DEALING WITH RESENTMENT: SOME USEFUL TIPS

We all have anger moments. Some have anger issues. Its not unheard of to hear of people attending anger management classes. Human relation will continue to be an ever dynamic and complex subject. The reason for that may not be far fetched. we see things differently. We are inspired by different things. Our background differs. Here are some useful tips from ken wart:

1: Talk Yourself out of being offended

In the heat of the moment, try asking yourself these questions:
“What am I getting so bent out of shape for? Does this really matter? What’s the big deal?” Reason with yourself: “Did he really mean it the way I perceived it? ‘’what is he really trying to say?”
Tell yourself the person who is the potential offender has as much right to his opinion as you do to yours. Besides, they’re only words. What can words do? They certainly can’t break your bones! Remember, the reason we usually feel offended is because of the meaning we attach to what is said or done: “That means he really doesn’t care!” “She’s saying I am no good!” “I knew he didn’t really love me!” “She wouldn’t say that if she was …” And so the internal interpretation goes. So simply reframe it. Talk yourself out of the offense by telling yourself: “This person is simply expressing his opinion, and listen to how interesting it is! I find it so fascinating that someone can have such opinions that are almost the exact opposite of mine!” You will be happier as you learn to talk yourself out of offence.

2: Put yourself in the “Offender’s” Shoes

This will have the added benefit of being less offensive to others, as you learn to be “too noble to give offense.” In any event, if you can slide your feet into their shoes for a minute, you can learn to see things from the offender’s perspective. And then, just maybe, you will see that you too played a role in the drama. And perhaps you will also come to see that the offender had no such intentions of offending.

3: Assume a benevolent Motive
Unless proven otherwise, assume the person in question has noble intent. Maybe the language was clumsy, maybe even ill-advised, but assume a good heart. That should take the sting out of the bite and put some happiness back in your day. So don’t hold on to the words people use to get at the thing they are trying to express. Hear the idea and ignore the clumsiness of the expression.

4: Practice Detachment
Many people are easily offended because they can’t emotionally differentiate between their thoughts and their inner sense of self. When identities are too closely tied to one’s opinions, and those opinions are then disagreed with, many feel like they, themselves, have been rejected, the core of who they are have been shoved away, pushed to a corner and crushed. This, of course, hurts, but is highly inaccurate. To overcome hypersensitivity, realize that your opinions are not you. And certainly, any given opinion or set of opinions are not the whole of who you are. To the degree you can detach your ideas from your identity, you will live a happy, fulfilling life with little opportunity to feel offended.

5: Love Truth more than being right
If the truth, whoever possesses it, is more valued than the perception that you are the one who knew it first, then opposition to your thoughts and beliefs will be inoffensive no matter how offensive the other person is trying to be. You are not emotionally attached to your position. You only hunger after truth. So opposition to your point of view offers no grounds for offense. You simply want to know the truth, even if you are never the place it originates.

7: Overcome Self-Centeredness, Separate out what is specific to you
The it’s-All-About-Me mentality is fertile soil for being frequently offended. Every word out of every mouth, every action or inaction, all that is done or undone, all motives and intentions become a reflection on you. That is a HUGE burden to carry. If everything is reduced to how it affects you, if you reside at the center of everything, no wonder you are so frequently offended! Move away from the center of everyone else’s life. You likely aren’t really there anyway. Nor should you be, in most cases. Allow most of life to be indifferent to you. My bad mood isn’t about you. Your mom’s neglect isn’t even about you either. It’s about her! [/b]This way, less in life will offend you and happiness will be much less fleeting too. Besides, they’re entitled to their opinion. So let them have it.

8: Reserve Judgment, don’t be quick to conclude. Delay your response

Let the talk continue to its natural end. So often we jump to conclusions, assume an ill intent, create meaning to a word that then hurts and offends. Resist that urge and delay judgment until the conversation has run its course. You just may find there is no offense to be had by the time you get to the end.

9: Accept Imperfection

If you expect others to act and speak a certain way, or assume others will be as kind or compassionate as you, if you’re offended when they don’t rise to the level of your expectation, you will almost always be offended or on the verge of it. Instead, allow people to be human. They are, after all. We all have foibles, idiosyncrasies and personality and character flaws. So do you! Yours just may be different than theirs. So just let it be, shrug and let it slide off your back. Don’t hold on to the imperfections of others so tightly that you strangle yourself in the process! Release! Let go! Breathe. Relax.

Part of accepting others’ imperfections is also learning to forgive them their past mistakes (so the current problem isn’t blown out of proportion as an extension of a previous problem unresolved) Remember, people are imperfect. You are imperfect. Life is imperfect. When you can accept their imperfection (and your own!), you will be well on your way to a life of more emotional stability and happiness.

10: Accept Yourself, Learn, grow and improve.

Accept yourself deep inside. Validate your inner being. See yourself as more than your behavior. You are also your potential. You are of God, after all. None of us live up to expectations. But accept that too, not as an excuse to stop the moral climb, but as an understanding that where you are is fine for now, at this moment. Move from there, but right now, here, you are complete. This self-acceptance will de-claw others’ ability to offend you. It won’t hurt because your validation doesn’t come from their opinions about you. It comes from within … or from above. People who are internally fragile – no matter how “tough” their exterior – break most easily at the wrong or misplaced word or deed. So grow your inner self. Become self-accepting. And life will be a more consistently happy place to live.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT ON BOKO HARAM

I saw this and i found it share worthy..

10 Perplexing Questions on Boko Haram.


1. Who is feeding the over 250 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram?

2. Who did the contract for the supply of over 100 Hijabs that the kidnapped girls were wearing?

3. How is Boko Haram feeding its hundreds of fighters?

4. Where is Boko Haram getting the supply of the arms they use to kill people?

5. Who is fueling the over 50 vehicles Boko Haram use in conducting their attacks?

6. Who is providing Boko Haram with internet to upload videos of over 30 minutes on YouTube?

7. How does Boko Haram manage to travel in a convoy of over fifty vehicles and motorcycles in a state that is under "state of emergency" without being noticed?

8. Why does the foreign media know more about Boko Haram than our government and local media?

9. If Boko Haram is a Northern or Muslim agenda to make Nigeria ungovernable for Jonathan, why are they killing Islamic scholars and threatening to kill prominent Northern politicians?

10. If Boko Haram truly want people to join Islam, why are they killing the Muslims?

There is more to Bring Back

The past one month has been pretty much historic. We have heard about disasters (Natural and or Artificial) resulting in the death of citizens in hundreds. Kidnapping of about 300 girls is however novel. I must confess my initial reservations about the veracity of the news when it first made headlines. Such sheer incredibility

You have to pardon my humble self, Osita Iheme, Patience Jonathan, Asari Dokubo, Charles Novia and perhaps a few others with misgivings. If i watched a film and one of the scenes suggest the kidnapping of 300girls in a secondary school in the story line, i would simply shrug it off as unobtainable. So, imagine my thoughts when it was reported in main stream media.

While i have moved on to believe the kidnap incident and joined the campaign to #bringbackourgirls, i must quickly express dissimilarities that lies in the seeming convergence of opinion held by myself and Patience Jonathan.

Before now,i have held the view that we have a poor security and intelligence gathering system. The Chibok incident suggests a nonexistent one. For Patience and Dokubo, it is an attempt by APC to discredit the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Someone wrote about this leadership;

Blame Opposition
Blame Muslims
Blame the northerners
Blame the parents
Blame the journalists that didn't support government propaganda
Blame Buhari
Blame the school principal
Blame the state Governor
BLAME CNN / Isha Sesay

Blame everyone except the people that control the resources and were elected to resolve issues like this. Yes, I am talking about the FG

The words could not have been truer. Except that it would sound foolish, Doyin Okupe and Labaran Maku would have accused APC leadership of bribing Hilary Clinton and John Maccain to hurl uncomplimentary remarks about the 'transformation government'

While President Jonathan MAY NOT have masterminded the kidnapping of the girls, his body language is uninspiring, insensitive and regrettable. His army of image makers must be having a hard time defending his actions. More like inaction.

