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Born on a Tuesday: Review By Aderonke Adeola

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“For the boys who will never be known

And the girls who become numbers”

– Stars without a Name

            If you have been wondering how the recent happenings in the north-eastern part of the country are going to turn out, you might as well stop wondering and pick up Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday to check if it fits into what you thought they would look like. Not only has Elnathan John ventured into the murky waters of insurgency in the North-East, he has tried as best as he can to explain some of the things happening in the North-east so that those who have never been there nor know next to nothing about what operates in the north-eastern part of Nigeria can understand to a certain extent what the Boko Haram insurgency is all about without having to grapple with details. Elnathan brings to bear the situation in this part of the country through an engrossing story told by a young boy, Dantala, whose growth we witness, from boyhood to manhood.

Divided into four parts with 263 pages, is a book that chronicles the coming of age of Dantala from an innocent Almajiri who learns at the feet of Mallam Jinadu, to a street urchin under the tutelage of Banda, to a mosque boy taken in and groomed by Sheikh Jamal and finally a black spirit, resolute even in the face of death.

The book Born on a Tuesday takes its title from the name of the protagonist Dantala which means someone born on a Tuesday (P.33).  It is narrated in the first person point of view which makes it more personal to the reader. It starts in Bayan Layi, in 2003 where we are introduced to the life of street urchins in the northern part of Nigeria as told by Dantala, a young Almajiri who ends up under the Kuka tree because of circumstances beyond his control. Who sends a child off to a Quaranic school under the instructions of a stranger for 12 years without checking on him and expects the child to turn out okay and return as a perfect man in the sight of Allah and his people?

Elnathan John touches on how politics is a tool that fuels the crisis in the north-eastern part of Nigeria. Although according to the book, the crisis between the Shia and Shiites has been in existence as far back as when Islam started, the elections were what opened the door to insurgency. Crisis are fueled by the politicians who give money to religious leaders to gain their supports causing division between ‘brothers’ who are supposed to have each other’s back.

Religion is supposed to bring equality among all but thanks to Born on a Tuesday, we now know that bigotry also exists in the religious circle. Mallam Abdul-Nur’s betrayal was alluded to him being a Yoruba man and according to Sheikh Jamal,

A Yoruba man is a Yoruba man.

No matter how Muslim they become.

They stab you in the back.

That is how they are. Hypocrites. (p.210)

            Elnathan John does not just leave it at politics, religion and insurgency; he delves into issues like homosexuality, masturbation, adultery and prostitution which are usually not talked about whenever religion is discussed. Dantala’s inability to confront Abdulkareem and Bilal about what he sees and the Sheikh’s decision to ignore Dantala’s masturbation to talk about marriage shows the hypocrisy in the religious circle concerning issues like this.

Worthy of note is Dantala’s journal entries which started when Jibril starts to teach him English. These entries though in simple English which sometimes are wrongly made and cancelled reflects Dantala’s inner thoughts. They are deep and although they are sometimes serious, there are times when you can’t keep yourself from smiling at the humour presented in the narrations.

Born on a Tuesday is such a good read and until you have read it, you just might not understand what it really is about when they say ‘every king was once a crying baby’. We are first humans before religion, culture and tribe separates us.

Thanks Elnathan for bringing to mind the Burni Yadi boys who were murdered in their sleep at Federal Government College Burni Yadi, Yobe on the 25th of February 2014 and the 276 Chibok girls kidnapped from their dormitory at Government College Chibok, Borno State on 14th of April same year.

 

 

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In The View

Does Pan-Africanism Need Revival?

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Pan-Africanism is not a concept that easily lends itself to definition. It is a journey. For me, what is important is to understand and underscore the point that this journey has brought us to the point where the talk of the unity of African states is no longer sneered at by cynics or seen as a dream but as something that can happen in our life time. Pan-Africanism for me is an idea of collective understanding of what binds us as Africans not Tanzanian, Nigerian, Congolese, Sudanese or Egyptian but as Africans with a common bond, how we intend to conduct our affairs in today’s globalized world and how we should work together to address our common problems. The idea of a common front against exploitation, degradation, abuse, racism, colonial exploitation and various forms of slavery led to the birth of the Pan-African movement as we know it today.

