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Tag: trap

  • They will not tell you it’s a trap

    They will not tell you it’s a trap

    Every deadly storm starts with a drizzle. Thus, Nigerians must exercise greater caution in their civic agitation, lest they are slaughtered as sacrificial lambs by rights activists baiting a revolutionary flood.

    Let us be guided by the parable of the maleficent rainmaker, who summons the rain from his safe spot at the mountaintop, knowing only the valleys below will get submerged in flood.

    Right now, it is pouring slogans and expletives at the summit of Nigeria’s civic space. Leading the proceedings are civic actors luring Nigerians to frolic in their rub-a-dub of rage. Think of them as witch-doctors inciting the populace into a primordial dance with unknown gods; when the beat segues to a bloody tempo of rage, they will disappear without a trace. As the consequences manifest, no magical chant will save us.

    Every revolution, in the end, manifests with a torrent of storms: protracted anarchy, maniacal rape of women and children, ethnoreligious conflict, and widespread disillusionment. They will not tell you it’s a trap.

    Any patriot inciting you to violent insurrection must be seen and treated as an enemy of the people. There is a reason the ‘woke’ activist affects a dramatic rage tailored for camera lights. His visions of social justice are often conceived, like a blind Homer, fiddling epic arcs of cinematic light. Always camera-ready, his every thought and action seem streamlined for media coverage.

    This is their familiar modus operandi: a failed politician, NGO-entrepreneur or crusading journalist likens himself to a rights activist cum revolutionary. His followers call him a truth-sayer and the voice of the youth. Thus, several youths idolise him. He is the romanticised revolutionary, who transfigures by patriotic ecstasy and defeats all odds hurled at him by the predatory ruling class.

    To achieve this, he assures them that Nigeria must implode and, through that implosion, welcome him as the messiah who would rescue all from the stranglehold of the incumbent political class. But for a snag, this romanticised revolutionary is also a predator.

    His activism is funded, inspired by shady non-profits and diplomatic actors, and supported from the war rooms of intelligence agencies abroad and foreign consulates on Nigerian soil.

    Like a situational hero sculpted of spunk and spittle, this self-styled patriot-activist invites the ambling spectator and spiritless wanderer to admire his votive rant against the incumbent political class. No doubt, there is a lot to accuse every incumbent government of. History, by default, absolves him of his righteous rage, as Nigeria wilts to policy failure, unemployment, nepotism, farmer-herdsman conflict, organised crime, ethnoreligious carnage, terrorism – all ushering the country to the precipice. Nonetheless, the ageing leadership hold tenaciously to power, never letting go. When they do let go, they reinsert themselves via stooges, their children and sworn associates.

    This is what the revolutionnaire promises to dispel. In his world, citizenry angst and disillusionment with the ruling class are frantically poked into patriotic rage. Thus, he turns disgruntled citizens into pawns. And this is how he creates a cult-following. It’s frantic populism at its finest.

    In time, there is a split. There is always a split, as the masses soon find out, as they did during the Arab Spring, that regime change through violent protest is never what it’s cracked up to be.

    Revolutions throw up hierarchies, thus new castes are dramatised in the noisy climax of every sloganeer. The castes are scary. Rather than sound off on a fallacy, Nigerian youths will do well to sensitise themselves to a more visionary, peaceful revolution, founded on altruistic ideals. And this brings us to the quality of youth mooting #RevolutionNow, #10DaysofRage, among others.

    Let it be known that if Nigeria ever implodes Nepali-Gen-Z-style, many of us would have to live in closer quarters and with less protection from the monstrosity we dread. The Nigerian tragedy persists because it is a human tragedy and not a quirk interred in some mythical ‘system.’ Some Nigerians, for instance, are beasts in the closet. Left to their devices, they display unforgivable inhumaneness and lack of character.

    Who will forget in a hurry the dastardly murder of Favour Daley-Oladele, 22, who was decapitated and had parts of her eaten up by her supposed boyfriend, Owolabi Adeeko and his mum, in fulfilment of a money-making ritual. Of course, the Adeekos and their spiritual father, Pastor Segun Phillip, are ‘ordinary people.’ You could hardly ascribe such grotesqueness to them, close up, or from a distance. Of course, Owolabi is hardly the poster image of the Nigerian youth, but he projects the burgeoning mentality driving hordes of Nigerian terrorists, kidnappers, advance fee fraudsters (Yahoo Boys), call girls, armed robbers and political thugs in their youth. This is the quality of the youths we’d all be forced to live with if anarchy were to persist in contemporary Nigeria.

