The Department of State Security Services, SSS, on Saturday told President Muhammadu Buhari that three University of Maiduguri, UNIMAID, lecturers abducted by Boko Haram terrorists in Magumeri, Borno State, have been released.

Also released are 10 women, kidnapped in a raid by the militant group on a military/police convoy on Damboa road, near Maiduguri.

The university lecturers were abducted by the group while conducting oil prospective in the Lake Chad area on behalf of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

Some of their colleagues were killed during the abduction in 2017.

“Their release followed a series of negotiations as directed by President Buhari and was facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC,” said Garba Shehu, presidential spokesperson in a statement b

Mr. Shehu said according to the brief given by the SSS, all 13 rescued persons are in the custody of the service and are on their way to Abuja with the assistance of the Nigerian Army and the Air Force.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/258227-breaking-boko-haram-releases-university-lecturers-policewomen.html

nice....i like the second joke

It is everyone’s dream to succeed in what they do. However, there some salient factors we take for granted and miss the big hit.

Standing out with your products
You have that unique idea or product you want to showcase to the world? find out first if there is anything similar to it in the market so as to know your level of competition. This helps to determine how far your offerings can go in the market. You are unique, just like everyone else, like the saying goes.

Sell what is essential but not common
What is that thing that is essential but not readily available in the market or is in high demand. Remember that where you have a great population of people, the odds are that you would excel.

Create your own advertising strategy
Have you ever thought of attending estates’ meetings on Saturdays to promote your products to your immediate environment or go to your children’s school/s to give the pupils a flyer to their parents? Disengage yourself from the norm. Look around you and decipher what marketing strategy that works for you. Once, I saw an elderly woman trying to buy a bed sheet in the traffic, I had to get out of my car, gave her a flyer of the bed sheets my wife sells, told her we would deliver to her office or home free of charge. She was impressed …

Offer free samples
How about having a box of chocolate as ‘testing’? Or test driving that car for a week? Sounds good right? Everyone loves freebies. Give free samples of your books, training, or products to random people. And make sure it is your best because there is no second chance of making a first impression.

Reduce price
Nobody wins a price war, nobody. But reducing your price slightly lower than what your competitors offer is not a bad idea especially when you are a new entrant to the market. This will endear you to the customers.

Source locally
Sourcing materials locally will keep your cost at a minimal level, make your products affordable and will give you room to maximise profit through an impressive turnover.

Choose your target market/audience-
Note that your product would not be for everyone. There is no use selling sugar to a diabetic or selling rap music to an 85-year old or selling ice in the winter. Do your research. Identify your target audience; know what they want and when they do want it.

Sell original and quality
Your trademark must be to sell quality. Never compromise on quality. It is better to increase your price when cost of materials increase than to reduce quality in other to maintain price. It will kill your business. Coca-Cola still tastes the same since time immemorial though the price has increased but people still buy Coca-Cola daily.

Keep your recipe and guard it jealously
Never divulge your secret recipe or ingredient to anyone. At best keep this in a safe place i.e. in the bank, to be entrusted to your loyal, trustworthy family member after your demise.


Checkmate your competitors

Your competitors are not sleeping and are always looking for ways to increase their wallet share of the market. You should do the same if you want to succeed in the game.

https://repamsmedia..com.ng/2017/06/ways-to-be-relevant-in-business.html

You might have heard the cliché 'easy ways to make money', '101 ways to be rich', 'get rich within day's etc., but not often do you hear about losing money and losing it pretty fast.
Losing money is not as difficult as making money all you need do is make one or more of the mistakes below and your hard earned money or inheritance is gone with the wind.

No clear cut idea of investment
Investing one’s money –properly- is one sure way of making more money. However,if you do not have a good investment plan, do not dabble into business or investment. It I better to fix it in the bank as fixed deposit or treasury bills to yield monthly, quarterly or yearly interests until you have ample knowledge and business acumen of what to do with the money. Mr A might have been successful in the importation business does not mean you would.So many investments have crashed due to this and so many will still crash if caution is not applied.

