2019 Elections

The 2019 elections are almost here.

For a long time I have been advising people to get involved in every way that they can. Starting from going to register to get a permanent voters card to joining a political party to engaging political candidates, asking them questions, challenging them about their candidacy and possible time of service if and when they win the elections, I have constantly driven or pushed for people to get involved.

As I write this the 2019 elections are roughly two weeks away for the presidential and a month away for the gubernatorial.

A lot of people think that voting for a new generation candidate is not a good idea. On the contrary I think it is the most important thing that we could possibly do right now for our future.

Some people believe that it will take a long time for a fresh set of people with a greater degree of focus and drive towards results and efficiency to get into political office and serve - I completely disagree with that because as of right now both inside the established political parties as well as in the new political parties there are people of this nature already involved - already campaigning already contesting for political office and several of them will win.

This is not the first time that such will happen several of the younger result-oriented and reoriented Nigerians have made it into mainstream parties and are presently serving even though in the midst of many people who hold the former persuasions about how government should be run.

I believe that we should have a massive upsurge of new generation results-based equity-based candidates and individuals registering in the mainstream and the new political parties for every level of political office in this country. I believe the upsurge should not stop until the point where every single candidate for every single office in both old and new parties is forced to adopt a lifestyle and an ideology of delivering good results, equitable service proper results in their tenure when they get elected.

So for people who are thinking that this is not a good time for a younger or a result-based president to arise or to contest you are very wrong you are delaying your own future because if they do not contest now the message will not go out that this is possible...

We will waste 4 years being deceived being deluded, being delayed. It is better that we have many right-minded, result oriented properly tuned candidates run for the various offices we have in this country rather than wait.

Contesting now builds knowledge and experience in electioneering.

Contesting now makes a statement to the masses who hope that justice and equity will be elevated in this nation, but have no one personify that hope.

Contesting now puts pressure on the poor performers and fraudsters to stay away from public office.

Contesting now puts pressure on INEC to avoid error and fraud.

All fraudsters and charlatans are being warned by the local and international community that they will not sieze the seats illegally, and per chance they do, there will be repercussions within and without the country.

So please encourage everyone who stands up for justice, equity, good governance, free and fair elections, service to humanity with humility, probity/transparency and accountability.

We will have a better Nigeria than we've ever had - it's up to us.

Placement

Nigerians have to be careful not to allow ourselves get distracted by the dim-witted but gregarious and verbose displays of people who unfortunately got a good education, little manners and 15 minutes of fame.

We need to pay attention to the upcoming federal and state elections and prepare for them.

It is important that we begin to use every forum to inform would-be office holders that we will hold them to account for the work they are elected to do. 

Lagos, Enugu, Kano and Kansas don't belong to any human being. This entire planet belongs to God. He determines who occupies each territory. If you have been blessed to find sustenance and purpose in a locality, dwell in peace (as much as it possible) with all men there. 

Abraham dwelt in Canaan, traded with the indigenes and probably helped them fight some battles. Yet he preserved His honor by preserving his identity and mandate. Our true uniqueness and our preservation of the same lends us honor among those whom we deal with. There is no mention in scripture of God telling Abraham NOT to let Isaac get a wife in Canaan. I stand to be corrected. It is not his ethnicity that granted him uniqueness - it was the covenant he was in with God.

Likewise we must understand what it is that matters and give that its place in our lives, preserving our true value. As we keep ourselves focused on what really matters, we align ourselves with the purposes of the Kingdom we are loyal to - the Kingdom of God. 

We are effectively neither Nigerians nor Africans - we are ambassadors of heaven - and we need to behave ourselves accordingly. We are on earth to show people how government is run in heaven. When the ambassadors get their job done right, the city rejoices (my re-phrase).

So please pray for Nigeria, ask God what you can do to make this nation better and get to doing it. I've started - have you? 

Time Travel

I see the future. I saw it yesterday. I've seen it today.

Anthropologists tell us that by studying a culture you change it. Every time I see my future, I change it. I improve it. I don't see only myself in the future. I see you. I see Nigeria.

