Inspirational and Socio-Political Blog.

Monday 30 November 2015

The New-Age Imperialism: Saving Africa from Extinction – Part 2



Africa can only progress if Africans began to believe in Africa.  They need to build businesses of their own and promote their own brands.  It is high time that Africans became more Afro-centric in promoting the African values.  No entrepreneur can develop in a business they don’t have self-belief in. Africa is business for Africans and requires Africans to market its potentials to themselves and the rest of the world.


Africans need to unite, make peace, build banks, businesses and be patient in sharing their wealth.  They need to re-discover the African value system as this is the only way if Africa is to start on a journey of progress.

Africa’s problems are not natural, but man made, so it takes its people to find solution to its problems. Dubai was only a desert until its people became visionaries and turned it into the envy of the world, today Dubai is one of the most beautiful cities of the world.  Until Africans wake up from its dogmatism currently pervading the continent.  Africa would continue to hold mark as the dark-continent in the lowest ladder of anything good.

Africans are progressing individually, building wealth for self only, while a collective progress and wealth distribution is non- existence.  A single African owns enough wealth to make a million other African live a fairly rich life.  Africa has built a huge den of thugs, scammers, thieves and kidnappers wanting to make money by all cost. This group of people are well connected to those that matters at the top. They make the rules or participate in making the rules.  A society governed by criminals is sure to thrive in criminality. Africans do not understand how to live; everywhere you go is chaos, poverty, disease and death amidst its enormous wealth.


Image result for New Age enslavementAfrica has the youngest population of humans on earth with 50% being 19 years old and below.  This is the age careers are developed and leaders are trained, however an average African within this youthful age group is mentality lazy. Most are not sure the direction they are going, but only interested in making money than learning how to make money or how money works.  They say to themselves, “Less work and more money is what we want”.  They say only a fool will look to work hard for less money.  Integrity and quality that goes with working hard is none existent.
 
Africa’s young population does not understand the need for research and development, manufacturing or how to participate in the creation of wealth, they only understand consumption, feeding fat, riding big-exotic cars bought on borrowed money or corruption, living in big houses and having too many children.  The ability to build wealth is non-existence.

Check an average public service office in a lot of African countries and you could see its work force strolling into work at 10am on a Monday morning for a job meant to start at 8 am and those in the office are either sleeping on their desk or going about their private affairs.  Those out of work are not about to invent ideas to change their future.  Many wake up and sit in front of laptop looking for the gullible victims the world over who will fall for their bait and pay a windfall.

The leaders of Africa steal money and stash it away in foreign lands from where they had borrowed the money  in the first place.  Every successful African have the dream to spend their money in designer shops in London and Paris, spend nights in 5 start hotels in New York or Florida.  Not many would consider the cheaper beautiful scenes of Africa as option. The only way Africa can start to move forward and prosper is by keeping as much of its wealth as possible in Africa, until this starts to happen, Africa does not stand the chance to progress.
Image result for africa luxury
Africa’s dependence on international aids is becoming nauseating and using pictures of dying African children to solicit financial help all over the world is simply heart-breaking.  Africa is a very rich continent, yet very poor because of the greed of its people and leadership failures.  Africans are busy fighting man-made wars manufactured by people with ulterior motives without understanding the realities of the world they live in.

Most Africans prefer to leave Africa to any destination they can find, not many want to stay in Africa, when I ask why,  the response has always been ; “nothing works in Africa.”  How would anything work in Africa except African starts to make it work?  Most Africans recognize there is problem, but not many recognise how to solve the problem or at least ways to begin to solve the problem.  Instead they prefer to visit religious places praying fall down and die, casting and binding when the world is using what they have to get what they want.  Africans have not learnt from History and continued to positon themselves for new-age enslavement by their actions.

Africa has a huge population of people buying expensive cars, living in huge houses and the best of the very bests from around the world.  However look closely, you will see that they lack knowledge about life, they lack the needed value, quality or the integrity needed to live the right life.  They are so frivolous; their live is void and visionless.  All their expensive collections is to show off to their keens that they have made it and are the local champion,  nothing more.  It is very saddening to see the current antecedents, which is the same if you travel from Lagos to Timbuktu or from Cape Town to Mombasa.  Africans do not understand what prosperity is or how to live a valuable life, everyone just want enough money to buy materials for show off.  What a way to live.