Indiscipline
Some people are so impulsive.They buy absolutely anything they see or hear about not minding if its needed or not. Whether they need the item, product or car or not, the ability to discipline oneself is not just there for them. Ask yourself, if I don’t buy that latest phone, would i not be able to make and receive calls with the phone i have now? Do i really need to buy that dress?Am i buying it because 'that' celebrity is wearing it?Do i need 2-5 cars?Do i need to show off that 'i have arrived?So many sports athletes have gone this way and are regretting it now.They have loads of bills to pay and the money is not just there anymore.

Inability to create a budget and keep records
The major reason organisations/countries/parastatal create budget is so that they can plan and limit their actions and spending within their resources/revenue. Failure to do this is a sure way of losing money and tracking what you have done with it becomes difficult.One needs to have a budget and adhere strictly to it no matter what.Your spending must come in order of importance and necessity.

Trust
Trusting someone to help control one’s finances is not totally a bad idea but as a prudent spender not wanting to lose money, trust your financial adviser you are entrusting your money to but leave room for doubt somewhere inside you. Always double check with another financial adviser whatever your bank or business partner tells you on investments.It does not cost much to do that.

Inability to make firm decisions
Family members would besiege you, friends would bring their financial problems for you to solve but there must be a limit to what you can do for them.do not make it your duty to solve all their problems. The moment you become broke, they are usually the first to desert you.It is usually difficult to stamp your feet when it comes to certain people in your life,but it is something you must do.When the chips are down,you would be left to carry your cross-alone.

http://repamsmedia..com.ng/2017/06/easy-ways-to-lose-money-fast.html

Anyone familiar with the history of Nigerian movies would know that the industry (Nollywood) has come a long way.From poor interpretation of roles to poor editing,mismatch of soundtrack,weak and poorly developed story lines,there has been a splendid improvement over the years.

Over time,the lax and errors noticed in our early movies have since improved greatly thanks to the exposure to Hollywood and Bollywood movies,self development of some of the principal actors in the industry i.e.producers,directors,actors and actresses etc.

It would be foolhardy to assume that Nollywood should be at par with the likes of Hollywood and Bollywood movie industries bearing in mind that these movie industries started well ahead of Nollywood and have really advanced with time.They did not get it right the first time-afterall,Rome was not built in a day.They had to go through several processes,training, and extensive research to get to where they are today.

One can argue that the Hollywood producers for example get funding through crowd-equity,private investors, pre-sales agreement with film distributors,grants and bank finance to make big budget films like Hobbit trilogy ($623m),Pirates of the Caribbean ($378m),but their Nollywood counterparts do not have this luxury of making big budget films or to compete with high gross earning movies like Avatar ($2.7b)Titanic($2.1b), Dangal ($280m) etc.

Notwithstanding,Nollywood should get the basics of acting and film production right.

Below are some of the areas i feel they should improve on

Fake accent
What ever happened to being original and Nigerian.You do not need to speak like an American to pass your message.If i wanted to hear American or British accent,i would watch Boyz n the Hood,Juice,Kes or The Full Monty.Please stick to your accent,language and our traditional parables.We like it like that.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czvda4xD5vs?t=4024.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFOUO-4dP0M?t=32
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTe9wHH1gRw?t=4116

Incorrect subtitle
This baffles me a lot.We have thousands of English graduates in the country(probably without job).With as little as N5,000 per movie,an English language would do a perfect job making subtitles,trust me.I watched some films sometime back and the subtitling was rubbish.What is '1,2,3,4, both of you follow me,Mummy is calling you from the up,I came to your house,you didn't dey'.
I wonder if these guys edit their films at the end of production.Please get qualified English graduates to do the subtitles.








Soundtrack over conversation.
Okay,soundtrack passes a message in the movie scene(s) but when the soundtrack, rhythm overshadow the dialogue or monologue,how do you expect us to hear what is being said unless we read your subtitles which are in many cases fraught with 'mummy is calling you from the up-ish ' subtitle.



