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Tag: everyone

  • What everyone over 40 should know

    Everyone gets forgetful once in a while, especially as we get older and with all of life’s stresses, tiredness, certain medication, distractions and illnesses.

    Apart from being annoying, that is generally nothing concerning

    If however it starts to impact on day-to-day living and then medical attention needs to be sought

     

    So, what is dementia?

     

    Dementia is a group of related symptoms associated with an ongoing decline of brain functioning resulting in memory loss, problems with thinking speed, mental sharpness, language & understanding

    A person with dementia can become uninterested in their usual activities. They may have problems controlling their emotions, their personalities change and they often lose interest in socialising. They may see or hear things that other people do not (hallucinations). They lose the ability to remember events and fully understand environmental situations. They find it difficult to plan and organise and also to maintain their independence

    It is a disabling disorder that affects the way a person behaves, thinks, speaks and can be a huge burden for the person and family members

    Even though Dementia is a condition associated with the older age group, it is NOT a part of aging and should never be dismissed as such.

    There are many people in their 90’s who do not have dementia because they did some things right in their earlier years

    The  two commonest types are Alzheimer’s and Vascular and these account for the vast majority of cases.

    This three part article is aimed at everyone over 40 years old, pointing out what we should all be doing now and as we grow older, to reduce the risk of developing this devastating disease

     

    What are the risk factors and what can you do

    about them?

     

    There are some risk factors for dementia that are impossible to change such as age & genes but there are other risk factors that have been clearly identified and can be addressed early on.

    Landmark research carried out in Cambridge University in 2014, identfied seven lifestyle factors that increase the risk of developing dementia.

    Each week, I will focus on one or two of them & this week, it is exercise  and blood pressure control

     

    Exercise and dementia  

     

    For many people exercise is a heart sink topic!

    Not many of us like to spend the early mornings or late evenings grinding it out in the gym amongst lots of superfit people who make us look like couch potatoes. In fact for many, the thought of having to drag themselves out for a run on a day to day basis is neither attractive nor do able

    That said, the evidence is overwhelming from research done at Cambridge University in 2014 those who did not achieve 20 minutes three times a week of vigorous exercise such as jogging or football or five 30 minute sessions of Moderate activity such as walking were 82 per cent more likely to go on to develop dementia.

    The good news, however, is that just one hours exercise per week can reduce the chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease by almost 50 percent.

     

    So, what do you do

    with that  information?  

     

    For me personally, I found it very reassuring. The answer really is to schedule an hours walk once a week, on a day that works well, say Saturday morning and do it religiously once a week. From age 40, it is good to get into this routine. The benefits are felt at age 50, 60 and beyond. The added benefits of this include weight loss, the general feeling of well-being and the reduced risk of diabetes and hypertension.

    Studies have also shown that for people aged 60 and above, mental decline can be reversed by as little as 52 hours a year of exercise.

    It does not appear to matter how many work outs someone does a week or how long each of the workouts last, as long as they eventually amount to 52 hours.

    This can easily be achieved by scheduling a one hour walk every weekend.

    The important thing is to do something and sustain it.

    It has been very reassuring to see how many men have taken up cycling over the past couple of years. That is an excellent form of exercise.

    Many of us have also taken up jogging and have hit the gym but the vast majority of people are still not doing anything at all.

    Ladies, can you start a weekly walking club with a group of your friend? This could over some time morph into twice weekly or even three times work outs

    So, to motivate you to get up a walk for one hour a week… THINK BRAIN!!

    We all want to live long but like the late Martin Luther King Jnr said. “It is not about how long you live but how well you do it”

     

    Blood pressure and dementia 

     

    Research has shown that 50 year olds with slightly raised blood pressure are at an increased risk of getting dementia in later life.

    This association was only seen at aged 50, but not 60 or 70

    People aged 50 with a systolic BP consistently above 130mmHg had a 45 per cent greater risk of developing dementia

    This is particularly concerning in our geographical location because black Africans have an increased incidence of high renin hypertension and as such will be at a high risk according to this study of developing dementia in later life

     

    So, what do you do with that  information?

     

    – Get a health check at 50 – Monitor your BP regularly with a good electronic sphygmomanometer  – If you have consistently high blood pressure readings, book a consultation with a reputable Consultant Physician  – You might need to take medication to control your blood pressure  – You will need to modify your diet to a low salt one – You will need to schedule in regular exercise

    This is not by any means an exhaustive list, it is really just the minimum that should be done.

