Even better than the one I sent yesterday, Reclaim Naija has tables, so you can very easily find a polling unit near you.

Good morning friend,

One thing we must bear in mind is this: elections are easier to rig when people do not turn up to vote. 2011 is a pivotal year for our country. Those of us who are within the age range must vote. Before you can vote, you must register. After you register, you must select who you wish to vote for. On election day, you must vote. Afterwards, please stay and make sure that your vote counts.

The registration process begins today, and is on for the next two weeks. During the registration process you do not need to take your identification card. INEC is capturing biometric data for this purpose, and they will issue you a temporary voter's card which would be valid on election day.

If you do not know where the nearest registration centre to you is, please consult the map which can be accessed from the link below:

INEC Maps

Simply click on the map, zoom to your city of residence (you do not have to travel to be registered), then find the nearest poll registration centre to your house. There won't be more than 500 people per polling booth, and there are people who are committed to ensuring that the elections are properly monitored. However, their work will come to waste if you do not do your bit. Their work will come to waste if you show apathy. Evil wins when good people do nothing.

Please my friend, between today and the end of January, please make out just two hours of your time, go to the registration centre nearest to your home, register, and on election day, make sure you go back there and vote.

Please pass this message on to as many people as you can.

Thank you.

Chxta | He-of-the-springy-steps

“Dem give us dem culture, we no understand.” ---Fela Anikulapo-Kuti from Why Black Man dey suffer.

So the re-run elections in Delta state have come and gone, and while a result was declared it has been the same old story of snatched ballot boxes, voter intimidation and massive disenfranchisement of the electorate in whole communities.

However, what struck me the most was a statement by an election monitor who covered the elections in the Delta North area. He said, “the elections in these areas were largely peaceful and without incident. Voter turn out was low as a result of apathy, lack of adequate awareness and voter register issues. This was a classroom for INEC and other election stakeholders and there were many lessons to learn.”

The point I would love to pick on the most is voter apathy.

The biggest problem with voters in Nigeria is that apathy, and it is one of the things that is killing us with regards our electoral issues. Nigerians have time and again failed to constitute themselves into that critical mass that is required to make all efforts at electoral lawlessness to come to nought. We are too apathetic to our plight. The reasons for this apathy are many, chief amongst these the belief, mistaken or not, that our votes do not count.

More at source

Source

In the last month I have moved from being a full-time employee in a media organisation to being an independent IT consultant. Last week I was in Abuja to meet with a politician looking for help to improve his web presence for his campaign. We had what appeared to be a fruitful discussion until the issue of remuneration came about.

Politician: How old are you?

, My first impulse was to ask him what my age had to do with the price of fish, but in my almost two years back home, I have discovered that you have to be almost subservient when dealing with an older person,

Chxta: I am thirty.
Politician: You are thirty and you are demanding this much money?
Chxta: With all due respect Sir, the price I am asking for is hardly up-market because you already have a functioning website. I am only going to revamp it for you.
Politician: But that price is too much.

, For the sake of clarity, the man wants his website revamped, then run until the elections are over, which essentially is four months of work,

Chxta: Sir, considering what you want, I think the price of (less than the equivalent of US$3 000) is not only fair, but actually quite cheap. I am only coming in at such a low price because I need to build up my profile before I can actually start charging market rates.
Politician: This boy, you have a lot to learn about life. You are too young to be handling that kind of money.

It was at that point that I shut down my tablet, and walked away.

There is no gainsaying that Nigerian employers almost as a rule do not pay staff well. While I was in Abuja, the announcement came that the Federal Government had approved N18,000 as the monthly minimum wage and people celebrated.

Now consider this: NGN18,000 at the current exchange rate is US$120. Take someone in Lagos who is earning that figure, and consider just his NEEDS, forget about his WANTS. Assuming the cheapest possible combo at the nearest Mama Put, he would spend nothing less than NGN100 per meal. Which translates to NGN300 a day for feeding alone, which in turn translates to NGN9,000 a month.

Let us assume that this NGN18,000 earner has decided to cut his coat according to his size, and accordingly is renting just a room in Ijesha. The going rates for such conveniences are NGN6,000 per month. That already totals to NGN15,000. We have not included the cost of transportation, and the cost of maintaining a partner (or casual sex if he does not have a partner). Then some of these people probably have children.

Also note that we assumed that his NGN18,000 earning was tax independent, which it is not!

Just feeding and shelter alone have cost the man 83% of his income. Leaving him savings of NGN3,000 (US$20) for an entire month to do other things. Then God-forbid, he falls sick,

The second thing that came out of this meeting of mine with the politician is our attitude towards young people. This man genuinely believed that because I have spent only three decades on this planet, that I should not handle a certain amount of money. I can almost bet that he would give his kids, who are no doubt younger than I am, much more without blinking if they wanted to throw a party.

