Why is Africa behind?

My fellow Nairaland users,no matter where we are;we have an African History we need to sit down for second and think about our Great Mother Africa,where we spring from,where our great grandfather's placenta was buried,let us sit at Mother Africa's feet and offer solutions to her and help her rise again.It would be our pride to raise our heads as men from a proud continent rather than keep accepting AID RELIEF from countries that loot our resources and uniqueness of our ancestry and murdering our fellow blood brothers in the search for Power and self righteousness .

I have been pondering about this for a while now , i mean Africa is blessed with a lot of natural resources , please make a comment in regards to development,culture,politics,religious and economic factors to support your point in reference to any country of your choice  . Let us also try to come up with solutions to these factors, we don't know who might be reading this . For Instance i am taking Sudan as a reference point . There is a mass genocide happening there and the world do not seem to notice because they don't have oil as much as Iraq and other countries in the Middle East.

I have pictures attached.

@poster
You are right after all, it is quite interesting to see that people are now becoming aware of what is really happening.For reason best known the relevant authorities "Sudan does not really require any help sINCE they dont have anything(resources) in return. I weep for the sudan as well as other war torn areas of the world who do not have foreign aid or assitance. The problem with Africa is rather complex plagued by "internal"and "external" factors.But one thing I believe for sure is that AFRICA will eventually emerge is a strong and powerful continent.
LONG LIVE AFRICA!!!!

The problem we have in Africa is d mentality an average african has about leadership positions.

scottN:

The problem we have in Africa is d mentality an average african has about leadership positions.

NAILED IT!!!

Mehn. . .

I think it is a cartographic phenomenon.

Isomers , Isobar and all that kain kini

Cos we the black "inferior" race

We are not the inferior race, i disagree with that please.How do one describe a superior race? To me i believe no race is greater than the other but what strikes the difference is the amount of resources that a particular race has !

left behind? ask yourself , do folks presently living in sub-saharan africa know that they are left behind? and if they do, is there any sense of urgency?, hmmmm lets see, na devil work abi, blame it on him ?

scottN:

The problem we have in Africa is d mentality an average african has about leadership positions.

totally disagree with you,what mentality do average africans have about leadership positions?most average africans i know are all yearning for the same thing,which is good leadership, as for the bad leaders we have in various african countries, most were forcibly installed by western powers/interests,or the leadership bobby trapped to fail at inception

Western powers dont really work anymore as far as i am concerned, major countries in Africa dont allow such influence as least Nigeria doesnt, we impose leaders on ourselves then blame the same leaders when they mess up.

@Poster, Aren't these pictures from like 20 years ago?

oraclefemi:

Western powers don't really work anymore as far as i am concerned, major countries in Africa don't allow such influence as least Nigeria doesnt, we impose leaders on ourselves then blame the same leaders when they mess up.

Glad to know not all Africans are deluded !!!

20 yrs ago the cameras weren't this clear

.

oraclefemi:

Western powers don't really work anymore as far as i am concerned, major countries in Africa don't allow such influence as least Nigeria doesnt, we impose leaders on ourselves then blame the same leaders when they mess up.

give me an opportunity to school some ignorant ones on here sayn ppl are deluded, who was behind robert mugabe all the while tacitly ignoring all his ersthwile human right failings if not the united kingdom?

who supported all the millitary leaders and politicians in nigeria with funds if not multinationals like shell,schlumbg,chevron,siemens e.t.c check past news and you will discover allegations of bribery leveled against these companies, go check youtube and you can watch the allegation leveled against shell supplying the nigerian police with weapons to kill niger deltans.

lastly sticking to nigeria,how exactly do you think nigeria ended up with most of the past leaders be it millitary or civillian being northerners??dont you think it strange that the leadership of the most populous nation in africa was handed over to the least educated,englightened ethnic group then by colonialists at independence?
do you realise that,what they did then is still affecting nigeria almost 50 years later from leaders who were ill equiped to rule,millitary took over also northerners, then siphoned resources and when the civillian regime came about used their war chest to corner all the political posts and are still there up untill now

tpia:

@ OP: whats the purpose of these pictures?

a more appropriate title would be photos of a war zone, since thats where you'll see someone walking around stark naked in that manner. There's no sane society in Africa where this kind of thing is the norm.

and yes, one of the major problems with Africa is the constant warfare in some areas.

