₦airaland Forum

I strongly support Keshi. It was the spirit of patrotism that kept him going. NFF and the whole country turned their backs on him when he needed it most.I am very sure he will never look for a job.he has the whole of African football now as his campus....those mallams in NFF should continue bleeping themselves. In my opinion, its not about the money. Its about proving your critics wrong and exiting when the ovation is loudest. Weldone Keshi

President, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Shettima Yerima has said that all hands must be on deck to save Nigeria from disintegration. He believes that so many things are going wrong in the country because President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration is indifferent to the plight of the citizens. In this interview, he speaks on various issues including the 2015 general election. Excerpts…



From what happened last year, what are your reflections on the New Year?

There was nothing to write home about the year that just ended. Last year, there was no doubt that we had a lot of challenges. There was so much of insecurity in the country. The problem was because of negligence on the part of government. In fact, before now, the government would have known that the insecurity situation would one day come to be in Nigeria. From my intelligence gathering both in the pre and post election period, there were clear indications that the insecurity challenge would come. The situation came principally because the government lacked the political will to address the issues at stake. I foresee disaster in 2015 when Nigeria would conduct her general elections. It would be worse than what we had in 2011 general elections. It is obvious that government lacks the ability to address the insecurity issue in the country. Things are running out of hand. Today, most of those in government are part of the Boko Haram sect. To some extent, some of them are part of the sect because the government is not paying any attention to security issues.

It is really disturbing and very unfortunate that this whole thing is happening in the northern part of the country and by extension Nigeria at large. We are all worried and if you look at the situation of things in Nigeria, you would know that our generation is in trouble. Even the yet unborn generation of Nigeria is going to inherit a lot of trouble. One would have expected that in the 21st century Nigeria that we would have gone further than the security challenge the nation is facing. By now, we ought to have been thinking of things that are more developmental. We should now be thinking of a Nigeria that is free for everybody where things work and people can go about their business without fear. But with the way things are in Nigeria, it is obvious that the doom’s day is ahead. It gives a lot of us sleepless nights and it keeps us thinking.

One can imagine the kind of money going into security. Most of the government officials have taken their own part of the cake. They believe that the more deaths and crisis, the more government votes money to security and the more they would get their own share. Nobody cares about the roots of the issue so that it can be addressed once and for all. To that extent, even President Goodluck Jonathan who happens to be a witness to the whole issue admitted that really, there are Boko Haram members in his government. It is no longer news that he said it himself. And if there are Boko Haram members in your government, what then are you doing as a government and President of the country? Is that a joke when it is threatening the lives of over 150 million Nigerians? Is it funny that people are dying everyday in the country? I feel that the way we are going, if care is not taken, we might wake up one day and the story that Nigeria would disintegrate may come to pass. This is because apart from insecurity in the country, there is also the issue of religion and ethnicity coming into play. This is because the more you have casualty in the southern part of the country, the more you also have casualty in the northern part of the country. It is only God that is helping us, if not, what is happening in the northern part of the country is enough to break the country. If it happens in some other countries in Africa, the whole place would have been ablaze by now.

So, do we continue to fold our hands and think that God would come down to provide solutions to our problems as a country? One day, God too would be tired and say my children, I am tired; you are not the only children I have. If it happens, before you know it, everybody would have been six feet down. Last year was nothing to write home about and I do not want to pre-empt this year but it appears from all indications too, there is more danger ahead. Politicians now make all sorts of utterances and get away with it. Yes, we are in a democracy but democracy is not about madness. If you want to say something, be constructive in what you say. You do not say things to overheat the polity or simply because you want to make a point which in most cases are for selfish interests. Now we have a lot of challenges.

The issue of ethnicity has become so obvious today that people do not see themselves as Nigerians any longer. The issue of religion also has become more challenging despite our efforts for people to play low on it. It is very glaring that the issue of religion is glaringly becoming stronger by the day. This is coupled with the threats we are getting from other countries in Africa. I am afraid that if Nigeria falls into that calamity, we would not survive it. If what is happening in Mali today happens in Nigeria, there would be trouble. It should open our eyes to what could happen because if rebels in Mali are attracting this kind of attention from the whole world, you can imagine what would happen if it were Nigeria. Mali is a very small country but look at how they held the whole world to ransom. Everybody is busy looking for water to put out that fire because if not, even the entire West Africa may be consumed. If that happens, it would become a serious challenge to developed nations because managing the refugees would be too much for them and the economy would begin to crash.

Do you think that some people are making profit from the insecurity situation in the country? I ask this question because you earlier said that some people do not want the insecurity situation particularly in the North to stop.

That is exactly what I am saying. How do you justify the security votes to some state governors? They make so much money from the vote without accounting for it. Some of them want the situation to continue so that they can claim to be spending the money to fight insecurity in their states. I am afraid that some of them can even send their thugs to mastermind insecurity somewhere and they would claim to spend huge sums of money there. Their main allocation is what attracts the attention of the people but in the case of security vote, they spend it any how they like. Even those at the federal level also see the security votes as an avenue to make money. Recently, Boko Haram said they want to have dialogue in Saudi Arabia and they made mention of names but when I heard that, I said it was a fraud and I have been justified. People would just sit down and form a story and tell the government to dish out money in the name of somebody mediating. Between them and Boko Haram, over $400 million was given out last time. At some occasions, even $20,000 to $200,000 was given out simply because somebody wants to mediate and the same time nobody has come out openly at any time to say he is Boko Haram. People would just be talking on the internet and government would just be dishing out money.

Government would be squandering Nigerian taxpayers money. The issue of poverty is no more news even with the resources that we have. People are dying in Nigeria of poverty and hunger daily. Opportunities are not there for people to work. The political class has subjected the people to unimaginable poverty and hardship. And for how long would this continue. Over and over, we keep talking about the past, we do not talk about the present.

I thought the past would have been a lesson to us to forge ahead. Now, we make references to the past as better days. I never supported military administration but I must confess that today I feel that the military is far better than what we are seeing today. After all our struggles including some of us putting our lives on the line to chase the military away, today, some rascals that were never part of the struggle have acquired so much power. The progressives and socialists who fought to entrench democracy were not interested in power then and some rascals just came and hijacked power to oppress the people. The people who are enjoying political power in Nigeria today never knew how democracy came to the nation. They never made any sacrifice and as a result, even with the power they have today, they do not add value to the lives of the people. The life of an ordinary person is nothing to them. If a hundred people die, they say it is only just one hundred people. In other developed countries, they cannot afford to lose one person. They know the value of lives. In Nigeria today, we do not attach value to our human resources and lives of the people. All over the world, human resources are considered paramount but in Nigeria, they look at it as a secondary issue.

As a youth leader in the northern part of the country, what is your take on the recent attack on the Emir of Kano, one of the most revered royal fathers in the country?

The attack on the Emir is a clear indication that we are in danger in the country. It is shocking that such a first class royal father was attacked in broad daylight. For the great Ado Bayero to be attacked just like that, it means all hands must be on deck in this country. Often times, the story has always been that a son of nobody has died but now the threat has gone to our leaders. Going to attack a man like Ado Bayero means that nobody is safe any longer. But the attack was condemnable and one begins to wonder how the emir was attacked. It is confusing. Who is masterminding such an attack or whose interest was such an attack? Was that attack meant to send more chaos in the country? God forbid, if something has happened to the Emir of Kano, perhaps Nigeria would have been burning by now. Everybody would have been consumed in it.

