₦airaland Forum

[quote author=PAGAN 9JA]The Lemba claim Jewish origin. if this is true, then the Jews' ancestors, the early Hebrews were all Pagans, worshipping Gods like Baal, Yahweh, Dagon, etc. [/quote]It depends on who you refer to as the Hebrews. Abraham and his household were the first to be referred to as the hebrews and Abraham never worshipped any pagan god. He worshipped only one God Yahweh.

The father of Abraham Terah and possibly some of his ancestors after Shem, worshipped pagan gods, but they were from the sumerian/babylonish extraction. They worship principally Nama/Sin which was a moon-god. Dagon is a fish-god and its associated with the philistines and baal is said to be the son of dagan.

It was the corrupted Israelites that later worshipped baal and possibly dagon.

Sugardiva: Ive been told apkako means hammer. In the context of Terrg's song he wants to knack u hammer(u can guess what part of a man's body is like hammer and gets that hard.)

And the song says 'knack u akpako' not 'knack ur akpako'

There is nothing harder in man's body than your head, and that is why headbutting is a very effective way of disfiguring an opponent, next in line is the arm or the leg. All these parts are perpetually hard. Every other things are soft, una like to dey spoil perso n

amor4ce: It is Yoruba for "a person whose skin appears to be peeling from bee stings" as oyin refers to bees while bo refers to peel.

Oyinbo would be 'bees peel him/her'. But those who are stung by bees don't have peeled skins that would look like white skin. They look more like peeled by hot water. So a Yoruba man on first sight would have thot 'peeled by hot water' 'omi gbona bo' and then maybe 'omibo'. Omibo would have been more descriptive and more plausible to have been the case than a bee attack.

I have not heard of any castles built in Nigeria for the slave trade, even though millions were taken from here. Why is this so, the Elmina castle was fought over many times by contending European powers, they could have easily come here and built one and ship directly from here. Could it be that coastal tribes in Nigeria resented their having a foothold here.

It would be nice to know this was so.

All these stories of healing healing don tire person. HIV AIDS cure, Removed Womb Replaced, Blind Eye Seeing, all these can be staged. Let them pick someone whose leg was cut or whose arm has been amputated, and lets see it grow back with our korokoro eyez.

Then may be we can start believing say den get power.

Otondo

People marry the wrong people and for the wrong reasons.

People have been marrying the wrong people for the wrong reasons in all ages. Now we get a say on who we want to marry without so much external interference, this should have made marriages stronger.

As ptolemy said, its the continuous moral decline, what used to be totally unacceptable, a taboo, is becoming very acceptable or at the least tolerated. With all the erotic music we hear day in day out, films, porn etc, they are being ingrained in us and seeping in and its shaping our thinking and actions.

I saw an elderly woman in a filling station playing one of 9c song in her car, she got out start singing and rocking to it, very erotic song. I just thought 'wow'. The society is teaching us to accept these things.

They're angry with us for not projecting our historical ties to the Diaspora through the slave trade? Does the Nigerian Gov't/Elite have time for such 'mundane' issues when there are oyel contracts to chase, oyel blocks to covert, and ethnic politics to dabble into ?

While we've been faffing about, Ghana has stolen our thunder regarding this whole 'Diaspora' and 'Slave Trade' thing: I've notice when Black Americans want to come to Africa either to get in touch with their roots or to learn more about the slave trade and how their ancestors left Africa, they head straight for Ghana.

The sad fact is that most traces of the Slave Trade from our past have either been looted, or the ones remaining have been destroyed through lack of maintainance and basically not giving a fuc/k about such issues.

Shikena.

Aside from security, light and other perception issues, i think a major reason is that Ghana has so many things to show about slavery not just chains and some spots, but several castles scattered around the coastal landscape. I don't think there is a single castle in Nigeria where slaves were held. I would rather go see a castle than a monolith or a spot in badagry or some chains in a room.

Because scientists like spouting theories and showing they know more than us . You need faith bigger than a mountain to believe in evolution.

Five Months in and going steady, no quarrels at all, both of us respects each other, i have grown to know her for 5 yrs before wedding and i know when she is about to get in a mood and how to handle it, then she has stopped all those things that use to frustrate me during the courtship which has made it also very smooth for us, tho she told me she throws those tantrums, because she misses me and wants to get my attention. Now she has my full attention 24 hours and all those things have fizzled away.

Its been a beautiful 6 months, though i miss going out to watch my matches in the midst of all the crazy football fans and talking myself hoarse, she has banned it.

63. chucky234(m):
I don't even understand how people reason,imagine a sane man saying Fashola has done well because Lagos has 15 million dwellers. What has the dwellers got to do with developing the state,do you how much Lagos state generates daily.
Fashola is only governing Ikeja,Ikoyi,V/Island,Yaba,Oshodi-Apapa Exp. Way as well as Badagry Exp. Way, what happen to the other places where the poor lives like Okoko,Iba,Ajangbadi,Agric,Satellite Town,Maza-Maza,Ajegunle,Amukoko,Orile,Mushin,Surulere,Ijora, e.t.c
The man is ruling the rich instead of the poor,Lagos state has the worst roads in Nigeria,Asaba,Owerre,Calabar and PH have better roads than our darling Lagos. The only roads we can boast of is the Lekki/Epe concession roads which ironically is the only standard roads in Nigeria (but all know the story of that road).
Go to South Africa or Botswana and see infrastructures in cities that has far less revenue generation than Lagos,then you will know that Lagos is a mega bush,we love Lagos and that's we can't do without living in Lagos but to say that Fash has perform with the kind of revenue Lagos generates is a taboo.
8 years is more than enough to record significant achievement with the money we have in this state
Eko Ba Je lo.


^^^^^^

You definitely don't stay in Lagos or maybe you don't want to see the changes around you. What has Fashola done in Ikoyi and V.I since he came in aside from the ozumba link bridge and the yet-to-be-completed lekki-ikoyi link bridge. In Iba there is the Lasu-Iba-Iseri road completed by Fashola, There is Igando-Okokomaiko Link road to cut-off Lasu junction, So u can't see all those big big machines that has been plowing the ground at Orile all the way to mile two for the past 3yrs or so, Your mentioning Surulere shows you are just interested in talking, Fashola has worked in Surulere like craze, I can name several roads that has been done in Alimosho and Agege all the way to Iju. What of all the drainages that has been constructed and cleared in all those areas.
All the places that has been made safer for people all over Lagos state, na only Elites dey pass am? The pedestrian bridges he constructed are used by those driving their Jeeps Abi. All those lASTMA you see at different corners of the state do they pass cars for only the rich.