The chibok incident remains a disaster. An avoidable one. Yet it has thrown some positives. The world stood as one in defiance of racism and other dividing factors to support Nigerians in this trying time. It is trying not just because our girls are in danger for over a month but because we have a government that is not 'all that interested' in the kidnap incident. It is either there are no missing girls or there is an exaggeration. Remember there is a difference between corruption and mere theft.

A cerebral journalist wrote: Somewhere between being unwilling and being incapable, we know the Nigerian Government / military / authorities will not bring back our girls. There are those within the government who either do not believe the abductions took place, or who believe it was staged by the enemies of the President and his government to cause embarrassment on the eve of the World Economic Forum. Watch Jonathan’s body language and see clearly a man who thinks there’s some mischievous and malevolent force at work, seeking to embarrass him in front of the world. We need to understand the man we elected to rule us. This for him is not really about missing girls; it’s about people out to undermine his government. Every incident, every criticism, is linked to an opposition that wants to bring the government down. This is a President who has said it again and again that #OccupyNigeria only happened because people in Lagos were paid and fed to protest against him. He genuinely believes it, and seems to believe the same about everything else: From the unaccounted-for billions of dollars in oil funds to the missing girls – these are all grand conspiracies against his government. Is that the man you expect to bring back our girls?

Another concerned Nigerian opined as thus:The President is nearing the end of his first term but there are still questions as to if we have a functional security system. What did he spend his first term tackling? In other countries, when officials can’t tackle emergencies such as this as quickly as possible, they resign. If our President will not resign, can he please do us the favour of not running for second term?

Our corrupt leaders are thriving on our political apathy to alter election outcomes. I suspect this will not be the same again.
There is an unprecedented level of political consciousness cutting across all Nigerians. We must keep the tempo. No longer shall we be swayed by 'stories that touch'. A lot of people did not have shoes growing up.

I do hope the Nigerian government is not joining the campaign to bring back our girls because our tweets and post is directed at them.

The president, commander in chief of the Nigerian armed forces, has cancelled his planned visit to Chibok. Obviously, out of security concerns. Mr Abati can tweet all he wants, we know he is only doing his job. One that requires a dead conscience.

As we relentlessly press home our non negotiable demand for this government to take responsibility, for once, let it be known that we have a lot to bring back.

I can only ask God for forgiveness on behalf of myself and Nigerians for thinking Yaradua's leadership was bad. Now, we know better. We called him a sick man. But aren't we all inherently sick people except for those who enjoy God's grace to appear healthy? Yaradua reduced fuel price, twice. Another President told us of how the country will collapse if subsidy subsisted.

We must bring back sanity to the land. At the moment we are a miserable joke. After the expiration of this administration by May 29, Nigeria will be in dire need of re-branding.

We must bring back rule of law

We must 'rebase' mere theft of money as corruption.

We must bring back the missing billions of dollars

we must bring back respect to Nigeria

for now, let them #bringbackourgirls!

VACANCY: HEROES, NATION: NIGERIA.

Our local media have had it big in news reportage in the past few weeks. As it is now a rule rather than exception, none of the events grabbing our headlines is cheery. Neither relief nor smile have i experienced as a Nigerian in my 'National life'. Much of the joy i feel have been private. Very Private. I upgraded from FiFa 12 to FiFa 14. Wellness of the people dear to my heart and the daily opportunity to serve Allah in good health. Watching my son grow has been an incredible experience for me.I keep asking myself if i brought this wonderful creature to the world. Sadly, Nigeria.

Now this piece is not about me. My private and public worry is my country, Nigeria. For lack of achievement to celebrate, it came as no surprise as the presidency in bizarre excitement and with astonishing vigor (amidst senseless killings) rolled out the drums to celebrate 100years of the existence of Nigeria. I do not share the view that the northern protectorate should not have been amalgamated with the southern protectorate. Amalgamation will not be a problem where there is a visionary,transparent,selfless,nationalistic and accountable leadership. Is our population a problem? The population of china is over 1.3billion. Beat that! That is our population estimated at 150million multiplied by 9. China is the second largest economy in the world and are tipped to pip USA to the title of the world largest economy.

Perhaps it is not our population. Maybe it is the multiplicity of ethnic groups. The result of my findings in this regard is very telling. Nigeria, like most of her counterpart in Africa ranks among the most culturally diverse nations with Papua New Guinea leading the way with 820spoken languages!. According to a report by Mitt Blake published in May 2013, Europe is the most ethnically homogenous continent while top 20 most diverse countries are all in Africa. Should heterogeneity be an hindrance to economic growth and development? Canada and United states ranks among highly culturally diverse nations of the world. This has obviously not stunted their growth. I personally believe diverse culture should be a blessing. It is often considered as part of a nations rich culture. Just as the world will be boring if we spoke one language and had essentially same culture. So will any nation be. My knowledge of Qur'an tells me that establishing different races and tribe is to enables us identify one another. So, a Nigerian can say, that man, judging from his look is Chinese. An Indonesian can say 'that man is British judging from his accent'. Here in Nigeria, our diverse ethnic group is an all important variable in political manipulations. Our politicians perform several arithmetical operations with ethnicity. They add, deduct and multiply ethnicity as the political situation suggests. This explains why an Asari Dokubo will say those criticizing Jonathan's poor performance are doing so because he is from a minority group. It explains why our Igbo brothers would never be satisfied until one of the sons of their soil becomes a president. For them, it does not matter if anyone can do it better.

Tribalism, like corruption, has eaten deep into the fabrics of the Nigerian society. Many of us disapprove of corruption, but we always tend to forgive or even support the perpetrator if he/she is of our own tribe. I recall an heartrending outburst from a certain group asking the president to 'forget votes' from the south east should he fire the aviation minister in the wake of 255m BMW purchase scandal. In Nigeria, it is an unwritten rule that requires the president to carefully select the ministers who shall supervise key areas of our national life in such manner that would reflect the diverse ethnicity of the country. Of what business of mine is the aviation ministers origin if we can have a safe free sky rather than a philosophical exposition of destiny in the event of a crash. Senator Ogunlewe, former Minister of Works, a yoruba man under a yoruba president could not repair Lagos-Ibadan express way, a major road that connects several yoruba speaking enclaves. Therefore, It shows a lack of sound judgement for any yoruba man or woman to wish/demand/vote for a yoruba candidate above and beyond all proven criteria.

The United States of America is the economic capital of the world. And arguably the political capital of the world. Guess where the religious capital of the world lies....look no further than Nigeria. Now, i reckon there are several countries where thousands of deities are being worshiped. No nation knows God better than Nigeria. At least that is the impression we portray. Our citizens are world ambassadors leading the evangelism campaign. From Africa to Europe, our super rich pastors are notable and revered. The exclusion of imams in this regard is not predicated on my religious affiliations. Far from it else i be guilty of the same phenomena. Our imams do not favorably compete with the pastors in affluence, influence and popularity. With the thousands of religious societies cutting across Christianity, Islam and Traditional worship, you tend to expect better given the homogeneity in the campaign for a better society, fear of God,respect for one another, justice, honesty,love and kindness for one another. In ideal societies, the opinion of religious leaders is weighty. Religious leaders are famed for speaking the truth. You cant accuse them of tribalism, political bias or seeking popularity. This is the ideal situation. Here, there is an unholy alliance between politics and religion. Politics has be 'religionised' and religion politicized. The result? deception. Etan! The growing religious awareness and institutions paradoxically contradicts the retrogression pervading our human existence. Someone by way of humor observed how Nigerians are exporting religion to our colonial masters, the same set of people who brought religion to our country. Food for thought.

