Nigeria the Floating Giant

Nigeria will remain a Sick Giant as long as it is perpetually bedeviled and plagued by grotesque incompetent leaders suffering from historical amnesia.

We will continue to progress retrospectively with abysmal ridicule from lesser countries.

Nigeria can rise again and take her place if our demographic mediocrity and parochial loyalty to individuals in power is subordinated to true nationalism; consciously and conscientiously buried.

Nigeria is merely floating at the moment. The crop of officialdom we have are nothing but a Tsunami to this raped Nation.

Nigeria has everything required to lead Africa. We have the intellectuals, we have the wealth, we have great men and women with vision; but focused and visionary leadership has remained a challenge since independence. Ethnicity, religion, zoning and primitive partisanship has continued to hold us back.

Nigerian has lost her birth-right and big brother status. We pray our children in their own generation wakes up the sleeping giant.

Africa will raise again!

• Philippa Asiodu

The Role Of INEC In Electoral Rigging

Photo credit: sunnewsonline.com

Three day to the general election, but it has been a tough week for INEC, having to deal with the pressure they are to meet the date line having postponed the election that was scheduled for last weekend to this weekend due to logistics.

There many crying foul to the postponement, as it is a plane to rig the election for the ruling party.

My concern is to the fact that there are fake ballot boxes and papers already in possession of many political parties.

I made video https://youtu.be/kZLDaILqZUw about the role of INEC in electoral rigging.

The practice of INEC in printing excess ballot papers has made it possible for elections to be rigged. This is an organization that have data and statistics, they know how many registered voters are in Nigeria, they know to the total number of collected PVC’s so why print excess ballot papers, also one of the major suppliers of sensitive electoral materials is also contesting in thr forthcoming elections.

I wish Nigerians can come together and demand a change from INEC. We need to start having Voters Identification Number printed on ballot papers or if possible switch to electronics voting system. We also need to have the next president of Nigeria to sign the Electoral Amendment Acts.

Thank you.

INEC Who Is Responsible

Gimbiya of PurpleSilver Book Club wrote this and I think we need to make sure someone is hold accountable and responsible.

Some states declared WORK-FREE day yesterday with possible economic losses running into billions (that is if they even bother to put figures to decisions of this nature).

Many Businesses, including BANKS, observed half-day work yesterday thereby sacrificing billions in the process…

Federal, State and Local Governments have deployed human and material resources and logistics (which would now probably have to be pulled back or resettled somehow against the rescheduled dates) at sums that will blow the mind…

Businesses (most especially media organisations) have also deployed resources at great sums that are most definitely unrecoverable…

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people have, at great personal costs travelled locally and internationally to ensure we carry out this civic obligation…

Transactions, both local and international, were deliberately scheduled, arranged or structured to accommodate the dates earmarked for these elections (you can’t even begin to put numbers to likely cost of ANOTHER rescheduling!)…

At individual relationship level, only God alone knows what would happen to wedding dates (and other important occasions) that were fixed probably after taking into consideration the election dates…hall rentals already paid for, flight tickets booked, leave days approved etc…

And some remorseless and unapologetic people that had 3+years to prepare for a single assignment, just sat there around a table to tell a Nation of over 200million people that elections have been postponed…not weeks before…not even days before…BUT few HOURS before and in the dead of the NIGHT when responsible people have already slept with the rested assurance that the impending new day will offer another opportunity at resetting this Nation!!!

Why are we like this in this Nation? Why do we treat ourselves with no respect? Why are we so insensitive and inconsiderate?

The most painful and bitter reality is that nobody and I mean NOBODY, will be sanctioned for this. We will simply move on, shrug our shoulders and await the next brutal disappointment! Just the way we roll!

Doing The Needful.

Ten (10) lives were saved at Kabba Kogi state on the 2nd of February when a private chopper crash landed.

Among the survivors is the Vice President of Nigeria with his aids and crew members. As a Nation we are happy and join the 10 and their families in giving gratitude to God for the averted tragedy.

I am doing the post because there are many social media trending posts and tweet about the accident.

There is a case of the brave man who have the video footage of the crash, he was lashed on twitter for not rushing to the crash location and offer immediate help but was recording. Other were offended because he keep saying Jesus repeatedly instead of doing something. He actually did the bravest thing he can, getting the crash on record, he can not just rush in and offer help to a crash the have the VP of the Nigeria. He might not have any first Aid knowledge or the know-how of handeling emergencies, so he did what he could do and as such be seen as a national hero (I suggest he giving a national honour “Member of the Order of the Niger”)

There those that use it to gain political relevance and also solicits for cheep votes, since the Nation is heading towards the polls in about twelve (12) days from today. They say that there was an attack in the northeast and many lives where lost and the presidency have not say anything about it and as such the victims of the crash deserve no sympathy as no life is better than another. But what can one possibly get from such political nonsense. It is better to be morally correct than politically correct.

The VP went ahead to continue with the campaign in Kogi, because they all survived without any major injuries (it was reported no injuries at all). Many hail the VP as a brave man. Me I am of the opinion that continuing with the campaign is not an act of bravery. The 10 of them should to be given extended rest and psychological evaluation. The trip be cancelled to avoid PTS.

