If MLK's dream could come to pass, then my dreams can come to pass too....

I Have A Dream (Nigerian Version)

Many teachers and books over the ages have taught about the great power that lies in the spoken word. Words, they say, can have profound effects in making or marring processes, people and kingdoms. The Bible, the book of books, further reinstates this with the scripture in the book of Proverbs, which says ‘The power of life and death are in the tongue.’ People, in the long course of history, have made good or bad use of the power of spoken words.

Some forty years ago, at a time when the black people in the United States of America faced an impossible challenge ; a time when blacks could not use the same hotels as whites; when black children could not attend the same schools as white children because they were perceived as inferior beings due to their skin colour. At this time, they could not sit in the same seats with whites in transport buses. They could not vote in the elections and they could not be voted for. Their communities were deliberately impoverished by the government of the time. They were badly beaten, brutalized, humiliated and subjected to all forms of oppression by the white man. The police would brutalize them in the daytime and the KKK, a white supremacist clan, would maim and kill them, and burn their houses at night.

At this seemingly hopeless period, a young black preacher from Georgia mounted a rostrum and declared that he had a dream; a dream that one day racial injustice would be a thing of the past in his country; a dream that one day, in his country, men would no longer be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character; a dream that one day, the sons of slaves and the sons of slave owners would sit down by the table of brotherhood! How impossible his dream sounded at the time; how unthinkable his dream seemed. From all calculations of human wisdom, it was impossible. Today however, forty-five years after, this young preacher has been proved right. His words have come to pass and his dreams have come true as racial injustice is now a thing of the past in his country. Racism still exists though, but racial injustice is completely buried and forgotten in the country. Today, one of his kind, a black man, is the President of America, the greatest office in the country, and indeed, the whole world.

The story of the young preacher brings to mind a word of scripture in the book of Isaiah 42:22 which says ‘..this is a people robbed and spoiled…they are for a prey and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none sayeth, restore.’

How aptly this scripture describes the situation of the blacks in America at that time! For they were truly robbed, robbed of their human dignity and right to freedom; they were spoilt, beaten and killed severally. But the young black preacher stepped on the scene and said ‘Restore’ to his people’s situation with his ‘I have a dream’ speech and God has today answered his restoration call and his people are free.

How aptly the scripture also describes the situation of Nigeria today! We as a people have been robbed and spoilt. Robbery would be an understatement in the light of the situation today, Nigeria and Nigerians have been raped, plundered and looted by Nigerians. Whilst in the case of the blacks in America, they were oppressed by another people; we in Nigeria have been and are still being oppressed by our own people, political gladiators who loot our treasury in the name of leading us. We have been, and are still being spoilt and cheated by our leaders who have run our polity aground. Today, our people suffer untold hardship and first class poverty in the midst of so much prosperity. The people whose land produces the largest chunk of our resources are the poorest and most neglected in the nation. The political class feeds fat, buys houses all around the world, rides bullet-proof and customized cars while over seventy percent of the people live under $1 per day.

In the face of these gloomy and seemingly hopeless circumstances, the people have surrendered to their fate after so much deceit, disappointments and dashed hope; the government continues in its looting spree; and the church merely murmurs in the name of prayer, for what is prayer when it is not backed by actions of faith?

Today, in the face of this seemingly irredeemable situation my nation has found herself, I wish to take a cue from the young black Georgian preacher. I wish to stand where he stood and declare with faith in the ability of God to bring my words to pass too. It took forty-five years for the American preacher’s dream to come to pass. Perhaps it will take as long for my dream to come to pass, perhaps it will take a shorter or a longer period. One thing I know of a certainty is that one day, my dream too will come to pass. I believe this because God’s holy prophet has declared ‘Restore’ when he prophesied ‘The New Nigeria is as sure as the New Jerusalem.’ On the strength of this, I say, I have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the meaning and essence of the Green-White-Green; that when we can attain unto the white which means righteousness, purity and transparency in governance and our daily lives, then we as a people can achieve unto the green, which symbolizes prosperity and plenty.

I have a dream that one day, my country Nigeria will rise from the lethargy of a sleeping giant and stand tall to fulfill its destiny and take its rightful place in the comity of nations.
I have a dream that one day, the rule of the brambles will come to an end and the olives, figs and vines will take their rightful place in our government.
I have a dream that one day, we will attain unto a nation where no man is oppressed.
I have a dream that one day, the economic status of all Nigerians will reflect the wealth that exists in our nation.
I have a dream that one day Nigeria will generate 80,000 watts of electricity and distribute to the rich and poor without fear or favour.
I have a dream that one day; very soon, clean portable water will flow in every household from Ikoyi in Lagos and Asokoro in Abuja, to Ajegunle in Lagos, Bori camp in Port Harcourt, and Bichi in Kano.
I have a dream that one day, every road that passes through our cities and villages will be properly and genuinely tarred and maintained to prevent unnecessary accidents and bloodshed.
I have a dream that one day, excellent and qualitative education will be the hallmark of our schools, from primary, secondary and tertiary schools. That one day, foreigners will flood to our nation to study and our educational system shall become the envy of the world.
I have a dream that one day, even the poor in Nigeria, would be comparable to the rich in other countries.
I have a dream that one day; all acts of financial corruption will be seen as an abomination and a thing of shame in the society, and our people will no longer see a chance in government as a chance to become rich but a chance to give sincere and meritorious service to the nation.
I have a dream that one day, the first people to question the sudden accumulation of wealth by any political office holder in Nigeria will be the members of his own household; his sons, daughters, friends, family and Pastor!
I have a dream that one day the people of the Niger Delta will heave a sigh relief; that the poor people of the land will be adequately compensated for the impoverishment and destruction done to their land. That one day, violence and militancy will end in the region and the youths will be rehabilitated and given a new lease of life.
I have a dream that one day; the Nigerian Church will live up to its true essence and purpose – the light of world and the salt of the earth.

When this happens and all these dreams come true, then shall every mountain be brought low; every valley exalted; every crooked path made straight and righteousness shall flow like a river and justice like a mighty stream across our nation. Then we shall rejoice in achieving God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. For in heaven, no one is oppressed and no one is cheated.

