₦airaland Forum

The party PDP has been in power ever since the beginning of this modern political era, 1999 and we can't really say whether Nigeria is progressing or otherwise.
I belong to no political party but to me it's too obvious that this party called PDP which many have changed the acronym from it's original 'Peoples Democratic Party' to many mischievous meanings-we all know them, is not capable of paddling the canoe of this great nation!
My question now is that, are we(Nigerians)still going to allow these same set of old politicians continue to rule us beyond 2015? Till when? And if yes, then we should not expect any meaningful changes, because we cannot continue doing the same thing the same way and expect different results.
This is not about Goodluck Jonathan, quite beyond that-i really wouldn't mind if GEJ can run for presidency in another platform(any) other than this so called PDP.
If we really need change, it has to start from those that will bring about the change
What is your sincere opinion as regards this my fellow Nairalanders?

wonders they say shall never end,at least not in Nigeria!

Nawa 4 nairaland moderators o,just because this beautiful piece has no Tonto Dikeh spices it's denied of home page?

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Deadly Mistake #6: FOCUSING ON
INDIVIDUAL WEALTH

Banana Island and Parkview estate
are one of the richest pieces of real
estate in West Africa. However, yet
when it rains both Banana Island and Parkview estate turn into rivers!
These estates with their collection of
multi-millionaires (US dollars not
Naira) living in the fanciest houses
have not been able to bring their
individual wealth together to address their estates flooding problem. This is the irony of Nigeria! And it stems
from the misunderstanding that
individual wealth in the midst of
communal poverty is somehow still
wealth. Sadly it is not! It is poverty
and mass stupidity.
But people fail to realize that and are instead interested in filling their
pockets and leaving nothing for their communities. So they buy the
flashiest cars, but neglect to fix the
roads they will drive it on…build the
largest houses in their villages so that people can gawk and adore them, but yet the community is in shambles.
Some even go aboard to spend this
individual wealth and that is where it gets ironic.
I attended the University of Houston
(main campus), which was located
smack dab in the middle of 3rd ward.
Now 3rd ward is not the greatest
neighborhood out there…it is
technically considered a ghetto in
Houston. But the irony is that the
roads in 3rd ward are as good as the
roads on OUR famed Bourdillon
boulevard. As a community 3rd ward is way richer than Bourdillon and that is a lesson. Because as rich as Nigeria claims to be, we are simply living on individualistic wealth. Until the community, the village, the facilities the roads start reflecting that wealth we would be poor.
We need to ensure the focus is not on individual wealth but rather on the wealth of our community. Only then would we acquire true national wealth.

Deadly Mistake #7: CONTRACT IS
NOT A LOTTERY

When I was growing up I used to
think that contract was cash given to Nigerian citizens lucky enough to get it but who could blame me for my stupidity. The average Nigerian that I met was always talking about the greatest and latest contract that was available and how one uncle or sister had hit the contract jackpot. So it is no surprise that when I attend speeches of successful Nigerian businessmen and women. The average Nigerian businessman
vagues you out about the origins of of his wealth. He or she does not give you details or specifics about their wealth. If they did, it would sound like this:
“I got a contract, I chopped the money and I started my own business and I became rich. The End.”
That is why we rarely have well-
written Steve Jobs-like biographies of our wealthy. There is just not enough honest detail to create those sorts of books. Our generation needs to change that. Our stories should be like the Linda Ikeji’s and Jason Njoku’s. Stories that are transparent and reflect hard work and determination, but more importantly stories that contain the details: how, when, where and what!
Before I get carried away with the
story aspect of contract, let our
generation not forget that contracts
are to be executed. The execution of
contracts is what builds a
generation’s legacy.
Imagine the individuals contracted to build the Taj Mahal in India or the 7-star Palm Hotel in Dubai (the Burj Al Arab)…imagine if these individuals pilfered the funds and created a substandard version of both properties or nothing at all… imagine what would happen?
Let me tell you what would happen,
they would probably become very
rich, probably build a huge house
somewhere, but that home they build will never be as magnificent as the Taj Mahal and it would not create a legacy and it will not make a country better or add to its economy.
This has been the issue with Nigeria
for years, contracts that are meant to make the nation greater are instead pilfered to make an individual richer.
If our generation is to make a
difference, we would have to execute contracts, honestly and diligently. We would also have to execute grand contracts not so that we can steal more money, but so that we can make our country greater…by so doing our legacy will survive for years.
Bonus Deadly Mistake: Asking
What Village Are You From
Whenever I introduce my friends to
my mum, male or female and
especially female, she asks me this
question “where are they from?” I
normally stare with a blank look, not because I don’t have an idea what the answer but because my mum wants to know the village they are from.
Growing up, I never thought about
anything like that. To me everybody
that was black was Nigerian. But as I grew older I started learning that
there were “ndi Yoruba,” “omo Igbo” and “awon Hausa dem.” And even within each of the major three
divisions, there were subsets…the
subsets and divisions where
meaningless to me, but as I began
growing up and experiencing the real world I started noticing them in
companies, in ministries and
everywhere.
People make decisions based on
ethnicity: decisions to hire and
decisions to get married. The truth of the matter, is that we would need to see ourselves firstly as Nigerians
before any other ethnic group break
down we have fabricated. Until we do this, Nigeria, will just be a
fragmentized shell of its true self and yes this applies to the whole North-South power rotation thing going on.
That has to go in our time!