 

As we struggle to build a Union of African States, it is imperative that we revisit this concept from a political and radical perspective. After all, Pan-Africanism is partly a response to the way Africa and Africans have been treated within the global world since the Berlin Conference of 1884 which divided Africa into tiny enclaves for the benefit of European monarchs and their hangers on. Unlike other contending ideologies Pan-Africanism was ‘developed by outstanding African scholars, political scientists, historians and philosophers living in Africa ’. It was conceived in the womb of Africa. It is a product made in Africa by Africans. The objectives of Pan-Africanism have changed over time but not the essence. For instance while the Pan-Africanist Movement of the early years was concerned with anti-racism, anti-colonialism as spearheaded by Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Ahmed Sekou Toure (Guinea) and the founding fathers of the Pan African movement; it is now mainly focused on the actual political unification of Africa. Kwame Nkrumah argued that ‘the independence of Ghana was meaningless unless it was linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.’

For Nkrumah, Ghana’s sovereignty was secondary to the pursuit of the Pan-African dream. So deep was his commitment that all independent states in Africa should work together to create a Union of African States that he was willing to sacrifice Ghana’s pursuit of national sovereignty. On the eve of Ghana’s independence on 6 March 1957 Nkrumah declared that so deep was Ghana’s ‘faith in African unity that we have declared our preparedness to surrender the sovereignty of Ghana in whole or in part in the interest of a Union of African States and Territories as soon as ever such a union becomes practicable. Ghana started this process by creating an anti-imperialist front called the Ghana-Guinea-Mali Union of radical African leaders. In his books Kwame Nkrumah further reminded all Africans that imperialism had so thoroughly distorted and disarticulated African social formations that only continental unity could save the region from further deterioration.

 

In Africa Must Unite (1963) Nkrumah enunciated a clear agenda for the establishment of an African common market to complement the Union of African States and Nkrumah argued:

‘The unity of Africa and the strength it would gather from continental integration of its economic and industrial development, supported by a united policy of non-alignment, could have a most powerful effect for world peace.’

This position was supported by various West African nationalist leaders like Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), Modibo Keita (Mali) and Sekou Toure (Guinea). However, this version of Pan-Africanism was not without enemies. Nkrumah’s legacy is still very much a part of the ongoing efforts of the peoples of Africa and the world who seek genuine freedom from colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism. We all know the Allegations of American involvement in the putsch arose almost immediately because of the well-known hostility of the U.S. to Nkrumah’s socialist orientation and pan-African activism. Nkrumah himself implicated the U.S. in his overthrow, and warned other African nations about what he saw as an emerging pattern:

“An all-out offensive is being waged against the progressive, independent states,” he wrote in Dark Days in Ghana his 1969 account of the Ghana coup “All that has been needed was a small force of disciplined men to seize the key points of the capital city and to arrest the existing political leadership.” “It has been one of the tasks of the C.I.A. and other similar organizations,” he noted, “to discover these potential quislings and traitors in our midst and to encourage them, by bribery and the promise of political power, to destroy the constitutional government of their countries.”

                While charges of U.S. involvement are not new, support for them was lacking until 1978, when anecdotal evidence was provided from an unlikely source, a former CIA case officer, John Stockwell, who reported first-hand testimony in his memoir, In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story. “The inside story came to me,” Stockwell wrote, “from an egotistical friend, who had been chief of the [CIA] station in Accra [Ghana] at the time.” (Stockwell was stationed one country away in the Ivory Coast). The Subsequent investigations by The New York Times and Covert Action Information Bulletin identified the station chief as Howard T. Banes, who operated undercover as a political officer in the U.S. Embassy. This is how the ouster of Nkrumah was handled as Stockwell related. The Accra station was encouraged by headquarters to maintain contact with dissidents of the Ghanaian army for the purpose of gathering intelligence on their activities. It was given a generous budget, and maintained intimate contact with the plotters as a coup was hatched. So close was the station’s involvement that it was able to coordinate the recovery of some classified Soviet military equipment by the United States as the coup took place.

