GET THAT PhD

The Summer is almost over; the Spring is here. The smell of Fall is in the air. Time is flying, and you don’t have the doctorate degree yet? What? It is amazing why few Nigerians are not grabbing the PhD degrees. Are Nigerians lazy or have they lost the zeal we were once known for? Are they simply sidetracked by pursuit of other more pressing needs than reading?  Is it alcohol  or foo-foo?

A sidetrack is a digression, detour, departure, deviation. It is time we got back on course because our nation will need all hands on deck after the Buharians  have wrecked havoc on our economy and Nigerians are driven to flee on self exiles, leaving our nation without the needed manpower. It could be worse  than  living with crazy boko haram. Laugh all you want; it’s no joke.  Our consolation is our conviction that great success consists of developing the equation:  P =B + D.

Yes,  PhD  is  10% Brains and 90% Determination, no more and no less.

The 10/90 seems right in any human endeavor.

The purpose of this essay is to drive home the point home that what is popularly known as the terminal degree (PhD , EdD, DSc or D.A, MD , etc )is an endeavor to shoot for rather than to avoid .

The highest degree you can earn in most liberal arts disciplines is a PhD, or Doctor of Philosophy. However, clinical and counseling psychologists earn a PsyD, Doctor of Psychology nomenclature; medical students earn M.D (Doctor of Medicine).  Educators earn the EdD (Doctor of Education;  Pharmacists earn the Pharm D, and law students can earn J.D. (Juris Doctor) degrees.

In reality, the JD and Pharm D are sometimes considered terminal degrees. However, they are the first professional degrees, since a JD can go further to obtain the LLM, and PhD in some area of law such as international law, environmental, or marine law after completing an acceptable dissertation. Holders of the PharmD can continue work toward the MS and PhD in pharmacology

We say that the doctorate degree in all disciplines  is attainable rather than unattainable. It is regrettable that many Nigerians do not see the need for the doctorate degrees or perhaps  have negative things to say about the PhD. Some say the degree is not worth the paper the diploma is printed on. Some say it is not worth  the considerable time and pains invested in the pursuit or that  it does not worth much in terms of money generated after acquiring the degree.

Others say the doctorate is a waste of time, time-consuming, involves too much suffering, or it is not what it  is trumped up to be. Pessimistic Nigerians are of the mind that the PhD is unattainable. A thing is unattainable if the  person feels the task in unachievable, impossible, beyond one’s reach, unfeasible, or inaccessible. Impossibility is a state of the mind, much like fear.  Knowledge is power in most instances, isn’t it?

This writer feels Nigerians should not avoid the PhD because it is not  as scary as a terminal illness , such as cancer or HIV. In fact the PhD is quite attainable; it requires only a little bit of effort  beyond the Master’s. Whoever tells you that obtaining the PhD is an impossible task is simply telling a fib. A fib b defined as untruth, lie, falsehood, tale, or false story. The US President Donald Trump would say that news depicting the PhD as impossible is nothing more than fake news. Fake is counterfeit, forged, bogus, sham, okwu ashi (Igbo for a lie).

We ought to boycott anyone who tells us to not try a task  because it is unfeasible, impractical, impracticable, unworkable, not viable,  without a solution, or unattainable.  Ask, “Who tells you it is impossible? Are you God to determine impossibility?” Even our Bible say all things are possible for those who have the faith of a mustard seed. Faith is translated to mean hope, confidence, reliance, trust, assurance, conviction, belief, devotion, loyalty. This writer has a confession to make: the PhD is not for the faint-hearted and he says it unashamedly. Despite all your good intensions, you cannot make a person do something  that person feels deeply he or she cannot do. 

While you are there with your head screwed wrong and your self –esteem is as low as bodily waste in the latrine, some determined Nigerian  traders at Alaba market, Lagos,  are working towards  and obtaining law degrees  from Nigerian law schools. This  26-year-old girl of Nnewi family in Boston , Massachusetts, is graduating with the PhD in Microbiology. My father’s friend  Mr. Onyozili has a son Stanley who obtained Harvard’s PhD in political science.

Talk about determined Nigerians! Please move your sorry ass out of the way. Young Nigerian sons and daughters  are bagging the PhD in chemistry, physics, education, and mathematics. It is like “these people are picking  mangoes from the orchard behind Methodist Central School, Igumale, Idoma, Benue State.  

This woman from Sierra Leone did not go on to start coursework towards the PhD in Education after obtaining double Master’s degrees in Library Science and Educational Administration. She could have done so had she not been complaining about driving for hours in her vehicle out of town two nights a week to complete the PhD coursework.  She commuted twice a week from Atlanta, Georgia to East Carolina State University in North Carolina. The PhD demands energy, dedication, and tremendous efforts to overcome doubts .

This writer has encouraged four persons to obtain the PhD. They were Ugandan woman  at a university in Ohio, a Nigerian man and 2 African American women in Georgia, and African American man  in Florida. We have been trying to assist a medical doctor to complete the dissertation that would qualify her to be awarded the PhD in Nursing . She wanted the Nursing PhD in order to teach nursing and medical students intending to work with patients suffering with the Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). All of these people  were able to complete the dissertations and obtained the PhD  with various measures of encouragement.

The first was a woman from Uganda who had difficulty completing the PhD in horticulture which is the art or practice of garden cultivation and management. The Ugandan woman wanted to improve access of Ugandan women farmers to better seeds. She was particularly interested in the science and art of producing, improving, marketing, and using fruits, vegetables, flowers, and ornamental plants.

Horticulture differs from traditional botany and other plant sciences in that horticulturist incorporates both science and aesthetics or beauty of plants. The Ugandan woman had a large collection of data from home but had  great difficulty organizing a vast amount of data she collected form a survey of basically uneducated population.

One who says to you: “Why do you bother with the PhD when you don’t need that in Africa?” is a liar and discourager. He or she lacks ambitious, or does  not want to see you succeed. Do not believe such negative reasoning    Boycott such a cowardly person. Be in the company of birds of the same feather anxious to take off in clear night air over the mountain that  reveals  the celestial beauty of millions of stars.

 Picture yourself ascending to heaven to converse with your late mother who loved and sacrificed for you, and then returning to the Ogbete Market, Enugu, and ordering a leg of goat to be stewed into peppery pepper soup. You must be imaginative to survive in your quest for the PhD

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First, sit down and make up your mind about what, how, and where you want to obtain the PhD, Questions to answer include reason you want the degree; how you plan to pay for it (scholarship or out of pocket); where you want to go (State school, private school, or online). Serious students prefer schools that have campuses rather than the online types because of 1, cheaper tuition; 2. Access to teachers and well  stocked  libraries; and 3.availability of scholarships, stipends, work study, grants, assistantship, fellowships, and other departmental monies.Money cannot deter a determined mind!

Pick up a phone. Call the Registrar. Go on a university campus.  Get that PhD before you die. The PhD students on physical campuses have opportunities to talk with other students  and learn from their experiences. We do not work on the PhD, burying our heads in the sand like South African ostriches without communicating with others.    Get that PhD, and celebrate, my friend!

Submitted by

Dr. James C. Agazie; jamesagazie@gmail.com; jamesagazies.blogsport.com

HOW MENTALLY HEALTHY ARE WE NIGERIANS?

