NIGERIAN CITIZENSHIP IS A CHAOS!

Mohamed was born in Kano State; he left Kano for Owerri and lived in Ama-Awusa in Douglas Road, Owerri Municipal Council. He got married to Obaigeli and they had a son, Abdul. Abdul speaks Igbo, Hausa and English fluently.

Oluchukwu left Uratta Owerri and went to Lagos. At Lagos he fell in love with Bukola who was Abeokuta, Ogun State and they got married. They managed to buy a piece of land in a swampy area of Okota, after sand filling the land, they built a house there. God blessed them with Kehinde and Taiwo Oluchukwu. Kehinde and Taiwo speak Yoruba, English and have a faint knowledge of Igbo.

Olarenwaju was born in Ibadan, Oyo State. He left Oyo and went to Adamawa. He met Aisha, a Muslim from Kano, being a Muslim too, they got married. They gave birth to Ibrahim in Adamawa. They managed to erect a building in Yola. Ibrahim speaks Fulfulde, Hausa, English and faintly understands Yoruba.

Musa was born in Jos; he left Jos for Texas for academic tourism. He got married to Millicent and they gave birth to Stephen. Stephen speaks only English.

Abdul Mohamed, Kehinde and Taiwo Oluchukwu, and Ibrahim Olarenwaju want to sit for UTME (JAMB), as they are filling the form; they got to STATE OF ORIGIN section, which state will they fill?

After graduating, from the university, they are hunting for job, Kehinde and Taiwo will be persuaded to go to Owerri North LGA to get a STATE ORIGIN CERTIFICATE, a place they may have not visited before. Imagine the agony and stress they will be pass through because they don’t speak Igbo language fluently. Why can’t they get it at Isolo or Abeokuta?

 The same is applicable to Abdul and Ibrahim while Stephen will not encounter this quagmire in faraway TEXAS.

Stephen by birth is an American citizen while Abdul, Kehinde and Taiwo, and Ibrahim are Nigerian citizens based on the origin of their parents where they are always forced to go to by the Nigerian constitution. The constitution sees their parents as SETTLERS not INDIGENES despite being a citizen of Nigeria.

How can one be a SETTLER in one’s country? How many years and generations will a settler live before he or she passes to be an indigene?

What qualifies one to be an indigene since all us came from somewhere and settle where we are sometimes in the past!

Which of these personalities will be more patriotic to his/her country? Stephen, Abdul, Kehinde and Taiwo, or Ibrahim?

Is Silence Golden?

 Silence  as  a  word  etymologically  is  derived  from  the  Middle  English:  from  Old  French,  from Latin  silentium,  from  silere  ‘be  silent’.

  Oxford  Advanced  Learners  Dictionary  8th  Edition  defines the  word  in  four  ways:   1.  A complete  lack  of  sound/noise 2.  A situation  where  nobody  is  speaking 3.  A  situation  in  which  somebody  refuses  to  talk  about  something  or  to  answer  questions and   4.  A situation  in  which  people  do  not  communicate  with  each  other  by  letter  or  phone.

From  the  2nd  to  the  4th  definitions  captures  the  line  of  thought  of  this  article.  When  one  is  in  these states, can it be seen as golden?

Zora  Neale  Hurston,  a  U.S.  writer  and  folklorist,  submission  that  ‘There  is  no  agony  like bearing  an  untold  story  inside  you’  sees  no  golden  moment  in  keeping  quiet  in  situations  one needs  to  speak  out.

Silence  here  breeds  agony  to  the  mind  and  wreaks  havoc  to  the  soul.  This  is because one’s opinion is not aired as at when it should.

This  bottleneck  might  result  to  unwise  and  violent  eruptions  that  might  come  when  one  who  is enduring  in  the  agony  of  silence  could  no  longer  carry  the  burden.  This  situation  is  captured  in the  Igbo  proverb  which  states:  Edikata  ihe  obi  agbawasia  (A  continuous  endurance  breaks  the heart).

