Enough of the anti-Ugep Sentiments

Every year at this time (August), the anti-Ugep sentiment within a cross section of fellow Yakurr people from other Yakurr communities rises to a crescendo and then falls as the Government-declared Yakurr New Yam Festival ends. I had opted not to comment on this issue, but a fellow Ugep man asked me what we can do about this situation, which he believes and I rightly agree bores no one any good. Two major reasons for this anti-Ugep sentiments have been given by those who are able to put their thoughts together: 1. Why it should be called the Yakurr New Yam Festival, when it is strictly an Ugep affair. 2. Why people from other Yakurr communities have so far not won the Mr. and Mrs Leboku titles.

I appreciate the anger of some in relationship to the above two reasons. What I do not understand is how the Ugep people are responsible for this predicament. Why are our brothers and sisters filled with so much hate for us over things we do not control? Long before this era- I think around the 90s, I and my friends in the SOF family had organized a Miss Leboku. Later on I and my friends- Sebastine Eko, and late Sammy Okoi (Possible) had organized another Miss Leboku. These were followed by several other Miss and Mr. Leboku competitions organized by other Ugep sons and Daughters. Mr. and Mrs Leboku competition has therefore always been part of the Ugep New Yam Festival, and will continue to be, with or without the Government.

How did the Ugep New Yam Festival suddently become the Yakurr Festival? We as Ugep people were not consulted for this to happen. The State Government saw the festival as a tourist opportunity and decided to partner with the owners. In the process, they decided to call it the Yakurr New Yam Festival- a title that really makes no sense because at the core of the Leboku is the Ekoi dance. Is it possible for anybody who is not from Ugep to beat the Ugep Ekoi drums? If it were, then we could bring together Ekoi or Leboku drummers from the whole Yakurr to beat the drums in Ugep on Ekoi day. Then perhaps, we could have a Yakurr New Yam Festival in the real sense of the word.

The questions Yakurr youth should ask and try to answer are the following:
1. Are other Yakurr communities participating in these competitions?
2. Why are they not winning? Have they really been cheated or they just didn't make it?
3. Who are the judges? What are the criteria they use?
4. How can we translate Government' s participation in the Ugep Leboku into more substantial gains for the Yakurr LGA?
5. How can we pressure Government to pay the same attention to the respective Leboku's in Ekori, Idomi, Nko, Assiga, Inyima, Mkpani and Agoi?

Blaming it on the Ugep man is a total waste of time. In the past, such reasoning had led to the formation of divisive groups like EMIN (Ekori, Mpkani, Idomi and Nko) and EMINAA (Agoi and Assiga added). Nothing came out of such groups. This generation cannot allow itself to tow that line. ENOUGH OF THE ANTI-UGEP SENTIMENT.

August, 2013.

Farewell, Utum

 

It took me three days to accept as truth, the news of your death. As is customary in the Yako culture, elaborate funerals for you are not in order: you left too young. But you left family and friends. You would be remembered, UTUM ETOWA OSUKU (UT Monume as your friends called you). You did your bit, and May your soul find eternal peace.

No Noah!

Can see the rain drops from my window
Big silver bullets, dropped from the west
Their staccato sound on corrugated sheets
Drowning in thunderous claps from the east
Are the elements fighting this morning?
No, thunder has given way
Only continuous sheets of water falling from the sky
This time, there is no Noah.

December 12, 2013.

OBJ, APC and Goodluck Jonathan

I

APC should focus on selling to us ordinary voters how differently they would do things if elected into power. The amount of energy this party is spending on Goodluck Jonathan shows their ultimate goal is the mere grab of power and not a change in the well being of Nigerians. Now they are calling on the National Assembly to impeach the president, as if the National Assembly is an organ of the APC!!! A sincere opposition party would call on the National Assembly and other institutions of governance with the mandate, to investigate the presidency with the aim of establishing if there any grounds for an impeachment in the first place. I am beginning to feel that this tension in the polity is a stage-managed fight between past and current looters of our commonwealth to distract us from something more sinister. God Help My Country.