The purpose of this essay is to decry bad attitudes of the Nigerians have toward mental illness and to promote awareness of diseases of the mind and available cures. The essay raises more questions than it  answers. Could bad governance at all levels coupled with massive unprecedented corruption that seems to offer Nigerians little hope of making it till tomorrow all stemming from mental illness? Could the feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that Nigerian children and adults experience on a daily basis leading to low levels of self-esteem and drug use all be traceable to mental illness?

Could massive prostitution be related to attempts to deal with mental illnesses? Violence connected with cult, boko haran, witchcraft, kidnapping, MEND, and MASSOB all combines to render the average Nigerian susceptible to mental health issues. Could armed robberies and kidnappings be related to attempts to deal with mental illnesses? When this writer was Lecturer & Education Officer with the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), he was friendly with a colleague who had a “dangerous Child.”

The dangerous child was autistic and severely mentally retarded. Parents of this child did not understand what they were dealing with so their only option was to hide their child with special needs in the innermost part of the house away from everyone’s views.  Each time the child came out to the parlor where this writer sat with the parents, she was hurriedly chased back to the room that served as her permanent top-secret-security prison. 

This writer sat motionless, stationary, immobile, stock-still, apprehensive, worried, and fearful of this dangerous child. The visit was always uneasy. It was like “I-can’t-wait-to -get -out of- here” or  “I-can’t-touch-the food-and-drink-of-these–people-or-else-I-catch-this-disease.” Looking back, this writer is embarrassed since he had the Master of Science at that time and must have heard of or known someone who had taken advanced graduate courses in abnormal psychology and mental retardation.

 This essay underscores, accentuates, or calls attention to the fact that Nigerians  of today have many mentally ill subgroups in the population of 170,000,000 persons. Nigerians are not very much unaware of the causes and effects of mental diseases. We Nigerians don’t take the time or have the patience or capacity to deal with our mentally ill family members. At the end of this essay are recommendations included to assist in combating the scourge of mental illnesses in Nigeria.

Akula Owu Onyeara is a popular Nigerian Highlife music of the 70’s. The song is about the psychotic nature of mental illness and its pervasive effects on the sufferer and larger society. The sufferer is described as Onye Ara or the insane who lacks commonsense and the ability to discern between what is right and what is wrong, between what is to be done and what to avoid.

Translation of the lyrics goes like this:   Crazy man, please don’t fight with broken bottles. You are crazy. He is crazy. In the cold season, he bathes with cold water. In the hot season, he bathes with hot water. What do you call such a behavior? He is crazy. He’s mentally sick. If you give him a piece of cloth, he throws it away and goes unclad. What do you call such behavior? It is insanity. It is mental illness. If you keep him at home, he sneaks unclad to the open market. What do you call such behavior? He’s crazy. Crazy man, please don’t fight with broken bottles.

 

Nigerians have reasons to lament the increasing number of their neighbors with psychiatric problems. Robin Hammond observes: Where there is war, famine, displacement, it is the most vulnerable that suffer the greatest. Abandoned by governments, forgotten by the aid community, neglected and abused by entire societies,  Africans with mental illness in regions in crisis are resigned to the dark corners of churches, chained to rusted hospital beds, locked away to live behind the bars of filthy prisons. Read more: http://www.robinhammond.co.uk/condemned-mental-health-in-african-countries-in-crisis/

The Africa Today describes the number mentally ill Africans as being “frightening.” (Africatoday80gmail.com, November 29, 2011). Figures coming from Nigeria indicate that in a particular geographic area of Nigeria, the mentally ill patients increased from 28,000 in 2009 to 42,000 in 2010.  If the statistics accurately reflect the situation, then it is safe to say that Nigeria has an enormous number of mentally ill persons, perhaps in the millions. Could these statistics  be responsible for the high incidence of violent crimes, kidnappings, murders, corrupt politicians, and thefts in the country?  Shamefully, Nigeria has only 130 psychiatrists, 4 neuropsychiatric nurses, and 8 neuropsychiatric hospitals that attend to 180 million people.

The ratio of psychiatrists to patients stands at 1 per 1million (that is, 0.01 per 100,000) as against the following: 31.1 per 100,000 (Massachusetts); 16.5 per 100,000 (USA); 12.3 per 100,000 (Augusta); 12.14 per 100,000 (Arizona); 9.3 per 100,000 (Atlanta); and 4.6 per 100,000 (Idaho). That means that Atlanta alone has close to 1,000 times as many psychiatrists as the entire nation of Nigeria.

Even the small potato State of Idaho beats Nigeria 461 to 0 in the number of psychiatrists.  This is a shame on my country. It is shame on the Nigerian medical professionals residing in the Western countries. What an embarrassment on Atlanta’s or New York’s Nigerian communities for sitting dormant while our people are losing their minds.

It is urgent that the Federal Government endeavor to lure surplus psychiatric professionals home from the Western countries that include America, Britain, Canada, and France. Of the 506 African psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, 214 (40%) are Nigerians. Why can’t someone lure these mental health practitioners home to our country?

It is reported that Lagos State government has placed the number of its mentally ill patients at 2 million or 14.1% of the population. There are no figures for Anambra, Imo, Abia, or Ebonyi  but we would suspect that the number of psychiatric patients in the former Biafra would far surpass, double, triple or even quadruple that of Lagos State.

Why? Because the people in the former Eastern Nigerian were heavily desecrated by the killings the Igbos witnessed in the North; debased by sufferings they endured when they ran home with bodies of dead relatives; and further despoiled by malnutrition and kwashiorkor.

 Although the horrors of Biafra are real, yet there is no indication that the children in those areas (now adults) have ever been treated for post-traumatic syndrome. That some Nigerians, who have been through the tragedies are still suffering the devastating effects of the Civil War 50 years after Biafra, has not been investigated.

When we salute Igbos for overcoming the horrors of Biafra with no psychiatric evaluations, treatments or rehabilitation  offered by the Federal Government, we should be mindful that effects of untreated post-traumatic syndrome might be lingering and still influencing today’s Igbo people.

Experts blame the deterioration of mental health in Nigerian on “institution-based care practice” (involving hospitals, doctors, nurses and drugs), perhaps Nigerians would benefit more from the “community-based care practice “ of management of mental illness  (which involves health-care professionals, the patient, family, and entire community). There is nothing to be embarrassed of in mental illness.

Nigerians consider mental illness a source of shame and embarrassment; people hide their mentally ill relatives in the villages when they should be seeking help for them. Therefore, ignorance of the causes and treatments of the disease helps to render the situation more hopeless in the case of Nigeria. Other possible causes of mental illness among Nigerians can be a number of factors.

There are real stressful socioeconomic conditions of the country akin to running from one part of the bush to another during the Biafran War in order to dodge bombings, and avoid being killed by Nigerian soldiers.

Bad governance at all levels coupled with massive unprecedented corruption, seem to offer Nigerians little hope of making it till tomorrow. There are feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that Nigerian children and adults experience on a daily basis leading to low levels of self-esteem and drug use.

Could massive prostitution be related to attempts to deal with mental illnesses? Violence connected with cult, boko haran, witchcraft, kidnapping, MEND, and MASSOB all combines to render the average Nigerian susceptible to mental health issues. Could armed robberies and kidnappings be related to attempts to deal with mental illnesses?

