. He lived like Mother Theresa, when he could have lived very comfortably. Other dynamic youths do not have the name recognition or stolen money to buy influence. But they are highly educated and do posses common sense.

The youths in the North are more concern about talikawa and the mistakes of past leaders who have nothing to show for their domination and military subjugation. Each time they meet their colleagues from the South, they have been able to resolve differences and avoided violence. They are more interested, as their colleagues in the South in sanitizing the Country than in power just for the sake of it.

This is not a way to deny them their turn in ruling Nigeria, but some Northerners have expressed the fact that they will exist without becoming the next President of Nigeria. Indeed, Alhaji Dogote categorically counted himself out of the contest.

South–east President
We have not had an executive head from that side of the River for a long time, either by design, omission or through generosity to the North on the part of Azikiwe or by rebellion. Whatever the case, South-south can not negotiate the Presidency away at the expense of the South-east. We should learn from Abiola who got a clear message from NPN that Presidency is not for sale.

Why South-east? Is it more palatable and easier to swallow than calling for Igbo Presidency?

There is much more to Nigeria than Hausa/Fulani-Igbo-Yoruba domination of the political power. The so called minorities are more than each of the main ethnic groups.
But before the presidency goes round these main ethnic groups again, the Igbo must have its share. It can not be bargained away.

Enough of all the favors Igbo never did, the State that never voted for Yoruba candidates, how the Igbo dominated the Rivers or looted Bendel. These are excuses not to give right to whom it is due.

Indeed, the Igbo can talk about marginalization in the political, economic and social fabric of Nigeria after the war. We can go on and on. No matter what this writer says, each side will find holes and faults. So this is not to please anyone but face the facts.

It has always interested me when I read about Igbo writers defending Obasanjo’s appointments against the marginalization charge. They first distanced themselves from his policies as this writer did above, before counting his Igbo appointments. The Yoruba grumbled about their displacement and how Obasanjo would not dare displace a Northerner. Actually, Okonjo Iweala replaced Adamu Ciroma a Northerner. There will be complaints, excuses but there is no reason an Igbo lady or man can not be the next President. It must be noted that some bodies from all regions have called for Igbo President.

I have noted above why any federalist from any part of the Country will fight to keep the Country together, so the notion that only certain part of the Country is committed to one Nigeria is false. Lest we forget, Azikiwe remained a federalist not withstanding Biafra, so was Asika and many who died fighting on both sides.

There has to be a day in our life time, now or as of yesterday where the best program would be more attractive than a bag of Jakande or Shagari rice. Some of us reminiscent about the days of Babagida, Buhari, Obasajo or Gowon. In fact what we are saying is that we had contacts and favors then and want it to continue now!

Nigeria needs to move on. Our prayers should be for better governance than the one we favored or left behind. There are too many people in Nigeria to be clamoring for the same generals over and over again.

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
[email protected]

Posted by Administrator at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)

September 10, 2005

Hurricane Katrina Exposed Endemic Inequality for Africans

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- One guy stood out in my mind, he said Africa looks good to me now. Others white and black who have seen Tsunami in Asia, famine in Africa and war in Europe claimed they have not seen anything like this. That it happened is nobody’s fault, that it took so long to come to peoples’ aid in the most powerful and richest country in the whole world leaves more than an indelible mark on our faces.

If America could have prevented it right there and then, it could have. Sincerely, no reasonable human would have wished so much destruction on their own people. But that area belongs to the powerless who were caught in their entrenched economic realities. As we all cry and wonder, we must not miss the point. The economic realities did not just hit New Orleans, it was part of America before Hurricane Katrina hit. Those who could afford it got out of the way but some were simply helpless.

It is a fact that blacks are three times as likely to be poor as whites did not just hit New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina or that most blacks live in the ghetto. I have been accused that Nigerians run away from the ghetto too. New Orleans accommodated all of us during and after festivals. I made calls there searching for friends who later told me they lost everything; one was more concern about his documents! I remember the actress who said – I have been to Africa, I have seen Africans, I am not an African.

One of those water coolers at work conversation between an African man and woman went like: If you say that to me, I will just shove you aside. She answered him: if you try it, you will find yourself in Africa. Another African who was listening said: at least he has a country to go, where are you going to go?

It is one thing to get hit by the train while daring its part on the railway line, it is another if the train departs into our houses. Poor people, no matter where they are, always get the short end of the stick. In bad times, most stick together but as they start to gain some leverage, some of us get drunk!

New Orleans is similarly situated as Lagos, Warri, Port Harcourt, etc in Nigeria. Indeed, these areas have experienced series of minor floods. Nevertheless, most of us have no where else we can call home and no place to go.

All those who are pointing fingers at America should ask themselves, what they are doing for the poor in their own countries. In France, some African immigrants lost their life in two apartment buildings fire that could have been prevented if the authorities took precautions regarding substandard code violations. When the Ikeja cantonment blew up in Lagos, Obasanjo was booed when he later came. People even got angrier when he said he did not have to be there. Some leaders forgot that whether you are baby Bush, Blair or Obasanjo, your foremost responsibility is the welfare of your people.

Of course baby Bush could have shown more concern, caring and responded earlier. That could have made a difference. Sometimes it is not enough to be fair, one must be seen as being fair. There is no reason for the people to have gone without food and water for more than a day in America.

Baby Bush came from a good home in the East (eastern part of USA). Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury poked fun at the papa Bush he knew at Yale who was not as conservative. After that time, we know papa Bush who was a moderate conservative in the primary election with Ronald Reagan. We credited him with “Voodoo Economics” label of Reagan economic plan then. But as American moves to the right, politicians move along in order to win elections.

Baby Bush is a likable guy one would like to have a beer and esiewu with. How can you dislike a guy who at college convocation and told graduating C students that he was a C student himself, that they may become the President of America one day.

As conservatives who wanted to win election, both papa and baby Bush became cow boy Texans with swagger. That the President reacted too slowly to Hurricane Katrina was a miscalculation on the part of his handlers. That Bush does not care about black people, according to Kaye West, is how most blacks feels he comes across. I think he was just indifferent, which is a great deal for blacks.

But baby Bush knows how to appeal to voters. In the last narrow election, he appealed to the conservative instinct of black churches in Ohio about increasing acceptance of the gays in the Country. They helped deliver Ohio to him.

Hurricane Katrina and the reaction of Bush crossed political leanings and most of the people in the Country blamed every level of Government for the late reaction. The conservatives handler were out of synch with the Country and did not make Bush look good to the rest of the world. One can not anticipate the reaction of humans all the time.
The fear is out there that Hurricane Katrina may rekindle the liberal side of America.

Even worse, were the portrayal of blacks on television as criminal “looting” stores for food in other to feed their families, while white families who were doing the same were just “takers” of food. These stereotypes did not just hit as the hurricane. It has always been there. A black man running around the neighborhood is stealing; a white man running is jogging.

The total evacuation of the area can be frightening not only to whites who do not want to lose their homes, but also to blacks who have many experiences of urban renewal. It is more than evacuation for blacks, urban renewal always turn into “nigger removal”. By the time the place is redeveloped, blacks would not be able to afford it.

I have heard about billions of dollars that are being allocated, with more coming. How much of this money will actually benefit the victims is the real task. There are big time contractors, developers and speculators standing by to do “good” for the victims who would loose their properties. Someone suggested that Jimmy Carter should oversee rebuilding. I doubt that will happen. Carter stands for non-profit organizations.

In addition to that, the new US Supreme Court ruling about the use of eminent domain to change the neighborhood in order to attract more taxes for the cities by building new housing developments will be too much for both poor blacks and whites.

At the same time the amount of sewage and diseases floating in the flood in and out of the houses has become a public health issue. It has become a no win situation. We just have to wait and watch how much compensation those who would leave all they have ever own would get.

If there is any silver lining in all this, it is the resolve of the Africans to come together and create a fund so that when a similar disaster strikes again, we do not have to wait for government to take care of our people. My own fear is that this has been proposed many times before. As soon as time and weather change, we forget our histories of survival despite the odds against us.

Some of those who gain by quota in those days, have turned against it now that it has become a bad word. Most of the government contracts and positions set aside for minorities have been challenged in courts as reverse discrimination. We then move on to “affirmative action”, which has been discredited. Actually, most of the beneficiaries are women, a welcomed break. The new word now is “diversity”. I do not know how long that is going to last. Hurricane Katrina is a reminder that the same battle is being fought over and over again.

After all is said and done, Africans will always find ways to survive even in America. We may be surprise by the poverty in America; it still has the richest blacks on earth.

Posted by Administrator at 06:58 PM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2005

Paris Club Calling: Ngige / Obi may have just won 18 Billion Dollars

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Before you claim your prize, come up with 12b dollars from your 24b foreign reserve. The people of Anambra know who they voted for - neither Obasanjo nor Chris Uba can anoint a Governor for them. But Ngige and Uba already confessed they rigged election.

If there is any consensus in Anambra or among many of us who have written about Paris Club and their invitation to negotiate the interest and penalties piled on Nigeria, it is that celebration is premature.

Is there a link here? Yes, Anambra can not afford to go by the contract between Ngige and Uba just as Nigeria can not afford Paris Club contract. Before the latest Justice Nabaruma Tribunal judgment overturning the Governorship election, I had developed some anxiety over Anambra ability to pay Chris Umba. That same fear griped me again that Nigeria will take the bait even before negotiating what they are paying for.

Some of us think we can purge our frustration about Nigeria after our academic diarrhea at parties and end up saying the usual – only God can save Nigeria. In Part 2 of NO POWER CAN BREAK NIGERIA BUT…., I condemn the creative financing in form of interest and penalties by the Paris Club. But I still have fears that Nigeria will pay 6 billions dollars in September and over six billions later.

We have World Bank, IMF and WTO loan collectors planted among us telling us it is the honorable way to go. I can understand where they are coming from. Some of us do not understand their logic. You see, there are rules, regulations and laws that govern these loans and which we agreed to. In short, we signed a binding contract. If you borrow, you must pay. Chikena!

High Court Justices Egbo Egbo and Staley Nnaji followed the law of contract and ruled against the Governor based on what he signed. There is more to contract than the law. The law also looks at the circumstances and situation that led to the agreement. Was it under duress or the unequal relationship between master and servant?

If you think that can only happen in Nigeria, think again.

It is not the first time poor people have been taken advantage of by that contract. The farm workers in the southern part of United States used to sign those contracts until people like Chavez died fighting against it. That does not mean it is not happening now.

Some unscrupulous contractors, in the eighties, were prowling the neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts looking for poor old people who have paid or almost paid off the mortgage on their houses. These people were so poor; they could not even qualify for a loan to buy a sweeper not to mention a new car.

Nevertheless, contractors like Chris Uba were able to secure loans for them to renovate their houses. These loans were in thousands of dollars. When they could not pay, banks were ready to take their houses. It took the effort of the City of Boston, Workers Union, and other non profit organizations to tear up the contracts. The banks, in fairness to them also donated money to clean up their image.

There was also that time in the seventies, up to the nineties when sweet talkers would promise to sell you a house with no money down, bad credit and sometimes without a job. They would prepare your application for the banks and get you insurance for cover.
As soon as you default, the banks would take your house. This time, it was the banks who found out that the house is not worth the mortgage they gave. The insurance did cover some of their losses.

I have not mentioned Savings and Loans bail out; Boesky or Milken in the stock market where all your stocks that you depend on for retirement would turn to penny stocks. Boesky was noted for praising greed as very good for capitalism. The Government has cleaned up some of the most egregious cases. Right now some of the executives are doing jail time.

Contracts, laws, agreement are needed but are also subjected to abuse. Once the abuse is discerned, it must be remedied. It was Anambra yesterday, Ogun today, and Nigeria tomorrow. Nigeria has been abused. The law takes cognizance of evidence in good faith and fair dealings.

On one hand, the pictures of children during Nigeria/Biafra war, Ethiopia famine, Somali war, Niger famine were all over the televisions; on the other hand which hardly communicate with the first hand, are people asking a Country where 90 percent of its population live on less than 2 dollars a day to come up with 12 billion dollars. That is what you call MURDER.

Even the 40 billion dollars announced loan forgiveness that exclude Nigeria and pacified concert organizers was in form of deduction and replenishment to the lending banks from any new contribution. More important, it is over 40 years. So the Net Present Value boils down to 17 billion dollars!

What is Chris Umba, one man, going to do with all that money extracted from his own State while the rest suffer? Greed knows no bound. America cry about the difference between the lowest paid workers in the company compared to the ‘Thief Executive”. Go to Nigeria where Ministers like Olu Adeniji get paid in foreign dollars and El Rufai paid his “consultants” in foreign dollars. Are any of these Ministers more dedicated than Dora Akinyuli or Nuhu Ribadu?

What then do you call the loan collectors planted among us? House “negroes”!

Therefore, I am begging Obasanjo in the name of Adimu/Adumu/Oduduwa/Obi/Oba who was his forefather to take another look and allow the Senate or the House to listen to all sides before we hand over 12 billions dollars to owners of the farms who want to keep us in perpetual bondage. There is too much money going to contractors and their foreign expatriates or corporations.

Peter Obi, people are suspicious, watch out! I know once he makes up his mind, he prides himself as a stubborn Owu man, that nobody can change his mind. Mr. President listen to the cry of hungry bellies in the Anambra; north, south, east, and west of Nigeria, so that you can face them and say you did it in their interest. Dee Baba Iyabo! Na beg I beg o.

That money does not belong to only Nigeria, it belongs to all Africans all over the world, where ever they are and we are all watching. A worthy Nigeria is the pride of all blacks. Sometimes the black world is proud of the way an African, conduct himself or spend his money even when none of it enters our pocket.

Nigerians, this is not the time to bicker over money that you may not even smell. Beg your President, your Minister of Finance, Minister of Foreign Affairs and your representative for a second look before that amount of money is exchanged. At least those who exchanged gold for mirrors could see their faces, interest and penalties on interest are virtual debts not substance. I am sure that I am not the only one going through sleepiness nights thinking about what Nigeria can do with that money.

