[This is a tribute to my late grandmother. I am celebrating her life because she matters]

The people who shaped our destinies are all around us. The simple encouragement, push and tough love that we encountered growing up are big determinants of who we turned out to be. One of such people in my life is my maternal grandmother. Mama as she is popularly known in our circle represents a lot of things to us and is an epitome of long suffering, loyalty, strength, motherhood and enterprising nature.

Mama died yesterday [April 16 2012] at a ripe old age – she must be around 90. What made it more interesting is that it fell on my daughter’s birthday. I was heartbroken the last time I saw mama. I wanted to introduce my daughter to her, get her to meet her great-grand daughter but by the time I saw her- she was too old and the strength was gone. It is all a tell tale sign of the many struggles she had in life.

Mama stayed with us in Ibadan a couple of times for medium to long periods. At a point, she rented a place not too far from our house. She became the biggest seller of everyday items in our neighborhood and was popularly known as mama alate. If you needed anything and couldn’t find it elsewhere, you knew where to go. That was her level of enterprise.

She isn’t one to whine and complain but I know a lot of her struggles. Being married to a very polygamous man almost never helps. She was wife number 3 or 4. The man was a powerful and rich man in my hometown and had a tradition of giving a house to his wives according to seniority. When it came to mama’s turn, she was passed over! That was just one of the many injustices meted to my grandmother and her 2 surviving daughters. The story goes that she had a 3rd child – a boy who died just after birth.

Her sacrificial nature comes to the fore on many occasions. More than once when my parents couldn’t pay my extra-coaching school fees; she came to the rescue by dipping hands into her business funds. Not that she had a lot, mama never lived in abundance but she shared a lot with us. So anything I am today is somehow linked to her giving nature. I respect her so much because she never exhibited any level of disdain for the people that cheated her many times. In actual fact, I used to think her heart is too forgiving. She went to observe the mandatory widowhood rites when the husband who really never took care of her died in 1996.

I am very happy that my mum was able to take care of her in her last years. The fact that she wasn’t abandoned in her frail and sickly last years is a testimony that her children recognized her contributions whilst she was strong. Her life has a big significance for me and my siblings as well as our mum. And that is why I celebrate her today. The world might not have known her and she might have been an obscure woman from Ikire but she is my granny and a good one at that. So when her descendants shine all over the world, she shines!

I celebrate you today Mama and I know the pains are gone for you at least. Sleep well mama, and thanks for helping us all those years. We are proud of you and no other grandmother comes close.

The myriad of natural resources has been more of a curse to most African countries rather than the blessing it should normally bring. I am particularly afraid for the generations that are coming especially when we remember that Africa’s population could rise to about 2 Billion by 2050. Only six of the African economies are growing at more than 7% per annum. Unemployment is rife and will be worse as it is predicted that more than 75% of the 2 Billion in 2050 will be less than 30 years.

I am not trying to be a prophet of doom but this is my attempt at waking us up from a collective slumber. We tend to have an idea of the problems but most haven’t really thought of what would happen in a number of years. We all have a responsibility to preserve this continent starting from individual countries. An army of unemployed and irritated youth is a peril to any country and that is where we are heading unless we take heed of the warning signs.

We can all start doing something. Right from our little spheres of influence, we must be role models in whatever we do. I don’t believe that Nigerians have rogue DNAs in their genes. It is a matter of personal choice and no man is born corrupt – the environments, values, etc seep into our consciousness to turn us into the adults we become today.
Why not make decisions to raise your kids with good values and not just your biological children but any child that is close to you. That is something we have lost in this country. We can also do things right in our businesses and employments. There is a dearth of good men and women who will not participate in fraud. Those are the kind of people who will preserve this country and the African continent as a whole.

“People Deserve The Government They Get” – Henry Ford. I totally agree with that quote and that is one of the biggest problems we have on the continent. Greg Mills, a South African writer opined in his book – ‘Why Africa is Poor’ that the reason for our poverty is tied to leadership. Our leaders choose poverty for the continent whilst they continue enriching themselves, their close friends and families. Isn’t that what is happening in most African countries? The irony of the whole charade is that we keep allowing these people back in government at every election. If we really can look into what the future holds, we will be more concerned for our children and their children.

A wise man once said that we did not inherit the present from our parents but we have borrowed the future from our own children. That means that whatever problems we have today is a direct consequence of our parents’ inability to leave to us a great country. We are also in the process of doing same to our children. How sweet would it be if the Green passport becomes a thing of pride in the future? For those who have foreign passports – even the appeal of an English sounding name won’t eliminate that very Nigerian surname.

So for you my friends who have decided to face your business, enrich your own family (What is wealth?), send your kids to good schools, build a big house where they will be safe, etc and not bother about the whole country or its descent to abyss – I have news for you. When countries fall into anarchy – all and sundry are affected. In fact history tells us that those perceived to have a level of comfort are attacked. The French revolution of the 18th century lends credence to this theory. One of the most popular tagline of the fuel subsidy protests still remain vivid in my imagination – “One day, the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich”.
Let me stop beating about the bush. Let me state my demands to every concerned citizen.

