QUESTIONS BEGGING FOR ANSWERS

The day we buried her

Gloomy faces

Shattered hearts

Grieve

Pains and tears permeate the environment

A woman cussed death

Another Man refused to eat

Grand ma questioned her existence

Dad shed hot tears… 

i was overwhelmed with thoughts

what was her offense? 

why did she deserve to die? 

Then like hot knife going through bread

I heard the words of a Wise Man

Be grateful he said;

She could have been shredded by a Bomb

She could have died without a coffin

We could have spent millions and still lost her to Cancer

She could have been used by money seeking Venoms

She could be stranded in a war torn Zone 

She could have been guillotined 

She could have been raped to death

She could have drowned in a sea

She could have been lynched by a disparate mob

She could have!!! She could have !!!

After the words; I found answers to my questions

After all Yoruba’s say it is better to die prematurely than to die in penury

And I learnt never to question the creator again

Not even in my lowest moment 

RELIGION IN NIGERIA MORE HARM THAN GOOD

During my days at the college, my preferred companionship then were mostly christian course mates, maybe because I am from the South-West and used to associating with them or I was particularly more at home speaking vernacular (yoruba) amongst my predominantly christian friends. Halleluyah, Jesus is lord etc are so glued
tongue to my tongue, not to mention a few verses of the BIble I can recite and even explain to a lay, likewise my bosom friend professes Islam. Now, whose fault is it that we both are good friends but yet of different religious calling? Is it God? Or our parents?
A glance at religious crisis in Nigeria and its immediate effects on both adherents of the two major religions in the country leaves one praying it never started in the first place, as the consequences in the near future are simply unimaginable. Let’s take a look at Kano and Kaduna alone, between 1976, 1977, 1980-1981 and 1990 were religion was used in the destruction of hundreds of live and property and places of worship torched. Enter the 21st to 25th February, 2000 Kaduna religious riot as a result of the introduction of the sharia Islamic code, were it was reported from many quarters that over 2000 people lost their lives, thousands of houses burnt to ashes and hundreds of vehicles torched and some vandalized. While a peaceful Jos city, Plateau state was still wandering what went wrong with their kindred in other parts of the north, from 2001 till date, no one has known peace in Jos; Muslims, Christians, traditionalist or pagans alike. One mass grave after the other and the end is not yet in sight. Unfortunately, the Southern part of Kaduna is now the target of these merchants of war, destruction and needless violence and the government seems to be looking the other way as if to say-carry-on. Nigeria is highly religious to a fault, how? You may ask, Now how can you explain the use of stolen public funds for the building of a mosque or a church? Will God bless any zakat or tithes given from such filth? What with the hypocrisy in killings in the name of God, while still proclaiming the supremacy of God. Here in Nigeria, you could be denied due promotion, refused a scholarship, delisted from a university admission exercise, rigged in or out of an elective office, blackmailed or simply get killed in the vain name of religious bigotry. I know for a fact that, as a devoted Christian or Muslim, one already posses a sure ticket to peace and prosperity on earth and in the hereafter as long as one is not being more Christian or more Muslim than either Christ himself or the prophet Mohammed correspondingly . We all progress just a step at a time as a country through our religious devotion, only to retrogress very many steps backward in the name of religious intolerance. You will agree with me that, our political leaders, elites and in particular the crème-de-la-crè me of our society, be they Muslims, Christians or whatsoever they profess actually blend well amongst themselves and never remember their religious affiliations when they go about their billions of naira importation businesses and looting of our common treasury with so much impunity. While the downtrodden are up against each other in the name of religion; killing, miming, burning and destroying our hunger stricken selves for what? Poverty, you may say, but I think sheer ignorance, ignorance of the true teachings of the holy books, may God have mercy on all of us.
As religious discrimination hold sway here in my dear country, the divide will continue to widen everyday to our detriment if we do not as a civilized people living in the 21st century accept that God (The God we all claim to serve and even fight for) has decreed that we all shall be Nigerians and Nigerians of different faith we shall be, live and die. Hence, the earlier we forget about either Islamizing or Christianizing Nigeria and adopt a neo-nigerian religion ‘christlam’ for the sake of peace, harmony, development and for the future of our children the better for all of us or we self-destruct to our own peril. But our religiosity can actually help us grow as a nation when we religiously go about our daily activities as good citizens having the fear of God in our hearts as leaders and the led. Eschewing corruption and being accountable, while we are at that at all levels, we can be able to sincerely fish out the bad eggs amongst us no matter their ethnicity or religion and forge ahead as one indivisible Nigeria where government can lessen the burden of hunger on the citizenry and the citizenry in turn prays fervently for their leaders for divine wisdom. Then I see God healing our country and reassuring us that peace and unity, those last word of the national anthem we as primary school pupils usually sing at the close of our daily general assembly (and of course after the usual Christian/ Muslim opening prayers). God bless Nigeria, amen. We can make it.