Contractors could have taken over Anambra State but for the power of the people. The fight is never over, it is continuous. In Adamawa, the Governor regained his seat after Tribunal ruling. No celebration that has meaning only for those who desire laurels in the so called international arena. Not yet.

Posted by Administrator at 08:23 AM | Comments (0)

July 28, 2005

No Power can Break Nigeria but Contentious Issues within in Collaboration with Foreign Corporate Interests, Part II

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Part 2 It is not an Ethnic but a Class Thing There was this teacher of mine in the sixties who warned us about the dangers of both capitalism and communism. He described capitalism as the oppression of the poor by the rich, and communism as the oppression of the rich by the poor.

As I mentioned above, we will still have our differences if all Nigerians belonged to the same Ethnic Group. All these sentiments about who is Ijaw or Kanuri are used by bourgeoisie to gather political and economic support while the poor no matter which part of Nigeria they come from suffer. If we are fighting about money, most of it is gone before it reaches the poor man.

How many poor people do you think really care about imported goods like tooth picks, cheese, champagne, Mercedes Benz, Rolls Royce, BMW, marble and Barley shoes, jeans, apples, Evian water, uncle Benz rice, Swiss or French lace, Persian rugs, etc. All these take our foreign earnings. It has been suggested that if all these items were banned, the Nigerian Government would fall! We have a case where less than 20% of the population is enjoying the income of the whole Country, while the rest wallow in poverty!

Each time a rogue is caught in any part of the Country, even in the Niger Delta, men of “timber and caliber” would say he is our son ( and in Niger Delta, our money). Look at the investigative reports on oil bunkering, you see Nigerians of all tongue and ethnic varieties colluding to defraud the rest of us. Do you think this people are suffering or using the masses to fill their pockets?

Nigeria could not account for about 50% of its oil wealth before the present Government because of oil bunkering. That has only improved to a loss of about 30%. Russian crew and oil companies with unknown revenue are operating with impunity in spite of repeated admonishment by our law enforcers. No country can afford to loose so much of its resources without declaring war on perpetrators. The Nigerian Navy that was supposed to police the high sea became an accomplice. Most of the Admirals are from the South, making returns to their collaborators while Nigerians suffer. Did they ever think about ethnic groups while sharing their loot?

What are the advantages of 250 Ethnic Nations?
These days calling you a Nigerian can raise suspicion in some circles. It is reserve for looters who fear that break up of the Country may close the door to readily available oil money. If you are not lazy and you believe in your survival, why would you force the Country together, they asked.

If the rest of the Country can not sustain itself without oil money, it will not die a natural death. It may be the beginning of reality check – live free or die! Those who can not live will become illegal immigrants in Niger Delta or with stories of how they are related to the mother who was related to a grandfather in Warri or Port Harcourt. Who will protect the oil wealth of Niger Delta from what is left of Nigeria? Does Kuwait come to mind?

On the other hand, the rest of Nigeria, in whatever pieces may become resourceful and develop ideas in Arts and Sciences, Movies, power generation by hydro electric power, solar power, nuclear power and revitalization of old traditional products. That would be a blessing in disguise. These will mean unification of many States in the present Nigeria.

If we decide to separate and let one another go their separate ways, it might be North and South. No, it would be North, East and West. No, Biafra without Delta did not work neither did the West worked. It might be Bendel or Edo State. No. Niger Delta might work as one Country though. The Itsekiri might not like it and if they did, what about the Ijaw in Ondo State or Igbo in Asaba. Then we have to consider the Tiv and the Jakun or the Middle Belt. Hausa and Kanuri States or Fulani State might work?

Politically Balyelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom may want to align with their traditional Northern partner but not after rejecting their demand for resource allocation. Niger Delta might form Defense Agreement with the North-central to protect their oil from other Nigerians. I was just thinking loud, I think you get the picture now. At what point do we stop dividing like amoeba?

Others have made the point that we do not have to constitute ourselves into a big Country to be as viable as Luxembourg with a population of 0.04 million people or Denmark 5 million, Iceland 0.3 million, Sweden 9 million, Ireland 4 million, Finland 5 million Switzerland 8 million. The fact is a small country can not be viable unless it has a big protector and be accepted as a trading partner. It was Indira Gandhi, when she was the Prime Minister of India, who rejected foreign aide and asked to be made a trading partners of the rich countries. Israel, Kuwait or Taiwan can not stand as a Country without aide from USA. No Nigerian wish for what happened to Yugoslavia after Tito where every ethnic group turned on one another like cat and mouse or the daily massacre in Lebanon some years ago. Syria is out; seductive dance for old rival competitors are on.

Indeed, the richest and the most powerful Countries emerging today or ever have always been those with large population and large areas. As examples, China with a population of 1.3 billion people with 9.6 km sq. area, India 1.08bn with 3.0 km sq; USA 296m with 901km sq; Russia 144m with 17km sq; Japan 128m.

There are other countries not too far behind in the same situation as Nigeria – Brazil 186m with 8.5 km sq; Indonesia 242m, Pakistan 163m; Bangladesh 144m. The point here is that there is power in population and area if placed in the hand of people like Pa Imoudu, Kenyatta, Nyerere or Nkrumah. Our leaders have not displayed their worth yet. Could we have lost the zeal and indulged in self aggrandizement after independence?

We have to remember that Ghana, Mali and Songhai Empires were not based on fractionized ethnicities but on trade and big loyal population. The days of keeping countries together by force are gone. Arms are on the market for professional arm traders and battles these days are fought to a stand still. No clear winners but carnage and collateral damage on both sides. Pity!

Niger Delta as a case in point
Some of us may still remember Patricia Harris, President Carter Housing Secretary, who said she did not stop being a white man’s slave in order to become a black man’s slave.

Isaac Boro did not join Nigerian Army against Biafra so that he could become Hausa or Yoruba slave. Indeed, he wanted justice or his own country.

Ken Saro Wiwa made the point that all the money milked from oil in the Delta States might not be enough to repair all the environmental damage to the area. The oil corporate companies always take advantage of developing countries anyway. They could have cleaned up as soon as they made a mess, in order to minimize any degradation of the environment. But that would cut into their profit.

If we consider Abuja important strategically and economically for Nigeria and pour money into its development, the question is how much are we willing to pour into the environmental pollution in Niger Delta? We can do better in Nigeria. Put all opportunists, oil bunker collaborators and militants to shame by putting money where our sympathy is. It is not enough to sympathize or empathize after a tour of the area, how much we are willing to commit needs an answer.

There are many Niger Delta intellectuals from universities all over the world including Nigerian University of Ibadan, Nsuka and Ahmadu Bello who will plan the future of Niger Delta and probably make it an example of how to plan a Country. They know that oil may run out in about 40 years. So if they have 100% of the money from oil, will that end the problem?

Multinational Corporations
I have been told that the cross in front of the Mercedes Benz is not for charity. All corporations play hard even in their own countries where there are laws and regulations for fair play. They support political parties and help elect their own candidates. So you may not be able to tell the difference between Country and corporation, Paris Club or banks or IMF. They have now been exposed on how they milk developing countries by Corporate Watch, Friends of the Earth, OXFAM, etc.

It must be noted that what determines a good or bad corporation depends on how well and honestly they are monitored. It is unwise to replace individual entrepreneurial spirit with that of government knows it all. We can get much more out of these corporations if they are not negotiating with their African accomplices. Business deals are always negotiable. You get what you negotiate for, not what you deserve. Agreement must be negotiated for mutual benefit, not take or leave it.

The greedy corporations are the explorers, colonizers and the missionaries of yesterday. If we can not agree to live together, they will come to our aid and “civilize” us again! It may be the second or third coming of the “liberators”. All they need is a few “good” men within who can supply them with their foreign bank accounts or well schooled in International “thief thief” like ITT, IMF, WTO, World Bank and the deal is done. Some years ago, I could swear that Nigerians do not steal in their own villages, not today.

It is Professor Peter Ekeh who noted that irony during slave trade, when they ran out of people to capture, they turned on one another and powerful chiefs started selling other chiefs into slavery. One of the common slaves could not believe his eyes when he saw his chief arrived at the plantation in chains.

In California, Enron subdued the Government and the people, throwing them into darkness, not to mention developing countries where they refused to subject themselves to jurisdiction. In India, Dabhol Power Company, a subsidiary of Enron, used everything they could including Energy Secretary in the United States, their Ambassador and international financing bodies to secure their way. Similar scenario happened with Bujagali Hydroelectric Project in Uganda and International Finance Corporation of the World Bank. Well, well, well, Russia is still building steel in Ajaokuta, when the world market is saturated, and durable plastic is replacing steel.

WorldCom has network in Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa and each of these corporation can secure favors from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organization to the detriment of these developing countries. They ask us to privatize, deregulate and trust the market forces while they perform their magic. They supervised Indonesia economy while Suharto family owned most of the companies. Is Ghana better off today than when World Bank made them the postal Country? Didn’t they apologize recently for forcing wrong policies on the developing countries?

They invade and dictate the terms of the agreement – take it or leave it. As a caveat, they also have the mighty power of their home Countries in case the neighbors want to invade the smaller countries. But then, Niger Deltans may import Nigeria immigrants to do jobs they do not want to do, that would be an invasion. Would it?

If they had taken the same responsibility in the Niger Delta that they took when the disaster of Valdez oil spill happened, some of the militants we have today will be put to rest and many of them would have something constructive to work on.

These corporations and their countries also know how to drop these developing countries like a hot cake when the well runs dry. In Nigeria and in Niger Delta in particular other source of income would be developed before the oil ran out, I hope.

AFRICA – Wake Up
Some Africans forget that Nkrumah invested a great deal of Ghana’s money on freedom fighters in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique before they could bear those African names with pride. Pa Imoudu fought colonialism and neocolonialism, that he died at 103 years is a miracle. Kenyatta and mau mau days are passé. If Nigeria breaks, those investments would be in vain. While we are being distracted by resource allocation, our foreign reserve is creating jobs and businesses overseas!

Those hungry Africans, for whatever reason, begging for aides, will never be respected. We pay billions in penalties on interest and millions is given back to us as aides, but some of us can not connect the two together. Some of our children are more confident than us because they know their history as Africans and also educate their friends. Those images on television, makes it harder for them. Just as hard, as Biafran jokes made it hard on us then.

While people argue about the size of loan forgiveness to African countries and that of Nigeria, I wonder what Obasanjo would do with the foreign reserve. As Stephen Fajemirokun warned us – you can only redistribute wealth, not poverty.

Suggestion: Invest some in the clean up of the Niger Delta for agricultural investment. Some of the money can also be used in the abandoned desert of the North for reforestation and agricultural investment. Call upon all Nigerians on how to spend the rest but do not wait until you leave in 2007. Remember Okigbo report on how easy it was to spend money set aside. Then, the list given to you at the G8 meeting; I agree with you that they are not stupid, but were you surprised at the names on the list or embarrassed?

Anyone familiar with my views already knows about working harder and harder to pay for each imported tractor in 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 with double and triple tons of cocoa until cocoa lost its value. While the price of tractor doubles, the price of cocoa is cut in half. Another product is fish caught and sold, only to be packaged and sold back to you as sardine for twice the price they bought our fish. Before then, mirrors were shown as part of secrete religious ritual until the Europeans made theirs available to whoever could exchange it for gold. I bet those who exchanged gold for mirrors celebrated the deal then.

There is a new one. It is called loan deals from Paris Club. That foreign reserve is like honey attracting both local and foreign killer bees. By the time we know it, it will be gone AGAIN.

Thank God, something has been worked out. They are falling over one another to take credit. From Mr. President, the Finance Minister, the House who voted to stop payment to Mr. Sachs, Live 8 Sir Bob Geldof, G8 Mr. Blair etc. Please AWARD, AWARD, AWARD, NOMINATIONS.

It was Jeffrey Sachs, the United Nation envoy, who said it was callous to expect a Country like Nigeria to pay out $12 billion as part of loan agreement when the yearly budget was $3– 4 billion. I say, thank you Mr. President for your effort. How are you going to spend the rest of the reserve before leaving office?

According to a neutral voice, Lex Rieffle, a Visiting Fellow with the prestigious, Brookings Institution: The problem has to do with a flaw in Paris Club debt restructuring than Nigeria’s ability to pay. Nigeria loan ballooned by 23 billion because of interest arrears, interest charged on those arrears and penalties. But one of the core principles of the Club is that creditors can not profit from rescheduling once in the hands of the Club?

Nigeria’s commercial bank creditors gave a Brandy Bond exchange in 1992 of the same 60 percent that they are now jubilating over in 2005 from Paris Club. African Union signed agreement that they will not accept any deal less than 67%. What should those countries with total loan forgiveness do for celebration then?

Paris Club needs to be at par with multilateral and commercial creditors by slashing the loan by 80% over three years, a buyback of half of the remaining amount. Anything else is callousness as noted by Mr. Sachs; and another form of exploitation as Africans know. Only a dying man knows the pinch of death.

Even our World Bank Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala blamed Abacha years of none payment. I can not believe that I will find myself in a position where I will take the side of Abacha, against the World Bank Finance Minister who claimed that Simon Kolawole’s argument against the deal lacked common sense. But a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. In Yoruba, it means – Owo olowo, ati ti eni, ki mejeji ma won wa.

They can keep their million dollars aides and we can keep our billions dollars. In fact, I am rather persuaded by the reasoning of our former Finance Minister, Chu S. P. Okongwu that it is too early to celebrate since they want our money based on mere invitation to negotiate. He also warned against this precedent for developing countries. Those Latin American countries are watching us, saying – Africans, here they go again!

If we do not pay up, our credit rating will fall and we will not be able to borrow money again! How many billionaires go borrowing? I have written about the difficult situation we find ourselves but I never realized we can afford to pay that much money, who would? The rich will always find creative ways to remain rich as long as there are poor Countries like Nigeria willing to pay through the nose.

Indeed, those who get the most favorable loans are those with money in millions, not to mention billions. Those without money do not get invitation to borrow. As the saying goes the banks like to borrow money to those who already have. So they give them low interest rate as inducement to use “Other Peoples Money, OPM”.

