₦airaland Forum

Buhari: A Tragic Mistake!

There is a lot of corruption going on under President Buhari. Buhari is the number one obstacle to the war on corruption. Buhari would never allow the war on corruption to succeed. The reason is that he is himself, eminently corrupt and dishonest. He has no integrity. This is why he has no qualms distancing himself from the promises he made during the electioneering campaign.
Buhari is not a man of honour. He has no sense of fairness. This has been evident from his trajectory. It was why I never supported him. It was why I was hoping that he would disappoint me. But as usual, he failed again. He could not even try to disappoint me.
Please, Buhari, if only for the sake of the future of my children, disappoint me and perform. Please.

CLICK ON THIS LINK THE READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE
http://ugowrite..com.ng/2016/07/buharis-second-coming-tragic-mistake.html

Buhari's Second Coming: A Tragic Mistake![color=#000099][/color]

There is a lot of corruption going on under President Buhari. Buhari is the number one obstacle to the war on corruption. Buhari would never allow the war on corruption to succeed. The reason is that he is himself, eminently corrupt and dishonest. He has no integrity. This is why he has no qualms distancing himself from the promises he made during the electioneering campaign.
Buhari is not a man of honour. He has no sense of fairness. This has been evident from his trajectory. It was why I never supported him. It was why I was hoping that he would disappoint me. But as usual, he failed again. He could not even try to disappoint me.
Please, Buhari, if only for the sake of the future of my children, disappoint me and perform. Please.

CLICK ON THIS LINK THE READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE
http://ugowrite..com.ng/2016/07/buharis-second-coming-tragic-mistake.html

Nigeria’s Unity Is Negotiable, Mr. President
By Godwin Etakibuebu
A few days ago, President Muhammadu Buhari was quoted as telling a group of agitators from the Niger Delta region of the country that “Nigeria’s unity is not negotiable”. He went further by pulling from a former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, most popular quote while the Nigeria/Biafra war lasted to buttress his point. That quote said: “to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done”…

…In a well-researched lecture given very recently [2013] by one seasoned and old British Scholar in the Nigerian House, London, under the chairmanship of Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, then Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, the revelation on the reason for the 1914 amalgamation by the British Empire was laid on the table. I was there at the lecture just by co-incidence of events. The two separate protectorates of both south and north coming together in 1914 was “based on the economic consideration of running the protectorate of the north which could not pay its bill”, according to the scholar/researcher, adding that “while the south protectorate was economically self-sufficient, the north protectorate was not”. It is in the face of this reality that the decision was taken by the Home Office to fuse both north and south protectorates together “so that the ‘unified’ country would be self-sufficient economically….

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE
http://ugowrite..com.ng/2016/07/nigerias-unity-is-negotiable-mr_18.html
http://ugowrite..com.ng/2016/07/nigerias-unity-is-negotiable-mr_18.html

Nigeria’s Unity Is Negotiable, Mr. President
By Godwin Etakibuebu
A few days ago, President Muhammadu Buhari was quoted as telling a group of agitators from the Niger Delta region of the country that “Nigeria’s unity is not negotiable”. He went further by pulling from a former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, most popular quote while the Nigeria/Biafra war lasted to buttress his point. That quote said: “to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done”…

…In a well-researched lecture given very recently [2013] by one seasoned and old British Scholar in the Nigerian House, London, under the chairmanship of Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, then Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, the revelation on the reason for the 1914 amalgamation by the British Empire was laid on the table. I was there at the lecture just by co-incidence of events. The two separate protectorates of both south and north coming together in 1914 was “based on the economic consideration of running the protectorate of the north which could not pay its bill”, according to the scholar/researcher, adding that “while the south protectorate was economically self-sufficient, the north protectorate was not”. It is in the face of this reality that the decision was taken by the Home Office to fuse both north and south protectorates together “so that the ‘unified’ country would be self-sufficient economically….

[url]CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE
http://ugowrite..com.ng/2016/07/nigerias-unity-is-negotiable-mr_18.html
http://ugowrite..com.ng/2016/07/nigerias-unity-is-negotiable-mr_18.html

"From Abortion Table To Hell! My Experience"

I was raped by a supposed friend (someone I thought I could trust). Left in shame and shock I could not tell anyone about my ordeal. I kept it to myself and went about my normal life.

Some weeks later after I came back from an event, I started feeling weak, so I went to a nearby hospital and ran some tests. To my greatest shock I tested positive to pregnancy.

I told the man involved who after much plea convinced me to have an abortion which will be kept a secret.

I went in for an abortion. However, before the procedure, I asked God to forgive me for what I was about to do. In the process I died. I then saw myself leave my body. Still looking at the lifeless form on the abortion table, I started ascending but in a flash a force pulled me down through a dark tunnel. I could not see the beginning or the end of the walls of the tunnel. It was dark, so dark, I saw cobweb like cells on the walls and in an instant I was in HELL.

CLICK ON THIS LINK BELOW TO READ THE WHOLE STORY, WITH PICTURES
http://ugowrite..com.ng/2016/02/from-abortion-table-to-hell-my.html

Wole Soyinka's Demonization Of President Jonathan
By Dan Amor
In a feat of acerbic verbal tantrums, Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka Tuesday December 2, attacked President Goodluck Jonathan and likened the Nigerian leader to Nebuchadnezzar, the Biblical autocrat and king of Babylon who initially denounced the Living Supreme God. Soyinka who addressed a press conference on the state of the nation at the popular Freedom Garden in Lagos, said that Jonathan is tyrannical because the Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, stopped the attempt by the defected speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, to enter the Green Chamber of the National Assembly with thugs. The respected professor of dramatic literature who is clearly biased in his recent pronouncements given his current alignment with top leaders of the opposition political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), said so many unprintable things against the administration of President Jonathan.

Indeed, the distinguished playwright is entitled to his opinion especially in a wide democratic space in which freedom of association and of speech is the norm. But it is unfortunate that the renowned literary icon could allow his judgment to be beclouded by ahistorical considerations. By this recent act of likening Jonathan to Nebuchadnezzar, Soyinka has come down from his Olympian height as a global citizen and statesman to the sheer pedestrian rabble of petty villainy and rancour. It is a pointer to the fact that every great intellectual has his weak points. Our own Kongi is no exception. Even with the unsavory political development in Anambra State in 2004 which led to the unfortunate withdrawal of the security personnel of former Governor Chris Ngige after his attempted abduction by the police, no Nigerian, not even Professor Chinua Achebe who rejected former President Olusegun Obasanjo's national award due to that crisis, went as far as comparing the former President with Nebuchadnezzar.

