CredoWriters- Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
Our father in heaven I want to pray but I am not a Pentecostal prayer warrior, I want to sing like the psalmist but my vocal cords are not good for singing. All I can do is to pray in writing and write as if I am singing. There is no telephone to heaven so how do I dial your number and no post office box either. But I know you are ever present and ever living, my prayer or song when written will get to you and my prayers will be answered.
Our Father in heaven; you told us your kingdom will come, but the evil men keep chasing us away from that kingdom or keep diverting that kingdom to their pockets and offshore accounts. Is it just that millions should be denied your kingdom because some selected brigands have laid siege on our inheritance?
Our father in heaven; you taught us to ask for this day and with faith in you we only seek for this day. We live for this day and want to fend for our families for this day, but daily we lack for this day because the greedy ones have since days gone by appropriated the days ahead for themselves upfront. They took our day and are even taking all the days yet to come leaving us helpless and hopeless. Our daily bread they have accumulated to their ever bread. We toil and get more impoverished; they belched on the fruits of our labour while we keep praying for this day which they have already stolen.
Our father in heaven, how can we forgive them their trespasses when they are not working towards emancipating us from economic slavery? We ask you to forgive us the sins we commit to ensure we survive their wickedness. Punish them since they are the real brains behind our sins and father, for us to be sinless the evil men must be purged.
Our father in heaven; they have more than led us into temptation. They are pushing us to steal our own porridge because it is not made available to all. They have led us to tell lies proclaiming their lordships to get crumbs from their tables. We scramble for crumbs from the bread they steal daily from us.
Our father; kindly delivers us from evil and we know who they are. We can not be delivered from evil when the outlive us. We can only be delivered from evil if you kill them for us father. Father, I do not imply you are a murderer because to kill an evil man is not murder. Ten good men have never caused misery to one bad man, but one bad man can cause miseries to million men. Should a few evil men live for millions to suffer?
Our father in heaven I am not a Pharisee, neither am I a tax collector. I am worse than the hybrid of these two. I am a Nigerian at the brink of extinction. Save us lord from the smiling evil men and the frowning evil men alike. Protect us from the wicked people who play chess with our destiny as a nation and a people. Those who wasted our today must not waste again our tomorrow.
In your most Holy name I pray. Amen.
14042010
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Thursday, May 6, 2010
“MADE FOR NIGERIAN ROADS”
CredoWriters- Wakdok,Samuel Stephen.
If we looked back at the history of advertisements in Nigeria, can we still remember the Peugeot advert of about 22- 25 years ago? “Made for Nigerian Roads.”
Peugeot was definitely one of the best brands you could find then in Nigeria among the likes of Volvo, Benz, Fiat, Passat, Land Rover etc. Toyota was still relatively alien and Honda had barely graduated from manufacturing motorcycles and generators.
The advert looked great on TV especially with all the GLs, GRs, SRs, brands of Peugeot 405,504,505 and the ultimate 505 Peugeot Evolution. I recalled seeing brand new Peugeots cruising in the adverts on TV and Newspapers while they sold for as low as N79, 000.00 as recent as 1989. The advert then made a lot of sense and it was a selling point for PAN that their cars were strong and rugged enough for our roads. In retrospect I want to interpret that advert as either an insult on the Nigerian nation that we needed such rugged cars for our bad roads, or I rather euphemistically say the advert should have been a wake up call for the various agencies of government saddled with providing roads and other critical infrastructure to have read in between the lines. Funny enough this was a period when we had DFRRI (Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure) under the Babangida regime running concurrently with the Federal ministry of works and housing on one hand and the various states ministries of works and housing on the other.
Today, we have FERMA (Federal Road Maintenance Agency) and the works ministries but that Peugeot advert is gone. I would have been happy if that advert was obliterated on the ground that Nigerian roads do not need an advert for rugged cars. I would have been happier if as Honda and Toyota were taking over the Nigerian and world automobile markets, Nigerian roads were gradually been transformed. I would have been happiest if Peugeot which way back found the winning formula to be the king of Nigerian roads had no need of improving their brand since our roads not only became deadlier but unable to be fixed; even with all the gulf war oil windfalls of 1991 and the N300 billion naira of Mr. ‘Fix It’. Paradoxically, Peugeot went into Research and Development to come up with 406, 306,206,307,407 and 607.Where as Peugeot like other automobile manufacturers saw the need for innovation and transformation, Nigeria saw no need to improve upon her roads or other infrastructure.