Nice thread indeed.

Ta_xasa, it seems you don't really have much love for the Ethiopians. We do have a lot of respect for the Ethiopians here, from their ancient history, their independence and fight against italian domination, rastafarianism and selessie, the fact that they were mentioned in the Bible etc. If a typical Nigerian was just asked to pick between an Ethiopian and Eritrean, we would most likely pick the Ethiopian, not for any particular reason but just that we have heard more about them.

I used to believe you both must be from the same origin. Can you explain more about the oromo descent of the Ethiopians, and also the real reasons for the rift between you guyz.

Well one thing i can say about Nigerians is that we don't have any country (i.e apart from our internal ethnic bickerings) we hate or love to blame, what happened was that in the last 10 - 20 years, due to the seeming improvement in their economy and maybe a decline in Nigeria's Economy, some African countries, (Ghana especially) started picking on us, telling us to our face that they don't like us, bad-mouthing our country every chance they get. So in reaction Nigerians also started hitting Back. But if you are in Nigeria, no one cares if you are Ghanaian, Togolese or Liberian. Everybody just hustles and get on with life. We have a lot of Togolese, Beninese in our food and construction industry and also as house-helps in very rich men homes.

I used to have an Rwandan Lady and an Ethiopian as friends in India and we got along well.

The adults in this house need to wake up their responsibility. Get a cabinet and lock up all medicines. Spank the kid when he tries to get the drugs without supervision or authorization. If he loves bitter things to chew, there are a whole lot of healthful bitter 'snacks' you can get for him. Bitter kola, Ube, even original native chewing stick.

Why is everybody just slating the lastma guyz, Majority of the lastma guyz have done very well on Lagos roads. It was a good initiative and the effect of their work is seen daily on Lagos roads.

The danfo drivers and conductors are just a bunch of lawless thugs.

O boy Yoruba people get Jazz like mad, Benin people fit get winch oooo, but at least you go know who be witch for village and you go avoid am, but for yorubaland, anybody fit just jazz u. Your landlord, your junior for school, the woman wey dey sell food beside you etc. Most of them go get one baba wey den dey run to.

For those wey no believe say Jazz dey, well na una sabi, me i don see and i don hear.

andyanders:
To me I see Ronaldo as a Real Deal to football, while Messi is a spirit to football. Ronaldo is a complete footballer as he plays both legs. Messi plays only one leg. Ronaldo can adapt to any situation with club and country but Messi cannot be complete while playing with his country. Ronaldo has speed but Messi is smart and trickery and can destroy any defense if given room to operate with his left leg. Ronaldo can explode with the ball and completes his speed with a powerful goal which keepers finds difficult to hold. Messi does many things with the ball that any human being finds difficult analyse.

Messi complements his efforts because of the kind of players with him as a team. If he gets to another club, he cannot be able to display his natural gift as a footballer. Ronaldo is a complete footballer no matter any club he plays. Messi can be marked out completely if you have a very good defenders. Ronaldo can score from anywhere and any meter. He can score any deft balls from long distance.
I give this to Ronaldo no matter that Messi has been winning as footballer of the yr.

Alex Ferguson has coached just one team for donkey years and only in one league and he is rated as one of the best if not the best coach, why una no tell am make e dey waka about like Mourinho. Mourinho is an itinerant coach, he would always be looking for a place to go, most times for ego tripping and to perpetuate that 'special one' thing. Thats his style, Ronaldo also has an ego equal to if not greater than jose's own, he can't stand any coach or team, or mates for too long, he would want to leave, thats his cup of tea.

For those who say messi plays with xavi, iniesta etc, who does C.Ronaldo plays with, is it kaita or diop, he plays with the best, look at MAN U squad he played with, look at Madrid, with Ozil, Benzema, Kaka, Hiquain, these are the best of the best, skill for skill they are better than all Barca players except Messi. The whole team played for C.Ronaldo in Man U, in Real Madrid, CR7 is King and they also play for him.

In Barca, Messi plays for the team, He gives even more than he takes, His passes are so sublime it makes you cry, check out that pass to Abidal against madrid, that was totally beyond words.

No one like him at present, he is taking the world best 5 consecutive times and no one is going to stop, the only way to stop him is either you break his leg on the field or you shoot him dead in his home, Shikena

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Danka7777:
He is from Taraba State. His wife from Edo State.

Why are they all marrying from Bendel, Abi where they stranded there during the Civil war.

Thank God, I have busted the b.alls of all my family members especially all those uncles and aunties. If you come to me with any traditional/cultural nonsense i throw them out the windows and if you keep bringing them up, i throw you out the door or i take myself out.

If den try dis kain thing for my family, dats the last they would hear from me.

lastpage:
BTW: I still wonder WHY every IGBO boy and Hausa mallam troops down to that same Lagos, and you dont see "'Lagosians" trooping the other way?

Lastpage!

That one no hard, money moves and you go with the flow, the same reason why people dey trip go jand and yankee and not mongolia or somalia.

[quote author=Βουκέφαλος link=topic=881759.msg10295850#msg10295850 date=1330483320]Most of them are naive and are not so smart if you live with them or get to know them better. I usually tell people that Ibadan boys are WAY smarter than Lagos boys.[/quote]Which Ibadan! Ibadan Okola koja ori. Ibadan boys wey motor dey jam anyhow for Lagos. Forget that thing.

When we dey cross expressway with james bond skills everyday,
When we dey pass thru window or open the booth to enter 'danfo', (i remember the times we do that in OAU, when we dey struggle for bus to go town, people still dey for door dey struggle when we don occupy the whole back seat, the look on their faces was unforgettable).
When we dey run from Mopol wey dey catch roger every evening
When Omota/conductor wan beat u up at the slightest provacation,
Wen everyday den dey break your baf/bucket wen una dey struggle for water for tap.
Wen u dey hold ur pocket, watch your back as u dey waka for road.
When gbomo gbomo dey find how e go take carry you go do juju since when u be 5.

You gats to wake up to survive for lag.

For a lecturer to demand for sex to pass a student is one of the worst lows a man can get to in life, to blackmail a married woman to have sex with you means you are no man, you are just slime. And slimes are meant to be washed away.

