2010 has ended and the usual introspections begin. Although I'm not really one for reminding myself of the high's and low's of a particular time-period this year marked a turning point for me. More than one actually.

My best day:
This would have to be 22nd November when my daughter was born. This 4kg bundle of joy marked the true beginning of my adulthood and made me a baby-daddy.
My worst day:
The following day when I told my dad he was a grandpa and he couldn't respond through the debilitating effects of Normal Pressure Hydrocephalous. A close second involved rent money and my former landlord's wrath.

Who had the Biggest Impact on me:
I met a lot of people this year. But none affected me more positively than the trio of Rev Arome Adah, Major Moyo Akin-Ojo and Rev Emma Opara. On the flip side, my biggest negative impact would probably be the disappointment of an old business partner who lied to me.

My Greatest Achievement this year:
Disappointments aplenty. Achievements a-not-so-plenty. Or at least few that I would lay claim to. But glory to God who anointed me for greatness and prosperity this year. I am richer than anyone.

2011 comes with great promise. New unction for action. New friends to make. New ventures to embark upon. Even my country has new elections... may the best man win. Amen?

New challenges as a daddy, husband and man. New opportunities greater than any I've seen yet. It's a new day for you too. Grab it.

Happy new year everyone.

Close Encounters of the God Kind

Heaven is a real place.

I know many of us believe in a heaven. I also know that many people don't believe in heaven, or hell, or God for that matter. But I do.

I came across Jesse Duplantis many years ago through a video cassette on which he preached a message titled "Close Encounters of the God Kind". In that message he described a number of supernatural encounters which led up to the supernatural experience of being sucked up out of his hotel room in Magnolia, Arkansas and taken up to heaven.

While he is not the first person with such a testimony, Jesse Duplantis is definitely one of the most memorable. Later I came to see through watching several of his other messages that he is such a funny Man of God. But this message, while humorous, is delivered with such heartwarming sincerity that I couldn't stop watching. It blessed me thoroughly.

I hope you will take the time to watch the excerpts below. In fact, order the DVD... you won't regret it.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Everywhere... and nowhere?

Been away for a bit. I know.

Not my fault.

Blogging don't pay my bills... yet! And I wonder if it ever will.

I've been spending an awful lot of time on facebook. It's such a guilty pleasure for me. I log in almost daily and check up friends activities... no matter how mundane. I send birthday shoutouts (hard to claim you forgot a pals birthday nowadays) and keep up with so many peoples individual minor and major tragedies that I'm starting to fell like I'm watching a soap opera.

I've also been spending quite some time on twitter and now I've added tumblr.

Catch me if you can.

Nigerian Street Kings

I went to visit a friend the other day. My friend is a civil servant/businessman/politician and considers himself a political protege of Olusegun Obasanjo. In the course of our discussion, he told me that he fully supports OBJ's political approach of "use them and dump them". Then he dropped this bombshell: he claims Obasanjo is the unseen hand behind Nuhu Ribadu's travails.

Like John Githongo of Kenya (google him if you please), it would seem OBJ felt that Ribadu may have uncovered information on OBJ that he could only use after Obasanjo left power. When I asked how sure he or even OBJ could be that Ribadu had any such information in his possession, he stated that whether he had the info or not, OBJ could not afford to leave him in so powerful a position. Hence the need to "secure the flanks".

Ironically, it would appear that Ribadu is himself unaware of the situation as he considers OBJ his godfather. According to my friend, Ribadu was in touch with OBJ every step of the way during his demotion, prevention from graduation and eventual sack and legal travails. Apparently, while OBJ played the role of comforting patron with assurances that he would "take care of the matter", he would unleash another blow upon Ribadu's image and person.

If this tale is true, then perhaps, like Keanu Reeves' character in the movie Street Kings, Ribadu needs to wake up to his expendability and take out his mentor. ASAP. I'm not advocating that Ribadu should grab a gun and blow OBJ away while taking a hammer to the walls of Otta farm (even though that would be something!). Perhaps he can learn a bit from John Githongo, his Kenyan counterpart.

This is an excerpt from an interesting Vanguard Online article titled: Fighting Corruption in Africa - When the hunters become the hunted.
Here's the link: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/01/11/fighting-corruption-in-africa-when-hunters-become-the-hunted/

John Githongo, Anti-corruption warrior

I will begin with a flashback to my first encounter with John Githongo at the Third International Conference on Anti-corruption held in Lima, Peru in 1997. His brilliant exposé on the problem of corruption in Kenya made him the star performer at the conference.