 

Today, globalization is a truth which we have to live with. But today globalization has not led to the breakdown of national boundaries it re-enforced them, allowing those with the military, economic power and resources to try and re-arrange global affairs to suit their national interest. Neo-liberalism and neo-colonialism are the new instruments which pass off as globalization and to me globalization is nothing but a new form of re-colonization in which western powers justify their continued dominance using economic and humanitarian arguments as further attempts to consolidate their stranglehold of the continent. Under the guise of ‘humanitarian intervention’ the new global powers can invade and blockade any country within their orbit and when this fails and they resort to the use of international institutions and courts where the European Union has united Europe in both a political and economic sense. Where this is not enough it uses global military alliances like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to enforce its rule by other means. On the other hand, Africa which requires this Union to protect its interests globally is still foot dragging while the masses of African people continue to wallow in the ‘quagmire of underdevelopment, poverty, endless border wars, economic domination, the dictatorship of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

 

This problem is further exacerbated by the type of leadership whose interests is sometimes anti national and We must challenge authoritarian rule, mismanagement, poor leadership and the lack of accountability of our leaders and public institutions. It is the historic duty to Africa for all Africans to do so and it is also the only way to help address the perennial problems of underdevelopment, poverty, deprivation and the poor deplorable state of our infrastructure when a lot of resources go to private sources. But we must also have the courage of our founding fathers, the pioneers of Pan-Africanism and African liberation, to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy that holds the view that corruption and authoritarianism is a typical African problem. This stems from the colonial mind-set, allowing international institutions to target African leaders, haul them off to some foreign jail under the guise of answering for impunity. It is inconceivable that the US or Britain will act similarly.

 

This means that African activists need to reappraise and carefully reflect on the sort of activities which passes off as advocacy and campaigning while fueling anti African actions nationally and globally.  Africa’s shameless dependence on the West, the unproductive disposition of our elite to foreign inspired theories and ideas, the wanton abuse of human rights, the appropriation of state power and its resources and hostility to popular and progressive forces have not helped Africa to propel Africa’s glory. Even today Africa remains a continent for denigration, racist jokes, pity and exploitation. The negative stereotyping of Africa in the western media remains a durable part of the Western intellectual landscape Jokes about African leaders abound in the bars and conference halls of westerners with Africans providing the laughter. Even today some westerners still regard Africa as a wild dark jungle largely preserved to satisfy the lecherous and erotic dreams and fantasies of American and European tourist. Africa remains the huge laboratory preserved to satisfy the academic curiosity of European and American scholars with the instability, wars, and strange tales of administrative and political blunders. The personalities of dictators like Nguema, Idi Amin, Kamuzu Banda, Jean Bedel-Bokassa, and Mobutu Sese Seko provide intriguing patterns and models for research into the African personality and idiosyncrasies. But for Pan-Africanism to remain relevant to African lives the creation of the Union of African States should go beyond state-to-state relations and permeate to the people of Africa who by no means would like to live in peace and harmony with each other.

 

African Union meetings should cease being a meeting of presidents and their accolades including a few select civil society groups When African mothers, market women, farmers, traditional queens, birth attendants, etc. get to attend an African union meeting to put before our leaders, the sort of deplorable lives they lead, it would be a major step. Why should African children be transported to New York and not Gaborone, Cairo, Nairobi or Harare? Why are we always complaining that Western media is not reporting African stories? As if being reported by them validates our worth, We NEED to start reading news about Africa not Western media outlets but African media outlets, journalists, bloggers! Support our own! I have argued over and over again that Africa needs first fundamental transformation of the national orders. This transformation has to be people-led, democratic, self-reliant, credible, and viable. Once this is achieved, it will be possible to transform the continent through a continent-wide political agenda arising naturally from the national reconstruction projects and people to people initiatives.

