Damilare68:
.


Did you have any deficit . I know a few guys at that BGSU program with deficit.

Yes actually. 3k (fees and insurance according to the I-20) But I answered to how he framed his question. Perhaps, he had the full tuition waiver in mind.

Hannah4:
Please what embassy ?

Lagos.

Transcript.

Visa Approved (May 20)

Lagos consulate.

VO: Good morning young man. How're you today?

Me: Good morning. I'm fine. How're you too?

VO: Fine, too. So tell me what are you going to the US for?

Me: I'm going for my Master's degree in Literary and Textual Studies program of the department of English, BGSU.

VO: (typing) You said architecture?

Me: (quickly cut in, and almost shouting at the top of my voice) I said Literary and Textual Studies. It's a concentration under the auspices of English. Literature part of English studies.

VO: (stopped typing) Alright. How many schools did you apply to?

Me: Two schools. Namely, NCSU and BGSU. Both offered me admission.

VO: So why BGSU?

Me: I chose BGSU because of its innovative English program blends both broad based literary courses with practical and flexible courses such as Technical and Professional Editing which for me are greatly responsive to the skill-demands of the present age and align with my own publishing career objectives. More so the opportunity to take additional graduate certificate in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) is attractive to me. So those key considerations will allow me hone and improve my expertise in not just editing, but also in writing, research and pedagogy. (Through out this point, his eyes peered, almost were poring into my own eyes, obviously confirming my genuineness.)

VO: How did you know about BGSU?

Me: I got to know about it via Internet searches, especially USnews.com, having gone through and followed EducationUS posts about studies in US for a couple of months.

VO: What will this course do for you?

Me: It will avail me the opportunity of taking up a senior editorial role in a publishing firm *UPON MY RETURN TO NIGERIA*, as I'd have acquired the necessary skills and expertises as well as the graduate degree qualification the role required.

VO: I see you have full funding here, so who's gonna fund your trip?

Me: My uncle.

VO: What does he do?

Me: He's a thriving businessman and runs hotels in Ogun, Oyo and Lagos states. (The VO fixed his gaze intently at this point also, and I thought perhaps he needed clarification, so I chipped in, 'the hotels are five in number, two each in Ogun and Lagos and one in Oyo.)

VO: Fine. What do you currently do?

Me: I am a publishing editor at **** one of the leading literary publishing firms in Nigeria. (VO nodded)

VO: Are you like a writer also? (He obviously picked this from my Ds-160)

Me: Yes. I've published poems, short stories and various-type articles in journals, literary blogs and pages of newspapers.

VO: That's great. Think we're good here. I'd approve your visa. So I'd hold on to your passport. (Slid the famous white paper to me and literally droned on about things my overwhelming excitement didn't hear)..

NB: The interview wasn't as long as the transcript suggests. In fact it ended as soon as it had begun. I really do not have much advice to those that will soon go for their interviews; just want to say, make sure you tick your boxes very well, know and be sure about why and what you're going to study and it's not bad to check out what you filled in to your Ds-160. I had overheard another VO asking an interviewee why he contradicted what he wrote on the form he filled.

Good luck to everyone�

Thanks to Walspring for helping with my sevis fee payment. He's not only prompt but his charges are quite reasonable. You should contact him if you need to pay yours.

Fatai Yusuf through his Abllat Nigerian products, was responsible for some the most popular and accepted herbal products in the markets right now. Arguably the biggest of his products, and could also be said to be the biggest in the herbal product markets, is Yoyo bitters. Yoyo bitters general acceptance paved way for a number of other bitters products, who were so flooding the markets as Yoyo was then competing with convention medical product in the market.

Other notable trado-medical practitioners that held sway in the field and helped advance alternative medicine are highlighted briefly below:

Read more:
http:///news/detail/2e75beb95163ba7a34f41eda642974bc?product=

What Mrs Buhari has failed to add to freshen up her criticism is the culpability of her husband in the deplorable state of things in the country. It is widely known the kind of mammoth literal and symbolic power that’s vested in the President by the constitution of the country. May we humbly ask the First lady how has Mr President used the power at his disposal (institutional, economic, judicial, yes judicial, and many others) to better the lot of the citizens, most of whom were swept in the ocean of change that Mr President and his cohorts heralded in 2019? 

Two points...
read more:



http://news-af.feednews.com/news/detail/a78074ffec840bc9a8fad4e389b90c52?client=news

Of the 2019 class of governors, Seyi Makinde of Oyo state arguably has ranked highest in the estimation and admiration of Nigerians. The governor does seem likeable and his affable countenance might win (and has been winning) a lot of benefits of the doubt. Yet, it is the way he has attempted to run Oyo state since he was sworn in on May 29th that has created the buzz and hype around him. Not only has he managed to cast off the iron-fist and magisterial approach of his predecessor, Mr. “constituted authority”, he has also initiated some policies, as well as made some crucial interventions in basic areas of governance, that have, on the surface, signaled a breath of fresh air. 
Read more:

http:///s7897a032191129en_ng

It was becoming apparent that the once jaunty Governor-general would lose at the poll, a primary election. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had failed to find favours with his godfather, the Lagos Kingmaker. His sins are now fully catalogued on the net and lips of those who tout knowledge of the Bourdillion’s school of politics. Not long, keen political watchers, far and near, and the Lagos oppositions were thrown into a frenzy of permutations. Perhaps, it was said, at last, the Bourdillion, like all empires, was cracking and would be falling….