The point however, is that as a country we waste our youth, and this waste starts from the day they finish secondary school. Up until that point, Nigeria generally follows the world's pattern of rounding off secondary education at the 16-18-age range. Then we insist that our children all go to the university. Rain check here, university education is not meant for everyone. What happens, is that the majority of Nigerian youths spend on the average two years waiting to get into the university, and that translates to two years of active life wasted.

So our youth gets into the university at age 20, for a four-year course, expecting to graduate at age 24.

Then the Academic Staff (ASUU) and the Federal Government have another altercation, and our friend has to spend a combined total of eighteen months at home. This raises his graduation age to 26. Finally he finishes his university education, and has to sit at home for anything from six months to one year before he goes to start jumping through ropes at the NYSC camp. This takes away one year of his life. He is finally done with NYSC at the ripe old age of 28!

This is the true average age of the unemployed graduate roaming our streets. Now consider the case in other, more advanced countries.

A child finishes secondary school at 18. In some countries he immediately goes for military service, in others he goes off to the university or starts working. His undergraduate studies last for three years, and by age 21 he is ready to be absorbed into the labour force: seven full years before his Nigerian counterpart.

Is there really more to add to this but the question: do you really need a university degree to work in an MTN Call Centre?

Source

“Do not vote for a Muslim President, there are about 100million Christians in Nigeria who must determine who becomes the President of their country, Muslims have ruled the country for long, Nigerians used to be the most educated people in the world until the likes of Abacha and Murtala Muhammed scattered our educational system to slow down the South so that the North can catch up, instead of speeding up the North.”


The above statement was credited to the senior pastor of the House on the Rock church, Paul Adefarasin. It is said that he made that statement last Sunday, 14 November. I have my doubts about the veracity of that statement, but if true, Mr. Adefarasin has unleashed a very dangerous demon into the Nigerian political space.


The truth though is that religion has always been used by the Nigerian elite, especially those in the northern part of the country as a means of achieving their ends, and not bettering the lives of their people. But in a situation were this country is trying very hard to turn round the corner, listening to a respected pastor such as Adefarasin who has a large following utter such rubbish is not only alarming, it is deeply disappointing.


Let's look at what he has said point by point.


1 – Do not vote for a Muslim President.

I wonder where the religion of a man ever determined his ability to govern. One of the most progressive leaders in the entire twentieth century was a fellow called Mustafa Kemal, the founder of modern day Turkey. He was a Muslim, but early on he recognised the need for the separation of religion and state. Conversely, some of the most repressive rulers to straddle the same century, and in my mind I have a certain Stalin, actually had religious training in a Christian seminary!


2 – 100million Christians

Where did we get 100million Christians from? If memory serves me correct, Nigeria has about 150 million people, almost evenly split between Christians and Muslims in the vast majority, then a small percentage who practice traditional religions. If one wants to be pedantic, then the census figures actually indicate that our Muslim population is closer to 50% while the Christian population is closer to 40% of the total. That would mean that we have more like 60million Christians in the country. Where did Mr. Adefarasin get the remaining 40millions from?


3 – Muslims have ruled the country for long

I can't argue with that one, it is true.


4 – Nigerians used to be the most educated people in the world

Err, rain check here sir. Nigerians have NEVER been the most educated people in the world, and the way things are going now, will never be. The statistics are there for the entire planet to see. At the time the colonial rulers left us in 1960, Nigeria had a single digit literacy rate. Today it is at the 68% mark. How in the name of all that is good and holy did we then become the most educated people in the world? That is ignorance speaking, and the most dangerous kind of ignorance, the kind that people listen to, and act on. For the sake of clarity, Nigeria's educational growth actually began to get retarded under the leadership of Yakubu Gowon, a Christian. Afterall, it was his regime that in 1974 authorised the take over of all missionary schools by the government, and that was when standards began to plummet.


You see dear Pastor Paul, a man in your position should not be misleading the gullible and dimwitted with statements that distort historical facts. A man in your position should tell people the right thing to do. The right thing to do in Nigeria's special case is for all of us to take a critical look at the people who have offered themselves up for election, decide which one of them is the least bad one (yes, they are almost all bad), vote for that least bad person, then make sure that our votes count. The mantra dear Paul should be Register-Select-Vote-Protect, not Muslim-No-Christian-Yes. What I am saying to you in a nutshell, dear Paul is very simple. It doesn't matter what version of God a man worships and what he chooses to call the Most High, be it Allah, Bog or Chukwu. What matters is the man himself, and what he is capable of achieving.