Abject poverty or pennilessness ( $1 a-day wage)  pushes adults to engage in 419 and youth to robberies and extortions. Anxiety created by constant insecurity and apprehension can lead to depression or neurotic behavior. There are numerous cases where young college students suffer mental breakdowns that are popularly referred to as “brain fag.”

There is a superstition among Africans regarding mental illness in Africa. While Westerners believe mental illness is genetically inherited or caused by some chemical imbalances in the body, specifically, the African believes mental illness is caused by specific enemies or the ancestors, so you go after the enemy and kill him/her, and appease the ancestor through bloody sacrifices. One mentally ill Yoruba man was recently reported to have eaten the intestines of a woman on his witchdoctor’s advice ostensibly as a cure for his malady.

As you look around the Nigerian communities in Atlanta, Lagos, and Abuja you’ll see people trying hard to cope with mental difficulties the best they could, at exorbitant costs.  Some Nigerians drink large quantities of alcoholic beverages every day. These are alcoholics who go to their jobs with hangovers each day and manage to perform their duties and hold families together because society expects them to do so.

 Nigeria is the clearinghouse for various types of illicit drugs coming from Asia on their way to the United States, and the number of Nigerian young drug users is skyrocketing. There are thousands of “shanty” bars everywhere in Nigeria and people frequent these at odd hours of day and night to drink their sorrows away

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There are hundreds of brothels along roadways and private houses of prostitution in residential areas of Nigeria where people go to ease the pain of bewilderment. As a  man,  you go to “ashawo” (prostitute)  and complain about your mental problems and she tells you, “Oga, make you pay your money and  make you no worry, oh.”

Domestic violence is commonplace with men maiming or inflicting serious life-threatening injuries on wives (with fire, firearms, or machete) due to frustration;  loss of job. Divorces and separations are frequent and unreported and often blamed on emotional problems, as a man may kick one wife out and bring in another younger one in the attempt to resolve the issue associated to mental illness.

 People spend countless hours plotting  to amass wealth which they put to no good use other than to see money grow huge in account books and diminish anxiety created by poverty.  While constant pursuit of money seems to give one a sense of mastery over personal failures in some areas, incessant pursuit of wealth creates frustration and mental pains in other areas. Outdoor restaurants and beer parlors provide relief from worrying over personal and national problems: everyone aspires to the beer distributorship license.

It is gratifying to note that mental illnesses are treatable, and there are effective therapeutic interventions available, but the patient and family must seek help at the hands of modern professionals, not quackery. Why must we hide diseases of the mind when we openly treat malaria or headache? Ignorance is no longer bliss. Life is hard as it is, and every effort must be made to live it as comfortable as possible because “the mind is a terrible thing to waste”.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Nigerian Government should build more psychiatric hospitals, equip its medical schools to train more psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses and psychiatric social workers to deal with problems.
2. The Federal Government ought to have the Mental Illness Awareness Month on the calendar in which seminars are held throughout the country.
3. Efforts should be made to reduce the fear people have about mental illness by increasing the involvement of communities and family members of mentally ill persons in the diagnoses and treatment of the disease.

James C. Agazie (JD, EdD, MS, MA, BA) completed his primary and secondary schools in Nigeria before emigrating to the United States for advanced degrees in mathematics, education and law. His teaching and counseling experiences have taken him to primary schools in Nigeria, Enugu IMT, several secondary schools and undergraduate and graduate universities in the United States. Dr..Agazie lives in and writes from Georgia, USA.  Please visit his blog jamesagazies.blogspot.com for some of his other essays.

STORY BEHIND NIGERIA’S BAIL CONDITIONS FOR IPOB LEADER NNAMDI KALU

It is the popular opinion that the bail conditions given to Nnamdi Kalu  were an overkill in the sense that the conditions represented an attempt to catch a tiny fish with a massive net. Nigeria failed to look beyond a myopic, tunnel vision to see a larger picture that could have been exploited to unite the nation and pull us out of a conundrum.

A conundrum refers to a riddle whose answer is a pun or a paradox, or to any problem whose answer is uncertain. Some conclusions to be drawn from an analysis of the bail conditions can be seen at the end of this essay. This leads us to our earlier conviction: Igbos are gods.

Nnamdi Kalu was released from Kuje Prison on Friday, April 28, following the bail conditions  granted by Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja last Tuesday, April 25. He spent one year and six months in detention after he was arrested by operatives of the Department of State Securities in Lagos upon his return from the United Kingdom on October 14, 2015.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the bail conditions Justice Nyako, sitting at Abuja Court, stipulated her fellow Nigerian citizen Mr. Kalu must agree to before the later could be released from prison to prepare for his defense.  There are some important conclusions to be drawn from the Kanu-Nyako episode. Read to the end of this essay to examine the conclusions.

Maintaining that the only reason she granted bail to Kanu was because of Kanu’s  ill health, Justice Nyako of Nigeria marshaled out about thirteen (13) conditions that must be met prior to (not subsequent to) Nnamdi Kalu’s release from detention. The conditions now follow below.

Mr. Kalu must not hold rallies. He must not grant interviews. He must not be in a crowd of more than 10 people.

Mr. Kanu must provide three sureties in the sum of N100 million each. Obne of the sureties must be a senior highly placed person of Igbo extraction such as a senator. The second surety must be a highly respected Jewish leader since Mr. Kanu said his religion is Judaism. The third surety must be a highly respected person who owns landed property and is resident in Abuja.

The IPOB leader must deposit his Nigerian passport. He must also deposit his British passport with the court. The order for him to deposit his Nigerian and British passports is meant to ensure Mr. Kalu the IPOB leader cannot travel out of the country to avoid prosecution.

He must provide the court with reports on the progress of his health and treatment on a monthly basis.

Justice Nyako however refused bail to the three other defendants standing trial with Kanu, namely Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi. All three prisoners were seen wearing handcuffs in court.  The following are observations this writer is making in reaction to the incidence of the stiff bail conditions offered to IPOB leader Nnamdi Kalu by the Nigerian government through Justice Nyako.

ILL HEALTH: The ill health of an accused is a tenable, reasonable, justifiable, defensible, rational, plausible reason  to grant temporary or permanent  relief from  prosecution. For this reason, we commend the learned judge, Justice Nyako and heap accolades on her for tempering justice with mercy. Judicial mercy is clemency, compassion, and understanding.

NIGERIA’S OVERKILL: Justice Nyako did overkill justice in the rush to demonize the prisoner. To demonize is to portray an individual or group of individuals as an evil, demonic, or a dangerous criminal; to make the IPOB leader look worse and more reprehensible or terrible/terrifying than he actually is.

Nyako does what she does perhaps to score a point, or perhaps to deal with pressure from President Buhari and the Buharians  who are bent on seeking  a revenge consisting of “Shakespearen pound of flesh,” in order to steady a rocky, rocking boat.  Nigeria is a ship, and at the helm is the Queen of Great Britain, wearing a crown. Therefore, treasonable phelony is a crime against the Crown, though the offense may take place thousands of miles off the shores of Great Britain.  Sometimes, the Queen orders an overkill to protect her Empire.

To overkill is to protect self through a revenge or to take punishment to such a comical level as to cause easy laughter or glee. An overkill can be seen in a soldier who shoots the victim down and continues to pour bullets into a lifeless corpse. An overkill is an overload, overstatement, heavy handedness, too much of a good thing.