You need to be ready to fight and expose the man. There was a case of a friend in OAU some few years back who refused to give in, she was threatened in so many ways by the lecturer up to the dean. The man (Dr. Akindele of Political Science) was even said to be well jazzed and feared by fellow lecturers.

She went to NGOs, to the school senate and to the press, her papers were remarked even though the man had torn some pages off, the inconsistency between the pages was noticed. After a long drawn case in which other victims also came forward, the associate professor started begging the girl to withdraw the case, sending different high profile lecturers, he was eventually dismissed.

If you want to, i can get her contacts for you for advice etc.

There are several options and require boldness, don't be scared of what will become of your grade, if you do the right thing, you will get the grades you deserve.

amor4ce:
Gleaned from a Biblical Anthropology website -

Another view is that Esau is related to the Hebrew asa - to do, to fashion, or to accomplish. Or it may be related to the African word Ishan. Since some of Abraham's ancestors came out of Africa, we should expect the name Esau to be traceable to that area from which they came (Nigeria and Lake Chad). The name Esau is Ishan (http://globalrecordings.net/language/2202) in Nigeria. The Arabic, Aramaic, Chadic and the Hebrew names are linguistically equivalent because they share a common Afro-Asiatic root. Because of the linguistic correspondence, some Islamic scholars suggest that Esau is Esa or Issa, the Quranic name for Jesus. This raises a fascinating possibility that the son beloved of the father, whose birthright was denied him by Israel, is a type of Jesus Christ!

Funny funny stuffs just keep popping up from different places. There is nothing like ishan, it is Esan. It was derived from esan fia, meaning 'they have ran away'. This happened when a large group of people fled Benin City due to the tyranny of a king and the city became deserted. When the king asked about his people, he was told they have fled.

This esau mumbo jumbo is way way off key.

pendo89:
Trust me those guys compete with lions for grazing land and a lion wold rather face a cow than a masai. They know them very well.
But if you dare go there as tpia and try acting masai ul be ripped in seconds.Theres a look on their face and some bravery that scares the poo out of lions.

How many Masai lion don chop? make we leave story, Lion no get camera to show wen e dey chop masai. We will always celebrate the Hunter's victory not that of the animal.

The arrrrgh thing could work for those wey don use jaz die like those ancient hunters she was talking about. Then for those who went out to hunt for a lion, their state of mind is already conditioned for the hunt and they are already experienced in the trade. So the arrrgh thing, the eye-balling.

But i no gree for the sand thing, except if on seeing you picking the sand the lion goes away knowing your intention, but if a lion is in motion, its 3 feet away and its about to pounce on you, you are already a goner, even if the sand gets into his eyes, just one blow from his paws or a head-butt will knock you out flat with some some broken parts.

@Inked_Nerd

When a well-known figure, a Chieftain, a local Hero (Abraham's cousin), has some visitors and you want to ascertain if they were spies, The reasonable cause of action is either the King sends representatives to find out who they are and ascertain their intentions or he sends soldiers to arrest the spies (case of Rahab). You don't just gang up as a mob to 'know' their mission.

Also, they were not in a state of war, the threat from the enemies has been destroyed by Abraham. The enemies were soundly beaten. Abraham who won the war for Sodom and Gomorrah because of his nephew Lot was still dwelling in Tents and there was no state of emergency there, so how can there be a state of emergency in a walled city. The enemies of Sodom would have to take out Abraham first before going after Sodom.

If the men of Sodom were just interested in knowing who these men are, if they were scared that these could be enemy spies, why would Lot be offering his daughters to them? Would giving his daughters satisfy the information they seek to find. His offering them clearly shows it was for a se.xual purpose they came.

Am not saying all the men in Sodom were homos.exuals, but the city was known and infamous for debasing se.xual acts which includes homosexuality. There was no 5000 years old conspiracy to label them such. It was not today they became known for such.

If you read about what led to the split between Abraham and Lot, you would know that it was because Lot has grown so wealthy that he became a competitor with Abraham and the land and grazing resources available could no longer serve both of them. And there is no indication that he lost his wealth in the Bible. So offering them up for money is just totally skewed.

The people of Canaan were very Immoral and indulged in loose conduct to an excess. They engaged in such wantonness that God decreed that he would destroy them but he told Abraham that their error has not come to completion, so he gave a grace period of about 400 years.

(Genesis 15:16) 16 But in the fourth generation they will return here, because the error of the Am′or‧ites (a term used for canaanites too) has not yet come to completion.”

But the people of sodom and g.omorrah were so debased that God decreed their destruction immediately, there was no waiting period for them, they have exhausted God's patience, the scriptures said the cry of complaints against them have become so much its unbearable. He then sent representatives to find out if it was so. If it was not so the angels would report back to God and if there were just 10 righteous people in that city, God said he would spare them.

So what was the situation the angels met, if it was just people afraid and curious to know what their mission was, is that enough to destroy the city by fire? a judgement unprecedented before then. No, the angels met a raving mad, frenzied crowd, wanting to rape them and threatening to destroy a righteous Lot, whose stay among them has made it possible for them to still have a city to their name. Of course it was RAPE as you said but the fact that they were excited and got HIGH because they saw Visiting Men, makes it worse. It shows their depth of depravity.

Immediately the judgement was total annihilation and Lot was not even to look back while he is fleeing. So that city was entrenched in all filthiness, i would not put anything beyond them.

Please you can check up what archaeologists find out about the canaanites, with respect to sexual orgies and other illicit an wantonness (phallic symbols etc). If these canaanites were better than the sodomites, that would put into perspective what kind of people the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were. They were as bad as any city can ever get, they were the worst of the worst.  

That is why they became a proverbial saying, a symbol for any thing bad because they have seen it all and done it all.

Feb 10, 2012 - Ladies and Gentlemen,

I thank you for your kind invitation to speak at the third edition of "Project What Next?"

Let me say straight away that I am not likely to tell you anything you have not heard before. I will merely attempt to bring them alive with examples from my own life's experiences so far.

I am also grateful for this opportunity because it gives me the chance to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities of governing a State like Lagos, and to share the most significant constraints to provide lessons for you, our future leaders.

Contrary to the theme of this forum, my aim this evening is not actually to help you answer the question "what next?" The fact that you are here suggests to me that you already know what next.

Rather, I hope that by the end of our talk, I would have been able to help you answer the question "how next", using the story of my life. I will try to do this using a series of lessons I have learned along the way.

IN THE BEGINNING
I finished from the Law School in 1988 and I was posted to the Ministry of Justice, Benin, in the then Bendel State. I was not happy, because I didn't like the Public Service at all.