The honest truth is this, given the antecedents of Christians such as Orji Uzor Kalu, Gbenga Daniel, Lucky Igbinedion and Peter Odili, I would rather vote for Diokpa Kene Chukwurah in my village who up until this day worships Amadioha as our forefathers did. At least I know for a fact that he is an honest man.

texazzpete:

This Mac vs PC bullcrap argument.
I own a Macbook pro, and the build quality is awesome, but i'm stunned some people here are trumpeting about the hardware specs of the Macbook pro.
Really?

Only 2 USB ports, no BluRay option, generally slower processors, mid-range GPUs, no HDMI, very few expansion ports, no VGA connector for projectors 

I got the Macbook just for the option of triple booting all the three major OS tranches (OS X, Windows 7, Ubuntu).
That's all there is to it. OS X vs Windows is subjective. Once you get all that elitist crap out of your head, Windows 7 is every bit as good as OS X. Install a decent Antivirus software and use your common sense and you won't have to worry about viruses.

As for buying a MacBook Pro in Nigeria, you'd have to be savvy. Vendors like ishopA.com are stupidly expensive, caught up in the elitist idea that since only 'Big men' buy Apple, therefore market the Apple laptops at outrageous prices. And that's just lame.

At the end of the day, it's best to buy whatever suits you. Windows, Ubuntu, OS X all get the job done. Plus you can configure a far more powerful laptop for a fraction of the price of a MAcbook pro. And you won't need to buy adapters just to use a projector or to connect your laptop via HDMI. Plus you won't need to lug around  a USB hub just to use your MTN modem and  a wired mouse at the same time.

This has got to be the best statement I've ever heard from you in the 25+ years that I've known you. . .

Last week, Apple's boss, Steve Jobs, ridiculed the seven-inch tablets, which are poised to become the next thing in the computer market. Mr. Jobs said, "seven-inch tablets are tweeners, too big to compete with a smart phone and too small to compete with the iPad. The current crop of seven-inch tablets are going to be dead on arrival."

When someone who has more or less been single-handedly responsible for revolutionalising the smartphone industry speaks, you must listen. Again, his 10-inch product has sold almost eight million units since its launch less than a year ago. So, he must be on to something.

But before we go on, a disclaimer here. I disagree with Mr. Jobs, and I will explain. First, we must define what a tablet is, and why Mr. Jobs' comments are very important.

2011 is the year of the tablet. A "tablet" is a computer contained entirely in a flat touch screen that uses the fingers or a stylus as the primary input device in the place of a keyboard or mouse. It is a generally accepted precept in computing that there is a functional wasteland which manufacturers are struggling to fill because it is potentially very lucrative. This functional wasteland is the void between full productivity and pocketability.

Read the rest,

Source

"Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey." ---Benjamin from animal farm.

Nigeria is not going to change for the better anytime soon. And the reason stares at you each time you look into the mirror. It stares at me as well. The average Nigerian is so complacent that the rot will keep getting worse and worse until things simply disintegrate. As things stand in Naija, we are already a very dysfunctional state and things have fallen apart, yet we do nothing!

The attitude of the Nigerian in that of Benjamin in George Orwell's 1945 classic Animal Farm. Benjamin was one of the longest lived animals, had seen a lot, but did nothing to warn the other animals of the pigs' corruption which he realised was steadily unfolding. As a matter of fact, his favourite statement was, "Life will go on as it always has gone on, badly."

That is the attitude of the average Nigerian. Having observed how we behave as a people, I have come to the conclusion that the average Nigerian is not unhappy with the rot around him. Rather he is unhappy with his own position within that rot. Ergo, if he is the top-dog, then the rot is alright because he can then lord it over the serfs that still have to eke a living in that rot.

Not much better exemplifies that attitude than two quick stories I must tell.

The first one happened only two Sundays ago. I had gone to the General Aviation Terminal of the Murtala Mohammed Airport to pick up someone. The flight was delayed (as usual), and having not had anything to eat that day, I went into the only available eatery there, a Mr. Bigg's. I ordered a meal of hot-dog and a drink. I sat down and went through the motions of unwrapping the hot-dog and taking a bite. It tasted strange to me, so I took a look. Inside my hot-dog was a dead insect. Immediately I called the closest waiter and showed him what I saw. The young man actually had the nerve to hiss and walk away, so I promptly lost my temper and walked back to the counter to shout. What shocked me was the reaction of the other patrons of the place. They could not care less. One person actually asked me why I was disturbing them "because of ordinary N300!" I left that place in shock, without getting either a refund or a replacement meal.

Lesson: it is the little N300s that count. If we can't stand up and fight for those small things which add up, then how are we expected to stand up and be counted when our roads begin to develop gashes which later turn into gullies? This is precisely the same thing that happened when NEPA began to first take the power for one day, then one week, now forever!