We must respect the learned Judge Nyako, for she is learning the rope and she is not the boss in a bureaucratic nation where judicial independence is a fairy tale, and judges are hauled away to prison without due process, for failing to serve as gramophone that repeats “his master’s voice.”

As extensions or appendages of the power that be, judges can act without restraints. Restraint is the opposite of overkill, and Nigerians have an inverted notion of justice that lacks restraint in personal or public life as seen in the embezzlement of huge sums of money with uncountable zeros belonging to the people.

Can anyone see overkill in the murder a Christian woman whose corpse was paraded in the open market as if she were a trophy, simply because she happened to dance to a different drummer, to believe in a different onye nwe anyi (our Lord) than the terrorists’ Allah?

PUNISHMENT VERSUS REHABILITATION: While the rest of the free world subscribes to the humane rehabilitation which changes conditions that breed lawlessness and that attack  constituted authority (such as the Nigerian government, for example), Justice Nyako and the government she represents uphold cruel punishment and excessive force to control the expression of human liberty.

Cruel punishment is the use of sentencing, penalty, chastisement, castigation, reprimand, retribution, or death in its most extremely outrageous form to muzzle and silence citizens. Punishment is a form of cruelty. Cruelty is  meanness, nastiness, brutality, malice, spite, spitefulness, vindictiveness.

Rehabilitation, on the other hand, as contradictory to punishment, is the readiness to correct a behavior through the use of treatment, therapy, healing, cure, analysis, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, religion, or love.

BOTTOM LINE? Bottom line is  WHO WINS THE CONTEST? We say all these things to say that we need a WIN-WIN situation and that Nigeria  ought to win her citizens over. Mr. Nnamdi kalu could have been won over to Buhari’s side through rehabilitation, love, compassion, and concern rather than through hate, armamentarium, or intimidation.

Armamentarium is the effective equipment of a warship (Nigeria is always a ship at war), including the war planes, fortifications, guns, rifles, armory, My country Nigeria  is arming or being armed for war. Most of our so-called military might are purchased from white men with expensive price tags. where is the money left over to build roads and provide our electricity?  

What could a mere 40-year-old Igbo young man, filled with youthful energy,  and drunk with an inflated sense of self- importance  do to harm a nation of 180,000,000 people, a nation with fully functioning armed forces? Nigeria and her legal system overreacted with explosive force.

Nnamdi Kalu has no weapons other than onu, onu, ntaghari onu (mouth, mouth, and talking mouth).  A talking mouth demonstrates that democracy is well and alive in Nigeria.

This writer would rather have talking mouths without a government than a government without talking mouths. We ought to show the world that we are a democracy, the “indepanda.”  Nigerians are not caged animals who have no voices.

DOES THE GLOVE FIT THE HAND?: Readers need to be reminded that we are concerned with whether the drastic, heavy-handed bail conditions stacked up against a 40-year-old impressionable young man were fair, and whether Nnamdi Kalu’ s justice was delayed and his  freedom snatched away.

Justice delayed is justice denied. A denial of justice occurred when  young Nnamdi Kalu  sought   fame (even if the fame lasts for a fleeting second), and the Nigerian legal system responded with actions which were hampering, daunting, or fettering. The three verbs mean hindering of free speech.

Stiff bail conditions did not fit the alleged offense described as treasonable felony. That is the same mystery charge that landed Chief Obafemi Awolowo in jail and sent Chief Abiola to early grave.

CROWD OF 10 PERSONS: Restricting Kanu to a crowd no more than 10 persons means the man cannot go to church or visit his family members and he would avoid attending funerals of his deceased umu nna (kindreds).

THREE HUNDRED MILLION NAIRA SURETIES: Justice Nyako got it wrong when she attempts to force Nigerians into the pigeon-hole thought process where one is compelled to develop a tunnel  vision of Nigerian justice.  

Tunnel vision is the tendency to focus exclusively on a single or limited goal or point of view. It is an all-or-none solution to a complex issue. Tunnel vision is the one-size-fits-all market, where one buys a size 12 dress for a skinny, scrawny, skeletal, malnourished Fulani female (subsisting on fermented cow milk), and attempts to force the skimpy dress on the body of a fat, obose, rotunda Igbo akpu (cassava) eater.

A huge misgiving in the Nigerian society is the tendency to measure everything in life in terms of sums of money. My people have such a misguided notion of money when they talk obsessively of material possessions. It is terrible!

                                                                                                                                                                    We can sleep peacefully when you mention N100 (one hundred naira), N1,000 (one thousand Naira), or even N100,000 (one hundred thousand naira). Few people can sleep well without experiencing nightmares when Nyako talks about N100,000,000 (one hundred million Naira), and N300, 000,000 (three hundred million Naira). Many people are led to steal or resort to witch doctors who may demand human sacrifices. Love of money opens doors to many evils.

We ought to de-emphasize money and emphasize non-monetary values. We ought to refuse to tell our Nigerian sons and daughters “Baby, everything you see is  about money, money, and more money”. There is more to life than just money, and the best thing a Nigerian mother and father ought to give a Nigerian child is not money. The best gifts to give our children are positive values, not millions of Naira.

The best thing in life is life itself, followed by respect and love for the nation and being of assistance to others. The most valuable things in life are invaluable. To be considered invaluable, the thing must be precious, priceless, very useful, helpful, or important.

If Justice Nyako had been schooled in non-monetary values, she would agree with the proposition that invaluable items include but are not limited to life, health, freedom, love, altruism, and kindness. Service rendered to others is an invaluable gift that only Heaven can repay. Then, we can boldly say to our son or daughter: “Baby, money is not that important because the best possession your mother and I have is not money. It is the gift of you. Tell me this: now much is your life worth?”

ON JEWISH SURETY: One cannot fail to detect traces of poisonous colonial mentality in Justice Nyako bail conditions. Must Nigerians often run to foreigners to ask for favors? Is a Jewish rabbi a better surety than a Fulani  herdsman who owns a million heads of cows, or a Calabar  merchant who deals  in ahia iwu (merchant who deals in banned goods shipped from Fernando Po)? What about a Nigerian pastor who owns churches in every nation and a fleet of sleek jets?

THE ABCD OF NIGERIAN JUSTICE. A stands for Allaharization;  B stands for the Buharization of Nigerian politics; C stands for Cannonization; and D is Demonization. Allaharization is the habit of categorizing any offense or situation as a case involving Allah. Buharization is the messing up of the body politic whereby any disagreement or demonstration is seen as a decamp from Buhari’s Aso Rock.

Canonization is the declaration that a person who kills others or uses extralegal means to cause the death of someone opposed to Buhari’s views, is to be granted special dispensation, indulgence, allowance, special consideration, privilege, relaxation of rules, or exemption. Demonization is the habit of reducing persons opposed to Buhari’s government to the position of a demon, imp, evil spirit, Satan, or dangerous criminal.  

CONCLUSIONS: The Buhari government and Justice Nyako ought to learn from the Nnamdi Kalu episode as they retrace steps to move Nigeria on the path to true democracy

Mr. Nnamdi Kalu is a tiny fish that ought to have been caught with a tiny leafy bait woven with compassion, not a massive steel net. 

Kalu should have been marginalized, rendered a more potent contributor to governance if we can lure him into becoming a team player on the side the Federal Government and in the service of his fellow citizens.