1. Be a good role model. Men and women of integrity who have the interests of our dear country at heart.
2. Join a political party. YES. And if you feel all of them are corrupt, start talking to friends to start one. Aren’t we tired of leaving nitwits and dimwits to rule us. We cannot let the worst of us continue to rule the best of us and expect any miracle. If we don’t change this mentality – Nigeria and most African countries will remain in this same squalor and even worse in a few years.
3. When we get into leadership positions – we must not be like others who change in the midst of plenty. The reason people don’t trust politicians are their ability to metamorphose into monsters after election.
4. In your present capacity as a mother, father, uncle, aunt, etc – educate people about the need for a better Nigeria. A Nigeria where prosperity reigns. People have to change their perceptions about legacies.
5. For those who will never contest elective positions – you can be a constructive critic. Criticisms aren’t necessarily a bad thing if is factual and comes with solutions. We need to put pressure on government and put them to task. Nigerians are getting better in this regards with some very good initiatives aimed at monitoring government excesses. We need more of these. Now, we have more understanding of budgets and there are people monitoring expenditures. It is a good start and a trend that must continue.

Above all, Africans must stop blaming others for their problems. We need to start looking inwards and provide solutions for our many challenges. Many of the countries on the African continents are already celebrating 50 years of independence but still choose to remain in the shadow of colonialism which is still haunting them in the spirit of neo-colonialism. We should remember that countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and other Asian economies went through similar or even worse experiences with colonialists and today they have put the past behind and embraced the future.

I agree that the objective of neo-colonialism is to ensure that Africa’s resources must continue developing some western economies but we have a choice to change that. Some countries in other continents have totally changed their destinies- Africa has no excuse to remain in the past. It is time to wake up and it starts with me and you. I am addressing Nigeria and Africa collectively as I have realized that a truly prosperous continent serves better purpose than a pocket of model countries.

The burden of regulation is not a trivial one. It is a very hard job being an umpire especially for a very important industry. Such is the work cut out for the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The commission is responsible for arguably the most impressive of the Nigerian social and economic sector. Social because Telecommunication has changed the way we live and has obviously made life easier. And we cannot deny the economic impact of the industry on our country. A lot of us still remember the NITEL days when a phone call was a luxurious adventure.

The NCC has come a long way and has re-invented itself to a large extent since the launch of the Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM) in 2001. The Nigerian mobile space has grown to be the biggest in Africa judging from the subscriber base and revenue. It remains attractive despite the high cost of doing business thrust upon us by poor infrastructure especially electricity. It is no more news that all the operators rely on diesel to run their business.

This is not an analysis of the Telecommunication sector and before I get carried away; I must quickly get to the subject of this article. Fair competition, quality of service and affordable rates are just a few of the recurrent terms synonymous with the sector. Most Telecommunication regulatory bodies all over the world are constantly in research mode to ensure those indices are beneficial to subscribers in their country.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is a very important concept because it addresses most of the challenges faced by subscribers. Mobile number portability (MNP) enables subscribers to preserve their numbers while switching to a different mobile network. It helps competition, facilitates consumer choice and ultimately reduces switching costs. Switching cost here does not refer to the amount paid to switch to another operator but a broader definition. It includes the cost of changing numbers on business cards, notifying family members, repainting business vans because of changed numbers, etc.
The NCC is thus very correct in its decision to implement MNP in Nigeria.

The market is matured for it and will bring some positive experience for subscribers and the telecommunication market as a whole. However, the implementation is better done with a multi-stakeholder approach in place. Regulatory duties mostly involve autocratic decisions without major inputs from players in the industry but MNP throws a huge challenge that will necessitate a change in modus operandi.

There are some barriers to implementing MNP based on experience from countries where it is already in practice. One of the major barriers comes from the Mobile Network Operators (MNO). Some of their concerns are sensible and these include the following:

1. Cost of implementation: Will there be government subsidy for implementation?

2. Addition of new network nodes: This is not straightforward and requires integration into existing network nodes.

3. Reliance on MSISDN for services: MSISDN simply is your mobile number. Operators use the MSISDN to identify subscribers for on-net and off-net transactions. Hence, after MNP – they will have to start using another identifier i.e IMSI which is unique to each network. Each operator before uses their mobile prefix i.e 0802, 0803, 0804, 0805 to identify their subscribers. They also have unique IMSI ranges allocated to them. IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) is not just unique to networks locally but internationally. A lot of development will have to be done for existing applications used by mobile operators. This will cause a lot of challenges both in getting it right as well as financial implications.

4. Brand Loyalty: A lot of the network operators built their brands using their allocated prefix. The reality of the MNP is that 0803 will no longer necessarily be an MTN number prefix.

5. WASP integration: Wireless Service Operators charge contents based on agreed rates with different operators. This change with MNP and a new logic will have to be implemented.

6. Roaming: Even though the IMSI ranges are the main configuration parameters while adding new roaming partners; some operators still have to configure MSISDN prefix for partners.

7. Billing: A common method is to bill subscribers based on on-net and off-net attributes. Operators simply bill SMS, MMS and voice calls to their own prefix as on-net and charge off-net for the other prefix.

8. Fear of losing subscribers: This is not necessarily a legitimate fear if the networks are committed to good quality of service. But it is still a challenge because their Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) will most likely be impacted.

Challenges for the regulator

1. Funding: Based on negotiations, the NCC might have to do part funding of the initiative.

2. Awareness: The public must understand the pro and cons of MNP.

3. Choosing the MNP technologies and methods: There are different technologies and design for implementing MNP. The NCC must have an understanding to choose the right design. This will position the NCC as understanding the concept and possessing the leadership capabilities needed. It must also understand other Number Portability concepts like the Geographical Number Portability (GNP).

4. Managing the process: It is not a small undertaking and the bigger operators who normally see the concept as detrimental to their business while profiting the newer operators would drag their feet. The NCC has the mandate to show its fairness and the advantage it brings to the industry. The process doesn’t have to favor newer operators if the early entrants maintain a high level of quality service.

Challenges for Subscribers

1. Recognizing On or Off Net Calls: Pre-MNP makes it easy to know if you are going to be calling at a cheap on-net rate. Post MNP, it will not be easy for subscribers to differentiate numbers belonging to their own network from others.