I agree. at least iv not seen this kind of setting in nigeria. maybe d insane peeps,

lucabrasi:

give me an opportunity to school some ignorant ones on here sayn people are deluded, who was behind robert mugabe all the while tacitly ignoring all his ersthwile human right failings if not the united kingdom?

who supported all the millitary leaders and politicians in nigeria with funds if not multinationals like shell,schlumbg,chevron,siemens e.t.c check past news and you will discover allegations of bribery leveled against these companies, go check youtube and you can watch the allegation leveled against shell supplying the nigerian police with weapons to kill niger deltans.

lastly sticking to nigeria,how exactly do you think nigeria ended up with most of the past leaders be it millitary or civillian being northerners??don't you think it strange that the leadership of the most populous nation in africa was handed over to the least educated,englightened ethnic group then by colonialists at independence?
do you realise that,what they did then is still affecting nigeria almost 50 years later from leaders who were ill equiped to rule,millitary took over also northerners, then siphoned resources and when the civillian regime came about used their war chest to corner all the political posts and are still there up untill now

asia experienced divide and conquer too. why aren't they in the same boat as africans?

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/africa/article02//indexn2_html?pdate=041208&ptitle=French%20activists%20sue%20three%20African%20leaders%20for%20graft

the link above provides part of the reason.

My question to the poster is why do you want the white man to come and solve your problems? South Africa no get army. Army plenty for Naija. Kenya and if must include the Arabs Egypt, Morocco etc Why have none of you done anything?

People help those who help themselves. More people know about Darfur from the press, George Clooney and Don Cheadle singing about it. My father who is Nigerian does not even know where Darfur is. My mother heard about Darfur while visiting America. Darfur is mentioned more in the foreign press than African press. If you had a dollar for every article on Darfur written in African news media, you would still be a poor man.

All African leaders do sigh and pity. They don't strongarm anybody. See how Europe strongarmed Russia. If it was Africa, they would have let Russia rumble all over Georgia. When your leaders say they don't care why will any one else?

I agree with the previous poster but does that mean we cant make our own decisions?

bawomolo:

asia experienced divide and conquer too. why aren't they in the same boat as africans?

Thank you.i wonder why my dear friend lucabrasi wants to pin[b] ALL[/b] our problems on the western world.this does not mean that i am saying they did not have an input into some of the problemswe have. we knowthat slavery made a great impact on most of the infrastructure and economic development the west now enjoys,but i will not subscribe to us wallowing in self pity and not look for ways to advance our development as asia has or should i say is doing.

@bawomolo and damiso
asia DID EXPERIENCE WHAT NIGERIA IS GOING THROUGH, ill use china as an example because it ll be hard for many to believe,if you have not read any of china's history then go through china pre-mao zedong and see if the situation wasnt worse than nigeria's, then go read during mao's reign and the conflicts china had with their supposed protector stalin and kruschev,
asia didnt start in a day and they have had more than 100 years to make their mistakes and go through what we are going through now,if you think abacha,and nigerian politicians enjoyed then go read about the corruption and enjoyment the china politburo were up to even in a supposed communist government, to get a good posting regional leaders had to be bribed with rolex wrist watches,money e.t.c

same as india and the conflicts they have had all through to the time they split with pakistan going their own way, up untill now millions are still suffering in india, go see pictures of calcutta ghettoes ad compare it to ghettoes in nigeria,there is wide spread corruption amongst their leaders as well,same as pakistani the opposition leader in pakistan just got back from exile this year accused of what?CORUPPTION yet he is still walkn around freely same as the late benazir bhutto was accused of corruption but was back from exile and would have been the pakistani president

they are not in the same place because they have had much more time to make their mistakes and their citizens are much more patriotic, go back and check what year india got independence

I don't agree with this 'much more time to make mistakes' mantra - India gained independence a just 13 years before Nigeria, but is more than 2 decades ahead in terms of development - they are a nuclear power, they launch satellites into space and are even on the moon, not to talk of their advances in IT, medicine and manufacturing.

India and China may seem like the appropriate comparisons, but I don't agree - let's talk about the Malaysias and Indonesias of this world and compare ourselves to them. Those countries are far ahead of Nigeria yet you think this 'enough time' thing is the issue?

Malaysia was independent a mere 3 years before us, Indonesia also around the same time as India in 1950, yet they are far ahead of us in development, even with greater tribal diversity and languages than Nigeria. Indonesia fought the Japanese, then the Dutch for independence before forging their own identity and drawing out their path.