Let us listen as Kanu expounds his youthful ideas on how to govern 180,000,000 diverse persons; he would be able to explain if given the opportunity, and would find it difficult to remain silent. We must encourage Kanu to talk and not remain silent. So long as the Kanus are silent or silenced Nigerian will ever “be developing” but never “developed.”

Therefore, we abjure/reject silence of the dead night. We want the robust speech; we want loquacity, communicativeness, talkativeness, garrulity, chattering, babbling, gabbling, volubility, and the effusiveness of one hundred million Nnamdi Kalus. We want freedom which silence cannot guarantee.  The Kanus must be allowed to speak without being disturbed.

Kanu ought to be trained, equipped, encouraged to carry out nation-building assignments on behalf of his nation to his constitueThe federal Government cannot claim to have all the answers .There are millions of  Nnamdi Kanus in a population of 180 million who may have better ideas on what the problems are and what solutions can serve our needs.  Let’s ask for and explore their suggestions rather than ostracize them.   To exclude a significant portion of Nigerian  population from the political process is not only bad government, it is impudence, effrontery, audacity,ncy, particularly to the Igbo youth who feel marginalized , disenfranchised, and alienated from the Hausa-Fulani-Muslim administration.

Nnamdi Kalu and followers who share his views ought to be involved in efforts to galvanize, fire up, and electrify, communication that would stimulate community efforts to solve Nigerian myriad problems of bad roads, inadequate electricity supply, gnawing hunger, unemployment, violence, and corruption.

Why aren’t the Nigerian youth involved in developing new inventions (gargets)? It is because nobody encourages them or provides incentives, and they are not allowed to speak.

The federal Government cannot claim to have all the answers .There are millions of  Nnamdi Kanus in a population of 180 million who may have better ideas on what the problems are and what solutions can serve our needs.  Let’s ask for and explore their suggestions rather than ostracize them.   To exclude a significant portion of Nigerian  population from the political process is not only bad government, it is impudence, effrontery, audacity,

THE IGBOS ARE GODS

Some say the Igbos are paranoid, meaning  the Igbos imagine things that are not really there. Others say the Igbos are arrogant, suspicious, fearful, mistrustful, obsessed with money, or have unreasonable business practices. Our observation is overwhelmingly significant. The Igbos  have to be gods. Though no Igbo has been elected President of Nigeria, one day someone will. The prospect that an Igbo would eventally be Nigerian President some day is as inevitable as the appearance of daylight after the darkest night!

The Igbos are gods. Igbos are a breed by itself, a seriously misunderstood variety.  Being the gods they are, the Igbos are survivors.  it is impossible for Igbos to be primitive or paranoid as some people make us to be without understanding who the Igbos are.

Watch the Igbos walk down the world ramp with grace and recherché nonchalance. They are the indestructible, they are the   indefatigable, and they are God’s people chosen and ordained to carry the mantle.  The mantle is the badge of honor, the layer, blanket, covering, shroud, veil, cloak, responsibility, or functionality that is entirely Igbo. 

The purpose of this essay is a response to portrayals of Igbos as paranoid. This Igbo writer seeks to defend his people long maligned in the course of Nigerian history during which the Igbos have been the butt of slander, criticism, smear, libel, hurt, harm, damage, or mkpogide no obe (mailing  on the cross). Read to the bottom of this essay to discover how and why the Igbos are considered as gods.

It is time the Igbos were left alone. First, people ought to learn to circumvent the habits of insulting people to get them to do what they want done. Secondly, people ought to provide positive reinforcements (encouragement and praise) to help others want to do what people want done. We would add the efficacy of social observational learning that requires the modeling of behavior you want others to acquire through emulation, process of imitation . Albert Bandura is our favorite psychologist, though other theorists are quite useful. Note that Western-style counseling approaches do not work well with in general with Africans who prefer the more direct approach.  Why? Our personality demands a more structured approach.

We Igbos are not primitive; it is just that we are a high-strung, aggressive and indefatigable group on the outside, but underneath, are fearful, intimidated, and stressed out. Remember  Igbos are barely crawling out of  a terrible war of attrition where they were made to wear the cloak reserved for a defeated, vanquished people What do you see happening to the Igbo boys carrying placard and agitating for Biafra nationhood? Igbos are experiencing an abrasion, a slow destruction or erosion of selfhood. Can anyone see the process of wear and tear, eating away and emasculation of Igbo manhood?

 Nigerians aren’t  some irredeemable, incorrigible, unalterable sadists who draw joy from human suffering, are they? Don’t they see the gnawing away, the wearing away, and the grinding down of Igbos? Are Nigerians truly humane?  It is normal to expect Igbos to experience intense symptoms of the post traumatic stress syndrome as manifested in Igbo behavior. Though all these things are so, yet we Igbos are a people who keep hope alive.  With time, “ogadiri Ndiigbo mma” (it shall be well with Igbos).  Sometimes, Some  Igbos believe “odigoro Ndiigbo nma” (it is already well with Igbos). The Igbos are gods.  An aspect of being a god is ability to be an overcomer. The igbos have overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, including pogroms, near total annihilation, and refugee camps. 

 This writer was at Enugu at the end of the War as the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of the Eastern Nigerian Government was spearheading the repatriation of Biafran children out of London and other African countries to which they were sent to escape starvation and kwashiorkor. This writer’s late wife Maxine Myers Agazie, PhD, MSSW,  was the first trained and certified professional social worker employed with the government  of Sole Admininstrator Ukpabi Asika to organize children’s adoptions at the end of  the Biafran War.

You could not avoid shedding tears  (if the milk of human feeling  was  left in you)at the plight of Igbo children. These Biafran  babies and surviving toddlers  were not provided with any type of advocacy, adjustment, or rehabilitation counseling  as they were being processed for adoption. They were just passed off like animals and reintegrated anyhow into society they did not understand  them, and placed with families who did not understand  the trauma these kids had been through and who proved to be exploiters and abusers.

The children’s parents were either dead or unwilling to accept the responsibility to care for vulnerable, at-risk persons. There was no food in the homes into which the babies were deposited. The preferred option the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MHSW) adopted was haphazard adoptions by men who were unrelated to the adoptees, and who seized the opportunity to marry underage babies. How these kids survived to this day is a prayer only God could answer.

 We mention this to show that the Igbos have survived so many atrocities for too long and with so little help it is believed Igbos  can survive anything anytime anywhere and  anyhow. The current thinking is this: the Igbos are mini gods that descended directly from heaven. Of all the Nigerian tribes, the Igbos appear to be the only group that hasn’t been given the opportunity to benefit from real rehabilitation programs. Igbos have not had opportunities to experience love from neighbors and to acquire altruism.

 To be altruistic is to be unselfish, selfless, humane, and philanthropic.  Therefore,  Igbos do not take help-your-brother stance seriously. The Jews and the Italians do help each other. The Igbos at the Nigerian Federal Ministries would prefer Hausa or Yoruba heads to one of their kind. This writer asked: "Why not prefer fellow Igbo managers?" Allegations given were that Igbos are taskmasters, Igbo bosses would underpay their employees, and Igbos are heartless.

The real reason why Igbos do not provide for each other is this: Igboland is so overcrowded the people need to move out elsewhere. Wherever they go, the Igbos suffer some form of persecution at hands of spiteful neighbors.  Recall the experiment done with mice in an overcrowded environment where some electrical shocks were delivered at random. Like Igbos just out of a war with nowhere else to go, the mice experienced PTSS (post traumatic stress syndrome), resulting in maladaptive behavior that included homosexuality, cannibalism, with male mice attacking females and infants.

