The Nation Newspaper

Tag: 2016

  • ‘Looks for 2016 will be more subtle’

    ‘Looks for 2016 will be more subtle’

    An ex-economist turned make-up artist, Olayinka Akintomide, talks about her foray into the beauty industry and what 2016 holds in stock for women makeup-wise in this interview with Kehinde Oluleye.

    Tell us a bit of yourself. My name is Olayinka Akintomide. I am the creative director at Blushville Makeovers Studio, graduate of Economics (Lagos State University) and a native of Osun State but resident in Lagos.

    What inspired you to go into makeover business?

    The passion for makeup application made me go into the business. I believe whatever career or business one engages in, there must be passion for it. Preceding my venture into professional makeup artistry, I was the go-to person for my friends any time they had occasions to attend. So, after graduating from school and because I didn’t want to stay at home jobless, my brother and I decided I needed to get professional training to hone my skills.

    For how long have you been doing this?

    Professionally, I started in 2012, four years ago.

    Before opening Blushville, how were you operating?

    Before opening Blushville Makeovers Studio, I was operating by word of mouth, referrals and through social media platform.

    Apart from makeover, what other fashion items are you into?

    Skin care products; cream and soap mixing, facials, body polishing, massaging, pedicure and a bit more are the other inclusions of our services.

    Being around for a while, you must have witnessed a lot of changes in the makeover business.

    Yes, there have been lots of changes in this business.  Makeup artists are bolder now, with colours and the overall effect of the looks they create.

    There are more artists now compared to some time ago when we had just a handful of artists.

    People are more conscious of their looks and what they want.

    Are you into men makeover?

    Yes, I’m into men makeover, especially for photo-shoot, music videos and more.

    Why is it a general belief that women’s makeover is more rewarding than men’s?

    The women folk are more vain than their male counterparts, they care about their looks and appearance and would go all out to make sure they look good, sometimes not minding the financial cost, whereas most men will just dress up and they are good to go. So, financially, women’s makeover is more rewarding

    Another aspect is that when one applies makeup for a woman the ‘before and after’ effect is usually wow.

    And is it true that male customers are easier to deal with?

    Yes, most male customers are easier to deal with….less attitude, they usually allow you do your job without stress. Most male customers have friendly disposition.

    What kinds of products and colour do you love working with?

    There are lots of quality makeup products available now; the list is endless. But I love working with Marykay, Mac, Inglot, Zaron, Revlon, Black Opal and so much more. For colour, I love working with red, I try to incorporate it into my looks.

    Who are your targets?

    Anyone and everyone who loves to look gorgeous and confident for that special occasion.

    What should women look out for in 2016, make-up-wise?

    The looks for 2016 will be more subtle, less sculpted makeup look with emphasis on real skin makeup than overly sculpted looks (over contoured and highlighted).

    What are the challenges faced in the course of doing your business?

    There are lots of challenges; as a makeup product retailer, lots of people buy on credit to pay at a later date. This affects ability to restock more goods. Also, there are some artists who charge ridiculous prices for jobs, some charge so low an amount for makeup jobs that you wonder if they have bills to pay at all and some clients don’t understand what our job entails, they feel our job doesn’t justify our charges; this affects business a lot.

    What is the ABC of a good make-up?

    *Know your skin type – so you know what works best for you and the products to use.

    *Select the right kind of products – always buy quality products so you don’t harm your skin

    *Correct shade of foundation and powder in order not to create a ‘mask’ after application.

    *When applying makeup you should lay emphasis on one part of the face, either the eyes or the lips, not both at the same time.

    *And blending is key, blend your colours well; blend, blend, and blend.

    How will you rate Nigerian make-up artists with their foreign counterparts?

    Nigerian makeup artists can compete with their foreign counterparts. We’ve come a long way over the years and lots of artists have sprung up in recent times who know their onions. I believe we are at par with our foreign counterparts.

    What is style to you?

    Style is being confident and comfortable in being yourself.

    Describe your style?

    My style is casual-chic. I like casual wears.

    What determines what you wear?

    The occasion, my mood and sometimes what I want to project.

  • Will 2016 be a better year?

    Polluxis eight times the radius of the sun. Even Pollux is dwarfed by Arctures, which is 26 times the size of the sun. Arctures is no push over. Vycanus major is 2000 times the size of the sun or two times the size of Arctures which is 1,000 times the size of the sun. What is thought to be the most massive star in the night sky is YR102KA. It is called poeony Nebulla star, 175 times mass of the sun.

    According to many prophesies of old (read Tom Kay’s Whenthecometruns), a great star known as “Thegreatcomet”, will visit our earth, outshining the sun for several days, to anchor radiations of The finaljudgement. When the End-Time for our planet and its inhabitants arrives. Even the great seer, Nostradamus spoke of this star of stars.Spiritualists  speak of seven Universes. That is not our concern today. This article is concerned about our own Universe. Scientists say it was formed about 13.7 billion years ago. Its radius is 13.7 light years. One light year is the distance light travels in one earth year. That is 300,000 kilometers/second [186,000miles/sec]. In one light year, light would travel 330,000 kilometers multiplied by number of seconds in one year =330,000 x 31,536,000 seconds. The size of the Universe is about 78 billion light years.    According to one authority: “If you start travelling at 60 miles per hour or 100 kilometers per hour, you will get to the end of your first coffee stop, the end of one light year in nine trillion years. Then you just keep going for another 77,999,999 billion light years. This is stupendous. The Universe is growing bigger every day at the speed of about 71 kilometers per seconds. What our telescopes observes is the world of gross matter. Above it is the world of medium gross matter. Above that is the world of fine gross matter. Above that is the animistic world. Above this is the paradise of the human spirit with its several graduations. Isn’t man so diminutive from all these. Were the beings who hold the structure of the Universe together to slacken in their service, and one of the big stars is to fall upon the earth, what would happen.

