The Nation Newspaper

Tag: speak

  • Osinbajo to speak at Harvard

    Osinbajo to speak at Harvard

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will today deliver a keynote lecture at the Harvard University, Boston, United States.

    A statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, said: “It would be the highest honour for us were you to accept our invitation as we deeply admire the immense progress that Nigeria has made during your tenure not only as the country’s Vice President, but also as Chairman of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council. By all accounts, this Council has spearheaded crucial initiatives and we very much hope that you will speak to those, as well as to Nigeria’s rise in world economic rankings and the vast range of business initiatives that are ongoing in your country.”

    The university  described the lecture as a historic moment as it would be the first time that an Africa-focused course will be offered at Harvard Business School.

    “During the lecture, Prof. Osinbajo would highlight the progress made by the Buhari administration in improving the country’s economy and investment climate.

    “In the latest World Bank Doing Business index, Nigeria climbed up 24 places and was placed on the list of 10 most reformed economies globally.

    “Alongside the President, the VP has been a strong advocate in the future of a greater Africa, and has proffered solutions on how to make the continent work better for its people and the rest of the world.

    “In a keynote address at the Financial Times Africa Summit in London recently, the Vice President emphasised the continent’s depth of talent and innovation across Agriculture, ICT, Hospitality, Fashion, Energy, Manufacturing, Entertainment, and many other fields.”

    The Vice President is expected back in Abuja tomorrow.

  • Imoke to speak at NATOP AGM

    Imoke to speak at NATOP AGM

    Former Executive Governor of Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke will be the guest speaker at 2017 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Nigerian Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) the umbrella body for tour operators in Nigeria. The Theme for the 2017 edition which will hold on Tuesday, May 2, at Renaissance Hotel Ikeja is ” Positioning Tourism within the Nigerian Economic space”.

    Last year at its AGM  held in Calabar with the theme “Tourism, the low hanging fruit in a depressed economy” with Professor Pat Utomi as Guest Speaker it released a 10-point agenda for tourism in Nigeria which has become the talking point since then.

    NATOP also called for the creation of a stand alone tourism ministry which is yet to receive attention from the government. NATOP as tourism association also hosted the 2016 World Tourism Day event last year on September 27th.

    For the second time NATOP hosted visiting South Africa tour Operators on a road show to Nigeria to a city Tour of Lagos which saw them doing a “Know FELA the Legend Tour” with visits to sites associated with the Famous Black President and music maestro Fela Anikulakpo Kuti.

    Senator Liyel Imoke will be speaking on “The Building Blocks of Tourism Products ” He will be sharing his experience as a two-term governor of the leading tourism state in Nigeria.

    Young and Aspiring Tour Operators will be involved in A workshop themed ” Challenges Facing the promotion of Tourism by the Youth.” NATOP has observed that a lot of young Tour Operators are promoting Domestic Tours all over the Country and need to be encouraged.

  • Do these or Don’t Speak!

    Professor Val got an invitation to be one of the lead paper presenters at an international conference. He had been working on a research formula for a while and he had received several awards and international recognitions; therefore, he believed the audience would be excited to listen to his presentation. He negotiated his fee with the organiser of the event and agreed to speak for one hour.

    The conference was to begin on Monday and Val’s presentation was scheduled for Tuesday. Nevertheless, he arrived on Sunday because he had to transverse several countries to the location of the conference and the organiser had appealed to him to be present at the opening ceremony. To demonstrate how much Professor Val was appreciated for attending the conference, a party welcome was held in his honour on Sunday night.

    Finally, it was Tuesday and Prof Val’s presentation began. Unfortunately, not quite 15 minutes into the one hour paper, the audience started to be distracted. Don’t tell me that the distraction came because Val was not energetic and passionate about his subject matter because you are wrong. He worked really hard at it. However, the more he tried to be convincing, the more he lost the attention of his audience.

    One of the challenges he had was that he believed the one hour was not enough to do justice to the topic so he tried as much as possible to force so much information into the time. Of course, he also tried to speak as fast as he could. The greatest challenge of the presentation, however, was that he was a Russian and didn’t speak good English. That, more than any other thing, made it difficult for the audience to comprehend the presentation. Quickly, the initial excitement of see Prof Val “in the flesh” gave way to boredom.