    In conclusion, in order to minimise the risk of developing dementia in later life, there are some lifestyle changes that we need to make at age 40, 50 and beyond.

    This 1st part of the series has touched on the role of exercise and blood pressure.

    I will discuss the other key lifestyles changes in the second part of the series.

    Overall, think brain!!

     

    • Dr Ajala is a Consultant Geriatrician and Physician. She is CEO of JBS Medicare Services.

    For more info, questions or help in managing someone with Dementia and tips on healthy aging, contact her via: toyin.ajala@jbsmedicare.com

  • Vengeance finds everyone

    This piece too, should infuriate you, if you are of the scholarly divide that celebrates insults to God as ‘rational’ exercise. I am not some religious fanatic, I simply appreciate the might and existence of Edumare. If you don’t,  it’s your grief, not mine. However, you may define this piece too as a ‘human right’ to vent by eloquence of thought.

    If you are a public officer of the crooked divide, this piece too, should displease you. If you are an esteemed scholar with god complex, this commentary may injure your pride. It is never my intent to glorify your politics or preferred notion of the intellectual. I will not patronise you.

    What could be wrong in wishing that the Nigerian ruling class experience catastrophe it inflicts on the citizenry via bad governance? Consider for instance, the sad case of a man who loses his wife and three children to a fatal road accident caused by bad road, knowing that the State governor had persistently and criminally refused to heed pleas that he repaired the badly cratered road; could it be wrong for such a man to tirelessly utter heartfelt prayer, that our Heavenly Creator rewards the governor with similar tragedy? Would it be wrong to pray that divinely inspired vengeance, scorn all anti-retributive fetishism and religious rituals by the governor, and wreak greater tragedy in his life?

    How about the poor, helpless underage girls abducted from Baga, Bama, Konduga and other parts of Borno State? If such girls – the survivors among them to be precise – eventually understand that they were the disposable integers, the casualties of a war of wiles by a devious political class, would it be wrong that they wish upon the men and women responsible for their plight, greater tragedies and retribution?

    Maryam Alhaji-Wakil was abducted at age nine. In 2014, insurgents of the deadly terrorist sect, Boko Haram, invaded her town and burnt her home. They killed her relatives and decapitated her neighbours. Then they whisked her off to Sambisa Forest. There, she was forcibly married to Modu, a lustful and violent Boko Haram insurgent. In two days, little Maryam was violently thrust into womanhood. Modu, 35, forced his way into her unripe orifice, robbing her of innocence and the mystic pleasure of first and legitimate adult sexual experience.

    Modu was hasty and rough thus making her ‘first time’ bestial and replete with pain. She screamed in agony but Modu didn’t care. “The louder I screamed, the more violently he shoved into me until I passed out,” she revealed to me in a personal encounter.

    Thus at the tender age of nine, Maryam was violently used and sexually abused. When she could not withstand the misery of living as a sex slave any longer, she opted to serve as one of the terrorist group’s female suicide bombers. Consequently, she was dispatched with a bomb to neighbouring Cameroon. She was taken on a motorcycle to blow up any soft military target in Cameroon. But Maryam had other plans.

    When the rider dropped her, she approached the soldiers and told them, ‘I have this thing on my body. It is a bomb. I was sent to kill you. Please, help me remove it.” Instantly, the soldiers sprung into defensive position but realising that she had come to surrender, they approached her and unstrapped the explosive from her body.

    Maryam spent several months in the custody of the Cameroonian gendarmes until she was handed over to the Nigerian military. Hard as it is to picture the extent of bitterness devastating her heart, an intense gape into her eyes reveals a girl utterly torn apart. Beneath her pretty face lurks a battered soul.

    Now 12 years of age, Maryam is yet to break out the jailhouse of her past. She is still the starry-eyed nine-year-old that got whisked off to Sambisa Forest, while her relatives and neighbours fell in a bloody heap, to the bullets of Boko Haram’s terror squads. Maryam relives the days she went without food because her insurgent ‘husband’ was too poor and lazy to provide her food. She remembers the excruciating nights that she laid captive and helpless under his massive bulk, while he violently plowed into her because she  ”was an unwilling bride.”

