tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61592029523078471812024-03-08T06:26:50.729-08:00Random Musingsfriendship aside, only freedom is sacredOlu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-45027728462872823662016-04-22T19:45:00.001-07:002016-04-22T19:45:35.266-07:00Thoughts on the article: "George Soros on ending the war on drugs"<blockquote class="embedly-card" data-card-key="589a2768354a492aa2058ff798dbd734" data-card-type="article-full">
<h4>
<a href="https://www.virgin.com/virgin-unite/george-soros-ending-war-drugs?fb_action_ids=10153852096069279&fb_action_types=og.shares#.VwkPzbozsrs.facebook">George Soros on ending the war on drugs</a></h4>
"It is a sad irony that aggressive drug policing and harsh drug laws are often justified by policy-makers on public health and security grounds. Basic economic theory tells us that the criminalisation of mood-altering drugs, combined with overemphasis on supply control strategies, dramatically increases the price of these drugs without significantly reducing production or consumption.</blockquote>
<br />
<script async="" charset="UTF-8" src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js"></script><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.08px;">I have never understood the rationale for the criminalisation of drugs...amounts to unnecessary and overbearing state intervention/control. I understand even less how alcohol and cigarettes are legal but other things are not.<br /><br />From the point of view of </span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.08px;">philosophy of law, it is even less easy to grasp how such laws can be justified. But I suppose laws need not be justified - they are often merely a reflection of the balance of power in a given society.</span>Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-81050173475976915982016-04-22T19:38:00.001-07:002016-04-22T19:40:22.786-07:00Thoughts on the article "Sister Outsider" on Nigerian feminism<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.08px;"></span></span><br />
<h1 class="title" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 17.6px;"><blockquote class="embedly-card" data-card-key="589a2768354a492aa2058ff798dbd734" data-card-type="article-full">
<h4>
<a href="http://chimurengachronic.co.za/sister-outsider-2/">Sister Outsider</a></h4>
Yemisi Aribisala rails against the new fundamentalism cresting the wave of global feminism sweeping Nigeria. She challenges the gender imperialism implicit in its aspiration to uniform ideas of celebrity, power, erudition and beauty.</blockquote>
</span></span></h1>
<h1 class="title" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 17.6px;"><script async="" charset="UTF-8" src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js"></script></span></span></h1>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.08px;">
</span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.08px;">I have, for a while, sensed the danger that in a globalised world, a few simplistically-articulated norms will be imposed on a wide array of people via the mass media. And that this can be so powerful that it colours what one can observe in one's own l</span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.08px;">ocal environment. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.08px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.08px;">Yemisi Aribisala's piece attempts to re-localise the phenomenon of feminism...which is something that appeals to me. That is, bring the discussion back from the meaningless height at which the likes of Adichie jump on the bandwagon...down to a far more appropriate altitude for a topic that is, after all, cultural in nature!<br /><br />The truth is that the drivers of the popular feminism movement (Europeans) have a specific historical backdrop that they are trying to redress e.g. in a relatively recent England, a man's wife was effectively his property and huge restrictions existed on aspects of life that women could engage in. In Yorubaland, I see not a discriminatory historical backdrop but one of gender roles (I recognise the types of Yoruba women mentioned in the article). One would be hard-pressed to find evidence of widespread or institutionalised gender discrimination amongst the Yoruba or ancient Egyptians for example.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.08px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.08px;">In short, the article is a phenomenal piece - a logically yet passionately argued position oozing with freedom. An eminently fuckable piece. Recommended reading!</span></span><br />
<br />Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-75717430783534740062016-04-22T16:53:00.000-07:002016-04-22T18:25:08.514-07:00Africa’s numerous languages are dying!An article on the tragic demise of Africa's languages as we continue to speak foreign ones! Here's an extract. Click the link at the end to go to the full article.<br />
<br />
"<span style="background-color: white; color: #373a3c; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.7143px;">Today, some languages have become more prominent than the others due to the population and spread of people speaking them. Arabic, English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Manadarin (in no particular order) are the world’s most popular languages. But there are thousands of other languages spoken in some places that bring up interesting statistics.</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #373a3c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.7143px; margin-bottom: 30px;">
According to <a href="https://www.ethnologue.com/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #ffcd00; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Ethnologue</a>, there are 2, 138 living languages spoken by Africa’s over 1 billion population. Nigeria leads in the number of languages spoken per country with 526 languages. However, the more prominent languages in Nigeria are Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and pidgin in addition to English which is the country’s official language. Some of the remaining over 500 languages are dying as more indigenous speakers move to urban areas and fail to teach their children their native tongue. If the 526 languages were evenly spoken, Nigeria would have 342,205 speakers per language (assuming the country’s population is 180 million).</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #373a3c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.7143px; margin-bottom: 30px;">
Nigeria is followed by Cameroon with 281 languages spoken among its 22.5 million people. If the languages were evenly spoken throughout the country, 80,194 people would speak each language.</div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #373a3c; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.7143px;">The beauty of diversity of cultures and languages has fascinated the world for ages, but several languages are now going into extinction. As</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #373a3c; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.7143px;"> </span><a href="http://www.lessaccent.com/blog/language-diversity-whats-the-big-deal/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ffcd00; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.7143px; text-decoration: none;">lessaccent</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #373a3c; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.7143px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #373a3c; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.7143px;">rightly puts it; languages are not immortal. They need about 100,000 speakers at any given time to stay alive. But as long as people feel embarrassed for speaking a particular language, the number of speakers of such language will continue to reduce.</span>"<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thenerveafrica.com/474/africas-2138-languages-are-dying-but-why-should-we-care/">http://thenerveafrica.com/474/africas-2138-languages-are-dying-but-why-should-we-care/</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="embedly-card" data-card-key="589a2768354a492aa2058ff798dbd734" data-card-type="article-full">
<h4>
<a href="http://thenerveafrica.com/474/africas-2138-languages-are-dying-but-why-should-we-care/">Africa's 2,138 languages are dying, but why should we care?</a></h4>
Talk about Babel and language comes to mind. The word which means confusion was actually a city founded by a warrior, Nimrod in ancient Babylonia, according to biblical, Sumerian and Assyrian records.</blockquote>
<br />
<script async="" charset="UTF-8" src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js"></script><br />
<br />Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-69194585832377295722016-04-22T16:24:00.000-07:002016-04-22T17:31:08.335-07:00Of procrastination and the killing of dreamsProcrastination, they say, is the thief of time!<br />
<br />
This TED talk by Tim Urban really hits the nail on the head about the debilitating condition that procrastination can be, especially when dealing with something that does not by definition have a deadline. <br />
<br />
For many of us, an impending deadline is the catalyst for action and we tend to be able to summon the strength to act...just in time! <br />
<br />
But what of hopes and dreams that we never actualize because we have no one chasing us with a deadline? Tim Urban's hilarious take on the topic is highly recommended.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator.html" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-79887986126435184032015-03-22T12:00:00.002-07:002016-04-23T11:17:43.518-07:00Response to Ben Okri's lament about "Black Writers"On 27 December 2014, the UK's Guardian newspaper published an opinion by the acclaimed author, Ben Okri, titled " <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/27/mental-tyranny-black-writers">A mental tyranny is keeping black writers from greatness</a>". He lamented what he perceived as the monotony of African and Black writers in terms of subject matter. He noted for instance:<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">"The black and
African writer is expected to write about certain things, and if they don’t
they are seen as irrelevant. This gives their literature weight, but dooms it
with monotony. Who wants to constantly read a literature of suffering, of
heaviness? Those living through it certainly don’t; the success of much lighter
fare among the reading public in Africa proves
this point. Maybe it is those in the west, whose lives are untouched by such
suffering, who find occasional spice and flirtation with such a literature. But
this tyranny of subject may well lead to distortion and limitation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It is a curious fact that the greatest
short stories do not have, on the whole, the greatest or the heaviest of
subjects. By this I mean that the subject is not what is most important about
them. Rather, it is the way they are written, the oblique way in which they
illuminate something significant. Their overt subject might seem slight but
leads, through the indirect mirror of art, to profound and unforgettable
places. The overwhelming subject makes for too much directness. This leaves no
place for the imagination, for the interpretative matrix of the mind. Great
literature is almost always indirect."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">You can read the full article at the link below:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="embedly-card" data-card-key="589a2768354a492aa2058ff798dbd734" data-card-type="article-full">
<h4>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/27/mental-tyranny-black-writers">A mental tyranny is keeping black writers from greatness | Ben Okri</a></span></h4>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Living as we do in troubling times, we look to writers to reflect the temper of the age. The essential thing is freedom. A people cannot be great or fulfilled without it. A literature cannot be great without it either. The basic prerequisite of literature is freedom.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><script async="" charset="UTF-8" src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js"></script></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="color: purple;">BELOW WAS MY RESPONSE:</b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Ben Okri is,
