Give WINGS to our BEST, please!

Never before did we need the kind of citizen-action that today’s world demands, and that is absolutely crucial to The NIGERIAN Project - creating and keeping the country of our dream. Before we can have a nation we must have nationals and vice versa. To ask for patriotism the country must provide the pillars - a platform worth running on, a flag worth flying, a land worth dying for. This is what the great nations we so admire are!

For anyone to succeed in helping Nigeria through private enterprise or scholarship is Herculean. You will hit your head against so many rocks and surmount forbidding government-erected obstacles! Numerous quality reports and recommendations have been presented and accepted over the years but the situation keeps getting worse. It is difficult for anyone (except our civil servants and their masters) to understand this.

If you enjoy and celebrate the contributions of Aliko Dangote(Dangote Group), Mike Adenuga(Globacom), Wale Tinubu(Oando), Femi Otedola(Zenon), Ms Opeke(Main One) as well as our Artistes in Music, Comedy, Arts, Fashion and Nollywood (Entertainment & Culture) to Nigeria’s development go find out what they have and still go through! Go ask Jimoh Ibrahim, the mercurial owner of Global Fleet, NICON Group and Air Nigeria, Stan Ekeh (Zinox) and Florence Seriki (Omatek). Just a few examples.

If you lament the failed businesses, both public and private, that have ruined so many lives and livelihoods, do some quick investigations: you will be depressed and disgusted. Take Ajaokuta Steel, Railways, Media (led by Daily Times), Shipping, Defence Industries, Textile Mills, Paper Mills, Airlines (led by Nigeria Airways), Local Contractors, Consultants & Suppliers, and Nigerian Farmers to mention a few. This country simply kills its own - whether public or private! It is scary and scandalous. Hard to believe.

Now that we are singing Vision 20-20-20, I hope the government people know what they’re getting themselves into - considering the outrageous cost of running our largely unproductive federal MDAs and various under-performing governments nationwide. As we speak, the vision document remains a mystery to most Nigerians - hoarded and guarded by the system!
If we are serious, it should be common place by now, including in schools, churches, mosques, libraries, the media, palaces, NGO offices, political parties, entertainment facilities, and diplomatic missions. We should be unable to avoid its ambush anywhere we turn, with its numerous translations.

The OAU failed because of hoarding public information and distrusting Africans as stakeholders and owners of Africa. NEPAD is in the same quagmire. ECOWAS has been tottering for the same reason. Nigeria is so painfully underdeveloped because of this same “Them vs Us” mentality. Clearest evidence: The Budget. People sit in Abuja and write whatever catches their fancy, and facilitates looting, without true stakeholders input or ownership! Same at state and LGA levels. In the end, they chop the bloated overheads 100% while the capital(i.e. development projects) votes remain underutilized, leaving The PEOPLE wondering where all the trillions went! It’s been happening for decades.

Solution: We must reduce both the size of government and the cost of governance by 50%. Downsize and rightsize vertically (Three Tiers) and horizontally (Three Arms). Only the Judiciary needs expansion as we all have since been advocating - to include specialization and strategic expansion, reduce the high cost of litigation, embrace Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), deploy modern technology and guarantee speedy dispensation of justice. This should also cover the Police, Civil Defence and Prison Services for both federal and states - let’s amend the constitution and revenue allocation formula accordingly.

From this year, after the general elections, things MUST change. We all have a duty to put people in office who WILL serve Nigeria rather than starve Nigerians. Let’s give wings to our best and brightest TODAY! No more excuses.

First step? Dear Nigerians, go out and register. Your VOTE is Your POWER!

Heart-felt Apology

Anyone who knows Nigeria and Nigerians knows that we are very passionate about our dear nation, and go the extra mile to mull over her. We will not be put down or held down. Ask the colonialists, ask the military, ask the Third Termists! Read up on the Nigeria vs Niger Delta conundrum. Ask the so-called "cabal" that held our late President Yar'Adua and his regime by the jugular! Just to add a more current scent, ask our soccer (mis)representatives - the Super Eagles (?) – to the just-concluded FIFA World Cup in South Africa: For earning us such a poor grade, and not rising to the challenge of making Africa proud in the first-ever mundial on African soil, they are being roasted! This, despite our criminal and incriminating absence of focus, bad and improper coordination, the palpable fraud in sports administration - not unlike everywhere else - late and inadequate preparation, and an ageing squad!!

Followers of this site may recall my passion and commitment when all was well. So, for me to be off - sort of AWOL - all these months is the most painful and depressing blow my country has dealt me thus far. Recall, dear friends, that we've had hitches and glitches before: Internet Access wahala. And the usual apologies followed. However, this time, it became very clear that there was a plot to "under-DIGITALize" the nation! The official national carrier, NITEL, had been "cornered" along with SAT-3, the submarine cable. As my preferred ISP and Nigeria's Internet backbone, we have been virtually crippled in the last 20+ months! I got very angry and decided to await the Glo-1 and Main One submarine cables being deployed by some great patriots Mike Adenuga (I told you before) and Fola Adeola (founder of GTB Bank) + Ms Opeke (a Telecoms Amazon). I will revisit this subject sometime soon.

If it cost these firms less than US$1.5bn to land their cables in West Africa, we could have wired up the Whole of Africa with US$5bn a few years back. Yet, Nigeria paid over US$15bn to exit her so-called "external debt", to the London and Paris Clubs of Creditors!! Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria & South Africa should have paid US$5bn to put their continent on a 21st Century Internet pedestal, under the proud auspices of the African Union. It would have been easier, cheaper and faster. Thank God for our conscientious compatriots and their likes around Africa, and within the African Diaspora.

Returning to my blogs, and remaining online, was my only condition for re-subscribing to any ISP. I have used most of what was on offer, and, along with other nationals, the story has been sad. So sad. Since you are reading this, it means I'm fairly confident I now have a good deal. Well, I hope!

My apologies to you all. If you had any lashes for my back for going AWOL, spare them: I've groaned under the harshest possible punishment: not being able to "speak" with you, "share" with you, in this privileged and enthralling zone of our Online Commons!!