The tension in the northern part of the country would have been very high and what would have happened in the South? Do you think people in the south would just fold their hands? This means that after going to mosques and churches to put bomb to cause religious crises and it did not work, the attack of very prominent people is now the new strategy. If not that God intervened, the Emir was their target. If you look at all the scenario, you would notice that even those who claim to have power and protection of the police and other security agencies are not safe. It is either everybody including the high and mighty comes low for us to find a solution to it or all of us would be consumed by the crisis of insecurity in the country. When we talk, people assume that we are too sentimental or too hard in our positions but the fact is that we feel that Nigeria is home for all.

If Nigeria is the home for all, we cannot keep quiet because there is no better place like Nigeria. There is no place to show our patriotism and say this is the nation called our own. This is why some of us are so passionate about Nigeria. Some people do not think that what is happening to a common man could happen to anybody. The way the country is going, if you think you can steal money and go abroad, you must be joking because the moment they discover that you do not have money again, they would chase you away and if you come home, you would be lynched. Measures must be taken now. Corruption is so high in the country and it is worse now than during the era of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. This is because few people now corner the public’s money and squander it with all impunity. It is only in Nigeria that people do things with all impunity and nobody cares to ask questions.

In President Jonathan’s administration, money has been cornered to few local politicians that do not even know what to do with the money or what the problems of the nation are about. Some of them, if you ask them of their constituencies, they do not even know. And if you bring somebody who do not know anything about a place, you do not expect him to perform. What the political class does now is to support somebody who does not know anything so that he would not know what they are doing. If not, there are genuine people in this country but the political class would not allow them to come up. I am talking about people who can move the country to the next level.

If you bring somebody who does not see beyond his nose, then there is a problem. Look at Jonathan’s cabinet, how many intelligent people have you seen there? Some of them, if you listen to their English or their attitude, one would almost run mad and one begins to wonder what kind of school they went to. I think the National Assembly should rise up to an occasion where if somebody says I went to this and that school, they should be able to go and ascertain the veracity of his claim.

We should not assume that everything a politician in authority says is true. When you sit down with some of them one on one, you would discover they are empty. These are people who did not suffer during the period of dictatorship and they are imposed on the people as leaders whereas some of them are common rascals. They do not have respect for the people. The primary responsibility of any government is the provision of welfare and security of lives and property of the people. But in the case of Nigeria, the reverse is the case. It is not about the welfare of the people but about the interest of those who found themselves in power.

An average Nigerian does not really count to the political class and for how long would this continue? Do we continue to fold our hands and allow the country to be consumed? We rather talk because silence is a crime in an unjust society. Often times I do not talk about where I come from but Nigeria as my primary constituency.

If we see ourselves as Nigerians, then we must be patriotic. About one year ago, there was the issue of fuel subsidy and we thought that it was the end of it but before we knew it, we dabbled into trouble. Nigerians are still paying more than what they were paying in the past for fuel and they are still suffering. Despite the sacrifices of Nigerians during that subsidy crisis, they still did not respect the views of the people. A committee was put in place and it came up with very powerful recommendations but till today, nobody has heard anything about the report of that committee again. All these going about arranging Farouk Lawan on one hand and Femi Otedola on the other is a joke. I understand that Otedola is their agent because it seems government is trying to protect him. The magic was to make sure that they sabotage the report by that committee. It is not about Otedola or Farouk Lawan but simply because they wanted to sabotage that effort, they brought Otedola on board to frame up and do all that magic for Lawan who eventually fall as a victim. But now if you are talking about prosecuting the receiver, what about the giver? All of them committed the same offence. The way they are going, it is obvious that they want to kill the report of that Farouk Lawan committee. The noise about arresting Lawan now is not the issue but implementing the details of the report. We would not allow the government to kill the report. We are ready to mobilize over 10 million Nigerians to ensure that the report is not killed as they are planning. So, we cannot be distracted by the talk about arresting or prosecuting Lawan. The report is the key to us.

What is your take on the increasing tension over the 2015 general election?

I have my fears. I was surprised yesterday going through the internet and I saw a story about El-Rufai, a senior brother and somebody I respect so much. He was quoted as making blasphemous statements by even mentioning Jesus Christ. If the story is true, it is very disappointing of him. Such a statement can cause a big damage to the country. It is only that we have a government that does not care about anything, if not, El-Rufai could have been called to order. If he were a Christian that made that statement, it would have been a different thing but this is a Muslim making such an inflammatory statement. It is disappointing of a man in the caliber of El-Rufai. I am a Muslim but I do not think that anybody has a right to talk about any other person’s religion.

If leaders begin to talk that way and governments keep quiet, then there is a problem. I do not have any sympathy for this government but I differ with El-Rufai on that. Is he trying to create more tension in Nigeria? Before the election, some leaders made such a statement that if they do not come to power, there would be problem and you saw what happened. It is not good for leaders to make such inflammatory statements. Nobody is above the law. I pray that all these kind of statements would not lead to more instability in the country.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/politics/if-emir-of-kano-had-died-nigeria-would-have-gone-up-in-flames-yerima/

Over 90 percent of Nigerians never believed that anything good will come out of the super eagles...it is possible to proove your critics wrong by succeeding in life

There was high hopes on Yobo and ike Uche but destiny shifted to sunday mba who will always score on a sunday and victor moses..if nobody believes in you in yourfamily, just keep hope alive the table can turn

Lets have your own life lessons learnt

This looks like a 3D stuff but I keep wondering why humanity invests so much in inventing what will destroy humanity one day.

LETS GO THERE

Adanyebe: I Belief We are going to spell word "BURKINA" Just like We Did Against MALI

so of all pictures you can use to play your jokes its that of our president.simply because he is not your father. i feel like insulting you but not in my manners. i just wish you what you wish him.

This division is too early. I see POP laughing in Burundi

@APC Your candidate for presidency in 2015 will determine how far you will go. Bury your power drunkenness and look for a saleable candidate. Also be prepared because PDP will plant saboteurs in your midst.
You also will have to come up with a workable manifestos before people like me will start taking you serious.

I reserve my comment until we get to finals.

AjanleKoko: Bullshit story.
So if they had lost the game, they should be looking for tickets to leave SA? Why won't they book tickets?
You're as daft as the jobless people that wrote that story

Now that they have scaled through is it not tax payers money they will use to extend that flight.
Who said flight can't be booked the same hour if they had lost out. Abeg give yourself brain

That Hallam in the football house breathes through his anus so I'm not surprised. How dare you write of a man when he is still alive.
Meaning that he has also typed keshi's sack letter.

There is one way out of this mess. Take a census of the tribes in the army and publish it for ! Nigerians to see. It will be clear which tribe has dominated the army for over 50 years. When someone arises to right wrongs people will wake to evil agitation. Obj came to power in 1999 and retired many generals and divided the armoury to all regions of Nigeria and they shouted that he was giving preference to Yoruba people.until we accept Merritt as a country, we may continue to be on auto reverse..