    When Maryam eventually discovers that men and women who were meant to ‘protect and serve her’ as all good leaders should do, were responsible for her misery, should she simply ‘forgive and forget?’  When she discovers that men and women in the immediate past presidency embezzled the £2.1 billion disbursed to procure weaponry meant to secure her release and that of the 276 Chibok girls, should she seek them out for a hug and heartfelt blessings?

    It is only just that Maryam persistently utters heartfelt prayers that the daughters and granddaughters of the men and women who triggered and accentuated her misery, share similar fate with her.

    Some would claim that it is wrong to wish such retribution on innocent children of perceived bad leaders. They would counsel forgiveness saying: “Let the actual offenders be punished and not their bloodline.”

    I passionately object to such righteousness. Why? In a nation where rich, privileged criminals are given a slap on the hand and pat on the back, it is only just that offspring and wives of such criminals suffer same tragedies as victims of their inhumanity. After all, prosecutors have established certain governors, senators, presidents and bank chiefs along with their wives and kids.

    Just recently, the anti-graft agency confiscated 20 expensive automobiles from the  unemployed son of a military chief who is under inquiry for corruption. He is simply one of several rich, spoilt kids of the Nigerian ruling class misappropriating the wealth of the collective for the luxury of a few, privileged class.

    If the Nigerian leadership is just to the citizenry, the universe will in turn, be just to them. If public officers are honest, compassionate and enthusiastic in pursuit of the country’s progress and the citizenry’s happiness, may Edumare and His universe be just to them. May our Creator shower them with His infinite mercies.

    However, public officers responsible for the ceaseless disasters plaguing our lives, will get their comeuppance even as you read. Every president, federal minister, state governor, commissioner, legislator, council chairman, judicial officer and associate by whose greed, corruption and inhumaneness Nigeria careens in corruption while the citizenry perish in avoidable tragedies, will experience their due rewards, in time.

    State governors and senators for instance, may remain rich, privileged and aloof, while electorate families perish on bad roads and rural kids die for lack of adequate care, staff and facilities across Nigeria’s primary healthcare centres; very soon, they will watch their children and grandchildren suffer the same fate. Such is the working of divinely ordained retribution – I only give voice to the immutable.

    If as a president, state governor or legislator, you divert public fund to sponsor your children’s education overseas while the children of peasants and working class who voted you into power, extinguish in intellect and passion, across Nigeria’s underfunded schools, it is only just that those children of yours never amount to much or anything in life, like the victims of your greed.

    Again, self-righteous faithful and intellectual will condemn this because it is religiously or politically incorrect. They will advocate that only the offenders deserve punishment.

    To this, I would say: ‘What were our parents’ crime? What crime did Maryam’s parents commit, that made the ruling class treat her so?’

  • ‘Why everyone calls me professor’

    IF there is one mission Moyosoreoluwa Jogunosimi feels bound to accomplish in life, it is to make Mathematics, one of the subjects most hated or dreaded by students, attractive and enjoyable, particularly for children.

    The petite lady, popularly called Moyotician or Professor on account of her prowess in Mathematics, had graduated from the university at the tender age of 19, had her master’s degree at 20 and became a university lecturer at 23. Now 28, Moyo, who had already taught Mathematics for three years in her alma mater, Covenant University, is now doing what she loves best—teaching kids the secrets of a subject that most of them dread.

    “I realise there is more to mathematics. Mathematics can be enjoyable, but there are several children like me who do not like it. So I said let me go out there and help some children, even though it looks sweeter to be lecturing in a university than running a Math clinic,” she said in a chat with The Nation.

    Interestingly, like many school pupils, Moyo grew up with a deep-seated phobia for the subject. For her, the approach of a Mathematics class was always a nightmare.

    But all that was before a visit by her grandmother paid to the family, during which the old woman, who had retired as a teacher, gave her the code with which she unlocked the secrets of Mathematics, opening wide the door to hitherto unknown opportunities for Moyo.

    Recalling how her romance with Mathematics was sealed by her grandmother, she said: “As a child, I used to have challenges with Mathematics. I never liked the subject at all. But one day, my grandmother came to visit us. And because she went to a teachers’ training college and was also an old teacher, she was a specialised mathematician. She began to teach me Mathematics and I suddenly began to enjoy it. It was like she unlocked the Mathematics side of my brain. And I was very young then.

