THE GREAT DEBATE :OIL SUBSIDY SECURITY NEXT?

 In what will be best described as an herculean effort and a reenactment of a great battle fought in and can only be found in the Greek mythology tales, eminent scholars, Government officials, respected journalist, lawyers , oil marketers and the general public gathered together in one room to thrash out one issue that has remained on the civic awareness and minds of everyone the highly controversial subject on Oil subsidy, when in July this thing became apparent there was a full scale cry of despair hate animosity and general annoyance in the polity , almost threatening the somewhat peaceful cohabitation we have enjoyed for so long its intent as expected was to garner views and to extrapolate reactions good or bad to spearhead its plan  for economic benefit, the Government convinced it will save the country, the People on the other hand not believing them based on Past indications on other administrations , they didn't want to be caught in another fool hardy approach and so it dragged on, insults raised anger and divide achieved talk shows here and there people shared their views political differences where set aside and people began to bicker and bicker , there was a strong standoff  the President not able to sell the Public and assure them had to devise a means,  a means they had earlier rebuffed as suggested by an eminent scholar , they had to organize a debate where we all shared our minds and ideas gotten from this collated to finally pass the motion into law yet brushing aside many issues in its place , this debate has later gone on to be tagged the Great debate and it is without Prejudice as a lot of useful talks hard hitting points where raised, this article isn't going to deal with what happened we can ask that ourselves or go online and see clips from the debate my issue is to talk on another matter that has totally confounded the polity and has driven us to fear it has come to stay with us and it has grown to a point that we are totally fed up with the system I'm  talking of the Security issue and as we see it today , it is common knowledge that we have gripped with armed robbers, murderers/ritual killings , and quite recently kidnappings. the state has accepted this and harkened it to lack of man power and not enough funds for this agents but now a dire threat has been mounted on us and if we do not clamor for this to be quelled then we may have as well handed over the keys of our country to destruction, since the Niger Delta incident began there has been more than 30 known groups who have challenged the Government in one way or the other but none like this group translated to BOKO HARAM meaning Western Education is Sin coined from both Arab and Hausa/Fulani word this menace originally started as all groups of such nature began as a peaceful group voicing injustice amongst the People but was largely ignored and left then a vicious political scheme saw them metamorphose to political thuggery and finally they have become what is now known as a terrorist group their rise to prominence is as a result of corruption,  breakdown in our  security network and intelligence and general stupidity of security forces now those that have clamored for oil subsidy should tone down that suggestion and focus on the imperitive problem , which is how to safegaured the nation the public at large the integrity of the nation.So far international agencies have reported at least 19000 people have died and all these while we keep hearing the top chiefs of our security outfits say that they are on top of matters...... matters my foot these men dont know  A from B and it is appallin that even after setting up an Anti Terrorism Squad that things are still like this even after other intelligence forces gave them warnings weeks before the tragic bombings they still ignored such threats, is it man Power they need? im sure they can train our young niger deltans who have fought the Government before and dealt a large blow to use their guirella training to the advantage of the Government and help augument the army , is it funds? since the military and democratic govt have ruled it has always gupped huge amounts in the system and you agree with me that no amount is too small or big for security and welfare of the nation, is it their wages? except those olombos or popularly known black on black policemen called as olopa they are paid quite well and always on time , i think the reason security has not performed well  as it ought to be is first the passion and commitment to stand by the pledge they say, secondly it is ignorance and lack of education and creativity/innovation, thirdly is technical know how, technology, planning, systematic review and updates, working together and Corruption, it is quite unfortunate that these men who have sworn to protect us become the criminals themselves this is alarming and must be stopped so i think this idea for a Great debate on security will give us a view to air our minds on this negligible and annoying state of shame our security systems are, what we need are breakdown of security operations and introduction of technological and intelligence gathering teams etc..... it is clear our police needs to break up and form state,  local and community/citizen police systems to ensure a network of safety.
i am waiting for the time we will gather like this and discuss on security issues and offer solutions but all plans must be carefully outlined to make sure that wrong criminals and detractors do not get them so even if it will be live the intelligence report after the whole thing will not be shown rather the action steps will be to put people to trust the leadership , and also release fake options to thwart and divert the attention of such criminals elsewhere , we must seek assistance from countries who are willing to help naturally and with nothing attached to them to help us plan better.

But for now we can only pray for those many victims who lost their lives in 4 states in 6 places round the country on Christmas day our deepest sympathy lies with the families of such people , it is time we have a say in security matters it is time to rise up to challenge our status quo enough is enough!.

POLITICS AND NIGERIA : 51 YEARS OF UTTER MISTAKES

If there is one thing i have come to realize is that we are still babies nestling and suckling mommy's breast and when i say so i say that as a country at large, how old are we i ask someone? reply varies: 100,70,60,50,47,34 and the popular one 51 !!! so now your quickly doing the math in your head and asking how can that be ? how can an old state be called a baby? well its not too hard to decipher let us begin by understanding the growh of a baby, when a child is born there is great joy and jubilation and every body comments and comes to see this child as it is shown to the family liken this to us gaining independence in 1960.the baby feels and rightly thinks he is at the center of the universe that everything belongs to him and fiercely takes full advantage of that fact offering his body to be carried by those he likes best liken that to the formation of the new government and the bilateral relations we started forming with Ghana and the rest countries, the baby feels to be respected and cared by his parents in this case great Britain, at this stage he is ripe for development all is well things are going fine.........then he starts growing. at the age 4 the child begins a new cycle in life that of keeping his parents up by pouring tantrums and annoying games just to keep reassuring himself he has their attention liking this fact to the republic status we get and the first public junta in the north in 1964.he tries to frustrate his parents further by inflicting injuries on himself these continues until he becomes 9 and starts feeling matured and listens to no one well we all know that story in 1970s until he gets to the mid-life crisis stage and changes insert the First coup!!! he is disorganized, confused, emotionally disable and depressed and becomes angry this continues throughout his life cycle unchecked till he erupts enter 2nd and 3rd coup and first civil war and the rest is history.

That analogy was just showing how backward we have come, we were left a failed state and we still remain so as much as we try to kid ourselves we are not, this piece is not to blame anyone but just to lay questions and emphasis on the crux of the matter OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM!!

I am of the humble opinion that we need to check and change the system A full overhaul is needed because the present crops lack the technical know how and vision as well as charisma and planning to lead this country father rather they fatten their bellies and leave incompetent people on the job to continue to deprive us on some basic amenities which we are meant to have, the political kingpins have seen Nigeria as their birthright and hence can do anything on it while we stand by like spectators this people have robbed us clean and simple and have to pay back , if we estimate from 1960-present the level of embezzlement of Government resource it will shock and setback this country in 30 years time because it will cause anarchy our present leaders have shown time without number that they are incapable of meeting to their status quo and devise ways to frighten the polity and the masses, as Abraham Lincoln said leadership is public service you must serve the public and not the other way round instead here we say a totally different case instead we are made to serve this politicos like they ere gods and immortals we see people trampling on each other and cheering them on like they were special if only they knew their fundamental right that binds them as citizens to this country then maybe the story would hv been different but for now i sadly see the results of money brainwash

When our forefathers struggled for independence they did this with the knowledge and hope of a union to defend themselves against the horde and influence of the white man and his unyielding sapping of the natural resources we have what do we see today? the same thing these great men died stopping flourishing everywhere if they were to see this they wil turn in their grave.

This brings me to the question has democracy in any way impacted positively to the socio-economic benefit of the grass root man and has politics in any way helped effect change? this question is a hydra headed monster in itself because it questions the very fundamental of our unity this will as usual be threatened

The fact clearly speaks for itself that since democracy came to stay we have never been poorer thsn now im not a rooter or fan of dictatorship or autocracy or military rule but to a point it provides answers to a point!!! because when an order is carried out it must be obeyed which is the height of discipline, disobedience and ignorance are not taken lightly in this regime, my point as im tryin to lay before you is the fact that if we had a sustainable autocratic style of government and a true democratic leadership factory this country would have been a power house economy it took us 51 long hard and frightful years to wake up from our slumber when the threat of security, poverty and blatant ignorance and corruption has so eaten through the system that one describes her as a dead dog waiting for its last meal , we ask ourselves when these big men travel out as they frequently do dont they see this wonderful systems abroad? dont they feel stupid for not using these wealth for the creation of value changing programmes for the people or are they that self centred?
this question pague my mind continuosly seeing as alll the sectors are shut down and the leaders are clueless on what to do i think enough is enough we need to properly question every government law, decree, bill, proposal to weed out the hidden mechanism of corruption, because the few eggs remaining to lift the face of the system are log-tied with myriads of problems, the system has shut down my advice is for these politicians and big boys to pack their bags and leave this country good bye and god riddance to rubbish, let us not stand idle and vote recklessly our position should be to analyse, fault, reason and dialogue with the other parties on the way foward

My opinion is that until we curb the political system in terms of party affliation switching , tribunals etc. we are stalemate and until these people start giving back to the community there will continue be talks of their treachery and criminal tendencies.