SHALL WE BAN THIS RELIGION- EGBEJUMI DAVID

By Michael Egbejumi-David
I got the first phone call just before 1:00pm, UK time. This was Tuesday 13th November 2012. It was from my sister in Lagos. She was frantic. Our younger brother’s wife was bleeding, losing a lot of blood, laid out on a bed at the National Hospital, Abuja. She had just delivered a baby, their second in just ove

r two years. My sister informed me that despite serious pleas from everyone in the family, from clinical staff at the hospital, and from concerned strangers, my brother refused to give his consent for his wife to have blood transfusion.
Why? Unfortunately for his wife, my brother is a Jehovah’s Witness.
I called my brother and spoke to him. He didn’t budge. He said his faith; his religion forbids its members from accepting blood under any circumstance. Though I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, I said that it was ok. I told him that he could refuse blood transfusion when he is the patient, but since it was his young wife at death’s door, he should give consent for the treatment for her. I added that after his wife has been saved, he could go ahead and ask for forgiveness from the anti-transfusion god, and once again reconcile himself to his faith.
He declined.
I then went into the medical aspect of what was happening. I informed my brother that the average male has only about 5.5 litres of blood in their body. The average female has even less. I told him that if the body loses too much of that, there wouldn’t be enough for the heart to pump, and the heart would stop beating. The patient will die. He still didn’t budge. In fact, he promptly hung up on me. I called him back a few more times but the young man refused to answer his phone.
I called back my sister in Lagos and reported my failure.
T
he second call came at exactly 2:00pm. This time my sister was crying. The young lady has died.
I immediately called my brother again. I wanted to tell him to take and bow and to clap for himself. But he was still refusing to take my calls.
I spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about religion. I know that religion has its many benefits, but I am beginning to wonder whether these are outweighed by its negative aspects. Most people appear to check their intelligence at the door when it comes to their religion and practicing their faith.
Unfortunately, my brother is one of them. I couldn’t believe that an educated man (he has a Master’s degree from the University of Ibadan) would sit around and watch his wife die when he could have very easily prevented her death by signing a piece of paper. What has religion done to us?
I called my other sister in Abuja to get more details. I wish I hadn’t.
She informed me that she spent more than an hour on her knees begging our brother to give his consent for his wife to be given blood, but he refused. He refused her, and he refused all pleadings from the medical staff, some of whom were begging him with tears in their eyes. He was told repeatedly that without blood transfusion, his wife would die. He wasn’t moved. He informed them all that if his wife died from bleeding and never got blood transfusion, she would go straight to Heaven. This is a novel idea. If only Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Abacha and the rest of them knew this nice little secret. All they needed to do was slit their own wrists and the express lift to Heaven would have come for them.
Then it got worse. I was informed that the young lady’s mother was present throughout at the hospital. The doctors went to her to give consent for her daughter to be given blood to save her life, but the mother also refused!
She too is a Jehovah’s witness. She maintained throughout that only the husband can give consent, she would not.
In desperation, the doctors called the young lady’s younger brother who is a junior doctor in Jos. The deceased worked at the National Assembly and was the main breadwinner in her birth family. She paid for the education of all of her siblings, including that of this junior doctor. As the doctors in Abuja pleaded with him on the phone to give consent for his sister to receive blood to save her life, this junior doctor demurred. He directed that she be given some coagulants and blood clotting agents. He was informed that all of that has been tried but the patient was still losing blood. In the end, he refused to give consent. He claimed that it was the duty of his sister’s husband, not his, and terminated the call.
He too is a Jehovah’s witness. A doctor! What has religion done to us?
Before this, I have never imagined that any mother could sit on a chair, fold her arms and watch her child die and not do something about it. This was a child she gave birth to and nurtured, and who in turn, had been taking care of her in her old age. I don’t know whether I’m the one losing my mind. What has religion done to us?
Anyway, the mother and my brother were finally called to go to the lady’s bedside as it became obvious that she was struggling through her last breaths. Mama ran in the opposite direction shouting, “Jehovah o! Jehovah is life! Life is Jehovah!”
qqqqMy brother took his place by his wife’s bedside and watched life ebb out of her. He stood there and watched her die. What kind of boldness is that? What kind of cold-heartedness is that? When asked why he did what he did, he responded that when he dies, he would marry his dead wife again in Heaven! Is this logical? I have to confess that I am not the most religious person in the world, but are there marriages in Heaven? Are we going to continue having more children in Heaven?
More importantly, would God be pleased with a person who had the power to save one of his children, one of his creations, but deliberately refused to do so? It is one thing to watch helplessly and only give comfort as someone lies dying on a motorway, but to deliberately and actively withhold life-saving consent? Especially to your own wife? Your own child? Your own sister?