In the midst of the tensioned dust generated by the presumed Lagos All Progressives Congress implosion, the major opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, paused its own primary. Perennial contestant, Pharmacist Jimi Agbaje sensed a spoil to exploit, threw his hat into the rig, got the PDP gubernatorial ticket, again – the third time.

Again it would seem he would just be running. And not winning.



An Opportunist Candidacy?

One of the most probable reasons that can be adduced for Agbaje’s candidacy this time was the boon he thought could accrue to him from the potential fallout from the APC’s primary. An examination of the pattern of his previous shots at the Alausa’s government house would reveal that he had always contested when the APC (AC, ACN, and whatever its previous nomenclatures) presented a new candidate. First, as candidate of the Democratic People’s Alliance when Mr. Babatunde Fashola was contesting in 2007; and then as PDP’s candidate when Governor Ambode was contesting in 2015. He did not contest in 2011, in all likelihood, because he felt there was no chance contesting against a performing incumbent. It can thus be safely said that he might not have contested this time around had Ambode, and not Babjide Sanwo-Olu, got the ticket.

Might have been a well taken opportunity, though…



Unlike in 2007 and 2015, 2019 could have been a third time lucky for the PDP’s candidate. The stars initially appeared to be aligning until the sky got clouded. How?

The ruthlessness with which a sitting governor was dumped by his party on the perceived whim of a godfather drew the ire of a lot people, especially those who had not always synced with an idea of a capo di tutti domineering over a highly sophisticated state as Lagos. A Lagos, that is the microcosm of Nigeria, had been in the firm grip of an individual for two decades and, although tolerated to a large extent, his excesses were becoming too much with his initiated public disgrace of the governor. A revolution seemed in the offing and would be fuelled by the angst. Jimi Agbaje seized on the angst and drummed up the beat of freedom. It immediately got traction with the elite, especially the social media, often self-anointed, opinion-moulding elite.

However, succeeding circumstances have revealed that the angst was just the empty call-to-action of the elite, whose condescending display of ornate ideas have often time been begun and ended in their esoteric writings, and now increasingly on their tweets and posts on social media. A call to action without an action on the call has often been the forte of the social media activists and influencers whom Agbaje took his campaign to and hope to crest on.



Who needs freedom?
While the idea of freeing Lagos from the shackle of Bourdillion flew well with the free Twitter lords, self-gloating Facebook emperors and the like, those who are practically in bondage in the crowded Lagos slums, in the roughen markets, on the death-courting Danfos, and others, did not receive the message. Or they did not understand the language it was presented in.

Moreover, in the race to win the hearts of Lagosian to give their thumbs to his candidacy on the polling ballots, Mr Agbaje fell into the same ditch of ethnic faux pas that alienated some of his potential voters in 2015, which coaxed the Lagoon threat of the Lagos paramount king. Being a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, which was reclining into a regional party (South-south, South-east) until the Atiku presidential candidacy and the pre-election defections, it was imprudent to try to stoke an ethnic fire, in the hope to gain politically from it.



Such was bound to split the Igbos, who seemed incline to the PDP, and his own ethnic group, whom he had inadvertently pushed to align with the APC, as a Yoruba party. It is turning out as such.

And Sanwo-Olu appeared a real deal

The circumstance with which he got his party ticket had stacked up some oppositions and doubts against his candidacy. However, the way Babajide Sanwo-Olu has gone about his campaign....

Read more:
https://newpostng.com/2019/01/26/las-las-jimi-agbaje-will-not-free-lagos-by-tobi-idowu/

Few weeks from hence, Nigerians will be made to go through another electoral ritual, that I dare say, they are fed up with. Flashback to four years ago, the mere possibility of an emergence of an opposition party, for the first time, helped bouy the enthusiasm of Nigerian electorate.

However, the masses’ experience in the last four years has only helped to make more stoics of many average Nigerians, many of whom have since sealed their minds to any hope of change (positive change!) from this democratic experience.

To be surprised if there is high scale political apathy across board in this year’s election is to be deliberately dead to the angsts of ordinary Nigerians. In fact, despite the preaching about the evil inherent in bribe taking and participation in vote buying, many a Nigerian who will be at the polling unit in the elections that will be held, will be there mainly to get incentivised in cash and in kind.

Has there been any slight possibility that Nigerians could have been saved from the political claws that are the established political gladiators, and their various parties they choose to be in as suits their political survival, in the last four years? Perhaps, but I doubt.

Before Atiku

Prior to the emergence of former vice president Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, the real contest for the 2019 election stood at President Muhammad Buhari and whomever the PDP would present and or those who could or would be aggrieved from the PDP’s primary.

That hypothesis threw up a possibility of at least two strong candidates slugging it out with Buhari. Circumstances have since buried such possibilty as the projection (from APC, mainly) that PDP’s presidential primary would result into acrimony that would bring up many other realignments that would throw up other candidates never happened.

