https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/311133/return-to-our-character-morality-or-perish-for-money-iwa.html

Unfortunately, those places we used to refer to as civilized climes have turned out to be hypocrites and even worse savages against their people targeted because of how they look. The irony is not lost on people of goodwill around the world. Easier to criticize others beyond our noses. This is why Yorùbá people usually say when you set out to look for money and you meet honor on the way then you don't need the journey anymore, because if you get the money, you will still use it to acquire honor.

Eni nwa owo lo to pade Iyi lona, ti o ba ri owo tan, iyi naa lo ma fi ra. This is why the rich and famous would pay anything to meet Asantehene, Oba, Igwe, Sultan, high Chiefs, Kings and Queens asking for grace and honorary titles. The insatiable need to pursue honor after accumulating all the money in the world may baffle some of us but the need to be recognized beyond money is worldwide. What is surprising is that they turn to Asantehene, Oba, Igwe, Sultan and high Chiefs without their amount of money.

The erosion of our value system in many world cultures has pushed accumulation of money above the value ladder. There are values that are sacrosanct to the culture and survival of people even before money replaced trade by batter. Some countries have more rigorous laws against moral turpitude than financial or white collar crimes. But if you want to predict the end of a country, watch how moral decadence is used to make money.

Rich people in rich countries keep a low profile for peace of mind. Billionaires and millionaires can easily mix with the crowd without heavy or light security. Money, even made legally can fetch you enemies, jealousy and subjugation to suspicion or audit. One U.S investor that bragged of raising drug prices got into such trouble. Even when you spend so much on security in Nigeria as a rich man, you cannot trust informants to kidnappers within your households.

RETURN TO AFRICAN CHARACTER & MORALITY OR PERISH FOR MONEY: IWA RERE LERE

There Is no other way to put it, it all boils down to African values, integrity, discipline, order and standard without which, chaos reigns. We were reminded by a childhood friend of Tunde Nightingale's old song that: Iwa Rere Lere! No better time than these days to remind the world that African good character and morality have their rewards. This may be contrary to what many Youths and their old voracious looters believe today. Money, by any means, is not all.

Old African cultures respect those who exude a solid reputation. Honor can be sought and pursued with money but it only lasts as long as the money is there. The chances are, if honor can be bought with money, new money will displace and buy honor that is for sale. The reason is money only has value at a point in time unlike generational wealth of honor that increases in value over time.

Ìwà Omolúàbí (Integrity): Someone with Integrity is a person of his words. If you have all the wealth in the world without integrity, you are empty. Integrity combined with Iwa (Character) is Omolúàbí. "We look for three things when we hire people: intelligence, initiative or energy, and integrity. If they don't have the latter, the first two will kill you, because if you're going to get someone without integrity, you want them lazy and dumb.” Warren Buffett, American Investor.

Age is highly respected in African culture for their wisdom and history of events. Nevertheless, achievement is revered and a young man who knows how to wash his hands will eat with the elders. Akínkanjú or Akin (Valour), the General or Balógun is second-in-command to the leaders in Yoruba land. Balógun are people that can lead people to war. They lead us with great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle.

Source Farouk Martins Aresa
https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/311133/return-to-our-character-morality-or-perish-for-money-iwa.html

Africa: Implement Local Priorities Now & Delay Frivolities

Many informed Africans sort out the difference between Nzeogwu and the first coming of Rawlings identical mission that had to do with resetting the brains in Ghana to default stage and the betrayal of a noble patriot in Nigeria that cried against ten percenters. The consequences of both bloody coup d'etat are obvious in both countries' morality today. We claimed corruption is the greatest evil infesting Africa, hoping ruthless leaders like those in China would deal with it.

Ah, we went from the frying pan into the fire. Little did most of us realize that leaders that promised to root out corruption actually breeds and regale in Terrorism. It is a fact that only the Freedom Africans Fighters planned and implemented programs while those that stepped into their shoes rested in slumber on their oars. Some of us are still wishing and praying for better days ahead while others have lost hope because the good times they lived or dreamt are gone.

Their children and grandchildren never know an African country as a potential Regional Power. Consequently, frivolity, indulgences and hedonistic tendencies have replaced practical local implementation and planning. Even the most developed countries worldwide still implement and plan for their immediate future while African countries are dying to pay any price to share their success. It does not matter if we sell our crude resources and use our meager foreign income to import and buy the refined crude products we are too lazy to refine. We have a country like Nigeria whose debt servicing has surpassed its income. Who put this curse on Africans?

Those patient enough to delay immediate gratification will reap the benefit of the seeds planted. Take a good look at the children of a country to predict its future. Those who want to walk before crawling always fall on their faces. Our rush to get rich quick, accumulate lovers, foreign instead of local designer attire, cars and park in luxurious rented homes instead of building ours catches up with us sooner than later. Africans say those that watered their future step on softer ground.