    Thirty-five minutes into the presentation, about 50% of the audience was asleep, 25% was busy with a book or other materials, while the remaining 25% struggled to follow the presentation because of a particular interest in the topic. The Master of Ceremonies (MC) took a look at the audience and was uncomfortable, so he approached the organiser to discuss the situation. The organiser, however, insisted that the contract with Prof Val specifies that he would be speaking for one hour and he had been paid accordingly.

    After 50 minutes, the MC approached Prof Val, like he did for other presenters, to tell him that he had 10 more minutes. Prof Val reacted sharply by saying, “I have one hour to present. I will use my one hour”. While the MC courteously returned to his seat, the audience murmured as though they could not bear another minute of the presentation. When finally the presentation ended, members of the audience couldn’t wait to go for their long -awaited break and they didn’t care much about asking questions from the speaker.

    I’m sure a few questions may be going through your mind right now. One of them may be, “what did Professor Val do wrong?” The truth is that he worked perfectly by the book. He prepared hard, he was energetic and passionate, he was time conscious (his one hour) and he wanted to pass across a lot of valuable information to his audience. These are all virtues, aren’t they? So, what did he do wrong? Well, his asset was also his liability- he worked perfectly by the book. In public speaking, there are lots of valuable rules that enhance effective presentation. Nevertheless, it is extremely important to note that public speaking is an art. It is dynamic. Rules are set as guidelines but we must also learn when and how to apply them, or even how to sensibly break them.

    In this series, we shall be exploring exceptions to some public speaking rules. The greatest attribute of an experienced public speaker is the ability to effectively evaluate his/her audience and respond according. Whether you are a professional public speaker or you simply make presentations at work, your audience must be your prime focus. Next week, by the grace of God, we shall take a closer look at Prof Val’s errors. I would also love to hear from you. Kindly send me your comments or questions so that we can explore them together. Have a blessed weekend.

  • Speak out that Idea!

    Most great thinkers and successful persons in the world, both past and present, have, at one time or the other, associated their successes to good ideas. Several books have been published on this valuable seed called idea and how it can be capitalized upon for great achievements. We cannot over emphasize the fact that good ideas rule the world. When ideas become a passion, they consume the proponent so that he or she becomes unstoppable. Victor Hugo said, “An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.” Great ideas cannot be restricted; they find their ways around every obstacle. According to Benazir Bhutto, “You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man, but not an idea.” Not only are good ideas characteristically bigger than their proponents, they also mostly outlive them. In this respect, John F. Kennedy said, “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death.”

    As valuable as ideas are, however, we will be making a big mistake to think that they are all it takes to succeed. Ideas don’t fulfil themselves, they must be put to use, and the first step of this is expression. What are ideas without expressions? Have you ever seen an army commander who instructs his troupe with his mind? No matter how skillful or tactful he is, he must issue clear commands, either by speech or by gesture, for the soldiers to act. Can a teacher teach a class without words, gestures, or other technical aids? Unless the subject matter is “silence,” the students would receive nothing. Likewise, ideas are nothing unless they are expressed.

    People cannot get into our minds or read our thoughts; hence, they cannot access our brilliant ideas unless we express them. Lois Wyse said, “The only people in the world who can change things are those who can sell ideas.” In whatever endeavour we are engaged in, our ideas will be no good if we cannot convince the necessary stakeholders of their authenticity.  If we don’t know how to present our ideas, they may die in our minds.

    Some people spend their entire lives merely brooding over some ideas because they believe the ideas are not good enough to be shared. According to Brian G. Jett, “We think good ideas to death, when we should be acting them to life.” I am of the opinion that we don’t know the value of our ideas until we share them.  Have you ever had the experience, probably when you were in school, that your teacher asked a question, to which you knew the answer, but you were afraid to be wrong, so, someone else spoke exactly what you had in mind and was correct? How did you feel? Whether in the same scenario or a similar but more complex one, the effect is usually the same. Though you tried to console yourself that it wasn’t really a big deal, deep down, you felt a sense of loss. That is what happens when we don’t share the valuable ideas we have; we lose them to other thinkers. Some other people believe that no one can be trusted, so they hoard their ideas. While the ideas are safe in their minds, neither they nor any other person benefit from that.

