naijablog

News from Zamani Farms

2012-01-26T08:50:00.000+01:00

Hello customers,

We continue to make progress on the farm, although we still have a lot of work to do to get back to where we were before the Jos crisis of January 2010. We are still not yet cultivating even half of our land, but we are working on that gradually. Since all work on the farm is done by hand -- from forming irrigation beds, to manuring, planting, transplanting, weeding and watering—it takes a lot of labour to get things done, and labour has still been one of our constraints. We have had problems getting skilled workers to employ, since most of the population was displaced from Kuru village – the source of our labour before the crisis. But we are doing our best with workers who have to come from far distances to get to the farm on a daily basis. And with a lot of patience we have finally been getting some positive results.

We have lovely vegetables for you for next week, and more are on the way.

Our field of young lettuces is looking beautiful. We are finally getting enough to put lettuce back on the available list, so you can get as much as you need. However, varieties are a bit limited for next week. We have plenty of iceberg, as well as some reddish Batavia lettuce which is very sweet. Other varieties will be available the week after. For next week let us know if you need just iceberg, or want a mixture. We will try to give you what you want. We do not have endive frisee for next week, or radicchio. We will have to wait a few weeks until these are ready. Escarole is growing well, and it too should soon be available. We will let you know when they are ready.

Our French beans are also ready – we sent some this week, and we should have much more by next week. They are beautiful, sweet and tender. You will definitely enjoy them. We also have a limited quantity of mangetout. Order early if you need it. We do not have enough, so we are rationing it to half kg per customer.

Beef tomatoes from our supplier are very nice – big and firm. Plum tomatoes are also sweet and good. Cherry tomatoes are on the way but aren’t ready yet.

We still have good quantities of kohlrabi, both green and purple varieties. It is really lovely. We are planting lots more, since it seems many of you are enjoying it, and we will try to keep it available.

Courgettes are very nice as well. At the moment we have limited supplies of cousa, and we are waiting for the new batch to begin producing.

We have fantastic cauliflower, although the warmer weather will soon start affecting the heads and in a month or two they will be unavailable. But for now they are very lovely. Please note that the heads are very large – some up to 3kg. We will charge you by weight, and since we cannot cut them, unfortunately we will have to manage with the sizes we have. Hardly any of them are half kg, so please be prepared

for whatever size you get. We will try to send you smaller ones if you request, but this is not always possible. In any case, I know you will enjoy them.

Beetroots are finally available, and are very nice. I know many of you have been waiting for them for a long time. We also have lovely carrots, and we should have nice radishes too for next week. Leeks are beautiful, young and fresh.

In the greens department we have good Chinese cabbage and green cabbage. Our present batch of bok choi is finishing, and we will have limited amounts for next week. But the new batch should be ready to pick the week after next. Spinach is very nice and available in any quantity you need. We have limited amounts of Swiss Chard as well.

Celery is becoming available, and we will have a limited amount of it. The heads are finally reasonable in size.

New potatoes are available, and we have all sizes. Let us know what you need. They are very nice. We also have good sweet potatoes (white variety). Our own red type is growing and should be available soon.

We are getting nice red and white onions from our supplier who is bringing them from Kano. Despite all of the bombs and attacks in Kano last week, they are still coming in to Jos. The ones from the far north are nicer (drier, and last longer) than the ones grown locally. We can supply you with as much as you need.

Our new fennel is growing well, and should be available in about two weeks.

Not too much is available on the fruit scene, although we have been working hard on the strawberry field to get it into production. We have gotten a supply of horse manure, and this should give the plants a boost. We hope we will have some for you quite soon.

The warmer weather has helped our pawpaws to ripen, and we are getting more of them, although not as much as we need.

Please consult the order form attached for a complete list of what is available. Please do get your orders in by Sunday afternoon. We have been having problems with late orders, because we order beef tomatoes from the supplier on Sunday evening. So if your orders come after that we are likely not to have enough for you. Please help us out on this.

Thank you all again for your support and patronage. If we are lucky and continue to have relative peace in our local environment we should be able to get the farm into peak condition, so that we can continue to supply you with the best quality vegetables that we can produce. We can only hope for some peace in Nigeria as a whole in these difficult times, because without peace we have no future.

More farm news next week.

Best regards

Norma

Occupy Nigeria 28th January @ CCM

2012-01-25T18:20:00.003+01:00

A series of events including panel discussion, photography and twitter projections and video screening and presentation of Protest materials and other ephemera.

2.30pm

Venue: CCA,Lagos, 9 McEwen Street, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos

Community-policing as the answer to Boko Haram

2012-01-21T00:11:00.003+01:00

Excellent article by Olly Owen on a potential 'quiet' solution to the menace of Boko Haram here.

The Ghost of Sani Abacha

2012-01-17T13:14:00.000+01:00

An event at SOAS on Jan 17th, now more timely than perhaps originally anticipated.

Aduke

2012-01-17T10:08:00.002+01:00

Decolonising the Nigerian Constitution

2012-01-16T00:38:00.015+01:00

In the past two weeks, the Occupy Nigeria movement has developed far beyond a demand to return the price of fuel to N65 per litre, with calls for the government to reduce its own bloated costs and investigate the obviously rampant corruption in the oil sector. Already, the government has responded, with the Minister of Petroleum’s statement this evening to invite the EFCC to investigate fuel subsidy payments and for an independent auditor to follow-up on the KPMG report. Whether or not this belated action is sufficient to counter a cynical response, deeper issues still have been raised to the surface. Nigerians are beginning to ask fundamental questions about the kind of country they would like to live in. A new sense of what Nigerian citizenship might provide is floating up into the air.

I invite you to compare and contrast for a moment the role the US Constitution plays in the lives of Americans with that of the Nigerian Constitution in Nigeria (the current version dates from 1999). At this stage, I’m simply asking you to dwell on the impact and effects of both constitutions on everyday life, and nothing more.

As we know all too readily from US media and discourse, Americans are raised to understand their constitution and the definition of the rights of the citizen enshrined within the all-important Amendments. Laws in the US are grounded in the constitution and must be formulated in accord with how the rights of the citizen are set in balance against the tripartite powers of the state (the executive, the legislature and the judiciary) in the context of a secular federation. Above all, thanks to the constitution, the rights of the individual run deep in American discourse. No matter the myriad and profound historical errors of the United States (originating in the twin horrors of an erasure of indigenous peoples and African slave labour), Americans are justifiably proud of the constitutional and legal instruments that guide their lives. It is precisely the American Constitution, for example, that continues to define Guantanamo as a stain upon the conscience of the country. The US Constitution’s inviolate stance on the rights of the American citizen haunts the actions of the US military overseas, reducing the non-American other to the status of “bare life”.

In Nigeria, we often experience almost the diametric opposite to the statutory privileges of the US Constitution. Many Nigerians have little idea of the contents of their constitution and are not taught the document at school. Nigerians are therefore not educated to be citizens of their own country; they are not made aware of their rights or brought to understand the role government should play in their lives since they are used to performing the roles themselves i.e. providing security, education, health etc.

Many Nigerians are not aware, for instance, that although the state is not aligned with any particular religion, their constitution is still not secular. I quote: “Having firmly and solemnly resolve, to live in unity and harmony as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation under God.” Many are also not aware that Nigerian women cannot confer citizenship through marriage and are therefore effectively second-class citizens in their own country. See this excellent analysis by Charmaine Pereira on the gender bias of the 1999 constitution.

Nigerians are also scarcely aware what powers the state is given, and what rights Nigerian citizens have in response. The history of the Nigerian constitution is in fact the history of an imposition, firstly by the British colonial power (the Richards, Macpherson and Lyttleton constitutions of the 1940s and 50s) and then by a litany of military dictators from the 1960s onwards. One might have hoped that independence would provide the shining opportunity to look at the constitution holistically and see how it could be fully adapted to suit the complex reality of Nigeria. Instead, many of the foundational narratives the British bequeathed were left unchanged.

It is therefore little surprise that the 1999 Nigerian constitution is often ignored in the current institutional arrangements of the state. One need only think of the Governor’s Forum and the Excess Crude Account, governance instruments which oversee all oil revenue to the State over and above the barrel price set within the annual budget (US$70 for the 2012 budget), to see that some critically important institutions in Nigeria often have absolutely no constitutional basis. The proposed sovereign wealth fund, which would ensure that “excess” oil wealth is put into a investment/savings account, while an excellent idea in theory for Nigeria, would, given current arrangements, also have no constitutional basis. The practice of creating institutions which have no grounding in the constitution effectively licenses an ‘anything goes’ approach to governance, whereby the revenues from oil can be frittered away by quasi-legal quick-fixes without any accountability checks and balances. Billions of dollars can, and have disappeared in the process, with little to show for the money.

All buildings made to last need to be built upon solid foundations. There is a refrain that rises into volume intermittently among some Nigerians: the need for a “Sovereign National Conference.” I’m not sure what value a Grand Hural of the Big Men (and doubtless, a smattering of Big Women) would have. For example, the grand talkathon organised under Obasanjo a few years back changed little. Instead of the chimeric ideal of a national settlement attained merely through discussion, something more foundational is required.

Given the collective passion of Nigerians in the past few weeks for a new consensus, the time has never been more ripe for a complete rethinking of the Nigerian constitutional DNA, finally wiping the slate clean the legacy of British colonial rule and its post-Independence military offshoot. The place of beginning should lie in the definition of the core powers of the State (the legislature, the executive and the judiciary) vis-à-vis the rights and obligations of the citizen, away from a man-centric, hetero-centric, President-centric paradigm. As well as core institutions such as parliament, a presidential office and ministries, a healthy democratic state requires public institutions that are independent of government, such as an anti-corruption commission, sector-specific regulatory bodies, an auditor general’s office and, if there is to be one, a state broadcaster. The simple truth is that under the current constitutional framework, the president has far too much power in Nigerian governance (such as the power to pick and sack the Chair of the EFCC and select the governance boards of ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government). There should be many more autonomous counterbalancing powers built into the system and institutions created whose remit is to provide checks and balances on Presidential prerogative.

Another key constitutional whose time has come and gone is the idea of Federal Character and the “State of Origin”, perhaps the most nefarious example of the law of unintended consequences (dating back to the 1979 Constitution). It should be repealed. The distinction it created between ‘settler’ and ‘indigene’ can only serve as a barrier to the notion that Nigerian identity comes first, over any regional, religious or ethnic specificity. One can argue that a key dynamic behind the periodic surges in ethnic violence in Plateau State is the direct result of this artificial settler/indigene divide. Repealing the Federal Character principle would also enable a more clearly meritocratic civil service that incentivises the best minds from across Nigeria to play their part in the administration of the nation. A country can only develop on the basis of a competent administrative elite. Again, there must be a savings and investment function built into the constitution, to enable a sovereign wealth fund to be founded, perhaps modelled on the Norwegian and Qatari case studies. The new Nigerian constitution must rinse itself clean of all gender bias, and empower state and local government to play a stronger role in serving their communities via a stronger principle of regionalisation. This would facilitate the down-sizing of the Federal allocation, enabling the long-called for ideal of “fiscal federalism”. In its wake, the National Assembly would shrink back to an appropriate slice of the Federal budget, and the temptation to create duplicate agencies of government would be suppressed.