    These are wondrous event that should inform us that we are not the author of creation but mere creatures in it who should seek the Will of the Author and unconditionally fulfil it. What I have not said so far is that these lifeless material bodies are not carrying out there movements and services by themselves but are mere effects of the activities of animistic beings who merely animate matter. These beings stand in unconditional loyalty to the Will of the Creator who, granting the prayer of the human spirit for a world where they could unfold and grow permitted them to bring the World of Matter about. We are to emulate them if we want peace and happiness on earth. These beings are our teachers and guardians. Look at the ants and the honey bee. Do their lives not teach us something? Look at the human body. Every organ works dutifully for all, and all dutifully work for it. It is scenario of one for all and all for one. . The heart cannot digest food. The mouth, stomach and intestine do that dutifully. They give the heart food and the heart gives them blood. The lungs get food from the digestive system and blood from the heart. It gives them oxygen in return and expels their waste. The immune system depends on them and defends them all and enjoys their services. The nerves monitor the body and the environment and files their report to the brain which makes the necessary decisions and issues appropriate instruction. So whether 2016 will be a happier year than 2015 and other previous years will depend on whether humanity is prepared to recognise that man is not the author and owner of creation, discards his ego-driven will and adopt the principle of service.

    Many people always say this change has to come from the top that is the government. I believe they are wrong, for it is when individuals change that society will change. We build a house from the foundation, not from the roof down.

    If you listen to what house girls say of their madams, you will appreciate they do not render service but are forced, sometimes brutally, to work for their pay. Observe shop girls and boys, bricklayers and municipal commercial bus drivers. It is when there is fulsome change at the bottom that change will be demanded from the top. For it is from the ranks of the bottom that the ranks of the top are recruited. That is why, today, many people at the bottom do not see anything wrong with what is going on at the top in Nigeria today. They gleefully, unashamedly, tell you they would do the same if they had the opportunity to be at the top. You can already see a picture of 2016, like the previous years, unfolding!

    Being in tune with creation enables us to recognise that we are merely microscopic parts of a grand design, the authors of which we are not. Humbly, then, we would seek to recognise the creators plan and unconditionally fulfill it. We can see service everywhere in creation. We should therefore, become service-oriented whether we find ourselves at the top or bottom of society.

  • ‘There’s hope in 2016’

    Chairman, Edo State Economic Team and a Governorship aspirant of All Progressives Congress (APC),  Godwin Obaseki said despite the ravaging economic downturn and difficult situations across the world, there is hope for the people of Edo State and Nigeria in the New Year.

    Obaseki, in a New Year message to the people of the state, said President Muhammadu Buhari’s Change Agenda and anti-corruption campaign was to put the nation on the right footing, a step, he said, would leapfrog the economy and position it as one of the sort-after economies in the world.

    Obaseki argued that Edo State would continue to leverage on its strategic location in Nigeria as an artery to leapfrog its economy for the greater benefits of the people of the state.

    In a related development, Obaseki pledged that he would deploy his good will garnered in the private sector within and outside Nigeria to encourage the private sector to seriously reconsider their interest in the Gelegele-Atlantic Ocean link Port which has the capacity to open the economy of the state to the rest of Nigeria and the world.

    Obaseki said as a senior Financial Management expert, he would not allow the state economy with all the potential to be less than 10 in the ranking of Nigerian states particularly in the area of doing business and youth employment.

    He called for the strengthening of the capacity of local security arrangement otherwise known as Vigilante in all parts of Edo state.

    He said that for the Nigerian police to effectively carry out its duty to the people, there is need for collaborative efforts between the communities and the Nigerian police citing the case of the Igarra and Makeke Vigilante groups that successfully foiled the twin bank robbery in Igarra recently.

    He emphasized that as contained in the APC manifesto, the design of an enduring community policing strategy will secure lives and properties of the people of Edo state from Gelegele to Somorika.

    Mr Obaseki further called on the people of Edo state to continue to support the Nigerian police with intelligence and valid information that will lead to the overall security of everybody in the state.

  • Nigeria in 2016: The moment of truth

    .  The president obviously believes Nigeria can spend its way out of a looming recession at a time we should be deliberately deflating the economy through massive cuts in cost of governance, reducing salaries and allowances across board and eliminating waste by drastically cutting back expenses on luxury items. 

    “The states face three tasks which present significant and debilitating obstacles to their economic revitalisation. First is that they all must regain fiscal sanity by ensuring that revenue matches expenditure. There must be massive cut in cost of governance and focus more on essential public services, particularly in public schools and primary health care delivery. Most states need to ramp up their internal revenue drive, achieve right balance between recurrent and capital budgets and seek to achieve value for money, avoid contract inflation and institute effective price monitoring and public procurement policies” – Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi

    Aan tan ra oni je i rure’ is a popular Ekiti saying which means you do not/can never, profit from self-deceit.  Unfortunately, that, precisely, is what has been happening here in Nigeria for ages but never as  deleterious  to our collective well-being  as when President Goodluck Jonathan’s men were ‘obtaining, siphoning and running’ the public purse dry, pilfering millions and billions  of naira, when poor Nigerian workers,  most of them on no more than a meagre  N18, 000 monthly  salary,  were being owed  for months  until  President  Muhammadu Buhari extended  a bailout  to  the states  and  approved  the restructuring of their humongous bank loans.  Worse  is that  the  Nigerian  Governors Forum is now toying with the idea  of  either reducing  that intangible salary or laying off workers with nary a word as to how they will  cut down on the stupendous cost of governance.

    To  further worsen matters,  the president,  in stimulating the  struggling economy  consequent  upon  collapsing oil prices , decided to go ballistic,  presenting a  N6.08 trillion ($30.8 billion) budget for  2016;  an increase of  20 percent  above that of 2015 and by a large measure, Nigeria’s biggest ever budget.  The deficit will, at N2.2 trillion, more than double that for 2015, representing 2.16 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).  It projects a N1.84 trillion borrowing, half of it expected to come from outside.  The president obviously believes Nigeria can spend its way out of a looming recession at a time we should be deliberately deflating the economy through massive cuts in cost of governance, reducing salaries and allowances across board and eliminating waste by drastically cutting back expenses on luxury items.