How did we get here? We value foreign readymades but our own. We pray to foreign Saints, Saviors even the slave owners name sugarcane plantations they created after themselves as St. Kitts, St. Thomas, St. Vincent and an African leader built the biggest Church in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). While we pray or cram Misbah and Rosary in foreign languages we reject Africa's religions. We discard our names so that to be baptized into new religions, Anglicize local names.

The best education you can provide anywhere is that provided locally that is so good it attracts foreign income as fees. Americans go to Mexico and India for cheaper qualitative treatment like the King of Saudi Arabia used to receive in University of Ibadan. It is a major source of income at the universities we run to abroad. The belief that the only good education for your children is the one obtained abroad is part of the colonial mentality planted in us from the beginning of the destruction of African civilization and slavery. Education is like a language taught and practiced for advancement in each country and continent. Space science is not only in English or French.

In fact, we all know European Nobel Prize winners are recognized in Art and Science from different countries and languages. It is one thing to learn the language or mis-education of your oppressors but a different scenario to absorb it against your self-interest or culture as Stockholm syndrome. Victims do identify with their abusers. The benefit of studying at Oxford, Harvard, Mcgill or Toronto is no greater than learning different languages to communicate, negotiate and share ideas. It is not to excel in a country or continent that is not yours. If your education cannot benefit your country or continent, consider your knowledge wasted because no matter how good you are, discrimination or natural preference for their own overrides your wasted talents.

Using the sake of the children to justify the only good education they need abroad are mere bragging rights. They are our wasted efforts since most of them will never benefit our culture, country or continent. Children trained abroad have more personal family problems in their local environment to deal with than African problems. Mark this, the further their birth ties to Africa, the less financial remittances they are going to send back to Africa. Indeed, you deprive local children of foreign income by depleting Central Bank reserves in your children's favor while their poor co-students work to pay their own fees.

You are converting the hard earned money from poor African students to poor families our governments refused to take care of or ignored, back. These patrons of foreign colleges and hospitals generate income to run universities and hospitals abroad; neglecting our best universities in Africa. They are indifferent to Makerere in Uganda, Fourier Bay College in Sierra Leone, University of Cape Town Ghana, University of Ibadan (where foreign dignitaries used to come for treatment), University of Nigeria Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and many others begging for maintenance funds to be up to par with those established with abroad.

These prodigal Africans would rather donate money to European and American universities in exchange for honorary degrees. We revere African scholars contributing their best abroad and nominate them for awards at home, not local talents. Just like the youths beating their chests black and blue if a member of their ethnic got a job abroad as head of dog catchers. They will buy your talents cheaply without a choice on your own part. They will tell you: if you think you are that good, your talents will be more useful where you belong.

If this is not craziness, what could this be? Compare it to the reasons African looters get financial visas and awards abroad. They must have either sold out Africa like Judas sold Jesus for pieces of silver or as remorse for exposing the hideout of Mandela in South Africa as a Freedom Fighter. Noriega of Panama, a well known drug dealer was tolerated in the States as long as he remained a useful spy until he got too cocky for his usefulness. Swiss banks and Panama safe haven remain the best places for Africans to hide the loot to buy awards or visas.

Our complaints and regrets today are over the caliber of indifferent Africans that are ruling individual countries. Many of them are worse than colonial exporters. Unfortunately, these complainants include some of us that have never gone home after our studies or qualifications as youths to contribute when able or vigorous like those that save Africans from Ebola. Some of the postgraduate students that got grants and scholarships abroad absconded. During the first coming of Rawlings, on their visits back home, they were detained until they paid back.

So, we go home on vacations or when we are old and frail. Africa needs our talents and not a plot to bury our dead cold bodies. Therefore, when we complain about terrorists, bandits, ritualists and drug dealers ruling African countries, we are the ones that left the void, a big hole in the wall through which unsavoury lizards made their ways.

By Farouk Martins Aresa

https://www.modernghana.com/amp/news/1175985/africa-implement-local-priorities-now-delay.html

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect ModernGhana official position.

In fact, we all know European Nobel Prize winners are recognized in Art and Science from different countries and languages. It is one thing to learn the language or mis-education of your oppressors but a different scenario to absorb it against your self-interest or culture as Stockholm syndrome. Victims do identify with their abusers. The benefit of studying at Oxford, Harvard, McGill or Toronto is no greater than learning different languages to communicate, negotiate and share ideas. It is not to excel in a country or continent that is not yours. If your education cannot benefit your country or continent, consider your knowledge wasted because no matter how good you are, discrimination or natural preference for their own overides your wasted talents.

