Start Taking Control With Positive Thinking
March 30, 2008 by 
OCI · 2 Comments
Contributor: Linda Hampton
Are you ready to begin achieving your goals and living the life you want? I’m about to show you how simple positive thinking will improve your life tremendously.
Many of us develop negative thinking patterns because we become frustrated by our challenges and frequent feelings of being overwhelmed. This negative outlook then makes it even harder for us to manage those challenges and move forward.
Practicing positive thinking allows people to focus on our strengths and accomplishments, which increases happiness and motivation. This, in turn, allows us to spend more time making progress, and less time feeling down and stuck. The following tips provide practical suggestions that you can use to help you shift into more positive thinking patterns:
1. Take Good Care of Yourself
It’s much easier to be positive when you are eating well, exercising, and getting enough rest.
2. Remind Yourself of the Things You Are Grateful For
Stresses and challenges don’t seem quite as bad when you are constantly reminding yourself of the things that are right in life. Taking just 60 seconds a day to stop and appreciate the good things will make a huge difference.
3. Look for the Proof Instead of Making Assumptions
A fear of not being liked or accepted sometimes leads us to assume that we know what others are thinking, but our fears are usually not reality. If you have a fear that a friend or family member’s bad mood is due to something you did, or that your co-workers are secretly gossiping about you when you turn your back, speak up and ask them. Don’t waste time worrying that you did something wrong unless you have proof that there is something to worry about.
4. Refrain from Using Absolutes
Have you ever told a partner “You’re ALWAYS late!” or complained to a friend “You NEVER call me!”? Thinking and speaking in absolutes like ‘always’ and ‘never’ makes the situation seem worse than it is, and programs your brain into believing that certain people are incapable of delivering.
5. Detach From Negative Thoughts
Your thoughts can’t hold any power over you if you don’t judge them. If you notice yourself having a negative thought, detach from it, witness it, and don’t follow it.
6. Squash the “ANTs”
In his book “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life,” Dr. Daniel Amen talks about “ANTs” - Automatic Negative Thoughts. These are the bad thoughts that are usually reactionary, like “Those people are laughing, they must be talking about me,” or “The boss wants to see me? It must be bad!” When you notice these thoughts, realize that they are nothing more than ANTs and squash them!
7. Practice Lovin’, Touchin’ & Squeezin’ (Your Friends and Family)
You don’t have to be an expert to know the benefits of a good hug. Positive physical contact with friends, loved ones, and even pets, is an instant pick-me-up. One research study on this subject had a waitress touch some of her customers on the arm as she handed them their checks. She received higher tips from these customers than from the ones she didn’t touch!
8. Increase Your Social Activity
By increasing social activity, you decrease loneliness. Surround yourself with healthy, happy people, and their positive energy will affect you in a positive way!
9. Volunteer for an Organization, or Help another Person
Everyone feels good after helping. You can volunteer your time, your money, or your resources. The more positive energy you put out into the world, the more you will receive in return.
10. Use Pattern Interrupts to Combat Rumination
If you find yourself ruminating, a great way to stop it is to interrupt the pattern and force yourself to do something completely different. Rumination is like hyper-focus on something negative. It’s never productive, because it’s not rational or solution-oriented, it’s just excessive worry. Try changing your physical environment - go for a walk or sit outside. You could also call a friend, pick up a book, or turn on some music.
It does not matter what your circumstances are at the present moment. Think positively, expect only favorable results and situations, and circumstances will change accordingly. It may take some time for the changes to take place, but eventually they do. So begin by getting rid of those negative thoughts and negative beliefs, which serve you no purpose, except to make you miserable. Then you’ll be able to begin having a positive attitude and start enjoying.
About The Contributor: Linda Hampton, Life Style Mentor and Successful Entrepreneur, is helping many become the next success story. Whether you’re looking to create an extra few thousand dollars per month, be an ex-corporate executive, or the next millionaire Mom, Linda can assist you to create a second stream of income and greater peace of mind.
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Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves
March 26, 2008 by Che Oyimnatumba · 1 Comment
The Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) has being doing a terrific job of placing Nigeria at enviable position on the world tourism map and make Nigeria a destination centre. But the just concluded 2008 Arugungu International Festival gave the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) a rude shock and reminded the international community that fraud, corruption and cheat permeates all facets of Nigerian life. In other sporting events, athletes take steroid and performance enhancing drugs to cheat but at the Arugungu festival, a competitor planted a fish at the base of the river, only to exhume the fish at competition time.
The biggest fish caught at the festival credited to Bello Yau was a dead fish smuggled into the river on the eve of the fishing competition. Nigerians are still dazed, figuring out how Yau, who is cooling off at Police detention pulled off this feat and deceived both the National Civil Defence Corps who helped him haul his phoney catch to the podium and the organisers who weighed the fish and declared it 65.95kg.