Corruption exists in those countries yes, but not the type of corruption we have that leaders steal everything and carry out zero development. There may be a few similarities, but we have gotten much worse instead of getting better - often with a much improved starting point than many of these nations

People ar saying it's not the fault of the common people but it is. The "common" people become the leaders Africa is behind because the people are far too greedy for their own good. There is no unity in even the states themselves. Everyone is only worried about himself and his tribe, everybody else can go to hell. These people with this mentality eventually become the leaders.

lucabrasi:

@bawomolo and damiso
asia DID EXPERIENCE WHAT NIGERIA IS GOING THROUGH, ill use china as an example because it ll be hard for many to believe,if you have not read any of china's history then go through china pre-mao zedong and see if the situation wasnt worse than nigeria's, then go read during mao's reign and the conflicts china had with their supposed protector stalin and kruschev,
asia didnt start in a day and they have had more than 100 years to make their mistakes and go through what we are going through now,if you think abacha,and nigerian politicians enjoyed then go read about the corruption and enjoyment the china politburo were up to even in a supposed communist government, to get a good posting regional leaders had to be bribed with rolex wrist watches,money e.t.c

same as india and the conflicts they have had all through to the time they split with pakistan going their own way, up untill now millions are still suffering in india, go see pictures of calcutta ghettoes ad compare it to ghettoes in nigeria,there is wide spread corruption amongst their leaders as well,same as pakistani the opposition leader in pakistan just got back from exile this year accused of what?CORUPPTION yet he is still walkn around freely same as the late benazir bhutto was accused of corruption but was back from exile and would have been the pakistani president

they are not in the same place because they have had much more time to make their mistakes and their citizens are much more patriotic, go back and check what year india got independence

i agree with you but you must agree that it is very difficult for the average nigerian to feel patrotic when they see that the people supposed to be leading us seem to have only their  selfish interests at Heart.That is why the average nigerian has the mindset of 'everyman for himself',God for us all. _{make me sef get there chop my own national cake}

I will talk about this from a personal point of view.My Dad(lost him a month ago ) was someone who had the highest level of principles i have ever seen and he went into politcs with a sincere desire to actually change things.am talking of someone who used to run  a political paper back in UI in the 70's.You know what?he never seemed to be able to break through the satus quo and in turn was often found in oppossing camps beacuse of his principles.This principle even translated to him not being rich.He was always trying to inculcate this beliefs into his children.i admired this alot  as a kid,BUT as i grew older i started thinking that he was kind of rigid( i now appreciate him more).That is because his peers who unlike him just had to attain power at any costs were getting political offices and appointments which in turn made them uhmm uhm 'finacialy well off'.i started to resent his principles because people saw him as a joke,infact we (my siblings, i and my mom) were forever critisicing him because we just could not see the gains of this his so called 'principles'_{principle lafe je ni}.He held on to those principles till he died but was unable to actually get into power and make a direct difference to the country.Now tell me,if my brother wanted to get into politics he would actually go against those principles(seeing that my dad never actually got far) and do whatever it takes to get to power.There are so many people directing the affairs of our country at the moment which i have had the priviledge of meeting at a personal level and please if that is the best we can do hmm,i think the beautiful ones are not yet born because the coming generation is not any better _{i think we are even worse.} .
But all said and done,my view is subjective and based on personal experiences,we might actually get there sooner if the mindset of the nigerian can be reoriented to think 'servant' rather than 'leader' when elected to become a councillor,council chairman or house of assembly member( i think these people are worse than the governors and president that we shout about,met loads of them and most of those people should be shot)

I have been praying that Africa will be a good continent.

well i belief one day things will work fine Africa. as fela anikulapokuti has been singing
So take a look this<>

debosky:

I don't agree with this 'much more time to make mistakes' mantra - India gained independence a just 13 years before Nigeria, but is more than 2 decades ahead in terms of development - they are a nuclear power, they launch satellites into space and are even on the moon, not to talk of their advances in IT, medicine and manufacturing.

you call 13 years just??
also how about the leadership bobby trap set for nigeria by the colonialist when thewy handed the reins of power to the north,or dyu honerstly reckon they didnt see all these tribalism coming?
to give you a sample,go through majority of threads on either this politics section and other sections and you ll notice like i did that every single section is tinged with tribalism, it is in our psyche and is a much bigger problem than we care to admit,also remember millions are still suffering in india, calcutta is worse than any ghetto in nigeria and what they have going for them is the same thing china has which stands at roughly 1.somethn billion people can they really go wrong ?