When that day comes, then all our people, from Maiduguri to Kano; from Sokoto to Yola; from Akwanga to Ilorin; from Enugu to Onitsha; from Benin to Ilesa; from Abeokuta to Ado-Ekiti; our people will rejoice and give glory to God who changed our story and gave us a better deal.In that day everyone will sit with his family and sing an equivalent of that old Yoruba song which says:

Ide mi ja o (My bondage is broken)
Halleluya, mo d’ele ayo (2ce) (Halleluya, I have reached the destination of joy)
Ide mi ja… (My bondage is broken)
O ja pau! (It breaks with a loud bang!)
Ide mi ma ja o (My bondage is broken)
Halleluya mo d’ele ayo. (Halleluya, I have reached the destination of joy)

God bless GIC; God bless the New Nigeria and God bless His kingdom.

There was a time in Nigeria when the music taught hard work....

WHEN THE MUSIC CHANGED

In recent months, Nigeria and indeed Africa has witnessed the sad departure of her music greats. The crooners whose lyrics shaped the African psyche in the seventies down to the eighties and even the recent nineties. Chief Olive De Coque; Sonny Okosuns the Oziddi king; Orlando Owoh of the Kennery Rave and Miriam Makeba, the great South African woman who first brought African music to the international scene in the early seventies. With the departure of these greats, a season of reflection stares Africa in the face in the light of the achievements made by these great musicians, their impact on our nation and continent and indeed the legacy they leave viz-a-viz the next generation of musicians that will take over from them.

In the light of Nigeria’s current situation, it is unarguable that we as a people are largely responsible for the fall of the great giant of Africa. Through our actions and inactions, we all have contributed greatly to the moral decay that has crippled Nigeria’s economy and progress. It is a well-known fact that a people’s actions are shapened by their behavioral pattern, their behavioral pattern is also greatly shapened by their thought pattern and their thought pattern is greatly influenced by what they know, what they hear and what they believe. This fact shows the important role which music plays in the lives of our people. Musicians play such an important role in the society in that they have the power to shape the thought pattern of their listeners and when a musician is the toast of a community, he or she has a big impact on the behavioral patterns and inadvertently actions of the people of that community.

This strategic and important role of music has been gainfully exploited by establishments and corporate organizations in promoting their brands. One example that readily comes to mind is the dominance of the Hennessey brand of gin in the alcoholic drinks industry. Hennessey achieved this dominance when a popular American hip-hop group used it in their music video and made the brand a status symbol. In the polity, many instances abound where music has influenced the actions of people both positively and negatively. Tupac Shakur’s hit track ‘Hit ‘em up’ was banned from America’s airwaves when a violent youth claimed in court that he had behaved irrationally in public after he listened to the song. Also, the cry of the American people to their government to pull out of the Vietnam war gained a fresh burst of momentum after the reggae legend Jimmy Cliff released his song titled ‘Vietnam’ in which he described in very emotional lyrics the undue agony of the American Soldiers in the misguided war.

Music in Nigeria has always been a very strong influence on the thought pattern of our people. There was a generation of musicians in this country that shaped the thought pattern of the Nigerian people towards the dignity of hard work; towards nation building through honesty, patriotism and nationalism. This was the first generation of musicians who came up with songs such as:

‘Ha E Mura, e Mura s’ise o, ise l’oogun ise’ (Brace up yourself, work hard; hard work is the only solution to poverty)

These lyrics unequivocally tell the listener and indeed the community about the indispensable nature of hard work on the journey to achieving success. In the eighties, when I was in primary school, there was yet another song always played in the radio. It is a timeless piece that in no small way had an input into the kind of person that I have grown to become. The lyrics go in pidgin english thus:

‘Time Na money o, (Time is money)

Use your time well,

No yamayama, (There is no time for frivolities)

No gossip gossip,

No spoil another man, (Don’t spoil another man)

Use your time well,

Money no dey come from heaven, (Money doesn’t come from heaven)

Do better thing money go come, (Do something valuable and you will make it)

Na true word I dey tell you so o, (I’m telling you the truth)

O Na so. (That is the way it is)

These were the lyrics that dominated Nigeria’s airwaves in the past generation and their role in raising the standard of good morals in the nation cannot be underestimated. Men worked and were satisfied with the much they had. The present desperate struggle for wealth at any cost which is the hallmark of today’s Nigeria was a thing of shame and reproach in those days. However, in recent years, Nigeria has watched with helpless passivity, the gradual collapse and destruction of sanity and morality, which was once the building block of our nation, and which of course is the building block of any successful nation on earth.

With the coming of the new generation, the theme of Nigerian music has changed, and has changed in line with the moral slip that characterizes this generation. Whereas the music of the seventies and eighties laid great emphasis on the dignity and indispensable nature of hard work towards the achievement of success, the music today seeks to teach the youth that there is an alternative to hard work on the pathway to success. What with lyrics such as:

“Awon Kan w’aye wa s’ise (Some live to work on earth)

Awon Kan w’aye wa j’aye (Some live simply to enjoy life)

Awon kan w’aye wa sayo o” (Some live to drink to stupor)

And then a most recent one which declares a Godly way to celebrate fraud with these lyrics:

“Maga don pay, shout Halleluiah” (Internet victim has paid into my account, Praise God)!

Such brazen declaration of joy and temporal fulfillment in fraudulent activities by the negatively sharp youths of today have found their way into our music, onto the airwaves, and currently influences a lot of Nigerian youths to seek solace in the world of crime. Since the youths of today are definitely the leaders of tomorrow, the danger lies in that these vices may be transferred into governance in the years to come if urgent action is not taken to curb this trend and a massive re-orientation exercise is done for the youths. These lyrics depict the pervading thought pattern of the average Nigerian today. They show a mentality which says “make it anyhow” and a culture that celebrates anyone with the most amount of money, irrespective of how the money is acquired. This is why our nation has continually been rated as one of the most corrupt countries on the face of the planet. This is the underlying reason why our people suffer so much poverty in the midst of great prosperity, all because a clique of men will use the machinery of violence to perpetrate themselves in power to make more and more money, the only language our society understands.