Yau’s accomplices have been held responsible for blowing the whistle on him, when things fell apart as a result of greed in the sharing formula of the rewards showered on Yau for netting in the biggest fish.
As Yau was busy catching a phoney fish, the House Committee on Power and Steel, opened a canister of nitrogenous corruption in the power sector. In a televised Oputa Panel de javu, the reason for the eclipse of Nigeria was revealed. It became clear to goat and chicken that the due process mantra of the Obasanjo administration was a ruse, to scheme out the companies and individuals he never wanted to partake in the sharing of the national cake.
Of all the companies that received mobilization fees and never went to site, 34 of them, which cumulatively raked in contracts worth $6.2 dollars, are not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). An ex-head of state, whose claim to statesmanship was his handing over to civilian kleptomaniacs, was fingered as Board Chairman of Energo Nigeria, which won N19.2 billion and has collected N13.2 billion without corresponding work. Which way Nigeria?
A development at the hearing that put a question mark on the political strength and will of the Committee to recommend punitive measure was the rousing applause Imoke received during the justification of his involvement in the fraud. A ranking senator descended into the role of cheer leader and hailed Imoke, who was a minister of power and steel. Another star performance was by Olusegun Agagu also a onetime minister of power and incumbent governor of Ondo State. Agagu argued that as a minister, I could not have awarded these contracts because they are well above the thresholds of a minister can award as contract” The contract was awarded by the federal executive council, Agaugu further said. Agagu’s defence point-blank means, I couldn’t have stolen more than N20 million at a time, there are others involved.
This brings the issue of due process. Whenever Nigerians complained that developmental projects were taking donkey years to commence, the ready wand waved is that the due process office is scrutinising the contractual terms, to make sure that Nigerians are not robbed blind by shylock contractors. The bubble of corruption in power sector was burst by President Yar’Adua, when the elevated Madam due process came with World Bank’s mandate to hood wink Yar’Adya into pumping more money in the power sector. Oby Ezekwesili was reminded diplomatically that during the administration she served as one of the star pupils, money sunk into the power sector, was commensurate to the pitch dark darkness Nigerians are going through. I am yet to understand why the House Committee did not call Madam Due Process to account how these contracts went through without her “righteous credentials” in Transparent International propelling her into resignation.
What I gather from all these dance of shame is that it is the Ministers, Special Assistances, personal Assistances that compromise the CEO, Head of State. The Head of State is not a technocrat, may not have an understanding of the nitty-gritty of the task at hand but have a burning desire to accomplish a goal for the betterment of Nigerians. These “trusted” aides, who are experienced and often PHD holders in their fields, should be held responsible for any short comings and be prosecuted for being a failure. Because we have a warp understanding of the concept uneasy lies the head that wears the crown and vicarious liability, many have stolen and looted the country blind, knowing that they will never be made to account. The pyramidal corruption that will be unearthed will shock Nigeria to her foundation the day SA, PA and Directors in Civil Service are probed. According to Agency report, the House Committee said “none of the contractors made substantial allegations against him (Obasanjo), so let’s leave OBJ and with a sledge hammer, go after those who have been fingered. Solomon in ancient Israel advised “catch us the little foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes”-Songs of Solomon 3 Vs 15. The likes of Yau are lingering in all facets of Nigerian life waiting for opportunity to manifest their evilness. Let’s save Nigeria now by going after the worms before they swell into an anaconda and squeeze life out of our fluctuating democracy
A review of timeless Tales from Arabian Night, especially the Arabian adaption of Robin Hood-Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Ali Baba had only one horse, whose loot cannot march that of the other forty thieves combined.
Let us stop this over emphasis on arresting Baba and jailing him. Let me deflect your balloon, it won’t happen, for Baba belongs to the Institution of Ex-Presidents. Attack on Baba, will bring the other living ex-head of states, protecting him for an honest probe of Baba, will be a Frankenstein domino effect that will snowball into investigation backward up to Gowon. How many members of the House of Assembly do not owe any allegiance/his seat to any ex-head of state?
Governor Kanu
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RE: Orji Uzor Kalu’s BEHOLD THE FIDEL OR INFIDEL?
March 26, 2008 by Che Oyimnatumba · 1 Comment
“…What is this that is come upon the son of Kish?
