₦airaland Forum

goalllllllllllllllllllllllll

Shei me too no go look for my lost ribs so?

The English expression ‘whistling in the dark’ is about someone walking alone in the forest at night, whistling as he goes along. He is whistling so that people will think he is not afraid, whereas the real reason he is whistling is because he is afraid. The saying sums up contemporary Yoruba attitudes to their current plight in Nigeria aptly.

In the absence of a coherent strategy for further political and economic development of our people both the leaders and the led of the southwest frequently resort to pointless nostalgia and empty braggadocio to convince (deceive is a better word) ourselves that all is well. We are children of the great Oduduwa. So what? The first Yoruba lawyer was called to the English bar in 1886. The Yoruba never bowed down to anybody. Yeah? Iraqis ruled the world too, but today America appoints their presidents.

Now more than ever that the real multinational nature of Nigeria is coming to the fore (with the clear possibility of an Ijaw president for the next eight years), it is time to start looking at the different ethnic profiles that need to be burnished if the whole of Nigeria is to shine. Nationalism turned into a bad word in Nigeria because of the Fulani, the Igbo and the Yoruba. They it is who, with varying degrees of success, subsumed whole nations within their regions to achieve pan-Hausa, Pan-Igbo and Pan-Yoruba political blocs respectively, while at the same time accusing one another of wanting to dominate the rest. I chose to start with Yoruba because charity ought to begin from home.

What is known as the Yoruba nation today is actually a political bloc of different nations, with diverse origins and history, but which are now united under a common lingua franca—Yoruba language. Amalgamation of these nations into a single voting bloc by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his Action Group is a remarkable achievement in itself, comparable only to the way Fulani leaders created a northern political bloc of Hausa speakers. There were casualties, the most prominent being rearrangement of hierarchies and degradation of some Oba in the West, a few of whom never forgave Awolowo for sacrificing their status on the altar of his pan-Yoruba dream. However, Chief Awolowo’s government policies were highly visionary in outlook—looking up, looking ahead, and looking around.

Looking up, as in deciding to create a modern Western region, using the best brains available from Yoruba sons and daughters and others scattered around the globe. Looking ahead, as in educated planning, as opposed to myopic incompetent leadership. Looking around, as in people-oriented policies that actually improve the individual’s quality of life, as opposed to white elephant projects encouraged by colonialists in many developing countries.

The relatively smooth achievement of Awolowo’s pan-Yoruba vision probably encouraged him to think the same process could be replicated for the whole of Nigeria. It is perhaps the only possible explanation for his dogged but failed ambition to be president of Nigeria.

Looking around Yorubaland today though, you would be hard-pressed to believe these are the same people that gave Nigeria that compendium of firsts. To say Yorubaland has stagnated is less than the truth. The reality is that the Yoruba have regressed. So how did a people so modern and so liberated come to be so degraded? The answer: the Yoruba became victim of their own success.

First is the Awolowo factor. With notable competition from the likes of Samuel Ajayi Crowther and Herbert Macaulay, Obafemi Awolowo is easily the greatest Yoruba that ever lived. Men are great, not by their achievements, but by their legacies. The excellence of his legacies induces the Yoruba to embrace Awolowo’s [true] apostles like Bola Ige and Lateef Jakande, just as it stimulated other regions’ leaders to emulate his policies.

However, this same excellence inures the Yoruba to emergent visionaries like Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola who, imperfect he might be, is beginning to transform Lagos. Fashola planned an epochal and long needed rail mass transportation system for Lagos, the only masses-friendly of their many projects, but which now seems lost (I may be wrong) in his fight for survival. In the old West, Fashola’s political detractors would be pariahs in their local governments. The Yoruba no longer know for whom and when to call out the troops. Awolowo is Yoruba’s first love, but there is no reason he must be the last.

Next is the representation factor (as distinct from leadership). The AG’s policies created a Yoruba nation of middle-class professionals and business people. However, whereas the middle class may be socially conscious, change by mass action is not their substance. Street protests are only for their children while in university but as soon as these kids graduate and settle into white-collar family life, self-preservation becomes their primary goal. Thereby the Yoruba earned a reputation of being cowardly, loving the easy life, and fickle.

