How I gave bribes in Nigeria and mastered the rules that beat the corruption

This is the truth for me and perhaps for you too. As a Nigerian, you are more likely to give and demand bribery than other Africans.

You’ve experienced bribery in Nigeria, haven’t you? In case you are playing ignorant, pretending to be moralistic, or ashamed to admit it, you are likely to be a victim of corruption in your country.

Come to think of it. Your parents must have paid money to obtain services at a Nigerian secondary school, hospital, public university, NEPA or some other government-controlled facility in order to obtain some amenities.

Some of the Nigerian professors you see are using diplomas obtained through bribery, and have you heard of senators and other Nigerian leaders who are alleged to have academic degrees that are either fake or traced to bribery?

If you want to play ignorant, you’re inviting us to spill the beans on a carefully hidden secret; bribery is alive, rampant, endemic and a way of life in your poor country. We are led by corrupt leaders and  our country is populated by corrupt citizens who enjoy what bribery can do. Period!

A sure way to combat corruption is to admit it is a problem and to examine why we give and take bribes. Do you want to be like the ostrich that buries his head in the hot sand only to find out he is stricken with blindness?

According In the words of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (Annan, K. (2004). ‘Forward’ UN convention against corruption. Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), corruption has dire consequences.

Mr.Annan says: “Corruption hurts the poor disproportionately diverting funds intended for development, undermining a government’s ability to provide basic services, and feeding inequality and injustice”.

That poor Nigerians are more likely to be bribe payers and wealthier Nigerians and those in positions of power over essential services more likely to be bribe-takers, seems to be plausible.

Nigeria’s bribery scheme is prodigious, a phenomenon that is inarguable, undeniable, unquestionable, incontrovertible. It is just irrefutable, indisputable, despicable.

A thing is plausible if it is reasonably, possibly, credibly, or conceivably likely to happen. That the giving or asking for bribery is a daily occurrence in Nigeria is indisputable. Dispute it all you want. This writer would bet it is easier for Buhari to defeat boko haram than overthrow bribery.

This essay is about bribery, also known as corruption or inducement. This essay describes the writer’s experiences with bribes in his home country. A few years ago and as recently as January, 2019, this writer was in situations where he gave bribes and saw bribery change hands.

A s I accompanied a host at whose house I had spent a few weeks at Lagos, I had witnessed the most egregious form of bribe that resulted in the slashing of electric bill by almost 50 percent.  Host and I went to NEPA so my host could pay a sum less than his official NEPA electric bill.

We went because my host complained the NEPA bill of about 7,000 Naira (about 28 US dollars at 250 Naira per dollar) was too much.

Although I had thought that the bill was reasonable since my host named Nweke (fictitious for protection purposes) had not paid his electric bill for two consecutive months until NEPA threatened to cut off services. We marched arrogantly and authoritatively to NEPA offices and secretly accosted the clerk at a back door.

Nweke handed the clerk a bribe of 500 Naira and the bill was reduced  from 7,000 Naira to 4,000 Naira (or 2,000 Naira per month). We left NEPA offices and my host was as happy as a lark, saying he had beaten the system and saved 36% of his original bill. He used the saving to purchase beer and fuel for the generator.

I was stupefied when Nweke lectured me on the necessity of bribery.  He said, “You have to give bribe in order to survive in Nigeria. People expect bribes from you and you’re expected to give them bribes.”  Stupefying!

To be stupefied is to be amazed, dazed, confused, stunned, or befuddled. It is puzzling to hear my host say you must give and demand bribes because bribes are expected to be a way of life for you.  Efuelam (I’m lost)!

It was utterly unbelievable to hear such utter nonsense, irreverence from Nweke,  a Nigerian graduate with the Master of Commerce degree from a college in India.

More recently in February this year, I went to claim a vehicle I had shipped to Lagos and was directed to offices in Lagos and Anambra to pay a fee for a tinted glass certificate on a vehicle I had imported to Nigeria and wanted to drive in the East.

I realized  I had to pay bribes in order to operate my personal vehicle on roads in my country and could you imagine police stopping me on a desolate road if I did not have papers showing compliance with “the tinted glass law?”

I was required to pay 10,000 Naira at Lagos and another 15,000 Naira in Anambra, all bribe money, in order to comply with a jungle law. Having witnessed Nweke my host slash his electric bill by half made bribery seem routine, “no big deal.” Nweke said bribes are necessary to survive in Nigeria. I must survive, mustn’t I?

I thought: Why must I pay for window glass tint which I did not need in America and which the bribe takers said was required by Nigerian law? I remember Nweke’s bribe-is-good lecture. I calmed down.

Everyone in Nigeria seems to expect and ask for bribes, even the police busily directing traffic. The security at check points openly and unashamedly demand “kola nuts” (gifts, usually a bribe).  I had fun giving little kola nuts in the form of little bribes. Oh my God!

After my driver stopped at a busy round-about, and vehicles stopped on all sides,  I would beckon the starving police to approach me. As he stood by my window, I would shake his hand and leave 50 Naira in his clammy palm. The man goes back to work and let my vehicle proceed ahead of others.  Interesting!

Policemen and soldiers at checkpoints are interesting people. I asked the driver to keep a batch of currency- 50 Naira and 20 Naira- on dashboard. The trick is to shake the men’s hands and slap a bribe-folded paper money- into sweaty, crab-like palms.

Bribes work like magic, especially if I do not want to be stopped, my time wasted, and silly papers checked by underpaid men who would rather be drinking beer in a cool place than standing and perspiring under the hot tropical sun.   

But there are things one can do to reduce the risk of paying bribes. The man I had hired as driver to chauffeur me around. knew three rules to get around persons asking for bribery.

Rule One is to make sure your vehicle is washed, clean, and looks expensive. Police are less likely to demand bribes from operators of clean and expensive vehicles than those whose vehicles are cheap and dirty.

Rule Two is this: If you are vehicle owner and riding with your chauffeur, be sure to dress nice in expensive attire and look important. Bribe takers are less likely to accost a wealthy motorist who might assert their rights and report bribe takers to state authorities. 

