Sunday, 30 November 2014
Finidi George -Ayetoro featuring the W.A.F.F.
In afrobeat when we say you dey be like Finidi George that is the highest compliment. It means you are a doer not a talker. That you understand what it means to be selfless and be the provider of ammunition for others to shine with.
yeah yeah. Listen here to how football is a metaphor. For life.
Truly Revolutionary Movie {Quilombo}
Afrobeat is a way of life. You ask questions of yourself and your people. It is as serious as our lives you know.
It represents the intellectual aspirations of a people. It is social liberalism by Africans and focuses on class struggle.
.
The secret history of Afrobeat is here. Seek and you shall find. Look not where they want you to look amidst personal excess and hypersexual images of our avatars but check out the message of freedom dignity and defiance we preach.
What you see is not what you get.
My father died on the 3rd October 1999. He had been battling cancer for a year or so but it wasn't detected until it had spread to other organs. That is another story. The story of a disastrous health service we had especially around the 90's. My intention with this post is to draw attention to another even bigger problem we have in society. That of misunderstanding and questionable judgements.
On my way from the funeral in Ilesha I stopped by in Ibadan at the invitation of a retired justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria who had a reputation as a progressive amongst many . He was from Ilesha and he and my father were from the same neighbourhood as well. I was aware of their close relationship as on different occasions my father would host the justice and his friends when he received a national honour and also when he retired from active judicial duty.
On getting to Ibadan I drove to his residence and we got talking.
The justice went straight to the point. He wanted to know what our plans as a family were for our shareholding in a bank which my father had promoted with his friends. He warned me that Nigerians were sharks and he thought the best way to go forward was for me to tell my mother that we should nominate him (the Justice) as our family representative on the board where he would be able to make noise on our behalf and use his connections to help us.
I was speechless. I had thought that probably the justice had called me to offer some help to the family knowing that my father died without having all the perks other chief executives enjoyed. We never had a house abroad and we never lived outside of Ikeja where his only house outside Ilesha was. My father had died as he lived, a simple man , and many of the Nigerian elite came to his funeral to praise him and say he was the most honest man they knew. So I thought wrongly that the help to be offered would be maybe some cash or some practical advice that would be of benefit to me my siblings or my mother who was now a widow.
To ask me to tell my mother to nominate him to the board of a bank her husband set up when her late husband himself had never discussed such with us was a shock. I immediately told the justice that we had no such plans and he had given express instructions to us to leave the bank alone. If they offered us a seat on the board we should take it but we should also know that we were in no position to be strong financial partners given that we didn't have deep pockets. I finally said also that the family had met and had decided that if there was an invitation to us from the bank regarding a board seat I as first son would take it up.
So what the justice thought we needed and what we thought we needed were two different things. Obviously.
Our conversation ended not long after that and I left. That was the last time the good judge was in contact with us. Like most of the people who came to my fathers funeral he forgot about us and went on doing his thing getting more acclaim and talking about Nigeria's problems like the incorruptible judge and man of integrity he was. He did not ask me about my children or those of my siblings and we have never had the benefit of his influence unfortunately. His ideas and ours were obviously different. If I was uncharitable I would suppose he was trying to take advantage of a situation. At best I would surmise that he was trying to do the thinking for a group of five or more people without asking for our opinion. The same way our political leadership always try to think for us like we are children without knowledge aspirations and hopes.
What you see is not what you get. Chikena!
On my way from the funeral in Ilesha I stopped by in Ibadan at the invitation of a retired justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria who had a reputation as a progressive amongst many . He was from Ilesha and he and my father were from the same neighbourhood as well. I was aware of their close relationship as on different occasions my father would host the justice and his friends when he received a national honour and also when he retired from active judicial duty.
On getting to Ibadan I drove to his residence and we got talking.
The justice went straight to the point. He wanted to know what our plans as a family were for our shareholding in a bank which my father had promoted with his friends. He warned me that Nigerians were sharks and he thought the best way to go forward was for me to tell my mother that we should nominate him (the Justice) as our family representative on the board where he would be able to make noise on our behalf and use his connections to help us.