    A casual surf of the World Wide Web will reveal the magnitude of disillusionment affected by the citizenry towards the political class. And in apparent counteraction to their angst, growing support for the President Bola Tinubu-led administration subsists. Yet, a curious dissonance persists, even as you read, between anti-government and pro-government forces, thus rendering cyber-Nigeria a toxic space.

    The youths’ angst is understandable in a clime where elected leaders treat them with contempt. But rage will not save Nigeria; if unchecked, it will devastate the present and hopes for the future.

    Nigeria must avoid the fate of nations afflicted by the Arab Spring, where the promise of revolution gave way to brutal dictatorships. President Tinubu must take more proactive steps to humanely engage with the people. He could counsel his political class to make grand gestures of sacrifice in identification with the people’s plight while enforcing accountability at all levels of governance.

    Read Also: Nigerian Navy, French, regional allies hold joint exercise for improved security

    Federal interventions can play a critical role in state accountability; state access to local and international funds must be tied to certain performance benchmarks in delivering public services and meeting financial obligations. Poor-performing states should see reductions in allocations or a complete loss of aid, with those funds redirected to responsible local governments or projects.

    President Tinubu’s bid to decentralise power by strengthening local governments with more control over statutory funds is laudable, but even this measure seems dead on delivery, no thanks to sabotage by state governors.

    Yet, while the ruling class has much to answer for, the citizenry, especially the more literate and insightful among us, must display greater tact and caution in our push for social justice. Journalists and rights activists, in particular, must desist from inciting the populace and inflaming the polity with partisan views and fabrications.

    They must understand that the dubious demagogues pulling their strings—those who lost at the 2023 elections—have second and third addresses abroad. If Nigeria implodes, they will flee, leaving us to bear the brunt of the chaos they helped incite.

    And no foreign intervention is worth our attention if it comes seeded with carnage. Nigerians must wholeheartedly refute and avoid the discursive mechanisms through which they seek public support for the cause – be it #10DaysofRage, #RevolutionNow, #EndSARS or #OurMumuDonDo – their language of revolt often buries the possibility of citizen death and a descent to worse conditions of living.

    Of course, Nigerians possess the inalienable right to protest against perceived oppression and governance failure. But whenever and wherever this must be done, it must be done right. The language of civic activism must never be used as a political and cultural tool to validate and make mass atrocities socially acceptable.

  • They will not tell you its a trap

    We grieve because our youths are unemployed, our mothers are impoverished and our daughters litter dimly lit brothels and recesses of the sidewalk within and outside the country. Our grief is of marginalisation, unemployment, religious and ethnic bigotry, corruption in high places and enfant terrible godfathers.

    Then, we talk of going to war and sing to ourselves, blood-spattered choruses of youthful rebellion. We love to sing such ballads to smother our guts and caress our eardrums; little wonder we court questionable leadership; it is that time of the year when they promise us stable electricity, gallantry in governance, dependable economy and security. It is that time of the year when they recite the same old platitudes to the same old electorate.

    They promise us honour, status elevation, glory, and a prosperous future as usual; and as usual, we fail to hold these promises up against their culture of leadership – that flagrant norm of theirs that blesses us with dead-end jobs of small-town life, religious and financial terrorism, bankruptcy, ethnic bigotry, substandard healthcare, inferior education and unemployment.

    But we believe them anyway. We who are conditioned by poverty and lust for unearned riches perpetually seek all manners of benefits and self-actualisation, like greater State autonomy, more States and secession. We, who have learnt to enjoy dwellings like hell, are promised nations like Eden, by men who couldn’t enrich their households had they all the riches in the world.

    The dream of secession is the call of the Sirens, the enticement that has for generations seduced old and young Nigerians struggling to keep inadequate jobs in fast food restaurants, construction sites and bus parks, and behind the counters at city malls.

    We desperately crave and embrace the secession alternative because every other cul-de-sac in our lives breaks our spirit and dignity. Pick up advocacy group manifestos or human rights reports of genocide and marginalisation. Listen to self-acclaimed youth leaders, weepy politicians and activists, the allure of greater autonomy, self-determination or whatever they choose to call it is touted as our next best alternative.

    They will not tell you it’s a trap, a ploy, an old, dirty game of deceit in which the powerful and informed who will not go to war, promises a mirage to youth who will. We have seen this in the tragedy of suicide bombers, political thugs and ethno-religious death squads holding the nation by the jugular.

    We have seen and felt this in our tragic obsequiousness to the ruling class on the political, economic and socio-cultural turfs that condition you and I to serve the predatory ruling class, even as we are perpetually consigned by them to the backwaters of the breadlines.