debosky:



India and China may seem like the appropriate comparisons, but I don't agree - let's talk about the Malaysias and Indonesias of this world and compare ourselves to them. Those countries are far ahead of Nigeria yet you think this 'enough time' thing is the issue?

ill suggest you have a read about these countries you have emntioned and you will discover that they are facing a worse crisi than nigeria is facing at the moment ill post a phrase i gleaned from wikipedia while trying to read about them
"The country is richly endowed with natural resources, yet poverty is a defining feature of contemporary Indonesia"
dont forget that the unfair agricul;tural rebates is not having the same effects on them as it is having on africa,remember america and the european union member states have consistently refused to remove the tariffs that would have helped african agriculture, the only exports without the tariffs like cofee,tea e.t.c we dont have in nigeria
indonesia's gdp is in excess of 408 billion and they are major exporters of cofee,tea which are free from eu/american tariffs including natural resources

debosky:






Corruption exists in those countries yes, but not the type of corruption we have that leaders steal everything and carry out zero development. There may be a few similarities, but we have gotten much worse instead of getting better - often with a much improved starting point than many of these nations

yes,our leaders steal everything but before we heap all the blame on our leaders,who amongst us nigerins are ready to do what the citizens did in thailand,indonesia,malaysia e.t.c fighting the government,protesting even ready to give our lives for the cause?are you or most nigerians here including myself?no, i dont think so
like i have already written above,agriculture tariffs is also playn a massive part in  the nigerian economy being the way it is,quickly interjecting as well that while our economy isnt as good as these countries,we have come a very long way as is evidenced in our banking system,eradication of coups and absolute dictatorship,nationwide strife

damiso:

i agree with you but you must agree that it is very difficult for the average nigerian to feel patrotic when they see that the people supposed to be leading us seem to have only their selfish interests at Heart.That is why the average nigerian has the mindset of 'everyman for himself',God for us all. _{make me sef get there chop my own national cake}

yes but who do you blame for that,the leaders might have a large percentage of the blame but we nigerians including me and you sitting down abroad have a large part as well, pls i urge you to read a book dr li's account of mao zedong's life(he was mao's personal physician and he chronicled mao's life,politics and everything they went through,
the corruption in china then was times 10 of what we have in nigeria now,more than 3 million people died as a direct result of famine talk less of indirect result, government officials were taking bribes of rolex qrist watches to post people to nice jobs,YET mosyt chinese left very good jobs in australia,europe america and went back to their country not minding the suffering they endured,i promise you if u read that book you will have a different perspective of the situation in nigeria.

as for your dad,i totally and unequivocally agree with you but imagine if people like your dad were given a chance irrespective of what any godfather said?who dyu think has majority of the fault there if not we nigerians,
look at oshiomole,he went against people like tony anenih,igninedian machinery e.t.c and the people line up behind him even though he didnt spend the amount of money these guys spent, why are we blaming corrupt leaders when we refuse to vote people like your dad in because"they r not dropping paper"and will mortgage ours and our children's future for 100 naira notes and a bowl of rice?
remember how much a politician spends is directly proportionate to how muchg he has to recover when he gets into power, its not just nigeria its happening in italy presently, if we want our votes to count then we should stop getting paid for our votes and vote our conscience, in a country of almost 150million people with less than 10% as corrupt politicians,if we all stood together like nigerians did during abiola hope 93,refusing to collect bribes the leadership will back down.

look at adedibu,the main reason he could count on these legions of ppl to do his bidding his because of daily amala and their believe in him,whgy cant we translate that to credible leaderrs being voted in?
if we have refused to do that,then we shouldnt blame anyone but ourselves if we continually allow a tiny minority to rule over and rape us, look at the uzoma okere thing, remember when nigerians shouted with one voice,yar adua listenend and took action
remember the 86 billion or so rice import,they listened and cut it down to around 10billion
same as the child witches thing they listened
even ribadu s cirtificate scandal,as soon as nigerians started shouting yar adua released a statement sayn they shoul;d release the man's certificate

damiso:

Thank Ui wonder why my dear friend lucabrasi wants to pin[b] ALL[/b] our problems on the western world.this does not mean that i am saying they did not have an input into some of the problemswe have. we knowthat slavery made a great impact on most of the infrastructure and economic development the west now enjoys,but i will not subscribe to us wallowing in self pity and not look for ways to advance our development as asia has or should i say is doing.