But really, who is to blame for this mess? Shall we blame the youths of today, or shall we lay the blame at the feet of the passing generation? If a little boy does something wrong because he sees his father doing the same thing, you cannot condemn the boy, after all like my people say o ri eni fi jo! No matter how much an outsider tries to correct this little boy, he will not stop in his wrong actions, except he sees his father stop doing same. For as long as the little boy keeps seeing his father performing this wrong activity, he will continue to do as his father does, and guess what, with time, he becomes better and even surpasses the feat of his father.

The fault clearly lies at the feet of the passing generation. A generation of fathers who crumbled a brilliant legacy laid down by the founding fathers of our nation. Through the greed of generations of military and civilian rulers, corruption became the lingua franca of our nation. Corruption has since so weaved into the fabrics of our lives that a whole generation of Nigerians cannot really identify corruption anymore. It has become the norm of the society they met, grew up in, and saw the older generation do with impunity. As a result of this, the culture on the streets across Nigeria is a phenomenon which says “Grab your own share of the booty.” “Get a cut from any opportunity.” “A chance in government is a breakthrough.” “Government money is national cake, take yours in your time.” “That man has much money; he is a ‘correct man’. It doesn’t matter how he got it, he’s a sharp man.” The society reeks of this thought pattern; the government executes it with ingenuity and the church, I mean the church, celebrates it shamelessly!

This is the Nigeria that the present generation grew in. This is the nation they grew up to know. This is the culture that shaped their thought pattern and as they grew up, the street wise among them embraced the newly evolving crime called internet fraud. The music talents in their midst, sang and elevated the evil culture with their music genius and a generation continues to sink in the mire of moral decadence and national disaster.

The time is ripe for a massive re-orientation of values and comprehensive rehabilitation of psyche for the Nigerian people, old and young, Christian and Muslim, Pastor and Imam, women and even children. It will be more effective to grow a new breed of Nigerians without greed, than allowing the greed to grow and setting up machinery to catch them. Both would work to save the situation, but the former will have a more lasting effect on our polity.

This is a call to the music ambassadors of the new generation, from Tuface Idibia, to D’banj, Asa, Banky W, 9ice and the rest of the players. On your shoulders lies great responsibility. Yours are the voices that are heard on the loudspeakers blaring from DJ’s shops on our streets; yours are the voices heard from every bus stop around Nigeria. In the commercial buses as well as private cars, on the radio as well as the television, in the banking halls as well as the hotel rooms around our nation. Yours are the voices that sink deep into the souls of Nigerians, a people who love their indigenous music with a rare passion. Yours are the voices that shape the thought pattern of the new generation of Nigerians. You are the ones who changed the social landscape of Nigeria and put in new parlances on the lips of the Nigerian people, you are the ones that coined “Nothing dey happen” “No long thing” “File” “That is the koko” and a host of other slangs that have become a deep seated part of the Nigerian parlance today. In you lies the great opportunity to change the thinking pattern of this generation, to change the behavioral pattern and thereby the actions of our youths. You have the opportunity to shape a new mentality and instill a sense of godliness, nationalism and honesty in the youths of today. We can change Nigeria; we can make this country far better than this. If only we can change our orientation and thought pattern, a lot of things that are improperly done now can begin to change for the better. This country needs a difference; your voices could be and could make that difference.

To all the proponents of the New Nigeria; to everyone who believes this nation has the potential for a better future; to everyone who shares my belief that we can change Nigeria positively with our own hands and create a New Nigeria that will be the envy of the world whilst giving glory to God; we have a big task at hand. We must leave the corners and crevices of our homes where we only complain and whine; we must emerge from our different cubicles, and step out to create a voice that will change Nigeria. The New Nigeria is a country of New Nigerians and there are no two ways about it. God is not going to kill every Nigerian living now to start a new life of new humans in Nigeria. He is going to use us to propagate the message of change across the length and breadth of our nation. We will speak, and God will confirm His word. We must flood every medium of communication that goes around this country with the message of hope and righteous living. We must correct the misguided slander that says Nigeria can never be great again. We must insist on what is right and the possibilities of living right even under the tight conditions that the corrupt Nigeria puts us. We have a voice, we have talents, we have men, and above all we have the blessings of the almighty God. In one Obama lay the change to world history, in us lies the seed of change that will burn like a wildfire around Nigeria, burning off the chaffs that have impoverished us for so long and refining the gold that has been erstwhile buried in the mud across our land.

God bless the dream called ‘The New Nigeria’.

Abeokuta is Africa's land of greatness....

Greatness in the loins of Sodeke

It is one of the lessons that history teaches us. One of the many ways Divinity communicates His greatness and supremacy to humanity. God, through diverse lessons in our world today reveals his control on the destiny of mankind to the discerning. One of such lessons is the manner of talents and passions he bestows on the different peoples and tribes that traverse different parts of the earth.

In Bible history, in I Chronicles 12:32 we learn about the sons of Issachar, a tribe that had an understanding of the times and so thereby gave the nation of Israel direction, telling the leaders what to do at any given time. We also read about the people of Charashim in I Chronicles 4:14 who were expert craftsmen.

And if you are not familiar with the Bible, we can pick a few lessons in our world today. Why do so many football greats come from Brazil? Over generations, Brazilians have shown that the game of football runs in their veins. Yes, there are many other football greats from other nations, but no other nation boasts of the density of football talents from Brazil. Football originated from England, not Brazil, so how come Brazil dominates the game. It is the gift of God to the people of that nation. A gift that has had a significant impact on their economy as many of their sons who would have been impoverished and unsung in life have become wealthy men and a source of inspiration to many youngsters around the world.

What about the Kenyans and Ethiopians and the marathon race? There are about 200 countries in the world today, how come Kenya and Ethiopia, two countries who share a common border dominate the marathon race? The topography of their land gives them the advantage and they have earned a reputation all around the world as horses who run tens of kilometers without wearing out. It is the gift of God to these people. This gift has earned them a name, has put wealth in their hands and has raised role models across the globe from these two African nations.