    Some of us, the somewhat privileged to be precise, get to travel between two universes: one where everybody gets a chance and a second chance to break out of our socio-political and economic jailhouse, where education, connections, money and influence almost guarantee that you would not fail if you strive. In the other universe, no one ever gets to enjoy a first or second chance. In this universe, when the poor fails and falls, no one picks them up even as the rich stumble and trip their way to the top.

    It is not my wish to attack or castigate the rich; they didn’t enslave us simply by ordering us to be poor, did they? You and I are willing participants in the impoverishment and eternal enslavement of the Nigerian citizenry.

    We are in such dire state because like ones habitually programmed to self-destruct, we love to identify and propound practical solutions to our tragedies but when push gets to shove, and we are faced with the chance to change our stars, we begin to speak in discordant voices.

    Thus this year as all others, we have begun to criticize and speak the thoughts of a growing number of natives seeking relief. What is so sad however is that despite our pretentious protestations and insight, we go about our daily lives perpetuating the same old oddities, self-interests and absurdities.

    Thus this hour as all others, our league of extraordinary looters have promised to improve our lot even as they get set to further pauperise us.

    And while we curse our luck and cry, many of us continue to foster the status quo by abhorrent citizenship and conduct. We who lament corruption in high places wholeheartedly nurture duplicity and corruption in low places.

    Bloody revolution is never the answer. Neither shall greater autonomy or secession improve our lot; if eventually, every agitating part of Nigeria gets to secede, every new nation we establish shall parade the same old brutes with the same old lusts and self-interests in high and low places.

    Any story of secession is a story of elites preying on the weak, the gullible, the marginal, and the poor. The pageantry ends the day we pronounce we secede, particularly for those of us that will occupy the low places. The pageantry will wear off and there will be fewer patriots, and fewer patriots, until there is not a single cheer but tireless shrieks in the street. Whatever contraption we manage to create shall evolve into the monstrosity we have made Nigeria to be.

    People who are singing the secession song are the real traitors – like the average Nigerian who scorned merit and conscience to elect corrupt characters. The latter would sell Nigeria out for an offshore account, picturesque mansion, soothing sentimentality and membership of high society.

    To achieve their plot, they would sentimentalise and hoodwink everyone else to buy into their fount of deceptive freedom. To escape such grotesqueness, we need to raise our voices in dissent, and rally in protest in our communities, on the streets and our square gardens. We need to produce the candidates that will fight our fight and take our risks. We need to unseat the men making our fatherland more toxic and hateful to the rest of the world.

    If you don’t think that the policies and actions of the incumbent ruling class is costing us immeasurable damages, then do nothing. But if you can see through the smoke and mirrors, and you realise that you’ll be paying more state and local taxes, while your assets continue to depreciate and the cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and staple food continues to soar out of reach, then you’ll understand the need to invest in producing and supporting the candidates who will successfully defeat and tame the army of predators and executioners occupying our seats of power.

    Be ready to contribute the most you’ve ever given for a political cause. Be ready to sacrifice.

  • Masses in deprivation trap

    Nigerian masses are the citizens who drive the country’s economy, and are being short-changed on a regular basis by the system.  They toil day and night to produce the wealth of the geo-polity, but get maximum penury and gloom in return, for their efforts both at the public and private levels of engagement.  A few Nigerians – members of the ruling oligarchy lay siege to the ordinary people.  These oligarchs and their friends are the ones reaping the fruits of the labour of the masses, who are of course, inside the deprivation trap.  The attitude of the ruling class is not unconnected to our European slave trade encounters coupled with colonisation that followed later.  In other words, both external (neo-colonial) and internal factors are responsible for the deprivation trap that keeps the ordinary Nigerians down.  Deprivation trap is tantamount to an idea of hell on earth.

    Poverty is a universal.  It is neither Western nor Eastern.  This underscores the reason why despite the socio-cultural sophistication of most European countries and North America as well as some Asian geo-polities like China and Japan, poverty continues to occupy a space in their vocabularies of popular essence.  But the intensity and capacity to tame poverty vary from one country to another.  Thus, for example, more than half a million people were homeless in the US as of 2016.  Indeed, the number was much higher in 2010 or thereabouts, before it began to reduce due to government’s positive interventionist policies.  Homelessness is one index of extreme poverty.  These very poor Americans are still living on the streets, inside vehicles and in temporary shelters.  However, the number is negligible when compared to the entire American population of over 325 million humans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s report on November 3.

