The Nation Newspaper

Tag: attitude

  • My wife’s attitude forces me to sleep inside vehicle, alleges man

    •Wife: you’re fetish

    When I asked my wife why she soaked all my clothes in water, she said she was sent to destroy me. Whenever she starts her trouble, I will leave the house to sleep in a vehicle.”

    Those were the words of 36-year-old auto mechanic, Jimoh Hassan, as he prayed the Customary Court in Alakuko, a Lagos suburb, to dissolve his marriage to his wife, Jibola, over her alleged troublesome attitude.

    According to him, It got to a point that I was putting on my brother’s clothes because my wife had burnt all my clothes. Even when I decide to sleep in the house, I am always scared because of her terrible attitude.

    “She never shows any remorse when she steals my money; instead, she would call my bluff. If our marriage is dissolved, I want our child in my custody.”

    However, the 34-year-old woman said: “The problem started when my husband began to have an affair with a woman in her house. I can’t fathom why he loves the woman because she has three children for three different men. He gives her N1000, while he gives me N500 daily. My husband stopped buying foodstuff from the day he started having sexual relationship with the woman.

    “He doesn’t believe in repairing damaged items in the house, but prefers to sell them. My husband stopped eating at home when I complained that the N500 he gave me during the last Ileya festival was too small. I have always endured it all. But I would say he tried to be smarter by bringing our case to the court before me.

    “My husband claimed to be broke, so he declined to give me N5000 to start another business. But it was a great shock to me when I learnt that he paid the woman’s daughter’s medical bill when she was hospitalised.”

    Jibola also accused her husband of being fetish, saying: “After I destroyed some fetish stuff that he kept in the house, a strange boil developed in my son’s body. The boil discharges some smelly pus; and when the pus splashes on any other part of the body, another boil will grow on the spot. As of now, it is still a mystery to me why my son is afflicted with that strange ailment. Now, both my husband and the woman have stopped sleeping in the house. But sometimes, the woman sneaks into the house in the morning.

    “But in spite of his attitude, I still love my husband very much.”

    The union, which was not contracted under the Native and Customary Law, is blessed with a child.

    The court President, Mr. Olubode Sekoni, ordered Hassan to be giving his wife N8000 monthly, since he claimed to be giving her N2000 weekly.

    He advised the parties not to invade each other’s privacy and adjourned the case till November 10.

  • ‘Niggers’ with attitude

    It is not what you call him, but what he answers to that matter most. This minute, another innocent child is born into the world as a Nigerian ‘nigger.’ He will grow up pitifully, as just another poor black ant. His parents shall name him Clinton, Dave, Cregg, Oliver, Richard, Lovett, Colet, Da Silva, Humphrey, Jackson, to mention a few. His real names: Akanbi, Chiedu, Chimaroke, Isichei and so on shall become his “native names” or “middle names;” names he shall grow to loathe and be ashamed of. At a tender age, he shall be taught to despise anything and everything Nigerian, by parents who will persistently bemoan the erosion of the Nigerian culture.

    That impressionable child will be enrolled in schools that teach the superiority of western civilization. He shall be taught to think of Africans, Nigerians in particular, as an inferior race. He shall be psychologically defrauded and taught to accept his place as member of a hostage race and generation. As he grows up, he too shall learn to evolve a masochistic appetite for alien norms, unearned riches, undeserved acclaim and everlasting humiliation. Time and over again, he shall learn to assimilate and project “imported condescension” as the next best palliative to his innate malaise.

    Like his forbears, he will get too impatient for his daily dosage of indoctrination and imported disdain and thus quit gawking at celebrated perversion on cable TV, social media and foreign news publications to be part of it. He shall doggedly sweat his way through standoffish, ill-bred and disdainful foreign customs and immigration officials in order to enjoy his share of dishonor and racial profiling abroad. Abroad, he shall labour to be part of what kills him. Like hordes of Nigerians slaving away abroad, he shall strive and try the patience of reluctant Caucasian hosts with his recalcitrant corruption and doggedness for eternal humiliation.

    He shall crowd the sidewalks of New York, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and London, sweeping the streets, doing the dishes and washing the anuses of elderly Caucasians with the shameless carriage of “a nigger who would rather die than return home.”