Using the sake of the children to justify the only good education they need abroad are mere bragging rights. They are our wasted efforts since most of them will never benefit our culture, country or continent. Children trained abroad have more personal family problems in their local environment to deal with than African problems. Mark this, the further their birth ties to Africa, the less financial remittances they are going to send back to Africa. Indeed, you deprive local children of foreign income by depleting Central Bank reserves in your children's favor while their poor co-students work to pay their own fees.

You are converting the hard earned money from poor African students to poor families our governments refused to take care of or ignored, back. These patrons of foreign colleges and hospitals generate income to run universities and hospitals abroad; neglecting our best universities in Africa. They are indifferent to Makerere in Uganda, Fourier Bay College in Sierra Leone, University of Cape Town Ghana, University of Ibadan (where foreign dignitaries used to come for treatment), University of Nigeria Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and many others begging for maintenance funds to be up to par with those established with abroad.

Source

The Court just sentenced the killer of George Floyd again.

Cannot mention his name. It makes me wanna puke

https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/309846/we-celebrate-the-dead-while-the-living-wallow-in-poverty.html

Some of these children that are anything but their brothers' keepers, now rule Africa, even into their old age. All the money they never worked for is wasted to celebrate the dead, weddings, holidays, to treat headaches and medical checks in foreign hospitals they wickedly ignore at home. Those cunning and sleeker than them took away their character in exchange for mirrors, glamour and brand names. They now believe Africa's Salvation can only come from foreign land, not from their wicked selves.

When you have a house in the family, once the parents that work day and night like Africa's parents are gone, the children fight over the house. Smart lawyers, developers and real estate agents offer them millions of the time for generational houses or land. By the time lawyers, developers and real estate agents take out their fees, the money left cannot buy them a shed! Until they spend all the money to satisfy their immediate fantasy, they are like a lottery winner waiting to go bankrupt after prodigal spending.

It is not enough to be the richest children like those named Africa. No matter what your parents leave them, there are others who rightly care about their self interest waiting to dispossess them. Some swindlers used money made from rituals, 419 and drugs to throw extravagant parties for their dead mothers just to be noticed and gain fame. When in fact their destinations are politics, laundering dirty money into clean wealth by buying prestigious properties and land from children that reject proper home training and character.

The reason Black folks, no matter where they are, have no generational wealth or concrete legacy in their families, is not only because of devastating racism. Greed, immediate gratification and ostentatious celebration over insubstantial images, accelerate sorry situations. People who cannot find achievements to celebrate in their villages apart from those of ancient men of wonders, beat their chests black and blue over foreign countries' acquired products. .

This is why Africans, before the holy books, say Papa may have, Mama may have, God Bless the child that has his own. African nouveau riche stealing money and resources from the poor in order to make sure their children, grandchildren and the dead they celebrate will never suffer are like a drunken sailor and his money. If the Pharaoh of Egypt knew that ants, scavengers and explorers would invade their tombs, they would have opted for cremation, distributed the wealth buried with them and spared the lives of the slaves buried to serve them in heaven.

Even Brigadier General Mobolaji Olufunso Johnson got a earful from the descendants of the dead in December 1971 when he ordered the Ajele Cemetery, near Campos, Lagos, to be demolished, in order to replace it with more substantial legacy like the Lagos State Secretariat Council Building. No one should be surprised if a loser among the children decided to award himself a remembrance contract out of the estate of the dead.

He would call a family meeting on the anniversary date, cook rice, serve Coke and tea. He would then bill the Estate millions for the remembrance party. Create a project, create an estimate and pay the bill in order to siphon money out of the estate of the dead while other children insist on noble causes and scholarships according to the will of the dead father. If the disagreement burst into the open, accountants, lawyers and judges would have their piece of the estate. Some children might contest the will itself, try to cut out charitable organizations.

High school poem by James Shirley after the spoil of war taught us that the glory of our blood and state are shadows not substantial things. Africa used to be the place where the children of the rich rested on the laurels of their parents, while inspired poor children worked harder to pull themselves up right from ashes and decay that breathed new life into the soil like the manure fertilizer. Sadly, these children now emulate poor children that were provided for but squandered the wealth of Africa.

At the end of our life, people celebrate our legacy, not wasting money to remember the dead non-achievers that left no contribution to the advancement of our communities. There is no better legacy than good governance, causes, scholarships and institutions that lift up the downtrodden and poor children. Some folks just look for any opportunity to create self-serving contracts out of family estate or "shine".

WE CELEBRATE THE DEAD WHILE THE LIVING WALLOW IN POVERTY

Reasonable people only celebrate dead men or women of high integrity and caliber for the legacy of noble contribution to their community so that they can be emulated. What we have within our ostentatious and money launderers today are obscene celebrations of unexplained wealth. Every year they find some reasons to make the dead comfortable in their graves while the number of poor people that cannot afford to eat two or three square meals a day explode in our faces.