Jobless man;expensive apartment
It's only in Nigerian movies you find a jobless man living in a posh,well furnished apartment.He begs whoever he sees for N500.00 transport fare to attend a job interview when his apartment alone is worth about N2m. Does he get social benefits from the government? Or does being jobless come with a good apartment?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2x5icmRCjM?t=895

Money rituals
A young man(more baffling an old man nearing his grave) looks for job in one or two places without success,sees one of his 'oooold' time friend riding in a big car,living in a palatial home who gives him money,and he tells him,'don't give me fish,teach me how to fish.Show me your source of wealth,this suffering is too much'

He introduces him to one baba,or their cult for money rituals.After some time,repercussion and consequences set in.He loses everything then he dies.Come on.We are tired of this story line.Fine,you guys are trying to warn and educate us about the dangers inherent in money rituals,but there are other vices in the society you can use your movies to preach against i.e. illegal killing of wildlife,incessant collapse or buildings under construction due to greed and use of substandard materials by the builders,inability of a woman to bear children due to natural causes and not because of one witch in the village who has tied the woman's womb.You can tell us how a 14 year-old develops cure for a rampaging,viral disease in the society.Degradation of the ozone layer etc.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5mU895c674?t=3246


Cleric or babalawo to the rescue
Don't get me wrong,we wrestle against spiritual forces and principalities and as such one needs spirit to fight the spirit in the spirit,but there are some things that we don't need the clerics or babalawo for.A young man looking for job needs education,experience and a little bit of luck not the baba. Or is this because our scripts are always about 'one person behind his case'?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7lZ7PTw_u4?t=2184


Your gatekeeper must be saucy,disrespectful to you and your visitors and there is nothing you can do about it

Every movie director tries to add comic relief to the movie which is a fantastic idea but becomes absurd when your gatekeeper or house-help in the name of comic relief,abuses you,trashes your visitors and you can't do anything about it.There are better ways to introduce comedy.We have comedians all around us.Give them a 5-minute cameo appearance.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5B4TLak6L0?t=382

(Dis)Honourable mentions

Heavy make-up to bed

Same story lines,different interpretations


Anyone that 'hits' money suddenly, is shown next at an uncompleted building inspecting his house/shopping mall under construction




http://repamsmedia..com.ng/2017/06/that-nollywood-may-get-it-right.html

One might end his/her entire in the banking industry without anything tangible to show for it at the end of the end.Most banks if not all,do not pay gratuity,so when someone is asked to go,its usually with nothing.......

LIFE DURING AND AFTER BANKING
written by Alex Esomonu

By its nature, Banking Job exposes bankers and bank workers to lot of financial information. In the same vein, the job requires the staff of bank (being public attendants) to look good at all time. Even though many bankers complain of their take-home, one of the good paying jobs one could find around is still Banking Job. Besides, because it is a job that strives on integrity and trust, the credit rating given to Bankers in some quarters are very high. They are generally considered to be credit worthy. The implication of the above is that Bankers could easily use what they ‘want’ to use today and pay later. The earlier Bankers were deemed to be conservative.

The ethics of the profession made them to be frugal in their spending. Because a banker was supposed to be a financial adviser to people who require his services, the banker of yesteryears cultivated a very strict personal financial management principle. No wonder he earned himself the description ‘bankers are stingy’

Sequel to modernization, today bankers have thrown ethics into the dust bin. Today, Banks MD’s move around in their private jets, even when the treasures he strives on is the depositors’ Fund. Those who are even joining the bank at entry level are already pledging the income they have not earned against facilities, assets and liabilities taking today.

An average Nigerian Banker lives above his means. A life of no savings for the raining day. A life full of portfolio of debts. Bankers, having taken all the loans they could take from their employer even go to other Banks and take more loans, without even considering the ability to pay back. You now see Cheques drawn on staff account being returned on the ground of insufficient fund. If the ‘dishonored cheque (dud cheque) Act of 1977 should be evoked against Nigerian Bankers, many of us would be cooling off behind the bar by now. Our livelihood now depends on credit card with a very high default rate. Many of us, if our employer asks us to go today, we have no ‘run rate’ that could keep us for one week.

