Nissan, Toyota, Kia, others back NAJA’s capacity building programme

LAGOS—All is now set for this year’s edition of the annual Nigerian Auto Journalists Association’s, NAJA, capacity building programme with Nissan Motors South Africa, as the lead sponsor. The event takes place at the Golden Tulip Hotel & Events Centre, along the airport road, Ikeja Lagos on July 26, 2018. In a statement by Vice-President of NAJA and head of its organising committee, Mr. Mike Ochonma, it said the major highlights of the day will be the presentation of relevant automotive industry related papers by some experienced stakeholders in automotive engineering. Speaking on the rationale behind the support from Nissan, Managing Director of Stallion NMN in Nigeria, Mr. Parvir Singh, said the sponsorship is a strategic partnership for Nissan, where training and skills development forms part of the organisational ethos. He said: “The most important thing to understand about Africa is that it’s not one country. At Nissan, we’ve learned how important it is to build relationships with customers. Nigeria is important for us because it’s a significant market and it has a large population poised for growth in motorisation.” Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/07/nissan-toyota-kia-others-back-najas-capacity-building-programme/

When Ooni dazzled in Brazil

The Yoruba community in Salvador and other parts of Brazil came alive days back, when they played host to the Ooni Of Ife Oba Enitan Ogunwusi as he, as part of his mission to preserve and propagate the Yoruba culture to the rest of the world, wowed in elegance and style.

With luxuries of clothes and a large red carpet that turned the municipal theatre of Rio de Janiero to a proper African traditional setting, the Ooni, with about 120 entourage that also had popular actor, Saidi Balogun on board, arrived in style to the delight of many, who had waited patiently for the king’s arrival. Ooni’s mission in Brazil was simple; It was simply to reconnect what was the Yoruba culture with the rest of the world, particularly Brazil, where the culture is well known. Continue here.

Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade at war

Top musicians, Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade have increased their rivalry by unfollowing each other on instagram. After Goldie died, one thought the episode united female artistes in the country, but recent events are apparently changing that.

Popular Nigerian Musicians Yemi Alade and Tiwa Savage have not exactly been friends. The two songstresses are in competition for the crown of Queen of the industry and they have recently gone public with their animosity for each other. Recall that Yemi Alade publicly claimed to be on the same level with Davido and Wizkid, stating that there is no such thing as number one artiste in Nigeria. She also passed up the chance to stand for Tiwa Savage, while on a radio show and the presenter talked down at her rival. The presenter, Misi, stated that Yemi Alade has a fine vocal range, while Tiwa Savage just shouts. In reaction to the statement, Tiwa shared a video of herself singing. She also made suggestive posts that alluded to Misi begging from her. She also hinted that she has cut ties with the OAP and any other person who tries to involve her in “BS.” The animosity between the two singers has now gravitated to the point that they unfollowed each other on Instagram.

Nigeria happy to help other countries — Buhari

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has said that it is a thing of joy for Nigeria to lend a helping hand to any African country in distress. President Buhari made the declaration while receiving the outgoing High Commissioner of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Her Excellency, Mrs Haja Afsatu Kabba, at the State House, on Friday. President Buhari said brotherly assistance extended to the West African country during the Ebola epidemic and the recent mudslide natural disaster, was the least Nigeria could do. “I congratulate your new President on his election, and believe that our long-standing relationship, which dates back to almost 60 years, will continue to flourish,” President Buhari said. The rest from the Tribune here.

Vision 2020 down the drain

Yar'Adua's vision in logjam.



Apapa - Oshodi road in disgraceful condition

Lesson on Oath taking

Political Quote

In the way (African) politics is being conducted today there is little, if any, room for empathy and self-reflection. Criticism is perceived as personal rather than institutional. Blame is laid on circumstances beyond one's own control or on an enemy -real or perceived- that is responsible for anything gone wrong. Much political energy is devoted to defeating opponents. Politics, therefore, is typically a zero-sum game and conflicts abound.

