VIDEO: Is Governor Babatunde Fashola 'SAVING' the POOR to EMPOWER THE RICH?

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) destroyed 'poor shanties' in Badia East, Lagos to replace it with '1008 modern high class flats' not one poor resident evicted is penciled down to own a flat in the newly planned '1008 modern flat' that will be 'facing the lagoon (Lagos Sea Side) Yet again like Maroko poor people are going to be displaced for 'environmental health' reasons and replaced with the same Nigerian upper class elites who made them poor in the first place.

God Gave Me 45 years Extra-Time! Short musing By Kayode Ogundamisi

Special Thanks to all who joined me in thanking God for the 45 years 'extra time' God gave me on earth. (Not really an overtly religious person but who else can turn few weeks into 45 years, certainly not me)

According to the soothsayers shortly after my birth in August of 1968, I was only expected to last 'a few weeks'.

I am not sure if I am deserving of every single day of the 45 years, but I have utilised every single moment to the best of my ability and do not regret any of the great, the not so great, the good, the not so good, the bad and not so bad times, for every challenge, it's been double victory, for everyone who had any reason to doubt, its been double reassurance, for those who have remained faithful to me, not minding my imperfections, my exceedingly 'irrational' moods, I say a huge THANK YOU.

One thing I am very sure of is that I owe all my existence, every breath, every single hair, and every dot that make up my existence to the mercy of the Almighty God and the special people he’s sent to me, friends, family and even adversaries, they together helped in saving me from me and most times saving me from others. I can never pay back the debt of gratitude. I can only say THANK YOU.


Kayode Ogundamisi

August 12, 2013

Colchester, Essex England.

And we the #Mob Moved On: #ABSURAPE revisited BY Kayode Ogundamisi

In 2011 the Nigerian social media erupted when the horrific gang rape video of a young lady surfaced online. The hour long video depicts a rape by at least 5 men and at a point she begs to be killed. Bloggers broke the story online which had before then reportedly circulated amongst the Abia State University student community earning it the ABSU RAPE tag.

In the fallout of the expose the full weight of social media, women and human rights organizations was mobilized in commentary, petitions, letters to Inspector General of Police, an interactive session by the then Youth Minister Bolaji Abdulahi, a special session with women and human rights NGOs with the House of Reps committee on human rights.

There were strident denials from the Abia State Govt. a mind-blowingly embarrassing statement from the Commisioner of Police in Abia saying the rape looked "consensual" and the usual blame the victim brigade. It was a virtual firestorm.

Fast forward to 2013. In March a police report indicated that the rape victim and accused rapists in the video had been identified and located not in Abia State but in Obite Rivers State.

It revealed that the victim was a married woman and at least one of her rapists a relative of her husband. Compared to the frenzied outrage of the rape video this news got the equivalent of a bored yawn.

There were no petitions or freedom of information requests to get more information from the police. No campaigns to raise money to investigate the claim and raise money for the victims legal fight or rehabilitation. We all failed in our duty, the ever loud #Mob No catchy hash tag.

Nothing but a few feeble tweets and updates about the story sounding doubtful and sad, we couldn’t afford to resuscitate #ABSU so as not to drown our current # party, a new Voyeur  for social meetings under the name of protest, candle at night, opportunity for ‘networking’ then a chance on the daily shows of the television, our best suits, a fresh haircut and then another ‘sponsorship’ from telecommunication firms, who could as well also donate some of the ‘investment’ into helping victims of rape. Like vultures the #Mob wait for another fancy cause, then we rake, we increase our ‘followership’ graphic designers in waiting, it is now trendy to shout it, wear few T-shirts and then go to sleep.

Fast forward to August 2013: The Nation publishes a truly heartbreaking follow up story that reads like an over the top Nollywood tragedy.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/woman-in-rape-video-is-my-wife/

The gang rape victims husband has been tracked down to Obite and he reveals the horrific consequences of the rape. His wife suffered a miscarriage after the rape, is now HIV positive and has lost a baby to HIV/AIDS. The suspects (some his relatives) are walking free. The arena for justice was a magistrate’s court? The couple lives in fear of the alleged big shot sponsor of the rape who he claims is influencing the case and has a band of thugs on call.

The now HIV positive rape victim is with her parents in Owerri. They are clearly on their own. Yesterdays outrage from strangers will not get them justice. The hashtag brigade has moved on, to another trendy # voyeur.

Ironically only thing the campaign may have succeeded in doing was alert the husband to the rape. His wife kept it secret and he found out when friends showed him the video of the latest Nigerian scandal.

I have heard defense put up about the story sounding fishy or being a cover up by some parties. That misses the point. Did the March police release even generate a discussion? An investigation? The follow up whether accurate or not was not pursued with any interest.