    I am the farthest person from Economics but I have the word of the prodigious Professor Sam Aluko of blessed memory to the effect that there is nothing without an alternative. He said that some three decades ago as Ibrahim Babangida was dribbling the entire country with his SAP programme. This time around too, it  appears  President Buhari has failed to inject the right antidote to  an economy that is guaranteed to worsen  given  the  way  oil prices  continue to  crash. The ideal paradigm out of the looming economic crises should have been, in addition to those already mentioned, developing alternative sources of revenue e.g.  Solid Minerals, Agriculture and Innovation;  investing  maximally in infrastructure procurement and  emphasising  human capital  development especially  in the sciences and  other  selected areas. The budget should have encouraged social infrastructural development: building of schools and colleges, hospitals, providing increased access to pipe borne water and establishing farm settlements  where the  use of  the latest  equipments  will be the norm. These and more Chief Obafemi Awolowo did in the then Western Region to great effect, culminating in the highly justified slogan: First in Africa, given the region.. Unfortunately, as you read this, even Niger Delta, on which the country depended for its survival for years, remains almost completely  denuded  of  these  infrastructural and social facilities. What  we  have seen, instead  are, amongst others:  proposals to buy a fleet  of new exotic cars for the Presidency – BMW cars for principal officers costing about  N3,630,000,000, N189.1m  for tyres for various types of vehicles – bulletproof and plain Mercedes Benz cars, Toyota cars, trucks, Land Cruiser Sport Utility Vehicles , Prado SUVs, Hilux pick-up vans, Peugeot 607 and 406 cars etc .

    You can only begin to imagine all these in a budget that has the highest ever deficit in our history; one that should be encouraging productivity rather than consumption. This, for me, is wrong headed given the country’s present economic circumstances. Those who were happy that  the National Assembly budget was being reduced by a whooping N5B would now know they were simply being had. You get the real import of this misstep when the dire straits in the states are factored into the discussion. As you read this, it has been reported that 11 states would not be able to pay workers’ salaries last December but that is only the tip of the iceberg.  As Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi painted it in his wide ranging interview from which came the epigram to this article, below is the reality in the states:” The problem of states is beyond cash depletion. The cash flow crisis in states is suggestive of a prolonged inability of state governments to address the structural imbalances in their annual budgets. Like the federal government, many states have no medium or long- term economic plans that can form the basis for annual budget. Consequently, this has led to inefficient spending both in recurrent and capital budgets. Most of the capital investments are in non-revenue assets that stimulate economic activities therefore tying down state funds without a substantial current cash returns. These include unviable airports, stadia, state capital beautification, palatial government houses, dualisation of roads to nowhere and governors’ lodges in Abuja”.

     He was not done:

    “Additional bridging loans, federal  bailout or the conversion of bank loans into long term bonds, do nothing to solve the state’s underlying structural imbalance between revenue and spending.  Rather, to address the fundamental budget problem, states must develop long-term, realistic plans to correct their chronic structural budget imbalance. Any short or long term borrowing, including bonds, to address the states’ deficit without dealing with structural fiscal imbalance would only further increase the already high debt burden of states”.

    With  our states in this economic conundrum, and the federation being an aggregate of the states, the following are the  minimum steps  I think President  Buhari  should  waste no time in bringing to the front burner of political engagement  if Nigeria  is not to remain, like forever, on this revolving barber’s chair; presaging a thoroughly uncertain future:

    1. An urgent re-arrangement of the country which will allow states undertake only those things they can conveniently afford. For instance, it is not only anachronistic that Federal authorities negotiate salaries with workers on behalf of states; it is the height of the illogic, that states, irrespective of their financial standing, pay same salary to their workers. Otherwise, some workers will remain unpaid for upwards of 12 calendar months and, like former Governor Suswan of Benue, governors would be right in saying that they cannot print money. And, by the way, a new revenue formula is a desideratum. With  synergy between the executive and the legislature, the proposed  re-arrangements should not be an impossible task. Senator Adetunmbi elegantly put what the states should do as follows: “States must of necessity right-size their public service; this could mean all or a combination of shedding jobs, outsourcing, cutting pay, trimming benefits and other creative ideas. There are models for managing labour unions during such drastic reforms to ensure collaborative rather than antagonistic labour relations. Singapore did it and interested states can draw from that experience. In most Nigerian states, public service to population ration is as low as 0.2 per cent to the highest of three per cent in Zamfara and Bayelsa respectively. Yet, the public service consumes 60-120 per cent of total revenue in some states”. This state of affairs is most unfair to majority of the citizenry who have no decent jobs of their own as it completely hinders infrastructural and social development.
    2. In case this is not feasible in the short run, salaries and allowances, across board, that is, from the lowest worker to the President, should be reduced progressively by between 10-40 per cent. Whoever cannot survive on that should simply resign his/her position.

    Nigeria has walked this accursed route for far too long with nothing tangible to show for it. Most Nigerians know that our present circumstances call for a daring do,  and that should we miss it  now, under about the only Nigerian many believe, with considerable justification, can be our Moses, we would most probably have lost it forever and it may soon be to your tents O Israel..

  • Sylva to Bayelsans: See 2016 as year of new beginnings

    Sylva to Bayelsans: See 2016 as year of new beginnings

    A governorship candidate in Bayelsa, Chief Timipre Sylva, has urged Bayelsa people and Nigerians to see the New Year as a new start in their individual and collective quests for development.

    He made the call in a New Year message issued by his Media Adviser, Mr Doifie Buokoribo, in Yenagoa on Friday.

    The candidate, who called for improved peaceful coexistence among the people in the New Year and beyond, also urged the people to eschew divisive tendencies.

