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.