My brother has become a latter-day Abraham. He even went further by sacrificing his wife on the altar of religious principles. But why are some religious people like this? Is it the fear of going against the grain of their faith’s community? Is it the fear of being seen or being thought as not faithful enough by their fellow religious comrades? Is it the shame of being considered weak by one’s religious peers? And if this is the case, are these feelings not trumped by love for another human being? Personally, I think that it has got to be illiteracy of the mind.
Once upon a time, the Earth was thought to be the centre of the Universe. That was the Church’s established view. It was widely accepted that the Sun and all heavenly bodies revolved around an unmoving Earth. Furthermore, it was thought that if the Earth moved, why are we not flung off its surface? As Copernicus and science began to intrude, the Church was compelled to re-assert that the idea that the Sun stood still and that the Earth moved were "false" and "altogether contrary to Holy Scripture." Well, Galileo later published a book, ‘Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems’ in which he argued and proved that the Earth is not the centre of the Universe, and that the Earth does move. The Church and its head, Pope Urban VIII (who was actually Galileo’s friend) were enraged. In 1633, Galileo was arrested and found guilty of Heresy. His book was banned, he was forced to recant, and was placed under house arrest until he died.
But all of that took place in the 16th and 17th centuries. Why are people today still favouring antiquated religious policies over love for one another – especially after the advent of Jesus Christ? It cuts across all strata! I don’t get it!
The entire belief system of Jehovah's Witnesses is founded on the basis of its teachings about the second coming of Christ. They are so fixated on the end of the world that they sit there, petrified, unable to move forward. From year dot, they have been making loud predictions about this. Some examples:
• 1877: Christ's kingdom would hold full sway over the earth in 1914; the Jews, as a people, would be restored to God's favor; the "saints" would be carried to heaven
• 1891: 1914 would be "the farthest limit of the rule of imperfect men.”
• 1904: "World-wide anarchy" would follow the end of the Gentile Times in 1914.
1914 came and went. Nothing happened.
• 1916: World War I would terminate in Armageddon and the rapture of the "saints”
• 1920: Messiah's kingdom would be established in 1925 and bring worldwide peace. God would begin restoring the earth. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and other faithful patriarchs would be resurrected to perfect human life and be made princes and rulers, the visible representatives of the New Order on earth. Those who showed themselves obedient to God would never die.
• 1922: The anti-typical "jubilee" that would mark God's intervention in earthly affairs would take place "probably the fall" of 1925.
• 1924: God's restoration of Earth would begin "shortly after" October 1, 1925. Jerusalem would be made the world's capital. Resurrected "princes" such as Abel, Noah, Moses and John the Baptist would give instructions to their subjects around the world by radio, and airplanes would transport people to and from Jerusalem from all parts of the globe in just "a few hours."
1925 came and went. We are still here. Things are still the same.
• 1938: In 1938, Armageddon was too close for marriage or child bearing.
• 1941: There were only "months" remaining until Armageddon.
• 1942: Armageddon was "immediately before us."
Hmm…
• 1966: It would be 6000 years since man's creation in the fall of 1975 and it would be "appropriate" for Christ's thousand-year reign to begin at that time. Time was "running out, no question about that." The "immediate future" was "certain to be filled with climactic events...within a few years at most", the final parts of Bible prophecy relating to the "last days" would undergo fulfillment as Christ's reign began.
• 1969: The existing world order would not last long enough for young people to grow old; the world system would end "in a few years." Young Witnesses were told not to bother pursuing tertiary education for this reason.
• 1971: The "battle in the day of Jehovah" was described as beginning "shortly, within our twentieth century".
• 1974: There was just a "short time remaining before the wicked world's end" and Witnesses were commended for selling their homes and property to "finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service."
Nope. Nothing happened. 1975 came and went un-obstructively as well.
Well, after mama ran away, my brother too voted with his feet. He couldn’t be found for a few hours. Eventually he showed up and took his day-old baby over to our sister in Abuja to look after. The next day, ten of his fellow Kingdom-hallers turned up to stare at the baby. I cannot help but wonder what would have been going through their minds. Would they be jubilating that a fellow member has been ‘martyred’ by her husband? Are they happy that a needless and easily preventable death took place in their midst?
My brother is now faced with the daunting task of raising two infants on his own. I wonder whether he has thought much about the future. What would he tell his children when they become old enough and ask about their mother? Is he going to lie to them for the rest of his life? They would find out eventually, of course. And when they do, would they thank him for the leading role he played in their mother’s death?
And bringing up those two infants on his own would be tough – very tough. I assume he would have to stay single now for the rest of his life since he claimed that when he dies, he would remarry his dead wife in Heaven. It would therefore be illogical for him to marry someone else again in this world. That would complicate things for him in Heaven, unless Jehovah Witnesses are entitled to marry more than one wife in the great beyond.
But God is so patient! The many mad things we do in His name! What a waste. What a complete waste of human life and human potential. What has religion done to us!
Well, three days later, my brother called me. He was looking for N250,000 towards funeral cost. Of course I hung up on him…
demdem@hotmail.co.uk
Twitter: demdemdem1