 

Africa needs solidarity we must learn to support each other. Revisiting the Pan Africanism leader’s legacy will provide us with the opportunity to understand the modus operandi of those forces that trot the globe preaching democracy on the world stage but use proxy wars and propaganda to silence and remove leaders who are critical of their unorthodox methods and install puppet regimes sympathetic to their interests.

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Nubian Message: No To Dal-Kajbar Dams.

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Nubians are a people from northern Sudan and southern Egypt with a long and proud history. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, many Nubians migrated to remote areas along the Nile. In the 1960s, they faced cultural disintegration when their villages were flooded by the Aswan High Dam, which was constructed on the first cataract of the Nile River between 1960 and 1970.

 
Thousands of Indigenous Nubian people who live along the Nile River could lose their ancestral land, livelihood and culture due to the construction of the new Kajbar dam. The Chinese company Sinohydro, probably the world´s largest hydropower company, announced it had won a $705 million contract to build the Kajbar dam hydropower project for a period of five years. The Kajbar Dam lies along the Nile River in an area inhabited by the indigenous Nubian people who for centuries have lived along the shores of the Nile River but the construction of a hydropower project by the Chinese Company threatens to tore apart their rich culture and traditions that they have preserved for years. Construction of dams along the Nile River by Sudanese and the Egyptian government has seen displacement of thousands of the Nubian community who up to date live in asbestos roofed houses in the country´s semi-arid areas.

 

                                  In the 1960´s, around 120, 000 Nubian people were displaced from their ancestral lands in Sudan and Egypt for the construction of the Aswan Dam. Within Sudan the community was moved to an irrigation scheme 700 kilometers away thus blocking them from practicing traditional cultures and rites. Since the announcement of the construction of the Kajbar Dam on the Nile´s third cataract was made, tension has gripped the Nubian people who have vowed to oppose the intended construction. The Nubians fear that construction of the Dam would lead to displacement, extinction of their language and culture as they could be relocated hundreds of kilometers away from their main source of livelihood.

“We will never allow any force on the earth to blur our identity and destroy our heritage and nation. Nubians will never play the role of victims, and will never sacrifice for the second time to repeat the tragedy of the Aswan Dam,” says a member of the Nubian Association.

The Nubian community started opposing the construction of the Dam as early as 2007 immediately after the government announced plans to construct several dams along the Nile River. The committee cited that they were not consulted as the ancestral owners of the land and such an investment on their land would amount to violation of their human and land rights. In 1954 the Egyptian government and Sudanese government signed an agreement to build the High Dam which surrounds the Sudanese Nubian Indigenous land with the establishment and release of the water from the High Dam, the Indigenous Nubians living in Old Haifa were forcibly displaced and driven to the city now known as New Haifa in Eastern Sudan in 1964.

The Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970, partially flooded the Philae Temple until this structure was moved to higher ground to avoid the flood waters.

This new area, that the Indigenous Nubian from Old Haifa were forcibly displaced onto, had a completely different climate. The land was vast but the water was scarce so another dam was built, the Khash Algrba Dam in New Haifa, to bring water to the people. With this on their minds, the few remaining Nubians on the shores of the Nile River fear that they might be subjected to the same conditions as those of Old Haifa who continue to face a myriad of challenges in their new land. Though the government has continued to support this community to adapt to their new land, new challenges such as disease have continued to wipe out the community as a result of resettlement in a totally different climatic zones and poor housing. The houses the government provided in New Hafia were built with contaminated asbestos roofs, many Indigenous Nubian People who live in these asbestos roofed houses, since the building of the High Dam, have developed many forms of cancer due to the asbestos contamination.

