Tuesday, November 29, 2016

RELIGION À LA NIGERIA

I found myself in a situation last week, when my insomnia kicked in a great deal and I yearned to swipe over qwerty my thoughts, but was in a quandary over what to write, or recycle. To my aid came Philip Ip Lyricx and Snagga Mwangi, of Nigerian and Kenyan descent respectively. Ip wanted my view on how Islam and Christianity came into Nigeria despite protestations from me of not been a student of history, at least of the academic type, as well as what differences are there between the old and new testament, while Snagga advised that I start to run a review of the New Testament alongside the Old, seeing that at the snail speed I was going with the old, I'd be very advanced in age, probably list some cognitive skills by the time I'd get to the new. They both steered me in the direction of religion, and indeed very controversial aspects of it. This will be the first of two posts that will address the issues both of them raised.


Google is anyone's best bet when it comes to history these days, hence I won't even make any attempt to try to compete with the masters on any subject related to history. My intention here is to draw attention to how the past of the advents of these religions have led us to where we are in Nigeria today. While serving (NYSC) in the northwest about a decade ago, my direct boss startled me, when during a discussion, he said the religion of his people had always been Islam, and though he was much older than me, I wondered how much of history he knew to make such an assertion, when it is widely known that Islam came to those parts (not homegrown) from North Africa, even from the Arabs in the middle-east, and to the untiring effort of spreading the religion attributable to the jihad by the revered Sultan, Uthman Dan Fodio, who established a sultanate in Sokoto, from where he installed his kin as Emirs over conquered swathes of northern Nigeria, even as far as some parts of the west.


On the other hand, Christianity made inroads mainly in the south via the sea of European traders, first the Portuguese then much later the British as they traded with the peoples of those regions. By the time they got to the north, there was already a dominant Islamic culture, that could account for the posture which I stated earlier that my former boss took, concerning Islam as being his and his people's religion. The Christian missionaries didn't let that deter them but forayed further inland, and backed by the subtle coercive powers of colonialism much later, planted seeds of Christianity even in the most uttermost Muslim areas in the north, bringing with them schools, hospitals and churches, though not as widespread and vigorously as they did in and with the south, in order not to rock the boat of an institution they met on ground, that helped them keep the north in check and pliant to their overall rule.


The northern oligarchy and the extent of the caliphate in Sokoto was allowed to maintain and keep the power they had over their people and vassals, because that helped the British colonialists by way of reducing efforts channeled into governance seeing that a de facto  government was already in place. The tiny pockets of several governments and rulership and no governments/"republicanness" in many places in the south, meant that the British must intervene directly and forcefully, and their instruments of coercion extended from the mild and subtle in the many churches, schools and hospitals, to the brutal in police stations, prisons and the likes. They succeeded in even making some of the natives in the south forget and turn their backs on their culture, religion and the likes, replacing such with western ideas, where they could.


Today, the dichotomy in the manner in which Islam and Christianity came into Nigeria, appear to continue to determine how both are being propagated, as well as how they go about their business. The European missionaries passed their Christian message across using schools and hospitals as their main tools, especially in the South, these were mainly free (where fees were charged, there was also scholarships by the church, community or government to aid indigent students), while the community in most cases also contributed human and material resources to see to the successes of such institutions situated within their locality. Today schools and hospitals owned by the big Pentecostal as well as orthodox churches charge fees that are far beyond the capabilities of tithe-paying members whose contributions in the first instance enabled the much, if not all that went into the construction of the edifices that house the institutions, in fact in some cases, these offerings in church continue to fund the running of such institutions as going concerns, while the profit would usually go to owners or so called General Overseers of such churches, who live larger than life existences with the humongous proceeds, literally turning from Men of God to "Gods of Men".

GOD OF MEN, PREACH SPIRITUAL SECURITY TO THEIR FOLLOWERS, BUT ENGAGE PHYSICAL SECURITY FOR THEMSELVES. 