    And if he is fortunate to come from a privileged background at home, abroad he shall dwell, enabled and hampered by the lowliness of his mental skies. He shall desperately seek to impress caucasian course mates and neighbours with extravagant parties and insane acquisitions. He shall traipse the largely well kept streets – by immigrants like him – of London and New York in his desperate quests to purchase monumental forgetfulness at the mall. The over-celebrated malls of America and Europe shall continually whet his yen and titillate his airs. They shall become heaven to the ‘hellish’ markets of Ajegunle and Oyingbo ‘Ibo-made’ products.

    He is everything that is wrong with the black race. So pronounced is his inferiority complex that the tragedies of his civilization perpetually wail in its littlest details; take for instance, the contemporary Nigerian’s obsession to host extravagant wedding ceremonies and birthday parties abroad to the benefit of the host state and loss of valuable revenue abroad.

    It is even more amazing to see him obsess about foreign football leagues while the local football league suffers a slow, gruesome death. Like tadpole in Iju-Ishaga road crater, he believes if he could wade in the puddle for so long, he would grow scales and scissor-tail like an alligator in the English wild.

    An inelegant ‘mumu,’ he keeps pretending to channel joy and fulfillment from the attainments of another land while he bemoans the “poor leadership” that’s “killing Nigeria.” In response, he seeks escape by renouncing his roots. He conveniently forgets that, no matter how long the tabby cat pretends to roar like a lion, it will forever remain a cat…a whiny, pitiful parlour pet.

    The Nigerian youth has learnt to justify his moral claim to the successes of western civilization. He has learnt to intone that the so-called “first world” was built from the blood and sweat of his slave ancestors thus his right to a stake in the “first world.” Thus today, the average Nigerian continually celebrates his cultural graduation from the servitude of slavery to being verbally nettled condescendingly as a “third world nigger” and subsequently distinguished by association with his perceived level of evolution.

    The Nigerian ‘nigger’ no doubt personifies the imagery of the black nigger in Chika Onyeani’s “Capitalist Nigger: The Road to Success: A Spider Web Doctrine.” He suitably illustrates Onyeani’s depiction of the black race as a consumer race and not a productive race. “We are a conquered race and it is utterly foolish for us to believe that we are independent. The Black Race depends on other communities for its culture, its language, its feeding, and its clothing.” “Despite enormous natural resources,” he says, “Blacks are economic slaves because they lack the ‘killer-instinct’ and ‘devil-may-care’ attitude of the caucasian, as well as the ‘spider web economic mentality’ of the asian.” Onyeani calls for economic liberation through hard work, self-reliance, entrepreneurship, and fiscal discipline; he advocates building of better black neighborhoods instead of moving to hostile white neighborhoods; he appeals for unity, because “When spider webs unite, they can be a lion” (Ethiopian proverb). Onyeani condemns self-destructive behaviors such as ethnic warfare, dictatorship, black-on-black crime, and slavery in Africa.

    But fitting as it is to the Nigerian malaise, Onyeani’s literature is just another version of Johann F. Blumenbach’s human racial classification in which the “caucasian” is at the top of the hierarchy and the black is at the bottom. Capitalist Nigger is also reminiscent of the French philosopher Lucien Levy-Bruhl’s “primitive” or “prelogical mind,” which he originally attributed to the Africans; and Hegel’s exclusion of sub-Saharan Africa from the world history among others.

    Like Onyeani I believe in the liberating character of the truth. However, I do not subscribe to his legacy of disbelief about Africa which permeates European imagination. Instead of confronting old stereotypes, Onyeani recites them with relish, thereby refreshing erroneous notions in the reader’s mind.

    His description of the African as non-productive, lazy, slavish, Neanderthal, dishonest, undisciplined and genetically unable to take care of himself is contemptible even as it speaks to the core of the Nigerian nigger.

    I do not agree with Onyeani for his “Capitalist Nigger” epitomizes the worst of blasé witticism that serve like double-edged sword, decapitating plausible realities and counter-arguments in its quest for applause. Yet in his subtle narcissism subsists truths, relative truths if you like.