About a decade ago, a friend of mine became a local councillor somewhere in the former Bendel state. Overnight this young man's life changed. He became a 'big boy'. What surprised those of us onlookers who had grown up around the guy (he is a few years older than I am), was how haughty and arrogant he became. As far as he was concerned, he was the next best thing to God. People who know him still wonder what happened (and for the records, his humility has returned now that he is out of power).

However, a cursory observation of the obeisance paid to people who get into positions with the slightest trapping of power explains to me what happened to this young chap.

In Nigeria, the moment the most stupid and ignorant illiterate wields just a little power, everyone around him begins to tell him how good and smart he is. His wife overnight becomes 'mummy' to all around her. Anyone who so much as mouths (not to talk of voicing) the slightest criticism to him becomes an enemy at that instant, and all the sycophants around our friend will do their utmost to destroy this 'enemy' in the hope of currying some favour real or imagined. Small wonder that our government officials as an example genuinely believe that they can do no wrong, and that they have all the answers to whatever happens despite the fact that their policies are so obviously failing. Small wonder that when their tenures are coming to an end they do every and any thing to retain some vestige of that absolute power that Nigerian society confers on anyone who is fortunate to get into a position of authority within his own domain,

With these twin factors of complacency and obeisance, those of us who think that Nigeria is about to change are dreaming. Probably the best advice I can give to us is to wake up.

Ade got here first, which is good. In case of next time EB, the terminal is your friend. From the output of your problem,

Evil Brain:

ValueError: unknown locale: en_NG

That's where the issue was.

Try starting the software centre from the command line

$ /usr/bin/software-center

If it crashes it would give output information. Paste the output information here let me see it.

Evil Brain:

Right, finally installed Maverick this AM and I'm having problems. The software centre is completely refusing to start. Very annoying

Does anyone have any ideas what I should do? I really don't feel like reinstalling again.

Was it a fresh install you did or an upgrade?

I am one of the most critical Nigerians of my country out there, but even I find this distasteful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzdykNa2IBU&feature=player_embedded#at=22

Microsoft is trying to convince customers who have fled the company’s Office software in favour of an open source alternative to return to the proprietary flock by publicly dissing its rival.

But the rival in question, as you might expect, isn’t internet kingpin Google. Instead, Redmond has splashed out on an ad that warns against the use of OpenOffice.org.

The company got its quotes from various newspaper reports and case studies published on Microsoft’s corporate website over the past few years.

Indeed the ad itself reminds this reporter of the script MS execs consistently read from when quizzed about the open source competition, so it’s hardly that surprising to see it used as a way of trying to woo customers back to the vendor’s Office suite.

In August 2009 Microsoft was spooked enough by Linux outfits, to go public about its fears. It warned investors about new threats to its precious client-side tech ecosystem, by listing Linux companies Canonical and Red Hat as rivals in its annual Form 10-K filing.

And now, it’s panicking about OOo, too. But by declaring such a threat, it would seem that Microsoft just admitted that it's worried about losing market share in an area where it has been unshakeable for years.

Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed, it has been said by Winston Churchill, that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

Ioseb Jughashvili was NEVER in the Imperial Russian military. As a matter of fact he dodged serving the Tsar's armies during the Great War against the German invader. His role during the Russian Revolution, Russian Civil War, and Polish-Soviet War was as a Bolshevik political commissar, not as a soldier. However, that lack of soldiering did not prevent him as Joseph Stalin from being the cruellest dictator of the twentieth century. In the 1930s, he gradually removed ALL opposition to his rule in what became known at the Great Purge of the Soviet Communist party. And it was at that point that Soviet Russia finally slid into a full blown dictatorship.

You see, the most successful societies of the last two thousand years have been almost without doubt Imperial Rome, Great Britain and the United States. All three of them have had one thing in common, a vibrant opposition. The Roman emperors, far reaching though their powers may have been, had the Senate as a weight to check their excesses. Britain was set on its way to becoming a global superpower after the nobles curtailed King John's power by forcing him to sign the Magna Carta. Some may even argue that Oliver Cromwell's attempts to kill off opposition during his reign, and the subsequent frowning on opposition with the return of the monarchy actually sparked off the migrations, which lead to English domination of what became the United States. We all know about the constant rancour in the US Congress.

The underlying point here is the importance of a vibrant opposition.

Tolu Ogunlesi, a writer at NEXT has received many thinly veiled threats ever since his article appeared on Wednesday criticising the rather silly statements made by our president last Saturday. On my Facebook page, I also criticised those statements, and I have had a lot of vitriol (and Bible verses) flung in my direction. It all reminds me of a statement once credited to the current Osun State governor, Oyinlola, when on receiving new decampees to the PDP he enjoined other people to "stop playing politics of opposition and join the winning party".