The challenges listed above shows that every stakeholder is affected and MNP will not be successful until an approach that takes input from all is employed. This doesn’t mean the NCC will allow deliberate procrastination and insubordination but thinking through it all helps in formulating a realistic time plan.

The September 2011 deadline would be realistic only if the proper ground work has been done. All the challenges have solutions and they must be documented. It is also imperative to use lessons learned from a country like South Africa where MNP has been in operation since 2006.

Suggested Actions
1. Form a Mobile Portability Number Company which will ensure the success of the MNP. Interestingly, this worked in South Africa and the company is jointly owned by all the major telecommunication companies with oversight function provided by the regulator. The company also maintains the porting database.

2. Draw a project plan with consultations from the network operators. This has to take into considerations issues like technology and readiness timelines. To have a realistic timeline; the NCC can get ideas from countries where this has been implemented. A sign off should then be obtained from all parties.

3. The public must understand the concept, its advantages and perceived disadvantages. This can take the form of media awareness campaigns, broadcast messages by mobile operators and the use of various consumer protection associations.

4. A cost must be incurred by subscribers willing to switch. This will prevent abuse of the system.

Conclusion
MNP in many countries where it exists did not automatically show drastic increase in switching behavior. But it has provided an alternative that is much needed and ensures that operators treat their subscriber base better. The process of implementation is thus as important as the objective. It has to be right and any attempt to rush without proper planning will eventually be the undoing. The NCC should do this in a professional manner for the benefit of the Nigerian consumer.

Ayo Oladejo is a Telecommunication professional and project/programme manager. He has worked with three mobile operators in Nigeria, Swaziland and South Africa and has consulted for mobile operators in more than 7 countries.

A lot of tweets and comments have been flying all around concerning the Presidential youth lunch that held yesterday. While some are asking the obvious question of – What Would You Do If Invited? I think we must rise beyond that level and call a spade a spade.

It is germane to note that though the Nigerian youth is suspect when it comes to matters of money, we still have many with great levels of integrity and ideology. I know at least one Nigerian youth that was invited but turned it down as a matter of principle. I also know one that went and spoke his mind. But can we say the same of every other young people that enjoyed the banquet? I guess no.

I am not attacking those who went for the lunch and stood their grounds by not soiling their hands with the Greek gift. I am pointing out the harm done by those who attended and collected ‘transport fare’

Below are the lessons I think the Nigerian ‘Yoot’ must take from the charade that the lunch turned to:

1. There is no free lunch even in Freetown: When you get an invitation such as that, the first step is to analyze the impact on you and your stand. If you are one of those without a stand as long as money is involved and maybe recognition, go ahead without thinking. There is always a price to pay for everything we do in this life.

2. You might have justified the Legislooter’s fat sitting allowances: Youth from Lagos were paid 50 Thousand each while out of state attendees got 150 thousand naira each. This is disgusting and a huge blight on everyone who collected the money. Why must everything be soiled with the Ghana must go bag syndrome. If you don’t know, you have no moral justification to blame our ‘sinnators’ and ‘irrepresentatives’ in the National Assembly. You got 150K for eating with Jonathan, they should collect much more for being exposed to chair throwing and other forms of violence.

3. D’Banj is a saint: If you were there only to offer concrete ways of moving Nigerian forward, I would understand but you are even worse than D’Banj if you collected the money. D’Banj endorsed GEJ openly, you didn’t. So what have you been paid for? Your share of the national cake? I believe some attendees turned down the so called transport allowance, and I salute them.

4. GEJ can now spend 5Billion on his Inauguration: There is a popular peom – How much land does a man need?
I am asking you, how much is a taxi ride from one end of Lagos to another? 50 Thousand Naira? How much is an air ticket from Rivers to Borno? 150K. You have now endorsed the normal Nigerian politician system of inflating figures. Let’s say you are jobless and you couldn’t afford transport to the lunch, must the amount be inflated. So, you must never blame GEJ and others when they inflate contracts.

5. The so called progressive youth might just be a mirage: It is interesting to see how the ruling class have successfully demistified the so called Twitter generation. Blowers of hot air on social media and chickens when the time comes to make a stand. We might have proved to the whole world that we are just the same and only waiting for an opportunity to start ‘chopping’ when we get there.

I sincerely hope the twitter generation will be able to rise above this mess.

The importance of technology in development can never be over-emphasized. The difference between developed and under-developed nations is evident in the way they have deployed and used technology (in most cases ICT) to solve problems.

One of the most relevant applications of technology in this regard is in information management. It is a no-brainier that no nation can effectively plan without the use of relevant data to back it up. A simple way of identifying a serious nation is to ask for data such as population figures and its breakdown. If they don’t speculate, you have found yourself a country with a sense of purpose.

There are many things that could go wrong in a country such as our’s where we don’t have an effective national database. It is impossible to plan and we will keep disputing results of exercises such as census and voters registration. It is common knowledge that some parts of Nigeria believe that census figures were manipulated right from the first one just before independence to favor some parts. These results have attendant consequences with state creation, distribution of wealth, electioneering being some of the affected facets of our lives.

It is thus important that to start on a clean slate; Nigeria has no choice but use technology to resolve this problem. The technology is obviously not an end in itself but a means to achieve this laudable goal. It will take a lot of political will and a sense of patriotism by those in power to achieve the milestone. The technologies are already there; it is a question of when we will be ready to embrace change.

The ongoing voters registration exercise shows the lapse in the way we have been doing things. There are countries in Africa where almost every birth and death are recorded and the national identity database is efficiently managed. It thus become very easy to give out IDs to citizens as against our own funny national ID card projects. Those projects that always end up in controversies and wastage through corrupt procurement processes.