as I imagine we all know, an artistic writer - a brilliant one at that. So it
is not surprising that he would take a stand for fiction-writing as art...art
as an end in itself. However, I have the following objections to his article:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0.5rem; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">1) The broad-brush generalisations
about the aim of literature is nonsensical at best. Literature is itself art,
the very crafting of a novel need not have stylistic-artistic appreciation as
its sole aim...in fact, literature would be poorer if that were the case. Another
function of literature is indeed the recording of history e.g. Dickens'
portrait of a poverty-stricken England, Achebe's explanation of the impact of
colonialism on the colonised.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0.5rem; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">2) Okri's yardstick of artistic
brilliance is mainly the art that emanated in an overly-pretencious European
moment...an art endowment that was created against the backdrop of tyranny and
oppression....and by artists highly-favoured (and, so, commissioned by
dictatorial monarchs). That is, art cooked in an anti-freedom kitchen! The fact
that these artworks serve as the standard-setters (as opposed to Benin bronzes,
Egyptian and Sudanese pyramids, or the likes) in Okri's imagination is itself a
product of a mind, however utterly brilliant, unfree!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0.5rem; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">3) Whatever disdain Okri may have for
some writers who happen to be African (or "black" which he supposes
is a different thing or an acceptable tag!), Okri, as a competitor of these
writers, doesn't get to adjudicate literary merit...I don't believe such power
comes with winning the Booker prize.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0.5rem; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">4) Okri's article seems to suggest
that once the subject is heavy, the art will suffer. However, writers such as
Salman Rushdie and Wole Soyinka (incredible writer even if not primarily a
novelist) have produced artistic works that are nevertheless centred on heavy
subject matters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0.5rem; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">5) Writers, like all artists, need
inspiration. And many find inspiration in the things that affect them and
matter to them. How then should the fact of colonialism not have weighed
heavily on the hearts of colonial and post-colonial African writers? Or slavery
to have escaped the attention Toni Morrison? Can Adichie really have ignored
the tremendously destructive war fought in the aftermath of Biafra's demand for
independence?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0.5rem; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Not every African writer writes about
the heavy subjects or does so without art. Amos Tutuola wrote about a man
intoxicated on palm wine in a book published during Nigeria's colonial days
(which Okri himself mildly alludes to)!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
Yours,<br />
<br />
<br />Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-45089346196608892152015-02-17T07:57:00.001-08:002015-02-17T07:57:31.199-08:00Buhari v Jonathan: the poverty of leadership<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Buhari v Jonathan: the poverty of
leadership<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Olu Omoyele<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">16
February, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“<i>If
we cannot compel greatness in our leaders, we can at least demand basic
competence. We can insist on good, educated leaders while we wait and pray for
great ones. Even divine leaders have needed precursors to make straight their
way</i>.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">-
Chinua Achebe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Introduction<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A
common saying that I have retained from my childhood is: “let’s call a spade a
spade”. You might ask me what else one would call it. Well, you could call
it shovel I should think, since they are, admittedly, remarkably similar tools.
So, let’s call it what it is. Nigeria is in a mess institutionally and
territorially; and yet it holds tremendous potential promise. Both these realities are seemingly pulling it
in opposite directions, sometimes violently. It is perhaps no wonder that a country cobbled
together and compelled into forced cohabitation by colonialist Britain,
continues to struggle against itself half-a-century since apparent political
independence. It is after all, a foetal
nation, conceived in the imagination of interlopers, raised by soldiers and run
for much of the past four decades by a very small cabal of self-serving
gangsters. Presidential elections have
become war-like, and temperatures habitually rise to such an extent that it is
impossible to pretend that the candidates or their sponsors and supporters
aspire to office either to serve the public good or at least to do a job as set
out in the job description or employment contract.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
2015 elections are no different and it has been as polarising as ever. Reason has departed many of us; although
perhaps that is a permanent condition for a sizeable number of us. There are a multitude of candidates as usual
and, unsurprisingly, two are considered front-runners: the incumbent Goodluck
Jonathan and perennial challenger Muhammadu Buhari. As usual, the public debate has been poor
with only a handful of sensible debates going on. Even the typically impressive input from the
former central bank governor, Chukwuma Soludo only managed to elicit an
uncharacteristically disjointed rant in response from the office of the finance
minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.<b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Goodluck Jonathan</span></b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
the five years that he has been president, Jonathan has shown neither the mental
fortitude nor the courage needed to lead this, admittedly complex,
country. Now that the time has come to
explain what he has done so far and justify why anyone should believe in what
he might do in future, he has predictably come unstuck. Jonathan, like Olusegun Obasanjo before him,
has developed the arrogance of incumbency which, coupled with the collective
self-delusion of the ruling political party (with their belief that they have
somehow cornered the market for a corrupt patronage system, and that they would
inevitably continue to produce the president for decades to come), has made him
vulnerable and weak to political attack.
His inability, or unwillingness, to decisively address the issues of
electricity, oil and gas, Boko Haram and rampant unemployment as well as his
cavalier attitude towards public perceptions of public-sector corruption means
that he has failed to deliver on what he promised. And even in the areas of infrastructural
development, industry, privatisation as well as agriculture (where he has made
but only token progress), he has been utterly unable to make a case for himself
to the electorate. Instead of seeking to
assert what he has done, admit the numerous errors he has made and state what
he plans to do, he seems to always be responding from a defensive position. Jonathan fails to understand that he appears
to lack urgency in the very matters on which the public demand the utmost
urgency. He simply fails to lead
decisively and fails to listen to the led.
At times, it seems, he fails to think, otherwise the decision to pardon
former Bayelsa State governor Diepreiye Alamieyeseigha would have been to him
an obvious non-starter. Carrying on from
the Yar’Adua presidency of which he was a major participant, Jonathan has
squandered (in addition to tremendous goodwill five years ago)
not-insignificant oil savings from the Obasanjo administration, and has failed
to save new money despite governing, for the most part, in an era of relatively
high oil prices. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
offence that really affects the emotional consciousness of the Nigerian
populace has been the story of the shocking kidnap of hundreds of schoolchildren,
by Boko Haram. Although, there were, and are, many political forces
at play with regards to this tragic issue, Jonathan’s hapless non-strategy for
dealing with the problem has made him appear consistently helpless to confront
it. And yet, just as important and
affecting is the sheer lack of progress on electricity despite tremendous
promises before the 2011 election; and the manner in which the planned reform
of the oil & gas sector has been allowed to stall irrevocably and the draft
watershed legislation watered down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Muhammadu Buhari<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Buhari
is incomprehensibly ambitious, desperate for an office for which he is clearly
incapable. He has been head of state
before so we know exactly what he is capable of. But, like Obasanjo (successfully) and
Babangida (unsuccessfully), he wants to make a triumphant return. The voters have said No three times already
but, still, he asks again, despite declaring in 2011 that he would never do so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Like
Jonathan, Buhari has done what most politicians do: make empty promises. For example, he promises, in his manifesto,
to “<i>Create a Social Welfare Program of at
least Five Thousand Naira (N5000) that will cater for the 25 million poorest
and most vulnerable citizens</i>”, without stating how he would fund it. His manifesto also makes some illogical but superficially
grand statements, such as a promise to: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“<i>create an additional middle-class of at
least 4 million new home owners by 2019 by enacting a national mortgage single
digit interest rates for purchase of owner occupier houses as well as review
the collateral qualification to make funding for home ownership easier, with a
15 to 30 year mortgage terms. This will equally help our banking system migrate
from short to long term perspective of their role in sustaining the economy</i>”
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Buhari,
if elected, would fashion out of thin air a new four-million strong addition to
the middle class, and the magic tool with which to achieve this would be the
compulsion of private-sector banks to forcefully lend at single-digit interest
rates? A significant number of people would
become “middle class” simply because they would have borrowed to purchase their
homes? Not that, as a result of greater employment
and entrepreneurship, people would be able to afford to purchase their homes,
and that economists might choose to tag them middle class? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Promises
without a credible way to pay for them or a workable plan to execute them are<span style="color: #141823;"> </span>nonsensical at best! After all, Jonathan promised
a lot in 2011, many of which have not materialised! The case against Jonathan
is fairly clear i.e. uninspiring and clueless "leadership". However, the case "for" Buhari
remains to be made. It is not simply that it has not been convincingly made;
only that it has not been made at all or put more plainly, Buhari appears a
thoroughly poor choice for any political leadership position. Should Buhari win in March, it would only
confirm that Nigerians agree with him that leadership requires no preparation,