Nigerians expect and receive service from public servants. We do not honor thieves, fraudsters or reprobate businessmen. How would we? They're all in jail; rightly dressed in garlands of ridicule.

Nigerians do not deceive themselves by believing that someone else will attend to the issues of the day. They without hesitation roll up their sleeves and get things resolved.

There is a clanishness to our communities. People know their neighbours: all of them. Irrespective of religious beliefs, all the residents come together in times of celebration or sobriety. They are honest, straightforward and transparent. They say it like it is.

There is calm in the land. It almost seems as if the city and people are laid back, but don't be fooled. These Nigerians are smart and very industrious. They've made a name for themselves on the world stage in commerce, science, sports, politics, you name it. Yet in the face of that they are so... humble.

This is one country where every citizen is allowed to blossom as they discover their talents.

What do you see when you see the future? Do you dare to create it with the word of YOUR power? You do not need to answer that question: the answer is yes.

You indeed do create it every minute of every day when you speak. Understand that nature obeys your command: it doesn't dare ask you whether you REALLY wanted what you said. It just gets it across to you.

Travel to the future. Describe it. You will live it. Have a good one.

Nigeria Evolving - preparing for 2011

Once upon a time, people in Nigeria were content to live in their city, go from home to work to church to school to market, occasionally to hospital and maybe twice a year travel home to the Villa (largely for us Easterners who love the good life :) )

Governance to us was like 'what happens on Pluto'. The average Nigerian didn't have a clue about the goings on in the corridors of power. We were easily satisfied. Our leaders assured us that life would get better in a short while if we just 'structurally adjusted' ourselves a bit. So people adjusted a bit and continued having kids.

Thirty years down the line, our population has exploded while our infrastructure has decayed at every point it can, but something else happened - our eyes got opened. It's interesting how the pet 'gators people grow come back to bite them in the behind. Our leaders partly under pressure from the international community had no choice but to transit to democracy, liberating the media.

It became easier for us (and when I say us, I mean the entire population) to SEE that our leaders didn't quite adjust themselves along with us back in the day, and they still do not. They cannot hide it anymore. We know they are thieves.

The story is told of how information trickled down to the Niger Delta from one of its sons who made his way to Abuja - the new capital - to see what their blood has been used to achieve - for other people. The rest is headline material. That situation took time to unfold, and has cost countless lives. I believe that the double layered shrouds of secrecy and ignorance contributed greatly to this.

Today, I thank God that the situation is significantly different. We have television and radio stations run by people who will not be easily muzzled by errant leaders. Beyond that we have a telecommunications network through which information can literally get to every citizen within hours. The total number of lines in Nigeria has exceeded the number of citizens.
The World Bank puts the Nigerian internet user population at 23,982,200 as at 2008 while wikipedia quoting Internetworldstats.com puts it at 43,985,000 (or 28.9% of the population which they estimate is 152mn) as at 2010.

I'm not here to debate the stats, but they are worth considering.

WE ARE NO LONGER IGNORANT, so we cannot complain anymore. Article after article, news report upon news report have alerted us of the shenanigans of our elder statesmen before they become national disasters.

To our credit, within the last eight years, we have gotten up and shouted 'HELL NO!' when some of these unconstitutional acts were about to be perpetrated.

Now it's time to take it a step further. Come January 2011, get up and out of your home and register to vote. Your vote is your mandate, your voice, your blessing, your prayer, your will, your desire for your children's country.

We have to elect people who will deliver the goods. Let me digress here to say that Nigeria decayed in the time it took me to grow up. I watched as the quality of English spoken by Primary school teachers, then Secondary school teachers then University lecturers decayed to the point that as an employer of labour, I don't even ask which university the candidate attended. I just administer an aptitude test and take it from there.

IT IS POSSIBLE TO TURN IT AROUND INSIDE THE REMAINDER OF MY TIME ON THIS PLANET. IF...