It is of my expert analysis that politics has failed Nigeria for 51 years its high time we stepped in and sieze control to establish a system of intellectual productivity we need a good leader an educated one for that matter no more rulers and managers and inept members we should stop kiddin ourselves the time has come for us to rally round and make the country listen firmly to us.

I hope we can achieve this come 2015 we need leaders not rulers think of your future and others ahead , create a sustainable future today.

ICT AND THE SOLUTION TO NIGERIA

Well its been a long silent month of october  largely due to the fact i was extremely ill in the hospital thats when i got to really appreciate the need for ICT in every area of our life and sector which we partake in , not to waste your time there has been this saying that the world is a global village meaning an inter connection of families upon families now that is interesting with the advent of the internet and also other capturing equipments those statements are not far fetched my question is we still say we are developing i will put it in a new light we havent even started for a developing nation one thing should be at its foremost on its mind the ICT and the role of media in promoting its activities so without foredo i will list the immediate sectors i know in nigeria and how we can help better it minus the human factor and logic ICT eliminates many variables that would have arisen had it not been for the silent partner now in alphabetical order:
AVIATION:
the ever changing corporate outlook today in nigeria and demanding schedule has made this the first choice transport system coupled with the bad and crippled road network the only safe transport system which raises the question why customers have to cry before they board planes there are mitigating risk aas usual including security, weather,environment and climate but the returns are simply rewarding since air travels is fast efficient and safe there is a need for a wholly IT designed system that can deliver maximum output from the booking process to the boarding process the industry has to offer and provide competition and choice to maintaining productivity and also key into members of the country and grab the vast majority who still love road one way is by creating internal and inland landing zones to get into huge markets this meas designing new aircraft features and services as well to make a market woman travel by plane and carry her consumer goods  to her destination. when security,weather detection and booking softwares are introduced more there will be a bee hive of activity leading to growth as well as offer courier services to help grab into the informal sector most people ware just afraid of air travel because they feel its not safe so there is a need for trainings to be done and other packages ICT can develop to help even in advertising and media relations.

pls join me next time as we look at the electricity sector.

DRS QUARTERS: NIGERIA AND ITS 51 YEARS .....a leadership story

As the clock ticks towards the marking of yet another independence day i ask myself whats the use? its not as if we have something worthwhile to celebrate rather we have something to mourn the death of another leader im speaking of course in a literal manner what pains me most is that after 51 years we still havent gotten things right 51 years gosh what eggheads we are!!!! first and foremost for you to understand my tirade and debacle lets imagine this country is a process design plant and in it we have groups of supervisors to produce a final product called LEADERSHIP AND SERVICE as the process begins there is a plan to guide it lets call it  CONSTITUTION and well it is outdated and flawed yet it can still hold together the operation the foreman and his team here we call HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY gather to make amendments weekly to suit the already dilapidated structure yet it still looks in adept the analyst is called to look at the machines yearly called MINISTERS AND ADVISERS yet they still do not know the cause finally they report to Headquarters here denoted as the PRESIDENCY to complain but due to lack of Human resource the same thing repeats itself continually. that's the sorry state our country is in where things do not seem to work and if we keep on sweeping this specks beneath the carpet it becomes extremely hard we cannot kid ourselves anymore our system is faulty and every good engineer knows that once a system is bad it must be replaced immediately full parts and all this is what must be done now let me explain my analogy in a way i wont lose you.

LEADERSHIP AND NIGERIA
 one will agree with me that a good leader often reflects the countries presence in the global community a good leader will show a productive country  and a bad leader vice versa now what happens when a country has no leader? answer the country is shown to be vile,corrupt,incompetent, and wasteful now take a close look at this country and ask yourself aren't we all these thing in one package true we have our moments but it often doesnt last rather our woes are broadcasted for the world to see imagine 51 years of illiterates who have ruled us all of them how do you think our country will progress until we get our selection process right we still remain stupid in the eyes of the West , our president cannot even articulate his speech it just gives a bad vibe we still have not gotten a truly EDUCATED president and i dont think we may until the idiots up there see reason for learned peeps to take ova we are but helplessin the hands of the system now there are 2 sides to this the pro side and the anti side well the pro side argues that the country's image is being killed by us because we havent yeyt been able to understand the system while the anti side disagrees they point to every area that has suffered under incompetence in the country .

back to my analogy when an engineer sees that parts have to be replaced he calls in his team and identifies the problem and immediately orders such problem to be cut but when he lives that site the workers due to the fact they have been working round the clock become restless and go on a mutiny destroying works that where made good (OUR CURRENT SECURITY SITUATION) because they are pawns and wish to be heard the engineer rather than use HR skills fires dem what happens next is in our imaginations only.......

we can continue to rant with no effect until two thigs are in place
1. a tax payer system and internal rvenue scheme that is deviod of corrupt mechanism

2. a public bureau institute that teaches government officials how to manage and also creates tracking tools open for public knowledge as well as delivery and citizen interactions with them

this enables WE the laymen to be able to communicate effectively our desire and criticisms that can develop the country when we see on TV that the EFCC have arrested public officials suspected of stealing and mishandling billions of naira i laugh inside this cannot happen in civilzed countries its either this officials are prosecuted n killed ( in china) or they are sentenced to heavy fines and jailed but here we see meagre sum paid and they walk free there have been so many cases which brings me to a question " how effective is the body in bringing to justice this corrupt men?" " are they given jurisdictiobn and access to files liker the FBI does?" " are they used as a weapon to cause fear by the ruling party or something else?" these questions need to be addressed and looked at critically , as they say power corrupts totally it is left for them to take the initiative to lead by example i just hope that in the coming few years we have a TRUE LEADER and not a Ruler in this country .


the engineer always make sure his structure last for up to 30 years this is the strength of such material let us hope that our material can be sustainable pls join me next time as we take a look at NIGERIA AND 419 REASONS to be HERE.

CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION AND RELATION: A GUIDE TO PRODUCT DELIVERY AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

A very often overlooked segment in any business and even in our general conduct is the customer segment, often companies disregard this minority but yet CRITICAL segment let us use RIM( research in motion limited) the makers of the smart phone blackberry , now when blackberry came out in 1999 its mission was to provide up to date by the minute communication for customers and in 10 years it has taken over the market now every one wants to be a part of it even though we know the technical aspect of the phone is ummmm to be polite rubbish what has made it stand out is its strong acceptance by customers who like to "ping" or IM away without a strong customer acceptance and right customer segmentation they wont have succeeded but recently they have forgotten that what made them popular can also destroy them on Monday of this month they had a huge technical breakdown one will think that they would have immediately responded to their millions of customers take apple for instance rather they just spoke some gibberish techie term n dat was  all while business men lost a lot of deals online and communication dropped now after 3 days they apologize now that is BAD PR immediately negative reactions have trailed them and their stocks have fallen most of these wont have happened if effective strategic planning was done as well as customer segmentation and dry runs now this brings us to the crux of te matter customer segmentation and relation is a continual process f evaluating how products offered by companies affect the day to day operations of a customer and segmentation is breaking down products depending on type,race,devpt,sex,language,socio-cultural and economic factors, economy etc. now if we know that WE are the makers and breakers of product companies need to be careful on strategies they implement that can affect customer taste because this can lead to unfavourable conditions.

here in Nigeria the music industry have not been using this and that is why our artiste do not grow the fact is this you need a fanbase to be recognized and fans need you for entertainment to project yourself you must entertain their diverse taste one critical complaints from fans are the fact that musicians never have time for their fans which is crazy when you look at it you cannot continue to feel you are in control because when you lack talent you need to make it up with other things to keep fans interested it is this reason alone you need to understand customer relation in next weeks blog i will be talking about the steps in achieving such.