That social profile also meant that when Nigeria’s leadership was being changed by forceful methods the Yoruba, unlike the other regions, had few foot soldiers, which also encouraged (probably until June 12) other nations of Nigeria to think all they needed to cower the Yoruba into submission was military menace or threat of mob terror. Thus, determination of Yoruba representation gradually became less of the people’s preference and more of central power dictation.

The centre, strategically no doubt, went for the rebellious, the thuggish and the mediocre, such that we now have in political representation many uncouth, criminal and semi-illiterate elements. Unfortunately, these misfits have joined the setters of standards in our new society and, as would be expected, those standards have plunged abysmally.

It is impossible to impose a leader on any people for an appreciable length of time, despite what southerners keep alleging of the north, without the active connivance, or at least a passive acquiescence, of the people themselves. Crass elitism went out with mass illiteracy in Yorubaland.

The military reintroduced it. It is time we throw it out again. Also, now that we are beginning to design antidotes to the evil of military rule, the Yoruba must take a stand and make it known that they will never again support a military takeover of government in Nigeria, where leaders are imposed with impunity.

The third factor is societal values and ethos. I disagree with the notion that the problem with Nigeria is a failure of leadership. The real problem with Nigeria is a failure of society. A failed society will produce failed leaders. You do not build from the top. You start from the bottom. The only thing people start from the top is digging a grave.

The success of the Yoruba in the 20th century was not only, and far less, dependent on their relatively early exposure to European technology and philosophy, as on

1) a societal disposition to reject decadent imported culture, while
2) jealously preserving wholesome Yoruba traditions and values,
hence development in Yorubaland grew with probity, integrity and a desire for excellence.

Children knew to prostrate or kneel to greet elders, not call them by name or talk rudely to them. When young people left home to learn or to work, they were warned that the family name was sacrosanct. The society shunned known thieves. Indolent men were treated with scorn. Older women scolded negligent mothers and it did not matter if the errant female held a PhD.
Traditional governance, though aristocratic and elitist, was scrupulous. No prince was considered for a throne unless he was quintessential.

Children of the elite knew they carried a burden of the family name.

Promotion to the upper class was by achievement. Your family name might get you noticed but only your achievements would carry you further. All that also changed with the entry of vagabonds into power.

Names, family names and pedigree that meant so much to the Yoruba started to count for nothing. Now you hear funny names like Mr Olu Ade, Mrs Ola Olu, usually of people whose real [full] names, perhaps a few other aliases and passports, are on police wanted lists from Lagos to Europe to Asia to America.

In addition, the general discipline exemplified by, and which characterised, the West’s leadership and personified by Chief Awolowo himself, gave way to reckless living. Lagos, awash with oil money in the early seventies, was the Sodom of Yoruba. A wholesome culture was turned overnight into ostentatious currency notes spraying at vulgar all-night revelries. The Yoruba were nicknamed “s’o wan’be” meaning “is it happening there” referring to a predisposition to search for locations of merriment.

Hard work became a station of last resort. There were quicker ways to riches.

Now we need a moral rearmament. It must be done in homes, schools, churches, mosques, palaces and playgrounds. When society is sound, leadership will be sound.

Next is our education and skills system. The success of education in the old West was because it was comprehensive--covering from nursery to tertiary, with skills centres and colleges. Now we build sub-standard so-called universities while the land lacked good teachers, carpenters, tailors, bricklayers, masons, plasterers, mechanics, electricians, etc. The designation [as universities] would not matter so much if they taught what mattered. The sight of able-bodied youth hanging around highways to go call mechanics to a vehicle broken down so they can share a little of his charge, when they themselves could train to be competent mechanics, is alien to Yoruba culture.

Pretenders to the throne of Yoruba leadership must start to spend less time in intrigue about who the next president of Nigeria should be but give more energy to planning and establishing good education and training or the people.