THE REUBEN ABATI I KNEW

The Reuben Abati I knew
I once knew man called Reuben Abati. He was a
righteous man who stood on the side of the people. He
was a man who brought credibility to the pen
profession adding honour to what others before him
like Bisi Onabanjo, Alhaji Kola Animashaun, Gbolabo
Ogunsanwo, Sonola Olumhense and Dele Giwa had
done. He strode high and proud in newsrooms and
boardrooms alike. He was the newsp...

aper columnist
and also chairman of the editorial board of the
prestigious Nigerian newspaper, The Guardian. He was
a first class honours graduate of Theatre Arts from the
University of Calabar, where he won the Vice-
Chancellor’s prize for the best overall graduating
student. He also won a number of other awards
including The Cecil King Memorial Prize for Print
Journalism in 1998, The Diamond Award for Media
Excellence for Informed Commentary in 1998, and The
Fletcher Challenge Commonwealth Prize for Opinion
Writing in year 2000. The Reuben Abati I knew was a
worthy man.
Born November 7, 1965, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, this
Reuben Abati was my kinsman. He was a very brilliant
scholar who also contributed immensely to nation
building through an uncannily witty style of writing -
often slapstick, always satiric, ever eloquent. The Abati
I knew had Nigeria by the balls! He put us in fits of
laughter, and we understood every single word he
used. He was well tutored. At the University of Ibadan
where he did his masters and Ph.D in Theatre Arts, he
distinguished himself as a university scholar between
1987 and 1990. He completed his PhD at the age of 24
within just two years, specialising in Dramatic
Literature, Theory and Criticism. He also did a
journalism programme as Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow,
College of Journalism, University of Maryland, in the
United States between 1996 and 1997. And in 1997, he
earned an LL.B (Hons) from the Lagos State University,
Ojo. The training in these three fields immensely
impacted on his writing. As a scholar who taught a
course on the aesthetics of laughter in the university,
Abati found it easy to use humour to convey his
messages. He found it very easy to transit from the
academia to journalism because both as a student and
lecturer, he was consistently contributing articles to
virtually all the leading Nigerian newspapers. From
1989 to 1991, he was contributing editor, Hints and
Channele, both Lagos based romance magazines. He
also freelanced during the period for The Guardian,
Daily Sketch, Democrat, Nigerian Tribune and the Daily
Times. Between 1994 and 1995, he was contributing
editor, Hearts, a romance magazine, which he assisted
in setting up. For eight months he maintained two
columns under a pseudonym. But before Abati fully
went into journalism, he had a promising career in the
academia. He was a graduate assistant, Department of
Theatre Arts, University of Benin, 1985-1986 where he
served as a member of the National Youth Service
Corps, NYSC. While pursuing higher degrees at the
University of Ibadan between 1986 and 1990, he was a
teaching assistant. Immediately after the completion of
his PhD in 1990, he was appointed as a Lecturer at the
Department of English, of the then Ogun State
University. I believe it was also during that period that
he was a part time lecturer at the then Ogun State
Polytechnic, Ojere, in Abeokuta. That was the Reuben
Abati I knew. He was a gentleman, even as he was one
of the members of Patito’s famous gang! Something
terrible has gone wrong. Something terribly tragic!
Seems to me there is an impostor pretending to be this
same man, preening across the corridors of Aso Rock.
Somebody should warn the President! The Reuben
Abati I know was the same person who on the 9th of
July in 2010 wrote in his popular Guardian column, an
article entitled, See How They Govern Us.’ His words:
President Jonathan has written that he had to respond
to pressures mounted by visitors to his Facebook page.
Oh God, are we now running a Facebook government in
this country? Now that President Jonathan listens more
to Facebook postings, his Facebook page may crash
shortly with every Nigerian going there to voice their
concerns. But did he need Facebook to see through the
folly of official inconsistencies? We are obviously
dealing with a tough lot. Welcome to Jonathan’s
Facebook page!
I say this new Abati must be a charlatan, a fraudulent
shame! See what he writes about the same Facebook
and social media critics in his now-famous most recent
riposte: ‘The Jonathan They Don’t Know: He referred to nigeria's activist as the pestle wielding critics, the
unrelenting, self- appointed activists, the idle and
idling, twittering, collective children of anger, the
distracted crowd of Facebook addicts, the BBM-pinging
soap gossips of Nigeria, who seem to be in competition
among themselves to pull down President Goodluck
Jonathan". Oh my! What could have changed in just
one year?
In the same prior article he concluded one argument:
(The real Abati, that is)
The National Honours list is out; it is a collection of
controversial choices with the exception of a few. I
think for example that Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala deserves
recognition. That is what you get when the national
honours list is turned into a joke with such names as
Patricia Etteh and other serving public officials. But
what did we expect? Namadi Sambo got a GCON the
day he became Vice President - is he still in this
country? My good friend (Before the incredible
transmutation!) went further in How Jonathan got his
GCFR’ (June 2010): I had lamented the devaluation of
national honours. These days, when good people are
honoured nobody takes them seriously because of the
kind of company in which they are placed. Those who
govern Nigeria must learn to think before they act. We
should ask Reuben, have they put on their thinking
caps now? Did he remove his before he accepted his
appointment?
This same Reuben – the one I knew, had written in
another Guardian 2010 column, titled: ‘This Can’t Be
Right,’ that: “The same Federal Government that says
there is a financial crisis in the country and which
proposed a supplementary budget to redefine