For three days after I reported for duty, nobody could assign me a desk or a responsibility, simply because the Solicitor-General was away on an official assignment outside the State and she was the only one who could give the instructions.

By the time she returned, my dislike for government and public service had increased tenfold and I had made up my mind that I did not want to start my professional career there.

I was determined to go and work in a private law firm. When the Solicitor-General saw how adamant I was, she released me. Even though I did not have any alternative, I gladly left and eventually got a job in the chambers of the late Dr. G.I.S. Omonuwa in Benin City.

You might ask the question, why was it so important to work in a law firm when the popular choices were banks and oil companies.

The simple answer is that I wanted to go to court! I had always wanted to be a professional and I would have liked to be a medical doctor but I didn't know maths. On the other hand, the legal profession fascinated me and luckily I didn't need maths!

Having qualified as a lawyer, there was no question about whether or not I would ply my trade in court.

If I had wanted to work in a bank, there would have been no need to go to Law School! It was the courtroom or nothing! I still miss the suspense, drama and competition.

My tunic, collar, bibs, vest and striped trousers are still my most priceless apparels. I wear them with a lot of pride and anticipation every day I dress up to go to court.

After my NYSC, my father had arranged for me to start work with his friend in one of the Federal Government parastatals.

Even though I had no job and I was eager to start earning a living, I bluntly refused to work in the Civil Service. As you can imagine, my father was not pleased and he washed his hands off my search for a job.

So I went job hunting on my own until I found another law firm in Lagos that was willing to employ me. Fortunately, it didn't take me too long, otherwise my father would have probably thrown me out unceremoniously to go and fend for myself!

I learnt two lessons from these events. I learned that it is important to look in the mirror and clearly define who you are to yourself (as best as you can) and set clear goals for yourself based on that understanding.

That way you know precisely what you want (or at least you have a fair idea) and more importantly, you know who you are not and what you do not want or cannot do.

Many of us do not want or like to confront our inner self. We often see ourselves as we see the people we admire and want to be like.

Even when the reality is that we are nothing like them and are unlikely to succeed at what they do because we simply do not have the ability to do what they do.

Instead we hide behind statements like – "If he can do it, I can too…" Not necessarily. It is not wrong to admire people who have made successes of their chosen endeavours and aspire to be like them. But it must always be within the context of self-knowledge.

So lesson no. 1 from my life is Know Yourself.

The next lessons I learnt were determination and self-belief. Even though it was a legitimate aspiration, it was not common to seek release from the Ministry to a law firm.

Most people wanted to work in the ministry because invariably there were some other perks that went with working in a government establishment, like free accommodation.

Besides, I didn't even have another job! But I knew I didn't want to stay there and I knew what I wanted, so I went for it.

Determination and Self-Belief would be my lesson no. 2.

I remained in private legal practice from 1989 until 2002. Thirteen years. I worked in only two firms – Sofunde, Ogundipe, Osakwe and Belgore and K.O. Tinubu & Co. I worked in Sofunde from 1989 to 1993 and then joined K.O. Tinubu & Co. as an equity partner.

Serving pupilage, which is what we lawyers call those early years in practice when you cut your legal teeth in an established law firm before branching out on your own, was not a walk in the park.

The pay wasn't great, the hours were long and I had a young family. It was hard but it taught me perseverance. I had learned discipline from my days as a prefect in secondary school and I brought that discipline to the work place.

It wasn't easy but in retrospect, they were probably some of the best days of my adult life.

I would like to dwell on this a little because these days such traits are becoming increasingly uncommon.

Sadly, one of the ripple effects underdevelopment is that everyone is in search of a 'cushy' life "asap"! We all want "quick fixes" and we want them "like yesterday".

Who doesn't? But there is a lot to be said for paying ones dues. The possibilities for learning life's lessons are endless if your mind is open wide enough.

Like I said it was not a walk in the park but I stuck with it. I paid my dues and honed my skills as a lawyer. I figured that if this was the profession I had chosen to tread my path in, I'd better give it my best shot.

I rose to become Head of Chambers and I left only to join another firm as partner. Because I enjoyed my work, I lived for the job and I was entrusted with increasing responsibilities every day.

In my third full year in the chambers, I had the privilege of appearing at the Supreme Court on my own. I still remember the case – Dabup v. Kolo, reported in (1993) 9 NWLR Pt. 317 at pg. 254.

When word got out that I had left Sofunde, I was not short of offers. All I can say today is that I was humbled by the offers and the eminent quarters they came from, so it was a huge decision to turn them down.

But although they came with everything I did not have – a car, a house, better wages etc. they all lacked one essential thing – independence. I wanted to be my own boss.

The lessons I learnt were invaluable and on reflection, I think they prepared me for the greater responsibilities I would later assume.

Lesson no. 3 relates to discipline and perseverance - Stick With It.

Before I leave this point, I must tell you a short story about a lesson I learned very early in practice. I had accompanied my principal, Mr. Ebun Sofunde, SAN to court, and the lawyer on the other side alleged that our client was in breach of an earlier injunction that the court had granted.

Mr. Sofunde sought an adjournment and then sent me to find out if the lawyer's allegation was true.

I got to the site (it was a building site and the allegation was that our client had continued to build in defiance of an injunction restraining him from doing so) to find out that our client was indeed in breach.

I reported this to Mr. Sofunde who then asked me to prepare an affidavit to be filed in court. Because I did not want our client to lose, I did not disclose the full facts that I had related to Mr. Sofunde in the affidavit to the effect that our client was in breach.

When I showed the draft to Mr. Sofunde, he was livid. In fact I don't think I had ever seen him so angry then or since.

He told me something that has remained with me ever since, - you don't own the facts. A good lawyer has a duty to accept the facts and tell the court the facts as he finds them, whether or not it is adverse to your client.

Suitably chastised, I re-drafted the affidavit and we filed it. I learnt the value of professional honesty and integrity that day and needless to say it never happened again. In fact I have had cause to similarly chastise junior lawyers.

As it turns out, our claim was successful and the injunction was vacated so I needn't have withheld the facts in the first place!

ON MY OWN
We had a slang then we used to call 'o.m.o' after the popular detergent. It was an acronym for 'on my own'. And it stood for anything ranging from being single to running your own business.

So there I was minding my own business, trying hard to improve our client base, get a larger slice of the market share and engage in all the things that agitate a business owner's mind.