Atiku emerged. The strong personalities he contested his party’s ticket with stayed with him, knowing full well that it’s better to pool strength together with Atiku than to go confront Buhari alone in the presidential election. What this means is that, the presidential contest is firmly in the hands of the same establishment who has led Nigerians into the present dark tunnel without a hope of light at its end, as APC is just the obverse of PDP.

https://newpostng.com/2019/01/11/why-young-people-will-continue-to-run-away-from-nigeria-by-yusuff-uthman-adekola/

What about Third Force?

Safe to say that the much vaunted third force would definitely not take anything back in this year’s election- if there was ever anything to take back in the first place. I deliberately did not mention the candidacy of other parties (who could be described as the third force), apart from PDP and APC, in the scheme of the first possibilty, for obvious reasons. Nigeria was never ready for them.

And as it has turned, and despite pretending to the contrary, the so-called third force candidates have shown that they’re not ready for the huge task of salvaging Nigeria from the grip of its neo-colonialisers, who unfortunately are Nigerian citizens, the so-called one-percenter. Perhaps, a few have shown potentials. Maybe the potentials would grow in the nearest future, or never grow at all.


And it was Obasanjo’s Force!
It was said that the former president slyly hijacked the movement. But with such provenance, the third force was bound to enjoy a lot of suspicion rather than the benefits of doubts it needed badly at the start....

https://newpostng.com/2019/01/12/2019-election-and-the-perils-of-choice-nigerians-will-be-making-by-tobi-idowu/

... Al-Azhar University, says it has expelled a female student after she appeared in a video hugging a male colleague.

The school accused her of undermining the school’s reputation.



The video, which had went viral earlier this month, showed a young man bearing a bouquet of flowers, kneeling before a young woman and then hugging her in what looked to be a marriage proposal.

The video it was reported was not filmed at Al-Azhar — a branch of Egypt’s highest Sunni Muslim authority — but at another establishment, Mansoura University in the country’s north.



However, the disciplinary council of the Al-Azhar University campus in Mansoura on Saturday “decided to expel the young girl definitively”, university spokesman Ahmed Zarie told AFP.

He argued that the video had caused a “public outcry” and that the university’s decision to expel her was because she had presented a “bad image” of Al-Azhar University, which strictly segregates the genders.

He added that hugging between unmarried men and women violates “the values and principles of society”

University expels student for hugging https://newpostng.com/2019/01/13/university-expels-student-for-hugging/

Loans have been the cause of many a relationship conflict, so many people like to skirt around this issue.

What do you think? Are you comfortable lending your partner money, no matter how long you’ve been together or how much he or she needs. Do you have any rules you follow when it comes to loans between lovers?



Leave your thoughts, opinions and comments on this issue as we also share opinions of others below.

Idakwo Abdullahi



“I can’t borrow her, I better give her because it is my responsibility and duty to take care of her”.

Owolabi Azeez

” I can but I will never ask, even if she proposes to make refunds, I will reject it”.



Ajayi Oreoluwa

“I can’t let go.. I will make sure I collect it o but not until I know he’s financially buoyant”.

Shuhu Barbara



” It depends on the understanding in the relationship. If my guy is having problem, he can confide in me and if I have at that moment, I will ‘give’ him, not lend him. Relationship has to be 50-50 because he spends on me too and I shouldn’t just leave him during his trying times and for the fact that we both have an income, we must be able to spend on ourselves..we mustn’t wait till either of us is dead broke “.

More opinions of people here:
https://newpostng.com/2019/01/12/is-it-ever-a-good-idea-to-loan-your-partner-money/

This is one year to start getting serious … (I know we’re not thinking the same, so do not assume anything).

I mean, it’s 2019 and we’re at a sensitive and determining season in Nigeria where we get to wield our power of choice. 4 years is no joke, e dakun. However, only few are equipped with that weapon. With my skinny (but fine) legs, I found my way to Bodija market, in Ibadan, last week to get some foodstuff, in order to withstand the strokes of hunger.



So that’s how one politician like that blocked the road with cars and buses as he campaigned to the poor market women. The men were barely distracted and continued with their business but the noise romanced the women’s emotions. They had no intellectual breastplate to ignore the charm of the campaign rants. Empty promises – as expected.


Few minutes passed and the young politician only waved empty hands at the expectant women who almost loosened their wrappers to pledge their support and excitement for the party in public daylight o .
“Omo n lahun tiii…”, one of them concluded later. “To ba je Penke ni, ahh….. Another said.

Money politics is no stranger to them… “Owo lo le shey”, the woman who was selling garri to me screamed too loudly for my small ears. I was going to leave her in anger but I decided against it.

Read more:
https://newpostng.com/2019/01/12/how-women-are-bought-in-nigeria-by-olamide-tejuoso/

Why Young People Will Continue To Run Away From Nigeria | By Yusuff, Uthman Adekola
If there ever is anything we can call the backbone of any nation, the youth population undoubtedly remain foremost in the scale of ranks.

The essence of the youth, in national development, can neither be overlooked nor belittled. An immutable truth, as can be observed through the realities of life, is that every new generation of the human race tend to be more open to new ideas as well as newly arising phenomena. Thus brimming with natural energy, enthusiasm, ambitiousness, foresightedness, vigour, talents, inventiveness and openness to new trends of life, the youth remain immensely significant in any nation that must attain its full potential.

All that the nation needs then is to simply ensure to make adequate use of the youth’s inherent potential energy waiting to be tapped.