As we have seen in many inspiring stories of late – such as Muslims and Christians guarding each other while at prayer - when pushed to the brink, Nigerians have demonstrated a remarkable sense of unity across difference. There is nothing to fear then in enabling greater political regionalisation and a devolved model of the state: indeed de-centralisation is the way of the world these days. Despite plaintive calls from some corners of the Niger Delta for secession, one has to read it as a cry of pain, rather than a feasible alternative. The Niger Delta cannot remain as under-developed and polluted as it has done for so many years. Devolution and regionalisation would place the core of government closer to the people and allow stronger accountability pressures to remain in the system. Finally, it is long since time that state governors were held accountable for their financial actions, by removing the immunity clause.

There are many more aspects of the 1999 Constitution which need to be amended. However, my humble suggestion is this: not to attempt to renovate a house in which people have lived uncomfortably for so long. Why not start again, modelling a new Nigerian Constitution on a paradigm template (from the US, or from South Africa for example), which empowers citizens regardless of region, gender, sexuality or creed and reduces the overwhelming power of the “Commander in Chief”, recalibrating what it means to be a Nigerian citizen, facing the 3^rd millennium in a changing world. Isn’t that what Occupy Nigeria is yearning for?

The Cabal Amnesty Programme

2012-01-15T23:56:00.005+01:00

Another one of Deji's ideas. He's on fire tonight!

An idea – the government could set up a Cabal Amnesty Program (CAP) where the fraudulent companies are encouraged to go through their books and make refunds to the government of any excess payments or fraudulent claims .. Almost without questions. It will be some way of saying ‘we have discovered some payments, and we will make the refunds in one month to the Government AND the govt can use for the naija people or the SURE program’. This saves the government having to start using resources to prosecute this companies etc and also gets the money into government coffers very quickly.

Potentially, Some companies save face and hopefully the deregulated environment gets set up and they cannot continue such levels of fraud again. Somehow everybody might win in this scenario.

Change triggers for Nigeria

2012-01-15T23:46:00.001+01:00

Thoughts from my pal Deji:

Since there is a lack of trust between the leadership and the people,the only way forward are TRIGGERS and NOT dates.

1)TRIGGER- Revert to 65naira/l.

1)ACTION- we get off the street

2)TRIGGER- Sign into law the petroleum industry bill(PIB) and start arresting economic saboteurs and retrieving our funds,resubmit 2012 budget with 51% & 36% cut in President's and Ministers salaries and other wastes in government

2)ACTION- Price goes up to 70naira

3)TRIGGER- Start building four refineries.

3)ACTION- Price goes up to 80naira

4)TRIGGER- Refineries are 50% built

4)ACTION- Price goes up to 85naira

5)TRIGGER-Refineries are 75% built

5)ACTION-Price goes up to 90naira

6)TRIGGER-100% completion+1month running at a 100%

6)ACTION-Remove subsidy

Pls send to everyone you know and GOD BLESS NIGERIA

The Great Temptation of Oil

2012-01-15T11:19:00.001+01:00

“Oil kindles extraordinary emotions and hopes, since oil is above all a great temptation. It is the temptation of ease, wealth, strength, fortune, power. It is a filthy, foul-smelling liquid that squirts obligingly up into the air and falls back to earth as a rustling shower of money. To discover and possess the source of oil is to feel as if, after wandering long underground, you have suddenly stumbled upon royal treasure. Not only do you become rich, but you are also visited by the mystical conviction that some higher power has looked upon you with the eye of grace and magnanimously elevated you above others, electing you its favourite. Many photographs preserve the moment when the first oil spurts from the well: people jumping for joy, falling into each other’s arms, weeping. Oil creates the illusion of a completely changed life, life without work, life for free. Oil is a resource that anaesthetises thought, blurs vision, corrupts. People from poor countries go around thinking: God, if only we had oil! The concept of oil expresses perfectly the eternal human dream of wealth achieved through lucky accident, through a kiss of fortune and not by sweat, anguish, hard work. In this sense oil is a fairy tale and, like every fairy tale, a bit of a lie. Oil fill us with such arrogance that we begin believing we can easily overcome such unyielding obstacles as time.”

Ryszard Kapuscinski, Shah of Shahs.

My favourite Occupy Nigeria image so far..

2012-01-14T13:10:00.001+01:00

Fuel Subsidy 419

2012-01-14T12:46:00.001+01:00

Good Day,

My Name is Mr. Austin Oniwon, the Group Managing Director Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as the Group Managing Director am in the cabal responsible for the fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria. My office has been unable to account for 65,000 barrels of crude oil out of an official allocation of 445,000 barrels per day. Only me and some other top officials in my office knows the where about of the 65,000 barrels of crude oil which translates to a daily $6,362,850 (N939 million daily) that is unaccounted for.

Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Appropriation and Finance investigating the management of fuel subsidy funds got to know about the deal and is about to frozen all my bank accounts.

I seek your cooperation to help me in transfering this funds abroad before the hands of the Senate gets to it. You will be highly compensated for your help and account provision.

Let me know if you can handle this so that i will give you more details on how we can transfer this fund without any problem. For more information on this click on this link

http://www.channelstv.com/global/news_details.php?nid=30613&cat=Local

Regards,

Mr. Austin Oniwon

Group Managing Director

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation

(NNPC)

Chop Cassava

2012-01-13T14:11:00.002+01:00

Brought to you by Funmi Iyanda and the amazing Chop Cassava crew.

Pastor Tony Rapu on Occupy Nigeria

2012-01-12T18:20:00.002+01:00

(Taken from his Facebook page):

Following the Government's removal of the subsidy on petroleum products, Nigeria has been convulsed by widespread protests. Citizens are taking to the streets and airwaves to air their vehement opposition in the strongest possible but peaceful terms. Unfortunately, the protests have not been without loss of life, politicization of the issues, and hijack by miscreants. Petrol pump prices have jumped by more than one hundred percent, and collateral increases will surely affect transport, food and other areas. To most Nigerians, the Government's move deepens the intense economic hardship they already grapple with. This is a chance to voice and act out the people's dissatisfaction with the insensitivity and corruption in Government. In reality, the protests have taken on a life of their own and the issues have gone beyond increased petrol prices. They have become the cry of a nation in its birth pangs; the travail of a people desperate to take back their nation from the hands of kleptocrats.

Many are inquiring about the apparent silence of Christian leaders, in the face of the intensified suffering of the people and the wave of activism sweeping the Nation. More vehement critics have accused the clergy of being turncoats, callous and insensitive people who are beholden to corrupt officials and therefore unwilling to stand with the masses to resist injustice. The people are angry, possibly like no other time before now, and are calling into serious question, the credibility of Christian leaders, politicians and others in positions of authority.

But we must be careful not to conclude that all clergy who are reticent about public protests or opposition to the Government have been bought over by politicians. Many such leaders are uninformed, politically, and thus remain passive about policy development, despite heightened awareness in some issue areas. This might be due to their ministry training and understanding of the Christian mission. Many, concerned about slipping into a social gospel and a misconception of the Church's role in society, have avoided involvement in social action. Other leaders may be silent because of their felt need to balance the imperative of spiritual awareness with their social responsibility. They may recognize the twin demands of personal righteousness and social justice: that on the one hand, we have a responsibility to pray for the Nation and its rulers, engage in intercession, prophetic acts and spiritual warfare – yet simultaneously translate these into action in the public arena, policy and government.

The Bible teaches that God intervenes in the affairs of men and charts the course of nations and peoples. As such, these leaders are aware of their responsibility to communicate the need to be sensitive to God’s movement and agenda, and to allow such sensitivity guide our actions as citizens and as members of the society. These are not "either/or" propositions. Christians must operate with both sensibilities. There can be no such thing as being so spiritual as to cease involvement in society. Conversely, we must not become so submerged in social action, that we lose prophetic awareness and sensitivity to the urgings of the Spirit of God.

There is a place for prayer, but there is also a place for seeking accuracy of governance in society. We must enthrone the virtues of God's Kingdom, infuse systems and institutions with the right ethics and mentalities, and ensure public policies are grounded in the right ethical and theoretical frameworks. The development of righteousness in the soul parallels the construction of a just society. Therefore, throughout the Bible, we see God's unmistakable concern for both personal righteousness and social justice.

It should be acknowledged that some pastors have opened the door to criticism through uncritical alignment with politicians. They may assume that such liaisons signal influence and authority in society. These leaders have thus earned the ire of the masses for refusing to condemn the same politicians when they do wrong. Certainly, the judgment of our Nation’s decadence will involve a judgment of any unholy alliances between corrupted power and corrupted clergy.

There is also a category of leaders for whom social activism is uncertain, unfamiliar territory. Unsure of the nuances and details of politics and economics, they are unwilling to dabble into matters of which they are uncomfortable and do not have the requisite competencies. This group sees the need for activism, and their awareness of the generalities permits them to make measured pronouncements of support and understanding for the activists; however, they know too little to become hands on activists, and so limit their utterances to the pulpit. The rationale is that it does one no credit to engage in a fight in which he lacks the requisite information or conviction.

Clergymen are expected to stand in opposition to injustice and corruption, and to defend the downtrodden. Happily, activism can take different forms, from participating in street protests to direct involvement in party politics, or even pursuing social change by working with the poor and disenfranchised, providing amenities where Government has failed to do so.

There is also the place of combating the negative ideas and value systems that sustain the corruption and degeneracy that we bemoan in society. Opposition to evil is not only physical; it is spiritual, moral and intellectual. Those who are opposed to evil and desire change should therefore be gracious to one another; for we are essentially on the same side, differing only in our choice of strategies and the means of effecting revolution and transformation. There is room enough for tactical variety in tackling societal ills. Some pastors are much more comfortable in direct social activism, because of their temperaments, experience and callings. Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King Jnr. and Janani Luwum (the Ugandan Archbishop murdered by Idi Amin in 1977) are examples of clergy who vigorously resisted racism, apartheid and oppression. In any event, we cannot expect absolute unanimity from Christian leaders on all social and political issues.

Jesus said to His disciples "Occupy till I come". He wanted Christians to infiltrate world systems and operate in every sphere; from corridors of power in government to the catwalks of the fashion industry, operating as 'salt' and 'light' and sanitizing the world…until the "kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord" and "the knowledge of God covers the earth as the waters cover the seas".

The question of a person's public activism also rests on where he is on his own personal spiritual odyssey. Clergymen who are reluctant to publicly challenge the status quo may quite simply not have attained conviction about public witness and prophetic activism. Contrary to popular belief, pastors are not all-knowing oracles. They also have to mature into their callings. However from a Christian perspective, there is a time when more prayer becomes spiritual escapism, just as there is also a time when social action guided by nothing more than raw emotion and adrenalin becomes an ineffectual "striving in the flesh". There is a time to withdraw in order to obtain fresh spiritual and moral strength for the struggle. This was Jesus' method. He said He only did what He saw the Father do. There is also a time to stop praying and actualize what has been received in prayer. As with all things, the key is discernment of what is needful for each season, and striking the appropriate balance.

Ultimately, the project of redeeming a nation, like that of individual salvation, is a journey rather than a destination. Our constant posture should be the empowerment of Christians to act as agents of renewal implementing the redemption of society, systems and structures. Pastors should equip people with tools with which to accurately decipher their roles and increase their impact in society.

The Church shapes the character and thinking of the people, who in turn shape the character and direction of the Nation. It is said that America’s greatness was rooted in the churches. However, it was not just any church, but those whose pulpits were aflame with the message of righteousness, and a message encompassing all of life. To "occupy", whether in the activist sense of protesting governmental corruption, or the apostolic sense of transforming earthly institutions into zones of peace and prosperity – is our calling.

On the oil traders

2012-01-12T11:10:00.000+01:00

This wikileaks cable tells you all you need to know about the role of dodgy oil trading companies such as Trafigura and Vitol. Surely no one needs reminding of Trafigura's dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast a few years back.