There are many freedom fighters and politically motivated pan-africanists from different parts of Africa today. These are men who love their motherland; who love Africa; are proud of their black heritage; have excelled in a specific field of human endeavor and have thereby earned worldwide acclaim and international clout. They abound, scattered across different cities in different nations all over Africa, but there is not one singular town that has as many of these men as Abeokuta, a city in southwest Nigeria. Abeokuta, a city established by a warrior called Sodeke in the 1800s is Africa’s land of greatness, the land of distinguished freedom fighters.

How else can you explain the fact that former Head of State and President Olusegun Obasanjo; Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka; distinguished business mogul and statesman late Chief MKO Abiola; late Afro beat icon Fela Anikulapo-kuti; the unusual and fiery servant of God Pastor Tunde Bakare and a host of others all come from the same small town, all descendants of Sodeke.

An examination of these men reveal the same streak – they love their country Nigeria with a passion; they express no fear in the face of oppression or death; they are passionately stubborn in whatever they believe in and will follow it to a logical conclusion whether they are right or wrong; they all excelled with distinction in their chosen careers; they have an unquestionable international clout and are known all over the world for their positive contributions towards Africa and particularly Nigeria.

I am not a fan of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and even though we share the same birthday, I detest his approach to governance. He was a highly incorrigible bigot who hated dissenting opinion; he treated opposition as enmity and tried to run a republic like a kingdom. He was highly selective and vindictive in his anti-corruption campaign and under his reign, the masses of Nigeria saw economic hell in the face of incessant increases in the prices of fuel.

I may not like Obasanjo but that does not obliterate his great and unquestionable destiny. Obasanjo is in my opinion the Nigerian leader with the greatest destiny who has ever lived. A man who has led his country two times and both times he never hassled for the seat but was literally invited to occupy the seat. Now, that is greatness, that is destiny. His character and personality are another issue. He almost literally ended the civil war and has contributed greatly to the unification of Nigeria. He has dined with the high and mighty across the globe; he has walked in the greatest places of the earth; he is a great son of Abeokuta, with the unquestionable trait of fearlessness and greatness.

Professor Wole Soyinka is another son of Abeokuta. A shining star in the field of creative writing and has more clout that any other writer from the African continent being the first of his kin to win the Nobel Prize in literature in 1986. And in consistency with the character of the sons of Sodeke, Professor Wole Soyinka has spent his entire life fighting oppression and injustice in Nigeria and across the face of Africa. His speeches and writings have always addressed bad government in Nigeria and Africa. This has gotten him into trouble severally as se has been incarcerated on many occasions. He was forced into voluntary exile during the high-handed reign of late General Sani Abacha. He endured the tear gas during the years of Obasanjo, his kinsman’s presidency. Professor Wole Soyinka, a greatly distinguished son of Abeokuta has spent his entire life fighting bad government, and struggling to enthrone democracy and justice in his nation. He has expressed great boldness and courage in his lifetime and defied the fear of death on many occasions. He is yet another great son of Sodeke, he is a great freedom fighter.

Chief MKO Abiola traversed as a colossus across the business and political landscape of Nigeria in his days. A super-wealthy philanthropist, he rose from a background of nothing to become one of Africa’s wealthiest and greatest sons. He was generous to a fault and many great sons of Nigeria today got an education on his generosity. A man who suffered greatly as a child, his heart was always open to the suffering of the poor. He stood for many great ideals and fought many noble causes. A scathing critic of racism, he advocated for the payment of reparation to Africa by the western world as compensation to the black man for the oppression and indignity of the trans-Atlantic slavery. He ran for the highest seat in Nigeria, and won but the election, adjudged the freest and fairest in Nigeria’s political history, was dishonorably annulled by the then Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida. He was jailed for declaring himself President and eventually lost his life in the cause for the realization of his electoral mandate. His death however arguably paved a way for the emergence of the fourth republic in Nigeria with his kinsman General Olusegun Obasanjo, as the beneficiary. Chief MKO Abiola can never be forgotten in Nigeria, he was a great son of Africa, a distinguished son of Sodeke, he was also a fighter, a Pan-African fighter, and even though making money was his business, the trait of greatness in him found him out and made him Nigeria’s real first martyr of democracy.

In his days, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was the weirdest and most unusual man alive. This trait earned him the appellation ‘abami eda’ meaning ‘the weird one’. A son of a clergyman and human rights activist mother, his global fame towers above that of any other son of Abeokuta. In his time, the Head of State of Nigeria was recognized by Fela’s clout. It was reported that a Nigerian Head of State had attended a function in Europe and was asked ‘Oh, you are the president of Fela’s country?’ A distinguished instrumentalist and musician, he dedicated his music and lifetime to the struggle against the oppression of military juntas in Nigeria. He also sang to denounce racism, imperialism and the superimposition of Western culture on the psyche of the black man. He married 27 of his dancers in one day. He smoked marijuana and stubbornly insisted it was good for his health until the Nigerian government left him alone. He fought oppression in the most insecure of conditions. He was badly beaten, brutalized, and his house was raided and razed. His ‘ideological’ mother was killed. He was jailed on many occasions on trumped up charges as well as genuine ones, yet Fela Anikulapo-kuti fought on, he never compromised his stand. He called the names of dictators in his songs and took them on headlong. And even though he sang in local Pidgin and Yoruba, his music was accepted all over the world for the quality of its content and the message it carried. Arguably, Fela remains Africa’s greatest music export to the world. His greatness is unquestionable, he is unprecedented and it is doubtful if anyone will fill his big shoes for many years after him. He was a son of Sodeke, a fierce, fearless and great freedom fighter.