.ICT and NIGERIA

I DON’T know if Vanguard readers, especially Hi-Tech readers have heard or read of an American named Kevin Mitnick. In case we haven’t, Kevin David Mitnick (born on August 6, 1963) is now a computer security consultant, author, and former computer hacker.  In the course of his 48-year life, he has been convicted of various computer-related crimes. At the time of his arrest, on February 14, 1995, he was the most-wanted computer criminal and hacker in the United States.  What actually fascinates me about the life of Kevin Mitnick is that he is the product of a system that consciously seeks to develop the citizen to the fullest. In high school, at the age of 16, Mitnick’s teacher gave everyone in his class an assignment — they were to develop a code to find the first 100 Fibonacci numbers.  By way of explanation, Fibonacci numbers are numbers with an integer sequence such that each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two. (Example: 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55…….). This sequence was named after the Italian mathematician, Leonardo Fibonacci (1170 – 1250), also known as Leonardo of Pisa.   Hacking career begins  Mitnick did not do the Fibonacci assignment; instead, he developed a code to steal passwords with. For that, his teacher gave him an “A”, and from there, a career in hacking began.  I am not interested in the criminal uses to which Mitnick put his knowledge; I am interested in the fact that at such a tender age such knowledge could sprout from his young mind, leading me to wonder how many such Nigerians we are growing.  We make so much noise about Vision 20-2020, but our primary and secondary schools are not even wired for IT, while many tertiary institutions have just begun networking. How then are we going to achieve Vision 20-2020?   IT prodigies  Consider this: IT prodigies like Bill Gates (born 1955), Kevin Mitnick (born 1963), Michael Dell (born 1965), Yahoo co-founders, David Filo (born 1966) and Jerry Yang (born 1968), and Google co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page (both born in 1973) have impacted massively on their generation and country such that their collective efforts have put America and Americans at the head of the IT queue worldwide today.   Enabling environment  That is what an enabling environment is capable of doing, compared with the disabling environment we have at present. Many primary and secondary schools in this country, including the private ones do not have anything near information technology that can be used for instruction.  What that means is that our youths get introduced to IT proper only at the tertiary levels. If that is the situation, when are we going to have our own IT prodigies that will truly liberate our economy? Sometime ago, there was much noise about a Nigerian version of the Silicon Valley.  What is the status of that project now? State governments are hereby advised to invest massively in IT parks as a way of making the educational system IT-compliant, while we wait for the relevant authorities to convene a conference that will re-work the curriculum and make it 21st -century compliant

THE AIESEC LEGACY AND YOUTHS OF TODAY

It is a well known fact that AIESEC remains the worlds biggest,largest and dynamically active youth organization in the world , catering to the teemless youths and recent graduates the world over and engages them in different activities that cut across life , many alumni's talk about  their days when they actively held talks with captains of industries and other stake holders. It is also of a fact that we have the highest open ACS (Active Communication System) site in the World!! according to TATA Global Service a leading consulting firm we send close to 5000 mails daily and recieve twice that number no wonder the UN, EU and other top global industries recognize our sway but that is not enough!!! as active and vibrant agents we need to continue the legacy set down by our founding fathers we need to continue our drive for youth excellence, we all have a global mandate to engage youths by 2015 and no other time can we achieve this than now.

In Nigeria today we here discussions of the high rate of unemployment of youths many argue that the rate of "quacks" churned out of the system is appalling, but i beg to disagree, now how can we curb this trend? simple we need to aggressively engage youths by combining forces to create awareness of our organization and its mission ,the global internship programme alone provides boundless opportunities one which many other countries have taken advantage of we need to repackage the internship opportunities and open the public's eyes to our way of networking, our virtual platform has to be stronger now than ever our mandate more effective and to be amongst the first choice partners for professional youths we need to make a statement.
Then again we need to offer quality exchanges and lastly they way we handle our projects must change with a view of sustainable future we are gradually becoming the youths voice but how can we be known if we remain in the shadows? its high time we do lots of awareness campaigns and micro-market and outsource our programmes to youths that way we can really affect lives lets join hands and continue the legacy on this Worlds Youth Day and for the many days in the future.

AIESECers are great people a testimonial of the 60 years of diverse backgrounds and ideas that partners have recognized and invested in ,i should know for i am one.
So why dont you join us today in many of our branches in the great country of Nigeria simply log on to www.aiesecnigeria.org for more information be part of success today.

MY NIGERIA

Nigeria, a blessed country located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. A country whose name originates from the River Niger which runs through it, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the most populous country in the world in which the majority of the population is black.
Over the years a lot of things have been said about this Pride of Africa some of which are constructive while a lot of others, just baseless. For instance in time past, Nigeria use to have so many teething problems in her election processes and militancy pressure in her Niger Delta region however all these has been duly tackled and grinded to a halt. Thus, the recently concluded national election emerged as the freest and fairest in the history of the country and the militancy pressure had since been successfully put to rest. Presently, the on-going over flocked terrorism attack by the Boko Haram group in the north is gradually phasing out and peace is being restored to distressed zones thereby reaffirming the mandate of the federal government to curb all vices. Fascinatingly, despite the challenges that were on then, Nigeria never seized to host visitors who constantly came in from far and near to explore great opportunities all over the country because they understood the Nigerian spirit which guarantees continual development.
Typical to every country in the world, Nigeria has her own frailties and weaknesses and is constantly working towards the betterment of her society. For instance, Nigeria presently has one of the fastest growing telecommunications market in the world, the second largest economy in Africa and has positioned herself as the 12th largest producer of petroleum in the world and the second largest oil exporter among the OPEC nations (an improvement from seventh position last year) thereby transcending into a significant decline of all forms of evil while on the other hand increasing employment opportunities. Nigeria is blessed with enormous mineral resources some of which include natural gas, coal, bauxite, tantalite, gold, tin, iron ore, limestone, niobium, lead and zinc.

Interestingly, what is more special about Nigeria is not just her striving developmental antecedents but her great people. Nigerians are lovely, passionate and determined people. If you have ever met a true Nigerian then you can attest to this obvious fact.  Nigerians have achieved great feats in almost every field of the world today. From Literature where we have Africa’s first Nobel Laureate, to sciences where we have Africa’s greatest scientist of all time, to sports where our male and female teams have recorded great strides, to leadership where we have a good representation across the globe and the success categories goes on and on. Nigerians indeed have an excellent spirit but sadly, the international media has never done any good in portraying these terrific characteristics of ours.
In Nigeria, the biggest student run organization in the world AIESEC is growing rapidly and steadily. So many interns who have participated in our (AIESEC) exchange program have always left words of returning to their new found home – Nigeria. You can check out their recommendations and learn from their experiences following this link http://www.aiesecnigeria.org/experiencenigeria/ and trust me you will marvel. So, as a young person who is determined to achieving good success, we are inviting you to come over to Nigeria and participate in our numerous life changing experience internships and increase your competitiveness. A comprehensive detail of the different projects and work opportunities in our country is available on request. Come experience quality exchanges and classy lifestyle; come experience Nigeria.
Nigeria – Good People, Great Nation.

Blogpost written by Emmanuel Essien

TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT:COCREATIONHUB GETS $245,000

19 Jul 2011 15:04 Africa/Lagos


Omidyar Network and The Indigo Trust to Fund New Social Innovation Center in Nigeria

PR Newswire

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and LONDON, July 19, 2011

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and LONDON, July 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Omidyar Network and The Indigo Trust announced today their support and intent to fund the Co-Creation Hub in Lagos, Nigeria. The Hub is a non-profit, social enterprise centered around a shared work space where stakeholders from multiple walks of Nigerian life come together to collaboratively create tech-based solutions that address social challenges facing Nigerian society. It will be Nigeria's first multi-functional, multi-purpose space dedicated to the creation of social technology ventures. Omidyar Network will grant up to US$200,000, and The Indigo Trust has provided a grant of US$45,000.

The Hub will accommodate 50-60 tech start-ups at one time and will provide pre-incubation services including: advice, training, mentorship and access to funding through a network of local and international partners. The Hub will also serve as a place for stakeholders to meet, brainstorm, share ideas and collaborate through partnership events, meet-ups, focus groups, hackathons, competitions and talks by guest speakers.

The Hub founders, 'Bosun Tijani and Femi Longe, saw first-hand the impact of focused social innovation efforts through their leadership in the Social Innovation Camp Nigeria and Tech in Governance camp that took place this year in Nigeria. The camps yielded a number of technology initiatives focusing on issues such as government accountability, health information and crime tracking and reporting. Their goals for The Hub include helping to stimulate the creation of more than two dozen social ventures over the next two years. The Hub will open its doors in August this year.

"The Co-Creation Hub promises to foster the development of technology-driven social enterprises that will address many of Nigeria's most pressing problems," said Stephen King, Omidyar Network investment partner. "The Hub will provide the environment, stimulation and connections to capital and expertise necessary to help Nigerian entrepreneurs launch their social missions to improve the lives of millions of Nigerians."

The grant represents Omidyar Network's latest investment in innovative uses of technology for development and support of entrepreneurship in Africa. It follows the recent creation of the Africa Transparency and Technology Initiative and support of the African Leadership Academy and the Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship.