As it stands, Nigeria has lost so much growth and development potentials to corruption, tribalism, greed, lack of visionary leaders, governance by trial and error and selfishness all of which have come to define us as a people.

From the missing money to the 'assassination' of job seekers to the N12m per national conference delegate, the ridicule is boundless.

Nigeria is in need of heroes. People who have genuine desire to steer us away from the retrogressive path we are treading. There is a vacancy for heroes. Anyone who puts to past our shameful lingering experience of lack of power supply shall be a hero. I have no doubt. Anyone who fights corruption without fear or favor shall be a hero. That man/woman who makes Nigeria an industrialized nation producing goods for her large population ranging from simple basic items such as toothpicks, towel, toilet roll, perfumes, tires to complex items like cars,steel,equipments thus providing jobs for millions of jobless Nigerians shall be regarded as a hero. That leader who inspires us to be the best we can and upholds the rule of law at all times shall be accorded a hero's recognition. Anyone puts a stop to oil or swap or refining of crude oil abroad by building new refineries, repairing and improving the existing ones shall be called a hero. From education to poverty alleviation, infrastructure, employment opportunities to housing, we are a country in need of heroes. Apply within!

AND SADIQ GETS HIS REPLY...FROM A WOLE SOYINKA FAN.

I do not know you personally, but I admire your filial bravery - however misguided - in defending the honour of your father, the late General Sani Abacha. This in itself is not a problem; it is an obligation—in this cultural construct of ours - for children to rise to the defence of their parents, no matter what infamy or perfidy the said parent might have dabbled in. The problem I have with your letter, however, arises from two issues: (i) your disparaging of Wole Soyinka, who—despite your referral to an anecdotal opinion that calls him as “a common writer”—is a great father figure, and a source of inspiration, to a fair number of us young Nigerians; and (ii) your attempt to revise Nigerian history and substitute our national experience with your personal opinions. Continue... Therefore, it is necessary that we who are either Wole Soyinka’s “socio-political” children, or who are ordinary Nigerians who experienced life under your father’s reign speak out urgently against your amnesiac article, lest some future historian stumble across the misguided missive, and confuse the self-aggrandized opinions of your family for the perceptions of Nigerians in general. Your letter started with logical principles, which is a splendid common ground for us. So let us go with the facts: General Sani Abacha was a dictator. He came into power and wielded it for 5 years in a manner hitherto unprecedented in Nigerian history. Facts: uncomfortable for your family, but true all the same. Now, for my personal interpretations: between 1993 and 1998 inclusive, when your dada was in power, I was a boy of 9 to 14 years and quite capable of making observations about my political and cultural environment. Those years have been the worst years of my material life as a Nigerian citizen. Here are a few recollections: I recollect waking up several mornings to scrape sawdust from carpentry mills, lugging the bags a long distance home, just to fuel our “Abacha stoves” because kerosene was not affordable—under your father. I recollect cowering under the cover of darkness, with family and neighbours, listening to radio stations—banned by your father. I recollect my government teacher apologetically and fearfully explaining constitutional government to us—because free speech was a crime under your father’s government. Most of all, I remember how the news of your father’s death drove me—and my colleagues at school—to a wild excitement, and we burst into the street in delirious celebration. Nobody prompted us, but even as 13 and 14 year olds, we understood the link between the death of Abacha and the hope of freedom for the ordinary man. These are all sorry tales, of course. Such interpretations would not have occured to the wealthy and the privileged under your father’s government, but they were a part of the everyday life of a common teenager under that government. The economics were bad, but the politics were worse. And I am not referring to Alfred Rewane, Kudirat Abiola and the scores killed by the order of your father. Political killings are almost a part of every political system, and most of those were just newspaper stories to us. In fact, I didn’t get to read most of the atrocities until long after your father died. So, these stories did not inform the dread I personally felt under your father’s regime. And this was true for my entire family and our neighbours. Instead, the worry over our own existence was a more pressing issue. Your father, Sani Abacha was in Aso Rock, but his brutality was felt right in our sitting room. We were not into politics and we didn’t vocally oppose Abacha, yet we just knew we were not safe from him. You see, unlike any dictatorship before or after it—your father’s government personally and directly threatened the life and freedoms of the average Nigerian. Your father threatened me. And if your father had not died, I am confident that I would not be alive or free today. Think of that for a while. Now, let’s come to Wole Soyinka. First: you can never eradicate the infamy of your father’s legacy by trying to point out the failings of another Nigerian. Remember what you said: A is A. Abacha is Abacha. And no length of finger pointing will wash away the odious feeling the name of Abacha strikes up in the mind of the average Nigerian. Second: Don’t—as they musician said—get it twisted: Wole Soyinka did not antagonize your father just because he was a military man—Wole Soyinka was against your father’s inhumanity. Your father was intolerant of criticism beyond belief. Your father made military men look bad. Your father’s behaviour was so bad it went back in time and soiled the reputation of every military man before him. Your father, finally, made Nigerians swear never—ever—to tolerate the military again. Soyinka may have worked with the military before—but your father ensured that he will never work with the military again. Do you see? Three: Evil comes in many forms: there is no qualification by degree. There is no “good” evil thing. Sani Abacha, Boko Haram, Hitler, slavery—they all fit into the same category of misfortunes. Soyinka is right: Abacha was just as bad as Boko Haram is—deal with it. Four: Soyinka has been kind enough to limit his criticism to the unenviable awards this inept government has given your father. But, you see, in a saner political system, we wouldn’t just ignore your father, we would have gone one step further and expunged the Abacha name from all public records. Wiped without a trace. Abacha would forever be a cautionary tale against the excesses of political power. In a saner political system. Abacha was brutal—and Soyinka was one of those individuals who gave us inspiration in those dark days. He was part of the team that founded the underground radio station to counter your father’s activities. Let me rephrase in pop culture language: Wole Soyinka was the James Bond to your father’s KGB. Most of the influential people either kept quiet or sang the praises of your father to stave his wrath. But a few like Soyinka spoke, wrote and even went militant against Abacha. But at the end, even Soyinka who never ran from a fight had to run from your father. That was how terrible things were. And now you want Soyinka to join the praise singers of your father? I’m not certain Soyinka has grown old enough to forget how he escaped your father,slipping across the border in disguise. You will have to wait awhile to get that praise from him. Now, back to you. You have a deluded sense of your father’s role in the progress of Nigeria’s history. Nigeria has managed to be where it is today, not because of leaders like your father—but in spite of leaders like your father. This is a testament to the Nigerian spirit of resilience, and our unwavering optimism in a better future. You owe every Nigerian an apology for daring to attribute this to the leadership of Abacha. Those “achievements” you believe were accomplished under your father were simply all the things he had to do to keep milking the economy, and thereby perpetuate himself in power—they benefited Nigeria only if, by Nigeria, you meant your family and your cronies. Your tone is that of a white master who justifies his oppression because he clothed and fed his black slaves. That is what your father did. The fact that we choose not to regurgitate, and reflect on that socially traumatic period doesn’t mean we accept it as your entitlement. We have not forgotten, and we will never forget. Sani Abacha raped Nigeria. Your father raped us. Your father raped us and then pressed some change into our hands. And he then tried to marry us forcefully, too. You may think all this is well and good—but then you’ve never been raped before. But we now live under a democracy—the kind your father denied us—and so you are free to talk. And so you are free to insult the people who ensured that your father had sleepless nights. Had the revolution your father rightly deserved happened, you—and the rest of your family—would have been lined against a wall, before you could pen one article, and shot. And we would probably have cheered. But we live under a democracy now—a system of government where even the scions of former oppressors can talk, and write freely, about the benefits of dictatorship. That’s a democracy. A concept your father wouldn’t have understood. Regards, Ayo Sogunro

