Nigeria--Defying Expectations (Washington DC Notes) : PRINCE CHARLES DICKSON

"There's corruption everywhere, 'cept in DC, it is professional". Anonymous

We are driving to Virginia, and my friend, whom I 'll just call Karim tells me this story--"I love Nigeria, I remember when I was a kid in Nigeria, my father and I were traveling to Ibadan from Lagos" he said. 

"We hit this guy in an accident, and the crowd pulls on us, its getting rowdy. And then the police comes, my father comes down, ...gives the man some notes...the whole report changes, infact he tells the people that they are lucky, and we were nice people because it was the man who actually hit us (our car)..., I 'll never understand how a man on foot hit a mobile car".

Minister Ngozi Iweala And The Turtle:PRINCE CHARLES DICKSON

The greatest lesson in life is to know that sometimes even fools are right—Winston Churchill

Early this year, I was with Ngozi Iweala and she spoke glowing on Nigeria's economy, gdp and all those terms. I nodded and smiled.  I recalled our meeting pre-debt relief era and all her talk then...it wasn't so much of a changed woman.

Only a week ago she was again at it with Labaran Maku, the chief talkative as umpire at the ministerial briefing, more and more figures and data of progress, international validation and all that ratings from fitch.

Northern Nigeria And Her Mythical Realities:

When a people have suffered for too long, they will drink fairytales on fairylands with insatiable gullibility." (Hamilton Ayuk) 

My admonition this week dwells with a section of Nigerian--the North and it is a do-no-favors essay, call it the truth, or falsehood, call it nonsense, be bitter or be complimentary about it, I really do not care--or better still I care enough to tell us the way I see it.

MEDIOCRITY WITHOUT BORDERS.

Femke Becomes Funke: Celebrating Mediocrity In Nigeria By Femke van Zeijl

Posted: March 21, 2013 - 06:02

Femke Van Zeijl

By Femke Van Zeijl

I used to think corruption was Nigeria’s biggest problem, but I’m starting to doubt that. Every time I probe into one of the many issues this country is encountering, at the core I find the same phenomenon: the widespread celebration of mediocrity. Unrebuked underachievement seems to be the rule in all facets of society. A governor building a single road during his entire tenure is revered like the next Messiah; an averagely talented author who writes a colourless book gets sponsored to represent Nigerian literature overseas; and a young woman with no secretarial skills to speak of gets promoted to the oga’s office faster than any of her properly trained colleagues.

Don't Change This Nigeria By Prince Charles Dickson

“I am not upset, I am not upset!” Yet a grown man swears angrily six times because of last night's pounded yam.

Cassandra in Greek legend, I  recall, was condemned to know the future but to be disbelieved when she foretold it. Hence the agony of foreknowledge combined with the impotence to do anything about it. So the pain that we know our problems but seem condemned to an existence of being incapable of solving them seems our curse as well.

A SINGLE VICTORY... Oge Anyaji

A SINGLE VICTORY

A lot of people have different opinions and reactions to the emergence of the Super Eagles of Nigeria as the winner of the coveted Nations Cup. For some, pitching the Super Eagles against its counterpart from Burkina Faso was an indisputable walk-over for the Eagles who didn’t even need to make an appearance. To some other who belonged to the school of thought that the Burkina Faso side was a very amateurish team compared to their experienced counterpart who boasts of an affluent show of internationally based and famous players, this notwithstanding, anything can happen in a football match.

BEWARE OF THANKS GIVING EXPERTS.

THE PROVERBIAL THANKSGIVING… a case of dog for goat

A friend jokingly dropped this proverb, “when a dog refuses to bark, the owner will mistake it for a goat and take it for thanksgiving”.

Believe me, this is the case of my beloved country Nigeria. A country filled with people who have refused to bark, not to mention bite. 

A country with proven cases of naivety, gullible, easy to deceive, emotional and very very sensitive, especially when touched in the right places; religion, ethnicity, politics and the ‘cake formula’.