Image result for african luxuryAfricans don’t believe in Africa, they make a new shoe in Aba, Nigeria and put a label showing  made in Berlin, Germany.  Africans do not want to buy any product made in Africa.  Just having made in Africa on your label already creates a bad market for your product in Africa.  How do you promote a brand that even the makers don’t believe in?  They call products made in Africa ‘local’ and not fit for purpose. Only those made in Paris, London, USA and other international countries can be trusted.  Africans prefer to buy and promote wears made by Versace, Gucci and Louis Vuitton with enormous amount of money instead of promoting their local branded Sura-the-tailor and Vivid Imaginations.  Africans do not see the potential in its local workforce. However the only way to create wealth in Africa is for Africans to keep and spend their money within Africa.

Abiola Olaifa, UK

Monday 12 October 2015

The New-Age Imperialism: Saving Africa from Extinction – Part 1

“I see the obliteration of Africa as near to now as 500 years except something is done urgently by Africans to turn the tide, only Africans can save Africa from extinction.”

Africa is world’s second largest and second most populous continent.  It boasts of over 1.1 billion people as of 2013 estimate and this account for about 15% of human population.  Africa is estimated to cover 6% of the Earth’s total surface area with 30.2 million km2 including adjacent Islands.  Africa currently has 54 fully recognized countries, 9 territories and two de facto independent countries with limited or no recognition.

Africa population is estimated to be the youngest among all continents with 50% of its people known to be 19 years old or younger.  The continent is accepted as the place of origin of humans. Civilization is on record to have emanated from Africa. 

History has it that almost all African countries experienced colonization by European countries at one time or the other in their history from the 19th century.  The current African countries emerged from decolonization in the 20th Century.  This accounts for its diverse cultures, languages and ethnicities.

Africa has vast human and natural resources, diverse culture and population with huge financial capabilities; however the continent has continued to live in abject poverty and self-pity despite her huge human and natural resources.  The greatest undoing is that Africans themselves are the main cause of their numerous problems.   Africans have proved to be unable to make the continent work and have wilfully chosen to ignore the right path to its emancipation for several decades. 

Africans cannot boast of building anything worthy of note and almost every infrastructure in Africa is either imported or borrowed from abroad. Africa keeps losing its sense of identity on a daily basis, consequently moving closer to its extinction. Sadly Africa is moving closer to re-colonisation with every passing day by ignoring everything Africa and with large proportion of its youth looking to reach Europe at all cost, even some paying with their lives. The youth who are the future of Africa do not have even a mustard-seed faith in Africa, I see an obliterated Africa if the current trend is left to continue.


Everywhere you go in Africa paints the same image of agony.   The name Africa is mentioned in developed countries when poverty needs to be defined.  Televisions stations are inundated with heart-breaking pictures of African Children looking gaunt, sick and dying.  A child dies every second to preventable diseases in Africa.  WHO has it that 16,000 children die every day in Africa.  This year alone (2015); 5.9 million children under the age of 5 have already died and some regions of Africa records up to 100 deaths per 1000 lives of children under 5 years old?  Africa does not appear to have any plan in place to curtail this pandemic situation.  Nothing could be more pathetic than those figures.

Africans have become professional killers and assassins; they have become specialists in making wars and killing themselves, with no caution over matters such as land, cattle and religion.  Life of an average African is worthless, with people being killed every day at an alarming rate from gangs, rebels, religious fanatics, kidnappers, robbers and many more. The policing system in most African countries is laughable and the Justice system is nothing short of ridiculous.  

One of the greatest problems of Africa is its high level of superstitious beliefs.  Everything that happens in Africa is considered an act from the gods; either good or bad. “If someone dies or fails to die, it’s an act of the gods, if a plane crashes or a car is involved in an accident, it’s an act from the gods.  Men do not have the power to prevent anything and every occurrence has godly undertone and this no one can query.” What a way to think in this age and time!

Africa needs to wake up from her many dogmatic thinking and understand that if it must progress it must teach itself modern intelligence to make decisions that are progressive and not wait for the gods to make it for them through its majorly greedy money-grabbing priests whose interest is only in their pockets. More on these religious scams currently ravaging Africa at alarming rate would be discussed in later series.

An average African has been brainwashed to believe that a person who steals money or kills another person is able to do so because the gods has given him the power to and should not be queried.  Likewise the ones being deprived of their rights should accept it as their lots from the gods; this is because they must have offended the gods and is the reason they are in their current situation.  “Everyone must accept their lots in life as nothing can be done to change it.”  What a way to think in this age and time.