There are two points that can be brought out here; Nigerians generally do not know how to take criticism. Nigerians generally do not have ideals. All of this is displayed in our political class.

On the first point, I called for the president to resign on a radio show on Wednesday morning. Before getting to the office, people had already called my boss to ask if that was NEXT's official position on this matter. No it is not. It is MY opinion, and I am entitled to it.

For the sake of clarity, the only printable word I can think of to describe President Jonathan's conduct since the October 1 affair is goof. And 'goof' is the only word I can think of to describe a lot of things that he has done since just about the time he became substantive president. I believe, and strongly too, that the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria ought to be a strong character who knows his left from his right. Sadly the man currently occupying the office is neither, and it has shone through in a lot of his decisions. If he were stronger, a lot of the flux around Abuja would not be happening.

Again, no matter how you cut it, the president is the Commander-in-Chief of our security forces. A failure of our security personnel is a failure of the president, and the buck stops at his desk. If he cannot call them to heel, then he is not fit for the purpose, and he should leave the stage.

What we had on Saturday was one of the most embarrassing incidents ever, where the President publicly exonerated the ONLY group to have claimed responsibility for Friday's atrocity BEFORE the security agencies had settled down to begin investigating anything. That action alone prejudiced the investigation before it started because the security agencies would not want to contradict their boss.

Then the subsequent actions of those agencies do smell of a political witch hunt against the campaign of Ibrahim Babangida. One must wonder at the sudden efficiency of our security agencies in catching people with text messages when Aba is full of kidnappers and has been full of them for going on two years, yet there has not been one prosecution, not to talk of conviction.

The point must be made here that as far as I am concerned, IBB has no business being our president or in government ever again, and if Nigeria were a normal country where there was justice, he probably not be in the position he is now. But as things stand, IBB has NEVER seen the inside of any Nigerian court much less been convicted, so in reality, and according to the Nigerian Constitution he has EVERY right to run for office. It then becomes the duty of Nigerians to go out on election day and vote against him. This attempt to use underhand tactics to get him out of the presidential race is unseemly, and is a method that could be used in future to shackle the opposition.

You see, in any normal environment there are two extreme ends of the political spectrum, the extreme conservative end, which is also known as the far right, and the extreme liberal end also known as the far left. Typically, people on the far right see any form of change as a bad thing and are opposed to it, while people on the far left tend to always want to change things. But then those are stereotypes. In reality, there is no human being who is entirely conservative, neither is there anyone who is entirely liberal. What you have are people who are more conservative than liberal, or more liberal than conservative. With that in mind, it only makes sense that at any point in time, not everyone will agree on the same points and we will have opposition. Opposition IS ESSENTIAL to the survival of democracy.

Unfortunately in our country, what we have is a culture of the big man always being right. Hence someone like Uche Chukwumerije can yo-yo between three or four parties in less than a year and see nothing wrong with it. People who have possibly killed other people on behalf of the PDP in my home state (Edo) have all swung over to the AC simply because the current governor is from that party, and trust me, if he is kicked out in the next elections, all of these people would sashay back to the PDP like it's nothing new, while those who say things as they are suddenly become enemies.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/Metro/5617444-146/the_mathematics_of_lekki_toll_road.csp

A concerned resident estimates that he may be spending about N17 million to use the toll plazas for 30 years.

You don’t have to pay for all your computing

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5610209-146/tech_know_free_software_for_a.csp

Regardless of who is running in the elections in the coming months, all Nigerians who are of age have a moral duty to go out there, vote, and make sure that their votes count. There is no other way for us to take the moral high-ground in future and try to hold whoever is our president come May 2011 to account if we refuse to do our own duty in the first place.

However, we are in a dilemma. We lack credible candidates, and the people who have declared their interest in the position actually present us with bad choices.

But what other alternatives do we have?

~Bluetooth:

Is fashola responsible for the accident ? is he the owner of the truck ? Is the ig or police commissioner ? Na wa o

Don't be obtuse. He is the Chief Executive of the state where the tragedy happened. He SHOULD have visited the scene on that day.

The Lagos State governor comes to the aid of a minor who was illegally imprisoned.

Source

So dear Tsiya, did Herbert Macaulay cause us any hardship?

It's interesting to see what y'all have done with this place in my Seun enforced absence. Keep it keeping on. . .

FACE:

The Hausa (Kano to be precise) kept the best records, more than anyone else in Nigeria. They have documented evidence of their history dating hundreds of years. They had scholars who were versed and they can give a good account of their history going back more than a thousand years.