SADIQ SANI ABACHA'S LETTER TO WOLE SOYINKA

Sadiq Sani Abacha is one of the sons of late military dictator Sani Abacha. Below is an open letter he wrote to professor Wole Soyinka days after the Nobel Laureate said it was an insult to share an award with his late father, Sani Abacha. Sadiq says Prof Soyinka attacking his dad is an act of cowardice... If you want to think, speak and act logically then you should know all three. 1. The law of identity 2. The law of excluded middle 3. The law of non contradiction. Now let's look at each one of these and see what they mean in practice. 1.The law of identity The law of identity means that things are what they are, which at first doesn't seem very illuminating, but wait; it implies also the following, that things are what they are, whether you like them or not, it implies that things are what they are whether you know them or not, it implies that things are what they are whether you agree with them or not. Continue... However, if you don't like the facts as they are you are going to have to put up with them, because facts are what they are, if it's raining on your golf day, get used to it! Because the facts are what they are and are often not what you want them to be, like if the traffic lights turn red when you approach, stop complaining! The law of identity means that you must adapt yourself to the facts and start your work from there, it implies that the facts will not bend to meet your expectations. You must first adapt yourself to what life is and then get to work changing and improving things in your life, be brave to meet reality as it really is and not how you would wish it to be. 2. The law of excluded middle. The law of excluded middle means that you should give a straight yes or no answer always and there is no middle ground. The law means that there is no kinda yes and kinda no, there is no ‘sort of’ being married because you are either married or you are not, you are either a thief or you are not, you are either on time or not, you are either living in Nigeria or you are not. The law is the idea that you should not try to keep all of your options open by staying in the middle or hedging, when it suits you, like when you accepted an appointment during IBB's regime as chairman of FRSC. I bet that was a military regime you partook in. Please pick one wife and state your claim 100% to her, pick one idea and go for it 100%! Decide and commit Sir! There you might find great power and self satisfaction in the doctrine of decide and commit. No half way measures, no middle ground, exclude the middle! Here! The law of excluded middle Sir. 3. The law of non contradiction. The law of non contradiction says don't contradict yourself simple. If you say you will be there then be there. If you say you will do it then do it. Don't say or fight for one thing and then do the opposite. Don't say one thing and then later deny that you said it. Don't say one thing and then later contradict it. Be consistent in your thoughts and actions. Observing someone who was a socialist in the morning but then became a capitalist in the evening is a textbook on contradiction, these are two polar opposites, such a person is clearly inconsistent and is therefore considered a flip flop, confused, easily led or misled or at best a lunatic who has no clear understanding of the basis of either doctrine. Apply these three logics to others with consistency and then you can ask for the same or expect the same from others, and then you can also ask for others to deal with facts not fantasy, which is the law of identity. Ask others to make up their mind to decide and commit. The law of excluded middle.Then ask others to follow through on the things that they say they would do. The law of non contradiction. Sir, I believe brilliance is not perfection. I have grown and watched you criticize regime after regime and at that young and naive age I was thinking why wouldn't this man just contest to be president so that Nigeria can be saved, I would have defiantly voted for Mr Soyinka if it would have brought an end to Nigeria's woes. To my utter surprise, I heard about your FRSC leadership and how funds were misused and a great deal of it unaccounted for. "Oh my God! In the end he turned out to be just the same as everybody else" were my next thoughts. My hopes for you, all ended up in great disappointment. Here I find myself defending my father 15 years after his death because some of you have no one else to pounce on, or rather, you have chosen a dead person to keep pouncing on over and over again when you have more than an array of contestants. A coward's act I believe. "A common writer" is what I have heard you being referred to lately, and I believe a mature mind would now agree to such referrals. With all due respect, there is a great challenge that faces the country, we have to put our heads together, rather than clashing, our collective ships must sail in the same direction, let us leave the ghosts of past contention and face the future bravely as one, criticizing the past does not help the present or define a path to the future. You say, with the weight of your sense of history and the authority you possess on national issues that " a vicious usurper under whose authority the lives of an elected president and his wife were snuffed out" referring to my late father, you must be growing old, or you would rightly recall that that president elect you refer to did not die while my father was alive. Did you slyly change your facts to fit a history that would better serve your narrative, or are you just plain forgetful? Either way, it shows you are losing your grasp of reality. Comparing my father’s leadership to Boko Haram's current reign of terror, is a rather cheap shot, you are in no position to examine, judge and sentence an entire regime based on the information you think you have, you are privy to almost none of the true facts, what is at your disposal is at best, hearsay, or were you ever minister of defence? did you ever sit in during security meetings, evaluate the facts and subtleties of national security? You remind me of Obama criticizing the Republicans before he became a sitting president himself, vouching to put an end to all American occupation, this all came to an abrupt end once he had access to the briefs and security issues, economic and political, facing his nation. Surely he did what he could, and history will judge him. To lead is not to be a rock star, and to be a Nobel laureate is not to be a an antagonist of this countries legacy..We are Africa's leaders, whether we like it or not, we cannot trivialize the centenary celebration, it happens only once, let us come together, if only for this one occasion and agree to disagree. Open rebellion against the current government at this time, on the manner of the centenary celebrations, for whatever reason, is tactless, it is not about you, it is about our nation, our beloved country. There is a time and place for everything. My late father was a Nigerian, lived in Nigeria and died protecting our interests to the best of his ability, critiquing placing him on the honor roll, along with many deserving dignitaries is your right, you have the right to your own opinions, but you do not have the right to your own facts. Facts stand alone, regardless of who espouses them, let posterity judge, but you are clearly politicizing a dead issue, how could you not be? Having an issue with the naming of a hospital after the late General and leader? really ? Now ? It almost seems as if you want to turn back the hands of time, what else would you like to undo besides the naming of the hospital, would you like to unmake Bayelsa state, Zamfara state or the others? What about the advances we made in commerce, reducing the inflation rate, what about security and welfare, how many projects, hospitals and schools were created? inflation went from 54% to 8.5%! my father oversaw an increase in our foreign currency reserves from 494 million dollars in 1993 to 9.6 billion dollars by the middle of 1997, that is unprecedented , 15 years after the PTF the benefits are still being reaped today in Nigeria, What of peace keeping and nation building, not just in West Africa but the entire continent, restoring democracy in Liberia and Sierra Leone, all these under my father’s leadership, are all these not laudable? Or would you like to undo them all. All this on 8$ per barrel of oil! You have to be kidding me. You are a learned man, you would have to undo all your learning to knowingly wish to undo all these achievements! I will be the first to proclaim that my fathers leadership was not pitch perfect or spot free, that does not exist, maybe in utopia but not here on this earth, so let us keep our discourse set in the sphere of reality please, he deserves the award, and he did not campaign for it, let it go, Sir...and allow Nigeria to at least bask in our survival and endurance in our growing prosperity and development in these trying times. I have been accused of being an optimist, hence, I am optimistic that you will come around and accept that we can all come together and face the future together, forgive each other our wrongs while celebrating our rights, I am still an admirer of your works after all, however, I cannot and will not attempt to answer your every charge, this is not the time or place, this is a time for solidarity, if only you were wise enough to grasp this. I applaud the patience of President Goodluck Jonathan and his composure and restraint in not having a knee jerk reaction at such a pivotal moment in our nations history, but you would mar the occasion, Sir, in the future, please pick your battles, and do better to safeguard your relevance, Enough Sir! Sadiq Abacha.

DEAR MUSLIM, VALENTINE IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.