This was a different ball game from working at Sofunde. There, other people were 'finding' the work and I was one of those 'grinding' the work. Now I had to do both since I was more or less 'o.m.o' and of course it came with its own set of challenges.

I became responsible for people's salaries. Junior lawyers, clerks, secretarial staff, security guards etc. Everybody needed to get a cheque at the end of the month whether I got paid or not. We never defaulted.

I became a provider for others while trying to provide for myself. I was so fixated on being self-employed that I almost forgot the implications of becoming an employer.

Lesson no. 4 – Actions Have Consequences and we must prepare for them.

NEW CHALLENGES
In March 2002, I heard like everyone else that the Chief of Staff to the Governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lai Mohammed was going to seek elective office in Kwara State. The news did not mean anything to me and nothing could have prepared me for the request from the Governor to come and fill the vacancy thus created.

I refused initially. Bluntly. I knew the Governor fairly well and had done some legal work for him. I had also actively campaigned, and voted for him. From time to time, he had invited me to one committee or the other in Government so he was not a stranger.

But I didn't even know what the work of the Chief of Staff entailed and I wasn't interested. I had already applied twice for the rank of senior advocate and I wanted to concentrate on that.

I made all this clear to the various people that made entreaties to me and for five months, I was left alone. I honestly thought I was off the hook.

Then one day in August I got a call from the Governor asking me to see him. I arrived at Alausa at 4pm and waited till 1am to see him. When I eventually saw him he just told me point blank that I couldn't leave him alone to do the work and I had to come and play my part in rebuilding Lagos.

His tone brooked no argument and he didn't leave room for any argument anyway. He told me to see the Head of Service the following day to collect my letter and I started work that same day – the 16th of August 2002.

Why did I accept? Well, first of all I wasn't given a chance to decline. Secondly I recalled the words of Mahatma Gandhi, who said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world".

Why did I dislike public service so much? It was not because I had enough close contact with the civil service to make an informed observation. No. I merely had a perception, (admittedly brought about by a few isolated incidents, not all of which were personal, and popular opinion) - that the civil service is inefficient, bloated and wasteful, and that civil servants are dull and corrupt.

Of course I now know better! In fact I am now "born again" and my mission is to win as many converts in the private sector as possible!

But back to why I accepted. I was being given the opportunity to help change things and do something about all the things I complained about daily.

There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Governor Tinubu's Administration was making waves, and we could already feel its impact. Something was now being done about refuse, roads, schools hospitals etc. and everywhere there were signs of reawakening.

Now fate had offered me the chance to be a participant in what I thought was an audacious reversal of the negative consequences of underdevelopment. I took it.

Lesson no. 5 is therefore - Don't Run Away From Challenges.

I served for the remainder of that term and when the Governor was re-elected, I was re-appointed to serve during the second term.

A TWIST IN THE TALE
God was not done with me yet. The story of how I became the Governor of Lagos State remains one of the most profound experiences of my life. It validates the scriptures that God, in whom I absolutely have faith, is a miracle worker and that power truly belongs to Him.

No precision in star gazing or clairvoyance could have foretold it. I certainly knew (and I'm sure unbiased observers knew it too) that I was the most unlikely person to succeed Asiwaju.

I was preparing to return to private law practice having worked at least 14 hours every day for four and half years. At the time fifteen candidates were jostling to succeed him, eleven of them from within the cabinet. I was not one of them.

Even though I enjoyed what I was doing, helping to rebuild our State after many years of neglect and lack of development, I was not interested in politics. I was just content to have been a member of the team that started the renewal.

Asiwaju had consulted me on the choice of a candidate and I had offered my advice as to who I thought merited the privilege of his endorsement.

As you well know, Asiwaju's nod would be a major political capital because of his popularity and the Party's mass appeal in Lagos State. Therefore it was easy to guess that the candidate he endorsed would almost inevitably be elected Governor.

He confounded me when he called me to his house one morning to ask me if I would run as Governor. He had earlier broached the subject on the telephone and, believing it to be a joke; I had avoided giving an answer. This time I knew he was serious.

I told him I did not desire to be Governor as I had seen him suffer at close quarters. His response was that this was an assignment and he was speaking to me as my boss.

I felt a sense of déjà vu. He sounded exactly like he did in August 2002. So began my journey to my first ever election of any type.

My nomination broke the party. Don't forget there were 11 cabinet members - all members of the party, seeking to succeed him. A new party was formed, peace was brokered and compromises were sought and reached.

After that discussion with Asiwaju and my acceptance, I took a week off from work with a copy of the 10-Point Agenda which had become State Policy, a copy of the Party's manifesto and a copy of the Charter of the Objectives of the Millennium Development Goals.

I locked myself in, wrote out in long hand, what I thought should be done in respect of each sector and resumed work on the 6th November, 2006 to type it out.

When I finished, I drafted a resignation letter and went to Asiwaju's office to hand him both documents, making sure I put the resignation letter on top.

Asiwaju was not pleased with my decision to resign. He wanted me to head a Ministry so that I would have more contact with people - become more visible and better known to the public before the elections, which were only 5 months away.

He thought this was important because before then I had worked in the back room of the Governor's Office managing daily administration and rarely attending public functions. I had spent my time planning and organizing those State functions and ensuring as best as I could that they succeeded.

But I explained to Asiwaju that if he was truly serious about me running for Governor, I needed to disengage from office so I could devote all my time to the project and that I did not see myself giving my best while running a Ministry and campaigning at the same time.

Furthermore I thought this would adversely affect the public service delivery of the Ministry. He agreed and allowed me to resign. The rest, as they say, is history.

From then on, I woke up earlier than 6 am to attend Radio and TV interviews as other candidates had been doing. I had a lot to catch up on.

I had no posters, but while those were being designed, I embarked on a grueling tour of the 57 Local Governments, sometimes covering as many as 3 or 4 Local Governments in a day.

I got home to read up on projects in those areas, books written by politicians, public speaking and so on. From then until the elections in April 2007, I slept less than 3 hours every day and lost 10 kilograms in the process.

The document I had presented to Asiwaju became an Article of Faith that I titled "My Contract with Lagosians".

At every opportunity I explained what I intended to do and what the obligations of citizens would be in terms of support, payment of taxes, obedience to laws, maintenance of peace and the promise of what lay ahead.

To the glory of God, we confronted the opposition parties and won resoundingly with 828,484 votes, while the 1st, 2nd and 3rd runners up scored 389,088, 114,557 and 29,836 votes respectively.