Our cheques which are supposed to be as good as Bank drafts are now been relegated to the background by our business partners. Why should this be? It is simply because of the way we manage our finance while in paid employment. The objective of my write-up is to identify the possible punctures in our approach to life as bankers and offer possible advise which could help us while out of the banking Job. Please get me right, I am not absorbing my self from the issue at stake for I am not a saint. My thought is that at the conclusion time, everyone, including me would have to ponder and have a rethink on certain things that requires improvement in our approach to life.

Reasons why Bankers have issue with their personal financial management.
These are numerous as they are described below.
(a) Societal expectation: To an average Nigerian, a Banker is always rich. In fact, some family member believes he owns the cash in the vault of the Bank. Most relations tend to tie their financial responsibilities to any member of their families working with a Bank. Since a friend of mine got a job as the second level officer in a new generation Bank, he has been the one forcefully saddled with all sorts of financial responsibilities both from his family members and the wife’s. He has automatically assumed the position of the financier of all projects and programmes undertaken by the family. As a banker he is very rich. After all, he works in the ‘house of money’. The unfortunate thing is that most of us even try to match-up with the societal expectation. Many of us would go and obtain loan to finance non-income generating ventures with a view to satisfying the people around us. People who would never get satisfied. People who will always come back for more.

(b) Behaviour of peers: Because a colleague of mine is riding a ‘Prado jeep’ I want to equally ride the same kind of car. Because he wears very expensive Italian jackets to the office, I want to wear same also. I easily forget that though we are equally born, we are not equally affluent. We may be earning the same salary at month end; this does not mean that we shoulder the same responsibilities. He might even have other source(s) of income (legitimate or otherwise) that I am not aware of. Why don’t I just face the reality and put my self in his proper financial level rather than running after someone’s arrant display of extravagance. This factor has made so many Bankers to become perpetual debtors to money lenders.

(c) Lack of budgetary spending: This sounds somehow unreasonable but you believing me or not, many Bankers spend their salary income without a forecast of their expenses. The only thing forecast is the salary because they know their pay day in advance. Good budgets are not done in the heart. They are done on paper and religiously followed by heart at the point of spending. Many bankers buy goods impulsively. Nothing is planned ahead, just anything goes. No wonder many of us could just be bumped to by anyone selling many things we do not even need, and before a twinkle of an eye we would already be in for the deal. This is an indication of poor financial planning. Ask any of your colleagues about how much his daily earning is, I can bet it that he would have to compute and re-compute before he would give any answer. If you do not know your daily earning by heart, there is no way your daily spending would not outweigh your daily earning.

(d) Poor healthy living: Health, they say is wealth. Perhaps because of the pressure of job, some bankers do not even take time to do regular medical check-up. Our minds are consistently focused on deposit mobilization. The effect of this is that medical defects hide for months and years in our body system without been attended to. This would impair productivity at work and when the situation becomes worse, it would lead to high medical expenditure.
I can continue to mention so many points on this, but for time and space constraints, let me dabble into other important aspects of discussion.

Tips on living a stress-free life during banking career

(a)Plan exit at entry: The day you take up a pay job should be the day you sit down and plan your entry out of the job. Get me right, I am not saying you should be pessimistic or jettisoning of career development. What I am saying is that having gotten your offer letter, discount your proposed monthly take home by at least 10% (it could be more) and use this as your personal pension fund allowance. In other words, if your entry level salary is say N80, 000.00 as proposed in your offer letter, simply assume that your take home salary is 90% of N80,000.00 which equals N72,000.00. The remaining balance of N8, 000.00 (10%) should be transferred to your personal pension fund account on monthly basis. Make no mistake; do not maintain your personal pension fund account in a savings account in your bank or any other bank. Transfer it monthly to time-linked investment product maintained with reputable insurance company or fund manager. Please note that this part of your salary is not your usual monthly savings. It is untouchable until when you live your job.