- Goran Hyden, African Politics in Comparative Perspestive, pg 233.

Sunday

Excellent report about how Nobody knows how much oil we sell.

Sunday School

Reuben Abati on When Will Nigeria Ever Make It?

There is nothing more exasperating, living in Nigeria, studying Nigeria, and analysing Nigeria, and being Nigerian, than the realization that our lives have become one long piece of monotonous repetition of failures and uncertainties. We celebrate our capacity to manage the crisis in our lives, the optimism that is derived from our religiousity and our capacity like tragic heroes, to suffer and endure, but for a nation that seeks to make progress, the biggest challenge remains the development challenge. We seem rooted in one spot, gyrating on our axis, and nothing, absolutely nothing appears to work.

Abati is best when he is not writing platonic dialogues.


Meanwhile Nigerian pilgrimages to arabland discovered that no place holy like home.

OF the 181 countries that participated in the 2007 Hajj operations that ended a few days ago in Saudi Arabia, only Nigeria had a separate camp, as departure point for airlifting of pilgrims back home.

Disbelief and disappointment etched boldly on the faces of the third batch of pilgrims from Lagos State as they arrived at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah on Tuesday night.

They discovered that only Nigerians were being attended to at what looked like an abandoned place hurriedly prepared for the operation.

However, investigation, especially from the regular guests to the Holy Land, revealed that the port of arrival used to be the same spot for departure for all pilgrims.

In fact, nationals from other countries such as Togo, Benin Republic, Ghana and Senegal departed from where they arrived for the hajj operations. But not so for the Nigerians.

Continuing, the irrelevant and incompetent Oyo state government wasted N17.5 million building statue of an unknown soldier in place of Awolowo's statue destroyed by Ladoja and Adedibu's thugs back in 2003. No one is amused. From the News editorial:

The revelation that the statue was constructed at a whopping cost of N17.5 million is quite ridiculous, annoying and leaves much to be desired. It is an eloquent testimony to the fact that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is a party given to wastefulness and corrupt tendencies. Alao-Akala’s action has been condemned by prominent citizens. Lam Adesina described it as sacrilegious and regretted that anti-democratic forces had taken over the reins of the Oyo State government. His predecessor, Alhaji Ladoja, said the step taken by the governor showed his low level of reasoning and mentality regarding democratic norms.

And Rivers state government take over Ateke Tom’s properties here

RIVERS State government yesterday moved to cut Tom Ateke to size when Governor Rotimi Amaechi said that the militant leader’s properties would be converted to government’s use.

And to give effect to the move, the governor directed the state ministry of health to move into the Evil Forest, an area considered to be Ateke’s base in Okochiri, Okrika, and build a health centre for the use of the people there.

Amaechi, who spoke, yesterday, in Port-Harcourt, pointed out that his administration would not relent on its onslaught against militants and cultists in Rivers State.

Explaining that his administration had a responsibility to protect lives and properties, he urged residents of the state to ignore text messages and newspaper reports of plan to invade the state by unknown gunmen.

Ambiguity And Illegality : The Ribadu Case

We Nigerians are ambiguous lots. Our leaders far more. They have mastered the language of ambiguity. This gives flexibility to their manipulations. Their illegal manipulations. These in turns absolve them of responsibility. In Nigeria with our leaders the bulk stop everywhere and at nowhere. This vagueness is the bane of governance in our dear nation when no one, even the president, is not responsible for anything.


The case of Mr. Nuhu Ribadu's illegal removal as head of EFCC is typical. Isn't Mr. Ribadu on fixed tenure? Can the Inspector General of police send people on course at random, subject to his whims and caprices, or is it based on rule and procedure already set out? Is this course a requisite to head EFCC? Isn't the President the only one legally capable of removing Mr. Ribadu from office? And even he (the President) must have judicious justification to do so? There are many many questions of these nature which no one is answering and the press with their sensational reportings that warp reality are not to be rely on.