no pertinent skillsets, and no rational policy underpinning. That an
un-educated, ostensibly unintelligent, former soldier with no discernible
experience of employment or entrepreneurship can, for a fourth time, ask us if
he can be president of a ridiculously diverse 180m people, $500bn-plus economy,
and receive our assent. And apparently, his only qualification is a disastrous 20-month
stint as a heavy-handed, authoritarian military head of state - a position he
acquired by forcefully aborting the democratic government of Shehu Shagari and
subjugating the constitution (an act of treason no less). Just to think that but for Buhari’s insolence,
we may well have been spared not only Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha but
also Obasanjo's second coming. I wonder
what Dele Giwa, Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight other executed members of the
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people (MOSOP), or the unfortunate,
exterminated inhabitants of the communities of Odi and Zaki-Biam would think of
that!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A tragedy unfolds<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We
are watching a tragedy unfold (and, yet, we are “<i>suffering and smiling” </i>our way through it). We have on the one hand,
an incompetent incumbent and on the other hand, a ludicrous and ill-suited
candidate (one whose very candidacy is shocking enough, talk less of being
taken seriously as a leadership contender). But instead of an "Occupy
Nigeria" to demand that we want different candidates, that they must meet
some minimum requirements e.g. have been in senior leadership positions, no
older than, say, 50 years old, and can put forward properly-costed policy
objectives and are, yes, degree-educated! After all, Nigeria is a country of
mostly young people, who are becoming increasingly technologically savvy, are (or want to be) educated and who are full of many
hopes and dreams!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now,
quite apart from the huge problems that Nigeria faces today, we are also
sitting on a time-bomb: a huge and fast-growing population, and unless that
size "problem" is converted into an "asset", we are heading
for untold chaos over the coming decades. So, in addition to dealing with the
immense issues of the day, successive governments need to be planning for the
future of these peoples e.g. roads, railway, water, electricity, jobs,
education, healthcare, security, housing etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The public debate<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
our ridiculously low-quality public debate about Buhari v Jonathan (punctuated
only by moments of sensible arguments by the likes of Chukwuma Soludo<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
and Jide Akintunde<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>),
I have </span>rea<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">d </span>some <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">people online refer to
Buhari as “honest”, “transparen</span>t<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">”, “has integrity” and
“good record”. I have even read someone,
as shockingly as it might seem, refer to him as having the “best personality”
and "loves his neighbour as much as he loves his family and himself”. Sounds like a mythical messiah to me, but as
words to describe the unintelligent, autocratic, heavy-handed major-general who
committed treason by aborting Nigeria's democracy in 1983, and under whom $2.8bn
of oil money disappeared while he was the petroleum minister and who in the
intervening three decades since being deposed has done nothing (not worked, nor
run a business nor studied), says more about us Nigerians than it does about
Buhari!</span> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
certainly welcomed Soludo's intervention in the debate, especially as it
brought the topic of the economy to the fore. Otherwise, I might have been
stuck dreaming of increasingly clever ways of keeping myself immune from such
base conversations as Muslim/Christian ticket; federal character; "I'm
going to eradicate corruption if you elect me"; and whether a candidate
for president has formal education beyond primary school!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
the masterful writer, humanist and seasoned anti-oppression campaigner, Wole
Soyinka, decided to chime into the debate, I was naturally full of hope that
the debate would be elevated even further. However, I must state categorically that, to a
fan of Soyinka, like myself, his opinion piece on the issue at hand, titled: “<i>The Challenge of Change – A Burden of Choice</i>”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> is
surprisingly weak on arguments and disappointingly one-sided. To be frank, I was dejected by the nature of
his pseudo-apologies for Buhari’s crimes and otherwise unsuitability. Soyinka's plea for a “leap of faith” in
Buhari's elective favour is, to my mind, entirely baseless. It is without any
evidence, even of the circumstantial (and, therefore, dubious) sort. Soyinka offered no rationale whatsoever for
making this leap of faith personally and even less as to justify why the
populace should follow suit. Despite posing the obvious question in
reference to Buhari: “<i>…is there such a phenomenon as a genuine
“born-again”? It is largely around this question that a choice will
probably be made</i>”, Soyinka nevertheless proceeds to answer by merely asserting
that surely Buhari must-have-would-have changed by now. If, understandably, the reader still doubts
whether our own living legend, the Kongi himself said this, well please read
this beautifully-crafted piece of prose-poetry from the article:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“<i>It is pointlessly, and dangerously
provocative to present General Buhari as something that he provably was
not. It is however just as purblind to insist that he has not
demonstrably striven to become what he most glaringly was not, to insist that he
has not been chastened by intervening experience and – most critically - by a
vastly transformed environment – both the localized and the global.</i>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">How
exactly has Buhari demonstrably striven to become what he most glaringly was
not? He was not democratic (having
bull-dozed his way into power by instigating a <i>coup d’etat</i> against the democratically-elected Shehu Shagari), he
was not an inspirational leader able to coordinate a range of views and skill-sets from others, and
he has not been an adherent of secular government in a country of numerous
religious affiliations and degrees of non-affiliations. He was instead an autocratic dictator who
stiffened dissent harshly, assaulted and imprisoned thousands of citizens without
due process and executed people with retroactive laws. Have we forgotten how he sanctioned the
kidnap, drugging and attempted smuggling of President Shagari’s former adviser,
Umaru Dikko, from England? Or his decision
to unceremoniously expel hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians from Nigeria? So, since there is nothing to suggest that he
has striven, demonstrably or otherwise, to become what he most glaringly was
not, what proof do we have then that he has been chastened by intervening
experience(s)? He has not been
prosecuted or punished for his crimes, and he has never shown contrition for
his actions. In fact, he speaks
triumphantly, like a self-appointed saviour, with a natural right to lead us –
a reminder of Obasanjo’s messianic zeal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Is
one being unfair to Buhari? Were his
crimes all in the past (even leaving aside the lack of punishment) and has he
now been born anew? Has one
under-estimated the extent of Soyinka’s research into this candidate’s present character? Well, let us examine the evidence. In February 2015, a few days after Soyinka’s
piece, Buhari was interviewed on the American news channel, CNN. It was indeed illuminating to watch a clear
demonstration of the contempt in which this callous candidate holds
Nigerians. When confronted about his
past criminal atrocities, and was asked the question: “<i>have you changed or is this what the Nigerian people have to look
forward to?</i>”, Buhari mustered a smile and brazenly responded:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“<i>Well, all those things you mentioned, with a
degree of accuracy of actually what happened, was then under a military
administration and while that military administration came under my leadership,
we suspended the parts of the constitution that we felt would be difficult for
us to operate under in those circumstances.
I think I’m being judged harshly as an individual, that what happened
during military administration can be extended under multi-party democracy.</i>”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">No
remorse, no contrition, no apology. Only
that he was a military dictator then and the democratic system we have now
wouldn’t permit him to behave like that today; that is, it is not necessarily
that he wouldn’t want to. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
seems to one that Soyinka was being pointlessly and dangerously provocative by
presenting Buhari as something that he provably was not, and is demonstrably still
not. Otherwise, how do we convince ourselves that a former military
dictator of extremely doubtful competence, and yet doubtless heavy-handedness, <i>must have</i> somehow become benevolent overnight?
Such a leap of faith – and since <i>faith</i> refers to <i>blind belief </i>(i.e. belief in the absence of proof), this means a leap into the known-known (Buhari's character), in the hope
of a known-unknown (Buhari's reformed character) and on the basis of blind belief – is wilful,
wishful-thinking at best. And yet, comparing
Soyinka’s rhetoric now to those which he elucidated in 2007 and 2011 when Buhari
repeated his perennial "please elect me" question (having first posed
it in 2003), one can only conclude that Soyinka has also (as unpredictable as
such may have seemed before now) succumbed to the prevailing irrational
condition afflicting a significant and seemingly-growing number of Nigerians at
present: that is, the religiously and confidently-held belief that anyone but
Jonathan will do. As though, it could
not possibly become worse; and as if Jonathan – incompetent though he is – is
the worst leader Nigeria has had. For
the avoidance of doubt, he is not!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
his 2007 article “<i>The Crimes of Buhari -</i>
<i>The Nigerian Nation Against General Buhari</i>”,
Soyinka was characteristically scathing:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“<i>The grounds on which General Buhari is being
promoted as the alternative choice are not only shaky, but pitifully
naive. History matters. Records are not kept simply to assist the
weakness of memory, but to operate as guides to the future. Of course, we know
that human beings change. What the claims of personality change or
transformation impose on us is a rigorous inspection of the evidence, not
wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes assurances. Public offence, crimes
against a polity, must be answered in the public space, not in caucuses of
bargaining. In Buhari, we have been offered no evidence of the sheerest
prospect of change. On the contrary, all evident suggests that this is one
individual who remains convinced that this is one ex-ruler that the nation
cannot call to order</i>.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Then,
Soyinka was sure that rigorous inspection of the evidence was required, not
wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes assurances; and yet, in 2015, Soyinka
says the opposite:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“<i>I have studied him from a distance,
questioned those who have closely interacted with him, including his former
running-mate, Pastor Bakare, and dissected his key utterances past and current.