On the other side of things, there seem to be a resurgence in Jihadist tendencies amongst certain extremist Sunni Islamic groups in Nigeria's north, with the aim not only of ridding the north of Christians, animists, and most recently of Shiites, but also of not relenting until the Qur'an is dipped into the Atlantic Ocean in the South. While Boko Haram, like Maitatsine before it are the major anti-Nigerian Islamic insurgencies, more profound are the state sponsored, enabled, encouraged most times, activities of intolerance that bares it's fangs in the north, in the name of operation of the Shari'a law (seen in such parts as superior to the Nigerian constitution), attacks and lynchings of Nigerian, mainly non-Muslims accused of blasphemy, abduction and forced marriages to Emirs and Muslims of Christian underaged girls without the consent of their parents, amongst the general intolerance of people of a different opinion either politically or religiously, but have harm even death visited upon them under the guise of religion. Even more dangerous is the lack of will to prosecute and bring to justice perpetrators of hate crimes upon Nigerian citizens in the north because of differences in religious beliefs, coupled with outright genocide currently ongoing in the north-central region, and of late spilling into some parts of the south, which many suspect is in continuance of the agenda to dip the Qur'an in the Atlantic, using the excuse of herdsmen/farmers clashes, when most of the victims were murdered while unarmed in their sleep in their homes, while at work in the farms, or just being about in their location, by marauding so called Fulani herdsmen. Unfortunately, some of the funding of acts of terrorism within Nigeria and out of it, come from simple donations made in mosques even by moderate Muslims who think only to do some acts of piety in the name of Zakat.  A few even make donations on TV, on some Muslim shows that may look peaceful in outlook, till they start talking about the sufferings of Muslim Ummah in places like Somalia, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, even Nigeria, then ask for donations or those willing to help to call certain numbers via which aid can be pledged, when obviously aid organizations working in many of these places are Christian or western, with a sprinkling of Muslim organizations, some of which face investigations by international financial authorities for money laundering, especially on behalf of international terrorist organizations.

RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE IS BECOMING RULE RATHER THAN EXCEPTION IN NIGERIA'S NORTH. 

It's how we have found ourselves in a so called secular state that's no more than a religious state in actual fact, at war with itself. Recently I drew the attention of a colleague to how the two weeks of Christmas and New Year will gravely impact our business because of Christmas and New Year falling on consecutive Sundays respectively, and how Christians would insist on at least two working days after the appointed days, especially in a year when the sultanate wrongly predicted the appearance of the moon, which should signal the beginning of a Muslim festival that normally lasts two days in Nigeria, leading to a situation where it now lasted three days. It is that attitude that makes Nigerian Christians the only of their kind worldwide that go on pilgrimage, even when it isn't a stipulated "pillar" of their religion, which brought about an unfortunate situation recently where in the face of the dwindling fortunes of the Naira before the Dollar, yet it was heavily subsidized initially for Christian pilgrims, then much later for their Muslim counterparts, while Nigeria's foremost tomato puree company teetered on the verge of collapse, as the government continually turned a deaf ear to the pleas of its owner for foreign exchange relief to enable him meet his local and international obligations, amongst several such companies which had laid off staff severally, even shut down operations as Nigeria's economic woes deepens.


When I think about religion in the Nigerian context it's only aches and pains at the hurtful things it's done us than the good it's brought our society that readily comes to mind. The so called good is even such as bordering on selfishness and self preservation, "God-be-with-me-while-others-can-go-to-hell" mentality pervades the land. When the minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola delivered a speech at the convocation ceremony of the University of Benin last week, he recounted a story about a professor who knew well to separate church/mosque from state in his mind, and in outlook, and how he as well has managed to do likewise, and though you could fault Fashola, a Muslim on many grounds, as former governor and now minister, you cannot deny the fact that his very cerebral personality, and his accompanying work ethic. Unfortunately, the larger population are still in the darkness imposed on us by religion, that's why metropolitan Lagos is littered, not only with churches and mosques, as against edifice and infrastructure that speak to growth and development, but also (especially at the crossroads) with earthen bowls of sacrificial food, fruit and barley offerings to gods and spirits, so strategically placed by some Lagosians, in the thick of night invoking such "powers" to intervene in trivia that the west have learnt to solve with logic, science and technology. The west having become their own gods, to the abandonment of the ones they sold us in their land, have variously converted the worship places of their gods to museums somewhat, or civic centres, some of which they use as voting centres, as I observed in the last presidential elections in the USA. Abeg, I don taya jare!


