WHEN MARK ZUCKERBERG CAME TO TOWN

Funny how CNN knows to say that "NIGERIA ENTERS RECESSION" but headlined Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg's visit to Lagos as his visit to sub-Saharan Africa. Of course, trust the vibrant Nigerian e-warriors to deal CNN a harsh response on Twitter, and at the same time not losing any opportunity to celebrate the epoch making visit of a great icon to one of the world's Facebook hub, Lagos. Yes, I wasn't fortunate to be among those who saw, walked with him, or made the audience at events he attended, but I followed every bit of his visit since the day he landed in Lagos, on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media platforms.


It is norm for me to put off my data on my phone before I nod off into somnolence at night, then catch up on instant messaging only when I wake and put it back on, but I woke up yesterday to find that my IMs have come into my phone, and I could even browse without data, which I quickly put out on Twitter in order to find answers to the free browsing I was enjoying without Wi-Fi, or putting my data on and to find out if it was linked with the presence of Mark Zuckerberg on the mainland. @GreyWorth provided me the much needed answer thus: "@madukovich @Gidi_Traffic Yes! Its called Facebook Xpress Wifi in collaboration with COOLLINK. He's also in Nigeria to visit the sites &....", unfortunately once I left my abode on the mainland for the island, where I work, I lost the connection (somewhere along the third mainland bridge). So it was that though most of us couldn't be part of his itinerary on the mainland we benefited from his free Wi-Fi.

MARK  ZUCKERBERG WALKING ON THE STREETS OF YABA, LAGOS MAINLAND.

Interestingly, when Mark walked the streets of the mainland like a mere Lagosian mortal (unlike the norm where wealthy and influential Nigerians, talk more foreigners as wealthy as Mark, would do same only with armed bodyguards and police/military convoy for security reasons) two days ago, the mainland/island rivalry was once again stoked, with "Mainland 1:0 Island" trending for a while, before Mark compensated the island with an early morning jog across the Lekki-Ikoyi bridge yesterday. For me it was a win-win situation as I spend my daily life on both sides of Lagos. While the day dragged on, I watched videos of his many interactions and town hall meetings in my spare time, which I managed to stretch a tad longer than the usual.

MARK  ZUCKERBERG JOGGING ACROSS THE LEKKI-IKOYI BRIDGE ON THE ISLAND, LAGOS. 

Much has been said about Mark's simplicity, but I had to see it to believe it. The movie didn't even do him enough justice, nor anything that I have ever read about him since he became a public figure. I was intrigued by the way he could easily relate with his environment, and with the people around him, many of which in this case were strangers. Despite his status, there was no single instance where he talked down on any body, even though I am sure a few of the questions put to him by the creme of Lagos techies may have sounded quite pedestrian to him. This man simply has no airs about him, even when he knows that visit of his, is capable of bringing these roses and diamonds from concrete and dirt respectively (in these cases, the tech and electronic entrepreneurs of Lagos that have suffered neglect from their own people and government, as well as the outside world) to limelight.

FACEBOOK FOUNDER AND CEO, MARK ZUCKERBERG MEETING WITH TECH ENTREPRENEURS IN LAGOS.

My greatest joy was the fact that he kept the  government totally out of it. Not the local state government, not even the federal could benefit politically from what he's done. Apparently, his visit must've been unannounced, as the usual evidence of Nigerian governments' incompetence (especially in maintaining security, and event bungling) at organizing an all-inclusive event of this nature was totally absent. Ime Archibong and his crew deserve a pat on the back for making this a totally hitch-free and qualitative visit, where every minute counted. I was proud to see Nigerian tech entrepreneurs (even Seyi Taylor, who was a year my senior in medical school, but never practiced medicine beyond the much in housemanship) give good accounts of themselves, as viable alternatives for a government truly willing to diversify its source of revenue, if only government could look for once to developing their capacity, sometimes just by providing the enabling environment for them to thrive, and freely express themselves and their franchise, in order to move Nigeria from a resource dependent mono-economy to a service driven, human capital developed and explored one, just like many of the developed countries with little or no natural resource. Unfortunately, Nigeria's  government at all levels remain blind to the opportunities and prospects, a visit such as this, can avail us as a country.


It is no surprise that Lagos is the home of innovation, and hence attracts personalities like Mark Zuckerberg. This is a city that regards enterprise in spite of the (state) government. The north of Nigeria prides itself with the visit of Islamic scholars and imams, from Saudi Arabia for instance, but that has done little to nothing in terms of improving the economic well-being of the people of such places (besides the building of  magnificent mosques), with crippling socioeconomic indices that leave youths and their impressionable minds at the mercy of religious fundamentalists and  fundamentalism. Not even the recent ill-thought out visit by American Secretary of State, John Kerry to the north last week while ignoring the rest of Nigeria will change the status quo that fans the backwardness of that region. Governors of other states, even the president go investor-fishing abroad to no success, because nothing they do at home, especially in terms of policies show foreign investors that they are indeed willing to accommodate and keep them within the country. The reverse is the case with Lagos. Mark Zuckerbergs' visit will encourage that niche in Lagos, that are proper citizens of the world, who have always wondered if someone out there is noticing the feat they've managed to achieve and keep achieving against all odds. They have the answer now, and the sky just ceased to be their limit.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDITS:
- http://www.nairatrends.com
- http://www.nairaland.com
- http://www.tech point.ng

IGBO WOMEN'S AUGUST MEETING

As usual my Naija Tour can't be said to be complete without a trip to the southeastern part of Nigeria. Interestingly, I haven't made one in August since it became official to make such cross-country trips an avenue to explore the environments that I visit before this time. So when a two week break fell on my lap once again to do as I deemed fit, I couldn't pass on the opportunity to add the southeast to my traveling itinerary.


As a member of the executive of my village association in my place of residence outside of Igboland, I have noticed that every August the women wing of such Igbo associations don't meet unlike the men in August, as they are said to have traveled to the East for AUGUST MEETING. A discovery that I had to make rather than just automatically know, seeing that I'm no Catholic or Anglican, neither was I brought up in the village to know about these things till I became my own man. For this sake I was determined to find out what happens during these meetings in the east.


Turns out that in that month of August when children are usually on vacation, the dominant Christian denominations in the eastern part of Nigeria, organizes a weeklong (usually) convention-like program for its women, based at home and abroad. Though many of the women may belong to Pentecostal churches in the cities and towns across Nigeria and outside of it, they retain their membership of either the Catholic or Anglican Churches back at home in the east. It is to these that they return during the "August Meeting".


These Igbo women, or non-Igbo women married to Igbo men who are Catholics or Anglican are compelled to attend these meetings annually in the village or town of their husband's ancestry, usually in the early days of the month of August but not later than the second week of the same month. They attend the meetings in uniforms, consisting of a white blouse or top (which for so many women have begun to turn blue due to use of WASHING BLUE apparently to improve the "whiteness" of their fabric), and a wrapper, which may not be that uniform nationally, but more like uniform for the states where the women are coming from to the east.

A CROSS SECTION OF WOMEN ATTENDING "AUGUST MEETING" IN ANAMBRA STATE, SOUTHEASTERN NIGERIA.

Though the program is declared open by a member of clergy, with some words of admonition, the activities are soon taken over by the women for whom the meeting is designed. They provide lecturers amongst themselves who take them on topics from the spiritual to the not so spiritual, up to the very mundane. Lofty ideas are shared during these meetings, including how to better the lots of the less privileged in their midst amongst others using financial contributions from members, with those who have been defaulting having theirs calculated in arrears, sometimes with some interest. Donations are also welcome, even amongst non-members and the menfolk.


There's no gainsaying the fact that the August Meeting affords the women an opportunity to network and fan the embers of camaraderie amongst one another. On the vain side of things, it is also an occasion where they size one another up, and with lots of gossip permeating the air (as with some women, who will rather be outside of church premises sharing tales while their peers are within the church taking in the various programs organized for their individual and mutual development), it's no surprise that once a while conflagrations occur but thankfully such are quickly put down and erring parties appropriately sanctioned.