"We are delighted to support a venture which will create an enabling environment for African-led innovation, contextualized to local needs," said Francesca Perrin, founder and director of The Indigo Trust. "The Hub will bring together developers, innovators and business professionals, creating the right conditions to stimulate innovation and generate technology-led solutions that improve governance and support development objectives across Nigeria. We're excited about the potential of Hubs. It seems natural to us that people should come together to share technical, human and social bandwidth."

About The Indigo Trust:

The Indigo Trust is a grant making foundation that funds technology-driven projects to bring about social change, largely in African countries. The Trust focuses mainly on innovation, transparency and citizen empowerment. The Indigo Trust makes grants to African projects or programmes, or to organisations which operate at least partly in African countries. We believe that access to information for all empowers people to change their own lives and communities. Fran Perrin founded the trust that she now runs with her husband William. The Indigo Trust is one of the 18 Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts (SFCT). The Trusts work and fund autonomously across many different sectors and geographic regions but share offices and administration. For more information see The Trust's blog: http://indigotrust.wordpress.com

About Omidyar Network

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, the organization invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic and social change. To date, Omidyar Network has committed more than $448 million to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual participation across multiple investment areas, including microfinance, entrepreneurship, property rights, government transparency, consumer Internet and mobile. To learn more about Omidyar Network, please visit www.omidyar.com.

SOURCE Omidyar Network

CONTACT: Greg Pershall of Omidyar Network,             +1-360-607-8901      ; or Dr Loren Treisman of The Indigo Trust,             +44 (0) 20 7410 0330      

Web Site: http://www.omidyar.com

RAINY SEASON

thunderstorms,heavy drizzles,water everywhere the plight of the people on the street has trippled this week you just have to lvew the comfort of your home to see for yourself the roads have become congested and filled with dirts of all kind harmful to the ecosystem that we inhabit, transport systems are on hold due to the traffic jams life has become unbearable and no other place feels the toll and impact more at the moment than in Lagos State, there have been series of flashfloods that have rendered many homeless and made orphans of many and others have sadly perished this is a major setback for economic productivity as well as the well being of the people pictures show horrific waters that are as high as 6 feet completely submersing cars and trucks this trend has left many wary and they are not to or still are to be blamed we shall look at the two angles:

TO BE BLAMED: it is a well known fact even from primary school that there are two seasons in the country the wet and dry season and also the dates are also known so it is expected that we adequately gear up for this worrisome period but most at times the dangers involved are ignored or simply most are ignorant or dont know how to also the idea of building drainages as community development schemes are also not done and finally building with substandard materials and areas that are waterlogged leaves nothing for the imagination also the fact is we indiscriminately dump refuse in this gutters and drainages blocking them we keep our environment unkept resulting in things like these and also narrow biulding and improper channeling of waterways causes and have added to these flood problem we have acted so ignorant to the environment that now there is little to be done and what is annoying is that upon the warnings by both local,national and international agencies warning these most affected areas of the need to be prepared they still ignored it like a stubborn goat and now all we see is destruction,pain, agony and of course stupid criticisms at the government when the people are at fault , there is then a need to waken community development programmes aimed at bettering the environment and monitor forces to check nmiscreants and safe guard work and maintain the environment we shouldnt wait till another july to experience the same thing all over again.

NOT TO BE BLAMED: the agencies in charge of environment matters have not acted accordingly this includes the ministries and agencies of environment,the land and works ministry,the national agencies of emergency response and other agencies tied t the infrastructural development of the state there should have been a plan to checkmate these flooding and high sea tidal rains that destroy properties and lives yearly and ongoing sanitization and awareness campaign to enlighten people of the dangers of building in areas prone to flooding infact they are not to build there at all except they have waysa of preparing for such effectively also the geological societies are meant to map out areas due to flooding to suggest solutions to such agencies as how best to combat these problem ths involves proper co-ordination and future planning and action ,the emergency agencies are meant to plan for such and have assistance readily available to such areas in the space of 10-30 minutes as time is a critical factor but sadly that is not the case this cannot continue to happen thew truth is if one sector of the econmy in any area of this country is affected then there is going to be a whole lot of cankerworms on our heads the government must strive to control flooding by checkmating it early especially during the dry spells or damming a lot of places to reduce the flood effects .

there is also a need for both parties to have synergy and work together from the agric sector to the landscape sector to the public and private sector there is a need for visionaries in such fields and clear headed individuals working with them and finally the support of people for the greater good of the nation because they may have to take drastic actions to better everyone lets hope that the plight of the lagosians,riverians the northern people and the eastern people will be heard it has become a national issue and should be treated as such.

SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DEGREES

Sexually Transmitted Degrees By Okey Ndibe

Posted: July 11, 2011 - 21:42

Okey Ndibe

Columnist: 

Okey Ndibe

A friend of mine, a writer based in Abuja, surprised me recently when he asked if I knew what the acronym STD stood for. To underscore how ludicrous I found his question, I quickly retorted, “Of course, sexually transmitted diseases.” He guffawed – I should have noted a tinge of mischief in his tone – and then disabused me. “It stands for sexually transmitted degrees!”
This writer then went ahead to explain that the term was coined by another friend of his to account for the fact that many (too many, in fact) of Nigeria’s university and polytechnic students – mostly females, but some males as well – barter their bodies in exchange for grades. In effect, this inventive adaptation of a well known, frightening shorthand for venereal infestation seeks to sum up a disturbing social trend: students sleeping (or otherwise bribing) their way to a degree.
There are, one conjectures, multitudes of Nigerian bankers, engineers, lawyers, accountants, physicians, mass communicators, economists – to name a few – who flaunt sexually transmitted degrees, diplomas or certificates. Or degrees that were priced and bought, not earned through diligent study.
One must stress that there are many academics and students who don’t – and won’t – participate in this monumental self-debasement and degradation of education. Even so, there’s no question that those who take part, as lecturers or students, in this scandalous cheapening of education constitute a significant percentage. 
I was always aware of the existence of rogue academics who sexually exploit their students, or induce them into parting with cash, for good grades. But I came to grasp the dimensions of the crisis when I spent part of the 2001-2002 academic year as a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Lagos.
As I prepared to give my first class, a colleague observed that I seemed “excited.” When I confirmed that I was, he said, in a discouraging tone, “But these students don’t want to learn anything. They prefer to pay cash or offer sex for their grades.”
“Is it possible,” I queried, “that some lecturers are not keen on teaching – and so prefer to collect cash or to bed the students?”
“No, believe me,” this lecturer insisted. “They are not interested in learning.”
Of course, the terrible transaction of buying and selling grades involves two parties, but the seller of grades – the lecturer – strikes me as having far more power than the buyer. At any rate, with all the determination in the world on the part of students to buy good grades, the sordid deal cannot be sealed unless and until a lecturer consents.
With that in view, I told my students the first day of class that I had heard that some of them purchased their grades with cash or their bodies. Then I warned: “The only way you can do well in this class is by working hard. I don’t accept financial or sexual gratification.”
To their credit, most of the students rose to the challenge. They read the texts and came to class ready to ask questions and to participate. Still, a few were too dyed in corrupt colors to take me at my word. One young woman was particularly persistent in asking me to change my rules. “Is it a crime to love?” she asked me over the phone. “Who do you love?” I asked. “You,” she answered. When I told her that I was her teacher, married and unavailable to be loved, she was far from fazed. “I’m not asking you to leave your wife,” she informed me. “I won’t let you borrow me from my wife for even a minute,” I said. Her response: “Why do you hate me so much?”