    Sylva wished the people of Bayelsa a prosperous new year, noting that “as we welcome the New Year this Friday, we should embrace new hopes, new opportunities and new vistas it has for us as Bayelsans and Nigerians to stand out and fulfill our personal and collective destinies.

    “Let us sincerely rededicate ourselves to the hopes and expectations of our founding fathers and steadfastly endeavour to uplift the welfare, peace and security of our people. We have a perfect opportunity to reboot and rebuild.

    “We have come a long way as a state and as a country; we have crossed the bridges over many rivers and it has pleased mother nature to keep us together, despite our fault lines.

    “So, it behoves on us to focus on issues that will sustain and strengthen our togetherness, rather than those that will destroy it.

    “I wish our state and country great success and prosperity. May the peace of the Almighty God reign in our land throughout 2016 and beyond.’’

  • 2016 Budget: Evolutionary or revolutionary?

    Now that President Muhammadu Buhari has talked the talk, now is time to walk the walk.  The budgets of Nigeria and national development plans since independence have always been exemplary and enough to whet ones appetite.  It is always in the implementation after years of ineffective monitoring and evaluation that they fail to deliver with their lofty promises. The President has acknowledged such sentiments of, “I have heard this before” , several times, over many decades one has lost count of.

    In light of this, the budget would be explored covering both the positive sound bites, the potential pit-holes to avoid and room(s) for significant improvement.

    One cannot fail to notice the first palpitation which is the rather optimistic projection of oil prices at US$38.  Considering oil market vagaries at the moment, Iran and Libya coming on board soon enough, Saudi Arabia ready to maintain oil production up to US$10 per barrel, major buyers looking for alternatives like there is no tomorrow, it is enough cause to raise eyebrows.  Twenty-five dollars would have been recommended but then it is all speculation.  In any case, it is expected to yield only N820 billion with N1.45 trillion and N1.51 trillion coming in from non-oil revenues and independent sources respectively.  This probably allows us space to breathe easy since oil is just over a quarter of projected revenue. To put a positive spin on it, it also puts in place the mechanism to practically diversify the country’s revenue sources rather than just talking and writing about it.

    That leaves borrowing and taxes as the major funding sources for the budget. The planned budget outlay is put at N6.08 trillion with a revenue projection of N3.86 trillion leaving a deficit of N2.22 trillion. Our GDP of 560 billion dollars (x N197 equals N110.3 trillion) makes the deficit according to the budget reading about 2.16% of our Naira GDP. This would be fiscally within nationally tolerable limits. Borrowing to finance this deficit would cost us N1.84 trillion including both domestic and foreign borrowing. On paper, this does not quicken one’s heart pulse. A high-level implementation ratio is however what we shall hopefully await.

    Non-oil revenues comprising of Company Income Tax (CIT), Value Added Tax (VAT) and Customs and Excise (C&E) duties, and Federation Account levies are meant to contribute N1.45 trillion.  This precludes a sizable chunk of the budget based on tax collection.  The companies paying tax in the formal sector, apart from the governmental establishments, are mostly in the banking, telecoms, aviation, petroleum and the lowly monitored informal sector and are majorly based in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.  This taxation expansionist dragnet revolves around an import-based economic paradigm poorly engaged with the productive activities or Gross National Product (GNP) of its citizens. The picture being painted is a push towards expansion of the tax net as opposed to a productivity-driven increase in tax revenue.   In an environment still characterised by relatively low level of productivity as is typical of ours, the cost of tax collection tends to be on the high side whereas a highly productive economy would invariably offset and thereby provide a tax revenue base with a relatively low level of tax administration cost. In the event that we succeed in expanding our tax net, does that necessarily translate into a proportional increase in our national productive capacity especially outside the major cities?

    Continuing this tax collection drive – are the plans being mooted to increase VAT in any way connected to the support being targeted towards small businesses – how would this work in a country with a very low productivity base in relation to its population?  Outside of Lagos and Port Harcourt, how many states can really boast of small to medium industrial or agro-commercial activities able to make a meaningful contribution to their states or the country for that matter? No need to add power challenges for now, that is a whole seminar paper in itself. Is increase on VAT the priority or getting productivity up and then there is something being produced or service being rendered to put VAT on? Something first has to generate or increase productivity by and for the nation’s citizens before it is taxed.

    Customs and Excise also falls under this category of the increase in tax drive as a major funding source for the budget. The irony is that the current operational framework under which the C&E performs its duties ensures that most of the taxes it collects are on an importation driven platform.  Considering our import-export container ratio is running at 92% to 8% respectively, most of its activities are more of a hindrance to economic development than the amount it purports to collect for the nation annually.  Whatever the C&E declares that it collects for the nation is from the 90% import-driven platform of which we export a paltry amount in comparison.  Any measures implemented to support in increasing our export ratio to the 45% to 55% mark would be a welcome development. For now, it means the C&E is just about collecting one-quarter to one-fifth of the nation’s revenue capacity.  If this is what forms a significant bulk of our tax drive, then we still need to reorient the C&E platform to provide all forms of support for our export drive as was recently intoned by its current head, Col Hameed Ali (Rtd.)

    Education in this budget seems to be on an upward swing. The budget makes a revolutionary statement of intent in its recognition of the role of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) over the pen and paper pushing professions – BLAMES – Business, Law, Arts, Management, Environment and Social Sciences. Hopefully, the implementation of the STEM agenda and the criteria for recruiting the 500,000 teachers would be towards the original intent and not diverted towards funding the courses and curriculum producing more BLAMES graduates.  Most of the policy makers in the ministry and institutions are from the BLAMES background, implementation again is the watchword.  Remember our lessons from the 6-3-3-4 drive to explore the technical-vocational channel. We invested in and produced more BLAMES than STEMS resulting in over-abundance of educated or mis-educated youths with the current high level of graduates unemployed, underemployed or mis-employed. Investment in technical-vocational sector would yield returns faster on the nation and employ more proactive agro cum rural industrial entrepreneurs than the traditional reactive-oriented white-collar jobs only of use in mostly Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and the state capitals.