There are those who work diligently to acquire wealth, get a break along the way. They identify poverty in their own community and decide to give back to others that need a break. Instead of throwing extravagant parties to dare the poor, they establish scholarships, create jobs and small business loans for those they hardly know. We do not know or see them because they are not noise makers expecting accolades in return.

One of these rich men was asked why he channels his wealth to different causes and not to his children and grandchildren. He simply said those children that listen have been trained and given character that will last them beyond a lifetime. If they lack character and are not well accomplished in their own right, they will lose it all to those that are well trained with better character. Whatever they do with what he gives them is beyond his dead body.

If you do not believe it, you might know some children named Africa. Herbert Macaulay, Nkrumah, Azikiwe, Awolowo, Nyerere, Aminu Kan, Albert Luthuli and other conscientious parents fought indignity and economic slavery for their future generations. None of the children they provided government facilities for know the poverty we face today. They went to free school with stipend and scholarships so that they can become their brothers' keepers.

Source

Truthisunique2:
Supported

Every region should vote their own and go drag 25% elsewhere

If yorubas won't vote fulani why should fulani vote them

Bottomline!

If any other Presidential candidate apart from Atiku wins, he will pander to the wishes and grace of the North to rule.

The same way Azikiwe, Obasanjo and Jonathan did.

Fool yourselves all you want, Buhari will make sure Atiku wins based on common goal of Fulani rule.

But it will lead to the separation of Nigeria or at least weak center and greater powers at the regional levels.

https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/308532/conservatives-have-given-up-on-one-man-one-vote-democracy.html

Behind the veil of hypocrisy are those looking for slave labor they can exploit as they wish while denying them votes and equal protection under the law. The same people that call themselves civilized, capable of getting along, live and let others live amicably have rejected one man one vote democracy.

African countries looking for models to build an indigenous economic models already have a cultural starting base like the oldest cabinet system in the world in Oyo. There are a few countries like Kenya and Nigeria that will remain extreme capitalists, even in a military government. If you come from another planet and observe the causes of wars that destroy the best part of our cultural way of life, what would you call humans?

The British based representation on land mass to convince the North that they can rule Nigeria, a country they did not want to be part of. Nigeria has more people in the South than in the North. Even after Independence and state creations by the Military, the North has more states and local governments within them than similar states in the South. Since power and revenue sharing are based on states and local governments, Lagos State with more population than Northern states was not allowed to create the same number of local governments. It was not denied by the British but by a Southern President installed by the North.

The origin of European style domination becomes clearer as democracy is twisted in the United States Senate where disproportionately votes of the powerful privileged minority are used to reflect the will of the country. It is no surprise then that the President can be chosen by minority votes since the Senate that represents minority votes has power to make or ignore laws passed by the House of Representatives that have better proportional representation. While the United States elect President directly, Britain appoints their Prime Minister through the Parliament.

One man one vote is no longer working for the Conservatives. They are determined to get power of governance by hook or crook or any means possible. It is demonstrated, right in plain sight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcP3_LEk4_c In Reynolds v. Sims (1964), using the United States Supreme Court’s precedent set in Baker v. Carr (1962), Justice Warren held that representation in state legislatures must be apportioned equally on the basis of population rather than geographical areas, remarking that “legislators represent people, not acres or trees.”

Source:

Basements are not common in Nigeria because of the coastal cities, many below sea level.

But the comfort, shield from hostile weather and outside interference are secured especially on a farm.

However, looking at statistical averages overlooks those vulnerable groups that have lost their high paying Union jobs while the Government bailed out big Banks and Investment companies that gambled recklessly with Pensions and small stocks at the markets. The big boys came out richer paying a lower percentage of their income than the working class. The conservatives captured their votes by promising jobs they had lost to new technologies. The return to their good old days without the new migrants taking the old jobs. This class without a college degree make up the majority of voters and if over half of them are persuaded, the Extremist parties win.

Replacement theory fears (Remember Jews will not replace us!) have raised the angst against the influx of migrants. They elected Right extremist leaders comforted by Christian Right. The angry working classes fell to the lower side of median, not mean incomes. They find themselves competing with minimum wage workers and new immigrants for the first time in their generation. They are the ones that lost their old income which covered all the food they want, cars and houses in the suburbs. They become part of the folks on free food lines for the poor. So, the new immigrants are seen as threats to the middle class life they had without college degrees.

Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/308328/brutality-suzerainty-wars-signs-of-killer-instinct-out-of.html

How do humans explain in this century, that we still elect and rally round leaders with a killer instinct sending our Youths to wars over crude suzerainty to fight those that want to decide their own political economic survival? The worst friends we have are those enemies that claim they love us by force, Africans call Tipatipa. Yet, all species of animals protect and mourn their own from death.

