The Scourge Of Threatening Broadcast Messages 'BCMs'.

Broadcast messages or Bcm is not a strange phenomena to anyone on any of the more popular instant messaging platforms. It is simply the act of sending a single message to a group of individuals at the same time, without any sort of preference to individual differences, thus it is possible for you as a gainfully employed person to receive messages meant only for university student groups and associations, as a Christian, you may receive messages solely meant for the Muslim faithful and a whole lot of other such irrelevant messages which normally does not concern you, even remotely.
Anyway, becoming an unwilling recipient of such messages may be ascribed to be one of those inexcusable fallouts of being an Instant messaging subscriber, that was if the peddlers of such frivolous messages had not over-stepped their boundaries by incorporating the use of threatening statements, sentences and terms as they now do, all in a quest to garner attention for their messages and also psychologically coerce those naive enough to believe such concoctions, into re-broadcasting such messages.
It is now a common trend to see broadcast messages that end with phrases like "if you do not pass this on, you would be miserable for the next seven days", " my name is Jesus, send this message to all your contacts if you truly love me", "If for Jesus, forward this to 10 people, if for Satan, ignore and continue what you are doing" some even go as far as sending very outrageous and ridiculous broadcasts about how Bbm or Whatsapp would delete your account or begin to charge you for services if you do not rebroadcast the message, this i noticed seems to be the magic wand that does the trick most of the times, this is so since obviously our largely literate but uneducated populace think such Instant messaging application developers are actually doing us a favour by making those applications free, we however forget the fact that you have to acquire a very expensive smart mobile phone first, before you can download such applications.
Let us avoid sending outdated, scandalous, frivolous, derogatory, threatening and conditioned messages, also those impersonating God and other self-acclaimed C.E.Os of Internet Messaging companies who back their claims with spurious "it was on cable news" lies should also be discouraged by your refusal to rebroadcast such messages.
I hereby implore everyone to be constantly on alert for such broadcasts and also put a check on them by confirming the accuracy of their content, it's relevance, ascertaining the necessity of the message and if need be we still have to rebroadcast, such messages should be directed only to the right parties and not sent indiscriminately to everyone.
Unnecessary Bcms are annoying, time consuming, drains one's battery, causes widespread panic, and could lead to an abusive exchange between senders and recipients of such messages who may end up deleting one another.
It is therefore in respect of the aforementioned reasons and a host of others not mentioned here that i implore everyone to make BCs as efficient and desirable a tool for mass communication as it is valuable.

Social Networks As Tools For Development.

Working conditions in Nigeria may be anything but friendly, however i am opportune to be currently employed in an employee friendly institution where my right to human dignity is not being trampled upon. However i am not implying that the job is easy.
I had gone to bed early the previous night being a Friday and as customary to me, i woke at about midnight. Everywhere was silent and quiet except for the distant sound of steady music drifting in from a night club nearby.
I just picked up my phone and between reading the horde of emails, Whatsapp and Bbm messages that had accumulated, i felt the urge to change my PM 'personal message', of all things, i felt like changing it to 'it is banging in the club now', a phrase to indicate that i was not only present in a club, but also enjoying the entire clubbing process, meanwhile i was having a 'quiet time' at home.
This is one of the challenges posed by the advent of social networking as part of our everyday existence. Social networking has facilitated communication beyond our widest imagination, enhanced self-expression and to some other people, it has become a medium for emotional rendition of their feelings and thoughts. However valid these reasons and several others may be, it is undoubtedly true that social networking has also enhanced the spread of numerous social vices, in addition, it has also become a very efficient medium to spread rumours, share pornography and like a wildfire, spread scandalous gossips, articles and information about people, especially public figures, even as our ever-increasing army of bloggers keeps churning out such 'juicy gists'. Efforts should however be made at the individual level to reduce and possibly proscribe these rampant misuse of this great tool. Concerted efforts should be directed towards profitable and positive use and exploitation of the social media for personal and public growth and development, it could also be an integral tool for the dissemination of important news and information,personal business transactions and the likes. Cases of Internet bullying, abuse and swindling should be stopped. If everyone would make a personal commitment today towards a more responsible and profitable use of the opportunities inherent in the social media networks our society would become allot more safe and sane.

PART 2: FOR OR AGAINST OUR CHILDREN’S BETTER TOMORROW.