  

There is a third rule. Because highly educated persons are less likely to be asked to pay bribes, it is advisable to flaunt your college degrees and let it be known that you are chief, doctor, lawyer, professor, PhD, senator, pastor, and so forth.  

You flaunt by displaying your education or showing your ” big-manism.”  It should strike fear in the bribe taker’s heart. I learned to master the three simple rules.

Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com; jamesagazies.blogspot.com

Posted Thursday, May30,2019

Why I Blame the Nigerian Federal Govt for Creating Insecurity Problems, Throwing the firebomb and hiding the hands.

While we continue to believe that our nation would be governed better under democracy than terrorism or totalitarianism, we shall not entertain or accept the falsehood that Nigeria belongs to the Fulani or any one group.

This is the bottom line: every Nigerian should be in the mood or habit of opposing any speech or action, in words or writing that tends to divide our people and we must register such opposition in the strongest manner.

This essay focusses on the divergent views Obasanjo and the Nigerian Federal Government hold regarding Insecurity and the comments of Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka.

We have written several essays in which we pin the cause of insecurity problems in Nigeria on the insincerity, lackadaisical attitudes and inaction of Nigerian leaders.

Nigeria is insecure and the leaders insincere.  Insecurity must not be confused with insincerity.
Insecurity is lack of safety, uncertainty, or lack of confidence in a place or thing. That Nigeria is not a secure place is known too well.

Insincerity denotes dishonesty, disingenuousness, untruthfulness.  The lackadaisical attitude our leaders display when it comes to security is said to be apathetic, lazy, careless, relax, halfhearted. That Nigerian leaders are insincere is also known too well.

Consider two facts we shall accept in order for this essay to proceed as meaningfully as possible, First of all, we are to recognize that Nigeria is a country that belongs to all Nigerians legitimately within its borders. Secondly, no group (Hausa, Fulani, Igbo, Yoruba, or any other) owns Nigeria, and no one tribe has greater right and heavier stake in the country than any other group.

The claim that the British or God has given Nigeria to the Fulani as inheritance is a lie from the depths of hell.  The lie must be rejected outright as a diabolical ruse/scam/ trick from the depths of hell  that is designed to fool and steal from our people.

No issue has divided my people and presented my country with greater problem than the current insecurity created by boko  haram religious sect and condoned by our government.

Should we blame the citizens of Nigeria for failing to participate fully in politics. Yes. Should we also  blame the leaders of Nigeria for fostering a government that lacks openness and transparency? Yes.

Government is such that if we don’t participate and play the game right, we lose he right to play. Why do we play stupid games with my people’s lives and deepen the crisis which exacerbated and became  seriously carcinomatous/cancerous//malignant?

Suspicions were rife and spread like a wildfire.  There are many serious questions to ask and answer about our insecurity problem.

Who are these killers and arsonists creating mayhem in Nigeria? What goals do they hope to accomplish? Does their goal include provoking religious war and elimination of opponents?

Could Buhari a Fulani himself be behind the lie being spun about who owns Nigeria? Could he be behind the plot by violent group kidnapping people, raping girls and putting life at risk?

An end must be put to insecurity problems so real development can begin in education, economy, and health.

There were allegations that some members of the Nigerian Legislators were giving boko haram terrorists information about governmental action in order to avoid culpability, and escape being apprehended.

Senator Mohamed Ali Ndume comes readily to mind, accused of masterminding the terrorist group., although he denied charges of intimidation and breach of trust after an alleged Boko Haram spokesman said Mr Ndume had paid him to send threatening text messages.. Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-15829203

Why was it almost impossible to arrest the situation and bring perpetrators to face justice? Why is it now that the governor of Kano is deciding that terrorists be executed?  Who are the Arewas who sent the Igbo-must-vacate the-North insane ultimatum under Buhari’s watch? What did Buhari do? Nothing.

This writer is convinced the FNG under Buhari and his handlers underrated the boko haram threat initially, underestimated the gravity, and treated the criminals with kid gloves.  The criminals felt comfortable in the belief they are in partnership with FNG, as Buhari’s cousins.

Listen to comments of Former President Obasanjo as Obasanjo weighs in on why Nigeria hasn’t been able to defeat the violent sect. 

Obasanjo says “Intelligence was poor and governments embarked on games of denials while paying ransoms which strengthened the insurgents and yet governments denied payment of ransoms.”
“Today, the security issue has gone beyond the wit and capacity of Nigerian government or even West African governments,” Obasanjo further says.

Obasanjo regretted that Boko Haram and herdsmen acts of violence were not treated as they should at the beginning.

“They have both incubated and developed beyond what Nigeria can handle alone.  They are now combined and internationalized with ISIS in control.”

After former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refused to name boko haran as a terrorist
organization, we were led to believe that the reason behind the destruction was a combination of poverty, unemployment, and lack of education. 

Obasanjo says: “It is no longer an issue of lack of education and lack of employment for our youths in Nigeria which it began as, it is now West African Fulanisation, African Islamisation and global organised crimes of human trafficking, money laundering, drug trafficking, gun trafficking, illegal mining and regime change.”

What did Buhari and his handlers say? The FNG through Minister of information Lai Mohammed, attempts to belittle and dismiss Obasanjo’s serious comments , saying it was tragic for someone like Obasanjo who fought for Nigeria during his days in the military to be making such “offensive and divisive in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country like Nigeria”.

Do we remember the bragging and boasting people of the North did that “the British gave Nigeria as a gift to the Fulani and “God has destined that the Fulani shall rule Nigeria forever?” Who shall believe such foolishness? 

This writer and every sane Nigerian should not entertain or accept such falsehood.

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka says: “When you talk about Uthman Dan Fodio, what comes to people’s mind is a threat to dip the Koran into the Atlantic Ocean. There are many people in this controversy. My feeling is that the response of Minister of Information shows that they are leaving behind the substance, and worried about the language..

This is the bottom line: every Nigerian should be in the mode  or habit of opposing, any speech or action, in words or writing that tends to divide our people and to register such opposition in the strongest manner.




Submitted by Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com
Monday, May 27, 2019

IS AMERICA GOOD FOR YOUR NIGERIAN SON OR DAUGHTER?