The technology adopted for the present voters registration is laudable with the introduction of biometric features. But it is also very clear that a lot of the processes were not put through rigorous debates. I also wonder the kind of solution architects who designed the processes and technology. I know a lot of Nigerians including me who could have done better with specification documents and designs. This is not a finger pointing exercise but a call to duty for the 2015 exercise. I will volunteer myself and even raise a team to design a better system. We will submit our proposal without collecting a dime and publicize it.

One of the evident flaws in this present design is the absence of any remote connection to a central server. What if the registration system for some particular areas crash? How is the data retrieved? Just thinking on my feet, I would use an Access Point Name configured with every mobile operator in Nigeria to drive the process of linking all the laptops to a central server. I have also wondered if Quality Assurance tests were carried out on the equipments before registration started? How do we reconcile the fact that it is taking between 30 minutes – 1 hour to register one voter. Didn’t anyone try the systems to get best and worst test cases before now?

There are many questions than answers. Right now, it is possible to register with fake names because there is no system to compare data. One of the best gifts that the next administration in Nigeria can give us as a nation is a national identity database. The police and other security agencies will also benefit from this exercise. There must be a conscious attempt and plan to have this infrastructure in the next few years. As we are striving for good governance; we must add this as a very important requirement.

We still hope that this present exercise will be successful to a certain extent. All hands must be on deck to provide better solutions for future registration purposes. Groups like the Naija_IT_Professionals with an enviable number of IT professionals have to rise up and make an effort to help. Enough of the talks already! I wonder why there cannot be a working group to design an end-end solution for this purpose. We can even be ambitious and come up with a solution for the National ID database. We would have done our country a great service and also have more justifications to criticize sloppy officials.

Nigeria will be great!

This article has been on my head since the World Cup finished in the rainbow nation about 6 months ago. I just had a feeling that football would never be the same again. The beautiful game saw so many upsets, scandals and scary occurrences that blew my mind. Football died in 2010!

Before the ardent supporters of the game crucify me; let me intimate you with some of the highlights of 2010. The soccer World Cup is easily the most prestigious competition in the World, arguably bigger than even the Olympics. Every 4 years, die-hard soccer fans look out for the spectacular competition in summer. South Africa showcased its stride in infrastructure development but the catch is in the manner of upsets and bizarre events that surrounded the competition.
Let me start with the Nigerian team.

A number of records were set or almost set. We had 2 players who contributed new words to the dictionary. A certain blockhead named Sanni Keita who successfully destroyed Nigeria’s chances of progressing to the 2nd round of the first World Cup played on African soil. The new word Keita means to single-handedly destroy the hope of a nation and can also stand for stupid and imbecile. He also ensured that Greece recorded their first ever win in the World Cup. The other record setter is Yakubu. One commentator said that it was harder to miss that goal than score it. Mr. Ayegbeni flashed his trademark nonchallant smile after missing a chance that could have been converted by my 20 months old daughter. The other funny aspect of it all was that Nigeria could have qualified from that group despite going into the final game on 0 point.

I am sure you are grumbling and thinking that the above is no near bizarre and an indication that football is dead. You are right. The real absurdity started with a certain Octopus named Paul. The guy started his nonsense when he made correct predictions of most matches played at the European competition. But it went on another level in 2010 when he correctly predicted all the matches played by Germany and the final match between Spain and Holland.

I bet people thought it was funny but that spelled a lot of doom for the game if we think about it very well. Imagine the billionaires in the World like a certain Russian man and others like him who own clubs in England buying Paul. That would have removed the adrenaline produced at the highest level when the top leagues in the World are in session. If not for Arsenal FC in England; Paul would still be living and predicting league games in the World today. Thankfully, he was asked when Arsenal was going to win the Champions league. The resultant thought process in answering such a JAMB question killed this creature. If he didn’t die from that exercise; he would have died sooner or later as a result of the Nigerian political scene. Some politicians were already contemplating killing him before he predicts who would become Nigeria’s president in 2011. I have a feeling that another animal is being prepared to take over from Paul; such is the indignity that the beautiful game has been subjected to.

As if the obscenity would end with that drama. We witnessed the most bloody and tensed final in the history of the World Cup with the referee losing count of the cards he distributed. But the drama in 2010 was not about to end on the field of play. FIFA has always dragged along an air of corruption but they were finally exposed with Mr. Amos Adamu in the forefront. An Ogbomoso man who started claiming Northern ancestry just to rise in the football administration sphere in Nigeria; he has never been a man of integrity but FIFA continued allowing him to be in their midst. I guess he would have continued his dance of shame if the bribery allegation was not exposed. This was a killer for the game because now we know that it is a possibility that some matches were won with bribes paid to FIFA officials who in turn used their powers to sway decisions for their preferred teams.

And when we eventually got to find out the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 games; my suspicion of the death of the game came out stronger than ever. Let’s even give it to Russia based on their glorious past as a football power house in the days of the Soviet Union but QATAR! Gosh, that hurts. In fact, the World cup calendar will most likely be changed because of this anomaly. The traditional June time table might be changed to January to avoid the searing heat of the oil rich country. I am happy for Qatar but I am sad for the beautiful game. Do the people even love football? A country that will most likely never qualify on their own for the World Cup is now going to host the showpiece of World Football. Well, that gives countries like Swaziland, Lesotho etc a chance to play in the World Cup. Just sell your Oil well, ensure you don’t waste the money on corrupt leaders and other frivolities, make sure to blackmail bigger and traditional football nations like England and voila – you will host the World Cup.