The Igbo are a consensus seeking people, hence you'd find them meeting at varying levels of the societal strata, in fact I surmise that if infrastructural development can be brought about singly by the act of meetings, Igboland will be like Dubai or even better. Though that utopia may not have been reached, the meetings have in no small measure led to the development of that marginalized region of Nigeria since after the civil war in 1970. It is my hope and desire above all, that these August Meetings will reap fruits in the direction where Igbo women wouldn't need the validation of the menfolk (in marriage or the likes) to be considered fulfilled, but rather to be fully emancipated in all  ramifications by their own right, of their own will.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.anambrastate.gov.ng

AS NIGERIA FORGETS JULY 29, 1966

29th July fifty years ago, Nigeria's story took another turn that appears to have eternally sealed it's fate, as a country whose  nationalities will forever remain distrustful of one another, for as long as they will manage to cohabit. It was the day the revenge coup was launched against military and civilian Nigerians of the ethnic Igbo stock, of southeastern Nigerian origin, everywhere outside of eastern Nigeria and their closest neighbors in the Niger Delta. I say another, because the first turning point had occurred on the 15th of January of the same year, with the first coup, which was welcome by many as an act of  patriotism, but as the days passed, was given the coloration of been biased in favor of the Igbo, and against most especially the northern Hausa-Fulani hegemony, which controlled power at the center in the days following Nigeria's independence from Great Britain.


Unfortunately, a day like yesterday passed without official statements or program by the government, apart from some discourse on some media, a few of which I was able to follow on radio and on the social media. It is sad that Nigeria pretends to move forward without any attempt at burying the ghosts of the past, while making the same mistakes over and over, enabling some Nigerians to ensure that the so called giant of Africa remains a perpetual Lilliput. Taking one step forward only when it had made plans to the effect that ten steps backwards was mutually assured, only to their own benefit, as well as their acquaintances.


I believe that Nigeria cannot make progress in the forward direction if our history isn't truthfully addressed and told. This is not a nation, it is a country of nations, or nationalities if you like, and it is built on a lie. Our founding fathers weren't the saints that they are officially made out to be, or else their ouster in the January 1966 coup wouldn't have been widely celebrated and greeted with wild jubilation and ululation in the nooks and cranny of Nigeria back then. They laid the foundation of  corruption mixed with tribalism and nepotism, amongst many other ills, that is strangling us as a nation today. The coupists were idealists but failed to convince Nigerians that they had no sectional agenda, in sparing Igbo politicians and soldiers, and officers of the eastern Nigerian extraction, a few of which were conveniently outside the country as at the time of the coup, or were simply not found in their usual and unusual locations when the coupists struck. Some were even seen to be chatting with some camaraderie with the those meant to "neutralize" them, as they crossed paths on some bridge.


General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, having successfully quelled a supposedly Igbo coup, been an Igbo officer, erred in not immediately restoring power back to the politicians regardless of their sins, rather he accepted to rule Nigeria. I saw a few of his interviews on YouTube and he didn't even strike me as one who recognized the import the weight of ruling Nigeria means. He was largely aloof. He also dilly dallied on the fate of the coupists whose ringleaders were five majors, four of which were Igbo like him, and a Yoruba from Nigeria's Southwest. The unitary system of  government that he had decreed  (Decree 34, which amongst others abolished the regions, which were three at independence, and four at the time, in favor of provinces) into being, which he embarked on a journey across Nigeria to sell (and from which he never returned alive) has remained an albatross for us. The northern Nigerian elite who rejected it at the time because they felt it was a ploy to keep and foster the Igbo over and above the other ethnic groups in the civil service and elsewhere, have over the years after the revenge coup of July, 1966 become the greatest beneficiary of the system. And though Nigeria today lies that it's a federation it has remained a unitary state, where once the center coughs the states catch cold. We had simply exchanged external colonizers for internal colonizers, all thanks to the military's foray into politics, after coups and counter-coups, and in the democratic dispensation after elections, dressed in civilian garb.


The 1999 constitution (as amended) handed over to us by the military (like many others before it) has made any attempt at changing the status quo democratically, impossible. No constitutional conference or the likes held severally over the years have been trusted enough by governments and succeeding governments, as well as contending ethno-religio-social groupings across Nigeria, as documents viable enough to change things. It is become obvious that the change mantra that ushered in the new incumbent government isn't worth the paper on which it was written. The hue and cry now is about RESTRUCTURING, yet none of the advocates mentioned anything about July 29th,1966 yesterday at public fora or the likes, seeing that any restructuring that needs to be done must recognize that it was on that date that an opportunity to truly restructure things despite the needless bloodshed that followed (for days on end, of Igbo folk nationwide, save in the east) was missed, rather the "revenge coup" by soldiers of northern Nigerian extraction like vampires thirsted insatiably for Igbo blood, and encouraged the civil populace in the north to do likewise, if not worse, then went ahead to embrace the unitary system, adding to it other lingua such as federal character, quota system, rotation, etc over the years that have perpetuated mediocrity and nepotism over merit in our public, even private spaces nationwide.


Twas yesterday, fifty years ago that some Nigerians corrected a supposed wrong with another wrong, and today we reap the fruits thereof, and even worse set ourselves on the pedestal to continue taking such sour grapes by not recognizing that day fifty years ago, when Nigeria lost its soul and humanity. Many will say that the war after the event of that day whetted appetites and we emerged stronger from it, but that's also yet another lie, because the truth is that Nigeria as presently constituted is tearing up at its seams and the center can no longer

NIGERIA

hold. We have failed to tell the truth about our past, therefore a truthful foundation for the future based on mutual trust cannot be laid, or built upon. There's no stopping this groping in the dark for a long time to come, not even the anti-corruption fight by President Muhammadu Buhari will change anything, even that as sectional as it continues to play out is just treating the symptom and not the disease, for Nigeria is sick!


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- GEORGE A'S GALLERY

AS MUSLIM FANATICS MOWS DOWN EUNICE ELISHA IN ABUJA

I couldn't keep this bottled up any longer. Just this last Saturday a female preacher, and I hear assistant pastor of one of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG parish in Abuja, by name Eunice Elisha was murdered while doing her usual early morning preaching near her abode. This just a few weeks after a septuagenarian Christian woman (also a pastor's wife) from the southeast was murdered for blasphemy in Kano, followed by the escape from death by the whiskers of a young man in Kaduna for eating during the "Holy" month of Ramadan, even though he isn't a Muslim, and before all of that, the beheading of another Christian man in Niger State for blasphemy, which only came to light after the Kano story, meaning that there are many of such stories of religious intolerance in the north, that hardly comes to light, until one in a major city occurs and people begin to recount experiences in other places.

THE LATE EUNICE ELISHA, WITH HER HEAD RESTED ATOP HER BIBLE, AND MEGAPHONE ON THE SIDE, IN A POOL OF HER BLOOD AFTER HER MURDER BY SUSPECTED MUSLIM FANATICS IN NIGERIA'S CAPITAL, ABUJA.

And as usual, the police have swooped in to arrest the so called perpetrators of the act. An imam whom we are told asked some boys to "chase" the woman away, but apparently ended up killing her. These suspects supposedly now in police custody weren't named, just like those arrested in the case in Kano and Kaduna. Though unlike in the past where culprits in the killings of non-Muslims in the north were simply described as a mob and never arrested (with one henchman in a notable case, rising to hold  governmental position at one time, and even went on to become a powerful emir), there are now arrests made.


Unfortunately, beyond that nothing else seem to happen by way of bringing perpetrators to book following these gruesome killings. Not even the visit of the wife of the Vice President to the widower in this case is sure to change the status quo. No date will be set in court, no human Rights activists pressuring government, even the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN besides issuing a terse statement will go to sleep, and the Muslim ummah? I even read Facebook comments of Muslims who claimed Eunice was intolerant of Muslims in trying to convert them to  Christianity by preaching daily early in the morning in that vicinity, hence an infidel like her deserved to die the way she did. As usual I have only read of just one moderate Muslim on Facebook who condemned the dastardly act, while the Muslim umbrella bodies, as well as a government many suspect of harboring plans to islamize Nigeria have yet to release a  statement, even when the murder happened at its doorstep. If you thought that was because just a single human being was involved, then what would you say about the genocidal killings in Benue State (as recent as last week in Logo and Ukum Local Government Areas of the state with more than eighty dead), and other states in view of Fulani cattle and herdsmen, which the President Buhari-led federal government is yet to react to, amongst several, but quick to send condolences to Saudi Arabia over the suicide attacks in Medina last week, even appealing to warring factions in South Sudan to let peace reign while ignoring the smoldering embers in his backyard.


