The World As I See It
As I picked up my laptop to draft this article, a thought crossed my mind whether the Nigerian antipathy to research and development is in obedience to some religious instruction, or if a fatwa had been declared on any government in Nigeria that dares pay any attention to funding and facilitating research efforts. This thought inspired the title as the best excuse I can conjure for what might be intellectual laziness on a national scale.
Continue reading “Thou Shalt Not Undertake Research”
“Babe, the market is scanty. Many fresh food sellers did not show up, and those around said food supplies are limited.” My wife’s voice on the phone finally made it personal. I had been following reports online of a “food blockade” on Southern Nigeria by Northern Nigeria, but now it had gone beyond mere news reports to something that would make our family spend more on food this month. Fortunately, we could stomach the higher cost of limited supplies at the market, but I wondered about the infamous pyrrhic victory and a seemingly maniacal drive by some persons to cut off their nose to spite their face.
Continue reading “Of a Food Blockade and Common Sense”
They say the grasses suffer when two elephants fight, but I wonder what happens to the elephants when the grasses fight over their lowly state. While you may cringe at the impossible metaphor of grasses fighting themselves, I have chosen it to highlight a paradoxical happening in society where one group of oppressed persons would take out their frustrations on another group of oppressed persons, while the oppressors pick out pieces of meat stuck in their fortunate teeth from a continuous meal of oppression.
Continue reading “Frustration 601: When Brethren Fight”
If you had to choose between eating your cake and having it, what would you choose, and how would you make this choice? Would your choice be logical, emotional, a blend of the two, or a clean random pick? Whichever you choose, you would be aware that every choice has a consequence one way or the other. However, looking at the national development angle in Nigeria, it looks like we make weird choices and later wonder why things took a wrong turn. Whereas there are several factors behind our woes in Nigeria, one common denominator for our dysfunctional state is a litany of imprudent choices.
Continue reading “A Litany of Bad Choices”
Debbi Stabenow, an American politician, is quoted to have stated that “Democracy is about voting and it’s about a majority vote. And it’s time that we started exercising the Democratic process.” If we accept that democracy is a governance system that is truly reflective of the will of the citizenry, then we must begin to wonder why it seems that many elections in Nigeria reflect the will of a certain subset of society rather than the majority of the populace. Today, we discuss a potential approach for the electoral umpire to remedy this malady. However, we would begin with a discussion of some reasons driving low participation of Nigerians in the democratic process.
Continue reading “INEC and a Chance for Real Elections”
“It has been said, ‘time heals all wounds.’ I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone”
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
On 1 October 2020, Nigeria marked 60 years of independence from British colonial rule. Unknown to merry makers and observers, barely a week later, a sequence of events would lead to young Nigerians demanding independence from a faux democratic elite symbolised by the infamous police unit, the Special Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS). Within two weeks, events have evolved from peaceful protests led by an educated base to unmatched rioting and looting led by the uneducated thugs we love to fear.
Continue reading “#EndSARS: A Nation in Need of Healing”
On 1 October 1960, the landmass internationally known as Nigeria was granted independence by its erstwhile “colonial masters”, setting the stage for a journey that has now spanned sixty years. There are already a tonne of viewpoints and articles evaluating the sexagenarian with in-depth analysis, but I have chosen a different route. Instead of making a judgement call, I would present data and let you decide how Nigeria fared over six decades. After all, they say “a [graph] is worth a thousand words”.
Continue reading “Nigeria at 60: A Thousand Words in a Graph”
“Count your blessings, name them one by one;
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done”
The quote above is from a popular Christian hymn, “Count Your Blessings” by Johnson Oatman Jnr, however, fear not; this is not a proselytising article. The hymn just kept ringing in my head as I picked up my laptop to compose this article. I’m typing this article at the twilight of Good Friday 2019, influenced by four key events from the receding week.
Continue reading “When Privilege Comes Knocking”
A little while has passed since the last time I tapped my keyboard composing a document that was unrelated to my day job. In the intervening time, I got married, and Nigeria held its most expensive elections ever to select office holders for the next four years. Except for my Rivers State, which now operates a different wavelength, other states have concluded their selection processes. Today’s article is more of a potpourri of my thoughts on different issues related to the elections. Although each issue merits a full article in its own rights, let’s accept what will be a summarisation.
Continue reading “Now that the Elections have Ended”
After reading my last article on issues affecting Port Harcourt, a certain friend of mine called me to discuss the main ideas in the article. In a one hour-plus WhatsApp call, this Nigerian “externally displaced” in the United States, made the point that my article was trying to solve a problem by complaining about the symptoms. Whereas I did not necessarily agree with his entire viewpoint, a key idea stood out—his application of Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son to events in Nigeria and Africa. Continue reading “Still Washing Pigs”
Jilomes 