CONCLUSION: LEAVE IT BETTER
THAN YOU SAW IT

All in all, if we are to make a
difference, we would have to stop
over praying, stop over respecting,
stop focusing on good grades, stop
focusing on being individually
wealthy and stop fighting for
contracts. We would simply in
summation have to strive to do
things differently by doing them
better. Which brings me to my final
advise to my generation: Let’s leave
things better than we met it.
That is the basic motto our
generation needs to adhere to. Leave Things Better…no matter how small.
When you go to a toilet and you see it dirty, wipe it down and leave it. better than you saw it. If you go to work and it is disorganized, seek for ways to improve it.
That simple statement is the key to
growth, not just for us to push
ourselves, but for us to push others
around us to leave things better than we met it! When we instill this
philosophy of making things better,
we will progress. At the end of the
day, when our generation retires
(and we would) Nigeria can say it
was truly better…that is our hope…
that is our goal because it’s time to
turn off the generators and inverters!

This beautiful piece was written by Okechukwu Ofili, an award
winning motivational
speaker, author, success coach
and pissed off entrepreneur who blogs about life, success and
entrepreneurial excellence.
Image

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Deadly Mistake #3: ASSUMING
PATRIOTISM IS GUARANTEED

Because a person is born in Nigeria,
has a green passport and bears
Chukwu or Olu or Mohammed in his name does not automatically mean he owes his country anything. A country has to earn its citizens respect and patriotism. I repeat that…a country has to earn its citizens respect and patriotism.
It does not earn its citizens respect, by frustrating them with needless
bureaucracy, by pilfering tax payers
money, by setting up road blocks
upon road blocks for them. No! it
does so by doing the reverse, by
showing its citizens it cares for them, about their image and about their well-being. By fighting for them when they are persecuted in other countries, but most importantly when they are persecuted in their own country!
Do not make this deadly mistake to
assume patriotism should be given
simply because one was born in a
certain country. People are not
patriotic to America simply because
they were born in America, but
rather because of what America has
done for them.
Sadly, this is something that Nigeria
has not gotten right, just take a look
at our NYSC program! We have a
national service program being
mandated by a government that is
not in the position to mandate it.
When you provide mandatory free
health care for your citizens, free
education for your citizens,
scholarship and interest free loans
for your citizens, then you can
mandate their service.
We don’t do any of the above and
worst still we mandate their service
rather arrogantly. Spend one day in
an NYSC office and you will
understand what I mean by
arrogantly, you will see how the
officials talk down to students as if
they are mosquitoes that need to be
swatted away!
When a student comes to you to
serve your nation, you should ensure that you treat that person with respect. You do so by extending proper customer service to them. But NYSC does the reverse. The customer service is terrible. Little wonder, why majority of Corpers are relishing the moment that the program is over.
Our generation has to change this…
we need to look to earn our citizens
patriotism and respect. Our citizens
are immigrating out of Nigeria in
large volumes. Not because they
don’t love their country but rather
because they don’t feel the country is looking out for them. We have to
create a country where Nigerians
have a reason multiple reasons to be patriotic.

