THE ASUU STRIKE AND YOUR ROLE (culled from the Facebook "NIGERIANS UNITE AGAINST ELECTORAL FRAUD IN 2011 ELECTIONS" forum's page.)

It is particularly not the happiest of times for Nigerians especially Nigerian youths who have to contend with the recklessness of unaccountable leadership. With all due respect to President Umar Yar'Adua and the leadership of ASUU, the place of education seems to be of no priority to both the Federal Government and to ASUU as well or else why should the ongoing strike action by university lecturers linger since June 2009? If the FG insist that ASUU returns to the classrooms before negotiations can continue, ASUU may well just do that and watch to see if the FG keep to their own side of the bargain. This may be common sense to many but the reality of the Nigerian experience is that if ASUU returns to the classroom, government will likely renege on their promises and employ political ways out of a problem that will again rear its ugly head hence ASUU's painful insistence.

The mistrust between ASUU and the FG is unfortunately at the expense of students who are forced to stay home without electricity to even monitor developments. This is a call to all students in this forum that while the two elephants fight, get engaged with some work, vocation or new learning. Take the opportunity to add value to yourself or your community. Learn a new language, develop new ideas by just imagining them, improve your computer skills or study the history of industrial disputes in Nigeria. You never can tell how these things play out. You may watch movies for recreational purposes but be careful what you watch. Give to your church or mosque service that is not necessarily monetary.

It may be useful to just improve your spelling skills at this time rather than the overdependence on Microsoft Word for spelling corrections. Learn spellings such as committee, hierarchy, superintendent, diarrhoea, macabre, etc that we normally gloss over.

This is an appeal to members of this forum too who have thriving businesses to look around your neighbourhood and reach out to one of these students. Not everything is about money so you could just reach out to impart knowledge, share experience or articulate redefinitions of the Nigerian state. The bottom line is that you remember this stay-at-home with some meaningful purpose attached to it. This will affect the call up for national service for some (I waited for three batches to pass before mine due to needless squabbles) but then there is always a gold lining to even clouds!

While we await a paradigm shift in governance in Nigeria, let us remain hopeful. Let us remain positive. Let us trust God and work with our hearts, hands and minds for a greater nation, one that defies the evils of educational instability, infrastructural lack, financial corruption, immoral social coexistence and shallow mindedness.

Remember to invite your friends to the forum. Many of us have done that already and I would like to specifically thank Adeoye Tope Jacob, Wallace Imoudu, Morenike Omidiji, Aina Ayinbode, Ene Odeh, Chike Nweke amongst many others. It is simple, you just go to the forum page and select 'invite friends to join'. The process is easier from there.

Remember your vote counts. Demand credible elections wherever you are.

'Wole Aguda

GLENN BECK (FOX NEWS) ON NIGERIA AND SCAMS

Many of my friends have questioned my judgment especially with regards to my seeming ‘fixation’ with Fox News. Who would think a staunch supporter of Barack Obama, America’s first black president like me would have his TV permanently tuned to Fox News - a pro Republican news network owned by American billionaire, Rupert Murdoch and who are non apologetic about the scathing and sometimes overly demeaning remarks they make about liberal democrats and the administration of President Barack Obama. Bill O’Reilly hosts a show which I have to wake up or stay up for till 1am because I like the ‘balance’ he adduces and associates his program with. Bill O’Reilly however does not refer to Obama as president Obama. He simply calls him Obama in the manner an African father chides a transgressing son. I have been engaged in heated debates with friends on the propriety or otherwise of my interest in Fox News and I am quick to argue that the best way to make your point to an opponent is to understand his mindset. This enables you to understand his thinking as the knowledge of his thinking arms you with knowledge to pre-empt his actions. I have however found it difficult enjoying viewership in the presence of these friends of mine of late because they are convinced that when you associate with too much negativity, you are likely to come off rubbing off negativity on others.

Many times I have watched interesting arguments about America's place today. I have witnessed how divided Americans themselves have been and realise that the art of criticising government is still in its rudimentary stages in Nigeria my home country, not because there are no critiques but because there is no appreciation of its constructive nature and no gallant admittance. The freedom of expression that the American media enjoys, when placed side by side what obtains in most African countries is enormous. Many guys in Fox would have been locked and the owners made to suffer government induced bankruptcy. The space has therefore thrown up the highly varied shades of public opinion that America and Americans are known for.