Why is that man linked to many footballers?

once you start growing bear bear for that junction
once you start growing bear bear for your jaw
once your third leg dey vex early in the morning like agama lizard

Gbam! Gbammer!! Gbammest!!!
Its a super storrrrrrrrry...part what please?

THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF A NATION: WHO WILL RESTORE THE DIGNITY OF Nigeria?

Protocols

I am hugely delighted to return to my alma mater the great and only University of Nigeria to speak at your 42nd convocation. Twenty eight years ago I sat just like you those of you who are part of the graduating Class of 2013; excited by my graduation. It was 1985 and I was very privileged to be one of the then only 3% of our own youthful population that had the opportunity of a university education. Today, you are still fortunate to be one of the yet paltry 4.3% of your own youthful generation with an opportunity for university education. For Nigeria that percentage does not compare favorably with 37.5% for Chile 33.7% for Singapore 28.2% for Malaysia, 16.5% for Brazil and 14.6%. Our lag in tertiary education enrollment is quite revealing and could be interpreted as the basis of the competitiveness gap between the same set of countries and Nigeria. The reason is that “…. tertiary enrollment rate which is the percentage of total enrollment, regardless of age, in post-secondary institutions to the population of people within five years of the age at which students normally graduate high school…….plays an essential role in society, creating new knowledge, transferring knowledge to students and fostering innovation”.

The countries with the most highly educated citizens are also some of the wealthiest in the world in a study by the OECD published by the Wall Street Journal last year. The United States, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Finland, Norway, Israel, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia and also have among the largest GDPs. Norway and Australia, also featured, have the second and sixth-highest GDPs per capita, respectively. All these countries aggressively invest in education.

The same cannot be said of Nigeria. The crawling progress in tertiary education enrollment since my graduation more than two and a half decades ago is therefore one key reason previous peer nations left us behind at the lower rungs of global economic rankings. Economic growth rate and ultimate development of nations are determined by a number of factors that range from sound policies, effective and efficient public and private investments and strong institutions. Economic evidence throughout numerous researches proves that one key variable that determines how fast nations out grow others is the speed of accumulation of human capital especially through science and technology education. No wonder these same countries like South Korea of fifty million people has a GDP of$1.12trillion, Brazil of one hundred and ninety six million has $2.48 trillion; Malaysia of twenty eight million people has $278.6Billion; Chile of seventeen million people has $248.59Billion; Singapore of five million people has $318.7 Billion. Meanwhile with our population of 165 million people we make boasts with a GDP of$235.92 Billion- completely way off the mark that we could have produced if we made a better set of development choices.


More dramatic is that this wide gap between these nations and Nigeria was not always the case as some relevant data at the time of our independence reveal. In 1960the GDP of all these countries were not starkly different from that of Nigeria- two were below $200, two were a little above $300 and one was slightly above $500 while that of Nigeria was just about $100. For citizens, these differentials are not mere economic data. Meanwhile by 2011, the range for all five is between Singapore at nearly $50,000, South Korea at $22,000, Malaysia at $10,000, Brazil at $13,000 and Chile at $14,000. Our own paltry $1500income per capita helps drive home the point that we have been left behind many times over by every one of these other countries. How did these nations steer and stir their people to achievesuch outstanding economic performance over the last five decades? There is hardly a basis for comparing the larger population of our citizens clustered within the poverty bracket with the majority citizens of Singapore fortunate to have upper middle income standard of living.


Again, how did this happen? What happened to Nigeria? Why did we get left behind? How did these nations become productively wealthy over the last fifty years while Nigeria stagnated? How did majority of the citizens of these nations join the upper middle class while more Nigerians retrogressed into poverty? There are usually as many different answers to these sets of questions as there are respondents on the reasons we fell terribly behind. Some say, it is our tropical geography, yet economic research shows it has not prevented other countries with similar conditions from breaking through. Others say it is size, but China and India are bigger, yet in the last thirty and twenty years have grown double digit and continue to out- grow the rest of the world at this time of global economic crisis. Furthermore, being small has not necessarily conferred any special advantages to so many other countries with small population yet similarly battling with the development process like we are. Some others say it is our culture but like a political economist posited “European countries with different sorts of cultures, Protestant and Catholic alike that have grown rich. Secondly, different countries within the same broad cultures have performed very differently in economic terms, such as the two Koreas in the post-war era. Moreover, individual countries have changed their economic trajectories even though “their cultures didn’t miraculously change.” How about those who plead our multiethnic nationalities as the constraint but fail to see that the United States of America happens to be one nation with even more disparate ethnic nationalities than Nigeria and yet it leads the global economy! As for those who say it is the adverse impact of colonialism, were Singapore, Malaysia and even China not similarly conquered and dominated by colonialists?

That Nigeria is a paradox of the kind of wealth that breeds penury is as widely known as the fact that the world considers us a poster nation for poor governance wealth from natural resources. The trend of Nigeria’s population in poverty since 1980 to 2010 for example suggests that the more we earned from oil, the larger the population of poor citizens : 17.1 million 1980, 34.5million in 1985, 39.2million in 1992, 67.1million in 1996, 68.7million in 2004 and 112.47 million in 2010! This sadly means that you are children of a nation blessed with abundance of ironies.
Resource wealth has tragically reduced your nation- my nation- to a mere parable of prodigality. Nothing undignifies nations and their citizens like self-inflicted failure. Our abundance of oil, people and geography should have worked favorably and placed us on the top echelons of the global economic ladder by now. After all, basic economic evidence shows that abundance of natural resources can by itself increase the income levels of citizens even if it does not increase their productivity. For example, as Professor Collier a renowned economist who has focused on the sector stated in a recent academic work countries that have enormously valuable natural resources are likely to have high living standards on a sustainable basis by simply replacing some of the extracted resources with financial assets held abroad. Disappointedly, even that choice eluded our governing class who through the decades has spent more time quarreling over their share of the oil “national cake” than they have spent thinking of how to make it benefit the entire populace.

There are perhaps three broad classes of resource rich countries. The first are those which like Norway which have built up all other types of domestic investment from which revenue is generated and can therefore save their huge revenue from gas in foreign assets. The second are those mostly of the Middle East countries like Kuwait which also have saved huge revenue in foreign asset and generate sufficient revenue from the asset to be better off than other countries without resources. However, for Kuwait this may be only because they live well from resource rents rather than becoming productive. The third category of which our country is a classic example are countries which though resource rich have neither been able to build up foreign asset for citizens to live well off of nor evolved new and alternative sectors of productivity.

The appropriate response to the revenue extracted from our oil over the period 1959 to date would have been to use it in accumulating productive investment in the form of globally competitive human capital and physical asset of all types of infrastructure and institutions. Such translation from one form of nonrenewable asset to renewable capital would have been the right replacement strategy for a wasting asset like oil. Unfortunately unbridled profligacy has made us spend and continue to spend the free money from oil like a tragic Rentier state that we are called in development circles. We spend most of what we generate on mere consumption with no tangible productive asset to show for our so called “wealth”.

