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.

There & Back Again

Yes, it was the title Bilbo Baggins gave his story in 'The Lord of the Rings'. I thought it befitting for my return from 'there' - a hiatus I took from writing after my Father passed on earlier this year.

It's good to be back. It has been an incredible experience for me all by myself, not to talk of what the country and the world has been through in that time.

To mention a few highlights in no particular order

December 1st was my birthday. I am still absorbing the goodwill messages I received, and turning them into fuel for next year.

December 3rd was 'The Experience' - I got a chance to serve God there before returning to my regular spiritual posting in the Family Life Directorate of The House on The Rock.

In business, we developed a new product from concept to store-shelf. we are selling it now in six locations. In working on this I have had support from friends and strangers alike. I have also had disbelief from friends and strangers. You'll hear more about this later.

Family: In June my son turned 2 and in August my daughter turned 5. I love my kids more everyday - my study of them is also on-going.

Financials & God: I can't separate them. He has come through at every point, but like Joyce Meyer says, 'I wish He would stop doing that late-in-the-midnight-hour deliverance stuff.'

I've written a new song (You are Worthy) and I hope to get into a studio soon. By fire by force. Sunny Sparks where are you?

Trials in general: I've been reminded not to be ignorant of the devices of the enemy. He is an enemy and he is out to get you down by all means and in all areas of life. He uses human beings sometimes to get to us. In case you were wondering, stop wondering. There are people who mistakenly allow themselves get used by the devil and there are those who willingly do it. we have to be wary of the devil's human shields and puppets - shooting at them may expose the enemy, but at the cost of treasured relationships. One of my major lessons for this year is the art of sacrificing my ego to live at peace with all men. It's been an expensive lesson and I'm glad I learnt it.

It's been rough, but its been fun too. I give God the praise...

More to come

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.

NOW!!!!!

What are we doing here? Living. Working. Serving. Believing. Being Nice. Being Proper. Being. Just BEing. Its not gonna end is it? Till He says so.

This is one of those contemplative moments that come upon you when you are 'in between' or should I say when you become aware that you are 'in between'

Between a question and an answer. Between a comment and a response. Between departure and arrival.

The way God designed this world, it would appear that the best times for reflection are the 'in-between' moments. As long as life remains, God has done you the favour of ensuring that you will have these moments. As sure as everything has an end, there must be an assessment thereof. So after each event, there inevitably comes reflection time.

So I encourage you today, in your moment of contemplation, to be honest. And when you rise from your contemplation, to ACT on your convictions. This is generic. Matters not your education, your status, your health, your age; all that matters is that you are alive for as the Teacher said, There is Yet Hope for The Living.

You will live and not die. But please live at the top. The air is fresher, the view is wider, the Sun is more glorious, the perspective is liberating and the experience is Life Changing. Go for the Best.

The door is only as shut as you want it to be. Trust me, if you want it bad enough, pay the price and pick it up. Don't wait till tomorrow (as long as the plan of action has been decided) GET UP and OUT NOW!!!

You gotta love it

Do we go through life from prayer topic to prayer topic?
More painfully is this the summary of our relationship with God?

He just took a load off my shoulder
and I'm right back
with another assignment for SuperGod...

Father, I am sorry. I love you and I am very grateful for your loving kindness.
I praise you for your salvation. I rest in you.
You are the pearl of great price.

I will not let these cares choke out our fellowship.
Father I love you more than these.

I will take a break from asking.

Instead today, I will rejoice in my God and my Father.
The lover of my soul, the sweetest, the most refreshing
the warmest, the absolute bestest best friend ever.

Yep it's praise & fellowship time.You gotta love it.


- Derek Nwafor

Somebody's watching me 1 - God being God

I was recently in an office, waiting to see a friend when I noticed there was a bible on the table. I picked it up and randomly flipped to a page and started reading.

I must confess it was the first time in a while I had of my own volition picked up a bible and read it. Now this bible was I think KJV, but strangely enough that didn't put me off reading it. I think I read from the old testament; Ecclesiates.

I found it easy to calmly study the Word for those few minutes and would have gone on for much longer if my daughter or my friend hadn't interrupted.

Three points here: The room itself was comfortable, quiet and alien making it easy for me to forget myself and my cares; Someone left that Bible there, one way or the other and God was able to reach me through it not to deliver some Word in Season, but just so we could hang out; and finally I was there in that office waiting for an answer to prayer - I was about to be paid for goods supplied (you may laugh, I am laughing myself).

This is life. We are made to worship God. In the midst of that we have a stomach that craves food, a back that needs covering and numerous other cares. I don't like thinking of the cares of this life and worshipping God as being on two ends of a spectrum. I believe that God has this life and it's cares very well figured out. He set the default state of my stomach to 'hunger' so I should at least credit Him with the intelligence to provide or teach me how to acquire sustenance.

So, we worship God with our lives, knowing that He being God has sworn to keep us alive to continue doing so. So for me it is becoming fun to trust God daily. I don't work for anyone in the traditional sense. I work for my customers, a.k.a. I run my own company. Am I here by compulsion, trusting God daily for opportunities? I don't think so, but I do love it.

The reason why I love it is because I am smack dab in the middle of His will for me. It's been a trip. Right now, I have pictures in my head of the Shepherd and the sheep sitting under the shade of some waterside shrubs resting from the heat of the day, with the water running by. I'm the sheep. Dunno where we are, dunno exactly where we are going, but I am with Him. I'm not lost. So, I'm cool. We gist. We chill, we walk, if I miss it, he brings me back with a rod. My greatest joy here is not the grass, or the water - He does provide those - but it is being able to be with my God.

God being God, it's all good.

Catch ya l8r.

When sorrows like sea billows roar...

Remeber the song this line came from?

It's an all time christian classic, and yes, I love it. Our walk (or race as you may call it) in Christ is punctuated with experiences that affect us. They can pull, push, squeeze, lift, crush or expand us. I understand that the writer of this song went through some.



God works through the seasons, but I am happy to note that the overall path of the righteous man after all is said and done is upward, brighter and better. I wanted to title this 'my address is peace' or 'I live in Peace-ville'.



It took God some doing but he finally got me to understand that He will not stop till my life is an inspiration. The second most important thing He drummed into my head is that He is at work in me. So I will help myself by calming down, listening closely and obeying swiftly.



You know eh, we complicate our lives all by ourselves. ...but I thank God... there is no stubborn mad dog madder than God at what He sets His mind to do. If He has called you and got you saved, given you His name, then know child of God that He is going to finish the job.



So in the face of all the things I have recently experienced and may still see in the future, I declare that I live in peace. My address is peace - and this is strictly based on the fact that God is with me. Finish.