... we elect a sane President who will appoint competent ministers that will drive their portfolios like Fortune 500 companies. If you are my peer and reading this, I feel God telling me to tell you that you MUST offer and try and get to serve in the government of Nigeria sometime before you leave this planet. You have the giftings, you have the character and you have God. You are the one that we are looking for.

Get into it. Get the young people who you influence to go and register. Tell your friends, debate with the naysayers and argue the case for a better Nigeria. In every way and at every opportunity, do all that your hand finds to do to move this nation up and forwards. God bless.

Social Development - Keeping Score

Several months back (this must be more than a year ago), I was driving into Ikeja from Maryland using the Opebi link road/bridge. For some reason, there was a hold up leading IN to Opebi right from the bridge.

Now this happens ocassionally, and some of the more popular causes include an FRSC check point that appears on Opebi right after you make the turn, a police check point that is rather frequent on the bridge itself, or, my personal favorite, an overloaded, rickety tipper truck that has lost control/momentum trying to negotiate the tight inclined U-turn at the end of the street (I empathise with the property owners at that particular stretch, who must have provided the final speed breaker to the trailer/truck as it, against every prayer of its driver, determinedly made its way backward into their fence.) That is another story.

Oh yes! Lest I forget, there is also another near favorite of mine, the impatient twins from different parents who make their way side by side around the U-turn, refusing to allow the other pass, and almost unbelievably, inevitably end up scraping each others' cars and proceeding to engage in the ubiquitous street interchange which I call the 'Do you know who I am' dialogue.

Nonetheless I think all of these options would have suited me quite well on this day in contrast to what I eventually found out was causing the hold up. This hold up by the way stretched into Opebi past our field of vision. Not wanting to bother with the James Bond option of running through the back of Opebi area past the Methodist church and all, I decided to wait it out.

We crawled our way to a bend in the road, and finally caught a glimpse of the obstruction.

Bank PHB had arrived on Opebi to provide not just state-of-the-art but futuristic Banking services to the deserving people of Ikeja. You know Bank PHB, they've got those wonderful commercials that pushed all other Nigerian Banks' commercials into the stone age. They even sponsored a very entertaining reality tv show to challenge Nigerians to aspire to greater things, develop their skills etc. Their vision has to do with the world of Tomorrow, where the impossible does not exist.

I am getting ahead of myself. The road had been constricted from two already suffocating lanes to ONE. Our Bank of tomorrow had commenced construction of their shiny new lego-look-alike outlet when they ran out of space to dump sand. I am guessing that between the construction company and the Projects Division of this Bank of the Future, they happened upon a ground breaking idea - drop this 20-25 tonnes of sand on the street! WOW! I can see all the light bulbs coming on. What a bright idea! Absolutely brilliant!

And they did it! And here we were, crawling our way past, thankful that the situation wasn't worse. The irony in all this; officers of this branch were in my office a few weeks later soliciting my account. You want more irony? The staff in question was an old friend who had just hopped from one bank to this one. With a bit of arm twisting, I opened an account with this same branch. Their services and support.... that is another story. Correction: that is a novel.

Anyway, I did get through the traffic and I lived on to see another day. Bank PHB is here to stay, but this event left a bitter taste and disturbing questions on my mind. As a country are we becoming more accomodating of inappropriate conduct in every sphere of life? Do we speak up when something isn't right? Or do we continue to endure?

I have decided to criticise things about myself and others around me that do not line up with truth and equity. Not too long ago this same institution started running an Ad series that silently compared people providing service with people in positions of 'authority/power', asking whether you would rather be madam Jane or maid Jane?

I cannot agree that these positions are opposites. Service is not the opposite of Authority/Power. You never stop serving. I run my own business, but I work for (i.e. I SERVE) my customers. They call me out regularly, they give me orders, they make crazy demands, and I say yes Sir, no Ma, to them with regularity. In a country where we are trying to get things working, service must not be devalued. 'If everybodi become oga, who go be boy boy?' This is part of the silent concept that people in authority are there to (pardon the local language) 'jollof', while everyone else slaves away in hopeless futility.