Fifthly, the Yoruba have slowly let go of many of what they should keep. While a dose of soul-searching from time to time is good for any society, people or race, a lot of the self-criticism by Yoruba people is idiotic. For example, it is common to hear some Yoruba say, in self-deprecation, that the Yoruba needs to follow the example of the Igbo and Hausa whereby if any of the latter two found their kinsman in dispute with a different ethnic, they automatically supported their kinsman. That is stupid. Why would anybody want to descend to such base sentiments?

Next is the Yoruba language. With language comes culture. We must make Yoruba compulsory in all schools in Yorubaland. English is compulsory in England. French is compulsory in France. Importation of technology should not mean importation of culture too. Many of Yoruba noble values and rich culture, even jokes, cannot be expressed adequately in English, the foreign language that is becoming the first in many Yoruba homes.

In addition, we must all acknowledge that Nigeria will not go back to regionalism, period. The logic of going back is simply false. The Yoruba probably favour a return to regionalism because the ‘republic of Oduduwa’ is the only potentially stable one—Yoruba speakers extend from Edo to Sierra Leone—probably the only emergent nation that would not have further clamour for subdivisions. However, it is impossible to have such an oasis of stability in a surrounding environment of agitation and strife. The circumstances that led to regions have changed. It is not impossible that present and emerging circumstances may still lead to a system resembling regional governments it must be a move forward and not a clamour to go back. Unless we do this, the Yoruba might find they have nothing to take to, as some demand, a sovereign national conference. Just like Aburi.

Lastly, the economy. As they say, it is all about the economy, stupid. This overdependence, actually total dependence, on oil has to stop. Military governors and administrators and civilian governors since 1966 not only lacked the competence to forge new economies, they have also been unable to continue from where the Awolowo team left off. Cocoa and rubber industries have collapsed. The economy of cassava for food and industry has stagnated. Manufacturing entrepreneurship has been discouraged to extinction. Much as these are largely a result of central government policies, a visionary leadership would have found answers to such ruinous settings.

A hanker to past glories is usually an indication of a lack of vision and when a society lacks vision, it dies. Thankfully, there is ample time and opportunity to save the progressive Yoruba from becoming a dying breed.
Written By Olaitan Ladipo


http://www.saharareporters.com/article/trouble-yoruba-%E2%80%93-craving-past-glories-olaitan-ladipo

Shildren os nowadays self

Make una allow nonsrule to play and trust me he is not going to win it.

Its all for the fun of it, provided he is here to chat on the thread.

^^ That what i was thinking myself.

Wait na. . . see as you dey drag me follow you abi you no see say my belt done hook to ya skirt.   

Okay see ya later in the day and  . . . face ya work now so you can support our  future home.   

See studio wey one go repent before . . . he no know say the tiger for house smart pass am.

Blacksta . . . . but i no be ashewo na, i just say make i peep ooo.

See me see the kind wahala wey i come enter for here now.

^^ I am not the first na . . abi na crime to add my name to the list of famous people wey don pass there waka like Sani Abacha.

clemcykul:
lol * and he forgets his destination, and inches closer***

No be my fault na . . .the spirit is willing but the flesh is very . .    

Studio CFR:
Make una compose una selves well na.

Nairaland Ministry Of Health Advices That ** Jealousy is not good for proper functioning of a man's thinking faculty.    

You fit beg berryLOL sha  . . . make she look ya side out of pity.  

^^  I been one say make una no spoil me for my mama ooo 

But he be like say i dey enjoy the thing sha   

Abeg pinch and grab am the more . . 

He be like say this corner na for ashewo's abi?

Make i quickly find my way go my corner before them . . .

@Ranoscky . . . I am also in support of you because it all boils down at the end of the day to this question. Why does she need access to my personal email address?

@FBS . . . No one is saying she can't know my email address or account number or even phone number because she might want to email you, text you or pay some kind of money into your account. Some families operate joint accounts but not all and have you ever asked yourself why some families do not have joint accounts?

We are not saying she cannot have access or what so ever but not for the simple reason of monitoring you. Its not about hiding anything but what is her reason of having access to your email? You still have not answered that question. Why does a wife need access to your personal email address?

you can answer if you have been given the permission and there should not be unnecessary interrogation after the phone call.