FOLLOW THIS LINK TO READ WHOLE ARTICLE
http://ugowrite..com/2014/12/wole-soyinkas-demonization-of-president.html

Teaching Immorality In Schools
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

If anyone had told me a few years ago that a time will come in Nigeria when the authorities will approve the teaching of intimate immorality as a subject in junior and secondary schools, I would have thought that the person had lost his mind. But now, before our very eyes, it is happening, and I lack words to describe the shock among many Nigerians!

Not too long ago, I was shown the topics being treated under the subject called “Sexuality Education” or “Sex Education” which tender kids in both junior and secondary schools in Nigeria are now being forced to learn. Mere kids, some as young as ten or even nine, are put in the hands of teachers, who deploy every energy, talent and creativity to saturate their tender minds with every detail about intimate immorality and the use of contraceptives.
When I first raised alarm on this issue in my weekly column not too long ago, a concerned parent wrote me to say that the ‘Teacher’s Guide’ given to the Integrated Science teachers (who handle this subject) mandates them “to teach the children that religious teachings on issues like pre-marital sex, contraception, homosexuality, abortion and gender relations are mere opinions and myths! They are also to teach the students how to self-service and use chemical contraceptives (designed for women in their 30s). The ‘Teachers Guide’ equally lays a big emphasis on values clarification; this empowers teenage children to decide which moral values to choose since the ones parents teach them at home are mere options.”

It is difficult to imagine that anyone outside a mental home could have the mind to design such a subject even for the children of his worst enemy! In my view, this clearly qualifies as child abuse, which, sadly, has been endorsed by the authorities. I have reasons to suspect that what some of the teachers would be giving out would be targeted more at titillating their tender victims than educating them! I can imagine how easy it would now become for a teacher who has been targeting a female student to use his creative elaboration of this subject, to get the girl so overwhelmed she would become easy meat.

I am told that there are two main reasons for the introduction of this subject in our schools. One is to empower school children with adequate knowledge about their bodies and how to “safely” indulge in pre-marital sex without falling victims to teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS. The second reason is to demystify fornication, give it a positive image, as something to be cherished and enjoyed without any fear, as long as it is done “safely” and consensually. The belief is that with the age-long “superstition” built around intimate immorality which ‘stigmatizes’ it as an evil and sinful activity, some kids tend to go into it with fear and dread, and so develop psychological problems arising from the guilt they feel afterwards.

But these reasons are simply hollow and unconvincing. They are built on the assumption that in the present age, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for unmarried people to abstain from pre-marital sex. Instead of emboldening kids to behave like dogs, why not teach them to value their bodies and maintain their self-esteem by abstaining from immorality as our own parents had taught us? The difference between human beings and animals is the ability to reason and determine the consequences of actions, and then exercise discretion and self-control. Why not tell a kid the consequences of an action and use that to dissuade him from indulging in it?

Looking at the earnestness with which this policy is being pursued despite oppositions to it, one is forced to suspect that there may also be a commercial angle to it. Are we sure that substantial profit is not accruing to the initiators of this programme and their collaborators in government from the sales of the several books being written and printed on the subject? Support may equally be coming from the manufacturers of contraceptives who certainly see in this a lucrative venture to promote and sustain.

Now, how far has this subject helped in reducing teenage pregnancies and STDs in the Western nations where it has been taught, assimilated and practiced for many years now? It is a fact that these teachings have, for instance, been introduced in both the United States and Britain for many years now, but as I write now, I have before me, a BBC report saying that Britain has the highest record of teenage pregnancy in the whole of Western Europe. Also, another report has it that the United States has the highest number of teenage pregnancies in the entire Western world. Again, in the United States, it is reported that new infections of HIV are still on the increase.
That naturally leads us to the contentious issue of “safe sex.” So, what is all this fetish about “safe sex” and how “safe” can sex actually be? The truth is that a lot of studies and findings have effectively punctured the dubious confidence built over the years on condom-use. We know that with an effective magnifying lens, it is easy to see that several objects, especially rubber and plastics, have tiny holes through which very minute micro organisms could pass. I read somewhere recently that “HIV virus is only 0.1 micron in size while the naturally occurring holes in a latex condom is of the order 5 to 50 microns in diameter.” So where then is the “protection” we have heard so much about if the deadly virus can indeed pass through the wall of a condom? Is this not why we have often heard reports of people contracting HIV even though they had practiced the so-called “protected sex”? This is the time to rethink all this stuff behind which some fellows have hidden to pollute the minds of kids with ruinous teachings.

Fortunately, we have one precaution that does not fail. And that is the good old abstinence, which has been proven and tested to be the only reliable protection against deadly STDs and teenage pregnancies? We must hasten to realize that what is at stake here is human life, and should not be toyed with, for whatever reasons. It is becoming increasingly difficult to understand this desperation to create an immoral and ungodly society by misleading the youths? Now, if not for reasons that are less than noble and wholesome, why would Nigeria be eager to import a policy that is failing even in more advanced nations?

Okay, here is another point to ponder: HIV is 500 times smaller than spermatozoa, yet research has established that spermatozoa are able to sometimes pass through the wall of a latex condom to cause conception. Now, if this is the case, are we not by this subject leading our youths through the minefield? The example cited earlier of the worrisome rise in fresh infections of HIV in a place like the US where years of successful sex-education has achieved overwhelming attitudinal change in favour of condom-use should serve to buttress this point.
Now, with this policy in place and flourishing, where is this nation really heading to? What is the use living, if one must live like a dog? I would, therefore, want to advise the school boy or girl reading this piece to please pause awhile and ask himself or herself what the initiators of this policy hope to achieve in his of her life by giving him or her these teachings? Such a youth should wonder how they still expect him to concentrate on his studies after they have saturated his mind with filthy teachings that only fill his mind with distractive lusts. Now, if his instructors (who are mostly parents) are encouraging him to freely indulge in intimate immorality at this early stage of his life, what type of future leader do they expect him to become? After “empowering” him to go on the rampage, wouldn’t they have succeeded in giving him a disease deadlier than even the AIDS they are presuming to save him from – which is the destruction of his moral fibre? What is the guarantee that he would be able to build a healthy family afterwards, by shunning the promiscuity that this subject is surely preparing him for, and which, as we all know, results in the proliferation of broken homes which has become the nightmare of the Western world?
It is instructive that The Guardian on Sunday, July 18, 1999, carried a report that a cross section of American college (mostly female) students are regretting the limitless freedom their parents had allowed them and have resolved to devote themselves to pursue a “no-sex” campaign. But in Nigeria in 2013, intimate immorality has been deregulated and democratized.