I was speechless. I had thought that probably the justice had called me to offer some help to the family knowing that my father died without having all the perks other chief executives enjoyed. We never had a house abroad and we never lived outside of Ikeja where his only house outside Ilesha was. My father had died as he lived, a simple man , and many of the Nigerian elite came to his funeral to praise him and say he was the most honest man they knew. So I thought wrongly that the help to be offered would be maybe some cash or some practical advice that would be of benefit to me my siblings or my mother who was now a widow.
To ask me to tell my mother to nominate him to the board of a bank her husband set up when her late husband himself had never discussed such with us was a shock. I immediately told the justice that we had no such plans and he had given express instructions to us to leave the bank alone. If they offered us a seat on the board we should take it but we should also know that we were in no position to be strong financial partners given that we didn't have deep pockets. I finally said also that the family had met and had decided that if there was an invitation to us from the bank regarding a board seat I as first son would take it up.
So what the justice thought we needed and what we thought we needed were two different things. Obviously.
Our conversation ended not long after that and I left. That was the last time the good judge was in contact with us. Like most of the people who came to my fathers funeral he forgot about us and went on doing his thing getting more acclaim and talking about Nigeria's problems like the incorruptible judge and man of integrity he was. He did not ask me about my children or those of my siblings and we have never had the benefit of his influence unfortunately. His ideas and ours were obviously different. If I was uncharitable I would suppose he was trying to take advantage of a situation. At best I would surmise that he was trying to do the thinking for a group of five or more people without asking for our opinion. The same way our political leadership always try to think for us like we are children without knowledge aspirations and hopes.
What you see is not what you get. Chikena!
Sunday, 23 November 2014
Shamelessness and the road less travelled
Politicians in Nigeria are showing us what it means to be unprincipled inglorious and just plain power mad. In most forms of government honour dignity and compassion are required but not it seems in Nigeria as presently constituted. Last week in the United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland an election was held as a result of a defection by a member of parliament from the ruling coalition to another party. Mark Reckless the legislator in question did win the election and thus confirmed what the rest of the public knew that his constituents preferred him to any other. In Nigeria the head of the house of representatives defects to the opposition three months to the general elections and doesn't have the decency to either resign or submit himself for an election by his colleagues. predictably the government are rattled and them not being wise go on the attack. Both government and opposition now begin to trade insults and praise each other based on dubious democratic credentials. The Nigerian intellectuals who are aligning themselves with either side will be judged harshly by history and by the people. Journalists who take sides
Which politician has shown a compassion for the next man. Why do leaders look down on the people to whom they have a responsibility?
We hear of a governor shouting at a widow to go and die. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hI8jdZ33Zs. After a public outcry it is spun by his advisers into a photo op and she is given N2million. Watch the feudal serf relationship being played. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSGVcQMyUzI
We hear of presidents shouting at people who have gathered to remember victims of bomb blasts and letting them know that he was doing a favour by being present at the occasion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnMP45F5YBM
History will judge most of these people. Vagabonds in power.
I was at a dinner party once and there was an interesting conversation going on between two people. One was informing the other and the rest of us who cared to listen that her uncle a former governor and his family were going to continue feeding off the resources of the state ad infinitum. I wonder when they will choke on the booty.
The Nigerian army has been an army of occupation used to crush dissent and to keep the people in check.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odi_massacre
No part of the country is spared from abuse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om_rCPLoqfA
The chickens are coming home soon.
Which politician has shown a compassion for the next man. Why do leaders look down on the people to whom they have a responsibility?
We hear of a governor shouting at a widow to go and die. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hI8jdZ33Zs. After a public outcry it is spun by his advisers into a photo op and she is given N2million. Watch the feudal serf relationship being played. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSGVcQMyUzI
We hear of presidents shouting at people who have gathered to remember victims of bomb blasts and letting them know that he was doing a favour by being present at the occasion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnMP45F5YBM
History will judge most of these people. Vagabonds in power.
I was at a dinner party once and there was an interesting conversation going on between two people. One was informing the other and the rest of us who cared to listen that her uncle a former governor and his family were going to continue feeding off the resources of the state ad infinitum. I wonder when they will choke on the booty.
The Nigerian army has been an army of occupation used to crush dissent and to keep the people in check.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odi_massacre
No part of the country is spared from abuse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om_rCPLoqfA
The chickens are coming home soon.
Sunday, 26 October 2014
Friday, 23 May 2014
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