WE NEED NIGERIA MORE THAN NIGERIA NEEDS US
When I was in primary school, I read it in one of my brother’s book that – the most desirable is not the easiest attainable. Someone once turned to me and said – I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. What? Of Nigeria’s problem?

There is more at stake than Nigeria, there is Africa and there is the Black race. Paying $12 billion is not the only cruelty or many obstacles Blackman confronts. That type of money coming into any club or corporation will make one instant Senior Partner or the Chief Executive. Our biggest threat is within. In Yoruba – Ti ota ile ko ba pani, ti ita kole pani. In Latin – Et tu Brutus? In English – with friends like this, who needs enemies?

Many black writers, scholars and thinkers have advocated a means by which black race can defend itself. Some of them were brought up in an article, Chinweizu: Reconstruction of Nigeria – Four Delusions on our Strategic Horizon.

Even when we are tired of being sick and tired, we have to keep our eyes on the prize. Our goals remain the same – Self Sufficiency and Respect. We are not in a position to confront the whole world. Everyone celebrates Martin Luther King but it took, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Black Panthers, Thurgood Marshall and many others before they decided to deal with “moderates”, as the voice of reason.

Priorities are very important. Nigeria needs to be able to feed itself first and foremost. Turn water into land for agriculture, turn desert into vegetation for agriculture. How did they construct that transatlantic pipe or Tran Alaska pipe line or oil pipes from Southern Nigeria? Put engineers together to devise ways of constructing pipes of water from the ocean if too many boreholes will create faults. Others may learn and buy the novelty from us. Nigeria needs to feed the whole of West Africa or ECOWAS, and the rest of Africa will follow.

As much as I agree that the best defense is a deterrent to save the black world, we have higher priority. We need to work with people of goodwill all over the world to solidify our position. Live Aide and G8 will not be there each time we are in need. We must work on empathy not sympathy. We can only get back crumbs from exploitation of our resources to satisfy their conscience.

We do not need nuclear power to fight. We need it for peaceful means. Canada developed Candu reactors for India. We do not need to rediscover that, we can move on to new technologies. We can put some of our scientist in a camp with part of our foreign reserve and let them brainstorm until they come up with something. If they can live in Saudi Arabia in a compound far from home, camp them in Nigeria away from detractors. If any of them demand remuneration in foreign dollars or some super treatment, he can not be conscientious. Most of the people who do these are ready to serve for little, nevertheless they and their families must be taken care of.

Unfortunately, many people would die for their Ethnic group but not for Nigeria. Ethnic propaganda is not our fight. We will just destroy one another for those who will watch us and cheer. We need to think deep about our status in this world. All the education in the world will not help us if we do not like ourselves but think about ME. There is no you or me without us.

See also No Power can Break Nigeria but Contentious Issues within in Collaboration with Foreign Corporate Interests, Part I

Posted by Administrator at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)

July 26, 2005

No Power can Break Nigeria But Contentious Issues within in Collaboration with Foreign Corporate Interests, Part I

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- The days of direct colonialism are gone. It is now done with the help of those within, by way of neo-colonialism. If any of the contentious issues dividing Nigeria can be exploited by corporate interest, one may wonder how we can survive in peace or in pieces. If it was not Nigeria/Biafra war, Christians versus Muslim or Shiite versus Sunni, it was indigene versus citizen, Fulani/Hausa, Nomads/Farmers, Yoruba versus Hausa versus Igbo interest/militant groups or On/off/in shore or deep water resources.

It will be easier to label people enemy within, but a thoughtful study of the situation will indicate complex problems in dire need of solutions. Many people have given up, as if there is a viable alternative than Nigeria for Africa or the Black race.

The endemic and immediate problems center on land and its resources within proximate boundaries. It is among the same brothers and sisters who traced their ancestors to Egypt or Sudan in each of their oral histories but refused to acknowledge one another in Nigeria. They mixed, adapted, assimilated, inter married with the Autochthonous people they met in waves of migrations all over West Africa, resulting in different dialects, languages and ethnicities. See THE FATHER OF ALL NIGERIAN ETHNIC GROUPS. Unfortunately, out of selfishness our leaders do not want to see beyond their noses. Those who could never get the opportunity to rule, if they got the opportunity, they never lasted.

Nigeria with a population of about 130 million people is noted to have over 250 ethnics groups spread in an area of 923,768 km square, which is usually compared to the size of California. Each of these ethnic groups claims to be a nation. Nigeria, like the rest of West Africa, is heavily populated in the south and sparely populated in the north, leaving advantageous amount of land up north, partly abandoned to desert encroachment.

Nevertheless, people all over the world are attracted to cities where there are good chances of securing livelihood. In spite of all our problems, Nigerians live and work all over the Country. Indeed, Nigerians live and work all over the world! Some survive as economic refugees. As soon as problem starts, each group returns to their land of origin.

Foreign corporate interest are the multinational companies that operate only for their own good in the developing countries where the laws and control are not as solid as in their base but with all the leverage of the home countries and the help of world organizations like World Bank, International Monetary Fund or the World Trade Organization. Economic success has to be dictated and home grown in developing countries and if these corporate interest with their monopoly in technology are not monitored closely, they leave host countries dry. They are ready to flood the market with subsidized products until they gain control of the market. They would exploit the raw materials without regard for the welfare of the people or the environment.

Kwame Nkrumah tried to from a cartel among developing countries in order to dictate the price of cocoa. He lost. Julius Nyerere tried Ujama in Tanzania to be self sufficient, he lost. When Sekou Toure tried to gain self reliance in Guinea, he lost their cooperation. Any developing country that needs the assistance of these corporate interests to develop has to pay a price dictated to them. Unfortunately, Nigeria with her gifted bargain power has not had these calibers of men at the helm.

If it is hard enough for a country the size of Nigeria with her comparatively educated skills, it could spell disaster for any of the 250 Ethnic Nigerians who see themselves as 250 nations. We are aware that most of the viable small countries exist at the pleasure and whim of their protectors who accept them as trading partners.

South-south/North-central Alliance
It is a shame that the people of the South-south and the North-central can not agree on resource allocation. There is people power but only if those who have it, know how to use it. The first time the Alliance came out, the Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani and Igbo Ethnic groups scrabbled for cover. One of the member of the Alliance, North-central has majority in the Army and the South-south has the oil resource. That would be a formidable alliance to beat by any of the so called major Ethnic group. They could elect or appoint all the major people in the ministries and armed forces within their States since Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa-Fulani could be found in the South-south and North-central.

The power of the South-south/North-central Alliance may result in reverse discrimination and two wrongs would not turn Nigeria into a just society, others feared. But let the major Ethnic groups complain about reverse marginalization too, at least for a while! Power has been tossed between the major Ethnic groups, and the minorities, who are actually the majority, can dictate the way they want to run Nigeria. The Igbo group has certainly not gained as much as the Hausa/Fulani or the Yoruba.

The South-south and the North-central alliance may turn out to be a dream anyway. There are elements hoping that any move towards that union, would not be accomplished - “scatter scatter them”. And scatter they did, so far. It is therefore not surprising that they could not agree on the percentage of resource allocation. Can any region in Nigeria successfully challenge any agreement between the two on resource allocation?

Some of the Youth movements in the North have come out in favor of whatever the Delta States want because they think they can survive on their own without the oil money. They have not benefited from the oil money anyway in spite of the decades of rule by their leaders. They will rather prepare for dwindling world oil reserve or Peak Oil.

Political Alliances
History and facts point to evidence that Nigerians have reached out to one another and made political alliance before and will do so again. Unfortunately, our elections since the fifties had problems but it is one of the evidences we can point to. We have to be careful about statistics and interpretations. Different people have interpreted the same result differently, including that of Alkasum Abba.

Niger Delta/Northern Alliance
Both Cross River and Rivers States joined with the NPC and later NPN. Niger Delta States joined with any party from the North to rule Nigeria. PDP actually captured most of the Southern States in the 2004 election, an example of suspected result we have to be careful of.

The point here is that Niger Delta has always been an ally of most of the Northern part of Nigeria. The reason for this can be fear of domination by their southern neighbors and be part of the ruling party. In politics, there are no permanent friends or foe.

After all, there are allegations that: The Yoruba dominated Mid-west for a long time and Enahoro never became the Premier of the West. Awolowo has been accused of elevating Olu of Itsekiri to Olu of Warri, a City in constant dispute in the Niger Delta. The Igbo dominated most of the businesses in the South-south until the war. The Hausa-Fulani dominated Middle-Belt for a long time as Officers in the Armed Forces while they were the majority. Even if some of these allegations and others are not true, the fact that people feel that way must be addressed.

History teaches us that most of the Ethnic groups in the South-south belong to the same Adamu/Adimu/Oduduwa or Oba/Obi dynasty which is the same one Awolowo came from. So we may be fighting over territorial integrity rather than ethnicity. The case of the Somali or Tutsi and Hutu may be similar ones here. These are all the same people killing one another because of differences in territorial power.

NCNC – Igbo/Yoruba Alliance
So many Nigerians have reached out across the rivers at their convenience. Another case is the suspicion between the Yoruba and the Igbo. Again, these are brothers who knew one another in the past as I have shown in the reference above by history. When Herbert Macaulay was the leader of NCNC, Azikiwe was his deputy who eventually succeeded him. These Yoruba and Igbo got along fine and made gains in all the elections in Lagos and Ibadan, strong hold of the Yoruba. Azikiwe was sent as a political representative from Lagos to the Western Assembly. It was Ibadan Peoples Party that split between Awolowo’s Action Group and Azikiwe’s NCNC. Ibadan became the strong hold of NCNC led by Azikiwe, and Adelabu from Ibadan Peoples Party.

Instead of commending this act by the Yoruba in Lagos and Ibadan as no other part of Nigeria has ever duplicated it, cynicism turned it upside down. Indeed, if that unity between brothers across ethnic lines were present all over Nigeria or encouraged, there would not have been any opportunity to exploit it and we might have looked elsewhere for our problems. It is referred to as the foundation of ethnic nationalism or preservation as if Hausa, Ibibio State Union and Igbo Federal Union were not already in existence years before Egbe Omo oduduwa.

This Igbo/Yoruba NCNC could not hold in the East - out of 13 seats in the Calabar Province, Eyo Ita could only hold two for them, while independents won the rest. In Orlu division, Chief Ezeriocha defeated NCNC Nbonu Ojike and also carried Mbadiwe who defected from NCNC. Reuben Uzoma also won as independent there. In Zik’s Onitsha, Sir Mbanefo won as an independent.

NCNC/NPC Alliance
Indeed, Azikiwe had a choice of being the Executive Prime Minister of Nigeria, courtesy of Awolowo who was ready to be his deputy in an alliance. Or, the opportunity to become the President of Nigeria, courtesy of Ahmadu Bello, and Tafawa Balewa as the Prime Minister. Azikiwe decided to be the President of Nigeria. This is another example of reaching out among Nigerians. But cynicism will always have a part to play and people will interpret it to fit their goal. It was the last opportunity Azikiwe had of being the civilian executive Prime Minister, though Ironsi became the Supreme Commander in 1966. That is why many Nigerians are calling for Igbo President. But the South-south also wants the first ever opportunity to rule.

Kanuri/Yoruba/Igbo/Tiv Alliance
The PRP Governors of Kano and Kaduna, the NPP Governors of Plateau, Imo and Anambra, the GNPP Governors of Gongola and Borno joined with Governors of Oyo, Ogun and Ondo to form Progressive Alliance. There was the UPGA formed between Adegbenro in the West and Opara in the East.

North/South Alliance?
In 1993, Abiola defeated Tofa in most of the Fulani/Hausa/Kanuri States in the North apart from Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi and Niger. In the south he also defeated him apart from Abia, Enugu, Imo and Rivers. It was humiliating that Obasanjo lost his deposit in most of the Yoruba States in 1999 election, while the rest of the Country voted for him except Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfarawa. In the 2004 election, he made sure he was not humiliated again in the West.

What We Have In Common
It all boils down to the fact that if the interest of the masses are taken into consideration, Nigerians would rather unite across class lines than ethnic lines. The middle class is disappearing fast in Nigeria leaving the lower class in the majority to fend for themselves. The poor in Niger Delta has more in common with the poor in the North or South. Poor people want the same thing – food, jobs, education and healthcare. Agricultural industries would solve about a third of that problem. Declaring war on the erosion and polluted water in Niger Delta, Nigerian shores and encroachment of desert in the North may douse out suspicion over Revenue Allocation.

War on the Pollution and Erosion of Water Basins
All Nigerians agree that Niger Delta environment has been polluted by the oil companies. Fishing, farming and the use of water for daily life have become increasingly difficult. Moreover, erosion around the shore of the Country has been consuming communities while Authorities argue about whose responsibility it is to arrest the situation. If we can agree that it is our number one problem, how much of our income are we willing to allocate to the solution?

Desert Encroachment in the North.
Vegetation is giving way to desert in the Northern part of our Country. It is becoming a waste land. Yet, other countries exist in the desert, and are able to turn it into fertile land for agriculture. We can do the same since it is going to benefit us on the long run. We can turn it into farmland, or use it for other purpose as our population increases. This will create jobs for our youths who are beaming with energy. This youthful exuberance can be redirected to the advantage of the Country.

Education
I do not know of a single Country that has not invested heavily in education, all Nigerians believe in good education. It is a lucrative business in Nigeria for the private sector which is a good endeavor on the part of business. However, Government schools are suffering and can not compete with private schools. Indeed, it costs much more to go to private primary or secondary schools in Nigeria than it costs to go to Colleges and Universities. That may change as private universities are being approved for the “money bags”.

Other
In spite of their merit or demerit, we had agreed on delay of Independence, Census and Identification cards, federal character, creation of States and Local Governments?

Areas of Disagreement
The rights of political control of the resources on the land passed on from many generations by the people who had mixed with the Autochthonous in certain areas have created the most problems in Nigeria. It ranges from that of indigene of those days to that of new comers who are nevertheless bona fide citizens anywhere in Nigeria.

The land owners are the indigene and one can hardly find a free land anywhere today where others, citizens or not, can lay claim without compensation. The Europeans claim they have treaties with the Indians who could not read their letters about land in Americas. Every court of law, at least recognize just compensation in case of government take over (or eminent domain) for the common good.