You know, some years back it was norm to find Muslims in northern Nigeria copy what Muslims in places like Pakistan and other places where Islam is fanatically practiced do. So, if there was a protest in such places over cartoons depicting the prophet in a supposedly "untoward" manner, or against Israel or America, fanatics in Nigeria's North take to the streets in solidarity, sometimes going to the extent of maiming and killing their Christian neighbors, even when the matter at hand has no immediate bearing on them. This copycat syndrome is what I think is at play now, as killings of non-Muslims in the north by radical Muslims reads like a newspaper cutting from anywhere in Pakistan, Bangladesh or the likes. These killings in Bangladesh for a long time had no one claiming responsibility for them, until recently when the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS began not just to take responsibility, but to expand recruitment in that country.


That is why this particular copycat situation is a very unfortunate one for Nigeria, because though the military may on the one hand be celebrating the success it has so far recorded against Boko Haram in Nigeria's northeast, there's no guarantee that a greater than Boko Haram isn't far away from us, as the conditions which bred Maitatsine before the Bokosites remains raw and quite alive in the north, and the  lackadaisical reaction of the federal and state governments to them, coupled with the conspiracy of silence of the state owned media outlets (like the Nigerian Television  Authority, NTA that was tweeted about the Dallas Shooting of police officers two hours after it occurred, while the killings in Benue of inhabitants by Fulani Herdsmen is yet to be considered newsworthy several days after), as well as some privately owned news media organization, and citizens conspire to ensure that the cycle of radical Islamic groups continue to dog this artificial contraption that we like to call Nigeria.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.nigerianmonitor.com

OF AFRICAN PRESIDENTS AND FOREIGN MEDICAL TRIPS

It is in the Season 6, Episode 3 of the Fox Series House, titled THE TYRANT, where  President Dibala of a fictitious African country, played by James Earl Jones fell ill while in the United States to attend the United Nation's General Assembly, and one of the doctors having developed some conscience (after been made aware of the acts of genocide perpetrated by the ailing president back in his country in Africa), puts same over and above that of saving the life of the president, to compromise the treatment plan, such that the president later dies due to wrong treatment been administered on him by the medical team attending to him, and on the plus side ensuring that moderates get into power in the African country to hopefully turn things around for good.

JAMES EARL JONES AS PRESIDENT DIBALA IN HOUSE SEASON 6, EPISODE 3 TITLED: THE TYRANT

Seeing this episode, took my mind back to the many cases of African leaders, despots and none, who had died abroad while receiving treatments which they considered their own people incapable or the hospitals in their countries ill equipped to manage, and if there wasn't the possibility that what happened in the House (MD) series couldn't have happened in any of the cases. Yes, much of what we see on TV is fiction, but couldn't there be some element of truth and reality in them? If somehow, the tightly held secrets that's the ailments of some of these presidents on treatment abroad manage to still get leaked to the people back home, how can we be sure that their treatment as well isn't compromised?


I hope African presidents will watch this particular episode of House, and begin to do right by their people in their countries as regards health. If a President Muhammadu Buhari after allocating to the State House clinic in Aso Rock multiples of the amount budgeted for all the Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria put together, but yet flies to the United Kingdom to treat an Ear Infection, what hope is there for the common Nigerian who depends on underfunded teaching hospitals and those below it when they have life threatening diseases? Will these presidents for the sake of avoiding the fate of the fictitious President Dibala in House, not begin to tinker with the idea of turning the present situation of the health sectors in their countries for good, if not for anything but for their own safety?


As President Buhari returns today, I wish he will ensure this be the last time he and his ministers (three of whom are also abroad for treatment) will waste scarce resources going abroad for treatment, and make it priority to build capacities of Nigerians in the health sector as well as health infrastructure to meet the health needs of the teeming population of Nigerians, rather than the embarrassment they cause the country with their frequent visits to hospitals abroad to treat even the slightest discomfort to their physical well being.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.house.wikia.com

AS TERRORISM VISITS ORLANDO

After it became public that it was a Muslim that shot, killed fifty and wounded fifty-three at a gay club in Orlando in the United States, in what's now known to be the worst terrorist act in the States since 9/11, coupled with the fact that the suspect, American born Omar Saddiqui Mateen had called 911 pledging allegiance to the Islamic State, the narrative has once again turned to Islamic Fundamentalism, as it is wont to, save for the fact that in recent times the frequency has become a source of concern for many watchers of world events. I decided not to let this pass without dropping a word or two, when something gnawed at my innards as I read the chat shared between a victim (of the gay club shooting incident) and his mother, as the event unfolded.

PULSE NITECLUB WHERE THE LATEST SHOOTING HAPPENED IN ORLANDO

President Barack Obama aptly put it when he said the act involved "terrorism" as well as "hate", and if I might add "intolerance", a recurring decimal as we've found in Nigeria in recent days in the killing of a septuagenarian in Kano for blasphemy, a man in Niger State for same, another man in Kaduna who barely escaped with his life, for eating during Islam's holy month of Ramadan, even though he is Christian, amongst many others. Then you think of the killing of bloggers in Bangladesh, with extremists there looking to outdo Pakistan in extent of terror they can unleash on those with whom they disagree on religious basis mainly. At a time a state, an ally of the United States from where Wahabism was born, detains a blogger, which it routinely flogs in public, besides doing everything terrorist groups and Islamic religious extremists and fanatics do to people in areas under their control legitimately, it is hard to see how international terrorism will abate without a change in how things are done in Saudi Arabia.


The sad thing for me however is unlike an Obama who rallied Americans against the terrorists, warning that an attack against one American is an attack against all Americans, Nigeria's president couldn't care less about people killed by Fulani herdsmen, his kinsmen, and would be quick to urge people to respect the religion of others after an old woman was killed on trumped up charges of blasphemy in Nigeria's north, by people who share the same religious beliefs as his, probably acting up vigorously now that he's in power, which he rode onto on the premise (not necessarily by the president, but his campaign team mainly in the north) of elevating Islam to state religion. Interestingly, some so called "moderate" Muslims think it was wrong for the mob to have killed the woman, when she could've been charged to court, and I ask which court? Could she have been taken to a Shari'a court as a non-Muslim? Is blasphemy a crime under Nigeria's constitution? When I hear so called moderates talk like this I find it hard to fault Mosab Hassan Yousef's assertion in his "SON OF HAMAS" where he said "A moderate Muslim is actually more dangerous than a fundamentalist, however, because he appears to be harmless and you can never tell when he has taken that next step toward the top."


It was after the incident in Kaduna, that a friend wrote on Facebook, that he decided not to eat groceries he bought at the market while there, to avoid unnecessary brouhaha from fasting Muslims, though not necessarily because if push comes to shove he couldn't defend himself, but then it brings me to the question of what Muslims actually want. You can't have a church or synagogue in Saudi Arabia or in Muslim majority regions the world over, yet Saudis and Muslims in the west will fight the state hands down for a mosque to pray, spill over into the streets and block traffic like they do in Nigeria, shutting down  economic activity on the affected road even in places where they are the minority. I feel now, that there's nothing that can be done from the outside to change the growing radicalism in Islam. The target for change definitely can't even be ISIS and those aligned to them in thought, word and deed. Even the opportunity with moderates may also have been lost, but they remain the only hope over Muslims who are just so in name only. It is their voice of condemnation of these acts of intolerance that we must constantly hear over the din of the fanatics, in updates on Facebook, in tweets on Twitter, on social media and several other media at their disposal, rather than the disappearing act we observe with them after incidents like that in Orlando, or elsewhere in the world. The narrative about Islam has gotta stop being about, and associated with terror and terrorism, or else they shouldn't blame passengers when they ask a bus conductor to return their fares just because a bearded man, with trousers defying gravity joined them on the bus.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.CNN.com

KANO, THE RELIGIOUS INTOLERANT STATE

I could never have imagined that Boko Haram will be a thing associated with Borno State, until it happened. Even when it happened, somehow I felt Kano State must have something to do with it. Yet, when the few attacks in Kano occurred it was still apparent that the headquarters of the  fundamentalist Islamic group was in Borno State, which has a sizeable Christian population. I cannot now say that I was somewhat disappointed in the fact that Kano wasn't somehow linked with Boko Haram, seeing that it had once hosted something of the likes in the name of Maitatsine group in the 1980s.


Besides that, Kano has never shed its notoriety for religious intolerance, and the beheading of a woman from eastern Nigeria on Thursday evening, for blasphemy with her husband barely escaping with his life could be said to be one in a litany of shameful religious intolerant behaviors associated with the northern part of Nigeria generally, and Kano in particular.