Tha Suspect - Subsidy

2012-01-12T10:10:00.002+01:00

Biafra book launch

2012-01-12T10:07:00.001+01:00

Date: Thursday 19^th January, 6-8pm

Venue: Brunei Suite, SOAS

Book launch with author Michael Gould and Kaye Whiteman (journalist), Frederick Forsyth (author), Dipo Salimonu (political commentator & CEO at Ateriba) responding.

Chair: Professor Dennis Judge

In the summer of 1968, reports of starvation in the West African secessionist Republic of Biafra transformed the Nigerian Civil War into an international media event. Using recently discovered archival records and the personal recollections of the key players, Michael Gould challenges many of the views and perceptions held of the conflict at the time. Little has been written about the war during the last forty years and as Anthony Kirk-Greene (Emeritus Fellow of St. Antony's College, Oxford) states this book stands as the best analysis yet published.

About the author

Michael Gould has lived and worked in Nigeria over the last fifty years. He first met Ojukwu and Gowon when they were young army officers and he was still a student. In the mid eighties he set up an NGO in Eastern Nigeria. He is an honorary chief of the Igbo people. He had limited knowledge of the country's civil war until he wrote a short dissertation on the subject in 2000. He subsequently read for a PhD in African History at SOAS, focusing on the Biafran War. This book is the result of his research into the conflict.

The Fuel Subsidy Removal Protests for Dummies

2012-01-09T17:55:00.032+01:00

On the first day of the indefinite general strike organised by a coalition between two of the largest unions in Nigeria – the TUC and the NLC – and a cluster of smaller unions and social media-based activists and organisations, some external observers have expressed surprise at the intensity of resistance the “Occupy Nigeria” campaign has mounted against the removal of the fuel subsidy on January 1st and the size of the mass demonstrations taking place. From an outside perspective, it might seem like a dust-devil has been whipped up without why in the desert. In case there’s still any confusion, allow me to explain why there is so much anger and resistance.

The answer begins with a question: would it be acceptable to citizens of affluent countries that the price of petrol doubles overnight without any warning? Perhaps Jeffrey Sachs would be alone in his view, or perhaps he only prescribes a certain type of medicine for African countries. Perhaps the view from Sachs' brain is that Africans can get by on generic drugs long past their sell-by date.

Aside from Sachs' development fantasies, the lived reality of citizens of the Nigerian state is that it provides little or no security, no infrastructure, no education and no employment opportunities (apart from mostly McJobs in the civil service). Everywhere in Nigeria, the basic elements of civilised existence have to be taken care of house-by-house, compound-by-compound. You must sink your own borehole for water, buy, install and fuel a generator for power, hire security guards to keep the wolves from the door, pay school fees to ensure your kids get a half-decent education because the public school system is in perpetual meltdown. And to earn enough money to get through the day, you must hustle.

The breakdown of a standard tax and political representation based social contract between citizens and the state in Nigeria is almost entirely a result of the past few decades of the so-called ‘resource curse’. Earning billions of dollars each year from crude exports, the Nigerian government has no need to rely on tax from individuals or local companies; tax and royalty payments from the international oil companies (as well as historically, loans from international financial institutions) have been sufficient to fund the annual budget at all levels of government. For the past few decades, cheap fuel has therefore been the only form of social contract between ordinary Nigerians and the state and the principle lever to control inflation during times of rising oil prices. With most Nigerians subsisting on US$2 or less, subsidised fuel has also been a survival mechanism, making life only just bearable.

It was therefore highly surprising to Nigerians to find out that the fuel subsidy had been removed on January 1st and that the price regulating body under the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) – the PPPRA – had more than doubled the price of petrol overnight. No one had been given warning. The expectation was that the subsidy would be removed at the earliest in April. The strong suspicion is that following on from Christine Lagarde’s visit to Nigeria in late December, the government had accelerated its plans. From the views of key government figures, it’s easy to see how Nigeria acceded to IMF pressure with little or no resistance. The Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has repeatedly stated that removing the fuel subsidy would only hurt the affluent car-owning population, forgetting how central the price of fuel is to almost every basic aspect of life here. Meanwhile, the Governor of the Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has stated that removal of the subsidy would only have a short-term inflationary effect. With opinions like this, the IMF was walking into an open door.

Given the state of the global economy, it is little surprise that the IMF is in favour of insisting on reducing debt wherever it can. However, the IMF also appears to be suffering from institutional amnesia; what is happening in Nigeria is in some respects a re-run of the Structural Adjustment Programme in the 1980s, and President Ibrahim Babangida’s short-term attempts to resist austerity measures. As we will recall, “IBB” ended up creating his own austerity package, which was more severe than that proposed by the IMF. The Nigerian economy quickly tanked, resulting in mass suffering among Nigerians. Fundamentalist strains of evangelical Christianity mushroomed forth from the barren earth. Unlike the World Bank, which is increasingly taking political-economy factors seriously in its analysis and its programmes, even today the IMF and its high-priesthood consultants views the world from the numerical altar of macro-economics. The technocratic nature of the IMF means that the organisation is in fact programmed to forget the past.

During the recent fuel subsidy debate on local Nigerian TV station Channels, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala was keen to state what she referred to as ‘facts’. At no point has anyone in the executive effectively challenged former Petroleum Minister Tam David-West’s querying of whether there is a subsidy in the first place, or whether the landing cost of imported fuel has been artificially padded. Given the findings of the recent KPMG report into the NNPC, it seems that facts about the oil sector in Nigeria are thin on the ground.

The defence offered by the Finance Minister during that same debate is that the savings from removal of the subsidy would be spent on a palliative capital-spending programme – the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE). Nigerians have raised a number of critical objections to this proposal and the timing of subsidy removal.

Firstly, given the glut of money in state coffers in the past few years and the lack of any successful infrastructural development (for instance in power and transport), there is little guarantee that the SURE programme would be implemented or successful, rather than go the way of all initiatives in the past. The government of Nigeria has not been able to significantly raise the amount of power generated, nor has it been able to achieve the low-tech objective of revamping the dilapidated railway network, still less has it been able to improve standards in public education and healthcare. What then would be different about the SURE programme?

Secondly, while most Nigerians are probably not ideologically opposed to subsidy removal (and targeting the corrupt ‘cabal’ of fuel importers who benefit from the subsidy), they are utterly opposed to the timing, given the insecurity in the land raised by Islamic militancy in the North and the potential for renewed militancy in response in the Niger Delta. A phased subsidy withdrawal, as has happened elsewhere, would have been the preferred approach.

Thirdly, the idea that removing the subsidy equates to ‘deregulation’ and the equivalent private sector boom as witnessed in the past decade in the telecoms sector is highly suspect to most. For the downstream oil sector to be deregulated, there has to be new legislation in place. The Petroleum Industry Bill, which separates the functions of a national oil company, regulation and policy-making, would need to become law. We have been waiting since the previous minister of petroleum for the PIB to be passed. At present, the NNPC is the epicentre of corruption in the oil sector in Nigeria, and has to broken up into its constituent parts for the private sector to be given space to grow its role. In addition, Nigerians would want to see a much higher percentage of crude oil refined locally, rather than the current reliance on imported fuel, to ensure a favourable local pricing policy that does not depend on state subsidy. Without any of these key deregulatory building blocks in place, removal of the ‘subsidy’ now is simply terrible timing and does not inspire confidence among a people who long ago lost their faith in government.

Finally, if savings are urgently required from the annual government budget, most Nigerians would argue that the first place to cut costs is that of the price of running government itself. As the Governor of the Central Bank pointed out last year, the National Assembly consumes 25% of the Federal overheads budget; the cost of running the President’s office has been widely publicised in recent weeks (including a billion naira food bill). It is rare to see a member of the executive - down to director-generals of government agencies most Nigerians have never heard of - travelling without a sizeable convoy of expensive cars. Nigerian government delegations to international conferences and gatherings are often by far the largest, with a supersized retinue of special advisors, assistants and staff for the first-wife in attendance, there to collect their allowance and have access to shopping opportunities overseas.

As it is, most Nigerians are poor, and will simply not be able to survive with any comfort on US$2 a day and a doubling of living costs. That the government of Nigeria didn’t foresee the massive level of resistance happening today is quite bewildering. It shows a complete disconnect and disregard for Nigerians. However, where there is the greatest danger, there is greatest hope. Nigerians have never been so united in years – last week, in the unofficially renamed Liberation Square in Kano, Christians guarded the space as their Muslim co-protestors prayed. In return, last Sunday, Muslims guarded Churches as others prayed inside.

What we are witnessing with Occupy Nigeria is a generational transfer, as young, social-media enabled activists gradually take over the baton from unionist stalwarts. Nigeria's young population is increasingly letting go of the deferential attitude of their parents generation. In the south at least, young Nigerians are beginning to ask questions of the religious leadership that has been complicit with the status-quo. At long last, there is accountability pressure building up in the system.

In the short term, following on from the next few days of protest and shut-down, it’s hard to imagine anything other than a policy reversal, and a planned withdrawal being announced, in step with a clear programme of projects that must be delivered before any further withdrawal of subsidy is implemented (citizens monitoring a re-drafted SURE programme for instance). Even at this very late stage, President Goodluck could become a hero of the process. Come what may, underlying events this week a deeper shift is at work: a new generation of Nigerians well versed in events to the north in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya is demanding that the terms of the social contract in Nigeria are re-written, in favour of increased accountability in political leadership.

Niyi Osundare on religion and politics in Nigeria

2012-01-08T18:55:00.001+01:00

In the past five years or so, I have been reconsidering my long-held opinion about the relation between leadership and followership. Time there was when I laid all the blame on leadership. Now I’m beginning to say that the followership should also take their fate in their own hands. This is what I see most of the time, for example, in the plays of Femi Osofisan, one of our top writers. Play after play after play; the leaders are there doing things. But the address is to the people. Why must you continue to be ridden like a donkey? Why can’t you, too, get up in the saddle? Nigerians are too docile, too forgiving of bad leadership.

Why are they this way? A number of reasons. The first one is religion. The kind of religion we have in Nigeria is one that puts you to sleep, and after that, puts you to death. It’s not the kind of religion that’s after social justice; it’s not the kind of religion that is after the welfare of the people and the independence of their existence.

Particularly guilty in this regard are the Prosperity Gospellers of the Pentecostal variety who hawk faith on the air and convert religion into superstition. If you have no job, we are told, it must be because of your sin. Your poverty (or pauperization) is a result of the offence you have committed against God. Blissfully indemnified are the rogue-rulers whose greed has corrupted and ruined our social estate; those whose policies or lack of them have made job creation impossible by sabotaging our productive capacity? So, if you have no job, blame your sins; if you wallow in poverty, you only have yourself to blame.

In the thinking and preaching of many of these latter-day evangelists, every scoundrel in power in Nigeria is “God-chosen” and must be treated as such. Religion in this country is a dangerous opium; really dangerous opium. And that is why our rulers are encouraging the building of churches and mosques all over the place.

When in December last year the newspapers carried the picture of a kneeling President Jonathan with a ministering Pastor towering above him in prayerful supremacy, we were presented with an image so symbolic of the relationship between the state and religion in Nigeria. No picture could have been more emblematic!

Religion has killed rational thinking in this country. I say this all the time, our country is still in a pre-scientific era. That is why things are like this. We don’t think logically; that is why any ruler, any fool would seize the reins and rule us, because we would always find an excuse for being ruled or being led by the nose. Not long ago a pastor said he was between two cities and he discovered that the fuel in his car had run out. He actually checked and saw the fuel in the car was completely gone. But because of his act of faith and on the strength of his prayers, he was able to do two hundred miles on an empty tank! When he declared this testimony, people clapped and shouted “ Hallelujah!” I never heard anybody say how can?