    Ideas get bigger when they are shared effectively. George Bernard Shaw said, “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples, then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”

    Having established that ideas are invaluable, and that they are of no use when we keep them to ourselves, the next question is, “How do we share our ideas?” There are several ways to share our ideas; in fact, there are many more ways than we can talk about here. But I can assure you that one of the major and most effective ways is through speaking. Of course, you may write a proposal, but you are most probably going to need to make an oral presentation of it at some points. Some people write winning proposals but are screened out only because of their inability to come across convincingly in their oral presentations. When a business proposal is particularly brilliant, and the presenter is particularly poor, the assessor naturally concludes that the idea is stolen. Think about this: why is it that we hear some people accuse some popular musicians of stealing their songs, yet it’s not a hit when the supposed owners perform it? Why does a student explain a course to another and the latter passes while the former fails? The answer is simple- some people are good at getting ideas, some are good at expressing them, and some are good in both. “But is this fair?” You may ask. Well, that may be a discussion for another day. In the mean time, know that you can learn to express your ideas effectively and win your audience to your line of thinking. Organize your thoughts, support it with facts, create the context in which it can work, and be passionate as you speak. You are closer to achieving your dreams than you know.

  • Who will speak for the Igbo?

    SIR: True democracy buoys up independence and discourages thralldom. I love the Igbo for they are ingenious and believe in the unity of Nigeria if not it would have been difficult for them to have huge investment all around the country and even in inhospitable areas. Some commentators have even equated them with the Israelis but unlike the Israelis the Igbo have not made democracy lively in spite of being reputed to be republicans – have not improved on science, technology and the quality of life of the average Igbo.

    Unlike the Israeli political leaders, yet again, who love to promote Israeli causes by calling on other nation-states to invest in her (even recently at the world economic forum in Davos Switzerland), assemblages like APGA, Ohaneze Ndigbo, MASSOB in contrast do not agree on a common objective that will take the Igbo to dreamland- is it surprising that Israel stands out in military competency, technological proficiency and a with a buoyant economy, while the south-eastern economy is still in stagnation.

    Unlike the Israeli that are united not heeding to the geographical space they occupy within Israel, the Anambra Igbo see themselves as more Igbo than others, while the Imo Igbo see themselves as more educated and the Enugu Igbo.

    APGA no doubt has the right to endorse any party it likes for elections but is such co-operation entrenched in their party laws? Shouldn’t that party be worried about deliberating on issues that are correct and throw candidates for national elections instead of settling down as a tribal party without plans to take their place in the National political landscape?

    How come that a region that is touted to have a strong political force is satisfied with being loyal to a ruling party and of what political benefit is the liaison to the entire Igbo?

    Wouldn’t that party’s independence in years to come be subject to the consent of the PDP?

    It is time that APGA rightly take on its responsibility to lead and shape the widely held support rather than simply follow a herd instinct.

    The South-east needs a Winston Churchill and other grandees to help shape their political future beyond drama. But who will speak for the Igbo people in Nigeria?

    I am knocked for six to see how easy it is for the Igbo politician to compromise.

    • Simon Abah,

    Port-Harcourt, Rivers State

     

  • Sanusi to speak at women conference tomorrow

    The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, will be the keynote speaker at the fifth anniversary of the founding of Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR), a network for career women.

    The event which is scheduled to hold tomorrow in Lagos will also mark the graduation of WISCAR’s fourth stream of successful Mentees, and the induction of the fifth stream.

    In a statement, the organisers said the theme of the event ‘Unlocking the Full Potential of Women in the Nigerian Economy’, captures the essence of WISCAR’s vision and mission.

    The chief hosts are the Honourable Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar; retired senior corporate executive and human resources consultant, Chief Olufemi Adesanya; and a retired senior South African diplomat, Mrs Nozipho January-Bardill.

    Speaking on the rationale behind the establishment of WISCAR, the founder, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola, who is also the Human Resources Executive at MTN, said the group was established after she participated in the Aspen Global Leadership Network (West Africa) programme, ALIWA.

    “WISCAR aims to institute an effective career mentoring frame work for young professional career women. Our goal is to initiate and promote the emergence of a highly motivated and talented female work force that are not only valuable role models, but are agents of positive cultural and policy changes within their respective organizations and Nigeria,” she said.