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- https://www.naij.com/1059328-see-number-security-men-follow-pastor-ayo-oritsejafor-wife-around-photos.html 

Thursday, November 24, 2016

MY EVENING WITH LAGOS' RADIO STATIONS

Again, the radio takes over by six o'clock in the evening for another two hours, when I close from work and make my way back from Lagos Island to my home on the mainland. I tune in to INSPIRATION 92.3FM for the news that lasts ten minutes, then follow that with the more comprehensive news of Nigeria's first privately owned radio station, RAYPOWER 100.5FM, that has correspondents reporting as you'd find with the dour reportage of most  government owned stations, complete with static in the background. What I miss in the first ten minutes, I will hear again when the news is being recapped. By six-thirty I flip to CLASSIC 97.3FM's fifteen minutes of news, which feels like an elaboration of exactly what I've heard on Inspiration FM already at six (with more sound bites), but hardly as concise as Raypowers'. News on Radio Stations in Lagos is more like the News Agency Of Nigeria, NAN distributing the same content to the different media houses to do with it what they wish. It's so bad sometimes that you'd hear the same news, with the same lettering and wordings from different stations, especially the private ones, without even an attempt at rephrasing it. The next fifteen minutes before seven, and the other fifteen after seven I spend listening to what other stations have to offer, or go back to my soundtrack for the day to get inspired for the night.


I used to listen to SHARING LIFE ISSUES with CHAZ-B, immediately after the six o'clock news on INSPIRATION FM, while he was alive but it was becoming ridiculous, both topics and solutions provided for problems, that I was skipping episodes already weeks before he died. The attempt to keep the program alive in his memory, in my estimation has failed, especially with constant  movement of the program from one station to the other. Presently, I can't even say off my head now, which station is airing it, that's even besides the mediocrity on display with the new hosts and crazy callers to the program who come up with the strangest of problems that are never theirs but of their friends, as if even if that was true, it was right to backbite or gossip about their friends' emotional challenges, especially of a sexual nature and demons on radio.


J-A-J's TOP SEVEN JAMS AT SEVEN, on RHYTHMS 93.7FM used to cut it for me at some point, in fact it used to be where I go to for the latest in hip-hop, and I can't really place my hand on the real reason why I stopped spending thirty minutes listening to that program, even though that part where the host (aka The Mega-Don) inserts his eternal rap skit towards the end of the show, was beginning to get boring. Nowadays, it is only by chance that I fall on the program, just to probably lighten up the evening before I tune-in to KUBANJI DIRECT on RADIO CONTINENTAL 102.3FM, hosted by a CITIZEN JONES (USEN), veteran journalist in memory of the pioneer host, the late Momoh Kubanji (just like what was later attempted with Chaz B to not so much of a success) who died a few years back.

CITIZEN JONES IN THE STUDIO.

Radio Continental, like some other radio stations in Nigeria, is owned by a politician. It isn't surprising therefore that the narrative is usually skewed in favour of the political leanings of the owner of such media houses, hence radio stations like Raypower and Rhythms carry news that favour the People's Democratic Party, PDP while Radio Continental favour the All Progressives' Congress, APC. Nowhere else is the corrupting influence of a politician affecting reportage and even the discuss on radio more prominently than at Radio Continental. It is as if the news is vetted by the Lord owner before it goes on air, in fact in the sister TV station (TV Continental), you can see the eyes of presenters doting behind the cameras like they're receiving reprimands when they seem to stray from the political line issued them for onward projection on screen. The name of that one-hour program with four women, one of them a Muslim woman with hijab on TV-Continental skips me now.


That's how a beautiful program like KUBANJI DIRECT became one sided, shutting it's ears to opposition, now that the party it promotes is in power, unfortunately at the hands of a veteran journalist, who should know better. It is so bad that even as lately as last night, a contributor via Twitter accused the host of his bias, in favour of the ruling APC, just like I did weeks back trouncing the program for lacking intellect backed discourse, and was surprised to

hear my tweet read on the program, of course with the host brushing off my observations with a wave of his hands, and one of his minions rushing to attack and start a Twitter war with me. Interestingly, now that his paymaster appears to be at loggerheads with the echelon of his party, time will tell how long he can continue to back a directionless  government that he and his likes helped foster and continue to goad on, in spite of the truth staring them in the face.


Despite the heavy journalistic misnomer that that program represents, I still listen to it. Yes, with the wide eyed, unrepentant protagonists of the present Human Rights abusing, economy debasing APC, and President Buhari sycophants like Alester Wilcox and Professor Chris Nwokobia guesting most times. Men who can't see anything wrong in a government that's driven the country to the precipice in less than two years. Once a while "Citizen Jones", will bring fair minded Nigerians to contribute and present alternate views, only to continuously shut them down, and even going ahead to express his own views when he shouldn't have one, at least while he sits as umpire in his program. It is with that program that I gauge the thinking of those who sold Nigerians a bad deal in the last elections, standing now to make excuses for a  government that has done nothing but fail to deliver on ALL its election promises, without missing any opportunity to put the blame on previous governments, even for mistakes that every rational human being can see was at the behest of the present government.