Lesson no. 6 is an important one – Clear Written Goals; No Half Measures.

BEING A GREAT MANAGER AND YET BEING ETHICAL IN NIGERIA
You've asked me (in your own words) to speak about being a great manager and yet being ethical in Nigeria.

I'm not sure I fully understand what you mean; neither would I describe myself as a "great manager". I will only describe my management style and leave you to make up your minds. Luckily we are in the centre of management studies so it shouldn't be too difficult!

First I was confronted with the reality that I was going to manage over a 100,000 public servants and that collectively we would be responsible for over 17 million people.

So the first thing I felt was fear. Fear that I would fail, fear about the many recrimations that could come Asiwaju's way for sticking out his neck for me, fear of the unknown. Just fear.

Someone told me I was crazy to have accepted the job. Secretly I agreed with him but I didn't admit it. I didn't know if I would succeed and I said as much in my inauguration speech on the 29th of May 2007.

But I was determined to make sure that if I didn't succeed it wouldn't be because I didn't try.

I learnt lesson No. 7 - that Fear is Good, But Don't Give In to It. If you are afraid, it's probably a positive sign. It should spur you on to succeed.

My article of faith was a clear roadmap of what I wanted to achieve. So after the elections, another round of late nights started, to build the blocks for implementation. The questions on my mind were not what we wanted to do but how and who to do it.

My management style has always been consultative and it has always been underpinned by sustainability. Even now I take the strong view, that there are many projects which we will only lay the foundations for. Other people will come after us, pick up the baton and run their part in the relay.

I picked a team of serving public officers in Health, Transport, Waste Management and Justice, and invited bankers, economists and some other members of the private sector who volunteered their time and expertise.

We met at a hotel every night for a month from 10pm to 4am, detailing what the problems were, planning solutions, articulating costs and our proposed methods of implementation.

The importance of this preparation cannot be over-emphasised. It was what enabled us to hit the ground running.

Shortly after the inauguration, my deputy and I began a tour of all government ministries, followed by a meeting with all heads of departments, who gave us reports of what they had been doing and what was outstanding.

Since I had already been in government at the executive council level, I was already abreast of most of these things. But it was important that we go through that exercise for the benefit of the Deputy Governor who had never served at that level of Government, even though she was a public servant herself.

First I reckoned that if we were to move at the pace I intended, it was fair to start slowly to enable her catch up on the things I already knew so she could share the responsibility. Secondly if there was the possibility that she as Deputy Governor would have to take over the government at any point, it was imperative that she knew what it entailed.

We ran the Government for about two months with the Permanent Secretaries while I was selecting the team of commissioners and special advisers who would lead the various Ministries and Departments.

By July 2007, we had constituted the team, and each person came on board with a clear mandate (based on what my nocturnal committee had drawn up) of what he or she was expected to deliver.

42 (Forty-Two) Commissioners and Special Advisers of diverse backgrounds, lawyers, bankers, economists, educationists, private businessmen, politicians etc. were appointed.

In order to guarantee the sustainability I spoke of earlier, I ensured that many of them were my colleagues in the previous government, with a few first timers.

This was to help us start quickly, using the experiences of the old hands, while the new ones acquainted themselves with the nuances, culture and communication skills of the public service, which are quite different from what obtains in the private sector.

We see a similar trend in corporate Nigeria. Employees are identified to move from one level to the next are given technical and management training etc.

From the onset, I laid great emphasis on team work. We worked as a team, debated vigorously at meetings and voted when there was deadlock; but our guiding mantra is that everybody respects and implements the team's collective decisions, whether or not he or she dissented when voting.

We developed a few invariable rules. Being efficient with time, we resolved to meet weekly on Mondays at 9am and imposed a fine for lateness. There were initial complaints that it was too early but with time we got used to it.

On two occasions, I went to those Monday meetings without taking my bath because I had slept late and woken up late and I wanted to lead by example.

We resolved to keep promises and deadlines we made to the public whatever it took and at the earliest awareness that it would not be feasible, we went back to them to notify them and explain why. We have tried to live by the creed that our word is our bond.

We sought knowledge and best practices from every part of the world, sent people to value adding trainings and tours, but more often brought the experts to Lagos so that the largest number of us could benefit and we could manage costs.

Before the Commissioners embarked on their work, I had commissioned a poll asking people what they expected of the Government they had elected. When I received the results, I suggested that we undertake a fresh tour of the 57 Local Governments.

I did so for 2 (two) reasons, first to hear from the citizens themselves what they expected and in that way validate the result of the poll; and secondly, to enable the team know all the Local Governments and see for themselves how real and bad things were, so that we could eat, sleep and dream the problem on a daily basis until we found solutions. It was a real wake up call.

Lesson no. 8 – Don't Gloss Over Problems; Confront Them Head On.

BELIEVING IN OUR ABILITY, LEVERAGING ON IT AND BRINGING OUR VISION TO REALITY
I had been privileged to read Rudolph Giuliani's book on Leadership, about the transformation of New York whose population and complexities, ethnic and religious were not significantly different from Lagos.

I had also read Lee Kuan Yew's seminal work, "From Third World to First". Both of these books were highly inspiring to me as a young leader of a city state.

Just as we concluded our Local Government tour I attended the International Bar Conference held in Singapore in 2007. Fortunately, I had also been invited to an Investment Summit in September 2007 in New York. My trip to Singapore took me through Dubai at the peak of its construction boom.

I went to those as a City Manager, not as a tourist, looking to see what I could learn and trying to relate what I had read in those books with what I saw.

I had the privilege of meeting a few of the people who had been involved in those remarkable transformations, including Lee Kuan Yew, with whom I spent about 30 minutes, and a firm of Consulting Engineers in Dubai.

I returned to Lagos with an almost angry determination to transform our State as quickly as possible. I shared my experiences with my colleagues and urged those who had not been, to visit those places.

I gave every member of the Executive council a copy of Lee Kuan Yew's book and we established inter-governmental relationships with some critical agencies in those countries to tap from their knowledge and experiences.

We set about the implementation of our plans with the understanding that law and order was the underlying cause of difficult living in our State. We came to the understanding that not all people were deliberately lawless but that they had become desperate in a bid to survive.

They broke traffic rules in a bid to get out of excruciating traffic jams because no new highways had been built in Lagos for almost 30 years until the return of democracy in 1999, yet people were buying cars daily cars and needed to move about.