However, the lingering questions are: have the youth always exerted their roles towards contributing to national development? Does society even provide enough enabling environment for the exertion of these roles? These questions and many more remain of great concern in the world at large, in Africa as a continent and, much more pressingly, in Nigeria as a nation.
However, the ugly reality hitting us in the face in Nigeria precisely is the fact that the potential resourcefulness of the youth is often rendered impotent and, thus, not well utilised. There are a number of young people in Nigeria who have proven their mettle across different fields or spheres of life. Shall we talk of art and literature, or science and technology, or leadership, entrepreneurial and problem solving skills, or even more? In these areas and many more, a number of Nigerian youth have shown excellence beyond a doubt. They have proven to be invaluable and priceless and very much possessive of development-spurring acumen.

Nonetheless, the sad story here is that, instead of the youth to be encouraged and further nurtured in the country, their hopes, aspirations, talents, passion and creativity are greeted with disillusionment. Then, they travel to other countries of the world to offer their brains for money. Hence, the other lands’ economy takes a ride up the slope while ours bends for a drink that is non-existent.

Perhaps we even need not talk about the neglect of the youth’s impact in contributing to Nigeria’s national development since even the exceeding human resources of the country are not tapped into as expected. And all these only keep Nigeria further dipped into the cesspool of underdevelopment.

"Rather than utilise their brimming energy for decision-making purposes especially as regards areas concerning the youth themselves, egoistic politicians devilishly take advantage of the pervading unemployment or lack of good living amongst the youth. The youth are therefore turned into agents of crises upheaval, instead of catalysts of developmental ideas."

Read more:
https://newpostng.com/2019/01/11/why-young-people-will-continue-to-run-away-from-nigeria-by-yusuff-uthman-adekola/

http://eckovibes.com/2017/05/29/your-lives-are-in-danger-if-you-protest-oyo-police-commissioner-tells-ui-students/

The Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Odude, has warned the Students of the University of Ibadan to shelve their planned protest on the major roads of Ibadan on Democracy day or else their lives will be in danger.

"A people have the right to decide and determine whatever becomes of them, self-actualisation included, yes! But when this becomes a culture without any social implication if not for selfishness, greed, divisive ways and hindrance to a balanced development, then it becomes a misnomer and an intolerable evil for that matter. Not until now, I used to be in support of the self-actualisation of the eastern people. In fact, I have argued vehemently in their support, although with no substantial evidence at my disposal, maybe the arguments were partisan and one-sided all this while. But recently, when I took a vivid look at the whole concept, what it has cost Nigeria, the recent flippant demands and most irritatingly, the foul cry that pervades the air, I believe that supporting such a cause is just opposing the common good of Nigeria and our future.

Someone may quickly point out that what does my voice amount to or what does my support or opposition to a cause like Biafra mean to the whole concept. Yes, you are right only because it is your right to hold your personal opinions and not because your sanity tells you that every human has a stake in every national issue. If not money, property or resources, what of relations and one’s own life? The last civil war took away over 2 million lives, how many of them do you know. They were nobody like me too but who paid ultimately with their bodies. Their destinies were shattered and hopes of their families and loved ones dashed into the thin air. War is better imagined than experienced. Today, Ojukwu is remembered and celebrated even in the post-humus form but the other millions of people he led to their untimely death are never mentioned. He is celebrated today because he led millions of people to die. Shall we conclude then that you get celebrated in a faraway but nearby land when you lead ignorant, innocent and unsuspecting souls to death?"

http://eckovibes.com/2017/05/20/biafra-a-directionless-people-fighting-an-aimless-battle/

It will only amount to self-deception to accept the claim that Biafra had started decades before amalgamation as purported in some quarters. If it had started and was really existing as claimed by our dear elders, then, the country wouldn’t have been merged with the then newly formed Nigeria. After all, it was a forceful fusion of different components and never different countries of the world. We are only being deceived by calling it forceful fusion though, because if not for greed and self-centredness of people who have had the opportunity to rule us, the country would have fared better than this. They knew/know that the only means they can perpetually keep us under their feet and in penury is to apply the divide and rule method. No wonder Fani-Kayode and Fayose cheaply click into the divide and live method and unfortunately, people bow to their devilish way of living. Before digression becomes the main issue, may I reiterate that Biafra is a concept or even an ideology found on greed and frustrations of some man and unfortunately rebranded and sold to all. He used the injustice to one is an injustice to all mantra to make the issue looked as if we are all involved. Today, people have died and are still dying, yet, the purported nation is not receiving its identity.

Gullibility seems to have pervaded the air and blocked the sight of my people over there. Some have ignorantly boasted that they were ready for the 1967-1970 experience without giving it a second thought. O ye Biafra agitators, for what shall it profit you to cut off your own soul untimely and by implication, your generation, and yet what you labour(ed) for does not gain expression? Truth be told, this fight for a new country out of the existing entity is not holistic, rather it seems to be the work of opportunists who are not concerned about what becomes of their people. They take joy in using the lives of their people as sacrifice in getting the undeserved fame and attention. Unfortunately, the Federal Government as usual fail to manage the issue of Kanu well and through that, birthed a non-existing hero out of him.