The Valentine weather has gathered enormous cloud whose major component is 'love'. Unlike most weather forecast with a modicum of uncertainty, this 'rain of love' is sure to fall on February 14. Valentine's Day is one of the most popular events of the year that provokes exchange of gifts traveling in various direction bearing message of love. It is not smart enough to celebrate an event we have no understanding of its essence beyond the cliche 'its about love'. Edmund Burke says, in history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of mankind." How did it all begin? There are various historical perspectives to valentines day. According to Wikipedia, St. Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. Several martyrdom stories were invented for the various Valentines that belonged to February 1. A popular hagiographical account of Saint Valentine of Rome states that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire. According to legend, during his imprisonment, he healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius. An embellishment to this story states that before his execution he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell.[3] Today, Saint Valentine's Day is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion,[4] as well as in the Lutheran Church.[5] The Eastern Orthodox Church also celebrates Saint Valentine's Day, albeit on July 6 and July 30, the former date in honor of the Roman presbyter Saint Valentine, and the latter date in honor of Hieromartyr Valentine, the Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni). In Brazil, the Dia de São Valentim is recognized on June 12. Dear Muslim, how does this concern you? In another bizarre account, The roots of Valentine's Day most likely came from the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which had been celebrated for eight hundred years on February 15th. The day was dedicated to the god Lupercus and young men would take a woman as a sexual companion for a year, by means of drawing her name in a lottery. Pope Gelasius changed this custom, which was unacceptable to the Catholic Church. He decreed that the lottery be changed so that both young men and women drew the names of saints to emulate for the coming year. Valentine instead of Lupercus became the patron of this feast. Despite this change in custom, Roman men continued to seek the affections of women on this date and sent notes of endearment to their sweethearts, including Valentine's name in their missives. Again, i ask. How does this connect with Islam and Muslims? i cant chart one. There is no correlation whatsoever. Now it gets a little interesting. The Christians whose religion is closely associated with St Valentines day are divided on the connection Valentine's day shares with Christianity. According to Christianity today, 'There are more tales of the "origins" of Valentine's Day than arrows in Cupid's quiver. As expected, most have something to do with pagan ritual (pretty much every holiday—from Christmas to Mother's Day—has something to do with pagan ritual). Four centuries before Christ, Romans had a day called Lupercalia. Without going too much into it, I'll sum it up as a sexual lottery. Pull names out of a box at random and couple with a young member of the opposite sex. After a year, you get to pick another name' While it is clear that Valentines day shares no historical connection with Islam( Dont mind the confusion on its origin), the manner with which it is practiced makes it worthy of further disassociation. This love sharing festival isn't between the needy and those who can help them. It is not associated with a man's show of love for his neighbor or colleague. Mbanu! It is majorly about two opposite sex. Be reminded that valentine's day has no parental guidance as we have in movies. It is for all. Connect the dots and you realize why we must stay away from this day. As the cloud continues to gather threatening a down pour of 'love' and its co-efficient, please remind your soul of Allah's pronouncement that Islam is a complete religion. We are not in need of additional festivals. we are blessed with world renowned celebrations. Let us show love to everyone as a reminder that we are all from God, equal before him and we shall return to him someday. Let us be reminded that when we copy the action of people of other faith, we are inching away from Islam. For those who may argue that it is a mere celebration of love, the implication of identifying with and promoting events that are not in consonance with Islamic ideologies isn't mere. Shun it! It wont kill you to stay away. See you on the 15th of Feb, 2014, In Sha Allah.

Being Text of the speech delievered by Tinubu at the Annual Dinner of the NG. La Scala Restaurant, Muson Center, Lagos. February 6, 2014