We need to work on our emergency response to incidences like this, when you watch the video there is no sign of any form of organized rescue team or operation, no Ambulance, no fire service, no NEMA.

It is a pity that the VP of a nation will be rescued from a crash unprofessionally, it is a pity that we are not concern with how they could handle the trauma but we hailed him and allowed to continue with the campaigns.

As a nation like Nigeria with one of the largest presidential fleets why will the VP use a private chopper?

Post Traumatic Syndrome is real and it is dangerous both to the victim and those around them, I know we don’t believe in PTS in Nigeria but it is real and harmful. They all might to have been hurt physically but mentally and psychologically they might be hurt.

We need to learn to do the needful as a nation.

Thank you.

#IamAVoice

Some Facts About Nigeria

Here are some facts from our common heritage that should make you proud to be called a Nigerian:

1. Nigeria is home to seven percent (7%) of the total languages spoken on earth. Taraba state alone has more languages than 30 African countries. The importance of this fact is appreciated when one understands that language is the “soul of culture” (as Ngugi wa Thiongo famously said). It is language that births the proverbs, riddles, stories and other aspects of culture that give us identity. UNESCO puts forward that the world’s languages represents an extraordinary wealth of creativity. Linguistic diversity correlates with cultural diversity. This means Nigeria can look inwards and drive itself to become the greatest hub for cultural tourism on earth, and consequently empower its citizens tremendously in the process.

2. The Walls of Benin (800-1400AD), in present day Edo State, are the longest ancient earthworks in the world, and probably the largest man-made structure on earth. They enclose 6500 square kilometers of community lands that connected about 500 communities. At over 16000km long, it was thought to be twice the length of the Great Wall of China, until it was announced in 2012 (after five years of meticulous measurement by Chinese surveyors) that the Great Wall is about 21,000km long.

3. The Yoruba tribe has the highest rate of twin births in the world. Igbo-Ora, a little town in Oyo state, has been nicknamed Twin capital of the World because of its unusually high rate of twins that is put as high as 158 twins per 1000 births. In a video I watched last year on YouTube presented by Titi (a white lady who speaks Yoruba), and which was centred on twin births in Igbo-Ora, one of the locals boasted that every family in the town has at least one twin!

4. Sarki Muhammad Kanta The Great of Kebbi, was the only ruler who resisted control by Songhai, West Africa’s greatest empire at that time. He founded and ruled the Hausa city-state of Kebbi around 1600 A.D and built Surame its capital, a planned city which was almost impossible to penetrate during war. In fact UNESCO describes Surame as “one of the wonders of human history, creativity and ingenuity”, and probably the most massive stone-walled constructions in West Africa. He is listed in Robin Walker’s 50 Greatest Africans.

5. Africa’s oldest known boat is The Dufuna canoe which was discovered in Dufuna village, Yobe state, by a Fulani Herdsman in May 1987, while he dug a well. Various radio-carbon tests conducted in laboratories of reputable universities in Europe and America indicate that the canoe is over 8,000 years old, thus making it the oldest in Africa and 3rd oldest in the world. The discovery of the canoe has completely changed accepted theories of the history and sophistication of marine technology in Africa.

6. Sungbo’s Eredo, a 160 km rampart equipped with guard houses and moats, is reputed to be the largest single pre-colonial monument (or ancient fortification if you like) in Africa. It is located in present-day Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State and when it was built a millennium ago, it required more earth to be moved during construction than that used for building the Great Pyramid of Giza (one of the Seven Wonders of The Ancient World). The most astonishing thing is that Sungbo’s Eredo was the biggest city in the world (bigger than Rome and Cairo) during the Middle Ages when it was built!

7. Sarki Abdullah Burja of Kano (ruled 1438-1452 AD), the 18th ruler of Ancient Kano, created the first Golden Age in Northern Nigeria and ushered in a period of great prosperity. During his reign, Hausa became the biggest indigenous language spoken in Africa after Swahili. He is on the list of 50

Greatest Africans in Robin Walker’s wonderful book, “When We Ruled”.

8. The Jos Plateau Indigobird, a small reddish-brown bird, is found nowhere else on the planet but Plateau state, Nigeria.

9. The Anambra waxbill, a small bird of many beautiful colours, is found only in Southern Nigeria and nowhere else on earth.

10. The Niger Delta (which is the second largest delta on the planet), has the highest concentration of monotypic fish families in the world, and is

also home to sixty percent of Nigeria’s mangrove forests. You should know too that Nigeria’s mangrove forests are the largest in Africa and third largest on earth.

11. According to the World Resources Institute, Nigeria is home to 4,715 different types of plant species, and over 550 species of breeding birds and mammals, making it one of the most ecologically vibrant places of the planet.

12. Ile-Ife, in present day Osun State, was paved as early as 1000AD, with decorations that originated from Ancient America suggesting there might have been contact between the Yorubas and the Ancient Americans half a millenium before Columbus ‘discovered’ America.