Due to profligacy we have dismal human development indicators which are inconsistent with the scale of our earnings. For example using life expectancy as a proxy measuring how we score on human development, 51.4years for Nigerians falls far short of the 80years for citizens of Singapore and South Korea, 78years for citizens of Chile, 73 years for citizens of Malaysia and 72years for citizens of Brazil. We may in fact be the world record holder in the rank of natural resources rich countries that tend to have worse human development scores when compared to countries without endowments. As our human development scores have lagged, we continued with our binge on oil revenue and became trapped in cyclical decline of national competitiveness. It explains why every other economic sector in Nigeria has suffered the effect of the oil enclave economy. Oil has unleashed shocks and volatility of revenues on our economy due to exposure to global commodity market swing, proliferated “weak, ineffectual, unstable and systemically corrupt institutions and bureaucracies” that have helped misappropriate or plunder public resources. Nations with abundance of natural resources especially in Africa, Latin America and part of South Asia have experienced the fueling of official corruption and “violent competition for the resource by the citizens of the nation” .

While there may not be concurrence on the causes of Nigeria’s colossal underperformance, most of our citizens however agree that poor governance and the more visible symptom of corruption have had virulent impact in arresting the development of Nigeria. The poor in our land have paid the highest possible price for being born into the world’s best example of a paradox. The common wonderment of these poor citizens – whether east, west, north and south- is “why would more than half the population of a country that earned nearly one trillion dollars in oil revenue since the Oloibori discovery of crude oil; continue to wallow in poverty?” Well, economic evidence shows that the answer which we must all ponder deeply is that oil wealth entrenched corruption and mismanagement of resources in government and warped the incentive for value added work, creativity and innovation in our public, private sectors and wider society. This being the case, the larger population of our people is deprived of the opportunity to overcome poverty and this is what economists call the “resource curse”. The oil revenue induced choices made by our ruling elite over the five decades of political independence cursed several of our citizens to intergenerational poverty!
Endowment of oil resulted in an indulgent elite class – the generations of your great grandparents, grandparents and parents in leadership- who have made disastrous choices that have trapped the destiny of Nigeria in oil wells. It is the reason our economic structure has remained unchanged for more than fifty years. Fact is that our political elite suffers from delusion of greatness simply because we sell barrels of crude oil to finance 80% of our national budget, cover 95% of our foreign exchange and petroleum sectors represents a larger portion of industry’s contribution to our GDP. Little wonder that manufacturing is a mere 18% of our Gross Domestic Products compared to that of all those other nations with which we set off on the development race. Manufacturing which has its major driver as education enabled those nations develop a huge base of human capital with skills and competencies to drive new ideas, creativity and innovation. They embraced their comparative advantage, mimicked nations that were ahead of them, perfected some aspects of manufacturing and became extremely competitive.
While these countries moved up the manufacturing and economic development latter in my fifty years of existence all I can say for Nigeria is that during the same period I have known at least five cycles of commodity booms that offered us rare opportunities to use revenues generated from oil to transform our economy. Sadly, each cycle ended up sliding us farther down the productivity ladder. The present cycle of boom of the 2010s is however much more vexing than the other four that happened in the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s. This is because we are still caught up in it even as I speak today and it is more egregious than the other periods in revealing that we learned absolutely nothing from the previous massive failures. Furthermore, it is happening back to back with the squandering of the significant sum of $45 Billion in foreign reserve account and another $22Billion in the Excess Crude Account being direct savings from increased earnings from oil that the Obasanjo administration handed over to the successor government in 2007.Six years after the administration I served handed over such humongous national wealth to another one; most Nigerians but especially the poor continue to suffer the effects of failing public health and education systems as well as decrepit infrastructure and battered institutions. One cannot but ask, what exactly does symbolize with this level of brazen misappropriation of public resources? Where did all that money go? Where is the accountability for the use of both these resources plus the additional several hundred dollars realized from oil sale by the two administrations that have governed our nation in the last five years? How were these resources applied or more appropriately misapplied? Tragic choices! Yes. Our national dignity continues to be degraded by cycles of stagnation because of the terrible choices my generation and those before repeatedly make as a result of free oil money. The wealth and poverty of a nation never found a better Symbol!

There is no better example of the cost of the imprudent choices than what has happened to Education. The failures and limitations of the education you have received during your time here leading to your graduation today will become clearer to you should you ever seek to do what was very easy for me to do –that is, gain admission to one of the best schools in the world for my graduate studies simply on the strength of my University of Nigeria education. Countries invest in the human skills that can help their citizens use modern technology and eventually rise to the stage where those same citizens can develop their countries’ own technology. A country’s educational system is the key to its long-run development. According to economic study of the role of education in economic development, “Less than half of the rise in living standards since 1960 in industrial countries has been due to savings and investments from its citizens. The rest of the increase – more than 50% has been due to rising educational levels and to improvements in technology that raise factor productivity across the board”. I had known this as a Minister of Education in this country a few years ago. That knowledge inspiredand fueled my zeal to bring education to the front burners of our national development at that time. The result of the diagnostics that we produced on the state of our education system and sector was so heart wrenching that I was filled with angst at how low we had sunk educationally. Deciding to channel the angst positively, we built a strong team that articulated some three hundred and sixty eight ‘root and branch ‘reforms measures across the six levels and aspects of education- early childhood, basic, secondary, tertiary, special needs and adult/informal education. The response of resistance by some of the key political elite to the absolutely necessary reforms when welaid them out before the nation to generate consensus and implement is made clearer by what one today knows of the incentives that drive the choices of extractive elites. I will return to this as I get closer to the conclusion of my speech.

I read an article by David Wraight in which he posits that there is a globalized generation of youth – often referred to as the Millennial Generation. “They believe that they can change the world for the better, but they are unsure what they should change the world to; so they search for an ideology or system of belief to use as a foundation for the change they seek. They are actually searching for something worth living for and dying for.” They are optimistic and idealistic with a deep desire to make their mark in the world. They dream of what can be, and follow their dreams with passion and perseverance. They are no longer prepared to be spectators watching the world go by, but want to be ‘players’, to get their hands dirty, to make a difference. They are knowledgeable about the affairs of the world and very mobile, travelling as much as resources and opportunity allow.”

As globalization and modern technology continue to shrink our world people are connecting worldwide as never before – particularly young people – and overcoming cultural, geographical, language and ethnic barriers with ease. For the first time in human history we are seeing the emergence of a global youth culture with common values, dreams and desires. You are actually not different from your generational peers in Tunisia, Egypt, the United States and many other countries that have have questioned and overturned the status quo and established new norms in the governance of their nations. When it becomes an imperative for your generation to save Nigeria from its cycles of disastrous and destructive choices promoted by the older generations then you can rightly be called the Turning Point Generation. The turning point is when there begins to emerge a New Nigeria that is radically different from all that we have known of failure. The turning point is the point of restoration of Dignity. Yes. That quality or state of being worthy of esteem or respect; of being regarded as nobility and having worth!
One of America’s legendary leaders; President J. F. Kennedy called it the “source of national purpose” when he said “I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, human liberty as the source of national action, the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas”. Like individuals, nations have or lack dignity depending on how well they practice these famous words of John D. Rockefeller – “I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living”. Dignity of honest toil and the sweet triumph that results from such strenuous effort is after all what confers deserving honor on people and societies. Booker T. Washington expressed this Truth powerfully when he wrote that “no race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem”. We must take way a lasting message from the profound thoughts of these historical figures that helped build the still greatest nation in the world- the United States of America.

