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Tag: Surprise

Can Nwoye spring a surprise?

Ike Chidolue, an engineer, highlights the factors that may tilt the pendulum of victory towards the direction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Dr. Tony Nwoye, at the poll.

Not few have been disappointed with the public life that has become the lot of Dr. Tony Nwoye. Those who go to study medicine and become medical doctors are expected to be generally conservative and be calm about the situation around them. Who has not heard the saying that medical doctors are supposed to be cold hearted and are not moved at the sight of the dead?

However, Dr. Nwoye has refused to go with that narrative. He has combined the compassion of a pastor with the diligence of a medical doctor to address the challenges that face men around him.

From the beginning when he entered the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus as a medical student the knack for fighting injustice and oppression became evident and remarkably, he almost always came as the underdog.

A man whose core beliefs constantly pushes him to always fight to change things for the better for the society, and within his environment. This selfless fight led him to the pinnacle of student leadership at the University of Nigeria, to become the speaker of the Student’s Union parliament, and later, as the President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). It was indeed a battle of ideas and deep personal sacrifices, which cost him a lot, simply to bring excellence into societal relationship.

His activism at the University of Nigeria, UNN expectedly led to a complicated relationship with the school authorities. Sometimes it was difficult and sometimes it was cordial. As a student’s leader his demands for justice and for students rights were sometimes viewed with hostility by the authorities.

However, the departure point seemed to be when the authorities, especially the then vice-chancellor of the school, Prof. Ginigeme Mbanefoh caught Comrade Nwoye’s vision to fight cultism.

Tony’s role in fighting cultism and formation of student cells to identify cults in the campus became a turning point in the relationship between the Students Union as led by Tony and the university authorities.

It is noteworthy that the news of what Tony did in UNN soon got to the ears of the then governor of Benue State, Senator George Akume who invited him to also help fight cultism in the state owned Benue State University that was at that time ravaged by cult activities. He was especially commended for his actions by both the UNN and authorities of the Benue State University.

Is it not an irony that about 15 years after his commendable role in stopping cultism and gangsters activities in Nigerian universities that Tony would be counted as a cultist himself by some politicians who want to score cheap political points?

Tony I suspect would have been bemused by these insinuations that can be compared with saying that the pope is not a Catholic!

One great thing about Honorable Tony Nwoye, M.D, is that he keeps faith with any struggle he believes in and identifies with, and this is usually at great personal cost to him. His resilience in any battle, gives him victory at the end of it. His keeping faith, with every idea, he believes and stands with, and not betraying anybody or causes he identifies with, saw him becoming the youngest State Chairman, of a major national political party in Nigeria! During his stewardship as the party Chairman, and against all odds, including the highly unpredictable political landmines in Anambra State politics, Tony at such a tender age, when nobody gave him a chance, led the party to a resounding victory against an incumbent government of APGA, by clearing the entire senatorial seats, House of Representative seats, and an overwhelming majority of the State House of Assembly, seats! All the elections he won, stood the judicial test and only the governorship was not returned, as the Supreme Court said in its judgment, that the tenure of the incumbent had not expired.

Nwoye’s resilience and strength cannot be in doubt! All his election victories, including his current seat as the House of Representative member, have always been as the underdog, as an opposition to the status quo! Honorable Tony Nwoye has the character, the intelligence, the resilience, the youthfulness, and the vision required in building the Anambra of the future!

This present political battle to save the heart and soul of Anambra State is necessitated by his customary quest to change things for the better, whenever the society is drifting astray.

Governor Willie Obiano’s report card can be clearly gleaned from how he has performed with respect to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) now the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index. We all are aware that the MDG/SDG aims amongst other benchmarks, to lift as many people in the society as possible out of poverty, and degradation.

November 16, 2017
‘ Nwoye ‘ll spring surprise’

In this piece, Azuka Okwusa highlights the chances of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Dr. Tony Nwoye, at the November 18 poll.

The campaign flag-off by Dr. Tony Nwoye, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 18 governorship election in Anambra State, was a shock to many. The massive turnout of supporters who came to identify with Dr. Nwoye at the flag-off was a surprise.

Mainstream and social media have been agog with the outpouring of support for Nwoye. This is because people came from far and near to the commercial city of Onitsha to identify with the flag-off of the campaign to remove a non-performing governor.

