Nigerian Diaspora: 2012 Calling!

Despite all the faults and falterings, patriots must not give up on their fatherland - this blessed land, NIGERIA.

The politicians test our very limits, don't they? But the militicians did worse, didn't they? We survived the jackboot and outlived the gun-loot. Alas, we will survive the slack-hoot and outlive the pen-loot. We are NIGERIA!

Now is then the time to call on our successful sons and daughters in the diaspora to rise in full duty and diligence for the rescue mission: Come Home! Choose your path, chime your time; no matter. But, please, Come Home!

By 2015, this land is going to retire many of the present galloping gladiators. The sweep will be sharp and shocking. And we need worthy replacements - a blend of home-based and diaspora-groomed patriots.

To fit in, dear compatriots, 2012 is the PrepYear. Start the strategic links and break the jinx...

Come Home!

Our Beauty of Patriotism

I have never thought that we needed to state our religion and state of origin and gender and age for special advantage in the 21st century Nigeria. Well, you do.

You do because the constitution recognizes "federal character" in all public service positions - both elective and appointive. It also forbids economic power/resources being concentrated in the hands of a few - the popular cabal syndrome. Now, working this fine path is the picture of our beauty, the Beauty of our Patriotism.

Some have used it well, others not. We look at appointments and shudder! We look at national awards and wonder! We look at contracts and ponder! Why?

Oh, look no further than our kind of patriotism: Parochialism for Nationalism, Religion-ism for Spiritualism, Pocket-ism for Patriotism. Everyone does it or is made to do it so it becomes odd not to do it. We know it and celebrate the courageous-odd but create less enabling environment for their tribe to thrive.

Then we fumble and fail. Then we grumble and mumble. Then we seek God's intervention. We lament the ferment, make a few adjustments, make a few scape-goats, get a small relief...and go to sleep!

Our beauty of patriotism is scape-goatism: make a few pay for our collective sins. If we cleared the deck and returned not to our vomit, we would be a nation of nationals, a country of citizens, a land of hands.

So, here is the deal. Who knows beauty but goes for booty? How do we make us pay for our personal roles in this brigandage and progressively deepen the roots of patriotism? What must we give to receive? Where do we stay or betray? We must start now, in individual sacrifice to build our collective edifice - seeing the beauty of the self in the bounty of the whole.

Painful? Yes. Gainful? You can't ask that, Oh Patriot.

KUDOS to Jega's INEC

You can feel it in the air: Jega was right, his detractors were wrong! He knows himself, his INEC and his nation. His critics doubt all three. Fair enough.

With the high marks he's garnered from all and sundry over the just concluded national assembly elections, let his sights be set even higher.

May the cynics remain but stay grounded. This is not the country of free-sailing for reformers. Yet it is one that always wins over naysayers. This time, the gains will be permanent!

Kudos to Jega & Co. More grit to your elbows!

This MARCH, we're MARCHING to our ELECTORAL Freedom!

In 30 days, we start the real electoral rights of Nigeria's democracy. We go to the vote! This is not our first time, dammit, it is the one time we hinge our hopes so strongly, so expectantly, so assuredly, on the final rites of passage: One Man One Vote! 2011 General Elections.

My firm belief is that this be our MARCH to our very own ELECTORAL Freedom! This March. All this efforts and effusions of the voters' registration exercise will pay us huge dividends soon. Very soon.

Prepare people, prepare. Pray, the jinx is in trouble - no, in its final throes. With the modified open ballot system, all them blighters are in trouble - no hiding place anymore. You need to be ultra demonic, mega desperate and, shall we say, utterly degenerate to want to dare the voters' vigil.

As March 2011 proceeds, we MARCH towards our FREEDOM. The freedom of the VOTE.

Dear MARCH, what a F-R-E-E-D-O-M!

Give WINGS to our BEST, please!

Never before did we need the kind of citizen-action that today’s world demands, and that is absolutely crucial to The NIGERIAN Project - creating and keeping the country of our dream. Before we can have a nation we must have nationals and vice versa. To ask for patriotism the country must provide the pillars - a platform worth running on, a flag worth flying, a land worth dying for. This is what the great nations we so admire are!

For anyone to succeed in helping Nigeria through private enterprise or scholarship is Herculean. You will hit your head against so many rocks and surmount forbidding government-erected obstacles! Numerous quality reports and recommendations have been presented and accepted over the years but the situation keeps getting worse. It is difficult for anyone (except our civil servants and their masters) to understand this.

If you enjoy and celebrate the contributions of Aliko Dangote(Dangote Group), Mike Adenuga(Globacom), Wale Tinubu(Oando), Femi Otedola(Zenon), Ms Opeke(Main One) as well as our Artistes in Music, Comedy, Arts, Fashion and Nollywood (Entertainment & Culture) to Nigeria’s development go find out what they have and still go through! Go ask Jimoh Ibrahim, the mercurial owner of Global Fleet, NICON Group and Air Nigeria, Stan Ekeh (Zinox) and Florence Seriki (Omatek). Just a few examples.

If you lament the failed businesses, both public and private, that have ruined so many lives and livelihoods, do some quick investigations: you will be depressed and disgusted. Take Ajaokuta Steel, Railways, Media (led by Daily Times), Shipping, Defence Industries, Textile Mills, Paper Mills, Airlines (led by Nigeria Airways), Local Contractors, Consultants & Suppliers, and Nigerian Farmers to mention a few. This country simply kills its own - whether public or private! It is scary and scandalous. Hard to believe.

Now that we are singing Vision 20-20-20, I hope the government people know what they’re getting themselves into - considering the outrageous cost of running our largely unproductive federal MDAs and various under-performing governments nationwide. As we speak, the vision document remains a mystery to most Nigerians - hoarded and guarded by the system!
If we are serious, it should be common place by now, including in schools, churches, mosques, libraries, the media, palaces, NGO offices, political parties, entertainment facilities, and diplomatic missions. We should be unable to avoid its ambush anywhere we turn, with its numerous translations.

The OAU failed because of hoarding public information and distrusting Africans as stakeholders and owners of Africa. NEPAD is in the same quagmire. ECOWAS has been tottering for the same reason. Nigeria is so painfully underdeveloped because of this same “Them vs Us” mentality. Clearest evidence: The Budget. People sit in Abuja and write whatever catches their fancy, and facilitates looting, without true stakeholders input or ownership! Same at state and LGA levels. In the end, they chop the bloated overheads 100% while the capital(i.e. development projects) votes remain underutilized, leaving The PEOPLE wondering where all the trillions went! It’s been happening for decades.

Solution: We must reduce both the size of government and the cost of governance by 50%. Downsize and rightsize vertically (Three Tiers) and horizontally (Three Arms). Only the Judiciary needs expansion as we all have since been advocating - to include specialization and strategic expansion, reduce the high cost of litigation, embrace Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), deploy modern technology and guarantee speedy dispensation of justice. This should also cover the Police, Civil Defence and Prison Services for both federal and states - let’s amend the constitution and revenue allocation formula accordingly.

From this year, after the general elections, things MUST change. We all have a duty to put people in office who WILL serve Nigeria rather than starve Nigerians. Let’s give wings to our best and brightest TODAY! No more excuses.

First step? Dear Nigerians, go out and register. Your VOTE is Your POWER!