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Culture › How Africa Civilized Europe And What They Paid Back by nobaga(op): 3:58am On Nov 06, 2018
How Africa Civilized Europe And What They Paid Back

https://www.nairaland.com/4829034/how-africa-civilized-europe-what

Wealthy Ancient European intellectuals of Arts and Sciences in Greece and later in Rome, craved knowledge and civilization from African masters. Just as investors in search of fortune sponsored explorers into Africa. They went back home to educate their people in light of what they had learned in Africa. In view of the stories they heard from travelers, African civilization was beyond their imagination.

In fairness to these early students of African masters, such as Thales of Miletus, Socrates, Isocrates, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Diodorus, they gave credits to the dark skin, straight to wooly black haired Africans of Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan and Meroe. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3293164/How-Imhotep-gave-us-medicine.html
Politics › Re: How Africa Civilized Europe And What They Paid Back by nobaga(op): 10:44pm On Nov 05, 2018
Once a people are stripped of their culture, language and pride; substituted with foreign culture, language and pride; they are slaves of the mind from one generation to the next. They arbor self-hatred for their own discoveries. It perpetuates and propagates itself as a virus until it consumes their being. The children of the subjugated also pass it on to their own kids and it goes on for generations. The conquerors need not work on the acculturalization anymore, maintenance is enough since it is already endemic.
Deep!
Politics › How Africa Civilized Europe And What They Paid Back by nobaga(op): 8:41pm On Nov 05, 2018
How Africa Civilized Europe And What They Paid Back

Wealthy Ancient European intellectuals of Arts and Sciences in Greece and later in Rome, craved knowledge and civilization from African masters. Just as investors in search of fortune sponsored explorers into Africa. They went back home to educate their people in light of what they had learned in Africa. In view of the stories they heard from travelers, African civilization was beyond their imagination.

In fairness to these early students of African masters, such as Thales of Miletus, Socrates, Isocrates, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Diodorus, they gave credits to the dark skin, straight to wooly black haired Africans of Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan and Meroe. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3293164/How-Imhotep-gave-us-medicine.html


They were educated in the skill of medicine, sciences, mathematics, philosophy and more. Only the privileged in their communities could be educated in Africa. There was no doubt or questions about the African civilization. Of course, some Africans had mixed complexions still reflected today throughout Africa. But to label them “white” or even “half-white” is a revision of facts and history to suit the narrow mindedness of 19th and 20th centuries Eurocentric racist-pseudo-scientists armoring African Arts and Sciences.

So, that was ancient times, what happens to Africans now? Miracles are still happening in Africa that Africans do not appreciate, encourage, nurture or even reject. If you reject your own inventions, exchange your best and the brightest for vanity without substance, nobody would patronize yours. The first money most Africans make, is squandered out of their communities’ circulation, out of Africa. No wonder, descendants of Queen of Sheba and Mansa Kankan Musa, the 1st and 2nd world’s richest drunken sailors!

Long before there was any European civilization, many had to come to Africa for study with the wise men of ancient Egypt, who were black, to train in medicine, mathematics, geometry, art, and so forth. When Isocrates wrote of his studies in the book Busirus, he said that “I studied philosophy and medicine in Egypt.” He did not study these subjects in Greece in Europe, but in Egypt in Africa. So, what are today Euro-centric(s) saying?

The Greeks had no problem in stating their knowledge originated from an African origin; nowhere do they make references to “white deities” or “white leaders” amongst the black culture that gave them philosophy. ttps://www.eyeofthepsychic.com/egyptgreece/

The Egyptians were colonists sent out by the Ethiopians, Osiris having been the leader of the colony. And the larger part of the customs of the Egyptians were Ethiopian, the colonists still preserved their ancient manners and cultures. What were their skin color before they mixed with Europeans and Arabs?

The primary aim of modern Eurocentric scholars is to completely expunge black Africans from the "map of human geography" and world history to kill the confidence of African children and assume superiority complex. The ideological position has been, and still is, that nothing came out of Africa but powerless, defenseless, uncivilized, barbaric and primitive peoples and ideas. https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-187012521/greek-philosophers-who-came-to-africa-to-study

Once a people are stripped of their culture, language and pride; substituted with foreign culture, language and pride; they are slaves of the mind from one generation to the next. They arbor self-hatred for their own discoveries. It perpetuates and propagates itself as a virus until it consumes their being. The children of the subjugated also pass it on to their own kids and it goes on for generations. The conquerors need not work on the acculturalization anymore, maintenance is enough since it is already endemic.

Barbarians: In order to understand how Barbarians changed from Greece to Rome and used to describe Northern Europeans outside of Greece and later outside Rome, we must understand that as soon as other Europeans aligned themselves with Greece and later with Rome, to fight and conquer their neighbors, they call the others Barbarians. This same word is now commonly used for those not aligned to western “civilization”!

There were two kinds of writing which the Egyptians had, one was known as "popular" (demotic) learned by everyone, while the other called "sacred" was understood only by the priests of the Egyptians, who learned it from their fathers as one of the things which were not divulged, but only used as letters among the Ethiopians. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3A*.html

There were Ancient African Writings all over the Continent called Proto-Writing (6000 B.C); Proto Saharan (5000-3000 B.C); Ekoi’s Nsibidi (5000 – Present); Medu Neter or Ta Merrian (4000 B.C – 600 A.D); Kemetic Hieratic (3200-27 B.C); Thinite (32-2700 B.C); Vai (3000 B.C – Present); Meroitic or Napatan; Ge’ez or Ethiopic, Sabean; Kimetic; Coptic; Old Nubian See slates and pictures http://www.taneter.org/writing.html

Writing has been so conflated intentionally, new students would think it originated in Europe. Those that were taught how to read and write are claiming to be the inventors! See Meroitic Period (3rd century BC) of the Kingdom of Kush . The two scripts were Meroitic Cursive derived of Demotic Egyptian and Meroitic Hieroglyphics derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs . Meroitic Cursive is the most widely attested script, comprising most of all the inscriptions. Antedated by a century or more, the earliest, surviving Meroitic hieroglyphic inscription. See Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (ca. 50 BC) described the two scripts in his Bibliotheca historica , Book III (Africa), Chapter 4.

Destruction of Writings, library and edifices of Egypt were preserved by some rulers and destroyed by others including Christians and Muslim conquerors just like the Taliban in in Afghanistan and Isis in Iraq. When Caliph Umar ordered his Muslim General Amr ibn al-As and his army of some 4,000 Arabs invaded Egypt (December 639 AD), he ordered "If it’s not in the Koran, it’s not worthy; if it is in the Koran, it is superfluous; burn it."

Moroccan Army, after exhausting their riches and soldiers up North became hungrier for the riches in the South. Their Army destroyed Songhai Empire but could not get to their real source of wealth in the rainforest where the gold was mined and kept away. Belatedly, they realized that venturing into the rainforest posed deadly risk for their soldiers and horses. They left with what they could raid from Songhai but almost empty handed since they could not capture the goldmines.

Africans in the rural areas are still lucky as long as they continue to retain their culture, language and pride. But as they move into the urban “civilized” areas struggling to replicate European and American cities and cultures in Africa, they loom into the danger of globalization. Well, there is nothing wrong with exposure to other world, the problem is who define and lead what Africa embraced and glamorized to them, instead of pride in themselves. Modernization and Invention is not new to Africa, but adaptation of vanity without substance is new.

Path II: To Be Continued
Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
Published: Monday, November 5, 2018

https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/272322/how-africa-civilized-europe-and-what-they-paid-back.html#
Foreign Affairs › Re: Saudi Crown Prince - Leaders As Liars Abductors Pen & Armed Robbers by nobaga(op): 7:23am On Oct 27, 2018
This could also be about another leader we know
Foreign Affairs › Saudi Crown Prince - Leaders As Liars Abductors Pen & Armed Robbers by nobaga(op):
Saudi Crown Prince One of the Leaders As Liars Abductors Pen & Armed Robbers

Dictators are easy to spot by their intolerance for journalists. Canada had raised concern about Saudi Crown Prince, only to retaliate. So, benefited from muted grace of doubt democratic leaders gave him. The politicians parading themselves as world leaders these days, not only in Africa, is frightening. Children would ask us how it got this bad if they ever make a better life than we do. It used to be communist countries that produced maximum leaders from militia, military or secret service. Theocracies take orders from God, which people have no choice but must obey.