And my findings? A plausible transformation that comes close to that of
another ex-military dictator, Mathew Kerekou of the Benin Republic</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now,
Soyinka (of all people) indulges in wishful speculation and offers us
behind-the-scenes assurances from Bakare (Buhari’s eminently “objective”
running mate / vice-presidential candidate in 2011 no less). Well, one would respectfully suggest that
Soyinka make use of the record books to assist any weaknesses in his,
admittedly long, memory. After all as he
himself previously asserted, records are kept, in part, to operate as guides to
the future; pertinent one might say, now that the future of Nigeria is at
stake, the futures of hundreds of millions of hopes and dreams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Despite
this about-turn in favour of the former soldier, Soyinka is nonetheless a
deservedly-towering public figure in Nigeria; one that has been willing on
numerous occasions to suspend the pen and actually take matters into his own
hands to further the cause of Nigeria’s deliverance from the hands of the
ruinous cabal that has conspired to stunt its progress. Recall Soyinka taking over a radio station at
gun-point, or spending two years in Yakubu Gowon’s prison for daring to attempt
to broker a peace between Biafra and the rest of Nigeria at the time of the
civil war, or escaping Nigeria under the threat of death, or his numerous
public demonstrations. So, Soyinka has
suffered personally for his bravery, and we must never forget this; we must
never let this momentary lapse in judgment detract from a phenomenal life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And
yet, one must make a mental note of this moment because, hitherto, for half-a-century
and much of his adult life, Soyinka has been largely consistent, both in
rhetoric and temperament. As such, his shift
in four-to-eight short years is nothing short of seismic, as several commentators
have pointed out (see for example Chuks Iloegbunam’s “<i>Wole Soyinka and his seismic shift</i>”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
and Remi Oyeyemi’s “<i>Wole Soyinka v
Tokunbo Ajasin: The Ghost of Buhari’s Past</i>”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
his defence, Soyinka perhaps mindful that time might yet prove his leap of
faith utterly misguided asks us to keep our eyes open:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“<i>We must not be sanguine, or complacent.
Eternal, minute-to-minute vigilance remains the watchword. Whatever demons got
into a contestant to declare the spread of Sharia throughout the nation his
life mission must be exorcised – indeed, are presumed to be already exorcised.
Never again must any leader ban the discussion of democratic restoration in the
public arena. Nor must we ever again witness the execution – even imprisonment!
- of a citizen under retroactive laws. This persistent candidate seeks return,
but let him understand that it can only be as a debtor to the past, and that
the future cannot wait to collect.</i>”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
effect, Soyinka cajoles us to make a one-sided pact with Buhari, even when the
latter has voiced neither remorse for, nor promises of a non-repeat of,
past-transgressions. Although, just a
few years ago, Soyinka lamented Buhari’s lack of remorse and noted the lack of
evidence at any type of change in the latter, Soyinka now says we should take a
leap of faith…a leap of faith in the hope that Buhari has been chastened by
intervening experience, something that was all too glaringly missing from the
recent CNN television interview that Buhari did. Soyinka, a legend in my mind though he
remains, has done a U-turn of immense proportions, with no explanation, other
than the fact that he has joined the unintelligible “anyone but Jonathan”
chorus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
the event that Buhari “breaks” the one-sided pact that Soyinka recommends, one
in which Buhari has played no part or pledged any allegiance (and therefore of which
he could, with good reason, argue that non-compliance does not amount to betrayal),
Soyinka offers only a meek redress: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“<i>If this collective leap of faith is derided,
repudiated or betrayed under a renewed immersion in the ambiance of power or
retrogressive championing, of a resumption of clearly repudiated social
directions, we have no choice but to revoke an unspoken pact and resume our
march to that yet elusive space of freedom, however often interrupted, and by
whatever means we can humanly muster. And if in the process, the consequence is
national hara-kiri, no one can say that there had been no deluge of warnings</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">How
can Buhari betray that which he never promised?
After all, as Soyinka himself reminded us in 2007: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“<i>Buhari – need one remind anyone - was one of
the generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputa Panel, with
unconcealed disdain. Like Babangida and Abdusalami, he refused to put in
appearance even though complaints that were tabled against him involved a
career of gross abuses of power and blatant assault on the fundamental human
rights of the Nigerian citizenry.</i>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Enough
said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
choice is indeed a burden. There are no
absolutes in choice-making; at least no rational ones. Choice is about relativity; that is, pertaining
to relative merit. Placed alongside
someone even less desirable, an undesirable option would be the better
choice. It is clear that this is what
this election had come down to, and therein lays the tragedy for Nigerians
being made to submit to a future of woeful leadership and national
under-development whichever way they vote.
A real tragedy especially when one considers the moment of historical
significance that we inhabit, an era of in which Africa as a whole has a real
possibility of a re-birth, of re-rising into being - a chance to recast its own
drama, free of the corrosive effects of the heinous actions of Western and Arab
interlopers. A chance, that is, of a
recapture of lost lustre. And, yet,
Africa’s most significant economy will, most likely (though I would be most
glad if proven wrong), be piloted by wilful incompetence whichever way the
election of 2015 goes. It is this
poverty of leadership options, as presented, that the Nigerians, youthful as
they are (and, therefore, heavily invested in Future’s outcomes) should be
seriously concerned about and should actively cooperate to displace. Future’s probable theft should bother <i>the Nigerians</i>, should cause them such
palpitations that they refuse to acquiesce without a fight. As the phenomenal Noam Chomsky once remarked:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“<i>The smart way to keep people passive and
obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very
lively debate within that spectrum.</i>” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We
are now having a very lively, vigorous even, debate about the relative merits
of two candidates with almost equally-perplexing incapacities. Neither Jonathan nor Buhari possess the
emotional intelligence required to govern a country so divided: a nation
polarised by wealth, ethnicity, religion, education, access to mandatory
resources and language amongst other things.
Admittedly, emotional intelligence does not necessarily come with formal
education. As the ancient Greek thinker,
Aristotle, once noted: “<i>educating the
mind without educating the heart is no education at all</i>”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">To
conclude, let’s call a spade a spade: Jonathan has shown himself to be both
clueless in governance, unable to inspire, and also unable to argue his corner
in the limited areas of progress under his leadership. Buhari on the other hand is no better and is,
in my view, a worse and regressive leadership option for the position of
president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
So, what are we to do? I present
three options in order of preference:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Option
one</span></u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">:
The ideal, in my view, is a wholesale and popular rejection of both candidates
and a demand for alternatives from the two biggest parties. That is, an “Occupy Nigeria” (complete with
demonstrations, nationwide strikes and a boycott of the election if the same
candidates remain) for an issue that is actually worth the effort, unlike the
hugely discredited petroleum subsidy issue.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Option
two</span></u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">: Since there are twelve other candidates in
this election, we should seriously consider one of them, by dispassionately
analysing that candidate's merits and vote for him or her overwhelmingly. That would achieve two things: a) remove both the
ineffective Jonathan and the unrepentant Buhari from the fold; and b) bring to
the fore someone who genuinely has no connection whatsoever to the small cabal
of gangsters that have, for half-a-century, subjugated our nation to their
capricious whims. And perhaps, we might get lucky and find ourselves under the
leadership of an at-least-average chief executive of the federation. Now, for
that possibility, however remote, one is willing to take a leap of faith!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Option
three</span></u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">: However, in
the absence of the ideal, and a far-from-ideal choice still needing to be made,
then yes, one would keep clueless Goodluck Jonathan in office than risk a
terrifically worse version of a civilian Obasanjo, in the form of an even less-tolerant,
less-savvy and, yes, less-capable Muhammadu Buhari.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br />
- Olu Omoyele is the author of the books
"<i>Birthing a Nation: Nigeria, A
Century in the Making. . .</i>"<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
and "<i>A Plea for Memory</i>", a
collection of poetry<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Chinua Achebe, “<i>The Education of a British-Protected Child</i>”,
Penguin Books, 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Chukwuma Soludo, “Buhari vs
Jonathan: Beyond the Election”, Vangaurd, 25 January 2015,<span style="background: white; color: #444444;">
(<a href="http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/01/buhari-vs-jonathan-beyond-election-charles-soludo/">http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/01/buhari-vs-jonathan-beyond-election-charles-soludo/</a>).</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Jide Akintunde, “Buhari as
