Category: Health

Gold is gold, whether in the  palm of a king or in that of the slave or beggar. Thus, it does not  matter to me if the lyrics of  Nigeria’s first national Anthem were written by a foreigner, Lillian Jean Williams, who was thought to be a Mistress of Lord Frederick Lugard, Governor- General of Nigeria, and the music was composed by Frances Benda   or if it was home grown. What touches me is the effect on my spirit, what its makes me do.  I must be frank. I cannot recite ARISE O COMPATRIOT beyond the first stanza. Young persons say many old persons like me are like that… that we even have a computer phobias. They may be right in respect of some oldies, but not about me. I try  to be objective in every matter. When some Nigerians reject NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE simply because it was written by the European mistress of LORD LUGARD,Governor-General of Nigeria who combined about 252 ethnic nationalities,  languages and cultures into  a geographic space  she called Nigeria, why do they not reject European made motor cars or refused to fly in Europe aeroplanes.? Why do they accept European and Asian rice and reject Nigerian rice? Why do they prefer European pharmaceuticals to theirs? Why do they wear European dresses and bear European names,  accept European education and religion,go to work and live in  Europe, and hunger for European  nationality and passport? If I may ask another question: why  do they not live in village mud  houses  but in  hall mark European architectured  houses? We can go on and on.

One  of my grouses with ARISE O COMPATRIOTS is that it was a Nigerian military imposition, just like the 1999 Constitution of Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and his supreme military council(SMC) which does not carry the entire country along. The Ibos, who were defeated in the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, still  cannot accept that they are “compatriots” of Nigerian outside the South-east region of five  Ibo states.  They expressed it as recently as last week Monday (  May30, 2024) in their attempt to celebrate Ibo soldiers who were killed in the civil war. Five Nigerian soldiers keeping order at a road junction in one of the Ibo states were killed by unknown gunmen who were enforcing the Biafran celebration.  In my view,the “compatriots”that  ARISE O COMPATRIOTS sought to rouse to   love Nigeria are Nigeria’s military who fought and won that war and other Nigerians who believed in the forced unification  of about  252 tribes,  cultures and languages.

When ARISE O COMPATRIOTS says”the labour of our heroes will never be in vain” , some Nigerians may ask:  WHOSE HEROES? Was Chief Obafemi Awololowo the hero of the Hausa/Fulani or of the Igbos? Did the Yorubas accept the Sultan of Sokoto, Sir Abubakar Ahmadu Bello or  Prime Minister Tafa Balewa  or Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, ceremonial Republican President, as  their leaders? Still this day, do they accept formal President Olusegun Obasanjo as their leader? Were the Ibos not antagonistic to leaders from the North and from the West?  In the  2023 Presidential election , did the  Igbos not still vote “one-way” for Peter Obi? Was the election not the most bitter, most ethnicity polluted in Nigeria’s ethic jingoistic elections? Could Joe Ajaero not be rooting for 2027 with unnecessary labour strikes?  Could Peter Obi be reading the hand writing on the wall by trying to vacate Labour Party and team up with PDP and ANPP? So, where are the “COMPATRIOTS”? And did they “ARISE”? Did they “OBEY NIGERIA’S CALL”? Thus, can we not see that ARISE O COMPATRIOTS was a mere wish with no spirit of reality driving it?

Conversely again, this is my view, NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE is a REALIST Anthem. We have no other land but Nigeria. Our tribes and languages are different. We are, nevertheless, related by historical experience. Do we have a better option than mutually respecting one another and  peacefully working together for optimal benefits? No, we don’t. Any other option would be calamitous. 

The third  stanza  recognises the existence of an Almighty Creator Who is Ruler of  all the Worlds. Isn’t this another Nigerian reality of a land  with, arguably, the largest number of churches and mosques and, probably, traditional religion shrines than any other place on earth? Easily,the mention of  His name  in our national anthem should awaken positive  and noble responses in our spirit if, truly, we recognise Him and wish that  His “kingdom come” to the earth as the  Christian religion,  for example, beseeches Him in The  Lord’s Prayer. It goes on to request that the Almighty Father “…help us to build a nation  where no man is oppressed”. This is a great prayer that would have been well answered, if we knew what we were doing.