I am delighted and privileged to be here to rub minds with this very distinguished audience. The caliber of the people here is reflective of the bright and great minds Nigeria is blessed with. Leaders, thinkers, financial experts and skilled professionals present here today must not relent until Nigeria gets it right. Let me start by attempting to paint a realistic picture of the state of our nation today. It is a picture we all are familiar with but which we have done little to confront and demand that things change. As we rounded off the year 2013, the nation was engulfed by mind blowing revelations about reckless executive spending and extensive corruption particularly in the oil sector, a sector that has since become a salad of corruption. Right before our eyes we are witnessing what perhaps is the greatest rape and plunder of our collective matrimony. That it is happening under an elected government is more saddening. The trajectory of developments revolving around massive daily oil thefts to the tune of 400,000 barrels per day, the conversion of NNPC into an ATM, the outrageous $10.8billion spent on kerosene subsidy and repair of depots and pipelines, the revelation by the Governor of Central Bank $20 billion dollars oil money is still missing and the awards of heavily inflated contracts as patronage to party loyalists and the very disarticulated economy we now operate under depicts a government spinning recklessly out of control. A government that routinely abuses power and manipulates the people. Like I have maintained previously, the Sure-P project is a drain pipe. A slush fund for political patronage. For instance, the N253.5 billion alleged to have being spent on projects by the Federal government as at December 2013 is not reflective in the lives of ordinary Nigerians. In 2012, about N180 Billion accrued to the Federal Government in Sure-P alone. Under the heavy weight of corruption, heavy dose of insecurity, the ticking time bomb of youth unemployment and a near total absence of institutional rationalization, Nigeria under President Jonathan clutches on like a battered engine in need of a complete overhaul. In fact, a change of engine. The World Bank in its 2013 report says Nigeria’s unemployment rate is 22 per cent while Youth Unemployment rate is 38 per cent. Millions of Nigerians are being pauperized and continue to fall below poverty line. The AFDB, in its African Economic Outlook report of 2013 revealed that poverty has worsened since 1996 and through 11 years of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, rule. The efforts of President Jonathan’s government at combating poverty were also faulted. The projection that Nigeria will soon emerge, at least in the next 30 years alongside three other countries as an economic giant by the British Economist, Jim O’Neil will for long be a mirage. O’Neil predicted that Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey are to become what he refers to as “MINT’. We all know that this is another Vision 2020 gimmick. A very distant hope with no chance of coming to fruition. Let us not for once, delude ourselves that this is possible. A country that is yet to export the smallest plastic product or one that generates a miserable 12 per cent of the total energy needs of the country can never be a candidate for “MINT”, “BRICS” (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and as we now know, Vision 2020. Our energy woes abide. The projection is that an estimated 60 million Nigerians now own power generating sets for their electricity, while the same number of people spend a staggering sum of N1.56 trillion ($13.35billion ) to fuel them annually. When in October 2013, I delivered a lecture at the 70th anniversary of the Island Club, Lagos, I warned about the voodoo economics being perpetuated by the Jonathan government. Here, we find no correlation between statistics reeled out and impact on the standard of living of the average Nigerian. Then I said, “The self-appraised glowing performance report of the ruling government of Goodluck Jonathan’s one of the most remarkable, creative works of fiction ever written in Nigeria. The Mathematics about GDP growth, about economic empowerment, about energy provision, about employment do not add up. And here is why. Even though according to the IMF Nigeria parades the second largest economy on the sub-continent with a GDP of 270 billion U.S. dollars second to South Africa whose GDP is 375 billion, there is nothing to show for it. The PDP government claims we have one of the world’s fastest growing economies and that our GDP expands by nearly seven percent per year. Yet, the people don’t feel this happy expansion. The official youth unemployment rate is over 40 per cent. The true rate, when joined with underemployment, may be over twice that amount. Most graduates from our tertiary institutions will not be greeted by job offers once they leave campus, but by an indefinite period of joblessness” Yet, I am not alone in this declaration that Nigeria continues to punch below its weight. For instance, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington believes the greatest challenge to Nigeria’s development is corruption closely followed by insecurity. Let me quote Carrington. “The latest Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Programme better known as the UNDP was released in March this year and lists the world’s 46 lowest ranked countries. Thirty-seven of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. All of the bottom 26 is African with the single exception of Afghanistan. Out of 187 countries surveyed, oil- producing Nigeria is ranked 153, the lowest, by far, of any non-African member of OPEC. Indeed, with the exception of Angola (which ranks 5 places higher than Nigeria), all other members, including war-ravished Iraq (107), are included in the ranks of the more developed. Your neighbor, Niger, at 187 has the dubious distinction of coming in last” Yet, the Jonathan government carries on as if oblivious of these damning revelations. In May 2013, at the launch of my book, “Financialism-Water From an Empty Well” I pointed out that several of the policy decisions by the Jonathan government were wrong footed. For example, the accumulation of money by the federal government is a misplaced objective for these times. Our driving purpose must be to channel idle human and material capacity into productive streams that furnish jobs and manufacture tangible goods bettering the living conditions of every citizen. The Sovereign Wealth Fund, SWF is wrong headed and at variance with true fiscal federalism. I believe in the national government saving money if savings is for a purpose other than itself. To say we are saving money for a rainy day while everyone is already drenched and wading through flood waters makes little sense to me. Like I have always maintained, we must shun the philosophy that says “better to save money and spend the people.” I say better to spend money and save people. We must reform our economy. To do this, we must first reform our philosophy about economic development. What I advocate is not starry-eyed socialism. I seek clear-eyed yet progressive capitalism. Here are just a handful of key things we must do. 1. We must reform the financial sector so that it becomes an effective artery that sends funds to the heart of the real sector once again. 2. The national government must formulate a national industrial policy focuses on developing labor intensive industries. This is not textbook capitalism but we do not live in a textbook. This is how the United States developed under Alexander Hamilton’s “American System” and how modern China reached spectacular growth. 3. We must restructure our educational system to prepare our youth for the present challenges of this economy and not educate them in a manner more appropriate for another land. 4. We need to overhaul our agricultural system and put in place a price support mechanism so that those who toil the land and who feed us do not go continuously poorer the more they toil. We must re-establish commodity exchange boards exclusively for farmers which will go a long way to support them and provide agricultural security. The challenge before our nation today is how to protect millions who toil the land, ensure they make reasonable returns and boost agricultural production. The demand for farm products to feed the pupils will be a catalyst to generate demand, create wealth and boost industrial growth. The establishment of small scale industries will equally generate employment. 5. We need to provide primary health care, taking it upon ourselves to fight diseases including malaria, TB and more so that our children can develop properly and our labor force becomes more productive as it grows healthier. Just as we must reform our economic sector, we must also reform our politics. The APC offers the Noah’s ark needed to steer Nigeria out of troubled waters. I am saddened by the realization that roughly 75 percent of our people suffer in poverty. Every day is a harsh contest pitting them against hunger and want. Their life is a trail of tears. The All Progressives Congress, APC is a party committed to improving the human condition. We must improve the way Nigerians live and relate to one another. Not all can be rich but our nation suffers too many who are poor. No one enjoys a trouble free life but too many are chained to despair. We must break the chains of their unnecessary suffering. This must be our collective gift to our humanity. We formed the APC not to mimic or simply rival the PDP. We formed our party to forge a new course producing a better nation. We formed this party to improve the lot and the lives of those who don’t have. We formed it to bring dignity, hope, justice and the reality of prosperity to those Nigerians who seek these things.The PDP has never been a friend of the people and each year it becomes less of one. They have turned their backs on the people. Now it is time the people turn their backs against the PDP. The PDP claims we don’t have an ideology. We have an ideology but it is one PDP can’t understand. What the arrogant and mean don’t understand, they pretend does not exist. But to erase any doubt, let me state the driving force and the ideological mandate of the APC is nothing less than to improve the economic and social lives of the average Nigerian through implementation of wise and progressive government policies and practices. The current government caters to wealth and power. It believes the rich will allow crumbs to trickle down to the poor to help them from their poverty. They believe in the so called free market. But the market they constructed is not free except to the extent that it has been free to work grave injustice on the poor and working people of this land. The number of poor increases as those in power and those who have plenty take the little from those who have nothing. This is economic oppression. It is the plank of the PDP. You will find it nowhere in our platform. That is why they claim we have no ideology. Our ideology is the opposite. We believe every able bodied person who wants to work should have a job with a living wage. Thus, we advocate a national employment policy and jobs program where government will help place people at work to build this nation from the bottom up. We believe that a nation of this size cannot prosper unless we have an active industrial sector. Thus, we advocate a national industrial policy that will enable Nigeria to make and export products that generate growth and development. We believe our commerce and transportation should be safe and efficient. Thus, we shall fashion an infrastructural master plan connecting all parts of the nation through a modernized highway system and rail network. We do not believe in darkness and thus we shall further reform the power sector in a way that brings reliable and affordable electricity to ignite our prosperity and not just raise prices. We believe in feeding the nation, thus we must encourage and protect the Nigerian farmer. We shall look to revive commodity exchange boards to guarantee our farmers a decent price for the yield of their labors. We believe every child should be fed and educated. Thus, we advocate a school feeding program. We believe our elderly have served the nation and it is now time the nation serves them. We shall institute a true and correct government sponsored social security program that shall secure the elderly from living their remaining years in destitution. We believe the common man should not be harassed, beaten and imprisoned for petty crime when those in power commit massive theft. We believe people should be allowed to voice dissent and not be shot or brutalized for doing so. That is why we support strong civil liberties legislation that will allow aggrieved citizens strong remedies for government violations against their person or property.If you don’t believe these things represent a core set of beliefs, values and principles that distinguishes us from the PDP or if you care nothing for the average Nigerian, then stick with that reactionary outfit known as the PDP. If you believe in these things, then your conscience knows where it must lead you. We have come to a moment in time when there is no time to waffle, obfuscate or prattle. Beginning from now and as we march toward the elections of 2015, the people shall decide whether they want to enshrine injustice, inequality and the rule of arbitrary might over their lives or do they want to build a finer existence where the light of fairness, prosperity and the rule of law shines on all. One can no longer dance on both sides of the fence. Either you are resolute for justice or for injustice. Stake your claim and sign your name to it so history may record your decision and your deeds at this critical hour. For me, I have but one life thus I have but one choice. I choose the right way. I follow the APC. I urge you all to hitch a ride on the rescue mission APC is about and rally for change and the re-building of a Nigeria that meets our dream. And may God bless and free you, my beloved country, Nigeria. Thank you for listening. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu

MY TOP 10 SERIES

On my resume, I have traveling, reading and writing listed as my hobbies. Well, the list is not exhaustive. Traveling, reading and writing are my official hobbies. You heard right, official hobbies. You know how they say everything counts in the job applicant evaluation process. Its a world of packaging. Traveling is to let them know am ready to serve the company anywhere they need me to be. Yinmu. People who like to read are considered knowledgeable. Writing has its cute impression too. Not that i hate to travel, read or write. Clearly, they make a great hobby. Except that i have phobia for flying. No biggie. R.Kelly shares same phobia with me. My burning passion however lies in the world of football and movies. I love to play football, watch football . I am big on play station. Fifa Addict. Movies is my other true unofficial hobby. I prefer series. The anxiety, intrigues and suspense nails it for me The below listed are my all time top 10 series; 1) Prison Break: This one requires no introduction, no explanation and certainly shrugs off all competition to occupy the summit of my all time series 2) Jumong: Classic. to think i even named my buddy 'young po'. Korean action packed film. 3)Breaking Bad: It came as no surprise as this film received impressive reviews , nomination and award. This film demonstrates how one wrong move could lead anyone to a path of perdition. Walter white killed it 4) Game of thrones: Still ongoing. It could rival the second or third spot as it progresses. And thats hoping tyron doesnt get killed. My favourite. isnt he everyone's fav? 5)Alias: If you love detective, secret mission sort of films, here you go. Amazing story. 6)Suit: Haaaa.Lovely lovely lovely. Still ongoing 7) Kyle XY: Fantastic. I nurse a disdain for fictional films. This is one exception. 8)Greys Anatomy: I love the medical profession. Without doubt, this is my best series on medicals. House comes close 9) Mentalist: Nice 10) One Tree hill: High school films have a peculiar appeal. This one stands out