Ordinarily, removing Mr. Ribadu should not become a controversial issue if that is what the government decide. However the removal is cloaked and ambiguous. Lacking straightforwardness. This leads to speculations, distrust and suspicion which undermine the political process. Ambiguity is so much embedded in our governance that it is used even when it serve no purpose other than cloud more the already clouded political perspective. Mr. Yar'Adua should know that as the president he is perfectly within the law to remove any appointed public officer he deemed fit but he need not hide behind his finger when doing so.

Happy New Year

Happy new year to all. Wishing all the best in 2008.

I hope there will be more blogging this year.

obasanjo tell story

"A Blot on the Conscience of the World" -- Soyinka

Soyinka appeal on the Darfur crisis and comment on vast ranging issues in Nigeria as well as on his recently published memoir, You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir in a 2 parts interview on Democracy Now

Part 1 and Part 2

Excerpt:

AMY GOODMAN: So what do you think has to happen right now?

WOLE SOYINKA: Well, first of all, there is another dimension. There’s another zone of responsibility, which nobody has said much about. Now, these crimes which are being committed, there’s a direct stated, quite overt and boastful purpose to it. The Janjaweed, when they kill, when they murder, burn and rape, they say clearly that they want to Arab-ize Darfur, that part of Africa. In other words, they’re acting on behalf of some very distorted notion of Arabism. Therefore, those on behalf of whom these crimes are being committed, I mean, in their name, so to speak, the Arab world, the Arab League, in particular, also has a primary responsibility to call their erring member to order.

Sudan, after all, wears two identities. It’s a member of the Africa Union, it’s a member of the Arab League. And it’s not enough to leave this task to the Africa Union. The Arab League has a clear responsibility, and I think that if a family member of the Arab world, you know, if a family member errs, then the entire family has a responsibility to say, “You cannot do this in our name. And if you do this, we expel you, we cut you off, we denounce you, and we proscribe you from our community.” I expect that kind of action of deep and profound moral integrity from the Arab world.

AMY GOODMAN: Wole Soyinka joined us in our studio yesterday. I began by asking him about the title of his book.

WOLE SOYINKA: Alright, I'll tell you the history of the title. My first working title was “Beyond the Word,” which is a literal explication of the contents of the book, of the nature of the events which are described in the book. But then one of my editors -- I went through three editors, by the way. All of them were on a very positive kind of direction. One of the editors ran into that poem of mine, which contains the lines “Traveler, you must set forth at dawn.” Title is “Death in the Dawn.” And she became very enamored of that title. When she proposed it, I said, “No, no, no.” And then I tried it out on some of my friends, and they said, “No, that's more lyrical, more poetic.” I said, “Yes, I know it is, but, you know, why? Why must –” So, I actually took a straw vote on that with some of my colleagues and so on -- “Beyond the Word,” “You Must Set Forth at Dawn.” And it came -- the voting came to about 60-40. And since I'm a true democrat, I decided to go with "You Must Set Forth at Dawn.

Nigeria, News, Soyinka, Democracy

Gluttons

The miser and the glutton are two facetious buzzards: one hides his store, and the other stores his hide.

Nigeria is never in short supply of professional underminers. Those whose sole duty as citizens is simply to retard the nation's progress. The likes of Arthur Nzeribe quickly come to mind. Nzeribe remains Nigeria's quintessential underminer-in-chief. His Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) played protagonist role in the prompt annulment of the freest and fairest election back in 1993 and served as the lunchpad for the nation's journey, with Abacha as ship captain, to the back of the beyond as one observer would later termed that whole period. Nzeribe nowadays, due to strength, is restricting his handiwork to local politics where he recently irked the temper of his constituents. As Nzeribe fade to background people like Chris Uba are coming out of internship to duly step into their undermining role lest the country begin to quickly find stability. But Uba still have lots undermining to do in the future.