MOB PARADING WITH THE HEAD OF THEIR VICTIM

Interestingly, when the former Central Bank governor became the Emir of Kano, I had very little hopes that much will change in that direction, knowing that he was some kind of a zealot when it comes to religious matters, and to now have to be the face of it in Kano, and the second in rank for same in Nigeria. I felt it would further embolden extremists and fanatics in the region, most especially in Kano, and recent events there before this one have done nothing to assuage my fears.


Unfortunately, as with beheadings in the past in Nigeria's north, of mainly Southern Nigerian, Christian victims of both sexes, this will definitely not be probed, with the perpetrators brought to justice, despite the rantings of the Nigerian police, even though ensuring justice is done has the power to at least nip such activities in the bud. It is even more unfortunate, that prominent Muslim personalities and groups have yet to speak up in condemnation of the act of persons purporting to be acting on behalf of them and their religion (of peace).


This is why, when many people say that they are lauding the present government under President Muhammadu Buhari for downgrading the ability of Boko Haram to continue attacking the Nigerian state, I don't rejoice, because the environment that breeds such groups in the north of Nigeria still exists, and enjoys support both at the state and national/federal levels. Therefore, even if the deadly group is defeated now, another is sure to come in its own name to continue where it's predecessors have stopped.


It is no wonder Nigeria can not know peace, with so much injustice in the air, and blood of innocents rising to the highest heavens. It is no surprise why the insular North, especially in the areas of religious fervency and intolerance remain challenged in terms of development, as no sane foreign investor will consider a location competing with the tribal areas of  Afghanistan and Pakistan ideal for serious investment. If only the federal and the Kano state governments, could insist that the Nigerian police should go beyond rhetorics to do it's job, to ensure that the perpetrators of this dastardly act are brought to book, and the religious and traditional rulers of the north, work towards eradicating the penchant of mobs to lynch people accused of blasphemy, then maybe we may begin to see some change for the better. For now it's nothing but gloom.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- https://mobile.facebook.com/photo.php

A SECTIONAL BUHARI AND A DIVIDED NIGERIA

I have been saddened since President  Muhammadu Buhari made his Democracy Day speech last Sunday, the 29th of May. I had felt that I was the only one who noticed that he made no mention of Fulani Herdsmen amongst groups he declared security threats to the nation, despite the fact that the group, his kinsmen may have killed more people, who hadn't the opportunity to fight back, than the official enemy of the state with whom his government now seem set to dialogue, the fundamentalist Islamic group, Boko Haram.


Interestingly, the next day security forces clashed with unarmed pro-Biafra activists during a peaceful protest in Asaba, Onitsha and Nkpor, amongst several locations in the southeast, where according to the latest report forty of the protesters are said to have died, while two policemen lost their lives, in what seems to have become a recurring decimal each time protests like this takes place in the East of Nigeria. In fact, during an interview,  which President Buhari granted Al-Jazeera months back, he refused to watch footage of security operatives swooping in on unarmed pro-Biafra activists during a prayer session, in an open field and shooting some of them in cold blood.

UNARMED PRO-BIAFRA ACTIVISTS HOLDING A PEACEFUL PROTEST BEFORE THINGS WENT AWRY 

It pained me to note that a President of a multiethnic nation like Nigeria could be so sectional to ignore in that speech, the genocidal activity of his Fulani kinsmen,  to focus on groups especially in the South by whose hands no life has yet been lost, and who after much criticisms for his silence over the continued menace of his kinsmen on the lives and livelihood of other Nigerians, simply claimed that the marauding Fulani were none other than strangers from Libya, despite mounting evidence in text and video that these were armed Fulani militia from Nigeria, ranked fourth on the global index of terrorist groups, whose activities aren't even covert but carried out with impunity, sometimes with the security agencies conveniently staying out of their way when and while they strike.


It is therefore with much sadness that I heard the Inspector General of Police, instructing his men to disarm unarmed pro-Biafra activists and protesters while he has never said anything close to that concerning Fulani Herdsmen who have replaced bows and arrows and sticks with AK-47's. The only group besides security forces, armed robbers and terrorists who travel with such light weapons, discharging bullets with reckless abandon, when simple citizens could spend the night or more (to be bailed only after parting with huge sums of money, and physical and mental torture) in the police cell for having a pen knife in their person during the usual illegal police "stop and search".


To compound my sadness, is the deafening silence amongst so called Igbo  leaders, political or not, who haven't deemed it fit to confront the government for the wanton killings of their own for engaging in what is seen to be very legal in democracies worldwide, even going to the extent of calling their own hoodlums, at a time accused terrorists are been released in droves on the instance or prodding of the northern political, traditional and religious oligarchy. Even a former governor and now senator Kwankwaso from Kano came to Lagos to bail out Hausa youths arrested for complicity in the recent clashes between the Yoruba and Hausa in the Mile 12 Area of Lagos. It had to take an Ekiti governor,  Ayo Fayose from the Southwest to stand with the Igbo youth for daring to mark the anniversary of the day in 1967 when the Late Dim Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, then a colonel, declared the Sovereign State of Biafra, separate from Nigeria, to which Nigeria responded with a war of attrition for three years, after the Igbo safety couldn't be guaranteed any longer within the geographical space called Nigeria, a situation that seems not to have changed much,  not just in the North where many of them reside, but now even in their own land.


Nigeria may have survived the prophecy that it was doomed for disintegration in 2015, but it doesn't mean that it can't still happen in the immediate or remote future, especially with a sectional president who feels that the so called oneness of Nigeria is non-negotiable, and would die rather than see the day, than submit like former Vice President Abubakar Atiku did at a book launch recently on the subject of Biafra, that Nigeria needs to be restructured such that the constituent parts can have a sense of belonging. Unfortunately, President Buhari has chosen to waste this golden opportunity to become a statesman, even stating that the document from what is viewed by some, as a flawed National Conference held while former President Goodluck Jonathan was in power isn't worth even as much as a skimming through for some of its merits. Of course, with that attitude, it isn't surprising that vistas of hotspots are opening up in different places all over Nigeria with each passing day, chief of which is the Niger Delta Avengers who have managed to half Nigeria's crude oil production capacity with their precision attacks on oil drilling platforms and pipelines, while the economy seems to be trying to drill into the earth's core at the rate at which it's falling, just months after he came into power, and Nigeria's economy was adjudged the biggest and fastest growing in Africa, and third in the world. He forgets easily, that the trouble we brew today, we drink tomorrow!


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.nigerianeye.com

I'M THE MAN

I spent much of yesterday watching the remix of 50 Cents' "I'M THE MAN" featuring the very talented Chris Brown, 'pon the replay on YouTube (https://youtu.be/ZB7Xjd34pjo). Even as I write this, it plays in the background in my ears. This is like the best I've gotten out of this duo together, most likely my first collabo from them if memory serves me right, unfortunately it had to be of a song that would make feminist the world over whimper with righteous anger. The male masochism isn't just evident in the lyrics, but even in the video.


The four females or video vixens as they call 'em these days in the video, did nothing but waltz lazily in the pool and bedroom, moving sensually and seductively, when not smoking shisha, or e-cigarettes, they are semi-nude and saying zilch (not even the usual dancing or twerking allowed them)", while the "MEN" (Fi'ty and Chris) fully clothed, non-smoking nor drinking, serenade them and us with lyrics about what art they could sculpt with female bodies in ways that couldn't even be directed at inanimates, such as property we own, just to show us how "manly" they both are.


Even in the hook (which in fact is the closest attempt both made at keeping the song "clean", repeated resoundingly thrice, so you don't miss anything) we aren't spared the inanities, they both croon -
       "Bitch, I'm the Man,
         Hoe, I'm the Man,
         You know I'm the Man...."
And you wouldn't but agree with me that this particular song is the anthem in waiting for acceptance by sexists.

CHRIS BROWN AND 50 CENTS IN "I'M THE MAN"

Interestingly, Chris Brown did something similar with 50 Cents' arch nemesis, Rick Ross in "SORRY", almost making me think both artistes, who have no love lost for each other, intended through their songs featuring Chris,  to prove to male folk their "manliness" (though not unusual in their hip-hop and rap music world), in how far they can go to degrade women, in order to win over to their sides the core of their misogynist audience, who see nothing in women besides bed warmers or at best a play things or sex toys. I couldn't help but imagine that in carrying out their mission, they employed one of the best male voices in the industry, with a history of battery (well, against Rihanna mainly), who was supported by male industry peeps from going under when the world turned on him (besides the fact that no one with a gift as he possesses can simply go under just like that).