It took action, not mere optimism, for the attainment of racial equality in South Africa as well as in post-independence United States of America. It took action for democracy to be achieved in parts of the Arab spring. I hate to make you think that I am a revolutionary (even if you think I am, I shrug it off) or that you should act like one, but exactly that is the problem. No one wants to act the hero. Everyone seems comfortable with the status quo. We want change, yet scared to death to face up to the challenge. We seem to embrace the meagre privileges that accompany subservience. Well, some want to act and actually do, but no one wants to be seen as acting too much, speaking too loud, or fighting too hard. No one wants to hold out for long but we would rather thread the disheveled road of cowardice. Like two lovebirds, we want kisses, hugs and romance; we implore a romance with the oppressor, our enemy.

Our Parents had refused to deal with their own obstacles and now it is a full-blown problem. They refused to deal with their own differences; consequently, it has metamorphosed into a cancerous conflict. They circumvented uttering civil speeches, now we have to voice angry yells. They shied away from fighting small battles, now we have to deal with a full-blown war. These, unfortunately, are some of the inheritance we have in the ‘will’.

My peers in U.S., Japan, South Africa and even Ghana are not busy fighting for basic human rights and an efficient democracy, they are not clamouring for free and fair elections, their schools do not have disrupted sessions and unwarranted breaks which we have code-named 'strike'. Their Parents already fought these battles, my peers have moved on to research, exploring their creativity, improving technology, making the world a better place. But here I am, fighting my parents' battles, battles that should have been fought several decades ago, battles that I should be reading in the history books, in the comfort of a well-equipped library . Howbeit, here I am, fighting these battles and with the same blind optimism as they, hoping, no, wondering when I would start to face mine.

You may not know, but the most tiring of battles are those which you fight while the one being helped out seems unwilling and reluctant to fight his battle. How much worse is that battle in which the beneficiary becomes a direct obstacle to your victory, that in which the one being done a favour decides to join forces with the enemies against you?


There is unpopular government legislation, a protest is announced and our parents would call us on phone, begging, cajoling, compelling and persuading us not to go anywhere near the protests or the protesters.
There is an on-going mob action and your dad walks by, dragging you along, ordering you not to speak against the ravaging violence. Your neighbour descends upon his spouse like a beast on drugs and your parents advise you not to call the police, they tell you to mind your business, and if you refuse, citing that the victim's scream is getting louder, they simply increase the volume of the Television set.

Your parents deny you the privilege of text books, but are ever willing to pay the examiner to have you assisted during the examinations. Parents do not want you to have relationships with the other sex, yet they cannot tell you why. They do not want you to read books with sexual content, yet they will never get to tell you anything about sex and sexuality. Parents give you pittance as pocket money, yet they borrow to give to the CHURCH, because stating that they are giving it to the Lord may amount to blasphemy, considering the type of atrocities perpetrated in these religious houses.

Election is tomorrow, dad activates a total lockdown of the house today, until after the elections. They neither vote nor want you to. You tell them about speaking up, you tell them about honesty, about paying the security guard a little more, about talking to the house help a little more nicely, about giving the driver some time-off, you tell them about respecting the human rights of the domestic staff, about obeying the red lights. You ask them if they saw the 'NO U-TURN' sign, you tell them to slow down for these young school children at the Zebra crossing zone. They always say no. They tell you that is how life is, “it's a battle”. They leave the real oppressors and marginalize their fellow oppressed neighbor. They hit the wounded, spite the domestic staff, splash mud water on the beggar and still scuttle away shamelessly.

They leave the real battles for us to face and even when we try to, they ask us to stop. They become obstacles, they tell us the government is sacred, they tell us not to say this beyond the confines of the house, but we are tired. If we act like them, then our children would have to fight two generations’ worth of battle.  We must act-up and stop leaving problems as inheritance for our children.

PART 1: FOR OR AGAINST OUR CHILDREN’S BETTER TOMORROW.

An inheritance is supposed to be an asset or a commodity of value which one receives from parents. In other words, inheritance is supposed to be an addition, something of worth, a valuable item, commodity, or set of assets which should ideally aid and facilitate the progress of the beneficiary.

However, when an inheritance turns out to be the exact opposite of what has been described above, then there is an giant cause for alarm. The question arising from this scenario, however, would seem more like this: should one inherit a bunch of bad debts, bad public image, illegal businesses and other liabilities that the parents may have left behind upon their death? Most people would respond with a resounding 'No'. But we should not forget the fact that some things do not just go away with a snap of the fingers. They just have to be dealt with if there would be any hope in the horizons.