Option for the Defeat of Morality and Rationality”, Nigeria Development &
Finance Forum, January 2015, (</span><a href="http://www.nigeriadevelopmentandfinanceforum.org/PolicyDialogue/Dialogue.aspx?Edition=20296"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://www.nigeriadevelopmentandfinanceforum.org/PolicyDialogue/Dialogue.aspx?Edition=20296</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">).</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Wole
Soyinka, “<i>The Challenge of Change – A
Burden of Choice</i>” Sahara Reporters, 6 February 2015 (</span><a href="http://saharareporters.com/2015/02/06/challenge-change-%E2%80%93-burden-choice-prof-wole-soyinka"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">http://saharareporters.com/2015/02/06/challenge-change-%E2%80%93-burden-choice-prof-wole-soyinka</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Buhari’s interview CNN's Christiane Amanpour , 11 February 2015, (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGnoIDJFrZI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGnoIDJFrZI</a>)
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn6">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Wole Soyinka, “<i>The Crimes of Buhari</i> - <i>The Nigerian Nation Against General Buhari</i>”,
Sahara Reporters, 14 January 2007,</span> (<a href="http://saharareporters.com/2007/01/14/crimes-buhari-wole-soyinka">http://saharareporters.com/2007/01/14/crimes-buhari-wole-soyinka</a>)<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn7">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Chuks
Iloegbunam, “<i>Wole Soyinka and his seismic
shift</i>”, Elombah.com, 9 February 2015, (</span><a href="http://elombah.com/detail.php?world=29892"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">http://elombah.com/detail.php?world=29892</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">). </span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn8">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Remi
Oyeyemi’s “<i>Wole Soyinka v Tokunbo Ajasin:
The Ghost of Buhari’s Past</i>”</span>, Nigeria Village Square, 14 February
2015, (<a href="http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/wole-soyinka-vs-tokunbo-ajasin-the-ghost-of-buhari-s-past.html">http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/wole-soyinka-vs-tokunbo-ajasin-the-ghost-of-buhari-s-past.html</a>).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn9">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Wole
Soyinka, “<i>The Challenge of Change – A
Burden of Choice</i>” Sahara Reporters, 6 February 2015.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn10">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/BIRTHING-NATION-Nigeria-Century-Making-ebook/dp/B00LG20RD6">http://www.amazon.co.uk/BIRTHING-NATION-Nigeria-Century-Making-ebook/dp/B00LG20RD6</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn11">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Olu%20Omoyele/Desktop/OLU/LiTerature%20&%20Publications/BOOKS%20%20&%20ARTICLES%20-%20Publications/Buhari%20v%20Jonathan%20-%20the%20poverty%20of%20leadership.docx#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/PLEA-FOR-MEMORY-Olumide-Omoyele/dp/1491886757">http://www.amazon.co.uk/PLEA-FOR-MEMORY-Olumide-Omoyele/dp/1491886757</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-32672352224563492472012-04-14T03:56:00.002-07:002012-04-14T09:52:21.069-07:00World Bank Presidency - a question of politics or ability?As the race for the World Bank Presidency hots up, it occurred to me to drop a couple of lines of my thoughts on the issue. Three candidates emerged for the post: <br />
<br />
Jim Yong Kim (United States)<br />
<br />
An anthropologist and physician, Dr. Kim emigrated to the U.S. from South Korea with his family when he was 5, settling in Iowa. Dr. Kim, 52, co-founded Partners in Health, a non-profit agency that works in poorer countries, and ran the World Health Organization’s HIV-AIDS program. One of his WHO initiatives successfully treated three million AIDS patients in 2005.<br />
<br />
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Nigeria)<br />
<br />
A renowned performer on the international economic scene, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, 57, studied at Harvard University and MIT. Currently Nigeria's minister of finance (a post she held previuosly) and coordinating minister of the economy, she worked many years as an economist at the World Bank, most recently as a managing director.<br />
<br />
Jose Antonio Ocampo (Colombia)<br />
<br />
A respected development expert, Mr Campo, 59, lectures at Columbia University in New York. He was previously Colombia’s finance minister. He also held senior positions at the United Nations.<br />
<br />
Mr. Ocampo withdrew from the race yesterday, Friday 13 April 2012, having failed to win the support of his home government, which reportedly was concentrating its efforts on winning a different international post.<br />
<br />
That leaves us with two finalists: the Nigerian, Okonjo-Iweala and the American, Kim.<br />
<br />
The American nominee fails on two counts:<br />
<br />
a) he's a health expert - whilst health is important to development (development being the purported aim of the World Bank), it is only a by-product, a symptom if you like. Economics is the central aim of the Bank and so an economic expert is required. Further, the complex state of global economics today means that economic policies are what is required at this moment.<br />
<br />
b) he's an American. In a world where the forcefully-imposed American economic world order has finally begun its long-overdue descent and several others rising in it's place such as China, Brazil & Africa (note that Africa's economy is larger than even India's despite the latter being larger in size), oppressive organisations like the World Bank and the IMF need to adjust & modernise to maintain relevance or face the alternative: extinction!<br />
<br />
That leaves us with Okonjo-Iweala. According to the selection guidelines, which were updated in 2011, the ideal candidate should have run a big organisation and possess extensive diplomatic and multilateral experience. Here, Okonjo-Iweala comes out on top. She has extensive multilateral and diplomatic experience having spent over 20years at the World Bank (most recently as a Managing Director) dealing with economic matters for many south American, Asian, African and Middle-Eastern countries. She has also been finance minister in Nigeria (the 3rd fastest growing economy in the world, after Mongolia and China) twice. As a result, she has a well developed network of academic, political and economic relationships across the world which should aid her in dealing with the challenges an institution like the the World Bank. As a World Bank Managing Director, she led the recent negotiation of the $49bn funding package for the International Development Association (IDA) for the poorest countries around the world. Her credentials for the job are, therefore, outstanding.<br />
<br />
Barack Obama's decision to nominate Kim, a non-caucasian person, was predictable and callous. It betrays Obama's subsisting fears and continuing insecurities of being an African in charge of a caucasian-controlled country like the USA. Something that he betrays all too readily in the context of issues pertaining to Israel and Palestine. However, nominating a health expert, as opposed to an economic expert, is disrespectful to the world that the World Bank supposedly serves. If this is the political manner in which the institution will continue to be run going forward, then emerging economies should reconsider their continuing patronage of the institution and consider the possibility of creating an alternative.<br />
<br />
Finally, it is time for the World Bank to respond to the major shift in the global economic power (in terms of resources, trade, investment and growth) from the west to the emerging economies of Africa, Asia and South America. The International Monetary Fund must also make this important shift the next time around. The shift is important because the reality facing these two outdated and oppressive institutions is that they must stay relevant (by adapting to the world around them) or die!<br />
<br />
<br />
- Olu OmoyeleOlu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-18063815967232348622012-01-28T08:41:00.000-08:002016-04-22T20:11:56.269-07:00NAIJA: between progress and chaosThe uneasy and illogical conglomeration that is Nigeria is again, as it has been many times in the past, on the brink of "something big" or as a Lagosian streetsmart person might say, a "big something"! The question is of course whether what is impending is a big growth spurt fuelled by rapid industrialisation or a big fallout perpetuated in corruption and ignorance and from which a multifaceted and complex war might ensue.<br />
<br />
The recent furore surrounding the question of oil subsidy removal or retention has been latched onto by many bloggers & commentators as proof that we, the Nigerians, are standing up for ourselves. That we will no longer tolerate poor leadership. This was of course not the case! People took to the streets because cost of living suddenly shot up significantly as a direct result of the oil subsidy removal. People had to pay a lot more for goods and services which they objected to of course and they blamed the political leadership for it. We did not take to the streets because we suddenly acquired a certain daringness or political savviness. We are a collection of soulful, yet misguided peoples with a penchant for celebration, hyperbole, jealousy, hero-worshipping and acceptance of mediocrity and we are being led, with our consent, by greedy fools.<br />
<br />
Some go even further by warning President Jonathan to be cognisant of the recent events in Libya as a lesson and an example of what the people can unleash on his government. It is clear that some of us are suffering from the erroneous impression that popular uprising had anything to do with Gaddafi's assassination.<br />
<br />
Please let me merely warn that it is the Nigerians, not Jonathan, who should be most fearful of the fallout that would emanate from an uncoordinated, disparate series of uprisings corrupt in it's very construction & philosophy!<br />
<br />
Of course, as I have written previously, Jonathan, like Yar'adua before him, Buhari and the likes, is wholly unsuitable for the office that he currently holds, since he has neither the emotional intelligence nor the courage required for the role. However, since the very counter-productive nature of politics in Nigeria (one characterised mainly by US dollars and gangsterism) only managed to produce a bunch of idiots as the top candidates, the best outcome given the circumstances was a Jonathan victory; and it just so happens that that was what the majority of the people thought at the time.<br />
<br />