I have watched several episodes of “The One Thing” hosted by Glenn Beck, author of “Common Sense” and “An Inconvenient Book” and a bright man with capability to view and debate issues in many dimensions, rational or irrational, sensible or otherwise. I must concede that I doubt that he can be beaten on any competition on sarcasm. Glenn Beck is exceedingly gifted in that art and I am convinced he has bred a fortune on that. Among the far right, he must be a darling, a last born of sorts and an adorable TV personality. I personally enjoy watching Glenn and have invited a couple of friends to watch his show. However, his recurring and deliberate attempts at overstretching hard truths and his penchant for drowning cynicism are disturbing.

“Cash for Clunkers”, an initiative of the Obama administration was directed towards creating jobs and enabling Americans buy and own new cars. The program after a few days was overwhelmed by demand but I began to notice a very disturbing angle of news reportage when Fox News reported the program as a failure and that the administration couldn’t even sustain a program as such. The guys however failed to highlight the huge success that a program as popular as that was. The “Cash for Clunkers” program ran into shortage of funds which necessitated a further injection of $2 billion dollars to enable it run for some more time. The program was criticised in what most times were glossy misrepresentations. It is a common sight on Fox News to see such criticism of the Obama administration but that was trying too hard! I cannot even attempt to delve into the hue and cries of the proposed Healthcare Reforms because it is an American issue of which I am not one but the malignant personalisation of the debates especially when so many attacks are thrown at the President is most disgusting. On President Obama’s birthday, Glenn Beck shared a red cake and pasted a star (symbolic of China) on it to bolster his propaganda of the socialist theme they tag the Obama administration with. It was the same day he glamorised an anonymous poster depicting the American President as a Joker (a TV characterisation most unworthy of such association as president Obama) and added to earlier depictions of Obama a smoker and as Houdini the escapist amongst many other uncharitable insinuations.

On the 6^th of April 2009 edition of his program, Glenn Beck while bemoaning the ‘apparent ignorance’ of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) who maintained that the Health care plan of the Obama administration offered more gains to the American people, likened them to a naive American who falls for the tricks of a Nigerian scammer. In his attempt, Glenn states that the scammer who employs familial royal relationship as bait to the American, and whose skills are underscored and in hand, asks the American to send $10,000 and his bank account number to earn $10,000,000. This is where I beg for the break. Did Glenn Beck have to mention a sovereign national existence as Nigeria in driving home a message about a stupid relation? Without making excuses for the Nigerian who sends scam emails, history has shown that the greedy are usually the most conned - Glenn’s folks who from the stars expect to make $10Million from nothing. Glenn Beck may want to determine for himself how many Nigerians get conned by Nigerians? We recognise that hardwork is the impetus for success and although we have been given names in the worlds of the likes of Glenn Beck, we are not as pathetically corrupt as his imagination brews. On his shows, he reveals the sleaze of American economic and political players and highlights the huge difficulties that nationhood places even on American citizens.

He needs to understand that the people of Nigeria are a resilient dogged lot. They are hardworking, smart and ingenious and have survived onslaughts of crass nepotism and armies of colonial imperialism. Despite the huge challenges of being Nigerian and the arduous responsibility possession of the Green Passport (an environmentally friendly one without carbon emissions!) presents on Nigeria travellers, our good heartedness cannot be dwarfed by the reckless behaviour of an insignificant few. We have come too far as one nation to be branded a nation of scammers as Glenn Beck suggested in his poignantly distasteful analogy monitored on his show. It is a disdainful and a regrettable damage he’s done to what in my opinion was an international audience. I have lost interest in that show only to the extent that he makes a disproportionate allusion and association of Nigeria with scam that some greedy people are wont to fall for. I cannot begin to recount acts of selflessness that Nigerians are known for and our globally acclaimed friendly attitude. Nigerian students are proving their worth in academic walls around the world and in noble endeavours that border on moral rectitude even though many like Glenn Beck would want to think otherwise.