If you were a son or daughter in a Nigerian family and you had the choice to live in Nigeria and America, where would you like to be? There is a war raging like a tsunami, and the war is tearing Nigerians’ marriages apart and destroying the future of many youths.

The question is: Is America good for your Nigerian son or daughter? What suggestions does one have? One can demand that children spend their lives partly in America and partly in Nigeria.

 Men are divorcing their “Americanized” Nigerian wives and marrying more “Nigerianized  others at home, and repeating the vicious circle.

 

The essay seeks to illustrate how this war goes on in homes of many Nigerian parents who reside in  America or seeking to transport their children to America.

It is suggested that, unless something is done urgently to ameliorate the situation, generations of the diaspora Nigerian children may be lost and their future jeopardized.. Consider the case of Alphonse Odus  (fictitious).

Nineteen-year-old Alphonse has just enrolled as a freshman in one of America’s premier colleges. His parents Mr. and Mrs. Charles and Ada Odus have been fighting a bitter ongoing battle over where Alphonse and his five siblings should complete their primary and secondary education.

Ada Odus, a fictionalized Nigerian holder of the US Green Card, feels the children are hers and should live with her in America. Is Ada right?

In the Nigerian community, children are considered as the most prized commodity, the most valuable byproduct of a marriage. One without children is considered as nonentity, unknown, mediocrity.

Ada’s reason for demanding the children live with her in America rather than be in Nigeria with her estranged husband is that American schools have better schools, better in quality and quantity than what obtains in Nigeria.

Besides, Ada Odus reasons, Nigeria is beset with almost insurmountable problems, including frequent teacher strikes coupled with official corruption and neglect of infrastructure. It’s sad, very unfortunate.

Charles, Ada’s husband and father of Alfonse, disagrees strongly with wife. He says children behave better in Nigerian, worse in America. Besides, they tend to have better attitudes in Nigeria, are more respectful of parents and adults,

The husband agrees that, although America has better schools with math and science materials, yet he has questions to ask. Why does America have greater social and school-related problems that could and often impede a child’s school performance and success in life than are found in Nigeria?

“Poverty is the only trouble Nigeria has and I’m establishing a business to overcome that,” Charles concludes. Ada disagrees. The disagreement crystallized and cemented into hatred and revenge.

As the war rages on, parents seek support from children, and the children take sides. Ada, in order to end the war and win the custody battle, thought of what to do.

Should she institute divorce proceedings? Perhaps, she ought to call the police in to ask the husband to vacate. To vacate is to leave the house, and go back to live alone  in Nigeria.

Charles is determined that his children must live in Nigeria with him and help manage his business. And, in order to keep the children in Nigeria and score effective counter point in the brewing fight, Charles tricked his family into taking a little trip to Nigeria.

The trick was clandestine. It was secret, underground, covert. It was concealed. The strategy was for a father to kidnap his children while the family vacations in Nigeria.

Additional plan was to keep the children hidden in secret places and keep them from a mother for 6-7 years. The trick did work but it backfired.

What mother can forget a child she carried in her womb for 9 long months? It is said that the lioness’s fury becomes deadliest and she puts out the most fatal attack when a hunter threatens her young cubs.

Although Charles did eventually kidnap Ada’s children and hide them in various Nigerian villages, Ada was not to be outfoxed. To be outfoxed is to be outwitted, outmaneuvered.

The story is told of Mr. Fox and a bird who had meat in his mouth and wouldn’t release the meat to Mr. Fox until Mr. Fox outfoxed the foolish bird. Fox praised the bird. “You sing beautiful songs. Sing for me.”  As the bird sang,  the meat fell out of the open mouth, and the fox made away.

Ada’s legal team wasn’t singing. The team meant serious business and didn’t play. Ada pressured the American courts to extend its long-arm jurisdiction into the bribery-infested Nigerian judiciary to wrest Ada’s “American kids” and return them safely to their mother.

One thing is clear from the fight: Children belong to the mother in America, while in Nigeria, children belong to the man’s folks unless the stronger foreign power/court changes the equation.

Because Alphonso’s parents disagreed big-time on domiciliary issues, children can take advantage of the situation to support the parent (usually the mother) who would go easy on them, and who would cater more readily to their every whim.

Ada, believing that a mother’s love is more powerful than the father’s,  caters, provides, supplies, furnishes the children’s juvenile needs; she buys unnecessary toys and places less restrictions on irresponsible behavior.

Left up to Alphonso, he would prefer living, flouncing, and roaming around in America, enjoying so-called  “freedom” and carefree life along with the internet and social media. Who would not want such a lifelong vacation?

The substance of this essay is to say that some palaver is brewing under the current in the families of many Nigerian households. The term under the current means the situation is not too obvious, yet there is something a casual observer would not fail to notice.

American life is tantalizing, meaning the Nigerian kids fall into it. Wham!  The life is enticing, teasing, provocative, tempting. It is addictive, much like cocaine or cigarettes,

That the American life is addictive is an understatement, and the Nigerian kids coming to America love it. They get addicted when they are in America, and they get addicted as soon they get off Delta or Turkish aircraft that brings them to America.

One cannot fail to notice that, with all the wild talks of Nigerian Americans being at the tops of groups of immigrants with the largest number of graduate degrees, Alphonse and friends at school know there is more fun in wild America than in the “Naija jungle.”

The number of graduate degrees that Nigeria families boast about getting in American universities does not negate or obfuscate the point that American society is a jungle the Nigerian families do not fully understand, and which may do some serious damage to the social development of Nigerian kids born here or brought from home.

Arguments abound on both sides of the aisle that America may or may not be the place best suited for the well-being of Nigerian children born in America or brought from afar. How does one deal with the cultural inferiority Nigerian parents and their kids feel?

How does one not notice that, although a sizeable number of sons and daughters of Nigerian families do achieve admirably to distinguish themselves in such fields the Americans and the Nigerian parents consider to be conducive to success, there is room for consternation, anxiety, and concern. There are strong emotions gnawing at many hearts.