If truly the call for the creation of Biafra republic is holistic devoid of some personal interests, where did the agitators go during the five-year tenure of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan? Didn’t they think it could have been easy for a kinsman to support their cause in that capacity? The numerous people who looted the nations to a coma that were part of the last Executive council and government, what did they achieve for the people? The governors that receive nameless and unpronounceable allocations compared to many other states, what do they use them for other than sponsoring of thugs and turning their states to no-go-areas? Do they prepare for the awaiting child at all? It seems those that will make it happen are un-expectant. The renewed strength of the different components that claim to be fighting for the actualisation of Biafra is just like a dedicated war against the current administration. A mere antagonism for a dispensation that seems to have little passion for the average Nigerian.

The public outcry of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) on Wednesday, May 10 on the alleged plan to disenfranchise the people of Eastern region is irritating and to an average sane mind, nauseating! For times without number, you’ve proclaimed that you are not part of the entity called Nigeria and yet, you still cry of being cheated at every instance of national issue. That is not the best way to seek relevance for a particular group in a country that seems to be bleeding from all points. There was an administration where your notable kinsmen and kindred don’t knock before entering any room in the villa, not even the other room, what is the effect of this golden opportunity on the people of Eastern Nigeria? Was it not just a means of self-enrichment and careless vibrations?

An average Nigerian should be happy that many people from the east now believe that there is no need for such war as civil war again. It is not just worth it to start afresh after watering the land with the blood of humans coupled with the negative effect of oil spillage in a world market that is fast rejecting the oil and its owners in a like manner. An attempt to go for another self-determination through force will only amount to another ignominious defeat for aggrieved few with the negative impact on unimaginable numbers of people. Just recently, I saw a message composed by a Biafran accusing the Federal Government of marginalising the Eastern part of the country from the planned modernised railway projects in the nation. Once again, an average sane mind may be forced to ask, who is the minister in charge of the ministry that awards such projects? Evil antagonism only makes a man kill himself without his needed consent.

Going nude or incessant protests without any direction will not birth a country that will solve all your problems. After all, it has been discovered from the world happenings that it’s only few nations’ fortunes that change after using the whole of their lives to fight for self-determination and actualisation. Apart from the government providing a fertile ground for development to take place, followers must also be committed to making it happen in the same manner. That is how the developed states of the world made it and not through incessant cries, distractions, tribal antagonism and baseless accusation of authorities. It would be better if the call for the creation of Biafra can be a holistic one, a fight geared towards liberating a consenting people in a civilised way at the appropriate time.



OKE BABAWALE SIMON

http://eckovibes.com/2017/05/25/arent-feminists-making-feminism-a-pointless-war-uthman-adekola/

"Some voices have been heard, and have, as time keeps passing by, gone into silence. Slew of issues as well have been raised and subsequently dumped in the bin, owing to the lack of commitment. There have been many causes fought only to be eventually forgotten. However, it eminently gets one flabbergasted that there is a seemingly ever-thriving fight – among others which have either died down or have been forgotten—that keeps waxing as each dawn and dusk goes by. This fight remains resilient, perhaps, because of the intrinsic nagging and fussy nature of some women. The feminist cause remains unbending as the feminists do not cease to recruit more and more females into the scope of their thoughts.
The feminist movement certainly did not just surface like a lightening. It of course surfaced as an offshoot of certain women’s and men’s laudable stand against the female gender discrimination and victimisation in years past. These preceding waves of feminists have apparently made tremendous achievements. They have been able to make come through, the women’s suffrage, equal rights to work, right to assume public and political offices, to property, to education, and so forth. Again, they have been able to efface, to a creditable extent, sexual harassment, rape, domestic violence amongst other baleful acts of violence.