As your salary grows, of course your contribution grows and since it is invested for you by the fund manager, you earn income which is also capitalized. With this kind of arrangement, you have an assurance of happy life to a greater extent after you might have left the job. I must stress that this requires a serious discipline and it is better done when one is about to start a job than when the person is already used to spending all his salary.

(b) Cultivate a good saving culture: however hard it might be, save. Saving requires serious discipline and sacrifices. As long as the elementary principle of insatiability of human wants in economics is still valid, one wants would always outweigh his income. No one salary his enough. If your salary is increased today, you would only appreciate your management that month, the second month; your expenses would adjust in response to the increase in your salary. No wonder the motivational school of thought in management concluded that salary is never a motivator. However, if your salary is slashed down by your management by let say 20% today, you will not die, you will still cope, it might take time, your expenses would find a way of adjusting to the decrease in the income.

So why don’t you further cut down your salary by additional 20% and put into your recurrent saving account. Any increase in your salary should never be viewed as an increase in income, rather as an increase in savings. Transfer such increase, if possible in, in entirety to your savings. Not because of today, but because of tomorrow. In addition to this, you could create emergency savings account for emergency situations.

© Avoid credit like a plaque: To the best of your ability, avoid spending what you would have tomorrow today. The only thing you have is what you have today. Use it judiciously. Do not make credit card your means of livelihood. This is simply an indication that you are living above your means. Where future expectation fails, credit obtained against them would put you under pressure. If expectation of future income fails and you are not owing, standard of living would only reduced, you would not be exposed to embarrassment. If you must take loan, credit card or any other form of credit, use them for an income generating venture.

If a commercial bank is offering me a personal loan at 23% per annum and I have a secured investment opportunity that would fetch me 5% per month, I would be a dullard to refuse such a loan simply because I do not want to owe. At the same time I would be a bad decision maker if I refused to take loan to acquire a landed property of which I know if I become incapacitated to pay, I could dispose the property at a profit and pay up the indebtedness. What I am saying is that credit must be used for what would yield income more than the cost of the credit

(e) The salary you are receiving now is the last you would be paid: I am not cursing you. What I am saying is that treat every salary you earn as the last you would earn from the Bank. All of us would loose this job one day. We would all stop going to this place we go to everyday. Some would leave forcefully and some would leave willfully. Some would be celebrated, some would be frustrated. Some would be disgraced, some would be tactically disengaged. This is a bitter pill we must all swallow. It could happen at any time to any body at any bank. Remember how many people you knew in the bank when you joined, how many have left, how many have joined. Many would still join. Many would still leave. You would leave, I would leave. So we must appreciate every salary we earn. We must use it judiciously because we might not earn another. If Banks’ MDs could be thrown out like papers, tell me who is fortified.

(f) Love your job: There are millions of better jobs outside, but you do not have them. The job you do now deserves your best input. You must give all the commitment and attention you have to it. “If a man pays you, be loyal to him” ensure that you earn your pay. As long as you have not gotten another job, be diligent in the one that you do now. The Book of books says a man who is diligent in his work shall sit among princes. When you love your job, you would be happy doing what you do.

(g) Place premium on integrity: The quality of honesty you have within you determines the level of respect you earn from people. When people knows that you are honest and reliable, they are comfortable being with you. As a banker, the only thing you offer to your business parties is integrity. Never you issue a dud cheque. Your cheque is you. If your understanding of the power of a “Holder in due Course” of a negotiable instrument as codified in the bill of exchange Act 1990 is as same as mine, you would do everything to avoid anyone setting himself as a holder in due course against you on any financial instrument issued by you. Where circumstances made it imperative for you not to be able to honour your obligation, truthfully go to your business partner and negotiate for settlement time.

(h) Value relationships: Talent is not enough. This is the title of a very interesting book of John Maxwell. Compliment your talent with nourishment of good relationships you build. Allow no relationship to go sour. Give gift when necessary to massage your relationships. Every successful person is so successful not because of his professionalism, but because of his positive attitude towards relationship management. Those you meet today might be your helper of tomorrow.