    It rediscovers and plumbs the depths of inferiority plaguing the Nigerian nigger. It is what makes the Nigerian Presidency nurture insults from perverse caucasian governments threatening to withdraw financial aids if Nigeria fails to legitimize same-sex copulation and marriage. It is what makes an average Nigerian lose his head in arrant madness over foreign soccer leagues. It is what makes the Nigerian lust to be less than to the pleasure of the so-called “first world.”

    It is an emotional attachment, a bond of interdependence between captive and captor that develops when someone threatens your life, takes away your freedom, and doesn’t kill you.

    It is what causes the Nigerian to bark like a stray dog, pitifully seeking the collar end of the leash of the “first world.”

  • The papal attitude our leaders need

    The papal attitude our leaders need

    The pope, the supreme leader of Catholics worldwide, is respected not only by members of his faith, but by people of other faith. Whether a Muslim, Protestant, Methodist, Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran or Pentecostal, we all rever the pope because of his office. The pope occupies an exalted post which confers on him the moral authority to speak and be listened to by those in power. Even dictators recognise the moral influence of the pope. Whether we like it or not, the pope remains the leading figure in Christendom. We may not like him or his faith, but we cannot afford to disrespect his exalted office.

    It is the office that makes the pope and not the other way round. When the pope speaks, he does so with the authority of his high office. Though popes are human, we have come to deify the office they occupy because we believe that in doing so, we are serving God through them. Since we all want to be on God’s side nobody wants to be seen to do anything that will offend a pope, except such a person is a Joseph Stalin or a Sani Abacha. What did these brutes do? They looked down with disdain at popes. The late  Abacha as military head of state rebuffed entreaties by the late Pope John Paul II to release the late Chief MKO Abiola from detention in 1998.

    The late Stalin as a general in the German army ridiculed the high office of the pope during World War 11. In response to the late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s admonition that Poland be spared the agony of the war as a Catholic nation-state in order  to avoid having complicated relations with the Vatican,  the late Stalin fired this riposte : ‘’How many divisions does the Pope of Rome have?’’ The pope may not have troops as Stalin observed but he has something greater than all the soldiers of the world put together. These are the battalions of the Lord’s army, who are willing and ready to take up the pope’s fight whenever the need arises.

    The pope is the commander-in-chief of the Lord’s army. He does not fight his own wars with arms. His weapon of warfare is not carnal. The only weapon he has is the word, which is greater than all the guns, bazookas and armoured tanks in the world. There is nothing that drives home the moral authority that popes wield than the sudden resignation of the current pope on Monday on health grounds. The world is still in shock that Pope Benedict XVI could throw in the towel because he has become ‘’incapacitated’’ by age. Many are shocked because if they were in his shoes, they would not have taken that route. They would have remained in office, wasting state resources on what they know to be a bad case. We are witnessing a thing like this in our own clime.

    Here in Nigeria, resignation is not in the dictionary of public officers no matter how bad their health is. Even when they know that they can no longer continue in office, they will keep it as a secret from the people and be pretending that all is well with them. Illnesses know no status. No matter the office one occupies if he does not have good health, he cannot enjoy that position. Those who say that health is wealth know what they are talking about. He who has good health has everything. He is fit and able to do his work no matter how hectic it may be. The jobs of a pope and let’s say a governor are not easy. They are demanding jobs and those who occupy these offices should be ready to give the job their all. They can only give their all when they are hale and hearty.

    Man has no control over health matters. We can fall ill at anytime irrespective of the position we hold. A master falls ill and a servant also takes ill. The pope’s case has shown that illness is not a respecter of position. Because the rich and the poor can fall ill, it goes to show that there is nothing to be ashamed about when we are indisposed, especially, if we occupy public positions. We should be able to come clean with the people when anything ails us as public officers because by virtue of our positions we have become public property. What the pope has done should be a lesson to all those who hold public office that we should be open at all times. If the pope had kept quiet, nobody would have known that anything is wrong with him, particularly as the Vatican is very good at keeping secrets.