Yes, there is never a semester that Nigerian children have failed to excel and graduate from prestigious American institutions in such fields such as medicine, law, nursing, mathematics, sciences, and technology, yet there is a concern that  family dysfunction may be rearing ugly heads like the Lock ness monster that seeks to swallow things up.

While most Nigerian parents, such as Mr. and Mrs. Odus come to America because they want better opportunities for themselves and their children, particularly in education and career development, things do not always turn out the way we expect.

The American society makes things fall apart, and because the American culture emphasizes individualism and I-know-it-all attitudes, the Nigerian families have children caught in the crossfire. It is said: one can take oneself out of the jungle, but can one task the jungle out of self?

It is easy to point out the culprits: Naija kids born here or brought from home have not learned to exit the “old Nigerian jungle” and properly access the “new American jungle consisting of easy sex, alcoholism, drug use and internet.

Americanism plays a stupendous havoc. A havoc is disorder, chaos, mayhem, destruction, or mess. A havoc is stupendous if it proves to be astonishing, outstanding, stunning.

Nothing is more stunning than parents gaining America and losing children to American jungle. Who enjoys raising rambunctious children in a strange and unfamiliar environment?

One notices some mighty differences in behavior of children brought up in Nigeria and those born and living in America.

Unlike the Nigerian kids one sees in the villages misbehaving, and whose misbehavior is under lock and key with parents and society watching, American-born Nigerian kids seem to lack self-imposed control.

Experimenting with sex and other bad behaviors can easily be kept in check in Nigeria by parents, schoolteachers, and society at large, Nigerian American kids raised in America are lost in the wilderness where control is absent.

Talking about the rambunctiousness of kids takes strength. Our children are unfamiliar with the American society and the legal system, and often mess up and miss the mark.

A child messes up and lands in prison to have lives and careers ruined. You can be deported to the jungle you are attempting to escape.  Either way, you miss the mark. You miss the mark both in Nigeria and in America. Where do you belong?

To miss the mark means we mess up because we are unacculturated, and our children are not truly acculturated in Nigeria, and they are not fully acculturated in America.  We do not understand either culture, and both we and our kids lack the social support available in Nigeria.

The paradox, inconsistency, oxymoron, irony is hard to believe. We are neither Nigerians nor Americans. We are lost!  

Our children are not just unfamiliar with US culture. Besides, they are often high-spirited, lively, rowdy, disorderly, riotous. Our children are not just unfamiliar with Nigerian culture; they are intimidated by conflicting mores, values, customs, patterns and by our demanding relatives, and marital do’s and don’ts.

Our chiildren mess up when trying to fit into the American culture that is fluid, ever changing, unsolidified, watery, liquid, runny.

Unlike the Nigerian society, which is considered solid with adequate checks and balances, the American society is fluid in that things happen so fast, things change rapidly; life is more fluid, meaning unsolidified, moist, soggy, or water-logged.

The question is: Is America good for your Nigerian son or daughter? What suggestions does one have? One can demand that children spend their lives partly in America and partly in Nigeria. Men are divorcing their “Americanized” Nigerian wives and marrying more “Nigerianized  others at home, and repeating the vicious circle.  

Written Friday, May 17, 2019

Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com

This is How I would Grade Mr. Muhammad Buhari on his First term as President of Nigeria

Nothing is good without assessment, meaning we don’t know a person or thing is until we do the  evaluation. The purpose of this essay is to assess the doings of Buhari and his APC henchmen in the administration that is departing.

Assessment would ensure that mistakes and poor performance shall not be tolerated or allowed to repeat itself in Buhari’s second term or in the history of Nigeria.

In his essay which recently appeared in Chatafric of May 13, 2019, Mr. Ugochukwu Ejinkonye asks: Who hates President Buhari?” No one hates Buhari. Hate is a useless emotion that drains away creativity.

Most people would  rather do something to change what causes hatred. The goal is to  love the sinner but still hate the sin. Who wants to dwell purely on abhorrence, detestation, odium, or revulsion?

This evaluation deals with Buhari’s performance in his first term as president as he dealt with Nigerians whom he has considered as friends and foes. Was Buhari the father figure that Nigeria needs at this juncture of national insecurity, violence, and corruption? No.

General Muhammad Buhari had promised to stamp out violence and make corruption a thing of the past. Was he successful? No.

How many Nigerians suspect that Buhari was the Father of corruption and sponsor of boko haram? A poll of his citizens ought to provide a clue.

This essay is a brutal valuation of the man Muhammad Buhari rather than hatemongering. How history would judge this man is left to be seen. It’s a wait-and-see thing.

In his poem IT, poet Rudyard Kipling warns you to trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too;  to wait and not be tired by waiting,; or being lied about, and not deal in lies; or being hated, don’t give way to hating,, and yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

Did Buhari bind the wounds of Nigerians, dry the tears and heal the scars of a nation just coming out of and writhing under the most painful bloody 30-month civil war? No, he did not.

 Violent sects known as boko haram gained ascendancy rather than a weakening under Buhari’s  watch. Inexplicably, the man kept a studied silence as  victims of cattle herders were buried in mass graves in Benue and elsewhere around the nation.

There is the inexplicably high cost of the Tucano jets (almost  $500 million), which Buhari purchased ostensibly to fight boko haran, and the fact that Buhari agreed to their purchase without approval from the National Assembly, also led some senators to call for his impeachment.

The evidence is there that the suicide bombers and jihadist lunatics gained dominance, predominance, preeminence, or power, even after Buhari single-handedly spent millions of public funds without legislative oversight to purchase bombers and weapons of war when the citizens needed rice, water, mosquito nets, motorable roads. How callous, unfeeling, cold-hearted, uncaring!

Three days after presidential elections were held on Feb. 23, the INEC announced that president Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been re-elected., Abubakar Atiku of the  PDP promptly objected and rejected the results, indicating  there was dissatisfaction.

Political parties are rushing to courts to seek redress for what appear to be injustices perpetrated during Buhari’s campaigns and eventual win. There have been calls for investigation and evaluation. This essay adds a voice to those who demand openness and transparency in government.