When I gave exams, another student – male this time – approached me. After giving me the information – which he seemed to think remarkable – that he and I were from Anambra State, he said, “Bros, what can we do about this exam?” Feigning ignorance of where the conversation was headed, I asked, “Did you take the exam?” When he nodded yes, I added: “That’s all I need from you. I will grade you and everybody else.” “No, bros,” he pursued, his tone more earnest. “As a bros, tell me how much I can give you,” he implored. Enraged, I told him how ashamed I was of his conduct – and then waved him away.
An old acquaintance – at the time a final year law student I had known since the mid-1980s – had observed the encounter. He approached and asked why I seemed so irritated. His response to my account of events was even more shocking. He advised me to call back the student and take the money he was willing to offer. “If he fails the exam, he can go and give the money to somebody in the records office – and they will change the grade. Since you’re the one who suffered to teach him, you should be the one to enjoy the money.” 
I was astonished to hear a lawyer-to-be pass off such inanity as logic. He was asking me to anticipate wrongdoing by another person, and to move fast to, a, do the wrong thing first and, b, claim the prize – being the one who “suffered.”
This whole business of buying and selling grades is a touchy subject. A few years ago, Ernest Emenyonu, one of Nigeria’s most esteemed literary scholars, ignited a storm when he detailed how some Nigerian lecturers demand cash from their students as a condition for handing out good grades, supervising projects, or awarding degrees. Titled “Sorting: New Vocabulary in Nigerian Higher Institutions,” his piece offered several examples of such unscrupulous behavior.
Emenyonu, who had a distinguished career as a professor at the University of Calabar and whose current teaching address is at the University of Michigan (in Flint), wrote that the terminology “sorting” has become part of the tragic economy of trading in grades and degrees. According to him, sorting means, “to check out lecturers and determine how much a student could pay in return for a grade not worked for or earned through the academic process.” Professor Emenyonu then revealed that some lecturers “bargain in tens of thousands of Naira while some high profile lecturers and professors quote in hundreds of thousands.”
My sadness grows each time I reread Emenyonu’s essay or recall my personal experiences with students who wanted grades that cast them as excellent, but who were loath to do the requisite work. As Emenyonu stated, many students of tertiary institutions “are receiving no
 worthwhile education at all,” their sponsors “paying for their
 children to be duped by lecturers and if they learn anything at all, it is
 experiencing first hand how to camouflage appearance for reality.” Emenyonu continued: “The
 sharp ones among them are receiving their first orientation into obtaining
 goods, laurels, and wealth by false pretences, alias, 419. However, the
 most irreparable harm done by ‘Sorting,’ is that Education is being
 mirrored as inconsequential in the development of a nation; the degrees we
 award have no value and the years spent in institutions of higher learning
 are irrelevant, and rigor as a crucial virtue to be acquired in the course of one's education is an avoidable and unnecessary self imposed
 hardship.”
I had a drink in Lagos with a Nigerian entrepreneur who’s in the middle of hiring staff for his start-up company. He told of graduates of accountancy who are ignorant of the most basic terms and procedures in the field. He noted the large pool of candidates he must interview before he finds somebody who appears barely qualified. “It’s embarrassing and frustrating,” he said.
The malaise in Nigeria’s education is a microcosm of a larger cultural crisis. By and large, the ethic of the unearned, illicitly acquired preferment has been enshrined in Nigeria. Too many of us aspire to stupendous wealth, but disdain the patience, inventive enterprise and focus that facilitate material success in many other societies. As Emenyonu pointed out, Nigeria runs the risk of arriving at a point where earned and honorary degrees would become indistinguishable. After all, the recipient of a sexually transmitted degree is unlikely to be more versed in her/his field than a man who just gave a big donation to some university in exchange for a degree.
Much as Nigeria’s educational sector mirrors the broader problems of the society, we can stipulate that the country can’t move forward until it gets its educational house in order. No society has ever achieved its developmental goals by degrading the quality and standards of education.
The condition of Nigerian education demands the declaration of a state of emergency. As a corollary, a special commission to save education ought to be established. Nothing less would do. I’d give Emenyonu the last word: “It is about time parents and guardians took more interest in what goes on at the
 campuses of our tertiary institutions in the name of educating the young
 minds. What we sow today in our citadels of learning, we will reap
 tomorrow in the behavioral and mental disorientations of our children and
 children's children!”

Silicon Valley’s Peery Foundation Invests in Paradigm Initiative Nigeria

Silicon Valley’s Peery Foundation Invests in Paradigm Initiative Nigeria
Lagos, Nigeria. January 11, 2011 – Peery Foundation, a Palo Alto-based family foundation established in 1978 by Richard Peery, has invested in Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN).
“We’re excited to be supporting PIN’s work! Following series of discussions and checks by the Foundation, we are proud to make this social investment. We are encouraged by the thoughtfulness of PIN’s model and the importance of working with such an under-resourced demographic in Africa,” stated Dave Peery.
Peery Foundation invests in and serves social entrepreneurs and leading organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world, and their mission is to strengthen youth and families to build lives of dignity and self-reliance. The conversation between the foundation and PIN started after a member of staff of the foundation listened to a presentation on PIN’s work with youth in Nigeria by PIN’s Executive Director, ‘Gbenga Sesan, as part of the requirements of his participation in the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) program at Santa Clara University in August 2010.
According to Sesan, “the grant will help PIN kick-start series of technology-for-entrepreneurship (‘technopreneurship’) training programs for youth across Nigeria. The training programs will serve as the foundation for PIN’s plan to host an annual conference, from the last quarter of 2012, tagged “Techie.
Entrepreneurial. Nigerian. Talented” (T.E.N.T) – where young talents can meet with the industry and investors.” He continued, “we believe that if we don’t discover, train, mentor and support young people with interest in ICT innovation while they’re in their early teens, they can’t become ICT experts and legitimate billionaires in their late twenties.”
PIN, a Lagos-based social enterprise, addresses the gap between Nigeria’s disadvantaged youth and economic opportunities by providing demand-driven Information and Communica¬tion Technologies, entrepreneurship and life skills train¬ing.
PIN’s Ajegunle.org training program connects trainees with internship opportunities which result in full-time employment or provide training towards small businesses that improve their livelihoods – and allows them to serve as role models to other youth. Through its Internet Safety, Security and Privacy Initiative for Nigeria program, in partnership with Microsoft, PIN works to redirect the energy of young Nigerians from cybercrime.
Contact:
‘Gbenga Sesan
gbenga.sesan@pinigeria.org
www.pinigeria.org
+234-1-741-56-25

AIESEC PORTHARCOURT: A NEW BEGINNING

Recently the Local chapter of Aiesec Nigeria inducted new members to its fold increasing the member base and strength by increasing the numbers the organization has offered 60 bright youths a chance to be change agents it is with very interesting note that this inauguration is done strategically few weeks to the regional training seminar in enugu what better way to arm and prepare them than to introduce to them officially to the boundless offers they will be seeing the seminar will comprise of workshops and teachings by experienced hands and it will be done in a new experiential way now the most important thing is do we have what it takes to be there? recently the executive body has made known plans to run 3 projects this year as well as do an external event this year all this which have to be worked in for the next 6 months so that by november a new team will be selected to offer more opportunities this is a wonderful idea and i cant wait to see what we have in store for us now how do we go about this? how do we make our voice heard? well it starts by proper planning as each project director has been given mandates it is important that they understand that it is not how fast you do a project but how well and the impact it makes on the youths in the society with international experience and a chance to learn basic project management this helps develop you personally and professionally it is important to get important contacts no matter how scary looking it might sound there is nothing too impossible if we believe now as the time ticks by i will love to put together a round of applause for the executive board for their capacity to help in the implementation of this i wait to see eager mninds from these region as we join in creating innovative forums see you there live in ENUGU!!!

POWER OUTAGE or OUTRAGE?

The state of power outage has become alarming and nothing is being done to curb such things, in kaduna a woman laments of the stress of coming home to meet no light after working for fifteen hours straight, in benin doctors cannot do an operation due to power outage and no source of electricity , in lagos a municipal building is shut down due to the problem of heat one worker was quoted" we are not chickens we will not work in such state what do you people take us for"? that statement clearly outlines the problem we are having in our world today no one is ready to stand up for his/her right because ther is no motivator psychologist call these the " by stander effect" as long as the masses dont move people tend to stay indoors now in our country we have suffered a crippling power system for about 11 years and counting what is sad is that before independence the condition was not as deplorable as it is now the then NEPA  did not dare intervene with light situation even if they were servicing neighbouring countries, we have continued to keep silent on this issue but as a snail or tortoise reaches the finish line so is th agitation slowly building enough is enough! no more we will have to commend ahj nepa! we are tired of coming home to deplorable light situation the mostr annoying thing is that they have turned the light buisness to a goldmine cheatinmg people of their basic rights a street in odukpani LGA in calabar has not seen light for nearly three 3 months the residence are sick and tired of authorities telling them to pay for thjis and that and to add to the already painful wounds thay are giving bills of exorbitant funds to pay most people have resorted to the generator called " i pass my neighbour" but tjis has resulted in noise pollution death and many more tragedies in fact there is now a hopeless sense opf power in the country just recently in the papers the minister of power alleged that it will take an annual payment of 10 billion USD to save the sector for me thats just a big lie to diversify funds to their own bank accounts a trillion n aira has been looted from the sector has the culprits been caught answer is NO! they are still there waiting the problem to these is that people are ignorant and there is not enough privatization to save the sector if you consider the folowing things carefully you can understand what i am talking about:
1. there are over 150 million people broken into 6 geopolitical zones
2.there are over 778 local government areas and about twice the number of cities in Nigeria
3.there are only 3 national hydro power plants and 6 thermal plants to cater for us
4. there are millions of consumers of alternate power sources


with such statistics how do you think we can enjoy power there is no research on alternate power supply no government grants on state owned generating sets the so called national grid is just a hoax catering to a select few states leaving others with low generating sets the power plants are old, dilapidated and the equipments need overhauling the pasinful thing is that i wonder what the advisers and senate committees on power do they just seat down in fat bellies and taslk yet no action by now there should be innovation forums by tech engineers and electrical enginers to build plants and sustainable fuels and other alternate fuel types also companies to generate their own power and produce light for communities as a CSR mandate such issues can be addressed the government should start taking steps to address the problems we are having or else there will be a revolution look at the current state of today a little thing has caused a massive change in the middle east the thing that should be on the back of our leaders mind is that with out light economic production comes to a stand still if they can construct more power plants that can cater to each state and decentralize the grid then changes can be made how do you think the national grid can cater to the state of lagos crowned the 3rd most populous city in the world slowly becoming a mega metropolis the economy of this country and success of other sectors are linked closely to such a power sector


the next step is for us to start invention, analytical, research centers with a prime target on power first then other priorities this will create innovative forums for bright minds to share their ideas on power generation then technical workshops and design workshops by foreign power innovators to build models then lastly bring in major sponsors to help in light generation this will pave a way for us to become one of the top economies in the near future now we need to generate the consciousnesses needed and it starts with you at home remember we need to LIGHT UP NIGERIA.