African leaders would steal money that belongs to their state with nobody to query them.   The leaders are stupendously rich in the midst of their population’s immense abject poverty.  They buy luxuries everywhere and show off their wealth to their poor followers, who most times still worship the rogue leaders, since they believe the leaders are gods’ messengers and nothing can be done.  The leaders will often stay in power for decades because they are at the exalted position given to them by their gods. Surprisingly many Africans would die for this leaders to remain in power, this has happened times without number.  Africans never learn from their history and the few to questions these long-stays are often slaughtered by soldiers or rebel in support of the incumbent.  How insane.


The poor people of Africa have to accept their situation as an act from the gods and should never query or make their leaders accountable.  Those who are strong enough to flaunt this divine order are killed mysteriously either by assassins or man-made murders. The stealing leaders have led several onslaughts against their people, sometimes ordering an outright war or massacre against the clan not in its support or several ash-laws to victimise and deprive them of their basic rights, creating so much fear in the minds of any possible opposition.


Africa is about the only continent with no sense of direction. Africa does not investigate or carry out research for future developments; it must wait for China or South Korea to do it for her or consult their gods to make the decisions for them.  However well-educated an average African is, even with their PhD, they still hold same philosophy; “let the gods decide”.  This is because every decision taken without the gods is bound to fail they say’ How absurd.  If this is the case, then Africa with all its gods should be the best place and continent to live. Why are the able-youths dying in the deserts and seas to reach Europe? Africa can be nothing to me, but insane. 

To be continued...

Abiola Olaifa

Monday 7 September 2015

Where is Our African Value?


A farmer has five sacks of grain.  With the first, he makes bread to survive. With the second, he makes more bread, in order to be strong enough to work. With the next, he feeds his farm animals. The next is used to make whisky, and the last one he feeds to the pigeons.  If one of those bags is stolen, he will not reduce each of those activities by one-fifth; instead he will stop feeding the pigeons.  So we know that the value of the fifth bag of grain is equal to the satisfaction he gets from feeding the pigeons. If he sells that bag and neglects the pigeons, his least productive use of the remaining grain is to make whisky, so the value of a fourth bag of grain is the value of his whisky.   Only when the farmer loses four bags of grain will he start eating less; that is the most productive use of his grain.  The last bag of grain is worth his life.  (As Illustrated by Eugem von Böhm-Bawerk) 


There is a phenomenon called the paradox of value; this was made popular by a philosopher named Adam Smith.  He presented this paradox using what was called the diamond-water paradox.  This paradox is the contradiction that although Water is on the whole more useful in terms of survival than diamonds, diamonds commands a higher price in the market.


The diamond-water paradox has gone through a lot of criticism and top among the criticism stems from the theory of marginal utility, it states that ‘the trading price of an object is not determined by how much labour is used in its production nor how useful it is in whole, but it is determined by its marginal utility.’  The marginal utility of a good is derived from its most important use to a person.  This leads me to ask the question; how important is an average African life and what are we doing as a continent to add value to our lives?


Value is known as the quality attached to anything, ranging from humans to objects; it is the relative worth, usefulness, respect, importance or merits we ascribe to anything.   The value of an object is majorly rated by the worth we placed on the object.  I am very concerned about the value we place on our lives as Africans and the respect we have for our ways of life. 


Every country places very important value to the lives of its citizens and their ways of life.  You hear of German value, British value, American value etc., but where is our African value?  We all seem to have completely lost touch with our values.  We have forsaken our tradition and cultural values; our youths have abandoned our languages and dressings, we tend to copy the American and British values, presenting it in such a deformed way that it completely betrays our ingenuity.  We sing American songs; wear British clothes and Germans shoes.  The sin here is neglecting our values in exchange.  The most adulterated American slangs are in the streets of Lagos and the best of Chinese made shoes are in Lusaka.   We are doing all these in a rather confused manner and it is already becoming the norm of our society. 


Where is the respect we have for our lives? Where are the family heritage and the love for one another? Where is our history of dignity and good dress sense?  Why have we chosen only to copy the bad side of other people’s culture and abandoned our rich and carefully preserved culture passed down through ages from our ancestors.  Let us remember we had our lives before the west landed on our continent, let’s not ignore that special side of us.  Arab has not abandoned its old path, neither Asia why must Africa forget its heritage? Why are we so engrossed in making money through any means that we have completely lost the value for the money itself?  Where is Africa headed in another 50 years if we have got to this level already?  Why have we resorted to living on borrowed lives? 