There is yet another son of Sodeke, a direct descendant of the warring Egba progenitor. His mother called him ‘jagun’ (warrior) from the cradle as though she had known he would spend his life fighting. Born with the instinct of the fighter his mother called him and the traits of Sodeke his ancestor, as a child, he fought a friend of his mother who had come to insult her over an unpaid debt. As a young growing lad, he retaliated an unjustified slap from his boss as he worked as a postman in the Lagos post office in the seventies. He abhors corrupt leadership; highly intolerant of oppressive governments, his skinny frame vibrates with raw passion as he takes on wicked and corrupt leaders in Nigeria. He is a man of God of a different mould and an unprecedented occurrence in the Nigerian Christian community. He is an unusual and somewhat strange personality who would never waste an opportunity to denounce bad governance in Nigeria and anywhere in Africa. I mean, what manner of man would go to Kano and declare that the sitting Head of State, General Sani Abacha, the coldest dictator in Nigeria’s history, would be brought home dead in a short while? By the way Kano is the hometown of Abacha. What manner of man would go to Liberia, in the heat of Charles Taylor’s bloody siege on that nation and declare “you Liberians are crazy people for allowing a tailor to be your leader, the next time I come to this nation, he will no longer be your leader.?” He would go to Kenya and scream at the top of his thin sonorous voice, in the midst of Arap Moi’s madness and declare “M-manipulator, O-oppressor, I-intimidator, your candle is put out today!” He would go to South Africa to put out the candle of the bloody and wicked leader of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe. The man is Pastor Tunde Bakare, a true and proud son of Abeokuta; his love for his hometown is conspicuous as he can hardly speak without singing a song from or mentioning his hometown. A fiery man of God in a mould only for himself, he has defied death, oppression, intimidation, incarceration in his time as a freedom fighter in Nigeria and the whole of Africa. He belongs to the order of the liberators as well as the order of the prophetic. He was a thorn in the flesh of former President Obasanjo during the latter’s eight-year administration as civilian president. Pastor Tunde Bakare loves Nigeria with a deep passion and has severally declared that he cannot separate his destiny from the destiny of Nigeria. He is the father of the emerging New Nigeria, and is currently raising a Green Invasion Campaign (GIC), a group of youths who are determined to bring about a positive change in Nigeria. He is truly ‘jagun’, a distinguished son of Sodeke, a son of Abeokuta, and a fearless and endowed freedom fighter. His fame is known throughout the world.

A close look at these men and a host of others shows clearly that God in his divine ways has placed a seed in Abeokuta, in the descendants of Sodeke. It is the seed of greatness. A seed that pushes them to excel in every field of endeavour they pursue. A seed that makes them hate injustice and oppression in every form and guise on the African continent. A seed that makes them defy the fear of death in the pursuit of whatever they believe in. A seed that makes the love of Nigeria and of their continent run in their veins. They are the generation of greatness, the generation of freedom fighters.

A surprising and queer observation however emerges when a proper x-ray of these great destinies is done. Virtually all these great sons of Abeokuta are on one page while President Olusegun Obasanjo stands alone on the other page. Professor Wole Soyinka, Chief MKO Abiola, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and even Pastor Tunde Bakare are all deep critics of Obasanjo’s personality, character and style of governance. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s grouse with Obasanjo in particular goes even beyond ideological opposition, it leans towards enmity. If charity begins at home, then this calls for a personality check. If all the members of my household disapprove of me and only people from afar appreciate me, then I have some work to do in my primary sphere of influence. The Balogun of Owu should examine this and try, if it is still possible, to correct this strange anomaly. No man can be an island to himself forever. However, the fact remains that Abeokuta has produced sons. The destiny of Abeokuta greatly shaped the destiny of Nigeria. The destiny of Nigeria greatly affects happenings around Africa, the sons of Sodeke have greatness in them, and Abeokuta is Africa’s land of greatness.

Mrs. Okereke Onyiuke's Africa for Obama got it all wrong.....

Okereke-Onyiuke’s Obama error

It was with much consternation and mixed feelings that Nigerians received the news of the fund raising luncheon organized by Mrs. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke’s organization –Africans for Obama. If only she had known what lay just after that unseen bend, she certainly would not have gone ahead with the programme. In the wake of the fund raising luncheon, in which about N100 million was raised to “sensitize African-Americans to vote for the American Democratic party presidential nominee, Senator Barack Obama,” Okereke-Onyiuke got pummeled from every side. The luncheon drew the ire of public opinion as opinion leaders roundly denounced it in its entirety. The EFCC promptly picked up Okereke-Onyiuke for investigation and confiscated the funds raised and declared it would return the funds to the donors.

I am proud of Barack Obama. I love his personality and I respect his ambition. I admire his rare talent in public speaking and I covet his oratory talent. I am cowed at the courage he displays and the defiant confidence he exudes despite being the first black man in the United States to reach such a height in politics. He is not even the conventional black American; he is one generation out of Africa, his father, a Kenyan was an immigrant in the United States in the 1950s. Barack Obama is not from a wealthy background and neither is he a billionaire. Yet he has achieved the seemingly unachievable – winning the nomination of a major American political party for presidency. Barack Obama is by far one of the greatest black men who have ever lived. He is a living legend. He is my hero, my inspiration. I have downloaded videos of his speeches from the Internet and I listen to them everyday; the musical track done for his campaign by the American hip hop group, Black eyed peas, rings in my mind as I play it everyday and watch the video on my computer. Barack Obama embodies everything I want to be and so I take every joy in identifying with him and with anyone who wishes him well in his unprecedented pursuit in reaching for the presidency of the United States.

However, I disagree completely with the concept of Okereke-Onyiuke’s Africans for Obama. I disagree with the fundraiser and the reasons posited for its justification. The event reflects once again, our perverted mindsets in Nigeria where every good thing is twisted for personal gain and the gratification of selfish desires. America is the world’s bastion of democracy. Nigeria has not even attained the basic ideals of mutual tolerance yet let alone true democracy.

How on earth would some Nigerians think they stand in a good position to go to “sensitize” Americans to vote in a democratic election? Is there one single African American who lives in America or beyond who does not know about Barack Obama and his great ambition? Is there any black American who is not proud of Obama today? Does he not represent hope and vindication for them and the fulfillment of Martin Luther King’s forty-five year old dream? And if there were African Americans who do not support Barack Obama’s ambition today, it would definitely be due to a really deep and strong reason. How does Okereke-Onyiuke think she and her group will be the ones to influence them otherwise? Wait a minute; I thought charity, as they say, begins at home. How well is the democracy in Nigeria being practiced? There are many Nigerians, especially in the elitist community, who are disillusioned and completely disappointed with the violent and desperate manner in which elections are conducted and rigged in Nigeria and as a result have concluded that voting in Nigerian elections is a mere exercise in futility. Why has Mrs. Okereke-Onyiuke not established an organization that will “sensitize” these people to vote good people into government positions here in her country Nigeria? If your country has a need, and another country has the same need, I think it should be expected that you take care of that need in your country first before you think about catering for that same need in someone else’s country. She spent fourteen years of her life living in the United States, so what? Is she telling us she is more American than Nigerian?