People traded on sidewalks because the last major markets built in the State before 1999 were built in the 1970s. The same applied to schools, hospitals, water supply and much of our public infrastructure.

We re-ordered the budget of the State from consumption to investment in infrastructure. We changed the expenditure profile to a 60:40 ratio in favour of capital over re-current expenditure and applied the proceeds to equipping the Police, to water supply projects, to building schools, roads, recreation centres and hospitals, and to reclaiming open spaces for parks and greening.

A critical learning curve for us was the realization that we had all survived on a diet of broken promises for 3 (three) decades of political instability and so we needed to earn trust and keep the faith, in true demonstration of the tenets of democracy - a government of the people, by the people for the people.

We therefore made ourselves accessible to the public by publishing our email addresses and telephone numbers in the newspapers and responded as best as we could to complaints and suggestions. Till date, I receive an average of 300 text messages and about the same number of emails every day.

Lesson no. 9 – Study and Understand Your Operational Environment.

The response was most encouraging. Even before the efforts started yielding results, we were getting positive feedbacks. Our government was gaining credibility. I think people were beginning to trust us and believe that we meant well.

Lagosians were ready to endure traffic jams because they saw construction going on and believed it would get better when we finished. In some places where we needed to claim more land to build expanded roads, people voluntarily pulled down their walls so that our contractors could start work.

Largely because of this trust, when we embarked on a massive tax drive, rather than complaints, we began to receive enquiries about how and where people could go to pay their taxes. It was a huge sign-on that everybody seemingly wanted to be a part of.

My colleagues and I seized on this huge capital to take difficult but public benefit decisions such as the restoration of Oshodi. We started clearing out slums that had been in place for over 30 years and seemed immovable.

We used this enormous public support only for the public good. We confronted groups and unions that had lived above the law and with the public's support we succeeded in getting them to obey the law.

Our investment in the Police by way of patrol cars, uniforms, insurance schemes, improved allowances and equipment brought down violent crimes by 79% at the end of 2009.

Private sector belief in us and its consequent support was colossal and we did our best never to abuse it and never to take it for granted.

Lesson no. 10 – Go to Great Lengths to Build Trust and Goodwill. When You Do, Don't Squander It.

What has been the effect? Bank robberies are now a thing of the past, traffic congestion is reducing daily, jobs are being created at construction sites and in new businesses springing up as a result of a renewed investor-friendly climate. The Palms Mall and the Ikeja Mall are just two examples.

Another interesting fall out was that right from my first term in office, the public service has gradually become more and more attractive to many who previously had negative attitude towards the public service.

The tide is turning and we now have increasing requests for jobs or appointments into the service or to be part of our team.

A large number of Nigerians have even relocated from abroad to work in the Lagos State Public Service. This has been to the overall benefit of the Public Service.

The private sector skills being deployed in the public service are invaluable. Just as no private sector person who goes into government ever holds the same views about the public service that he or she held before entering the Service. I should know!

My only regret is that we cannot employ all of the vast human capital out there that is now willing to invest in our Public Service.

Lesson no. 11 is profound - People Define an Institution. It is good to build an institution but it's better to build people.

MY ROLE IN NATION BUILDING AND MY INFLUENCE
As for my role in nation building and my influence that you've asked me to talk about, I cannot in all honesty talk about them objectively.

For one thing, I think it is premature and for another, I think I should leave that to others to comment on or write about.

Suffice it to say that I would rather see my modest contribution in the context of the impact that the growth of Lagos has had on the overall development of the country and the national economy.

As the home of every Nigerian, Lagos is the economic driver of the nation and contributes a significant part to our GDP. So I have derived tremendous personal satisfaction from managing the transformation of such an important part of the Nigerian household;

A part that brings something so meaningful to our national table.

CONCLUSION
I'm happy that a lot more Lagosians (and by Lagosians I mean all of us who live in Lagos) now speak of their State with a lot of pride, and the belief that we are getting there.

I know that we are very far from the Lagos of our dreams and that a great distance still lies ahead on this journey, but I am humbled to be the leader of the team that received the baton of hope from the last government and has been able to keep that hope alive.

By the grace of God, we will keep the faith and keep that hope alive till we pass the baton on.

My advice to those of you who take public office or seek to do so is that the best way to seize that opportunity is to prepare for it and plan to use it for only one purpose – public good.

In the pursuit of public good all your individual needs are met and secured. We will use the roads we build, the hospitals we build, the security we put in place and we will benefit from the economic prosperity that we help to create in a situation of harmony, as opposed to chaos, aggression and desperation, where the privileged lived in fear of revolt or crime from the under-privileged.

The Lagos I dream of still lies ahead. But my optimism that it is achievable is fuelled by my life's story. If you don't take anything away today, at least let these lessons I have learned be a constant reminder that: Nothing is Impossible. That's lesson no 12!

I thank you for listening.

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos

@Inked_Nerd

Nice Write-up and definitely different angles at seeing the whole story.

The possibility that the men/people were just interested in knowing if they were enemies spies does not jell with me. First if anybody was above suspicion it should be Lot. Remember his Uncle Abraham used his own army and personally funded the the war that returned all the people including their kings back to their land and even when they wanted to give Abraham some part he bluntly refused. Lot should be well respected and above suspicion because his presence amongst them saved them. Lot was a wealthy chieftain and a well known man in the city.

If they just wanted to know who these men are, they would have sent their representatives to Lot and conducted the affair in a diplomatic manner, and not the frenzied mob we read about.

In places where 'know' is used as intercourse, it is the context that indicates what is implied. Lot offering his daughter to satisfy their sexual urges shows what is implied. Lot is a very wealthy man, his daughters' dowries are insignificant compared to his wealth.
If Lot was just offering them as slaves, how does that make the people know who these men are? how does that reveal the identity or purpose of the angel's visit?
How much would the sale of two slaves add to the economy or wealth of a whole city or crowd.

Even before he knew their purpose he asked them to stay overnight, and of course the door would be closed because they were about to retire for the night. So being behind closed doors should not arouse suspicion. The door was meant to be closed. If its a normal practice to extend such hospitality to strangers, then the suspicion is not warranted. The Bible also never said they were perpetually in a state of war. The enemy nation was soundly defeated by Lot's Uncle Abraham. If anybody was in danger of being attacked, it would have been Abraham, who was a tent dweller and also he was the one that single-handedly defeated them. So if anyone was going to take out Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have first neutralized their defender Abraham.