Is Saul among the Prophets?”-1st Samuel 10 vs. 11
Since the glorious exit of the pre-colonial nationalist leaders, Nigeria has being in search of a philosopher king. We have people who it wasn’t their wish to rule, ruining the country. No leader of Nigeria after 1966 ever wanted to rule yet unwilling to leave. Some were gunning for a lesser post and the highest post was conceded to them. Some fresh from prison, brandishing born aganism and armed with a copy of Women in the Bible, was given a stool bought by his brother’s blood. I wonder why Nigerian politicians are shying away from writing down their experiences and pontificate towards a better Nigeria. Of all those clamped into deserved detention by Buhari/iIdiagbon, its only Alex Ekwueme’s book I have read, which is a mere clarification of NPN stand and not a visionary way forward for Nigeria.
Against this background, I was excited when the then governor of Enugu State Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani started a lecture series. My desire to read a blue print of how to reposition ndi igbo in the national equation and arouse the sleeping giant called Nigeria, was quashed when I saw through the lecture series as a mere political rabble rouse, aimed at positioning the would be ex-governor in a better bargaining slate in the quest for life after government house. His hide and seek game with EFCC, puts an indelible question mark on his intellectual activism as a governor.
In deed wise men come from the east. Another eastern ex-governor has arisen my interest, with his publication-The Kalu Leadership Series- published by the SunNewspaper on Saturdays. Governor Oji Uzo Kalu was the executive governor of Abia State for eight years under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The people of Abia can testify to the degree of development under a Kalu’s administration.
In March 15th edition of The Kalu Leadership series titled Behold the Fidel or Infidel?, Kalu commenting on the change of leadership in Cuba, adduced conclusions that makes me question his credibility as an emerging philosopher king.
According to Kalu, “the Cuban people are tired of same system and same people, therefore would have wished that the Castro system would come to an end…the Cuban people are abreast of the fact that communism has aggravated all Cuba’s basic material problems to the point of desperation…”
The smooth transition of power from Fidel to Raul, without the crashing in of Cuban exiles from Florida USA shows that the people on the Island are not tired of the Castro system. As an aspiring scholar, Kalu should have known that in the revolution to oust Batista, the big three (Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Raul and Fidel) played an equal important role.
It is unfortunate that his Excellency was misinformed on the person of Raul Castro. According to Orji, “Therefore to have handpicked Raul as the successor is a wrong move because at 75years, his age is a liability, let alone his lack of charisma and inability to command respect like his predecessor. Raul lacks the strength of character and command his predecessor Fidel had…” In as much as I agree that a revolution that has spanned this long and survived the hatred Cuba had gone through, the leadership would have groomed a member of the younger generation to take over and pilot the activities of Cuba in line with changing trend in the world without losing the core of the revolutionary principles that gave birth to the regime. Raul, is a steel, forged and tempered by revolutionary life, lived in the jungle and not like the bread and butter politicians in Nigeria, whose claim to leadership qualities, is their hereditary membership of Eze’s cabinet, or boot licking of the military and most recently their selfish fight against their co-looter during the third term debate.
Arguably, scholars believe that had Che been alive, Castro would have handed over to him, despite Che being an Argentine. This hierarchy was established by blood on the battle field for the emancipation of Cuba from American multi-national companies, agent of imperialism and rouge puppet president. These men put their lives on the line of fire for the nation and the nation accepted their leadership, not based on the manipulative strength of the ruling party or endorsement from America, unlike in Nigeria. This are men who have been consistent in ideology and Spartan life style, men who led the revolution not from the safety of exile, but actively participated with their less than 100 cadres through the bushes to the triumphant entry into Havana. Their credibility has never been in question. These are men of courage, who wrote their will and farewell letters (as they would rather die fighting for liberty than compromise) before engaging the rampaging monster in Latin America called humane-less American style capitalism. I shall recommend Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson, The Bolivian Diary by Che, Castro: A political Biography by Matthew, Herbert. In fact his Excellency should commission one of his aides to google search Casrto, Che, Raul and the 1959 Revolution. His result will show him that Castro is a leader worthy of cloning and adapted into West Africa to complete the good works started by Thomas Sankara, Awo, Aminu Kano and Nkuruma.
It’s a show of lack of understanding of communism for the ex-governor to opine that communism is responsible for the desperation of Cubans which have led many of them to embrace the shark infested sea in search of Eldorado in Florida. Since the botched Bay of Pigs, the successive American government has made the fall of Cuba the centre of their foreign policy. There is no trick in and under the books America has not tried to collapse Cuba. The desperation Kalu wrote about, is the same American propaganda that has made Nigerians sleep at American Embassy in Lagos, in a bid to get Visa to wash corpse in NY, drive cabs in Washington and deliver newspapers house to house at the heart of winter. Will it then be proper to say that democracy has failed in Nigeria and have driven Nigerians to desperation of dying in Libya, Canary Islands, or acquiring multiple refugee passports of war torn African nations? If Nigeria were 90 miles off the coast of America, I am sure a good number of Nigerians would have swarm to America.