  • Ways to speak to be effective

    Sometime ago, I attended a programme in which someone made a presentation. After that presentation, other people were asked to contribute and they did. Among the contributors was a particular individual who spent a while talking, but I did not understand a single word he said. I looked around me and saw several blank faces belonging to people who were also trying to understand what was being said. After the contribution, some people clapped and so did I. A friend sitting next to me asked me about what the contributor said and I replied, “Actually I didn’t hear what he said, but it must have been interesting for people to have clapped.” This is a clear case of an ineffective communication, at least for the majority of the audience.

    A similar case occurred in another programme I attended. An important personality was celebrating his birthday and a public lecture was held in his honour. After the keynote address presenter had delivered his outstanding speech, one of the dignitaries was invited to present a summary of the keynote address. Of course, it presupposed that if the speech lasted about 45 minutes, the summary should not be more than 10 minutes. Well, the summary kicked off well by focusing on the salient points of the lecture…then, it veered into the personal contribution of the dignitary. Five minutes went by, then ten, fifteen, twenty… until the summary was almost as long as the speech itself. Unlike the first case above, I understood what the dignitary said, only that the longer he spoke, the lesser the effect it had on me.

    If effectiveness is your intention, then you must learn that there are different speeches for different events. You must also learn that speeches must vary in lengths depending on the occasion. Inappropriate speeches distract the audience and produce contrary results to what the speaker expects. Appropriateness is the key in public speaking. What may be suitable for one event may not be suitable for another. A speaker was invited to speak at an event and he was given one hour for his presentation. He, however, concluded his speech after 20 minutes. Think of that! Imagine what the organizers would have to do to fill up the remaining time if they are working strictly by schedule! Also imagine what they would do if they actually paid the speaker for the entire hour! True, people would rather have a shorter-than-necessary speech any day than a longer-than-necessary one, but sometimes, the length of a presentation can give you an idea of how much value is contained therein. For instance, how much are you willing to pay to learn to fly a plane in 30 minutes? Do you suppose a 30 minutes lecture (if we can call it that) would do justice to the subject matter? That is exactly my point. Some speeches are designed to be long while some others are designed to be short. Talking of short speeches, what will you do if you attend a wedding reception and the chairman of the event produces a 10 page document to present his opening remark?

    The event should determine the purpose of the speech and the purpose should determine the nature of the speech. What I mean is this, if the event is an academic public lecture, then we know that the purpose of the speech is to inform or teach. That being the case, the speech should be long enough to allow the speaker to pass across the message and also allow the audience to receive the information. A major problem will arise if a speaker does not understand this basic principle. I am of the strong opinion that the success of any speech depends solely on the perception of the audience. Perception can be simply described as the way people see things. We all know that perception is subjective because people tend to change their minds. Hence, their perception is open to external influence. When people are in a relaxed environment, their minds will be relaxed and they will not be receptive to any serious lecture. On the other hand, if they are in a formal or serious environment, they may consider too much jokes by the speaker as unnecessary.

    There are five major types of speeches and they are informative speech, entertaining speech, persuasive speech, technical speech and brief remarks. These are the broad categories for majority of the speeches you will encounter. Each of these speeches has its unique audience, duration and technique. Informative speech is a speech that aims at enlightening the audience on a particular subject; it is educative in nature. Entertaining speech is structured to amuse the audience. Persuasive speech is used to convince the audience to see an issue from the speaker’s point of view and brief remark is a short speech presented when much has already been said and done. It is very important to note that a single speech may make use of any combination of the above. This means that an informative speech may still be persuasive. Nevertheless, each of these speeches will require proper treatment. Hence, we shall dedicate the next few weeks to exploring them and learning how they can be used to achieve maximum communication results.

     

  • My work will speak for me, says Orji

    Abia State Governor Theodore Orji has said his record of performance would speak for him after leaving office.

    He vowed not to go into a “media propaganda” with his opponents but to remain focused on his performance in office.

    Orji also criticised some Abians in the Diaspora, who have been attacking his government.

    In a statement by his Special Adviser on Public Communications, Ben Onyechere, Orji said: “The temptation to drag us into the politics of media propaganda will not be condoned because the facts are on ground.