OF JUAN MATA, UNITED'S POOR PERFORMANCE AND OTHER MATTERS

I am not going to beat around the bush. Absolutely pointless to do so. This is not the best of time to brandish one's identity as a Man United fan or exhibit whatsoever affiliation.Since the threshold of the mysterious affliction that is besetting England's top football club, i have pledged not to participate in such football discussion or conduct myself in such manner that attracts the potential risk of being asked to identify the club i support. To describe our present form as woeful is to make light of our sorry state. This is our worst form in decades. Right now, i could use all the Manchester United condolences that comes my way. The 'get well soon, united' messages will come handy. I already got one from an arsenal fan (can you beat that?). He offered his condolence and i wondered who died. Well, not anymore. Form died. Class died. Finesse died. And quite crucially, mental character died. The mentality of champions that cannot be bought died. The winning DNA that got us victory even when defeat stared us in the face with minutes to end of a match died. I have seen all the ridiculous jokes about united. Someone said united would finish the season occupying a slot on the second page of the table. An arsenal fan while exchanging banters said he couldn't hear my football opinion because 'we are way down the log'. Another said Man U is going down as though we are drilling for oil. Well, I hope we find oil soon. We must stop the exploration. I thought the bonanza ended with the Christmas festivities. This is unacceptable! So in the middle of this outburst of mine, i got the confirmation that Juan (pronounced wan. funny!) Mata is now in the elite club of players to have signed for Manchester United. I congratulate him on this. Now he has a chance to appear on the Spanish squad for the 2014 world cup. I congratulate Chelsea. They have made a bundle from this deal. This will not only help them comply with FFP but reinforce their squad. I congratulate David Moyes. He desperately needed to sign a player rated highly. Now he can sleep with one eye closed. I would be livid to know he has been sleeping with both eyes. I congratulate all of the Manchester United fan who sincerely believe Juan Mata is the solution to our problem. Okay, its obvious. Am not fascinated about this signing. (Didnt some fans rejoice over fellaini?) I wasn't either about RVP. He proved to be a great signing. I hope mata does too. Mourinho sold him to us because he didnt consider us title rivals. Now, that hurts. I reckon we must sign top players. Kagawa is a decent player. How has Moyes utilized him? I think we only need to rediscover our lost DNA. Our mental strength. The Manchester United i know considers a stalemate, a defeat. We must begin to think that way again. We must rediscover the joy of playing and winning. Injuries have been a challenge. Its no excuse. We are Manchester United. The best thing to have happened to England. In all, i hold David Moyes responsible. The buck stops at his table. And i find it ridiculous that an impending defeat of Arsenal by Manchester United in the second leg is the reason wenger thinks Chelsea is unfair to have sold Mata. There are other games to play. All the title contenders would lose at least a match before end of the season. Should Wenger make a second defeat to Manchester united the only defeat to come his way before the end of the season, Arsenal will be crowned the champions of England. Anderson is off to Fiorentina. I dont know why Nani is not playing at all. The question remains....Will Mata Matter to Manchester United? That remains to be seen.

