The Nigerian Senate and the Game of Shame

Once again I feel the need to rant!!! What type of misguided decision making goes on in this our beloved country? The Senate want to make kidnapping punishable by death! Now, it looks like a good

decision, but I can't help but feel irritated by the comments of some Senators. The Senate Vice President said Nigerians cannot endure a little, that they are too quick to pay the ransom and that has become an incentive to kidnappers! Really!!!? How long will you wait for kidnappers to return your wife, husband or child when you know the security agencies are not properly equipped to find them? That is if your case is even given a second thought. These are people that tell you there is no fuel to come and help! How will they even find the kidnappers? Over 260 girls were kidnapped over a year ago in this country and till today there has been no news concerning their return! You think their parents wouldn't gladly pay a ransom to get their children back? Another Senator, said this law will serve as a deterrent for kidnappers. This is not the first step that should be taken! Before you decide to do this, won't you ensure that the security agencies are strengthened and properly equipped first? Nigerians have lost faith in the efficacy of these agencies and will rather do what they can to save their loved ones, which is to pay the ransom.

Our politicians have worsened the already difficult economic conditions we face. This has pushed many Nigerians into unscrupulous means of survival. This is not an excuse for the shameful act of kidnapping, but the death penalty may be a few steps ahead of the real solution. There are steps that must be taken before we jump to that. There are also more pressing issues that threaten the integrity of this nation like the issue of the Fulani herdsmen and their pernicious infiltration of the South! They should spend time trying to come up with reasonable solutions to this first!

The average Nigerian is poor and will not be kidnapped. So this whole thing is another tune to serenade the upper class while people grope in the dark in search of food and light in this information age! Giant of Africa? I dare you to even say it to a Rwandan or anyone from Botswana. Our leaders have started another round of this never ending game of shame!!!!

Fear. Pain. Glory

A little girl cries in silence

A little girl is groaning deep within

Her voice is not heard by her mother 

And her shame is not one to be expressed

She sits in a corner watching family-cum-predator

He turns to look at her while he laughs with the crowd

The comfort of family is the veil for terror

There are things going on in her head 

Those secrets she thinks she can't share

Memories of days of terror and nights of fear

Spasms of your touch, a bitterness she can't suppress

The height of your pleasure, the depth of her despair

While the world rotates, she stands, slowly sinking in shame

While you plunder her weary soul, her spirit remains...

Unbroken, unbroken, the will to outgrow this pain

She won't leave it behind, but will talk about it boldly till it folds neatly into her history

She will arm the young girls with her story,

If they see you on the way, they won't run

They won't fall, they will undress your tricks and send you home, naked but without shame

You met a little girl, you ravaged her soul but the woman within is unbreakable

She is a champion for others and a lasting reminder of your weakness...her conquest

She bowed a girl, right before you but she rose a Queen, the Queen of Kings.

Swallowed in Our Own Bellies

Nigeria's failing economy is not a secret. On the other hand, we have economists and policy makers who should be able to design a structure to salvage our dying economy. Many of them have strategies, models and policies which can change the fate of this nation. They have achieved remarkable success in other places where they have used this knowledge to create lasting solutions. We are left to wonder why they can't do the same here. Before we start a discussion on the lack of patriotism (which is true in most cases), let us talk of the more common issues.

First, economic theories and models are based on information. In Nigeria, the data is either not available or not accurate enough to be considered reliable. In the absence of better information, policies are formulated based on these roughly estimated figures and the result is what we see in the country; policies that are effective on paper but ineffective and rather disruptive in practice.

Secondly, for a policy to work properly there have to be checks and balances put in place to ensure the details are implemented accordingly. The ministries and government bodies that should help implement these policies are lazy, ineffective and usually overstaffed and over paid relative to the amount of work they do! People want to get paid for work they don't do. They sit in offices all day doing nothing. Falsifying records and using fictitious data to fill reports that would be used to assess the success of these policies.

The last problem lies right here. People like you and I who have seen the way things should be but decide to do nothing but talk and talk. A lot of small talk won't overturn the work of a lot of big time crooks! If you read messages like this every day but you still go ahead to destroy the system in your own way, what use is all the noise and clamouring? It is hypocrisy in its most healthy form! We are the termites that are eating up the system. The economists can only plan but they can never accurately predict the unsustainable greed and deceit of the common man. The failure of Neoclassical Economics in Nigeria is more of the failure of man’s integrity in the battle against his own greed than a failure of the system itself. This doesn’t mean that the system is flawless. It means that the flaws of the system have been greatly aggravated by greedy, power-drunk and selfish people. The sins of the past have brought us to where we stand today. Tomorrow we may be forgotten, but our greed and corruption will haunt generations yet unborn.