We now have democracies muscling press, suppressing votes by chicanery, hook or crook. As hypocrites, espousing some ideal principles while ruling like dictators and theocracies. All they have to do is hold the flag and declare themselves nationalists protecting “aliens” from coming into their countries. Nationalism and ethnocentrism sell everywhere from Europe, America to Asia. Yet these hypocrites point to Africa’s ethnic cleansing or South Africa’s xenophobia.

If they are liars and cheats, their reign is justified by conservatives that favor their types and political cronies for appointments they can push forward to make the country adaptable to their agenda. The fact that the leader is a liar, cheat, abductors, minorities’ abusers or misogynists matter less compared to their privilege. They lose their moral bearings and justify their assaults on democracy they preach on the very essence of their prejudice.

We have always known that conservative governments always push their power until the check and balance in their system curb their overarching tendencies. It becomes dangerous when their Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary are concentrated in the hands of conservatives. Nothing can check their free reign until the following election swings back. If the people are then tired of their extremist tendencies and tribal wars within parties, they may be voted out.

African countries are filled with leaders old enough to be retired into senile homes. 85-year-old Paul Biya won in Cameroon. But as long as those younger than them take advantage of their reign to enrich their selfish pockets and interest, these leaders sit tight. They use these leaders as cover for those perpetrating the most heinous crimes. Indeed, they comfort one another by comparing which of the criminal leaders are worse: Lairs, Abductors, Pen or Armed Robbers.

Developed countries sow the seed of discord and disruption in developing countries by supporting military coups, corrupt leaders and Vagabonds In Power as long as they get concessions, one-way free trade that favors them and their multinational companies like Enron in the name of self-centered liberalized trade and “democracy”. Any government that protests against exploitation of their masses are severely punished or overthrown. Ask for Lumumba!

No, we are not getting to the end of the world. Intolerance is gaining strength and those on top of the world Order are losing grip of the same democracy they are now trying to curtail by voters’ suppression. The developing countries they invaded for cheap natural resources and labor are waking up and demanding a piece of the pie made impossible at home with their cheap natural resources and slave labor benefiting the countries of the neo-colonialists.

Immorality has been with us for ages but outright in-your-face hypocrisy unveiled by the intolerance of religious men, known to be conservative all along, voting about 80 percent for conservative extremist candidates into governments. Do not forget these are the clergies that blessed slaves and promised them their reward in heaven. The more they profess support for the poor, the stronger is their support for conservatives or maximum rulers. Theocracy have a great deal in common with democratic dictatorship where minority find loop-holes to govern.

More so, clergy immorality got exposed by unveiling sexual abuse either in the Catholic Church or in the Mosques. Again, the defense of the Catholic Church caught red handed is reform after it became known that the higher hierarchy covered up known sexual abusers in their midst and transferred them to other dioceses where they continued the abuse. They claimed other faiths are worse than them and their sins are less. So, what type of abuse can be strange to them?

If the leaders are educated civilians, some folks rationalize their kleptomaniac tendency by claiming corruption is not stealing! When challenged that their leaders are drug barons, 419s and ritualists caught in Okija or Oshogbo shrines, they ask for proof. They breed civil servants that are so corrupt, no file will move without bribes which they claim is excused, as “family allowance”. Leaders lecture and denounce every ill in the community but theirs.

If their leader and those surrounding him are pen robbers, they claim they are much better than armed robbers that kill people. These leaders may even be tough on drug dealers and armed robbers as in the Philippines; some use firing squads to end lives with justification that killers deserve to die. The armed robbers wonder aloud or if they are on trials, why leaders dodging taxes, stealing million and billions are getting away when all they stole was much less.

If the leaders themselves are armed robbers or military that seized power at gunpoint or loot the treasury dry; they claim they are better than bloody civilians that promised everything but delivered none. These military men then start their own five or ten years development plans. Most of their plans usually follow the same blueprint of the civilians they overthrew. Since most are zombie soldiers, they look for obsequious civil servant willing to take orders.

Sometimes it is hard to believe how dictators, liars, cheats and criminals justify and elevate themselves above one another and got to lead their countries. Ritualists would ask you if the wine and bread served in church is not a ritual from blood and flesh. They point to the stoning of the devil in Mecca as ritual. After all, Abrahamic religions follow the sacrifice of their sons to their God. If one son is spared in the Bible, there were many killed before him as rituals.

No amount of barrier will keep western countries out of poor countries since their countries were developed with slave labor and cheap natural resources. These developing countries were disrupted, their leaders assassinated as we saw in Congo and Libya; then tumult planted within them by selling arms to opposing sides. Now that they want some of the relief enjoyed in the developed world, borders are shut and they are told they cannot come in: Fix your country!

Reasonable people would conclude that there is no evil perpetrated on our fellow humans that these leaders cannot justify. We are falling into bottomless pit of violence in jungle fever where the survival of the fittest becomes the norm again, which we thought our civilized ways erased centuries ago. Those claiming they are “civilized” have been exposed as hypocrites electing despotic leaders in the so-called democratic countries where majority votes lose elections.

Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
Published: Saturday, October 27, 2018
https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/271984/leaders-as-liars-abductors-pen-armed-robbers.html#
Politics › Re: Panic: Africa Western Tastes Incurred Odious Loans Now Chinese Loans by nobaga: 9:00pm On Sep 10, 2018
RIGHT OF REPLY

Why no need to worry about debt sustainability and Chinese loan to Africa?
1
2018-08-27 13:40:20CGTN Editor : Gu Liping ECNS App Download

Editor's note: Cheng Cheng is an associate research fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China. Yang Xi is a junior student at George Washington University, DC, US. The article reflects the authors' opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Economists commonly agree that infrastructure and the manufacturing industry constitute the two most needed economic drivers for the growth of African economies. Contributing to these two sectors, China has provided great financial support.

Since 2011, China has invested an average of 12 billion US dollars annually in African infrastructure and constructed more than 5,000 km of both railway and roads respectively since 2000.

Although, most of the international organizations, including the World Bank and IMF, have credited China as the largest investment contributor and the biggest constructor for Africa, Western media and some government officials have misleadingly distorted China's loans to Africa as so-called "debt traps" or "neocolonialism."

After studying these specific finance for nearly a decade, I feel obliged to share five facts about debt sustainability and the case of Chinese loans to Africa, especially under the circumstance of welcoming 53 national leaders from Africa to Beijing next week for the FOCAC Summit.

1. Yes, the debt ratio of Sub Saharan African (SSA) is climbing up, but it is still under control.

According to United Nation Economic and Social Council report (released on Apr 27, 2018), the average debt to GDP ratio in African countries is 32 percent, and for some oil exporters, the ratio exceeds 40 percent.

Comparing to debt ratios of developed and emerging countries, which could be as high as 70 to 80 percent, Africa's debt problems worth a lot of attention but not panic.

Besides, Africa's public debt has been a longstanding issue. Although Western donors have made great effort to lower debts of Africa since the 1980s, the accumulated debt ratio is still the outcome of receiving Western loans for the previous decades, including Official Development Assistance (ODA) and loans from private banks. Some economists believe that ODA loans can be linked to the Latin American and African debt crises in the 1980s and 1990s.

2. The Debt Sustainability Framework of the IMF is prudent but not productive.

The Debt Sustainability Framework of the IMF set very rigid debt standard for the African countries, the 25 percent public debt ratio is prudent financially, but I doubt any low-income country could raise enough funds for public expenditure following the Framework.

The problem is that the purpose of setting these standards should be to ensure sustainable growth not securing the debts owed by the donors. Dynamic debt sustainability should be applied to calculate a project's feasibility and return rate, not a rigid standard over one economy not caring for the nature of the projects.