expenditure priorities is now asking for a sum of 10
billion Naira to celebrate Nigeria’s 50th independence
anniversary. It is definitely not right to spend such a
humongous amount to celebrate 50 years of failure!
The breakdown of the proposed expenditure is even
more gauche. N350 million has been earmarked for the
National Unity Torch and Tour: N350 million just to
carry a torch around the country? How ludicrous? They
want to light up a country with a torch where there is
no regular power supply. N20 million has been
earmarked for what is called Children’s Parliament -
certainly this is money to be stolen by adults! Another
N20 million is meant for a party for 1,000 children.
Their children! Presidential banquet is to take all of N40
million. Yet we are not hosting the World Cup! And on
top of it all, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, who strangely now
occupies an official position that is unknown to the
Constitution, collects N50 million just to go on a visit to
prisons, hospitals and elderly people’s homes. N40
million for National Food Week! And N1.2 billion to
place adverts in local and international media and
another N320 million for local publicity. N200 million is
to be set aside for a football match to mark the golden
jubilee. Logistics is to take N320 million! To design the
anniversary logo, N30 million has been earmarked.
What kind of logo is that? Nigerian leaders are not
looking at meaning and values. For this same event, it
has now been revealed that the Yar’Adua government
budgeted just about N62 million ($423, 000). But
under Jonathan, the leaders are on a spending spree.”
Can you believe that those altruistic words were
penned by none other that the current Presidential
Adviser on Media Matters…? I swear it cannot be the
same person…or is there something they inject you
with once you pick up a government appointment.
Perhaps Gbenga Daniel transfered his Shagamu shrine
to Asokoro?
This ‘new’ Abati has turn-tailed (the senior brother of
‘turn-coat!’) Hear him, circa 2012: “It is a long standing
presidential protocol that during Church or Mosque
services, the President only offers a fixed number of
‘Amens’ or ‘Amins,’ as the case may be. The Reverend
had offered many prayers and demanded many
‘Amens’ prior to the contentious one, the result of
which was that the day’s quota of ‘Amens’ had been
used. It is the same people accusing the President of
not saying ‘Amen’ to anti-corruption prayer that would
be accusing him of favouritism if he had broken with
protocol and said more ‘Amens’ than is allowed by
constitution.” Unbelievable! In fact, one could almost
believe it was the old Abati, back at his editorial desk in
Isolo, penning one of his famous satires!
The old Abati was not a friend of the Jonathans - man,
or wife He once wrote: “The wife of the President of
Nigeria, or a state Governor, or a local council
chairman, is not a state official. Recent history has
however made it a convention to have the spouses of
persons in such positions under the guise of providing
support, play some ceremonial roles. This has been
routinely abused. Under the Jonathan presidency,
Dame Patience Jonathan even got a special allocation in
the original budget for the 2010 Golden jubilee
anniversary whereas she has no official, financial
reporting responsibilities! The international standard is
that spouses in these circumstances must not only
appear but be seen to be above board like Caesar’s
wife. It is no mean feat therefore whenever Abati releases
an official press statement
Neither is it mincemeat anytime he chooses to make
official statements on any pressing national issues
So when on Nov 14th Abati in a press statement said
the presidency has cancelled the PHCN contract to
Manitoba-the Canadian company, nobody argued
Also, when on August 26th, he informed state house
correspondents that the governments were dialoging
with Boko Haram, the people merely grumbled but
eventually agreed
And when Abati told Nigerians and the world that the
First Lady was on vacation when there was daily
fasting and prayers for her all around the nation, the
people-still confused, agreed abit with him
Yeah, Jonathan was the president, but most would
agree that he is not orator, nor is he Obama
Abati was to be his mouthpiece and pen ink
The man who made Mr. President looked good to the
ensnarling public
But on Sunday, President Jonathon poured poo on
Abati’s face on national TV
The President told us that indeed Patient Jonathan
was sick, when Ruben Abati and that loud mouthed
Ayo Osinlu said she went on vacation?
He said the Federal Government hasn’t revoked the
power contract to Manitoba, when Ruben Abati had
released multiple official statements to the contrary
And clearly, ‘His Excellency’ stated that the
government wasn’t in any negotiation with Boko
Haram or other terrorists group, even when Abati
again and again alludes to that in official speeches
and interactions with the press corps
They must not misbehave like Marie Antoinette.
Since Dr Jonathan assumed office, he and his wife have
been practically on the road. The Dame has traveled
from one state to the other, under the auspices of the
Women for Change Initiative. In every state she tells
the women to vote and “make sure your vote counts if
you like my husband.” (Umblella politicking – my
words!) Is she now a partisan politician? The Jonathans
must be told that Nigeria does not have a co-
Presidency. We have only one president and his name
is Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.”
No wonder La Grande Dame never forgave him and
appointed the old warhorse, (er…sorry, war dog doesn’t
quite sound right!) the other doctor, Okupe, in his
stead to guarantee her protection from the vicious
savages of the media empires. But I insist, we are all
making a mistake – there is a sphinx in Aso Rock. How
can one man flip flop so irresponsibly without so much
as a backward glance? Some say it is the love of lucre.
Others say it must be the result of enduring an
indigent upbringing. Still others are suggesting potent
Otueke jazz. Me I disagree with them all; I say there is
an imposter in Aso Rock. This is not the Reuben I know.
Watch your back, Mr. President! culled from nigeria politics