Even  in  the  fictional  world  of  Purple  Hibiscus  by  Adichie,  the  silence  of  Mama,  Jaja  and Kambili  to  the  atrocities  perpetrated  Eugene  Achike  leads  to  Eugene  being  poisoned  by  his  wife, Mama,  when  she  could  no  longer  bear  his  high  handedness.  His  death  is  seen  by  the  family  as  a relief rather than a loss! So bad, I think?

Even  in  marriages,  I  have  heard  people  say  that  one  of  the  key  factors  to  divorce  is  silence  of  one of  the  spouses.  The  talking  spouse  takes  to  liberty  that  his  or  her  spouse  is  the  most  quiet  and understanding  one  as  he  or  she  accepts  and  bears  his/her  nuisances  without  raising  an  eyebrow. But  one  day,  the  accumulated  unexpressed  anger  will  erupt  and  there  won’t  be  any  going  back. Be  wary  of  silence!

 Speak  out  your  mind  when  necessary  as  Wole  Soyinka  puts  it:  ‘The  man  dies  in  all  who  keep silent in the face of tyranny.’ Are you dead or alive or dead living?

Good morning and have a Nice Day!

Is Silence Golden?

 Silence  as  a  word  etymologically  is  derived  from  the  Middle  English:  from  Old  French,  from Latin  silentium,  from  silere  ‘be  silent’.

  Oxford  Advanced  Learners  Dictionary  8th  Edition  defines the  word  in  four  ways:   1.  A complete  lack  of  sound/noise 2.  A situation  where  nobody  is  speaking 3.  A  situation  in  which  somebody  refuses  to  talk  about  something  or  to  answer  questions and   4.  A situation  in  which  people  do  not  communicate  with  each  other  by  letter  or  phone.

From  the  2nd  to  the  4th  definitions  captures  the  line  of  thought  of  this  article.  When  one  is  in  these states, can it be seen as golden?

Zora  Neale  Hurston,  a  U.S.  writer  and  folklorist,  submission  that  ‘There  is  no  agony  like bearing  an  untold  story  inside  you’  sees  no  golden  moment  in  keeping  quiet  in  situations  one needs  to  speak  out.

Silence  here  breeds  agony  to  the  mind  and  wreaks  havoc  to  the  soul.  This  is because one’s opinion is not aired as at when it should.

This  bottleneck  might  result  to  unwise  and  violent  eruptions  that  might  come  when  one  who  is enduring  in  the  agony  of  silence  could  no  longer  carry  the  burden.  This  situation  is  captured  in the  Igbo  proverb  which  states:  Edikata  ihe  obi  agbawasia  (A  continuous  endurance  breaks  the heart).

Even  in  the  fictional  world  of  Purple  Hibiscus  by  Adichie,  the  silence  of  Mama,  Jaja  and Kambili  to  the  atrocities  perpetrated  Eugene  Achike  leads  to  Eugene  being  poisoned  by  his  wife, Mama,  when  she  could  no  longer  bear  his  high  handedness.  His  death  is  seen  by  the  family  as  a relief rather than a loss! So bad, I think?

Even  in  marriages,  I  have  heard  people  say  that  one  of  the  key  factors  to  divorce  is  silence  of  one of  the  spouses.  The  talking  spouse  takes  to  liberty  that  his  or  her  spouse  is  the  most  quiet  and understanding  one  as  he  or  she  accepts  and  bears  his/her  nuisances  without  raising  an  eyebrow. But  one  day,  the  accumulated  unexpressed  anger  will  erupt  and  there  won’t  be  any  going  back. Be  wary  of  silence!

 Speak  out  your  mind  when  necessary  as  Wole  Soyinka  puts  it:  ‘The  man  dies  in  all  who  keep silent in the face of tyranny.’ Are you dead or alive or dead living?

Good morning and have a Nice Day!

DIVERSIFICATION OF THE ECONOMY: THE ONLY WAY TO BY-PASS SOUTH AFRICA AGAIN.

It is no longer news that South Africa has bypassed Nigeria as the biggest economy in Africa; this was as a result of the appreciation of the Rand, South Africa’s currency and the concomitant depreciation of naira over US dollar orchestrated by the reduction of the oil price. You may recall that two years ago during Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, Nigeria overtook South Africa as the biggest economy in Africa after the rebasing of the nation’s economy.