    But because of the fear of God, he told the world the truth about his health and opted to resign from office, something which seems difficult to do in this part of the world. About three years ago when the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua became ill those around him did everything possible to keep it away from the public until he died in the confines of Aso Rock. In recent times, some governors took ill and instead of their people being briefed about these leaders’ ailment, they went abroad under the guise of going on holiday. When their vacations became longer than necessary, the people started asking questions. Instead of providing answers to these questions, their aides resorted to imputing political motives.

    Who is to blame in such circumstance? Those asking questions or those trying to shroud the governors’ true health status in secrecy? One of the governors, Sullivan Chime, of Enugu State is back; the other, Liyel Imoke of Cross River is still abroad. We don’t know what ails Imoke, but it seems his illness may not be that serious as he had time to celebrate his wife’s 50th birthday last year in the United States (US). He is expected to have resumed by now, but he has not. We have no been told why, but when we start writing about it, our reports will be seen as pieces of entertainment to be laughed at just as Chime and his friends did when we carried stories about his illness while he was abroad.

    ‘’When I read in the papers how I died in India, we then turned Nigerian papers to entertainment forum. We read what they wrote about me and laughed. It became an amusement kind of thing’’, he told reporters in Enugu on Tuesday. The joke, your excellency is rather on you. If you had provided the information you gave on Tuesday, there would have been no need for speculations in the papers about your health. Sir, there is nothing to be ashamed of if we are ill. We are all human, whether a governor or a reporter; so, the report was not to mock you; it was to draw attention to your health challenge. You knew from the outset that you were going abroad for cancer surgery; so, why did you keep the information to yourself?

    Were you afraid that we will wish you death under the surgeon’s knife? That is where you got it wrong sir. If you had told us we would have prayed for a successful surgery for you as the world is today praying for the pope. If the pope can tell the world that he is ill, why can’t governors in Nigeria do the same? Why should we as public officers be afraid to inform those we lead of our illnesses? The other day, Hillary Clinton was diagnosed of blood clot and as she was being taken to  the hospital, her aides released information about her illness. That is how it should be, but unfortunately our leaders do not think so because they have something to hide.

    There is no big deal about illnesses because they will come and go, if we are not destined to be killed by them. Our leaders tend to make a mountain out of a molehill with the way they handle issues relaing to their health. They are too secretive about their well-being as if it is an abomination to be ill. What happened in the case of the late President Yar’ Adua should have taught them a lesson, but they will never learn. But it is not too late; they can still learn from how Pope Benedict XVI  handled his own health challenge. May God give us leaders who are forthright, down to earth and can connect with us.

     

  • Attitude, not corruption, is Nigeria’s problem –Jonathan

    Attitude, not corruption, is Nigeria’s problem –Jonathan

    • Believes Nigeria will be better if 50% emulate Azazi
    • Rain of honours for former NSA at burial

    The virtues of the late former National Security Adviser (NSA), General Andrew Owoye Azazi re-echoed yesterday as he was laid to rest in Yenagoa with speaker after speaker lauding his patriotism,hard work, leadership qualities, fairness and friendly disposition to all and sundry.

    President Goodluck Jonathan, who made Azazi his NSA, said Nigeria would be far better than it is now if only 50 per cent of the citizens can emulate his fairness at all times.

    Going down memory lane,the President said when he had to appoint his first set of service chiefs after the death of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, it was Azazi he turned to for advice in view of his military background and that his assessment of each of the nominees for the different offices played a big role in the emergence of the appointees.

    He said all through that period,Azazi’s primary consideration was merit.

    The President, who was reacting to an earlier remark by one of the officiating cleargies at the funeral about corruption in Nigeria, said he does not agree that corruption is the cause of all of Nigeria’s problems and that if more Nigerians can emulate Azazi’s virtues of fairness,honesty and competence the country would be better than it is.

    “Corruption is not the cause of our problem, Nigeria has more institutions that fight corruption.Most of the issues we talk about are not corruption.If we do things properly, if we change our attitudes of doing things most of the thing we thinks are caused by corruption are not,” he said.

    “If Nigerians would change their attitude, you will realise that most of these issues being attributed to corruption are not caused by corruption.

    “Recently, I met with officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps who told me that they had discovered that majority of the road accidents are recorded on good roads. “So you can see it is not a matter of corruption, it is an issue of the people’s attitude.