    Similarly, Nigeria as of November 3 has a population estimate of over 192 million (2.53 percent of the total world population).  Out of this figure, about 112 million citizens, are experiencing dire poverty or near-complete destitution.  They live below poverty level (less than one dollar daily) according to the National Bureau of Statistics.  Therefore, the Nigerian experience of material poverty is very critical and it needs urgent attention.

    Monumental poverty remains a devil to wrestle with, despite the fact that Nigeria has launched in recent years four satellites into space.  Aside from this, Nigeria has crude oil reserves estimated at 35 billion barrels as well as incredible 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.  Consequently, the Nigerian leadership system that is generally bereft of vibrant ideas and vision, can afford to be second to none in pampering its political class by paying its federal parliamentarians or National Assembly members, the highest salaries in the world.  This translates to a basic wage of 122,000 pounds. It doubles what the British parliamentarians earn. It is also painful to note, that Nigeria from the eve of its political independence in 1960 to-date has received at least $400 billion in foreign aid.  This is about six times what the U.S. pumped into the project of reconstructing the entirety of Western Europe after World War II.  But despite this, at least 70 percent of Nigerians are living from hand to mouth.

    It is an irony, that contemporary Nigerian masses, despite their spirit of hard work, can be trapped in a cycle of maximum material poverty.  Most families can no longer provide for themselves in terms of such basic needs as food and shelter, due to chronic low incomes and hostile business environment.  Life to most Nigerians today, is like a hell.  More and more Nigerian masses are being isolated from social infrastructure like good schools, health care system and employment opportunities.  They are also extremely vulnerable, leading to their over-dependency on the few rich individuals within the same community.  This situation leads to several forms of child abuse, prostitution, and human trafficking.  There is need to critically analyse the above external and internal factors, as a pre-condition for developing appropriate strategies to crush or at least reduce such ugly scenarios to the barest minimum.

    The economic and socio-political performance of Nigeria cannot be neatly separated or excluded from the European slave trade entanglements and colonial experience, which some analysts belonging to the school of minimalism, would want us to ignore.  It is submitted here, that Nigerians can only gloss over this reality at their own peril.  Our development discourse must create a space for Europeanisation.  It has become a part of our national patrimony.  Every human society has to learn from the lessons of history, in order to avoid as much as possible, the danger of repeating the mistakes of the past.  Colonisation promoted ethnic and to a limited degree, religious divisions and tensions.  The European colonisers used a “divide-and-rule” mechanism to destroy the age-long, indigenous Nigerian culture of caring and sharing.  They replaced our ideology of communalism with individualism embedded in economic exploitation and political oppression.  This was done by using differentiated “favours” and penalties to win and enjoy local loyalties. The numerous ethnic tensions, mistrust, distrust, misjudgements and misconceptions as well as the general accentuated division we experience today, have their deep roots in our colonial past.

    The European slave trade and colonial entanglements were the cause of Nigeria’s de-industrialisation as from the late 15th century.  Before the advent of Europe, the territory later christened Nigeria experienced robust industrialisation.  There was good archaeological evidence of profound dramas of human technological progression in the Nok Valley region of Nigeria.  The settlers of this area, same as other parts of Nigeria were masters of iron metallurgy (smelting and blacksmithing) as far back in time as 500 BC.  They advanced from purely making and using stone technologies to iron productions without any assistance from outside.  By this period, many parts of Europe were still at the Stone Age level of civilisation.  This means that Nigeria was once ahead of parts of Europe.  It is hard to believe the story, but the archaeological record is our witness.

    This historical fact including others underscores the reason why Africanist scholars abhor and reject the racist theory called Social Darwinism or Evolutionism.  According to this theory, Nigeria – a microcosm of Africa, was unchanging technologically and culturally and was therefore, backward until the advent of Europe.  That is to say, that Nigeria was on the bottom rung of the ladder of civilisation until Europe came to civilise it.  The central point of the colonialist and neo-colonialist argument was/is that Europe should be commended for coming to help Nigeria via the lens of colonisation.  It is pertinent to note here, that the coming of Europe with scrap iron among other items and services, gradually led to the collapse and/or neglect of our indigenous industrial behaviours.  The culture of dependency started from this period and the menace is still with the country up to now.  The scenario brought about the promotion and prolongation of Nigeria’s raw material economy – an anathema to sustainable industrial behaviours.