    “My grandmother had a special way of relating. She was not a regular Mathematics teacher, but she was also not one who would make things look difficult or make you have a headache. She related lively and I realised that Mathematics is a cheap subject if you do it every day. That was when my love for Mathematics began.”

    Having fallen in love with Mathematics, you would expect her to study the subject in the university. While her grandmother gave her the key to solve the mysteries of Mathematics in primary school, her Chemistry teacher in secondary school had so much influence on her that she decided to study Chemical Engineering in the university.

    But while she planned to study Chemical Engineering, it seemed that providence had a different plan for her. “Although I so much loved Mathematics,” she said, “I didn’t really want to study it in the university. I wanted to study Chemical Engineering or Industrial Chemistry. The reason for this was because I loved my Chemistry teacher in secondary school so much that I wanted to be like her. In the process, I wanted something like Chemistry.

    “But by the time the admission list came out, what I was offered was Industrial Mathematics at Covenant University. Since I didn’t want to stay at home, I simply took the offer. Although I was not really happy at the time, my parents advised me to go ahead, saying that I could change my course later.”

    Agreeing to accept the course as a stop-gap measure brought another twist into Moyo’s love story with Mathematics.

    She said: “When I got to the university, during the first lecture I had in General Mathematics, there was this particular lecturer who walked in and said he wanted to teach us Mathematics so that when we got home we would start a Mathematics clinic and teach our friends. When he said so, everybody laughed. But for me, that was the defining moment of my life.”

    So, rather than switch course as she had planned, Moyo went on to complete her course and graduated with a Second Class Upper in Industrial Mathematics at Covenant University. She then proceeded with her master’s degree programme at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State.

    Lecturing in a university at such young age surely has its challenges. But for the young ‘professor’, they were “very sweet challenges” despite the fact that there was little difference between her age and those of her students.

    She said: “I lectured for two years at Covenant University between 2011 and 2013. I was 23 years old at the time. Of course, none of my students was older than me, because it was a private university and there was a limit to age intake. But because of my stature, most of the students were bigger than me. And whenever I was taking the course, especially the first time I entered the class, they didn’t know I was a lecturer until they saw my ID card. It would only dawn on them that I was their lecturer when I brought out my laptop and took the microphone, asking them to settle down.”

    Moyo imbibed the culture of hard work early in life. According to her, “Nothing good comes easy. I think I developed that culture way back in secondary school. I sleep late and wake up very early, and that culture has been there for years. This is part of the things that helped me, because Covenant University was safe and I could leave the office at 2 am and be back in the office by 8am.

    “Yes, it was challenging. But it was a sweet challenge because it was like being paid for doing what you enjoy doing.”

    The daughter of an architect father and a businesswoman, Moyo said her mother, who she described as adept in several businesses, ensured that impacted on her young daughter and her siblings’ senses of responsibility early in life.

    She said: “My dad is an architect while my mum is a businesswoman. She enjoys business a lot and she owns a block-making industry. In those days, during the holidays, we would all go to the office and work,  and whenever we complained that it was a holiday and that we needed to rest, mum would say, ‘No, this is where your school fees come from.’ So, we would start to wet the blocks. In that process, I learnt a lot of things unconsciously.”

    Not one to forget an advice, Moyo confessed that she quit lecturing in the university to begin teaching children because of her former lecturer’s advice that she could organise Mathematics clinics.

    “That advice struck a chord in me that Mathematics can be better than this. I started to research, and I enjoy research so much, most especially the way developed countries teach Mathematics. I realised that they are handling their Mathematics in ways different from ours.

    “I realised that Mathematics can be enjoyed and that there are many children who do not like Mathematics. I imagine what would have happened if my grandmother had not intervened and taught me the secrets of Mathematics. It is for that reason that I said let me go out and help some children, even though it looks sweeter to be a lecturer in a university than running a Math clinic.”

    As would be expected, not everybody was happy with her decision to quit the university system, “but I had to quit because I wanted to create a creative niche around Mathematics. I wanted to coin out something for Mathematics, such that was beyond going to school and passing exams.