    “If we change our attitude to life , if all Nigerians do what is right, Nigeria will change”, he stressed,adding that if Azazi, from a minority group in the country could reach the height of his career on merit,others can also do the same.

    Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State described Azazi as one of Nigeria’s finest military officers and a great ambassador not only of the state but of the entire country.

    The governor who spent almost half of his time talking about his own achievements in office announced the intention of the state government to endow an award in a reputable institution in the country in honour of the deceased.

    An annual lecture is also to be sponsored by his government while a committee on Ijaw history has been mandated to document his life and times.

    He also said a befitting edifice would be named after him.

    Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, taking a cue from his Bayelsa State counterpart, said a major road now under construction in Port Harcourt will be renamed tomorrow in honour of Azazi.

    Azazi,he said “is a good man in the true sense of the word and a good Nigerian in the true sense of the word.

    “I had a private relationship with him.He called me his brother.I was the last to speak with him on phone before he boarded that day,” he said.

    The Chief of Army State,Lt General Azubuike Ihejirika called him a brillian officer who “ was outstanding in all the courses he attended and the overall best student at the War College.

    “He was very fair and transparent. He lived what he preached. He was detribulised, ever-forgiving and like water ‘he no get enemy.”

    Petroleum Resources Minister,Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke said of him: “He was our most thorough intelligence analyst.He had a great sense of humility and strength of character.”

    One of his predecessors in office as Chief of Army Staff,General Alexander Ogomudia said: “he was a great general. His performance spoke for him. I appointed him Director of Military Intelligence and we related well.”

    Gen Ogomudia said the helicopter crash that claimed Azazi’s life should not dampen Nigerians’ faith in the aviation sector and cited the example of Pakistan where one of the generals there perished in an air crash with his entire family.

    During the service, Mrs. Akpolade Okora-Azazi read the first lesson, and Owoye Azazi read the second lesson.

    The casket bearing his body was conveyed to its final resting place by an ambulance belonging to the Nigerian Navy at about 3.30 pm at the Ijaw Heroes Park in Yenagoa before it was lowered into the grave amidst military gun salute.

    The widow, Alero, the children and other family members performed the dust to dust rites.

    General Azubike spoke of Azazi’ s past and how he contributes to the army.

    Arch-Bishop Ogbebo said the prayers at the grave side.

    Present at the funeral were President Jonathan and his wife, Patience, governors Dickson (Bayelsa), Amaechi (Rivers) and Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Ministers, National and State legislators, former Bayelsa governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, former Military governor of the old Rivers State, King Alfred Diette-Spiff, Service Chiefs, National security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retired) President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritshejafor, former Niger Delta militant, Asari Dokubo, serving and retired military officers and traditional rulers.

    Also there were the wife of the Bayelsa State governor, Mrs Rachael Dickson; the wife of Rivers governor, Mrs Judith Amaechi; Rear Admiral John Kpokpogiri (rtd); , former NDDC Managing Director and Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Timi Alaibe, former JTF commander in the Niger Delta, Major General Sarkin Yakin Bello (rtd); Rear Admiral Festus Porbeni (rtd), former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke; Speaker of the Bayesa State House of Assembly, Benson Kombowei, Finance Minister, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Aviation Minister, Ms Stella Oduah;and Minister of Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe.

    President later left for his home town of Otueke.

    Azazi,the then governor of Kaduna State,Mr.Patrick Yakowa and four others died on December 15 at Okoroba, Bayelsa State when a Nigerian Navy, Augusta helicopter carrying them exploded shortly after take off.

    Azazi’s wife and children fought back tears as they performed the dust to dust rites for him after the funeral oration by the Bishop of Bomadi Vicariate, His Lordship, Most Revd Hyacinth Egbeboh.

  • Adepoju backs Osaze, Martins snub

    Adepoju backs Osaze, Martins snub

     EX-NIGERIA international Mutiu Adepoju said he is in full support of Stephen Keshi’s list for the upcoming African Nations Cup in South Africa.