If we walked and drove on rugged roads during the Peugeot advert, we now drive on death traps a quarter of a century after. If we walked on untarred roads to schools during DFRRI and the famous Peugeot advert, we now hop on refuse dumps and pot holes in the era of FERMA and exotic cars. The pitiable news is this, if Peugeot saw the need to use steel and durable spare parts during the life span of their “built for Nigerian roads” adverts because there was care for standard and safety, they are now driven by competition, innovation and efficiency of factors of production to use fibre. If cost went down, then standards also went down. If our roads went from bad to worse, then the quality of cars on the road nose dived too. But they cared less because very few Nigerians asides government agencies can afford the brand new Peugeot automobiles as we have become a Tokunbo Nation, a pack of Cotonou Drivers, and a proud set of Belgium car owners. The unvarnished truth is that Peugeot does not care to run adverts on papers and TV anymore, because they can no longer describe the state of the Nigerian roads either in print or graphics. If they now attempt to measure their comparative advantage by the level of Nigerian roads as a competitive edge; their international certification may be withdrawn because our roads have attained a negative status.
Major General A. A. Adisa (RTD) a former works Minister died in a motor accident as a result of bad roads; you may call that the law of retributive Justice. But what about the countless Nigerians prominent and classless who have died per minute on our roads? Innocent school children have been killed by reckless drivers who are products of a notorious road regime in Nigeria. The condition of Nigerian roads have become so terrible that we no longer go through driving schools to obtain our driver’s licenses, there are as many unqualified drivers as the unsafe un-motor able roads that dot all corners and cross all highways in Nigeria. Last week the Chairman of FERMA asserts that one trillion naira is needed to fix Nigerian roads. All the hundreds of billions of naira hitherto earmarked for the roads have worsened (but bulged pockets and accounts) rather than alleviate the situation. And the most recent casualty of the Nigerian road is Hajiya Fatima Ibrahim, the former Minster of Energy in charge of Power at the commencement of Yar’adua’s regime.
I can’t tell which of these will be harder for Peugeot to achieve. Get another slogan for a new advert that will surpass the old one which boasts: “Built for Nigerian Roads” or really manufacture cars that will withstand the oddities of the present state of Nigerian roads which they were able to achieve in the time past? Funny enough Nigerians are now born and like the Peugeot cars of yore made for Nigerian roads and that is why many more Nigerians are dying on Nigerian roads.
07042010
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If we looked back at the history of advertisements in Nigeria, can we still remember the Peugeot advert of about 22- 25 years ago? “Made for Nigerian Roads.”
Peugeot was definitely one of the best brands you could find then in Nigeria among the likes of Volvo, Benz, Fiat, Passat, Land Rover etc. Toyota was still relatively alien and Honda had barely graduated from manufacturing motorcycles and generators.
The advert looked great on TV especially with all the GLs, GRs, SRs, brands of Peugeot 405,504,505 and the ultimate 505 Peugeot Evolution. I recalled seeing brand new Peugeots cruising in the adverts on TV and Newspapers while they sold for as low as N79, 000.00 as recent as 1989. The advert then made a lot of sense and it was a selling point for PAN that their cars were strong and rugged enough for our roads. In retrospect I want to interpret that advert as either an insult on the Nigerian nation that we needed such rugged cars for our bad roads, or I rather euphemistically say the advert should have been a wake up call for the various agencies of government saddled with providing roads and other critical infrastructure to have read in between the lines. Funny enough this was a period when we had DFRRI (Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure) under the Babangida regime running concurrently with the Federal ministry of works and housing on one hand and the various states ministries of works and housing on the other.
Today, we have FERMA (Federal Road Maintenance Agency) and the works ministries but that Peugeot advert is gone. I would have been happy if that advert was obliterated on the ground that Nigerian roads do not need an advert for rugged cars. I would have been happier if as Honda and Toyota were taking over the Nigerian and world automobile markets, Nigerian roads were gradually been transformed. I would have been happiest if Peugeot which way back found the winning formula to be the king of Nigerian roads had no need of improving their brand since our roads not only became deadlier but unable to be fixed; even with all the gulf war oil windfalls of 1991 and the N300 billion naira of Mr. ‘Fix It’. Paradoxically, Peugeot went into Research and Development to come up with 406, 306,206,307,407 and 607.Where as Peugeot like other automobile manufacturers saw the need for innovation and transformation, Nigeria saw no need to improve upon her roads or other infrastructure.