    “For me, Mathematics is more than mere writing down some things. These are some of the things that people don’t understand. When you are Mathematics inclined, it sharpens your mind, such that even if you are a furniture maker, it will help to give you a touch that the average furniture maker who is not Mathematics inclined would not have. It helps your creative thinking and improves your problem solving skills. These are some of the things that make Mathematics interesting.”

    Moyo is leading a revolution to make the teaching of Mathematics more enjoyable. She believes that there is an urgent need to move away from the ways the subject is being taught.

    She said: “People don’t understand that the world has changed from the 20th Century to the 21st Century. In those days, once you had a First Class degree, you were assured of a good job. But right now, no matter the level of your First Class, you also need to bring something special to the table apart from your university degree to get a good job. It is that special skill that you possess that will retain you on the job and even determine your progress.

    “These are some of the things we want to address. I want to bring fun into Mathematics for you to see and feel like you are doing Mathematics and you are excited about it. I must confess that I am really enjoying it.”

  • Everyone can make a difference

    TO demonstrate the importance of giving and why some people give so much, the President of a humanitarian organisation, Air Vice Marshal Olufemi Soewu (rtd), said every human being has the capacity to change the world.
    Soewu, who spoke at the fourth annual general meeting (AGM) of the Oasis Association in Lagos recently, added that while all human beings do not have the same amount of money, they do have the same 24 hours every day and can give by providing service to others.
    He said: “Though some people have much less free time than others, nearly everyone can carve out some opportunity for giving. The gift of time can sometimes be more satisfying and more valuable than money.
    “For people suffering from depression, all they probably require is companionship; somebody to show love, by giving of their time, to encourage the person concerned. So, we look at the needs of each person and try to give. But, our help is always guided, so that the recipients do not become dependent.”
    Soewu said the Oasis Association has recorded some modest achievements in the last three years, including their regular outreach programmes, the publication of its newsletter, The Oasis Voice, and collaboration with other organisations.
    He said: “For instance, in 2014, the focus of our outreach efforts was healthcare in our neighbouring communities of Ajuwon and Akute. A free health screening exercise for the Human Immune Virus (HIV) and tuberculosis was conducted in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research and the people who were found positive were treated free of charge.
    “In 2015, we focused on the internally-displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria, narrowing it down to IDPs in Borno State. With the collaborative assistance of Vitafoam Nigeria Plc, we donated relief materials to the state government, through its liaison office in Lagos.”
    He said the Association will be focusing on the healthcare sector once again this year, in collaboration with Rotary International.

  • Money ruins everyone…everything (1)

    Money changes everything. It changes everyone. Every hour, it turns thousands who could have overcome its darkness into eternal addicts to the base and inane. For the love of a lousy buck, many have died. For the love of the naira, thousands more lose their souls and their lives every day. Man and woman, father and mother, son and daughter, privileged and pauper, are felled in pursuit of money and the good life, even as you read.

    That President Muhammadu Buhari is persistently ridiculed and condemned as a failure even before his second year in office, is a direct consequence of his inability to uphold the corrupt but highly lucrative systemic bazaar of the past. Although Buhari’s leadership suffers the affliction of crooked men and women, his glamourised aversion to corruption and his ongoing anti-corruption inquiry, resonates dangerously to the country’s crooked divide. Too many men and women accustomed to pocketing and spending money that they didn’t earn are suddenly aghast and petrified by their inability to conduct ‘business as usual.’

    That former President Goodluck Jonathan took God for a fool also attests to the plague and degenerate sway of money. Jonathan, in abject desperation for acceptance and goodwill of Nigerian masses, travelled from the presidential villa in Aso Rock, Abuja, to stage a dramatic communion with God, on his knees, before Enoch Adeboye, a respected cleric.

    Cut to another hodgepodge of the ex-president on his knees, before Ayo Oritsejafor and other self-appointed “men of God” in faraway Jerusalem, Israel. Jonathan in flagrant disregard of religious tenets advising that man’s communion with his Creator should be personal and unpretentious, deserted his abode in Abuja to embark on a spiritual jamboree of his self-styled ‘humility’ and communion with God across the country and overseas.

    Predictably, psychologically and materially-impoverished loyalists cum the ex-president’s media aides argued that he simply loved to ‘lead by example’ thus politicizing his “humility” and “love of God” to the fascination and appreciation of all. It is however, unclear by what standards they will prove that heartfelt prayers muttered by the former president on his knees, in the corners of his room, would have been less significant than his theatrical communion with God.