The first Oba of Benin was Eweka who came to the throne circa 1200AD. Prior to him, the Bini have records for the Ogiso (rulers before the Oba) going back a further few centuries. What are you on about? Let's not be sentimental dear. . .

asha 80:

Use google to search fpr 'Sam okwaraji stadium Orlu' and 'Okwaraji Statue in Lagos'

I pass by the bust in front of the disgrace of a stadium in Surulere on my way to work every morning. I am also very familiar with Orlu and know that field that you call a stadium. If those are befitting monuments to heroes in your books, I wish that you be a hero.

Still on the theme of forgetting our past heroes, today is EXACTLY twenty one years since Sam Okwaraji died on national duty. What monuments do we have for him?

Some good points you have there PhysicsQED, but I think you have rather missed the aim of the whole exercise in history.

I am not being simplistic, but rather realistic.

You quoted Malcolm X. In return I'll go further and quote Jorge Santayana who said, "A country without a memory is a country of madmen."

Now let me attempt to answer your first three questions one by one.

1. Who's history? Would a minority from an obscure middle belt tribe necessarily want to spend their valuable time, energy, and money studying, memorizing, and analyzing the ethnically driven political wrangling between the Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa in the nations first years of independence?

I am talking of NIGERIAN history. If we want to be honest with ourselves, written records of our pre-colonial history are scarce. The best records in all of modern day Nigeria were kept by the Edo people. For all the other ethnic groups, what we have for the most part are oral traditions which have a way of changing depending on who is doing the telling. This is not to say that written records cannot be subject to manipulation, but they by far tend to be more accurate.

Every nation that exists today has a starting point. And for the most part the historical figure who was presence at the beginning of that feeling of consciousness is usually referred to as 'father of the nation'. Hence in India you have (depending on who you are speaking with), Mohandas Gandhi or Pandit Nehru. Neither man was born at the time the British created modern India, but both men were present during the struggle for independence, and one of them was India's first Prime Minister.

In Nigeria, Macaulay began as a campaigner for Lagos's freedom, and after the amalgamation, extended his struggle to the freedom of a wider Nigeria.


2. How could it be truly objective? And before you state that no historical account can be objective, take into account that publications by modern historians about ancient countries, kingdoms, societies, etc, are frequently objective, taking into account the views of the times of those societies and modern views into account without taking sides for any of the actors involved at the time.

Publications by modern historians are usually objective because they have one thing that the original writers did not have - hindsight. As an example, it would not have done the American spirit any good to have admitted that George Custer was daft in 1876, but modern historical records are finally beginning to acknowledge that the famous "Custer's Last Stand" was an exercise in both racism and stupidity.

In Nigeria's case it would do us a whole world of good to emphasize on the strengths of those people who began our struggle for nationhood, and use it as a springboard to motivate our younger ones. Great example would be the Japanese manga cartoons which look almost romantically to the Meiji restoration era as a period when Japan became a world power. While that is true, they gloss over the fact that it was also a period of great upheaval for the country.

Your suggestion of waiting for Nigeria to have a good period before teaching her children the history is not a good one because if we wait, we risk losing it all. Our children MUST learn from the past, bad half century, so that they will not repeat the mistakes that were made in the period.

3. Then of course, there is ancient/medieval history, which is even harder. How would a young child feel if they were to learn that the official position of the Nigerian government's education administrators (or whoever would authorize the teaching of the textbooks) about their people was that they were only infamous slave traders, and not much more, or only a subservient group to some other kingdom consisting of some other ethnicity?

For a very long time, the Chinese were vassals to the Mongols, then the Japanese. Same as the Koreans. That has not prevented them from throwing off that yoke and making progress as nations. Neither has Venetian dominance prevented the Genoans, Milanese and Naepolitians from being Italians with the Venetians. It all happened before Garibaldi. My point here is that a time comes in every nation's life when the old rivalries have to be put behind the nation and life begins. However, putting the old rivalries to the past does not mean forgetting them. That makes you lose the very essence of your being.



Now I would have loved to have an even better discourse, but I'm at work. However, what you must bear in mind is that a people's consciousness just has to be galvanized somehow. The Americans have a public holiday for Martin Luther King, and officially he is a hero. But at the time he was around, he was vilified in the media. Same way, the same Americans are slowly trying to repaint the image of George Washington, but the fact remains that he was a slave owner back in his day.

The issue is emphasis. We MUST not forget people like Macaulay.

A few years ago, I listened with a bit of disbelief as a friend of mine told me that she had no idea of who Herbert Macaulay was. What was shocking to me then was that she was a first class degree holder from a Nigerian university, and had grown up in my generation. However at that point in time, I did not find her lack of knowledge horrifying.

Move the clock forward a few years, and I'm now older and wiser. Thus it was that I listened in horror this Saturday past when a young lady who just finished from secondary school and is awaiting her school leaving results told me the same thing. As a matter of fact, this young lady has no idea of who the following people are: Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Mazi Alvan Ikoku, General Murtala Ramat Mohammed, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. To be fair and honest, she recognises their names from the Naira notes that she wields each day, but that is all. She has no idea of what Biafra really was, but at least knows that Emeka Ojukwu was involved in the Biafra story. What his role was, she had no idea.