Atiku and his supporters allege the polls were marred from the start by sporadic reports of violence where polling units were attacked, ballot boxes and papers snatched away and burned, and voters were scared away from voting points by thugs.

Though Buhari’s handlers may argue that their candidate might not be directly responsible for the violence, Buhari as president should share blame, having failed to take serious steps to prevent violence throughout his blood-stained tenure, particularly in an exercise as enormous[D1]  and vital as national elections.

 Why did Buhari allow the INEC to postpone the election, dashing the hope and dream of many?  The Fulani and Yoruba have dominated the Nigerian government since the 1960 dependence much to the chagrin and exclusion of other Nigerians. This has led to the charges of feudalism, fulanism, tribalism, nepotism, and marginalization.

Today’s Nigerians have dreams of broadening their government. They had anticipated a government that is more inclusive, more comprehensive, wide-ranging, encompassing than had been the case in the past.

We looked up to the hill from whence cometh no help. What is the point of voting in a democracy where votes don’t count, and voters are afraid to exercise their constitutional right?

 What took place in the last election was a travesty, a charade masquerading as a contest between two respectable, capable men of the Fulani tribe, though the Nigerians had looked forward to pulling leaders of other tribes into empowerment, such as Igbo vice presidential running mate.

Postponing a national election by not one day but a whole week rubbed many people including this writer the wrong way. Postponement is the embodiment or personification of carelessness, ineptitude. It is the entombment of public insult. “Aha! I told you Niggers can’t lead niggers.”

Postponement of the polls was a terrible blunder as well as unfortunate directive. It is the most egregious negligence.  Negligence is neglect, inattention, disregard, or abandonment of the duty of care. Shouldn’t a leader care for the led?

An incalculable harm was done to the fabric of my nation, and when Mr. Buhari agreed to the election postponement; he opened himself up to accusations of being unfair, partial, one-sided, biased, prejudicial, discriminating.

Like others, this writer expects Buhari to subscribe to the notion of noblesse oblige, the idea that persons of privilege should keep hands clean and care for the less fortunate. Do charges of selfishness, manipulation, or self-centeredness be levelled against Buhari? Yes.

The dream of having a fair presidential election shared by millions was never realized. The hope of having a free, unrestricted competition among legitimate political parties was quashed, crushed, repressed. Regrettably, my countrymen and women have not experienced true democracy.

No one celebrated the candidate who had the grace to pick Igbo vice president. The dream failed. What happens to a dream deferred?

A dream deferred is a dream denied. This writer is of the opinion that Muhammad Buhari has been the nemesis of Naija progress, Nemesis is the archenemy, opponent, archrival, adversary, competitor.

Nigerians suspected the election postponement was done under a nebulous pretext to steal election results thwart progress, and/or to allow Buhari and APC to complete illegal activities, such as bribery, vote buying and intimidation of opponents.

Why didn’t Buhari and his government utilize the police, army, and security forces to maintain order and prevent postponement?

As Mr. Buhari Is ending his first term as President of my democratic country and about to embark on the second term amidst allegation of vote buying and intimidation, assessment assumes a monumental importance.

Rumors had it that voting by non-Nigerian tribes from beyond the northern borders of the country was allowed in the APC- controlled states. Isn’t vote supposed to be cast by the Nigerians only?

It is necessary (imperative for a better choice of word) that we the citizens of Nigeria should be able to vote for and evaluate the performance of our president. We do not need assistance or collusion of foreign nationals?

Should we allow what happened in America to happen in Nigeria? Isn’t loud-mouth President Donald Trump under investigation for allowing Russians to interfere in American election? Is there evidence that people came from Mali, Niger, Cameroon, Chad, and Benin to vote in Nigeria election that put Buhari in power? History will tell.

There were shortcomings and instances of injustice in the 2019 elections in that there was a postponement within hours to the polls and voting was shifted from February 16 to February 23. Buhari created darkness and anything could have happened in darkness.

The postponement of voting impacted voter turnout, such that voter turnout in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city and the economic nerve center of the nation, was a meager 18%.

Overall, voter turnout among young Nigerians- a majority of the electorate —was also notably low. Buhari is to be faulted for encouraging voter apathy, especially among young people who often are prevented from holding political offices.

The purpose of this essay is to emphasize the need for evaluation of leaders in a democratic country like Nigeria where there ought to be accountability. Accountability simply means answerability, responsibility, liability, culpability.

All the leaders of Nigeria, including the President, Vice President, Governor, heads of department, and the Central Bank of Nigeria governor are glorified public servants. They should answer to the people.

The Nigerian President serves at the pleasure of the citizens who elected him/her to office; the Governor is accountable to citizens of the State, and so forth. Therefore, the citizens of Nigeria ultimately have the responsibility to evaluate their leaders.

We run the risk of encouraging mediocrity if we as employers of the public servants fail to evaluate our employees’ performance. How do we measure success and failure if there is no evaluation? 

How does one know goals are being met, shortcomings overcome, or that every i is dotted and every t crossed if there were no evaluation?

Without evaluation, there are risks that we are merely running around in a circle, chasing our tails, pretending we are working when we are loafing and wasting the taxpayers’ time and resources.

What is evaluation? It is an assessment, appraisal, calculation, valuation, or estimation by the superior of the performance of an inferior. Employer evaluates employee, and boss examines subordinates.

Evaluation entails a superordinate-subordinate relationship. Everyone in charge in Nigeria has a boss he/she answers to. To be boss less is to live in a fool’s paradise. To have no boss is to answer to nobody. It is only God who has no boss and answers to no one.

No one in Nigeria, be it the president, state, governor, or CBN governor, is above the law and answerable to no one. No one is the King of Nigeria, and Nigeria does not have a dictator.

If you are one of the well-meaning but gravely mistaken Nigerians who believe evaluation is not necessary or that evaluation is reserved only for the peon, you are as naïve and unsophisticated as this writer once was.  A peon is someone that does not count in the scheme of things. We all count.

As a young primary school teacher in Nigeria, this writer used to think he was beyond the reach of mortals and above evaluation by students or principal.