    Were these spiritual shows emblematic of Jonathan’s unpretentious love of God or were they symptomatic of a desperate wish to perpetuate him in power for the attendant fiscal and material perks? Cut to Stella Oduah, aviation minister’s N255 million bullet-proof automobile scandal Sambo Dasuki’s $2.1 billion arms purchase scam and Abdulrasheed Maina, former pension boss’ N21 billion pension fund racket to mention a few, and you have an interesting picture of the Nigerian ruling class’ inexorable lust for money and other material things.

    There is the oft-repeated logic and inclination to blame this persistent malaise on capitalism; however, attractive as such sophistry may resound, the impulse for acquisition, pursuit of gain and money in fact, has nothing to do with capitalism – it is merely a symptom, like perverse capitalism, of the society’s steady descent the slope of the decadent and grotesque.

    Max Weber, the late German economist and social historian would say it has been common to all sorts and conditions of men at all times and in all cultures of the earth but I would say that the Nigerian malaise is brought about by the absence of an enduring moral code.

    This deficit manifests in deficiencies of personal and societal ethics – the consequence of which is the preponderance and regeneration of eejits, tyrants, greedy-guts, fraudsters, narcissists, murderers and bloodhounds of all kinds and of all nature, across the country’s landscape.

    The trials of Nigerians’ moral degeneration as exemplified by the citizenry’s inordinate lust for money, the country’s recurrent tragedies and propensity to self-destruct, reveals an overarching tendency to savour short-term greed and relief over long-term prosperity. Despite a protracted and tumultuous history of impoverishment and bad leadership, Nigerians continue to look for quick fix solutions thus mortgaging the country’s present and future for short-term benefits.

    Through decades of moral perversions and self-inflicted disasters, Nigerians continue to bemoan their tragic fate. While many argue that the country ruins because the youth are too weak and too selfish to spill as much blood as is required to rid the nation of every human and institutional affliction, many more contend that the country’s woes will disappear immediately poverty is eradicated by the ruling class.

    Today, the fear of poverty as the irrepressible lust for money, drives too many to commit gross acts of dishonesty and irresponsibility. Personal greed is pervasive and poverty is endemic. It represents the triumphal punch delivered by the proverbial system against the country’s poor, hopeless masses. Nigeria suffers the consequence of the supremacy of money. Money rules the Nigerian society. It elevates and ennobles the possessor of it; whatever the nature and import of the rich’s membership of the society, as long as he has money to flaunt and throw around, nobody cares what value he adds to and denies the society.

    Thus the pardon and acquittal of several corrupt politicians and deposed bank chiefs; even after insurmountable evidences were marshaled against them by prosecution, they get off too easily with court sentences that were tantamount to a pat on the back. The poor, on the other hand, epitomise more of what is wrong and contemptible with the society. They represent that segment of the society that is easily swayed, viciously condemned and trodden by the power of money.

    The power of money is indeed frightening and overwhelming. Like Okwudiba Nnoli notes, it uplifts and crushes, enhances and debases, exhilarates and disenchants, dignifies and dehumanizes, enlightens and blinds, unites and divides. Under the influence of money, humaneness and the quest for the collective good are ferociously smothered by disruptive and selfish considerations. Materialism is fostered and greed is ennobled in the mad dash for money. Consequently, justice, freedom, equality, dignity and other human rights, are sacrificed on the altar of the perennial rat-race for the accumulation of money.

    More worrisome is the reality of the poor in Nigeria being unquestioningly docile to the power of money. This impoverished lot is hardly impressed by humaneness and promising leadership. To them, these are manifestations of weakness. Their loyalty and sympathies are reserved for tyrants that treat them like dogs on a leash. It is to these latter that they exhibit the greatest obsequiousness and erect the greatest statues.

    While it is true that the poor would often trample maniacally on the despot, who by a poetic twist of fate – be it by class politics or masses revolt – gets stripped of his power and authority, they do so because having lost his strength, the despot becomes relegated to an ignoble spot among the weak and repressed, who are to be loathed and not feared.