Brain and emotional fatigue have killed our sympathy and ability to empathize with those unable to defend themselves against the might of the powerful. Even those who were the victims of atrocities yesterday have become indifferent as the perpetrators today, for the fear of becoming victims again of yesterday's suffering.

Brutality & Suzerainty Wars: Signs Of Killer Instinct Out Of Insecurity
May 16, 2022 |

How do humans explain in this century, that we still elect and rally round leaders with a killer instinct sending our Youths to wars over crude suzerainty to fight those that want to decide their own political economic survival? The worst friends we have are those enemies that claim they love us by force, Africans call Tipatipa. Yet, all species of animals protect and mourn their own from death.

Brain and emotional fatigue have killed our sympathy and ability to empathize with those unable to defend themselves against the might of the powerful. Even those who were the victims of atrocities yesterday have become indifferent as the perpetrators today, for the fear of becoming victims again of yesterday's suffering.

If the Africans know the real Mission of explorers like Mungo Park when he fell deadly ill in the south-west Malian village of Kamalia, a Mandinka man would not have nursed him back to health over a period of seven months. He came back again until he met his Waterloo in the rapids of Bussa. Even the American Indians would not have rescued Columbus wandering on the sea, if they had known it would lead to their subjugation.

Humans have evolved with a propensity to kill one another that is six times higher than the average mammal, new research demonstrated. Scientists calculated that when we first developed into modern humans about two per cent of deaths were caused by fellow Homo sapiens, according to a research article in the journal of Nature. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/human-evolution-violence-instinct-to-kill-murder-each-other-a7335491.html

We witness many barbaric acts around the world dressed as retaliation, collateral damages, preemptive strikes, in defense of democracy and socialism. If these repulsive rituals for suzerainty, domination and exploitation are now at its peak in our time since the worst of World War I and II, it must not be repeated during the civilized age. Politicians are like the fanatics that use economic leverage, religions and missionaries to change the world order so that they can rule every corner of the world from Africa to Asia.

Yet humans are becoming the most vicious of all animals to completely eliminate or threaten the very existential survival of one another. There must be a blind spot for the choice of these leaders that plunges us Into deep mourning when they encourage the massacre of other human beings inside or outside our countries. The only way to become indifferent is when we demonize other people that are left to die because we cannot rescue them from our own selfish interest.

Most of those voters do not see beyond their immediate needs. This is how corrupt politicians and big business win the trust of the Union bursters that gave them middle class privileges. The anti women politicians get women votes. Military dodgers corner military votes and hoarders of food meant for the poor that raise food prices; obtain votes by distributing the same food as stomach infrastructure. The biggest threat to any democracy is an uninformed electorate.

However, looking at statistical averages overlooks those vulnerable groups that have lost their high paying Union jobs while the Government bailed out big Banks and Investment companies that gambled recklessly with Pensions and small stocks at the markets. The big boys came out richer paying a lower percentage of their income than the working class. The conservatives captured their votes by promising jobs they had lost to new technologies. The return to their good old days without the new migrants taking the old jobs. This class without a college degree make up the majority of voters and if over half of them are persuaded, the Extremist parties win.

Replacement theory fears (Remember Jews will not replace us!) have raised the angst against the influx of migrants. They elected Right extremist leaders comforted by Christian Right. The angry working classes fell to the lower side of median, not mean incomes. They find themselves competing with minimum wage workers and new immigrants for the first time in their generation. They are the ones that lost their old income which covered all the food they want, cars and houses in the suburbs. They become part of the folks on free food lines for the poor. So, the new immigrants are seen as threats to the middle class life they had without college degrees.

What and how can the majority of the world be better informed to take actions that will expose the burden they carry against their own interests? They are promised freedom of choice while opponents are violently denied. Leaders' choice is between Autocracy, Theocracy, Dictatorship. But are lured into the worst form of governance in the name of democracy! No matter how close we are in origin and history, people will exploit people. Africans should love one another the way other people do, not kill the way they do.

We look at how the refugees in Ukraine are welcomed at their borders by different countries around and far from them and see humanity in action. Of course, white people love one another. There is nothing wrong with people loving one another. The love did not prevent the bloody massacre that split Czechoslovakia after the reign of an inspiring leader. But look closely in Ukraine, the people killing one another have the same Slavic and Rus origin divided by political economy. The line between hate and love can become combustible and repulsive. It only takes a rancid minded partner with a killer instinct to turn love into hate.

Unfortunately, we reason that fires are used to combat fires. Indeed, the rationale for nuclear deterrence is acquisition of nuclear power. Somehow, we rely on the judgment and pledges of these leaders not to use what they have when they are desperate. It is humans that developed the weapon of mass destruction, not only to eliminate one another but to vacate every living animal in the world. If these were other species that became so cannibalistic, humans would destroy them.