Deadly Mistake #4:
MISCONSTRUING PAPER
INTELLIGENCE FOR PRACTICAL
INTELLIGENCE

How many degrees we have, the
number of distinctions we got in
school or how young we were when
we graduated is absolutely
meaningless in the grand scheme of
things. What matters instead is how
we are able to transform our
intelligence and our degrees into
practical solutions for our nation. I
mean we all know that Nigerians are the smartest people in Africa and the World sef[sic], we have broken all the global university records that can be broken…from youngest graduate to valedictorian and more. Yet, the degrees do not correlate to any form of improvement in our nation.
I think it is because we are focused on the wrong intelligence, the paper
intelligence that looks good in
newspapers and church bulletins.
What we need is to get off our
addiction to paper intelligence and
instead focus on real tangible
intelligence.
When William Kamkwamba
designed a wind mill in his village in
Malawi he did it without a high-
school diploma but yet his impact
was much more than thousands with PhDs. Not to say that we don’t have Nigerians making that type of
difference, but with our degrees and
potential we should be doing way
more. But I really don’t blame the
students, our Universities do not help either.
I’ll explain…
We all know that mobile devices are
the future, more people are using
mobile devices more than any time in the world (especially in Africa). They are using it to access the internet, read books and even make mobile transactions. All of these are
powered by Mobile apps, which are
becoming the future. You would
think that our universities would
have made mobile app programming a core part of our national curriculum, but they haven’t and some Universities even take it a step further and ban mobile devices on campus! So at the end of the day we have a first class upper computer engineer, with all the honors in the world draped around his poor neck,but yet he is not able to design a mobile app, that a 13 year old, high- school kid in Ukraine can design!
That is sad. We need to avoid making this deadly mistake of paper
intelligence and focus on practical
intelligence that can help our nation!

Deadly Mistake #5: OVER
RESPECTING ELDERS

Nigeria is an egotistic country….if
you don’t believe me, then just open
your local newspaper on the birthday of a famous politician. You will see that all your pages would be filled with praises from adoring
sycophants. I have never seen
anything like that, from the gate-man to the security guard…everyone wants to be addressed as “Oga” or “Chief.” After some time it becomes quite comical.
But, beyond the comedy is a very
dangerous aspect. When a nation
over respects its elders to the point
that even when they (the elders) are
messing up, nobody below them can
speak u,p it leads to idea regression.
So we end up accumulating a glut of
inept older people, with smarter
younger (might I mention respectful
people around them), that are too
afraid to speak up because of the
thing we call respect.
If we are to avoid this mistake in our time, we would have to swallow a truck load of humility and accept
criticism and ideas from anyone no
matter who they are or how young
they are. The phrase “do you know
who I am” would have to disappear
from our vocabulary, because to be
honest nobody should care who you
are, but rather what you can do to
make their lives better.
PS: If I had my way, a bunch of the
civil servants and university
professors would be fired, not just
because they are old, but because
they have blocked their minds from
receiving criticisms from
subordinates and from getting new
ideas. This is why our politics is run
by older people repeating the same
mistakes, because there is no fresh
influx of ideas. Let us get rid of this
shenanigans called ‘respect’! Nigeria
is more important than a persons
ego.
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I enjoyed this article a lot and thought i should share it with my fellow NLanders!