Over the decades after the 1950s, Western countries have developed a set of mechanisms, such as the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and Multilateral Debt Reduction Initiative, to deal with the debt issue in developing countries.

Behind them, the international organizations like the IMF, OECD Development Assistance Committee and the informal institution like the Paris Club make core decisions, with no saying from the developing world at all.

Through these mechanisms, Western countries could control the debt levels in African countries and even dictates their development choices. The regime then got a name known as “Donors Cartel” for its grasp over the power to deal with debts in Global South.

Basically, without the "signing-off" on debt cap, no African country could ever borrow one dollar from any Western donor, even their private banks.

3. China has been trying everything it could to increase the debt tolerance and repayment capability of African countries.

Until the end of 2010, China has issued over 23.8 billion yuan worth of debts reliefs for the 44 most under-developed countries. Chinese President Xi Jinping announced during UN Assembly in 2015 that China will also write off the intergovernmental interest-free loans due by the end of 2015 for LDCs, landlocked developing nations and small island developing countries, including African countries.

From its domestic experience, China believes that the solvency of debt problem lays fundamentally over the growth of the economy, especially over the increase of exportation.

China-Africa cooperation, which mostly involves infrastructure and industrial collaboration, offers Africa unprecedented development opportunities to join the international production chain as a value-added segment, as we have witnessed in Ethiopia and Rwanda.

Also, China-Africa cooperation supports the transportation and energy infrastructure coverage in this region. The upgrading trend is likely to continue.

4. Chinese loans are concessional in nature.

The majority of the loans facilitated by the Chinese government are highly concessional with a fixed interest rate below three percent, a maturity period as long as 15 to 20 years, and a five to eight years grace period.

Considering most of the African borrowers do not enjoy a high international credit status, which means their borrowing rate is very high in the global capital market, the terms of Chinese loans are highly concessional. Not only the quality but also the quantity of Chinese loans matter.

After the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2010, the credit limit of official Chinese loans surged. It exceeded 10 billion US dollars in 2010 and reached 17 billion US dollars in 2013, then slipped a little as the economy slowed down in Africa.

5. If debt crises shall fester in Africa, the US, instead of China, should take the blame.

Most loans to Africa, from China or not, are dollar-denominated. Since late 2017, the US Federal Reserve Board's rate hikes and the strong US dollar have driven up the borrowing costs, weaken other currency and caused huge capital flight from developing countries.

All these piles up the global financial risks and making debts owed by African countries no longer sustainable. As people are witnessing, it is the Fed's practice that is damaging macroeconomic stability in the region and denting China-Africa cooperation.

The accumulating risks following the highest ever US dollar index may damage both African economies, and Chinese investment may also suffer losses. The coming FOCAC, as a key multilateral platform of Africa, will have to seek a mechanism to coordinate the debt issue.

It is suggested that parties can hold regular meetings to share debt-related information. Chinese and international organizations can jointly provide technical support and training for the finance departments of African countries, helping them to establish effective debt management practices. This way, China-African cooperation will continue to stride on the road of sustainable development.
http://www.ecns.cn/news/politics/2018-08-27/detail-ifyxikfc9643661.shtml
Politics › Re: Panic: Africa Western Tastes Incurred Odious Loans Now Chinese Loans by nobaga: 3:03pm On Sep 10, 2018
Short term exotic material wealth for a few right now, perpetual slavery for gullible majority that have their support.

Which is worse, poverty or ignorace?

.
It has been argued that if African did not take these odious loans to pay for our acquired tastes, religions and cultures we would still be stuck in the 19 century. While we have definitely acquired material wealth in the mirror image of our “liberators”, we have also plunged ourselves into financial and cultural debts that we have no way of getting out of. If anything, our self-worth has depreciated into inferiority status. Are we better off today than we were in the days of our derailed Great Empires?
Politics › Re: Dollarization & Pauperization Of Countries Without Memories by nobaga(op): 3:00pm On Aug 30, 2018
These borrowed habits and cultures dogged those that consider themselves “civilized” and passed it onto their children, including foreign languages at the expense of their own. It is not uncommon to find “educated” families unable to converse with their children in their own language. Much has been made about Mission schools forcing children to speak in English. Who forced them to speak English or French at home?
Sey na lie?
Politics › Re: Dollarization & Pauperization Of Countries Without Memories by nobaga(op): 12:42pm On Aug 30, 2018
It may not be sexy enough for front page.
Politics › Dollarization & Pauperization Of Countries Without Memories by nobaga(op): 1:30am On Aug 30, 2018
Dollarization & Pauperization Of Countries Without Memories

How did we get here, when can we get out and what foreign taste are you willing to give up? The best academic opinions on the dollarization of African currencies have shown mixed economic results and few benefit to a country that does not print its currency. It denies them crucial economic decisions that could only be taken at home but left to countries’ self-interest where dollars and euros are printed .

Apart from dollarization in some African countries, others practically use dollars and euros for major transactions and purchases like cars, houses, school fees, rents and of course to pay foreign loans. Some of the citizens, vendors and traders openly reject local currency as worthless. It exacerbates the exchange rates creating local inflation that call for dollarization as a cure for the same problems created in the first place.


Well, is that not the real reason for economic domination and helplessness over African future? African countries cannot trade between themselves without using currencies outside their Continent, only petty traders do. There is nothing African about international standard or international currency. China is finally breaking the European and American dollar and euro monopoly.

Since we got used to everything imported, most of the money we make were spent on foreign goods and services. The more expensive they got, the harder it became to meet daily responsibilities with our meagre income. Ordinary pins and pencil, we had to import with dwindling income. In short, as consumers of everything foreign and producers of nothing, we became import dependent economy. We would rather buy used imported goods than produce our own at home.

We simply could not sustain our “sugar tooth” anymore, so had to swindle, steal, loot or magomago our way to increase income to support our additions to foreign goods and services. It is not that we never tried, our local manufacturers were derided and looked down on as Ijebu and Okrika made.

Recently we discover rice production within our countries, we are making progress.

Can we go teetotal back to local consumption in order to save ourselves from reckless tastes for goods and services we refuse to make locally in sixty years since they are readily available outside?

Before SAP (Structural Adjustment Program) and Currency Depreciation, we pride ourselves on “Being” good Christians and good Muslims. We became “civilized” by how much French, English and Portuguese we could speak and how little African languages we could think in or speak.

People have forgotten that the best time most African countries had was when our currencies were at par with foreign currencies. It sounds like ancient history now. We then moved to a point when foreign currencies were regulated to preserve our foreign exchange to the time foreign currencies were totally banned. It was later relaxed and certain amount were allowed for travel, school fees and limited goods and services.

We were still good up to this point because violations led to serious time in jail. Most sober Africans would tell you those were good old days. However, economists and exploiters preached liberalized and open market, free competition to spur production and ingenuity as the same argument used for SAP and currency devaluation. The losers started from devastation of the middle class to the working poor masses.

Countries without memories are bound to repeat the same mistakes like a recurring decimal. The leaders that were united in the fight for Independence had a common bond to fight their oppressors and tormentors. Like other African countries, as soon as the colonial oppressors departed, leaders with foresight established industrial areas for workers, farms, schools and hospitals within their states and regions’ capabilities.

Those that benefited from the hard work of Independence fighters became complacent enjoying what they consider their entitlements. Education was almost free to any level or supplemented with scholarships at the state and Federal levels. They got so used to all the freebies since they were recruited from colleges and universities after graduation. They then lost their thinking cap, waiting for paychecks without producing any tangibles.

The vigor, exuberance and skills used to confront the colonial masters soon disappeared and replaced with bloated ego as long as they excel in western education and acquire foreign taste. They pride themselves as copycats of Western and to a lesser extend of Eastern civilizations. They threw their own culture, food, clothes and everything needed for survival at home, away. Since these could be easily imported, they got them until they could not do without their foreign goods. Call it sugar tooth.