Of course, we have seen campaign flag-offs by the other political parties. Not even the incumbent governor, Chief Willie Obiano, despite the efforts of contractors and paid and unpaid volunteers, was able to compare with what was seen in Onitsha last Friday at the open field of the All Saints Cathedral Field.

The mobilisation was also near spontaneous, as not much time was given for the mobilisation. Even more shocking was that many of the people who thronged the campaign venue and waited for hours before the dignitaries started arriving. Traders, artisans and ordinary people made the sacrifice of temporarily setting aside their businesses in their vow to identify with the man who has also for long identified with them.

Skeptics who had convinced themselves that the APC on account of its limited showing in the last elections would not attract support were demystified by the outpouring of the crowd.

For those of us who were there and even for those who could not come, the huge turnout and happenings at the rally have compelled me to serve out the takeaways from the event.

Number One Takeaway: Dr. Nwoye is a fitting candidate for the APC in the forthcoming election. Dr. Nwoye from his early days in politics and students activism had developed a kind of rapport for which Ndi Anambra are now willing to accept as a replacement for the present and failed governor of the state. The affirmation of his candidature by about 11 of his fellow contestants for the APC ticket shows the degree of acceptance he has.

Number Two Takeaway: Dr. Nwoye by his bold assertion to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo requesting him to order contractors back to the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway shows that he is one who can speak on behalf of his people at the federal level. If Dr. Nwoye would in public speak for his people, why would he not even do more in private when the needs of his people are at stake? Dr. Nwoye’s interest in the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway is further demonstrated by the fact that he spearheaded the insertion of the project in the 2017 federal budget without many people knowing. So, he has through the Onitsha-Enugu expressway shown what he can do quietly and when quiet actions do not work, that he can also canvass the interest of Ndi Anambra publicly.

Obiano has had several engagements with the federal authorities and we dare say he has not been bold enough to broach the touchy issue.

Dr. Nwoye would not be found drinking or dancing when issues bordering on the needs of his people are at stake.

Number Three Takeaway: When it comes to this election, Ndi Anambra are set to put aside sentiments and propaganda in choosing who will be their governor. No one is going to cover their eyes with ethnic or religious propaganda as to the political platforms. Obiano’s scheme to use our felt grievances and to ride upon our pains to sustain his regime of bad governance has simply failed. Our eyes are opened to the reality that the worst pain is that inflicted by a brother as Obiano has done to us through his callous acts of poor governance.

Number Four Takeaway: The issues in the election are local. The people are asking what the Obiano-led APGA government did with more than N20 billion of local government funds and N13 billion Paris Club refunds it received. Not to talk of billions of statutory allocation from and internally generated revenue. We will also ask what he did with the more than N75 billion savings Obiano collected from his predecessor.

As the evidence is there with bank papers, he has the issue of credibility now facing him.

Number Five Takeaway: Obiano’s propaganda machine is crumbling. The huge turnout by Ndi Anambra for the flag off showed that our people have seen through the lies and deceits of the outgoing government. Our people who import yam from Benue State and Taraba State are angry over claims that we are exporting billions of naira of yam overseas. Why rub our pain on us Governor Obiano? You have not provided the machinery for the agricultural revolution of our state and you are rubbing the insult on us? Our people who cultivate Ugu on a household scale have seen your lies and are asking where in Anambra State did you cultivate the billions of naira of ugu that you claimed to have exported? Where? Even more, international institutions who ordinarily would come to help our farmers would move elsewhere believing that we are already equipped not knowing that your agricultural exports are framed in fantasy!

These are among my takeaways from the flag off.