Nigeria is currently a mono-economy and no country maintains economic stability in such situation, hence the current administration must go beyond the usual government rhetoric’s and revamp the nation’s economy so that the people can experience economic development. To diversify the economy, government should look into the following areas:

First, the country should be divided into economic zones, not just political zones as we currently see. We can return to the old good days when the Northern region was known for groundnut pyramids, Palm oil in the East and rubber in the West. Every region or zone should be identified with one thing. Meanwhile this is how it is in the United States where each of the State is known with a particular thing. The US has the largest oil reserve in the whole world but nobody remembers that the country has oil because they are involved in so many other economic activities.

Secondly, Nigeria has a large population with good soil which should be of a great advantage to her economy, thus the agricultural sector, is a very important area in which the nation can utilize to dominate the African markets. Agriculture has moved from ‘cutlass and hoe’.  We are talking about mechanized agriculture. The government seems to forget that we have left the 21st century; we are in the times where some countries like China can cultivate, harvest and produce rice within a week.

Education is also another important aspect of our economy that we tend to negate owing to the fact that we have not domesticated it. How can someone be the Minister of Education and every year we lose billions of dollars to other nations, in the name of quality education, why can’t we develop our educational system, so much so that other countries will send their children and wards to our own schools? The government can start by developing one school, let say the University of Abuja and turn it into something like Oxford, Yale or Cambridge.

The Health sector is another area we are wasting a whole lot of resources, in what is usually referred to as health tourism. The number of Nigerians who travel with the money they made here to other parts of the world to get medical attention is alarming; paradoxically most of these Nigerian patients are treated by Nigerian doctors resident in those countries. We can develop the health sector so much so that our President will have no reason to travel for an ear disease or some sorts.

Finally, I think the Minister of Finance should either resign or be sacked because she has shown that she is incompetent in handling the economy. We do not need experts to tell us that we are in the middle of heavy economic recession and there are no policies coming from that office as to what to do. This is beyond party affiliation even if it means getting someone from PDP to fix this economy; we have to because Nigerians are suffering.

Uwakwe Roland

Welcome to McDavid's Blog: VOICE OF DISSONANCE AND THE NIGERIAN POLITY (1999-...

Welcome to McDavid's Blog: VOICE OF DISSONANCE AND THE NIGERIAN POLITY (1999-...: The disservice done to Nigeria by the ‘must unity group’ ranges from their inability to look into the causes of the unquenchable voice ...

VOICE OF DISSONANCE AND THE NIGERIAN POLITY (1999-2016) (Part2)

The disservice done to Nigeria by the ‘must unity group’ ranges from their inability to look into the causes of the unquenchable voice of dissonance. They are not even ready to compromise any policy or do anything to assuage these dissenting voices. They sing the symphony of the dissenting voices but when the grab power at the centre; their voice changes to status quo. This assertion goes beyond the present politicking of APC and PDP! It centres on the elite whether in PDP or APC, or Non-Partisan.

These “microscopic few” sit down and decide the fate of the nation according to their interest. They are ready to crush in totality any voice that speaks against the status quo. They believe that the sovereignty of Nigeria is non-negotiable! Therefore, anybody that brings a brilliant idea on how to move the wheel of this (gi)ant, is systematically labeled as a traitor, terrorist, fundamentalist, fanatic, non-patriotic, rebel, separatist, or even a Biafran! 

The moment they branded the voices of wisdom with any of the above, the next thing that follows is ‘CRUSH THEM!’ The military will be deployed to such zones with brigand of secret services and the voice will be annihilated. Despite the brute force of silencing theses voices, they keep on resurrecting in different dimensions. The question the elite have not asked is WHY are these voices coming up from different parts of the country whenever power shifts? Should we continue to use the OBJ method so as to keep peace in the two volatile regions of Nigeria? What happens to other peaceful parts of the nation? Should they be volatile before their voice is being heard? Is it violence the only voice these elite hear? What can be done to silence these voices forever?