Communism as an ideology is one of the best system of governance. According to Karl Marx’s definition of scientific socialism, no country has attained Communism. What happened in Russia in 1917 was Leninism and subsequently Stalinism which was an aberration of communism which Marx said will emerge from the gradual collapse of capitalism due to the inherent contradictions in the system. It is the understanding of this that has made many western countries to introduce welfare measures to calm ruffled nerves from exploding. Even the United States, is a fertile ground for recruitment of communists and indeed had a communist party.
Kalu in a bid to demonise Castro and parrot CIA propaganda, failed to acknowledge the role of Cuba in the liberation struggle in Africa. This was the reason behind Nelson Mandela’s visit to Havana after he was released from prison. I shall recommend to ex-governor Kalu, a copy of The Nation Newspaper of Friday, February 2008, especially page 13, for a balanced view of the change of power in Cuba and the achievements of Cuba under Castro. A copy of BBC Focus on Africa Magazine of April-June 2006 especially page 60, is a bird view of the role of Castro in Africa’s quest for liberty and right to direct her affairs which neo-colonial forces made sure Africa got only paper independence that did and still does not worth the ink they were executed with.
Let me do Castro a disservice and compare his Cuba to Nigeria. But can you compare the glory and majesty of the Sun to the fluorescent tube without provoking the Sun?
Fidel’s Cuba and Nigeria.
According to Kalu, “little wonder the people of Cuba were unhappy because they could not contribute to how they are governed” This is pot calling kettle black. We know how PDP governors since inception of the party have been capturing party tickets. In Nigeria, nay in Abia under Kalu, did the people contribute how they were governed? How many Deputy Governors served under Kalu? It took the intervention of the federal might for the Bakassi boys, who became an instrument of terror in Abia, to be dismantled. Did the governor listen when people cried about the arbitrary murders committed by these miscreants?
Every ant in Cuba knows that it is a dictatorship of the proletariats, with its internal democratic selective process. The Cubans as is the case ever where in the world, careless if it’s one family ruling, so long as the basic needs are met. America’s strongest alien in Middle East, is still ruled by one family, why hasn’t America preached open democratic selection of leaders in Saudi Arabia? Even in the almighty America, a family has produced two presidents within one generation, yet nobody has had of the Bush dictatorship.
Was PPA primaries free and fare? Must the founder of the party be Chairman Board of Trustee? If Kalu feels he should midwife the party, why won’t Fidel safe-guard the revolution and hand it over to a trusted comrade? If the just concluded PDP convention is the best form of democratic selection process, most of us would rather be a Cuban, living under Castro and remain a faithful party member and our time will come.
In Nigeria, how many out-going governors handed over to their deputy? Even in Abia, an awaiting trial inmate (ATM) worn an election. A prior feat had been achieved in Osun State, where a murder suspect was elected senator.
In Cuba, which ex-governor Kalu wants us to believe has been run aground by Castro, life expectancy and quality of life is far better than in Nigeria. Cuban’s healthcare is one of the best in any developing country. Their patriotic sports exploit exceeds the money induced performance by Enyimba. Nigeria had had to employ a boxing coach from Cuba.
Fidel’s Cuba and corruption.
At the last count, about 600 (six hundred attempts have been made on Fidel’s life. All these numerous assassination attacks on Castro, none was master minded as a result of corruption or enriching himself with state fund. Can same be said about Nigeria? How many ex-governors are free from EFCC? Even the kindergarten governors whose rigged elections are being challenged are not better off. At the last check, Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State, had a check in at Scotland Yard over some euros found in his hotel room. Has such ever been heard about Castro, Raul or any member of the Cuban revolutionary movement, especially members of the July 29th Movement.
Since patriotic Nzeogwu struck on January 15 1966, all government in Nigeria have been given the boot due to corruptly enriching herself. The successor becomes worse than the predecessor. The filth oozing out of the power sector, is a nightmare unheard of in Cuba. I need not to tell Kalu that if it were to be in Cuba and one is drunk enough to loot the treasury and take light while the el comandante is delivering a speech, (as was the case when Yar’Adua was addressing the Northern zone PDP delegates to the just concluded PDP Bazaar) when he is sober, will commit hara-kiri. But in Nigeria, such a thief is glorified with chieftaincy title and a civic reception organised for him.
Fidel’s Education and Nigeria’s leaders.