    Allocation of 30% to capital expenditure is revolutionary in itself considering past budgets and the paucity of allocation to capital expenditure in relation to recurrent expenditure. A little bit of caution here though while reflecting on the prominent role given to power, works and housing.  The priority still persists with the construction of houses and roads with a roads’ building network predisposed towards transporting of imported goods inland. The people being transported to work are in the commercial sector in Lagos, the political machinery in Abuja and the petroleum sector in Port Harcourt who are significantly primed well enough to support this import-driven engine.

     

    • Owolowo can be reached on owolowo.dele@gmail.com

  • Welcome 2016

    SIR: Year in, year out, when terrorists massacre their victims, theorists would say: “Terrorism is a global problem; it has nothing to do with religion.”

    There are two groups of countries in the world today – countries that have security as top priority, and countries that have no future. It’s a privilege to own a gun in some countries; it’s Dylann Roof’s birthday toy in the United States of America. They’ve got plenty of sense but no common sense for gun control.

    The security and welfare of the people is the primary purpose of government. Needless to say, insecurity is one reason the Nigerian state faces a bleak future. Governors collect security votes and pretend to be chief security officers of their respective states. But God knows – the thief security officers in every state; kidnappers, armed robbers and hired killers all over the place; sorrow, tears and bloody rain between the reign of terror and free rein of evil. In countries where lives matter, states do have own state police and communities like a university campus or a local district reasonably do have district police. It’s long overdue the states were empowered to own their police to tackle crimes. A decentralized police is change we need. Federal police and state police and local police and community policing we pray!

    Our fears, our nemesis! We reason upside down that no need for state police because governors could abuse the “privilege” (?)! Maybe we should do away with the national security because presidents themselves sometimes do abuse their power. In any case, I do not think a country of 36 states would be so unlucky to have in government 36 lawless governors. Moreover, when we get serious we can import security architectures and protocols to checkmate governors, ordinary governors.

    Let’s talk about our greatest fear – one Nigeria. Methinks that the life of one Nigerian is more precious than one Nigeria. Of what use is one Nigeria if Nigeria is not one and not safe for one? Today in Nigeria, no place is secure and no one is safe. It is alarming innocent lives wasted daily across the country. It is sorrowful to know that fellow Nigerians perish everyday due to assassination, armed robbery, kidnapping, ritual killing, cultism, militancy, insurgency, terrorism, religious riots, ethnic violence, jungle justice, violent crimes by thugs, armed gangs, motor-park touts, area boys et al.

    Crime is everywhere in the world, and there’s no time and nowhere on earth crime will disappear altogether. Nonetheless, if we as a people would do the needful, Nigeria will become a peaceful country where people can live in peace and leave in peace.

     

    • John Adebisi,

    Abuja.

  • As 2016 rings in

    •It’s time we looked ourselves and ploughed ahead with a vigorous vision

    Ordinarily the concept of a new year is a notion of superstition. How is the second before midnight 2015 different from the second after midnight, or how is the second before the second before midnight different from the second second of 2016?

    By convention, we have decided to conquer time by dividing it in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, quarters, years, decades, ages, generations, etc. But what gives meanings to time is not time itself. It is, as historians say, seasoned by the flurry of human activities. As journalists, we record what is defined as the first draft of history.

    As drafts go, 2015 has dissolved into an age. For many years to come, we will try to write draft after draft, day in, day out. If 2015 was a year of election, a year where we feared for the corporate survival of the Nigerian dream, whatever it has been, 2016 is another opportunity to redefine ourselves as a nation.

    We go into the new year with quite a few challenges. The business atmosphere looks dire and ominous. The Naira has dropped to its all-time low, reeling against the benchmark currencies of the world. Investors have coiled away, griping that the Nigerian economy has become a habitat of unrequited love. They give but they cannot get back. They can invest but cannot withdraw their money.

    Yet, the nation needs infusion of money. Those who would will be wounded if they do. Local investors are also unhappy. Interest rates forbid them to borrow, or if they do, they cannot assure themselves of profits and are doomed to renege on their obligations.

    The war on corruption capped the year with an eruption of revelations. Billions of Naira spirited away in a nation where the poor multiply and scramble for a few Naira for subsistence. We go into the new year still unsure what the battle against graft will engraft on our nation. Is it going to be prosecuted with a method, will it defer to the rule of law, or will it fall to the enthusiasm of a few big men out on a revenge? Curiosity still whir in our streets, what are the new revelations? What big man will fall in the new year? While the country bewails – or gloats  over – its fallen big men, we contemplate a country famished for heroes.

    The year ended just like last year without a sighting of the Chibok girls. The nubile victims carted away by red-blooded goons in the name of faith have conjured images of sacrilege: defilement, rape, forced marriages, indoctrination, commercial profits from sale, recruitment into the cult of death. But that happened while the nation cheered that the goons who roared from town to town, hoisted flags and made bonfires of homes, churches and mosques, and kidnapped everyone from girls to village heads, had retreated to irritants. We also cheered that the Federal Government has declared the war all but over.

    Yet in the new year, we wonder if the irritations will not become routine nightmares. Hijab girls detonating in market squares. Just as we witnessed in December when they mushroomed in violence from Borno to Adamawa states.

    By year’s end, we had the budget, and the other part is implementation. Shall we become spectators to a senate that balks at the executive branch’s reluctance to fulfill its extravagant demands? It is still a nation in pain.

    Yet, we are, as it is known from a variety of statistics, one of the world’s cheerful beings. It is a resource we should tap not for the vanity of parties or the denial of our challenges, but as a platform to rise from misery into victory.

  • Leaping and limping into 2016

    The New Year just sneaked on us like a thief in the night. It was only yesterday that we prepared so hard for the February 2015 elections, only to be dealt a severe blow by the almighty NSA. He needed all security agencies to focus on the militants and none can be spared for the conduct of “bloody civilian” elections. Therefore the elections had to be postponed.