October 30, 2017
Surprise! Anti-corruption war yet to begin

IN a remark he made when the National Association of Law Teachers visited him last Tuesday, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo gave the apocalyptic warning that Nigeria would be in trouble if the anti-corruption war failed. “If we are not able to sustain the fight against corruption,” he said, “we will end in a very, very bad way as a nation…We have seen it in so many different ways that at almost every state, corruption fights back and fights fiercely.” It is a popular opinion in Nigeria that the war against corruption is raging, and that corruption is also fighting back. But this popular opinion is chimerical. What is raging is not anti-corruption war, but common, ordinary law enforcement, perhaps festooned with some exaggerated and rhetorical flourish.
It is shocking that despite all the arguments offered in this place, anyone could still insist on the current poor definition of corruption to mean the greed, sometimes superlative greed, of a few bad eggs stealing public money by different and dangerous artifices. Going by this limited definition, it is believed that naming and shaming the thieves, even much more than successfully prosecuting them, would amount to a war against corruption, a successful war, that is. Maybe it is time to look for a doctor and install him as the nation’s anti-corruption czar. At least he would recognise that a symptomatic high temperature is not the same as malaria parasites, and that stealing money is not the beginning and the end of corruption.
President Muhammadu Buhari began the war against corruption by avoiding a definition of the crime and refusing to explain its course. If his government had a robust and deep understanding of the subject, it would fight the cancer sensibly and robustly. He should have asked himself why corruption is endemic and persistent. Had he asked, he would have seen it way beyond its symptomatic appearance. He would have seen it as a systemic, structural problem which neither religion, as his government and supporters falsely and boyishly hope, nor sanctimonious admonitions as they desperately imagine, can tackle successfully. Law enforcement is of course good, and the country’s improving biometrics and database will be of tremendous help in nabbing high-profile looters.
But far more importantly, the government ought to have assembled some of the nation’s brightest minds to first attempt an understanding of the problem and a mapping of the structure of corruption before designing a pragmatic antidote. The team would have done a laparotomy of the problem to expose its inner workings within the nation’s cultural, religious, judicial, political and economic abdomen. They would find that the problem has become deeply ingrained, waiting to metastasise, and has become integrated into all corners of the body. They would discover that so far the wrong legal, political and economic drugs have been insensibly administered to no avail. They would discover that without fundamentally changing the structure and workings of the economy, realigning and remoulding the country’s political paradigms, and coupling both remedies to powerful social and ethical codes, the government would just be tilting at windmills.
No anti-graft war is being fought, for it is not only the embezzler of billions that is corrupt but also the embezzler of thousands. Both are propelled by the same principles. What exists now is just law enforcement. And as everyone knows, what restraint can the law pose to a man facing starvation, who is sick and can’t afford treatment, who is poor and homeless and incapable of funding his children’s education? Stealing or extortion begins with one delicate kobo. If Nigeria wants to fight an anti-graft war, it has a duty to first know the enemy before planning how to beat him.

April 16, 2017
Surprise! Obasanjo makes sense

After dedicating the better part of its life lampooning former president Olusegun Obasanjo, this column had hoped that one day the Owu-born aurochs would be mortified by the insults and retreat ignominiously out of civilised view. Instead, now we know why the old soldier and bohemian approached these lampoons with perfect equanimity, so shocking that for even one day, he never feigned exasperation. By his own admission, a fact corroborated by his first wife, Mama Iyabo, the former president is so thick-skinned that he is incapable of feeling shame. We should have read the signals and changed tactics. Rather than insult him, perhaps we should have first skinned him. For if he could not appreciate insult when he did wrong no matter how injurious the invective, but was instead amused by our worst efforts, it would be a sheer waste of time to damn with faint praise a man who has in turn dedicated his life to baiting the country and flinging our much back at us.

Chief Obasanjo revealed his imperviousness to insult when he delivered an address at the First International Conference of the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) at the International Conference Centre of the University of Ibadan last week. “If you visit the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, you will find thousands of archived newspaper comics and columns meant to spite and insult my person even as a sitting President,” he gloated. “No individual or group of people was ever queried or jailed or repressed for expressing this freedom. Rather, I encouraged them because I derived fun and pleasure from the humour, as I know who I am and nobody needs to tell me who and what I am not “. If it is true he derived pleasure from insults, and not because the laws of the land compelled him to suffer the abuse, then he is more a first-rate politician than the sometimes short-fused former president Goodluck Jonathan.

In addition he warmed the cockles of our hearts when he disclosed that, “The right to free speech, the right to express a different view point, the right to draw personal conclusions based on self-instituted research and to query certain cultural practices and beliefs are part of the huge liberty that the continent of Africa now boasts of.” Given this soothing and inspiring lullaby on civil rights, it does appear then that for all his grandiloquence and bluffing, Chief Obasanjo is indeed at bottom a respecter of law and order. So, where do Nigerians place his many infractions against the law and the constitution, his many defiance of Supreme Court judgements, his deliberate and provocative assault on the principles of Nigerian federalism? The fact, it seems, is that while Chief Obasanjo can because of the enormous power inherent in the Nigerian presidency safely and practically undermine the constitution of the land, he knows he can do little to mitigate the correctness and relevance of the insults against his person. He is of such constitution, physiologically and psychologically, that he is powerless to deflect bitter and execrable comments about his person and ideas, both of which fall far short of the lofty heights to which nature and celestial forces had conspired to elevate him.