If we walked and drove on rugged roads during the Peugeot advert, we now drive on death traps a quarter of a century after. If we walked on untarred roads to schools during DFRRI and the famous Peugeot advert, we now hop on refuse dumps and pot holes in the era of FERMA and exotic cars. The pitiable news is this, if Peugeot saw the need to use steel and durable spare parts during the life span of their “built for Nigerian roads” adverts because there was care for standard and safety, they are now driven by competition, innovation and efficiency of factors of production to use fibre. If cost went down, then standards also went down. If our roads went from bad to worse, then the quality of cars on the road nose dived too. But they cared less because very few Nigerians asides government agencies can afford the brand new Peugeot automobiles as we have become a Tokunbo Nation, a pack of Cotonou Drivers, and a proud set of Belgium car owners. The unvarnished truth is that Peugeot does not care to run adverts on papers and TV anymore, because they can no longer describe the state of the Nigerian roads either in print or graphics. If they now attempt to measure their comparative advantage by the level of Nigerian roads as a competitive edge; their international certification may be withdrawn because our roads have attained a negative status.
Major General A. A. Adisa (RTD) a former works Minister died in a motor accident as a result of bad roads; you may call that the law of retributive Justice. But what about the countless Nigerians prominent and classless who have died per minute on our roads? Innocent school children have been killed by reckless drivers who are products of a notorious road regime in Nigeria. The condition of Nigerian roads have become so terrible that we no longer go through driving schools to obtain our driver’s licenses, there are as many unqualified drivers as the unsafe un-motor able roads that dot all corners and cross all highways in Nigeria. Last week the Chairman of FERMA asserts that one trillion naira is needed to fix Nigerian roads. All the hundreds of billions of naira hitherto earmarked for the roads have worsened (but bulged pockets and accounts) rather than alleviate the situation. And the most recent casualty of the Nigerian road is Hajiya Fatima Ibrahim, the former Minster of Energy in charge of Power at the commencement of Yar’adua’s regime.
I can’t tell which of these will be harder for Peugeot to achieve. Get another slogan for a new advert that will surpass the old one which boasts: “Built for Nigerian Roads” or really manufacture cars that will withstand the oddities of the present state of Nigerian roads which they were able to achieve in the time past? Funny enough Nigerians are now born and like the Peugeot cars of yore made for Nigerian roads and that is why many more Nigerians are dying on Nigerian roads.
07042010
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THE DIARY OF A CREDO KID
CredoWritersBy: Wakdok,Samuel Stephen
My dad does not keep a diary but I am not my dad. I can only want to be like him in ways I can; yet I am myself, a different person even if just a baby and so in my less than three months on earth I keep a diary; my own diary.
I was surprised to be born in a private or call it catholic hospital when I came to find out that my uncle works in a teaching hospital. Since a teaching hospital is a tertiary health provider I expected to get the best but I was more surprised to hear that Uncle Besto as he is fondly called warned my dad against having me delivered in their teaching hospital. Why? I asked; my uncle does not trust the facilities in government hospitals where he works. They may have the best brains but the facilities and services may not be able to match his confidence level and he wants the best for me as his nephew.
Shortly after my mum was delivered of me, just less than fourteen hours later to be specific, Jos caught fire and the scene where it all started was just less than 2 kilometers from my hospital bed and my mum had not even fully recovered from the anesthesia. The tanks rolled beside my wall and though I was less than a day old, I was not expected to hear or make sounds, I heard the sounds of war and the war is taking a heavy toll on humanity. I will love to skip the horrors of March 7, 2010 where children and women were made to face the inhumanity of man to man at a genocidal proportion. Funny enough my mum took me on a flight as if to Egypt when Herod wanted to kill the baby Jesus. She has refused to go back to the city my dad loves most in the world because the world has become unsafe even for harmless and innocent children and women, perhaps I now know that the innocents are the most vulnerable.