The Indians have kept their cultures, religions, names, traditions and dressings and most importantly they still cherish their Indian values anywhere they are found.  The Chinese also respects their values and they are becoming a formidable force in every parts of the world on daily basis.  The world is coming to Africa in search of it’s natural and human resources, but African’s are avoiding their treasures, by pretending they do not exist or no more viable in the current world.  What more can we say of Africa? Should we continue to live on borrowed lives and survive on donation from charity despite our abundant resources? Where are our African values? 


The recent value that has come out of Africa is repeated lies by our uncaring, corrupt and self-seeking leaders, in this age and time, these deceits have not stopped or shown any sign of abating.  There is little in the offing to stop the lack of common interest that is very prevalent in our polity.  The value placed on the life of every average African is very low compared to the rest of the world, we die or are killed daily by cheap diseases and avoidable disasters.  Every country you visit respects and put a high priority to the lives of its citizenry, they invest in adequate security, power, infrastructure and good health care, these are important if we value our lives.  We have no excuse for not providing these basic amenities for our continent, we have the money and the knowledge to do so, but we have been enmeshed in corruption, witch-hunting and mediocrity.  Other continents have done pretty better than us.


The only value we seem to hold is our history of corruption, poverty, greed, selfishness and some individuals seeking to feed their already fat bank accounts from the wealth of all.  All our values seem to be eroding by every passing day. Our Children are all in this with us and we are not making any effort to change.  We must all come together to add value to our lives and pay less attention to this daily joke and lack of commitment to the brand-Africa


There is urgent need for us to retrace our values, lets start living the African dreams, lets wake up the giant in us, we cannot speak, dress, sing and dress like the Germans to become the Germans; we can only become a ridicule to the world by doing so. We need to promote our image and show respect for our values.  Our leaders should be the proponents of respect, they need to show respect to us by not embezzling our money, by not killing us through poverty, poor health facilities and poor quality of life.  Let’s retrace our steps and start living our African dreams, our African Values.

Sunday 19 July 2015

My Job Application To President Buhari.


Image result for Jobs in Nigeria
I am an intelligent, versatile and enthusiastic Nigerian, with genuine interest in the development of the country.  I have essential professional experiences across a variety of industries, and specialised skills in latest technologies with strong management principles and procedures.

I seek  opportunity to serve in the Nigerian government to enable me fully utilize the enormous skills I have acquired over the years from various fields ranging from Engineering, Business, Education, Health and Social Services, Logistics and Transportation, Human Resources, Management, Science and Technology, Arts , Sports and many more.

If the above sounds like you, it is time to join in the train to serve Nigeria.

This is an unusual call for President Buhari led government to give talented Nigerians opportunity to take up important national roles irrespective of tribe or religious affiliations. Professional Nigerians should be confident to apply for public roles where there are vacancies without any intimidation or need to be a friend or family to the President.   President Buhari needs to inject fresh professional Nigerians from all over the world into various important roles to help Nigeria attain its needed progress.

I am particularly impressed by the recent employment of new service chiefs, which President Buhari confirmed was based on merit and not another ‘who you know’ arrangement.  This is the period Nigerians have been waiting for, where qualified Nigerians can confidently apply for a job based on their qualification and not who they know.

Over the years Nigeria has used the usual ’paddy paddy system to employ service chiefs and other important positions.  This has restricted the number of professionals at various important levels of public services, consequently the same set of people have been recycled for many years.  This practise only makes Nigeria look like a nation not producing professionals, but that is not the case as Nigeria is blessed with one of the highest workforce of intellectuals the world over.

Continuing to leave our public service to the various half-baked professionals on recommendation from those who matters (Oga at the top) as it currently stands is unfortunate and this needs to change. 

I am certain that opening the doors of the nation to genuine professionals at home and in the Diaspora would help to inject vibrant, educated and innovative, well trained workforce into important positions across the country’s governments and is a sure way to cause the progressive changes the nation urgently needs.

Image result for president buhari jobI am without a doubt that we have bundle of talents from Nigeria, people who have risen through file and ranks in their profession and who would do well in helping the current government to achieve its stated goals.  I believe giving the opportunity to talented Nigerians who have held similar roles in governments and other professions all over the world is a sure way to compliment the local workforce and jointly we can develop a nation that works.