QUESTIONS EVERY NIGERIAN MUST ANSWER

Questions every Nigerian must answer
Why are we so docile in Nigeria? Or is the apt word
foolish?
We are being cheated yet we remain quiet why?
We pay tax yet we provide our own source of power,
water, roads and security [OPC, Bakassi e.t.c]
Those who eke out a living are being molested by the
government [The gala and pure water sellers] The
police have become licensed thieves. The traditional
rul...

ers have become leaders of gangstas. Street urchins
[Agbero] molest commercial motorcyclist (vehicles)
collecting another man’s sweat
Do we know the number of able-bodied men running a
hundred meters every min just to sell 'one' 50 naira
gala? Do we know how many of them are in Lagos
alone?
What if they put down their galas and pure waters and
turn to armed robbery?
Will they attack the upper class? Why are we fighting
for a meagre minimum wage of 18 000? Is it ever going
to be approved? Why will a senator in this country earn
50 000 000 naira a month? Will they ever decrease
their salary?
With the way citizens buy the 1 000 000 naira 'Mikano'
and 'John Holt' generators,
will we ever witness stable power in Nigeria?
Why will any sane man wake up in the morning and
take his ride through gullies
and a minimum of two hour holdups every day for the
next ten years?
Why will he spend 4 hours on a road that should take
him 20mins and not feel that
breaking the jaw of his local government chairman is
the next line of action? joke
Do you know your local government chairman?
How many high-profile cases have our police solved?
Who killed Bola Ige the number 3 man in the
federation? Why will a man who steals a woman's bag
be sentenced to two years in prison while Cecilia Ibru
who stole and wrecked the lives of thousand get things
easy? When will our backs be against the wall?
When would we say enough is enough?
what can be done to inspire youths to FORCE a change?