    It is lamentable that the Nigerian government up to now is merely hewing wood and drawing water for the hostile international economic system while Nigerians continue to die of starvation on a daily basis.  Again, the various governments down the ages have been taking foreign loans, gifts and grants.  There is nothing fundamentally wrong with this, provided the monies are spent in a prudent manner.  But this is not the case in Nigeria.  Many abandoned projects arising from external loans dot the country’s landscape while the masses groan under the weight of huge foreign debts with their poisonous economic implications.  Although Nigeria is a component of the global village, its participation in it (international community) has to be critical.  No foreign aids are value-free.  This government, at least for posterity sake, should dance with the developed world in a critical fashion.  Everything now is on the table of our dear President – Muhammadu Buhari, who has been destined by Providence to lead Nigeria (at this critical point in its chequered history), out of the woods.  It is advisable for him, to be careful of die-hard, sycophantic admirers and/or advisers who would never tell him the truth about the state of the nation.  President Buhari can still become Nigeria’s Churchill or Mandela even as the clock ticks.

     

    • Prof. Ogundele is of Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.
  • Loan not a trap, says DMO

    Loan not a trap, says DMO

    The $29.9 billion loan request by the Federal Government is not a trap, Debt Management Office (DMO) Director-General Dr Abraham Nwankwo has said.

    “The first thing to note is that this borrowing is normal. Normal in the sense that over the past 20 years, there is no year we have not borrowed; so, interpreting the proposal submitted to the National Assembly by Mr President for a three-year borrowing programme to be an indirect way of trapping the country does not seem to be logical because Nigeria has always borrowed every year.”

    He stated: “Every year there is a budget and if you check the budgets many years back you will see that we have been borrowing both external and domestic; so there is nothing new about this. Let me also emphasize that since we exited from the Paris and London club debt in 2005-2006 we have always borrowed almost from all these sources we want to borrow from now.”

    “If the $29.9 billion external loan is secured, if we build infrastructure in the next five to seven  years before those loans mature in 15 to 30 years, Nigeria would be in a position to service her debt and turn around the economy.”

    Nwankwo argued that “we cannot as a nation fold our hands and remain where we, are we want to move forward by mobilising resources but if there is a way anybody can propose we mobilise revenue that is enough to cover the infrastructure deficit in the next five to seven years that would be fine, but the important thing is that we need to mobilize revenue from whatever appropriate source to solve the infrastructure deficit to turn around the economy, to exit recession, to make sure that ones and for all we are no more a mono cultural economy.”

    By providing infrastructure, Nwankwo noted that “if the country is exporting five to 10 different products whether there is a shock globally or not Nigeria will be stable and we will not be crying about exchange rate reserve because we are well diversified that is the whole idea and that is what government wants to achieve.”

     

  • RUSHING INTO MARRIAGE IS A TRAP–TOPE TEDELA

    RUSHING INTO MARRIAGE IS A TRAP–TOPE TEDELA

    Tope Tedela, one of Nigeria’s fast-rising actors, became famous a few years ago for his lead role in the movie A Mile from Home. In this interview with ADENIYI ADEWOYIN, Tope speaks on his journey into the make-believe world and other sundry issues.   

    DID you find your role in the new movie, A Soldier’s Story challenging?

    To be honest, the role was quite challenging and I am glad the director pushed me as much as he did during the course of filming. Being malleable is something I also had to learn over time which the director also helped in terms of shaping the performance and bringing what we both brought to the table and how we mixed it. So, it was an awesome experience. It made me to see another side of performing that I didn’t know about via the director.

    I overheard you saying you were looking for the director even before he contacted you. Were you looking for him so he could give you a role?

    There was a time that some funds was disbursed to film makers and I realised he was one of the film makers who got funding from the government then. So, I was looking for him because I thought he would want to do a great work and he got him touch with me. So, here we are.

    Are you saying there’s nothing wrong in asking producers for movie roles?

    Well, there are certain kinds of jobs you want to do. Sometimes, I do ask about upcoming projects that I could have roles, that I could come read for and all that. So, it’s work at the end of the day. I am an actor. Just like the job seekers seek a certain kind of job, there are times you have to seek out certain people and meet them, tell them you will like to work with them. Like I said, I will like to work with Tunde Kilani and anytime I see him, I try to chip it in, like, what are you working on so that I can come to read. So, I would if I have to.

    Cinema movies are gradually taking over home videos; how has the industry come this far?

    There is an influx of fresh air in the industry but cinema films cannot be the only films available to the audience. There is still a market for every type of film. At the end of the day, I think it depends on where you want to pitch your tent and what kind of movies you want to be in. You have a choice to make.

    How was schooling back then in UNILAG?

    School was good. I studied mass communication and I have always wanted to be an actor and also love presenting. My family didn’t think that I should study Theatre Arts. They wanted me to study mass communication because it is more professional but school was generally okay. I was a normal student, my class representative for about three years; I was an easy going fella, nothing spectacular. I graduated in 2009.