The inability to ask these questions and seek answers to it from the elite, ‘the must unity group’, is the greatest disservice they have rendered to this country. The worst from them is whenever any person wants to seek solution to these myriads questions, the person or group of persons will be crushed and annihilated. Because of this fear, self-preservation becomes the order of the day and no one dares to ask.

Ndeewonu!

VOICE OF DISSONANCE AND THE NIGERIAN POLITY (1999-2016)

To keep Nigeria as one is a must, how had Nigeria been kept as one? How and what method had/has been used to keep Nigeria as one? Why are Nigerians living as sisters in discord since her existence? What can we do to re-write the ugly story that had taken and is still taking place aiming at keeping Nigeria one at all cost?

Answers to these questions above are multi-facets depending one’s focusing angle.  But to me, the greatest disservice done to Nigeria has always been from those who want to keep her one at all cost. Those that propounded the above aphorism rather from those who want her to be Balkanized! ‘At all cost’ to them means to silence any dissenting voice that questions the ‘fraudulent unity’ in diversity of the (gi)ant of Africa, called Nigeria; no matter where the voice is coming from. 

These people are the political elite. They are ‘united’ in diversity to perpetuating the fraudulent Nigerian unity. They called themselves ‘patriots’ and are ready to clamp down on any dissenting voice from any angle of the nation. They own the media house and had made their wealth through the fraudulent Nigerian structure, therefore they have turned Nigeria as their estate meant to be exploited and can ‘kill’ and annihilate to keep the ‘must’ in the Nigerian unity.

Because of the questionable structure of Nigeria, any power shift from one region to another always results in ethno-religious voice of dissonance from her independence to the present day. However, from 1999 to the present, the voice of dissonance that these elites thought the civil war had silenced kept on rearing its ugly head to impede the development of Nigeria. 

The power shift from North in 1999 to South created ‘Sharia’ crisis in the North as its voice of dissonance. The idea was to frustrate a southern president. Religion was used as a tool of this dissonance. Despite OBJ being a southerner, within the South-South geopolitical zone, another voice dissonance ranging from civil agitation of resource control to militancy which gave birth to 13% derivation was also in vogue. To assuage the North and South-South, OBJ brought a Northerner and a Niger-Delta as President and Vice to assuage the feelings of these voices.

However, death struck and jeopardized that marriage of convenience. The dissenting voice via Kanuri nationalism (Karnem-Bornu Empire) resurrected in the North East using religion also as its tool but now much more violent than the former one.  Thunder, fire and brimstone were words of this voice and this quaked the ‘united’ elite interest of the ‘patriots.’ They gathered together and shifted power back to the north so as to guarantee the wealth generation of their estate.

However, they did not apply OBJ methodology. While the North Eastern dissenting voice was going down, the Eastern counterpart catches fire and rains fire and brimstone on the oil facilities. From these evidences, one could infer that power shift from North to South or vice versa is not the problem of Nigeria.

 Next time, we will discuss the disservice done to Nigeria by the “must unity group”

Ndeewonu!

Security Approach to Peace vs Peace Approach to Security: An Evaluation of OBJ/PMB vs Yaradua/GEJ Administration of Peace in Niger-Delta

Security approach to peace is a belief that the moment one floods security personnel in a volatile region, there will be peace in that region. In the process, the security personnel use the available maximum force to supress anything whatsoever that breaches the peace of that region. In the suppression of what is considered abnormal, those who are actually not involved in the ‘crime’ might end up being the casualties. On the other hand, peace approach to security is a belief that the moment peace is given at whatsoever cost; it will lead to security of a volatile region. Those that believe in this ideology always dialogue with the volatile group/ region and compromise certain things for peace to reign! They look at the cause of the agitation and try to soothe or solve it.

Nigerians have witnessed these two approaches in securing peace in the Niger-Delta. The first approach is always the ways of the ‘Khaki turned Agbada’ presidents while the second approach is in tandem with Civilian presidents who lacked the military mentality. OBJ bomb Odi Town and militarised the Niger Delta. The militants as they are being referred to made sure that the barrels of oil pumped daily reduced geometrically. As the soldiers were busy fighting and seeking the militants, the militants were busy bombing the pipelines to the point that major oil companies like Shell partially pulled out from oil exploration in Nigeria.