These borrowed habits and cultures dogged those that consider themselves “civilized” and passed it onto their children, including foreign languages at the expense of their own. It is not uncommon to find “educated” families unable to converse with their children in their own language. Much has been made about Mission schools forcing children to speak in English. Who forced them to speak English or French at home?

Recently, some African glowed at the “perfect” accent of Kenya’s President at the White House. They forget that neither François Mitterrand, any other French President or Greek’s George Andreas Papandreou that taught in American university ever spoke English when they met USA or British leaders. Not the Russian or Chinese leaders.

It became expensive to support this foreign lifestyle in local communities. Even when local food was cheaper at the local markets; Akada and Adaka preferred supermarket where foreign food is sold. Since we neglected what was ours, we patronized foreign clothes, shoes, English gold (exported raw from us), sardines (fresh fish exported from our waters), etc. This was how we increase production and jobs abroad and killed our local industries at home.

The irony is that the only place genuine organic food is sold were at our local markets. Almost everything at the “so-so” supermarkets were canned. By the time they were opened, they must have spent ages locked up and stale. Most of them were exported from our shores as fresh fish turned into canned fish or our beef turned into corn beef.

course, they were bought cheap and sold very expensive to us. It has got to a stage where Chinese products and food are sold cheaply to displace ours in our markets. Even worse, some of them were of inferior quality. They killed our textile material industry and some of the imported food were made of plastic. We were wasting good money (external reserve) to purchase inferior brands.



Our import dependent economy has a long history but we lack memories and never learn from our past. It was illegal to drink our local gin since it would compete with foreign made. Tai Solari had to take local gin to police station to dare arrest!

Each time before an election, citizens and even political cronies are suddenly surprised at the amount of dollars, euro and pounds that are circulating at these conventions. One would think they were sleeping before this time or their brain were on sabbatical. If any big spender is suddenly exposed or reported in the newspaper, they gasped. Bah!

Europe and America have delegated us to be the producer of raw materials and appointed themselves as the manufacturers of finished products. It does not take much calculation to know that if you pay ten to hundred times more for finished products from what is paid to you for raw materials, you would become a debtor forever.

Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2018

https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/269944/dollarization-pauperization-of-countries-without-memories.html#
Crime › Re: Burial Of Khensani Maseko South African Student Who Committed Suicide After Rape by nobaga: 4:14pm On Aug 10, 2018
Rape no matter how you define it against man or woman is never acceptable or sexy. Even those in consentual rough sex revolt at certain point.

Culturally men and women victims are viewed differently. This is why girls and women must be helped, trained and built to be stronger.

Not to succumb to humiliation in what they consider the lowest point in their life. Humans have come out stronger in wars and other crimes.

Suicide is a loss to everyone especially to loved ones. Stand up and fight back to help other victims. If everyone raped commit suicide, very few brave ones will be left.
Politics › Re: Nigeria: A Country Of Anything Goes No Discipline No Laws by nobaga(op): 8:35pm On Aug 07, 2018
Only a devil with an iron fist can rule Nigeria and free the country from popular looters

But for a country where the enemy of my enemy is my friend, someone like Saraki would not have a single supporter having burnt bridges all around him. One has to understand why he is still standing. The President, General Buhari won an election after several tries against Goodluck Jonathan that was rejected by the same people that elected him throughout the country in the previous election.

Again, Mr. Jonathan lost an election he should have won if he had been competent and firm with his ministers. They all had a free hand and stole the country blind. They literally turned the country into a bazaar where looters were outdoing looters. Nevertheless, he had a strong backing from certain section of the country that have sworn to oppose anything Buhari does.
Politics › Nigeria: A Country Of Anything Goes No Discipline No Laws by nobaga(op): 7:28pm On Aug 07, 2018
NIGERIA: A COUNTRY OF ANYTHING GOES NO DISCIPLINE NO LAWS

Nigeria is an African country that is too big to fail. If it fails, it is not only going to overwhelm the whole of Africa, its effect would be felt across Europe and America. Yet, it does not have to get to that stage except for some criminals at the helm of that Nation. It is difficult to envisage how a man that has been found wanting as a bank looter, state looter and President of the Senate looter remains untouched.

But for a country where the enemy of my enemy is my friend, someone like Saraki would not have a single supporter having burnt bridges all around him. One has to understand why he is still standing. The President, General Buhari won an election after several tries against Goodluck Jonathan that was rejected by the same people that elected him throughout the country in the previous election.

Again, Mr. Jonathan lost an election he should have won if he had been competent and firm with his ministers. They all had a free hand and stole the country blind. They literally turned the country into a bazaar where looters were outdoing looters. Nevertheless, he had a strong backing from certain section of the country that have sworn to oppose anything Buhari does.

What most people feared most about Buhari was his dictatorial tendencies and a blind spot for his Fulani oligarchy. While he went almost overboard in trying to prove he is a democrat to appeal to western democracy, he failed to curb the destruction of lives and properties by Fulani herdsmen.

Therefore, his foes exploit his lack of firmness which he had displayed in his first coming as a military President. At the same time we all justifiably criticized him for not taking immediate action against Fulani herdsmen. The combination of these double whammies have almost paralyzed his government to the chagrin of many especially his foes. While his lack of firm and adequate action on Fulani herdsmen has diluted support for him.

What we have now with an ambitious Senate President is to violate all rules in Any Party In Power and even mixed messages to the Security Forces with one invading the National Assembly. Even worse, is where the order came from. If it is true that one of the Security Chief was arrested, we are on our way to chaos where the left hand has no clue what the right hand is doing.

The poor masses that are celebrating chaos, lack of discipline or respect for rules in the parties by political prostitutes jumping from one bed to another, may come to regret it if Buhari is pushed to exercise his power under the constitution and declare A State Of Emergency. The same people criticizing him for lack of action in a democracy would be the one protesting his lack of patience for due process.

Let us be clear, Saraki and the Forty Thieves have abused due process. He has accumulated enough money to buy whoever tried to bring him to book; it could be the Police, the Judiciary or his rented crowd. One thing is clear: no country that has any sense of decency would have a man that has flouted the rules, regulations and laws so many times and would still be out free.

Nigeria used to be the big brother that most people of goodwill throughout the world had hoped would bail out Africa so that the burden at the world stage would be less. It has not come to be, unfortunately the same country that used to accommodate all Africans, is now struggling to find find its feet on the ground. You do not want to hear what the youths call their country and could not wait to flee.

Ironically, these are the same youths clapping and cheering their political prostitutes as they change from one party to another without any principle, ideology, discipline or rules. If the center cannot hold within a party, there is no way the country itself can be successfully managed. A country without rules, regulations or laws have no sins. What we have is a country of heavyweights that will eventually “sink the boat”.

Ah ah! This is what we are longing for so that every village can go its own way like the Sudanese, Rwandans, Somalis and the Libyans.

Source: Farouk Martins Aresa @oomoaresa
Politics › Democracy Rule Of Law & Religion In Trojan Horse by nobaga(op): 4:14pm On Jul 31, 2018
Democracy Rule Of Law & Religion In Trojan Horse


How many countries in the whole wide world do you know where democracy, the rule of law and religion have ever been used to liberate Africans, especially the poor masses in Africa? Yet, the poor masses will rise up and defend African oppressors and looters by democracy and rule of law that they have never enjoyed. No, they are not insane. They are depending on promises of politicians, pastors and imams that in the year 3000, they will be liberated in paradise.

This is similar to the pledges made to our fathers by the British, the French and the Portuguese. They were asked to join the Army in order to fight for freedom against Hitler in Europe when they were not free at home themselves. As good Christians and Muslims, Arabs and Europeans are still asking us to fight Jihad and Crusade in the name of God.


However, one of the virtue of true democracy is when you see the highly placed, the rich and the powerful fighting for the rule of law and the Right of the poor masses. In many African countries and Nigeria in particular, we are witnessing the opposite trend. We are being told that until our own looters and oppressors are accorded the rule of law, the poor masses that make up the majority of Africans are not going to be free. Yeah right, tell the Libyans that!