Nonetheless, the feminist movement is not without divisions of varying magnitudes of doggedness and aims. There are the liberal feminists who make do with the law as a tool for getting their aims accomplished. There are also the radical feminists who—as suggested by the name—are usually extreme in their approach as they are even at times tagged “anti-men”. There was a case where this faction of feminists sought the help of scientists in developing machines that would produce children without necessarily involving the womb or a man, so that they could be ultimately independent of men. Another feminist type is that of the social feminists whose aims are targeted at having equal economic and social power. There are other kinds of feminists but, all in all, the radical feminists seem to be the commonest in this contemporary time, especially as perceptible from the current goings-on.
Gradually, the word ‘feminism’ –it seems—is dominating the world’s lexicon of words, especially in Nigeria and Africa at large. It occurs in our day-to-day conversations, classrooms, articles and even the media. Almost any human possessing whatever physical features that suggest who a woman or lady is, now claims to be a feminist albeit not knowing what the term itself connotes. Of recent many who claim to be feminists – radical feminists – believe all they need to do is do away with men who they consider as ‘trash’. This is what has been trending for days especially on Facebook. Yes, some so-called fourth-wave feminists, otherwise called internet feminists, write disparaging and vilifying things about men, as if only “men” are guilty of violence or sexism. If feminism is all about war against the male gender, then, it is utterly pitiable that this so-called radicalism is none but sheer ludicrous rascality, for this amounts to nothing but absolute irrationality at its zenith.
There is no gainsaying the fact that women, just as men, should be entitled to political, economic, personal and social rights which would engender equity, justice and fairness. It is nevertheless germane to note that men and women can indisputably never be equal. If anybody tries balancing the scale between these two obviously dissimilar genders, there would surely be a problem as that would only be amount to a fight against nature which ultimately means a fight against the Divine (in the case of non-atheists). Again, culture and societal reasons aside, the male gender is usually naturally above the female gender, even by merely considering their distinctive anatomy as well as their varying physical strengths. Why then is the need to fight for equality rather than equity? If nature herself has set a gap between what men and women are capable of, why then should we be lost in the love of beating up a dead horse? On the whole, equity can surely be realised but never equality.
Without a shadow of a doubt, there are a countless number of men who, evidently by their actions are uncultured animals only being quarantined in the human skin. Now, the prompted questions here are these: are men only the human folk engaging in the so much disavowed psychopathic violence permeating every North, South, East and West? Are men not also being raped to death by women? Are they not also subjected to domestic violence or murder in the hands of their wives? Do we not hear of, read about or even witness tender babies or infants being dumped on wastelands as though they were a lifeless insignificant tissue paper? Are there not cases of incessant abortion and even the legalization of this murderous cum suicidal act by these so-called feminists? If women are also not sacrosanct of these gross savageries, then, calling men ‘trash’ only brings to the fore the fact that some erring women themselves are also ‘garbage’ as a virtual friend of mine did say.
Progressing further, it is uncalled for and as well as disheartening that this once good cause is now steadily getting blotted like an oil-stained white fabric. The cause now seems to be crossing the separating borders between the commendable and the reproachable. Some group of overzealous feminists are now set to alter the Divine Books, forgetting about the forsaken rebellious Satan. How utterly audacious and brazen it is that even God himself is challenged. Some have requested that the God-referent pronoun ‘He’ be abolished for it is held that it discriminates against the female gender. Perhaps, the naturally ingrained weakness of humans is being ascribed to the Infallible Being, due to their success of eventually stopping the general use of ‘he’ rather than ‘he/she’ for both gender, in the English Concord. Let us not allow our wants or needs debase us into becoming blind bats and hence making us trespass what ought not to be.
More so, the truth of certain aspects of African and, more precisely, Nigerian culture being uncouth and gender-biased cannot be denied; but then, not all of these cultural practices can be justifiably revoked. Apparently, a great deal of Nigerian tribes subject women to marital victimisation, amongst other forms of barbarisms. Many a time are widowers forcefully made to drink waters used in bathing the corpses of their dead husbands, having the hairs on their heads shaven or married off to the brothers of their late husbands; and whatever property or possession left by the deceased is avariciously but insidiously confiscated by the tortoise-brained lazy family members. That, certainly, is not justifiable; but when there is hue and cry against the different natural roles of the husband and the wife in a marriage, there arises absolute absurdity of thought. Why would a wife ever declaim cooking? All right, if the maintained stand is that women are not slaves – of which I also firmly uphold, why then should you ever request for a housemaid when the help most probably would be from this same female gender?
Finally, it should be clearly stated that this article is not at all condemning the feminist movement but only trying to sober us up a little and to mitigate the overly radicalism corresponding to rascality being displayed by a particular set. A discerning mind would realise that this article itself is, even if in the least, feminist. Now, this is a projector of the sounding gong to get the extremist feminists’ mind off the stray path. Let it be known that feminism is not a war fought through libel and slander; rather, a struggle that should be targeted at, and I reiterate, equity and never equality.

http://eckovibes.com/2017/05/27/ui-students-demand-for-i-d-cards-call-f-g-to-intervene/

"The students of the University of Ibadan have cried out to the Federal Government to intervene in the school management’s refusal to issue students’ identity cards to them for the past two sessions."

Politics can be daunting for anyone; and, for students, combining studies with politics can really be demanding and even be herculean. Politics in this sense does not all mean occupying a post in the faculty association or the students union, rather it begins at the grassroots: in this case from being a class representative or being a floor representative in the hall of residence. The hustle and tussle to get to be the representatives can be feisty in some departments and halls of residence, especially in such departments or halls where the fire of politics rages. There was, for instance, a spirited battle between two contestants at last semester in Kuti hall of residence, University of Ibadan, over the post of floor representative.

These two obvious greenhorns in UI student politics locked horns almost bitterly in order to rep their floor. They were both 100level students. One of them would eventually win, but some weeks after, his initial 'gra gra' had been sapped by the academic demands of his studies. He learnt so fast that, politics does not insulate one from academic rigour in the university.

Politics is said to be a selfless service; a (student) politician is, on that basis, presumably called to serve. Once a student discovers his/her political calling, s/he informs his/her closest allies and the journey to receiving the biggest anointing for his calling begins in earnest from the majority of the students s/he needs to get to his/her envisioned post. Meanwhile different factors, whether openly stated or not, serve as the propellants that drive political ambitions of students. However, monetary gains ideally are out of the factors that drive one. Therefore some of the challenges faced by students, which will form the bulk of the next paragraphs, can chase away intending student politicians. These challenges are also responsible for the inactivity of some student politicians.

Time is the soul of a business! The primary reason each and every bona fide student of the university is in school in the first place is to study and graduate with a presentable certificate which will look good on a curriculum vitae. However, a student politician has to learn how to spend his 24 hours judiciously; he needs to learn how to go about his studies and also deliver unto the ‘people’ who have called him to service without either suffering. This can be a little too much on such a student because there might be times when studies and politics will need attention at almost the same time. This may prove a difficult pass to navigate for some student politicians. The dilemma student-politicians fall into sometimes outstrip that of the Hamletic question of To be or not to be? To jettison studies for political demands may be an invitation to the so called CGPA vampires, and to do vice versa is to court the censure of the hard-to-please fellow students.