In Nigeria, those claiming two States are opportunists who claim indigene of one and citizen of another. However, during religious or ethnic festivals or census or marriage, they run to their home States. When they want to run for offices, if they fail in one State,
they try another. All they want is a second bite at the apple (a ki je meji ni Meka), while depriving others of a single bite in their home States.

Once the law is passed that you can only claim one State in Nigeria and stripped of the citizenship of another State, many will think twice whether to compete with an indigene.
People do have land in Nigeria that is exclusively theirs, all the talk about land belonging to the autochthonous only, are made by opportunist. We are all part autochthonous people part Nigerians. Even if all Nigerians are the same Ethnic group, people still have economic interest in their locations within Nigeria.

Producers of Income
No matter what, the area that produces wealth must have considerable say on how it is distributed and must be of benefit to that area, not a curse. There is some status reserved for income producers everywhere, but it must benefit the whole country.

The case of Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada and Peter Loogheed, Premier of oil producing Province of Alberta in the seventies became a fight. Loogheed wanted world price for Alberta oil and Trudeau refused. Indeed, Loogheed would rather sell to the Americans at the world price than to fellow Canadians. The slogan then from Alberta was “let the Eastern bastard freeze to death”. Trudeau shot back and labeled him “Sheik Loogheed of Alberta”. Of course, Trudeau won and Alberta gained during the following downturn in its economy through redistribution. Ontario traditionally contributes more to Canada than other Provinces.

Nigeria is gifted in natural resources but the so called easy money that has turned us into lazy kleptomanias has done more damage than good not only for Niger Delta as said by Saro Wiwa but the whole Country. We were the producer of groundnut, cocoa, palm oil and kernel, tin, bauxite and food that fed the whole of West Africa. Those are lost past glories, unfortunately lost with some of our intellects. Nigerians can neither revitalize old source of income nor plan for the future!

Oil in the Niger Delta runs out in 38 years and for 40 years we could not find our bearings. There are many discoveries and other source of energy by solar, wind, even our dams are crumbling. If we had to rely on old technology, Nigeria would still be waiting for Abiola to bring us telephone service.

In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in United States, Hospitals and Colleges attracts money from all over the world, as major part of the economy. Nigerians are trained all over the world but we are still to make any part of our economy world class. Every country got its start from textile industry and move on to transport. Nigeria is still waiting to produce car for West African countries. What are we going to do when the oil runs out? What individual contribution has each of us made to Nigeria? See THE SILENT MAJORITY IS PART OF THE PROBLEM AS THEY SAY – Only God Can Save Nigeria!

Part 2 coming soon

Posted by Administrator at 08:02 PM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2005

Respect the Dignity of Labor as Mothers and Fathers are the only Heroes left to Emulate

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- African fathers and mothers are not necessarily the ones that gave birth to you. They are the ones you look up to and turn to in time of need, trouble, gratitude and joy. Most of them are not teachers in the classrooms, accountants, administrators, lawyers or doctors. Yet, they are our guides, keeper of our culture and the pillars of our communities, the heroes the children look up to. The debate made popular in American political circle about that African ideology is a case in point – It takes a village to raise a child.

Sometimes African children ask their parents – how many small and big daddies or mummies do I have? That does not include uncles and aunties. It takes a great deal to qualify for this bestowed honor, especially on far relatives. A millionaire, excuse me, a billionaire that has squandered his family’s honor does not qualify, a president that has abused his people does not qualify, and neither does a sport legend that has disgraced his country. There are cases where some people have changed their names so that they would not be associated with those who have been disgraced.

It is very sad when the President of Nigeria asked for reinterpretation of Supreme Court judgment against his Government, got tuned down, he seized on a single word “inchoate” as his own interpretation to continue denying Lagos State of it allocation. The same allocation sharing, that has been breaking us further apart at every conference. It is shameful and embarrassing that an attorney, Ephraim Duru angrily accused the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Muhammadu Lawal Uwais of corruption in an open court. NIGERIA, OUR CHILDREN ARE WATCHING. There are procedures and ways of resolving our differences. Our forbearers were more civilized than the outside world. This talk about young democracy is demeaning, as if we did not exist at a point in the past.

In spite of 419, prostitutes, kleptomanias, and vagabonds, majority of the people are honest and very hard working. As we know, they never made the news. The notorious ones did. I was deeply hurt the first time I red a memorandum circulating that majority of Nigerians are crooks. Not only was it false, it was intentionally done to exclude some people from well paying jobs. I realized how the Italians felt when they label them Mafia, or the Jews or Arabs with derogatory labels.

When I told someone that I do not know any of those crooks, he laughed. He told me I do not want to know them. These days, when you report them to their parents back home, the mother would ask you “if na your money he steal?” He cautioned. It used to be “not my son”. We are making progress though; Ribadu is prosecuting people in high places, the South African Vice President has been fired for implication in fraud. In Nigeria, we are still waiting to bring former military/politicians to book. They are too busy gunning for a comeback. One of them, Buhari has called for the exposure of the owners of $170bn foreign accounts, another good place to start. The fish rot from the head, as they say. The lion share of that money belongs to a well known few at the head tables.

Remember my definition of mothers and fathers as the heroes of our time. They are your fathers and mothers that only you and your relatives know. They are the same ones who made sacrifices so that their children and relatives could go to school. Some of them leave home for three months or more; working in the coal, gold, diamond mines or outside home before coming back. Sometimes denying themselves the same benefit they provide others. Unfortunately, they do not have glamorous jobs, and we do not respect the dignity of their labor. Teachers are now asking for reward on earth not in heaven – what took them so long?

I still know some friends who are highly educated but can not take regular jobs because they spend six months in Nigeria and six or three months outside. They are in Nigeria during the winter months, of course. Whenever, they are outside, anything they can lay their hands on, is what they do – leasing cabs, as security guards, overnight staff or sleep over etc. Yes, some are old enough but with responsibilities in Nigeria. The only job those ones would do is sleep over or kissed the job good bye!

Africans have many sayings about the dignity of labor. InYoruba, Iwe kiko layi si oko ati ada. Koi pe o…” Education without the ability and tools to farm is incomplete.

These heroes would shun recognition if shoved in their face. They are too busy thinking about making ends meet, how to care for relatives and anyone that touched them. They preached what they practice and are usually frugal. Never waste anything and would teach you how to do better than they did. Their prayer was that you would do better in life than they did (direct African translation).

Some of their stories were about doing what you could and expecting nothing in return. If they had to count on or wait on brothers and sisters who had turned their backs after getting help, no one would pass on the good deeds.

The heroes were the ones that helped their parents and sometimes helped bring up their siblings. We have heard stories of those who denied themselves further education so that they could work to help the family. Some of these heroes, after taking care of their old parents, finished the task of raising their own children, are now raising grandchildren. Well, well, well. Oh well!

Our heroes made their money the old fashion way, they earned it with sweat on their brow. Some of them learned from their parents’ trade. After school, they helped their parents buy and sell. When the Italians were mostly in construction, building cities, their children helped and learned the trade but became architects, engineers and doctors. When the Chinese and later the Koreans opened restaurants and corner stores, their children helped after school and on weekends. They generated enough money to send the children to professional schools. When the Jews, with their culture intact and with economic success, could not get into country clubs, they built better country clubs. They also built their own hospitals and those who denied them access, begged to apply. That is how heroes are created - by adhering to the better part of our culture which spread goodwill and respect within the African village.

There is nothing wrong with being a farmer if you own the farm. There is nothing wrong with being a cab driver if you strife to own yours. It was Dr. Azikiwe who was sent to the President or boss of an American University to deliver a letter. He saw a gardener cutting grass at the gate and insisted that the letter was for the President or master. He was shocked to see the master cutting grass. He owned the house.

We have a way of disrespecting hard working men and women in Nigeria. In the days when buses used to run between Gbaja market and Yaba in Lagos, we saw this man shoveling dirt out of the cutter. The ladies turned in dismay. I asked them how they would react if he had pointed a gun at them in the middle of the night asking for their money. Now, gutters do not get that luxury service anymore except on environmental day. The next day, it goes back right where it came from, the gutter. The laborers are our parents trying to provide food and shelter for their families. That should not disqualify them as heroes of our time.

There was a friend of mine who went for postgraduate training in pathology outside Nigeria. He told us about a party he attended. He was taken by the beautiful house. So he wanted to know what the owner did for a living. When he found out that the owner was a factory worker, he was disgusted. He would not live in such a beautiful house if he had that type of job. That was the wrong mentality. He did not realize that middle class neighborhoods have people in different professions. Laborers could not enjoy classy cars, a beautiful house with the family after a hard laborious day at work?

I must confess that I was shocked that the same “laborers”, construction workers made a lot of money in America. When the minimum wage was about a dollar fifty, they were making three dollars or more! That was big money in those days. I actually made more money in those days as a member of United Auto Worker than I did when I left University. If everyone had a taste of manual labor at some point in life, might be, our attitude to labor could have been different. It might even help keep children in school, after getting a taste of what might be waiting for them.

There was a graduate student in Abuja who did odd jobs at construction sites with the hope of saving enough money to start his own business when he got out of school. In the (ungrateful to Nkrumah) days of Ghana must go, there was also this beautiful girl from Ghana who was a full time helper with my sister but also a student at University of Lagos. My sister encouraged her with the time she needed for her studies.

If you never thought of them as heroes, do not blame yourself, when did this writer start respecting laborer, if not after learning some hard lessons in America. It was in Canada that I realized that those high school graduates I. K Dairo was singing about as laborers at Ikeja could have been me. I was a court clerk in Lagos in suit everyday, so when I got to Canada, I wore suit looking for my first job. The lady at Manpower was kind enough to give me a shovel in deep snow to start digging!

My friend had a different experience. He wanted a job in construction where the money was. On his first day, he was asked if he could use the digging machine. Of course, he used it many times before, he lied. He got to use it for a couple of hours before they took it away from him. When he got home, he complained that his body parts kept vibrating like the machine he operated and would not stop. He was lucky. A friend who also lied that he could operate a buffing machine got thrown away by the force of the machine when he started it!

These laborers who made honest living were the real heroes because of what they taught and provided for their children. Some of them are Okada riders, cart pushers and load carriers. Those who made minimum wage worked two or three jobs or long hours on the same job. Children who have been ashamed of the jobs their parents did were surprised to see how the children of the mighty turned out as loafers. One thing about Africa is that the profession of the parents did not determine the profession of the children.

There was a young man who got a Peugeot 504 car as a present from his Dad after leaving University. He was furious. He claimed his father was stingy because his friend got a Mercedes Benz. Some of us were glad we bought ours with our own money. A child who does not realize that discipline and character are more important than any inheritance, will loose it all. “Easy come, easy go.”

I had followed my friend to visit his sister I had not seen for a long time. When we got there, we met another friend with his sister who used to hang around us as a kid. My friend was annoyed and embarrassed. Well, the guy we met pulled himself out of poverty and became a bank manager. So his sister was lucky, I thought.

We heard stories about those who have “made it” in Europe and America going back home to marry princes and princesses they would not even “eye” when they were home. On the other hand, there was the girl who got an abortion after realizing that the guy came home without a degree. Another professional girl committed suicide after realizing she had followed a loafer outside Nigeria. Many of those guys got stranded in Europe and America after foreign exchange from Nigeria dried up. Instead of working and going to school like the rest of us, they refused to respect the dignity of labor.

When I was in high school, one of my teachers told me the truth about Europe and America. He said you would have the television, the stereo and the beautiful apartment. But you would work so hard that by the time you get home and get to relax on your comfortable couch, the burning food you left on the stove would wake you up. He said one of his friend cried that his father was a chief in Nigeria. He told him to shut up. His own father was a minister in then Western House. I never forgot that story. People in Nigeria believe whatever they want to hear.

My Principal in high school happened to know my Dad. We had him for English Literature one day. He stared at me with his bold and scary eyes quoting – the glory of our blood and state are shadows not substantial things. I wondered who he was talking to, then. Later on, I realized the point he was making. But my father never said he had money. He had never given me more than half of what I asked for.

There were other heroes, our peers after high school. We use to make fifteen pounds per month. Out of that money, they would send five pounds to their villages, five pounds for their rent and the rest of the five pounds for food, transport and clothes. I could not understand how they did it. Little did I realize that they were preparing me for days beyond Nigeria. They were industrious and in a special class.

How did I spend my money then? It is time to point fingers at myself again. I neither pay rent nor pay for food. My friends and I knew how to give money and take it back. We would give our mothers about five pounds for save keeping. By the end of the month, we would borrow all back plus whatever we could get. Of course, we never missed Sunday Jump at Kakadu, Friday night at Maharani, Saturday night at Caban Baboo. But my tolerance for alcohol has always been very low, so I never drank more than a bottle of star. I would then brag to my friends that no matter how much I had, I never got drunk. It could be worse.

As we started getting paid biweekly, a friend of mine would blow most of his salary in one night. All you had to do was hail him at the bar, he would shout – give him a star!
One of our judicious friends who came from outside Lagos tried to talk senses into his head one day by telling him to stop asking them for bus fare to get to work. This particular one was making less money than him. He answered that if he was making more money, and the guy kept giving him money, it meant that the guy had not learned anything since coming to Lagos. We all laughed - what an ingrate!

The heroes are the bus drivers and the conductors who took money home for the benefit of their families in order that their children could eat and go to school. So when looking for those to praise, do not look too far from home. Africans do not wait until Fathers’ or Mothers’ Day either. Labor Day has a deep meaning, that is for another day. Those with big and ostentatious titles have disappointed us. “Man pass man, position pass power.”

If there is no dignity of labor, all countries would grind to a halt. Where labor is cheap as in many developing countries, we hire others to do everything for us. In countries where labor is expensive, most people learn how to do things themselves. Indeed, a whole industry is geared towards “Do It Yourselfers”. As one gets older or busier, one has to decide which would be cheaper. Collapse under your car repairing it or let a mechanic.