    You used to be a presenter at NTA…..

    It was still in the sphere of what I wanted to do. It’s all performance and if you are hosting a show, you are performing. At a point in my life I was about exploring everything that I could. You can call it a time of self-discovery because I was going to do anything that I could lay my hands on. And I was going to do it well because I realised that when I’m doing it, something will come up and I will know what I really want to do. That was it for me.

    When did you land your first movie role?

    I was actually in the university. My first major role in a movie was in Edge of Paradise in 2006 but the movie that brought me to lime light was A Mile from Home in 2013.

    Are you married?

    No I’m not married.

    Will you be getting married anytime soon?

    I am focused on my career now; marriage will come when it comes.

    But time is not on your side…

    You don’t get married because you are getting old. That’s a trap. You don’t get married because people are putting pressure on you to get married. Marriage is a long time commitment. I have thought about it. I’ve imagined it and I have an incline of how unhappy marriage can seem, so I don’t want to rush into it because you are getting older or because you are 39 years old or 40. I think you should take your time and wait for the right person. There’s no point in getting married and not wanting to go home or getting married and being depressed.

    How do you cope with you female fans?

    You will be cordial with them, friendly with them. When you have the opportunity to meet them, thank them. Just be a good person to them and appreciate them.

    Are you also going into production like most of your colleagues?

    I’m actually co-producing my first film with two of my friends now.

    Tell us about the movie?

    Well, it’s a thriller film about a woman who is trying to survive and make her marriage work against all odds – something along those lines.

    We hardly see top actors in movies nowadays, maybe because they charge too much. Do you think it is wise to charge more than what a producer can pay for?

    I’m not in their shoes to know the depth of whatever it is they are doing or why they are making the decisions they are making. Until you are in their shoes, you won’t know. Maybe they are not even approached, you won’t know. Maybe they are getting bad scripts, you just never know.

    Do you see yourself increasing your pay someday?

    I believe in placing value on yourself but I also believe in being reasonable. So you have to strike a balance between the both of them and you create your own project.

    How do you relax?

    I read, I listen to a lot of music; I like Bez, Asa, Coldplay, Linkin Park, Brymo, Redhot Chili Peppers. I just love different genres of music and play the guitar, swim sometimes but I’m mostly an indoor person.

    Like most of your colleagues, do you see yourself going into music someday?

    You never know but I’m focused on my acting career for now.

    What you do you think might be the reason why most actors who delved into music didn’t make it in the music world?

    I don’t know if it’s the Nigerian audience. Maybe once you are an actor, they just want you to be an actor; they don’t want to see you do something else. But that also may not be true. It’s a question I have asked myself and I can’t really come up with a viable answer. That brings up another question. Do they have the guts and the power to push it because it’s two different careers although they look like they are in the same entertainment industry and I know that it’s not really easy combining both even for those outside the country. People like Justin Timberlake, Tyrese, how many films do you see Tyrese in? You know it’s not that easy.

    To me it looks like they are kidding…

    No not really. I think it’s easy to go from music to movie than the other way round.

    We have seen Hollywood collaborate with Bollywood. What is happening to Nollywood? Is it that we haven’t met their standard at all?

    Whether we like it or not we are still quite naissance and a lot of things need to be put in place to get that. We are growing and with time collaborations will occur.

    The past government provided loans for movie makers. Are they getting the loans easily?

    I know that some people got access to the money but I don’t know the expanse of the project. I don’t know how well it was disbursed.

    Like most of celebrities, do you own a charity organization?

    I don’t need to own a charity organization but I think it’s important to give back and I believe ardently in it. I feel I don’t have to tell you that I am involved in any charity programs to do it.

    Looking back at where you are coming from, what is that special thing you will always thank God for?

    I thank God for my family, I thank God for my Parents, and I thank God for how I was raised, my siblings. I also thank God for the values that my parents instilled in me. It’s not like I’m perfect. I’m very imperfect but the core foundation of being a “good person’. I am glad.

    What advice do you have to upcoming actors?

    The business is not about glamour. The business is about the art, the craft. You need to face the business, you need to face the craft, and you need to study, learn, humble and also pray. Ask yourself if you have what it takes to be an actor.

    Is it true that everybody can be what they want to be if they keep pushing?

    Ahhh, that’s a hard question, although it is a very idealistic thing to say but I don’t think everybody does make it and that’s the honest truth. There are different factors to it which I do not know but then I will say pursue it, go ahead but don’t keep doing the same thing hoping that you get a different result.