The end of OBJ brought Yaradua, a civilian, lacking the military intelligence. He tried the second approach and came in with a peaceful dialogue called ‘Amnesty!’ In a short while, this peaceful approach brought security back to that volatile region and the presidency was able to explore crude for a period of eight years. Pax Niger-Delta?  Yes? But there were pockets of violence! But not enough to ground oil exploration.  They managed to deliver gas to gas plants, to generate up to 6 thousand megawatts of electricity. 

However, another ‘khaki turned civilian’ came to power. The military mentality came over again. The idea of conceding certain things to have peace which leads to security is touted as being ‘weak!’ The might of federal republic comes to play again.  The compromised reached were cancelled. They were declared ‘wanted’ by the mighty federal power. When they flouted these orders, their place was flooded with the military personnel to search and arrest them. They moved back to the status quo and power drops, the barrels of crude drops and keeps on dropping still they have not seen them! Are they invincible? 

Which of these styles do you think can help manage peace in Niger-Delta?

The Blessings of Buhari Administration to Nigeria

The emergence of Buhari as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a blessing in disguise to Nigerians. Many Nigerians may not know because blessings and curses are the sides of a coin and it depends on which side you are looking at. YOU SEE WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE!

Like Jimmy Cliff’s song, Nigerians can clearly see now for the rain is gone! The past administration was a rain to us! It was rain because of the ‘weak minded’ nature of the then president. There were good policies but the fear of the minions of the oppositions- Labour Unions- was a greater setback for them.

Now you know that those whom you thought were fighting for you were fighting for their pockets and the largesse the then oppositions were dolling out to them! Now the present opposition has been crushed, and they are busy putting their house in order, any labour threat? Your guess is as good as mine!

Some of the good policies of the last administration that were squeezed by the minions of the then opposition, the Labour Unions, were TSA and total subsidy removal! They were good policies but the then opposition party through their minion, labour unions, fought these policies to a standstill and the weak minded president bowed down and worship, thinking that they were fighting for the masses but now you know better!

ASUU cries now instead their normal threat to shutdown Nigerian universities! http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/03/31/tsa-implementation-crippling-university-system-asuu-cries-out/  who born monkey!

But the policy has now been implemented, did the heaven fall? Did ASUU go on an unending strike? The blessings of BUHARI! TSA have saved billions of naira for the government! http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/01/fg-saves-n500bn-through-implementation-of-single-treasury-account/

 

Total Subsidy Removal! 

Have you forgotten the hash tag #OcuppyNigeria? Or occupy the last administration?  The minions of the then opposition -All the Labour Unions- participated! http://olorisupergal.com/occupynigeria-nba-joins-fuel-subsidy-removal-protest/

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/16/nigeria-restores-fuel-subsidy-protests

If they were fighting for your interest, where are they now? Nobody is ready to grease their palms? They have gone AWOL! Now they occupy their seats in their various offices- The blessings of BUHARI!

Buhari administration has silenced the press! The brazing and ferocious reportage of the Ibadan-Lagos Press have also gone AWOL! Except for FAYOSE, Nobody dares say the opposite unlike before! Even the press, which now sing symphony of BUHARI , do not even support his brazenness! All FAYOSE’S opposition ideologies are being stifled in almost all the media stations in the Ibadan-Lagos media zone! http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/02/attacks-on-buhari-fayose-lacks-yoruba-training-olumilua/  

http://www.punchng.com/apc-asks-yoruba-monarchs-to-caution-fayose/

Buhari’s continuity with the China Railway pact of the last administration is a blessing to Nigerians except for the Lagos-Calabar route that had gone missing; I hope it would be found!

I think BUHARI/ JONATHAN or JONATHAN/BUHARI ticket would have been better for Nigerians! 

Jonathan's good policies would have been implemented without any fear or favour and his weak-mindedness which gave room to corruption would have been stifled because of the fear of BUHARI!

Ndeewonu!