It is of course to his credit that he reconciled himself to the deprecating truisms of his life. He knew he couldn’t change his ideas, couldn’t change his constantly superficial reading of situations, couldn’t change his naturally unenviable looks, and couldn’t change his general myopia to which nearly a lifelong bucolic living, unmitigated by spasms of urban living in barracks and state houses, had consigned him. So he made peace with his foibles. He was doubtless furiously insulted in and out of office, but he was not lampooned any more or less than his predecessors or successors. Nevertheless, the country was grateful that he left it alone though his critics would not leave him alone. He could have turned nasty, but mercifully, he chose not to. His natural self was disposed to authoritarianism, but he chose to exude the unnatural liberalism of his finding and boasting.

In all this, the fact is that Chief Obasanjo is not as inured to insult as he pretends, nor as tolerant as he proclaims. When in December 2004 Audu Ogbeh as chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took him to task on his equivocations and mendacities over the Anambra civilian coup of that year, he gave a lengthy, tendentious and rambling reply. Stung, he then proceeded to force Chief Ogbeh out of the party. When in 2003 Wole Soyinka also took him to task on Bola Ige’s death, he also proceeded to excoriate the literary guru. And reacting to the dispute, Professor Sola Adeyeye described Chief Obasanjo as a liar who never enjoyed being corrected.

For Chief Obasanjo, the desire to stay politically relevant and in the public glare till his passing far outweighs the pains that accompany vicious reproof. He may in truth tolerate insult and even revel in it, but it is not because he is not pained; it is simply because he is clever enough to do a trade-off, to exchange what irritates his false reputation for what gratifies his equally false ego.

October 18, 2015
OBOABOANA THANKS RIZESPOR FOR SURPRISE BIRTHDAY CAKE

GODFREY Obobabona was a year older on Wednesday and the Nigeria international has thanked Rizespor for ordering a birthday cake for him on his special occasion.

The central defender was also grateful to his fans at home and abroad for their messages of support and love shown to him on his birthday.

“I really want to say a big thanks to God almighty for making it possible for me, ” the 25-year-old Godfrey Oboabona told allnigeriasoccer.com.

“My club really, really surprised me by the lovely cake presented to me. I want to thank all my fans all over the word for their messages to me, I am very, very grateful.”

Oboabona has started and finished each of the matches played by Rizespor in the Super Lig this season.

September 18, 2015
Baraje: Akwa United will surprise Warri Wolves

Akwa United head coach, Zachary Baraje has exuded confidence that the Promise Keepers would confine Warri Wolves to yet another defeat when they lock horns in a Glo Premier League Week 14 tie on Sunday at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo.

The Promise Keepers have been blowing hot and cold since the league season began in March this year and with only 14 points from possible 39, Baraje has admitted that the team could not afford to lose any more points either at home or away.

The Akwa United boss noted that he has been using the last few days to concentrate on making his players to always be at alert and stop conceding goals due to lack of concentration.

The former Enyimba FC coach told SportingLife that his players are in top shape and that only Ini Akpan is out injured to knee injury.

“We have been training and concentrating on what has been responsible for the loss of concentration of my players in the early minutes of the match. This has cost us points in the last four away games. We want to correct it now. We cannot afford to lose points again. We are hoping to beat Warri Wolves on Sunday in Uyo.

June 26, 2015
American Sniper springs box-office surprise

After nabbing six Oscar nominations on Thursday, Clint Eastwood’s record-breaking American Sniper has been predicted for a record score of $100M debut, as the film continues to astound at the North American box office, where it earned an estimated $90.2 million for the three-day weekend. The film is said to have made double, what it was expected to do.

That’s the largest opening of all time for the month of January, as well as one of the top grosses ever for an average budget film and an R-rated modern-day war film. The film is playing in 3,555 locations.

Earning a coveted A+ Cinema Score in every category, the film which was directed by Clint Eastwood and released on January 16, is said to be galvanising moviegoers in the United States.

Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow are said to have partnered on American Sniper, a film based on the real-life story of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and set over the course of the war in Iraq. Among the film’s Oscar nominations are Best Picture and Best Actor (Bradley Cooper).