This is a call on the Federal, state and local Governments to encourage professionals from the Diaspora to return and make living and developing Nigeria an ambition worthy of taking up.
 
I am of firm believe that this is the right time for professional Nigerians all over the world to step into the job train and take up public roles designed to take Nigerians into the next level in nation building.  

I have sojourned in Europe for some time now and have met several Nigerians who have been in Europe and other parts of the world for several decades.  Many are highly skilled and certified in their various fields, if this pool of talents are given opportunity to serve in various roles in Nigeria and given a conducive environment to work, then Nigeria is sure to be better for it.

A vast majority of Nigerians are working with the Government of their host countries; some are already members of parliaments, mayors of major cities, Councillors and Lords, technocrats, investors, medical professionals, successful scientists, educators and much more.

I spoke to a few Nigerian professionals who have progressed well in there domiciled country. Most have a strong passion for Nigeria and express their willingness to help Nigeria, but are very pessimistic about the situation back home.  This pessimism is the reason they are scared to come back home to take up roles to help develop Nigeria.

Many express their fear for security of life, lack of constant power supply, good roads, health and low quality of life.  I have asked the question; What if these amenities are available, would you make the move to Nigeria? Majority confirmed to the affirmation.

It shows Nigerians would come home and help if given the opportunity and the environment to develop the nation with their vast experience from other nations of the world.

Nigerians have been run and managed by the same set of individuals for too long, that there is urgent need for a complete overhaul; new sets of managers are needed to inject new innovative ideas and skills currently being used to develop other countries.

I am confident that the current government President Muhammadu Buhari would exercise an open door policy where talents can be harnessed, rather than the ‘who you know’ policy that has been the bane of our democracy.

I wish Nigeria well.


God bless Nigeria.





Abiola Olaifa writes from UK

Saturday 27 June 2015

Legislators , President Buhari’s Cabinet, and Their Complacencies.

The recent events in Nigeria’s houses of senate and representatives are nothing short of ridicule. I cannot imagine that the new Nigeria’s legislative houses would degenerate to this level of irresponsibility in such a short time. 

I cannot come to terms with APC’s definition of change when majority of the representatives are from APC and coming to a common ground in selecting heads of Senate and House of Representatives is tearing the houses apart, then we are in for yet another house of commotion. 

If these are the bunch of people to make laws on behalf of the so many millions of Nigerians, then Nigeria is far from starting its supposedly change process.

They have inaugurated Nigeria’s houses of Senate and Representatives on sore footing,  How does the ’legislethugs’ who have gone to the extent of fighting on the floor already before any serious work is done hope to  make the right laws for the nation?

‘Yeye dey smell’

A nation needing urgent emergency fixing has started its journey yet again in a vehicle with deflated tires.  The driver is drunk and all the passengers are sleeping. The imminent crash would be catastrophic.

When would Nigeria learn from history and started doing the right things?  If I have the power to, I would have liked to get a good ‘koboko’ and land a torrent of thrashing on the bums of our new legislators so they can sit tight and do their jobs right.

How the legislators sleep at night surprises me.  They are so selfish that the interest of Nigeria is not their top priority. If it was, they would sort their asses out and stop creating unnecessary uproar in the houses.  How do we explain that the legislators who was only voted-in less than 3 months ago cannot decide who does what in the houses in a peaceful way? It’s indeed a great shame. 

Seeing this bunch of 'legislathugs' causing any impactful change in the country within the next four years appears to be unrealistic.  I am beginning to think that Nigeria is under an evil spell and needs urgent exorcism and to appease the gods of the land in order to avert sudden collapse.  Nigeria can do without the distraction coming from its legislative houses at this time in its nascent history.

President Buhari is yet to put together a cabinet after 3 months of his election, I hope he will do before clocking a year in office.  Nigeria has experienced a series of accidental-presidents who do not have any prepared agenda for the country.  They come to power saying silly things such as; it’s the will of the gods that I am there, good-luck or providence has shined on me.  They struggle to get any grip of the humongous problems that have bedevilled Nigeria over the years.  Nigeria does not need another clueless leader.

President Buhari is coming across as a huge surprise to me, having been a former military Administrator and also contested for president 3 times previously, I expect him to have a loaded and well tested agenda and also a solid team in place to hit the ground running immediately. But for him to still be at this stage now without a cabinet of his own calls for concern.