Now, you may want to ask why the same song has been 'pon the replay in my ears since I stumbled upon it yesterday, and why before that "Sorry" had been for weeks on end? It's because of the great beats, even the word play is head shattering, hence difficult for me to ignore. If only gospel music could sound like that, but unfortunately this is how things are, and I've heard it said severally that Lucifer was a great musician while in heaven, and if he's at the heart of the great secular music been churned out these days, then it is hardly surprising what we get, as well as the effect these songs are having on impressionable tabula rasa minds, and by extension in relationships with the opposite sex.


It doesn't even look like this song is going to get the kinda negative publicity that greeted Rick Ross' "molly..." verse in U.O.E.N.O., that appeared to condone rape, which almost cost him a Reebok endorsement, and kept that version of the song by Rocko off some airwaves for sometime. Feminists the world over should probably shudder at this but would probably be too overcome by the silky sound to give a Damn about raising their voice against it (one amongst just so many for that matter), but what do I know? Okay, that's it! My thoughts out there for you, about how I feel about this great slow, rap and R&B song blasting my ear drums away right now, as I make my way through Lagos traffic to work. Do have yourself a fun filled day y'all.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.magugudi.com

NIGERIA, AND THE CASE FOR A SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Nigeria can never be a nation until the constituent parts resolve the conditions under which the units can coexist as an indivisible entity. Several attempts made in the past through constitutional and/or national conferences fell short of achieving the desired goals because of the exclusion of germane and very fundamental aspects considered to be "no-go areas",  as well as insincerity on the part of the conveners, amongst a myriad of other factors.


The system that currently subsists breeds and perpetuates only mutual suspicion, and is at the root of everything that is wrong with this country, including corruption. I singled out corruption because this government's attempt to nip it in the bud, though commendable despite its one-sided outlook, is just like treating the symptom rather than the disease.


Unfortunately, the much touted change by this President Buhari's government, has ended up being much of the same, as after getting into power, the government appeared to have found that the path to nationhood is Herculean (though not necessarily unattainable), thinking only to make do with the system they met on ground, rather than employ a more radical and holistic approach in tackling the challenges of nationhood and nation building.


I understand the fears expressed in certain quarters, that a Sovereign National Conference without "No-Go Areas" can birth a situation where delegates may propose a split of the country into it's constituent parts, and the possibility is high especially if one considers the "self determination" struggles in the Southeast region, which has once before gone to war to press for same, or the now resuscitated restiveness in the South-South region with militant groups on the prowl, of which one of the demands of the group championing the present attacks on Nigeria's major source of revenue been a National Conference along the lines many Nigerians have been advocating, a clear departure from the agitations of the past, which was "resource control".

WHAT A NIGERIAN CONFEDERACY MAY LOOK LIKE

But if people of a country do not want to be part of it, why shouldn't their demand be acceded to, especially if there are democratic means by which such sentiments can be gauged for level of acceptance? South Sudan did it, even in the United Kingdom, Scotland tested the popularity of their independence campaign but lost, so why should Nigeria continue to shut the door to such a proposal, while inundating the ears of the comity of nations with such sad and unfortunate news that continue to point to the fact only, that the people would rather not smell the scent of those of a different tribe or religion if they can help it, expressing that desire in the most violent of ways at every given opportunity.


It is why any so called change that doesn't factor the reorganization of the entity called Nigeria, with the implementation of recommendations from a tete-a-tete of the nations that make it up is NO CHANGE, but a perpetuation of same old ideas that has brought us to the unenviable position we are today. If only we could find that bold and charismatic leader, with a party that believes in same objectives that will find the political will (or just manage to pull the majority of the Nigerian people in that regard in making that superior argument), to take this bull by the horn, to do the necessary that's needed to turn Nigeria in the path it should take to attain a federal, or Confederacy status, or even a split into it's major parts, as it is apparent that this pseudo-federal, unitary system cannot yield any good beyond the bit that it has so far afforded, while the fragile attachments continue to loosen further by the day.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.chatafrik.com

R.I.P PRINCE & PAPA WEMBA

I think myself an eclectic because I listen to and enjoy all kinds of music, many times without understanding what's been said or sung about. Sometimes I purposely don't rush to learn the lyrics of songs or rap music in English, because I fear I might lose interest in the song, especially when the song is still "pon da replay".


When I learnt about the death of "Prince" I wasn't devastated. I doubt I had heard any of his songs recently, but I felt bad that he had to go still so young with what many consider enough time to continue to churn out the kinda music that made him peculiar. Back in the day, Prince' music was thrown at me by the TV and radio without much I could have done about it. Eventually, his music grew on me as long as I saw or heard it before I began to have much of a choice about what I heard or saw, with my TV and Radio, and my remote control, and began to hear and see less and less of Prince, not because I didn't enjoy his music while it lasted, but because most of the time I was confused about him, what he tried to say, how he tried to say it, and how he expressed himself.

PRINCE WITH ONE OF HIS GUITARS

Much later, I guess on discovering he was black (after seeing him as white in our Black & White TV many time as a kid), and didn't look it, also began to affect how I felt about him, though Michael Jackson who was also black and looked whiter than Caucasians was never diminished before me. Also, it was such that each time I saw a Prince video, I was easily distracted by the shape of his guitar, or the feminine way he went about gesticulating while singing, as well as all of the lights, that before I had the chance to pick the lyrics the music was over. That honestly, was how it had been between me and Prince before I took control of TV and Radio, saw and heard less of him, except for a few times in recent years and then last week when he died.


It was different between me and Papa Wemba, who also came to my consciousness about the time Prince was riding the waves. In his case however, I continued to see and hear him after I had my remote control. It didn't matter that I understood no word he spoke in French or the local Congolese language he often used in his Makosa. Somehow I felt I got the message he was passing in his songs in that very peculiar soprano of his, even when I had no idea what he was singing about, like in my best of his, "YOLELE". It was a great relief for me when he did a collaboration with another artiste in English, unfortunately the song didn't resonate with me as did the ones in lingua I didn't understand.

PAPA WEMBA DURING A SONOROUS RENDITION

His death late last week didn't shock me, but I felt bad, just as with Prince'. Apparently, both of them left right in the middle of doing what they loved most. Prince found dead at an elevator, days just right after a tour promoting his latest work, and Papa Wemba after he collapsed while performing at a show in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan. Both weren't retired from their careers when the grim reaper visited, rather they left while in very active service, associated with what both have always been known with and for. I definitely may not miss them as much as those close to them, but having played some roles in my formative years musically, I will notice their absence, especially their peculiarity, especially in an age where almost every singer sounds the same, killing the very essence of music.


May the souls of Prince, and Papa Wemba Rest In Peace, and their works Live Forever!


'kovich


PICTURE CREDITS:
- http://www.laineygossip.com
- http://www.thecitizen.co.tz

FULANI HERDSMEN AND THE SACRED COWS

President Muhammadu Buhari's media aide Femi Adeshina is once again defending the indefensible. What has become very obvious despite several attempts at masking it is that the President cannot help being less sectional in his utterances and dealings with Nigerians. You can see it in the way he has rushed to warn pipeline vandals (as with Niger Delta militants and pro-Biafra groups) to stop their activities or else he'll deal with them like he's done with Boko Haram, yet no such statement issued against Fulani herdsmen, who are his kinsmen.


The most he's done, according toMr.  Femi is release a statement or something of the like regarding what happened in Agatu, in Benue State, which isn't even a warning to the marauding Fulani, who carried out something akin to genocide there, and even in Taraba, amongst other communities in Nigeria where the murderous activities of the group (known to be the fourth most dangerous militia in the world) have continued unabated with impunity, with no single herdsman punished even when there are people that can be held for been privy to such activities, if not active participants.


Now a bill to set up a grazing commission is before the National Assembly, at a time the presidency has promised to bring an end to constant clashes between (Fulani) herdsmen and farmers across the country, which in itself is a farce considering that most times the casualty levels (which is more on the side of the farmers and inhabitants of the host communities, than the herdsmen, who many times record no casualties) is disproportionate, unlike what you will find in a true clash between two groups like that between Hausas and Yorubas in the Mile 12 area of Lagos recently.