American Sniper first debuted Christmas Day, in four theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Dallas (Kyle was from Texas). The $60 million movie, earning nearly $4 million in its limited run, continues to be unique in appealing to both art house audiences as well as more politically conservative moviegoers.

To date, Gran Torino ($29.5 million) is Eastwood’s top opening as a director, while Kevin Hart’s Ride Along, released a year ago on the same weekend, boasts the top opening for January with a three-day debut of $41.5 million. Its four-day take was $48.6 million.

Once again taking advantage of the MLK holiday, Hart returns to theaters this weekend in The Wedding Ringer, from Screen Gems. In an unexpected development, the R-rated comedy is finding itself in a close race with family film Paddington for the No. 2 spot over the four-day MLK weekend (Sniper is no doubt taking adults away from Hart’s movie).

Going by pundits’ prediction, Wedding Ringer should beat Paddington for the three-day weekend with an estimated $20 million-plus from 3,003 theaters for a projected four day debut of $24 million, the best showing for an R-rated comedy opening in January. However, it won’t match the $27.8 million debut of Hart’s About Last Night over Valentine’s Day and President Day weekend in February 2014. That movie was likewise rated R, while Ride Along was rated PG-13.

Ava DuVernay’s Selma, heading into its second weekend in nationwide release, is another Oscar contender hoping for a box-office bump. It also hopes to benefit from the MLK holiday.

Selma, which stars Nigerian-British actor, David Oyelowo, is poised to come in No. 5 over the holiday weekend with a four-day gross in the $10 million range from 2,235 theaters, bringing its domestic total north of $27 million through Monday.