                      The construction of the Dams along the Nile River has had a negative impact on the indigenous Nubian people. They have lost their Indigenous cultural, ancestral land, artifacts, regalia and sense of identity and the further construction of dams in Nubian land would create fear among the community that has already lost some of their vital traditions due to immense displacement that has led to unsustainable development. I observed that the Knash Algrba Dam which was the main resource for farming and water sustainability for the Indigenous Nubians in New Haifa has been completely blocked due to silt build up. This unfortunate occurrence has caused drought and famine amongst the displaced Indigenous Nubian People living in New Haifa. The community have expressed fear that the construction of the Kajbar Dam could result in a similar problems experienced by fellow Nubian people relocated to new Haifa areas.

              Until recently, it seemed that plans to build the Dal and Kajbar dams had been abandoned. But in early November, Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir paid a visit to the Saudi king in Riyadh to discuss ways of promoting bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries. Following the meeting, the two governments signed an agreement to finance the Dal, Kajbar and Shiraik Dams in northern Sudan. It appears that Saudi Arabia has committed to invest US$1.7 billion for the construction of these three dams.

               The dams and all the so-called associated economic benefits are just excuses the government is using to plunder the mineral resources in the region. They are not considering the people that they were elected to lead effectively. The lack of care from the government and their ineffectiveness of seeing what will happen to the Nubian nation is disheartening. They are willing to risk driving into extinction a whole ethnic group with rich culture and lifestyle.
According to reports, the construction of the Kajbar dam will displace more than 10,000 Nubians and submerge an estimated 500 archaeological sites.

We will continue to support the causes of the Nubian’s and continue to advocate for human rights.

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In Language

GOING BACK TO BABEL By Henry O. Òbísẹ̀san

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In the beginning, the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. This gave mankind the opportunity to think with oneness of mind. They decided to build a tower that will reach unto Heaven. God saw no reason for this and He confused the source of their agreement – language. As it happened in the beginning, it is happening now. The world has started speaking one language and that language is English.
In this era of globalization and technology, English dominates the world as no language ever has and it appears that it may never be dethroned as the king of languages. Some linguists still insist that linguistic evolution will continue to take its course over the centuries and that English could eventually die as a common language as Latin did, or Phoenician or Sanskrit or Sogdian before it.
The factors that underscore the grip English has on the world are disasters like war or climate change that causes people to migrate or the eventual perfection of translation machine that would make a common language necessary. The current migration of Syrians to Europe especially Britain, America and other English speaking countries will increase the number of English speakers in the world as these migrants would have to learn the language of their new host and use less their native languages (Arabic and Kurdish).