In shock, I attempted to guide her mind towards contemporary Nigerian politics, and asked her who her state governor was. She replied, "Nnamdi Ohakim". At least she got the surname right. When pressed about who is predecessor was, her response, "Goodluck Jonathan!"

I did what I considered to be the humane thing and give her a crash course on our nation's history. What I found most frustrating was her almost absolute lack of interest in what I was saying!

What I find again most frustrating is the question of who or what to channel my anger at.

The young lady (whom I must point out is exceedingly respectful) is a stunning example of the rot in our country. And nowhere is this rot exemplified more than in our educational system.

The importance of History as a course can NEVER be understated, and in the opinion of this writer, it should be made compulsory through primary, secondary and at least the first year of tertiary education.

It is knowledge of what our forebears did, especially with an emphasis on what they got right, that could well and truly give us a sense of national pride.

So just who was Herbert Macaulay?

After a marketing blitz, it was with a lot of anticipation that I went to watch the much hyped Ijé, featuring Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde and Ulrich Que.

A brief summary of the story can be found in NEXT, but if you want to watch it, maybe you should just wait,

An assessment

The acting in Ijé was excellent. There was not a misplaced delivery in the entire movie, and the emotions were real. There was also no shortage of the occasional pun, which showed the oft seen stupidity of life as a foreigner in Western lands. I found the scene with the Immigrations officer at the beginning to be a classic, something that Nigerians who have been through Schipol Airport, especially, should be quite familiar with. Good directing.

However, the story was way too predictable, and that I found to be the low point of the movie. Unfortunately, that sort of low point is all movie long, and one that I could not quite get over. For example, from the moment that Chioma met Jalen, you could see that they were going to end up in bed. There was no subtlety about that fact at all, and this was a recurring theme throughout Ijé. I frequently found myself predicting what would happen in the next scene with increasing accuracy. Not good at all.

What for me was the most criminal thing that the storytellers did was the dropped themes. There were at least two themes that could have been explored in greater depth in Ijé, and all of them were given only a cursory examination. From the first few scenes, the plot could have developed into a greater examination of the problems that people from third world countries face when they travel to the developed world. The discrimination, deprivations and denials, cue the immigrations officer, the hotel owner, the police and the reporter.

The second theme that dropped was an exploration of rape in Nigeria. For me, this was the most important theme. This movie could have, and should have been a great opportunity to explore the culture of silence in Nigeria that greets incidents such as female exploitation, and the fact that many Nigerian immigrants take such attitudes with them to their new countries, hence Anya's refusal to tell all of her story at the beginning. How many girls in Nigeria have been raped and pretended that nothing happened afterwards because of the stigma that our society attaches to rape victims?

Despite the evidently talented actors on display, Ijé failed to come out of the trap that a lot of Nigerian films fall into, namely: dwelling for too long on certain pointless scenes, and as a result running out of the time required to tell a proper story. After the very excellent ‘The Figurine' from last year, Ijé was a disappointing step backwards.

Ratings

Standout performance: Diana Yekinni, though she had a very minor role in the movie. She played the part of a typical African American who has been processed through the system enough times not to care anymore, with aplomb.

Nollywood cast: Both Nnaji and Jalade-Ekeinde acquitted themselves very well in this movie. They fit their roles to perfection and never put a foot wrong. They are a credit to Nollywood, and I for one would be proud if all our actors can aspire to lofty performances like these. Aki and Paw-Paw take note.

American cast: After ‘Through the Glass' by Stephanie Okereke, I came to the conclusion that Nigerian movies made in America went to acting schools out there and picked the bottom of the class. Ije proved me wrong. The players were all into their roles. For someone who did not do much in the movie, the performance by the silent jailor was good. I just loved the way she would interject, "five minutes".

Naija scenes: Seriously, how stereotypical can you get? This is not to say that there are no beyond-poor people in Nigeria, but must we always do that to ourselves? And given that the girls were supposed to be in their middle 20s to early 30s, you have to wonder when this supposed pogrom took place. Again, I am tired of African villages always being typecast as idyllic to Western eyes. Then there is the permanently recurring violence. Even in the absence of reliable statistics, I would still beat my chest and say that more people are violently murdered in Compton, Los Angeles, than in Mushin, Lagos, each day.

Directing: Chineze Anyaene gives a decent quality movie, especially if you are into going to the movies just for the popcorn.

Story: unfortunately this was a serious letdown. This was way too dull and predictable for me.

Overall: This movie promised so much, but delivered so little. I will not watch it a second time, unlike The Figurine, which I am still looking to download (sorry, buy).