Nigeria's predicaments must be understood against the backdrop of a complex history, a small but still powerful northern leadership clan intent on making the country ungovernable for Jonathan on account of his ethnicity; growing tensions about a seemingly-faceless but apparently politically-motivated series of bombings; continuing ineptitude in governance; rising socio-economic inequalities; a growing population of exhausted, disenfranchised, hopeless, and unfeeling youth; manipulative power-mad and money-hungry religious cabals and a largely illiterate population forced to operate in the information age.<br />
<br />
Yours,<br />
<br />Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-44675682335215308112012-01-28T05:34:00.000-08:002012-01-28T05:34:14.906-08:00Poem: WANTSWANTS<br />
<br />
I want to be all that I can be<br />
To live freely but always on my own terms <br />
The epitome of quiet but lively contentment<br />
Free of ills and insecurities<br />
<br />
I want to reach for the highest heights always<br />
Never fearful, nor afraid of my possibilities<br />
To be loved by the world is unimportant<br />
But to be remembered surely is a thing of beauty<br />
<br />
The minutes are rushing past like a flowing river<br />
The days are hurriedly melting into weeks<br />
Months morphing into decades<br />
Increasing fear of stagnation amid the rush<br />
<br />
I am, of course, but a weary soul<br />
Alternating between irreconcilable firmaments<br />
A mind filled with dreams of glory<br />
Yet littered with lacerations of past pain<br />
<br />
I long to become all that I can be<br />
A man with only one limitation <br />
Only one inhibition or bar to greatness<br />
That is, the limits of my imagination<br />
<br />
<br />
- Olu OmoyeleOlu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-25971100086707204822011-04-22T08:26:00.000-07:002016-04-22T20:12:45.205-07:00Post-election violence in Nigeria - what nonsense!The violence that erupted in parts of Northern Nigeria following Dr Goodluck Jonathan's presidential election victory was truly nonsensical and unbecoming, especially after the election had been adjudged as credible by all independent-minded observers. <br />
<br />
The notion that "it must be Buhari or nothing" betrays one of the underlying problems of Nigeria - that individuals and personalities matter and institutions don't. Jonathan should have demonstrated his grip over the affairs of the country, in particular over the safety of the populace, by clamping down effectively on the rioters, not joining the meek responses of the various public figures who have been pleading with the rioters to stop or that Buhari should please call the goons to order. What nonsense! If there was a riot in an area of the South, there would have been an heavy-handed clampdown instantaneously. But in the North, we must tread carefully so as not to upset the sensitivities of the powers that be. Upset them please I say. Otherwise, we are merely saving a much bigger upset for another day - one that none of us is going to find funny if it occurs. <br />
<br />
Of course, Jonathan, like Buhari and Ribadu, is wholly unsuitable (having neither the emotional intelligence nor the courage required for the role) for the office that he currently holds. However, since the very counter-productive nature of politics in Nigeria (one characterised mainly by gangsterism) only managed to produce a bunch of idiots as the top candidates, the best outcome given the circumstances was a Jonathan victory; and it just so happens that that was what the majority of the people thought.<br />
<br />
So anyone who doesn't like this can go and hug a live transformer!<br />
<br />
In any case, Buhari, (like Babangida, Obasanjo, Gowon etc) should be serving a life prison sentence for treason and subjugation of the Nigerian Constitution, not contesting for the most important job in the land.<br />
<br />
Yours,<br />
<br />Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-11151243568627869082010-07-31T03:38:00.000-07:002016-04-22T20:12:54.385-07:00Naija - We need a PlanOn 28 July, 2010, the commissioning of a bridge in Ota resulted in a <a href="http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/07/29/ota-bridge-bankole-daniel-daggash-in-hot-exchange-of-words/">fracas</a> between the Ogun State Governor (Daniels), the Speaker of the House of Representatives (Bankole) and the Minister of Works (Daggash). These are our "leaders", charged with the running of Nigeria Plc - our own particular breed of leaders I should say. This is only the latest in a series of humiliating incidents that the media have been good enough to share with us. Who can forget the <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201006221307.html">fights</a> that broke out in the House of Reps when some tried to move a motion to proble corruption. <br />
<br />
So, what to do about this crop of gangsters that pretend to be our government? Well, replace them of course. But how?<br />
<br />
Many are understandably wary of the political system due to its immense corruption and perhaps, more importantly, the corruptibility of the system in respect of even well-intentioned people who choose to participate. Whereas, others insist that we must participate in it to be able to change it. But how? With a plan.<br />
<br />
To arrive at the type of nation we so desire in our lifetimes (as opposed to some indeterminate time in the distant future where as you know, all things move in a cycle anyway), I'm of the view that there MUST be a plan, it must be credible, there must be a small core no of people to make it happen & act as guardians of the plan. The idea that "good" people should all join rotten political parties and effect slow, incremental changes is not credible. It requires too many good people to behave unselfishly over a long period of time & to do so in an uncoordinated fashion - basically, it relies on the coming together of an unrealistic set of variables for it to be successful. People are conditioned to be super-selfish & to basically not give a shit about anything or anyone else. And those that may be willing to do something are effectively discouraged when they see the "no good deed goes unpunished" syndrome that permeates our public life (examples: suspension from the House of Reps because u want to see theft & corruption probed, see what happened to Ribadu, Akunyili, Soludo & Okonjo-Iweala) etc. We (me, you & others) need to come together as a small group of people & let us be the ones to come up with a 10yr plan to make this revolution happen. The revolution must be sharp & fast & must involve a big bang. People are naturally followers when they see leadership of any sort - whether good or bad leadership, people follow - so I know once we make a big bang, ppl will fall in line & help to actualise the (yes, you got it) PLAN.<br />
<br />
If you're interested in establishing something, hit me up.<br />
<br />
Yours,<br />
<br />Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-22471916302472629392010-07-13T15:05:00.000-07:002016-04-22T20:13:02.063-07:00BBC Documentaries on Lagos/Nigeria(<i>I have my friend <a href="http://theparakeet.blogspot.com/">Parakeet</a> to thank for inspiring me to bother to write down my feelings about this...</i>)<br />
<br />
<br />
The BBC seems to be taking an unlikely interest in Nigeria lately. It has aired two programmes recently titled: "Welcome to Lagos" and "The New Kings of Nigeria". Both were seemingly uninformed, dishonest, misleading and condescending re both titling and content.<br />
<br />
The problem with the BBC, CNN, Sky News, UK, the Western world generally is what Chimamanda Adichie referred to as the "single story" which, to my mind, translates into the arrogant and willful reduction of a complex set of events into a single (and often incorrect) notion. Welcome to Lagos was obviously an errorneous and grandiose title for a scripted look at a remote aspect of Lagos life. In fact, a look at the traffic jams in Lagos would have been more representative. There was a scene in this nonsensical programme where the narrator talks about the chronic electricity issues but unfortunately for him the lights were on, so he just faded the picture and switched to the following day! <br />
<br />
Similarly, the New Kings of Nigeria was grossly misleading. I wanted to watch the programme because i thought it was going to be about the new, emerging middle class of entrepreneurs, self-made young people and professionals making it happen in Lagos against all the odds but instead got an idiotic portrayal of an insignificant Nigerian. <br />
<br />
I don't actually mind the characters/people shown on both programmes...one can identify or empathize with most of them...its the BBC i have an issue with. You won't find the BBC doing programmes on Soyinka, Gani, Emeagwali or Fashola or even on the atrocities of Shell & Western pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria and other African countries nor on the part that the British establishment continues to play in the intentional underdevelopment of Nigeria and other places on earth! Neither will you find programmes on the ongoing <a href="http://www.ekoatlantic.com/">Eko Atlantic City</a> project (see <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv61laoWUc4">video</a> here) on the BBC!!!<br />
<br />
Anyway, the BBC is a state-owned and state-controlled TV channel so can't expect too much from it. We have to tell our own stories and choose/work to improve our collective situation.<br />
<br />
Yours,<br />
<br />Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-89797592399471045562010-05-02T04:52:00.000-07:002010-05-02T07:27:49.043-07:003 Decades of LIFEAs I approached my thirtieth birthday, I must admit to have suffered from some anxiety and a degree of trepidation. You know how the story goes i'm sure...i hadn't achieved all that i dreamt of achieving by this age...and so on...hints of failure here and there...yet, hints of success too.<br />
<br />
But now i realise that all things are relative and that one must look at where one has come from and where one finds oneself and compare...as opposed to simply thinking in absolutes. But surely, also, one mustn't cease aspiring. Greatness, as is the case with Fortune, favours the brave after all!<br />
<br />
Hopes and dreams are useful of course as they continue to drive me forward and hopefully upwards. Plans are even more important as they are a little more grounded in reality i suppose. <br />
<br />
So, as I have with Death, I have now also come to terms with ageing and this is the plan...live daily as though it might be my last / remain instinctive / less planning and more doing / grab the oppotunities as they manifest / be fearless / maintain physical and mental sharpness / stay young mentally and physically / live wildly and widely and daringly / let go of the fear of failure / enjoy more of the simple things in life / respect all; fear none / live it up alwayz!<br />