The Wait

The Wait

I will wait, my lover

I will wait even when all I can see are your footprints and not your feet

I will wait even when I have nothing but the fragrance of your black orchid

I will wait, not because there are no options

But because patience gives me more strength to love you more

Love your hazel eyes

Love your strength

Love your weakness

Love every single flaw the world will never understand…

Love immensely, the buttons, they keep it all together

Love every reason for your existence

I will wait

Yes baby

I will wait by your book

Reading every single word you wrote that meant something….

…something through the lens

- Titilola Moore

National Service?

Online registration seems like something that should have been here ages ago but like everything else in this country, it takes donkey years to bring a good idea to fruition. We used it to show our problem-riddled use of technology again! Just a simple registration process and we opened a can of worms hiding in the corner of this our ‘beautiful idea’ of NYSC online registration. People waited for 13 hours for the system to mail a link so they could start the registration process. This is something that should never happen in this day and age! Some were sympathetic about the whole problem. They said “There were too many people on the site at the same time, that was why it was ‘hanging’”. Before this system was implemented there must have been proper study and they should have built the system to cater for an estimated number of people who would gate crash the registration process immediately it begins, so that excuse is untenable. Apparently, nobody did this and we were all thrown into long hours of frustration that led to this article.

The problems with the online registration continued in shameful fashion. There were drop down menus that never dropped down and some biometric devices functioning only with Java Version 6 and 7, meanwhile what is readily available online is version 8. So one has to downgrade in order to use the device. Is this because someone got the contract to supply these devices and he got the low cost version that is outdated and can’t work with the latest version of Java? Seems like to me! Why can’t the biometric data be taken from the nation’s database, considering the fact that all this information has already been taken for National ID card and the infamous BVN number registration. Does this mean every government office will now start its independent data collection instead of leveraging on the available data and saving cost? When will we get ready for efficient use of available technology and information?

Another show of shame is the frequent and almost mandatory delay of flights in Nigeria. Why does it have to happen so often? If you know you can’t fly by a certain time, advertise a time that will enable you accommodate your usual delay or ‘operational reasons’. I would rather come to the airport for a flight by 5pm if I know we will leave by 5pm than book a flight for 2pm and end up leaving by 4pm! Some times flights are cancelled after passengers have checked in and are waiting for the flight. It is totally beyond my humble understanding! Some of the problems are just plainly unacceptable! What baffles me the most is that we all sit in the departure lounge smiling like nothing out of the ordinary is happening! Welcome to Nigeria! The world’s capital for suffering and smiling!

Why can’t we just adopt something good and use it properly? Why can’t we create a system that can accommodate the basic problems associated with such a system and create solutions for them? We have consistently found a way to make the most inefficient use of information and technology. Let us not even go into the non-functional phone numbers placed on government websites. 24/7 they are switched off or they would never be picked. The lines will ring endlessly. Our attitude towards customer satisfaction, especially in the public sector, is terribly apathetic.

While I hope and pray for things to get better, it seems there is no end in sight. Those who should stem the tide are perpetrators of these vices in more conniving and artful ways. It would seem our ability to use the internet is limited to scheming,  creatively inspired social media jibes usually directed at our leaders for crimes we have helped them to commit. We are obsessed with attacking the Government (I’m not absolving them from blame), but these systems that are failing, including the government, are not individuals on their own but are made up of insincere, inefficient and dispassionate people like us. If we sit and accommodate the rot, it will spread and consume us all. We need to learn to speak up when things are wrong! People should not be allowed to treat us badly especially when we are paying for a service. We need Servicom to stand up to its responsibilities. We all deserve to be served right!

We Are Waiting For You!

Through all these ‘difficult’ times when the world thinks you’re up

But deep down you know you’re crashing down in different dimensions

You believe the world would not get your non-conformist ideas

Afraid they may not relate and just brush them off in one sweep

So you turn off the lights and just express only grief and hurt

You carry your pain and sadness in the same sack with your inspiration

Somehow they all make you lock yourself in your own dark world

Is there comfort in the darkness or is it the fear of your own light?

Are you afraid of people turning down your creative sprout of unconventional ideas?

We know your ingenious creativity comes with strings attached to your heart

And we also appreciate your courage and desire to live on the edge 

The drive to be fully alive in every moment spent with breath

While you fight your inner demons behind the scenes

We sit patiently, waiting for you to put up a beautiful show

Can't you see that you are fighting a battle with yourself while the world waits for you?

Last Night's Rain

The bridge collapsed at night

Under the weight of a million hearts and rain

The rains poured and rattled the roofs

Inside, bonds of love were stretched

A million locks of love drowned tonight

The rust and seaweed unlock the bonds

And what was once forever is now a part of history