(i) Have a life: Do not limit your existence to the confine of your bank and your family. Create fun for yourself. Take time out to see what operates in the other part of the world. Take advantage of your holiday to visit places (please do not borrow to do this). Life goes beyond cabal and DDA mobilization. In the same vein, eat good food, sleep well. Exercise your body system. Give yourself and your family good treat sometime.

(j) Have options: That you are not having another job does not mean you can not build a bank of business ideas. It does not even mean you can not establish businesses that could generate income as long as the management of such would not affect your banking Job. Have income from other sources for this is the key that opens the door of financial breakthrough. Please get my article referenced above on this.

(k) Develop yourself: Love to study? Please do. Go for world class certificate for this would increase your labour market worth. Many of us have being in the banking sector since almost three years now. The only certificate we are still carrying around is our first degree. First degree that is available everywhere. No self development, no further study. No wonder we can not throw in the towel any time our employer did not treat us nice enough. You have any natural talents, nurture and develop it that might be your key to amazing wealth and fame in life. You want to know more on this? Read my article titled the millionaire within you-your talent.

(l) Be a giver: no matter your condition, you are better than somebody. Someone somewhere needs your assistance, no matter little, reach out to them. When you give, you are automatically positioned to receive. Pay your tithe in the church. If a muslim, give sakat. These position you for divine blessing.

(m) Invest in Assets: Your upfront, your Performance Bonus are not meant to be squandered. Like your salary, view the one you receive today as the last you will receive. Use it judiciously. Invest them in secured income-generating ventures. Buy assets (not pleasurable rides) that would consolidate your wealth when you call it a quit.

(n) Be prayerful: There is nothing any man can do on earth except that which has been allowed by God. Maintain a cordial and flowing relationship with your creator. Let him be the ultimate decision maker in your life. He is the Banker of bankers and he will definitely show you the way.

Life after Banking
I may not be completely qualified to discuss this sub-head since I am still in the banking industry. Events around me however could form the basis of my perception on the issue. I have seen many bankers who came out of the system only to find themselves becoming laughing stocks in the society as they have nothing to show for their many years of service in the financial sector. Like I said earlier, one day, all of us would seize to come to this place we have hitherto be coming for our daily pay. Banks all over the country are downsizing to reduce staff cost. You are not better than those who are affected, neither are you more skillful. It can happen at any time. The motto like that of Boys’ scout society is Be prepared.

In addition to all the tips given above, this few points mentioned below would help you in living a happy life after Banking.


(a) Develop an entrepreneurial Skill: Build a value chain you can offer to the society. Your integrity tested and trusted while in banking job would help you generate business relationships, but this would only help if you have a value to offer.
(b) Attend seminars and workshops: load yourself up with useful information on your chosen endeavor. Attend business seminars and always develop new skill that would help you in providing solutions to issues.
(c) Mix up: Make yourself relevant in the society, not by showing off, but by supplying inputs where relevant. Join social clubs, church organizations, and charitable societies and attend occasions and participate.
Let me conclude at this juncture by saying that the care and caution you exercise today would yield good returns today. For you to enjoy good life after banking, you must have to live good life during Banking.

Today's pain is tomorrow gain.


http://repamsmedia..com.ng/2017/05/life-of-banker.html

izombie:
Complete the story here. I am not going to any blog to read the rest.

LIKE CHELSEA FC. (UN)LIKE NIGERIA

Chelsea football club entered into the 2015/2016 football season as champions after winning the league the previous year. The season looked promising with in form and currently crowned PFA winner Eden Hazard in sparkling form the previous year, also with the mercurial manager Jose Mourinho still in the saddle.

New players Radamel Falcao,Asmir Begovic etc. were recruited to bolster and reinforce the team after selling/loaning off some players the club deemed surplus to requirements notably amongst them was the goalkeeper Petr Cech who had kept a record of 220 clean sheets at the London club in all competitions for about 11 seasons.