The generator generation! We know
who we are, we were birthed with
the sounds of generators vibrating
consistently through our ears. We
have smelled the pungent stench of
diesel and felt the noxiousness [sic] of carbon monoxide as we run to switch off the generator under the loud chants of “ NEPA has brought light.”
The generator generation… our lives have been defined by the generator. It has shaped our culture, our landscape, our architecture, our everything, you can’t build anything today without asking, “where is the generator house going to be?” Some generator houses are even bigger than people’s houses.
The generator generation, we know
who we are, we have been sick and
tired of the loud vibrations for a long time; but sadly, it is our gift from a generation before us. A generation that failed us, one that gave us not hope but bigger and bigger generators.
So what will the generator. generation do for the generations
after us? We have been inundated with stories of Nigeria’s prosperity in the past, but we have never seen it. The only thing we have seen is the steady and consistent decline of our nation. Sadly, we were too young to do anything about it. However, the baton is changing hands (at least we hope it is), we are the ones that are coming up next. Some of us are already company managers, successful entrepreneurs, up and coming politicians, in various positions to make a difference, but the question is would we make a difference or repeat the same old mistakes? I pray not. But just in case, just in case we forget about the mistakes that generated the generator generation, here is a little reminder simply called…
"7 Mistakes Our Generation Must Avoid"
If We Don’t Want To Screw Up
Nigeria Again!

Deadly Mistake #1: BELIEVING IN
VISIONS

First we were told it would be vision
2000, the millennium vision. This
was when Nigeria would reach its
greatness…then that got postponed to 2010 and now we have the
optometrically cute vision 2020! Our generation has to realize the urgency of the situation. People are not looking for vision 2020; they are
looking for vision now-now. What
can we get done now? Immediately…not in 10 years time or 5 years time or whenever another cute year comes along. The visions have to stop in our time, because there is just too much work to be done now.
So when we talk about fixing things
like NEPA it should be with a sense of urgency, when we talk about fixing roads it should be with urgency. People want to know see what you can do now and not what you can do in the future!

Deadly Mistake #2: BELIEVING
THAT PRAYER IS THE KEY

I know I am going to get in trouble
with this, but prayer is not the key. I
mean if the amount of times a nation prays was directly proportional to its success and prosperity, then Nigeria will be #1 in the world. But sadly we are not; because prayer is not the key! It is actually an excuse that conditions us to wait around for someone else to solve our problems.
It has made us lazy as a nation.
American probably has fewer
churches per square meter that
Nigeria. And it is simply because they pray but with action.
I don’t believe God’s vision when he
said “pray without ceasing” was for
people to pray 23 hours a day and
then spend 1 hour waiting around for a miracle to happen. It does not work that way. It reminds me of an excerpt from the classic Things Fall Apart, when Okonkwo’s father went to complain to the priestess Agbala about his poor harvest:
“Every year,” he said sadly, “before I put any crop in the earth, I sacrifice a cock to Ani, the owner of all land. It is the law of our fathers. I also kill a cock at the shrine of Ifejioku, the god of yams. I clear the bush and set fire to it when it is dry. I sow the yams when the first rain has fallen, and stake them when the young tendrils appear. I weed-”
“Hold your peace!” screamed the
priestess, her voice terrible as it
echoed through the dark void. “You
have offended neither the gods nor
your fathers. And when a man is at
peace with his gods and his ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm…Go home and work like a man.” If God could talk to Nigerians today, he would probably say the same thing as the priestess and that is for us to go home, go to our
communities, go to school and work! Not sleep in church all day
wondering why things are not getting better. Because the fact is that God has heard Nigeria’s prayers, we don’t need to repeat it 7 times a day or sleep in the church. What we need to do is get out and make a difference in our community. Prayer is not the key…prayer with LOTS (intentionally capitalised) of action is the key.
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i have been trying hard to figure a sense out of this nasty exercise but i haven't........the initiator also wants to be relevant.

God bless You with this good work you are doing here,pls I need ur help with this car....JN1CA31AXYT214266.......
Will be expecting ur urgent reply......u are blessed!

he has done more harm than good, no doubt!

Next time think very well before you act.......be a man Uncle Jona!

RIP------return if possible man

Location pls

dumodust: guy i don make my statement free am, i did not mention don jazzy in all this... na only this video i dey talk about o, maybe u're confusing me with someone else

This guy na wa 4 u o,u dey shame @all? even if D'banj dey Bleep ur wifey u no dey hide ur hatred? U sabi good songs like ds na im u no dey sing?
See ursef 4 ds tread alone,only u don almost make 2pages,huh! I knw say job no 2 dey 4 naija,but u can stil find something 2 do na even if na 2 dey sell gala 4 express!!!!!

manual or auto?

there's no big deal about the date jare, must we celebrate everything?