In the meantime, gluttons like Ken Nnamani, Ibrahim Mantu and Ahmadu Ali swaddle the landscape. The first two are, respectively, the President and the Deputy President of the Senate while the third is the chairman of that political gang/party called PDP. While Nnamani has decided to keep his activity to stuffing his face and nothing else for now, the last two are "belle fools" looking for trouble. They are in the vanguard of the tenure elongation imbroglio threatning the nation's nascent democratic dispensation. Gluttons of course are known to consume immoderately to the point of waste and thereby dig their own graves with their teeth according to a french proverb.

Nigeria, News, Africa

Quick Sunday Postscript

From the Republic of Benin, there are a few things Obasanjo could learn about democracy. Also, Ghana's democracy is described as "strong" while Obasanjo's government is considers as "increasingly repressive". And from Jamaica a columnist from that little carribean nation thinks even Jamaicans would feel better about the state of their nation if they see Obasanjo's gigantic Nigeria.

Nigeria, News, Ghana, Jamaica, Africa

Nigeria's Stunted Democracy

According to democracy scholar Larry Diamond's maximalist criterion for democratic consolidation, democracy should "become so broadly and profoundly legitimate, and so habitually practiced and observed, that it is unlikely to break down." Needless to say Obasanjo has failed this criterion. Seven full years after the return to democracy we are still unsure how it work, if it work or when it work. Nigerians are being required in a democracy to get police permit before they can be allow to hold public meetings or demonstrations. Laws are being proposed without regard or consultations with those to be affected by their possible outcomes. Oppositions are being stiffled at every corner and is recently approaching the Abacha level. Courts' rulings are selectively and opportunistically executed. The list is endless.

Democracy entail adherence to the rule of law to work minimally and definitely tolerance of oppositions to maximally survive without fear of it breaking down. When oppositions are unsure of ballot box as the only effective route to power they become despair and won't care if democracy crashes or survive. At present Obasanjo is the number one threat to the survival of democracy in Nigeria poking hot rod at its very heart.

Nigeria, News, Africa, Democracy

Obasanjo's Score Card

The following graphic show the pains and gains of Obasanjo's regime over the past 6-7 years he is in office. As it clearly show we have more poor people, more unemployed, products cost more and the stress all these bring takes their toll first with the higher infant mortality and death rates and second with the general life expectancy declination. As for the gains more people can communicate on their mobiles, increase in literacy and of course the partial reduction/write-off of the country's external debt.



Nigeria, News, Democracy

Taylor's vacation is over

Now this is a good news. The warlord can now account for all the distress he caused the subregion throughout the 90s.

40 million in Nigerian polio immunization drive

By Christine Jaulmes

Nigeria is the last polio-endemic country in Africa, with the world’s highest number of reported cases in 2005. Now the National Programme on Immunization (NPI), supported by UNICEF, the World Health Organization and other partners, aims to immunize every child in Nigeria against polio.

The country’s second round of National Immunization Days concluded last week, using a unique approach to vaccinate more than 40 million children under the age of five. Teams of workers went directly to homes, stood in market stalls and even boarded boats to rural islands in order to ensure that no child would be missed.

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nigeria_31797.html

Zimbabwean Farmers Find a New Life in Nigeria

Forced out of Zimbabwe by President Robert Mugabe's infamous land-reform program, a small group of white farmers is taking advantage of a second chance in Nigeria.

Bukola Saraki, the governor of Kwara State, wooed the white commercial farmers despite some local opposition. He hopes to harness the expertise of the farmers from Zimbabwe to jump-start Nigeria's commercial agricultural sector. Nigeria spends billions annually on food imports.

Farmer Dan Swart says teaching people "the finer points of farming and finance" could "make Nigeria the breadbasket of West Africa."

A first-year yield of 4,000 tons of corn may be "the biggest single yield in Nigeria for the last 40 years," says farmer Alan Jack. He coordinated the move to Kwara state and he's recruiting an additional 40 farmers to join the initial band of 13.

As he prepared to fly to Zimbabwe to recruit more white farmers, Alan Jack said he looked forward to coming back to Nigeria, his new home.

"We're very happy here," he says. "We're back doing what we do best, which is farm... Africa needs more success stories."