One of the few times we condemned people to death is when they commit heinous crimes against humanity. If these people are so out of character, it does not fit into the factors needed to be a leader. This is exactly what voters or constituted bodies choose when people we know are horrendous, become leaders. Recent research has found that individuals who boast dark personality traits, such as narcissism, can still retain high levels of cognitive and affective empathy. The study, recently published in Personality and Individual Differences, identifies these types of people as “dark empaths.”

Farouk Martins Aresa
https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/308328/brutality-suzerainty-wars-signs-of-killer-instinct-out-of.html

Say what?

Nevertheless, Africans are deemed the richest Blacks in America! Please bear with me. One of the reasons successful Africans become disillusioned abroad is that their success does not give them basic respect accorded to others. Even more devastating, is that Africans have to work two or three jobs to make the same or more money than their counterparts. They will never work that hard at home. Some of them die early hustling like a lion hunter to provide for their families and extended relatives at home. There is the African proverb that if a hunter thinks about what he has to go through to bring meat home, he would not share it with anyone

I agree with the Op. The presenter should have made it clear that there are differences just like any continent or country.

But the presenter is right that Africans have similar cultures compared to other continents. Europe and Asia also have similar cultures within individual continent compared to other continents.

Some of the Anthropologists while trying to explain African cultures develope some superiority complex which I think the Op like many African scholars object to.

However, it will be fallacy if not ridiculous to say the exceptions in different cultures found in other continents makes all cultures the same.

I would have encouraged the presenter to refine or take all these into consideration.

https://www-thenigerianvoice-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.thenigerianvoice.com/amp/news/307441/the-rich-powerful-use-honey-or-vinegar-to-gain-control.html?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16502699296122&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenigerianvoice.com%2Fnews%2F307441%2Fthe-rich-powerful-use-honey-or-vinegar-to-gain-control.html

THE RICH & POWERFUL USE HONEY OR VINEGAR TO GAIN CONTROL

Africans say there is nothing new under the Sun and as the snail moves, it is followed by its shell. Nobody fits this description better than Elon Musk, Jeff Bezo and Dangote of recent. When we think about Russian Oligarchies, there are mirror images in our own communities, countries and Continent. The descendants of the rich and powerful never gave up. If anything, they want all the privileges they had during the time of serfs in Europe, farm workers in America and Africa.

Even the nouveau riche that were born after the end of slavery and during the time of strong Unions are always working to control workers. It doesn't matter where they are. Most people want more to take care of their daily needs and be comfortable with their families. There are those that want more to buy luxurious goods and services they have always dreamed of but have never acquired. Beyond these are many whose ambition is to control the people around them, the country and the world.

We must be careful not to confuse or misplace the honorable work of most charitable organizations, especially those that have gone out of their ways to educate and empower the most vulnerable and divert their investment away from blood money around the world. We admire and congratulate their contributions to mankind. There are Mo Ibrahim, Dangote, Nobel, Rockefeller, Anneberg, Kennedy, Buffet, Ford, Adelson, Koch brothers and many others worldwide that are famous for their generous donations and organizations in pursuit of goodwill.

Nevertheless, some rich powerful men hide behind charitable organizations, starve and feed you only if you bend to their whims and wishes. Of course it is not out of the goodness of their hearts. Owners use job creation to get richer by attracting those that do not have enough to eat, drink and shelter their families. Some of them are shrewd businessmen in desperate pursuit of power capturing political decision makers that not only favor them but manipulate the economic systems. They have become rulers of countries by sheer desire for power and do not care how many people they crush along the process.

Elon Musk, the South African American that had lived in a rent control apartment in Canada with his mother, has become the richest man in the world. Even before becoming so famous, he had challenged some of the paths that made him so rich in California before moving to Texas to join the big boys. His South African Apartheid instinct never left. Elon Musk's instinct is how to capture more cronies and workers he could control by his whims and wishes. One company or two is not his goal but as many as he could buy with other people's money (OPM).

Elon Musk has enough rich friends, money and collateral for hostile takeover. These rich and powerful men have little tolerance for free speech or free expressions of common opinions. So they buy media expressions or opinions they do not like to reinstate uncivilized or offensive comments that offend public discourse. Better still, they start their own media that reflect the most extremist views to generate income from the fringe.

The scary reputation of these money men is their compulsive attempts to grab control by any means including enough money to hire misguided supporters to perpetrate violence and violate the democratic system most people thought were beyond the reach of hoodlums. Even worse is that these rich powerful people can commit crimes in broad daylight and get away, protected by influence and fear of violence if punished while anyone else could have been thrown into jail.