President Buhari is currently junketing the world begging nations and their leaders to come to our aid because the mess he met on ground is too much for him to handle. I don’t know about you, but that rings a bell for me and clearly points to another accidental-president who does not have any ready-made plans to tackle Nigeria’s internal issues.

President Jonathan went to Paris at the peak of Boko Haram’s onslaught to lick the boots of French president begging for them to purse Boko Haram terrorists out of Nigeria.  He sat in that room looking naïve, clueless and disoriented.  The leaders he ran to was close to saying ‘ndo, we will help you our boy’.  He came back to Nigeria not knowing the direction to follow.

Image result for boko haram girls
President Jonathan lost the battle with Boko Haram even before they finished building their monitoring station in Sambisa Forest.  They had room to expand, kill, maim, and take possessions of towns and villages. Boko Haram had a full time killing Nigerians like chickens; they hung murdered body of innocent Nigerians on the cross like criminals, took over towns, kidnapped and raped our girls in open day light. They recruited kids, impregnated our girls and made slave our women and yet we say we have leaders and a country.

Where is the giant in us?  “Don’t say that Abiola”, someone interjects.

“We are the giant of Africa, the largest black nation in the world, the most educated and with the best in military paraphernalia in Africa.” “Oh cut the crap.”   

An average Nigerian has built a big castle of deceit in their heads. To them, nothing is something.  They have furnished themselves with so much lies that lies have become the truth.  Nigerians are the most deceived people on planet earth, the sad part of that is that, they don’t know that.
Without sounding immodest, many more of us will die wishing Nigeria was a great nation, but that may never come to pass in this generation.

Someone interjects again;

“Stop saying that because the bible says bla bla bla,” “oh spare me.”  The bible has been saying since Christianity was introduced into Nigeria, but nothing has changed.  Nothing would ever change, because we do not need the Bible or God to cause the change.  God already gave the change a long time ago, we only need is to accept the change into our head and minds and begin to do the right things.  Sadly I do not believe we are ready to do the right things, maybe not just yet.  I rest my case.

Abiola Olaifa writes from UK.


Friday 19 June 2015

SAI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES

The camaraderie surrounding the national election has come and gone.  Nigeria’s new President Buhari was sworn in on 29th of May and Nigerians are gradually settling down to learn the modalities and approach of the new governments. Many expect President Mohammadu Buhari (PMB) to exact his supposedly magical wand to turn Nigeria into a model nation where everyone would live in plenty and come to enjoy life again within shortest possible time.

PMB is a case of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.  He’s the man with full access to the wealth of the nation, he has the key to making the needed changes in the fortune of the country and its people, however his undoing may turn out to be the ravenous and weapon wielding thieves he is surrounded with. These thieves are expert in plundering the economic wealth, they have done this repeatedly and the same sets of gangs are still hanging around him like vulture ready to attack.

Nigerians have reposed their trust on PMB and they believe that he has the solution to the many problems that have bedeviled the nation for so long.  

Nigeria is a system already designed to accommodate the forty thieves and it will take a true revolutionary to turn the tide. Can PMB play the role of the needed revolutionary in the midst of the evil gangs? This I doubt wholeheartedly.

I am without a doubt that PMB’s government would not survive the public acceptance it is enjoying now for too long, except he’s wise enough to inject young innovative minds into his cabinet and enact a new government system that openly challenges corruption even before it is started.  This would involve stepping on toes.  Although President Buhari appears to mean business this time, regrettably he’s a product of the same team of robbers whose interest is to continue in their selfish aggrandizement.  How PMB would survive in the midst of the many wolves in sheep skin all around him remains a mystery to me.

He has the pleasure of several moles in his team who have vested interest and until he is able to fish out those moles and either meet their demands or get rid of them; his survival as President of Nigeria would be greatly threatened.  What this means is that he would be stressed out and trampled upon within a short time, he would give-in to their demands, just as President Jonathan did; putting his hope in the hands of the forty thieves.

President Jonathan without a doubt meant well when he took over as President of Nigeria and all Nigerians supported him with their heart, but his case is that of another Ali Baba and the forty thieves, he surrounded himself with wolves and robbers. They clearly can see President Jonathan’s naiveté and lack of understanding for the rules of engagements in their under-world. His obvious lack of clue was used against him and the rest is now history.

President Jonathan was well used by the moles in his team and they had a good time sharing the loot they garnered at the expense of the rest of Nigerians, while they gave him report of everything is good until his downfall was pronounced after the election.