According to Kalu, “Notwithstanding his below average performance in school, Castrol had a distinguishing similarity with some former dictators here in Nigeria, primary is “remarkable memory”. The remarkable memory of remembering those who offended you while in school and taking revenge on them one after the other, when you are in a position to serve the country”. I wonder where Kalu got this information. Throughout the half page article dragged and supported by adverts to give the impression of a full page, Kalu never acknowledged any author or sited an authority to buttress his claims. It is obvious that Kalu has never been to Cuba, never did an independent on the field research on Cuba, and so what was the source of Kalu’s information on Cuba? It would have enriched the reader if Kalu gave examples of the witch hunt by Castro. Hear him, “Historians would agree with me…”On what basis? Scholarship is about seeking the truth and questioning the truth, for Kalu to sit in the comfort of his Igere country home and dish out what cannot pass as a WAEC easy on Castro’s Cuba is the height of intellectual laziness, in this era of internet services and pyramid of information.
Kalu shows his little understanding of leadership qualities. In Nigeria, the minimum qualification as entrenched in the 1999 Constitution for the highest office in the land is primary six. Before Yar’Adua, no graduate has ruled Nigeria. In the 2nd Republic we had intellectuals in political parties. Our dear late Chike Obi, Bola Ige, Chinua Achebe threw in their cerebral strength in shaping party manifestos. What do we have now? Money bags who were beneficiaries of the rape of Nigeria by the military in the helm of affairs in a good number of the political parties.
Our own Kalu was a University of Madugri drop out and questionably finished in Abia State University when he became governor. Apart from being a businessman engaged in import and export, what was Kalu’s qualification? According to Machiavelli, in The Prince, the means of acquiring power may be ruthless, but once power is acquired, it must be exercised morally. Did Castro do well as a leader? Did his lengthy speeches fire up patriotic feelings and heroic acts by Cuban? The emergence of Hugo Chevez, is a reminder that as a leader, Castro did not fail in mentoring others. Can same be said about the leadership class in Nigeria? Which leader do Nigerian youths look up to? Apart from the pre-colonial nationalist Nigerian leaders across the ethnic nationalities, Nigerian elected leadership class is a bunch of chaff, an orchestra of fraud that no composer can keep in one accord. The stench oozing from the Probe in the Power Sector by the House Committee is nothing compared to other sectors that the government has kept a sealed lid on. Yar’Adua for close to a year, has been the Petroleum minister, to save Nigeria from embarrassment, I hope the hunter will not become the hunted when the rot in NNPC will be exposed.
Since 1959, Castro has been consistent, despite the dismantling of one of his benefactors the Socialist Soviet Republic by imperialist America. Can same be said about Nigeria politicians, whose stock in trade is fair weather and stomach driven political alignment? If not, how will one justify an ex-governor in control of three (3) senatorial zones scrambling to be a senator? What other service will he render that he couldn’t when he had uninterrupted revenue both from the federation account and internally generated? How many ex-his Excellency, seek Medicare in the hospitals they built while governors? Castro the Kalu took pains to run down, has been ill for over a year, yet he has not been flown abroad for treatment. Cuban Medicare is fantastic, leaders do not have to fly to Germany to amputate their legs, cure common cold or trim their corruption bloated stomach, nor do they keep their wives in a sanitarium, employ psychiatrics to cure their children from substance abuse and deter them from copying the kleptomaniac genes from their father. People should be reminded that those who live in a glass house do not throw stones.
Inconsistency and dearth of political ideology in Nigeria has been held responsible for the hydra-headed corruption in Nigeria. Chinua Achebe’s classical pamphlet on leadership-The problem with Nigeria; Arthur Nwankwo’s The Igbo Leadership and the Future of Nigeria, clearly point out that the absence of ideology is the bane of Nigeria’s leadership crisis. A particular ex-governor at the heat of passion, promised to expose the corrupt practises of former president Obasanjo. Up till date, apart from a kangaroo panel that indicted Yar’Adua, nothing has been heard of the dossier on corrupt practises of Obasanjo. Castro has survived many American presidents and his message has not changed.
Let me conclude with Kalu’s conclusion if it was Kalu that wrote the piece. “The answer remains that our continent is still battling with true leadership. True representatives of the people and until we get them right, unanswered questions would persist” Interesting hypocritical conclusion from a man who imposed an awaiting trial inmate, who never campaigned on the people.
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Living Under One Dollar a Day Myth
March 26, 2008 by Che Oyimnatumba · Leave a Comment
By Che Oyinatumba
Smoking cigar and picking his teeth, Mr. Brown dropped the bomb “how can Africans live under one US Dollars a day?” Belching and obviously tipsy from the palmy served with dessert, Mr. Smith opined that going by the corruption oozing out of Africa, it’s a miracle that Africans are alive. How can one man worth more than a country from wherein he draws his wealth?