Right now, there appears to be some serious regret soaking the consciousness of many in the Western world, because of the moral wreck many children have become. But they are now helpless, because, it seems to have become too late, and things have gone out of hand. They now wish they never gave a perverted interpretation to freedom at some point in their history.

But poor Nigerians, we are always distinguished by our peculiar eagerness to always gobble up everything Western, no matter how rotten or destructive. Go to the people in Nollywood, and ask them why they are going so wild and immoral and the answer you will get is: That is how they do it in Hollywood. See what I mean?
But concerned Nigerian parents cannot afford to be intimidated and just watch helplessly as some fellows whose intentions are less than noble go all out to ruin their kids for them. And so, they should be able to ask: To what extent should the government interfere in people’s lives and families? Where does the government derive the authority to invade somebody’s home with ungodly teachings and inflict them on the person’s kids, just because he gave his kid to the government to educate in their schools? Shouldn’t an open and clear expression of disaffection towards this gross violation by stakeholders lead to its reappraisal and possible removal from the school curriculum?

Again, and very importantly too; most people have strongly accepted and hold very dear to their hearts the teachings they have received from the religious faith of their choice (which we as civilized people must respect) that intimate immorality which is a grievous sin against God attracts eternal damnation; and they are eager to ensure that both themselves and their kids escape this terrible doom; how then can we accommodate and respect this their belief (which is sacred to them) in this current effort to teach and encourage their children to freely indulge in fornication? Should we just dismiss and callously tear down a belief they hold so sacred and dear, and with which they have determined to successfully raise their children to become morally healthy kids? As if it does not matter?

It is time to rethink this policy and remove it from the school curriculum since it denies a large a number of people the option of choice. Many parents are not even aware that such a teaching is being generously forced down the throats of their precious children, thereby destroying all they have taught them at home.

Certainly, there are centres where some NGOs have established to propagate these pro-pre-marital sex teachings. Interested parents can take their children to those centres, while the objecting parents are spared the trauma of watching their kids being subjected to a menu they firmly believe is terribly unhealthy and ruinous. Their right to dissent must be respected.
----------------------------------------
Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
www.ugowrite..com
scruples2006@yahoo.com;
Lagos, Nigeria

Culled from www.ugowrite..com LINK: http://www.ugowrite..com/2013/05/teaching-immorality-in-schools.html

Teaching Immorality In Schools
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

If anyone had told me a few years ago that a time will come in Nigeria when the authorities will approve the teaching of intimate immorality as a subject in junior and secondary schools, I would have thought that the person had lost his mind. But now, before our very eyes, it is happening, and I lack words to describe the shock among many Nigerians!

Not too long ago, I was shown the topics being treated under the subject called “Sexuality Education” or “Sex Education” which tender kids in both junior and secondary schools in Nigeria are now being forced to learn. Mere kids, some as young as ten or even nine, are put in the hands of teachers, who deploy every energy, talent and creativity to saturate their tender minds with every detail about intimate immorality and the use of contraceptives.
When I first raised alarm on this issue in my weekly column not too long ago, a concerned parent wrote me to say that the ‘Teacher’s Guide’ given to the Integrated Science teachers (who handle this subject) mandates them “to teach the children that religious teachings on issues like pre-marital sex, contraception, homosexuality, abortion and gender relations are mere opinions and myths! They are also to teach the students how to self-service and use chemical contraceptives (designed for women in their 30s). The ‘Teachers Guide’ equally lays a big emphasis on values clarification; this empowers teenage children to decide which moral values to choose since the ones parents teach them at home are mere options.”

It is difficult to imagine that anyone outside a mental home could have the mind to design such a subject even for the children of his worst enemy! In my view, this clearly qualifies as child abuse, which, sadly, has been endorsed by the authorities. I have reasons to suspect that what some of the teachers would be giving out would be targeted more at titillating their tender victims than educating them! I can imagine how easy it would now become for a teacher who has been targeting a female student to use his creative elaboration of this subject, to get the girl so overwhelmed she would become easy meat.

I am told that there are two main reasons for the introduction of this subject in our schools. One is to empower school children with adequate knowledge about their bodies and how to “safely” indulge in pre-marital sex without falling victims to teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS. The second reason is to demystify fornication, give it a positive image, as something to be cherished and enjoyed without any fear, as long as it is done “safely” and consensually. The belief is that with the age-long “superstition” built around intimate immorality which ‘stigmatizes’ it as an evil and sinful activity, some kids tend to go into it with fear and dread, and so develop psychological problems arising from the guilt they feel afterwards.

But these reasons are simply hollow and unconvincing. They are built on the assumption that in the present age, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for unmarried people to abstain from pre-marital sex. Instead of emboldening kids to behave like dogs, why not teach them to value their bodies and maintain their self-esteem by abstaining from immorality as our own parents had taught us? The difference between human beings and animals is the ability to reason and determine the consequences of actions, and then exercise discretion and self-control. Why not tell a kid the consequences of an action and use that to dissuade him from indulging in it?

Looking at the earnestness with which this policy is being pursued despite oppositions to it, one is forced to suspect that there may also be a commercial angle to it. Are we sure that substantial profit is not accruing to the initiators of this programme and their collaborators in government from the sales of the several books being written and printed on the subject? Support may equally be coming from the manufacturers of contraceptives who certainly see in this a lucrative venture to promote and sustain.

Now, how far has this subject helped in reducing teenage pregnancies and STDs in the Western nations where it has been taught, assimilated and practiced for many years now? It is a fact that these teachings have, for instance, been introduced in both the United States and Britain for many years now, but as I write now, I have before me, a BBC report saying that Britain has the highest record of teenage pregnancy in the whole of Western Europe. Also, another report has it that the United States has the highest number of teenage pregnancies in the entire Western world. Again, in the United States, it is reported that new infections of HIV are still on the increase.
That naturally leads us to the contentious issue of “safe sex.” So, what is all this fetish about “safe sex” and how “safe” can sex actually be? The truth is that a lot of studies and findings have effectively punctured the dubious confidence built over the years on condom-use. We know that with an effective magnifying lens, it is easy to see that several objects, especially rubber and plastics, have tiny holes through which very minute micro organisms could pass. I read somewhere recently that “HIV virus is only 0.1 micron in size while the naturally occurring holes in a latex condom is of the order 5 to 50 microns in diameter.” So where then is the “protection” we have heard so much about if the deadly virus can indeed pass through the wall of a condom? Is this not why we have often heard reports of people contracting HIV even though they had practiced the so-called “protected sex”? This is the time to rethink all this stuff behind which some fellows have hidden to pollute the minds of kids with ruinous teachings.