Compiled by Ekundayo Temitope Babatunde a Geologist in the University of Port-Harcourt.send a mail to to4shizzle@yahoo.com for more information 


Thank you!!!!.

I Was Able To Contribute To Changing The World AN AIESEC STORY

One thing i would have to conclude: My Internship Experience in Nigeria totally changed my life path and my belief.My name is Chenhao LIu and am from China.  Intially, when i got to Nigeria to start my one year internship, challenges rushed to me everyday. First being the problem of communication; the english of african prounciation brought me quite lot of trouble in comprehension. Then the open, liberal social values which is totally opposite to that of Easten Asia, Food of strange taste and smell which greatly broaden my concept in food…True, i was initially overwhelmed by all these challenges, I hesitated, took some time out, then i asked myself the reason for choosing Afirca as my desitnation, but soon I realized that learning to adapt and learn as much as i can would be the best thing for me to do, if i am to benefit from my internship.  None of my previous trips can have such huge impact on me like my African intenrship expereince. I had it in AIESEC Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Africa.  I worked in three differnt projects/issues in my one year internship.HIV/AIDS (Project ASK), Entrepreneurship (Project YES) and environmental sustainability (Project Clean). This had me endeavoring with other interns and AIESECers, crossing barriers set by language and belief to reach the goals of the project and make sure that we touch lifes…  These experiences above infomed me a real touch on the pleasure of being a human. I did my utmost to fulfill my willingness to positively impact my surroudings. I still remember unforgotable snapshots when running project Yes, Ask And clean:The curious eyes of local children, the active debates over enterpreneurship in Yes Seminars… As for the effect, although I knew effect might be slight, I was greatly satisfied because I knew the progress of developing the world relied on micro-endeavor of many contributors rather than that of one man ;thus, I felt fortunate to be a member of those contributors.  Members of AIESEC Port Harcourt are an energetic and enterprising group of youths, and they made my stay in Nigeria a very memorable one, they also provided me a platform to contribute my own quoata in changing the world! I would never forget this.

A DEVELOPED FUTURE

Our current trend in development is something to talk about sitting and writing these  in my home in Port Harcourt i feel there is a need to address this issue to make us understand what is at stake and the question here is what is at stake?, The Answer to this question depends on the selective purview of everyone involved which is the youths and the working force .

You can imagine that few years back when you were asked by friends and well wishers what you wanted to be in future the answers where usually in the tune of Doctor,Engineer,Lawyer,Business man etc. no one thought getting there will be as tedious as it is, first our educational system is like a child's nightmare its so old and archaic that when i see my fellow colleagues flaunt their versatile knowledge elsewhere in the world i become very sad , second you might have seen the game show known as "are you smarter than a fifth grader "? the aim of the game was to team up kids against adults to see who have contemporary knowledge more and the kids usually win ,well the developers keyed into one scientific proven fact that 6 to 8 year olds hold the capacity of universal knowledge meaning that if you train an 8 year old in certain principles he is bound to excel in them as he develops now the question is Who is to Blame?, the already hydra headed problematic dying and corrupt yet stable Government? or the cancerous body of the teacher union ? or yet still the curriculum body of education or even the parents and even the students themselves , to know that lets take each age class one by one:

THE NURSERY: At a young age we are sent to nursery schools to start our early development now while some schools capitalize on building moral attirudes and ingenuity others relax letting the students feel like they own the world leading to lazy yet harmful ways of growing up which is neither checked by the ever busy schedule of the parents or the government because who has time to look into the young childs future anyway?, children like that tend to believe they must have everything they ask for without thinking of working for it which makes them lazy and affect their psyche.

THE PRIMARY: At these stage curriculum development plays a keen role, when outdated teaching methods are used creativity will be kept in check and we all know that going by recent trends that it is creativity that is responsible for development , teachers and curriculum developers fail to think of the future hence they go the traditional part saying "after all we learnt this so they should also" not understanding that what applied then and worked then will not work now and again the parents still let their children roam saying they are just growing up!.

THE JUNIOR SECONDARY: In Nigeria today ,we do the usual 3 years junior secondary school but ask yourself is that adequate? we wonder to ourselves why do other kids develop soundly its  because they learn and mature more instead of keeping their children more in school  parents rush their children through school as if they are in a race with no thought on the future in question and now here i point an accusing finger to the curriculum developers ,there is no stringent guidiance and counselling unit , no research teaching unit not even a teachers development unit and you expect the kids to produce miracles not even the introduction of technology can help a school that has a dead teaching style and the government is largely to blame as both private and public schools record all time lows the thought is that the students dont want to learn rather when the learning shouldnt always be educational alone but rather a cross blend of the two there are things that cannot be taught in the class room .

THE SENIOR SECONDARY: Ha ! we have come to the rebellious teenager age where kids feel they know it all what do we do then? we let them continue on this trend here they are meant to be exposed to the global educational environments, taught both science and arts in a bid to increase their knowledge banks as a famous writer once said :"show me two sides of a coin and i will pick the best " they are meant to be exposed to both sides as a teacher when a student does bad on one side then you must know he can excel in the other because we can learn by variuos passions that we have, the curriculum here should be broad with more lay out of science,technology and pratical arts these develops the student and also creating research groups .


THE TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS: An average Polytechnic/University student in Nigeria today cannot beat his chest to his result not because he is not developed or brilliant but because the system fails him all the way . when we turn on our tv set we hear stuffs like such students inventing things here and there and we ask ourselves are we dfferent? the answer is no but our teaching habits are! the university is meant to develop students in an astronomical way but our educational system here has failed woefully they prefer to go to vice related things where they feel they can benefit from where is the passion,creativity,research  bonus,funding,therapy,infrastructure,technology,future administration,business outlook gone to? well down the drain of course we cannot pin point our development , no tracking is done, the marking scheme is poor ,the way to attribute students/assess them is old ,no mordern input no nothing .We are slowly revolving round sparse resources imagine that in these country we have little as 300 universities and polytechics to cater to a whopping 60 million youths or more leading to miscreants which  conduct fake adulterated schools with no strict enforcement or regulations then look at the poor state of lecture rooms, imagine 1000 students crammed in a small space for two hours with no electricity not funny at all, it develops vices like corrupt lectrers and impoverished student the said dreams of being Doctors,Engineers die at this stage,i ask again Who is to Blame? not the parents this time they try to help in any way they can , definitely not the university whose powers are tied to the pockets of the government, the students?, the developers, the agency of education? are they to blame ? these are questions that will be answered come 5th May in Lagos when youths converge with the movers and shakers of development in Nigeria through a leading international student body known as AIESEC NIGERIA with a platform known as Youth2Business Forum ,as Education is the key to business improvement there is a need to answer these questions to improve our structure in society.

What Next? will we achieve things as we see them ?, what is at stake for a developed future? come and find out more if you dare.

See you in Lagos Eko ni baje!

This article is written by Ekundayo Babatunde Temitope a student and finalist in the Department of Geology in the University of Port Harcourt and also the Virtual Manager Aiesec in Port-harcourt
 A seasoned writer and also a good developer you can contact him on ekundayo.temitope@aiesec.net for more .