Light Up Nigeria published a series of facts about power in Nigeria this morning. Jeremy Weate compiled them, and I'm piggy backing on his work.

Credit goes to Amara Nwankpa for collating these facts.

*1881: year Electricity was first generated in England. 15 yrs before Nigeria

*1896 The year electricity was first generated in Nigeria. Place was Ijora, in Lagos.

*60KW - Nigeria's generation capacity in 1896.

*Kainji Dam: The oldest, still functional power plant in Nigeria, is about 40 years old.

*48% - percentage of Nigerians who have NO source of power, 114 years after we first generated power in Nigeria,

*40%: percentage of the population served by the National grid

*60%: The average percentage of time when the 40% served by the grid don't have power.

*Kainji Dam: What it was designed produce 760MW, What it is producing now: 400MW. Why? Faulty parts

*3: Number of Hydro Plants in Nigeria. 1939: Amount of power in MW, they are supposed to generate. 1000: What they generate

*11: Number of Thermal Plants in NG. 5976: Amount of power in MW, they are supposed to generate. 2589: What they generate

*There are 16 ongoing power generation projects designed to generate 12,500MW for the national grid

*If the projects were completed today, Nigeria would have 20,000MW capacity in generation. BUT,

*BUT, The National transmission grid is only designed to carry 4,800MW. So 75% of that capacity will useless,

*But it also gets WORSE. Some of the electricity generated is "lost" in transmission. (Transmission Loss)

*Transmission losses usually should not exceed 7%. This means that if 100MW is generated, at least 93MW should get to u!

*The Transmission losses on the Nigerian grid is 35%!!!!! So if 100MW is generated only 65MW gets to you!!

*Please find a diagram of the NG transmission system attached. Notice the TX losses?? http://yfrog.com/114n5g

*Transmission losses in Nigeria are the highest in the world. more than 3 times what is normal.

*Even if we generate 2000GW, our grid will only be able to carry 4800 MW and 1,600MW of that will be WASTED

*So why does the Nigerian transmission grid have such a high loss?? Sabotage! Illegal Connections, Poor Equipment

*There were 12 cases of sabotage of the transmission grid in Nigeria in 2008 alone. (TCN)

*N1m. The amount in Naira paid to Ajibode Community as reward 4 assistance in apprehension of two powerline vandals in 08.

*30 years: The average age of the equipment on the National grid. Older than most of you!!

*To illustrate the capacity issues on the National grid consider the following example:

*River State spends $161m to generate 275MW. Capacity of Grid into Rivers 100MW. 175MW: what RSG paid 4 they don't get

*Rivers State is only getting 40% benefit of their own investment because of grid limitations.

*Over 90 transmission projects are ongoing, to add an additional 9,000MW to the capacity of the grid

*Even if all 90 transmission projects are completed, There will still be a shortfall of 10,000MW in capacity. God dey.

*But even if we complete all these projects, the biggest question is HOW WILL THEY BE MAINTAINED?

*For more information on the status of power generation projects: http:///cs056D Jan 2010, but still current.

*EFCC survey (published 2010), PHCN ranked least performing & least honest, less than political parties or the police!

*According to the same survey, 82% of the businesses surveyed admit they have bribed PHCN for "better treatment"

*If we are bribing PHCN, will they not be corrupt?

*N7/KWh - How much we buy power in Nigeria. N18/KWh - About how much it costs to generate

*N11/KWh - About how much of your electricity bill Govt. pays for you (subsidy). (shrug)

*How much of our PHCN bills do we really pay? Lets do a small check.

*950m - how much in naira Consumers in the Diobu Business Unit in PH Rivers State alone owed PHCN as at March 2010

*98bn - Amount in naira owed to PHCN by FGN MDA as at April 2009.

*70bn - Amount owed in debt to PHCN due to unsettled bills as march 2010 - Minister of State for power.

*So if the customers and the govt. are owing PHCN, how do the staff get paid?

*If you are not getting paid or paid well, are you more likely to collect bribes from saboteurs?

*Now lets talk about gas. Gas is the source of fuel for 40% of all power generated in Nigeria.

*Nigeria produces 4.2bcfd of gas every year. 55% of that is flared (burnt up)

*The amount of gas flared in Nigeria creates about 70 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year. BIG pollution

*Imagine stacking up $2.5bn in $100 notes and burning them up in a huge inferno? That’s what we do when we flare gas!

*The amount of gas we flare can provide electricity for ALL OF Sub-Saharan Africa

*But that is not all. The amount of gas we flare is equivalent to $2.5 BILLION every year!!

*The state of Florida has 55,460MW generating capacity. About 10 times that of Nigeria

*Texas can generate 104,966MW of electricity - beat that with a stick.