The truth however, is that no-one rises without service, and that service never ends.

It is because we accomodate stuff that our leaders can rise to places of authority and work unsupervised, leave office and not give an account of their stewardship. What would the country be like if we had a website that shows every company that has received a government contract, how much of it they did and how much of the contract sum they got paid?

What of state Governors? What if we could put them all on a score sheet and compare funds received with projects executed? How different would our lives be? Some people like to say it is hard to tell what is going on in there till you get in. I say there is a corellation between what we can see and what has been done. Money does not vanish. It moves from hand to hand.

If we cannot at the end of your tenure see X kilometers of roads, X number of hospitals/schools, X number of projects carried out, then you are a failure (AND MUST REFUND THE MISSING MONEY). PERIOD. And the whole country will know it. Then we would be fools to let you enter that office again.

The principle is the same. Keeping score. Personally. In your health. In our office. In your company. In your block of flats. On your street. In your city, state or country. Are you keeping score? If you aren't, start doing it today.

Public Service - Lighting Candles

Hi. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

It has been a long time since I heard someone being referred to as a 'Public Servant'. I guess it must be a reflection of the times. People kinda shy away from the the title 'servant' most likely because it reminds them of their househelps, security men or drivers.

I have a personal policy that guides a lot of my writing - I don't advertise the evil, decay or wrong doings of any one or thing. I proffer solutions, and take actions at my level, and beyond. So I won't go into detail about how wrong this misconception is or how prevalent it is.

Our society will thrive when everyone thinks beyond their personal gain to the good of the community as a whole. To this end, I like to see everybody as public servants. I serve the public whenever I find I can.

There is a story in the Bible about the Apostle Paul running into a man who 'held an entire city spellbound' by his witchcraft. I take away from this story the fact that people will listen to whoever is on the soapbox.

Where we have had a shortage of right examples, useless shallow nincompoops have stepped up to the mic. Put on your telly for 48hours and you'll get my point. Take a drive down your street. The traffic warden 99.95% of the time is more concerned with the prospect of extortion than with traffic control.

The result? Young people, leaderless, follow after the bling-draped, foul-mouthed, godless, illiterate morons displaying a mindless self-centered short-sighted perspective on everything from money to love to relationships to society. On the streets you have university graduates breaking through barricades where possible to drive on the opposite lane because they are in a hurry. This is so frequent that christian friends complain about it being a real temptation.

I have taken up my office as a servant of my public to embarass any of my fellow citizens who has taken leave of their senses and tried to drive 'one-way'. I was particularly proud to see someone else who, probably as pained as I was, did the same thing to a would-be defaulter. Oh yes it cost everyone a few minutes of waiting, but, if we don't take time to (learn how to) drive right, we will pray that a few weeks in the hospital will take care of the cost.

There are no free lunches. If you want your society to change, you have to stick your finger in it and root out the trash that is clogging up the pipes.

We are all human; we start out wanting to do right without hurting anyone, but if there are no restraints, sooner or later, we'll feel like we can bend a few rules, endanger some lives and get our way. So if the relevant authorities, 'the system' as we call it doesn't work, be the system where you can.

I have taken a personal interest in everything around me to ensure it's done right. If we all do this in our 'publics' we will begin to light candles. We will remind people that rules don't slow you down - they extend your life. In whatever community you find yourself, do endeavour to be on duty as a public servant from today.

Find out where your local PHCN/NEPA office is and get to know all the people who work there, and their superiors. Also get to know where the nearest police station is and the chap in charge. You may be tempted to shrug away from these offices due to past impressions, but I assure you, it will help more than it will hurt.

As a wise man once said, take your cue from salt. If you are boiling a pot of yams, you add a little salt to it for flavour. Now does the salt swirl around in one corner and say 'the yams have a different outlook on life than I do, so I won't mingle with them'? NO! It jumps on the yams, seeps into them and leaves them irreversibly changed.

Your society, your backyard, your closet is your challenge; don't run from it - face it head on.