A sign of things or rather poor season to come became evident when by the end of 2015, the team was lying in 14th position with only 20 points in 19 matches averaging 1.05 points per game (at this time Mourinho had been sacked and replaced with Gus Hiddink).It was unthinkable how a team that won the premiership 7 months earlier found itself at the bottom rung of the table.

However, the team was able to finish in 10th position by amassing additional 30 points for a total of 50 points.

The Chelsea FC. management needed to restore the club to glory, get back to winning ways and win back the fans’ support as quickly as possible, thus Antonio Conte was brought in as the club’s next manager.

Conte was coming on the heels of near-success achievement with the Azzurri at the Euros where they defeated tournament favourites Spain in the second round and lost to Germany on penalties at the quarter-finals-a game they should have won had Simone Zaza converted his spot-kick after extra time.

The club entered into the 2016/2017 season without any continental action which in some way would allow the new manager achieve the club’s management target of at least a fourth place finish at the end of the season.

As easy as it looked and sounded, achieving fourth place could also be very difficult bearing in mind that most coveted and world class players, more often than not, would want to play champions league football and would not sign for Chelsea-Naingollan of Roma football club easily comes to mind. This meant that Conte would make do with the players at his disposal with little or no new signings.

Players were released from their loan spells at the club, some were sold while a handful were brought in i.e. Ngolo Kante to strengthen the squad and at least qualify for champions league football the following season. Things looked bright.

By the end of September 2016 however, the club was 8th on the table. Deja vu? No thanks to defeats to Liverpool FC and Arsenal FC which gave the coach a rude shock, an awakening call and a rumour of an imminent sack was brewing at the bridge with fans calling for Roman Abramovich (club owner) to wield the big stick on Signore Conte as he had done to past managers in years 2004, 2007, 2008,2009,2011,2012 and 2015.Or maybe thanks to those defeats. Non è stato licenziato ma ha dato un'altra possibilità.

If there is anything the Italians are known for, it is been highly tactical and meticulous. Remember Giovanni Trapattoni (il Trap)? Marcelo Lippi? Nereo Rocco? Arrigo Sacchi? Fabio Capello? These were tactical coaches who could switch formations at will and get results. Conte isn’t any different; he went back to the drawing board: tweaked his formation, identified players who would fit his new style of play (he had a best 11 made up of players from 7 different countries and none from Italy) kept his family in Italy to avoid distractions and bingo, he won the league against all odds with a record 30 wins.

Nigeria entered the year 2015 with so much promise, political activity and economic boom (maybe on paper).The country’s national accounts had been rebased in 2014 thus making the country the 26th largest economy in the world with an estimated GDP of $509B. This didn’t mean anything to the common man on the street or the market women in Oyingbo market because cost of living was high and the country’s national per capital poverty was over 60%.

Cost of doing business was high with many companies folding up or relocating their business to other African countries. Insecurity was rife in the North while kidnappers held sway in the south. Things were bad just like the case of Chelsea FC and there was need for a change, a quick one at that and the 2015 general elections couldn’t have come earlier.

Nigeria general elections were billed to hold February 14 2015 to elect or re-elect new leaders to run the affairs of the country for the next four years but to the amazement of all (well almost all), the elections were shifted by 6 weeks to March 28 by the electoral commission to allow the commission distribute the voter’s cards, and allow the military crush the Boko haram insurgents in the North. Really?

The tag on the then administration as being clueless, corrupt and wasteful made the general populace troop out en masse to vote out Goodluck Jonathan and instead elected a 73-year old retired general-Muhammadu Buhari who had promised so many incentives, people-friendly programmes and welfare packages for the citizenry during election campaign. There was hope for the country at last. We believed him and gave him our votes. Antonio Conte had promised a return to champion’s league football for the Stamford bridge faithfuls. They believed him and supported him.

Few months into the administration of the Buhari-led government, things had got worse, prices of foodstuff were out of the reach of the common man, dollar rate to the naira had doubled, companies that could not cope with high cost of running their business embarked on mass sacking of their work force, kidnapping was the order of the day, while the president ran a one-man show without constitutionally required ministers.