Colonisation by the British helped to do away with the  oppressive rule of  monarchies and human sacrifices, for example.  Literacy and superstition were social oppressors. Education came as  lighting. Foreign religion may not have taught us what we did not already know. It was, nevertheless, a re-enforcement of our traditional ideals and sense of justice. What we ought to have done  with this part of the anthem was to have held our leaders accountable to the promise that “ no man would be Oppressed in the new sovereign land”.  We did not. Rather, the tribes engaged in offensive political wars, the North and the East combining in an unholy alliance to destroy the fast growing and pace setter West. The  Mid-West region was created for minority peoples in the West,whereas the Eastern Region continued to oppress its minority peoples. The Northern Region did the same. What was good to do with the goose was not good to do with the gander. Elections became nightmarish.  The Western Region was broken, and its leaders, notably Chief Obafemi Awololowo and Chief Anthony Enahoro who especially moved the independence motion in 1953, were sent to jail of up to  10 or 15 years on treasonable felony charges by the same country they helped to liberate from colonial Great  British, when the Northern Region was not ready for independence. Was this not the oppression the anthem  beseeched the Lord to help us overcome? Treasonable Felony,  compared to treason, is like sleep compared to death. Today,Boko Haram is pure treason and we heard of  no celebrated trials like the treasonable felony trials of Chief Obafemi Awololowo and Chief Anthony Enahoro. Did Chief Awololowo and Chief Anthony Enahoro fire a single gun shot at Nigerians? Did they bomb, kill and maim?  Do we have two countries in one? Do we still not live with oppression? On  January 16 1966, Nigerian soldiers attempted to erase the oppression but, unfortunately,ended up in ethnic  tentacles of  Eastern Nigeria which opportunistically hijacked their military coup against oppression by the North,to bring power to the East for the purpose of subduing the weakened West and the illiterate North and oppressing them. Major General J. T. U Aguiyi- Ironsi aborted their plans, clamped them  into  detention and then  placed  the country under  UNIFICATION DECREE of 1966 which put the North  and the West  under the jack boots of the East, worsening the “oppression” the Anthem opposed. The North responded to the East in July 1966, six months later, followed with the unpardonable mass murder of Ibos in the North, a terrible human carnage which led  the Ibos to the declaration of secession and inauguration of their own  country called BIAFRA. Unfortunately, the Ibos dragged again minority peoples along with them to enslave in  Biafra. Nigerian promises of freedom for these oppressed minority peoples  led them to ditch Biafra in their search for freedom during the civil war. The changes in Nigerian political structure from three regions to four , to 12 states,19 and 36 reflect the battle against oppression, a Nigerian reality captured in the anthem. Why did the Obasanjo Administration make Nigeria behave like an Ostrich, forsakening  REALITY and living an  SUBTERFUGE in ARISE O COMPATRIOTS? Under Gen. Obasanjo, progenitor of ARISE O COMPATRIOTS, generals cheated peasants of their land for personal farm lands, Chief Awololowo and Chief M.K.O Abiola were denied Nigerian Presidency and an attempt was made to financially strangulate Lagos State for challenging oppression.

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The second stanza is a committal  to Nigeria: “Our flag shall be a symbol that  Truth and Justice reign” we are to “honour it in peace or battle” and “hand over to our children a banner without stain” .Truth and Justice did not reign in the First Republic. The flag was not honoured, otherwise there would have been no civil war, and the banner handed to us generation of “children” was badly stained with  blood from  all over the country, especially Ibo blood in the North. The Ibos have been blamed for firing the first shot by killing politicians all over the country except their own politicians in the January 1966 coup. We should have learned useful lessons from all of these, and  NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE should have make more meaning to us. No one held our leaders accountable to the  promises of the anthem.

SE EYI L’OKAN?

Wherever talk about NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE pops up, the follow-up talk is a question: SE EYI L’OKAN? that  means: Is this the priority?  I muse to myself: Every-one sees everything according to his or her frame of reference or  perceptive capacity. Some persons are far sighted, others narrow sighted or short sighted. We came out of the Biafran war in 1970.  In 1978 we came up with ARISE O COMPATRIOTS. This  Anthem’s authors  and patriots were Nigerian soldiers who defeated Biafran soldiers. Were Biafran Soldiers their compatriots? They merely submitted to superior fire power. Submission cannot endure because it is un-natural. What distinguishes the human spirit from the animal souls is the FREE WILL inherent in man as a gift from an Almighty Creator who did not design that man be His slave. This is why, all over the earth, submission of a people to another can only be temporary whether in battle, in economics or politics. Who would have thought UKRAINE would  stand up to RUSSIA for more than two years in the battle field? Did Bangladesh and Pakistan not leave India? Is Scotland not seeking  freedom from the United Kingdom? What of  Eritrea and Tigris from Ethiopia and South Sudan from Sudan? The Cze and the Slovaks not  similarly dissolve Czehoslovakia. “Iron Chancellor” Otto Von Bismarck took  Germany out of the Astro-Hungarian Empire. African  South Africans not recover their land from minority   white oppressors.  The Yorubas stopped the  Fulanis  Jihad.