The clear message is that Dignity is conferred on a life of effort and hard work and not on a life of ignoble ease for the latter can easily become dulled by contemptible wealth. To be born into inheritance like our nature endowed oil wealth does not of itself confer any deserving honor on us and our nation. Our oil rich nation merely makes us a Rentier state. Even worse, the oil wealth has created not the right kind of Elite class across the length and breadth of our nation but rather an Extractive Elite class. These political and business elite have been comfortable with living on rent from oil revenue without seeing the desperate need to redirect the focus of this nation to sources of economic growth that are more lasting than the depleting riches of natural commodities. They fail to realize that a Rentier economy like Nigeria sows the seed of its implosion if it does not advance into a productive economy. Had we been of a lesser population, we may perhaps have been able to all comfortably live off the income from oil as the revenue will make Nigeria sufficiently rich to be able to provide all of us high incomes on a sustainable basis like my friend Paul Collier so scholarly wrote drawing a parallel between individual bequeathed and inheritance and a nation blessed with natural resources. Collier wrote “just as a billionaire can ensure that his descendants need never work. But, just as many billionaires realize that it is good to earn a living, so all societies sensibly aspire to be productive. Resource extraction should make a society more productive”. My dear young friends, all Nigerians but especially our very prebendalist leadership class must realize that it is good for both individuals and nations to earn their living!

So I ask youas representatives of your generation, “Who will restore the Dignity of Nigeria?” As my big brother, former President of South Africa -Thabo Mbeki- once asked along the same vein “When will the day come that our dignity will be fully restored, when the purpose of our lives will no longer be merely to survive until the sun rises tomorrow”!Your word of response to my difficult question will not persuade anyone. It is the follow on action that stands the chance of being persuasive. The reason is simple. Word is cheap. As was profoundly observed by Marti Jose, “other famous men, those of much talk and few deeds, soon evaporate. Action is the dignity of greatness”. So I ask you again, “Who will WALK AND WORK to restore the Dignity of Nigeria?” Through my probing question, I abide with the challenge of Shriver Sargent who believed that every new generation must be taught the dignity of work- “Do we talk about the dignity of work? Do we give our students any reason for believing it is worthwhile to sacrifice for their work because such sacrifices improve the psychological and mental health of the person who makes them?” Do you know that your embrace of a new mindset – an entrepreneurial mindset that takes pride in problem solving can change the course of our history and place us on a new economic development trajectory? Do you know that in order to herald a New Nigeria we must accept the words of Michelle Obama on learning about dignity and decency – “that how hard you work matters much more than how much you make…..that helping others means much more than just getting ahead yourself” is what we need to herald a New Nigeria?

A New Nigeria would be one where the citizens and leaders alike converge on a common vision for our nation. That vision need not be complex. It is in fact extremely important that because everyone who reads it must desire to run with its ideals that the Vision must be simple. For me a simple Vision will read- “we believe in Dignity”. Although it sounds so ordinary but it profoundly conveys that we believe in the Dignity that lays within ourselves and not the fleeting sense of wealth that oil money creates. WE are our best endowment. Our capabilities- nurtured and nourished by a just society- and not our oil, not our gas not even our thirty four classes of minerals scattered across the country represent the lasting and renewable asset of our nation. Whereas as a Madagasy proverb says, oil induced “poverty won’t allow us lift our heads; dignity which is the fruit of hard work won’t allow us bow them down.
For Nigeria’s dignity to be restored your generation must build a coalition of your entrepreneurial minds that are ready to ask and respond to the question “What does it take for nations to become rich? Throughout economic history, the factors that determine which nations became rich and improved the standard of living of their citizens read like a Dignity treatise in that they all revolve around the choices that ordinary citizens made in defining the value constructs of their nation. We learn that it takes a very strong interplay of political and economic dynamics for nations to climb out from the rung of poverty and raise the standard of living of citizens. The political foundation of nations emerges as the principal reason why some nations grow rich while others remain poor in the field of development economics. A ground breaking work by Daren Acemoglu, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and James Robinson (economist), a Harvard professor has brought politics to the center stage of economic development. Although sound policies and access to capital for investing in development priorities remain very important for economic success no country can however achieve development without having a strong political foundation made up of political players, system, processes and structures that are grounded in inclusivity and accountability. The active participation of the citizens who seek to restore their individual and collective dignity in the politics of their nation is what ensures that THE PEOPLE and not a bunch of power hungry and extractive elite will set the agenda and determine the quality and substance of governance.

The simple version of this thesis is “sort out a nation’s political mess and you improve the chances of getting a productive economy that grows and delivers the benefits of growth in the form of jobs and improved incomes to all citizens”. Although this advice is rooted in empirical evidence from economic research it does sound very basic. Not being one of those earth shattering solutions that Nigerians are often enamored of, we may choose to ignore it. Yet if we are willing to confront our past and present reality with sincerity and ruminate on our political history, this thesis may actually be a Turning Point “Aha” moment for us. The Turning Point is that moment when we all suddenly realized that Politics- a process that defines the How, Who, Which, Where, When and for What any individual or group of persons who seek to govern Nigeria- is indeed the root cause of our repeated failures. Neither our thirty four years of cumulative military governance nor the nineteen cumulative years thus far of our democratic governance provided us “inclusive and accountable governance.” Evidently, it is the undeveloped character of our political history, inchoate political structure and system and mostly uninspiring cast of political leadership that threw Nigeria into a hole from which it must climb out quickly to secure its continuing existence. Instructively, a person or as in our own case; a nation is counseled to “stop digging when in a hole”. Lamentably, in our case we have consistently rebuffed the wisdom behind that counsel. We have instead dug deeper and the more we have dug, the deeper into the hole we have sunk and all because of political misadventures.
Trace the political history of our country since independence in 1960 and you will better understand the horror of our faulty political foundation. The first democratic government ushered in an independent Nigeria but was cut short by a coup in 1966, a counter coup in 1967, civil war from 1967 to 1970, military rule from 1970 at the end of the war until another coup in 1975, another unsuccessful coup in 1976 the then Head of State was murdered, continued rule of the military until 1979 when a successful political transition ushered in the second republic but it became a democratic process that was known more for its prodigality than for governance until it was cut short in 1983 by yet another military coup but this new junta was itself sent packing by a coup in 1985 with a new military junta ruling from 1985 until 1993 when it thwarted the political rights of citizens who had elected a democratic president by annulling the elections. It responded to the public disturbance and agitation that followed by installing an interim national government that lasted only three months following yet another military intervention that was more heinous than ever until 1998 when divine providence cut short that particular leadership ushering in yet another military ruler who committed to and successfully conducted a transition that ushered democratic governance in 1999. That it is now fourteen years of uninterrupted even if fledgling democratic governance since 1999 is perhaps the very tiny ray of light in what is otherwise a canvass of political tragedies.
Yet, despite the general consensus satisfaction with the record number of democratic years since 1999, darkness still ominously clouds our political landscape. While the nation continues to experience the paradox of plenty and citizens are once again provoked by this latest round of prodigality of our political elite one cannot but sigh in disbelief that these casts of gladiators seem not to have learned anything from our inglorious political history. The recklessness and impunity with which public institutions and resources are being handled; the daily news of systemic and now democratized corruption by political office holders and their business elite collaborators has entrenched cynicism and pessimism in the land. How can our political elite not see that we are all sitting on kegs of gun powder? How can they not see that whatever peace we may appear to have at this time is like the peace of the graveyard? How can they not see that the teeming population of extremely angry and more interconnected young people cannot be silent for too much longer? How can they not know that preachments of patience and sacrifice will no longer placate the two million young people who annually enter the terriblyconstrained labor market pushing up the already worrisome 40% unemployment ratio among our youthful population? How can they not see the hypocrisy of the platitudes on sacrifice to poor citizens who thanks to greater access to information are able to closely follow the lifestyle of delusional grandeur and debauchery that their leaders finance from the public treasury? Where is the much needed innovative and entrepreneurial mindset that the public sector must earnestly deploy in solving the multiple problems of our nation? Why does our own variant of political elite not even understand the most basic necessity for change of the status quo methods that have failed to deliver benefits of governance to citizens? “Elites resist innovation because they have a vested interest in resisting change — and new technologies that create growth can alter the balance of economic or political assets in a country. Technological innovation makes human societies prosperous, but also involves the replacement of the old with the new, and the destruction of the economic privileges and political power of certain people,” wrote Acemoglu and Robinson. Yet when elites temporarily preserve power by preventing innovation, they ultimately impoverish their own states. Sadly, they most often do not care what happens to the rest of the nation, and that arguably has been the lot of Nigerian through the years.
In the course of the last six months of my returning home to Nigeria after five year in international public service at the World Bank in Washington DC, I have many times come across the cutting anger of unemployed, disillusioned citizens who are louder in their disaffection with the condition of the country. The strident voices of citizens in public debates of national issues are louder and more penetrating than ever before. We are indeed at a turning point. How it turns however will be determined by you my dear friends. Today, you are the generation that holds the ace. You are the generation for whom the stakes are highest on the issue of how well this nation turns its governance corner. You are the generation that can define a new character and quality of politics in Nigeria and inherently the quality of governance outcomes in the decades and century ahead. You are the generation that can birth a New Nigeria devoid of all negatives that have inhibited our greatness and one in which every citizen is mobilized to construct a “National Integrity System” which is imperative for the building of every decent society.
You can do so by seeking to understand and to engage the stunted political context and nation that you have inherited. You will have to take hold of both and turn them around into a mature democracy and nation. What you must seek to do is to create a new political context in which citizens’ demand for good governance and accountability begins to compel those who govern to persistently make choices that will more likely improve the outcomes of economic management for the larger number of Nigerians.You have the tools needed for massive political and civic education of your illiterate peers on the importance of political rights and participation in the political process. By virtue of your university education and experiences you understand the economics of politics in Nigeria better than your illiterate peers who ignorantly trade off their political rights and chances for better governance outcomes for a mere mess of porridge.