<br />
So, today, I celebrate 30 years of existence. Having not planned to do anything initially, I will now go out 2nite and have F U N! Abacus Bar in London is where it's at. So, come join me!!<br />
<br />
i am<br />
<br />
Yours,<br />
<br />
NemzOlu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-76799099097666064402010-03-12T18:16:00.000-08:002010-03-12T18:18:58.874-08:00My comments on the FT article "Why America and China will clash"Folks,<br />
<br />
On 19 January 2010, I read a piece in the FT titled "Why America and China will clash". I was moved into responding by the nonsensical logic spluttered out by the author, Gideon Rachman, on his FT blog.<br />
<br />
The article is pasted below, followed by my response on the FT blog!<br />
<br />
<b>WHY AMERICA AND CHINA WILL CLASH</b><br />
<i>Gideon Rachman</i><br />
<br />
Google’s clash with China is about much more than the fate of a single, powerful firm. The company’s decision to pull out of China, unless the government there changes its policies on censorship, is a harbinger of increasingly stormy relations between the US and China.<br />
<br />
The reason that the Google case is so significant is because it suggests that the assumptions on which US policy to China have been based since the Tiananmen massacre of 1989 could be plain wrong. The US has accepted – even welcomed – China’s emergence as a giant economic power because American policymakers convinced themselves that economic opening would lead to political liberalisation in China.<br />
<br />
If that assumption changes, American policy towards China could change with it. Welcoming the rise of a giant Asian economy that is also turning into a liberal democracy is one thing. Sponsoring the rise of a Leninist one-party state, that is America’s only plausible geopolitical rival, is a different proposition. Combine this political disillusionment with double-digit unemployment in the US that is widely blamed on Chinese currency manipulation, and you have the formula for an anti-China backlash. <br />
<br />
Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush firmly believed that free trade and, in particular, the information age would make political change in China irresistible. On a visit to China in 1998, Mr Clinton proclaimed: “In this global information age, when economic success is built on ideas, personal freedom is essential to the greatness of any nation.” A year later, Mr Bush made a similar point: “Economic freedom creates habits of liberty. And habits of liberty create expectations of democracy ... Trade freely with the Chinese and time is on our side.”<br />
<br />
The two presidents were reflecting the conventional wisdom among America’s most influential pundits. Tom Friedman, New York Times columnist and author of best-selling books on globalisation, once proclaimed bluntly: “China’s going to have a free press. Globalisation will drive it.” Robert Wright, one of Mr Clinton’s favourite thinkers, argued that if China chose to block free access to the internet, “the price would be dismal economic failure”.<br />
<br />
So far, the facts are refusing to conform to the theory. China has continued to censor new and old media, but this has hardly condemned it to “dismal economic failure”. On the contrary, China is now the world’s second largest economy and its largest exporter, with foreign reserves above $2,000bn. But all this economic growth shows little sign of provoking the political changes anticipated by Bush and Clinton. If anything, the Chinese government seems to be getting more repressive. Liu Xiaobo, a leading Chinese dissident, was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison for his involvement in the Charter 08 movement that advocates democratic reforms.<br />
<br />
Google’s decision to confront the Chinese government is an early sign that the Americans are getting fed up with dealing with Chinese authoritarianism. But the biggest pressures are likely to come from politicians rather than businessmen. Google is an unusual company in an unusually politicised industry. If the Googlers do indeed head for the exits in China, they are unlikely to be crushed by a stampede of other multinationals rushing to follow them. To most big companies the country’s market is too large and tempting to ignore. Despite Google, US business is likely to remain the lobby that argues hardest for continuing engagement with China.<br />
<br />
The pressures for disengagement will come from labour activists, security hawks and politicians – particularly in Congress. To date, the Obama administration has based its policy firmly on the assumptions that have governed America’s approach to China for a generation. The president’s recent set-piece speech on Asia was a classic statement of the case for US engagement with China – complete with the ritualistic assertion that America welcomes China’s rise. But, after being censored by Chinese television in Shanghai and harangued by a junior Chinese official at the Copenhagen climate talks, Barack Obama may be feeling less warm towards Beijing. An early sign that the White House is hardening its policy could come in the next few months, with an official decision to label China a “currency manipulator”.<br />
<br />
Even if the administration itself does not move, the voices calling for tougher policies against China are likely to get louder in Congress. Google’s decision to highlight the dangers of cyberattack from China will play to growing American security fears about China. The development of Chinese missile systems that threaten US naval dominance in the Pacific are also causing concern in Washington. Impending US arms sales to Taiwan are already provoking a dispute. <br />
<br />
Meanwhile, protectionism seems to be becoming intellectually respectable in the US in ways that should worry China. <br />
<br />
A trade war between America and China is hardly to be welcomed. It could tip the world back into recession and inject dangerous new tensions into international politics. If it happens, both sides will share the blame. The US has been almost wilfully naive about the connections between free trade and democracy. The Chinese have been provocative over currency and human rights. If they want to head off a damaging clash with America, changes in policy would be well advised.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>MY RESPONSE</b><br />
<br />
The rise of China is not predicated on Western theories of economic growth neither is it dependent on acceptance by the US. <br />
<br />
Rachman states: <br />
<br />
"Welcoming the rise of a giant Asian economy that is also turning into a liberal democracy is one thing. Sponsoring the rise of a Leninist one-party state, that is America’s only plausible geopolitical rival, is a different proposition." <br />
<br />
Well, I beg to differ, and on two fronts. First, the US is not, and has never been, the sponsor of Chinese rise to economic prominence. The US trades with China because it is in its own interest to do so and China, love her or hate her, is nothing short of an unavoidable and colossal force of nature. It is China who sponsors the lavishness and false impressions about the true state of the American economy by essentially funding it. Yes, China funds much of America's excesses via its vast holdings of US Treasury Bills.<br />
<br />
Second, the impression that the US welcomes the rise of a giant Asian economy in the form of China is misleading. The US doesn't "welcome" it. In fact, the US is theatened by it; afterall, China is one of the very few countries in the world that doesn't jump at the beck and call of Washignton - a country so powerful and so self-assured that it gives the US sleepness nights, what with the States' desire to remain the sole superpower in the world for all of time. As opposed to welcoming China's elevation, the US merely acknowledges the factual state of affairs. To deny China's place in global economics would make any professor look foolish. The US, and the whole world in fact, must come to terms with China's position. <br />
<br />
On a separate note, countries other than the US, particularly developing nations, should welcome the emergence of a rival power to that of the US given the enormous, monopolistic oppression that the US has visited on many developing nations over the years with the aid of its economic might. What the world needs right now is not a world polarised into US and China arms (like the USSR and USA) but a series of regional powers, preferably with differing ideologies and a powerful and credible international organisation (unlike the UN) to stand in the middle to balance competing goals and interests. India, Brazil, Iran, Russia and Nigeria are all countries with the potential to step up to the plate. Whether and how they in fact do so, only time will tell. <br />
<br />
- Olu OmoyeleOlu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-27920293238936916302010-03-12T18:01:00.000-08:002010-03-12T18:01:59.283-08:00Lucky MeI have travelled across<br />
many seas and many <br />
time zones and I have <br />
seen many peoples and <br />
many cultures but before <br />
I go to bed at night, I <br />
think how lucky I am to <br />
have come from Africa<br />
<br />
<br />
- Copyright © Olumide Omoyele 2010Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-83312259981681699972010-03-12T17:58:00.001-08:002010-03-12T17:58:35.781-08:00Pellets, UnbornDo I hear <br />
the screams <br />
of an unborn child?<br />
<br />
Is that you whistling? <br />
Gushing past under the<br />
guise of wistful wind?<br />
<br />
Are you <br />
ashamed of us?<br />
Of the life we keep<br />
ready for you? <br />
<br />
Are those your tears that <br />
sprinkle from the skies, and<br />
then vanish suddenly as <br />
though it never had an <br />
intention to rain?<br />
<br />
Are you satirising us?<br />
Have we become <br />
just a parody of<br />
faceless stumps? <br />
<br />
Do we not pay you <br />
due attention? Is that why <br />
you let down a shower of <br />
frozen water?<br />
Pellets to resemble our bullets?<br />
<br />
Do you plan a <br />
much bigger invasion?<br />
Were those merely <br />
but warning shots?<br />
<br />
- Copyright © Olumide Omoyele 2010Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-86576922453015169862010-03-12T17:55:00.001-08:002010-03-12T17:55:26.825-08:00Sadist CupidIn my perpetual research of life<br />
I have made a new discovery<br />
It has taken me to uncharted heights<br />
And has taught me so verily<br />
That which breeds so much happiness<br />
Must also stir such unbridled pain<br />
Perfect harmony, giving way, to perfect mess<br />
If love is designed to end, what is there to gain?<br />
I once believed I could fly like a dove<br />
Until I came crashing into the pits<br />
Logically, so, if He be the God of love<br />
Then, Cupid must be a sadist!<br />
<br />
<br />