II 

When we ask why the National Assembly has not impeached Goodluck Jonathan or at least commenced impeachment proceedings against him if all the allegations contained in the now famous OBJ letter are true, some call us sentimentalist and blind supporters of GEJ. That's okay since each and every one of us is entitled to their opinions. But the truth is that no matter how noble Nelson Mandela's intentions were, he inherited strong institutions- Parliament, Judiciary, Electoral and Law Enforcement. Similar institutions in Nigeria have been eroded through respective administrations- Obasanjo, Shagari, Buhari, Babangida, Abacha, Abdulsalami, Obasanjo, Yaradua and now Goodluck Jonathan. Those who say we should focus only on the content of OBJ's letter and forget the writer of that letter are the ones missing the point. Firstly because that letter wouldn't have been written if GEJ continued to allow OBJ run the country from his Otta Farms. Secondly because most of the issues raised in that letter are the cumulative effect of mis-governance by respective administrations including those of OBJ. OBJ has the right as a citizen to write the President. Perhaps he should have extracted the part of the letter that borders on criminal allegations against GEJ and sent that as a petition to the EFCC, Nigerian Police and the National Assembly, to enable them take the necessary constitutional action. Or does Obasanjo not have faith in Nigeria's institutions of governance? Stop telling me I am being sentimental when I state my case and opinion, because you are going to be sentimental when you respond to this. Politics is a very sentimental game.

III

Truly disturbing times for Nigeria. A threatening letter from Retired General Olusegun Obasenjo to sitting President Goodluck Jonathan, copied in the first instance to Retired Generals Babangida and Abdulsalam!!! What worries me is that all three retired Generals have ruled Nigeria, and Obasenjo twice. They had the opportunity to fix Nigeria, but they instead entrenched the mediocre and corrupt system that threw up Goodluck Jonathan. Now they are tired of Jonathan (He got there by mistake), and it seems the battle lines are drawn. In all these, I ask: where does the average Nigerian stand? Shouldn't these retired generals who have become rich by ruling Nigeria let us be? Should we sit down and let them continue with the destruction of this country? If Jonathan is inept and inefficient as they want us to belief, isn't the ballot box the means to remove him? What are these men afraid of? Instead of heating up the polity and deepening the fault lines that have kept Nigeria down through this anti-Jonathan posturing, these men should concentrate on building a strong opposition that can challenge and remove Jonathan from power in 2015. To say he shouldn't contest is unfair and unconstitutional.

IV

Nigerians who cannot wait for Goodluck Jonathan to die before they bury him have since yesterday had a field day trying to convince us that the President went to South Africa uninvited, was not allowed to give a speech and that South Africa is ungrateful for Nigeria's support during the anti-apartheid struggle. Here is my take.

Goodluck Jonathan's presence at that ceremony (invited or uninvited) is a necessary foreign policy action. On the one hand, for those who feel the people of South Africa are decidedly anti-Nigeria, despite Nigeria's role in the liberation struggle, our President's presence there reflects forgiveness and reconciliation- the same ideals for which the whole world is celebrating Nelson Mandela. On the other hand, South Africa is of strategic interest to Nigeria and we should engage South Africa as much as is possible. Out of over 90 heads of government at that ceremony only 5 where given a chance to speak. That Jonathan was not given a chance to speak is not an issue. As for the issue of Xenophobia against Nigerians by South Africans, I have learnt in my travels that the Nigerian passport attracts a lot of attention and even suspicion wherever you go. This is because our fellow Nigerians abuse whatever privileges they are offered in other people's countries through advance fee fraud, credit card scams, armed robbery, drug trafficking and all sorts of crimes. To be respected by others, we need to respect ourselves first. Let us stop referring to how Nigeria helped South Africa during the apartheid era and focus on how to earn the respect of all other nations including South Africa.

We are a great nation and if we put our acts together, Nigeria can become a proud home for all Africans and non-Africans. 