    This is emblematic of Gustave Le Bon’s philosophy of ‘The Crowd,’ which was valued not only by Pareto, Freud, Mussolini, and de Gaulle, but even by Horkheimer and Adorno. Le Bon contends that the type of  “hero dear to crowds will always have the semblance of a Caesar. His insignia attracts them, his authority overawes them, and his sword instills them with fear…Should the strength of an authority be intermittent, the crowd, always obedient to its extreme sentiments, passes alternately from anarchy to servitude, and from servitude to anarchy.”

    The Nigerian poor, like Le Bon’s crowd, are incapable of progressive will and thought for any length of time. Like a servile herd, they are incapable of coping with the humdrum and vicissitudes of their lives without a master. Democratic ideas are therefore in profound disagreement with the psychology and experience of the Nigerian poor. It is unsurprising then, that materially and mentally impoverished folk would distrust democracy and its promise of collective good, to covet and pursue the vain and ephemeral perks of sociopolitical harlotry.

  • X-raying ‘I belong to everyone and…nobody’ (2)

    X-raying ‘I belong to everyone and…nobody’ (2)

    Last week, we said since President Muhammadu Buhari delivered his inaugural speech on Friday May 29, 2015, the statement “I belong to everyone and I belong to nobody” has continued to generate reactions regarding the intended meaning. We analysed the literal meaning and stressed the fact that the statement radiates metaphoric meaning. We added that context is critical to meaning.

     

    Nigerian English and lasticity of meanings

     

    The major challenge we have in Nigeria with elasticity of meanings of such a statement is due to our over-reliance on constituent words for meaning, over-generalisation of meaning, etc. For instance, “Do-or-die” is a positive idiom that means “Strong determination” in British English. But we use and interpret it negatively in Nigerian English because of the word “Die”.

    Sometimes ago, I was compelled to link people up to the online comment of the captain of one of the English clubs that survived relegation on the last day due to exceptional team determination. The captain showered praises on the team-mates thus, “Congratulations guys. Our do-or-die attitude has saved us from relegation”. Does it mean he was insulting his team-mates for doing a positive thing? No.  We have also wrongly substituted the word “Send-forth” for the correct version “Send-off” because we consider the adverbial particle/preposition “off” as negative. I wonder why we have not changed the school admission “cut-off” mark to “cut-forth” mark!

     

    Extension

     

    Most Nigerians also interpret the idiom “No love lost” to mean that the love between two people is intact. This idiom actually means that two people involved hate each other, that the love does not exist in the first place not to talk of losing it. Meanings of expressions are often not based on meanings of individual words but embedded. On a radio sports programme some years ago, one of the ex-Super Eagles players was asked about his relationship with another ex-Super Eagles player, he said their relationship was intact and also used the idiom “No love lost” to emphasise it. What a self-contradiction!

    In the same vein, the expression “Play the Devil’s advocate” is misinterpreted in Nigerian English because we rely on individual words for its interpretation. The fact that it contains the word “Devil” further makes us commit the blunder. The dictionary meaning of “Play the Devil’s advocate” is: “to pretend to disagree with somebody in order to have good discussion about something”. But in Nigerian English, it is wrongly used to mean that somebody is defending an offender, like an advocate or lawyer.

     

    Psychological efficacy

     

    Most people have expressed disappointment with the President for saying “I belong to nobody”. But in the context in which it was uttered, it was actually not intended to insult his associates but to accommodate or woo his antagonists, especially given the tension that had mounted ahead of the elections and before he finally took over on May 29. It was psychologically and morally right for him to assure the multiplicity of ethnic nationalities, political parties and others that he is not the exclusive property of just a few people but belongs to everyone, so that he can been seen as a rallying point of different interests. The need to assure everybody of collective ownership and equality became imperative considering that he had been accused of tribal, religious and political bigotry.

     

    Last words

     

    On a note of analytical finality, in everyday conversation, misunderstanding often manifests because speakers make wrong assumptions regarding what their listeners know or ought to know. At such points, the conversation can break down and may need to be modified through questioning, clarification and cross-checking. Despite the intended or contextual meaning, one major shortcoming of the statement “I belong to everyone and I belong to nobody” is its ambiguity, that is, double meanings. Also since “I belong to everyone” has full meaning, it is redundant or unnecessary to add “I belong to nobody”.

     

    PS: For those making inquiries about our Public Speaking, Business Presentation and Professional Writing Skills programme, please visit the website indicated on this page for details.