Nigerians don’t ask questions; that is why the imams and the pastors lead them by the nose, and the politicians also complete their humiliation and disempowerment. And between the clerics and the political functionaries, there is a very close liaison. It’s a kind of power structure; one controls the political, social realm, the other controls the spiritual, metaphysical realm and they are together. Many Nigerians are not rational, interrogative people. In fact, in this country today, if you are the interrogative type you are easily labelled, branded, and condemned. People even wonder: why are you always asking questions?’

When the blessed Tai Solarin was alive, he agonised and agonised over this issue. The way he was misunderstood, the way he was misinterpreted and his anger at the way many of our people were going - that we should be up in the streets. Another problem: well, our people are docile and the reason why they take all kinds of cheating is that many of them envisage themselves in the position of power someday, too. If I am X and the oppressor is Y, and the oppressor is oppressing me, stealing all the money, and making life difficult for me and my children, I am not likely to attack him. I’ll pray to God to let my own “miracle” happen so that someday, he will go and I will be in his place. No; I am praying for him to go but for the structure to remain.

This is the social psychology of Nigerian politics. So many people don’t see it as wrong. When they see it as wrong, it’s because it is putting them at a disadvantage; they are not really concerned with the social order or the commonweal. That’s a very important issue. If our rulers were people with a sense of shame, they wouldn’t be talking about subsidy at all. They should cover their faces in shame and apologize to the Nigerian people; for if anything, it is the Nigerian people that need some form of hardship allowance from their incorrigibly incompetent government. And our President and his officials have been going from church to church (have they called at the mosques yet?), asking for God’s blessing for the kind of socio-economic mayhem they are about to unleash on the Nigerian people through the removal of the so-called subsidy; asking the pastors to pray to God to make Nigerians compliant to and accepting of their impoverished situation, begging Almighty God to soften the minds of Nigerians.

But no one entered a plea for God to smash the incubus of corruption and mismanagement that has brought this country to its knees. Our President never asked God to grant him the courage and candour to make a public declaration of his assets as required by the constitution of the country he rules...

P.S:If you are still wondering why that private jet-flying,crucifix-hanging,Aso Rock-dining,tongue-blasting god of men has refused to speak out against the issue of the callous fuel subsidy removal, there you have it!

Buzkashi in Tajikistan

2011-12-17T12:49:00.003+01:00

Buzkashi in Tajikistan, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

The rider makes for the goal with the 'ball'...

Buzkashi in Tajikistan

2011-12-17T12:49:00.001+01:00

Buzkashi in Tajikistan, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

Buzkashi is polo played with a headless dead goat. Its quite a spectacle...

Consultants needed

2011-12-15T19:09:00.002+01:00

Send your cv and profile to hr@rhizomeng.com.

Sefi Atta play, Dec 8th @ Terra Kulture

2011-11-29T07:35:00.000+01:00

Teju Cole in Lagos, this Saturday

2011-11-25T08:16:00.000+01:00

December Art Fair in Abuja

2011-11-23T18:27:00.002+01:00

Abule Soro expo at Quintessence

2011-11-23T11:04:00.000+01:00

Exhibition of the finest Ekiti pottery at Quintessence, opens this Saturday. Here for more info.

Gabriela Salgado at CCA. Tuesday 29th November, 3pm

2011-11-23T09:29:00.000+01:00

Gabriela Salgado will present her curatorial practice departing from the idea of cultural borders, with references to Latin American artists and theorists. The talk will cover her independent projects as well as her institutional roles such as her tenure as curator of the Latin American ArtCollection UECLAA, at Essex University (1999-2005) and her last role as curator of Public Programmes at Tate Modern (2006-2011) in order to analyse the institution's collection policies as well as the hierarchies and formalities that separate the role of the curators in exhibition making and education roles and their relation with current artistic practice.

Chika Unigwe in New York, November 6

2011-10-27T18:33:00.000+01:00

Here.

Ikhide starts a blog

2011-10-27T08:02:00.000+01:00

The cantankerous civil servant from Maryland starts a blog. Now this should be interesting!

On the Fuel Subsidy

2011-10-26T15:30:00.000+01:00

This clip hits the nail on the head: without developing refinery capacity, removing the fuel subsidy is a disastrous idea. The stats 3 minutes 39 seconds in give the game away.

El Anatsui at the Blanton

2011-10-25T16:30:00.000+01:00

El Anatsui show at the Blanton Museum in Austin, Tx. More here.

Pop-Up Boutique in Lagos, opening 31st October.

2011-10-25T11:42:00.001+01:00

Owambe, Aso-Ebi and the Politics of Dress at CCA

2011-10-22T16:58:00.000+01:00

Burma Boys event in Oxford on Wednesday, 6pm

2011-10-17T14:09:00.000+01:00

For Black History Month, the African Studies Centre presents:

The Burma Boys, Barnaby Phillips' revealing documentary about the 100,000 Africans who fought the Japanese in the jungles of Burma during the Second World War.

The documentary will be preceded by I Remember When I Was a Soldier, a short film by
Olly Owen, Dan Susman and Robin Forestier based on interviews with surviving veterans in
Nigeria.

+ Q&A with Barnaby Phillips of Al Jazeera

6pm
19 October,
Mary Ogilvie Lecture Theatre,
St Anne's College,
Woodstock Road,
Oxford

UN Africa Innovations Prize

2011-10-07T13:23:00.002+01:00

Addis Ababa, 08 July 2011 (ECA) - The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Innovation Foundation (AIF) are delighted to announce the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) to be awarded for the first time in February 2012. This prestigious and well-endowed award aims at encouraging innovations that contribute to sustainable development in Africa.

With this award, AIF and UNECA acknowledge, support and encourage innovators and entrepreneurs- the group of stakeholders who till now have been neither considered nor benefited under Africa’s development cooperation agenda.

"Innovation is a combination of identifying problems, and finding groundbreaking implementable solutions; we hope the prizes will contribute to tapping into the ingenuity of Africans to solve Africa’s problems,” says the ECA Executive Secretary and Under-Secretary General, Mr. Abdoulie Janneh.

He adds: “Currently, ideas, innovation and knowledge are what is driving the world, and transforming economies. It is therefore fitting and appropriate that the Innovation Prize for Africa is targeting a unique group of stakeholders - innovators and inventors in the area of ICTs, Green Technologies and Health & Food Security.”

“The AIF is very proud of the cooperation with ECA and expects numerous innovation projects to compete for the prize. There is so much untapped talent on this continent,” adds Mr. Walter Fust, Chairman of the AIF.

The amount allocated towards the winners for the selected innovators and entrepreneurs, in the three thematic areas of ICTs; Green Technologies; Health & Food Security are two generous prizes: First prize USD 100,000; and USD 50000 for the second prize.

The registration deadline for the 2012 prize has been set for September 30th, 2011 with no possibility of extensions.

The organizers expect the prize to promote among young African men and women the pursuit of science, technology and engineering careers and business applications. The aims are to:
1.        Create a platform for identification of innovative concepts and projects submitted by applicants that could be supported by AIP;
2.        Promote innovation across Africa in key sectors of interest through the competition;
3.        Promote science, technology and engineering as rewarding, exciting and noble career options among the youth in Africa by profiling successful applicants; and
4.         Encourage entrepreneurs, innovators, funding bodies and business development service providers to exchange ideas and explore innovative business opportunities.

In pursuing those aims, the AIP expects the following outcomes:
1.        Increased commercialization of research and development (R&D) outputs in Africa;
2.        Increased development of start-up, adoption of new and emerging technologies and accelerate growth of an innovative and dynamic private sector; and
3.        Increased general economic activities that result in long term sustainable development

Over the coming five years, AIP will be targeting innovators/entrepreneurs in different thematic areas to be determined each year by the Technical Advisory Committee.

For detailed information of competition categories, conditions of entry, and submission procedures, please visit: http://www.uneca.org/AIP/AIF <http://www.uneca.org/aip/aif>

Issued by:

ECA Information and Communication Service
P.O. Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

Tel: 251 11 5445098
Fax: +251-11-551 03 65
E-mail: ecainfo@uneca.org <mailto:ecainfo@uneca.org>
Web: www.uneca.org <http://www.uneca.org>

Protest is not allowed in Abia State

2011-10-07T11:32:00.000+01:00

Women bussed in to join the protest against the Abia State University gang rape were escorted to the state's boundaries. Here for more.

The X-Perspective

2011-10-05T18:59:00.000+01:00

Zazugist - your pidgin news service

2011-10-01T08:59:00.000+01:00

Here for all jollification...

Elder's Corner - watch the video and then fetch your wallet

2011-09-29T06:39:00.002+01:00

Job opportunity

2011-09-19T16:07:00.000+01:00

Impact Assessment & Communications Officer at ENABLE (DFID-funded business environment project). Email justin.vanrhyn@adamsmithinternational.com if you are interested.

Abule Soro pottery

2011-09-19T14:29:00.000+01:00

Abule Soro - 'those who make wealth from the soil' pots from Isan, Ekiti State. There's now a company set up to market these wonderful pots in Lagos and overseas. More here.

Exhortation in Kano

2011-09-14T23:24:00.000+01:00

Kano leather, Aba shoes

2011-09-13T11:29:00.001+01:00

In Aba, they make Italian-style shoes from Kano leather which are labelled "Made in Italy". No one would buy them if they said "Made in Nigeria", although everyone knows they are made locally. Nigerians don't trust products made in Nigeria and prefer to pretend they were made elsewhere. How can this attitude be turned around?

Morocco, Ajegunle

2011-09-10T21:34:00.001+01:00

The closing of Zamani Farms

2011-09-08T12:05:00.000+01:00

Just got my weekly email from Norma of Zamani Farms (see below). The closure of her farm is tragic but inevitable news. The stories we are now hearing from Jos - including the cannibalism she mentions - are quite shocking and horrific. It appears that there is no solution in sight, nor hope of a solution. If anyone can help Norma with funding for her new venture in Zaria, please contact her at zamanifarms@gmail.com.

Hello customers,

Since last week we have done practically no work at all at the farm due to the terrible situation in the Jos area. Last week's orders were somewhat incomplete as we had problems assembling all items that you requested. We did not have enough onions in stock, and our onion supplier would not come out (like most people in Jos) so we didn't have enough onions for you. On Thursday last week when we were at the farm packing up your orders, people were phoning us from Jos town (30km away) every five minutes or so, telling us that there is gunfire all over Jos and we should come back home. It was not easy to concentrate on assembling the orders under these circumstances, so I apologise for any mistakes that might have been made in the packaging.

On Friday and Saturday we could not get to the farm, as there was a lot of tension in the town, with many roads blocked and security all over. On Monday morning as I was preparing to leave for the farm, one of my workers phoned to tell me that there had been an attack in Sunday night at the residence of one of our security guards (located in a part of Kuru along the Abuja road) and that four members of his family had been killed. At the time he was phoning, they were hearing gunshots near the farm, and I shouldn't come as all the workers were going home. Of course I told them they had better go. (In the absence of any people on the farm on Monday, birds took advantage of the situation to devour most of our sweet corn which was just ready to pick).

Meanwhile, in retaliation for the attack, the people of the area came out on Monday morning and blocked the main round-about on the Abuja-Jos road at Marraraban Jama'a. They attacked the soldiers who tried to disperse them, burned four big trucks and a car that were trying to pass into Jos, and killed any Muslim travelers they could find. Several people were killed there, and many more just escaped with their lives. The road to Jos was closed for most of the day.