Revolting internally and barren with statistics from IMF and other developmental agencies to counter or intelligently contribute, I kept to myself as thought of Nigerians burrowing through the dustbins scattered around Abuja, Kaduna, Lagos and Port Harcourt filled my mind and I swore to attempt living under one US Dollar a day.
At official bank rate, a dollar exchanges for One Hundred and Seventeen Naira (N117:00). At the black market, the exchange rate fluctuates between One Hundred and Eighteen Naira (N118:00) to One Twenty (N120:00), depending on the season and the strength of Dollar in the international market.
For the sake of this write up, we shall take the exchange rate to be One Hundred and Nineteen Naira.
Having set the parameter, join me as I spend One Dollar a day, with a view to question the yardstick of measuring poverty in Nigeria. For the sake of this experiment, I shall be frugal and live like a Spartan.
I live in Kubwa, about 24 kilometres from Wuse/Garki and Central Area. El Rufai’s bus fare from Kubwa to Wuse, is N50 but before embarking on the bus, I have to board an Okada (Okada banned in Abuja municipal, is still functional in the suburbs) to take me to the bus stop. I pay the Okada rider N40. This experiment not undergone during azumi or lent, I ate breakfast. It is not a continental dish but simply N10 pap, N10 sugar and N30 kose (beans ball). I hurriedly extinguished the N25 wax candle that was illuminating my self-contain apartment. The 2 litres of fuel I bought @ 100 a litre could not last the night in my I pass my neighbour generator.
The el-Rufai bus stops me at Berger roundabout and I camelled to CAC flanking through apian ways from PDP secretariat through shippers plaza. Sweating in the cold Abuja morning, I finally berth at CAC and rushed in to check if the availability I keyed in four days ago is ready.
By 11 am, I get a call from a client to come to Area 10 to pick up a Memo. Most drops I flagged down rooted their foot on the clutch and insisted on N 300. Sweating in the harsh Gwari sun, dressed in black suit like a penguin, I kept bargaining till a driver I guess had not made a kill agreed at N250.
The conversation in the taxi through NNPC filing station to UTC Area 10, was centred on the hardship in Abuja. The driver in a soliloquy wanted to know why those who have nothing meaningful doing in Abuja find it difficult to relocate to their home towns. I guess this outburst was as a result of a hawker who tapped at his fender, advertising bomb-rat killer. There were other hawkers and all these are able bodied men, hawking all sorts; pure water, sweet, car wiper, tommy trimmer, gold (highly suspected to be fake), GSM recharge cards and whatever you can get at Wuse market. Despite myself, I told the driver that it is a manifestation of a failed nation, when able bodied young men and women in the prime of their lives are reduced to roadside Olympic medallist in pursue of N50 change.
After meandering and hooting through the go slow, we made it to UAC, only for the appointment to enter “voice mail”. The man, who wanted to give me the Memo, couldn’t wait. I was beside myself and wondered in this era of GSM, why couldn’t he call to cancel the appointment? The frustration threw up a rumble, my stomach walls contracted and I remembered that I have had nothing since breakfast.
I went in search of Mama put. I ordered a plate of eba and egusi soup, with a sachet of pure water. The Mama Iyabo, asked me how many meat. I smiled and shouted “Madam, I be tiger?” abeg give me food , you dey talk of meat”. The food was served cheerfulessly and to my surprise, I discovered a tablet of meat swimming among the leaves unevenly distributed among the egusi. For the thankless meal, I was billed N150, plus N10 for pure water, which tested like pond water.
The hour of decisive decision has come, the dilemma of whether to go back to CAC or look for alternative avenue to make money stared me in the face. Epileptic services at CAC, have made it impossible for me to incorporate a company for the past 3months. The availability receipt that brought me to town is not ready. The staff of CAC heaps this at the motherboard of the dilapidated computers in CAC, which they claim is constantly breaking down.
I boarded a bus at post office by AMAC and headed to Wuse market. Mindful of the self imposed Spartan live style, if engaged the conductor in a friendly chat, with hope of getting a rebate. (this particular conductor, is old enough to be my grandfather). I couldn’t but pity him, as thought of the taxi driver crept into my mind. Expanding the taxi driver’s thought, I wonder where this conductor’s children are. Are they proud that at close to seventy years, their (grand) father is monkeying about in Motor Park? If this old man who ought to be at the fire place eating soft roasted corn, telling his grand children stories and moral lessons, is still hustling, we are finished as a nation. The socialization process is broken.