Lingua
Exploring some of the opinions of these linguists, mostly American, the scepticism that the future of English is very bright seems to be a minority view. Experts on the English language like David Cristal, author of “English as a Global Language” said that the world has changed so drastically that history is no longer a guide. He pointed out that this is the first time we actually have a language spoken genuinely globally by every country in the world, and that there are no precedents to help us see what will happen.
John McWhorter, a linguist at the Manhattan Institute, a research group in New York and the author of a history of language called “The Power of Babel”, was more unequivocal. He said that English is dominant in a way that no language has ever been before. It is vastly unclear to him what actual mechanism could uproot English given conditions as they are.
In this new millennium, about one fourth of the world’s population can communicate to some degree in English. It is the common language in almost every endeavour, from science to air traffic control to the global Jihad, where it is apparently the means of communication between speakers of Arabic and other languages. It has consolidated its dominance as the language of the internet, where 80 percent of the world’s electronically stored information is in English. The world is currently experiencing a dominance of English language in technological inventions. For example, most mobile phones and tablets that are being used in the world today have their preinstalled applications in English though provision for a change of language is made available in the settings. According to David Graddol, a linguist and researcher, English is spoken across cultures and it is mostly language of instructions at schools. Children are taught the language to help them become citizens of an increasingly intertwined world. At telephone call centres around the world, the emblem of a globalized workplace, the language spoken is naturally English. In countries where English is used as the second language, broadcasting stations cast their news in English language before their native languages. English has become the second language of everybody, it has gotten to the point where almost in any part of the world to be educated means to communicate in English.
As English continue to spread, the linguists say, it is fragmenting as Latin did, into a family of dialects – and perhaps, eventually fully fledged languages – known as Englishes. A full fledge fragmentation of English may see to the end of the real English we know. New vernaculars have emerged in such places as Singapore, Nigeria and the Caribbean, although widespread literacy and mass communication may be slowing the natural process of diversification. The pidgin of Papua New Guinea already has its own literature and translations of Shakespeare. On the other hand, unlike Latin and other former common languages, English seems to be too widespread and too deeply entrenched to die out instead, it is likely to survive in some simplified international form – sometimes called Globish or World Standard Spoken English – side by side with its offspring.
“You have too many words in English,” said Jean – Paul Nerriere, a retired Vice President of IBM, USA who is French. He has proposed his own version of Globish that would have just 15,000 simple words for use by non-native speakers. “We are a majority,” Nerriere said, “so our way of speaking English should be the official way of speaking English”. While Paul proposed Globish for diverse use especially among non-native speakers, Robert McCrum, the literary editor of the London Observer saw it as an economic phenomenon.
As a simplified form of global English emerges, the diverging forms spoken in Britain and America could become no more than local dialects – two more Englishes alongside the Singlish spoken in Singapore or the Taglish spoken in the Philipines. A native speaker of English might need to become bilingual in his own language to converse with other speakers of global English. Crystal wrote that we may well be approaching a critical moment in human linguistic history and that it is possible that a global language will emerge only once.
The dominance English has on the world today is as a result of successive English – speaking empires; British and American, and continues with the new virtual empire of the internet.
The teaching of English has become a multibillion – dollar industry, and according to Graddol, nearly one-third of the world’s population will soon be studying English. In fact, to enter higher institution in Nigeria and some other countries of the world, at least a pass at credit level in English is required. Most overseas higher institutions require a test of English for an international student who doesn’t speak English as a native language before he/she can gain admission.
By the most common estimates, 400million people speak English as first language, another 300million to 500 million as a fluent second language and perhaps 750million as foreign language. The largest English – speaking nation in the world, the United States, has only about 20 percent of the world’s English speakers. In Asia alone, an estimated 350 million people speak English, about the same as the combined English – speaking populations of Britain, the United States and Canada. In Africa, about 200million people speak the language. David Crystal puts the current estimates of English speakers in the world at 1.5 billion. Thus, the English language no longer belongs to its native speakers but to the world.

A non-native English speaker Yilin Sun, a Chinese, is the current president of the International Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages known as TESOL. Even if English were somehow to collapse as the language of its birthplace, England, Crystal said, it would continue its worldwide dominance unperturbed.
The people who were once colonized by the language are now rapidly remaking it, domesticating it, becoming more and more relaxed about the way they use it, creating pidgins and creoles. The advance of technology that helped push English into its dominance position could pull it down again. Though it still sounds like science fiction, it seems likely that some time, many decades from now a machine will be perfected that can produce Yoruba when it hears someone speaking German. The sociolinguistic fact remains that the dominance of a language endangers and forces other languages into extinction. This has prompted organisation like the Living Tongues in the United States to promote the documentation, maintenance, preservation and revitalization of endangered languages all over the world. Tertiary institutions in Africa especially in Nigeria where at least 512 languages are currently being spoken are gathering word list of these languages for the purpose of research and documentation. Whether English language fragments into Englishes and a standard form like Globish as proposed emerges or it continues its dominance as the king of languages the fact is that the world has started speaking one language.