Things became unbearable and so bad that some people in some quarters were calling for a military intervention on the government as it was in years 1966,1975,1976,1979,1983 and 1993 which was akin to Chelsea fans’ request of sacking Antonio Conte.

After about six months into the administration of Buhari, the president changed tactics. He appointed ministers ('his best 11') who immediately swung to work, the CBN introduced fiscal policies to salvage the economy, the Nigerian Army was battling the insurgents on another hand, investors were courted to come invest in the the country, bail-out funds were granted to states that couldn’t meet recurrent expenditure and so many other initiatives that the government took just to revive the moribund economy. All to no avail. Alas the country went into severe recession for the first time since 1984 due to a lump in the country’s main export commodity and cash cow-oil. Interestingly, Muhammadu Buhari was at the helm of affairs of the country at that time. Deja vu?

Today, the president is ill and receiving treatment in a London hospital for an undisclosed ailment.
One can argue that Buhari inherited a bleeding economy painted beautiful on the surface from the Jonathan administration, falling oil prices, high rate of corruption (gravest in the history of the country) backlog of workers’ salary unpaid, internal and external debt, etc. but posterity would place Buhari in the nation’s history books as the man who led Nigeria into recession-again.

Antonio Conte didn’t dwell on the 2015/2016 subpar performance of Chelsea, he carved a niche for himself, he identified the problems and found answers within the team of players at his disposal. He benched those that were not aligning with his philosophy and target to achieve his aim and brought back players he felt could help his cause during the campaign i.e. Nathan Ake who was initially loaned to Bournemouth.

Unlike Chelsea FC,the current administration has 'powerful ministers’ and untouchable members of the president’s kitchen cabinet-whatever that is-who do next to nothing in the government while there are millions of Nigerians out there if given the chance could make a meaningful impact on the economy and polity.

Chelsea got out of its crisis simply because they had a determined manager backed by loyal team members-playing and non-playing staff-who cooperated with him from start to finish. He bent rules where he had to just so as to get results: he was hard where and when necessary and never lost sight of his goal.

If we are waiting to be producers of pencil in 2018, then we have a very long way to go. If as youths all we want to do is to take selfies with the politicians instead of telling them the hard truth and making them sit up to do the needful or we go bashing and abusing one another on social media, turning ourselves into e-warriors all in the name of supporting politicians from one’s region, tribe or religious affiliations, then we shouldn’t complain if they don’t do what they ought to do in terms of delivering dividends of democracy and the joke will forever be on us.

Truth be told, have we not noticed that the politicians are fixing their children in political positions in the country while we are made to play second fiddle to them. The same families have been ruling since time immemorial.

Are there no better, more qualified Nigerians to lead the country irrespective of their social status and background?

If we must fix the country, we must go the Chelsea way.

· Get the best brains (best 11)
· Put aside tribal, political, and religious sentiments
· Don’t dwell too much on the past, learn from it and move on
· Enact welfare policies and create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive
· Create jobs and improve infrastructure nationwide
· Communicate more with the people
· Do away with any form of Cabal
· Above all, have the fear of GOD

LIKE CHELSEA FC. (UN)LIKE NIGERIA

Chelsea football club entered into the 2015/2016 football season as champions after winning the league the previous year. The season looked promising with in form and currently crowned PFA winner Eden Hazard in sparkling form the previous year, also with the mercurial manager Jose Mourinho still in the saddle.

New players Radamel Falcao,Asmir Begovic etc. were recruited to bolster and reinforce the team after selling/loaning off some players the club deemed surplus to requirements notably amongst them was the goalkeeper Petr Cech who had kept a record of 220 clean sheets at the London club in all competitions for about 11 seasons.

A sign of things or rather poor season to come became evident when by the end of 2015, the team was lying in 14th position with only 20 points in 19 matches averaging 1.05 points per game (at this time Mourinho had been sacked and replaced with Gus Hiddink).It was unthinkable how a team that won the premiership 7 months earlier…...

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