The illustrative cases in his presentation that involved many of Kenya’s high and mighty wowed the entire audience. When the offer of political asylum was raised informally with him by some participants who feared he might risk incarceration back home, he would have none of it. He returned to Kenya and, two years later, he became the head of Kenya’s branch of Transparency International (K-TI). Under his watch, K-TI was widely acknowledged as the most active and effective TI branch in Africa.

During my stint as a World Bank field staff in Kenya (1998-2000), I learnt a lot from John about Kenyan politics and society during our numerous “tea sessions” held in selected Nairobi hotels. Predictably, the problem of corruption in Kenya featured prominently in almost all our conversations.

Significantly, the last time I discussed the subject with him was in the State House in November 2003, some months after he had assumed office as the Permanent Secretary in Charge of Governance and Ethics (a.k.a anti-corruption czar) in the newly-installed Kibaki administration. John and I enjoyed a good laugh about the “progress” from conversations in hotels to a conversation in the State House.

In It’s Our Turn to Eat, Ms Wrong tells the story of John Githongo’s experience as an anti-corruption czar between 2003 and 2005. Following his appointment, Githongo wasted no time in setting in motion the probe of the Goldenberg scam of the early 1990s – fake exports of gold and diamonds, estimated at between $600 million and $4billion under president Moi’s watch.

The probe was still on-going when Githongo obtained strong evidence about the Anglo leasing procurement scam (18 phantom military and security-related contracts) in the amount of about $750 million that involved top officials of the newly-installed Kibaki administration. (Some of the Anglo leasing contracts were inherited from the Moi administration – a case of change in dramatis personae but continuity in the “State House’s system of authorised looting”).

When Githongo conclusively traced the Anglo leasing “eating” to the President’s doorsteps, he decided to flee the country in February 2005, after barely two years on the job: “Ultimately, it became clear.
I was investigating the President” (p. 220). Woven around the informed and balanced biography of Githongo that is at the centre of the book is the sordid story of the system of corruption in post-independence Kenya that the author has baptized “Our Turn to Eat” culture: from the turn of the Kikuyus in the immediate post-independence years (the Kenyatta presidency, 1963-1978) to the turn of the Kalenjins (Moi presidency, 1978-2002) and back to the Kikuyus again (2003 to date). This poisonous conflation of ethnicity and corruption has the added ugly dimension of virtual exclusion – no thought for the other 41-odd other ethnic groups.

The portrait of Githongo as a whistle-blower is crafted in fascinating details: his taping of conversations with his colleagues, his independent network of sleuths (substitute for the corrupt official intelligence service), the diaries of his findings and reflections, and above all, the “upstander” with a single-minded commitment to exposing corruption, even at the cost of hardships to his family and real threats to his own life.

And “atypically”, he was a believer in Kenya, not in “Gikuyu Inc” (that is, dominance by his own Kikuyu ethnic group). In exile in Oxford, the whistleblower produced a comprehensive dossier on Anglo Leasing that he released to Kenya’s most widely-read daily newspaper, Nation. He also got a succinct version of the dossier posted on the website of the British Broadcasting Corporation in early 2006

Wrong affirms a linkage between Kenya’s post-election violence of December 2007/January 2008 and “Our Turn to Eat” culture. The obvious implication is that Kenya is unlikely to make real progress towards good governance as long as systemic corruption persists. It would appear that the whistleblower and his biographer share this viewpoint: Githongo returned to Kenya in February 2009 and has resolved to seek elective office – to continue the fight against corruption from another

I'd like to read your thoughts y'all.

234Next or 234Noise

I'm beginning to be a little concerned about Next newspapers.

This is not to say that I don't admire and respect them for following the courage of their convictions or maintaining the quality of their publication or the increasing the frequency with which they oppose hare-brained utterances of apparently hare-brained politicians. But my question is... to what end?

Seriously, what does 234Next stand for? What ideology do they espouse? What colors the logic of their social, political and economic analyses? Are they just content to oppose for opposition sake? Or do they have a vision through which they view goings on in Nigeria (and indeed the world)? Are they leftist in their economics? Are they liberal? And to what end (pro-choice, gay-rights etc) anyway. Are they conservative? Do they support old-school or new-school capitalism?

I sometimes get the impression 234Next may just be going through an adolescent rebellious phase - ideologically and joyfully revelling in it's own self-awareness (read Kadaria Ahmed's wonderful article 'Ethnicising our Predicament'). Other times they just sound like perennial complainers grumbling like its in vogue (don't read Joseph Otteh's 'Open Letter to the IG of Police' - seriously people, wait for the follow-up).

I'm willing to cut Mr Olojede's crew some honeymoon slack but the idea is growing on me that reportage without ideology soon becomes cacophony. And if that's true then 234Next may really be 234Noise.