It got to a stage, when I tried to repair anything, the children would call each other – he would mess it up again. I did not get credit for the ones I fixed right. I tried to fix my car one day and messed up the timing. The mechanic told me he had to spend extra time to fix it and charged me dearly. As I was working on my car one time, this lady asked me if I could fix hers. I told her, if I messed up my car, fine. If I messed up her car, both of us would be sorry. She left me alone. It was not just a hobby; the fact was that I was trying to save myself some money. Yes, call me what you want.

Fortunately, Nigeria has continued promoting competition among high school students to show their skill in Art and Science. We are reading about interesting achievements by these young men and women in high schools. It has always been recognized but has never been given this much publicity by the press. Since some of us have disappointed the younger generation of Africans, this is the least we can do for them. The recognition encouragement, and promotion of their ideas will create a new generation of African heroes that all of us can be proud of.

Peer pressure is a very important factor in the life of children. I have seen many wonderful performances by our youths in Nigeria and outside. Some of the students got themselves together into an organization, raised money in United States and Canada and went to a few places including Abuja to start summer camps for their brothers and sisters. They are the heroes and I told them - when I grow up, I want to be like them!

Good moral characters, hard work and those who practice what they preach are not too far from your home. These are your parents and your heroes.

Posted by Administrator at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)

June 04, 2005

Health for all the Poor Hard working Nigerians

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- There are so many promises – Health for all, Food for all, Water for all, Education for all, House for all, National Health Insurance, Economic Empowerment and Strategy Development, Eradication of Poverty et cetera. It does not mean much anymore, does it? The unpopular question is whether Nigeria can afford ALL. None of these is impossible if done with practical planning, reasonable statistics or estimate, in stages and by priority. Dedicated planners have tried and failed for reasons that went beyond their control.

The World Health Organization and the Federal Ministry of Health came up with Health For All by the year 2000, by Primary Health Care in the early 1980s in Nigeria. Health was defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. They wanted a level that would lead to socially and economically productive lives. So it was not just health, it was health for a purpose, that would raise standard of living of the poor.

If anyone wants to see hard working people, Nigeria is one of the places to look at. Raising standard of living in Nigeria should definitely apply to the hardest working people in the whole world. They work from dawn to dusk and hardly get any respect or a little pay for their sweat. They are the farmers, hunters, fishermen, hawkers, waste disposers and helpers in different homes. They hardly ask Nigeria for anything because they have given up. The meager earnings come from their sweat. Indeed, they believe Government is there for the big men not little people like them. If anything, Government takes from them in form of trading taxes on the spot. During elections, if there is any, they might be bribed with a bag of subsidized imported rice that would discourage production of their indigenous rice.

Health for all has been called names like social medicine, social justice or environmental justice but hidden in all these is how to spend the health money. Different countries have adopted a variety of programs to deal with their health situations. Some have established programs for the weakest members of their society or the working poor or the elderly. The amount of health care a country can afford is being debated in every country including Nigeria. In the end, the health need of the poor is cheaper and therefore cover more people compared to the exotic diseases of the very few.

If we go by what is already known, a Country like Nigeria would spend its health money on Primary Health Care and less on tertiary care. By that statement, I have already stepped on toes. Nigeria is a Country that talked primary care but spent on tertiary care. It could be a different situation if private companies establish private hospitals as we have in our State capitals while the Government supports them with left over money from primary care by strategic locations, sharing of diagnostic equipments and elective surgeries, like magnet teaching hospitals. As it is, Government hospitals are referral post for private hospitals. In cases where it is seen fit, patients are flown outside the Countries. I must hasten to say that it is not that simple. Whoever is sick, anywhere, wants the best healthcare his/her money can buy! Only a dying man knows the pinch of death.

This is loaded. We are making a choice here of where to spend health money and for whom. We can all agree that all the big hospitals in Nigeria can not function because of lack of equipment and maintenance. Even though, Nigerian doctors are some of the best in the world. Only so much out of our budget is allocated to health, most of which pays salary. Why build what we can not maintain for few people and neglect clinics we can use for many people? This question is answered differently as some examples will demonstrate how complicated it gets.

Britain used to have a liberal policy on health care for everyone regardless of how low the income. Some Nigerians also took advantage of this generosity. When Edward Heath became the Prime Minister, the Conservative started chipping away from what they considered free for all health care. Today, with a Labor Prime Minister, the tightening up has not been relaxed, so health care in Britain is not as generous to the users and foreigners have to pay a stiff price. While Sweden, Switzerland and Holland are still generous, changes have been made over the years that chipped away at the benefit. Recently, Germany Social Democrats lost an election in one of the largest Region to more conservation Christian Democrats, so the swing to the right in healthcare continues in Europe as more conservative governments win elections. This may lead to the rejection of European Union as some of the countries may want to retain their health and social fabric without interference from a central body or immigration.

These differences in approach between conservatives and liberals are more pronounced in America between United States and Canada. Canada has what is called, a single payer system. The tax is collected by the Government and everyone gets healthcare without paying directly. United States considers this socialist medicine and will not adopt this in any way. While everyone in Canada can see a doctor, go to hospital for treatment or an operation, you have to be insured in United States to get these services. It must be noted that United States has Government Insurance that barely cover both the poor and the elderly. Another experimental insurance now helps working poor to buy insurance at their place of work since they can not afford it.

There are reasonable justification for each of these two policies in Europe and America. It is briefly mentioned to appreciate how complicated decision of health planners and Governments are. If you open the health system without restrictions, more people will use it more often because money does not come directly from their pocket. The more money that people pay directly from their pocket, the less healthcare they use. As the cost of health care increases, insurance companies demand more money at the time of service and insurance premium increases. In US, unlike Canada, private companies with certain number of employees offer health insurance. Policy makers want to encourage more companies to offer health insurance. The Government should not do what private companies can do, United States health policy makers would argue.

However, people who can not afford healthcare postpone their ailment until it becomes grave before they see a doctor. In many cases, these ailments could have been prevented if there is access to healthcare. That is, prevention is better than cure. So in the United States, those without health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid may not have access to healthcare. Some use emergency services in the hospitals at certain point though. Since all the emergency departments can not take in all these patients, some of the hospitals have closed theirs.

They also point to weakness in the Canadian health system because of waiting period for elective surgery and diagnostic equipment. As a Canadian that has the money may cross the border for these services if he can not wait, so does an American who finds healthcare cheaper in Canada. For example, to deliver baby in Canada or buy prescription drugs.

Cuba has a very good health care system; they can even afford to send doctors to other countries. Their salary is not that different from others in Cuba as in Russia. But I learnt my lesson in the seventies when a teacher I had thought was an armchair professor told me Nigeria and Kenya will never be socialist countries. There are certainly more than the scenario I have given but this is enough to make my point about what we need to take into consideration to fit our way of life in many developing countries like Nigeria.

Traditional Medicine: Africans know how to care for one another. We do not send our relatives to some home to be cared for, except hospitals. That caring in us, must be cherished. There is a purpose for every one of us in life, so we must never loose sight of our usefulness no matter how small or mighty we may be. We cry so much about Nigeria, we forget to count our blessings.

Africans have been looking after their sick and also took care of their poor before the advent of the missionaries. People came from outside and rediscovered our aspirin, antibiotics, antifungal, different types of drinks that cleanse the body (agbo). We have limited these as a profession that is passed from certain parents to children. Even in the worst of times, we had silver linings. During the dark period of Nigeria-Biafra war, we improvised, so many discoveries were made to sustain the sick, body and soul. As soon as the war passed, we lost most of them.

The reason some of the traditional medicine are unattractive is the lack of transparency, unsanitary and sometimes poisonous portion/medication associated with it. Some method of traditional medicine is shrouded in secrecy because recommended palliative is worse than the problem. We now have human parts dealers searching and selling all over the world acting as middlemen for medicine men that makes unholy demands. Go to some of those Ethnic markets around the world, there are locations where banned animal parts are sold as aphrodisiac or “donated organs” for transplant arranged.

While others around the world have investigated and improved on their witchcraft, magic and applied science to sort fake, deceit from medicine, we cry in amazement when our shrines are exposed. We pretend as if it only happens in certain part of Nigeria or only in certain part of the world. A few traditional kings have been chased out of their domain and blame for every calamity for not performing ungodly rituals before ascending their throne. Meantime, AIDS, malaria and sickle cell diseases are still ravaging our population in spite of cures that has not been fruitfully developed.

This hypocrisy can be understood if we examine the justification for healthcare to preserve dear life compared to the taking of life. The whole world have used religion, communism, democracy, capital punishment, slavery, self defense, war, even sex, et cetera to justify the reason for taking life. We brag about how many times over, we can destroy the world and the use of preemptive strikes. But for the men and women of reason who do not succeed all the time, a few humans all over the world can destroy long established peaceful co existence by disguising killing as sacrifice. We must preserve life through healthcare not sacrifice life before the altar of our selfish ends. We have to work continuously on our opportunistic primitive instinct. We have to establish civilize and reasonable ways to control our population.

Primary Health Care in the 1980s: Implementation of Health For All By The Year 2000. There is no way to discuss Primary Health Care in Nigeria without the world greatest community health worker, Professor Olikoye Ransome Kuti. He had started the work in Nigeria with International grants and was determined to take healthcare to the hardest working Nigerians in their towns and villages. By the time the Federal Ministry of Health took over Primary Care, many people expressed doubts as the Professor returned to University of Lagos Teaching Hospital. Nevertheless, he remained committed to the goals as the guiding light. The irony was, he later became the Minister of Health.

Nigeria had 19 States in this time period. 20 health clinics, 5 primary health centers and one comprehensive health centers were built in each State. The plan was flexible enough to accommodate the existing clinics or hospitals or priority of each State. Health Officers (physician assistants), nurses and health aides were trained in the schools of Health Technology and posted to the rural areas to staff the centers. Health Officers and Aides were local enough to prevent brain drain. All the mono trained health aids (leprosy or tuberculosis aides) were multi trained. It did not take much more to train them about simple combination of salt and water for oral re hydration in the case of diarrhea, or keep surroundings clear of stagnant water, or boiling of well water. Conferences, workshops and trainings were organized on regular basis to bridge knowledge between Teaching Hospitals and the staff of the centers.

In spite of reduced allocation from the Federal Ministry of Health, International organization worked in unison with the staff of Primary Health Care Implementation Agency. WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA supplied logistics for training, vehicles for transportation of staff into towns and villages, provided grants for hotel accommodation in the capitals cities. In between workshops and conferences, staff would leave the hotels at dawn to be driven to rural areas for training, to monitor field health officers, nurses, aides, inspect buildings and supply equipments. By the time Primary Health Staff were driven back to their hotels, it would be dusk. Nevertheless, reports and minutes of the day had to be written for presentation the following day and accountability to funding agencies. It was a demanding but fulfilling job. Who could have predicted that a Nigerian military Dictator would cause international isolation of the whole Country?

There was this village, like many, where traditional medicine man was so popular, more people were patronizing him than the health centers. Fortunately, he had grown children. Those children were recruited as health officer, nurse and health aides. Before they graduated, traffic increased at the health centers. Some of the traditional medicine men who agreed to take some training were awarded certificate to display. This way, Primary Health Care was able to monitor them, expanded and gained the trust of the communities.

Professor Adeoye Lambo, who was the head of World Health Organization at one point, included traditional medicine in his practice at Aro Hospital in those days. The fact that traditional medicine is not fully integrated in Nigeria only shows that more advocates are needed. Nigerian videos are now demystifying ritual practices long considered sacred. Many people are appalled by the fetish practice on these videos. The good part is that people now understand and see what was hidden and so can be investigated and sanitized.

We have to look at our priorities in terms of food, water, shelter - our basic needs; without health everything else is useless. It seems like a long time ago now, when India and China populations were starving while Nigerians had enough to eat and drink. Both Countries were able to solve their hunger problem and mobilized their bare foot doctors to provide adequate health care for their populations.

It has been identified that our health problem, like most developing countries, weighs heavily on the infectious and the parasitic diseases. Some would argue that the greatest achievement that solved this problem in Europe was not medicine, but engineering control of sanitary sewage and polluted water. Nobody would deny the role of Epidemiology though.

Expanded Program on Immunization ran into trouble in Kano about a year ago because of suspicion of hidden birth control agenda. During this period of suspended polio vaccine, some children came down with a virus that could have been prevented. Finally, it was resolved between the politicians, traditional rulers and health policy makers. They must be commended for their effort and this working cooperation should be extended to other programs and areas. Population control has never been an easy sell among conservatives all over the world.

While growing up in Nigeria, one of the politician’s solutions to population growth was that Nature would take care of it by natural disaster. Some years later, at Sick Children Hospital, one of the physicians was making arrangements to lead a team to Africa. One of his colleagues asked him who was going to feed all the children after they have been saved. Being young and idealistic, I was furious at this question which I thought was callous. Luckily my skin color could not betray my changed face. I later found out that the same physician was part of the team traveling. A few years ago, in environmental health, I was confronted by an angry lady, sharing the views of many, demanded my presence from one of our senior environmental investigators. She wanted to know why she had to spend money to remove lead paint from her house. If lead poisoning was more important than food and shelter, the same money needed in order to provide for her children.

The point here is the choice between food, water, shelter and healthcare is not easy but Primary Health Care success can help sort it out and solve population explosion. Indeed, population control is part of primary health care as family planning. We heard so many stories about China and their method of forced family planning. If we do not institute family planning and there is population explosion gravitating toward our major cities as in Nigeria, we might overrun our facilities and our food supply (haven’t we?). At this point food is the primary concern of the family and not healthcare. There should not be competition between food and health. The reasons for this are the diseases caused by lack of proper nutrition and the diseases caused by lack of adequate supply of clean drinking water. In countries with abundant supply of food and clean water, selecting what to eat is the problem. But in other countries, getting what to eat and access to safe water are the problem. Nigeria sits by Atlantic Ocean! In any case, health education and information have to come from primary health care.

Kwashiorkor and malnutrition in the form of eating the same thing without varieties is common, if there is something to eat. My experience is that in spite of variety of food, there is that tendency to eat the same thing all the time. Why eat only corn meal, or just gari, or only hamburger or just fish and chips day and night when food in different combinations, shapes, colors and makes in small portions will do? My favorite dish was plantain (dodo) rice and beans. We had a military Governor in those days who said, he only ate pounded yam three times a day! Vegetables grow in abundance in tropical countries but imported food sometimes replaces the taste of varieties.