Africas current problems have nothing to do with the Western world. More than 50% of africa's resource exports now go to asia. Is asia next on the list to blame for Africa's situation?

When we speak of slavery, we speak of it as if it only applies to the western world. A recent look at slavery will show that Africa itself has far outdone the west in that area. We are one of the only continents today where you have indentured slaves. Children are being sold into slavery every day in that continent and we continue to talk of slavery as if it is foreign?

I am sorry but continuing with the delusion that it is half or all the west's fault is ludicrious. Take the case in Nigeria for instance. We spent 8 years of our democracy with a government that we elected for ourselves. We then went on to elect the current one as his replacement. What hand has the west in all that?  Earlier this year Zimbabweans went out to vote and fight to have the same man as their leader. What part did the west play in MANIPULATING the people into that? Who stood by an watched during the coup against Idiagbon regime and watched Babangida take office? What people went out in the streets to slaughter their neighbour instead of taking the fight to Babangida himself who annuled the 1993 elections? What people sat back and watched the Anti-West and anti-people Abacha grow in power, doing next to nothing?

Africa is behind because many africans still want to live in land of delusions, blaming all external forces for the chaos and commotion they continue to feed themselves. Until Africans learn what it means to be RESPONSIBLE for their own FUTURE, I doubt much is going to change, and trust the conspiracy theorists to keep feeding the people with fables to comfort their miserable souls each night.

lucabrasi:

yes but who do you blame for that,the leaders might have a large percentage of the blame but we nigerians including me and you sitting down abroad have a large part as well, please i urge you to read a book dr li's account of mao zedong's life(he was mao's personal physician and he chronicled mao's life,politics and everything they went through,
the corruption in china then was times 10 of what we have in nigeria now,more than 3 million people died as a direct result of famine talk less of indirect result, government officials were taking bribes of rolex qrist watches to post people to nice jobs,YET mosyt chinese left very good jobs in australia,europe america and went back to their country not minding the suffering they endured,i promise you if u read that book you will have a different perspective of the situation in nigeria.

as for your dad,i totally and unequivocally agree with you but imagine if people like your dad were given a chance irrespective of what any godfather said?who dyu think has majority of the fault there if not we nigerians,
look at oshiomole,he went against people like tony anenih,igninedian machinery e.t.c and the people line up behind him even though he didnt spend the amount of money these guys spent, why are we blaming corrupt leaders when we refuse to vote people like your dad in because"they r not dropping paper"and will mortgage ours and our children's future for 100 naira notes and a bowl of rice?
remember how much a politician spends is directly proportionate to how muchg he has to recover when he gets into power, its not just nigeria its happening in italy presently, if we want our votes to count then we should stop getting paid for our votes and vote our conscience, in a country of almost 150million people with less than 10% as corrupt politicians,if we all stood together like nigerians did during abiola hope 93,refusing to collect bribes the leadership will back down.

look at adedibu,the main reason he could count on these legions of people to do his bidding his because of daily amala and their believe in him,whgy can't we translate that to credible leaderrs being voted in?
if we have refused to do that,then we shouldnt blame anyone but ourselves if we continually allow a tiny minority to rule over and rape us, look at the uzoma okere thing, remember when nigerians shouted with one voice,yar adua listenend and took action
remember the 86 billion or so rice import,they listened and cut it down to around 10billion
same as the child witches thing they listened
even ribadu s cirtificate scandal,as soon as nigerians started shouting yar adua released a statement sayn they shoul;d release the man's certificate

I understand you and my dad spent alot of time talking to the grassroots not to mortgae the future of their children for 500 naira but the truth is the people are hungry and they can really not see further than voting for the one who gave them 500 naira for a pot of stew than the one who is speaking all this 'big' english.Unfortunately,even the party that is supposed to be on the left(mentioning no names) actually sometimes plays this dirty politics[i].where it suits them[/i].My dad was a member of this party and this the party seen as the progressive one,but in the deeper party workings and all,it is all the same.