Unfortunately, one of such things is your state of mind, your parental upbringing, the years of training and grooming which your parents have invested in you, the religious dogma, social and cultural opinions as well as the political ideologies you have imbibed. The latest of which is the essence of this essay.

It is no secret that the majority of the citizens of this country are very poor, with the population of these indigents growing with each passing day, while the minority referred to as the privileged class occupies positions which guarantee them immense wealth and a wide range of far-reaching political and social influence. These few go about with a claim that they achieved these feats through their hard work. However, the great Nationalist and former Tanzanian president, Julius Nyerere, seemed to have a dissenting view to this. In 1968, Nyerere, in his essay "Ujamaa, the basis of African socialism", said, "Defenders of capitalism claim that the millionaires’ wealth is a just reward for his ability or enterprise. But this claim is not borne out by the facts. The wealth of the millionaire depends as little on the enterprise or abilities of the millionaire himself as the power of a feudal monarch depended on his own efforts, enterprise or brain. Both are users, exploiters of the abilities and enterprise of other people. Even when you have an exceptionally intelligent and hard-working millionaire, the difference between his intelligence, his enterprise, his hard work and those of other members of the society, cannot possibly be proportionate to the difference between their 'rewards' as a thousand of his fellows can acquire between them". If this assertion by Nyerere is anything to go by, and I strongly believe it is, then these rich, flamboyant and extravagant cliques of political, corporate and religious elites have attained their status not merely as a result of hard work, but by the continued exploitation of the masses. Their immense wealth was achieved at the direct expense of the larger society.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word parent could be defined even far beyond the popular biological implication to also mean 'the material or source from which something is derived' or better still 'a group from which another arises and to which it usually remains subsidiary'. These definitions, especially the later has afforded us the opportunity to evaluate how important a parent is. It is the origin, the source, the fountain from which something emanates and to which it usually remains 'subsidiary'. This, probably, is the closest explanation we can get to the cancerous situation of the present Nigerian state.

Our parents had remained sober, quiet, calm, peaceful and indifferent to their political environment for too long, they have voted more out of coercion and routine than of interest and practical optimism, they have believed in the possibility of the evolution of bad into good on its own accord. Our parents have watched arms akimbo and folded hands over their chest, helplessly waiting with naked pessimism in their eyes for things to change and for bad to evolve into good of its own free will. In the words of Edmund Burke, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”.

A pessimist or optimist you may be, but history has no use of your opinions or wishes. History is an indifferent, inconsiderate, blunt persona but plays out the script already written, just as it was written. Therefore if history itself, the most impartial of all, could tell us that there has never been a situation or occasion where the oppressor of his own accord releases the oppressed from his bonds, but that the oppressed must rise up and vehemently fight for their freedom, then I wonder why our forbears have decided to voluntarily become victims of history.

THE MISERY OF OUR HALF-BAKED EDUCATION SYSTEM .

THE MISERY OF OUR HALF-BAKED EDUCATION SYSTEM

Many people believe in the concept of coincidence, very few have a contrary belief, a category to which I belong.
What is happening, however, therefore between the government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is, by all ramifications, a consciously conceived action which we can in no way justify as coincidental or accidental. Just like most controversial issues, it has been brewing for a very long time, but just gone sour of recent.

We should not be averse to the fact that no goal-driven individual would embark on any activity, honour any agreements or make any such promises as would constitute a barrier to his laid out plans. It is, therefore, an insult on the JEG-led Federal Government of Nigeria, if we think it would go out of its way to honour an agreement that would ensure the delivery of quality education and intellectual emancipation of its young populace.

The Federal Government of Nigeria is comprised of very intelligent individuals. These special advisers, ministers and other members of the executive cabinet cannot be said to be ignorant of the vital role of quality education in the development of any society.

Why then do they build schools and award face-value scholarships? You may ask. In a rhetoric reply, I would also ask, why did the colonial lords of those days establish schools in Nigeria and in their other colonies? Just like our government, they realised the immense opportunities accrued from a half-baked education, they know it is an even greater weapon than illiteracy. They give you schools, but pay your teachers miserably well that they would lack all necessary and required motivation to teach. They put at par 'tuition-free education' and 'free education' to suggest they are both the same.

Half-baked students are graduated every year, possessing nothing but the ability to read and write, purely deficient in any skill and totally dependent upon the magnanimity of the government and its capitalist financiers of white collar jobs. This, in turn, leaves them dependent on and subservient to the exploitative and corruptive tendencies that come with these jobs.