E gba mi, Nigerians, a people whose recent presidential election was absolutely condemned by the international community are the ones who now want to go to “sensitize” Americans to vote in an election. What a shame! The Holy Scripture says ‘Take care of the log of wood in your eyes first before you try to remove the speck of dust in the other person’s eye.” What meaningful positive role has Mrs. Okereke-Onyiuke played in sensitizing well-meaning Nigerians to play a more significant role in politics and elections before she shifts her focus to the United States of America? The concept of her fundraiser to “sensitize” Americans over their forthcoming election is baseless, unpatriotic and an indication of shallow thinking.

There are basic lessons and home truths that the emergence of Barack Obama on the world stage poses to us as Nigerians. These are the lessons I would have expected the likes of Mrs. Okereke-Onyiuke to pick and harness towards the development of their own country, Nigeria. Africans for Obama’s fundraising luncheon was an act that was absolutely anti-Obama. It does not reflect the desires of the man Barack Obama himself who is a nationalist that loves his nation to the depth. The man Obama himself said, “I love this country, and so do you and so does John McCain. We all put our country first.” If Barack Obama puts his own country first, who are these people who put Barack Obama’s country first before their own. They should be ashamed of themselves for they do not even understand the simplest ideals he stands for.

One significant lesson Obama teaches us as Nigerians who love and pray for him is the lesson of change and hope. This man preaches the message of optimism to his countrymen and lives it. He would give his campaign the slogan ‘Yes we can’ to show the possibilities of self-belief. His campaign theme can be summarized thus: “We have the audacity to hope that change will come to Washington, and to our nation.” Is that not what we need in Nigeria today? Many Nigerians have completely lost hope in the wake of the situation of our country. Many do not believe this country can be redeemed from the curse of greed, corruption and desperate money politics. But listening to this American politician; I dare nurse the rare hope that Nigeria will one day change for the better; that there will be power; there will be potable water: there will be good roads; there will be world class education; there will accountability in government; and one day the results of elections will reflect the true wishes of the people. What I would have expected the Africans for Obama to do is to task themselves in this regard. How can we bring about change in our country? How do we inspire hope in Nigerians the way a black man inspired hope in America by winning Iowa, a 90% white state! They should have embarked on a massive re-orientation campaign that will run through all of Nigeria’s television and radio stations to try to change the pessimistic and cynical mindset that a lot of Nigerians have about the future of our nation. If Obama’s America needs change, what does Okereke-Onyiuke’s Nigeria need? A complete overhaul I guess!

Another lesson Obama’s candidacy teaches us, as Nigerians, is the shame of our own version of politics –money politics and do-or-die politics. Barack Obama is not a billionaire. He has only one house, despite being a senator of the United States of America. Yet he contested and won the nomination of one of the parties of the wealthiest nations on earth. He did not have to possess millions of dollars and billions of dollars to contest. His campaign spent money, but they were donations of people from all over his country, not the loot of the treasuries of governments across his country like it is in my nation. When he stands to talk, thousands of people come to listen to his hope inspiring speeches. He does not have to spray dollar notes all over the place and cause the people to scamper and struggle to pick as much as they can before they can come out and listen to him. What do we have here in Nigeria; we have politicians spraying money across the roads as they move around to show as evidence of their love for their people. They hand naira notes to voters who come to vote for their party, capitalizing on the people's poverty and ignorance. Is it not about time we changed our style of politics where parties loot and loot to finance their campaigns? Why can’t Okereke-Onyiuke and her organization start a leadership institute that will inspire youths, teach them to possess and surpass the qualities of Barack Obama – articulation, intelligence, simplicity, oratory and nationalism? If they have the clout to raise so much money for sensitizing the people of another country, then they should use that same clout to do much more for their own country.

Over eighty thousand people attended Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic national convention in Denver. It was held peacefully and at the end of the programme, everyone went back to his house in less than one hour. There was no protest of marginaliszation; no gunshots; no fighting; no bloodshed and no one died. A political programme of an opposition party of that magnitude would happen in Nigeria here just like that? Laelae, somebody would definitely be beaten, guns would be fired and most likely, some people would die. The government of the day may get policemen to teargas the people or an aggrieved member of the party would complain of injustice and try to malign the programme. Shouldn’t we learn tolerant politics in Nigeria? Shouldn’t we practice true democracy? Why can’t Okereke-Onyiuke learn from these things and start a campaign that will “sensitize” our politicians at every level to exercise patience, restraint and common sense in their own style of politics?

Barack Obama would not tear down his opponent even if he had the chance to do so. He would criticize but with constructive tones. He said of John McCain his opponent “The republican nominee Senator John McCain has worn our military uniform with bravery and distinction and so deserves our gratitude and respect” before he criticized the political views of his opponent. After the world got to know that Sarah Palin, John Mc Cain’s deputy had a seventeen year old daughter who was pregnant out of wedlock, one would have expected Obama to use the opportunity to taunt and rubbish her political profile, but instead he would come to her aid saying “People’s families are off limits.” What if it were Nigeria, with out style of do-or-die politics. Political opponents would insult each other, their families and even resort to sorting out their difference by hiring thugs and miscreants who will fight each other and disrupt the public peace.

Studying the life and political career of Barack Obama, there are questions posed to our collective conscience that demand soul-searching answers. This is Africa; we are Nigeria, the supposed giant and pride of Africa. This man is basically a Kenyan seed, performing wonders in the United States of America. Shouldn’t that inspire us to shake our political and socio-economic lethargy and struggle to change the fortunes of our nation for the better? Isn’t it about time that Nigerians and black men all over the world raised their heads up with pride on the world stage with the confidence that our continent can compete favorably in the scheme of things in the international community. In less than fifty years the nations of Asia have earned themselves the acronym –Asian Tigers, but in Africa what do we have? African ants that are always being spoon-fed by aids, grants and loans from the United Nations?