As football died disgracefully in 2010; the insult continued with the announcement of the FIFA World player of the year award. In a World Cup year, it is a no-brainer that performance during the competition goes a long way to crown the winner. But in the run of the anomalies that was the trademark of 2010; the tides changed yet again. Messi no doubt is a fine footballer. A passionate and dedicated player who knows his onions but his World Cup performance didn’t quite meet up. I expected a Spanish footballer to win this award and then Messi could win it again in 2011 based on his club performance.

Finally, the joke is now on us. This last point eventually nailed the coffin on Football. A body called the International Federation of Football History and Statistics has just named Arsenal Coach – Arsene Wenger as the coach of the decade. I hope you can figure out the humor in that.
As for me, I won’t take the game with any iota of seriousness again. It is time to watch when no other serious thing is going on. RIP Football! We will surely miss you.

2011 is not going to wait for anyone, you have a responsibility to achieve all your dreams. You cannot afford to let this year also pass without making impact. People mostly complain about jobs not being available and business opportunities not going round. But I have realized that attitude to work, business and even fellow humans are the key to success or otherwise in all endeavors we find ourselves.

I read a letter written in 1899 and it re-invigorated my utmost belief that our destinies lie in our hands. I am so happy to post this letter as my first in 2011. I recognize some traits in the letter that I have been practicing, but I am more determined than ever to do even better and make my way more prosperous from now on. It is my gift to you for this year if you have not read it before or you didn’t get the import. Imagine a secret that could be the factor to propel your career/business/relationship this year and beyond. Over 40 Million of this letter have been printed and distributed. Happy reading!

“A Message To Garcia”
by Elbert Hubbard 1899

In all this Cuban business there is one man that stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain and the United States it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba – no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly. What to do!

Some one said to the President, “There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan who will find Garcia for you, if anybody can.” Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How “the fellow by the name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia – are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail. The point that I wish to make is this:

McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at?”
By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing – “Carry a message to Garcia!”

General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias. No man who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well-nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man – the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it.

Slipshod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, and half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook or threat he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant.

You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office – six clerks are within call. Summon any one and make this request: “Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio.” Will the clerk quietly say, “Yes, sir,” and go do the task?

On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions: Who was he? Which encyclopedia? Where is the encyclopedia? Was I hired for that? Don’t you mean Bismarck? What’s the matter with Charlie doing it? Is he dead? Is there any hurry? Sha’n't I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself? What do you want to know for?

And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia – and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will not.

Now, if you are wise, you will not bother to explain to your “assistant” that Correggio is indexed under the C’s, not in the K’s, but you will smile very sweetly and say, “Never mind,” and go look it up yourself. And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift – these are the things that put pure Socialism so far into the future.
If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all?

A first-mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting “the bounce” Saturday night holds many a worker to his place. Advertise for a stenographer, and nine out of ten who apply can neither spell nor punctuate – and do not think it necessary to.

Can such a one write a letter to Garcia?

“You see that bookkeeper,” said the foreman to me in a large factory.

“Yes, what about him?”

“Well he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street would forget what he had been sent for.”

Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?

We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the “downtrodden denizens of the sweat-shop” and the “homeless wanderer searching for honest employment,” and with it all often go many hard words for the men in power.

Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne’er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long, patient striving after “help” that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned.

In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away “help” that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues: only, if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer – but out and forever out the incompetent and unworthy go. It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best – those who can carry a message to Garcia.

I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to any one else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress, him. He cannot give orders; and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, “Take it yourself!”

Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular firebrand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled Number Nine boot.

Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slipshod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry and homeless.

Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds – the man who, against great odds, has directed the efforts of others, and having succeeded, finds there’s nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes. I have carried a dinner pail and worked for day’s wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides.

There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; and all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous. My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the “boss” is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly takes the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets “laid off” nor has to go on a strike for higher wages.

A lot of people tend to have a distorted view of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. While Madiba was a big player in the journey towards emancipation from the evil apartheid system; the truth remains that the struggle took an effective turn with the sacrifice of school kids as young as ten years old. I will go ahead and show you some quotes from the Soweto uprisings of 1976. This event marked the beginning of the end of the oppression. A principal figure was a 12 year old Hector Pieterson who was cruelly gunned down. The Hector Pieterson memorial in Soweto was named after the boy.

The Soweto uprising or Soweto riots were a series of clashes in Soweto, South Africa on June 16, 1976 between black youths and the South African authorities. The riots grew out of protests against the policies of the National Party government and its apartheid regime. 23 people were killed on the first day including several black teenagers. The riots continued and resulted in the deaths of 566 people, mostly black, until the end of the year.

The Soweto Uprising was a turning point in the liberation struggle in South Africa. Prior to this event, the liberation struggle was being fought outside of South Africa, mostly in Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe), South West Africa (later Namibia) and Angola. But from this moment onwards, the struggle became internal and the government security forces were split between external operations and internal operations.

- Culled from Wikipedia

This is not an attempt to teach a history of black struggle in South Africa. I am just about to link this to my dear country – Nigeria. Recent events in our country’s political landscape have shown that 2011 might just be our year of emancipation. The hard fought victory of Dr. Fayemi in Ekiti and the latest shame on PDP in Osun State brings such wonderful feelings. I bet you have also heard that Oyinlola had a thanksgiving ceremony in his home town – Okuku where he “Thanked God” for setting the state back several decades. I bet he is also thanking us for allowing him steal our allocations for that period and he won’t be prosecuted for hijacking power that never belonged to him.