    Now we know that the NSA only needed more time to fashion out an equitable distribution formula for sharing among PDP chieftains the funds meant to procure weapons for the war against insurgents. It was all meant buy victory for the party at the polls. With no viable options, INEC succumbed. We would have no idea but for the determination of PMB to restart his war against corruption from where he was stopped midstream in 1985.

    2015 was a year of drama on the political front. It was a year that democracy was stressed and stretched thin but it survived. It was the year that the electorate found their voice and got their mojo. Having been subjected to political intrigues for a long time, and having been treated like doormat in political mansions, the electorate had their sweet revenge in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Fifteen. Never again will any politician take them for granted.

    Politicians now know that they have to perform just because voters now know that they have the constitutional right to hire and fire. The landmark elections of 2015 pointed us in the direction of a new reality, which any politician misunderstands only at his or her political peril.

    In 2015, the power of strategic thinking on the part of progressives paid off in electoral victory at the centre. There have been progressives across the country since the beginning of the republic. And given the various progressive ideas championed across the states, it has always been clear that they are in the majority. They have just not been able to harness their collective power to gain entry to the centre of national politics. Now that has changed, thanks to the political wizardry of a few who downplayed and sacrificed their personal ambitions.

    However, it was also in 2015 that the doctrine of party supremacy, once defended vigorously and passionately by the acknowledged premier political sage of the last century slumped and succumbed to internal intrigue.It was all about 2019, we were told as if there can be a 2019 victory for the ruling party if it cannot discipline its folks in 2015. Pray, how do you get to 2019 successfully without a robust unity of purpose from 2015?

    One of the enduring features of the last presidential election was the enthusiasm and the rallying cry for change on the part of the youth and old alike. The message was unmistakable. They wanted change, not just of personnel but more importantly of direction. It was clear to them that the party that had been in power for 16 years had lost steam and direction and cannot be counted upon to redeem the country from the abyss into which it was heading.

    The youth in particular embraced the message of change in the political structure of the country. They were sympathetic to the promise of true federalism as proclaimed by the APC. Now that they used their votes to hire the party that they felt could do the job, the onus is on the party to deliver on its promise.

    It is not going to be easy especially with the first signs of chaos that marked the NASS elections. However, it will be the undoing of the party if it fails to put its house in order or neglects to work effectively for the restructuring of the country along the lines of true federalism.

    It is very clear that our people can no longer be taken for granted. They have seen the political light and they are not unaware of the power of their votes. If any ruling party dares them, they will patiently wait for their chance to retaliate. The “common sense” in common sense revolution is the wisdom to do the right thing and that is to restructure the country now.

    2016 comes with its challenges, the most serious of which is the economic. Ours has been a mono economy since the 1970s when we got carried away by the wealth from the black gold. Even when we had the opportunity to diversity, we did not seize it and now we are on the verge of an economic meltdown. Our budget benchmark for our most important export earner was $38 per barrel. But the most recent forecast points to the possibility of a $30 or even $20 demand price.

    We are in a state of desperation, as states are unable to pay their workers’ salaries. Most of them are unable to generate any significant amount of internal revenue, and have had to depend on subventions from the Federal Government. That we need to embark on a rigorous and thoughtful diversification of the economy now is a foregone conclusion. The President saw it clearly as stated in his inaugural address and at every opportunity he had since then, including his recent budget address.

    One area that has always been our strength and for which we do not have many competitors is agriculture. The President is wise to have identified it and mining as priority areas for government and private investment. We cannot overstate the need for this new policy direction. With dwindling foreign exchange, we cannot afford to remain as net importers of food when we have agricultural land in every part of the federation. It is hoped that he will lead the effort to pursue this policy initiative and the investment it requires to succeed.

    One such investment clearly is the development of infrastructure that is indispensable to a successful agricultural revolution. For both commercial and subsistence farmers across the country, there is the foremost challenge of evacuating their produce from the farm to the consumers. This means that road development must be a priority.

    Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State used to be the food basket of the Southwest until oil wealth took centre stage in governmental thought and action. Roads developed since 1962 literally disappeared. Okeho-Iseyin road is a federal road that has suffered this fate. It has been contracted out for repair multiple times by the previous administrations. Each time, the ruling party gave the contract to its hirelings with nothing to show. Meanwhile, farmers suffer losses because they are not able to move their produce to the market in timely fashion.

    Water irrigation has been another important variable in viable agricultural revolution. In the Second Republic, one of the initiatives in this direction was the Ikerre Gorge Dam in Iseyin. It was almost completed, but the Federal Government abandoned it. We were told that the dam was capable of supplying potable water as well as irrigation water for the whole of Oke-Ogun. However, it remains only a dream, as reptiles inhabit the Ikerre Gorge Dam now. What kind of government invests in laudable projects such as this only to abandon it?

    Finally, there is the challenge of politics. The battle cry for the resuscitation of the dream for a new Biafra is loud and clear. We must not think that the youth with clenched fist and raised voices are mad. There are two levels of reality that motivate their action and we must attend to both.

    First, if you believe that ethnicity and cultural nationalism are at best fictitious representations and at worst opium of the people, you may characterise what is going on as the consequence of unemployment and the hopelessness it engenders. If so, it is still necessary to treat that disease.

    Second, however, if you believe that there is something real about people wanting cultural democracy and recognition, it may well be that the Biafra agitation is a call for true federal democracy. We should attend to it before other “Biafras” join in.

    Happy New Year!

  • Will 2016 be a better year?

    A New Year will roll in tomorrow.We will all pray it be a better year than 2015. At about this time in 2014, this column asked: Will 2015 be a better year.? A statement in that column caught the attention of the editor-in-chief of a magazine in Ibadan. We asked of the statement can be expanded into a full-blown article for his magazine. That article appeared under the tittle A golden key for true humanity. That article appears in this column today, tittle WILL 2016 BE A BETTER YEAR?