I am a baby, but the power situation has taught me how to sweat like an iron smith. I stare at the bulbs so much when PHCN manage to supply electricity or when daddy puts on the generator. I hear noise but the light which illuminates from the noise making machine over shadows the noise, unfortunately my dad spends money buying fuel to just give us few hours light at night. For the very few times the power comes on, I skip my sleep to stare at that beautiful but evading brightness and the breeze from the fan can be so soothing, I only wish we can have power always.
Sadly, my maternal grand father died after a brief illness in a government hospital, they were proud to inform my mourning family as they must have been doing to others that the mortuary is not working. A doctor class mate of my uncle was bold to tell my dad that since she came to that hospital; the mortuary has never worked that she knows of. Alas; I now understand uncle Besto’s fear about my mum giving birth to me in their teaching hospital which is government owned. In Nigeria there is either no effective government or there is a government cartel run along family and business lines and the rest outside this alliance are left to fend for themselves in anyway and every way even if to the point of death. When we traveled for the interment I saw the state of roads and I will need to grow older to be able to describe the condition of these roads in my diary, for now I will keep the pictures of what I saw in the fatigue my small body and bones went through.
My aunties and mum told my dad how I watch TV with keen interest even at my tender age; my dad dismissed them as exaggerating the scenario. Last night when the generator powered TV was on, I saw the only ex-military President concurring to speculations that he would contest the 2011 presidential election on the platform of the PDP. My dad was furious because he believes Nigeria got its descent into abyss during the evil reign of IBB and he is so mad that people are even considering IBB for presidency in 2011. IBB was the man who looted the treasury like no one before him ever did and he opened the gateway to Nigeria’s hell. If IBB had used his executive military power, the abundant oil wealth and his 8 years of tenaciously holding to power to build roads, refineries and power plants, the level of infrastructural decay witnessed now will never have happened. IBB politicized the military by giving political appointments to junior officers who were called IBB boys at the expense of their superiors. These same junior officers would later return to the barracks with millions and exotic cars and were expected to take orders from their superiors? He stirred the hornet’s nest by sneaking a secular Nigeria into the organization of Islamic countries. So much time was wasted on debating the IMF conditionalities while the citizens vehemently rejected it, IBB went behind their back to introduce the structural adjustment programme. He undid the best election and called it annulment, my dad is really mad that IBB could even dare to think of coming back. But in Nigeria the evil minded have always held the country to ransom.
I was born at a time that Nigeria had no resident President, the hullabaloo of making the then Vice President to act was tearing the nation apart, eventually when the pressure became unbearable the National Assembly introduced the doctrine of necessity into the polity and proclaimed the VP as AP( Acting President). The controversial Attorney General was promptly relegated to the delight of most Nigerians. After the Executive council of the federation was dissolved hopes were high that a new council would comprise of dynamic visionaries and experts, hopes seemed dashed when most of the new members are either recycled or come from families with ties to those who have milked this nation dry.
I love my Spanish name even though I wonder why my dad gave me the name Salvador which reminds people of the Mexican soap opera titled Second Chance. However he argues that he had that name in mind years before he got married or even came across the soap opera. My name can be translated to mean saviour or rescuer. Apparently Nigeria needs a second chance and Nigerians need to become the saviours and rescuers of themselves. This can only be done when we all stand for the right cause and sacrifice our inordinate ambitions for the glory of truth and country. Babies like me must grow to know what is right and not just anything. Above all the country must be given a new lease of life by allowing the new breeds an opportunity to enter the arena. Enough of the same old names of the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. Let us take a cue from the Tony Blairs, Gordon Browns and David Camerons of the Britain, the Bill Clintons and Barrack Obamas of United States. Yesterday, the youths were the leaders of tomorrow. The youths of yesterday should be the leaders of today so that the youth of today may be the leaders tomorrow.
I am a credo kid and I believe that we will make it. But the nation will make it only when our elders set their priorities rights and leave the stage for the new breed to continue. Continuity does not have to remain with the individual; continuity is only guaranteed if the system has the capacity to regenerate irrespective of individuals. What is needed is for the institutional capacities to be strengthened and guaranteed and not for power to keep rotating among old hands and fagged brains .No individual should be too powerful to hold the system captive and no system should be so inefficient to make millions of people suffer in a nation blessed with abundant resources both natural and human.