We admire the Igbos for surviving the atrocities of war and carrying on without extensive psychotherapy as if nothing has happened.  Th e Jews wouldn’t have been able to survive the Holocaust without massive reparations and UN-sponsored rehabilitation efforts. With time, we Igbos shall acquire such survival skills as resistance, politeness, altruism, loyalty, and all other good attitudes. 

The Igbos need the world’s understanding, kindness,  and encouragement. We do not need the world’s  condemnation, criticisms or to be over-psychoanalyzed. Igbos do not need others’ pity, sympathy or condescension because Igbos are gods, and gods do not need the forgiveness or benevolence of mortals. There are creative and fictional, survivalist explanations as to why Igbos see themselves as gods,

One of the characteristics of gods is their indefatigability, the quality of being untiring. Indefatigability is inexhaustibility or the ability to work and continue to work for a very long time without becoming tired. To the extent that gods are infinite and inexhaustible, Igbo are gods. Infinity is endlessness of energy.  Inexhaustibility is boundlessness or get-up-and-go. The spirit of Ndiigbo is as inestimable as it is illimitable.

The Igbos are so indefatigable, aren’t they? An indefatigable person is one who is unrelenting, remorseless, unstoppable, unflagging, and inexorable. After pondering over the Igbo paradox, one may  asks some perplexing questions.  What gives the Igbos their distinguishing personality?. Why are these people strong, fearless, adventuresome go-getters? Why do they go up Northern Nigeria and spend “billions of Naira, in fact, trillions of okpoyo ha (their money)  to develop the North, to build schools, churches, 5-star hotels, and banks, dingy beer parlors? Some people add ulo ashawo  (brothels) to the list of Igbo accomplishments in Northern Nigeria. 

Now, let us define further the Igbo indefatigability by describing the mythical and culture-based  paradox of Igbo personality. A paradox is the inconsistency, absurdity, irony, contradiction, impossibility, or illogicality of Igboism/Igbotism. Therefore, Ndiigbo are gods. There is a mythical explanation of why and how Igbos have become gods.

One market day somewhere before the advent of Bible-carrying white men, while natives were trading their wares by barter and with cowries, a fiery star fell off the sky and landed in the center of the village. As illiterate and terrified as the villagers were, all adults and children scampered  into their huts, thinking an angry god had arrived to exact penalties for their undisclosed trespasses. No one ventured out for several days until a day after a heavy rainstorm fell. Pandemonium broke loose as a muscular stranger was hatched out of the fallen fiery star.

Without uttering “Ndewo” (thank you) or “Kedukwanu?”(how are you?)  in the way of greetings, the muscular stranger started to construct his own abode. He didn’t ask for help or food. He simply walked into your hut and helped himself to your food, knives, hoes, machete, and sticks. He dug behind your hut to gather his mud and climbed your palm trees to cut the fronds and harvest a calabash of palm wine.

 Villagers watched in amazement as the stranger worked and toiled and finally completed a big three-mansion-sized building much like the Aso Rock where President Buhari of Nigeria resides. It had a huge toilet dug in the middle of the bedchamber into which no stool was dropped. The latrine or shit hole was stuffed with bales of money.

The stranger then went to sleep. Villagers dared not enquire into his name or say PIM as to why he shouldn’t pay for “borrowing” their stuffs and eating their food. After series of discussions and a poll, male villagers decided to name the stranger Chi. Because Chi came from heaven, he is god and anthropomorphic, sharing some attributes with Chineke (the Almighty God).

Chi considers himself superior to other mortals, including the Hausas, Yorubas, Fulani, Munchi, and the Mmoghos. His antithesis is Ekwensi (the devil or evil spirit). He doesn’t need mortals’ permission to do as he pleases. Because Chi does anything he pleases, says whatever he chooses, goes anywhere he wants, eats all things he fancies, Ekwensu (Satan) becomes jealous and  tries to exert power over him. In fact, Chineke (the Almighty God) recognizes Chi as His own son, and has lots of regards for him. Chi shares Chukwu’s (Chineke’s) omnipotence (superpower), omniscience (unequalled knowledge), and omnipresence (being present everywhere at the same time).

The only difference between Chi and Chineke (Almighty God) is that Chi could not live beyond a certain age, though he sometimes wishes his money would buy him ndu ebighi ebi (everlasting life). One pernicious, dreadful, insidious, or bad aspect of Chi’s disposition is his uncanny or weird ability to come to your community, take over, and put you out while asking you: “Can I help you?”

Chi is to be greatly feared and respected by lesser gods and minor tribes. Chi deeply believes he is not on equal footing with the other gods, including the gods of rain and thunder, god of procreation, and god of harvest of new yams. In fact, Chi is higher, and he is known by other names, including Chukwuka, Chima, Chuma, Chukwuma, Chinedu, Chikwendu, Chigozie, Chijioke, Chibundu, or other names starting with the word Chi.

Chi never loses arguments with mortals because he is a god whose knowledge supersedes all others around except Chukwu or Chineke. Chi eventually became a big farmer, and married several wives to produce millions of children. His children are the Igbos of today. Chi is hated by the other tribes, including  the Hausa, Fulani, Mogho, Munchi, Shua-shua, Akputu, and others because Chi had never paid for the things he borrowed while building his house. Waiting for Chi to pay his debts is waiting forever.

 There is a culture-based explanation for the personality of the Igbos. The Igbos became who they are as a result of cultural influences. Many moons ago before the advent of the white man and thereafter, most Igbo men were cultivators of  such  staple foods as ji (yams), akpu (cassava), akidi (beans), ede (coco-yams), oka (corn), utaba (tobacco), and opupa (groundnuts), to name only a few.

Because times were hard, labor scarce and expensive, and money in short supply, most Igbo farmers married many wives for economic reasons, namely,  to produce enough children to work on family farms. Men planted yams and cassava, and women tended to vegetables , like okwuru, onugbu, egusi, uturukpa, and anara.  What the farmer and his wife or wives harvested were sold at open markets that fell on specific market days, such as  Eke, Oye, Afor, or Nkwo days.

Whatever money the farmer realized was spent on family needs, including clothes, food, medications, and children’s school expenses (books, fees, and uniforms). The family head, Nna Anyi (our Father) always played an important role as protector and disciplinarian. Children respected, honored and revered Papa who carried the family Ofor. 

The Ofor is the symbol of authority held by the oldest family member, and Papa is the originator of the family. As family heads, fathers provided direction for all family members to follow, including wives. Children were taught to become future fathers and mothers in their own homes. 

Boys were expected to watch their fathers labor, heave, and strain on stubborn soil that must be made to yield food and other family needs. Girls watch as  mothers cook, clean, wash, become impregnated, give birth, and take care of young children, All children were made aware of family expectations: boys to marry and become fathers and husbands; girls to marry men and become wives and mothers in their own homes. Both boys and girls are to produce children for their husbands and wives.

Igbo men grow up to be just as industrious as their fathers in hard work and wisdom. Igbo girls pattern after their mothers. Family honor is to be maintained at all times through being responsible, providing food and shelter for the family, obeying traditions and fulfilling customs related to elderly parents, traditional marriages, family inheritances, funerals, and  chieftaincy titles. This is how the Igbos have developed to be who they now are.