Yet, we are taught that nobody is above the law. When the law catches up with them, they claim witch hunts and overzealous prosecutors going after them over the same crimes they projected on others for orchestrated punishment. It has worked so well, they boast that the laws for the rich are different from the one applied to the common man.

The same followers supporting rich powerful people that have gone berserk, when caught, became surprised at their loyalty to someone who only used them to acquire control of a solid system. Many followers would not believe that they were working against their own interests until they became victims of the strongman they elevated to destroy their system. So when people say you need a strong system not strongmen, little did they realize a mean spirited man can destroy the system.

Some, outright want to be courted with honey or money rather than vinegar, if it is a choice. Those familiar with the Bible read that some of those taken out of Egypt prefer where they were well fed than traveling in the desert with Moses. Another case of a bridge over the Red Sea that led nowhere. The people that just want to be left alone in peace are always taken advantage of by the rich and powerful, believing life would be made better if they got control. The way to get attention is to propagate a better life and propose solutions to those that are poor and suffering.

Indeed, promises of jobs and better conditions of living have been so magnetic, it draws seekers to wherever they can find jobs. It does not matter if they have to cross deserts and waters to get there, legally or illegally. They are willing to work for starving or any wage as long as they can feed their families. The serfs were willing to work on the farms and conquered slaves did not have a choice of where they were shipped.

However, jobs come with conditions that are not obvious until it becomes unbearable. When the conditions become unbearable, workers revolt. It was the Unions revolt that ended child labor, negotiated minimum wage, 40 hours workweek and vacation. Most of us in a new generation forgot what the generation before us went through to enjoy what we take for granted today. Many of the strong Unions lost their clout because workers were promised they could get more money and benefits instead of paying the Union dues.

So, some workers elected not to join the Union. One only has to look back at the rich and powerful, cronies or companies, their acquisitions with enormous advantages to overtake budding companies. South African American Elon Musk’s Tesla factory in California, was saturated with racism, Black workers reported being assigned difficult, menial jobs in segregated areas of the factory known as “the dark side".

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/feb/18/tesla-california-racial-harassment-discrimination-lawsuit

Source: Farouk Martins Aresa

Youths Pauperized By Voracious Looters Are Haunting Us

LISTEN
Did you hear the cry of African children saying they would rather volunteer to die fighting in Ukraine than die of hunger at home? Call them what you want, they come from the same country and Continent as you do. The difference is, they cannot take it anymore. When Youths get desperate, become disoriented, they do not care about the consequences of misadventures. Africans have never in history been so impoverished, eager to escape abject poverty or make money by any illegal means possible.

The way Africans and Africans in Diaspora are treated reflect how we treat ourselves at home in the hands of greedy leaders and their cronies looking outside for comfort and hospitality they fail to provide in Africa. Our Youths are so desperate to escape, they are being charged to become mercenaries in Ukraine. Africans went through this during the Libyan Civil War where they became militia targets on both sides.

This time they are asked to pay to go and fight to death! It is not the first time African children have insanely given their lives to civil wars: did in Libya, Middle East between Arabs and Israelis. There was a time they flooded the American Army because of the signing bonus. Tell them to fight at home, they run because they know their families will not be compensated. Since their money and gratuities would be embezzled before it gets to their families.

So these Youths are saying they will rather take the insults and ignominy from foreigners outside than suffer the same fate at home. Others see that as lame excuse of cowards that cannot resist their oppressors at home. When they are backed up to the wall, instead of fighting back, they melt into the wall. The reason crimes have exploded far greater than the increase in population can account for.

These crimes are getting more dangerous, repulsive, some gory details are fueled by mythical beliefs at the direction of Babalawo, Pastors and Imams. Many of these were respectable men of conscience that have fallen into the hands of the devil because of poverty ravaging the country. They discovered that Youths are willing to pay them good money if they are promised the realization of their fantasies.

We can find the root cause of these nightmares in the unprecedented Poverty in the era of the highest foreign incomes earned by oil producing countries and laundered by unscrupulous politicians, never used for needs to alleviate devastating circumstances they subject African communities to. Nevertheless, they wish they could fight for Ukraine against the mighty Russia.

When the South Americans were sending their children alone to cross the border into the United States, we wondered if they were crazy until the Haitians and Africans children were joining them. Of course, Haitians and Africans were treated worse at the American borders. How do we now explain Ukrainians children crossing their country's borders into Poland and Hungary unaccompanied like South Americans and Africans?

However, if Ukraine thinks NATO and the European Union would risk War War III or give their lives like the African Youths that Ukraine asked to pay to become mercenaries, they could have miscalculated Western sympathy. It will be more effective if the Western world helps prolong the resistance by fortifying Ukraine without Americans getting deeply involved. It will cost Russia more and push Putin to save face before the situation becomes more unbearable to the world.