    Many people on earth today do not live a conscious life. They do not render service. All they care about is bread and butter…… were they striving upwards, that is homewards, they would think only of rendering service to their society, even as the sun, the moon and the stars, other stellar bodies and features on this earth render service to make the earth hospitable for man.

    When I am about to retire for the day, I say bedtime prayer for restful sleep and, afterwards, strive to be in tune with creation before my eyes give way to sleep.

    To strive means to work hard and not just to try. Being in tune means being a part of.  And Creation? It is a definite work like a house with all its structures and function. As a work, creation, like a house or a motor car, stands outside the Author. It is the World that is everything which lies outside the creator and His immediate vicinity. This huge World has many sub divisions or such worlds of which the Lord Jesus would speak when He said….. In my father’s house, there are many mansions” we all know a mansion is a huge building. As a young man, I often wondered: how can there be many mansions in one house? Now I get the message right, thanks to Revealed knowledge on the face of the earth today.

    Creation is that house of which the Lord spoke. And the “many mansions” are the many worlds in that House, creation. Paradise or the spiritual world is the pinnacle of creation. Even paradise has two distinct parts. There is the world of those spiritual beings, that is human spirits, who were created in the “image of God” And these beings were perfect and never had the need, as “images” of God” to journey out of paradise for self-development. For they were perfect from the beginning to all eternity. Another part of paradise, which lies below the world of these perfect spirit beings, is the world of immature spirit germs who had first to travel downwards out of this world to regions below, where the heat and pressure was conducive enough for their unfolding (sprouting), flowering and fruiting. These are the humans (I would rather say human spirits) who are resident on earth today. Some of them are earth-bound today, or bound to some other parts of creation which lie below their starting- point in the lower paradise. The paradise, not of created beings but of developed ones. In the highest state of their development or perfection, they would become not images of God, but the images of the images of God.

    It is a long story line attempting to narrate the story of creation. Among earth-men, there is no one not born into families or nations other than the ones in which we found ourselves, why we dream of event that later come to pass….. And many other question of existence.

    These glimpses we put together to form pictures. The picture, 8 like the glimpses, are deep or shallow, depending on the depth of the inner struggle and experiences. For example, I need no-one to tell me of the possibility of Out- of –Body Experience (OBE) after I had one at 24, finding myself outside my body which  I beheld lying sleepily in bed. Anyone who has not had this experience is likely to deny its possibility, if he/she has a closed mind. But mankind is not left alone in the deep inner struggles to make a meaning of existence. When I remember the helps from the prophets, seers and artists, to mention a few, and the revealed knowledge on the face of the earth today, I doff my hat for the composer of that Baptist Broad man Hymnal song Never Alone, which is all about the Redeemer promising never to leave us alone.

    Where I am heading is that the knowledge of creation and attunement to creation, makes a more mature happier and service oriented  person of us, and ignorance of this knowledge account for why many people behave like animals, especially when, in a country such as Nigeria, they find themselves in position of political leadership.

    I am encouraged to write this article by Mr. Shola Adebowale ‘’Editor – in – Chief of Achievers Goldmate magazine. He read and liked my column in THE NATION newspaper on January 1, 2015 titled WILL 2015 BE A happy new year? My projection was that it wouldn’t for many people because they still did not know much about creation and its laws and what creation expects of them before it can reward them handsomely. We stand on the threshold today, as a new year ‘2016’ begins to pop its head in the corner. It is true President Ebele Jonathan and his folks in government are gone, replaced by President Mohammed Buhari in a bitter election. Thus, we have new helmsmen promising change’’. What will inform the content and thrust of that change? We must wonder. Humanwill or GodsWill? If human will, which stand in opposition to Gods will as engraved in the language He speaks to us in creation, are we not reminded of the warning of the prophet…… take counsel together (against God’s Will ) and it shall not stand?.

     

    A World of Service

    world of service, filled with dedication and born of love is what we observe throughout creation.The earth was created billions of years ago to provide a heaven for human spirit from the spiritual world in search of self-development to sprout, flower and fruit. The sun, about 93 milllion miles away, provides heat source for the earth to make it hospitable. If it is farther away, everything on earth would freeze. If the sun is nearer, the earth would burn. In wisdom, love and service the sun as been kept where it is. The moon is not up there for decoration. So are not other co-planets of our solar system and the stars, as we shall soon see. Everything somewhere is in its station to contribute its quota to making the earth become hospitable for its inhabitants. These inhabitants need to work, to exercise their bodies, and to rest their bodies for recuperation after a hard day’s work, to bring about a healthy necessary balance between work and rest. This is in keeping with the law of Balance, one of the laws of Nature which we encounter and observe in everyday life. We do wheel balancing for our car tyres so the cars do not become coffins on the road. The architects balance or even out the structures in a building so that the building does not collapse. Nigerians geopolitics is now bedecked with geo-political balance in the cabinet. Women balance colours out in their dressing and, in the kitchens, salt must not surpass pepper or palm oil in the soup pot!

    p, up there in the skies, service for humanity is at play in the movement of the cosmic bodies. The earth provides us with day for work and night for sleep, rest and recuperation. To do this, the earth rotates on its axes, turning one part towards the sun for day lighting this time, and taking it away for nightfall another time. It rotates on its own axis from west to east once in about 24 hours to achieve this. It is an herculian task for the earth because, while doing this for mankind’s convenience, it is under pressure from the sun and the stars which are like its bosses. Relative to the stars, the duration of this rotational motion is 23 hours, 56 minutes. By this time, the sun has left the earth behind by four full minutes. So, the earth would have to double up to catch up with the sun.