So, unfortunately my mornings aren't bettered by my evenings on radio. I wish I could have BBC on FM and not have to listen live with data, as it's embarrassing, except when I'm in the north of Nigeria, to go about with a transistor radio, scanning the shortwave at different times of the day for the signals of the RADIO STATION OF THE WORLD. I might just listen to music, but even the so called "more music, less talk" radio station is fast losing its signature brand with OAPs angling to hear their "fake accented" English most times they come on air, breaking sweet music just to vomit the most mundane of thoughts from the recess in their head. Sometimes, I just give up hope on political discourse on radio on weekdays and look forward to weekends, which again is more of the same when it's about politics, as you shall see when I dissect that also, to give you a peek into how radio goes with me on weekends.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- https://mobile.twitter.com/RC1023FM/status 

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

WHAT GOOD CAN COME FROM ZAMFARA STATE?

Unknown attackers on motorcycles struck late on Monday at a goldmine outside Bindin village in northern Zamfara state, Nigeria killing thirty-six people. I have read some other media reports which put the number of dead at forty, while many others were injured. Presently, the security agents haven't been able to identify the particular group responsible for this attack, meaning that the perpetrators like other times will roam free. In times past, it had been cattle rustlers who raid cattle herding villages in Zamfara to dispossess them of their cattle, but this time around it was different, making keen watchers of events there wonder if this group aren't cattle rustlers, or they were but because the gold miners were to be reached before the village, the cattle rustlers decided to make do with gold instead, which is easier to move, while leaving death and destruction in their wake. Among the dead were miners, gold merchants and others around the area at the time of the attack, with the police as usual releasing their vain age-old  statement of leaving no some unturned till the perpetrators are brought to book. Interestingly, just some weeks ago, it was in Zamfara, that the Nigerian military launched an operation to fight cattle rustlers, only for this to happen and they were nowhere to be found, as is norm with operations in Nigeria that have no Intel backing and support.


Zamfara state is hardly in the news for any good in Nigeria, so far as I can recall. If it isn't in the news as the first northern state to politicize Shari'a law, then it's about the amputation of a man for stealing, under an Islamic law superintended by the then child-bride loving governor, who's currently keeping dates with anti-corruption agencies in the courts for misappropriation of public funds while in office, for which not even a strand of his goatie has been singed for. If Zamfara isn't in the news for lynching of students and those who attempted to rescue them for blasphemy against the Prophet in Islam, then it will be in the news for "lead poisoning", as a result of illegal gold extraction with dangerous by-products like lead released to the surroundings, for which some remediation was undertaken some time ago, not by the local, state or federal  government, but foreign aid agencies, like Medecins San Frontiers, MSF concerned for Nigerians more than those that should, besides been saddled with the responsibility to bother about them, so much so that an American friend that was part of a group raising awareness about the issue in the United States confided in me, of her frustration with Nigerian officials looking to have their palms greased before they could be allowed to even come in to review the situation, before planning remediation.

A BOY MINER SHOWS OFF A PIECE OF MERCURY-GOLD AMALGAM AT A PROCESSING SITE, ZAMFARA STATE.


So, you won't blame me when my mindset is set towards another tragedy each time Zamfara is mentioned in the news. Just no good, "meTELLyu" no good. And it is very sad because there indeed should be good news about Zamfara and I will just focus only on one area for instance. Since the President Muhammadu Buhari-led  government came to power last year, all that talk about diversifying the economy has gone the way of other "politics/campaign idealism" that are never brought to realism or life by politicians. It even seems that the president's understanding of diversification is finding crude oil in the north, in the face of dwindling proceeds from sale of crude owing to falling crude oil prices and persistent bombardment of oil exploration facilities, platforms and pipelines by aggrieved Niger Delta militants, despite government's extension of the olive branch to active militant groups via elders from the region in a bid to have them persuade the former to rethink their involvement in economic sabotage.