     

    •GOKE ILESANMI, Managing Consultant/CEO of Gokmar Communication Consulting, is an International Platinum Columnist, Professional Public Speaker/MC, Communication Specialist, Motivational Speaker and Career Management Coach. He is also a Book Reviewer, Biographer and Editorial Consultant.

    Tel: 08055068773; 08187499425

    Email: gokeiles2010@gmail.com

    Website: www.gokeilesanmi.com

     

     

  • X-raying ‘I belong to everyone and…nobody’

    X-raying ‘I belong to everyone and…nobody’

    On Friday May 29, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari delivered a masterpiece of an inaugural speech, in which he unveiled his administration’s plan for our great nation Nigeria. He expectedly stressed the resolve of his administration to urgently tackle the multi-pronged challenges of insecurity, corruption, unemployment, infrastructure, etc., amid thunderous applause.

    Even though the different promises he made in the said speech have continued to elicit reactions from different stakeholders, one major aspect of the speech that has generated most reactions is the statement or compound sentence “I belong to everyone and I belong to nobody”. In short, since the president delivered the speech, we have been extremely busy in the Language Department of our Empowerment Clinic as more and more language “patients” are daily admitted for diagnosis, X-ray and medication following the extreme “headache” of interpretation the statement has caused them.

     

    Literal/surface  interpretation

     

    It is noteworthy that this statement has really called the fields of English Studies like Semantics (which is concerned with meaning of words) and Discourse Analysis (which is concerned with interpreting utterances or speeches) to task because it is like a riddle. Many people have argued that the compound sentence radiates two contrasting coordinate clauses. This submission is true at the level of literal, surface or direct meaning. After all, by semantic analogy, “I collected money from everyone” is the opposite of “I collected money from nobody”.

     

    Metaphoric meaning

     

    However, the real meaning is recoverable at the metaphoric level, especially because by mathematics of linguistic interpretation, “Everyone” is Plus-Human and “Nobody” is Minus-Human. The intended meaning of the second independent clause (“I belong to nobody”) of the seemingly antithetical statement is idiomatic and metaphoric as it cannot be recovered from surface interpretation of the constituent words. After all, when we hear expressions like “Kick the bucket”; “Hit the nail on the head”, etc., we know their meanings cannot be recovered from direct interpretation of the constituent words. That is, their meanings are embedded. By restatement, “I belong to everyone” also means “I do not belong to just one person” which by analytical and paradoxical extension implies “I belong to nobody”. It is like the answer “Yes, I was” or “No, I wasn’t” in which the second part of each of them reinforces the “Yes” or “No”.

     

    Context and meaning

     

    It should be noted that context is also very critical to meaning in Discourse Analysis. Did the president utter the statement during a face-off with his party members and political associates, thus claiming not to be owned by them any longer? No! It was during his inauguration and his major concern was to persuade those on the other side of the political divide to come closer for collective participation rather than an attempt to ridicule his political party or political associates that he has disowned them, after all they are also part of the “everybody” accommodated in the ownership of the president. Also on context and accuracy of interpretation, the fact that the president said “I belong to nobody” in a political context does not mean in a context of marriage, he no longer belongs to the first lady, Aisha but all women.

     

    Addition

     

    Most times, utterances taken out of context can be misinterpreted. For instance, if you are asked to give your impression about a boy that said “Daddy, don’t ever try it”, the ready conclusion will be that such a child is very rude especially that the background or context is not provided. But if you are told that the boy uttered the statement when his heavily-drunk father came home in the midnight and wanted to hit the head of his (the boy’s) mother with a hammer, I am sure your negative impression about the boy will definitely change. We will continue with this discourse next week.

     

    PS: For those making inquiries about our Public Speaking, Business Presentation and Professional Writing Skills programme, please visit the website indicated on this page for details.

     

    •GOKE ILESANMI, Managing Consultant/CEO of Gokmar Communication Consulting, is an International Platinum Columnist, Professional Public Speaker/MC, Communication Specialist, Motivational Speaker and Career Management Coach. He is also a Book Reviewer, Biographer and Editorial Consultant.

    Tel: 08055068773; 08187499425

    Email: gokeiles2010@gmail.com

    Website: www.gokeilesanmi.com