    This is why, relative to the sun, the earth is said to rotate on its axis once in 24 hours.The scenario is amazing to people who follow it. All these huge objects are in space, moving in all sorts of direction, hardly colliding. The speed of the earth’s rotation, which brings day and night, for example is 1,675 kilometers per hour or 465 meters per seconds or 1,040 mile per hours. This is incredible. Spinning at 1,675 kilometers an hour the earth could easily spin us and our building off its surface into outer space like rockets. But, mercifully, the force of gravity keeps us so beautifully on the earth that we do not even know the earth is moving at an incredible 1,675 kilometers an hour where some of the fastest saloon cars cannot hit 300 kilometers an hour. What a loving service rendered to humanity. Yet this is not the only movement the earth makes for our benefit which we do not feel or know about.

    A second earth motion is its revolution around the sun which it takes an average of one full earth years to complete. This movement brings the various seasons.

    In Nigeria, we can talk about the rain season, followed by the harmattan season and then the dry season. Each season brings about different kind of food crops, vegetable; fruits and herbs for strengthen the health of the body or healing it of disease. This is important for human survival on earth. We appreciate this when we know that everything is radiation and that we exist in an ocean of radiation. The sun, the stars, the other planets, galaxies, trees, underground rivers, rocks, mountains, etc are radiating upon us at different frequencies.

    Each object radiation is peculiar to it. Throughit, the object   announces or broadcasts its existence to the universe. There radiation waves may hurt the radiations of the human body if it has no resistance against them. We can glimpse this in situations where some people develop skin cancer from cosmic radiations and other causes while some people exposed to the same environment do not. Ditto the onset of cataract of the eye lens. In the Wisdom of the creator, the earth forges these radiations into food sources from which man may derive protecting radiations for the health and strength of his body.

    And that is why it has been suggested that he eats every fruit and vegetable in season to optimise this benefit. This is yet another great service for human convenience on earth.

    To bring the season about and afford mankind of their immense benefit the earth moves around the sun at yet another incredible speed of 108,000 kilometres per hour to travel 940 million kilometres around the sun in one year (365.242199 days) there is yet another movement of  many others which take place that I would like to mention. Our earth belongs to a solar system of which the sun is the core. This solar system is one of the billions and billions of solar systems which form a GALAXY of solar systems. Billions of galaxies of solar systems exist.

    The galaxy to which our solar system belongs is called the NILKY WAY. Like the earth and the sun and our solar system, these galaxies are also in motion creating all sorts of movements which affect us positively in earth.

    AS AMARA GRADS says in www.center.stanford.edu/faq/qsols.: ‘’the sun is moving towards lambda Hercules at 20 kilometres per second or 12 miles per second. Units, 72,000 kilometres per hour or 45,000 miles per hour. This speed is in a frame if rest of the other stars are all standing still. Three dimensional pictures of the suns movement through the galaxy is a little complicated. The sun is moving upwards, out of the plane of NIKLY WAY, at a speed of seven kilometres per second. Currently, the sun lies 50 Light-years above the mid plane of the galaxy, and its motion is steadily carrying it further away. But the gravitational pull of the stars in the galactic (NILKY WAY) plane is slowing down the sun’s escape”.

    When I learn that the sun is trying to ‘’escape’’ two questions cross my mind:

    • Will it abandon our solar system and leave it to perish?
    • Will it drag us along with It.? We know from the Law of motion, another law of Nature, that everything must be on the move otherwise it would perish.

    e know, also, that all the formations are moving towards the conclusion of a great cycle know spiritually as the Cosmic turning – point, the conclusion of which will bring monumental events on this earth. The cycle is in keeping with the Law of the Cycle, another Law of Nature, which compels everything to return to its starting point. The blood flows from the heart to all parts of the body and returns to the heart. Evaporated water returns to the land through rainfall. We drink water from the earth and it returns to the earth as urine. The air we inhale return to its starting –point with exhalation. We human spirit came from somewhere and must return there. Our bodies come from the earth and would return to the earth.

    Even this earth and the solar system and the galaxies and the universes which formed from a hail of gas and dust will someday, individually, return to this primeval state.

    Amara Graps tell us: ‘’the astronomer Frank Bash estimates that, in 14 million years, the sun will reach its maximum height above the galactic disk. From that 250 Light-years position, it will be pulled back towards the plane of the galaxy. Passing through, it will travel to a point 250 light years below the disk, and then escalate upward again to reach its present position 66 million years from now. We crossed the plane two million years ago. We are currently in the thick of the galactic disk and our view of distant regions is largely blocked by dust but 10 to 20 million years from now, our motion will allow a full view of our starry galaxy. The galaxy is thought to be 100,000 Light years in diametre and is thought to be about half-way out from the ceuder…. The sun appears to be cruising along at 20 kilometres per second and it takes 240 million years to complete the grand circuit around the galaxy.’’

    If you wish to know how small and stupid man is when, egoistically, he thinks of himself as the centre of the universe, working and fighting for himself alone, all you need to do is look out in knowledge into the clear night sky. Then, think of the earth, your father’s backyard which you think is the biggest in the Universe.

    The sun is 10 times larger than the earth in diametre. Mercury, a co-planet in our solar system, is about 38 times longer in diametre than the earth. Venus rates 95 times more than the earth. Mars is 53 times better rated. Jupiter is 11.19 times wider. Saturn is 9.40, Uranus 4.04. Neptune 3.88. Pluto is 18. Our earth is indeed, a small house in which we live, this is in terms of diametre.

    According to the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), the following are the relative sizes (radii) of the solar system planets to the earth… Jupiter 1,120 percent the size of the earth; Saturn 945 percent, Uranus 400 percent, Neptune 388 percent; Venus 95 percent; Mars 63 percent; Mercury 38 percent; we see the sun as a huge star. On a clear night, we see the star as diminutive. But that is only because these other stars are far, far, far away.

    The sun may be about 330,000 times more massive than the earth and contain 99.8 percent the mass or content of the entire solar system. It is nonetheless one of the smallest stars in the Universe. Sirius, the biggest star in the night sky, is twice as massive as the sun and 25 times more luminous than it.  To continue next week.