Supporters of Buhari and Jonathan have lost their sense of sanity. Whenever the Looters fight, it is the poor masses that cry the loudest for the rule of law and democracy they hardly know. We forget that Swahili proverb that when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. We see politicians divide income within themselves from our resources and celebrate together. But during the elections, they send us out for fight for them even at the cost of our lives.

What is the poor masses’ business or gain, you might ask. They believe in promises and aspire to replace the politicians one day and be in a position to scoop their own loot with the hope that, they too could be in the positions to bribe police and judges that would set them free.

However, whenever looters win, it is the country that loses; that is us, you and I. The more loses and defeats obtained in our courts, the better for individual looters’ notion of the rule of law and democracy that cheat us of our fair share. Stop blaming prosecutors for fixed cases. When oppressors, cheats and dishonest politicians and their cronies get the lion share, the majority of the masses get crumbs that cannot create infrastructure, feed them and their families.

Have you come to realize that those who preach democracy, the rule of law and religion conned us in Africa? Not only did they promise it would take Africa to paradise, they are the worst practitioner of their own teachings. Yet, they never fail to sanction or even wage war on those that deviate from what they preach to the rest of the world. Anytime anyone ever tell you about saner climes again, ask him where and for who?

While young Africans are beginning to understand the hypocrisy and fallacy of religions used to bind and bond our grandfathers, many in the older generation, those in hardship, need or neglect are still stuck in the belief that there is democracy from a distant land that can liberate them from their misery. Mind you, we are all vulnerable to other means, especially if we have done everything in our power to succeed and failed.

This is when we believe that the witches from the village have something to do with our misfortune. When we seek deliverance from local prophets and imams exploiting our weaknesses, we start looking for foreign doctrines and gods. Before then, ritualists and fake prophets must have done their numbers on us. There are highly educated folks, even specialist in different fields, when they encounter sickness, fall to the whims and caprices of miracle men.

When practitioners of these amorphous doctrines are in the majority anywhere, democracy is the standard as long as it works for them. Once they feel threatened by the numbers of others they do not consider to be their own, they exploit all kinds of ways to reduce their voting blocs by delineating areas they can still win. Call it gerrymandering, votes redistribution area or voters intimidation by putting up obstacles that make it difficult or inconvenient to vote. Others used Electoral College. Are these the people we copy?

African countries are not the only place the masses are manipulated but it is the only continent that has not produced a single successful black nation. Unfortunately, for no other reason than the domestication of the masses to the whims and caprices of their oppressors. Supporters of Buhari and Jonathan in Nigeria have lost sanity crying over what has never benefited them.

If Africans do not like the way they are treated outside because they are denied fair process, the rule of law and democracy enjoyed by others, they need to establish one from their culture where Igbo have no king or Oyo Cabinet system. Until we do, foreign countries would throw it in our faces that we cannot govern ourselves. If it is not true, we would not be running to their countries where we sell ourselves cheap, crossing desert and sea at the cost of our lives.

We have more Senators and politicians on mega salaries than United Sates. Africans, no matter where you are inside or outside Africa, must be careful when you espouse the same principle that they are going to use to crucify you. Never forget your own people that are less fortunate because of your temporary state of euphoria. It can disappear at the slightest miscalculation, change of fortune or opportunity they can seize on, to nail you onto the cross.

Moreover, this mumurism has gone on for so long that sane rational people that would want to help, fear the same poor masses turning on them. If Africans are not willing to help themselves, nobody would. There is no amount of riches we could steal from Africans that would buy us the respect and freedom we deserve, even after all our achievement and contributions abroad.

If you think this is solely about black and white, you are wrong. The people you consider your own have studied the best way to make you accept their oppression and read books that claim that the more deprived you are the more dependent and obedient you are to them. It is not by accident that those who oppressed the masses are loved if they ration needs like food, shelter and desire to them. They lounge for more from wherever each comes from.

Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
Published: Tuesday, July 31, 2018
https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/268868/democracy-rule-of-law-religion-in-trojan-horse.html#
Politics › Brain Dead Cheering For Their Blood Sucking Local Champions by nobaga(op): 3:39pm On Jul 27, 2018
Nigeria got Independence in 1960. Progress No!

Regression Yes.

So why do you divide yourself into camps celebrating those sharing your future and fortune?

Oh, waiting for your turn, eh? Wait O!
Politics › Unruly Politicians Get Celebrated To Strangle The Country Economically by nobaga(op): 12:52pm On Jul 25, 2018
Unruly Politicians Get Celebrated To Strangle The Country Economically

Some have come out and boldly stated they are out to milk the country to death so that every region or each ethnic group can go its own way. In the meantime, they will remain parasites until the country is completely paralyzed. Indeed, some military/politicians have wondered out loud why the country has remained standing despite looting the treasury mercilessly.

We have seen this picture before and it is not that difficult to envisage again. All we have to do is look at how Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan were destroyed by ethnic rivalry, experimental laboratory to test and carry out weapon of mass destruction and how superpowers were invited to claim their spoils of wars.
http://thenews-chronicle.com/?p=76402
Politics › Highest Paid Politicians With Odious Loans by nobaga(op): 7:23pm On Jul 22, 2018
Highest Paid Politicians With Odious Loans

Is it not strange that a country with the highest number of poor people in the world pays politicians with collateral secured loans from foreigners? We are not talking about paying teachers or civil servants, these are the highest paid politicians in the whole wide world. When asked why they go into foreign debt again, it is because there is not enough in the budget to pay looters and vultures that refused to pay civil servants so that they can loot treasury.

It still remains a mystery why these politicians keep on receiving mega salaries for years from the budget supplemented by foreign loans since the country is broke. The poorer the country gets, the richer these politicians get and the louder the celebration by the masses for their mediocrity. Instead of resigning to crooks probing crooks, we want angels with equity to probe.


Odious loan serve as an incentive not only for despotic government but also to corrupt democratic elected governments whose leaders benefit most from these loans by paying themselves outrageous salaries, fabricating foreign contracts payment most of which goes into their pockets as borrowers with complicit overseas lenders charging huge “service” fees

Loan embargo or suspension on the other hand, would protect the people’s interests without the obligation to repay the accumulated debts until they get rid of their corrupt governments. As it is, most of the stolen loots returned to African countries without special monitoring of projects and purpose go back into the hands of new set of corrupt leaders diverting it into their foreign banks in the name of the people and infrastructure.

Of course the questions of trust and patronizing developing countries by lender countries have been raised. Both parties can be transparent by forming a committee to watch how the funds are released, for what particular projects it is used for, with emphasis on local development and training and modest service fees that are not duplicated. In most cases, lender countries demand goods and services from their countries when it can be sourced locally and much cheaper.

Some have come out and boldly stated they are out to milk the country to death so that every region or each ethnic group can go its own way. In the meantime, they will remain parasites until the country is completely paralyzed. Indeed, some military/politicians have wondered out loud why the country has remained standing despite looting the treasury mercilessly.

We have seen this picture before and it is not that difficult to envisage again. All we have to do is look at how Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan were destroyed by ethnic rivalry, experimental laboratory to test and carry out weapon of mass destruction and how superpowers were invited to claim their spoils of wars.

Since the country has not burnt down, they will continue to borrow using the land, the people and its resources as collateral until it is auctioned off in pieces to foreigners! So they owe the Europeans, the Americans, the Chinese and the Russians. By the end of the lease, term or maturity of all the loans, there will be a scramble for Nigeria; exactly the way it was for Africa.

Therefore their hatred for Nigeria is out of spite, hate and vengeance running from the North to the South. Contrary to the most parroted opinions, it is not that the youths are stupid, selfish or insensitive, some just want to burn the country as their leaders and mentors preached message of hate. The generation that built the country is gone. This generation wants to destroy it.

When you hear politicians say they are willing to die for Nigeria, they mean as long as there are more milk and honey still flowing their way. The day honey and wara stop, that is the day everyone would retire to their tents. They all have castles built in foreign countries where they think they and their families can never be rejected as outcast, no matter how filthy rich they appear to be. A fool and his castle built in the air will part sooner than later.