    “My pact with Abians cannot be deterred because development of basic infrastructure, in addition to security is not only negotiable, it is the only substance we can bequeath to our people and for which posterity will judge us.

    “The veracity of our intention is not only unquestionable but also unequivocal.

    “This is because our people have suffered from the deceit of non-performance in the past and as such their affliction will not happen a second time and not under my watch.

    “We are not unaware of deliberate attempts to stampede us to confusion by the tiny cabal masquerading as opposition, which resides in the Diaspora.

    “Part of our pact with the people of Abia is to tell them the truth at all times because our backgrounds are well known to them and as such they can distinguish between empty noise and sincerity of purpose.

    “We have refused to be engaged in any popularity contest because we are too busy for such frivolity due to the enormity of infrastructural deficit we inherited and as such no amount of media hype can derail our agenda of development by priority.

     

  • I am madly in love with a guy I hardly speak with

    Please if truly this is Adeola Agoro, please help me out. I am madly in love with a guy I hardly speak with. We hardly greet each other and I am in love with him.

    Please what can I do?

    Many women have difficulty showing a man that they are interested. They are afraid that they may act wrong and send the wrong signal to him. When batting your eyes at him has stopped working, it’s time to try a different method. The big questions is: How do you show a guy you’re interested in him? Are your actions sending out confusing signals that are sending him away? Do you know what the right way is to show him your interest?

    Here are some great tips on how to show a man your interested in him.

    Steps

    1. Smile every time he looks your way. Flash him an inviting glance. Eye contact is great. Or, depending on the guy, it may be more effective to blush and roll your eyes. This generally works for shy guys. Don’t stare at him too long or you might freak him out.

    2. Call him and ask about the homework when you really just want him to talk to you but don’t do it constantly.

    3. Practice your gaze in the mirror. This way, you can perfect a confident, positive look of interest. Rehearsing also helps you avoid lovey-dovey doe eyes. Hold eye contact with your reflection for a full minute if you can. This will get you comfy keeping your eyes on your crush when the two of you finally chat. Don’t stare, glaze over or forget to blink!

    4. Be way casual. Don’t fix your eyes on the guy from a distance like a tiger hunting down dinner. Pretend you just noticed him right before you reach him, then catch his gaze and flash a smile as you pass. Check out his reaction: Does he hold your gaze and smile back? If so, good. Repeat this process a couple of times, until one of you is bold enough to strike up a conversation. Try practicing what you are going to say before you confront him; that way there won’t be any awkward silences. Note: shy guys (this will usually be you). Shy guys will very seldom make the first move.

    5. If you are talking to him, looking down and smiling so that he sees your smile, let him know you enjoy talking to him. Even better, a little later state: “I really like spending time with you” Look for signs to see if he likes you too. If he does, wait for him to make the big move, but try to strike up a conversation. Get him used to the idea of having you around. Make him comfortable around you. If things sway a little off course, crack a joke or end the conversation. NEVER try to play hard to get: some guys won’t understand that you are playing, and will think that you’re not interested.

    6. Strike up conversations when the timing’s right. Tune in carefully to what your crush has to say. Guys love girls who listen well—it makes them feel interesting, which in turn makes them feel good about themselves, which in turn makes them feel good about you for making them feel good about themselves! Got it? Cool. Compliment the listening with a compliment. While he’s telling you about that giant trout he caught at the lake last summer, take in all the details, and then say, “Whoa! You must be a really amazing fisherman! I’ve never had a chance to go fishing myself, but I’ve always wanted to try it.” Bingo! He’ll start talking a mile a minute—he’s gonna want to teach you everything! Next thing you know, you’ll be out on a lake in a canoe with your cutie.

    7. Express appreciation for qualities that he happens to possess and interests that he happens to have (and mean it!). Be careful, though: Don’t act even remotely stalkerish. For example, never attend his games by yourself—it’ll look weird. Just go with your crew, have a great time and, afterward, very casually pass him by—once—smile, and say, “Hey, that no-look pass you made was impressive!” A genuine pat on the back for a job well done scores major points.

    8. Flirt. Whether it’s laughing at his jokes, teasing him gently, or touching his arm, a little bit of playfulness never hurts.