- Copyright © Olumide Omoyele 2010Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-39134972431864889952010-03-12T17:53:00.000-08:002010-03-12T17:53:57.020-08:00Love = Incredible Happiness + Incredible SadnessWe are told repeatedly that <br />
Love cares and doesn’t judge <br />
That it fills us with unquenchable <br />
Happiness that wouldn’t budge<br />
We are told incessantly that<br />
Love is loyal and dedicated<br />
That it will stand by you always<br />
And face whatever is fated<br />
We are not however told of its<br />
Difficulties and immense shortcomings<br />
That it brings us incredible pain<br />
And leaves our precious hearts burning<br />
We are not told of its incredible sadness<br />
Neither are we warned beforehand<br />
That it rages with incredible madness<br />
Love is a beast that consumes<br />
Even the strongest of hearts<br />
Its gravity pulls you so tightly together<br />
Before it changes course and tears you apart<br />
The only force stronger than that<br />
With which the bond was initially formed<br />
Is the sheer venom and might <br />
With which it is eventually destroyed<br />
Love is incredibly happy<br />
Love is incredibly sad<br />
Love is incredibly lucky<br />
Love is incredibly bad<br />
Love is incredibly funny<br />
Love is incredible, and that’s that!<br />
<br />
<br />
- Copyright © Olumide Omoyele 2010Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-87418289560007254592010-01-28T13:57:00.000-08:002016-04-22T19:53:01.124-07:00Living In The MomentLife is simply a collection of moments and so its important to enjoy the ones that blow our minds...to live "in" the moment ‘cos once its gone, it has, forever! So please allow yourself to be consumed by moments of joy (and even pain) and open yourself up to the phenomena around you....whether it be talking to one dearly loved, or just watching little children play non-challantly. No good moment can be replicated! <br />
<br />
Assume formlessness...like water. Adapt to your surroundings...Try not to regret...look forward instead but live only in the present moment... and in whatever you do, aspire to be the best! <br />
<br />
<br />
Yours,<br />
<br />
<br />Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-43823630747340512262010-01-28T13:53:00.001-08:002010-01-28T13:53:55.543-08:00PledgeI shall remain different<br />
I shan't follow the stream<br />
Since I won't always be present<br />
I might as well follow my dreams<br />
<br />
My mind is racing and pacing<br />
With deep & venomous thoughts<br />
Painful knowledge that I'm chasing<br />
Puts my heart in a torturesome froth<br />
<br />
Yet, rise I must <br />
Without fear or shame<br />
Seemingly free of care and remorse<br />
And, inadvertently, perhaps elevate my name<br />
<br />
I am a dove<br />
A wandering bird of time<br />
Unconstrained by fables like love<br />
And if loyal to my goals, I'll do just fine<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
- Copyright © Olumide Omoyele 2010Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-89828386696810615662009-12-20T10:17:00.000-08:002009-12-20T10:19:15.295-08:00A Wail 4 BiafraBrother, Dear Brother,<br />
Incredible violence.<br />
Reign of fire.<br />
Starvation.<br />
Death.<br />
More deaths.<br />
<br />
A century earlier<br />
before the dawn of alien powers.<br />
The fantastic simplicity<br />
Incredible, relative Peacefulness.<br />
<br />
But now,<br />
A million prideful souls –<br />
<br />
historically ill-equipped <br />
to acquiesce to domination, foreign or domestic<br />
having spent a thousand years in tiny republics –<br />
<br />
Wilfully sacrificed at the altar <br />
Slaughtered in homage to <i>Gowon</i><br />
And, conversely, in the worship of dreams...<br />
One in particular, <br />
the nightmarish creation<br />
of the alien, <i>Lugard</i><br />
<br />
Death<br />
Murder on a mass scale<br />
Testament to <i>Adekunle’s</i> military prowess<br />
Destruction with foreign weapons<br />
Starvation – yet more violence<br />
Execution by kwashiorkor <br />
Why, <i>Awo</i>, my brother, Why?<br />
Biafra wails silently, still.<br />
<br />
<br />
- Copyright (c) Olumide Omoyele 2009Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-53261527853692221652009-12-20T10:14:00.000-08:002009-12-20T10:14:09.460-08:00Broken PromisesThey promised us a republic<br />
A country to call our own<br />
Rushed to the dictionaries and <br />
We saw France and America<br />
We canvassed support for <i>ominira</i> <br />
That we, the people, shall rule<br />
We glanced across the seas and <br />
<br />
Marvelled at self-determination <br />
Raised our hopes to the vagueness <br />
Of this newfound self-assurance<br />
We hailed as heroes these <br />
Foreign-educated masquerades <br />
Self-appointed masters who <br />
In collusion with mindless <br />
<br />
Killer drones in starched Khakis<br />
Conspired to steal our thunder<br />
Oppressors and plunderers <br />
Skilful architects of an era<br />
Of internalised colonialism <br />
Ours, a stop-start nation, <br />
An <i>emere</i> of a country<br />
<br />
Struggling against itself<br />
Forever dying and yet <br />
Baying for rebirth, but<br />
The reincarnation persists <br />
As they recycle the monsters<br />
Kidnappers of our essence<br />
They hold us, still, to ransom<br />
<br />
They demand our servitude<br />
Loyal sycophancy only, or else face<br />
The wrath of guns perpetually<br />
Pointed at our hungry temples<br />
Ah! Let me die <i>o jare</i>, at least<br />
My demise is one promise <br />
Incapable of breakage<br />
<br />
<br />
- Copyright (c) Olumide Omoyele 2009Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-27918966385510792002009-12-10T15:26:00.000-08:002016-04-22T19:56:56.205-07:00Setting GoalsPersonally, I have come to terms with the fact that I, like all of humanity, am living a meaningless and purposeless life. So, if you're one of those who still pose yourself the question: 'what is my purpose? i.e. for what reason have I been "created"' or 'why am I here on earth?' Then I think the answer is staring you in the face if you're brave enough to accept it i.e. there is no purpose. <br />
<br />
However, goals are different, since these are essentially desires that you decide for yourself and, therefore, strive to achieve. I think goals are important because otherwise you will drift aimlessly, with no apparent benefits. So, please do set goals, aim high and go for them! <br />
<br />
You need to commit in order to achieve set goals. So while it is decidedly good/beneficial to be multi-faceted (I am one of those ppl too), committing to some intention is rewarding in the long run. But you mustn't feel that commitment necessarily requires you to be mono-focused e.g. you can commit to becoming a professional of some sort (psychologist, doctor, teacher, lawyer etc) but at the same time still engage in your other interests like writing in your spare time or whatever! You shouldn't abandon ALL your interests for just ONE. But one or two may have to take priority for a period of time as a result of the need to commit!<br />
<br />
I admit, of cos, that ironically, part of the reason for goal-setting is essentially to fabricate meaning and purpose to fill the void.<br />
<br />
Yours,<br />
<br />Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-60319921272277437652009-12-10T15:04:00.000-08:002016-04-22T20:13:09.498-07:00Meaningless lifeI am flabbergasted by the Meaninglessness of Life!<br />
<br />
Life is meaningless. It is devoid of purpose. It must be why so much time and effort is devoted to creating falsities in life…to create reasons for existence – as though we were trying to convince ourselves that it is worth living at all.<br />
<br />
Nothing is universally sacred – we create and destroy at will. Sacredness, it seems, is also one of our creations. Something we manufacture to help create and enforce favoured rules and codes.<br />
<br />
Life is meaningless, and I know this is bewildering, but pls get over it! <br />
<br />
<br />
Yours,<br />
<br />
<br />Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6159202952307847181.post-90274739214198226072009-12-08T14:46:00.000-08:002016-04-22T20:00:59.203-07:00SociologySociology hit me like the Holy Ghost! <br />
<br />
Prior to studying sociology as part of my Advanced Levels, I had yearned for knowledge, for reason; and I had begun to question many things like my family’s relative poverty or Nigeria’s unending struggles – a nation in seemingly perpetual labour; at once pleading to be born, and yet detesting Life, afraid of Living. I had been consumed by religion as an adolescent and in my early teens. I had built a deep relationship with Jesus, the Christ; one that would lead me to reject the Methodist Church of my mother in favour of the newer Pentecostal “born-again” churches that sprang up all over Nigeria in the 80s and 90s – in all their militant glory. And yet, I had later slowly, but surely, begun to question the fundamental facets of the Christian religion. Such urges were tentative at first, somewhat shameful (and guilt-ridden), given the eagerness of my born-again conversion and the enduring spirituality of my mother – a woman for whom I continue to have the utmost respect and deepest affection. <br />
<br />
But I was never one for self-delusion, so I continued to entertain my doubts but only in my mind, as there was no one I could talk to or trust enough to challenge on the subject. So, alone in my meditations, I strived for meaning and purpose. Then I made the acquaintance of Sociology which literally blew my mind. It did so not by magic or unique eloquence but by the simplicity and ease with which it seemed to encourage my thoughts. All of a sudden, here was a discipline where it seemed nothing was beyond discussion, rationality or challenge: nothing was taboo or sacred. Gigantic concepts like Religion, Gender, Education and Poverty could all be dissected and analysed, like a science; with the conclusions falling wherever they did, guarded nor guided by no particular sacredness or unwelcome blasphemy. POSITIVISM, MARXISM; DURKHEIM, PARSONS, MARX all took on real and immortal existences. It was a licence to think. To dream. <br />
<br />
There was a price to pay of course – a floating, unsettled spirit no longer able to place phenomena in easy ready-to-go categories. Everything became merely a pawn in something larger: a bigger plot of power and servitude, of uprisings and suppression, of connectedness and relativity. I came to understand that in life there was a price to pay for everything, good or bad, pleasant or repugnant, short- or long-term, imagined or real, knowing and unknowing, hard-hearted or warm, emotional or otherwise, rich or poor, powerful or powerless, thinkers like me or those who refuse to think and who prefer the simplicity of straight lines etc.<br />
<br />
<br />
Yours,<br />
<br />Olu Midehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13143588437501746713noreply@blogger.com2