I am sad about the state of Nigeria and indeed the whole of Africa I must say. Of what benefit is it to me if I can afford to buy a Hummer Jeep but the roads of my country are rough, riddled with potholes like roads in a jungle forest? Of what benefit is it to me if I build a mansion, when many people are homeless in my country and refugees abound in the land, are we not all the same people, with a collective name and destiny –Nigerians? What is the joy in looting billions and stashing them away for my unborn generations when there are men and children living in my time that cannot afford to feed their selves and are hungry and starving?

These I believe are the issues that should move the likes of Okereke-Onyiuke and her ilk who are the proponents of Africans for Obama. Instead of an organization like Africans for Obama which would concern itself with affairs of other nations, we should instead have an organization called “The Obama initiative” that will bring the sterling qualities, virtues and values of the man called Barack Obama to bear on our people and use all the might and influence they can garner to cause a positive impact in our politics and polity, no matter how minimal.

We all, leaders and followers alike must learn to love this nation, and be ready to sacrifice for it. We cannot celebrate Obama’s America while our own Nigeria stands for backwardness and corruption throughout the world. We only need to learn and be inspired from people like him. Then the world can celebrate us and wish to identify with us and not us running after cheap international recognition.

God bless Barack Obama’s ambition, and God bless my Nigeria.

The time is now for the manifestation of the sons of God.....

Never a more appropriate time

History is the long and tragic story
That says wait to the forces of good
But says now to the forces of evil

History is the bitter and unfortunate tale
Where the oppressor never takes off his vice grip
Until the oppressed demands for freedom
Until the yoke is broken from off my neck
By the reason of the anointing

At the completion of 400 years
Destiny beckoned on the sons of God
To leave the land of captivity
And be freed to worship their God
But Pharaoh would say
Wait, it is not yet time

At the completion of an age
The father sent His son down to earth
To redeem man from the curse of the law
To the Jews He was born
But they knew Him not
Neither would they accept Him
For they said to Him
Wait, this cannot be the Messiah
It is not time yet for the Messiah to be manifested

For over two centuries
The Black man in the Americas was a second class citizen
Tortured, brutalized, shamed, disgraced, reduced to nothingness
Then came Gods own
The great Martin Luther King Jr.
To champion the cause of his people
And free them from their painful life
But the society and the church
Even his very own would say to him
Wait, it is not time yet for the negro to be free

45 years after Martin Luther King
A black man would emerge a strong contender
For the exalted seat of the United States President
And instead of a roaring support and enthusiasm
That one of our own dares to aim for the stars
I hear many of my cynical brothers say
Wait, it is not yet time for a black man to rule America

Its been years of injustice in our nation
Its been years of the reign of the wicked
Its been years of killing and bloodshed on the African continent
Its been years of feet-dragging by the sons of God
Its been years of compliance with the status quo
Its been years of stars dulling when they should shine
Its been years of passivity by the children of God
In the affairs of our land

Now is the time for the manifestation of the sons of God
Now is the time to shake off the sedating effects of gradualism
Now is the time to break loose from the paralyzing shackles of conformity
Now is the time for the sons of God to take over
Now is the time for the church to take a radical stand
Now is the time to restore the order of the founding fathers
Now is the time to unveil the Joseph generation
Now is the time to bring justice to the borders of Nigeria
Now is the time to ask for our birthright
Now is the time to demand for our stolen billions
Now is the time to demand for a Nigeria with steady power supply
Now is the time to demand for a floodless city in the time of rain
Now is the time for a black man to rule the world
Now is the time to blow out the candle of Mugabe from Zimbabwe!!

Time is always right to do right
It is time for the sons of God to manifest His presence in our land
It is time for the stars to shine
This generation had better wake up
Lest He raises up stones to take our place
And we lament a second phase of a wasted generation

God bless His kingdom
God bless Nigeria
Long live my fatherland

Peasantry revolution, they say, is the very worst of all kinds of revolution

Echoes of warning from South Africa

So it could happen. They called it Xenophobia. I call it a peasantry revolution. It is bad; whatever leads to the killing of innocent human beings is bad. Bad as it was however, it did not come without its own reasons. Unjustifiable reasons one might say, but the reasons had their own bases. However warped they are. So much has been said, but part of the learning to be picked in the wake of the recent xenophobic violence in South Africa is that a people will throw law to the winds and take their destiny in their hands as soon as they are irked to a breaking point and can identify the causes of their inconvenience.

Part of the lessons should go to the pilfering kleptomaniacs in my country Nigeria who have made it a business looting our monies and investing them overseas. Not knowing that they are most likely looting these monies away to be owned, spent and even lavished by sons of strangers, who know nothing about where or how these monies came to be.

South Africa, a country that has known only violence for the better part of three decades, suddenly found itself berthing at the shores of political and economic emancipation in the early 1990s. At the cost of the peace and happiness of many generations; the blood of many freedom fighters; killings and maiming in the hands of the pro-apartheid oppressors, the nation emerged a truly free country with the emergence of President Nelson Mandela and the subsequent crowning of Thabo Mbeki as a two term president. From the fall of apartheid in South Africa till now, the country has steadily climbed up the ladder of political, economic and social leadership in Africa. Beating even Nigeria and other great African nations in several indices and becoming the true giant of Africa.

As a result, South Africa became the beautiful bride for several companies all over the world. Conglomerates who would establish their African headquarters found South Africa a more likely country of location. This tremendous positive change in economy attracted much influx of Africans from several other countries who flooded into the country in search of employment and indeed a better life. Soon South Africa became filled with several foreigners who besieged the economy to bite their own chunk of the South African pie, highly skilled personnel from Nigeria and other nations took over key positions in corporate and elitist South Africa to the consternation of many indigenous South Africans who had not acquired adequate education as a result of the violent and abnormal society they had grown up and known as adult South Africans.
Coupled with this rude takeover came an alarming increase in drug trafficking in the country, perpetrated mainly by foreigners. It is not a strange fact that many Africans who live in South Africa peddle drugs and are involved in different levels of scam. This undoubtedly resulted in a higher level of crime in a country that was already bedeviled with the gun psyche.