 FULANI HERDSMEN WERE KNOWN TO BE ARMED IN THE PAST WITH BOW AND ARROWS TILL RECENTLY WHEN THEY STARTED STARTED MOVING AROUND WITH AK-47'S

If it is this controversial bill before the National Assembly, which will empower a commission to takeover just about any land, anywhere in Nigeria for grazing purposes in contradiction to the dictates of the Land Use Act, as well as extant laws of the different states, and traditional means of land ownership in the different areas, is what the federal government is looking at as the possible solution to the massacring of innocent Nigerians who couldn't stand aside to allow their lands to be ravaged by cattle led by armed Fulani herdsmen, then even that is dead on arrival owing to the opposition that is currently mounting against the bill within and without the National Assembly.


While I would also love for a solution to be found to the growing menace these herdsmen pose to Nigeria's sovereignty, it is pertinent that justice and rehabilitation be accorded the victims and survivors of Fulani herdsmen attacks, as there can be no peace without justice. The body language of President Buhari seem averse to this, as well as that of the security agencies which over time have not only watched helplessly as these herdsmen wreaked havoc on the localities they fell on, but even said to overtly provided logistics to the marauders, and as if to rub salt on injury as with the case in Enugu, arrested farmers while protesting the wanton destruction of their means of livelihood by the Fulani herdsmen, not to talk of the recent statement credited to the DSS in regard of the discovery of shallow graves in a forest in Imo State of five Hausa-Fulanis who were allegedly killed by pro-Biafra activists, when that agency had never spoken up about Fulani killings.


The killings, if true of the Fulani by so called elements of pro-Biafra groups (or any other group for that matter) is wrong, so also is the statement by the DSS that is capable of aggravating the tension in the polity, especially after keeping mute on Fulani herdsmen atrocities for eons on end, which only feeds into the conspiracy theory of an agenda by the Fulani to expand their territory even to the Atlantic, and have seen no better opportunity than now that one of their own is in power, as well as having the instruments of coercion also either in their hands or those of loyal stooges. Therefore, it behooves on government to act in a way to allay these concerns speedily before aggrieved groups organize themselves in a way to prove to all that no particular group in Nigeria has the monopoly of resorting to violence to settle grievances, by exploring solutions that will not leave any side disadvantaged, or else whatever peace that will come out of the so called solution will be short-lived.


'kovich


READ ALSO: FULANI HERDSMEN: RANCHING OR NOMADISM, PEACE OR WAR | https://madukovich.wordpress.com/2014/03/21/fulani-herdsmen-ranching-or-nomadism-peace-or-war/


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.nigeriannewsdirect.com

SEE YOUR DENTIST TODAY

The mouth is the gateway to the body, and it isn't unusual to find a healthy mouth pointing to a healthy body, as indeed you can also find in the mouth the manifestation of several systemic disease conditions. Hence, many people hitherto unaware of conditions such as diabetes became aware of such after a visit to the dentist, because of a peculiar presentation in the mouth that dentists can pick during examination.


Even the above illustration is taking things far, as the mouth itself needs some taking care of as it is a part of the body that can make or mar interpersonal relationships, of which a good one can go a long way in enhancing a person's self-esteem and the likes. The reason many people do not have a dental appointment in their "tight" schedule is because of largely exaggerated negative experiences of others, mostly built around the administration of the local anaesthetic (and it's efficacy during dental procedures), which is a necessary discomfort and nothing more, amongst a few genuine cases of bad experiences with dentists in the past, besides the fear from childhood of parents who may have threatened to punish them with visits to the dentist for misbehaving.

Such people will therefore find themselves visiting dentists only when they have serious dental issues (like needing an extraction of a badly broken down tooth) to deal with, further cementing their long held convictions about the dentist, dental clinics and dentistry as a whole. The idea then is to walk in the opposite direction, to ensure to see the dentist routinely for prophylactic procedures such as Scaling and Polishing, even when there's "nothing" wrong with the teeth. In this way,even the early stages of oral diseases are nipped in the bud, once noticed by the dentist.


The way out of dental challenges therefore isn't to visit the dentist only when there's pain, a swelling or the likes in the mouth that is discomforting, but frequently when nothing is wrong, just so that the dentist can continue to maintain the mouth in the good condition we would love them to be. Yes, you might see a dentist feeling great with yourself and the good work you've been doing with your mouth and teeth, only to come off disappointed when s/he draws your attention to an area of your mouth or a condition you have not noticed, but that shouldn't be a valid reason to detest coming to see a dentist, rather one you should even be happy about as it would've been worse had the dentists failed to see the condition.


Dentists must not be seen just as doctors but as friends, and though dental care may be a little bit expensive, a listening one that's also a friend can easily be reasoned with to accommodate a financial plan that wouldn't break your bank and still get you the best care even the very rich can afford, when you don't have health insurance, many of which also have limited dental cover. Understand that seeing your dentist may just save your life, and do the needful by doing the cheap routine visits today than the very expensive sparse visits during dental emergencies tomorrow.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- coolin (@colinmiller17) | Twitter

OBIADI NNA'M A NA A

This Branch stayed firm when the ones before him broke,
To restore waning hopes for possibilities,
The activation of an alternative didn't blight his light,
From shining out of obscurity even from childhood,
Like a Rose from Concrete.


He wasn't stopped by a civil war,
Adversities only provided him launchpads to excel,
He enjoyed life but abhorred excesses,
A true family man who would do everything legitimate to protect his own,
Like the Lion in his Lair.


A loving father not wont to spoil his children,
Nor spare us his rod of correction,
Aimed solely at pointing us in the right path,
Leaving us with nothing but gratitude for those days,
Of cautioning with the left and drawing back with the right.


He had mastery of the rare combination of being both soft and strong,
Navigating through business and religious calling seamlessly,
Without compromising his principles,
To the admiration of all who encountered him,
And to the glory of Almighty Yahweh.


Even when his body began to fail him,
His spirit wouldn't be dampened,
Neither did his demeanour fall,
Rather he laughed at his condition,
While doing all he could to help his situation.


He understood and respected Yahweh's will for him,
And when it was time for him to go,
He maintained a silence for a fortnight,
So we could reflect on all he'd had a lifetime to share and say to us,
And in his last seconds gestured to us to indicate his passing.

He has played his part,
Ours it is the next to play,
As his works become the stuff legacies are made of,
He was, and was not,
For YAHWEH took him.


Obiadi Nna'm, Sir Micky Jagger, je nke oma!


'kovich

PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.the guardian.com/lifeandstyle

NAIJA TOUR (14)

I have passed through Yenagoa severally on my way out of Rivers State to the western part of Nigeria or elsewhere. Unfortunately, I have never had cause to drop by into the town or even spend any time in Bayelsa State. I doubt that the security situation in that state is responsible for my action, though I cannot say I haven't taken note of such enough to influence my thoughts away from anywhere in Bayelsa State as a "tourist" destination.


As we passed by the old bridge over the river in Kaiama, I wondered how it came to be that the new bridge was still under construction right beside the old one, and looked like an abandoned project.

BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER IN KAIAMA

I could only shake my head at that state of affairs especially now that the economic realities may and most probably will conspire to thwart any effort at completion, even though much of what should've completed the bridge in the first place, may have been frittered away in the usual and norm that's the corruption story of Nigeria.


Once we were in Patani, Delta State away from the politically charged Bayelsa, I heaved a sigh of relief not because Delta State wasn't as charged, but at least the state wasn't preparing for elections at the time, so I wasn't envisaging any disturbance on the road, and the prospect of reaching Lagos just a bit after sunset loomed likely, until we approached Sapele. It happened that a petrol tanker had burst into flames near a mechanic workshop, triggering a hail of fire that consumed much of the cars parked there, stalling all traffic to and from the area, and that was how we had to be left crawling in Sapele for almost two hours. Even the so called crawling was because the driver knew how to maneuver the bus to gain us some advantage over other drivers who opted to play by the traffic rules. By the time we passed by the scene of the fire, much of what was left were carcasses of vehicles parked at the mechanic workshop and immediate environs, though I could see nothing to show that any life was lost. The firemen were still at the scene with water dripping off their hoses.


Any hopes of reaching Lagos by sunset went up in smoke after we managed to navigate our way out of Sapele, even the passengers the driver had promised to take to Benin (Edo State, Midwest Nigeria) received the shock of their lives when the driver only managed to take them to a bypass to Benin, and despite pleas and later insults from the affected passengers, stood his ground till they reluctantly alighted from the bus, much to everyone's relief, as one of the aggrieved passengers had threatened to ensure that the bus didn't go on to Lagos unless they were taken to their agreed destination. I felt very sad for them been dealt such a hard one by the driver, but because it was now sunset, and we still had a Lagos to reach, I ignored the activism bug gnawing at my innards, and elected to be quiet while the banters lasted, than go against my will to support the driver beside me with the injustice he had just meted out to hapless passengers that late in the evening, the best I could do in a wrong situation that somehow favoured me.