The Federal Government is not lost on the fact that quality education would punch a hole in that hot-air balloon of corruption and 'beyond the law' status they defiantly assume, so they give us half-baked education, just enough to keep us literate but intellectually docile, just enough to get us on the queue of job-seekers without asking any questions, just enough to make us believe that if we had a better JAMB score, we would be in a University now, as if there are enough universities to absorb every intending student. Just enough half-baked education to make us believe graduating with a third-class amidst a very anti-human school environment is entirely your fault.

The amount of time left till Election period decreases rapidly with everyday this ASUU strike progresses. What better campaign instrumentalities would our idle undergraduates be for these self glorified political messiahs who would show a feigned sympathy and interest in quality education!  But that is exactly the problem. We have a population of educationally half-baked graduates at their beck and call. If a government does not treat you well, Of course it will never expect to be re-elected. If it knows this for a certainty but still proceeds to the polls, it is only a pointer that our intelligence, as far as they are concerned, can be overridden with impunity. Well, now that you know why they do not care about our welfare, we had better address the issues of our half-baked education system and political apathy by starting to concern ourselves with the electoral process and those we should elect to steer the affairs of our beloved country come 2015.

FG CANNOT MEET ASUU DEMANDS - OKONJO IWEALA.

Truth be told, It was of little or no shock to me when the minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala yesterday stated categorically that the Federal government did not have enough resources to meet the demands of the Academic staff union of Nigerian universities (ASUU) who has been on strike for well over a month now.
As i have already stated, i had this news coming from the outset, not because the country's robust resources are not enough to float our affairs, not because the demands of ASUU are too outrageous and illogical, but because historical precedence has taught us that the Nigeria government is always reluctant to spend the country's wealth on the masses. The Nigerian government spends billions on payment of public officials, while they pay civil servants peanuts, yet they are not even interested in paying these meagre sums, if it were possible, the Nigerian government would make people work for free.
Since the inception of the on-going ASUU strike, i am yet to hear any statement from the president with regards to this issue. Does this imply that the presidency does not bother about the future of the hundreds of thousands of students lying waste at home? O yes, He doesn't! The 2015 elections is by the corner, and surely a president who has lost the confidence of the people on many counts including the fuel scarcity saga, arbitrary change of university names and the current ASUU strike is therefore not expecting them to vote for him again in the up-coming elections.
Therefore if he emerges as a contestant in the 2015 elections, then he obviously have something fishy up his sleeves, considering the fact that elections could either be won through voting or rigging, i beg to ask this rhetorical question, how does he intend to win?
The current ASUU strike is a very serious issue in contemporary Nigerian state, and it's high time the presidency who has been trading words with the opposition party APC faced his official duties and make speeches where one is needed, not that childish exchange of words with the APC which he never seems to get tired of doing.
You know how funny our government is, let us hope that Okonjo-Iweala's statement is just a joke, and that the government would soon make a real statement.
NIGERIA IS A RICH STATE, LET THE GOVERNMENT ANSWER ASUU NOW!

A POEM DEDICATED TO RIVERS STATE LAWMAKERS.

SHAME HAS LOST IT'S CHARM. 

punches have flew like paper kites,
Slaps well delivered and orchestrated.
Screams, angry shouts, and wild anger,
Grunts and moans from the infirmed victims of these atrocities.

Things fall apart, the center no more holds,
The things in which we trusted have failed.
Like a herd of animals without a shepherd
We are scattered, divided into camps by
The things which should have held us together.

Power, position, authority, force.
Coercion, cohesion, conflict, cooperation.
Democracy, authority, legitimacy, anarchy.
Violence has adorned a cape, disguised as ambience,
It has grabbed the mace, and in a spectacular show of shame
Shattered it on their heads.
Our lawmakers have stooped too low,
And supposed Elders now parade conducts akin to toddlers.

I watched tragedy impart a comic message,
He made an instrument of law a weapon of ruination,
He maced them without fear or pity.
Barbarians adorned as elites in the society.

MORE ON THE LAGOS STATE DEPORTATION EXEERISE.

Wonders they say never end, this may have been the case in the ongoing deportation of 'Nigerians' by their fellow Nigerian.
stupid though it may seem, but the Fashola led Lagos state government has enbarked on a mission of 'deporting' indigenes of other states who are residing in Lagos. The unfortunate 'destitutes' as the  Lagos state government tagged them have seen themselves being sent out of the state to their states of Origin. Anambra state have heard a number of it's indigenes deported, the latest victim of this segregation has however been the Osun state government which as of yesterday, received some 46 'destitutes' from the Lagos state government.
What baffles me however is that people could be deported from one state of their country to another. This bold step towards the promotion of segregation based on state of Origin by the Lagos state government could actually prove itself very vital to the replication of the act by other states. If a citizen of the country cannot be free to reside in any part of it  and receive the same equal treatment as other members of that community, then our democracy and constitution is just a mere formality and clearly indicates how far we still have to go before attaining the stage of national integeration neccesary for our proper development.