President Jonathan was deceived by almost every member of his team ranging from party members, advisers, party allies and his dependable think-tanks, worse off is his reputable pastors who repeatedly told him that God said he would get another 4 years.  The ‘gullible’ President Jonathan fell for the baits and his dissimulators had the last laugh with their fat bank accounts.

They squandered what is left of the depleting reserve of the nation by promising him a return to power, they named their price and President Jonathan doled out the money they requested.  They gave rice, pure water and cash to buy up the conscience of many Nigerians. The consequence is that the economy was left at a breaking point before President Jonathan and the ‘Peoples Destruction Party’ (PDP) left the government.  Nigeria was almost grounded, not many realised how serious the scale of ineptitude that was left by the last government.  

They squandered civil servant salary on holding to power at all cost and their greed is not about to stop. This is part of the reason many states owe their civil servants between 3 to 10 months salary. These greedy lots have found their way into the current government again and are already lobbying for yet important positions. This is not the first time this is happening, but I hope it would be the last. The agencies whose responsibility is to query the mandates have been bought over and cannot talk ranging from the Labour groups, the religious leaders, the monarchs, some arms of the judiciary; they’ve had their palms gracefully greased by Nigerians political forty thieves.  Their consciences have been sold, what a shame.

Each one of us needs to take part in the fight if we want Nigeria to change. The change can only start from the grass-root through the ranks of every elected public holder.  We tend to put so much responsibility on the office of the president and blame the president even when our drainage needs cleaning.  It is time For Nigerians to free the president from our daily environmental issues; it is not the president’s role to clean our gutters.

Elected officials starting from the local government Councillors and Chairmen must be made to play their roles and not just gallivant around the country in the name of attending make-believe workshops and seminars while surrounding themselves with area boys in the name of man of the people.
Call your local Councillors and Chairmen to account and made them play their roles, rather than leave them to feed fat on their councils allocations and revenue. Some of us don’t even know our local Councillors and chairmen; we tend to leave all to the president. Until we started owing all our public office holders accountable, Nigeria still has a long way to its recovery.   

Elections into the office of the local Councillors and Chairmen deserve more attention than that of the president, because these are the people everyone needs to engage with and hold accountable for day to day living.  But to my dismay, reverse is the case in Nigeria.  Everyone make noise about the President, but pay less attention to our local governments.  We need to understand that the president is one man and has more important national and international issues to attend to.  Our Councillors should be our first point of call and economic process starts from them.

It is our life and our responsibility to live it.  We need not encourage our leaders to be despondent by ignoring their inaction.  Hold them accountable and participate in the governing process, let’s all shun corruption and put our foot down to encourage openness, Nigerians have repeatedly sold their lives to the forty thieves, it’s time to take it back.   We have repeated the same mistake over and again since 1960 and we have not yet shown any sign of same retrogressive attitude abating. 

It is also not worth leaving our survival to Sai Baba alone; doing that means we are only positioning him for another horrible crash like his predecessors. Let every Nigerian begin to play their roles in every little way to cause the change we desire in Nigeria.   I rest my case for now.


Abiola Olaifa writes from UK

Monday 6 April 2015

A Welcome Letter to General Muhammadu Buhari.


Dear General Buhari,

Congratulations to you for being elected the new president of Nigeria and for defeating the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan to become the new president elect of Nigeria.

Nigerians hail your victory. Nigerians love your victory. 

This victory is one that has eluded Nigerians for many years. Your tenacity and courage has got you this far and is the reason Nigerians celebrated the victory with their whole heart.  Many were wounded and some died (RIP to those that died) while celebrating to show how happy they are with your victory in contrast to the previous successive failed governments of Nigeria.

This is a victory for all Nigerians who want a change that translates to better living conditions for them.  Nigerians through this election have given you their heart, please do not break it.

Nigerians want to trust you.

The trust they are giving you is very valuable to them, worth more than gold and silver, worth more than the riches of our land. It is the kind of trust a Christian have in Jesus and a Muslim in Prophet Mohammed (SAW).  As a true Muslim that you are, do not be dissuaded by wealth and riches because I know you will get the chance to a lot of it and many Nigerian criminals will throw it at your face.  However know that what goes around comes around. Stick to your promises and fulfill them, it’s the only reward you have here and in the world after.