January 19, 2015
Surprise inspiration

LAST week was an extraordinarily difficult week for me professionally, personally and medically. Usually when I go through periods in my life that challenges me, I normally recline into my shell, remove myself from whatever situation I was in before, to reassess what part I may have played in the situation I found myself or to access the best and most positive options I have moving forward. When I get into this mode, I usually find an inner therapeutic peace and strength from within. Due to the fact that I am a temperamental person, the older I have grown, the more I have adopted this mechanism as a way of staying afloat in a world filled with the most unpredictable and disquieting distractions. It is when I get into this zen mode that I am able to fully access certain situations from a more objective and calmer point of view than I probably would have done so before. And it is when I am in that calm mode that I enjoy doing two of my greatest hobbies; which is to draw and paint art pieces and write. I find myself to be very lucky, because I am able to do one of the hobbies that I enjoy best on a regular basis. However, with the good comes the bad and given the fact that I do write on a public platform, there is a certain requirement to engage with some of my readers, even at times when I don’t feel up to it. For the record, I have made it very clear in the past that I do not read comments written on online sites, where I do not have the ability to respond. It may sound strange to some because it follows that a writer should be able to read and even learn from some of their feedbacks, but it’s my prerogative, I write for myself and that is how I choose to roll. Mainly because I do not want what I write to be defined by a reaction I may have to an irrational response but rather based on my personal opinions. I do, however encourage my readers, who want me to see their comments and wish for me to respond to them, to reach me on Twitter, Facebook, my e-mail and through SMS on a line that is held by a third party. I choose to do so because I provide a service which I believe is in the public benefit and while I welcome constructive criticism, there is no way I will allow some prepubescent yob, who has not earned the platform to express themselves in the same way I have or some exasperated, chauvinistic and bigoted nonentity who skulks behind an outdated and grubby keyboard to derail my pure intentions for my people and my country. Only I define what, when and why I write. Inconspicuousness unshackles enmity, we’ve learned, and the customary online abuse riot undermines the complexity required to write opinion. But just as it is my prerogative not to open myself up to any unconstructive anonymous comments, it is the prerogative of the trolls who probably have nothing better to do, to continue trolling the internet. But this weekend, when I was in the zen mode I spoke about earlier, I did something that I don’t usually do. I went into a random blog, which I was not aware regularly published my articles, and I proceeded to read the comments that followed. While I found the negative and unconstructive comments comical and flippant, I was shocked that there were so many of them. The shock wasn’t so much about the negative comments that were said, it was more of an amusing surprise that little old me and my little old views typed on my little old laptop had so much power to envoke such strong emotions from strangers. I strangely found it quite empowering and even encouraging. As I read on, wrapped in this weird feeling of euphoria, there was one particular comment from a young lady that caught my attention. Hers was one of the non hostile comments. In her comment, she came across nervous and unsure. Maybe wary of the group of hyenas that had huddled themselves in a herd ready to pounce on anyone who was pro-the writer. She spoke about her interest in writing but couldn’t bring herself to do it when she reads the kind of vitriol targeted at some of us collumnists on blogs. She must have been surprised when she got an annonymous reply asking her to follow @hanneymusawa on twitter. I’m sure she never really thought I was the one who had asked her to do so, but she did follow me on twitter. Through twitter, we were able to communicate through private messaging and eventually we got in contact with each other and spoke over the phone. From the conversation we had, she told me about the passion she has for writing but was too scared of being judged or writing the wrong thing. I asked her whether she thought that I ever considered that some of my writing might be wrong or wheather I believed that everything I wrote was right. To my surprise, she said that, because she sees a confidence and conviction whenever I write, she was convinced that I totally believed that whatever I wrote was right. I found that really amusing because, as I told her, I frequently second guess, not so much the way I write, but more the perspective I adopt in the topics I write about. One of the greatest lessons that my father taught me is that ‘perspective is reality’ and people usually only see the reality of things from the standpoint at which they are at. That’s why there’s always two or three sides to every story, because each perspective is a reality within itself. So he has always told me, in whatever situation I find myself, to try and look at the situation from the point of view and assessment of another person. Although I try to adopt that, not only in my writing, but in my everyday life, one is only human and can never always be right and one will always make mistakes. Of course as a columnist one is inclined to write things they believe in and are passionate about, but oftentimes, as I explained to the young lady, I find that it is midway an article that I surprise myself and find out what I really think about issues. There have been a few times when, it is after I have written on a certain subject that I then have a rethink and wished I had thought otherwise. I guess it is all part of the learning process in life. When one has been writing for as long as I have, which is well over a decade, one gets to a point where they dont always overthink about the effect of what they write. Confidence is a disguise most writers use for keeping up appearances and deadlines, after which, slumping on the sofa, one ponders on the source of such confidence. This, of course, has its way of leading one to crippling uncertainty. Which is all part of the motions most writers go through. And I told this young lady that I bet that even the best writers have experienced this. In terms of the concern this young lady had about being accurate about everything she wrote, I explained to her that, as a columnist, I find that it almost becomes a trend to digress and generalize because that is the nature of the beast. Unlike Scientists, the quantities don’t have to be exact. It doesn’t matter to most writers that there may be an equal number of female ‘professional’ chefs as male chefs in Nigeria. As long as the general belief that most chefs are males, then for the purpose of our columns, it is enough for us to generalize chefs as males. If she chooses to write, as long as she is careful not to be misleading or defamatory, certain generalization is expected. And as a Nigerian, as long as she upholds stadards that tradition requires, heeds the family rule of what is appropriate for consumption, and is clever enough to select words that sneak past the sensitivities of an overly sensitive society, she will be alright. I told her that if she really wanted to be a writer, it would have to be something that she enjoyed and was committed to doing. For example, I explained to her that writing is not a profession to me but a hobby that I enjoy profusely. First and foremost, I am a Barrister and for me to write several weekly colums must be because I enjoy the art of expressing myself through writing. But of all the advice I gave her, the most important was for her not to allow anyone to define who she would be as a writer. If writing was what she wanted to do, she should never let the criticism define who she is or what she wanted to say. My initial advise to her was to do what I do and not read random and anonymous comments. But if she was one of those writers who was always curious about the feedback to her pieces, then as long as she has the clear conscience and passion to do a good public service, and she was scared of the reaction of trolls and haters, then she should use the negativity that she fears to motivate her and light the fire she needs to start writing. She should not let the people who will always be ready to belittle her by virture of her gender, appearance, race, tribe or age define her as a writer, or as anything else for that matter. I bet her that when she begins writing, no matter how negative a response she gets, as long as she is consistent and earnest, it will be the success and truth of her work and triumphs that will define her, not her detractors. And, even besides writing, I advised her that in life generally especially as a woman, she cannot let negativity define who she is as a person. Her life was provided to her by God, but it was put into her hands by God. Her decisions and her choices about her writing and the emotions that would be generated by the feedback she gets are hers and she shouldn’t give that power to anyone, just like I don’t. My conversation with this young lady was a good ending to a week that had began very hard for me. And instead of completely falling back into my shell, I did something out of the ordinary by reading comments from random sites, which I never do. And within that process I met, councelled and encouraged an extraordinary young lady, whom I hope to see very soon on the back of newspapers and on blogs. And eventhough she says I did a lot in giving her courage and confidence to start writing, I think the person who benefited more from our communication was me; because after speaking to this young lady, I had overcome and conquered the challenge that accidently brought me to a point where we began our communication. I wish her the best of luck and will always be here to advise and encourage people who wish to express themselves in a creative and positive manner and embolden them not to allow any negativity to distract them in anyway or define who they are. I hope my communication with this young lady inspires another young writer or anyone else in the way she moved me. I hope to see her name at the end of her articles very soon. Good luck to you sister. You know who you are… hopefully soon, so will everyone else.