Yes the name Sodom and sodomite was after the-fact, the ancient names of the city has probably been lost, but such usage occurs very often in the Bible, where the Bible mentions a cities name and describe an incident which gives the city its name.

[quote author=Inked_Nerd link=topic=870007.msg10207224#msg10207224 date=1329384736][font=times new roman][size=12pt]
Further along these lines, let's consider the word "sodomite" which is often used by some to describe same gender loving people. Yes, the word is in the Bible as we know it today. And it has been very loosely translated as "gay" in some versions of the Scripture. The word is used twice in the Old Testament of King James version of the Bible, and several times in the New Testament. But if you look in the Hebrew and Greek texts…. the word "sodomite" isn't found at all. Let me elaborate, in Deuteronomy 23.17, the text reads: "There shall be no LovePeddler of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel." And, II Kings 23.7 reads: "And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove". Now if you look up "LovePeddler" in Hebrew, the word is "k'deshah", meaning pröstitute [temple pröstitute in this case]. And the word "sodomite(s)" is "kadesh", the male version of the word "k'deshah". T[b]his says there were both male and female temple LovePeddlers who sold their bodies in worship of the fertility goddess Asherah. God was saying in these texts that His people should not engage in this kind of activity, thus breaking the law forbidding idol worship. So in these scriptures, idol worship is the thing being forbidden.[/b][/quote]The worship of idols is something very Abominable before God and so were other practices such as 'cheating with wrong scales'. Many acts associated with Idol worship apart from the worshipping of idols itself were abominable. God specifically said burning of children in fire for worship which was happening in Jerusalem and was copied from the worship of Molech was very detestable and was something that never ever came to his mind.

Various forms of sexual perverseness was done by the canaanites in their worship such as bestiality and this was also condemned as abominable. Male and female prostitute were also employed in their temple and God was warning them not to bring such practice into his own house, in fact the price or money gained or paid for such acts should not be brought into the temple. The money itself also was detestable.


(Deuteronomy 23:17-18) 17 “None of the daughters of Israel may become a temple prostitute, neither may anyone of the sons of Israel become a temple prostitute. 18 You must not bring the hire of a harlot or the price of a dog into the house of Jehovah your God for any vow, because they are something detestable to Jehovah your God, even both of them.

So its not just Idolatry that is condemned, every act connected with it and which God has not commanded is detestable.

(1 Kings 14:24) 24 And even the male temple prostitute proved to be in the land. They acted according to all the detestable things of the nations whom Jehovah had driven out from before the sons of Israel.

Any form of Idolatry or even having an image or praying to a god was abhorrent to God, sexual immorality was also a sin, now importing all the filthy sexual practices and combining it with worship was beyond abhorrent, and that is why a broad word 'lewdness, loose conduct, lasciviousness,' etc was often used to group them together.

In the scriptures and especially for xtians anything beyond sex between married heterosexual individuals is a sin.

Now God wants but does not expect everyone to live by the standards he had set, he knows some people 'even in the land of straightforwardness would be crooked'. These are the wicked and he has said his Judgement.

(Jude 7) So too Sod′om and Go‧mor′rah and the cities about them, after they in the same manner as the foregoing ones had committed fornication excessively and gone out after flesh for unnatural use, are placed before [us] as a [warning] example by undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire.

(Leviticus 18:22) 22 “‘And you must not lie down with a male the same as you lie down with a woman. It is a detestable thing.

(Romans 1:26) That is why God gave them up to disgraceful sexual appetites, for both their females changed the natural use of themselves into one contrary to nature;

[quote author=Inked_Nerd link=topic=870007.msg10200002#msg10200002 date=1329299813]
Where did I say that me knowing some made it not true? What I said, "I know many lesbians and gay men who can disprove this belief of yours yet I don't go around saying that just because those few enjoy sex without pënëtration that it dictates a good majority of the population.". And me using the word 'few' doesn't necessarily mean that they are few within the general population. I used the word as a means of giving a generalized amount of those that I know. Please provide these reports that you say justify your opinion because at this point, that's all it is. Whether or not there is actually a "center of gravity" is still debatable among those within the intimate health medical field. center of gravity aside, there are other areas of the body that can provide the same Glorious effects. You simply giving the center of gravity as an example still doesn't explain anything that you claim.[/quote]In 1987, a non-scientific study (Munson) was conducted of more than 100 members of a lesbian social organization in Colorado. When asked what techniques they used in their last 10 love.making sessions, 100% were for kissing, sucking on ni.pples, and manual stimulation of the clit.oris; more than 90% reported French kiss.ing, MouthAction, and fingers inserted into the va.gina; and 80% reported tribadism.

98% of the whole sample gave a history of sex.ual activity with women, 83% within the past year, with a median of one female partner in that year. 85% of the sample reported intimate activity with men; for most (70%) this was 4 or more years ago. First intimate experience tended to be with a man (median 18 years old), with first sex.ual experience with a woman a few years later (median 21 years). Or.al sex , vag.ina.l penetration with fingers, and mutual masturba.tion were the most commonly reported se.xual practices between women. V.aginal penetration with joystick or fingers and mutual masturbati.on were the most commonly reported intimate activities with men, http://sti.bmj.com/content/79/2/147.full

PHILADELPHIA -- L.esbians under age 30 commonly practice va.ginal penetrative sex manually or with intimacy gadgets, "Participants in all four groups reported that vagin.al penetrative practices using se.x toys and fingers/hands were practiced commonly. A.nal penetrative sex was also mentioned in each group," she said.

Of the 10 women in the 18-22 age group, 7 reported using a v.aginal insertion intimacy gadget, and 6 said they cleaned the toy between use on themselves and use on a partner. Of the 14 women in the 23-29 age group, 11 reported both toy use and cleaning.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CYD/is_10_39/ai_n6078885/

Vagin.al penetration by a partner’s finger or tongue is common, as is the insertion of foreign objects. Some lesbians use dildos to replace the sensations that accompany copulation with a man. But, because many dildos are shaped like a p.enis, some controversy exists in the lesbian community as to their use. Many lesbians reject dildos because they are male-defined, which clashes with the strong political beliefs of some lesbians.

Or.al sex is a very common practice by lesbians and includes in most if not all cases penetration of the va.gina by the tongue.  

Take note that these reports were done because of the high incidence of  bacterial vaginosis amongst lesbians as oppose to heteros, to determine why this is the case and what safety precautions should be followed to reduce the risk.

too much substitution