Nuhu Ribadu et al

Finally, nemesis has caught up with Ribadu. But I am not impressed by the actors. Why do we have to wait for another administration to 'demote' the anti-corruption tsar? This is a sad and uncomplimentary commentary on the nature of government and government functions in Nigeria. This country seems to dwell in the 'personality cult' kind of leadership.

While it is not bad to have a charismatic leader, it is bad to insist that we cannot challenge any such leader when we see him going wrong. Or is it because we are indeed responsible for the advice that produces the policy reflected in the action? We make the monsters that we later come to fight. We are our own enemies. Yes, this is probably the only country that hates itself. It is not the 'God's Own Country' but it is the country that produces for that country: Remember the Okwesilizes, the .... of the dollar salary structure? Yes, we know how to arrive. So why should I be bothered that Ribadu is demoted, two levels below? From the rank of Assistant Inspector General (back) to the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police! Wow.

Should government be run like this? Should we 'cheat' to defend. Defend and cheat? Should we lose ourselves to find our course? Should I cry for a tsar?

The Virtures of Selfishness (2)!

I have not left the issue yet. I am not done. Though I have not looked up the dictionary meaning of selfishness, I hold the acquired emotional connotation that makes any 'selfish' act bad. I agree, to some point, that some acts could be bad if done for interests that create difficulties for others. But I do not call that selfishness. I call it greed or gluttony or animosity or hate: all acts done in furtherance of ill and malicious thought. Banish that thought!

My selfishness is to want you to understand me. I will take whatever step is necessary to make you know me, hear me, see me, talk to me - understand me. You may come to appreciate me. That way I would have reached and gained what I wanted. I, selfishly, would have achieved something dear to my heart. That is my selfishness.

You know, I pray that what I do does not hurt you. That is not my aim. I aim instead to have you understand my reason(s) so that you will understand where I am coming from. Remember I am not going very far. No matter the distance, the journey is short and it is not because you are in charge of the roadmap. Check your map and see. How many road signs have you missed? My world may not be like yours, but we inhabit the same surface. We do not own it. We cannot own it. Can we share it? Here is the place where we must all be selfish.

If you assume you must have it all, you are not selfish. You are something else. Does that make sense? I hope not.

August is here. My family, oh my!

There is something about having family. You take them all: stock and barrel. Yes, there are some things that must cause you to worry. Others that will make you go wow, how did I get myself in this situation? You did not. I did not. We have to make the best of it. Yet there is no compulsion in any action. Even doing the right thing once in a while is not compulsory. You have a choice. You will always have a choice.

Have you ever asked yourself why you are doing the things you do? Think the way you think? React the way you rect to any situation? Long windy questions. Full airbags. Make no sense. Hi, wait, but making sense of nonsense is living. You should sort yourself out of any situation you find yourself in. That is the spirit. My, oh my. This month promises to be something else.

I hope we don't end up not enjoying the Chine Olympics!

Who did you say I am?

Here is what. I think I have started to realise who I am. Note my reflections seeking me or myself. Really, if psychologists want to make a meal of analysing and profiling, I am concerned with how I feel within my environment. Do you realise that where you were born (an accident of history) really helps in determining who you are and who people think you are? The other day I was a visitor at Professor An-Na'im's site and waited through a webcast(?)! Wow! I saw this man speak of himself as a Sudanese on account of his being dressed 'peculiarly' within the environment of his presentation. You see, he was speaking to an 'all American audience' . He had a wide flowing dress with a large headgear, particular to the Sudanese male dressing. He was indeed typically Sudanese. Yet, did he have say he needed that identity? Maybe, he did not want to be mistaken for a 'libralised fundamentalist!

The idea is this: The Lord created us and dispersed us all round the surface of the earth. He made us different. Black, 'white', hispanic (?), indian (...) and what have you (or you know what). All so we may know and identify one another. How should we relate to this? Why should I bother seeking to signify my identity? A muslim is (should be) a muslim anywhere on the surface of the earth. An-Na'im only needed to make the point that he is a muslim, peeriod. Is a Sudanese muslim different from an American muslim?

I have found my identity. Thanks.

Funmi Iyanda: Discarding a Course!

Somehow I felt deflated reading Iyanda's blog this afternoon. Here is a woman who has shown some promise and will not allow some percieved pressures to defeat her. I hate to think it is a love thing - or maybe the obasence of it. But, whatever it is, Funmi has put so much into making her personality that allowing something small called fatigue to set in now is quite discomforting. I know she will reconsider and not yeild to the 'fucking fabulous' feeling of dispondence to change her prolific orientgation. Come on girl, there are people waiting on you to shine.

Here is hoping the Iyanda we all know will come up 'running' even if our packaged water will be missing.

Look up. There is someone there.

Me or Myself: Searching for My Identity

I am a Nigerian. I am a northerner, which means I am a person indigenous to a community in northern Nigeria. I speak the hausa language very fluently. In fact I studied hausa langauge in college, so I write the hausa langauge using the english alphabets well. I do not write hausa smoothly in ajami script. Ajami script uses the arabic alphabets. In my country, I have acquired a name which is not my own. I am generally called 'a hausa man.'

The tag 'hausa man' is because I am a muslim. I practice the Islamic religion. I am trying very hard to live my life according to the dictates of the Qur'an and the Sunna, which means I hold tenaciously to Shari'a. Yet, I belong to a family of dialects within a tribal affinity known as Kilba in the Hong local government area of Adamawa State in North Eastern Nigeria. How am I a 'hausa man?'

I'm I myself or not? Should I be me, whose identity is a convinience for historians? I am looking for my identity. I am not a hausa man. I live in northern Nigeria and speak the language well. Who should I be? Me or Myself?

Obama's vanity or America's hypocricy?

So I read this piece in the Washington Post on the vanities of Democratic hopeful Barack Obama and I wondered: Is that not the hallmark of American psychology? Is that not what America represents for all the rest of the world. Why should a columnist list the 'oddities' in the raising profile of a 'good' political personality like BArack Obama and conclude that the lawyer politician should tell the people who he thinks he is? I am confused.

My confusion does not come from not actually knowing Obama for the short space of his ascention to prominence; it does come from my continued apprehension of the tools employed by the American press to deal with their subjects. This is a man seemingly in tune with the aspirations of the people, whose image as a Muslim lover is daily cristicised because America is a christain country with good christain values; here is a man who places himself as a change agent, yet would quickly distance himself from anybody whose opinions differ from the main stream American psychology as the 'best of the best' of God's own people; Obama is arctypical America, yet his desire to show himself as such is now being criticised. Maybe, the man should have waited to be president.

In the event he is elected (certainly, the majority would have indicated they love him), the likes of Charles K would reshape their attitute. They may be forced to appreciate the fact that America is ably portrayed by Obama. If his actions amount to vanity, print USA in all the spaces that Obama appear and read the story to yourself. You have the picture. That is the image that comes across every day.

Nine to one, Obama will not be elected the next President of the United States of Americ. It will not be because he is not qualified; it will be because he represents the type of single mindedness which the illusive American establishment resents and which the media extols daily, but would readily throw away as soon as the economic lifeline(s) appear to be strained. The media are all America; America grows and swells upon establishment doctrines.

Obama may be vain. But so is the United States of America. Two of a kind. May the romance live long. Howeve ... !