These same Vagabonds In Power had paid off odious loan nobody could vouch for how it was spent, except wasted on foreign inflated projects that might not have existed. This is money that could have been expended on needed infrastructure, schools and poverty reduction to support the working poor. It’s filtered away to foreign countries to pay foreign property and school taxes while ours at home are left to deteriorate.

In a country where sane and rational folks cannot form a quorum, prodigal and philanderer politicians are praised and celebrated by starving supporters until elections when they give bags of rice away, bought from salary stolen from them. Folks’ mentality and reasoning have been compromised; leaving them and their children praying to God for manna from heaven.

Indeed, instead of facing political and economic realities, they pray to gods and for divine intervention to solve their problems. Even the pastors and imam, aware of their vulnerability, exploit them, by promising miracles. They ask God to pick up their call!

No reasonable African up to the sixties would have thought African could be so destructive and indifferent to the plight of their new generations in a world where they are already despised for not building a single country that others could be proud of. Those who cry for Africa sometimes wonder and ask: if Africans cannot help themselves, who is going to help Africa?

Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
Published: Sunday, July 22, 2018
https://www.modernghana.com/news/870013/highest-paid-politicians-with-odious-loans.html#
Politics › Re: Saraki Proves Odds Of Winning Against Corruption Is 1:99 by nobaga: 10:23pm On Jul 09, 2018
Like play like play, Saraki King of the Den of Thieves will become President of Nigeria.

Coma see celebration, dancing and worshiping by the youths, old and dead.

No be curse O! Na Fanta.

Saraki Proves Odds Of Winning Against Corruption Is 1:99 by googi: 2:27am On Jul 08
SARAKI PROVES ODDS OF WINNING AGAINST CORRUPTION 1:99

The Senate President Bukola Saraki has been “vindicated” by Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. It is not the first time. James Ibori also fought all the way to Supreme Court before he was also “vindicated”. People celebrated and danced. Even when Ibori was finally convicted in England, he was welcomed back to Nigeria with special prayers in the Church and traditional chiefs welcomed him. Saraki may get the same reception.

We still remember how Justice Ayo Salami, the former President of the Court of Appeal rejected inducement to be promoted to the Supreme Court by the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Aloysiuos Iyorgher Katsina_Alu; as “Greek Gift” to throw a case before him.
It is even worse now that judges keep a pile of foreign currencies at home and solicit lawyers for presents to fulfill wedding ceremonies of their children like Justice Ademola!

When you read this statement from a member of the gang of the most corrupt leaders in Nigeria as innocent citizens are languishing in our jails because they have no money to bail themselves out, bribe police or judges; we must wonder which country this Saraki rouge referred to. Is it not sickening when due process, rule of law or democracy is used as excuse?

“I have always believed in the infallibility of our Judiciary, secure in the knowledge that our courts – the last refuge of the oppressed - would never condemn the innocent. This outcome is also a vindication of my belief in the rule of law”

Corruption is winning every day in Nigeria and people are celebrating against Nigeria. If there is a place corruption fights back with the cooperation of the masses dancing and celebrating, you can count on Nigeria. The Judiciary is so corrupt, you would think most of them were trained or from Chicago before the clean up as some of their governors ended up in jail. But the case of Nigeria harboring the poorest people on earth is so sad, there is no poverty comparison with Illinois, United States.

Other Nigerians watched, dismayed that if someone as crooked and barefaced as Saraki could get away with impunity, there was no reason to jail as poor people stealing in the market or beat them unconscious. Even armed robbers and kidnappers are wondering why they did not go into politics because their own acts involved greater risk of being jailed or lynched by the mob. These are the same people celebrating corrupt politicians.

Bukola Saraki is a qualified medical doctor but the job is too tedious for him and prefer the comfort of banking and politics. The family including the father left many Nigerians hanging dry after Societe Generale Bank liquidated all their savings. The father and the son became the Governor of Kwara only to steal the State blind. He was involved in so many schemes, even the Chief of Police could not move him an inch on bank fraud.

Recently another Chief of Police queried the same Saraki when it was established that he is the godfather of Armed Robbers gang at Offa where so many people were killed; as if their godfather is bigger than the God of common people. These type of nefarious activities can never be connected to God fearing people. But when you sponsor thugs, they know that if they get caught, their godfather is waiting to bail them out!
These were the qualifications he presented when he wrestled the position of Senate President against his Party. But then, there were precedents since Tambuwal did the same to become the President of the Senate with the cooperation of Tinubu’s (Yekini Amoda Ogunlere) Party then, ACN. Tinubu got paid back with his coin when Saraki used his chicanery to sidestep him in APC and became the Senate President.

Tinubu and Saraki have more in common than political magomago. Yet, some youths are celebrating one against the other in the wake of Saraki’s “victory” at the Supreme Court. They are both crooks and vultures that have looted their states blind as governors and continue to enjoy the dividends of corruption. This is the Augean stable swamping the country where the highest number of poor people suffocate daily.

The poverty mentality has overtaken any form of decency in the polity and children born into it have no sense of normalcy without corruption from the lowest level of the society to the highest level of government. As much as a few people that could work against corruption tried, they were overtaken by the wave of corruption swamp. As some good people move a few steps forward, many more crooks move the goalpost backwards in multiple steps.

One needs to visit Nigeria and see how poor people work from dawn to dusk. Even children struggle on the streets to supplement the income of their parents. The more they work, the less the money they earn could make a difference. Those that are totally exhausted and worn out live under the bridge, pick anything they can eat or sell dangerous elements from environmental dumps in one city or another.

These poor people watch as conspicuous spenders like Saraki that make their money from corruption display what they buy with it. They have fleet of luxury cars that only the rich and the famous can buy in rich countries. Humongous houses are built in capital cities, bought in world most famous cities and designer materials in clothes and shoes ostentatiously displayed to spite the poor and those celebrating them.

Saraki is a “devoted” Muslim. Churches and Mosques used to depend on them for tithes but now realize pastors and imams can become rich too by predicting calamities and performing fake miracles in order to entice the gullible looking for salvation, riches and miracles. Jujumen have also joined the pastors and imams promising heaven and earth by rituals if they sleep with mad people, their mothers, bring the heads of their relatives.

Saraki and other politicians in his gang have sucked money out of development. This is how the society has gone down from bad to worse, as we say. The respect for hard work, humility and perseverance have gone out the window. Families have broken down and everyone is for himself. Schools have become money making ventures where the rich politicians, churches and foreign duplicated names are now the norm while government schools and colleges suffer without books, desk and chairs. Saraki and Co., trained abroad also train their children abroad. They don’t care. The poor worship them.

The youths can only emulate these “successful” enterprises of corruption they are born into. They wonder when God is going to pick their calls so that they can make money like Saraki and other politicians from every nook and corner of the country. Many of the youths have never seen hardworking people from their towns and villages that made it from grass to grace. They are surrounded by corrupt people that are either in politics or servicing politicians.

Youths neither have clean role models nor agree on one; except the one that can grab the biggest loot or rob by 419 (Yahoo Yahoo boys). How then can we blame the youths for being lazy when their mentors looted local, state and the federal treasury dry?

Source: Farouk Martins Aresa

1 Like 1 Share
Politics › Re: Buhari Electoral Calculation: Fulani Marauders From Space by nobaga: 3:08am On Jul 02, 2018
Thank you!

Whatever name you call it: this incessant killings because of cows demonstrate there is no compromise in values between the lives of privileged cows and those of human in our cultures. If you value the lives of cows more, stay away from those who value human lives more to avoid the clash of cultures.
Politics › Re: Oyinbo Tired As Politicians Beg & Sell Themselves Too Cheap by nobaga(op): 3:11pm On Jun 02, 2018
True tok BabaRamota.

Nobody starts at square one anymore. Even if you do, marketing and indoctrination is the key.

As a very simple example, aspirin is African in origin. Foreigners evaluated, purified and studied effective dosage. We still do not know what we have and even lie and exaggerated what we have.