Economics teaches us that there are some basic Smithian conditions (as espoused by Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations) for sustainable economic growth. No country has become rich, and stayed that way, without establishing these conditions. Countries such as Great Britain and the United States became rich because their citizens overthrew the elites who controlled power and created a society with political rights more broadly distributed and the government accountable and responsive to citizens. In these countries the great mass of people could take advantage of economic opportunities and so the entire nation prospered. To the contrary, nations dominated by self-centered elite fail and they are extremely poor.

Your generation can work as collectives across this country and set the agenda for lasting positive change in the political architecture of Nigeria. Only after reading Why Nations Fail did I finally understand the wise words of Plato that “one of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”. Therefore, do not be like me and my kind who have ignored politics and left it to professional politicians to determine its character and substance. The incentive that must drive your own impulses on whether to engage or not is the knowledge that except the insalubrious political context that has produced a persistently failing Nigeria changes positively; your individual talents, opportunities and greatness will not materialize nor be maximized. In deciding to free Nigeria from its legendary political failures, you will actually free yourselves to excel like your contemporaries in the rest of the world. “The positive dimensions of succeeding at this task democratizing political powers beyond the minuscule are accountability, property rights and rule of law, which in combination provide low transactions cost so that markets can work effectively and efficiently. When these conditions are absent, a society faces corruption, instability and poor human rights. Investors, including domestic investors, flee such settings”. Do you now see how inextricably connected our political and economic fortunes are in determining the quality of life of the Nigerian? Do you now see what our Big Problem is?
A recent global survey showed that your generation around the world stands out as the most connected to the developments in international affairs. So, most of you will assuredly be aware that not just in our nation but that everywhere else world over, people are seeking for those who can solve the Big Problems in their respective nations. In several other nations the solutions to Big Problems are coming from your generational peers. Surely, having established that our own Big Problem is the failure of politics to deliver the right environment in which a productive economy can thrive outside of the extraction of natural resources that fuels the destructive choices of our ruling elite you have the information needed for driving change. You would have to decide whether you are ready to play the role a change catalyst or would rather adopt the safer option which is to “siddon look.” There is no better time to make such life changing decisions than the day of one’s graduation from College.
I should know about making decisions on graduation day! On my graduation day in 1985, my fertile mind having absorbed as much of the eclectic knowledge available on this campus as possible was budding with curiosity about the challenges of good governance in Nigeria. I made up my mind at that time to never lose my VOICE in the society and that for as long as I lived, I would always speak up on matters of governance, transparency, accountability and probity. Divine providence followed that decision and the supportive actions I took to back it and my steps began to be ordered on a trajectory that had me as one of the leaders of our own generations’ campaign for democracy and good governance- The Concerned Professionals with the likes of Pat Utomi, Sam Oni, Morin Babalola and many others. Staying committed to that decision that I made on graduation day was what provided me the rare privilege of becoming one of the few co-founders and a founding director of Transparency International the Berlin based global non-governmental organization that pioneered the work on anti-corruption and promotion of transparency. That decision that I made on graduation day informed all my life choices and paved the path for what you know of my vocational endeavors. So what decisions are you prepared to make today, dear friends? I assure you have the greatest gift of God to mankind is the power to choose. You are empowered to make decisions and choices today that will ultimately determine what, where and how you will be in the next twenty eight years and beyond……..

But I warn you to be mindful and not rush to decide. You will need to fully assess all the possible costs of your decisions and choices and then determine whether you have the strength of will to bear them. Whatever choices you make from today for the purpose of helping build a New Nigeria will most certainly cost you something. Such is the reality of nation rebuilding. Those who truly build their societies pay a price. They are not For example you cannot be one given to the lure of free money, one who cannot defer gratification and one for whom the path of least resistance holds abiding fascination; and then say you are part of the Turning Point Generation. No! The willingness to “enjoy” wealth that is not earned is not consistent with such Turning Point paradigm. For example, for anyone of you in the Class of 2013 you cannot having perverted the maxim “reward for effort” cheating in exams or using forged certificates to gain your admission and say you are a catalyst for the emergence of the New Nigeria. If your decisions or choices from today are driven by some selfish interest of replacing the failed and fading generations so as to repeat their nation-hobbling pattern then please know that you are not of the Turning Point Generation.
I have spoken to you today to stir up your collective effective angst at the indignity of your inheritance. If I have succeeded in raising your determination to free our nation from the trap of oil, then my coming is worthy. If I have succeeded in helping you see how continuous education not more extraction of oil will help you outperform and take Nigeria up the economic development ladder, then my coming worthy. If I have succeeded in preparing you to embrace dignity of labor as your philosophy of life –never shunning legitimate vocation that helps you earn a living regardless of how lowly it might seem- then my coming is worthy. If today, I have succeeded in preparing you for a life ofprivate and public integrity then my coming is worthy. If I have deposited in you a deep seethed contempt for poor governance, then my coming is worthy. If I have succeeded in preparing you for a lifetime of costly choices that invariably ennoble your path then my coming is worthy. If I have succeeded in helping you realize that you are not weak- that you are actually very powerful- and have both the exceptional opportunities and the tools like your peers in other nations to solve our own Big Problem then my coming is worthy. If I have moved you to decide that you will be one of those that will redefine and build a New Nigeria of our dream then is my coming worthy. If I have succeeded in inspiring a resolve within you to uphold from today a strong sense of personal responsibility for the political governance of Nigeria then my coming is worthy. Above all, if I have succeeded in getting you motivated and empowered enough to walk out of this hall seeing ready to walk and work as a part of the Turning PointGeneration that courageously dares to restore the the dignity of Nigeria then is my BEING truly worth it!