There are different types of sugar drinks these days that people, especially children forget about plain water. It gets worse with lack of clean portable water. Diseases of stagnant dirty water are endemic. Guinea worm (dracunculiasis) or malaria by mosquito larva from stagnant water. Snail fever (schitosomiasis) while swimming or bathing in dirty water, elephantiasis (lymphatic filiariasis) causing massive swelling of the leg or scrotum. River blindness (onchocerciasis) worms damage eyes. These and many others sound sick without catching it.

We can prolong life in a growing population: Living a long productive life is better than having a short life that can not care and provide for those we leave hind. A productive life includes the ability to control ourselves in synch with our environment. Therefore a predictable long life is a product of healthy environment and a short life is a product of sick and polluted environment.

In a well controlled environment with reliable statistics, we are noticing a decrease in population growth. Some families are having less or no children. It has got to a stage where Governments are paying families to have children. It happens in Quebec, Canada. Children also get baby bonus in Canada. In United States, the tax system rewards those with children up to a point. Some of these countries in Europe and America now have older population without enough younger population to support their social security. The rich have money, the poor have many children.

The result of adequate planning for both economic and social well being is the ability to cater for controlled population. Health For All means physical and mental peace in a planned environment by a controlled population. As the population aged gracefully, they determine the number of their support and replacement.

Posted by Administrator at 01:29 AM | Comments (0)

May 12, 2005

Operation Declare your Assets or Forfeit your Surplus

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- Please let us stop chasing the ghost, cut the chase and go after the individual surplus. Every Nigerian knows where the money is. We know there is even more money outside the Country, foreign Governments have been sensitized to the source and they are now embarrassed as receiver of stolen properties. The problem is those conspicuous spenders who are spending the money in our face, living it in our face and no one can query them. Actually, Obasanjo had to negotiate with one to keep some stolen millions to avoid lengthened litigation, only to renege on the terms of his release.

Once upon a time, a Nigerian would take ten percent kickback from the central Government contract, but never from the local area where everybody knows everybody. Time has changed. Conspicuous spenders have taken over. They are encouraged by praise singers who eulogize them. There are two ways to dislodge their ill gotten surplus – 1. By revolution or 2. By due process.

There has to be due process. It has to be done with human face so that it does not become a class or an ethnic thing. I do not think Jerry Rawlings is better than those he killed in Ghana in the name of revolution.

Many of us are copy cats. If it is done in American and Europe, fine. If that is the only way to catch the fat cats, I will tag on. Well, the best way to catch a drug dealer, a spy, a terrorist and a rogue in these countries is to demand accountability for any conspicuous spending. Can you imagine a Nigerian oppressor without conspicuous consumption?

Conspicuous spending is a major part of our moral bankruptcy. It sends a powerful message to the have-nots to make money by any means possible. The armed robber, Oyenusi confession did not teach us any lesson. They always return to the crime scene.

Oppressor, for fear of dying, has to spend his money sooner than later. Watch out for his cars, his houses, political donations and funding of privileged organizations. We have a tax system in Nigeria but we have deliberately not used it to catch the oppressors. We are on the right path though. If anyone needs Government service, they ask for three years income tax receipts. Great! Let us move a step further. If you under-declare, explain how you are going to finance your proposals.

Some Nigerians inflate their earnings when trying to bring relatives and friends to Europe or America. Some swear to Affidavits about their earnings and properties. They have to present these to convince the Embassies of their capabilities to care for those sponsored. Little did some of them realize that Uncle Sam was taking note. At the end of the year, the tax man knocks based on the earning declared!

It is one thing to live like a pauper in Europe or America trying to help a relative, it is quite another to live like a king in Nigeria spraying dollars and pounds claiming to be a pauper, on record. We know the salary of head of Governments, head of the Arm Forces, head of corporations. If we multiply it by two, taking “fringe benefits” into consideration, oppressor would still have a case to answer. The allowance the politicians award themselves these days is nothing short of legalized looting, while the masses groan.

The story these days is that some individuals who are not well connected are being turned into scapegoats, to make anti corruption bodies look good or bad, only to be discharged by our court of law. They must be chasing ghosts to come empty handed. If cash is seized, properties seized, cars are seized and video camera showed conspicuous spending in Europe and America, who will discard those as evidence? These are stronger evidence than the reports of committees. It is used in the countries we mimic and copy to death.

American CBS 60 Minutes showed us how easy it is for foreigner on a visit to get Nigerian passport, how children of African dictators spend money overseas. Our Press has lived up to their reputation in Africa, as the most vigorous against all odds.

I have been investigated by a manager in the Central Bank myself. Before my family joined me in Nigeria in 1981, I had to send them some percentage out of my modest salary to help pay mortgage and my student loan. Niara was mighty then. I never had Federal or State scholarship just like many of us. I had to work and go to school, so it was no brainier that I had student loan. Nevertheless, he decided to investigate me because I did not “cooperate” and the result of the investigation solidified my application. What about those who “cooperated” and were left uninvestigated, while wasting time on me? I now realize how lucky I was, he could have gotten vicious.

Poor Nigerians have been asked to show proof of any money anywhere and anti corruption bodies would go after it. Haba! Asking the mouse to catch fat cats! I think it should be the other way round. Go after their cash and belongings and let them account for it. That is why these countries have laws against money laundering.

There are so many projects the loot could be invested in, other than being squandered.
If it is spent to open a business, we can say at least gainful employment is created. No matter what we say about Abiola, he created jobs, to his own credit.
That money could have been used to create first class hospitals and solid returns could have been made. Americans and Europeans are going to first class hospitals in Asia for elective surgery that are too expensive at home while Nigerians travel out for headache.
Private schools investment is not so risky to make them so expensive. One wonders what they teach and how any Nigerian could afford them. They all have foreign sounding names, and Nigerians can pay in any currency. Well if the market is there, share the loot! However, public schools have been reduced to daycare centers. Where is the balance?

We now have men of “timber and caliber” who have not stolen all their life. But wait!
All they did was deposit hijacked salaries, in special banks while families go desperate and hungry. As soon as another allocation is released, they replace the one in the bank while the new allocation collects interest. They dismantle the fabric of our society by denying workers the regular flow of sustenance.

This is new in Nigeria. Nobody used to mess with salary.

This other side of the coin is the destruction of families by non-payment of wages.
Husband or wife without salary goes begging or goes into private practice, “pp”. The wife tries to cover for the husband, asking for neighbors’ help - “borrow borrow”. This is the beginning of the end of family as we know it in our society. When a woman goes begging, her honor is compromised. She looses respect for the husband. When that happens, her home becomes unstable. The next victims are the children. We are now destroying our communities because morals have sunk to the lowest level, discipline and order have succumbed. These chain reactions culminated into criminal activities and prostitution in our Country and beyond. It is manifested on our street, when allocation of salary and logistics did not reach the target and police collect twenty naira as “family support” and maintenance of vehicles. It is misery and suffering, a vicious circle in the land of untapped resources because of this curse – oil discovery.

Nigerians can learn from the situation of our brothers and sisters in Diaspora, if a case study is needed. Once the man is shamed out of the house, he is castrated. The family can not hold. We are falling apart faster than we realize. The only difference is that Africa is still a village where every man is a father figure. Every child has somebody to call a father. Even that is changing.

In a depressed economy where money is not circulating, prices should fall, right?
Wrong, not in Nigeria!

If a country gets the opportunity to export its surplus product, like cassava that can grow all over Nigeria, one would think that as more cassava is produced, more jobs will be created and the jobless would have money in their pockets, right? Wrong, not in Nigeria.

It seems the Government is happy that gari is now expensive and the farmers would be richer because the high cost will spur production. Is rice more expensive in Asia because it is exported? What do we have in Nigeria to eat within the grasp of the poor man? I do not understand why we turn every blessing into a curse.

Now I am having second thoughts about exporting cassava until proper planning is in place - not until kingdom come! People can not get gari to eat. Rice is even cheaper if the poor man could afford either. How can we make provision for export without corresponding increase in production? Cooperative farming by giving grants and revolving loan to agriculture graduates and farmers should have preceded export. On one of his foreign trips after the 1999 election, it was Obasanjo who asked foreign Governments if “na democracy we go shop?” We all clapped for him.

Hunger changes man into unpredictable animal. The days you asked children to eat well before drinking is gone. A woman had to confess that she had to put more pepper in food so that her children could drink more water as they eat. Nigerians skip meals certain part of the day and label it: 0-1-1 or 0-1-0 or 0-0-1.
It was Umaru Diko who said he had not seen a Nigerian picking from the dust bins as American poor picked from the trash cans. That was a prediction then, a reality now. What is the Agriculture Minister trying to tell us about gari? He needs to declare his asset and forfeit his surplus. He will then realize that the price of gari is not funny.

What is wrong? We all know what is wrong, jo! How can we correct it is the question. “Talk to me kangbo. Ti o ba so fun mi, ma so fun e” - a Hotel Bobby, Caban Bambo slang made popular by a brother learning how to speak Yoruba in the sixties.

STARTING from today (as if I am Obasanjo), anyone who wants to hold public office, even as a dog catcher (majamaja) must forfeit his/her surplus assets. It must be repeated at the end of every term or change of position or every tax year. A relative who got transferred assets or “gift” must forfeit it and be punished for receiving stolen property.

I have noticed that it is the rich who apply for Government programs (house, land etc.) in Nigeria. If land that were taken from families for the purpose of establishing Government Reservation Areas (common good?) are not needed anymore, it should revert to the owners. Even properties of students returning from abroad which had got stuck at the Ports were also sold to the rich. Could it be because these policies are made and tailored for filthy rich instead of dwindling middle class and the poor?

So, any application to any level of Government, even for a parking permit, land, house, vehicle license must show, not only tax clearance (not cooked) as it is now done but must be willing to forfeit any surplus twice above his or her salary declared.

This is not new; Murtala Mohamed declared his assets and forfeited the surplus. That did not stop Professor Ohanbamu of the University of Benin from taking him to the court.

One of our Governors, while living in the US, had to forfeit about half a million dollars in his account to the US Government because his “lawyers advised” him that it might be more expensive to fight it. Well, let us mimic and copy that. If you can not account for it, it belongs to the Government.

Ribadu claimed that there are 20 Governors laundering money into foreign accounts, apart from the one that was caught red handed. There are local government chairmen who have switched the use of cocoa bags to carrying naira. If we block them at home and block them outside Nigeria, there will be less incentive to steal. What good is money a Nigerian can not spend?

Politicians award themselves allowances for trips inside and outside Nigeria indiscriminately as if they govern in Europe or America. Where they got their standard or guidelines from baffles me. That is the petrol that flames the anger of the people. I do not have to be from the South-south areas where environmental pollution has made fishing and farming impossible to be mad.

We must commend the Judge who granted strict bail condition to Tafa Balogun, but we must take a few steps further. All the sureties must declare their assets or forfeit the surplus. That will instill discipline among Nigerians that if you are going to stick out your neck, you must be cleaned, excuse me, I mean almost clean.

The who and who of Nigeria who asked Obasanjo to release the son of Abacha should be called upon to declare their assets or forfeit the surplus. If that was done, Abacha would either still be in jail or his sureties would be holding empty bags. Those standing by, for Dariye when immunity ends will have something to learn from.

All those who paid for Ikoyi houses must account for the money. If the bank gave it to them, there must be collateral (and a down payment) for that kind of money. Otherwise we have the reason why these banks go belly up. Another reason for investigation.

I do not understand why they can not find all the contractors who took Government (our) money and run. Before giving them contract, they must produce sureties or collateral with their fancy cars and houses, a lawful way to forfeit their surplus.

All those seeking titles in the communities as chiefs, in the churches and mosques must also declare their assets or forfeit the surplus for the sake of the poor. Nigerians figure that they can steal and give a percentage to Obas, Obis, Emirs, mosques and churches. Then, can wipe their sins off the slate. Pay off their sins.

I am not sure if you are counting how much money we would have made so far, but it seems like billions to me. Once we go after their assets, the crooks will come forward to redeem themselves or forfeit……… Agaracha must come back.

In the so called civilized countries, they have whistleblower law. You can get one to certain percentage of the money reported and recovered. We can do that in Nigeria but with the nuisance law in case of those who want to report their enemy for spite.

I am not under the illusion that I will be accepted as a poor man in Nigeria either but the masses are so angry, they can not identify their enemies or too scared to. They also claimed that the professionals, files pushers, are the ones who rationalize the actions of their fat bosses while they starve to death. “Who need enemies, with friends like that?”

My confession is that I enjoyed some of those hospitalities too. I had official use of donated UN, UNICEF, UNFPA or CVU car with a driver. When I realized that the drivers usually came late to take me to work, without my own car, I opted for molue bus from FESTAC Town to Yaba. But I continued to use the official car for field trips to States close to Lagos, and sometimes drive the small Volkswagen.

I used to enjoy the slang, idioms and music in those molue buses. Especially the conversation, Nigerians can strike conversation with one another even if they have never met before. We would talk about those who stole millions with pens (Nobody could count to billion dollar or naira then.) Compared to those who stole hundreds of naira, that faced firing squad. Pen robbery was more damaging to Nigeria than armed robbery?

It took me a while to realize that I was the butt of their jokes! Some would come in and mess up my suit. I first thought it was an accident, so I took it graciously. As they told me to catch a cab if I did not like it, I got the message. Frankly, I could not afford a cab everyday on level ten.

Later, I found out that the car drivers were not happy with me because they could not collect passenger before coming for me at home and after dropping me at home. By rejecting their service, I deprived them of making extra money.

My mistake was that I did not bring a car with me. When I finally bought my tiny car from car loan, I was so glad that I could go to Surulere to fetch water with enough Jerry cans. When I first left Nigeria, there was water running from the faucet and electricity was constant. We used to exchange fabulous stories (fabu) under the street lights.

