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Showing posts from 2011
PRESIDENT JONATHAN, A PRODUCT OF AN OUTDATED UPBRINGING Before you think I am being disrespectful to President Jonathan’s mother, let me start by saying that this write up is an indictment on the way Nigerian women raise their children. I am going to try here to let us see the danger of this continued out-of-date practice and if by chance any woman or man for that matter gives a thought as to what I have to say here, they might change the cause of the  future of generations of Nigerians  that would give the rest of us a better lease of life. The ability to express emotions is part of being a live entity. Animals across the world have been depicted and seen to show empathy and concern for other animals and for humans too in addition to having the ability to express fear, anger and apprehension. I cannot forget when a friend came to visit me after the birth of my son many years ago. While escorting this lovely lady back to her car, our family dog leapt at her and viciously attack
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY This is the beauty of the Nigerian State. There are some of us who are not afraid to call a spade by its name, ‘Spade’. They stand on a good moral ground because they hold sacred, those values that were instilled in them as children. They were taught never to take things that belong to others without first asking and to tell the truth at all times. These call themselves, ‘Nigerians’, not northerner, or southerner. They are passionate about their religious beliefs but are also respectful of those who serve God in ways that are different from theirs. – The Good There are a few who are morally bankrupt and have benefitted from the fraud that has its headquarters at Aso Rock, various State capitals and local Government H/Qs. These ones are benefitting from stealing, both of public funds and the peoples’ mandate and are now perpetually lying to us. They eat, drink and live in corruption. Their hired hands lie for them and criticise those who dare to stand up
IT’S ABOUT THE PEOPLE OR ISN'T IT? The problem with Nigeria is that we do not follow through or keep a story going for long. I am going to use Delta state as an example of what I mean. When a news item breaks, everyone is outraged and then within a week, another one breaks and we completely abandon the previous one, all our questions still unanswered, we just move on.  This works well for our leaders as I can picture a novice amongst them panicking at the break of an outrageous occurrence concerning him/her and the old hands saying to him/her, "Calm down, it will blow over in a week or two." It usually does; no answers, just swept under the carpet and forgotten. The Nigerian media is excellent at exposing corruption but are also paid off to kill off the stories. They have learnt, over the years to use this method to enrich themselves. They are no longer the conscience of the people but the people’s sell-out. The exception to this are the online media like the Sahararep
WHERE IS OUR COMMUNITY SPIRIT? Thinking back to when I was a child, growing up in Nigeria, it’s heart-wrenching to see how things have deteriorated in my beloved nation of Nigeria. As children we looked forward to the monthly times of the night when the moon was in full bloom; we went out to play, boys and girls together. Sometimes we had ‘grandma’ Theresa Onwenafa Nkemchor my great uncle’s wife and a prolific folk story teller entertain us with moonlight tales. It was a time when my grandmother did not have to worry that we were out late playing with our female and male cousins and friends. She did not have to worry that we could be raped. It was an era when rape was a taboo and gang-raping not heard of. When young mothers wanted to go to the farm or stream to fetch some water, they made loose sand dunes and sat their babies there and merely informed their neighbours that the babies were outside. These neighbours did not use the babies for rituals; they played with them, washed th
OF POISONED BEANS AND DEATH NUMBERS... Nigeria is in a dire situation. Our leaders, both political and religious have brainwashed us to the point that we can no more differentiate between pranks and reality. Our politicians tell us that our problems are Northerners and Moslems; we swallow it wholesale even though it’s clear for all to see that the average Northerner is worse off than the average Southerner. (This is largely because southern women are freer to access education and participate in trading and industry thereby contributing immensely to the education of their children, an opportunity the average Northern woman lacks). So they tell us what the solution would be. A southern Christian President! We all swallowed it whole forgetting that each time a northerner had been in power, he had had the active participation and collaboration of, wait a minute, yes, Southern Christians! The only difference between North and south, in my humble and myopic opinion is that while northern
THE CABAL OR NIGERIANS. Some years ago, if a church leader was importing an American Evangelist, other Pastors in his neighbourhood would quickly organise a retreat for their members to prevent them from being stolen at the crusade ground. Retreat was only for the church. At that time, I used to wonder aloud why Christians needed to retreat rather than progress or revive.  I was therefore, taken aback and to say the least, very disturbed when President Jonathan started off this phase of his leadership of Nigeria, with a retreat. It would have blown past for me if the retreat did not include Olusegun Obasanjo. I sat at my PC wondering what Obasanjo, one of the architects of the many woes of Nigeria was doing with a leader who promised a new beginning for Nigerians. My heart sank and I knew we have been had. It’s true that Jonathan was not my choice to win the 2011 election for the simple fact that he had been part of Nigeria’s inglorious past. I knew he was tainted,
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GOODWILL MESSAGE FROM LAURETTA ONOCHIE TO THE LAGOS CHAPTER, UMU ANIOMA FOUNDATION AT THEIR MEET AND GREET ON JULY 2ND, 2011 AND DELIVERED BY JENNIFER ONOCHIE. Great Umu Anioma, I want to apologise for my inability to be with you at this Meet and Greet, organised by the Lagos chapter of Umu Anioma Foundation. It is due to work and family commitments and I hope you do understand. I do not wish to bore you with what some of you already know but I will not fail to remind us that we, as Umu Anioma Foundation, have taken on a huge task that has seen many casualties since 1956. Some of our fore-runners have left indelible marks and we cannot forget the late Chief Denis Osadebe, who coined the name, ‘ANIOMA’, and we have had some Anioma groups that probably started out well but have now ended up in bed with corrupt politicians. These groups only represent themselves as all they do is hold Anioma parties, paid for by our corrupt Anioma politicians while our people are left in abject povert

Is the Devil we know better than the Angel we don’t know?

It is an open secret that most Nigerians are religious. Those who are, subscribe to either the religion of their parents and some, as they grow older and independent of their parents, go further to search out for themselves and chose a different way of having a relationship with their God. The history of how Pentecostal form of Christianity came to push the traditional form of Christianity to the background cannot be written in Nigeria without mentioning the likes of Benson Idahosa, William Kumuyi and later on, the catholic charismatic movement’s Emmanuel Ede. Before this time Nigerians were content with making simple sacrifices prescribed by the Native doctors in order to ward off Evil spirits. The advent of the Pentecostal form of assembly took most of that role from the Native doctors and placed it squarely on ‘Men Of God’, some of who, I must add, were not and are still not in talking terms with God. Warding off Evil spirits has become a lucrative venture and our ‘Men of God’

Umu Anioma, Is the Devil we know better than the Angel we don’t know?

It is an open secret that most Nigerians are religious. Those who are, subscribe to either the religion of their parents and some, as they grow older and independent of their parents, go further to search out for themselves and chose a different way of having a relationship with their God. The history of how Pentecostal form of Christianity came to push the traditional form of Christianity to the background cannot be written in Nigeria without mentioning the likes of Benson Idahosa, William Kumuyi and later on, the catholic charismatic movement’s Emmanuel Ede. Before this time Nigerians were content with making simple sacrifices prescribed by the Native doctors in order to ward off Evil spirits. The advent of the Pentecostal form of assembly took most of that role from the Native doctors and placed it squarely on ‘Men Of God’, some of who, I must add, were not and are still not in talking terms with God. Warding off Evil sprits has become a lucrative venture and our ‘Men of God’