Fortunately, we have one precaution that does not fail. And that is the good old abstinence, which has been proven and tested to be the only reliable protection against deadly STDs and teenage pregnancies? We must hasten to realize that what is at stake here is human life, and should not be toyed with, for whatever reasons. It is becoming increasingly difficult to understand this desperation to create an immoral and ungodly society by misleading the youths? Now, if not for reasons that are less than noble and wholesome, why would Nigeria be eager to import a policy that is failing even in more advanced nations?

Okay, here is another point to ponder: HIV is 500 times smaller than spermatozoa, yet research has established that spermatozoa are able to sometimes pass through the wall of a latex condom to cause conception. Now, if this is the case, are we not by this subject leading our youths through the minefield? The example cited earlier of the worrisome rise in fresh infections of HIV in a place like the US where years of successful sex-education has achieved overwhelming attitudinal change in favour of condom-use should serve to buttress this point.
Now, with this policy in place and flourishing, where is this nation really heading to? What is the use living, if one must live like a dog? I would, therefore, want to advise the school boy or girl reading this piece to please pause awhile and ask himself or herself what the initiators of this policy hope to achieve in his of her life by giving him or her these teachings? Such a youth should wonder how they still expect him to concentrate on his studies after they have saturated his mind with filthy teachings that only fill his mind with distractive lusts. Now, if his instructors (who are mostly parents) are encouraging him to freely indulge in intimate immorality at this early stage of his life, what type of future leader do they expect him to become? After “empowering” him to go on the rampage, wouldn’t they have succeeded in giving him a disease deadlier than even the AIDS they are presuming to save him from – which is the destruction of his moral fibre? What is the guarantee that he would be able to build a healthy family afterwards, by shunning the promiscuity that this subject is surely preparing him for, and which, as we all know, results in the proliferation of broken homes which has become the nightmare of the Western world?
It is instructive that The Guardian on Sunday, July 18, 1999, carried a report that a cross section of American college (mostly female) students are regretting the limitless freedom their parents had allowed them and have resolved to devote themselves to pursue a “no-sex” campaign. But in Nigeria in 2013, intimate immorality has been deregulated and democratized.

Right now, there appears to be some serious regret soaking the consciousness of many in the Western world, because of the moral wreck many children have become. But they are now helpless, because, it seems to have become too late, and things have gone out of hand. They now wish they never gave a perverted interpretation to freedom at some point in their history.

But poor Nigerians, we are always distinguished by our peculiar eagerness to always gobble up everything Western, no matter how rotten or destructive. Go to the people in Nollywood, and ask them why they are going so wild and immoral and the answer you will get is: That is how they do it in Hollywood. See what I mean?
But concerned Nigerian parents cannot afford to be intimidated and just watch helplessly as some fellows whose intentions are less than noble go all out to ruin their kids for them. And so, they should be able to ask: To what extent should the government interfere in people’s lives and families? Where does the government derive the authority to invade somebody’s home with ungodly teachings and inflict them on the person’s kids, just because he gave his kid to the government to educate in their schools? Shouldn’t an open and clear expression of disaffection towards this gross violation by stakeholders lead to its reappraisal and possible removal from the school curriculum?

Again, and very importantly too; most people have strongly accepted and hold very dear to their hearts the teachings they have received from the religious faith of their choice (which we as civilized people must respect) that intimate immorality which is a grievous sin against God attracts eternal damnation; and they are eager to ensure that both themselves and their kids escape this terrible doom; how then can we accommodate and respect this their belief (which is sacred to them) in this current effort to teach and encourage their children to freely indulge in fornication? Should we just dismiss and callously tear down a belief they hold so sacred and dear, and with which they have determined to successfully raise their children to become morally healthy kids? As if it does not matter?

It is time to rethink this policy and remove it from the school curriculum since it denies a large a number of people the option of choice. Many parents are not even aware that such a teaching is being generously forced down the throats of their precious children, thereby destroying all they have taught them at home.

Certainly, there are centres where some NGOs have established to propagate these pro-pre-marital sex teachings. Interested parents can take their children to those centres, while the objecting parents are spared the trauma of watching their kids being subjected to a menu they firmly believe is terribly unhealthy and ruinous. Their right to dissent must be respected.
----------------------------------------
Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
www.ugowrite..com
scruples2006@yahoo.com;
Lagos, Nigeria

Culled from www.ugowrite..com LINK: http://www.ugowrite..com/2013/05/teaching-immorality-in-schools.html

Teaching Immorality In Schools
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

If anyone had told me a few years ago that a time will come in Nigeria when the authorities will approve the teaching of sexual immorality as a subject in junior and secondary schools, I would have thought that the person had lost his mind. But now, before our very eyes, it is happening, and I lack words to describe the shock among many Nigerians!

Not too long ago, I was shown the topics being treated under the subject called “Sexuality Education” or “Sex Education” which tender kids in both junior and secondary schools in Nigeria are now being forced to learn. Mere kids, some as young as ten or even nine, are put in the hands of teachers, who deploy every energy, talent and creativity to saturate their tender minds with every detail about sexual immorality and the use of contraceptives.
When I first raised alarm on this issue in my weekly column not too long ago, a concerned parent wrote me to say that the ‘Teacher’s Guide’ given to the Integrated Science teachers (who handle this subject) mandates them “to teach the children that religious teachings on issues like pre-marital sex, contraception, homosexuality, abortion and gender relations are mere opinions and myths! They are also to teach the students how to masturbate and use chemical contraceptives (designed for women in their 30s). The ‘Teachers Guide’ equally lays a big emphasis on values clarification; this empowers teenage children to decide which moral values to choose since the ones parents teach them at home are mere options.”

It is difficult to imagine that anyone outside a mental home could have the mind to design such a subject even for the children of his worst enemy! In my view, this clearly qualifies as child abuse, which, sadly, has been endorsed by the authorities. I have reasons to suspect that what some of the teachers would be giving out would be targeted more at titillating their tender victims than educating them! I can imagine how easy it would now become for a teacher who has been targeting a female student to use his creative elaboration of this subject, to get the girl so overwhelmed she would become easy meat.

I am told that there are two main reasons for the introduction of this subject in our schools. One is to empower school children with adequate knowledge about their bodies and how to “safely” indulge in pre-marital sex without falling victims to teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS. The second reason is to demystify fornication, give it a positive image, as something to be cherished and enjoyed without any fear, as long as it is done “safely” and consensually. The belief is that with the age-long “superstition” built around sexual immorality which ‘stigmatizes’ it as an evil and sinful activity, some kids tend to go into it with fear and dread, and so develop psychological problems arising from the guilt they feel afterwards.