In the midst of this, we have managed to put together your orders for today's delivery and as I write, Audu is on the road to Abuja for deliveries. We hope he will arrive safely. Last week they were delayed for four hours on the Keffi-Abuja road due to checkpoints, and they didn't managed to get into Abuja until almost 4pm, and had to rush around to make deliveries. Apologies to those who got very late orders, but it was due to circumstances far beyond our control.

The situation here has created really impossible conditions for us on the farm. Our young crops need constant attention and care. They need weeding, manuring and generally looking after. When workers can't come to the farm, or when they say they don't sleep at night for fear of attack, and have no peace of mind, of course they cannot concentrate on their work. Our production has suffered seriously, we are running at a loss, and feel really terrible that we are unable to provide our customers with the quantity and quality of vegetables they have come to expect from us.

Since the crisis of January 2010, our farm has been just a shadow of its former self, and I feel very sad when I think of how it used to be. For 10 years before the crisis, we managed to run a relatively successful business. We paid salaries on time, we had a group of skilled and dedicated workers who were eager to learn new things and apply them, and who worked together as a family regardless of ethnic, linguistic and religious differences. We grew a wide range of produce which we believe our customers appreciated. During the crisis, some of these workers were killed, and the rest had to leave and have not been able to come back because of the situation in the area. In the past few months, we had made plans to bring them back, but due to the new flare up of hostilities, this seems completely impossible. We had been encouraged by the recent few months of peaceful conditions and by the progress we had made in renovating the farm. We were happy to see things growing so well on the rejuvenated fields.

But now it is obvious that we have finally come to the end of the road. I will spare you the very gruesome details, but the level of barbarism which we witnessed in Jos over the past few weeks (including even cannibalism) has, I believe, so poisoned the environment here that I truly believe we will not see any normality returning to the area in my lifetime (I am now 68). I don’t feel I should spend my remaining years in a fruitless exercise. We have persevered as long as we have mainly because of the support and encouragement from our customers, who have been wonderful in all of this. But none of us have been able to lead any semblance of a normal life since January last year. People cannot visit us. All of my friends, Christian and Muslim, are afraid to come to Jos. By 6pm everyone is indoors, there are no social activities at all and people don’t go out at night. In the area where I live in Jos, which used to be a mixed area but is now almost entirely Christian, if any person obviously a Muslim comes to see me, all the neighbours come out to see the person and ask me what they are doing there. In the area of the farm, any person who associates with Muslims is considered an enemy who is part of the attacks and is under suspicion. Every time Audu and our delivery team go to the farm early in the morning to load up your orders I just hold my breath and hope that nothing will happen to them before they get onto the road to Abuja. And also hope that nothing will happen to them on the road through some of the villages of the state.

Since the crisis began there has been no statement from any government official, either at the Federal or State level, about the situation, despite daily headlines in all of the newspapers, and gruesome reports in the local and international news media. The Governor has been absent all of this time, and the highest official to make any statement has been the Commissioner for Information. The various security agencies are not on good terms with each other. No efforts are being made for any sort of peaceful settlement of the problems, and a military solution can only be very temporary. Even that has not been successful.

All of this has finally led us to take a decision to close Zamani Farms in its present location and relocate to another state. At this point, we are in the early stages of finding land in Zaria, where I lived for many years as a lecturer at the university, and where I still have many friends and colleagues. Various individuals are offering us land, and since we are looking only for about 2 hectares, this shouldn’t be a problem. Our problem now is finance. All of the resources we have are invested in the present farm site, which we have developed to an appreciable level over the years, including a lovely brick and stone house where I had intended to live which is about 80% completed, an administrative block and cold room, and many outbuildings. Our total land is over 3.5 hectares. At present, no one is buying any property in Plateau State, and we are unlikely to be able to sell the present farm in the near future. We are looking for finance for the infrastructure we will need on the farm, including a cold container, storage and packing facilities, and funds to erect some net houses. We intend to have a small farm mainly under shade netting, which should moderate the hotter climate in Zaria and make it possible for us to grow our complete range of products. It will also offer protection from insects so that we will be able to grow more products organically than we are now doing. The soil in Zaria is much richer than that of Plateau State, and will support our vegetables admirably. The main problem we will face is a sufficient water supply, and we might have to invest in boreholes.

I will not burden you with details now, but we are busy making our plans. Ideally we would like to be able to begin operations in Zaria by early next year, but this depends on how fast we are able to implement our plans. I am appealing to any of our customers who work for any development agencies or governments who are in a position to help fund such a venture to please consider us if at all possible. We have investigated bank financing, but there are many problems with this, as most banks here don’t really appreciate the problems of investment in agriculture. If you are in a position to help us we would very much like to hear from you.

Meanwhile, of course we will not abandon our customers. We will continue working at our present site until we are able to start farming in Zaria and we will do our best to continue to provide you with the best vegetables that we can. But we know we can do better in terms of quality and quantity if we are able to concentrate on the farm without all of the distractions and stress of the Jos environment.

We had intended to go to Mubi next week to finish our landscaping project there, but due to the insecurity in Jos we feel it is not possible to leave at the moment. So we are delivering (hopefully) next week on Thursday 15th. Please place your orders in time so that we can organize things carefully. We will probably go to Mubi the following week, and are not planning to have any delivery on the 22nd, but this depends on whether there is some relative calm here in Jos.

I will not give you a crop report this week, since there is not much new from next week. Please consult the attached order form for details of all items available. We still have nice things for you, but not as much as we would like.

By the way, we have beautiful baby new potatoes (small in size and delicious). If you need them, please specify. Otherwise we will send you the regular or big size ones.

Thank you so much for all the concern you have expressed for all of us here in Jos. As I noted, this is what has been keeping us going on the farm up to this point, but it is clearly time for a change. We honestly think that this will being our customers a vastly improved choice of vegetables, and better quality as well, in addition to causing our staff a lot less stress and anxiety.

I will write again next week. If you have any suggestions for us, please do let us know.

Regards,
Norma

Burma Boy

2011-09-03T17:07:00.003+01:00

Barnaby Phillips' documentary on the Burma Boys - Nigerian vets who fought in the Second World War for the Allied Forces. Well worth a watch, here.

The Nigeria wikileaks

2011-09-03T13:24:00.000+01:00

Lots more Nigeria wikileaks cables now online here.

Third Annual Achebe Colloquium on Africa

2011-09-03T13:19:00.003+01:00

The third annual Achebe Colloquium on Africa will be held at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA from 3-4 December, 2011.

The themes of the conference will include: The Arab Spring: Challenges to Democratization and Nation Building; Darfur: Toward sustainable peace; and Southern Sudan: Obstacles facing the world’s newest nation. On Day two the conference continues with a focus on China and its presence in Africa, Zimbabwe and its tethering democracy and Literature and the power of the written word.

The Achebe Colloquium will bring together officials from African governments, the United Nations, US government, the European Union, members of African civil society, international human rights organizations, elections monitoring groups, writers and opinion leaders, and research and policy institutions to deliberate on the importance of sustaining Africa’s fragile democracies.

Vacancy Job Title: Programme Officer

2011-08-18T12:53:00.000+01:00

Job Location: Abuja

An International organisation is implementing “Sustainable Economic Development in Nigeria (SEDIN)” Programme. This programme is based on a bilateral agreement between the Nigerian and German government. Its main objective is to improve access to demand-driven financial services and to help in creating gainful employment in MSMEs significantly.

The programme seeks to engage a Programme Officer in the field of strengthening cross-border banking regulation and supervision.

Overview of the position

1. Advice and support the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the development of coordination mechanisms with supervisory authorities in other West African countries where subsidiaries of Nigerian banks are operational.

2. Ensure the participation of Nigerian regulatory authorities in regional policy dialogue at the sub-regional level (ECOWAS, West African Monetary Agency - WAMA) and regional level (African Association of Central Banks, African Union, Committee of Ten) should be strengthened.

3. Work closely with the partners so that best practices for cross-border banking regulation and supervision will be the basis for a more consistent and effective collaboration of CBN with respective authorities in jurisdictions where Nigerian banks have subsidiaries.

4. Ensure that the CBN makes use of the outputs to institutionalize the coordination process.

5. Constructively participate in formulating harmonized policies and increase the transparency (facts and figures) of the Nigerian financial sector to the outside world.

6. Ensure coordination and transparency of the regional regulatory and supervisory process to enhance improved sustainable growth of the regional financial sector.

Requirements

1. A bachelor's degree in Economics, Banking & Finance or any related field of study. A Masters Degree will be an added advantage

2. Minimum of seven years experience in the financial sector, with specific preference to experience at the policy level.

3. A broad understanding of Nigerian financial regulatory and supervisory policies and the West African monetary policies.

4. Good understanding of the issues affecting access to financial services by the MSMEs, in particular related to cross-border trade and investment.

5. Excellent written and oral communication skills. Application and CV’s with the job title clearly indicated as the subject of the mail

should be sent to; hr@rhizomeng.com. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Upcoming event at CCA Lagos

2011-07-25T15:52:00.000+01:00

Click to enlarge.

At Terminal 5, 23rd July

2011-07-25T01:07:00.004+01:00

Terminal 5 is the prototype for life on a hostile planet. For all the glass, there appears to be no outside. It could be bolted down on Mars, and no one there would really mind. This time round, I noticed that someone had thought of art. The trouble is, the thought was a Terminal 5/BAA bean-counter version, which involves squeezing random pieces into a relatively tiny room next to a luggage shop. Art is justified on the space station, but only just.

I had ninety minutes to kill before my flight to Berlin Tegel. I flashed my ticket’s Silver Card status to the bored man at the entrance to the business lounge and went in search of breakfast. Instead of baked beans, mushrooms and hash browns, they had hills of croissants. I collected some papers to go with my toast and made for the seating area. On the tv screens, a bewildered looking man was being interviewed by a nest of film crews. He spoke in Norwegian. His voice was soft and serious, his face white with shock.

Later, at the gate, I sat in an early morning stupour, my eyes glancing the vending machines, the colour of the walls, the Martian exterior. And then the passengers; a sea of faces with Berlin things to do. One of those moments between things and without any significance that will quickly be forgotten.

And then, music from the side. A violin playing traditional music, punctuated by the clap of hands. My brain seized on the sounds to decode its provenance. It was slower than Irish and more meandering. It reminded me of the Norwegian music on cassette tapes that Z had. The chorus looped back into verse with ongoing insistence. But was this from a PA system and why would the Dead Sea of Planet Heathrow allow such? The music was far too alive and rejoicing of rhythm.

I caught a sense of movement in frosted glass. Perhaps 20 bodies in a shifting clump. Straining my neck, I saw them: perhaps twenty middle to late-middle aged people dancing in formation. I instantly remembered the lessons in English country dancing at school ahead of the Golden Jubilee in 1977. To the side, a lone violinist, his face bent into the instrument, absorbed in his task. The movements of the group were purposeful: bodies turning to the side to pass through the ranks and reform. Symbolically: a society whose hierarchies are never meant to settle.

Only hours later on the plane did it occur to me that this may have been a response to the terrible tragedy unfolding in Norway. A shocked people, responding to the unhinged conditions of the present in the terms of the past. They were going home. They were about to face the tragic music. The only way they knew how was to immerse themselves in it. All of a sudden, Terminal 5 acquired meaning and human significance.