These Millennium Development Goals 2

For low-income countries the MDGs for now remain the closest to the Marshal Plan of 1947. My reference to the Marshal Plan is necessitated by the fact that by the end of the Second World War, Western Europe was left in much the same ruins that most low-income countries (LICs) were left in by their retreating colonial masters. In response to the treat of soviet expansion into Western Europe, and to the need to create markets for US business and products, the US Government passed the European Recovery Act (1948), also called the Marshall Plan. The act required European nations ravaged by war to create a plan for their economic reconstruction while the US provides the assistance- 13.3 billion dollars (without conditions) over a period of 4 years beginning from 1948. This was the beginning of International Development Aid as we have come to know it, and it was never, and would never be determined by any altruistic reasons but by the self- interests of those who provide the funds for this aid. The IMF, the World Bank were created at the instance of the USA and were used to perfectly execute the Marshal Plan, but when it came to the turn of LICs, aid and loans were tied to conditions that drove these nations deeper into poverty, and they were never asked to create their own plan for poverty alleviation. The United Nations System (UN) was created by those who won the 2^nd World War to maintain the balance of international power, and this is the reason why one shouldn't be surprised when in many occasions the UN, WHO, WB, IMF, USAID and DFID have promoted and implemented common strategies- strategies that have continued to make may nations LICs.

The MDGs supported by the UN, the World Bank and most international development organizations are laudable, but there is growing skepticism over their realization, at least in Africa. The foremost MDG is the halving of the proportion of populations who live in extreme poverty, but three years into their implementation, poverty in Africa increased, while in other regions it declined. The Millennium Project (2006) reports that between 1990 and 2002, average overall incomes increased, average number of people in extreme poverty declined, average child mortality and maternal mortality rates declined.  But these averages hide the real situation on ground- a fact acknowledged by the Millennium Project. MDG efforts have benefited some countries more and in the same countries have benefited the middle class more, and marginalizing the poorest further. This is because the World Bank, the UN, the WHO and their key benefactors continue to see and treat LICs as a homogenous entity, and strategies developed in New York and Geneva are expected to work in the same way in Nigeria as in Malawi because both are African nations. It seems to me that the ultimate goal (beyond the MDGs) is free trade- a euphemism used in place of an unfettered access to the markets, natural and human resources of LICs. The time has come for LICs to look inwards. 

These Millennium Development Goals- 1

In my considered opinion, if the World Bank is currently helping to fight poverty in low-income countries, it is because the World Bank played a dominant role in entrenching this poverty in the first place. Working on the premise that development meant industrialization as has happened in Europe and North America, the World Bank sought to replicate this “development” in low- income countries by providing loans for huge capital projects that were meant to improve economies and reduce poverty. It didn’t occur to the protagonists of this development model that development had a cultural component, that life in the low-income countries ( LICs) that they sought to develop was, and is different from life in Europe and North America, and that no development can occur without a vibrant health and social sector. Almost all the countries that received these loans defaulted on their payment and during the 1980s, the World Bank entered these countries to collect or renegotiate these loans and the conditions they attached lead to the structural adjustment programmes- currency devaluation, reduction in government spending especially on health and the social sector, reduction of tax on high earners, lower tariffs on imports, and increased free trade. Thus, while Europe and North America had public social and health interventions for the poor, that was lost in the LICs thanks to the World Bank.

It seems to me that the World Bank would rather forget that period of its history. It is glossed over in its website, and even Ruger (2005) did no bother to acknowledge the negative effects World Bank policies of the 1980s had on LICs. Heavy criticism of that approach, new development paradigms, and an expansion and diversification of policy actors and funders has led the World Bank to re-position itself and its LIC poverty eradication efforts. A look at some of the World Bank’s activities in Nigeria in recent years could help us appreciate this radical change in strategy. Nigeria’s current Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) focuses improved governance, non-oil growth, and human development. The key partners in the CPS are the World Bank Group, African Development Bank, USAID (US Government), and DFID (UK Government). As part of the CPS, the World Bank has provided the Nigerian Government loans to support development activities ranging from the improvement of the power sector to the youth employment and social support This indeed is a radical shift for the World Bank from the powerful, sole financier of capital projects in the 80s to the development agency of the 21^st century collaborating with other agencies and working with host country governments to plan together, and support programs that the country really needs including health and social services.