This post is not about Oyinlola. I might get tempted to write another post about him and his fellow agents very soon. Most people don’t bother to register and vote because they have concluded that their votes won’t count. I bet they are having a rethink now from the various states where power was returned to the rightful owners. This means that if we register, vote and protect our votes in 2011, the Nigeria we have been hoping and dreaming about will become real very soon.

Going through the profiles of heroes and heroines of the Soweto uprising at the Hector Pieterson memorial; I covered my eyes in shame because they were very young. Teboho “Tsietsi” MacDonald Mashinini who led Soweto students in the struggle was a mere 19 years old in 1976. A lot of the dead and wounded were elementary school pupils. The fame and development enjoyed in present day South Africa was actually achieved through the sacrifice, in some cases death of kids.

And here we are in 2010 in a country that is not plagued by Apartheid but more evil machinery. An internal enemy that we condone because we think they are our fellow citizens. Just a few men and women, whose creed is to continue enslaving our polity via corruption and sheer greed.

But we stand a better chance than those young people in 1976. We have got the power! Most of them were not old enough to register and vote. And those who were old enough couldn’t vote because of their skin colour. We stand in the threshold of history, in a situation where we don’t need to face bullets but just decide to do what is right. Every young person owes this country a vote. That is the least you can do to positively propel our nation out of poverty.

But we will push people to do more. Come Saturday December 11 2010, 300 young people will be meeting to chart a course for a new Nigeria. These young people will not be holding a talk show but an impartation of the will to work towards emancipating Nigeria. The 300 reminds me of David’s men of valour and the film with the same title.

I have been given a mandate to get 10 young women and men who are willing to have their names written in gold. The meeting will have Dr. Tunde Bakare (Save Nigeria Group) and others sharing the blueprint of the plan to make 2011 the year of freedom for Nigeria. Are you willing to be a catalyst for change? Are you residing in Nigeria or will be in Nigeria this Saturday? Please send an email to me@ayooladejo.com with your name and phone number latest by Thursday 9 December 2010.

Note that this is not a religious gathering. If you are a progressive and angry about the bad situation of our dear nation and willing to do something about it, you qualify to be in this meeting. Nigeria will be great! It starts with me and you!
Note: Don’t be scared about the reference to bullets taken by the young people in Soweto. It is just to show you there is no excuse not to participate in change. We have got a much more easier job to be done and we will do it with intellect and style.

I am not asking that question because I want to feed you. The question actually brings back a flood of memories. Sweet and sour ones from my University days in Great Ife. Sweet, because the man who owns that nickname is a legend. A different specie from the mass I was used to. Sour because the things he went through reflects the Nigerian political arena. Looking back at the things that happened then confirms to me that the University campus was a microcosm of the Nigerian state.

It is strange that the man’s thought just flashed across my mind this morning. Maybe, it is my over-analysis and sometimes pure torture of thinking about my country that brought the memories back. But one thing is sure; this is a good time to link the past to the present. I will start by describing the man “Have You Eaten”.

His real name is Bro Seyi Odufejo. I added Bro, not only because he actually puts the prefix to his name but because he is a true bros. He is a true brother to the core. Brother as in he was older than most of us. Brother in the sense that he exudes the aura of a true brother. Brother according to the description of the faith, a true believer who shows his colors irrespective of the audience. He never hid his faith.

University of Benin in those days was known as a no-nonsense place. One of the revered centers of learning in Nigeria with the lucky tie of being situated in a historically strategic city such as Benin. Benin Kingdom that was a torn in the flesh of the British usurpers. Uniben thus carries with it a swagger and not just any individual could rise up to become its Students Union president. Brother Seyi Odufejo did his first degree at that University and became the SUG president even with the label of being a born again Christian in a supposedly hard guy environment.

His tenure was a hugely successful one with ground breaking achievements. Cult activities reduced, indigent students partook in work-study programs – a rarity in Nigerian Universities. The Union also prospered. Such was the CV of that man. It was an honor to meet him in Ife when he came for his post graduate studies. He immediately saw the way our SUG was mostly in the clutch of thugs masquerading as activists. There were all sorts of political movement on campus. Some of them civil society groups in the morning, dirty political groups at night. They preach the principles of Karl Marx, Amilcar Cabral etc in the open, but scheme for their own profits in the dark.

Brother Seyi was not happy about the incessant closings very unique to Great Ife and the fact that the SUG never exploited the vast resources available to ameliorate the plight of the students. I remembered him sharing with me his plans for every student to have an email address, good Internet cafes at cheap prices, a bakery and above all – trouble free semesters. He was clearly beyond his time. With his previous experience of managing Uniben SUG; it was a no brainier that he had so much to offer us in Ife.

The first time he contested was very interesting. His main contender was named Lanre Legacy of the SCAP (later DSM) party. Lanre, a charming and articulate speaker belonged to a group deemed very dangerous and rightfully so. The election was tight and the last faculty vote to be counted was the Faculty of Technology. A faculty that Have U Eaten was touted to win with a huge margin. DSM guys were aware of this and they tried to intimidate the chairman of the electoral committee – Ayo Adedeji who stood his ground and was brave about it. They finally seized the ballot box of the Tech faculty.

A bye-election was arranged for that faculty only and it turned out to be a messy situation. DSM thugs; both students and non-students were heavily present at the voting venue smoking all sorts and intimidating any normal looking voter. Only few of their cohorts came to vote and at the end of it all, you know what the results are. Legacy became President and that was a tenure I would never forget in my life! That was the tenure that witnessed the most cold-blooded mutiny on Great Ife campus – July 10 1999. That election confirmed my fears that the same evil men condemn is mostly later perpetrated by them either by sheer ignorance or with impudence. The same DSM members who were fond of ridiculing University authorities, who organised a feast when Abacha died and protested after Abiola’s death have been exposed as hypocrites.