The first Bottle House in Nigeria

2011-07-15T11:01:00.002+01:00

The first bottle house is under construction near Kaduna. Bottle-bricks made by local children are then assembled in to buildings by masons who are being trained in the bottle-build technique. The houses will be energy autonomous and almost totally recycled and could stand for 1000s of years!
The Emir of Zaria came to the site to lend his support. The next project is a bottle school in Suleja. Thanks to Katrin Macmillan for the pictures!

Ayodele Morocco-Clarke by the British Museum

2011-07-14T10:34:00.001+01:00

Ayodele Morocco-Clarke by the British Museum, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

Gozi Ochonogor show this Saturday, Notting Hill

2011-07-07T11:33:00.000+01:00

Financial Journalist opening, Nigeria

2011-07-06T11:09:00.000+01:00

A team is looking to revamp the finance section of an established media organ in Nigeria, and they are looking for a senior financial journalist for a semi-editorial role.

The main professional requirements are - familiarity with and ability to write well about financial-sector issues, understanding of the Nigerian financial sector and how it fits into the global and emerging-markets picture, experience and ability in print journalism, and familiarity with expectations of global investor readership.

It's likely to be a Lagos-based opportunity, and the team are happy to consider expatriate as well as national candidates. The package has not yet been finalised but will be globally competitive. If you are interested, or know of anyone else who is, please put them in touch with me at this email address, and I will put them in touch.

Thanks and take care,

Olly Owen

owen.olly@googlemail.com

Sir George Taubman Goldies' tomb in Brompton Cemetery

2011-07-05T18:08:00.001+01:00

Sir George Taubman Goldies' tomb, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

His wife Maud is also buried there. As I took the picture, I wondered whether Flora Shaw (later to marry Lord Lugard) really was his mistress.

Video and film production training courses in Warri

2011-07-03T09:29:00.001+01:00

Dear Nigerian Friends,

I hope you are all well. Could you please help me to distribute the advertisement below?

I am running some video and film production training courses over the next couple of months and we are looking for participants.

PLEASE NOTE - participants must be from the Niger Delta Region ( Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Imo, Abia, Akwa Ibom and Cross River.) The courses will be run in Warri.

There are two one week courses directed at two groups. The first are youth (18-35) who have a flair/interest in video production and the second is geared towards professionals already working in the field.

The places are limited and the application process is competitive (see advertisement for details).

The youth course will also serve as a potential trial for some of them to be hired on a full time basis, where they will receive further training and complete video productions for PIND and its partners in the Niger Delta region. The positions will be based in Warri, Delta State.

Anyway that's the plan. Please send me your best and your brightest. We are looking for people who can specialise in any of these areas editing, filming, producing, directing and sound recording.

For more information on PIND please visit pindfoundation.org

Thanks, hope to see you all sometime soon.

Jolyon Hoff
jolyonhoff@gmail.com

Lagos Soundscape

2011-06-27T15:46:00.002+01:00

Love it.

Oloibiri

2011-06-18T15:47:00.001+01:00

Oloibiri, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

Where oil was first discovered in commercial quantities in Nigeria - 55 years ago. In a way, this place marked the beginning of modern Nigeria...

Carlos Moore book launch in Brasil

2011-06-15T16:02:00.005+01:00

Here.

Nigeria the petrostate

2011-06-08T20:16:00.000+01:00

Excellent lecture by Michael Watts at Berkeley recently.

Voodoo and Vaccines in Benin

2011-06-08T20:04:00.001+01:00

Afropolitan event in London coming up

2011-06-07T13:15:00.000+01:00

Here for more.

The Fake Prophet

2011-06-07T08:11:00.001+01:00

The travelling tailor

2011-06-07T00:47:00.000+01:00

Interesting short piece giving insights into the world of a garment-fixed in Lagos, here.

A trip from Lagos to Ijoko by train

2011-06-06T10:07:00.001+01:00

Date: 18 June 2011

Departure Time: 9.00am

The above planned Trip has come together through the continuing and kind support of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, who have very generously made available a suitable train comprising of a diesel engine and three passenger coaches for our exclusive use. The details of the Trip are as below.

This Trip is open to non-Legacy members who will be required to pay the appropriate membership fee for 2011, as below. The Trip is child friendly, but please note that due to the size of the train, total numbers expected is around 200.

1. Departure will be from Ebute-Metta Junction (EMJct) Station at 9am ( directions to EMJct below). Return to EMJct is expected around 1.00pm.

2. Destination planned is Ijoko, about 40 km away, where some limited activities are currently being arranged, including an audience with the Oba.

3. Cost for Legacy members will be: Adults @ N3,500 each, Children @ N1,500 each and Students @ N1,000.

4. Legacy membership fees for 2011 are: Individual Adults @ N1,500, Families @ N3,000 and individual Students @N1000.

5. Participants should bring their OWN LUNCH, etc. however we hope to have light refreshments and drinks. There will be a cash bar for beers only.

6. Reasonably secure parking will be available at the forecourt in front of EMJct station off Murtala Muhammed Way, between Ebute-Metta and Yaba Makoko.

This promises to be, if the weather is kind and everything falls into place on the day, an interesting and enjoyable Trip.

Directions

1. From Third Mainland Bridge take spur road to Ebute-Metta,

2. Turn right along Herbert Macaulay Road,

3. Continue north along Herbert Macaulay Road past the Cinema with a big 'Visafone free' sign and then

4. take either: next opening on the left at 'Sweet Sensations' (2nd opening on left from 3rd Mainland bridge spur) down Hughes, then cross over Murtala Muhammed Way and into Ebute-Metta Junction Station, or the following opening on the left at Union Bank/white horse sign (3rd opening on left from 3rd Mainland bridge spur) down Commercial Road past the e-Centre/Domino then turn left on to Murtala Muhammed Way.

5. Ebute-Metta Junction Station forecourt is just off Murtala Muhammed Way opposite Hughes. Murtala Muhammed Way is very busy so take care entering or crossing.

6. The Station building is a long two-storey affair with a large green-lettered sign above the entrance with 'Nigerian Railway Corporation' in big letters at the top and 'Ebute Metta Junction' below. Park and go through the main station entrance and the train should be at the platform.

For more info, email Ada Nwanguma: legacynigeria1995@yahoo.co.uk

On the Health Bill

2011-06-05T15:36:00.000+01:00

Editorial from The Lancet:

Celebrations are afoot in Abuja. On May 19, the two Houses of the Nigerian National Assembly finally passed the National Health Bill into law, after 7 years of inaction and procrastination. The controversial bill, which promises to provide all Nigerians with a basic minimum package of health services, was originally proposed in 2004 and passed in May, 2009, before being withdrawn for bureaucratic reasons. It has effectively lain untouched since. The Nigerian Medical Association estimates that 7 million children and 385 000 mothers have died in the interim.

As the most populous country in Africa (one in four Africans live in Nigeria), providing universal health care is no easy task. But even allowing for the difficulties posed by providing health care to a large population, the country still underperforms. Life expectancy at birth averages just 54 years for both sexes. Maternal mortality is 608 per 100 000 livebirths, and the mortality rate for children younger than 5 years is more than double the global average at 157 per 1000 livebirths. Nigeria is the only country in the African continent to have never eradicated poliomyelitis, and only 3% of HIV-positive mothers receive antiretrovirals. Just 6% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is spent on health and there are enormous inequalities in its allocation between the rich and poor areas of the country.

The bill provides a framework for the regulation and provision of national health services, defines the rights of health workers and users, and stipulates guidelines for the formulation of a national health policy. Its promises will not change everything for Nigerians, but the bill does allow them to finally hold the government to account for their right to health, including equitable access to care. Never before has there been such momentum towards making a real commitment to improving health in this country.

The bill pledges to develop a national health policy that includes 60 billion naira (about US$380 million) devoted to primary health care each year, commitments to the provision of essential drugs, and comprehensive vaccination programmes for pregnant women and children younger than 5 years of age. It rightly devotes a whole section to strategies to reduce the crippling effect of the brain drain on health care; there are as many Nigerian doctors working in the USA as there are in the public health-care sector of Nigeria. The bill thus commits to providing adequate resources for ongoing education and training of doctors, including a continuing professional development programme. The health bill stipulates the need for measures of accountability, which are central to the bill's success. The country's performance and the state of citizens' health need to be assessed by an independent authority, and the government must be accountable for delivering on their promises.

On May 29, many Nigerians celebrated again as Dr Goodluck Jonathan was inaugurated as President for the next 4 years. The zoologist succeeded President Umaru Yar'Adua after his death last year, and in April, 2011, Jonathan was re-elected in what is widely considered the most transparent and legitimate election Nigeria has ever held. This is an exciting time for the country: it has a leader with a clear mandate, its economy is flourishing (it is predicted to have the highest average GDP growth of any country over the next 40 years), and efforts are being made to reduce its sporadic civic and religious tensions and endemic corruption.

However, until now, health has been lamentably absent from Jonathan's declared priorities. Although progress has been made in poliomyelitis eradication and health-systems strengthening since he came to power in May, 2010, these are only two of hundreds of indicators in dire need of improvement. Many societal groups grew concerned over his neglect of a health agenda. On May 18, thousands of women protested about the delay in the passage of the health bill outside the National Assembly. Their efforts were rewarded with the passing of the bill the very next day. At the time of going to press, all that remains outstanding is presidential assent to make the National Health Bill a federal law.

This auspicious turn of events gives cause for hope. Perhaps President Jonathan is more devoted to rectifying the appalling state of health in Nigeria than has been apparent thus far. If he really is committed to providing equitable and affordable universal health care for all of his people, he should sign the National Health Bill immediately. There is no better way to say thank you for electing him.

Contemporary Pan Africanism

2011-06-02T17:08:00.000+01:00

I like the look of this conference coming up this Saturday. Contemporary Pan Africanism is the next big thing, I reckon.

Job opportunity (click to enlarge/read)

2011-06-02T17:05:00.000+01:00

Father Kukah at the Royal Africa Society

2011-05-07T13:47:00.000+01:00

Next Friday at SOAS. Don't miss it - Matthew Kukah's account of his time on the Oputa panel.

Victor Ehikhamenor at CCA

2011-05-02T09:09:00.000+01:00

On Black Sisters Street in Amrika

2011-04-29T23:04:00.001+01:00

'“On Black Sisters Street” marks the arrival of a latter-day Thackeray, an Afro-Belgian writer who probes with passion, grace and comic verve the underbelly of our globalized new world economy.' Great review of Chika Unigwe's book in the New York Times. Here.

Who will be a voice for the youth corps members? #ProtectTheCorpers

2011-04-28T12:43:00.000+01:00

Forwarded message from The Future Project:

Yes, we are angry now but 1) How much longer will that anger last before we all go back to our merry lives and forget all about this? 2) How will anger actually lead to any solutions unless we do something?

The government has promised compensation for the families of those like Ukeoma AikFavour and Obinna Okpokiri who lost their lives, but this is not enough. Their deaths should not be in vain – it should lead a fundamental change in the way that the youth corps scheme is implemented.

The Future Project (which runs The Future Awards), in partnership with the National Youth Council, AIESEC, SleevesUp Nigeria and Friends of Aik and Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, has decided to take up this cause.

We are aware that many initiatives have been undertaken in the past – but we believe it is time to move from anger and protest and to make this a broad-based national campaign. It is also a fine opportunity for us to put our hard won democracy to work – to move from protest and activism to advocacy and productive democratic lobby.

SO, over the next nine-months, we are implementing a solution-oriented approach that involves 1) Engaging government on a policy level to restructure and reform the NYSC in order to protect corps members in the interim and then to completely overhaul the scheme in the long term so that it is actually useful to the nation. 2) Supporting this Policy Engagement with a wide-ranging public and media campaign to ensure pressure is sustained on the government.