SANUSI'S 'OVERCOMING VESTED INTEREST

I thoroughly enjoyed this piece from SLS... Please read Hello everyone and good morning. I’m very happy to be here with you. Just to tell you that I am a rather outdated person. I never really knew what the TEDeX event was, and when my daughter spoke to me about it, she said something about youth and development. I thought I’d just come here and talk about young people and job creation and the usual stuff we talk about until a group of young ladies came to me to explain that I was actually expected to speak in 16 to 18 minutes about one idea that can change the world. I thought that was crazy because I don’t have any idea that can change the world. And the thing with young people is that they are the most difficult audience to address. I have found myself in situations to address people of your generation and frankly the questions I get are more incisive, more intelligent, more thought-provoking than the questions I get from people of my generation. At all levels. I am actually just beginning to understand how difficult it is for those of us who were in the analog generation to have a conversation with our children. I have an eight to nine-year-old daughter that I always see in the morning and she goes to school, she comes back… I’ve never really had serious conversation with her. Two days ago we were at the table with her sister who is about 15 or 16 who then said to me: “you know dad, it’s time for us to start talking about boys”. Before I could answer, this younger one who’s eight or nine looks up and said ‘you want to talk to dad about boys? He won’t understand. He is a man. He’s a big boy.’ Now, you can imagine for me…. I mean this wasn’t the kind of conversation I had with my mother or my father. So for me, having … and of course the next day I had my son who’s in form one talking about chromosomes and X&Y cells on the table. So this is a completely different world for me. I am going to speak to you today about overcoming the fear of vested interests. It’s a topic that I have come to be engaged in mentally because I have learnt in the four years also that I have been in Abuja that if we understand, we may begin to unlock the key to change our world. The world of the country in which we live. And what is this country? It’s a country of 167 million people, as you know. Largest population in Africa. Second-biggest economy on the African continent. In 1960 with the per capita income that was better and higher than the per capita income of South Korea. 1960 Nigeria was the preferred investment destination – prefered to Japan according to US investment advisory – which has always had potential but which has never been able to realize that potential. A country that specializes in exporting what it does not produce and importing that which it produces. One of the world’s largest producer of crude oil, that does not refine its own petroleum products and has to import petroleum products. The world’s largest producer of cassava but does not produce starch or ethanol. A large tomato belt, yet the world’s largest importer of tomato paste. A country that from my childhood I have heard, had the potentials for being a world power, but everyday we talk about potentials! Everyday we talk about potentials! Today we still talk about the potentials of Nigeria. And yet China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Brazil… all of those countries have turned the potential that they had into reality. What are these? What’s the one thing that if I were to ask, what is the one thing that we need to do to break this barrier that faces us? In four years in Abuja, I’ve come to the conclusion that we need to overcome the fear of vested interests. I’ll talk to you through a little bit of my own experiences and as governor of Central Bank and use that as a basis or as a template for what I think we need to do if we want to change this country. I became governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2009 and this was in the middle of a global financial crisis. I came to the central bank knowing that banks have problems and believing that these problems were caused by a global crisis, by the collapse in the capital market, the collapse in the price of oil, and that they would be fixed by simply addressing the normal risk management issues in banks. Shortly after I came in and when we went through investigations, I discovered that the Nigerian banking system was infested with the same corruption of the renter system in this country. That a number of bank chief executives have taken their banks and fleeced those brands and literally taken away depositors’ money to buy property all over the country, all over the world. And just like people in ministries or in government agencies or whenever they have opportunities in all companies, the banks were themselves a site for rent seeking. The fundamental character of the Nigerian state is that for decades since we found oil, it has existed, not to serve the people but as a site for rent extraction by a very small minority that controls political power. It doesn’t matter where this group comes from. Whether it’s north or South or muslim or christian or military or civilian, the State has always being the sites for the extraction of rent with the exception of a few years that we can think of, when we’ve had development. This is at the heart of the problems of this country. Now when we discovered this – and I’ll give a few examples, these are well known now, they’ve been published. You know there was one chief executive officer that took away from her bank over 200 billion naira? Okay that was over a billion dollars. And where was this money taken to? Purchase of property. We recovered from one CEO 200 pieces of real estate in Dubai. Real estate in Johannesburg. Real estate in Potomac in Washington apart from shares in over 100 companies. And all of those were purchased with depositors’ funds. We went to the court in the UK on the case of another CEO, we got a judgment against that CEO for $142 billion stolen from the bank, taken to buy shares while manipulating the shares of his own institution and also transferred outside to purchase property. Now the first CEO we were able to convict, we recovered these assets and got a six-month sentence and sorted it out. The second CEO, we finished our case, established in Nigeria – we had a civil case in the UK, we had a criminal case in Nigeria – established the case… two weeks before the closing statements were made, the judge was miraculously promoted to the Federal Court of Appeal. After three years of trial at the very end of trial! Because someone, a very popular religious leader with hundreds of thousands of supporters, carried into political authorities, and the system that was supposed to protect depositors and handle criminals was used and manipulated to promote a judge so that he would not convict a thief. Now this is an example and an instance of the kinds of things that happen in a country that stops a country from reaching its full potentials. But my experience with the banking reforms, and how it affects the fear of vested interest is as the following. After we discovered the things that happened in the banks, the critical thing we had to do was to take a decision that would pitch us against powerful political and economic forces. We were dealing with chief executives that in 2009 had become invincible. They were in the seat of power. They had economic power and they had bought political protection. The were into political parties, they had financed elections of officers and they believed that nobody could touch them. And every time I said it was time for us to take action, people said to me “you can’t touch these people, you’ll be sacked. Or you can’t touch these people they will kill you. Or you can’t touch these people, you can’t do that”…. And I said you know what? We are going to take them on. And we took the decision. We’re going to remove them. You know what? We removed them and nothing happened. We’re going to prosecute them, we’re going to put them in jail. And we put one of them in jail. And were are going to recover these assets. Because the way the central bank operated in the past, these guys take all this money and the central bank says “the bank has failed”. The banks that we saved had 4.4 trillion naira in deposits. They had eight to ten million customers. But the government and the system has always berthed on the side of the rich people. Because these eight million customers, the old woman in Gboko or in Yenagoa, or Maiduguri, who has been told to save her money and who’s saved money for 40-50 years wakes up one day and all her savings are gone. The civil servant who’s saved for 35-40 years, kept his pension money in the bank, the school fees of his children, their medical bills, wakes up one day and he finds that his bank is barricaded because the bank has failed. Banks do not fail. When people say banks have failed, it’s like saying a man whose throat has been slit and you say the man died. He did not die, he was killed. And those that murder the banks, those that destroy these deposits have always walked away. They become senators. They become governors. They become captains of industry. They set up new banks and they continue. And the millions of poor people who don’t have a voice…. That’s it! Nobody knows the number of Nigerians who have died from failed banks because they were sick and could no longer pay their medical bills because the money was locked up in a bank that has failed. Nobody knows the number of children whose parents could very well afford to pay their school fees who had to drop out of school because banks were mismanaged. So we use this as one instance, as one example of what you can do if you are ready to confront these vested interests. And deal with them and protect the poor for the very first time. But the banking industry is just one part of Nigeria. What is happening in other areas? Take the oil industry. We talking about fuel subsidy. In 2009 this country paid 291 billion naira as subsidy for petroleum products. By 2011, this number had jumped to 2.7 trillion naira. Did we start consuming 10 times as much petrol? Do we have 10 times as many cars? Did the population of Nigeria multiply 10 times? I did not believe those numbers. I screamed against those numbers, and more people screamed. Of course we tried to remove subsidy, there was occupy Nigeria. There have been investigations, and what did we discover? That a lot of that money never went to fuel subsidy that was consumed by Nigerians. There are people in this country that produced pieces of paper and brought to PPPRA and somebody stamped those pieces of paper and said they brought in petroleum products and actually paid them subsidy. And those pieces of paper said I brought 30,000 metric tones on so so ship, and we discovered that the said ship was nowhere near the coast of Nigeria on that date. We have seen vessels that did not even exist – that had been retired – on bills of landing and money has been paid. And you know what? None of them as I speak to you has gone to jail. This is the only country in the world where you have something called oil theft. Where vessels can simply come and take crude oil and literally just drive out of the country. You see the numbers every day–100,000 200,000 400,000 barrels a day, nobody even knows. 7.3 billion naira. How does anybody take oil in a vessel and leave the country? We’ve got the Navy, we’ve got NIMASA, we’ve got security services, you’ve got the oil companies themselves. And everyday we complain about the lack of development. We don’t have development because Vested Interests continue to rape this country and continue to take the money out. And the only way you’re going to move from potential to reality is stop preaching and start asking yourself how can we overcome the fear of Vested Interest and how can we confront them? And if there’s one thing I learned from banking, it is that they are not to be feared. They stand on quicksand. They’ve got only two tools. They are not very intelligent people. It doesn’t take much intelligence to steal. If they were smart, they probably will not be stealing. They’d find other things to do. They have two weapons and two weapons only. First is how much do you want? And if you don’t want anything, then I’m going to destroy you. If you don’t want their money and if you are not afraid of them you’ll destroy them. There’s nothing else in there. You’re more intelligent! And we’ve got to ask ourselves as a country, how have we allowed ourselves to be reduced to a level that is so far below our potential? A few weeks ago, I was in Lagos, at Tinubu’s birthday, at the colloquium and I spoke to young people. I said we have 65 million young people in Nigeria, I’ll give you one idea. You have 65 million youth in Nigeria, what does it take for one of you to get your votes to be the president of this country? What does it take for you to say you’re tired of my generation? I’m going to get one 40-year-old intelligent, committed, patriotic Nigerian and we are going to ask all the youth to vote for him? What does it take for you to address this issue sector by sector? Identify these interests one by one and confront them? Why does it have to take fuel subsidy removal for us to come out and challenge the rot that is in our country? What are we afraid of? We are afraid of losing the security that we have today. We may not lose it today, we will lose it tomorrow. So there is one thing I have, one message I have for every Nigerian: is to remember that the problems of this country are enormous, the solution is simple and that solution is: “we must overcome”. We must recognize that at the heart of the problem of Nigeria, at the heart of ninety percent of our issues – from Boko Haram, to religious crisis, to ethnic crisis to unemployment, to the lack of education, to the lack of health care – is that there are people who profit from the poverty and underdevelopment of this country. And these people are called Vested Interests. And so long as they remain entrenched, and so long as we do not overcome our fear of them and dislodge them, we are not going to find a solution to this problem and we are not going to reach true potentials. My time is up. Thank you very much.

Imran.

Not Ibrahim. Imran? Yup. Imran.

He is the reason why 2013 will be unforgettable for me and his mum. A gift from Allah.
We experience few moments (only few) in our life where 'happy' isn't strong enough to capture the intensity of our ecstasy. Not 'elated', not overjoyed. Nothing. In such moment, you just scream for joy or simply smile like I did on the birth of my son.

The wait was killing. More than his mum who carried him for 9months with the associated discomforts and sacrifices, I just couldn't wait. Especially at the threshold of the last trimester. It was just like a must win football game heading into the 70th minutes. Anxiety increased. So was my imagination. Many thoughts. What would he look like? When will it happen. Will I be around when it happens. How do I carry him. Whom do I call first? I imagined the color of his eyes, texture of his hair, shape of his nose, fingernails (how I love fingers of new born).

And not forgetting how I became acquainted with pregnancy terminologies. Edd, contraction, mother craft, water breaking etc. His mum wanted him on a weekend. Me? I just wanted him ASAP.

And the nine month course came to a screeching halt. Not like we weren't expecting. Of course we were. The moment is without predictive precision. On the 25th of November, our bundle of joy arrived in the early hours. I was speechless. Grateful. And full of smiles. I have conveniently excused the agony of labour his mum went through. Not because it isn't worth the mention, but the joy of his arrival is what overwhelms us. Respect to all the RESPONSIBLE mothers out there!

Imran Oluwatimilehin Balogun.....May Allah make you the coolness of our eyes. Proudly daddy#