  • They will not tell you it’s a trap

    There is no odor as vile as that which arises from despoiled citizenship. It is insidious, human and outright malevolent. And it is all that we represent as Nigerians. Let us not make a mockery of citizenship; we are not the model citizens we profess to be.

    We whose idea of citizenship gravitates from arrant skepticism to dilettantism, gruesome criticism to cynicism and utter insincerity will never court hope even when we see it. And the consequence abounds all around us.

    Yesterday, our grief was of marginalization, unemployment, religious and ethnic bigotry, corruption in high places and enfant terrible godfathers. Today, we bemoan the existence of Boko Haram; we grieve because our youths have turned suicide bombers, our mothers are impoverished and our daughters litter dimly lit brothels and recesses of the sidewalk within and outside the country.

    Today, we talk of going to war and sing to ourselves, blood-spattered choruses of youthful rebellion. We love to sing such ballads that beguile our will and caress our eardrums; that is why we court and fete such leadership as we have now. It is that time of the year when they promise us stable electricity, gallantry in governance, dependable economy and security. It is that time of the year when they recite the same old platitudes to the same old electorate.

    They promise us honor, status, glory, and a prosperous future as usual; and as usual, we fail to hold these promises up against their culture of leadership – that flagrant norm of theirs that blesses us with dead-end jobs of small-town life, religious and financial terrorism, bankruptcy, ethnic bigotry, substandard healthcare, inferior education and unemployment.

    But we believe them anyway. We that are conditioned by poverty and lust for unearned riches perpetually seek all manners of benefits and self-actualization, like greater state autonomy, more state creation and secession. We, who have learnt to enjoy dwellings like hell, are promised nations like Eden, by men like demons.

    The dream of secession is the call of the Sirens, the enticement that has for generations seduced old and young Nigerians struggling to keep inadequate jobs in Chinese and Lebanese owned Nigerian sweatshops, fast food restaurants, construction sites and bus parks, and behind the counters at city malls.

    We desperately crave and embrace the secession alternative because every other cul-de-sac in our lives breaks our spirit and dignity. Pick up advocacy group manifestos or human rights reports of genocide and marginalization. Listen to self-acclaimed youth leaders, weepy politicians and activists, the allure of greater autonomy, self-determination or whatever they choose to call it is touted as our next best alternative.

    They will not tell you it’s a trap, a ploy, an old, dirty game of deceit in which the powerful and informed who will not go to war, promises a mirage to youth who will. We have seen this in the tragedy of Boko Haram’s suicide bombers, political thugs and ethno-religious death squads holding the nation by the jugular.

    We have seen and felt this in our tragic obsequiousness to the ruling class on the political, economic and socio-cultural turfs that condition you and me to serve the privileged class, even as we are perpetually consigned by them to the backwaters of the breadlines.

    Some of us, the somewhat privileged to be precise, get to travel between two universes: one where everybody gets a chance and a second chance to break out of our socio-political and economic jailhouse, where education, connections, money and influence almost guarantee that you would not fail if you strive. In the other universe, no one ever gets to enjoy a first or second chance. In this universe, when the poor fails and falls, no one picks them up even as the rich stumble and trip their way to the top.

    It is not my wish to attack or castigate the rich; they didn’t get to enslave us simply by ordering us to be poor, did they? You and I are willing participants in the impoverishment and eternal enslavement of the Nigerian citizenry.

    We are in such dire state because like ones habitually programmed to self-destruct, we love to identify and propound practical solutions to our tragedies but when puts gets to shove, and we are faced with the chance to change our stars, we begin to speak in discordant voices.

    Thus this year as all others, we have begun to criticize and speak the thoughts of a growing number of natives seeking relief. What is so sad however is that despite our pretentious protestations and insight, we go about perpetuating the same old oddities, self-interests and absurdities.

    Thus this year, President Goodluck Jonathan and our league of extraordinary looters have failed to improve our lot. And while we curse our luck and cry, many of us continue to foster the status quo by abhorrent citizenship and conduct. We who lament corruption in high places wholeheartedly nurture duplicity and corruption in low places.

    Bloody revolution is never the answer. Neither shall secession improve our lot; if eventually, every agitating part of Nigeria gets to secede, every new nation we establish shall parade the same old brutes with the same old lusts and self-interests in high and low places.

    Any story of secession is a story of elites preying on the weak, the gullible, the marginal, and the poor. The pageantry ends the day we pronounce that we secede, particularly for those of us who will occupy the low places. The pageantry will wear off and there will be fewer patriots, and fewer patriots, until there is no single cheer left to hear but tireless shrieks in the street. Whatever contraption we manage to create shall evolve into the monstrosity we have made Nigeria to be.