Papa, how market? My pikin, na condition bend crayfish. This Nigeria don bad finish. Old pensioners like me no fit rest. As though on cue, other passengers started lamenting about failed infrastructures in Nigeria; the nation’s inability to welfare scheme for the aged, especially those who invested their youthful in the quest towards building a modern Nigeria, whose wayward children have been incapacitated by unemployment from taking care of their responsibility.
As is ritual in a mass chorus about the failed state of Nigeria, Nigeria was compared to the Asian Tigers and the worn out Malaysia borrowed (steal if you like) our palm kennel story resurrected; the patent of Binatone yam pounder was ceded to a Nigerian; the good roads in Abuja and the bridges without water under were attributed to the reason the Niger Delta boys are demanding for resource control. Why build a bridge in a Sahara, when the people in the delta are flooded out and the road to their farm eaten up by rain? One extremist wanted all those fingered in the power to steel (sorry Power and Steel Sector) be jailed without trial. Another reminded him that this government is government of rule of law. Rule of law foot, after all, these power sector contracts were awarded under due process mantra of the last administration. Yar’Adua should be honest and deal with this eclipse of Nigeria. The power sector is the magic wand to all Nigerian economic problems. Seek ye first the kingdom of light and all other things will fall into place.
As these venom were being spat, Papa collected his fare and meticulously abused the naira by folding it neatly out of shape. I paid N50 to papa, who trumpeted a warning that he doesn’t have change oo.
At Wuse market, we scrambled into an el-Rufai bus to Kubwa. My mind drifts with nostalgia to Fela’s ever green song, Smiling and suffering.
As i got to Kubwa, my Nokia 3310 hic-cupped to life and I received an SMS sent by the man I went to visit in UAC. I hissed and calculated how much I have spent which could have been avoided had the SMS arrived as at when delivered was shown on my friend’s cell phone.
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Health Ministers Resigns to Face EFCC
Things are shaping up within the Yar’Adua administration. Two serving Minister’s may have been to forced to resign from the federal exective council after the EFCC formally served them prosecution notice; this we gather is to pave way for their prosecution.
The Guardian reports thus;
Two ministers resign, face EFCC over graft
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on Tuesday accepted “the voluntary resignations” of the Minister of Health, Prof. Adenike Grange and the Minister of State (Health), Mr. Gabriel Aduku. Special Adviser to the President (Communications), Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, while announcing their disengagement from the Council of Ministers, said “both ministers are leaving the Federal Executive Council following charges of corruption brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). It is expected that without the burden of their ministerial duties, they will be better placed to respond to the charges against them.”
The President has also ordered the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF), Mrs. Ebele Okeke to query some senior officials of the ministry for disobeying the President’s directive late last year, stopping further award or execution of new contracts. Consequently, the Head of Service is to direct the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health, Prof. Simon Ogamdi, the Director of Administration, Dr. H.B. Oyedepo and the Director of Finance, Hanafi Muhammed to proceed on immediate suspension in accordance with extant civil service rules pending further disciplinary action. Also, another director in the ministry, Mr. M.S. Hamid, the Chief Accountant, Abdulrahaman Ambali, a Principal Administrative Officer, Mr. Donald Ekanem, a Principal Transport Officer, Mr. Donatus Iyang and seven other workers were affected by the suspension order. The bureaucrats were accused of participating “in the subversion of his (President) directive on the return of unspent Budget 2007 funds to the Treasury.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Labour, Dr. Hassan Muhammad Lawal “is to oversee the affairs of the Federal Ministry of Health until further notice”.
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CAC - Conversation with the Deaf
March 21, 2008 by Che Oyimnatumba · Leave a Comment
Written By Che Oyinatumba.
Though I respect every person’s peculiarity, it is a trite wisdom that, it’s only a reluctant groom that asks for a direction to his in-laws’ house from a stammerer. Talking, complaining, shrieking about the progressive degeneration of services at CAC, gives me the feeling that we are having a conversation with the deaf.
Some of us, who are gifted by God with short fuse, have tried to keep off CAC jobs. But man must wak; hence i am doomed to come to CAC in between unwarranted adjournments by lazy litigation lawyers, to eke out a living. Each time I resurface at CAC, I come expectant like a pregnant woman and like a father of a stillborn, I go home disillusioned, feeling suicidal; asking, what is wrong with the black man?
The edifying edifice called CAC office at Zone 5 Wuse, is nothing but a dignified sepulchre, full of rotten services and habitual collapse. Despite the concession by CAC PRO Mr. Williams Churchill on Tuesday 4th March on page 23 of Dailytrust Newspaper, nothing has been done to upgrade these pre-colonial typewriters called computers in use at CAC. The computers at customers’ centre are still as dead as dodo, availability of reserved company name, comes out at a speed that will give a snail an Olympic 100meters medal; reprint of already reserved name, is a nightmare; dispatch of certificate requires a vocal diarrhoea of empty threats and unprintable abuses and at cordial times inducement to get some butts moving upstairs, where often times, a good number of staff are idling away, some even do their morning devotion during official hours!