This search for oil in the North has seen the Nigerian government pump humongous amounts in scarce resources, into the venture that have so far yielded little to nothing, abandoning the booming mining industry in the north, from which Nigeria gets virtually nothing, in the hands of the elite, lords, landowners, even paramount traditional rulers of such areas where mining is being carried out. It's a known secret that so much is made by these men so much so that they've become so strong, enough to scare any minister of mining from peeping into the activities of illegal miners and those who benefit from their activities. That was why, when Nigerians were celebrating the discovery of nickel in commercial quantities in Kaduna, I looked at such Nigerians as poor followers of history, for if not, they'd have known that  government isn't looking to mining as a way of diversifying the economy, as the overlords in the north aren't willing to share mining wealth with Nigeria, even as they look to claim the crude in the south-south as theirs, while never rejecting Value Added Tax, VAT from alcohol, which is not only considered Haram in their domains, but have state governments that set up paramilitary organizations like the Hisbah in Kano for instance, who as part of their terms of reference, have destruction of alcoholic beverages, anywhere they are found in the state, amongst other human right infringing activities that serve the religious inclinations of the northern Nigerian states, while at the same time, contributing virtually nothing to the nations' GDP.

ILLEGAL MINERS IN BAGEGA, ZAMFARA STATE, NIGERIA DIGGING FOR GOLD.


It is my hope that the government will look to Zamfara as a place to bequeath a model for the diversification of Nigeria's economy, using mining as template that will be replicated in other sectors, including agriculture, because the truth is that only a small, a very small number of Nigerians work in the oil sector. Others find occupation elsewhere, in many sectors official and  unofficial, that remain largely untaxed and undeveloped because the lazy governments at the centre and states rely heavily on that single product under the land of Niger Deltans and the South's offshore. Believe it or not, the Nigerian economy is already diversified, it is the revenue generation from the economy that is yet to be diversified, and sometimes when I look at what's happening now with crude I rejoice because it is a blessing in disguise, unfortunately if the  government fails to recognize it, we will continue to have pockets of attacks like the one in Zamfara days back, when we could have Nigerian or foreign companies legally mining gold, under state protection, with Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR that inhabitants of the region can benefit from at the behest of mining companies, besides revenue that will accrue to the state officially, rather than bribes to some big man or Emir somewhere. Unless we begin to think like this, then the search for the so called diversification of Nigeria's economy will remain but a fleeting illusion (a la Bob Marley), amounting to that proverbial (in Professor Chris Nwokobia's popular refrain) "search for Godot".


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.sweetcrudereports.com
- http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org 

Thursday, November 3, 2016

MY DAY WITH LAGOS' RADIO STATIONS

So, on my way to work every morning, when I don't have, or haven't decided on a particular soundtrack to burn the grind time with, I listen to the radio. I do this also on my way back from work, when I take a break from the soundtrack of the day, having been 'pon deh replay all day. The hours specifically are from 7am to 8:45am and from 6pm to 8pm, which I devote to radio stations in Lagos on work days. While the weekends include 8-9am on Saturdays and 2-3pm on Sundays. These times I spend catching up with news and current affairs, while at other times I'm probably trying to listen in on the latest Nigerian and foreign music, or other special programs that have to do with health, entrepreneurship, and the likes on radio.


I wouldn't have been bothered to write this, except for the fact that recently I've begun considering changing that routine as the monotony is becoming dangerously unnerving, especially with news and current affairs interactive programs, following the last general elections last year, after Muhammadu Buhari emerged president with his party's CHANGE mantra, and the accompanying prosecution of an anti-corruption war, that only the blind and deaf can continue to hail as being not selective and vindictive. I don't bother listening to news in the morning on radio, because the morning's news aren't any different from the 6pm news of the day before, so I simply go for newspaper reviews. When I was an early riser and didn't have a deluge of TV series to catch up on, my day usually stated with the Yoruba language "Kókó inú ìwé ìròyìn" program on 92.9FM from 6:20am to 7am, before going on to 97.3 CLASSIC FM's newspaper review with Jimi Disu whose fixation with Buhari is legendary. You'd think that he has a shrine somewhere in his house where he worships and pours libation to him before coming to work in the morning. That's why I haven't gotten myself to follow him to LAGOS TALKS on 91.3FM from 9 to 10am, because of his very biased views and analysis of events, even as much as calling for extra-judicial measures in fighting the war on corruption, even while Nigeria remains a democracy. Unfortunately, he claims that his dead pan biased views and analysis are for the sake of children, who may be mislead by present events without guidance, while he on the other hand is busy stoking the flame that will burn them, should the grow up with the "I-Know-It-All" attitude of intolerance he promotes on air.

JIMI DISU IN THE CLASSIC FM STUDIOS.