THE BUHARI SAGA

All Nigerian Coup Generals Were Rogues…And General Muhammadu Buhari Was No Exception

Posted: May 1, 2010 - 01:00

Posted by siteadmin

This article, rearranged for special emphasis, was first published by me in my now rested Sun newspaper Nigeria weekly column of May 26, 2003 under the headline: ‘Has anyone ever seen Buhari laugh?’ All our military heads of state were largely insensitive, corrupt, almost illiterate, self-appointed tyrants who seized their stripes of honour (dishonour is probably more appropriate) through coups rather than the rigours of formal training, experience or war.
Each one of the military heads of state simply got up from bed one chosen morning, pistle on the hip, jackboots on the ready to besmear our constitution to loot our treasury to their hearts content. Of course, they soon made up on the job for their lack of proper war or soldiering experience by detaining, tear gassing, shooting and bombing citizens protesting against their high-handedness and misrule. Everyone of our coup Generals aspired to be the richest lazy fool in the world sitting like an over-fed baboon atop the tallest tree in our devastated and rotting vineyard, savouring their exploits amidst squalor, hunger and decaying corpses. General Muhammadu Buhari was one of such military heads of state.

Shagari’s regime (1979-1983), incurred Buhari’s wrath when it decided to investigate the US$2.8 billion that disappeared from the Midland Bank, London account of the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation, (NNPC), during General Obasanjo’s era as military head of state that preceded Shagari’s. Dr. Olusola Saraki, Turaki of Ilorin, was the majority party leader of the Senate at the time and he headed the Senate Committee set up to trace the stolen money after some three years of clamour for such an investigation by members of the civil society. The money was traced to the Midland Bank London branch fixed account of Obasanjo’s appointee as military head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. The Committee’s report was presented to the Senate during the tail end of Shagari’s regime in 1983, so the House decided to deal with the matter and expose the rogue military head of the NNPC soon after the 1983 general elections.
The attempt at civilian-to-civilian transition provided the fillip for mayhem at the time. The elections were marred by massive rigging because incumbent political office holders were refusing to slacken their stranglehold on Nigeria Plc., mortgaged as the leaders private property.

On the 31st December, 1983, Buhari struck under the cover of the political commotion that trailed the presidential election results. Buhari generally had no agenda for leadership but vendetta against those he called critics and rabble-rousers. Buhari did not see any moral wrong in his conversion of our oil money into his personal use. Rather he railed at the press and what he described as the self-righteous sections of the country for making a big deal out of the issue. He locked up without trial, politicians and critics including Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, notorious for clamouring for the exposure of the oil money rogue. Satire saved my neck at the time. Vera Ifudu, who was an NTA reporter then, was sacked through his prodding as military ruler, for reporting what Dr. Olusola Saraki had told her in an interview about how the missing money was traced to Buhari’s account at a Midland Bank London branch. Vera eventually won her case of wrongful dismissal in court against the NTA and was financially compensated.

Buhari’s ‘War Against Indiscipline’ was obviously a swathe to camouflage his moral decadence. He did not see anything wrong with the over 50 suitcases an Emir smuggled through the Muritala International Airport without routine checks. And as a master of selective justice, he refused to convict Shagari, claiming not to find direct evidence against him but making a mountain out of a mole-hill on the indulgencies of Shagari’s lieutenants. His regime’s master stroke to divert attention from his moral ineptitude was exemplified by his crating of Umaru Dikko to airfreight back to Nigeria from London.

Despite his moral degeneracy and his high handedness and intolerance of dissent, his regime was not a total disaster. He maintained a vibrant foreign policy with Africa as its principal focus. Nigeria was already a failed state economically when he seized government from Shagari. We had a staggering foreign debt load of US$18 billion, so Buhari stopped all further borrowing, and in defiance of the IMF and World Bank, provided a home-grown alternative to the IMF’s SAP and pegged the exchange rate of the naira at one to the US$1.50. He stopped all further borrowing from abroad; instituted counter trade for essential or desperately needed commodities and put a ceiling (or an upper limit) on the amount of foreign exchange earnings to be used in servicing foreign debts. After sorting out and rejecting all the dubious and unverifiable foreign debts in our portfolio, he paid off nearly 50% of the genuine debts by the end of his regime in 1985. Even Britain was already scheming to enter into counter trade agreement with Nigeria when Babangida was sponsored in 1986 by the West to sack Buhari in a military coup that reversed our limited economic gains.

Not much is known about Buhari’s family background. Not a great deal has been heard about his educational qualifications either. As head of state, he was a recluse to the core. At least, that was the image he portrayed. His deputy, the late Gen. Idiagbon, was considered by most Nigerians to be the star of Buhari’s regime. It is to Idiagbon that any credit due to that regime is generally attributed. Idiagbon was the defacto head of state. He was honest, upright, disciplined, and like Murtala Muhammed before him, he succeeded briefly in introducing order and sanity to our lives.

After consigning the vexatious matters that brought him to power, to administrative oblivion with the help of Shinkafi, his Secret Service guru, Buhari announced his readiness to quit office. Idiagbon, as Buhari’s lieutenant, naturally insisted on taking over as head of state from his apparently prematurely retiring boss. Babangida, who was Chief of Army Staff at the time and a member of the Supreme Military Council, insisted it was his turn to rule because he had been involved in virtually every military coup up to that time. The quarrel split the Supreme Military Council members almost equally behind the two principal combatants and eventually led to the overthrow of Buhari’s regime by Babangida. America, Britain and the other leading western nations hailed Babangida’s coup and immediately sent emissaries to strategize with him. President Reagan went out of his way to send him gifts including books such as Niccolo Machiavelli’s: the Prince, advocating the destruction of civil freedom to strengthen despotism.

The June 12 annulment provided Buhari with the opportunity to publicly wear a messianic toga while quietly pursuing private vendetta against someone he considered his enemy. He attended meetings at Ota to join with others to condemn Babangida’s decision and as soon as the decision was reached to ask Babangida to step down, he stopped attending further meetings. He had achieved his revenge.

Abacha rehabilitated Buhari with the chairmanship of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) before he (Abacha) died in 1998. When Obasanjo returned to power in May 1999 as civilian president, he found that over 2.5 billion naira had not been properly accounted for in the PTF and that there was not much on the ground to show for the colossal expenditure the agency was claiming. On the day Obasanjo announced the scrapping of the PTF, a non-staff brother-in-law of the boss, allegedly serving as his conduit on some PTF projects, died suddenly from what appeared to be heart failure. Most of what he was able to achieve in the PTF, was focused in his backyard. Haruna Adamu, who was appointed by Obasanjo to investigate the PTF before finally consigning it to the dung heap, quickly pocketed one hundred million naira of PTF’s money before operating table could be set up for him, thus forcing Obasanjo to hurriedly close the place down without further investigations. Buhari has been trying desperately since to return to power, perhaps to get a chance to shred the PTF documents?

Buhari is a tribal and religious bigot. When he lost the presidential election in April 2003, he threatened the nation with mass action and refused to go to court. He organized a rally in Abuja, as one in a series of such civil acts of disobedience to protest what he described as the massive rigging of the election that brought Obasanjo to power the second time.

He almost succeeded in launching his Jihad. The alleged taped sermon of an unnamed pastor at an unidentified church in Adamawa claiming that: “Whether Muslims like it or not, Obasanjo must continue” and that “any Muslim who does not want that, can die or move to Niger” was obviously a blatant forgery. It was very likely to be the handiwork of the ‘Crater of Dikko brigade. For a start, the language of the sermon was too brash to be true, especially coming as it was claimed, from a Christian minority likely to bear the brunt of the consequences of the offensive sermon in a predominantly Muslim state. The Christian minority would have had to be mad to the last man, to call for their own annihilation in such a careless and irresponsible manner.

It is not logical that the Christian cleric would send hundreds of his suicide sermon tapes, not to Christians, but to Muslim clerics and the media around the country. Someone who desperately wanted to kill Nigeria must think we are all morons and I suggest we look for him at the backyard of our current number one Jihadist. Where else to look when Buhari was threatening he must occupy the Presidency whether he won the election or not. We begged him to go to the Electoral Tribunal to settle the matter but he insisted that he would rather clubber us to death, with religion than subject himself to the in indignity of being judged by another man. That is how badly he cares about our welfare and survival.

One is not always sure if he is truly a Nigerian because let’s face it; no true Nigerian would hate Nigeria so much as to threaten her with a Jihad. May be the problem is of a mental nature considering the gutter snipes often credited to the supposed statesman on the Hausa service of the BBC and other foreign media about his fatherland. He seems to love to speak before he thinks. There is something definitely troubling about the mind of this crater genius because it is probably not just Nigerians that he hates but life itself in its totality. In other words, we are probably all trapped in the vicious grip of a cool and calculating sadist. In fact, I am told that no one has ever seen him smile or laugh.