Without these journalists attempt to track down the story we have now all the emergency citizens journalists who emerged in those times wouldn't stirred from the next big thing.

No women or human rights NGO coalitions issued press releases or headed out to provide legal aid. Even the bounty offered online for information on the rapists wasn't used for follow up or converted to a legal fund.

While a victim lives with bone crushing injustice thoroughly unaffected by righteous intentions the #hashtag mob has moved to the next sexy hashtag. No closure. No ability to sustain. No strategies. No moral ground to demand anything better from our leaders. No impact on anything of value. We all need deliverance.

Follow Kayode Ogundamisi on twitter @ogundamisi

In 2015 Nigeria's desperation for change should not lead to replacing Hitler with a Mussolini. Kayode Ogundamisi

When politicians take the support of traditional friends for granted, make assumptions that they do not have to make policies clear, they should know it is the beginning of failure.

You do not pick power on the street, Nigerians have been deceived over and over again that EVERYONE and ANYONE aspiring to lead us after several years of PDP disaster must be ready to be subjected to the minutest of scrutiny.

Every word is important, every policy statement scrutinised, it is not just saying we have to replace PDP. It is telling Nigerians what will be different, and that story of how things will be different should be told, street by street, village by village, town by town, city by city, from from the bottom, the sea and creek of Rivers to the tip of Nigeria in the edge of Katsina, cutting across the border-town of Niger to that of Adamawa. Spending days and night in the creek of Ijaw to the deep Savannah. If ANYONE thinks power will fall on the table simply because 'CHANGE IS INEVITABLE' that person underestimate the plague called PDP, it is a deadly infectious decease that is killing Nigeria slowly and steadily since 1999.

So as you keep sounding me off about 'working for the enemy' let me leave you with a quote from  South Africa's former leader of the Black Consciousness Movement


"You must not forget how Hitler and Mussolini emerged as leaders because desperate people were looking for an alternative," Mamphela Aletta Ramphele

Our desperation for change will not see us replace Hitler with a Mussolini.

Kayode Ogundamisi

NDI-IGBO are we that desperate that we must force ourselves on others? Dr. Pat Obiefule asks!

I greet you all. Ndewo nu! I have tried very hard to resist the urge to jump into this Igbo-Yoruba-Hausa-Nigeria discourse; but the more I read the posts on all sides of the argument, the stronger and more irresistible the urge became. So here we are.

As a brief recess from all these high and low impact intellectual aerobics, may I please ask that you patiently walk through and analyze the following basic anecdotal scenario with me regarding the Igbo-Nigeria quagmire? Here we go:

Nigeria is a polygamous man; hence the many wives - Alhaja Yoruba Nigeria, Hajia Hausa Nigeria, Lolo Igbo Nigeria, Mrs. Efik Nigeria, Mrs. Edo Nigeria, Mrs. Ijaw Nigeria, etcetera.

Picture Nigeria’s majestic mansion (main house) strategically located in the front center of his compound and surrounded by the individual bungalows belonging to each of the wives and her children.

While each of the other wives and her children are busy developing/beautifying and maintaining their bungalow and its surrounding, Lolo Igbo’s children decide to leave her own bungalow and instead reside with her co-wives and help develop their bungalows.

Lolo Igbo’s children are fairly patriotic, but regrettably not “matriotic” (made that up, hahaha!) because they help their half-brothers and half-sisters develop and maintain their mothers’ bungalows while neglecting their own home which is Lolo Igbo’s bungalow.  

Now, Lolo Igbo’s bungalow is rapidly becoming dilapidated. Meanwhile, Lolo Igbo’s co-wives and their children feel that Lolo Igbo’s children have overstayed their welcome and want them to go home to their mother and help her rebuild her crumbling bungalow.

Understandably, Lolo Igbo’s co-wives and their children insist that Lolo Igbo’s children are welcome to visit their respective bungalows to enjoy for a while, but not to move in and try to displace them from their own homes.

But alas! Lolo Igbo’s children would not have it. They feel instead that it is their father’s compound and they are ENTITLED to leave their mother’s bungalow and reside in any of the other ones, if they so desire. (IDEALLY RIGHT, WHERE THERE IS LOTS OF LOVE; BUT NOT ALWAYS PRACTICABLE ESPECIALLY IF THERE IS NO LOVE LOST)

Of course the half-brothers and half-sisters are enraged by Lolo Igbo’s children’s stubborn defiance; so, in attempting to forcibly eject them from Lolo Igbo’s co-wives’ domains, lots of the Igbo children lose their lives.

Now, Lolo Igbo and her surviving children cry, “Bloody murder!”