My thinking was: I have the knowledge; I have the grade book and the power to pass or fail anyone. Who are you to threaten my position?

The point is that everyone’s performance on a job should be evaluated, and that includes the work of all government civil servants, teachers and medical professionals included. Having said that, let’s proceed with grading President Buhari of Nigeria.

Buhari scored his lowest grade on a test measuring his ability to handle persons he thinks or feels are his enemies and foes. How did Buhari handle the Igbos, including Nnamdi Kalu and his group of impressionable young followers, the IPOB.

Does Buhari have a child, and how would he feel if someone butchers his child in cold blood? What happens if the sword of Damocles were to fall in Daura? The prognosis can be unfortunate.

The forecast is this:  Every Nigerian man, woman and child lives under a deadly sword of Damocles, consisting of violence and corruption, hanging over the head by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness of a president who is obsessed with naked power.

Remember the Fulani cattle herders carrying powerful weapons- the AK-47-furnished with funds from Buhari government- who went about murdering innocent, defenseless citizens in several states, including Benue and Enugu?

Remember the python dance staged in answer to Buhari’s thirst for power and displayed at the compound of a man in Umuahia?

It is well known how Buhari attempted to annihilate Nnamdi Kanu (his enemies) with characteristic brutality. What a callous demonstration of cruelty, viciousness, violence, harshness, ruthlessness! It was buharism at it most barbaric stage.

What harm could a young man filled with youthful, exuberant energy and eagerness to participate in a democracy, do to a nation of 180 million people with well established Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Airforce, and security apparatus?

Why was Nnamdi Kalu and his group of unemployed eager kids be such a threat that they were subjected to the most abrasive, most hateful, and the most punishing response from Buhari and his government.

To be shot at close range and dumped in muddy water to perish is a cruel and unjust punishment. Voices  of innocent young men and women who wanted Io have an opinion in Africa’s largest democracy, were silenced.

 Those silent voices shall forever hang over the neck of the government of Buhari as the inherited leprosy of Gehazi or sword of Damocles.

According to Buhari, the Nigerian youths are a lazy and uneducated bunch who believe the country is rich in oil and who only wait to be handed things free. of charge.

What a callous attitude to have of our young people on whose shoulders the responsibility of safeguarding our country’s future should fall rather than on an old, barely educated 74-year-old soldier. 

Finally, readers are reminded of the 120 days Muhammad Buhari spent in London hospitals for diagnosis and treatment of undisclosed illnesses. It would have been nicer if Buhari had spearheaded the campaign to establish first class hospitals in each of the 36 states of the Federation to curtail medical tourism and make malaria a thing of the past.

In this evaluation, Muhammad Buhari merited F grade.

Posted Tuesday May 21, 2019 by

Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.xom

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 [D1]

Let’s Make Nigeria the Great Home We Ought To Have

In their research on democracy in Nigeria, Arowolo and Aluko lament: “The reality of the attempts to subvert the concept of democracy to serve the interests of a few, rather than a greater majority, still looms high. The emerging democracy was artificial and reflective of external imposition.  It is a weak democracy that repudiates inalienable ethos of its true identity.”

 Read more: International Journal of Development and Sustainability Online ISSN: 2168-8662 – www.isdsnet.com/ijds Volume 1 Number 3, December 2012 (In Press) ISDS Article ID: IJDS12092407

There are two major facts to know about what this essay is all about. Fact One: The history of democracy in Africa and Nigeria is a history of manipulation by people in power, featuring such leaders as Obasanjo, Buhari, and Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Fact Two: Nigeria and the rest of Africa have no true democracy. What we have is a token, a make belief, or a counterfeit (fake, forged, phony, bogus, imitation).

The purpose of this essay is to argue that Nigeria is a home where true democracy can take roots in our time in our ancestral home and, therefore, we make bold to encourage political participation as the basis of democracy that our home critically needs.

Is there a better home than home? Is there a place better than Nigeria? If there were a better place,  this writer and many readers believe it doesn’t exist, hasn’t been found, and it doesn’t matter. There’s no home like home, and no other place can take the place of home.

 

A place is not a home in a vacuum. It is not a home in the absence of the essential activities members of the home engage in, and that is if we lay differences aside, roll up sleeves and get to work.

Why do countries spend tons of time and money to maintain national army, navy, air force, and foot soldiers?

They do so because they love home and wish to keep home safe, orderly, and free from internal and external threats. Where do the Nigerians call home and where do they stand?

Why is democracy working in Great Britain and America but refuses to work in Nigeria?  It is because democracy works best where people (1) are educated and law-abiding; (2) participate actively in government; (3) jealously guard their institutions with checks and balances.   

A country like Nigeria doesn’t just appear from thin air. A country is built painstakingly from a scratch as Rome and Greece were. A home isn’t a pile of cement, wood, and openings. A country is a work product.

Since it takes efforts to make a home a home, we must participate to build our home. Let’s make Nigeria what we ought to be. It’s about us. Let’s make Nigeria what it ought to be through hard work at stimulating political participation to build Great Nigeria.

How do we encourage political participation in Nigeria? Specific ways will include creating a welcoming milieu[D1]  that engenders belongingness.

That alone is not enough. There shall be a psychological environment that is conducive to development of self-efficacy, civic responsibility, and esprit de corps.

According to psychologist Albert Bandura, self-efficacy is defined as one's belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task.

Our sense of self-efficacy can play a major role if we approach the goals, tasks, and challenges involved in democracy and if we believe we can do it. All things are possible for he who sincerely believes.

In addition to having self-efficacy and civic responsibility, participation in government requires esprit de corps.  The Miriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines esprit-de corps as a feeling of pride, fellowship, and common loyalty shared by the members of a group.

We shall develop some esprit de corps through working together to fashion a suitable democracy where “no man is oppressed.”.

Democracy requires a social environment that does not involve alienation; that has no authoritarian tendency; that has adequate opportunities for education, and has no place for discrimination on the bases of tribe, sex, age, sex, or income level.

Democracy requires a political environment that grows interest in politics and awareness of issues affecting communities. Democracy provides opportunities to mobilize and belong to problem-solving groups.