On 26th February 2008, the scheduled interactive meeting between CAC and customers was aborted without CAC advancing any reason. To our rude shock, on Monday 17th March, CAC organised a meeting in Lagos to introduce CAConline services. Followers of entrenched fraud in CAC will testify that a similar product was introduced in Abuja last year and up till now, the closest we have to CAConline, is a green envelope given at dispatch desk. This meeting in Lagos is a calculated attempt by CAC administrators to plunge customers in Lagos and lawyers in Abuja into cold war. The impression given by CAC at the meeting is that lawyers in Abuja are responsible for the delay of jobs sent from Lagos! One wonders why the waste of resources to host a meeting in Lagos, when common company availability can’t be done in Lagos?
It is stating the obvious that there is a fishy fraud going on in CAC. In this era of regained courage in the House of Representatives, we look forward to a probe of the activities of the Ministry of Commerce and the where about of the revenues they generated from 1999 to date. Unlike the probe at the Power to Steal (Power and Steel sector), the recommended probe should be carried out by a panel made up of ordinary Nigerians and headed by a member of the House. This is so as Nigerians are expressing reasonable fear that the Hon. Elumelu led panel may not prove beyond reasonable doubt that Governors Imoke and Agagu were accomplices in the eclipse of Nigeria, or will they have the political will power to unveil the shadowy companies with questionable share capitals, that collaborated with Oyinbos to under develop Nigeria. There is no need to go to Mambila plateau, just visit CAC and see blacks conniving with blacks to under develop Nigeria. That CAC is not working as effective as it should, is beneficial to a cabal. After all, the elephantiasis of the scrotum that doesn’t allow the antelope to run, is a gain to the weary hunter.
Scratch a Nigerian, you see a religious fanatic. With fear of fatwah, let me say it’s ironic that as one son of Abraham is being born, another is courageously marching to Golgotha. Be that as it may, as Christians celebrate Easter herald by Jesus giving his disciples a pedicure after the Palm Sunday march, We pray that the comatose computers at CAC will resurrect to give good services; certificates come out as advertised by the CAC and erroneously reservation of names, cancelation of Incorporated Trustee, after publication, will be left in the grave.
The Moslems should see the birth of one of the leaders of Justice and equity, as an avenue to re-evaluate their services in CAC and ask; what can be done to make CAC grow into the envy of the world and a revenue alternative to the devil’s excretion from the South-South.
For the administrative deaf in CAC, let me remind you that Diamond Bank PLC, which withheld customers’ Acer laptop, are speedily reacting to save their corporate image. Last time I went to Lion Building Branch (after the article-Diamond Bank Acer Fraud); they were cordial and respectful and have delivered the said laptop. I salute their courage but they shouldn’t have waited for the handshake to go beyond the elbow before swinging to action.
CAC can work, if the retiring Registrar General listens and have the presence of mind to engage CAC customers in tête-à-tête. He is welcome to CAC parliament situate and lying under the mango tree in front of the filing room gate, where we air off frustration from the dilapidated services at CAC, and tell whatever under the sun as it as is and when the need be, we wear the basket to tell the king where and with which guard the queen was seen bra up, pants down.
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Tailor beats Professor of Law in court
March 21, 2008 by Che Oyimnatumba · Leave a Comment
The Edo State gubernatorial election tribunal sitting in Benin this afternoon 20th Day of March, 2008, nullified the election of professor Osunbor and entered judgment in favour of Adams Oshiomhole the
immediate past president of the national union of textile workers and the ex-president of Nigerian Labour Congress NLC.
In a unanimous judgment spanning into 6hrs, the lead judge, dismantled the sham of an election conducted in Edo State, which according to the learned justices, was marred by violence, fraud and substantial compliance with acts unfit of a democratic process for change of government.
The citizens of Edo are in a festive mood, as they see this judgment as a gift from Osanobua, who has redeemed them from the wasted years of Lucky Igbenedion. Another source of the uncontrolled celebration in Benin is the death of godfatherism, as the now removed governor is believed to be a stooge of Mr. Fix, whom they believe unfixed Lucky and foisted Professor Osunbor on them.
Feelers from other parts of the country hails the judgment and praise the judiciary, whom they believe is doing a dance of shame, one step forward, two steps sideways and ten steps backwards. Be that as it may, Nigerians are rekindling their hopes in the election tribunal after the rape of justice in the presidential election tribunal, the ruling in Oyo State, and Imo State.
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