As a bona fide Eziada Igbo, I then ask:

1.     Under the circumstances, do we really have the right to blame anyone else but ourselves?

2.     Do we not say in Igbo that: ukpara okpoko gburu, nti chiri ya”?

3.     Are we so resolute in our own self-ascribed level of knowledge and wisdom that we’ve gone to the stream to fetch water with a basket (amakam ihe, jiri ekete kuru mmiri)?

4.     Do we not understand the simple basic fact that we cannot force ourselves on someone who does not want us even if we happen to be siblings or half siblings? After all, we don’t get to choose our relatives (half-siblings included), only our friends.

5.     Have we stopped to wonder why our half-brothers and half-sisters are not breaking down our mother’s door trying to come and reside with us their?

6.     And what about our polygamous father, Nigeria? What is his stand in all of this?

7.     Could it be that he has turned deaf ears and looked the other way because our mother, Lolo Igbo Nigeria, is his least favorite wife?

8.     Could it also be that allowing us to renounce his paternity claim on us and secede from his polygamous dominion would hurt his ego and embarrass him, but more importantly deny him access to the economic resources in our mother’s backyard?

9.     Assuming these reasons were totally or partially true, shouldn’t that be strong enough motivation for us to retreat to our mother’s domain, rebuild it, and then make our case when we come to the general family meeting table at the main house (father’s mansion)?

10.  Have we not determined that we can actually retreat to our mother’s domain, rebuild and develop it while still sharing our last name (Nigeria) and a peaceful co-existence with our half-siblings within our father’s polygamous kingdom?

11.  Isn’t that how it really works in most polygamous families?

In more general terms (non-scenario specific), may I then ask:

1.     Will it be deemed over-reaction on my part if I characterize as callous, those who cite “One Nigeria” as the impetus for espousing the establishment of micro Igbo dominions within other linguistic regions of Nigeria even in the face of foreknown unflinching hostility?

2.     Are these individuals capable of empathizing with the individuals and families whose hearts and lives have been shattered and forever changed by the consequences of the pogroms that have punctuated our history?

3.     Does it not make more practical sense that a sustainable egalitarian “One Nigeria” would be better negotiated and achieved with mutual respect by designees of each linguistic group who come to the Federal table from a strong, confident and respectable home base rather than a resentful, envious, and even spiteful victim-minded one?  

4.     If I come to your home and you decide that I have overstayed my welcome and ask me to leave, or else lose my life; is it not foolhardy, to say the least, for me to not only insist on staying, but also demand the right to share your home?

5.     Will it not be wiser for me to heed your request or threat and exist gracefully, and once secured in my own home (developed or not), then express to you my disappointment for being excused from your home?

6.     For those who propose claiming dominion in another man’s land, and then establishing and nurturing strategic alliances for safety and security; do you honestly believe that when the chips are down, there are enough Hausas and Yorubas that would lay down their lives to save that of an Igbo friend?

7.     Given the proven intellectual prowess and enterprising acumen of Igbos, can any of you even begin to imagine the paradise that Igbo land would become if Igbos were to invest in their land, half the energy and resources we spend in developing other lands?

8.     Even though Igbos don’t have the enormous land mass that exist in the north, for instance; could we not build on top of buildings, so that Igbo land becomes known in the world as, among other things, the land of sky-scrappers?

9.     Would that be such an impossible dream to accomplish?

10.  Have we not yet realized that we are the direct architects of all the ills (kidnappings, child trafficking, corruption, armed robbery, etc) that plague Igbo land? Why? Because all those ills are the unintended consequences of our insatiable lust for non-Igbo lands and our willful neglect of Igbo land?

11.  Will I be branded a pessimist if I dare predict that until we choose to shift our focus from constantly retelling the tales of woes in Igbo land (problem mindset) to churning out possible solutions (solution/result orientation) to those ills; we will continue to spin the wheels of status quo, while delusively expecting a new outcome?

My brothers and sisters of Igbo extraction, “ariri erigbuole umu Igbo”! Let us for once in our collective live take the challenge to retreat and develop from within. Let us initiate an “Operation Develop Igbo land” and insist that until full development is accomplished, all roads lead to Igbo land. We can do it! The devil is always in the detail, of course. So, think results! Think solutions! Brainstorm! No idea is too big, too small, or too irrelevant to be considered. Keep your ideas coming until we find one or some that will work! If you condemn someone else’s idea, please lay out your reasons, then present your alternative(s) along with the underpinning rationale(s).

Long live Ala Igbo (Lolo Igbo Nigeria)!

Long live Nigeria!!!

Udo diri unu!

Much love

Eziada Dr. Pat Obiefule

(Opuruiche Nwanyi)