My Suzuki Alto was a three cylinder car. One of my female colleagues joked after test driving it with a blessing that as the “only car in town” I would face problems nobody did. I certainly got kicks out of the fact that money bags wanted to buy it at my price. I told them – your money can’t touch this.

There was Biola, the sweeper of my office who could not understand why I got to work earlier than everyone. I thought I came on time. I also found out that they thought my wife must be kicking me out early everyday. After coming late, she would get so mad at me for getting to work before her. She would start sweeping if I could not leave the office fast enough for her.

So, I might have seen myself as a poor man since middle class had been wiped out, Nigerians might have seen me differently. After all, we used to get Shagari rice, milk, oil etc, at reduced price and water delivered to my tank - another confession!

Nevertheless, I can not understand why people see themselves as filthy rich with so many poor people around them. I feel some guilt when I see helpless poor people. That could be me. There was a time there were no homeless people in Canada and I was surprised to see them in the US, the richest Country in the world. In terms of number and percentage, we have to feel guilty in Nigeria. Conspicuous spenders are amused to see their fellow men bow, Rankadede.

If we can shut off conspicuous spending, there will be less desire to steal. Where are you going to show off? Outside Nigeria where nobody knows your name? Unless you present your ID and where you got your money from.

If you drive expensive cars, you better have a solid job to back it up. As Mark Foreman, the police investigator during O.J Simpson trial said – if you are a Blackman, you better wear a $1000.00 dollar suit in that car with presentable credentials. It was racial profiling.

Buying a house outside Nigeria in those days was not easy either. You had to make sure your coworkers do not know. They might become jealous of a foreigner because they had none, as they spend their money on vacation and other luxury, while we saved. There was this friend of mine, a West Indian, who got fed up. He declared at work that he just bought another house, the biggest in the neighborhood. He could care less about how his coworkers felt. That was his own sweat and hard work and if anyone tried to harass him, he would fight to protect his job. A hard working man should have nothing to fear.

I heard some of the rich Nigerians were moving their money to Canada, hoping it will be safer than US. Let them. No comment. Some may even move it to South America. The more they move the money, the less the chance of seeing it again. Cuba may be better!

In Nigeria we do not work as hard as we do outside. We come back home and become oppressors contrary to what we preached and protested against when we were outside. As a friend told me, outside Nigeria you have to work for dollars and pounds. In Nigeria, your workers do and you spend. No place like home, eh?

I am really surprised when I see some of the most dedicated people outside Nigeria turned into kleptomania once they land on Nigerian soil. Some of the oppressed consider it a national cake, and can not wait to get there and steal their share. It is greed and the ease of getting away with stealing. Operations declare your assets or forfeit the surplus will instill fear of being caught into us.

By curbing conspicuous spending, the pressure on our people, especially youths to live up to unsustainable standard will be gone. Who knows, sanity may return to my dear Country.

Posted by Administrator at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2005

The Father of all Nigerian Ethnic Groups

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa It is very interesting that most of the Ethnic groups claim association to the Nile Valley, somewhere in Sudan, Egypt etc. but no association to one another in Nigeria. On their way from or to Egypt through what we now know as Nigeria, these Ethnic groups never met? Usually, they were each King or Queen, first lady. Who were their subjects? It may remind you of most of our parents who always took first in their classes when they were students. Who came second?

Africans are great sojourners, and they left their genetic traits all over the world. Please see YORUBA WORLD EXPLORATION AND THE LOSS OF DYNASTIES. If Africans were in Australia before the time of Christ, in America before Columbus and spread all over great distances, we should wonder why they never knew or had anything to do with one another until the British created NIGERIA!

Apart from the article mentioned above, I also relied on an article by Sola Omole on the Ijaw, another by the Ijaw Nation. Of course, I also depend on different histories of the Ethnic groups. However, I must admit that many are just like blind men describing an elephant we call Nigeria. Each was about its group but not how it relates to Nigeria, the giant of Africa.

Nigerians talk about relatives in Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal etc. The distance between Maiduguri and Lagos is not as long as that between Nigeria and Australia, yet Nigerians deny each other at home. Ghana, Mali, Songhay Empires were not formed based on Ethnic groups because some of the Empires were bigger than Nigeria. Ibadan, here at home, was built as a cosmopolitan City made up of variety of people.

The people were around the same place from the beginning of time, and traded with one another before the British came. The Europeans heard about ancient civilization trading in gold, they named one place Gold Coast. They heard about Ivory and named another place Ivory Coast. They heard about Ile-Ife Arts and Sculpture - they thought they found lost civilization of Atlantis. They marveled at Benin Bronze; they heard stories of handsome skilful men and women with mystical power; and drugs that can cure many diseases. They discover aspirin, antibiotics and ancient form of writings on the body and tablets. At the same time, they dreaded the diseases of mosquitoes and tsetse flies, sparing us of earlier domination.

Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily, 1st Century B.C, credited the Ethiopians (name for Blacks) as the first of all men created by gods, as founders of civilization and religion in Egypt imported to Greece.

Nigeria is just a “geographical expression” and 1914 are always in the papers and books written by many Nigerians. Awolowo is always credited with the former. It does not mean that he did not believe in one Nigeria, otherwise he would not have campaigned from the South to the North for the Prime Minister of Nigeria. Actually, Ahmadu Bello could have preferred that he stayed put in the South. We now have scholars from the North who actively support one Nigeria, while some in the South are going the other way. In Nigeria, we call that progress!

Sometimes, I wonder what difference it would have made if the Europeans divided Africa in slices north and south or in slices east and west. Most of the Ethnic groups have relatives across Africa east and west, and the same north and south. Could it have been a better Country that way? The so called main Ethnic groups with their relatives across West Africa could have formed one Country. I am sure nobody thinks that could have solved African problem.

Nkrumah, a man before his time, wanted a united African Country. Tafawa Balewa dismissed it as taking independence from the British only to surrender it to Nkrumah. Only Zik cried out loud when Ghanaians were thrown out of Nigeria in early eighties. Lately, the South Africans rejected free African movement for fear of Nigerians dominating their Country, as we did in Ghana in the sixties. When the East African were kicking out the Europeans, they were asked who would replace the educated labor force. Nigerians, they answered. They were warned – Nigerians were worse exploiters than the British! Some Nigerians, thinking about our politicians, may agree.

The difference between Hutu and Tutsi has to do with one being town boy and another country boy. The Somalis are from the same family with the same language, it is still not a peaceful Africa. After the war in Nigeria, the Ethnic groups have fragmented further, even more so in the south. There was an article I red, “My People are killing My People”, about the fight between close relatives – Ijaw, Itsekiri and the Urhobo youths. Or between Aguleri and Umuleri, or Ife and Modakeke or Fulani and Jakun, Tiv or Yelwa and Shendam. I have not added those between Sunni and Shiite, Moslems and Christians over foreign religions. Africans, calling one another unbeliever of foreign indoctrination.

There are autochthonous Africans in Nigeria, no doubt. I also believe these Africans especially in the rain forest are more or less the same in everything. Those in the northern part of Africa or our Country are so close that our origins can not be different. Since one of the oldest human is dated around Lake Chad, how much distance is that to the sea that man could not have sojourned to?

No Ethnic groups deny each other more than the Igbo and the Yoruba. I am totally dismayed when I listen to young men and women who were not born during the political days of Bello, Awo and Zik trade insult as if they were there. Who passed personal prejudice to them? Check out their internet chart sites, it is full of hatred. When I pointed this out to some of my friends, they ignored it since most people stuck to their favorite sites. Some of the comments about our brothers from the North or vice versa are just as caustic. It boils down to ignorance. It is almost a conspiracy – they fear you may know one another as the children of the same father!

The Yoruba, a combination of OYO and OBA from Ife, has been known as YOBA well before the time of Christ in the Nile Valley and later, as far as Papua Guinea. They refused to be converted to later religions like Christianity and Moslem. The same is true about Oba Koso, King of Shango in Kush from the holy City of Ile-Ife - This was written in Coptic text, published in Paris in 1666.

Oduduwa has been thrown into question even within Yoruba and their close relatives in Ijebu and Benin. Fortunately, this ancient icon before Christ is not only known among the Yoruba as Adamu but among our own Ijaw and in Diaspora, during ancient time.

Each Ethnic group in Nigeria has translations for Yoruba and Oduduwa. Does that mean that these Ethnics groups have been in contact with one another as brothers and not willing to admit it? Since migrations happened in waves, those who came first might have recognized those who followed.

I can not fault Chukwu Eke interpretation of history. Indeed we may agree in more areas than disagree. The Igbo of the Southwest may be the same Igbo of the Southeast. I will also add the Northern part of the Country. These people were not known as Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Edo, Urhobo, Ijaw or Efik. They existed as one people moving freely in Nigeria and in neighboring Countries.

The Igbo also claimed affinity with the Nile Valley. They knew the Yoruba well as they claim they were the original inhabitants of the present western part. But Oba Mafimisebi, the Olugbo of Ugbo claimed they were the original inhabitants. After pestering the Yoruba, the Igbo fell in love with Moremi who gave out the secrete that dislodged them. According to Chukwu, the Yoruba called them Igbo (bush people) and in retaliation, Igbo called them Yoruba (Oyo oru Oba) that is “Oyo, slaves of Oba”. He also has a translation for Oduduwa, “Nkaa bu onye odudu wa or Nkka bu Odu wa”, that is their leader. Here, we part.

Phillip Emeagwali also gave a convincing relationship between Yoruba and Igbo. The Igbo had no king but the Yoruba relatives had Obi. He also pointed to a lost Yoruba dialect, Olukwumu spoken in Anioma, Idumu-ogu,Ubulubu, Ugboba and Ukwuzu. This dialect is still spoken in Brazil and Cuba. Onitsha could have come from Orisha. Orisha is still worshiped in Diaspora. I remember how mad some Igbo were that a man of his status would even dabble into such things. I am not surprise, I am a mere mortal and my friends laugh at me when I bring it up too. But it is not new, I heard it among my friends in the fifties - boasting as the real Ibo vs. the YorubaIbo.

I think once people realize that we are not selling out one group for another, education may overcome prejudices. There are only one related autochthonous people in the rain forest, differentiated by sojourners coming in waves from outside.

It took me a while to accept the link between linguistic and people because one can find any word and link it up. Is Ijebu-Igbo a Yoruba town, or Igbo people? Is alligator called oba by Igbo the name of a king? Even Obi has its own Igbo meaning: court house. But how does court house become a king? The similarity in meaning among us only points to common ancestor speaking the same language at certain point in time.

All I am stating is that there is a convincing link between the people of Nigeria. Herodotus 490-425 B.C described the scarification mark on the forehead of the blacks he saw in Egypt. We also know that it took a combined army of the Arabs to drive out the Africans, “sharp shooters of the eye”, out of ancient Iraq in those days. These Africans were not known as Igala, Kanuri, Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Ijaw or Efik. Anyone interested can pursue this further. Research is easier now than in my own days as a student.

The Hausa claimed that the Yoruba were one of the illegitimate children of Bawo from a different mother. They founded or ruled additional kingdoms of Zamfara, Kebbi, Nupe, Gwari, Yauri, Yoruba and Kororofa after they left Egypt. They claimed that Yoruba was the name they gave the people of the Southwest.

However, the Yoruba in name and religion were known in the Nile Valley and between the Arabs as unbeliever of their religion before the Hausa met them again in Nigeria. I would say they recognize their cousins again during another wave of migration. What can not be denied though is the relationship of both the Hausa and Yoruba to the Sudanese in terms of facial marks.

An article by Ibrahim Waziri on - The Unhappy Marriage of a Quadruple - described the mixture of people in the North with other so called Ethnic groups in Nigeria. Even though he is from the Saifawa dynasty that opposed the Jihaad of Usman Danfodio, like most Northerners, he has Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri, Yoruba etc in him.

Some Ijebu claimed that they were neither Yoruba nor part of Oduduwa dynasty. The Oba of Benin recently brought out a novel claim about Oduduwa as a lost Prince of the last Ogiso. Indeed, the Edo claimed they are the father of most southern Ethnic group. But the Ogiso and the Oba met the autochthonous people, Oru, Efa and Ijaw in Benin.

Professor Obayemi researched eight Ile-Ife, and we know at least two Oyo including the present location. The Yoruba, coming from or to Ife, passed through Borgu, Nupe in the North and the Nile Valley. These were the Cities that were documented; there must be others in between them unmentioned.

The Ijaw went through the same route through Borgu, Beni, Nupe, Ile- Ife, present Benin before spreading to the delta region.

Do all these parts of an elephant belong to the same animal?

If all these groups are the same, they should speak the same language or may be in different dialects and have the same ancestors. I think they all do.

ARCHEOLOGY: The best tools we have are the discovery made in Nigeria in spite of wet acidic soil that is not good for preservation. A relative comparison of discoveries inside and outside of Nigeria can be convincing evidence of our ancient civilization:

Iwo Eleru – 10,000 B.C Between Akure and present Ile-Ife
Nubia culture - 10,000 B.C
Indian culture - 6,000 B.C
Dafuna Canoe near Yobe dated 8,000 years old compared to oldest
Egyptian boat 5,000 yrs old
China culture - 3,000 – 2,200 B.C
Malenician and South Pacific Hawaii – 2,000 B.C
Olmec Mexico- 1,100 B.C
Igbo Ukwu - 10 AD In the heart of Igbo land

I have left out many Yoruba, Igbo and Benin Arts paraded around the world exhibiting African craft before our Asian and European neighbors caught on to our civilization.

The history of the Ijaw by the Ijaw is not that different from that written by Sola Omole. It links all the Ehtnics groups in the south one way or another. This is important because it collaborate our history beyond Nigeria with our relatives in Africa.

Ile-Ife is a common factor in the history of southern Ethnic groups. Other places, as indicated, are Borgu, Bassa, Nupe and Beni/Benin. The first wave came to Nigeria through the same Borgu, Nupe, Ile-Ife and Benin. The Ijaw spread to the delta region from present Benin.