Moreover, money drives any ambition. Student politics has become so costly that ambitions of many a student has been killed because of their inability to compete with others who are able to finance their own ambitions. Making of posters, jingles, banners etc. requires funds, huge funds at that. These are many necessaries that are sine quo non in student politics on campus. All these will go a long way to project and illuminate the politicians ideas and personality which will crystallize fast and in time before the election. A student with less visibility has less chance of winning the hearts of his fellow students. This point applies to the larger societies as it is often seen that politicians go all out to cover every blade of electoral grass in order to be known and seen by prospective voters.

Meanwhile it is an obvious truth that a politician cannot and must not please everyone at every time. One who does this is digging their own destructive pit. There comes another dilemma for student politicians on campus: to please his closest allies all the time in lieu of the general student populace or do otherwise? Often this conundrum makes some student politicians appear clueless. More often than not, they are confused in the convincing calls their allies and the general populace put to them. More so, the dangerous bend student politicians must always pass each time the will of student populace clashes with that of the management is usually pitiable.

Furthermore, students are always on their parents or guardians tether even while on campus. Keen parents or guardians are anxious to monitor their wards activities as much as possible. They are quick to draw the ears of these young adults on campus to the dangers of engaging in activities that may terminate their academic sojourn or even prolong it beyond the normal time. Therefore it is not surprising when parents and guardians often want to discourage their wards from making political forays while in school. The default thought are usually clashes between school management and students which students cannot win; clashes between different political camps which may turn out to be ghastly or even fatal et cetera. Parental solitude obviously is praiseworthy, but it can suffocate students latent leadership qualities if taken too far. The best place to begin the long lifetime process of being what one will become remains the school.

In conclusion, the demands of politics and studies can be intimidating. To judiciously harmonize the two attention-demanding tasks is not for the laggards. Therefore it is usually to the credit of student politicians who are able to navigate the two successfully. To excel at both will be utile in the here and there.




Tobi Idowu studies English at the University of Ibadan.
tobidowu.
tobywonders@gmail.com

The days are gone when Nigeria and Nigerians
swelled in economic plenitudes and riches
buoyed by crude oil; well so it seems, perhaps till
there’s an upturn in the fortune of the black gold
which continues to flounder in the international
market.

This straining phase of Nigeria’s existence didn’t
just ghost in suddenly in our midst; the devil
came after a billion minute persuasions and
coaxing. Corruption, profligacy and improvidence
in different degrees were and are the tools with
which Nigerians, from the top to the base,
toasted and are still courting the mite of
economic woes into the land.

Nigeria’s political elites and their variegated
cronies across all sectors, apart from an almost
insignificant fraction of them, have become
world-famous veritable despoilers of their country
Commonwealth. The present harsh economic
woe of the country is the culmination of these
elite’s plundering. Perhaps they’d been
consciously blind to the various dark portraitures
they had managed to evinced from foreigners,
especially from the West, in relation to their
fantastic corruption when they suddenly morphed
into scrupulous patriots cavilling at the truism in
the British Prime minister’s epithet…

David Cameron had surely seen much of the
corruption harvest of Nigerian politicians and
other privilege thiefing class freighted to his
country on daily basis. He could have got notice
of another of such now routine exercise on that
very day he made his remarks.

It is therefore not surprising that one of these
beneficiaries of the pillaging business sought
amnesty for his ilk. A distinguished Senator of the
Federal Republic, Bassey Akpan, out of his sharp
intellection, came out with a rather ingenious
means of getting some of the stolen money -a
whopping seventy percent- back into the country;
an ingenuous admission, however, of the
plunderous art that has overtime been perfectly
mastered by the privileged class which he is part.

Along the economic rungs, from the base to the
top, are many wrongs that are devastating the
country. The art of corruption is well ingrained in
the heart of most Nigerians that it’s often the
case of the while you leap a rung to a higher one,
the more you are expected to cart away the
commonwealth. One is presumed a consummate
fool who questions his own right to take from the
‘national chin chin.’ Many a Nigerian actually
believes that stealing business is a turn-by-turn
thing; so while it’s your turn, fleece as much as
possible.

It is, therefore, not shocking when some take
umbrage at the trial of corrupt persons. ‘Everyone
does it; it’s just that they’ve not be caught.’ This
and other vindicative tunes play out of the
mouths of many Nigerians, sadly.

The case of not saving for lean days was best
exemplified by the capacity for rapacity that
characterised the Jonathan’s era. When posterity
looks back at that era, it will have to suspend its
disbelief in men excessive drives for wealth that
drove their country into almost economic
comatose. Having one of the best economic
teams in any government couldn’t make the
Jonathan-led government provident enough; nor
the fact that the commander-in-chief of the
Armed force rode into power on the goodwill of
his people made him conscientious enough to
safeguard their lives.

While Nigerians took untimely flights to heaven,
Jonathan government took and shared among
the friends and allies of the government the
money earmarked for their security: the now
famous Dasuki-gate.