Democracy isn’t just an empty word in the mouths of infants who babble, burp, belch, and have hiccups. Democracy is not the insane cry of followers of boko haram. We must struggle to have a democracy, or we will lose it, depending upon what we do with what we got.

Remember that as we use the firewood, we had gathered in dry season to cook when the nights are gloomy and rain falls during the day making it impossible to gather wood during rainfall, so do we build a democracy with worn-out hands and tested tools.

We either shape up or ship out, and that’s the bottom line. If one cannot stand the heat one should step out of the kitchen.  

If one cannot do it, one ought to step aside and let another step in. We are simply saying this: a farmer who plants a crop he cannot gather at harvest time, wishes to have his family starve.

The Good Book says the people perish for lack of knowledge, knowledge about governing ourselves. The trouble with us is that we lack knowledge, which is the information, data, facts about government. The best knowledge is knowledge of self, that is, realizing we do not know the power that we have.

While on the topic about knowledge, we do not know what we have until we lose it. Must we lose our democracy to know we are fools or lose our minds to realize we are mad?

Must we throw the bath water with the baby, and why don’t keep what we have and build upon it for our children’s sake, for our legacy?

That Africans are accustomed to being subjugated by tribal chiefs and persons obsessed with authoritarian rule is clear from our history. The American colonists refused to be second-class British tax payers when they swore; “Give me freedom or give me death.”

There is something better than life. Dying for what you believe in is more precious than life. Living under slavery is no bliss, and if you doubt it, you are invited to exchange places with one of the of the Chibok girls whom violent men captured from a schoolhouse and raped and sold into slavery.

One who is in enslavement does not experience bliss if one defines bliss as ecstasy, heaven, paradise, enjoyment, or happiness. The point here is that Nigerians have been captured, raped, and enslaved by people we expected to care for the masses.

Nigerians had elected and continue to elect leaders who often place a yoke more burdensome than enslavement upon Nigerians’ necks. Where do yokes come from and why were the yokes there in the first place?

Were the yokes there because the Nigerians willingly submit or did the Nigerians unwittingly stretched their necks out for the metal yokes to be comfortably placed?

There is a difference between yokes placed willingly and unwittingly.   Willingly means the act was done freely, readily, eagerly, keenly, enthusiastically, or devotedly. Did the Nigerians willingly accept oppression? No.

Unwittingly means the act was accomplished while the people behaved innocently, unsuspectingly, trustingly, unintentionally, accidently, inadvertently. Were the Nigerians innocently cajoled to accept the yoke of oppressive government?

A yoke means many things. A yoke is oppression, burden, bondage, encumbrance, incumbrancer. The yoke is placed on many Nigerian necks of men, women, and even young babies sucking their mothers’ breasts.

Consider Musa, a university graduate with First Class Honors in computer engineering who has a yoke because he is condemned to underemployed in a job that doesn’t enable him to make valuable contributions to the society that nurtures him..

As a result of the yoke of underemployment, Musa the brilliant graduate settles down to tend to the chicken farm of his uncle who paid his university fees. The yoke intensifies and makes a full circle around Musa’s neckline and threatens to choke the life out of him.

One of the deadliest, damning, and darkest aspects of politics in Africa is that the politicians do not love us and do not have knowledge about playing politics. Politics is about people. African politics is oppressive, exploitative, dirty and deadly because it is lethal, poisonous, fatal.

Nigerian politics ought not to be a do-or-die undertaking consisting of religious oppression, pious domination, violent coercion, tyranny, cruelty, or subjugation.

Nigerian politics ought to be a give-and-take mutuality, a do-unto-others-as-one-would-like-to-be-done-to. Why are the Igbos condemned to second-class citizenry in a country they have helped to build?

Politics, as it is played in Nigeria and some African countries, has ceased to be the fun it is meant to be.  Let’s make government to be I am-okay-and-you-are-okay game in which there Is no permanent enemy and no permanent friend.

This essay is about broadening political participation so that our people shall be free from oppression. Let’s remember politics is based on gentlemen’s agreement and compromise for the benefit of the citizens we represent.

We defeat the purpose of good government if we cannot help solve our people’s problems in meeting their needs.

Allowing citizens to get involved and have their voice heard is what a government is all about. It also is what has been denied to countless Nigerians. The Nigerians have historically been denied political freedom and participation. It’s time we changed that.

Let’s eschew political exclusion, Let’s make political inclusion global and change the attitude of greed that plagues our leaders. Political participation should be world-wide, international, universal, comprehensive, total, and everywhere in Nigeria.

Without political involvement, how do the people know their rights, and the stakes they have in their organization, or what role they ought to play?

Political participation enables a government to work better, to serve the people in more efficient ways  than when acts are done chaotically[D2] , randomly, arbitrarily.

Political participation is a process which enables private citizens to influence their government. Without citizens’ active participation, a government stagnates, flounders and deteriorates.

Political participation comes in many shapes and forms, including voting, running for offices, campaigning for candidates, monitoring elections, and working hard to change unpopular laws.   

How do we encourage political participation in Nigeria? Specific ways will include creating a welcoming atmosphere[.

Nigeria shall have a psychological environment that is conducive to development of self-efficacy, civic responsibility, and esprit de corps.

Nigeria shall be a social environment that has no alienation, no authoritarian tendency, with adequate opportunity for education, without discrimination on the bases of tribe, sex, age, sex, or income level.

Nigeria shall have a political environment that stimulates a growing interest in politics and awareness of issues affecting communities, and opportunities to mobilize and belong to governmental groups.

Submitted by Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com

Saturday, May 25, 2019

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 [D1]

 [D2]

 [D3]

How come your Nigerian daughter is a medical doctor and your son a homeless addict?

There is no easy solution. The persistent question is this: Why does your daughter choose to graduate from medical school and her brother shames you and his sister by being ezigbo ike nsi (Igbo for real shitty ass)?

What a disappointment! They are wo kids are from one Nigerian nuclear family and they are ending up going different directions. Mama has the PhD in microbiology, and Papa has recently retired from Nsukka as professor of chemical engineering.