But these reasons are simply hollow and unconvincing. They are built on the assumption that in the present age, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for unmarried people to abstain from pre-marital sex. Instead of emboldening kids to behave like dogs, why not teach them to value their bodies and maintain their self-esteem by abstaining from immorality as our own parents had taught us? The difference between human beings and animals is the ability to reason and determine the consequences of actions, and then exercise discretion and self-control. Why not tell a kid the consequences of an action and use that to dissuade him from indulging in it?

Looking at the earnestness with which this policy is being pursued despite oppositions to it, one is forced to suspect that there may also be a commercial angle to it. Are we sure that substantial profit is not accruing to the initiators of this programme and their collaborators in government from the sales of the several books being written and printed on the subject? Support may equally be coming from the manufacturers of contraceptives who certainly see in this a lucrative venture to promote and sustain.

Now, how far has this subject helped in reducing teenage pregnancies and STDs in the Western nations where it has been taught, assimilated and practiced for many years now? It is a fact that these teachings have, for instance, been introduced in both the United States and Britain for many years now, but as I write now, I have before me, a BBC report saying that Britain has the highest record of teenage pregnancy in the whole of Western Europe. Also, another report has it that the United States has the highest number of teenage pregnancies in the entire Western world. Again, in the United States, it is reported that new infections of HIV are still on the increase.
That naturally leads us to the contentious issue of “safe sex.” So, what is all this fetish about “safe sex” and how “safe” can sex actually be? The truth is that a lot of studies and findings have effectively punctured the dubious confidence built over the years on condom-use. We know that with an effective magnifying lens, it is easy to see that several objects, especially rubber and plastics, have tiny holes through which very minute micro organisms could pass. I read somewhere recently that “HIV virus is only 0.1 micron in size while the naturally occurring holes in a latex condom is of the order 5 to 50 microns in diameter.” So where then is the “protection” we have heard so much about if the deadly virus can indeed pass through the wall of a condom? Is this not why we have often heard reports of people contracting HIV even though they had practiced the so-called “protected sex”? This is the time to rethink all this stuff behind which some fellows have hidden to pollute the minds of kids with ruinous teachings.

Fortunately, we have one precaution that does not fail. And that is the good old abstinence, which has been proven and tested to be the only reliable protection against deadly STDs and teenage pregnancies? We must hasten to realize that what is at stake here is human life, and should not be toyed with, for whatever reasons. It is becoming increasingly difficult to understand this desperation to create an immoral and ungodly society by misleading the youths? Now, if not for reasons that are less than noble and wholesome, why would Nigeria be eager to import a policy that is failing even in more advanced nations?

Okay, here is another point to ponder: HIV is 500 times smaller than spermatozoa, yet research has established that spermatozoa are able to sometimes pass through the wall of a latex condom to cause conception. Now, if this is the case, are we not by this subject leading our youths through the minefield? The example cited earlier of the worrisome rise in fresh infections of HIV in a place like the US where years of successful sex-education has achieved overwhelming attitudinal change in favour of condom-use should serve to buttress this point.
Now, with this policy in place and flourishing, where is this nation really heading to? What is the use living, if one must live like a dog? I would, therefore, want to advise the school boy or girl reading this piece to please pause awhile and ask himself or herself what the initiators of this policy hope to achieve in his of her life by giving him or her these teachings? Such a youth should wonder how they still expect him to concentrate on his studies after they have saturated his mind with filthy teachings that only fill his mind with distractive lusts. Now, if his instructors (who are mostly parents) are encouraging him to freely indulge in sexual immorality at this early stage of his life, what type of future leader do they expect him to become? After “empowering” him to go on the rampage, wouldn’t they have succeeded in giving him a disease deadlier than even the AIDS they are presuming to save him from – which is the destruction of his moral fibre? What is the guarantee that he would be able to build a healthy family afterwards, by shunning the promiscuity that this subject is surely preparing him for, and which, as we all know, results in the proliferation of broken homes which has become the nightmare of the Western world?
It is instructive that The Guardian on Sunday, July 18, 1999, carried a report that a cross section of American college (mostly female) students are regretting the limitless freedom their parents had allowed them and have resolved to devote themselves to pursue a “no-sex” campaign. But in Nigeria in 2013, sexual immorality has been deregulated and democratized.

Right now, there appears to be some serious regret soaking the consciousness of many in the Western world, because of the moral wreck many children have become. But they are now helpless, because, it seems to have become too late, and things have gone out of hand. They now wish they never gave a perverted interpretation to freedom at some point in their history.

But poor Nigerians, we are always distinguished by our peculiar eagerness to always gobble up everything Western, no matter how rotten or destructive. Go to the people in Nollywood, and ask them why they are going so wild and immoral and the answer you will get is: That is how they do it in Hollywood. See what I mean?
But concerned Nigerian parents cannot afford to be intimidated and just watch helplessly as some fellows whose intentions are less than noble go all out to ruin their kids for them. And so, they should be able to ask: To what extent should the government interfere in people’s lives and families? Where does the government derive the authority to invade somebody’s home with ungodly teachings and inflict them on the person’s kids, just because he gave his kid to the government to educate in their schools? Shouldn’t an open and clear expression of disaffection towards this gross violation by stakeholders lead to its reappraisal and possible removal from the school curriculum?

Again, and very importantly too; most people have strongly accepted and hold very dear to their hearts the teachings they have received from the religious faith of their choice (which we as civilized people must respect) that sexual immorality which is a grievous sin against God attracts eternal damnation; and they are eager to ensure that both themselves and their kids escape this terrible doom; how then can we accommodate and respect this their belief (which is sacred to them) in this current effort to teach and encourage their children to freely indulge in fornication? Should we just dismiss and callously tear down a belief they hold so sacred and dear, and with which they have determined to successfully raise their children to become morally healthy kids? As if it does not matter?

It is time to rethink this policy and remove it from the school curriculum since it denies a large a number of people the option of choice. Many parents are not even aware that such a teaching is being generously forced down the throats of their precious children, thereby destroying all they have taught them at home.

Certainly, there are centres where some NGOs have established to propagate these pro-pre-marital sex teachings. Interested parents can take their children to those centres, while the objecting parents are spared the trauma of watching their kids being subjected to a menu they firmly believe is terribly unhealthy and ruinous. Their right to dissent must be respected.
----------------------------------------
Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
www.ugowrite..com
scruples2006@yahoo.com;
Lagos, Nigeria

Culled from www.ugowrite..com LINK: http://www.ugowrite..com/2013/05/teaching-immorality-in-schools.html

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

No matter the very strong views many Nigerians hold about the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, it is difficult not to sympathize with her and her family on the recent kidnapping of her mother, Mrs. Kamene Okonjo, by heartless criminals. Mrs. Okonjo, 82, a retired sociology professor, is the wife of the Obi of Ogwashi-Uku in Aniocha LGA of Delta State.