Starting from tomorrow therefore, we are activating a #ProtectTheCorpers campaign that will involve both online and offline strategies to engage the authorities, the media and young people.
The strategy is simple –

1)      We are gathering 100, 000 signatures for a petition that is going to the Presidency with a 7-point demand (see demand below) to restructure the scheme and protect the corps members.

2)      Request an urgent meeting with the Minister of Youth and the Director-General of the NYSC to implement immediate action points.

3)      Begin an aggressive lobby at the legislature, especially the Senate and House Committees on Youth, towards include the deletion of the programme from the section of the Constitution and placing it as an Act of Parliament with a revamped structure, as recommended by the Senate Spokesperson, Ike Ekweremadu.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?
1)      Read the demands below and sign the petition on www.thefuturenigeria.com/protectthecorpers – and get at least 20 of your friends, family and associates to sign the petition.

2)      If you have any direct influence with any legislator who can help with introducing and facilitating this bill, please get in contact with us at info@thefuturenigeria.com

3)      Use the #ProtectTheCorpers Hashtag on your Twitter and Facebook Accounts Daily, Use the Avatar/Display Picture on Your Facebook/Twitter/BBM Accounts and Send this Message To All Your Contacts.

4)      Support this initiative with resources or donation to sustain the publicity and lobbying drive over the next 9 months (our working time-frame.)

5)      Join the ProtectTheCorpers group on Facebook as well as the ProtectTheCorpers group on Yahoo.

6)      Send us an e-mail on info@thefuturenigeria.com or call us on with any suggestions or how you can or want to help.

7)      Visit www.thefuturenigeria.com/protectthecorpers for more information.

7-POINT DEMAND TO #PROTECTTHECORPERS
1.      Hotspots - Identify violence-prone “hot-spots” states and/or districts and ensure that corps member posting to these areas is voluntary. This voluntary posting must also come with an institutionalised incentive.

2.      Emergency Fund – Institute an NYSC Contingency Fundthat is easily accessible in pre-crisis situations. This Fund should be easily accessible at crisis periods.

3.      Decentralisation – The command structure of the NYSC should be devolved in terms of accommodation, welfare, wages and security to avoid red tape during times of crisis. State governments should be primarily responsible for welfare as well as security – including evacuation – at moments of crisis.

4.      Compensation - Corps Members posted out of their states of residence should be beneficiaries of a comprehensive life insurance policy as a compensation structure in time of unavoidable loss.

5.      Data Management – Digitise the database of corps member with location, contact information and total number per state. This is to ensure easy pre and post-crisis accessibility and tracking.

6.      Representation – Institutionalise an alternate platform for corps members to interact with administration on welfare and security. This structure will interface directly with the corps commandants and state level and the Director-General at federal level.

7.      Full-scale Reform – Constitute a National Youth Service Corps Reform Committee that will recommend full scale structural and policy reforms for the scheme and make binding recommendations to the Federal Government to be implemented into a National Youth Service Act.

Let’s ensure that we put our government under pressure immediately after the elections. This is a good place to start making our democracy work! Those ‘corpers’ cannot die in vain.

Yours-for-change
The Future Project, Nigeria.
www.thefuturenigeria.com/protectthecorpers

Stephen Hendel: ITT

2011-04-23T10:54:00.000+01:00

Stephen Hendel is a New-York based oil trader. He is also the main promoter/producer behind the Broadway-version of the Fela Musical currently showing in Lagos. He is being sued by Carlos Moore, author of the authorised biography of Fela, Fela: This Bitch of a Life, published in Nigeria by Cassava Republic.

For more background on the case, read here.

With all his oil money and corporate leverage, its hard to imagine he is going to be able to successfully defend his claim that the musical was a work of independent inspiration. You can fool some people some times, but you can't fool all the people all the time. At some point in the near future, Jay-Z, Jada Pinkett Smith and Bill T. Jones may have to eat humble pie and realise that they tried to write another black man out of history, and failed.

North and South

2011-04-18T18:14:00.002+01:00

The graphic of the results of the Presidential elections on Saturday on Nigeriaelections.org provokes much thought. In a way, it reminds immediately one of the two Nigerias of colonial times - the north ruled on the QT via the convenience of the native authorities, the south heavily focused on Lagos as the commercial hub, with a completely different kind of colonial officer in each place. In the north, enthusiastic slightly waify Oxbridge-types, keen to learn hausa and wander around their domain on horseback. In the south, altogether more mercantile brutal deal-cutting types.

At least in the early to mid twentieth century, there was a balanced fiscal framework for Nigeria, with taxes from groundnuts, cocoa and palm oil going directly to the North, South-West and South-East respectively. The heavy reliance on oil revenues and the resulting resource curse since the 1970s has eroded all other sectors of the economy. The heavy CPC vote can be explained in many different ways - as a vote against abandoning zoning and a vote for a northern leader. On another level however, its a cry of pain from millions of wasted lives. The North desperately needs a viable development solution. It probably also needs fresh blood and fresh leadership. Where will the northern version of Fashola come from and when?

Recorded in Kaduna today

2011-04-18T17:38:00.000+01:00

Kaduna Youths by ifejika

Determined to vote, Mararaba

2011-04-18T00:10:00.003+01:00

Determined to vote, Mararaba, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

Sheltering from the rain, Mararaba.

2011-04-18T00:10:00.001+01:00

Sheltering from the rain, Mararaba., originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

A celebrant, Mpape

2011-04-17T23:57:00.001+01:00

A celebrant, Mpape, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

Watching the count, Mpape

2011-04-17T23:47:00.001+01:00

Watching the count, Mpape, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

Watching the counting, Mpape

2011-04-17T23:45:00.001+01:00

Watching the counting, Mpape, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

A young citizen, Kubwa

2011-04-17T23:43:00.001+01:00

A young citizen, Kubwa, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

Diasporic observers, Kubwa

2011-04-17T23:42:00.001+01:00

Diasporic observers, Kubwa, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

Deciding who to vote for, Kubwa

2011-04-17T23:41:00.001+01:00

Deciding who to vote for, Kubwa, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

Waiting to vote, Karo

2011-04-17T23:40:00.003+01:00

Waiting to vote, Karo, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

Election technology, at Mararaba yesterday

2011-04-17T23:40:00.001+01:00

Election technology, originally uploaded by Jeremy Weate.

Sexual slavery in Edo State

2011-04-12T19:26:00.000+01:00

This woman is almost certainly Nigerian, and just as certainly, she is likely to be from Edo State. She was photographed having sex just off the Ramblas in Barcelona. To most tourists who visit, the Ramblas is perhaps the most beautiful shopping street in Europe. To her, it is degrading servitude. As we know from the Channel 4 documentary Unreported World (see the previous post), she was probably forced to take a juju oath, which ensures she spends years and years as a prostitute in Europe paying off 50,000 Euros or more, in utter fear of the consequences of running away.

It seems there is a conspiracy of silence around this contemporary form of slavery in Edo State. Its not hard to imagine why: the remittances keep flowing in, with 40,000 or more Bini prostitutes in Mali and perhaps the same number (or a lot more) again in Europe. We know this is going on. We know it is causing enormous suffering. A lot of the girls imagine that they will only have to be prostitutes for a few months, and persuade themselves that they will find other work as a hairdresser etc. It is only when they arrive in Europe and their Madam tells them the terms of the job that they realise their life is effectively over.

Its long since time that a full-on campaign to challenge sex trafficking in Edo State began with civil society groups joining forces with the Edo State government and NAPTIP. Their may need to be punitive state-specific legislation passed.

We are all allowing this to happen, by looking the other way and dismissing Benin women as promiscuous and enthusiastic to do the work anyway. We were in denial in Germany, 70 years ago, just as we are in denial today.

Unreported World

2011-04-11T21:13:00.000+01:00

Desperately sad to watch. You must watch it. Here.

Homage to Ulli Beier

2011-04-11T16:55:00.000+01:00

"I do not need much convincing from this detribalised, white Yoruba man in Germany wearing a traditional tie-and-dye shirt. The proof is in his life spread out before me like an Ifa divination chain. Through honest, pagan vigour he founds the Mbari-Mbayo Literary and Arts Movements, without which there will be little of modern Nigerian culture to speak of. It is an occasion for rejoicing because Ulli Beier is not dead but has merely joined his pagan Yoruba ancestors..."

By Amatoritsero Ede here.

Star Bottle, by Polly Eaton

2011-04-11T00:03:00.000+01:00

The BBC in Jos

2011-04-10T17:32:00.000+01:00

Good piece by the BBC World Service in Jos here.

Seun Kuti tours the UK

2011-04-09T14:13:00.000+01:00

Good interview in yesterday's Guardian.

Ben Okri's new book

2011-04-09T09:39:00.002+01:00

"I imagine a reader who, like me, is a bit exasperated with the accumulation of the follies of our times, someone ready for a new way of looking, thinking and being; someone who combines youth and experience, idealism and realism. Someone who isn’t afraid to dream but also is not afraid to roll up their sleeves and participate in the tough magic of life." Review here.

Those nasty Euros...

2011-04-07T21:57:00.002+01:00

Looks like the Spanish may have buggered up the Ife sculptures by coating them in something nasty. Here.

Ugandan oil transparency

2011-04-07T14:36:00.000+01:00

Ugandan civil society activists are campaigning in London to put pressure on the British Govt to create its own version of Dodd-Frank/EITI legislation. The awareness of what went so badly wrong with the resource curse in Nigeria is high...

At the Presidential launch, yesterday

2011-04-06T15:11:00.000+01:00

The photographer George Esiri followed the PDP Presidential campaign trail around Nigeria. An exhibition of the images he captured was launched at the Yar'Adua Centre yesterday. I took the picture with my Blackberry.

Soyinka on Lagos

2011-04-06T11:59:00.000+01:00

Kongi celebrates the rebirth of Lagos in Newsweek from a month back, here. Reading the piece (nicely edited, for a change) prompted me to go back to Richard Burton's memorable description of Lagos, 150 years ago:

"The site of the town, four miles from the entrance, is detestable; unfortunately there is no better within many a league... The first aspect is as if a hole had been hollowed out in the original mangrove forest that skirts the waters, where bush and dense jungle, garnished with many a spreading tree, tall palms, and matted mass of fetid verdure rise in terrible profusion around."

Pastor Erastus Akingbola

2011-04-05T13:02:00.000+01:00

Poor (or rather, not so poor) Pastor Erastus Akingbola has been ordered to pay back the money he stole from Intercontinental Bank. I wonder if he still preaches at church on a Sunday? Its hard to imagine anyone learning anything that is good and moral him. However, if you want to know about the best way to set up a shell company in the Cayman Islands...

Ulli Beier RIP

2011-04-04T21:42:00.000+01:00

A piece by James Eze from a few years back gives a flavour of the man:

Watching President Olusegun Obasanjo dole out national honours on prime time television to Nigerians and non-Nigerians of all ilk the other night, it struck you just how odd it seemed that Nigeria had yet to say 'thank you' to him. Yet, he was here when it all began. Not as a distant spectator, but as a prime mover, an enthusiastic facilitator and a devoted promoter of the Nigerian letters. He is a black man in white skin. He is a German born Yoruba man. He is indubitably Nigerian. He is 83. He is Ulli Beier. And it is a pity that his name was not on the honours list of this year's National Merit Award recipients. 

