Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2016

LAZINESS AND INDIFFERENCE

Dear 35 States of Nigeria, LAZINESS AND INDIFFERENCE “How Lagos?”  My unique way of asking how are you will soon become relevant to this discussion. I greet you all. Truth be told, this recession is caused by your collective long over dependence on federal allocation. There is no other way to tell it. The current model where each of you waits for a monthly hand out from the mighty and all-lazy federal government of Nigeria is a fraud and unsustainable. It just has to stop. Lagos generates almost exactly what it gets from the federal allocation and plans to surpass that. Until we have 35 more Lagoses all over this land, we will not make progress. Lagos had the fortune of being the capital, access the border, a seaport and an airport. These brought droves of people seeking opportunities. Every state in Nigeria has peculiar opportunities that it can and must harness to attract people. From tourism, to agriculture, to solid minerals, sunshine, land mass, etc, these are peculiarities that m

Americans chose Hilary but got Trumped

Many Nigerians are disappointed at the election results in the United States. Many in the world are also very distraught and confused. History was to be made at least according to the polls. Citizens in the land of the free were to choose the leader of the free world to lead them for the next 4 years. Many Nigerians had expected Hilary Rodham Clinton the Democrat candidate to win and the polls indicated she had a good lead until the days leading up to the election. In fact, she won the popular vote but still lost the election. How did that happen? Rigging?! Take it easy. Voter fraud is not the case here but a system known as the Electoral College. Unlike Nigeria, where voter fraud or electoral malpractice is common place, incidences of the like are quite insignificant in the United States. Just what is the Electoral College, you may ask. The Electoral College is a process not a place. It consists of 538 electors who choose the president. To win the presidency, 271 of those el

Let the States Run

Yesterday 11th October, 2016, I stumbled on a piece written by Rotimi Fawole. It was a delightful read. He aptly captured and brilliantly delivered a piece on Nigeria, how we got here and where we should be headed. It was so beautiful that I spent a bulk of the day reading it all over. Besides the fact that I already expressed the thoughts he articulated in the piece before now, the brilliance of his delivery is such that those who cannot see the truth of it are either pretentious or consciously unwilling to change. For too long, I've been meaning to write a piece just like that on the subject but often find some decent reasons to procrastinate. It is only natural that I feel this good when someone else has done the job and done it excellently. Here are some excerpts:  This regional-central anomaly is the big argument for federal character and quotas, which place an emphasis on regional balance, rather than competence. In fact, the evidence suggests that it has promoted mediocrity.

RIP BIG BOSS

54! That's exactly how long he lived Stephen Okechukwu Keshi! Your death has literally moved me to tears You were such a big influence to me growing up You donned the Eagles jersey just before I was born Playing from 1981 to 1995 for Africa's most populous nation What a lad you were, what a man you became 51! Your number of club career goals Stephen Okechukwu Keshi!! You actually scored for every club you played   What coach doesn't want a goal scoring defender? You were unstoppable despite some failures You persevered till successes came You taught a lot to footballers You taught more to us who are not 64! Your number of caps for Nigeria Stephen Okechukwu Keshi!!! You were a defender yet you scored You were a captain yet you inspired You coached weak teams yet you won You were a footballer but you made us smile You were a real patriot and a hero! 9 Your number of goals for Nigeria Stephen Okechukwu Keshi!!!! Your long throws were a delightful skill Your marki

Mourinho's Dream at Old Trafford

It is no longer news that Portuguese born football manager Jose Mourinho is now the manager of popular English football club Manchester United . Congratulations Manchester United and Mourinho. I am wrong. I said months ago that he may never get a top job considering his poor result at Chelsea the second time and how he blamed his players after each loss. It did not make sense that a top club would immediately jump on and hire him at the time. But this is football. I said it   here and even on national TV that United should not hire the special one. Well, they have yielded to media pressure and appointed him. More football drama will be played out this coming season. Wait a minute, the number of high profile managers in one league alone is suddenly curious. Pep Guardiola, Antonio Conte, Arsene Wenger, Jurngen Klopp, and Claudio Ranieri are all going to be on the side lines next season.   Now if you add Mauricio Pochetino, Slaven Bilic, Koeman, Francisco Guidolin and

Of Old Heroes and New Liars

Today, I have been doing a lot of thinking. A lot of thinking about Nigeria. First, I am largely disappointed. I did not expect much from a new government but then I did not expect that they would do worse than the former. However, expecting a power hungry old man to do any differently than his true character amounts to naivety. My real disappointment comes from other people. The pa Buhari led FG has withdrawn subsidy on petrol. This means that Nigerians now must pay no less than N145 for a litre of petrol. While pa Buhari and his party the APC were in the opposition, they screamed all manner of absurdities against such a move by the immediate past government. Naturally, their message resonated with us. Jump forward to 2016 and tables have turned. The same people now make excuses for the same action. There is not enough FOREX as a result of dwindling oil prices to finance importation of petrol by marketers. Therefore, let the marketers source the FOREX independently and sell the