THE SLEEPING GIANT

I have never ceased to wonder if there was not a time
in the history of this country when the present-day
senior citizens convened to fabricate fantasies with
which the present-day Nigerian youths are constantly
tantalized. What if they aren’t just fantasies? What if
they actually happened? What if a back-travel in time is
the way forward? I can’t imagine the streams of
congratulatory messages tha...

t’ll be sent to the presidency, if by some government
policy, a Nigerian Naira grows as tall as the American
Cent (If $1 = 100 naira), yet I’ve been severally regaled
with tales of Once Upon A Time the US Dollar was not
Worth the Head of Herbert Macaulay ($1 < 1 naira);
can you imagine that? I can’t.
How many times has it been said and proven
incontrovertibly that unlike the container-loads of
inapplicable craps I was fed with for 11 years in school
(6 years at the secondary school and 5 years at the
university), timeless values were taught in schools in
the old system. How else could anyone explain where
Farouk learned to pull the Hat Trick that made him
$600,000 richer? The most plausible deduction is that
he applied what he was taught in school to the present
day. How else could anyone explain Alamieyeseigha’s
transformation into Agbani Darego in order to jump
bail from the UK? (Some male UK prison wardens
probably made passes at him on his Prison Break
Episode: a beautiful man)-he also applied what he was
taught in school. Didn’t General AbdulKareem Adisa’s
(Of Notorious Memory) sissy show before Abacha (Of
More Notorious Memory) pay him off?
All we are told in schools now is that we are the Leaders
of Tomorrow, without being told that life only gives you
Today: you will have to decide when to christen your
Today as Tomorrow for yourself. Now I smile wryly
when a senior citizen looks at me and says the
standard of education has fallen our professors know
some things they aren’t telling us in schools.
Didn’t I also hear that in days of yore, there were no
tribal seams in the relationships existing between
Nigerians from different ethnic groups? Well, I was told
that all that’s needed to initiate a bromance with an
Igbo man was a little knowledge of his language, and
yes! The Hausa man was very honest and affable
(Babangida must be an Haitian or a product of Hausa
Genetic Mutation), of course, the Yoruba man just lived
a-day-at-a-time and never pored over schemes that’d
make him amass superfluous wealth at the expense of
neighbours (Sufficient proof that Obasanjo should be
deported to Bangladesh where he hails from.). What
happened to those meritorious virtues? I can’t find
them around here now. Can you?
Are these graduates that can’t find gainful
employments after years of graduation really culpable?
Is the government that appropriate the national cake
and screams back at the aggrieved populace that they
don’t give a damn really a victim of a disrespectful
population? Whenever I am engrossed in the thoughts
of how? where? when? the Utopia that Nigeria used to
be became the Hell I have comfortably adapted to.
GIVE ME SOME SUNSHINE: this song synopsizes the life
of the Nigerian Youth.

NIGERIA A FAILING OR FAILED STATE

Kidnapping, the taking away of a person against
the person's will, usually for ransom or in
furtherance of another crime, is becoming
everyone’s nightmare in our dear country. Daily,
we read nightmarish stories of people being
abducted as they go about their daily business. A
criminal act, which first attracted national
attention on 26 February 2006 when Niger Delta
militants kidnapped foreign oil...