The five days Mrs. Okonjo spent with her captors must have been one long traumatic period for the members of the family. Now that she has been freed and is back home, I must join several other Nigerians to congratulate the finance minister and her family on the happy end to this horrible nightmare.

It has been quite difficult to determine how exactly Mrs. Okonjo’s freedom was secured. The public has merely been treated to a cocktail of speculations even by those who ought to have the facts. Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan thinks that the kidnappers may have been panicked by the sudden, heavy presence of security agents in the area and so decided to release the woman.

“The army and police have been on their trail and a lot of raids have been done. I think because of the heat they dropped her off on the highway," Uduaghan told the BBC.

Both the governor and the police avoided direct answers to questions on whether any ransom was paid to secure the release of Mrs. Okonjo, insisting that only the family could authoritatively answer that. Mr. Uduaghan maintained that his government does not have a policy of paying ransom to kidnappers, but quickly added, however, that affected families eager to have their loved ones released have been known to engage in private negotiations with the abductors.

This clearly loaded answer can only further fuel speculations across the country that some ransom may have been paid before the kidnappers agreed to drop off Mrs. Okonjo on the highway in Kwale, 50 kilometres away, from where she boarded the motorcycle that took her home. It also hints strongly at the likelihood that either the police and the Delta State government were being less-than truthful or they were actually not on top of the situation.

Again, Mr. Uduaghan told the BBC: "For this one we also insisted that we would not pay any ransom [and] as a government we would not negotiate with anybody."

Now, if such a decision was made for this particular case, as the governor’s statement seems to suggest, does it then mean that in previous cases, the government had paid ransom? What does this say about the ability of government to protect precious lives and discourage crime by making it unprofitable?

Mrs. Okonjo’s son, Onyema Okonjo, has blamed her mother’s abduction on security lapse. “I think there were definitely some lapses in terms of security… the people that were supposed to have been here were not here…this gave them [the kidnappers] the opportunity to do what they wanted to do… I think it is really a sad reflection of where we are as a society,” he was quoted as saying.

Indeed, it is a very “sad reflection” of the society in which we have found ourselves.

That Mrs. Okonjo could still be easily abducted despite the overwhelming security around her (as a powerful minister’s mother and community queen) can only, most sadly, underline the crying vulnerability of most Nigerians out there. It also throws up the cold fact which government often loves to ignore, namely, that the solution to the menace of kidnapping and armed robbery is not to surround privileged people and their families with heavy security.

Rather, sincere efforts ought to be conscientiously deployed to ensure adequate security for all and, most importantly, a gradual reversal of those factors that generously water the ground for the rapid growth and spread of these criminal activities.

Now, the Finance Minister has introduced another very worrisome angle to the story. She told reporters in Abuja last week that her mother was kidnapped because of her alleged refusal to pay fuel subsidy funds to oil marketers.

“I can’t give all the details because we don’t want to compromise on-going investigations. But I can tell you one thing: My mother suffered a great deal during this ordeal…They told her that I must get on the radio and television and announce my resignation ...When she asked why, they told her it was because I did not pay Oil Subsidy money. They also said I had blocked payment of money to certain components of the SURE-P programme…These statements are, of course, not true. In the case of subsidy payments, we have been paying all marketers whose claims have been verified by the Aig-Imoukhuede Committee after going through the necessary processes…For marketers whose transactions are proven to be fraudulent, the position of the Jonathan government is also clear: we cannot and we will not pay. We will not back down on this. We will continue to stand firm,” Okonjo-Iweala declared.

The minister’s statement has raised many questions across the country. From what I have heard and read so far, only an insignificant number of Nigerians are buying this story. And what they are asking is: if we agree with the minister that those who organized her mother’s abduction are those oil marketers whose claims were “proven to be fraudulent” and whose fraudulent claims the minister has vowed not to pay, why then did they release her mother?

Did the minister eventually back down? Because, from every available report, Mrs. Okonjo was released by the kidnappers and not rescued by the security agents, although, the authorities deliberately refused to make this very clear, by choosing to announce her release together with the arrest of “some prime suspects,” thus, making it seem as if the former occurred as a result of the latter. Let's all hope that the on-going investigations will unravel all the truths behind this very sad and unfortunate incident.

Well, whether her mother was rescued by security agents or through the payment of ransom (or even subsidy fund), what remains true is that Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala has the status, connection and means to adequately respond to both challenges. In fact, an online platform alleged the other day that N9million ransom was paid by the Delta State government to secure Mrs. Okonjo’s freedom.

Whatever happened, however, all I can say here is that as the minister and her siblings celebrate their enormous good fortune, sincere thoughts must be spared for that poor, old woman out there who has been pinning away in the kidnappers den because her own children have neither the means nor clout to secure her freedom as promptly and effectively as the Okonjo’s did theirs.

We live in a country of acute unemployment and excruciating poverty and the Goodluck Jonathan’s government is yet to demonstrate that it is in possession of workable ideas about how the malaise could be effectively combated.

In fact, we ought to have been counting ourselves extremely blessed that we have as our chief economic manager, a brilliant, Harvard and World Bank-minted expert in the person of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yet the economic policies being formulated and implemented in this country, despite being always wrapped in glittering foils, have only compounded the nation’s woes, effectively ensuring that we are perennially mired in such a primitive and dangerous society where poverty and despair reign with utmost impunity and life is more and more worthless. What we appear stuck with is a government perpetually groping for direction, always appearing blank and frustratingly confused about how to navigate the country into even some modest economic sunshine.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, largely seen as the bold face of the World/IMF policies for Africa, has most zealously championed controversial policies that have rankled the populace. Prominent among them is her insistence on mass retrenchment of workers as a solution to Nigeria’s economic problems, in a country with an incredibly high unemployment rate. It was from her that many Nigerians first heard such spine-chilling phrases like “right-sizing” and “down-sizing” in the civil service – phrases that always unleash fear, dread and panic everywhere.