Can low-income countries take advantage of this opportunity?

Ruger, J. (2005) ‘The Changing Role of the World Bank in Global Health.’ Americal Journal of Public Health, 95(1): 60-70.

Double Tirades

Double Tirades…

Omini: Any administrator (&the so called 'professional) who lacks objectivity and sound judgment is a 'disaster'. An irresponsible 'fragment' of a shameless generation. How he got there? Yeah! Through the ladder of corruption whose rungs are dotted with stains of blood from the broken hearts of children and the 'bleeding nose of tomorrow! The tomorrow they sold in the black market of sex, avarice & power!(SAP).

Thom: And sex continues to stand sentinel in the darkened corridors of power. Old men with twisted loins, and shameless arthritic erections, preying on young girls, fixated on the allure of quick lucre, and the top becomes an entanglement of many legs, few brains...

Omini: @Thom:.Yes, SEX, the most dynamic 'medium of exchange' in the corridors of power.. where the so called leaders in damnable orgies surrender the fate of the nation to the promptings of their loins.. and then powered by beastly orgasm, they go to the media to make egregious ejaculations of rubbish from their befuddled brains...to manipulate fellow Nigerians! And while we keep praying for the country, they keep preying on us...

Thom: @Omini: Aha! Prayers, my friend. Praying Mantis before hungry birds, we have become. Scoundrels and squirrels, they remain. Shriveled manhoods dripping effluents from their putrid minds. These sounds I hear, brother, not the ecstasy of orgasm's joy, but the grunts and groans of old men on their way out... the rains are here again...

Omini: @Thom: '..but the grunts and groans of old men on their way out...' These men! They never get out of the way. They are never out, no matter how down they go! Yes they stay on and clog up the system with degenerative ideologies. Just like they do with their 'shrivelled manhoods dripping effluents from their putrid minds...' pouring out like rancid yogurt the last drop of life's water. These men. 'They shame me!!'

Thom: @Omini: Should we then ignore them? and take our place at the tail end of this line of rapists. facial skins taut, breathing heavy in anticipation. One whore for all...taking her in turns... Soon we would realize she is our mother. Idiots! It will be too late to make amends as she lies comatose. Our greed has killed our mother... the rains are still here...

Omini: @Thom: Oh, how then can we stop these men with conscience...be numbed by immorality and greed? How can we save our ravished mother from our depraved brothers? Day by day, they plunder the milk from her bosom and thrust their fingers into her treasury hurting her deep inside until she bleeds. The suckling children are denied access to dear mother's tit. Hopeless and deserted, they crawl to the streets...homeless, penniless and hungry; Weak, toothless and voiceless....they stay and stare into space waiting for tomorrow. This sapless bundle of brains and brawns. When will their tomorrow come again? When will they taste the oil in mother's soup? Here I stand waiting for the wind . Let it blow so we see the 'hinterlands' of the fowl's backside!

Thom: @Omini: as usual you touch the heart of my brain with the nimble fingers of your words...'oh, how then can we stop these men with conscience...' Our own consciousness expressed in this new slate, hand held black boards...etching away what we feel...speaking truth to all who care to listen...watching, waiting...Socrates...Plato...Shakespeare ....even the Psalmist. The verse, ours verse never dies...

Omini: @Thom: I hear you brother! Let the eyes and ears of this arena stay alert. For we will, in verses mow the land. In flowing lines shall we till the soil and sow the seed in artful rhapsody. And then in pulsating rhymes, this seed of change shall we water until we see the fruits...the dream... of 'the labour of our heroes past' So help us God!