Meanwhile, those down the economic ladder are
not exempted from improvidence. In a bid to-
enjoy-life-because-it’s-brief many Nigerians are
recklessly frittering away the now scarcely got
resources in their hands. Instead of adjusting to
the situation of things in the country, some will
rather not have a meal on their tables tomorrow
than to eat less than they are used to today.
There’s a case of an electrician who complains
he doesn’t get work to do due to epileptic power
supply, and so he can’t feed his family; but
whenever he gets a work to do, he comes home
stocked with beers, buys petroleum and then
locks himself in his room while his stereo booms
on. He loves this occasional boon that he forgets
he’s most time in economic doom.

Yet, the electrician is an archetype. He abounds
in different shades and temperaments across the
social spectra. It’s a case of the
misunderstanding of the alowo-majaiye dictum
that Nigerians are wont to, wittingly or
unwittingly.

In the light of the foregoing, therefore, it’s
imperative that apart from making tried, whether
they’re eventually convicted or not, corrupt
persons as deterrents, there must be a paradigm
shift in the premium and value placed on the
acquisition of wealth. Something expedient needs
be done to convince Nigerians, especially the
youth that success doesn’t have only one
yardstick, wealth. Life-is-all-about-money craze
must be beaten down in the media, in schools, in
places of religious worships etc. Wealth is a
factor, an important one, but other measures of
marking a fulfilled life must be floated across all
the possible platforms of dissemination of
information.

Furthermore, government across all levels must
lead by examples if Nigeria’s floundering
economic ship is to be saved from finally
foundering. The incredible figures that Nigerians
heard everyday as the money that maintain their
leaders are incentives enough for anyone to
aspire to one day get his chance of joining the
leaders on the stage where he’ll also take his own
share of the national cake. Politics has merely
become a means towards economic uplift at the
expense of others who waddle in hardship. This
must be stopped and discouraged, but the
leaders must start the process by removing the
big logs in their eyes before followers follow suit
by taking out their own specks.

Finally, these days are times when everyone
must live with the realities on ground. Nigerians
must realise that these days are lean days that
must be adjusted to. The Buhari-led government
also needs to be up to task in ensuring citizens
trust it. The perceived taciturnity of this
government in making known its plans must be
looked into if it’s to win citizens full trust. The
case of having to explain things after decisions
are made is not a good way to run a democratic
government. The fallout from the subsidy removal
decision is a textbook case.

Tobi Idowu is a student of University of
Ibadan.
tobywonders@gmail.com

https://tobidowu./2016/05/28/nigerias-economic-strait-adjusting-to-the-lean-days/

There was a change in this unfelt changed season. Not even the meddlesome dollar could poke its busybody fangs in this change. On March the 5th, 2016, precisely at the Students’ Union Building Foyer, University of Ibadan, Students’ unionism inhaled and also exhaled a breath of vibrancy long stoked away in limbo. Evangelised by the Premier Aluta numero uno, Oladimeji Aliu, ‘Ahh Speaker,’ students thronged from their halls of residence to the S U B Foyer, with a common goal of which the pulling down of the pavilion of darkness that had covered the school campus since the commencement of the 2015/2016 academic session enjoyed a primus consideration.
https://tobidowu./2016/03/08/there-was-a-congress/

It is high time students leaders and other students stopped the stupored intake of draught of euphoria of the glorious exploits of the past heroic leaders. A measured pint of their exploits will always do to spur anyone and everyone to act accordingly to conscience and in solicitude and empathy for other students.
https://tobidowu./2016/02/04/kunle-adepeju-what-memorials/

na kuti ui gv me... Kuti i rep,d hall with frequent electricity supply!

Nigerian military men on the loose

https://tobidowu./2015/12/25/nigerian-military-men-on-the-loose/
They marry people’s wives at will, they impregnate their daughters and extort the men. They engage married men and women in drudgery to establish their authority over the people. They have established a quasi- state at Majidun.

[quote author=Fynestboi][color=#000099]longest time dude na where u go all dis while?
being busy preparing 4 ui after jamb waterloo.

congrat to those that'd checked theirs. had 82, english language and literature.

My rash research found ARISTOTLE, ca 350BC. He 'was one of the first in recorded history to make a formal distinction between ORDINARY LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, establishing ideas of CONSTITUTION AND CONSTITUTIONALISM...'. You can check his seminal works POLITICS AND ETHICS for exhaustive studies, or better still, go to WIKIPEDIA. The other options, bar plato, were later improvements, and/or avant garde schorlars on his work.
SIDELINES: The oldest known constitution (pseudo-constitution), is code of Ur-Namu of Ur (ca 2050bc)
india has the longest written constitution, containing 117,369 words, 448 articles, 12 schedles and 100 amendments, while usa has the shortest written constitution, at 7 articles and 27 amendments!
Biblography: wikipedia, constitution.org

Mhizsleek: Hello guys. What O'level subjects do I need credit in before I can study English Language? My scores are as follows
Eng: B2
Yoruba:B2
Commerce:A1
C.r.s:C4
Economics:B2
Govt:B3
Lit.in.eng:B2
Mathematics:E8
Biology:D7
I wrote my O'level last year. My Utme score for this year is 212. I chose Oau as my first choice, a native of Ife. What are my chances?

your chance is high, u already av them. Eng/lit/crs/gov.