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In Opinion

Young Adults With Feeding Bottle

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In Nigerian context, there are two categories of youths being
permutated by the phenomenon of the country’s situation. The
circumstantially derailed ones hiding under the facade of western
education, and the inherently disillusioned ones shielding away from
the ugly realities of life. Of course, like any other youths in the
Caribbean, they are born with their central nervous system, well
modeled and intact. Save the several intrinsic tendencies like
genetics that can likely influence a man’s growth mechanism –
environmental factor plays the biggest role. The kind of environment a
man naturally finds himself plays a huge role on his personal
dispositions towards life. Such is the case of a typical Nigerian
youth.

An average Nigerian youth can be the best anywhere, given the spate of
material and intellectual resources the country is inherently blessed
with. He can be the next William Shakespeare the world would birth, if
he glory in the domain of literature. Much alike, he may thread
treasurely behind Lionel Messi, if his dribbling skills is well
channeled along the competitive divides. At his creative best, he can
exhibit at peak any extra-ordinary potential quite elusive in the
contemporary world. In what seems mythical and unfathomable, the rarity
of the Nigerian breeds in any worldly calling is a testimony to the
beauty of creation.

However, as innovative and awe-inspiring the Nigerian youths could be,
the bottom line is that, they have refused to grow. They are like the
germinating rice plantation struggling to survive in the swamp. They
have mortgaged their future to those xenophilic individuals, who will
rather invest massively abroad than overhaul the dwindling state of
economy at home. Meanwhile, the average youths at home are managing to
scale the rigorous hurdles of primary to university education, for
which employment is like a gold dust. Basic social infrastructures
expected of any meaningful nation, are grossly inadequate. The
educational system is in comatose, with no anointed ones to resurrect
it within. No day elapses without the scattered news of citizens
protesting power failure, low access to health care, increased
mortality rate, among other social pandemics plaguing the nation. They
all want a magical handiwork that will elevate the status of the
country from a mere geographical expression to a complete formidable
structure. And the question is, where are the youths?

Of course, the Nigerian youths are everywhere, in the nooks and
cranny. They are at the clubs dancing away the nights, with the
assurance that tomorrow will berth a new tune. They become drunk with
euphoria, rocking away the complexity destiny has offered. Desirously,
through being hoodwink into leasing away the future; their stream of
consciousness becomes vague, yearning for a new flow of breath. They
are there, romancing the night alongside its conviviality.

Amidst this conflicting irony of affairs, not only the intellectually
brewed are sacred, this set of youths are cheap commodities within the
four walls of garages, soccer show rooms, “baba ijebu” and slums. They
are the font and “origo”, the supremo limo of those caliber of people,
fate would boastfully tagged failure. They are there, forming assembly
of malnourished minds, sipping cups of fermented wine, while the wave
of time erodes away their ageing prospects. Rhythm of salvation they
would always frown at, as nerves for actions remain missing in their
life anatomy. They will never cease rebuking the gods for their own
portion of destiny, until the lustful moments fade away. Hence, they
unleash vengeance on the innocent ones going about their daily
commitments. They are physically upright, yet paralyzed.

In town, on gown, this same set of youths are outwardly transgeneric,
lobbying their way to the academia. They are the means to all sorts of
rots in our ivory towers. They scale the fence to wealth, covering
with pretense of safeguarding their fellows’ rights. Of course, they
receive the nods and shakes of the kings, vice chancellors, provosts,
among others within the topmost echelons of the academia and society.
It is inherent in them, the will and greed to exercise dominion on
every available instance. They draw in passionately the sympathy of
fellow students, while championing the ruthless course to their greedy
stomach. They are the freedom fighters – the heroic villains of their
alma-maters.

While being earnest with the narratives of history, it is high time the
Nigerian youths assumed the resonating waves their contemporaries are
tiding in the ocean of realities. They need to wake up from their
slumbers, and engender a culture of reproductive thinking and actions.
Youth unemployment is the Trojan horse. It is fast consuming the
intellects and
energy of supposed vibrant youths. Hence, the Nigerian youths have to
outgrow this draining spirit of over dependence – the glorified pathway
to hereditary failure. As inspired by a famous philosopher, think not
what the country can do for you, but what you can do for the country.
What can the Nigerian youths do for the upliftment of the nation? The
question raises a pointer on every young mind, including me and you.
We are the future the history is forecasting. Why not moving an edge?