These were guys who most likely aspire to elective positions outside of the University system. It was thus painful especially when it is logical to conclude that such impunities happening in that small enclave is potentially the reality of what will always obtain outside. And that is why I am not surprised again no matter the news coming from our political space.

Bro Seyi re-contested the next election. This time around, people were unhappy with Legacy and the DSM crew. This paved way for their rival who didn’t have such violence in them – the Pacesetters to capitalize. Dr. 3As, Adenekan Adeniyi was a brilliant medical student who gave a rousing presentation during the July 10 debacle. He later became the presidential candidate.

That year, I was encouraged to contest for the ASG position by Have You Eaten and so a partnership was formed. Two men with similar goals. The Christian community did not recover from the hurt of Bro Seyi’s loss of the previous election and the fact that DSM and other parties hounded Christians for their involvement in politics (No fellowship openly campaigned for him, nor formed a campaign group). This was a false accusation but it worked and many Christians refused to vote on election day citing security reasons. Dr 3A’s won, Bro Seyi was second.

The Pacesetter candidate won the ASG seat while I also came second out of 5 candidates with no backing from my fellowship or any other body. Only few of my friends participated in my campaign. Both of us (Have u eaten and Me) operated a 2-man army campaign. I was then appointed into the judiciary of the Students Union as a Justice. I guess you know the significance of this election to the Nigerian polity. When people don’t register and vote during elections, when people are too Christian or Islamic to vote. A nation gets what it deserves! I diverted most of my energy to my department where I became president, bought the first ever student-owned computer, set up the first student-owned Internet room in the whole of OAU Ile-Ife.

When brother Seyi came into my room late one night to declare his intention to run for the third time; I thought he was crazy and obsessed at the same time. By the time he left, I was able to empathize with him and also agreed to be his campaign manager. I saw a man who genuinely wanted to implement his visions. Unlike other contestants, his vision was already written down with clear objectives and ways to get them done. They were never going to be white elephant projects. When the campaign kicked off, the DSM were very angry. Some of them asked for a meeting with me and they expressed their dissatisfactions. Why would I support Have U Eaten after such a brilliant session as an officer of the SUG? But they know the war was lost for them. The support we got was very big! A lot of friends who were hitherto non-committal to politics joined the campaign committee. We were on a roll. My newly found status as a known departmental president, faculty influencer and SUG Judicial council justice helped a lot.

We used ICTs in our campaign. We took computers to halls of residence showing power point slides and playing music whilst some of our guys and babes danced. It was a totally cool campaign and ultimately people still hated DSM and then Pacesetters didn’t perform very well in a tenure where they won all the seats they contested. I won’t go into details because a former post I made has it all. But a day to the elections, DSM violently disrupted the manifesto night, maimed our supporters including Bro Seyi himself who was hospitalized in OAU Teaching hospital for days and claimed that he couldn’t contest as he was not a student.

The election was put on hold. We asked the University to confirm his studentship and got a ridiculous answer. The school advised that the Judicial council, an arm of the SUG must determine that. How apt? The justices have the burden of determining if he was a student and thus qualified to run. School authorities even provided us with security and sitting allowances during the case, how convenient? I had to disqualify myself from sitting on the case after some altercations and after ensuring a DSM member also got off the case. On the day the Justices made their ruling, another lesson was learned. A certain Justice Esan, my colleague in the Judicial council allegedly held a grudge against “Have U Eaten”. They held a common ground of being Christians and members of the University Joint Christian Mission (UJCM) but fell out because Esan though Bro Seyi didn’t support his bid to become the Secretary General of the SUG when he contested a year earlier. Esan eventually held the card to decide his fate and guess what? He voted against us. And that marked the end of an era. Bro Seyi never became President of the Great Ife SUG. I know what we missed. I was able to analyze the guys who eventually became Presidents. Legacy, 3As and Burkina. Those who went to Ife in that era can testify to those tenures and what we gained and lost.

I painfully look at all those poli-tricks and gimicks. And I look at the bigger Nigerian society and don’t see much difference. It is a fact that a better future for our country is not dependent on young people but on young people who are ready to make a change. Young people who have the true love of our nation at heart. It is a reality that we are not all on the same page. Many of us are only about the gains and not truly committed to change.

Maybe one day, we will not just condemn the “Have You Eaten” of our nation as many did back then. Maybe one day, we will stand for the truth and not be easily coerced by the few thugs who chased Technology faculty students away from exercising their rights. Maybe one day, the religious bodies in Nigeria will remember such men as Martin Luther King Junior who continuously stood for the truth and was not afraid to speak his mind. I crave that day when we will see more Tunde Bakares. I long for that day when we will stop whining and stand for elections despite that fact that we have been told it is only for the dirty.

I have not seen Brother Seyi since 2001. I spoke to him on phone in 2005 and lost his contacts since then. If you are reading this and happen to have his phone number or email; please send them to me. I want to salute that man again.

There is no set of people in the World that has been monkeyfied like Nigerians. Students of the English World are amazed, I am sure, about my use of such a word non-existent in any dictionary of the Queen’s tongue. But if a word like Vuvuzela could find its way into the dictionary; then I think monkeyfied, monkeyfication and all other variants of the word must be allowed too. Lets start with a definition of the various words.

Monkeyfication : A deliberate attempt at undermining the intelligence of a people without a recourse to their possession of a brain and will. An obnoxious replay of the concept involving bananas and monkey.

Monkeyfied : A successful act of distorting history and law even in the clearest situation.