She is also a passionate advocate of the removal of subsidy on fuel (READ: increase in the price of petrol) – something many regard as phantom since government has repeatedly failed to convincingly prove its existence. And despite this determination to pile more hardship on an already overstretched populace through punitive policies that only compound the country’s already very bad economic problems, public officers obscenely cart away duly approved jumbo salaries and ridiculously inflated allowances right under finance minister’s nose. I am yet to hear Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala suggest the “right-sizing” or “down-sizing” of the multitudes of aides (many of them with overlapping functions) idling away at our expense at the presidency or even the slightest reduction of their unspeakably inflated salaries and allowances.

And to make matters worse, and clearly underline the gross insensitivity, prodigality and antigrowth mindset that inspire polices and plans at the presidency, President Goodluck Jonathan is spending billions of naira on food at Aso Rock and the construction of a new, more tasteful presidential banquet hall and “more befitting” residence for the vice president even when the current residence is still very cosy and palatial. Yet this is a country where many people are not able to afford one healthy meal a day, and some have even gone as far as feeding from putrid dustbins just to prolong their miserable existence.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala should allow her recent experience to acquaint her with the awareness that punitive policies apart from traumatizing their traditional targets, that is, the people, also produce horrible consequences that have ways of returning to haunt even their very chief architects. Granted, criminally-minded people would always take to crime no matter the situation, yet it remains very difficult to divorce the unspeakable hardship in the country from the growing menace of robbery and kidnapping.

Also, the unrestrained looting of the public wealth which usually transforms public officers into overnight millionaires, and the penchant by these financially empowered fellows to obscenely flaunt their new-found wealth before Nigeria in the midst of excruciating poverty in a land where over 80% of the citizenry live below poverty level can only provoke the deprived outside the corridors into crime. Little wonder kidnapped public officers and their relatives hardly attract any sympathy and prayers from the populace.

It is time for President Jonathan and his team to demonstrate convincingly that indeed some efforts are really being made to fix this country. Power supply, for instance, despite the billions of dollars it has gulped, remains abysmally poor, thereby shooting up the cost of doing business in Nigeria. This continues to force the closure of businesses, kill the dreams of young entrepreneurs and swell the rank of the unemployed, many of who resort to violent crimes as a means of survival, thereby, compounding the country’s insecurity problems.

It is to be hoped that Nigerian public officers would hasten to learn from their colleagues recent experience that it is impossible to labour to create a dangerous country and expect to be insulated from its often far-reaching consequences.

This is wishing Mrs. Okonjo a most pleasant recovery from the trauma she had just passed through.

-----------------------------------------

Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

www.ugowrite..com

scruples2006@yahoo.com
--------------------------------------------
SOURCE: http://www.ugowrite..com/2012/12/the-kidnapping-of-ngozi-okonjo-iwealas.html

www.ugowrite..com

Let's not miss the point of this brilliant satire. The author is alerting us to the point that having a so-called democracy is not enough - what of good governance? What of the benefits of democracy? Yes, Gaddafi was a bloody dictator quite alright, but does Nigeria have any moral justification to gloat over that, when it is failed state? Why hide under a so-called to perperate more hideous crimes against the people by cornering all the commonwealth? How come a dictator improved the quality of Libya while the "democrats" ran Nigeria aground? We must think!

The Genocidal Biafran War Still Haunts Nigeria- Chinua Achebe[color=#000099][/color]

The Persecution Of The Igbos Didn't End With The Biafran Conflict. Until The Nation Faces Up To This, Its Mediocrity Will Continue... Says Chinua Achebe in this explosive new essay...

Follow this link to read essay:
http://ugowrite..com/2012/10/the-genocidal-biafran-war-still-haunts.html?showComment=1349269212217#c3639390367894079724
http://ugowrite..com/2012/10/the-genocidal-biafran-war-still-haunts.html?showComment=1349269212217#c3639390367894079724

Interesting post. Look also at this recent article on Patience Jonathan by Nigerian Journalist and Writer, Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye, titled, "Patience Jonathan, the Inimitable Dame"
LINK: http://ugowrite..com/2012/09/patience-jonathan-inimitable-dame.html

Interesting post. Look also at this recent article on Patience Jonathan by Nigerian Journalist and Writer, Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye, titled, "Patience Jonathan, the Inimitable Dame"
LINK: http://ugowrite..com/2012/09/patience-jonathan-inimitable-dame.html

Interesting post. Look also at this recent article on Patience Jonathan by Nigerian Journalist and Writer, Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye, titled, "Patience Jonathan, the Inimitable Dame"
LINK: http://ugowrite..com/2012/09/patience-jonathan-inimitable-dame.html

Wow, this is the most penetrating article I have read so far on the Dame Patience health/rest saga. It is impresively titled: "Patience Jonathan, The Inimitable Dame." It should have been captioned: "The Queen of Controversies, the Nemesis of Her Husband's Presidency"

"Patience Jonathan, The Inimitable Dame!"
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
It is a classic case of ‘One Week, One Controversy’! And the inimitable Dame, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, has been in the news again. She hardly disappoints. Perhaps, before your read this piece, Mrs. Jonathan would have returned from Germany where she had gone “to have some rest,” or receive medical treatment, or both, depending on whom you choose to believe between the media, opposition parties and Aso Rock spokespersons... I sincerely hope that Mrs. Jonathan would use this period of her rest and/or medical treatment to deeply ponder the sagging image of her husband’s presidency and determine who between herself and the army of detractors had constituted the greatest problem to the current administration...From Bayelsa to Aso Rock, she has been trailed by overwhelming rumours of ethical problems, EFCC investigations, alleged cover-ups, high-handed treatment of public officers working under husband, excessive gallivanting, shopping sprees, wanton extravagance and the like!

Click on this link to read full piece with the interesting pictures
http://ugowrite..com/2012/09/patience-jonathan-inimitable-dame.html

-Open Eye

The Nigerian Video Film Industry: Challenges and Prospects
By Patrick Ebewo

MOTION PICTURES WERE REPORTEDLY FIRST SCREENED IN NIGERIA in August of 1903, when Nigerian nationalist Herbert Macaulay, in association with the Balboa film company of Spain, introduced the new medium to an audience assembled in Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos (Owens-Ibie).

Over five decades later, the first film production companies, Latola Film (founded in 1962) and Calpeny Nigeria Limited (1970), were established in Nigeria (Amobi). In addition to Latola and Calpeny, members of the Nigerian theater community promoted film culture as well. In fact, the current video film industry in Nigeria owes a huge debt to the pioneers of Nigerian theater, particularly practitioners of the Yoruba Traveling Theater, who branched off from mainstream theater to experiment with celluloid.