I salute you, the great lions and lionesses of the class of 2013! All of you, my dear fellow alumnae of the University of Nigeria are indeed the true Wealth, the Greatness and above all the Dignity of Nigeria!!

Thank you for listening.

OBIAGELI KATRYN EZEKWESILI
CLASS OF 1985, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA
SENIOR ECONOMIC ADVISER, AFRICA ECONOMIC POLICY DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE
OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATION.

I don't know much about this man but for nairaland critical minds to have endorsed his personality...I cross my fingers and watch in anticipation...I also wish him well if finally appointed

Buh people get mind ooh...chayiii
Hell fire needs to be classified

weird

Officially, Dangote is..but in reality, he is far from being the richest.We all know the truth...if the richest men pull out their resources and investments from Dangote.He will become poor..he is simply a poor dude being used by the bourgeousie

Nice piece...

1. Eagles Have Vision

If you ever happen to see an eagle sitting high above the tree or cliff of a stiff mountain, watch closely and see how attentive the bird is. The body sits still and the head will be tilted side to side to observed what is happening below, around and above it. Even if its flying close by, you can observe how keen its eyes are looking for its prey. Eagles have a keen vision. Their eyes are specially designed for long distance focus and clarity. They can spot another eagle soaring from 50 miles away.

Does this characteristic ring a bell in your mind? I am sure it does. Look at great leaders of this world who have come and gone. There are many great leaders that came and went but one characteristic that is common in all is "Vision". Vision is a successful leadership characteristic

Take Abraham Lincoln for example. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, guided his country through the most devastating experience in its national history, the Civil War. He had a vision, to save the union and free the slaves. He is considered by many historians to have been the greatest American president.

You must have a vision that guides and leads your team towards the organization's or societal goals. The vision must be big and focused. A big, focused vision will produce big results.

2. Eagles are fearless

An eagle will never surrender to the size or strength of its prey. It will always give a fight to win its prey or regain its territory.
Try and watch the video on how the Golden Eagle displays remarkable hunting strategy, preying on goats much larger than itself by throwing them off the cliff face.

No matter what the size of that person or what weapon they maybe holding, you would attack them without thought or regard for yourself. It wouldn’t even dawn on you to be afraid because your instinct is to protect that which you love and cherish.

Successful leaders are fearless. They face problems head on.

3. Eagles are Tenacious

Watch an eagle when a storm comes. When other birds fly away from the storm with fear, an eagle spreads its mighty wings and uses the current to soar to greater heights. The eagle takes advantage of the very storm that lesser birds fear and head for cover.

Challenges in the life of a leader are many. These are the storm we must face as leaders to rise to greater heights. Like an eagle, a leader can only rise to greater heights if he takes up the challenges head on without running away from it. This is yet another leadership characteristic.

4. Eagles are High Flyers

Eagles can fly up to an altitude of 10,000 feet, but they are able to swiftly land on the ground. At 10, 000 feet, you will never find another bird. If you find another bird, it has to be an eagle.
An eagle doesn't mingle around with the pigeons. It was Dr. Myles Munroe who said that. Pigeons scavenge on the ground and grumble and complain all day long. Eagles are not. They fly and make less noise waiting for opportunities to strike their next prey or glide with the current of the storm.

Great leaders are problem solvers. They don't complain like the pigeons do. They love to take challenges as the eagle does when the storm comes.

5. Eagles Never Eat Dead Meat


An eagle never eats dead meat. In other words, an eagle does not scavenge. It only eats the meat from the prey it kills itself. Eagles eat raw and fresh meat What a great act of true leadership.

A true leader spends time with people who are vibrant and liberal in thinking. You have to be with people who can think, make informed decisions and take actions. These are the people who bring changes to the society. They are lively and active people. Go out and look for them.

According to Tony Buzan, a proponent of the techniques of Mind Mapping and mental literacy, these type of people are called change thinkers and change makers.

There is a saying that goes like this: "People you hang around with and the books you read eventually determines the person you become."

6. Eagles posses Vitality


Eagles are full of life and are visionary but they find time to look back at their life and re-energize themselves. This happens at about the age of 30. What happens is that when the eagles reach the age of 30, their physical body condition deteriorates fast making it difficult for them to survive.

What is really interesting is that the eagle never gives up living, instead it retreats to a mountaintop and over a five month period goes through a metamorphosis. It knocks off its own beak by banging it against a rock, plucks out its talons and then feathers. Each stage produces a re-growth of the removed body parts, allowing the eagle to live for another 30 - 40 years.

There are times in your life as a leader that you must look back and take stock of your life. The good and the bad experiences you have been through as a leader. Are you keeping in trend with the current knowledge trend? Do you need to improve your certain areas in your life as a leader?

Great leaders are the ones that always do "check and balance"of their personal and professional lives and make an effort to learn things every day.

7. Eagles Nurture their younger ones

Believe this or not. Eagles are known for their aggression. They are absolutely ferocious aren't they? Any one who doesn't have a total knowledge of this great bird will say yes. What is more astonishing with this bird is their ability to nurture their young ones. Research has shown that no member of the bird family is more gentle and attentive to its young ones than the eagles.

This is how it happens. When the mother eagle sees that time has come for it to teach the eaglets to fly, she gathers an eaglet onto her back, and spreading her wings, flies high. Suddenly she swoops out from under the eaglet and allows it to fall. As it falls, it gradually learns what its wings are for until the mother catches it once again. The process is repeated. If the young is slow to learn or cowardly, she returns it to the nest, and begins to tear it apart, until there is nothing left for the eaglet to cling to. Then she nudges him off the cliff.

True leaders are not bosses. They grow with their people. They strive to make individuals in the organization or society grow to their full ability. They teach and guide just like the mother eagle does. They never stop giving challenges but never give-up empowering and directing.

Note:
If you learnt something from this article, let me know by commenting in the comments section below. Have a beautiful weekend and a wonderful new year ahead.

There's this cute puppy close by that I've gotten to like. It's always chained though, just close to my residence. Her big brown eyes, fluffy fur and playful manners makes it fun to play with, really. Some few weeks later, I noticed this Puppy roaming around the same spot it used to be chained to, though now, it's off the chain hooks. I wondered how the hitherto crying puppy couldn't run away after having that moment without the aching chains! I decided to ask its Vet Doctor why he could take that risk. What if the Dog escapes??!!! Chain it! Don't let it run away!...All manner of thoughts ran through me.