I will stop my journey to new word construction now and move on to the sore in my heart. Remember the award Nigerians got affirming us as the happiest set of people in the World? The World monkeyed us. That was a painful reminder of the extent to which our psyche has been destroyed. A nation full of potentials but blinded with so much greed and evil. A nation where politics and kidnapping are fast becoming the only prosperous business. Lets just examine a few sectors where we have been monkeyed.

The Monkey Independence of 1960
The union jack was finally lowered and the green-white-green flag designed by Mr. Akinkunmi was hoisted. The new super power has just been born. God bless the Queen replaced by Arise O Compatriots. A country touted to be the emancipator of the black race, the black race’s most populous nation – a nation with the 2nd biggest city in Africa, Ibadan. Ibadan that elicited so much emotion from the poem of JP Clarke. The country with the groundnut pyramid in the North, rubber in the East and cocoa to the West. I was not born then but I can feel the euphoria of the reality of a won battle, a people freed from the shackles of colonialism.

But alas, it was all a facade. My first realization of this sad fact came from the book written by the famous African nationalist and statesman – Kwame Nkhruma titled – Neo-Colonialism, the last stage of imperialism (1965). He was of the opinion that Imperialism just shifted for a more subtle form of slavery. According to Wikipedia –

Neocolonialism is a term used by post-colonial critics of developed countries’ involvement in the developing world. Writings within the theoretical framework of neocolonialism argue that existing or past international economic arrangements created by former colonial powers were or are used to maintain control of their former colonies and dependencies after the colonial independence movements of the post-World War II period.

Recently, I read the second autobiography of Wole Soyinka titled – You Must Set Forth At Dawn and see below an excerpt.

Recent memoirs by former colonial officers revealed how crooked that beginning was. The elections that placed a government in power at the center were rigged – by the British! John Bull was not about to leave an independent Nigeria under the control of any uppity radicals – as the southern nationalists – the East and the West – were perceived. Thus, on instructions from the British Home Office, even the Nigerian census was falsified, giving an artificial majority to a North that was largely feudalist by tradition and conservative in political outlook. The census was actually based on sample head counts- random or selective, no one knew – which were then roughly multiplied by the acreage of the land mass, irrespective of actual population densities!

Isn’t it very clear that our monkeyfication started from the beginning? We were deceived into thinking that a new nation so independent has been formed but alas- it was a smokescreen. Interestingly, rigging has never stopped being a part of us – the foundation was wrong.

Various Military Incursions and the Lies
Each of Nigeria’s Military coup came with the same message – The condemnation of the past regime. Each one accused its predecessor either civilian or military of corruption and we bought it most of the time. By the time the new regime settled in, we knew better. They promised to spend just a few months and organize elections but we know how many years were spent by the likes of Gowon, Babangida (Who by the way wants to come and collect what he left behind) and Abacha (Whose family and friends are trying to beatify).

We know how Babangida deceived and took us on a jolly ride from 1985 to 1993. We remember vividly how a nation voted massively for Abiola on June 12 1993 and the evil one annulled the election. How can we forget how we were monkeyed with a new phenomenon in modern politics – the Interim National Government, a very crafty and stupid creation of a warped mind. And who better to head it than a kinsman of Abiola’s.

What have done to deserve such cruelty? What have we done to deserve such monkeyfication?

Nollywood and the Monkeying business
Yeah I know what I am saying. This is just to prove that every facet of our lives is filled with a propensity to monkey people. I do sit through the torture of watching Nollywood movies once in a while. I find myself drawn to the absurd ones maybe due to my Nigerian blood and our affinity to want monkeyness. Or how can I go through the hell of watching a film set in 1950 where the lead actor was using GSM phones and driving a 2009 Toyota Avensis? How monkeying loving can one be not to run when an actress wears the same hairstyle throughout a film that spanned 12 years. I can go on and on. But we keep watching. Same can be said of a Yakubu who has set a new World record of the most absurd miss in football history. But I can bet that 1 year down the line when Eneramo misses a goal, we would call for Yakubu to be reinstated to the Super Eagles. What a people we are.

The Monkeyfication of Ogun People
I cannot finish this piece without remembering the people of the Gateway State. A state so close to Lagos that the spirit of excellence being exhibited by Babatunde Raji Fasola should be seeping to them. But Otunba Gbenga Daniel has other plans. He doesn’t like photocopying, hence he decided that a dance of shame is the best way to go. Talk about ingenuity, and you are talking about the man OGD.
He is such a political maverick. Wow, a man who could pull such a stunt must be given a Nobel for stupidity. Or in what other place could a governor convince legislators loyal to him to impeach a sitting speaker with 9 out of 26 members present. Even unread citizens who take part in Cooperative society know about the word – QUORUM. So how can one tell me that OGD is oblivious of such a word. It is part of the monkeyfication business. This business didn’t start from the impeachment but from ridiculous attempt at monkeying the future of Ogun State with the 100B Naira bond. I wonder how some people think. Kudos must be given to the legislators who stood their ground, at least they have shown that a few of us cannot be easily monkeyed.

Conclusion
Our problem in Nigeria is not that we are illiterates or ignorant. Our problem is that we know we are being raped and killed but not ready to take action. Our problem is that unlike the real monkey in a zoo who has no choice but depends on the magnanimity of the zoo visitor who hands him bananas to dance for him; we do have a choice but we agree to every manipulation of the few idiots ruining our nation.

Maybe one day when we look inwards and see how bad things are, maybe we will wake up from our slumber and take charge. Maybe people will register to vote this time. Maybe they will also vote. Maybe credible candidates will start campaigning early and better than the thieves who are the only ones making noise at the moment.
Maybe one day, we will refuse to be monkeyed. Until then, I keep my fingers crossed!