The World Music Awards is an international awards show founded in 1989 that annually honors recording artists based on worldwide sales figures provided by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The awards show is conducted under the patronage of His Serene Highness Albert II, The Prince of Monaco and is based in Monte-Carlo (wikipedia).

At the 2012 awards ceremony billed to be hosted in the beautiful city of Miami, FL. USA at the Marlins Park Stadium on Thursday December 20th, 2012, Nigeria’s own Dapo ‘Dbanj’ Oyebanjo, has been nominated in an astonishing four categories as well as he is billed to perform at the glamorous event. Rihanna leads the pack with 8 Nominations at this years WMAs!

The categories are:

World’s Best Song (Oliver Twist)

World’s Best Male Artist ( Kanye West and label mate, Big Sean are also in contention).

World’s Best Video (Oliver Twist)

Best African Act.

One thing is sure, Dbanj might not cart home all the awards, but he sure is coming home with at least one award.

Past winners of the World Music Awards include the late King of Pop Michael Jackson, whitney, 50 cents, lady gaga, mariah carey, Beyonce and Celine  Dion.

All the proceeds from the show go to the Monaco Aide and Presence Foundation, which assists underdeveloped areas mainly in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Brazil.

To Vote For Dbanj, go here http://www.worldmusicawards.com

Source
http:///zEKhthaM

Denn: what happens if wise Bianca sells the land and then marries?

What a JAMB question you asked there!

Can somebody please answer that question?

Adamsdelrio: FELA ANIKULAPO RANSOME KUTI!!!!!

Fela own Kuti no get RANSOME inside o

afam4eva: Was Ekwueme a senator? Why the emphasis on the fact that Igbo senators did not attend? People are always looking for every little opportunity to buttress the popular but unfounded knowledge that Igbos are not united.

It's a bitter fact jor!

May ur hatters/enemies continue 2 grow in numbers,they are d cause of ur popularity and d architect of ur fame. EJA NLA, may u continue 2 wax stronger as days go by.......Love u Ski'Banj!

May ur hatters/enemies continue 2 grow in numbers,they are d cause of ur popularity and d architect of ur fame. EJA NLA, may u continue 2 wax stronger as days go by.......love Ski'Banj!

I wonder what the prof. said here now that warrants the dumb comments above,he said:

"the Igbo were victims of genocide during the three-year civil war, which was fought to break up Nigeria."

Of course this is a fact!

He equally said:

"now is the time to tackle Boko Haram, the insurgent group that has visited terror on the North, killing over 1,500 since 2009."

Meaning:- reasonable Nigerians should be talking of how to tackle boko haram which is the most critical issue on ground and not to be blabbing on the dead issues.The grammar here is simple na!

The is the kind of news i always want to hear these days
bayi laa ma ri o!

Rooneyboy: don't mind him, with time "he'll lick his wound of stupidity" let him keep enjoying himself while it last.
We be spectators, WATCHING!

Spectators!!! and spectators u will remain till ur children start asking u where u were when d guy was hustling making money.........anyway u will gladly tell them u were always on NL beefing d guy!

I know doz idiots go dey fear 4 their mind now o! Dem go dey say God 4gv me,I no sure o,na wettin pple dey talk na im I dey follow dem yarn o!

lol!

bayulll01: pathetic eediot ur situation has gone beyond redemption i stil talk am awo fuckd up u pple re annoying set of scumberg get a lyf cant trade words wit u

U should have simply ignored that OPONU na! U no dey know OMO ALE when u see one? Huh!

Honestly,I never knew this old man is this so useless. Where was he when Papa Awo was alive? Why did he keep mute all this while when he had something of such "importance" in his dirty mind? Cowardice I suppose!
Achebe's supposed to be an elder state man to this country especially at this critical time not to put petrol into already burning fire
Let me advise these kids that are clamouring for inter-tribal war,I bet u know nothing Ơ̴̴͡f what u are talking about-ask ur parents(the reasonable ones though).The old man will soon drop,be wise!