Now the indigenous South African has suddenly woken up from their slumber and they seem to be saying to themselves ‘what the hell is going on? All the years we suffered under the oppression of apartheid, we were all by ourselves. Now that we have won the battle and there is an air of freedom in this country, we should enjoy the dividends of our struggle; these foreigners have flooded in and taken over everything that rightfully belongs to us. Down with them all!’

The South African Xenophobia is outright condemnable. There are many ways a nation can deal with an unwanted influx of foreigners into their economy other than the barbaric annihilation of innocent people, but it does send a signal. Foreigners flooding South Africa had better tread softly; the land is soft and marshy. There is a deep-seated resentment lurking in the hearts of the indigenes, especially if your coming brings along with it unnecessary ostentation and wanton display of wealth.

The South African xenophobia sends echoes of distant, remote and faint signals to Nigeria. Many politicians in Nigeria today, do not realize yet that they have sown the seeds of bitterness and discord amongst a people who are totally irked at the path through which their lives have been taken in the past two to three decades. The same feeling of resentment, which drove South Africans crazy, crazy enough to declare a peasantry war of annihilation on foreigners, resides in the hearts of most Nigerians today. Why wouldn’t it? In the face of so much cheating, oppression, corruption and manipulation? How can a country be at peace in the face of all these anomalies? Calm, there may be, but peace, I think not. The calm in this nation bellies deep down a lot of acrimony, bellicosity and bitterness towards a political class that has continuously taken the people for a ride.

Just like it came to the fore in South Africa a few weeks ago, I wish to alert our leaders in this nation; a revolution is just about to explode in their faces. It will come right from within the heart of every Nigerian who has suffered the bitter pangs of hunger in the midst of plenty; every Nigerian who has watched in silent frustration the ostentatious display of wealth acquired from the nation’s purse right in the midst of the suffering thousands; every Nigerian bitterly pained at the extent of pilferage of public funds. Heads will be broken, houses will be burnt down, mansions will be pulled to pieces, vehicles will be destroyed, skyscrapers will be razed, and some will flee this country and never return. When the frustration and hunger of the poor reaches the apogee, when the anger of the common peasant turns against an evil, greedy and self-satisfying political class which has for years on end taken good care of itself while impoverishing the rest of the populace, and yet telling them ‘we are doing our very best’.

Why would this not happen in Nigeria? Rationality and ‘sense’ would rather have things go easy and by and by regularity would take pre-eminence. Unfortunately history has shown time and again that a mountain of corrupt mis-governance and oppression is rarely ever pulled down in the face of rationality. Freedom is rarely granted from the oppressor to the oppressed without an asking, a refusal of the status quo, a revolution, which is most of the time bloody. If things have to get to that extent in Nigeria, what bloodshed we will see!

What with the rude, impudent and disgraceful bazaar the political class has made of the power situation in Nigeria over these past years, with the issue coming to a crescendo with the embarrassing attempt of the immediate past administration. 16 billion dollars! Some said it is merely 6.5 billion dollars! The former or the latter, what have we seen of it? I mean, this is simply crazy, 6.5 billion dollars is equal to 780 billion Naira, and 16 billion dollars is equal to 2 trillion Naira! Common, I do not need to be a guru of electrical engineering to turn around the fortunes of the energy sector in Nigeria if given that kind of money. All I need is sincerity of purpose and a true, deeply sincere desire to have it done and I am most certainly sure it will be done.

The whole power sector wahala has been investigated, a lot of rubbish revealed, but the case is going the Nigerian way now, with everything getting muddled until everything blurs out of the people’s memory. Hmm! And someone thinks things will continue this way, with the populace suffering the pains of power outages day in day out? It will happen, believe me it will happen, that madness, that situation similar to the xenophobic violence of South Africa, is coming to happen soon, if the people of this nation do not get redress in the face of this mortal injustice.
What with the discovery of the rot in the Ministry of power and housing? An approximate 1 trillion Naira in eight years! Yet there are still no roads, the few ones that are constructed start getting destroyed in a few years, and one thinks, the frustrated Nigerian masses are going to be passive, docile forever? I think not. Every day, thousands die from accidents caused by these bad roads, poor people whose loved ones die every day, poorly funded hospitals who will not treat the poor without money, and then one thinks a mad revolution will not happen someday in the face of all these injustice? My people dying while some are junketing around the globe with our money? Bone story!

This is yet one more cry from another faceless Nigerian, the South African story will be a child’s play with what will happen in this nation if this trend does not stop. Let he who will administer our nation key into the Joseph spirit and administer truly and sincerely, without looting or stealing from his nation. Let him who will fight corruption do so without fear or favor. Let him fight truly and sincerely. Let this nonsense stop where a few benefit at the expense of plenty. One day that suffering plenty will become wise, they willbecome angry, they will take the bull by the horns, damn the consequences and react badly, whatever happens next will be ‘the big bang theory’.

There is very little difference between a flying man and a dead man

The flying Dead

Cruising at 28,000 feet above sea level
At a speed almost 1000 km/hr
Darting through the heavens like an arrow
In an iron container no harder than paper
In the wake of its momentum
I concluded, there is no difference
Between a man flying at that height
And a man buried several feet under the earth
Both men are …. Dead

Checking out the complexities
Of man-made technology
A box suspended in the air for many hours
I cannot help but marvel
The extent of the wickedness of man’s heart
For Leaders who oppress the poor
Senators who perpetrate evil
Governors who loot their nation’s treasury dry
All fly in the plane
Yet none of them considers
That they are dead once inside the iron container
They hatch their next evil
Satisfied with their accounts filled with loot
Perfecting the fall of their fellow man
As they meander through the skies
God giving them protection
That they may see yet a new day
To repent of their acts

Say Oh! God bring justice to Nigeria
We’ve been trodden on the winepress
We’ve been ground in the grounder
We’ve been sucked, looted by greedy leaders
Fools who consider not
Every time they fly the plane
They are ‘The flying dead’