COPYRIGHTED  MATERIALS.

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

AFRICA MAY BENEFIT FROM HOMOSEXUALITY

There is no evidence that the Obama administration homosexualized Africa. It appears that indeed homosexuality may benefit Africa. And before you throw your hands up in the air and dismiss this writer as a gay man or accuse former US President Obama of introducing gay virus into Africa, wait. Read on!  Africans have many lessons to learn before the close of the second half of the 21^st Century, The most important lesson is to fast forward knowledge of science and technology. The next is to try effective population control mechanisms. Overpopulation is a serious problem many African nations can no longer ignore or take lightly. 

The purpose of this essay is to share some thoughts on why the U S Supreme Court’s recent decision legalizing same-sex unions is a significant step in the right direction and why we Africans should not rush to judgment on controversial issues. The Supreme Court decision seems to be telling Africans: “if you don’t stop fucking and having too many babies you’ll run out of land and food. Please don’t look to us to bail you out We have our own problems.”  

What do Africans do when the die is cast? Will Africans choose to become homosexual or homophobic? Having said this bluntly does not ipso facto justify placing homosexual labels on foreheads of persons who disagree with the contention that only heterosexuals have the right to inhabit God’s earth.   

Our position is that, since we have not yet learned all that there is to know about the subject, we ought to exercise caution rather than gather all homosexuals together in one spot  and slaughter them. A word of caution means that mankind’s knowledge of human sexuality, including the homos and how the brain operates, is incomplete. We ought to tread cautiously, watchfully, vigilantly, guardedly, or carefully, rather than act recklessly since we aren’t even beginning to scratch the surface of the problem.

We are facing very serious challenges both from within and without. There is a threat from famine, hurricane, tornadoes, and flooding associated with pollution and global warming.  Muslim terrorism poses serious threats around the world and in Nigeria, Central African Republic, and at the Winter Olympic Games at Sochi, Russia. No nation is safe or immune from terrorist or chemical attacks. Remember the 911.

There is a potential threat from wars we fight to contain terrorism or to defeat persons or groups bent on destroying our earth. The problem of the world seems to be concentrated in one word – security.  HOMOSEXUALITY appears to offer the best deterrent, at least in the minds of Western thinkers.  

The world cannot handle the tremendous press and demand placed on our fragile planet. A press is defined as the act that has the tendency to punish, push, depress, force down on, compress, or squash.  It is predicted that the next 100 years would witness the transportation to and colonization of other planets (such as Mars) to ease earth’s  problems. That’s a tremendous solution, isn’t it? 

We are in a race to find ways to push back at our pressures or retaliate against the seemingly insurmountable problems we are facing on earth. What are these problems? They are :  (a) Threats of wars, famine, and overpopulation; (b) Control of scarce resources; (c) Establishment  of New World Order; (d) problems created by superstitious beliefs; and (e) Development of  new economic system that delineates the  upper class and the underclass or  slave minorities.

Homosexuality is thought to be the cheapest, less controversial solution to a big problem created by diminishing returns on investment, exploding population, and disintegrating environment. The only solution’s drawback is convincing a significant portion of people on planet earth to accept homosexuality as normal or alternative lifestyle.

Recent research is beginning to unearth the proposal that homosexuality is far from being  an aberration  An  aberration is defined as a deviation, an irregularity, or abnormality. Homosexuality seems to provide awesome solution to the questions of overpopulation, hunger, violence, and pollution . The thinking of supporters of U S Supreme Court same-sex decision  appears to be centered on certain basic principles.

Homosexual or same sex persons appear to be better educated and to have higher disposable incomes than heterosexuals.

Same sex unions do not produce children to help deplete our limited natural resources because there are no child-rearing expenses, such as food, education, and health bills.

Unmarried persons are jealous of the benefits married men and women enjoy and wish they had such advantages as homesteads, tax benefits, health insurance, death benefits, and social security, to mention just a few.

When childless homosexuals die, their money, property, and huge investments revert to the State and comes back to society.

       Homosexuality will help keep world population to a minimum because children will not be born to replace the dead or to repopulate and re-pollute the environment. Convincing people to become homosexuals is much cheaper and easier to achieve than waging wars to harvest resources because wars are very expensive and can cost about 10,000,000 dollars per bomber; and 10,000 dollars per gun and ammunition.

Convincing people to embrace homosexuality will be accomplished in a more cost-effective manner than colonizing Mars and other planets because in the event  earth becomes so polluted and uninhabitable we have to abandon our planet and seek refuge in heavenly places. It costs between 4 to7 billion dollars to send a rocket to Mars. The cost of sending people to Mars would be prohibitive. Therefore, let’s stay where we are with homosexuals.

Marriage is no longer in vogue as people are divorcing much faster than they are wedding  so people are opting for same-sex arrangements as a more satisfying arrangement than the man-woman marriages plagued with irreconcilable differences. 

Homosexuality may be a solution to threats caused by overpopulation. The world’s population is increasing astronomically beyond the 7 billion people the earth can comfortably handle.  China is relaxing its one-child law as a result of its newfound wealth.   Poor people in India and African nations are procreating children as rats do in a warm house of cheese.

There is a massive infiltration of Latinos into North America in search of available space to raise, feed and educate their children. It seems plausible the Western nations are likely  to sanction Africa and other Third World countries for being  baby-producing factories that swell numbers to a breaking point. 

Homosexuality may benefit Nigeria where “hunger deh” and each Nigerian household prides itself in having 5 or more children. Who will feed these hungry mouths when populations are bursting at the seam, and people are shifting to urban areas and away from farmlands?  Aren’t villages  being abandoned, and becoming baby manufacturing factories?

 These baby factories are an oxymoron, creating headaches on one hand and demanding handouts with the other hand. America, Britain and the have nations are tired of doling out foreign aid. The haves are sanctioning baby producers and saying:  “Stop all that fucking and sperming and stop criminalizing homosexuality.” 

Same sex agenda may be a way to exert control on population and distribution of scarce resources:  Our resources are getting thinner and inadequate to take care of our needs. Land, the most important natural resource, is fully occupied, or taken over by the strong from the weak. But land is very scarce and fought over fiercely in Zimbabwe, Jos, and Central African Republic.

 The West (America and Britain) sell weapons of mass destruction to one African tribe to be used to kill the other, And the winning tribe is to hand the land along with resources over to the Western nations (Britain, Russia or America) to pay for costs of the guns bombs, airplanes, and technical advisers.

Same sex is thought to be a means to an end in the control of exploding populations. Land is not enough to contain an unlimited number of people. Where there are overpopulation and inadequate supply of food, strange things do happen. There is starvation and disease. There are wars. In Congo, pigmies are being hunted down as bush animals and eaten. It is alleged the Malawians are slaughtering and eating persons with albinism because it is believed doing so confers magical powers. Cannibalism means “I am hungry and I need to eat something.”  

 

 Experimental psychologists have demonstrated that in overpopulated environments, rats become violent, engage in homosexual activities, attack the young, rape the females, and develop aggressive behavior. Rats behave as cannibals. These aberrant behaviors are  happening nowadays in the Hutu-Tutsi massacres, boko vs. Christian violence in Nigeria, Islam-Christian bloodshed, South Sudan militarism, and so forth.  Could embracing homosexuality  provide solution to some of the problems Africans are facing in the Continent?