MORE ON THE REGISTRATION OF A.P.C BY I.N.E.C.

The opposition has cried foul, claiming that the popular acronym APC (armoured personnel carrier) would give the new party undue advantage at the polls come 2015, the correlation between that and it's real meaning (all progressives congress) still eludes me,  this however is none of my business.
My concern however stems from the fact that far beneath all the criticisms and finger-pointing, both political parties are just the same, a change of name does in no way imply a different personality. The same crop of 'selfless, sacrificial' politicians who have led this country into this abyss of poverty and impoverishment are still the captains of this new APC gunship. I heard over the weekend about four northern governors from the PDP who are now in talks with the APC in respect of their interest to decamp. My question therefore remains, does an old wine in a new bottle make the wine new?

MORE ON THE RIVERS STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY FRACAS.

Much has been said about this compellingly historic incident, therefore my unqualified self would not attempt an analysis of this already over-analysed occurrence. In my own view however, i would state that 'there is nothing really bad if a group of adult, matured lawmakers decides to have a little extreme bloody-fun with a mace and other dangerous implements to go by, come on, life is all about originality, so what's wrong if a bunch of lawmakers decides to keep it real? I really do not see anything bad in it, and if there is anything to criticise at all, it should be the weaklings among them who could not even defend themselves from their 'peers'. How then do you expect such a man to defend the interests of his constituency? Let us laugh it out hoping that the light at the end of the tunnel is not just a candle light.

ASUU vs FG

Five weeks into the total abstinence of Federal Universities Staffs from work, yet all we have is just a sack-full of rumours. Over a month of wasted time and idleness among students of the highest tier of education in the country, and all we have to show for it is a trade-off of words between the presidency and Gov. Amechi, a verbal battle for political supremacy between the aged PDP and the old man in childish outfits called APC and a tirade of several other inconsequential issues.

FALL-OUTS OF THE CONTINUED ASUU STRIKE.
1. Waste of time; for both staffs and students. The unemployment situation and the years of experience required for employment would prove themselves veritable barriers to the few students who have come to the harsh reality of having to work instead of studying.
2. Economic loses for the Universities, business ventures in the affected schools and the students who have lost a month worth of their cherished allowance.
3. Increased crime rate. This stems from the fact that these unemployed, broke and exuberant youths have to invest their energy into everything idleness has to offer, this includes, alcohol, drugs, and some other jobs that may not be too legal.
4. Loss of faith in the government. A government which cannot afford to educate it's young ones without regular unwarranted pauses in each academic session, is surely not worth believing in.
5. Loss of votes in 2015, the current division in the ruling party, coupled with this strike could mean a serious threat to their bid to retain power in 2015, lets imagine them losing the votes of all the qualified aggrieved students in the next elections.
6. A bleak future for the Nation. We are all products of our past, and if death is inevitable, then sooner than later, this current crop of politicians would be inexistent, and the products of these incessant strikes would be at the helm of affairs. I love to be optimistic, but history has proven how easily bad tends to grow into worse.

MORE ON THE TRAYVON MARTIN CASE.

About a month back, the world was greeted by the news of the acquisition of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot and wounded a black minor by the name Trayvon Martin on the 26th of February last year.
Judging from the police transcript of Zimmerman's call, i think he should have 1. Heeded the police warning not to pursue the 'suspicious looking fellow' he was reporting.
2. He should not have continued to stalk that innocent boy like a predator does it's prey.
3. Having trespassed that direct police instruction however, i think he should have properly identified himself as a Neighbourhood watch instead of engaging him in a racing contest which ended with the minor being deceased.
4. Furthermore, i think it was rather spectacular that this encounter occurred on a foggy day, when the nearest thing to the truth was Zimmerman's account of the whole event.
5. Last of all, i think Zimmerman should have judged Trayvon by several other measures except his colour.

They said a Jury convicted Zimmerman of self defence. I think the horn-less, clawless Zebra should be defending itself from a poaching Lion, not the other way round.
R.I.P TRAYVON. 'Justice' is nothing without the 'Just'.