Here is a list of the facilities you can find in those hospitals, maybe that is the comparison papabrwone was trying to make.

http://www.delsuth.com/page/equipment-and-infrastructure

http://www.mediclinic.co.za/hospitals/pages/services.aspx?h=53

http://www.pah.org.za/

[quote author=Ben-10 link=topic=373124.msg6458547#msg6458547 date=1280242618]That email can't access facebook for life, I'm using a new E-mail.
I'll send you a PM, pls do re-add moi.
[/quote]Got you finally

@Ben . Still not getting you with that address

[quote author=Ben-10 link=topic=373124.msg6458340#msg6458340 date=1280241090]Pharoh, my former account was disabled last two months, I'm using a new account now.[/quote]So should i send my address to your civil email?  

FBS:
And what is wrong in your wife having the password to your "personal" e-mail.
And when you say "personal", what do you mean? I assume it's not work related so what is it?

"Personal" to me is any email i have been using from my teenage years up to the present moment and it is not related in anyway to my work email.

It is wrong depending on the reason why she wants access to my personal email, is it for monitoring me or what? She can always have her own personal email if she likes. That's my reason for asking, what does she want to do with my email by having access to it? it's a very simple question.

Or is anything wrong if we both share one email address since privacy should not be an issue in our relationship and forget all these hassles about knowing each others password.

marketplace:
This is a very interesting topic. There shouldn't be privacy between husband and wife. They are one.

Seems you are confusing privacy with secrecy or does a wife have any valid reason for knowing the password to your personal email?

^^  I do come and on numerous occasions i tried to visit your profile but it does not exist anymore.

Let me check it again, i really miss your swagger and topics over there.

luizworld:
like statewise. .OK no more questions I rest my Case.

No problem lol . . i fully understand that.

Night baby so sleep tight and dream about [size=1pt]luiz[/size]

See ya later . . i am off too.

^^ Country or state-wise? I know u will skip this question.

^^

Lol [size=1pt]i am from obiaruku in delta state and[/size] sometime they call us delta igbos.  
My language is [size=1pt]ukwuani,[/size] though i understand and speak a little but i want to be perfect.  

It was only described [size=1pt]( The Kiss )[/size] to me so i am now searching for the experience.  
Am in [size=1pt]finland[/size] lol and hope you know about that [size=2pt]country[/size].    

^^ Please ooo i fit enrol for that class too?, i really love that language.

Nah the place is very far from there .

^ ohh really! hpe u shall tish me da lang Grin luiz waz doin 2mush shakara Cheesy
stop pullin ma legz [size=2pt]where jor[/size]?

Am somewhere very cold with a [size=2pt]significant history to father Christmas[/size].

I am not really igbo or let me say half igbo and just like you, looking 4 someone to tish me too mine lol.

^^

Yeah sure there is a kiss that fits my description  

Hoping to [size=2pt]experience[/size] it someday with the [size=2pt]right person[/size].  

[size=2pt]Its a sin depending on the state of the heart during that description lol. [/size]

eldee:
Are
You guys need to stop bringing in this weak moral argument here.
In the developed country you're talking about rights are given to you freely.

In Nigeria, you'll lose your rights if you don't take it, how many times have students complained about sexual harrassment??
Isn't it a right as a student to pass just because he knows his stuff??
Isn't it a right for guys not to need to bribe lecturers??

If the lecturer takes advantage of the dead legal system in Nigeria to extort money off students while moralists like you turn the other way, you have no right to complain when the students take laws into their own hands.
In my opinion, the end justify the means . . . and more lecturers need to be named, shamed and extorted till this stops.

Complaining without evidence to back it up?
I am with you on those student right and if a lecturer is trying to scuttle that then you have every right to fight back but in a civilized manner at first.
If the legal system is dead then the onus falls on the victim to create punishments that will deter these lecturers from towing that part but definitely not this kind we are addressing here.
There are better ways to deal with lecturers because of their powerful network. We really need to think outside the box in other to curb this menace.

Yeah sure the end justifies the means only when the end solves the problem at hand without creating further complications.