I'd like to read your views y'all

A Message from Nigerian Writers to their Fellow Nigerians

A group of successful (Google them if you don't believe me) Nigerian writers have issued this message to their fellow Nigerians (i.e. you and me). Since truth bears repetition I think I'm gonna ask you to share this to your profile pages in the most crea8tive ways possible (cos for writers they sure come off sounding like boring lecturers). So... help 'em, help yourself, help us all.

Nigeria's failure to make the progress commensurate with 50 years of nation-building is not just a failure of leadership. It is first and most catastrophically, a failure of followership.

As ordinary Nigerians, we have failed to create an environment where good leadership can thrive. By glamorising fraud and ineptitude, we have created a country hostile to probity. Our expectation from Government House is mediocrity, so that good government surprises us pleasantly and excellence continues to amaze us.

Instead of an environment of accountability, we have fostered sycophancy. We have been content to follow every stripe of leader - from the thief to the buffoon. The consequence is that for months we have been happy to be ruled even in absentia.

Today, we say, no more

Protest is not a dirty word. Even babies have a voice, long before they learn language or discernment. The child that is too docile to cry when it hungers or ails might die in the hands of the most benevolent mother. A leadership, however benevolent, requires an intelligent, demanding, and courageous followership to excel.

It is the responsibility of every Nigerian to voice the legitimate expectations of nation and to establish the standards to which our leaders must be held. We must expect great things from this country, so we must look for the leaders who can deliver. There is an acceptable standard of leadership, and then there is an unacceptable standard. We must honour leaders who excel, and censure leaders - at every level, and in every arm of government - who betray our trust.

If failure is not censured, there is no incentive in pursuing excellence. If sacrificial leadership is not recognised, then leaders of merit will not come forward, and the heroes in our cenotaphs will be the very architects of our failure as a nation. Although, we are justly famous for our generosity of spirit, for our ability to forgive and forget the gravest transgressions, Nigerians must also now boldly condemn the errors of leadership, and end the complacency that has brought us so low as a country.

The only reason for the existence of political leaders is to offer service to nation. Leadership is not an end in itself. It is a privilege to serve your country; leadership is not a right to be served by your country.

Today, Nigeria stands on a precipice. Behind us is a history that can push us, irrevocably, over the brink. Yet, we are writers. If we bring anything collectively to society, it must be the imagination and the inspiration to bridge impossible gulfs. Today, we must plumb our history, not to evoke despair, but to inspire resolve. Today, we call on Nigerians to hold hands across the trenches of our deep divisions and, somehow, find the resolution to dream again.

Reject ethnic fictions

Let us, as ordinary Nigerians, reject the ethnic fictions that local despots have used to colonise this country over the past five decades.

Let us dream a simple dream made fantastic by our present circumstances. Let us dream of a Nigeria that works, that evokes pride, and that inspires faith. Let us dream of a Nigeria of servant-leaders and sacrificial statesmen, a Nigeria which calls the best characteristics out of ordinary men and women. Let us call on that capacity for renewal to bring opportunity out of this crisis.

Let us recreate the excitement - and the possibilities - with which we approached the Independence Day of 1960.

In 50 years, the resources and destiny of this great country have been hijacked by private carpetbaggers and adventurers. Let us take back the sanctity of our polls. Let us rejuvenate the recall process. Let us police our resources, our leadership. We must liberate Nigeria anew. Today, we must take back our country.

As writers, the past and the future are fertile fields for the work of our imagination. Today, in this love-letter to our nation, we call on all Nigerians to take authorship of our nation's next 50 years. Our destiny is in our own hands.

Shall we write into it a bigger civil war? Another half-century of mediocrity and international disgrace? Then we need do nothing. But if we, the people of Nigeria, must write an inspirational epic of a humbled nation on her knees, who, breaking free of bondage, soars into the keep of eagles, we must begin by demanding only the best of our leaders.

In the days and months to come, we the people must find our voice, our votes, and our true values. And we must make them count.

Thank you.

Chuma Nwokolo • Abdul Mahmud • Afam Akeh • Helon Habila • Paul Onovoh • Chika Unigwe • Jude Dibia • Okey Ndibe • Chilo Zona Eze • EC Osondu • Tade Ipadeola • Unoma Azuah • Shola Adenekan • Amatoritsero Ede • Lola Shoneyin • Uzor Maxim Uzoatu • Ikhide Ikheloa • Uche Peter Umez • Nnorom Azuonye • Richard Mammah • Chike Ofili • Obiwu • Uche Nduka • Ogaga Ifowodo • Richard Ugbede Ali • Maik Nwosu • Akin Adesokan • Obi Nwakanma