    9. Invite him out. It doesn’t have to be as straightforward as asking him out on a one-on-one date. If you’re going to the movies with a group, for example, ask him to come along. Use group activities to your advantage. In addition to bowling nights and mall trips, suggest your group throw a bash for your bud who has a birthday coming up. You be in charge of the invite list, and make sure his invitation is the first one to fly into the mailbox. Better yet, ask him and a bunch of other guys to help you and the girls pull this party off. A day of painting “Happy Birthday” murals and stringing up streamers can be bonding in a big way. Be sure to give him props for his excellent ideas.

    10. Find out if he has a special someone already. You can beat around the bush a little:

    * What’d you do last night?

    * Do you hang out with different people, or do you pretty much stick with the same crowd?

    * Who do you usually end up spending the most time with?

    11. Avoid doing all of the above with other guys.

    12. Leave it be. Once you think you’ve got your message across, don’t push it any further, but don’t back off, either. The ball is in his court now.

    13. Test his reaction to the idea of you and him. Don’t come right out with it and blurt out, “I LOVE YOU!” Do it subtly. A good suggestion would be to say, “I had this weird dream last night where you and I were a couple.” If he laughs or looks weirded out, laugh along and say, “Yeah, I know!” If he blushes or smiles, say something like, “But would that seem too weird?” If he truly likes you, he should reply with something along the lines of, “I don’t think so.” This is a good sign. (NOTE:He may just laugh along because he thinks you don’t like him.)

    14. Try and joke a lot with him. This is very good. If you catch him staring at you in a joking way, stare back.

    15. Be yourself. If he doesn’t like you for yourself, he doesn’t like you, but don’t worry, there are plenty of other fish in the sea.

    16. Remember to have your own life. Try not to get super clingy; some guys might like that, but it might be for all the wrong reasons.

  • Jonathan can do it alone, so to speak

    Jonathan can do it alone, so to speak

    In less than a week, President Goodluck Jonathan managed both by his blandness and by his irrepressible extemporaneousness to stoke three fierce storms. On Thursday, he announced the appointment of new service chiefs, and as if justifying the suspicion in the Southwest that he was indifferent to the sensibilities of the zone, no one from the zone was appointed to that exalted hierarchy. The implication, say analysts from that zone, is that when the president takes top level security decisions, he will have to assume he knows what the zone thinks. The second storm was the declaration in his Independence Day speech that Nigeria’s rating in the anti-graft war had improved to number three in terms of real efforts to combat corruption. He ascribed the improvement to a study said to have been carried out by Transparency International (TI). But the global corruption watchdog said it carried out no such study, while presidential aides glumly explained they took the information from a newspaper.

    Before Independence Day celebration, the president, at a church service, argued that no one person could save a nation. Comparing himself to the biblical Nehemiah, the president suggested that only the cooperation of the people could make a leader achieve feats. Not so, said analysts. The president must first show the way, offer brilliant and principled leadership, and then persuade the people and mobilise them to achieve the impossible. The president is unlikely to be persuaded by such analysis, for he summarily jettisons anything that does not fit into his worldview. He wants cooperation first; he wants critics, whom he sighed always abused him, to sheathe their swords first; and he wants the snobbish Southwest to drop its political and media opposition to his government first. That, to him, is the only way the virtues of Nehemiah can be brought out.

    It is certainly not the fault of Jonathan that the quality of leadership in Nigeria has fallen. It has been falling since independence, not only in Nigeria but elsewhere in Africa, and indeed all over the world. In the turbulent decades of the mid-20th Century, it was rare to hear the president of a great nation plaintively declare he could not do great things alone. Great leaders have the capacity to walk alone, look only to their inside even if they take advice on the outside, judge right, take bold decisions, and swaddle their policies, which are often prescient, with messianic conviction. Somebody must persuade the Nigerian president to talk right, speak more persuasively and inspiringly about his visions, and believe implacably in himself. Somebody must tell him that by his endless waffle he communicates his hesitations to the whole country.

    Last Sunday, the president told the church congregation in Abuja he alone could not do the job of taking Nigeria to great heights. He is absolutely wrong. He alone can do it if he puts his mind to it. The rest of us are available to be mobilised and led, since we must, for the sake of democracy, endure the remaining years of his first term as best as we can.