Adams Oshiomole probably had an edge because of his history as former labour leader and so had alot of popularity to his advantage.My dad was more of an academic.
I hope the mindset changes and i am ready in the near future to go back home and indeed not let my dad's legacy die(he used to say he wanted to create an impact like baba Jakande [i]hismentor[/i]that would live after him yrs after he was gone)Pity death came calling too soon.He was writing a book about the inner workings of politics in lagos state and we hopefully hope to get it published as soon as possible.Talking about him and the nigerian situation brings tears to my eyes .But it is well.We will get there someday.

damiso:

I understand you and my dad spent alot of time talking to the grassroots not to mortgae the future of their children for 500 naira but the truth is the people are hungry and they can really not see further than voting for the one who gave them 500 naira for a pot of stew than the one who is speaking all this 'big' english.Unfortunately,even the party that is supposed to be on the left(mentioning no names) actually sometimes plays this dirty politics[i].where it suits them[/i].My dad was a member of this party and this the party seen as the progressive one,but in the deeper party workings and all,it is all the same.

we are still on the same issue as far as i am concerned,lets be honest how long will 500naira last a bachelor in nigeria talk less of a family man??pls lets put things in perspective here 500 naira that they have been given will not solve a single day of hunger so that is not a credible excuse for mortgaging you and your children's future, in fact if you ask me i think the corrupt politicains/the godfathers have less fault than the average nigeria after all they are selling their conscience for millions and billions compared to ppl selling theirs for 500 naira

like oshiomole said in his speech,as long as nigerians continue to expect payment for their votes,then godfathers will continue to be in business because the contestant will need billions to execute a sucessful campaign and the godfather will expect to reap the benefits of his investment,
we are not ready to contribute 100 naira or smthn each to have a stake in a political party,yet we are ready to take a few hundreds of naira as payment yet when thes politicians now turn around to rein burse themselves for the money we have collected,we start shouting and blaming them, i have been opportuned to be close to some politicians and how much they have spent for their campaigns and while not justifying corruption i have to say the average nigeria can be ruthless without any fear of GOD the way they milk these people dry,
apart from the normal weekly payment these wards mandate these politicians to give,they have to provide bags of rice every week for the different ward meetings,then on weekends goats,rams even cows
then there is plastic mementoes e.t.c
after which you have to arrange seperate payments of hundreds of thousands to millions in some cases for some regional heads, and you r still not sure of being elected, a dirty stinky man will come into your living room at 10pm and sit down with his legs on your setee just because he is campaigning for you and you mustn complain

my mindset from what i have seen of politicians that have been ruined by average nigerians and some who have been lucky to be elected or compensated with one post or the other is that untill we are ready to stop collecing bribes from these people,then no one should complain when they dont do thie roads or give them water or school

I think we are the cankerworm eating our own flesh in the name of greed and selfishness

@ luca

but you and i know the type of people that actually sell their votes.They really know no better.  They feel that if this person gets elected they will not see him again as our polticians tend to become self absorbed and forget those who brought them into power.So their mindset is let me just _kuku collect my share of the cake now before i dont see him again.My dad ran for elective office twice,so i have seen this things first hand and i know what i am talking about.I remember numerous arguments my dad had with his grassroots leaders about this bags of rice,goat syndrome but they just felt he was being stingy(after already spending loads on the campaign as it is).They used to complain and say 'gbobgo grammar yi ko lafeje'meaning it is not this grammar we will eat .So it really was a if u cant beat them join them option at least you will recoup when you get to office.This was a standard and principle my dad never broke and this kinda never really got him far.There were so many other candidates like him,but never seem to get far in the Nigerian system,i agree that campaigns need money but that does not excuse politicians going along because they feel they will recoup when they get to office.If ALL  candidates refuse to give out these gifts,then that will be a level playing ground and then mandates and manifetsos will be the issue,But as it is now,if you dont give bags of rice someone else will,so how is that a fair palying ground?

You and i know better and that is why we will not sell our votes.No one will make me vote for a candidate i dont believe in,even my parents.I remember in 1999,my dad was trying to talk me into voting for Funsho Williams cos he was a personal friend ,and i refused because i did not believe in the values of the platform he was contesting under.My dad stopped trying to persuade me as he was even impressed that i was able to stand my ground.He respected my views and confided that he shared my views but was just being a little sentimental as he did not think he should have contested on that platform as well.So the reason why you and i know this is because we are enligtened,how many of the nigerian electorate actually are?