Once those passengers eventually agreed to leave, I changed seats away from the middle front, to the seat directly behind the driver. Now famished, I reached for my roast fish (that I bought in Port Harcourt) and bread (remnant of my meal the night before at the hotel in Rumuomasi), and munched away at it with alacrity while the bus roared away into the night over asphalt. My phones were now beginning to ring from family and friends whom I had intimated of my movement, and had probably calculated that I'd be either here or there, only to be disappointed that I was nowhere closer to any of their estimated positions.


We made Òrè by some minutes before nine o'clock, and the driver made for an empty petrol station where he got some water to wash the windscreen of the bus. I, like other passengers stepped out to stretch my legs, and though there were groceries on all sides, stacked up small baskets and bowls for sale, with no one  to sell them to us. I had heard tales of places in Nigeria like this where locales who know what the groceries cost, simply pick from the lot and drop the money on the trays, and the traders come in the morning to find the money and goods intact. Since none of the passengers picked, bought or paid for anything, I followed in their footsteps to simply feed my eyes on the fruits on display before walking back to the bus, where the driver was already waiting for us to continue the journey.


Luckily, till we got to Lagos the journey from that point onwards was without incidence. My phone's battery was now in the Battery Saver mode, and my power bank had long before then run out of stored power, so I could no more listen to music of my choice or mark my presence on social media. That was when I noticed that only the speaker in the driver's space worked, and because of the speed and windy air from the open windows, twas difficult for us passengers behind to hear what was been played on the stereo, except when the bus slowed down. But even when I managed to hear some of the songs he was playing, I didn't feel too bad been left out.


We eventually reached Lagos by some minutes to midnight, and I could see the faces of the taxi drivers light up in anticipation of a "killing" in bargains so late at night, especially if any of us travellers were new in town and didn't know the going rates of taxiing in Lagos. This was home soil to me, so when one of them approached me, I spoke to him in a tone he understood, knowing full well that the choice open to him was to say no to my offering and remain hopeful for something better or agree to my request. Once we reached a deal, I was soon on my way home. I felt good having achieved all but one of my objectives for going on this tour, the only one being a journey to Nigeria's Southeast, my region of origin that I had decided against going from Port Harcourt because I felt I could always go to the east for one reason or the other. Unfortunately, I never envisaged that such a thing as the death of my father would be one of such reasons to bring me back to the homeland.


'kovich

NAIJA TOUR (13)

By the time I got to the park in Waterlines, Port Harcourt (South-south Nigeria/Niger Delta) it was past one in the afternoon, and I had already made up my mind to take a raincheck on going to Anambra State in the Southeast. Waterlines seemed the only part of Port Harcourt where you could find commercial transport buses painted in other colors besides the usual light blue and white colours (understandably because most of the buses there ply interstate routes, bearing the colour of their parent companies, sometimes even states, as with state owned commercial buses and saloon cars) which is the states' official colours, even as the states' TV station, Rivers State TV- RSTV shows. I have found that in most states bordering the water bodies like lagoons, rivers, or the Atlantic in Nigeria, the colour of public transportation, sometimes even state emblems include the light Blue colour, like in Lagos where the official public transportation colour is yellow/orange with two black stripes, you find that most of the ones plying the Island route are painted in the white and blue.

Though it is considered late to be deciding to go to Lagos at the time of day I decided to so do from Port Harcourt, it seemed to the right thing to do, especially as I had achieved all that I had intended to businesswise. Besides Lagos is one of the few places I could arrive at at any time of the day or night and not feel lost or fear any evil come to me. I in fact scare people when I come upon them at so late an unholy hour. I reckoned that as I still live, I will always have reason to go to the east, to counter the guilt I was beginning to feel for cutting off that part of my itinerary because of the protest by the pro-Biafra agitators in Onitsha when I first intended to go to the east a few days back. When it comes to travel however, my instincts have never proved wrong, if it said to go to Lagos (despite the time), then to Lagos I should go.

That was how I boarded the minibus to Lagos as the penultimate passenger. Sitting in front beside the driver appeared to be the better option, though it wasn't what I would ordinarily do, particularly because a seat belt wasn't available for any passenger intending to sit there. I wouldn't even consider the  window side seat in front even with the seat belt (for the very obvious reason that in the unfortunate occurrence of a road traffic accident, those who sit in front stand the risk of more injury, even death). My seat of preference is usually way back in the bus (window side) two rows behind and same side of the driver, when I am early enough to choose, otherwise any where else besides the front will just about do it for me.

Luckily, the gear stick was such that is located on the dashboard, just beside the steering wheel, totally eliminating the discomfort due to the passenger in my place, when placed beside the driver and the passenger in the middle, where the driver's hand would hit the passenger's thighs routinely as he makes to change gears. That positive though didn't remove from the fact that the lack of a seat belt for the "middleman" meant that each time the vehicle jerks I be the only one to have to lurch forward, and hence I had to be very conscious and awake to ensure that I didn't jump outta the vehicle after shattering the windscreen, when the driver makes a dangerous swerve on speed in his attempt to be in Lagos before, or at least not too long after dusk.

Finally, after about an hour since I arrived at the park, the bus waltzed out of the motorpark, out of Waterlines road into the persisting traffic of the Trunk B road on our way out of Port Harcourt. It was the day before the gubernatorial elections in neighbouring Bayelsa State and from precedence I was aware that movements would be restricted on elections day, which would've meant traveling to Lagos via the Southeast from Port Harcourt, which is way longer than via the Niger Delta/South-South. The way elections are taken in the Niger-Delta is quite unlike the rest of Nigeria, as contending parties give it all it takes, including the kidnap of opponents or members of their families, and the attendant killings, just so that the winners can gobble up funds accruing to the states into private pockets, evidenced by the paucity of meaningful development despite massive accruals in tandem with their status as Oil Producing States, from Federal Allocations.  

Years back when the Niger Delta was base for me, I had asked an elder why the region always went in the direction of the government at the centre, he replied that it was the only way prosperity could be assured the people, to which I responded by pointing to the squalor around us then in Finima, in Bonny Island, Rivers State. I mentioned to him Lagos State (in Nigeria's Southwest), which prospered despite not only been in opposition to the central government but even had Local Government allocations denied it, for having the guts to declare new Local Government Areas, LGAs which later became Local Council Development Areas, LCDAs. This was in 2007 before Goodluck Ebele Jonathan from Bayelsa State became President.

Interestingly, on the day I was making my journey to Lagos from Port Harcourt last December, Bayelsa State was in the throes of an election to maintain it's status as a People’s Democratic Party, PDP state, now in opposition while Rivers State was awaiting a Supreme Court ruling that will maintain it's PDP status if it upturned the Appeal Court ruling that had decided in favour of rerun of the gubernatorial elections, which the opposition All Progressives' Congress, APC celebrated, even though they'd have preferred victory awarded them by the court. That election in Bayelsa State will be declared inconclusive and reruns held in Southern Ijaw Local Government and a few polling stations in other local governments, and PDP will go on to win eventually. The Supreme Court also went on to rule in favour of the PDP declaring that the PDP candidate wasn't given fair hearing by the election tribunals ab initio amongst other reasons. In the end, all but one of the six Niger Delta states are now controlled by the opposition, a change brought about by the fact that their party which once controlled the centre, and till a few months ago, led by a son of theirs lost the centre to the opposition. What seemed out of place in 2007, has now become the order in the Niger Delta in 2016.

I have always felt that if Lagos that boasts of no natural resources, without special derivations from the federal allocations, despite its status as a former administrative capital can do it, Niger Delta states being the home of Nigeria's greatest foreign exchange earner, with an expansive shoreline, despite federal allocations tilted to and in their favour, with some ingenuity and sincerity of purpose can do far better than they are presently doing. It is disheartening to find a Niger Delta State amongst those owing staff salaries, with several abandoned projects dotting the landscape, not least of which is the MONORAIL project embarked upon by the immediate governor of Rivers State, (Rt. Hon.) Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi


THE NOW ABANDONED MONORAIL PROJECT IN PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA

who incidentally is the Transport Minister in the present President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, making one wonder when antecedents ceased to be used as criteria for apportioning portfolios, even if he must be made minister, and that's besides the heavy burden of corruption hanging over his neck, which the Economic and  Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has conveniently elected to overlook, as it intensifies its anticorruption battle (spearheaded by the president) against the opposition PDP.

Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital looked quite peaceful when we passed through, but I could sense the tense atmosphere, in the way posters of the two top contending candidates for the guber elections were intentionally pasted on top of each other, in layers after layer, with the last person to paste been the winner for the day. I surmised that the job of putting up the posters, either on a tabula rasa, or over that of the other candidate would be a job for the night amidst armed guarding by the pasters' peers to forestall "accidental discharge", from thugs of the opposing party or group. The Niger Delta replete with cult groups, militant groups and the likes are war zones during elections, though their activities continue brazenly before and after elections, only that they are better funded by politicians during the electioneering periods.

In the elections that took place the following day to when I passed through Bayelsa, and the rerun that took place much later in January this year, lives were reportedly lost in clashes between the varying groups, during attempts at ballot box snatchings and attempts at warding miscreants off polling booths/units, while it was reported that security agencies contracted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to maintain peace and order, took sides. Unfortunately in Nigeria, deaths from clashes during elections, as with clashes amongst cult groups in the Niger Delta, like those at the hands of marauding Fulani herdsmen nationwide (though with particular emphasis to Nigeria's Northcentral region or middle belt), or at the hands of Islamic Fundamentalist Groups like Boko Haram in Nigeria's North East, naturally go uninvestigated by the police, and perpetrators many times walk the streets free, till maybe they meet their waterloo at the hands of a revenge team/squad by those wronged by their former activities (who are then sometimes arrested by the police, and freed if they can make the police an offer they couldn't reject).

Though the Rivers State portion of the East-West Road was uncompleted as at the time I passed in December. The part as you enter into Bayelsa and onwards was well paved and made the journey seamless. Most of what happened with the Rivers State section of the road was political, due to the no love lost relationship between the then Governor Amaechi and former President Goodluck Jonathan. It will be interesting to see if Amaechi who is now Minister of Transport can prevail on his friend and former Lagos State governor, and minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (who also has an unenviable record of abandoned projects in Lagos in the Housing Sector- Lagos HOMS, and like Amaechi in a Light Rail project that is beginning to also look like a white elephant project) to look favourably on that road, most importantly ask his former Commissioner for information, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, who now heads the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC to commit to the building of that aspect of the road, or allow his seeming hatred towards Governor Nyesom Wike to stifle development in his home state. I wondered if he will attempt to rejuvenate the monorail project he started as governor, but has now joined the list of Nigeria's White Elephant Projects (by governors looking for enduring legacies to massage their megalomaniacal egos), now as minister even routinely inspecting the rail projects initiated (both completed and almost completed) by the immediate past President Jonathan's regime, nationally as we made good speed through Bayelsa onwards Lagos, making me believe that we may in fact make Lagos before dusk!

'kovich

PHOTO CREDIT:
- http://www.africaupdates.com

NAIJA TOUR (12)

How is it that I forgot to talk about toiletries in these two and three star hotels that I find myself cocooning in when I travel in my previous instalment of the tours? Anyway, seeing that my treatise will be incomplete without letting you in on hotel choices based on simple things as those, I will now do exactly that if you'd allow me some paragraphs before I return to the core of my tale, as what I am about to share with you can help you guess how posh the hotel you're staying in is, in Nigeria that is. Of course you know you get full options, even dry-cleaning with the four or five star hotels, and seeing that I have very little experience with such, I won't bother about that, particularly as I have no intention of regaling you with lies.

Now back to the two or three stars (I am intentionally ignoring the one star hotels you find almost every where in Lagos as elsewhere, with whores swarming over the whole place/bars that serve as "negotiating points"), and how toiletries could point you to what to expect. Most of these hotels have miniature soaps, as well as a toilet paper and towel. The better graded ones, that instils confidence in you to expect a fairly good service would have the miniature soaps of popular brands such as Lux, Joy, Imperial Leather, and the likes while the ones at the bottom of the ladder have the not so popular brands, sometimes no soap though this is rare, except you are in for "short time" for some indiscretion or a business meeting, you'd rather not conduct in the lobby or bar of the hotel.

I used to think that three star hotels must have a branded towel, but I have long perished that thought having been to some hotels, like the one in Rumuomasi area of Port Harcourt which had everything four star hotel managers could only but envy, yet served the ordinary towel, though I always make provision for my own towel when traveling and hardly ever need the hotels'. It's either they couldn't care any less about such "trivia" as many little things that truly matter is fast becoming in today's Nigeria or they actually truly know but currently constrained to do so by one factor or the other. The hotel in Rumuomasi where I spent my my last night in Rivers State did have the miniature soap of a popular brand, but not a branded towel. The toilet roll was soft and of high quality, which is a plus for a three star.

The only problem I have found with hotels in the South-south of Nigeria is the TV. I still don't understand why they can't be linked to reputable cable TV companies rather than the uninspiring connections they link to that make me wonder if they actually pay for such or are beneficiaries of some kind of illegal connections that allow them a few rather than all the channels. One three star hotel I stayed  in two years ago in Benin even had one station devoted to porn, and it seemed they were streaming it from the hotels central DVD player to all the rooms, and it was so unkempt that the first room I was allotted to had a used condom on the  floor, and while I was leaving very early the next morning, I got directions on how to get a cab to the nearest interstate bus terminal from hookers who where on their way home from the hotel (after a hard night's job).

As I did not have a pending engagement the next morning, I decided to wait till noon, about the time I would've fully exhausted my "time" at the hotel, before leaving for my next destination. My wait was not without an interruption from a cleaning staff who thought the room was empty of its guest. I didn't feel it was right to leave Port Harcourt without bidding farewell to the one who made the connections for the deal I was pursuing there possible. From the hotel, I went back to the place where Shell Staff were attending a trade fair organized for them, saw my contact person before leaving to trek some distance in order to get to a part of the road where traffic was freer.

It was while I was on this trek along Old Aba Road, that I came upon a grill with plantains, yams and Fish at different stages of "readiness for consumption" and couldn't help but think to get me some helping of some of the "fish head" 'pon the grill. I figured it will be anathema to come to the heart of "Rivers" State and not taste of the local delicacy (like leaving Abuja in Nigeria's Northcentral without "Kilishi"), even if I was on my way out of town, and didn't exactly have the appetite to "chow" that at the moment. My eyes and my stomach were sending contradictory messages to me, but my brain knew better to insist that I go for it, as my gut which didn't want it now, may be dying for it later while ruing missed opportunities.

THE GRILL WITH PLANTAIN, YAMS AND FISH ALONG OLD ABA ROAD, PORT HARCOURT

Even my left hand had already gone for my wallet, and the fingers on my right flipping through the wads to make up the appropriate sum, enough to cover the cost of buying the fish head which had suddenly appeared to shine more and simmer in the sun to becoming more enticing and irresistible. Before I could even say fi-, I was already haggling for a good bargain for the fish and felt even more fulfilled buying the grilled fish than I was when I sealed a deal a day ago, a short distance from where I was standing. I had the vendor wrap the fish in many layers of old newspaper, to prevent it from soiling my bag and other contents of the space I was going to put the fish in. She also helped me put the sauce in a small nylon bag wrapped within many layers of paper to prevent it from spilling. I tucked my prize in one of the many compartments on my backpack and set off to continue my journey.

I wanted just to get out of town and head for the Southeast which I had passed on my way to Port Harcourt because of the pro-Biafra protest situation in Onitsha, which I gathered had by then dissipated, though the airwaves and social media was trending with issues surrounding the propriety or not of the security agencies deploying strong arm tactics in dispersing and quelling the protests, in which one person, a female (protester?) was "officially" confirmed dead and several others injured. I say officially, because in Nigeria such information has the official and unofficial versions, with the unofficial number of deaths being more than the official, as well as most often than not found to be closer to the truth than the official.

I managed to join passengers in a cab going to Waterlines, an area in Port Harcourt where you can find buses to virtually any state capital and major town in Nigeria. I had forgotten how bad traffic used to be in Port Harcourt, especially in the days after the use of motorbikes as means of transportation was banned there a few years back, and finding myself in one on that day deeply upset me. All of the time I spent in that cab just thinking and wondering might have somehow sown a seed in me that germinated into my decision to call off the journey to the Southeast, where really I had no business to pursue except for the purpose of refreshing myself with the allure and peace of mind that the homeland affords as well as the eustress that just being in a  familiar terrain enables.

'kovich