We do not need to rediscover slice bread right now, we need to perfect it. Russia, China and Japan mastered American technologies and so can we.

In the process, other discoveries jump up. The process you thoroughly indicated is too long. We can short cut it and move to the stage where Asian countries are.

To hell with patent laws violated by every country including America.
Politics › Re: Ben Murray-Bruce: If Those 3 Million Super Eagles Jerseys Were Made In Aba... by nobaga: 2:52pm On Jun 02, 2018
Okay nah, stop fighting. Where do we go from here?

Those smart Nigerians that are going to become millionaires from this are not arguing.

Very soon, Okrika and Ijebu made will soon flood the market at home and abroad.

Nigerians dey get sense small small since 1900. You refuse to buy your lace, they make lace in Nigeria and export it to Cotonou. You then buy imported lace from Belgium. Na lie, na Nigerian made imported back from Cotonou.

The next thing is to copy their technologies. Nigerians will buy it if is marketed in Europe or America.

Na who go buy Nigerian products unless it is exported and imported back in?
Politics › Re: Oyinbo Tired As Politicians Beg & Sell Themselves Too Cheap by nobaga(op): 2:06pm On Jun 02, 2018
A little knowledge will not hurt you. It is better than none.

Or read a couple of paragraphs at the beginning, middle and the end.

Alejoc:
On the lookout for summary grin shocked


#lazyYut
hi
Politics › Oyinbo Tired As Politicians Beg & Sell Themselves Too Cheap by nobaga(op): 1:04am On Jun 02, 2018
Oyibo Tired As Politicians Beg & Sell Themselves Too Cheap

There is an adage that no matter how valuable you are, you get what you negotiate, not what you deserve. You may have heard those stories of Europeans and Americans shaming fellow African passengers on the planes on their way back home: how stupid many African leaders are. They are so stupid, they sell themselves short, too cheap and beg out of what is rightly theirs.

The first story was some years ago about an American traveling out of Kenya. Then, there was another one out of Ghana. Later, others stories along the same line have come from Nigeria, Senegal and other African countries. The closest way to relate African politicians’ foolishness is how some school boys conspired with bursars to defraud their own poor hardworking fathers.

Another was personal. One of our “small” uncle visited a “big” uncle. Small uncle was served with drinks and a full pack of cigarettes. As the big uncle stepped into another room for a moment, our small uncle stole half of the cigarettes in the pack. When he finished his drinks, he stood up to go. Before he stepped outside, big uncle reminded him that he had forgotten his cigarettes: yepaa, I had been stealing from myself!

The embarrassment these oyibo subjected their fellow African passengers to paralyzed most. They did not know whether to laugh or cry at the “jokes”. Some Africans pretended to fall asleep with the hope that these oyibo people would stop since other people were listening. There is nothing these expatriates were bragging about that were not known or discussed in the African communities.

It is the glee with which foreign investors expressed the fact that they made a killing in their deals that is both embarrassing and annoying. You cannot fight them on the plane or counter what you know is true. One of them actually summarized African leaders’ negotiation skills to be stupidly selfish and dirt cheap: natural resources, land, royalties, tax-free zones, exorbitant finished imported products eagerly brought in with incredible concessions at tax-free zones and allowed to do whatever they want in Africa.

What do these African leaders get back? Peanuts! Gold for mirrors like past century. Everything they get back is usually less than five percent of what is given away. Actually, they know African leaders are so greedily stupid, they usually keep back about one percent because they know Africans would come back to beg for less than one percent more, of the bargain. Once they are thrown the bones like dogs, they would dance and worship their foreign portfolio investors.

Please note that Congo is rightly renegotiating cobalt price with foreign investors. The fact is, most leaders have no idea or do not care about the value of what they are negotiating away. They go to their people and brag about how much foreign investments they bring into the country since nobody asks them how much is flying out of the country. When African experts lecture or write about business and economics, it is never from the perspectives of Africans.

All their authorities and quotes are from International Monetary Fund, World Bank and of course foreign universities. Any contrary opinion and authority inside or outside Africa like OXFAM that points out the one sided deals they negotiated for their countries is dangerous to their ability to get kickbacks in foreign currencies in their self-interests.

African and foreign businesses that generate sales outside each African country, are surprisingly the biggest looters of foreign reserves. If these companies are selling products like chocolates, coffee, beer, automobiles and cement outside their country, they should be a good source of foreign or hard currencies for their own government. No! They dip into limited foreign reserve locally, fighting for it like every Momoh, Emeka and Tunde or small businesses.

What they promise is that by the year - when we are all dead and gone - they will be generating foreign cash for their home countries. Think about it. Those selling sugar and water in the name of Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Fanta etc. claim they need our limited foreign reserve to import sugar from our sugarcane and Pierre water that cannot be readily made available at home. So they have to obtain them with our foreign reserve, haba!

Though ignoramus when they are negotiating with multinational corporations, when buying their finished products, they know these manufacturers make more money from after sales from maintenance and of course from training their own staff, not African staff on technical details. This was the bone of contention between the British and Americans in the early century when British accused Americans of stealing their innovations. Now it is the turn of American claiming Japan and China are stealing American innovations.

When are Africans going to steal British, American, Japanese and Chinese technologies? If these leaders were not so book-educated like a robot, we would think they would play the same game after their Independence in the late fifties and sixties. Sometimes one has to wonder which is more painful, African telling our leaders daily that they are selfishly stupid or Asians, Europeans, Americans, Lebanese and Arabs telling us our leaders are a special case of morons.

Someone said Africans are good at diagnosing their problems when writing or out of power. Once they are put in the position of authority, they all mess up big time. This may be true in many cases. But please, give some credit to those that worked tooth and nail to make their countries better than we met it; against all odds. There are hard workers in every African country that will never be given the opportunity to rule, even if they contest.

We all know the hard workers, five different types of professors, the sincere and patriotic Africans in each country. It is unfair to claim that people you know and refused to elevate to the position of power are just rogues like the rest of them. You shun them and prefer to celebrate rogues and vagabonds that give you “stomach infrastructure” and foreign motors/bikes while stealing you blind. Do not lump everyone together. Respect the dignity of labor. Even as gutter cleaners and farmers, we all have a role to play in life. Everyone cannot be a politician.

When Prof. Soludo said the Paris Club odious loan could have been negotiated better by anyone, it was not out of spite but out of indignation. We had two Obasanjo and two Audu Ogbe we know very well. On their first outing, they worked diligently for the country but left office almost bankrupt and were humiliated by people for going back home broke up to today. The subsequent opportunity they got, they learned their lessons and looted us dry!

Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
Published: Friday, June 1, 2018
https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/266906/oyibo-tired-as-politicians-beg-sell-themselves-too-cheap.html#
Politics › Re: Poverty In Africa Not Rooted In Ethics Integrity Or Laziness by nobaga: 6:25pm On May 23, 2018
It is so disappointing that it takes so long to put African inferiority complex or cultural domestication by foriegners in the proper place.

The second step is wondering if Africans would put it into action.
Family › Re: Better Be A Single Broke Ass Than A Shafted Divorcee by nobaga(op): 2:23pm On Apr 09, 2018
The facts or reality today is girls are better taken care of than guys.

So it is time ladies spend some of that money and privileges on broke guys.

But broke guys have to learn how to respect their rich ladies.
Politics › Re: Bola Tinubu: "Ayo Adebanjo Made Me Lagos Governor" by nobaga: 7:52pm On Apr 04, 2018
Well, most of you are right But I cannot believe that you all forgot the king maker that made Tinubu the Governor.

Pa Dawodu.

Funsho had to join PDP after Pawodu gave Tinubu the mantle because Funso Williams was not a memeber of NADECO.

Funso won alright but all those that conspired against Funso thinking Tinubu as a non-indigenous Lagosian would be easier to defeat regretted it until today.

They include Obanikoro, Finnih, Docemu and Pa Dawodu regretted it to their graves. Be careful what you ask for.