April 5, 2014
Surprise from Kogi on information management

All Kogites, long depressed by the nearly absolute lack of progress in their state, will certainly hope that the world has not failed to notice the salutary example Kogi is setting in information management. A day after ferrying Governor Idris Wada to Cedar Crest Hospital in Abuja as a result of a car crash last Friday on the Ajaokuta- Lokoja highway, the governor’s information managers addressed a press conference in which the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Dr Felix Ogedengbe, fully and frankly explained the governor’s medical condition. He hid nothing, and he was actually believable. On the day of the crash itself, the state’s information managers also put out what turned out to be a sensible press release detailing what they knew about the crash and the effort to get the governor medical relief. This admirable sort of information management is top grade. But it is coming from the most unexpected quarters.

Kogi State, as many analysts know, has been ruled by very uninspiring governors. And that is an understatement. The first Fourth Republic governor, Prince Abubakar Audu, carried himself regally and with such panache that he seemed a grotesque exaggeration in a dramatic piece, in fact close to a burlesque. He was active, indeed hyperactive, and he actually managed to exhibit some flashes of brilliance in project enunciation and execution. But he was also jadedly ordinary. He never really rose beyond the humdrum level, beyond what Nigerians were used to in the 1960s and 1970s. As a matter of fact, he had no concise and coherent development programme for the state which the rest of Nigeria could notice. However, his successors, Ibrahim Idris and now Idris Wada, make Audu look like a whiz kid.

Idris, to put it mildly, wasted eight years as governor and made those years very loathsome. For his appalling efforts, he even got improbable judicial help to extend his tenure. Audu’s sin was that he didn’t create a template for the state’s social, political and economic development; and Idris’ crime was that he had no idea what a template looked like. Wada, in nearly one year, has built only a roundabout on the access road to Government House. Under him, too, local governments owe salaries, and, like the melodramatic Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, he has accumulated aides by the dozens as if his life depends on it. In addition, he grovels sickeningly at the feet of Idris, the former governor who continues to cast a long shadow over the hapless state.

So, imagine how surprising it was that in a country so incompetent in information management, it is still this same laggard Kogi that appears to be setting the pace. This can only mean that no one is so absolutely bad as not to have even one redeeming feature. Hurrah, then, to the laggard. To properly weigh Kogi’s achievement in this regard, recall that three governors – Sullivan Chime of Enugu, Danbaba Suntai of Taraba, and Liyel Imoke of Cross River – are currently on hospital beds abroad. Chime’s people have gone to great lengths to hide information on the governor’s condition, and the other two states have made an ass of themselves by keeping everyone in the dark. Recall also that the late Umaru Yar’Adua made the country look stupid considering the way his family and the selfish crowd around him managed his hospitalisation. Then, of course, who can forget the extraordinary lengths presidential aides went to in concealing Dame Patience’s recent hospitalisation?

Hardball wishes Wada speedy recovery. It is hoped the crash and his time in hospital have enabled him to do some reflections on his purpose in life and the weight of responsibility the office he occupies has thrust on his shoulders. Perhaps we should expect he will return from Abuja freed from any instinct to grovel before his predecessor, and that he will prune the burdensome number of aides he has saddled himself with, rejigger his uninspiring cabinet, and get the state’s abundant talents to help him draft a development template. If he has the discipline and know-how to utilise the template, and there is nothing to show he is capable of both, the state may yet become a model, assuming we are not too vicariously ambitious for the sleepy state.

January 2, 2013