Can same sex unions help in the development of New World order?  Politicians are running around scared, devising ways to maintain a new economic underclass and slave minorities.  Americans are considering a return to the antebellum slave plantation of Georgia. There is a rush to keep wealth in as few hands as possible.

This is the puzzle that Western leaders and Third World corrupt  heads are putting  heads together to solve: how to survive without  building underground tunnels leading to massive mansions that would store food to last for decades in case the earth becomes  too badly uninhabitable. Selfish leaders  are asking:  “How do we keep the taxes coming in, the oil flowing from Nigeria, and our bills paid on time?” To do so would entail keeping permanent upper and under classes (1% vs. 99%), separated.

Homosexuality is expected to have a profound effect  in Africa and on Africans: The Continent of Africa is in for a big surprise. While Africans continue to weigh homosexuality as a moral issue, the West sees same-sex as a solution to a greater problem related to pollution, overpopulation, poverty, and violence.  The Western powers will exploit the 54 nations in Africa for raw materials and force Africans to become consumers of Western goods, especially the cheap stuffs from China. Africans will be used as experimental guinea pigs for the testing of new products, epidemics, weapons, and prophylactics/cures.

Economic sanctions  will be slapped against any African country that criminalizes homosexuality (Kenya and Uganda and Nigeria) until-the whole world becomes non-homophobic.  It is only then, in the Western thinking, can overpopulation be controlled. Africans pride themselves on being “ fruitful, multipliers’ and replenishers” of the earth with house full of children The Supreme Court decision seems to be telling Africans: “if you don’t stop fucking and having too many babies you’ll run out of land and food. Please don’t look to us to bail you out. We have our own problems.”  These are just preliminary thoughts.

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

THE FAILURE OF NIGERIA IS THE FAIURE OF RELIGION

The aim of this essay is to demonstrate that religion is a blight/affliction and a bane/curse rather than a blessing in our home. Nigeria will be a failed State if the religions Nigerians are practicing fail to deliver the people from destroying themselves. All religions are good if the worshippers can readily adhere to the proper tenets of that religion, to do what the religion is saying.  

A good religion consists of the Basic Instruction Governing Our Dealings With Others. We Nigerians are in the mess we are in because our religion is a farce. There is no end to words that stand for farce. A farce indicates how reckless our religions have become. A farce means our religious beliefs are in shambles; they are a travesty, circus, shame, mockery, charade, in ridiculous situation, an embarrassment.  

   

The Nigerian Muslims and Christians ought to spend considerable lengths of time, studying and pondering over the tenet of Islam and Christianity, respectively. They ought to sincerely ask themselves these questions: What is the tenet of my belief in Islam? Is Islam what it is propped up to be? How do I know I believe in true Christianity? Where is my religion taking me to? How is my religion helping  or destroying Nigeria?  What is the principle, theory, belief, precept, or rule behind the religion I adhere to?

Unfortunately, we Nigerians do not realize they have God-given us right to demand and expect a better response from their religious leaders concerning the what, how, where, and why of their religion. It is no longer “let’s worship anyhow as usual.” We shall continue to suffer unbearable pains so long as we ignore taking a good look at who we are, who we worship, how we worship, and for what reasons.

The words and conduct of our leaders and citizens do not reflect proper religious upbringing. Our leaders and citizens have fallen below what is expected of a meaningful religion in these trying times in Great Nigeria. Our leaders’ words and actions have left a lot to be desired. Our empty words and behavior show that, although we as Christians and Muslims tend to be ultra-religious and have erected beautiful God’s churches and Allah’s mosques at every corner or our nation, yet we have miserably failed to recognize the reality of our Maker (God or Allah). We have stubbornly refused and rejected the inspiration of God’s Word as reflected in the Holy Bible and Holy Koran. Whoa! Wretched are we!

When are we going to learn that all lives, (Nigerians, Europeans, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani and all of the Nigerian tribes ) are created by same one and only God and that we a have a body, mind, and soul (spirit)? When are we going to recognize that Chineke (God, Allah, or whoever you worship) had a divine purpose when He directed the creation of Nigeria from the ashes of the Scramble for Africa? A land mass became a protectorate 1901, a colony 1n 1914, and in 1960, an independent sovereign nation we now know as Nigeria.

The Spirit of God, which had carved out a piece of soil and named it Nigeria, has some doctrinal, spiritual, and moral intent for our nation. Doctrine is the policy, principle, set of guidelines, canon, or dogma that directed our development as a nation.  The Spirit is the strength, courage, character, guts, will, power of the mind, force, or fortitude that sustains us as a nation. Morality defines our ethics, goodness, decency, probity, honesty, or integrity. Why are going down the drain as a bunch of recalcitrant, intractable, refractory, irredeemable, or unmanageable savages?

When Nigerian Christians institute money as idol to be worshiped and establish human sacrifice as a vehicle to attract wealth or hold onto political power, it is an exercise in futility, discomfiture, awkwardness, mortification, or shame before the throne of the Great Almighty Jehovah. Believing Christians know that God is not Author of confusion; that He cannot heedlessly destroy His own creation with cause; and that doing so constitutes a violation of His own commandments/principles: “Thou shalt not kill,” and “Thou shalt have no God other than Me” True Christians know that their God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must do so in Spirit and in Truth.

When Nigerian Muslims mistake the early morning call for prayers for an invitation to celebrate the beheading of Christians; the kidnapping, the raping, and the  enslaving of young virgins who are forced to accept Islam or be killed,  and who are denied the freedom to worship God of their choice, that invitation is not of Allah.  Believing Muslims know that Allah does not countenance cruelty or violence done to others in the name of religion, and that Allah does not approve of evil done to others simply because He is Allah who does not and cannot entertain evil things.

Allah won’t tolerate the spilling of innocent blood on account of religion; Allah does not stand for violence; Allah will not put up with brutality; and Allah cannot approve of evil, including cruelty, viciousness, violence, or rough treatment of others. Glorious Allah does not have the stomach for confusion. Allah is not glad in the face of man’s inhumanity to man. Allah cherishes gentleness and benevolence, and Allah wants Muslims to employ gentleness, kindness, compassion, generosity, munificence, and goodwill in their daily dealings with each of God’s creatures, be it Muslim or non-Muslim.

We Nigerians of all tribes residing anywhere on the face of this earth are taking the opportunity to humbly appeal to our fellow countrymen and country women, Christians and Muslims, to live exemplary life of peaceful coexistence as God would want us to be.

“Dear Christians,  if the basic tenet of Christianity is to neglect the true worship of Jehovah and to prostitute after wealth and what money can buy, go ahead and pursue wealth to your satisfaction.” We know you would not be happy doing that because your conscience would not allow you to rest.

“Dear Muslims, if the basic tenet of Islam is to desecrate, vandalize, defile, or lay to waste a generation of non-Muslim Nigerians, go ahead and have your way.” We know you would not be happy killing and doing what Allah prohibits.

As for us, the responsibility to save Nigeria from Armageddon rests squarely on our own shoulders.  We must not allow religion to triumph over reason, money over manners, and falsehood and fakes over facts. We must stop going down the wrong path as a bunch of recalcitrant, intractable, refractory, irredeemable, out of control, obdurate, and unmanageable savages.

March 30, 2017

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