Nigerians are better enlightened now than when you ruled them over 30 years ago, the last presidential election, which you won is a prime example of the changes Nigerians clamour for. President Jonathan was kicked out for lack of performance. This may be your fate too soon, so respect your mandate and start the developmental process of Nigeria from day one as you take over on 29th of May 2015. Stick with your conscience and let it direct and guide you every day of your stay in office.

The average Nigerians have been failed repeatedly, they have been left alone in the rain for so long, soaked with no shelter. They have not received any support from the governments they so much believe in. Every day of their lives is a struggle for survival, of what use is the government that cannot provide the basic things of life to its people. Nigerians have been made to suffer more than any of their contemporaries in other countries, they have been repeatedly denied their basic rights, they make and fix their own road themselves, provide their own security as the police cannot be trusted, they have to access and pump their own water, they have to source their own power supply and other basic amenities. Of what good is a country that cannot provide these amenities for its citizens?

Make Nigerians smile again, work your socks off and ensure all the promises you made are fulfilled. 

Leave Nigeria better than you met it, make this your modus operandi for every unit of Nigeria; this is the only pride you can be remembered for. If you do as you promise, you will live in the heart of people forever, your family respected and your children’s children adored forever.

It is no longer news that we have experienced successive failed governments in Nigeria and we've had leaders who have refused to stick to their promises of developing Nigeria.  

I belong to the list of Nigerian yet to be healed from some of your government’s atrocities when you became the Military Administrator of Nigeria over 30 years ago. In the days Nigerians experienced unnecessary killings, lack of recourse to the rule of law, jailing without proper trial, human right abuses etc. I believe now is the time to turn this tides around and listen to the voice of the people. Remember vox populi, vox dei (Voice of the people is the voice of God)

In your campaign messages, you asked Nigerians to forgive you for the many mistakes you made in your past administrations and you have personally apologized to some individuals. This is a great thing to do and Nigerians have shown the desire to make the past the past and move on. It’s equally important for you to do what is right this time, and work to correct all past mistakes.  Nigerians have given you the second chance.   Please do not fail.

Please note that you do not have time to waste, ignore all the merriments and distractions that followed your winning.  We want a nation that works. Nigerians have been patient for over 50 years and waited for this day to happen, now it has happened; do not take us back to where we came from. 

Image result for general buhariKeep to your promises so the soul of thousands of Nigerians felled by Boko Haram in the north can sleep comfortable, also souls of victims of kidnapping in the east and armed robbers in the south can sleep well.

Many Nigerians have died and many more are dying daily to preventable diseases, hoodlums, corruptions, poverty, insecurity and many more. Please pay urgent attention to this and stop the deaths quickly. The lives of Nigerians should count with your government.

There is huge insecurity in our nation, our policing system needs overhauling and our military needs to be equipped and every of our forces re-trained in modern combat strategies using the best in military intelligence. This may cost more, but it is for our own good and protection. If the military operation of tiny Chad Republic can fight Boko Haram better than Nigeria’s military, then we have cause for concern.

Nigerians want a quieter and pollution free nation, where generators are not needed all through the night.  Let PHCN provide electricity or be scrapped.  PHCN have been created to create electricity. An hour without electricity is a failure for PHCN. Nigeria’s past governments have invested money big enough to light the whole of Africa into PHCN, but no part of Nigeria can boast of uninterruptible power supply, this is a shame. Make PHCN board accountable or dissolved and new people with foresight put in their place.

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is responsible for providing us with the needed petrol, diesel, kerosene and other fuels to run our lives.  We are one of the largest producers of fuel products in the world, if the company cannot provide the needed products for Nigerians at cheap rate, then NNPC needs to be dissolved and the cabals running it broken. Missing NNPC money must be a thing of the past. Of What use is a system not working?

All ministerial heads and heads of national parastatals must give regular accounts and any of them found wanting should not be speared the rod.  Case of ministerial mismanagement came up regularly in President Jonathan’s government and almost all of the culprits were released back into the system without being made accountable or charged despite their open air criminality.

I am confident that you have the charisma and guts to confront the political godfathers of Nigeria who have taken the country this far, do not be taken by their sympathetic gestures, they are deadly worms to our system that needs to be flushed out and this is what every Nigerian ask of you.  

Please fight tooth and nail to end corruption.

Every Nigerian loves you and believes you will not fail us.

Yes you can.


God bless you

God bless Nigeria.

Abiola Olaifa writes from the UK.