It doesn't matter if the headlines are of an earthquake in Nigeria, or that the world is on the brink of extinction by reason of nuclear holocaust after Russia hypothetically struck first, and the Americans retaliating while in the throes of death, or any other apocalyptic scenario your dark mind can fathom, amongst others making the news; the man will simply latch on the one piece of news he may as well be jerking on, like the one this morning about the former Customs' Comptroller General returning a whopping ₦1 Billion to the Economic and  Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Even when subsequent news items about the worsening economic situation is read to him, he still somehow finds a way to come back to the issue of corruption, prodded by zombie followers, many of whom should know better than engaging in media lynching of suspects arrested for financial malfeasance (that are often times thrown out of the courts for lack of evidence, or poor  prosecutorial handling of corruption cases), mainly of the opposition in the last government, while members of the president's party, regardless of the number of times they trend on social media (where the lynching of the others, not in the good book of government take place routinely) for one act of corruption or the other, are allowed to roam free without as much as been invited over by the anti-corruption agencies to respond to allegations of corrupt activities, many of which are so glaring that even the blind can see, leveled against them.


Sports with Deji Omotoyinbo, still on Classic FM spares me "Uncle Jimi Disu's" shenanigans and dry jokes, which after fifteen minutes affords me the chance to listen to what's left of another interactive current affairs program on SMOOTH 98.1FM's "Freshly Pressed", a delight because of the sound analysis by Cheta Nwanze and sometimes Mazino, which is interjected most times by the female OAP, so called Miss Ireti with a fake British accent spewing the most shit on radio, with her half intelligent reviews and responses to text messages and tweets, especially when they are critical of her views. 8am is when I switch to "Daily Guide" on STAR 101.5FM presented by the duo of sisters' Moyo and Mofe Oyatogun, whose late father was a sportscaster of repute. Though in recent times, only Moyo appear to retain the slot anchoring and discussing as dispassionately as she can, politics and related sundry, the way the common man will understand, with guests on either side of Nigeria's politico-socioeconomic divide, though when the jobless Alester "Obama" Wilcox and his Buhari-praise singing, butt-kissing, boot-licking ass comes on air (almost as frequently as he parades radio and TV stations in the Ikeja axis of Lagos, like one looking to be noticed by the  government in power for his relentless effort at whitewashing their sepulchre), I'd brace myself for the most ridiculous of excuses for a largely underperforming government Nigeria has seen since independence. But I also am inspired by the charity work that both sisters have enabled with their program, and the side attractions from frequent callers like "Prince Y. S. from Amuwo Odofin". Sadly, both sister-Oyatoguns lost their beloved mother earlier this week (barely months after they lost their father), for which I, like many of their fans Lagos-wide extend my most sincere condolences.

A FULL STAR-FM STUDIO AS DAILY GUIDE IS PRESENTED WITH MOYO OYATOGUN, THE ONLY FEMALE WITH GUESTS.

When I'm in a good mood, I go back to listen to sports again on SMOOTH FM by 8:15am to 8:45 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, just for "The Tiger" Terga's beautiful voice and her analysis of almost all sports as she guests on a sports panel. Mehn, that chic knows sports, abeg. Even those very alien to Nigeria such as cricket, in fact I developed my love for F1 from her analysis, and then going further to make Lewis Hamilton my hero. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I may make the mistake of listening to showbiz gossip news on the same station, or remain with STAR FM to endure guests like Alester Wilcox or the one that calls himself a Professor, Chris Nwokobia with verbose yet repetitive use of certain vocabulary, in order to prove his learnedness, with submissions that are empty despite hiding them behind much words, as he continues to project a change, which he campaigned for, but jettisoned by those he helped to get to position (like they jettisoned him), stating that unless certain things are done, the search to take Nigeria to paradise will be like "a search for Godot!"


It's people like these I try to avoid by simply deciding on my soundtrack early. Not because they shy from the truth most times, but because they exaggerate facts and fail to balance their analysis, especially when it's politics. That one I certainly can't deal with, particularly when a medium as powerful as radio is involved, where lies can easily become truth because of frequent repetitions and subliminal inundations. But my morning ordeal isn't even as bad as that in the evening with the program I oft-listen to on my way back from work from 7 to 8pm. I could write a book on that one alone, unfortunately much of what I'll have to report is sad and shameful, of what Nigeria's media has become, and why the Nigerian free (private and non- governmental) news and current affairs atmosphere has lost reckoning amongst their peers worldwide, as they wallow in the pit dug for them by mostly politician-owners of the tools with which they ply their trade.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.classic97.net
- http://www.mobiletwitter.com/dailyguide

INVICTUS TINUBU

  The past few weeks has been electioneering period in Nigeria, and what stood out for me was how the Jagaban, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu pur...