Professor Beier is a foremost Africanist scholar, whose arrival in the University College Ibadan in 1950 at 28 sparked off a chain of events that eventually led to the lighting up of the African literary tree. As a university teacher, editor of the influential Black Orpheus and proprietor of the catalytic Mbari Artists and Writers' Club as well as Mbari publications, Ulli Beier found himself strategically nestled in the fork of time. But he made the most of it. Flapping all around him were budding writers whose creative gifts needed stronger wings to soar. There were Chinua Achebe, Christopher Okigbo, J.P Clark, Mabel Segun, Demas Nwoko, Duro Ladipo, Ezekiel Mphalele of South Africa and of course Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. It was a great moment in time all right.

The flowering of ideas that ensued marked the preparatory stage of modern literary offering from Africa. As you raise the micro tape recorder to his lips in this plush little room inside the cavernous sprawl of Osun State government house, Osogbo, you marvel at this man whose deep set eyes still sparkle behind a pair of rectangular eye glasses at 83. In your opening remark, you had generally alluded to his contributions to African literature and how one of his former students, Mabel Segun had spoken fondly of him in a recent meeting. At the mention of that name, his powerful eyes lighted up "Oh! Where is she? What is she doing?" he asks in quick succession and without waiting for your reply he wades into an old familiar tunnel. "She was one of my students in the University College Ibadan. I only spent one year on campus and she was one of the students I saw a lot privately to. A lot of the students came to my house; Chinua Achebe, Mabel, all kinds of students. “It was more than just a class, you know what I mean?

She was one of the first people to write poems. She was bright and wrote some quite good poems and I think I would have published a few. Another student who came quite a lot was Chinua Achebe. He had quite impressive manners. I kept a lot of contact with him in later life and when he was working with the NBC, I did quite a few programmes with him and he was also a member of the Mbari Club when we founded it", he recalls in a voice that belies his age.

Beier is urbane. He returns compliments with compliments. Mabel Segun, he said, was brilliant. A statement of fact, but he also talked about Achebe and the Mbari Club which offers a veritable opening for a follow up question. When did you found the club? You ask. "I think in 196o and it was Chinua who gave it a name. Mbari is an Igbo name. Soyinka and I were tossing around in search of a name to give the club and then Chinua rang and said 'what about Mbari?' And I jumped at the name because I knew Mbari Houses," he recalls with a nostalgic glint in his eyes.

Ulli Beier's recollections are incomplete without names like Soyinka, Chinua, Okigbo, Duro Ladipo etal. In a manner of speaking, his story is their story. "My whole activity in Nigeria in the 196os was basically to help people get a better identity by pointing out what wonderful culture they have", he had said in an earlier comment. In a way, Ulli has walked the road of his destiny well. Along with Gerald Moore, an Englishman, who taught extra-mural classes in Eastern Nigeria, Beier made his presence felt on the continent, translating and publishing modern African writings from David Mendessa Diop to Leopold Sedar Senghor, and even some Yoruba poems. He also played a fundamental role in the conception and nurturing of the world famous Oshogbo school of artists along with influential playwright and gifted composer Duro Ladipo. Story telling comes natural to Beier. He is dressed in his trademark Aso Oke and his luxuriant grey hair has turned completely white like a soft tassel drooping down a corn cob. You let his sweet old voice swaddle you up with nostalgic recollections, let it carry you to a time beyond your reach when our people still retained those things that made then distinct. "I really loved the idea that people do creative work that involves young people of a certain age grade and that under the guidance of craftsmen they created mud buildings populated by arts figures," he says of the Mbari Houses from which the name of his literary club was chosen. "They had a figure of the earth goddess with a child on her laps, a leopard pouncing on a goat, a school teacher with a book and a tailor with his sewing machine. Then within a few years, this building crumbles back into mud because it's not fired and all the figures virtually collapse. But there's a beauty in that. The building and artworks must give way for the next age grade to practice their own craft, you see.

And there I learnt something for the first time in my life. Growing up in Berlin as a child visiting museums, I thought that the older a work of art was the better and more valuable and all the so called art treasures and worth not. “It's all because of the false values attached to art. Now from the Mbari Houses, I have developed a whole concept of Ephemeral Art; which means art that is not meant to last, art that is allowed to disintegrate, art that is destroyed, burnt, drowned and art that is shot. It is a very fascinating concept and on December, 18 at the Obafemi Awolowo University I am going to give a lecture on Ephemeral Art. And I will start with Mbari."

 The incurable photographer, curator, author, translator and publisher may be in love with the concept of ephemeral art, but he builds eternal friendships. That is why when he talks about Christopher Okigbo, or Wole Soyinka or Chinua Achebe and J.P Clark, he comes across like a teenage Casanova regaling his crowd of youthful admirers with tales of his new conquest. "When I moved out from the University Campus, I was giving extra-mural classes in Oyo. On the way, I used to stop in a little, town called Fiditi," he recalls in the same pitch of voice. Wasn't that where Christopher Okigbo taught? You interject. "Exactly! Then I met Christopher. Well, he wasn't one of my students. So, I met him and we developed a very close relationship. Then, when he became the representative of Cambridge University Press, he had a big house in Ibadan and I was living in Osogbo. “So, when I had business in Ibadan, I would just go in there, whether he was home or not, I was sure of a bed and a good meal. His house was just like home to me and we talked about art, literature and politics and a whole lot more.

Then, when the Mbari Club started, I started something called Mbari publications which subsequently published his first two volumes of poetry Heavensgate and Limits. “So, we were very close and I remember that he was very upset about the way the political situation in the country was going at the time. I was not surprised when I heard later that he was first to go to Biafra and enlist in the army and first to die. It's very tragic," he surmises looking suddenly crestfallen. You sense that it may be tactless to allow this mood prevail long enough to affect his recollections and then wonder if there are particular things he could remember about the late poet. "Well, he studied classics and then Greek and later when we published Black Orpheus; he would take a view and say 'I am not an African poet. I am a poet'. “This was where he was different from others. He was contemporary. He was extremely influenced by contemporary English poets. But the other aspect of him was that his poems became more political in Path of Thunder. It was actually inspired by some of my translations of Yoruba poetry, some images, you know. He became more interested and more African and finally more relaxed with his craft.

One thing about Mbari Club was that we had people who had very different ideas. “Soyinka and Christopher Okigbo never agreed on anything with J.P Clark. But they respected each other because there was some merit in their separate positions. And we always had a very lively interaction. They never agreed on anything but they worked successfully together. That was fascinating”.We had artists like Demas Nwoko,  Uche Okeke.   But no. Beier is wrong. The disagreement between Soyinka and Okigbo with J.P Clark did not end on the floor of the Mbari Club. At least what Okigbo told South African Lewis Nkosi about his resentment of Clark and what Clark wrote in some of his civil war poems where he basically spat on Okigbo's grave lend credence to this position. However, this does not in any way in particular, whittle down the legacy of Mbari Club. Listening to Beier’s flawless English, it strikes you just how wonderful it is that he is actually German and has a remarkable grasp of French and Yoruba languages as well. This led to his translation of literary works from Yoruba and French to English. But Beier went beyond mere translation of Yoruba works. He became deeply immersed in the Yoruba culture and worldview earning himself names like Obotunde Ijimere, Sangodare Akanji and Omidiji Aragbabalu. His close friends boldly refer to him as the German-born Yoruba man which he relishes with pride. "In a sense, it was necessary for me to do the translations because when I started teaching African literature and extra-mural classes, there wasn't that much African literature coming out of Nigeria," he says of what pushed him into trying his hands on translations. "There was no Soyinka and Achebe in 1950-51, so I had to translate Sango and Diop and Aime Cesare the Caribbean writer. So, I have always enjoyed translation for one reason or the other and I was totally bilingual in German and English. “At a time I didn't know which was my language anymore and I had a pretty good French. So, from that, I was able to do what I did. But one thing about translation is that you must know the language from which you translate but turning it into a poem requires a deeper knowledge.

When you are translating from Yoruba to English, you have to realize that there's a lot of things that you can't do. You have to make it as simple as possible but what survives adds to a unique philosophy. "Of course Beier should know. He translated the works of Bakare Gbadamosi and Timi Lawuyi among others to wide reception. Still, it is interesting to note that Beier, in spite of his complete immersion in the Yoruba culture has some critics. Oyekan Owomoyela for instance thinks that Beier's "representation of the Yoruba ethos is too often distorted and even slanderous."

But Beier is not deterred. Even at 83, Obotunde Ijimere still recalls with enticing vividness, his earliest impressions of Chinua Achebe at the University College Ibadan. "He was a very calm person. And when I returned to Nigeria after the Biafran War in 1971, I went to the University of Nigeria at Nsukka and it was all pretty raw then. Students were trying to clean up the mess left by the soldiers. I saw Achebe then and you could see that the terrifying experience of the war had given him some kind of strength. 

“And Achebe told us a very touching story that when the frontline moved during the war, as it did all the time, they had to pack from house to house. And his children said "daddy you must be very rich, because we have so many houses.' That's a great anecdote. Great anecdote! I learnt a lot from Chinua.

Later on, he came to Bayreuth University when I was there and gave a lecture and I later did an interview with him which was called - "The world as a Dancing Masquerade." The world is a dancing masquerade, if you want to see it properly you cannot stay in one place. This explains the Igbo ability to move and try new things. They are a very dynamic people. Achebe's Things Fall Apart was published in 1958 and up till today it's popular all over the world and a recommended text for HEC exams in Australia. 

“It's one of the most successful books in history and it means a lot because that's somebody looking into his culture without sentiment, without chauvinism and at the same time showing the dignity of his people, you see. And from him I learnt what I know about Igbo culture. He did an interview with Georgina which was called 'Wealth is not what you have but what you give away'. That's a wonderful point. So, we learned a lot about the Igbo culture from him and also Obiora Udechuckwu and we learnt to respect the Igbo culture. 

“I realized that the culture has extra-ordinary tolerance. Chinua told us a story of when he was in primary school. The teacher one day moved the class out of the classroom to the shade of a tree and put the black board on the tree and proceeded to give them a lecture on the geography of Great Britain. Then the local lunatic walked by and stopped to watch the class for a while and walked up to the teacher, took the chalk out of his hand, wiped the black board and proceeded to give the class a lecture on Ogidi (Chinua's home town) which was more important to the children. What amazed me is that the teacher let it happen. In Europe he would call the police. That's fantastic! 

This is one of the things I admire about Nigeria, these experiences." Ulli Beier is not only full of years at 83 but full of stories as well; wonderful stories, exciting stories and he tells everyone with fresh candour. He is also an adventurer who left his beloved Nigeria for Papua New Guinea where along with his wife Georgina, he repeated the Mbari experience setting up a Center for Art and Literature in Moresby which threw the door ajar for creative people in the region. Almost as many books have been written on Beier as he wrote on African literature. But Beier deserves even more books for all that he did in Nigeria and on the continent. Beier and Gerald Moore played a memorable role in erecting the pillars of Nigerian literature upon which African literature stands. Beier's cultural activism in Yorubaland with all his translations and books on various aspects of the Yoruba culture offer deep perspectives on the Yoruba race. Now, if these do not qualify a man for a national honour I wonder what else does. You see why Obasanjo's national honours list for 2005 was in complete?

Political map of Nigeria

2011-04-04T16:15:00.000+01:00

Pilfered from here.

Sex, Lies and Black Magic

2011-04-04T11:58:00.000+01:00

Interesting yet highly disturbing-sounding documentary coming up this Friday on the UK's Channel 4, here. The women who are trafficked have little or no idea of what is in store for them. Their belief in witchcraft is exploited to the full. With tens of thousands of mostly Edo women working as sex workers in Italy, it seems that NAPTIP is fighting a losing battle. What if the Governor of Edo State organised mass screenings of the film, as part of a wider public awareness campaign?