Rather than African Youths paying to become mercenaries, there are roles respectable African leaders could have played if they had the old prestige of Nkrumah of Ghana and Nigeria's old Peacekeeping Mission before they were destroyed by corruption. Outright confrontation into World War III would kill more Ukrainians than they can imagine because of their proximity to Russia. Ukraine will get nuked more than the rest of the world. Yet, we must understand Ukrainians asking for a highly risky "No Fly Zone" to fend off the Russians.

Though Africans lead the fight for Civil Rights in the Diaspora, since they get discriminated against most (even in Ukraine); every new Comer from Europe and Asia climb on their backs to a higher level. Imagine recent immigrants from Europe and Asia asking African Americans that have been there before Columbus, where they come from. This is why Ukranians and other Eastern Europeans or Asians do better in the United States and United Kingdom than Africans.

It is very frustrating for those who took their skills, businesses and savings to Africa, only to find out that the more they contribute and move Africa forward in steps, there are those taking twice or thrice as many steps moving Africa backwards. Knowing that no matter what they achieved outside Africa, they are ridiculed and disrespected; told to save their achievements for Africa. Some of these Africans are forced to run back to countries they swear never to return to.

The world forgets that Africans have always been very generous, to a fault. Others are taking advantage of our accommodation. Indeed, from the days of Queen of Sheba and Mansa Kanka Musa adventures to those of El Selassie and Nigerian billionaires laundering African fortune. Africa welcomed strangers and treated foreigners better than themselves in the hope that they would pass it on.

Fast forward, only those that are naive today believe in old African generosity. Even worse, African looters are willing to forgo millions or billions when they are caught laundering money abroad. Some of our businessmen and politicians have forfeited large sums of money rather than go to jail in the green pasture they had intended to live and die in luxury.

It does not matter how many bodyguards you have or how high you build the fence, where you hide or run to. Those who squandered African wealth on their families and cronies will not sleep at night while the poor are hungry at home or disrespected outside Africa. But when African Youths lack purpose, direction and discipline; even good law abiding people use their creativity for any means to survive.

https://www-modernghana-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.modernghana.com/amp/news/1144455/youths-pauperized-by-voracious-looters-are-hauntin.html?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16470226946853&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.modernghana.com%2Fnews%2F1144455%2Fyouths-pauperized-by-voracious-looters-are-hauntin.html

Most people at this point realize the impunity of Israeli in the Arab world is no different from Russia impunity in Ukraine.

Akeredolu advice on eating chicken as if beef is impossible in the West.

We are still asking for for Aregbesola's:

O Beef!

My only surprise is that it took this long. It should have been done since the late sixties.

Aregbesola, his PAs and those he sent to Europe for propaganda:

What happened to O Beef?

The Yoruba, their ancestors and children's Culture have gained accolades, are studied and practiced throughout the world than any culture in Africa.

This explains why most African identify, study and emulate them throughout the world.

In order to tap into that Culture, we have fake ethnic groups, sub ethnic groups and others looking for relevance.

Yet, Yoruba have not gone out of their way to force others in, it is others that are proud to relate into Yoruba Culture in the rest of Africa and in Diaspora.

UGLY MONEY RAIN PARTIES BY NOUVEAU RICHE TURNED REPULSIVE

There is nothing wrong with growing up in poverty, it is a motivation to do better in life but certainly, not by any means. When you come to New York with nothing and pull yourself up, you thank God and say it can only happen in America. What about those who came to Lagos, Accra, Cairo, Johannesburg etc in Africa, what do you say?

God punishes poverty with money rain at every opportune occasion by the nouvelle riche. They have to demonstrate that the boys and girls that grew up in poverty have arrived. Their means of income is doubtful at best, unknown at its worst. You cannot thank God by dubious means. When the gullible and the desperate folks watch in admiration, they cry: God when is it going to be our turn?

This is how the environment breeds criminals and bandits. What started as compensation to freelance drummers in the communities has gone wild. It used to be only celebrants that were adorned with money on their forehead, it degenerated to sticking money on the breast of women. Boyfriends would be invited to spay their girlfriends with local currency and later foreign currencies.

Young people that have acquired sudden wealth without investing sweat equity, spend freely and ostentatiously without good taste, finesse or sustainable culture. They compete with the old-fashioned ways of long-term wealth but lack distinguished blood and state. They buy the most expensive products or material that are out of place on their person or incongruous with tastes, attire and Arts. Many are usually but not always unlettered.

Source:

These fabricators nor dey Taya?

Camp of water ko, camp of ocean ni.

The days you guys used to go on social media and spew trash are over. Your idle monikers got away with it for too long.

TAOII kudos.

Eko= camp
Ame= waters