    Keshi on Friday released a list of 17 foreign-based professionals to add up to the 23 home-based colleagues ahead of the team’s second phase of camping billed to commence in Faro Portugal on December 27 and with a host of high-profile players like Peter Odemwingie, Obafemi Martins and Taye Taiwo not listed by the coach, the 1994 Nations Cup winning member said the coach’s list can’t be faulted.

    “He knows what he wants and he must have reasons for inviting those that are on the list and those that are not included. There will always be issue on the list but I know he means well for the team and Nigeria and he can’t be faulted for what he has done.”

    Adepoju said the list of players in the team are potential winners of the competition urging Nigerians to show support for the coach.

    “The list consists a mixture of experienced and ambitious players and with good preparations and support they will make Nigeria proud at the Nations Cup,” he said.

  • POOR ATTITUDE COST OSAZE, TAYE TAIWO EAGLES’ SHIRTS

    POOR ATTITUDE COST OSAZE, TAYE TAIWO EAGLES’ SHIRTS

    •Keshi insists on discipline

    POOR ATTITUDE cost top stars Osaze Odemwingie and Taye Taiwo a chance to fight for a place on the Eagles squad to the 2013 AFCON.

    MTNFootball.com specially learnt that Keshi defended his decision to drop Osaze and Taye Taiwo by citing the players’ attitude with particular reference to the Nations Cup qualifier in February in Rwanda.

    West Brom star striker Odemwingie was pulled off because he was below par, while Taiwo also posted a stinker as the Eagles posted a lacklustre goalless draw in Kigali.

    Both players took exception to being hauled off the pitch and Odemwingie, for one, admitted this in a recent radio interview.

    “Osaze confronted Keshi and told him that it was an insult for him to be so substituted as a senior player,” an official informed MTNFootball.com

    “We all know that Osaze is a big mouth and his attitude under various other national team coaches has not been exemplary. Osaze has stood up to Eagles coaches, from Eguavoen to Lagerback and Siasia.

    “Taiwo also threw caution to the wind after a very poor game in Kigali with a tirade aimed at the coaches and the entire team.”

    Keshi, it was learnt, has forgiven both players after they showed remorse leading up to the AFCON, but he has insisted he would prefer to be in South Africa without them.

    ‘The Big Boss’ wants to be in full charge of his dressing room at all times. Ukraine-based Taiwo begged for a second chance in his phone conversion with Keshi and lately he tried to put more pressure on the coach by taking his case to the people’s court via the media.

  • League Cup win: Moses hails Chelsea never-say-die attitude

    League Cup win: Moses hails Chelsea never-say-die attitude

    Super Eagles and Chelsea forward Victor Moses has paid tribute to the Blues’ supporters after Wednesday night’s League Cup win over Manchester United.

    The West London outfit forced the game into extra time following a thrilling contest, which ended 5-4 to the Blues at Stamford Bridge.

    The Nigeria international tweeted: “Brilliant game last night, fans were amazing, great to get the win and go through to quarter finals. Never say die attitude.”

    Chelsea will take on Leeds United in the final eight of the competition.

  • Oshiomhole decries doctors’ attitude to work

    Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole yesterday criticised the attitude of government doctors to work.

    He warned that the government would dismiss any doctor found wanting.

    Oshiomhole gave the warning at the Central Hospital in Benin, the state capital, when he paid a surprise visit to the hospital.

    He said: “Our hospitals are not supposed to be death centres, but healing centres. You are trained to save lives, but you preside over avoidable deaths by reason of your negligence. We will dismiss any doctor who is not ready to work.

    “Are we supposed to beg doctors to come to work? We have a contract. It is either you keep it or you go. We do not have all the resources we need, but we want value for the little we have.

    “If we do not have a hospital, we will tell our people, so that they can go to herbalists. But when you put a hospital signboard out there and there is no doctor to attend to the people, you give people the wrong impression. When they do not see a doctor in the hospital, the people will go to private hospitals.

    “Our people are already dying of negligence, so I am not bordered about the threat of strike. What has happened to our values? People who run down a state must not be allowed to thrive anywhere. I will make sure that those who sabotage government hospitals are not allowed to practice anywhere.”

    Oshiomhole, who was at the hospital at 8am, slammed the management for running the hospital for days without electricity.