Yekini from Iragbiji has continued to rule Lagos until Today. Poor Lagosians.
Politics › Re: Sick Leaders Sell Youths Heritage Just To Die In Luxury by nobaga(op): 11:27pm On Mar 31, 2018
Politics › Re: Sick Leaders Sell Youths Heritage Just To Die In Luxury by nobaga(op): 11:21pm On Mar 31, 2018
Business › Re: Jason Njoku: "My Children Won't Inherit My Money" - Iroko TV Boss Says by nobaga: 1:16pm On Mar 31, 2018
If you spend and train your children very well and discipline them to stay out of bad influence, they will not need your money.

It is the old African way of life corrupted by novel-riche.

Papa and mama may have, God bless the child that have his or her own. That is African.
Politics › Sick Leaders Sell Youths Heritage Just To Die In Luxury by nobaga(op): 12:53pm On Mar 31, 2018
Sick Leaders Sell Youths Heritage Just To Die In Luxury


If you want to know the future of a country, look at youth’s life today. Pampered Leaders on scholarships and welfare throughout their life, are paying back with thorns and daggers at the back of our youths while celebrating themselves and their children. They are obsessedwith funerals when they die at some prestigious hospital abroad, boldly displayed on their obituary. They are Pharaoh that had Hummer SUV buried with them or looted cash buried in their graves.

The first million an African makes is not for local or productive endeavors, but for luxury abroad they must loot more tosustain. In the days when Volks was the first car of those just starting to make it, success were made gradually in steps.Looking up to looters, Mercedes Benz is the first choice. Unfortunately, the first African assembly plant was not for tractors and machine needed in factories. Indeed, we still imported luxury cars to kill our local automobile assembly plants.


As much as we must praise Dangote for building the largest oil refinery because it will meet local demands and export to other African countries, there is this eerie feeling that it should have been built fifty years ago. Better late than never, we must say. But will an oil refinery meet future demands when most world automobiles makers have switched to electric engines. We must learn, as Ajaokuta Steel lie fallow while the world is competing on steel glut.

It is really surprising that University of Lagos seems to be embarking on another refinery in addition to that of Dangote in Lagos. It makes no sense to establish another old arcade industry when the future is on solar and electric automobile. This writer has written in the past begging for economic projects from our universities when Nigeria bypassed agricultural scientists from our universities to import Zimbabwe white farmers with all incentive to Kwara.

Africa must look into future projects jointlysince only 15% of our trade is within so 85% abroad;ordered to grow what we do not consume. Yet, some states declare Free Trade; for who? Saudi Arabia and Softbank solar project , is to be established at expected cost of $200 billion through 2030, will have the capacity to produce up to 200 gigawatts. It will support the domestic solar equipment manufacturing industry in their kingdom.The project will create about 200,000 jobs in Saudi Arabia and increase GDP by $12 billion, while it will save Saudi Arabia about $40 billion.

Cobalt scramble in Congo is being monopolized by China, car companies like Tesla are buying it into the future to secure production of electric cars. Apple, Samsung as others, computer makers and warmongers negotiate to get their shares. Just as important is the alarm to control Niger uranium so that it does not fall into wrong hands as weapon of mass destruction. While Congo and Niger the raw producers, look on as just bystanders! Where are our intellectuals?

Angola former head of state son and daughter(declared asAfrica’s richest lady) have been involved in money laundering for years. Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation: HSBC have frozen $500m belonging to the son. These people have no conscience, worse than cold blooded killers in their countries where women and children die for lack of care and economic opportunities. HSBC froze Jose Filomeno dos Santos’account linked to $500m Angolan fraud .

It showcased our leaders’ role sucking blood out of Africa for crumbs, bargaining youth’s future and heritageaway. It is not only oil deals, the same is true for gold, diamond, uranium and now cobalt in Democratic Republic of Congo. If you waged war in yours or another African country and smuggled raw diamond out like Charles Taylor, you are just as quality. This is the modern day scramble for Africa with our leaders as accomplice selling us for pittance.

We thought once the colonialists left, that would be the end of extractive economy . We were wrong, black faces just replaced their masters and continue to sell irreplaceable resources to foreigners by taking a big cut at the top while national companies pocket theirs and of course leaving the country and its youths with crumbs. Wickedly, they still flare, waste our gas and buy elsewhere for import. One case out of many is a good look at Shell, Eni, OPl245 and Ette .

In Nigeria today, no one can leave allocation, stipend or grant under the watchful eye of the law without individual schemer, group or invited robbers on how to conspire and steal everything! It has come to the point where most of the people in charge are wondering who is going to go first. The justification varies from stealing is not corruption to various animals swallowing our cashistics. If it was not for dying women and children, one would consider it a deadly joke.

Mind you, it is not that the youths are without faults, especially in term of their foreign tastes at the expense of local goods and services. Agricultural products from which we are blessed, are neglected because of the hard work involved. The world has moved beyond hoe and cutlasses into mechanized farming. There is no reason we could not develop those equipment locally; as tryctors and Innoson trucks with mostly local partsas forex earners instead of drainer.

Agricultural work can be professionalized with locally invented machines like those that replaced the old dangerous and back breaking work in their factories. Our youths must be trained and exposed because when they run out of the country, these are the back breaking jobs available to them most of the time. We pay through our nose to bring plumbers, iron workers and other skilled workers to our countries only for them to direct local workers.

If you think that since we had local production, the prices would be within reach or pockets of the poor farmers to buy, you would be wrong. Producers of local goods and services want about the same price as imported products negating the benefit for our local entrepreneurs that pass the cost to retailers. The rational is, if they could buy imported products for the same price as local, they might as well pay for foreign equipment. Yet ground workers earn low wage.

Nevertheless, while advocating for reduced profits on local equipment, agriculture must be professionalized with tryctors, trucks, local fertilizer and refrigerated storage on wheels. It will make the backbreaking labor easier. The role of the governments would be to grant low cost loans specifically toward local affordable tryctors local farmers could handle. Government must also go back to cooperative societies bringing lone farmers together in joint agribusiness.

Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
Published: Saturday, March 31, 2018
https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/264976/sick-leaders-sell-youths-heritage-just-to-d.html#
Politics › Re: How Did The Olukumin People Accept A Hausa Derogatory Term As Their Name? by nobaga: 6:10pm On Mar 16, 2018
Actually Yoruba was already in use before Amed Baba put it into writing complaining he should not be captured as a slave because he was a Muslim. Only YORUBA that stuck to their religion and others should be captured for being nonbelievers of Muslim God.

But Yoruba named most of the ethnic groups in Nigeria. Fulani is Yoruba nomenclature, their name varies from Fulbe to others depending on their location.

Tapa is also Yoruba word just as many others looking for greener pastures in Yoruba name.

Ibo is Yoruba word and many Easterners prefer it to Igbo. Indeed, Igbo corrected Yoruba many times that it is IGBO not IBO. Nevertheless Yoruba have other names Igbo did not like. No need to mention them.

Hausa is also a Yoruba word for a group of people Yoruba see as the same even when they refer to themselves as Magawazu, Burno, Gambari etc.

So Yoruba say- Igbonle ni Mula, Hausa ni Hausa nje.

The reason is obvious. Most Nigerians and Africans coming to Nigeria gravitate to the WEST up to the present day.

So Yoruba have names for those coming from Togo, Ghana all the way to Liberia.

Note, Lagosians would name others anything, even their own Yoruba. But they call many others the same name their Yoruba kin call them. So do not take Lagosians seriously. They are rascals that believe the world starts and end in Lagos like New Yorkers.

Corruption has tamed them. Indeed, tamed all
Nigerians, the giant of WHERE?
Family › Re: Woman Celebrates Her Housemaid Of 13 Years On Her Matriculation (Photos) by nobaga: 2:50pm On Mar 16, 2018
May God bless this family. I hope the girl remains grateful but do not depend or expect it. Even, you cannot depend on your children these days.

Ma'am, by your deeds, she has ceased to be house girl a long time ago. Your description could be a little better. Otherwise she would distance herself out of embarrassment in her new life and friends. It is up to her to say she started as house girl.

This is what we used to and many still do in Lagos.

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