The message is this, Nigeria has a population of close to 200 million people, Glenn Beck should refrain from attempting to dress us in rags. Nigerians are honourable people and deserving of global respect. Though we face our normal challenges as most ‘developed’ nations in the world today have at some time in the past, we vehemently maintain our resolve to reject a colouration unfitting of our national pigmentation. We are survivalists on the path to national restoration. It is a matter of time but the Nigerian people and the Nigerian nation are a decent lot, not scammers. Glenn Beck, je k'ori pe, before we give you a roll call.

Religious Harmony and the Violence in Nigeria

Many of us are quite aware of on going incidents of violence in Nigeria our beloved country. It borders on differences of perspective in terms of the acceptability or otherwise of a form or origin of education as we have it today in contemporary Nigeria. It is a disturbing development because on such instances of spontaneous and unchecked behaviour, losses are what we count, never gains. Lives have been lost, albeit innocent lives in what could have been avoidable clashes and disruptions to everyday, normal living.

A closer examination of the executors of the killings will reveal that those responsible for the maiming and killing are merely pawns. They do not particularly have a stake in the outcome of the war that they wage. And for those who are familiar with the strategies that the game of chess is most known for, pawns are what you sacrifice to protect a back row of officials, Kings and the Queen. The Queen is never sacrificed for a pawn. The pawns do the killings in Nigeria and naturally get killed as well - a balance some may say, but the loss of innocent lives is most reprehensible, condemnable and putting it mildly, an elongation of deliberate wickedness by men in our society.

Unfortunately whether by direct or indirect persuasion, we have played a role in the past or at present in the unfolding drama. We have been lackadaisical and adopted a regrettable "siddon look" approach that has today left us to nearly nothing for our commonwealth. The killings in the Northern part of Nigeria friends, are an end result of poverty. Poverty debases the fundamental good that men should be disposed to and colours by the cheapest of means, their thinking. While I worked in Nigeria, no Bishop or any "Man of God" no matter his place in society would and could come to me to tell me to take up arms or a knife to make a ritual of another man and I would budge. It is an impossibility because I understand that such actions breed a disturbing personal sense of negativity and are clearly of no human value. I am sure the same applies to my 720 friends on Facebook. Will a man give you a knife or gun to kill another man and you gladly oblige such a most indecent request like it was done a few days back?

However, when a man is sunken in the worst forms of impoverishment, engages in animalistic labour to get one meal a day, the prospects of two meals in a day to such a person is a bright one not to talk of food for a week. When a man gets a proposition that seems to 'advance' him, he considers it and most likely takes it. If you take time to investigate what was on offer to the killers in Maiduguri, Jigawa, Bauchi and other affected states, you may discover that the inducements to kill may not be more than N500, forget about whether the purpose of the action is a noble one or not. Someone is tethering on the verge of physical collapse and you snap him a crispy note to kill, you may be surprised with what you get.

And let us not make the mistake of thinking that it's Muslims that have the problem. No. My neighbours in Abuja are staunch Muslims and have been a major blessing to my family. We love ourselves and against what many may want me to think, that man will not use a knife on me under earlier circumstances of disturbances in Nigeria. The problem is poverty. Poverty of the pocket and poverty of the mind. Lack and wants, the same that drives beautiful daughters of God into prostitution is responsible. And can the Nigerian state offer us not better than we have?

Back to why I push a bit of the blame on us, we have let men of evil will hold sway for way too long. We have become accustomed to seeing things done corruptly. We have grown up shouting 'NEPA' upon restoration of basic electricity supply such that it is a celebration of sorts to 'have light'. We see it as a luxury to live in areas where 'light is constant' - what is a given and what should be a given in Nigeria considering our resources. We have watched as politicians continually use and dump us. We are looking for 'opportunities' to make our own from the system forgetting that the 'killers' never picture or ever share in your dreams. They do not look forward to the future like we do. We get our visas out of the country when we need it but they die without the Nigerian passport! We are concerned about how that 'uncle' may help and neglect long standing chances to build a nation made of tough fabric and a tough spirit.

Nigeria is weak, you can strenghten it by demanding that things be done appropriately. The journey starts with you - that is the truth! Demand credible elections.


'Wole Aguda