Oduduwa/Adimu/Adumu/Adum. He created a dynasty before the time of Christ in more than one Ile-Ife. One of his descendants was Ujo, a Prince of Ijaw who ruled over the delta, even on his way back to Ife as he got lost. The Ijaw are familiar with Ogiso in Benin as some left Benin when the Ogiso arrived from the same part through Ife. They also know the last Prince of Ogiso Kaladiran/ Ekalederhan who fled before (or after?) Oranmiyan arrived from the Ife. The Benin are very proud of the Oba era but our history began well before that period.

Even the Ijaw met Autochthonous African in Nigeria and were able to rule over them or moved on. They were ORU who met Nigerians before they become Igbo, Hausa, Ibibio, Ijaw, Yoruba, Igala, Tapa etc. The Kumoni who may or may not be the ORU also came. So were the Bantu, Efa, and others.

In Yoruba land the OOYELAGBO/UGBO/IGBO AND ORU became the son of the soil.

In Igbo land the UGBO/IGBO and ORU and EFA and BANTU became the son of the soil.

In Benin land the OOYELAGBO/UGBO/IGBO and ORU and EFA became son of the soil.

In Hausa land the ORU and HAUSA and OOYELAGBO/UGBO/IGBO became the son of the soil.

The Itsekiri are a mixture of OOYELAGBO/UGBO/IGBO and ORU and EFA.

The Urhobo are a mixture of ORU and EFA and OYELABO/UGBO/IGBO

All Nigerians are a mixture of autochthonous people, ORU and other so called Ethnic groups in different mixture giving rise to different languages/dialects adapting to different environmental stimuli.

How dare?

I blew your cover, man! Aborigines of Australia are your cousins, black Americans are your brothers, West Indians are your men. How are you related to them?
However, the ones you live in the same Country with are unknown and unrelated to you.

I was once a professional student in Toronto in the seventies when Stokely Carmichael, American Civil Right activist, came to University of Toronto or York University.. One of the student said he was not an African. So Stokely asked him where he came from. He said Trinidad. (Stokely was born in Trinidad). The student said all the Africans died in the sea before reaching the shore. Stokely said he must be a seaman. As we were laughing, Stokely did not find it funny that such ignorant statement came from a student. He told the student that Trinidad was not a Country but a sugarcane plantation. We laughed louder.

Many of the Nigerian Ethnic groups in general and in the southern part in particular are familiar with the ORU people that many of us have ignored for centuries. In many of our villages they retain that name. Some of them have been relegated to the position of slave or ERU or OSU whenever they can be dominated. The same people created dynasties all over Africa and ruled over the autochthonous Africans they met in other places.

Oduduwa was born in Ife by marriage between OOYELAGBO and ORU. He sojourned north and south of Africa creating dynasties until he was overthrown and came back home. He was known in the Nile Valley as Adum, in Nigeria as Adimu/Adumu and among the Ooyelagbo as Oduduwa. The Yoruba are a good example of how we mix in Nigeria.

If this is the case, why can’t we live in peace in any part of Nigeria? Or in Africa?

Animal Behaviorist and Psychologists teach us that you can only have so many mice in a pen. Two will get along fine, especially a male and a female. As the number increases, discomfort and problem start. I will try to examine this in the future. Some of us are claimers of two states, one leg in each state. One leg (h)as an indigene, another leg (h)as a citizen. If you mix that up with land, son of the soil, off/on/in/out shore resources, wahala starts.

Most of us realize that resources can not keep us together and must not separate us. It is not the resources you have that matters, it is how much it commands in the market. Think! If I buy fresh fish for 50.00 naira, package it, and sell it as sardine to you for 150.00 naira. Add 50.00 naira for taxes, shipping and delivery. Replace fresh fish with raw gold, you get the same result. That is 200.00 naira. My brother, you are left poorer than when you started. As poor as Ghana, the Gold Coast.

Take another hint. How much was oil before the cartel and how much is cocoa now?
In order to conserve energy, many countries imposed heavy tax on oil, like tax on cigarettes. These Governments make more on taxes than they make on the bare products. Not in Nigeria, please!

I hope I have created enough doubt in the minds of none believers of Autochthonous people of Nigeria. Ironically, those with ulterior motives will never be moved. More research is needed to bring these people in us to light.

Posted by Administrator at 08:39 PM | Comments (1)

April 01, 2005

Impeachment and Mere Allegation of Looting in Nigeria

by Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa --- There was a time in Lagos and might be in other parts of Nigeria, when you shouted OLE, most passerby wanted a piece of him with at least a slap. Some OLE got smart, as people ran after them, one would manage to step back and push an innocent soul forward shouting OLE, OLE with the rest of the crowd.

This is the case with our politicians today. If you dare call them OLE, they will deal with you severely. Not even the President will be spared. He may now face impeachment for pointing finger at some senators and house representatives as OLE, even though he called most of them hard working and honorable. Our politicians specialize in looting the treasury directly, indirectly or impeaching one another.

Yerima was recently suspended from the house for calling them bribe seekers. They had to deal with him severely. Yerima did not learn from those before him who dared call these honorable men, his cohort, OLE.

El Rufai was force to apologize and he was also exposed for paying foreign money (hard currency) to his Assistants, as expatriates. The same Mantu, who demanded bribe to facilitate his confirmation as minister, is now getting report about Wabara demand from poor Education minister. He should have listened when Obasanjo asked them to come clean. He decided to play the game in town and got burnt, so he is suing to clear his name.

When Nzeribe decided to expose his cohort, he was also severely dealt with. He did not generate much sympathy because of his unusual character. But he made his point and sensitized us to how money bags move around among the polititians.

It was Aluko who blasted those economic refugees including his brother, as failures who could not succeed in Nigeria, because they are too scared to come to Nigeria and join the ONYEOSI club like him. He actually got the support of his father, a respectable and honorable economist of our time. Blood is thicker than water.

Well, these are MERE allegations that have not been proven in the court of law. Most of us still remember that Oyi Okadigbo and his colleagues were finally pardoned after an investigation that was investigated by other cohort investigators!

The son of Abacha reneged on his promise after who and who of Nigeria got him out of prison and he decided to go to the court of law to challenge these MERE allegations.

There are also MERE allegations against BARAWO Makanjuola, Dariye, Tafa Balogun, etc. We are still waiting for Nigerian due process in many cases, another word for I will fight with a little of what I stole. We have to clean our judiciary to respond to these ills in our society, the same way others establish tribunals.

There are others that are so sacred that you do not mention them, unless you want to be severely dealt with. That is why I am surprised that my dear Arewa Man of the Year, Ribadu would dare talk about Babagida. I wonder if he was aware that Obasanjo in the front of the whole world at Harvard University, asked anyone who has any hard evidence against him to come forward. Poor Ribadu is in hot water for saying what everyone thinks.

When the Muslim heard that those in the Sovereign Conference (?) were getting 250,000 naira a week and may decide the faith of the Country, they asked Obasanjo for equality. Who can predict that the Muslims who constitute the majority of the Nigerian ruling class, looting the treasury for years would now ask for equal share. In Nigeria, that is what we call progress!

Right now, Obasanjo is the one eye man in the mist of people blinded by corruption. Yes, I heard about his son’s foreign account in the United States. Do not forget Abacha’s son also claimed to be a legitimate business man. So is the son of Kofi Annan. Can we separate the sons from the fathers? Of course business flows better because of the fathers.
However, unlike Abacha, nobody has accused Annan or Obasanjo of channeling illegal or stolen money to their sons’ bank accounts.

There is nothing wrong with one INO exposing another. We are doom if they all keep quiet. This notion that one has to be a saint to clean up Nigeria is unreasonable. Even Abacha did his own cleanup at the Bank and also exposed some people including a monarch. We should encourage other BARAWO to expose their cohorts, not discourage them. Watch out for - if you Tarka me, I Daboh you.

ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL: If this is how we see ourselves, do you blame receivers of our stolen properties if they refuse to return our stolen money taken from one rogue and ask them to return it to another. That is double complicity, aiding and abetting.

If a former leader wondered why Nigeria had not collapsed, we should wonder why anyone would trust a Nigerian. A friend from Ghana once told me that he heard almost on a daily basis that these many millions were stolen from Nigeria. How many millions are there in Nigeria?

Another friend who is an accountant and head of his department was once asked by his boss if he knew who sent a fax from the Central Bank of Nigeria asking for money. He was shaken with anger, he could not respond for fear of what might come out of his mouth. A colleague of mine actually had the guts to ask me about 419!

One Friday I decided to stop by a restaurant downtown for take home treat. As I was leaning on my twenty-something year old car that some people still admire, a well dressed white woman with two small children demanded that I (privileged black man?) give her money because she was hungry. I decided to give her the money for my treat that Friday and went home without. I wondered how much she would have demanded if she knew I am a Nigerian.

If Nigerians are known for corruption at home and 419 abroad, can we demand that these Paris club and others cancelled our loan, which to them is credit cards? Can anyone default on their credit cards without declaring bankruptcy in one form or another? I am not sure we are ready to forgo our foreign reserve and other private properties outside of our Country.

FROM 13 BILLIONS TO 34 BILLIONS US DOLLARS: Some of us remember Chavez, a lawyer who devoted his life to helping farm workers in the southern part of United States. Many of these workers before many people became aware, owed their boss or masters more money at the end of their working years than when they began. Their children and wives sometimes continued to pay the debt as second generation workers.

Africans who know history and listen to Nkrumah about Neocolonialism are aware. If not, learn from Danfur or children brought from neighboring countries into Nigeria as house help. Some bourgeoisies got mad at Jakande for building schools everywhere reducing the availability of house helps.

If you wonder why we owe much more than we borrowed, think about the person who borrowed money to buy a car and the one who borrowed to buy a house. Some Nigerians may remember that song about Bobby who bought a car and not a house. They called him a dirty name. So the worker asked the master why he owed so much while he had been working for pay all his life. The masters explained:

Rent – the workers did not own the boarding house, rental payment accumulate for their masters. The same as those big mansions Nigerians buy all over the world, paying big taxes to develop their schools and that community. The day he stops paying, he finds out the real owner of the house. The Japanese bought prestigious Rockefeller building at the height of the boom. They sold it back to Americans at a loss during downturn. Nigerians who work for dollars in the US can not afford those properties, how long can the looters and their lazy children keep them?

Food – The masters sell groceries to the workers at exorbitant prices. Foreign taste acquired by Nigerians abroad through travels, foreign suzies, and home copy cats who know everywhere in Europe and America without leaving Nigeria.

Water – Perrier water, Damon, Spring, sugar water and others imported into the Country.

Beverages – Minerals, champagne, beers, people’s drink, and others.

Light – Masters charge the workers for light by paying the bills and then pocket the differences. NEPA is a sink hole dripping/pouring into individual pockets.

Clothes – In these farms, the masters sell the uniforms. The same as our designer laces made anywhere but in Nigeria. If made in Nigeria, they have to be exported and re imported before Nigerians would buy them.

Security – The master has to pay for security to make sure nobody revolts against him or his family. More important, to make sure farm workers do not escape, without paying the balance of what they owe him. Nigerians pay for security too, at the top as police allocation and at the end as twenty naira per car. Since allocation hardly reaches the bottom, twenty naira help pay for family allowance and vehicle maintenance.

Farm Equipment – Machinery and Tractors used in the farm have to be paid for by the masters so that the workers can increase their productivity. Nigerians love Hummer trucks, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo. Not for farm or road building. It is for “feferity”. Usually the seed money pays for these first, whatever is left if any, pays for the execution of the project.

There was a joke about the load carrier who consumes bread in the days it was a luxury, hardly realizing that his bald head was paying for it. While interest was accumulating on our debt, there was no appreciation on our consumption, and we are passing on the debt to our children.

In spite of our reputation for corruption, Nigerians are known to be very educated and clever. Most of the crimes Nigerians are known for are white collar crimes. So how do we get out of this bondage is the 34 billion dollar question.

34 BILLION DOLLAR SOLUTIONS?

Our leaders have been traveling all over the globe hoping against hope that our loan will be forgiven. After all Mexico got some reprieve and other poor countries got their loan forgiven. Indeed, we have recruited Nigerian expatriates paying them in US dollars to see how our loan can be forgiven. The problem here is that nobody will forgive your credit card loan if you have equity in your house. The hired Nigerian expatriates know that. Nigeria has potentials that are wasted away by corrupt officials.

It is very ironic that the same military politicians who stole borrowed money are now the leading candidates to run the affairs of this Country again. They will be same people who will negotiate our way out of the same foreign debt. How would you like to face the same armed robbers who had raided your house, at the police station, but in police uniform? Or, better still, the same robbers out of military uniforms in civilian Agbada?

May be we can negotiate as we curb 419 from operating and get some return on our effort. We also curb drug trafficking that adversely affected Europe and America. Fighting terrorist is now big business, if we can handle our domestic terrorist.

Nigerians send billions of dollars home to their relatives every year. These are the same Nigerians who are too scared to come home and steal or not connected enough to earn US dollars in Nigeria. Then there is the other class of Nigerians who stashed billions of US dollars outside of Nigeria without working for a dollar in their life. Who should help pay back the debt?

Repatriation has been mentioned many times. It has been going on since the time of Marcus Garvey, Nkrumah, Zik and Awo. Slave labor built America and the children of these slaves deserve some compensation. If Europe and America decided on paying compensation, to whom should the check be made to? Corrupt Africans who sold the slave and got paid with mirrors or the children of the slaves who labored?

Legal means has been suggested by Professor Afe Babalola. Most of the loan were given to illegal Military Governments and shared with their foreign partners in collusion against Nigeria. We are yet to make our case on this. Has anybody confessed?

Some people have suggested that any money made or returned in the name of Nigeria should be monitored by that foreign Government. I think we still yearn for the days we were ruled by the British. Indeed, some people claim that was the good old days!

If we have the same brain, sometimes attend the same schools, our culture richer and our civilization in Africa is older than others, why are we so blinded by greed? African American kids feel better about themselves when they learn their African history and realize they were Queens and Kings with civilized culture at some point in time. We may need our historians to come to our aid. I know when Yoruba are given their oriki, they remember whose children they are.We need the African villages where everyone cares about others. Not everyone for himself.

Posted by Administrator at 07:59 AM | Comments (0)