No-one can force another to be his or her compatriot in any matter, especially in nation-building, if they have no shared values. To worsen matters, the opening of ARISE O COMPATRIOTS is military drumming which generates a victor-vanquished atmosphere Gen.  Yakubu Gowon de-emphased  in Nigeria’s post civil war psychology. The Ibos  still feel under Nigeria seige, especially in the matter of elusive Presidency.  They are looking forward to 2027 from two prongs…  PETER OBI  dislodging ATIKU ABUBAKAR in the PDP and  JOE AJAERO capitalising  on the poverty  nation-wide which he does not mind  to worsen through devastating labour strikes or a jumbo pay  rise not matched by productivity. The poor will be glad to have more money in their pocket  and blame the government, not AJAERO for the consequences. Inflation could worsen. Jobs could be lost directly through retrenchment or just indirectly  when companies replace man power with machines. More machines will mean more  dollars going abroad and the Naira depreciating. Huge wage bills may force businesses to relocate to Ghana where wage levels are friendlier to capital investors. Retirees like me will me worse off. The unemployed and the jumbo wage earners will buy peppers and tomatoes in the same market. The labour leaders have no pity  for the unemployed. In no time, the jumbo wage earners will cry again,like Oliver twist, for more money.

 NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE underscores vengeance against a bullying President  Obasanjo who, for 22 months, sought but failed to financially  strangle Lagos State by  denying it federal income. Lagos survived the brutality. Now, the “Lagos Boy” is showing the  egocentric,garrulous and loquacious Obasanjo that a David can still  efface a Goliath with all his “gragra”. I pray Chief Awololowo, and Chief Abiola have gone far beyond earshot from Nigeria, otherwise they may be having a rounded laugh. What about Chief Olu Falae and Co? To re-build a wobbled and simultaneously cracked people they must subscribe to a reasonable and workable contract. They must see and feel this contract at work. The promises of the NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE are easier to see  and to feel than those of ARISE O COMPATRIOTS. Whether the impact will be held will depend on the people themselves if they hold their leaders accountable to the anthem. Is anyone stopping us  from living in “brotherhood”? Who is impeding “pace and Justice” from reining among us? Who stains  the “banner” we are to hand “ our children”?. Who is oppressing us, precluding, obliterating peace and the prospects of “plenty” or abundant life?. Will our  court mention in their judgements which ever parts of our anthem has been infringed by any public officer they are to send to jail.

THE POOR

Definition of  Nigeria’s poor is always difficult for me.  I number myself among them,but many persons pull me out of the queue simply because my skin appears fresh, a profit from avoiding naked sugar, fats that kill, salt, bread and  GMO foods in the  diet . I live  strictly  on what  I earn from the opportunity of writing for a newspaper. Joe Ajaero is right that journalists’ salaries are disgusting, but uniformising them in all organisations, as he suggests in his minimum wage for journalists, is not the solution. Newspapers and the electronic media earn incomes based on their dexterity in the market. Proprietors are not government or Father Christmases.  To check how my pockets could be, I spoke  to a woman  about 20 years younger than I am who roasted  and sold corn and plantain for sale by the road side near the entrance gate  of the  housing  estate where I lived. She sold about 500 cobs of corn every two or three days. She purchased them from Ifo, near Sango Ota, under 45 minutes drive from her operating base. Each cob cost about #20 from  peasant farms. I suggested to her, and she agreed, that transportation of each cob to Lagos could cost no more than #10 and another N10 for charcoal to roast a cob. So should “gifts to keep Kal officials at bay and “ #10 on every cob for  LAWMA ( waste disposal) and for “public relations”.All of that boils down to #70 on a cob which sells for between #150 and #200.  Transportation of 500 cobs must be cheaper than our budgeted #5000. Perhaps 2,500 will do. Kal cannot demand more than #5,000 every week. Ditto charcoal and public relations. In another words, a cob may return  a minimum profit of #100 to post #50,000 net gain on 500 cobs in a maximum of three days. That could imply about #16,500 every  work day.  This woman is semi- illiterate.  She told me she was a “poor” Nigerian who lived in a single room apartment with her six  member family a standard Joe Ajaero’s  poor Nigerian family. I told her she was not. I do not earn that kind of money. I doubt if my editor does, or if the manager of  my  bank branch earns it tax-free.

The bottom line  of this story is that many of the persons we look down upon on account of their dressing and road-life  are financially better off than many of us are. The only major difference between us is that education and corporate life experiences and practices make us look better, think better and act better than they do.  If you are not careful, irrespective of your cutting edges, you are likely to follow them into SE  EYI L’OKAN swamp. A National Anthem is a MISSION STATEMENT. Every serious  business needs a mission statement as a compass to chart its way through the jungles of business. So, a country or nation without a mission statement its citizens can easily  relate to and with, is like a sheep without a shepherd.

E LO F’OKAN BALE

Calm down, the government keeps telling us as we too, often say. We should believe the government if the Minister of Information speaks the right  language to us, and regularly, too. We blame even tomatoes shortages on the government when the Agriculture Minister should have been educating us about havocs wrought by pests on the farms and of plans to freeze dry tomatoes into powder as soon as possible. If we are told by the Central Bank that cyber tax will be expended on the recruitment of 200,000 cyber  police officers and other ranks under their own inspector general, shall we not agree? Will that not mean better  policing of the banks and the internet space? Will it not reduce the job queues and free the regular, general duties Nigeria Police to do other things better with its 400,000 officers and other ranks?