Both parents are PhD holders; both are successful in their fields, both are American immigrants who came here for the opportunity to educate their kids, son and daughter.

   

How come the daughter Pauline Ochokwu is renting a dance hall in preparation for a graduation party to celebrating her successful completion at Morehouse School of Medicine?  And how come no one has heard from Chibuike Ochokwu seven years after he dropped out from Atlanta undergraduate college?

A period of seven years is eternity for some parents to hear from their child. Years go by like lightning. This is a serious topic. It is a hot topic on the lips of many Nigerian parents, about children going wild in America, particularly stupid boys.

Neighbors and friends of Dr. & Dr. (Mrs.) Michael and Ngozi Ochokwu  can’t seem to stop gossiping. They ask, ”What happened?”  They shut their damned mouths hurriedly when the Ochokwus appear. At times, it gets under the skin.

The Ochokwus bemoan ever bringing their son to America. This essay asks a series of why.

As the kids grow up and approach adulthood, they forget about our struggles because parents neglect to do their duty; they do not have family meetings to discuss important family issues. Why do we hide our pains and struggles and pains from our children?

Why do we paint rosy Goliath-like pictures of ourselves before our children, and why do we try hard to shield our children from the shame, stress, headaches, hardships, and pains of life?

Why do we work hard to provide for our kids and want them to not experience hardship we’ve been through? Why do we want children to have easy life without the stress, pains and struggles we’ve been through? 

Why do we buy kids Mercedes Benz to drive to school when we rode bicycles when we were in schools?

Nigerian males are something else, so different that even President Bihari said it in a meeting of world leaders. Nigerian males are all over the world, some making mistakes and others building milestones.

Buhari said our young people are lazy, uneducated, don’t want to work, and want to depend on government handouts. Our young people believe that, because Nigeria is rich in oil and mineral resources, we should provide young people with things free of charge.

The Ochokwus are moaning, mourning and regretting. They are sorrowful. Why did they invest in a foolish son?

To bemoan is to lament, bewail, mourn, or complain. Have you ever heard one Nigerian parent say, “Oh my God.  Why did I do this? If I had known, I wouldn’t have come here or brought this child?”

The other parent agrees. “Me too.”  Chibuike is Igbo word meaning God is powerful. Wait a minute. Just a minute. Does God take pleasure in our suffering? Does God allow us to regret?

How come God seems to take credit when a daughter graduates as Medical Doctor? Where is He when Chibuike was AWOL (away without official leave), leaving parents tormented and insomniac/sleepless?  

How come God does not regret ever creating Satan and giving Lucifer the exclusive right and power to cause death and lead our sons astray?

The Nigerian pastor this writer attended his noisy church in Anambra says God rewarded Satan with excessive  beauty and gave the devil the earth as Satan’s dominion with the power to pester man with illnesses.

Does God curse parents with a gift of useless Nigerian boys who remain in America for 20 years without earning a 2-year Associate diploma in auto mechanics or barbershop?  Who will take care of us when we grow old and sons are homeless?

Sometimes, God regrets with hot tempers to the point of attempting to wipe the whole tribe off the face of His earth as He destroyed the Genesis world “in the beginning.” No one knows how many times a regretful God had destroyed and recreated the earth.

Dr. and his wife do regret a lot. To regret is a common human reaction to mistakes or failure.  If we assume that God is anthropomorphic, we believe God is sharing common attributes with man in that God forgets, remembers, have hot temper, amidst accusations of killing people he does not like as He killed Saphira and her husband.

The purpose of this essay is to put regretful parents and troublesome children in proper perspective, view, viewpoint, standpoint, or perception. You have the right to regret, but can’t overdo it .

Why do you blame yourself for coming to America to better your condition and explore what life has in store for you and you succeeded in putting three square meals on the table per day in front of your family?

Consider Naija man named Isaac Ogwale from Ogwashi Ukwu. Isaac’s dad died when Isaac was but four years old. If you ask Isaac about his father’s occupation, he will tell you, “I never knew the man. He died before I met him.” Isaac came to America without WAEC or GCE, no secondary school.

Through doing odd jobs as janitor at hospitals and medical laboratories, Isaac was able to attend a technical school in New York to obtain certificate as lab tech assistant. He worked hard for 35 years and retired with a little pension.

Isaac  brought two daughters and one adopted son to America in his younger days. The girls went to schools and graduated. The boy dripped out of middle school and refused to hear of schooling.

   

“What did I do wrong?” Isaac often ask this writer. “ I brought my three kids to help me now that I’m 87 years old.” He says one daughter is nurse practitioner in private medical practice doing what doctors do. The other daughter is a CPA. Both girls are doing very well. They send Isaac money (200, 100, 500 dollars) in mail. 

Isaac regrets his boy is never heard from for years. Isaac regrets his son is either dead or homeless  addicted to drugs.

“What did I do wrong?” Isaac keeps asking. Isaac did nothing wrong. The only Isaac does wrong I being a remorseful man.

The trouble is in the way we raise our kids.  We struggle and suffer as we raise the children, providing a love, home, food and healthcare.

As the kids grow up and approach adulthood, they forget about our struggles because we do not have family meetings to discuss issues. Why do we hide our pains and struggles and pains from our children?

Why do we paint rosy Goliath-like pictures of ourselves before our children, and we try hard to shield our children from the stress, headaches, hardships, and pains of life? We act like giant Goliath, don’t we? Come on, folks, be real for once in your life. Life is not that simple any more.

Why do we work hard to provide for our kids and want them to not experience hardship we’ve gone through? Why to we want then to have easy life without the stress, pains and struggles we’ve seen and experienced?  

Why do we buy kids Mercedes Benz to drive to secondary school when we rode bicycles when were in schools?

Why do we spoil our children with expensive unnecessary gifts (like Japanese  rolex watches and Chinese iphones) and expect them to have the endurance, strength and wisdom to fight for themselves after we ‘ve left this world?

There is no easy solution. The persistent question is this: Why does your daughter choose to graduate from medical school and her brother shames you and his sister by being ezigbo ike nsi (Igbo for real shitty ass)?  

Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com, jamesagazies.blogspt.com

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