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In Opinion

Africa Development: Brain Drain

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Scrolling through the cable trying to get through the boring Sunday noon, stumbled upon this show called Africa Straight Up. It’s a mini documentary telling a story and giving an insight to how Africa is the future of the world. Couldn’t help but agree to the notion. With the resources (which are terribly mismanaged due to poor governance) Africa got we are truly the future of this world. Read Tom Burgis’s The Looting Machine: Warlords, Tycoons, Smugglers and the Systematic Theft of Africa’s Wealth; some weeks back and couldn’t help but to agree with how he sees Africa – a continent with third of the Earth’s mineral deposits and some of its weakest institutions as being particularly vulnerable to the predations that arise from the combination of mineral wealth and poor governance.

Most captivating part of the documentary was when a final year Harvard student made a comment; “I’m going back home to join force with other young talented people to help develop my country. I got nothing to impact in America or Europe, they got enough brain needed for any form of development they wish to attain” she said.
Her comment gave me the thought of brain drain. Brain drain! Brain drain!! Brain drain!!!

Brain drain refers to the emigration of intelligent, well-educated individuals to somewhere for better pay or condition, causing the place they came from to lose those skilled people, or “brains”. This happens when people perceive that the leadership of a country is unstable or stagnant and thus, unable to keep up with their personal and professional ambition.

Brain drain is actually having it toil on Africa. It has led to loss of human capital, decline in economic development, affected the health sector in Africa. According to a BBC report back in 2001, brain drain cost the African continent over $4 billion (will be triple by now) in the employment of 150,000 expatriate professionals annually with Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya believed to be the most affected.

If we actually have an in-depth look at it, poor governance and lack of adequate utilization of resource are major causes of brain drain. But we shouldn’t just keep mute and let the brains that will help build and shape Africa better continue to drain away or die in the Mediterranean. We should start by standing up for what’s true and right; ensure those we vote for are those with the vision to create an atmosphere that would help talents flourish; let our vote count, supporting and working together with those with good intentions for the development of individual African country. I’m on the side that brain drain indeed has dug a hole in the better development of Africa.

I’m not implying that the brains available aren’t trying their possible best. Don’t know about you but I believe if brain drain can be curbed, our development rate will increase. We need more brain. NO ONE CAN DO IT BUT US.

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Welcome to 54Africa

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imagesIt’s quite sad to read and hear some journalist sound so ignorant when they make reports about Africa. Tired of reading articles and write ups that showcase Africa to the world like a continent 80% filled with hungry people. Poor living condition, famine, epidemics and political unrest seem to be the major news about Africa. In a bid, embarking on a journey of thoughts wondering how to connect Africans to share and tell their stories themselves and how every beautiful nook and cranny of Africa can be shown to everyone in the world, the idea behind 54Africa came to life and it led to the establishment of this platform called 54Africa.

54Africa is a platform that represents a voyage that is meant to bring young, goal-oriented, skilful, enterprising and result achieving Africans together, who are willing to interact their ideas, showcase their beautiful country and share their opinions on issues concerning happenings in Africa as well as their glorious experience in different African communities.
A place for everyone to tell and share beautiful stories about their various beautiful countries ranging from culture, lifestyles, literature, business, arts, inspirations, developing economics, music and more
54Africa is open to everyone. You don’t have to be a professional writer before you can share your view about anything African. Let us all show our beautiful, rich and greatly diverse continent to the world in ways and forms never seen before.
You can be part of this huge base by sending in your beautiful stories and articles you got for everyone to info@54africa.com. You can also check out our Facebook page www.facebook.com/The54africa, Instagram: the54africa and also twitter www.twitter.com/The54Africa.

It’s Africa by Africans.

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