workers to press
home their demand, kidnapping has since become
ubiquitous and commercialized.
It has spread from the Niger Delta to virtually all
nooks and crannies of the country, with some
states of course being hotspots. Similarly victims
have changed from being predominantly foreign
oil workers to Nigerians, including parents, grand
parents, and toddlers and about anyone who has a
relative that could be blackmailed into coughing
out a ransom. Those behind the recent wave of the
despicable act have also changed from being
exclusively Niger Delta militants to dodgy
elements from different walks of life - armed
robbers, unemployed, professional 419ers, and at
least one Catholic priest
There is no doubt that Nigeria is today one of the
major kidnapping capitals of the world. This has
obvious implications for investments, the
country’s development trajectory and even the
quality of governance.
The common tendency is to blame the pervasive
wave of kidnapping outside the Niger Delta
exclusively on the unacceptable rate of
unemployment in the country, an inefficient and
corrupt police force that is ill-equipped to fight
crime, and collusion between kidnappers and
politicians. These factors however appear to be
mere symptoms of a larger malaise, namely that
pervasive kidnapping, is one of the major
symptoms of both ‘failed’ and ‘failing’ states. Most
of the countries where kidnapping have been
pervasive have been either failed or failing states
– Baghdad after the 2003 invasion of Iraq,
Columbia from the 1970s until about 2001, and
Mexico between 2003 and 2007.
A ‘failed state’ is often used to designate a state,
which has become incapable of fulfilling the basic
functions of a sovereign government. These
functions include physical control of its territory,
provision of security of life and property for its
citizens, the monopoly of the use of legitimate
physical force and ability to provide reasonable
public services or to interact with other states as a
full member of the international community.
A “failing state” on the other hand denotes a state
in transition to a failed state. Here while the state
remains nominally a sovereign and fulfils a
modicum of the functions of a sovereign
government, the central government has become
so weak and ineffective that it has little practical
control over much of its territory, leading to an
upsurge in pervasive insecurity such as
kidnapping, organised assassinations and
robberies. A failing state is also characterised by a
weakened ability to provide basic public services
and widespread corruption as people think of
themselves first, following the failure of the state
to perform its traditional functions. Most of the
countries in the developing world involved in civil
wars or protracted internal conflicts could qualify
as ‘failing states’.
Following from the above, while Nigeria is not yet
a ‘failed state’, it could arguably qualify as a
‘failing state’. This in essence means that while
addressing the problems of unemployment and
inefficient and corrupt police force could be good
palliative measures in combating kidnapping, any
lasting solution to the menace will inevitably have
to address the key question of the nature of the
Nigerian state, including why it has transited from
a weak state to a ‘failing state’ and rapidly
gravitating towards being a failed state. I would
recommend the following:
One, there is a need to restructure the Nigerian
state to enthrone true federalism, including true
fiscal federalism. Classically, federalism is
regarded as a system of government in which the
centre and the federating units are each, within a
sphere, co-ordinate and equal. A true federalism
cannot work in Nigeria under the present
condition where the federating units are atomised
into 36 unviable states, (with the possible
exception of two or three states), which are
dependent on the centre for their survival.
Instituting true federalism will require merging
the present unwieldy number of states into about
six to make them manageable and cost efficient.
The federating units should be allowed to run their
own police force and to take measures they deem
fit, within the law, to protect the citizens within
their territory. Each federating unit ought to have
a database of people living in its territory,
including what such people do.
Two, the cost and efficiency gains from the
consolidation of the present 39 state-structure
could be channelled towards improved provision
of public services and better quality of
governance. A computerised national identity card
scheme has become an imperative.
Three, states should invest in smart security,
especially preventative security, which could
involve phone tapping, extensive use of moles,
and possible use of private armies and private
military companies in protracted conflict areas. In
this sense, the recent call by Governor Peter Obi of
Anambra state that he would hold traditional
rulers in the state in whose domain kidnapping
takes place culpable, appears misplaced.
Traditional rulers, especially in the Southeastern
states, only have ornamental value and should
therefore not be expected to be the chief security
officers of their kingdoms. They are not paid
security agents of the state, and should therefore
not be expected to play the role of moles, which
was never part of the duties of traditional rulers.
There is however merit in the proposal that
kidnapping should attract capital punishment.
Four, in the social contract theory that created the
notion of sovereign (monarch or constituted
national authority), a key argument is that prior to
the creation of the sovereign, there was what the
English political philosopher, Thomas Hobbes,
called the ‘state of nature’. This ‘state of nature’,
he argued, was characterised by the ‘war of all
against all’. People agreed to the creation of this
sovereign, and willingly gave up their right to self-
help because they were very eager to escape the
conditions in this ‘state of nature’ where life was
‘short, nasty and brutish’.
This is the underlying philosophy of the social
contract between the government and the
governed. It could therefore be argued that
pervasive insecurity is a key manifestation of the
breach of this social contract by the government.
This raises an interesting question of whether
citizens should continue to be bound by this social
contract when one of the parties – the state- is
increasingly failing to keep its own side of the
bargain? A state becomes a failed state when
citizens and groups conclude that they too should
no longer be bound by the terms of the social
contract. In this scenario, the Hobbesian state of
nature reigns.
Is Nigeria moving in this direction?