When I asked the Veterinary Doctor, he simply told me, "It can't run. It has gotten very familiar with the environment." Hmmm! This struck me! So, there's a 'Mental Chain' apart from the one made with Iron?! It is what holds a man or woman on a spot, not due to external conditions, but internal permutations of the mind that have developed from familiarity with the ills of life. The Dog has grown familiar with the consistent chaining, to now unconsciously accept the enslaving and limiting environment as its destiny. Even when unchained, it still can't leave it's 'slavery'. Why? The mind is still chained. Free Neck, but chained Mind!

Isn't this also how many people have grown up under wrong ideologies, debasing family notions, limiting traditions etc that has been their 'pot-hole' on the journey of life. Their longevity in it has made them unconsciously accept such as their 'residence'!
As you enter 2013, notice the beliefs and ideologies that are the unseen 'chains' slowing your unveiling. Many have erroneously traced the failures, defeats and stagnation of the past to friends, economy, Pastors, Money etc, not knowing how their own mindset has set them up.

Your mind can hold you down than what you think! Liberation came to the neck of that Dog, but not to its mind, so it remained on same spot. May you differ in this New Year. In 2013, you'll advance with accuracy! God will open your eyes to His road for you. Every unknown limits on you suddenly begin to vaporise. In 2013, God has favored you! Your hands are rich. Your feet are accurate. Your eyes see opportunities. Your ears hear wisdom and your mouth tastes fatness! Congratulations! Happy New Year in advance!!
God Bless You!

Men already love your body as it is but when you're confident, it's even more of a turn on! Along those lines...

Women need to know that looks aren't the only thing that matters to us. If I want to be in a relationship with somebody, I need to have a deeper connection with them than just the physical. The best thing that a woman could do to attract me is to be herself.

Less is more. Definitely. You don't want to overdo it. If you don't exude beauty from within, no amount of makeup will be able to cover that up.

I think most women, my fiance included, are pretty enough and don't need a lot of makeup. I mean, it's great to be able to hide a few blemishes or to enhance what you already have, but women who wear too much make up seem insecure and unsure of themselves."

"Men want to kiss a woman's face and not the makeup that's on it. Who wants to feel like they are kissing a mask?"

[I think] you can tell a lot about a woman's personality by the makeup she wears. If it's heavier, especially during the day, she's more exaggerated and theatrical and may be hiding something. If it's lighter, she's more down to earth and confident.

If I notice your makeup, it's too much.please, I'm meant to notice your beauty

Kunbee: I feel like sanding you

Did you just say 'sanding' chayi...you really need to go back to school. Pls ask your neighbour what it means to slap someone in pidgin.. No be sanding you here! Mongo park

For me talk is cheap...Pastor Tunde carried out his ctiticisms with political interest and party affiliations.Nnaji didn't talk but we saw action.I hereby vote Nnaji.

They said the world will end this night? Abeg the trumpet don sound? cos my neighbour's generator fit no allow me hear when it sounds.

The principles you're about to read here applies ONLY to the LOVE leading TO MARRIAGE!

It is true that everyone wants to be loved as they're, but really- how many people even know who they are and should be?! Many times, I notice how some guys and ladies crave for a disciplined person to love them, but hoping he or she won't mind the unchanging indiscipline or unruly life they themselves live! However, who wants to wed an erring, yet dogged liability?!

To love you as you are is only or mostly ideal when:

(1) You're different in personality and perspective, yet nothing really bad about both- just different attitudes. Simple! Example: A Bold girl and a Reserved guy are just different personalities; no qualms. However, a bold, yet rude, nagging and proud lady or guy isn't just a different personality; it's an injurious difference!

(2) Even if you've got a faulty personality, make sure you crave for his or her love so as to be helped to speed up your ALREADY ignited 'change' and to get back to your right self. If your belief, demeanor and intention for change isn't there, please don't blame him or her for walking away from you! Any stumbling person must learn the proper moral expectations and consciously work towards it, rather than priding in his or her 'uniqueness'!

Many people want who is good as a spouse, but they don't want to pay any price for self-development; so then, they quickly request for an 'unsentimental' love towards themselves. But...why shouldn't you rather start working on yourself and allow the other person meet you as a 'Work-in-Progress', rather than an 'Abandoned building' that resists development? It's unfair to want a 'gem' as a spouse, but you damn every opportunity to be such to him or her!

Therefore, I believe people should be loved as who they are, but that is when the two points above are present. Many have gotten emotional and wedded him or her while despising these points, only to find out decades later that they're still dealing with same stinging error from their spouse. That's where Marriage is different from Evangelism. You don't marry, believing God to help you preach him or her to change! You should do that to the friend or neigbhour across the street, while you marry the one who has his or her 'Compass' in place already.

The principles you're about to read here applies ONLY to the LOVE leading TO MARRIAGE!

It is true that everyone wants to be loved as they're, but really- how many people even know who they are and should be?! Many times, I notice how some guys and ladies crave for a disciplined person to love them, but hoping he or she won't mind the unchanging indiscipline or unruly life they themselves live! However, who wants to wed an erring, yet dogged liability?!

To love you as you are is only or mostly ideal when:

(1) You're different in personality and perspective, yet nothing really bad about both- just different attitudes. Simple! Example: A Bold girl and a Reserved guy are just different personalities; no qualms. However, a bold, yet rude, nagging and proud lady or guy isn't just a different personality; it's an injurious difference!

(2) Even if you've got a faulty personality, make sure you crave for his or her love so as to be helped to speed up your ALREADY ignited 'change' and to get back to your right self. If your belief, demeanor and intention for change isn't there, please don't blame him or her for walking away from you! Any stumbling person must learn the proper moral expectations and consciously work towards it, rather than priding in his or her 'uniqueness'!

Many people want who is good as a spouse, but they don't want to pay any price for self-development; so then, they quickly request for an 'unsentimental' love towards themselves. But...why shouldn't you rather start working on yourself and allow the other person meet you as a 'Work-in-Progress', rather than an 'Abandoned building' that resists development? It's unfair to want a 'gem' as a spouse, but you damn every opportunity to be such to him or her!

Therefore, I believe people should be loved as who they are, but that is when the two points above are present. Many have gotten emotional and wedded him or her while despising these points, only to find out decades later that they're still dealing with same stinging error from their spouse. That's where Marriage is different from Evangelism. You don't marry, believing God to help you preach him or her to change! You should do that to the friend or neigbhour across the street, while you marry the one who has his or her 'Compass' in place already.

Dear all,
We the entire family of carbohydrate of balance diet L.G.A regret to announce the death of our father, brother and grandfather Mr. rice who died in fire accident along pot express road. He was aged 100 cups. He is survived by Mrs. stew wife, curry and thyme twin daughters, onions and maggi sons in-laws. Burial arrangement 25th December 2012 body leaves kitchen mortuary to his home town dining table. Music by plate forks and spoons. Cups, wines and water are highly invited. Papa our stomach loves you, may your soul rest in the bosom of the toilet. Signed by chicken, goat, cow meat and fish for the family.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS IN ADVANCE!