    People who are singing the secession song are the real traitors – like the average Nigerian who scorned merit and conscience to elect President Goodluck Jonathan and company. Such characters would sell out Nigeria for an offshore account, picturesque mansion, soothing sentimentality and membership of high society.

    To achieve their plot, they would sentimentalize and hoodwink everyone else to buy into their fount of deceptive freedom. To escape such grotesqueness, we need to raise our voices in dissent, and rally in protest in our communities, on the streets and our square gardens. We need to produce the candidates that will fight our fight and take our risks. We need to unseat the men making our fatherland more toxic and hateful to the rest of the world.

    If you don’t think that the policies and actions of the incumbent ruling class is costing us immeasurable damages, then do nothing. But if you can see through the smoke and mirrors, and you realize that you’ll be paying more state and local taxes, while your assets continue to depreciate and the cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and staple food continues to soar out of reach, then you will understand the need to invest in producing and supporting the candidates who will successfully defeat and tame the army of predators and executioners occupying our seats of power. Come 2015, be ready to contribute the most you’ve ever given for a political cause. Be ready to sacrifice.

     

  • Death trap as federal road in Ondo

    Death trap as federal road in Ondo

    One of the federal roads in Ondo State linking the Southwest to Abuja, the federal capital, is more of a death trap than a good passage for motorists. DAMISI OJO reports.

    Travelling to Abuja from Lagos through Ondo State is now more of a danger to motorists as the Ipele – Idoani – Isua – Kabba – Abuja highway, one of the two major link roads to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), from the southwest is in a terrible shape.

    The road, one of the federal roads in the state begging for attention is not only in a deplorable state but is also littered with trailers and other heavy duty trucks trapped on the bad portions of the highway, thereby adding to the danger faced by other motorists who manage to navigate the potholes and other failed portions of the road.

    Any traveler particularly between Idoani in Ose local government and  Isua, Akoko Southeast local government area of Ondo State would witness how chains of trailers are trapped for days and weeks on this road.

    Unfortunately, these heavy duty trucks prefer this road because it is devoid of steeply hills, dangerous slopes and sharp bends.

    This is unlike the deadly Akungba – Oka route with dangerous points, specifically Oke – Oka hill, Okia-Oka deadly slope and the deadly sharp bends at the end of the slope, where hundreds of people had met their untimely death.

    A visit to the area by “The Nation” revealed that most heavy duty trucks ascending the Oka hill usually roll back as a result of their inability to climb the hill causing serious accident resulting in damage to life and properties.

    Likewise, trailers, descending the Oka-Okia long slope with a sharp bend at the end  usually lose control due to brake failure killing dozens of other road users.

    Records at Oka and Iwaro police stations confirm thousands of lives that had been lost on that road.

    The deplorable condition of the Ipele route which is presently cut-off and out of use at Ifira – Sosan – Isua Akoko has forced trucks to divert to the dangerous Akungba – Oka route, causing serious havoc to cars and buses.

    A road user and public analyst, Mr Olasehinde Idowu blamed the federal and Ondo state governments for abandoning this important road which is a gate way from the southwest to the  East and Abuja, the seat of the federal government.

    According to him, both Ondo State and Federal governments should note that the cost of abandoning Ipele – Kabba – Abuja Road project is the precious lives and properties that are being lost on Akungba -Oka route on a daily basis.

    He lamented that the refusal of the Federal Government to repair the road in the last 20 years  has portrayed the insensitivity of the government to the pains of the people.

    Idowu noted that some trailers also divert through Idoani – Idogun – Ipesi – Ifira to Isua to avoid the bad spots on Ipele road thereby causing serious damage to this trunk B road belonging to Ondo State government.

    One of the political office holders in Ose local government who spoke in confidence said the number of lives that had been lost to road accident on Oka – Okia hill and slope outnumber those lost to the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDs) that we spend billions of naira to control.

    He queried the rationale behind the failure of both federal and state government to repair the Ipele Road to prevent further killings on the popular Akungba – Oka route, stressing that Ipele route is more suitable for heavy trucks.

    Officials of the Federal Ministry of works and Federal Roads Maintenance Agency(FERMA) said the road is not on the priority list, but added that efforts were on to ensure that federal government pays attention to it as a good alternative to Akungba-Oka Akoko-Isua-Abuja route.

    A top government official at the State Ministry of Works who also spoke in confidence said the road in question belongs to the federal government.

    He however said the dwindling state allocation has not assisted in focusing on such gigantic project, noting that this would have been worthwhile especially for the mere fact that it is the citizenry of Ondo State that are making use of the road mostly.