While the introduction of mobile cinema by the British during colonial times may have created awareness and interest in film, the medium was used primarily to educate Nigerians about such issues as health, sanitation, and nutrition. In the late 1960s, dramatists Hubert Ogunde, who recorded his plays on celluloid, Moses Adejumo (alias Baba Sala), and Duro Ladipo were responsible for elevating the cinema to a popular art that also contained social commentary (Ekwuazi 9). The legacy of those indigenous filmmakers was bequeathed to Ola Balogun, Ade Love, and Eddie Ugbomah — prolific filmmakers of the 1980s who extended the pioneer efforts of the early dramatists and ushered Nigerian moviemaking into the modern age...

Despite its fame, however, some critics — both local and international — see the Nigerian film industry as a poor imitation of the real thing. Productions are plagued by technical glitches. According to journalist-critic Trenton Daniel, "the plots are sentimental, the acting raw, and the cable-access editing not unlike that of an X-rated flick, minus the randy parts. … Production values are deplorable; special effects leave much to the imagination" (Nollywood). Writing in Film Comment, Olaf Möller also dismisses Nollywood films: "Give or take a minor masterpiece or two, nothing could be further from wholesome art cinema, with its healthy messages and clean-cut images, than this lurid West African smut, dedicated to making money hand over fist" ("Homegrown Hybrid"wink. Though critics may not adopt the contemptuous manner of some critics of the Frankfurt School castigating the culture industry, we know any enterprise will encounter problems on its initial outing.

Follow the LINK Below to Read FULL PIECE
http://ugowrite..com/2011/01/nigerian-video-film-industry-challenges.html

SOURCE:
www.ugowrite..com

Is The West Lusting For Robert Mugabe Again?
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Two interesting incidents that played out on the international scene recently clearly underlined the profound confusion of values that has crept into Western policies and attitudes towards President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Late in May, the United Nation’s World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) announced the choice of President Mugabe as a United Nations Ambassador for Tourism, despite the fact that the international travel ban and other sanctions imposed on him by the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) were yet to be lifted. He was warmly welcomed into the prestigious “leaders of tourism” group with his Zambian counterpart, Michael Sata.
At Victoria Falls, on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, where Sata and Mugabe met to sign an agreement with the UNWTO Secretary General, Taleb Rifai, Mugabe must have been surprised and elated to hear Rifai say this about his own Zimbabwe: "I was told about the wonderful experience and the warm hospitality of this country … By coming here, it is a recognition, an endorsement on the country that it is a safe destination." Following this May 28, 2012 agreement, Zambia and Zimbabwe will jointly host the UNWTO general assembly in August 2013.


Reactions to this development were prompt and unsparing. Human rights groups across the world and government functionaries in EU countries condemned it in very strong terms, just as Canada immediately announced its decision to withdraw from the UNWTO. But while Canada maintained that Mugabe’s appointment was the key factor that inspired its decision to terminate its membership of the global body, UNWTO stated that Canada had already withdrawn its membership two weeks before Mugabe was invited to join the body.

The world was still trying to come to terms with this development, when by mid-July, the media went to town with screaming headlines that the European Union (EU) has announced itsintention to lift sanctions on Zimbabwe, some of which were targeted at Mugabe and his inner circle players. The Telegraph (UK) quoted a Foreign Office spokesperson as saying that changing situations in Zimbabwe had compelled the EU to review its position. “Since these measures were last reviewed in February we have heard a number of calls, including from the MDC-T and their partners in the Inclusive Government, for us to show flexibility in order to support the process of reform. For us what matters is putting in place what's needed for free and fair elections, in line with the requirements of the EU Measures, and meeting the key points of progress that are promised along the way,” the spokesperson said...

“The British Government does not act out of charity. It is scrapping sanctions on Mugabe because Britain needs Mugabe more than Mugabe needs Britain. It may not be about the oil stupid! But it certainly is about the 40 other exploitable minerals sitting under Uncle Bob's feet. The 4000 or so white farmers that must be disgusted by this are mere "collateral damage" in the war for Zimbabwe's resources. Remember why Mugabe is hated, he gives land and minerals to the black poor. Highly inconsistent with the UK’s extractive multinational capitalist approach...”


Follow the link below to read FULL ARTICLE
http://ugowrite..com/2012/09/is-west-lusting-for-robert-mugabe-again.html

SOURCE:
www.ugowrite..com

The Nigerian Video Film Industry: Challenges and Prospects
By Patrick Ebewo

MOTION PICTURES WERE REPORTEDLY FIRST SCREENED IN NIGERIA in August of 1903, when Nigerian nationalist Herbert Macaulay, in association with the Balboa film company of Spain, introduced the new medium to an audience assembled in Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos (Owens-Ibie).

Over five decades later, the first film production companies, Latola Film (founded in 1962) and Calpeny Nigeria Limited (1970), were established in Nigeria (Amobi). In addition to Latola and Calpeny, members of the Nigerian theater community promoted film culture as well. In fact, the current video film industry in Nigeria owes a huge debt to the pioneers of Nigerian theater, particularly practitioners of the Yoruba Traveling Theater, who branched off from mainstream theater to experiment with celluloid.

While the introduction of mobile cinema by the British during colonial times may have created awareness and interest in film, the medium was used primarily to educate Nigerians about such issues as health, sanitation, and nutrition. In the late 1960s, dramatists Hubert Ogunde, who recorded his plays on celluloid, Moses Adejumo (alias Baba Sala), and Duro Ladipo were responsible for elevating the cinema to a popular art that also contained social commentary (Ekwuazi 9). The legacy of those indigenous filmmakers was bequeathed to Ola Balogun, Ade Love, and Eddie Ugbomah — prolific filmmakers of the 1980s who extended the pioneer efforts of the early dramatists and ushered Nigerian moviemaking into the modern age...

Despite its fame, however, some critics — both local and international — see the Nigerian film industry as a poor imitation of the real thing. Productions are plagued by technical glitches. According to journalist-critic Trenton Daniel, "the plots are sentimental, the acting raw, and the cable-access editing not unlike that of an X-rated flick, minus the randy parts. … Production values are deplorable; special effects leave much to the imagination" (Nollywood). Writing in Film Comment, Olaf Möller also dismisses Nollywood films: "Give or take a minor masterpiece or two, nothing could be further from wholesome art cinema, with its healthy messages and clean-cut images, than this lurid West African smut, dedicated to making money hand over fist" ("Homegrown Hybrid". Though critics may not adopt the contemptuous manner of some critics of the Frankfurt School castigating the culture industry, we know any enterprise will encounter problems on its initial outing.

Follow the LINK Below to Read FULL PIECE
http://ugowrite..com/2011/01/nigerian-video-film-industry-challenges.html

SOURCE:
www.ugowrite..com