Sam Omatseye, writing about Buhari in the Sun newspaper at the time said: “He (Buhari) uses sharia to justify his worldview; to justify a certain selfish view of the world that serves his interest at a particular time. He played that card in the presidential election in order to secure a base for himself. But he needed more than his northern base to become president. You must be flexible to pull non-sharia base with you and the man has no flexibility in his bones so when he tries to play the chameleon, he fails. He tries to carry a veneer of a man of principles but falls short when selfish interest is involved.”

Buhari has no respect for democracy. Under his behest, the ANPP humiliated five highly respected South-Eastern Presidential aspirants at their primary for the 2003 presidential election despite having Dr. Okadigbo as Buhari’s running mate. After rigging his party’s primary to become its presidential candidate, Buhari then felt he stood on moral grounds to preach election morals to the world. Buhari ignored the South-West completely, as if it did not exist and offered the South-South, the unattractive, legally diminished constitutional option on derivation. To rob salt into injury, he threatened to swap NDDC with PTF. If he wasn’t playing with words, he betrayed his selfish ethnic agenda because we all know what happened in his PTF. It concentrated its activities in the North.

Buhari definitely was not a sellable presidential candidate across Nigeria. What happened was that the incumbent ANPP governors needed a Buhari to help them hold on to their states on religious grounds. Even in the area of public debate, Buhari was not articulate or detribalized and he lacked charisma. He ignored all entreaties to explain his programmes to the ‘bloody civilians.’ Arrogant and condescending, he was unable to climb down from his high horse as a former military dictator. Infused with the moribund myth that Nigerian leadership was the sole property of his ethnic group, he assumed he could cow the rest of us with a jihad. If that failed, some said, military coup was a possibility because a kaferi must not continue to rule. He concentrated his campaign (if it could be called that, because he said very little at every stop), in the North-East and North-West of the country. The little he said, was only in the Hausa language to titillate the warrior nerves of his jihadist gang.

With 19 states in the North, he was convinced he could, at least, force a re-run in the elections, forgetting that the North Central states are already a little weary of jihad. Even the core North itself has some 30% Christian population. Awolowo and Zik exposed the fallacy of the monolithic north by winning elections all over the place during their time. Abiola proved that religion is not the cocoon the Buharis think it is in modern Nigerian politics.

He prostitutes his political ambition by moving from party to party, with the sole aim of becoming the presidential candidate of any party he joins. He is not prepared to serve under anyone else, definitely not under a southern candidate. On seeing that he would not be able to realize his selfish ambition in the mega party he initially joined with others to form, he hurriedly formed a break away party where no one would challenge him as presidential candidate. Since there is no hope of his legitimately ever becoming the Nigerian president or head of state again, Nigerians need to be preparing now for a possible jihad led by this man in the not too distant future.


NAIWU OSAHON, Hon. Khu Mkuu (Leader) World Pan-African Movement); Ameer Spiritual (Spiritual Prince) of the African race; MSc. (Salford); Dip.M.S; G.I.P.M; Dip.I.A (Liv.); D. Inst. M; G. Inst. M; G.I.W.M; A.M.N.I.M. Poet, Author of the magnum opus: ‘The end of knowledge’. One of the world’s leading authors of children’s books; Awarded; key to the city of Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Honourary Councilmanship, Memphis City Council; Honourary Citizenship, County of Shelby; Honourary Commissionership, County of Shelby, Tennessee; and a silver shield trophy by Morehouse College, USA, for activities to unite and uplift the African race.

Naiwu Osahon, renowned author, philosopher of science, mystique, leader of the world Pan-African Movement.

AIESEC NIGERIA PRESENTS YOUTH2BUISNESS FORUM

YOUTH2BUSINESS FORUM achieving impossibilities...................  In a fast increasing demographic society where societal needs are increasingly being squandered by the minority leaving the majority to starve and hope for miracles that may never come the youths are the most affected class of societal caste the major question is what hope lies in the future for the youths who are dubbed "the leaders of tomorrow"? ,that question is being answered by AIESEC NIGERIA the national arm of  AIESEC INTERNATIONAL an international student organization that aims to engage youths worldwide by developing them professionally,socially and empowering them psychologically and has existed for over 60 years this year at its annual congress it decided to run a forum titled YOUTH2BUISNESS forum the aim as the name implies is to bring together the two parties of the divide: the ever increasing industrial giants of conglomerates and corporate executives and the ever vibrant youths of Nigeria. the forum is aimed at achieving a common goal try and get to the root of major problems concerning our youths in today's world,the objective in the forum is to build a goal orientated and professional minded youth it will feature captains of industries as well as entrepreneurs that will throw more light on the issue and other side attractions.  The youth2buisness forum is going to be a one day event set in the beautiful ethereal landscape of Lagos,Nigeria with the support of the Lagos state government as well as diverse partners of AIESEC NIGERIA and a full media attendance not only will this forum be unique and fun it will be educative and instructive allowing you to make your voice be heard and listen to others, the forum will be an open one where shared innovation and multi-cultural ideas will be laid down to enable proper groundwork of which the output will be collated and sent to appropriate government officials and business moguls for immediate actions ,this forum is open to the general public and organizations wishing to partner with the local committees of the national body in its 17 state strongholds, the importance of the forum cannot be overemphasized, it will hold on the 5th of may and promises to be a thing to remember,its time for you to decide and take a stand!.The benefits are enormous one of which is self development the other is creative networking with the big wigs of these industries.  So why not invite a friend today and see what wonders you can achieve here you might just need this to achieve greater things.  see you in Lagos eko ni baje!!

AIESEC NIGERIA THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY

I am truly proud to be an AIESECER, the first question that pops into your lovely heads is what is AIESEC? well its not a conglomerate at that,but rather an international student organization aimed at engaging youths worldwide to be professionally and self developed plus having the ability to interact with diverse multi cultural ethnicities and also share innovations that wishes to fulfill human kinds poptential of peace and harmony through socio cultural and expanse partnerships of brilliant global and national partnerships, wow! quite a mouthful isnt it but you will get the hang of it what makes this organization so unique is not its rich history over 60 years old!, but its uniqueness as being student run solely and interaction with true big wigs of today with a small guidance by experienced externals, what amazes me is the ability of a regular aiesecer to set new boundaries where no one has dared and accomplish things at the stringent of times, yes we are popular at multi tasking and yet playing well to keep shape , my friend recently told me his boss was like "tony i can count on you if all fails cos your an aiesecer" dont get me wrong there are a few occasional blunders but we have proven to be a main stay in youth career development our main tool Exchange+Leadership offers interns a global repettoir of over a million alumni's to connect with amongst them prime ministers and presidents of countries!!!,also global partners each year release positions that come with the tag" must have aiesec related experience" amongst them Google,Nike, Facebook, Erickson, Artemisia etc. now this brings me to the crux de la peur AIESEC NIGERIA the platform has existed for over 50 years and since then we have continually strive to maintain neutrality in an ever  increasing cut throat market of corporate takeovers and government sell out the national chapter this year seeks to go higher on its elemental pedestal by tasking the youths to a forum that will involve some of the brightest minds of today with the ever vibrant youths of tomorrow as we are popularly dubbed it promises to be a showcase of delight as we get to see our full alumni strength put to the test and our partners hearing from the horses mouth in Aiesec one may hear the term leadership by example yes! that's what we seek to do produce competent leaders that can carry on the brand name for whats a brand without its people?.
This year in lagos we celebrate our 50th anniversary ,time to look back ,reflect ,take corrections, mount a new desire ,address situations ,make changes and finally soar to the future ,a time to establish ground breaking partnerships with our governments but still remaining ever neutral ,time to start the exchange and leadership trend social/online culture,IT trend and time to be ambassadors, with over 300 youths across the country plus a total of 400 alumni and partners in attendance and the general public this will surely be a stepping stone for the future of the aiesec life a time to understand the reason for being aiesecers i'm talking of the National Conference this year externals and international attendance will be en masse as well as media giants to show case the event this is coming on the heel of the transformation started in Port-Harcourt which will forever be in the minds of the Aiesecers in attendance last year.
With final preparations being put in place and variuos local chapters in the 17 cities preparing to have a competitive playground ,the excitement can be felt all over that's why i said im proud to be an Aiesecer and should we stop there, no why should we? there is always room for creative talent recently worldblu recognized the body as a global transformer even the European union has given the network a sizable applause now what is at stake our credibility of course we have to prove to people to look out there that is the only way we can be alive we need to be globally minded and connected information ias the key so start plugin in
I'm writing these from portharcourt in my house thinking out loud is there something missing are we lacking that special ingredient that will make us expantiate like the big bang well if you want to know join me and a host of others at lagos and we shall put all problems to rest .
Finally i want to give kudos to my Executive board members for driving the local chapter portharcourt these far we have come a long way and we will keep going higher .

see you all in Lagos eko ni baje!!!!! as the yorubas will say.