Just a composite poser for....
Our Banks, and bankers
Our President, and politicians
Our Parliament, and legislators
Our Ministers, and diplomats
Our Media, and pressmen
Our Universities, and academia
Our Private Sector, and businessmen:
How many of you can and do shop on the Internet with Credit Cards issued in Nigeria? How many of you shop on Amazon.com? How many of you have a PayPal Account?
If you don't have a resounding "POSITIVE" to the above so do 160m Nigerians. How come nobody is doing something about this denigration and offensive stigmatization?
And you "patriots" hobnob with your counterparts around the world?
Well, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala I'm looking at you. Olusegun Aganga I'm eyeing you. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi you dey for my radar!
Showing posts with label NEPAD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NEPAD. Show all posts
Friday, November 11, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
The Book Business Here
Over time, Africa seems de-booked. Long before bookstores elsewhere started succumbing to online stores, African bookshops have been struggling to survive. Partly because local authorship isn't thriving, partly because foreign publishers got packing, partly because governments have yet to wake up to the twin dangers of illiteracy and ignorance. It pays dictators and despots to use both to suppress, repress and depress the populace!
Well, the Arab Spring is reaffirming history's truism: not for long.
In my native Nigeria, for example, we even took development assistance and world bank funds for book development. Nothing to show for it all, folks, nothing! Publishers are closing shop, writers are languishing, piracy is racing wild, libraries are derelict, reading is declining...and our governments at all levels, parents and guardians, natural and religious leaders, the media and our diaspora will not come together to ACT! Shame.
With the under-funding of our education sector and the debasement of the teaching profession over the last three decades, lecturers and researchers aren't writing or publishing. We have thus been fueling and feeding the brain drain monster.
Final result? The BOOK business is Dying! And PEOPLE are hardly READING! Pity.
Press Nigeria, tap Africa. Common story.
NEPAD is still a paper-tiger, alas. Will it wake up for BOOK Business, now? Hope. You never lose with hope...
Well, the Arab Spring is reaffirming history's truism: not for long.
In my native Nigeria, for example, we even took development assistance and world bank funds for book development. Nothing to show for it all, folks, nothing! Publishers are closing shop, writers are languishing, piracy is racing wild, libraries are derelict, reading is declining...and our governments at all levels, parents and guardians, natural and religious leaders, the media and our diaspora will not come together to ACT! Shame.
With the under-funding of our education sector and the debasement of the teaching profession over the last three decades, lecturers and researchers aren't writing or publishing. We have thus been fueling and feeding the brain drain monster.
Final result? The BOOK business is Dying! And PEOPLE are hardly READING! Pity.
Press Nigeria, tap Africa. Common story.
NEPAD is still a paper-tiger, alas. Will it wake up for BOOK Business, now? Hope. You never lose with hope...
Thursday, March 31, 2011
This AFRICA!
Can you be perplexed by your beloved continent? Absolutely. Can you give up on your Mother-CONTINENT? Hell, no!
What to do, then? The struggle continues!
And that is what is going on right now in most of North Africa and the Arab World. It has only begun - more will follow.
That “more” will depend on two factors: the resolve and resilience of The People and the obstinacy and occult of The Potentates. The tie-breaker is The Global Village fronted by World Leaders. In other words, the UN has our standing mandate - abounding duty - to stand up for The People by standing up to The Potentates! Period.
The UN Security Council has finally corrected the “double standards” it was accused of vis-à-vis Libya and Cote d’Ivoire. We hear Nigeria and France tabled the resolution. Left to the AU, we would still be dancing in the dark, stumbling in broad daylight! Even as people are dying, and millions are fleeing! Okay, blaming the AU right now will be a little harsh. This AU, as is, is an AU of Heads of State & Governments FOR Heads of State & Governments!! There is little a brilliant bureaucrat or patriotic technocrat can do about it. For a kettle to call a pot “black”, it must be squeaky clean, right? And since they love working by consensus, if not unanimity, na serious dilemma, fa!
Do not despair, be not depressed: The Peoples’ AU is on its way - give or take 3-5 years, on the outside. Sad? Yes. Slow? Yes. But surely? No question.
The struggle continues!
What to do, then? The struggle continues!
And that is what is going on right now in most of North Africa and the Arab World. It has only begun - more will follow.
That “more” will depend on two factors: the resolve and resilience of The People and the obstinacy and occult of The Potentates. The tie-breaker is The Global Village fronted by World Leaders. In other words, the UN has our standing mandate - abounding duty - to stand up for The People by standing up to The Potentates! Period.
The UN Security Council has finally corrected the “double standards” it was accused of vis-à-vis Libya and Cote d’Ivoire. We hear Nigeria and France tabled the resolution. Left to the AU, we would still be dancing in the dark, stumbling in broad daylight! Even as people are dying, and millions are fleeing! Okay, blaming the AU right now will be a little harsh. This AU, as is, is an AU of Heads of State & Governments FOR Heads of State & Governments!! There is little a brilliant bureaucrat or patriotic technocrat can do about it. For a kettle to call a pot “black”, it must be squeaky clean, right? And since they love working by consensus, if not unanimity, na serious dilemma, fa!
Do not despair, be not depressed: The Peoples’ AU is on its way - give or take 3-5 years, on the outside. Sad? Yes. Slow? Yes. But surely? No question.
The struggle continues!
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