The candle I am using to write is almost burning out and I am sweating profusely, I would have loved to have a cold bath but my mum says it must be with hot water since I am still a baby. The water is almost boiling she needs to fix it with some cold water but the tap is not running. I guess she has gone out to look for water vendors or mai-ruwa as they call them. Here I sit writing in my diary and my dad is held up in the traffic after a hard day at work. Things must change for the better before I grow up so that life may be more meaningful for us in this nation.
My dad does not keep a diary but I am not my dad. I can only want to be like him in ways I can; yet I am myself, a different person even if just a baby and so in my less than three months on earth I keep a diary; my own diary.
I was surprised to be born in a private or call it catholic hospital when I came to find out that my uncle works in a teaching hospital. Since a teaching hospital is a tertiary health provider I expected to get the best but I was more surprised to hear that Uncle Besto as he is fondly called warned my dad against having me delivered in their teaching hospital. Why? I asked; my uncle does not trust the facilities in government hospitals where he works. They may have the best brains but the facilities and services may not be able to match his confidence level and he wants the best for me as his nephew.
Shortly after my mum was delivered of me, just less than fourteen hours later to be specific, Jos caught fire and the scene where it all started was just less than 2 kilometers from my hospital bed and my mum had not even fully recovered from the anesthesia. The tanks rolled beside my wall and though I was less than a day old, I was not expected to hear or make sounds, I heard the sounds of war and the war is taking a heavy toll on humanity. I will love to skip the horrors of March 7, 2010 where children and women were made to face the inhumanity of man to man at a genocidal proportion. Funny enough my mum took me on a flight as if to Egypt when Herod wanted to kill the baby Jesus. She has refused to go back to the city my dad loves most in the world because the world has become unsafe even for harmless and innocent children and women, perhaps I now know that the innocents are the most vulnerable.
I am a baby, but the power situation has taught me how to sweat like an iron smith. I stare at the bulbs so much when PHCN manage to supply electricity or when daddy puts on the generator. I hear noise but the light which illuminates from the noise making machine over shadows the noise, unfortunately my dad spends money buying fuel to just give us few hours light at night. For the very few times the power comes on, I skip my sleep to stare at that beautiful but evading brightness and the breeze from the fan can be so soothing, I only wish we can have power always.
Sadly, my maternal grand father died after a brief illness in a government hospital, they were proud to inform my mourning family as they must have been doing to others that the mortuary is not working. A doctor class mate of my uncle was bold to tell my dad that since she came to that hospital; the mortuary has never worked that she knows of. Alas; I now understand uncle Besto’s fear about my mum giving birth to me in their teaching hospital which is government owned. In Nigeria there is either no effective government or there is a government cartel run along family and business lines and the rest outside this alliance are left to fend for themselves in anyway and every way even if to the point of death. When we traveled for the interment I saw the state of roads and I will need to grow older to be able to describe the condition of these roads in my diary, for now I will keep the pictures of what I saw in the fatigue my small body and bones went through.
My aunties and mum told my dad how I watch TV with keen interest even at my tender age; my dad dismissed them as exaggerating the scenario. Last night when the generator powered TV was on, I saw the only ex-military President concurring to speculations that he would contest the 2011 presidential election on the platform of the PDP. My dad was furious because he believes Nigeria got its descent into abyss during the evil reign of IBB and he is so mad that people are even considering IBB for presidency in 2011. IBB was the man who looted the treasury like no one before him ever did and he opened the gateway to Nigeria’s hell. If IBB had used his executive military power, the abundant oil wealth and his 8 years of tenaciously holding to power to build roads, refineries and power plants, the level of infrastructural decay witnessed now will never have happened. IBB politicized the military by giving political appointments to junior officers who were called IBB boys at the expense of their superiors. These same junior officers would later return to the barracks with millions and exotic cars and were expected to take orders from their superiors? He stirred the hornet’s nest by sneaking a secular Nigeria into the organization of Islamic countries. So much time was wasted on debating the IMF conditionalities while the citizens vehemently rejected it, IBB went behind their back to introduce the structural adjustment programme. He undid the best election and called it annulment, my dad is really mad that IBB could even dare to think of coming back. But in Nigeria the evil minded have always held the country to ransom.
I was born at a time that Nigeria had no resident President, the hullabaloo of making the then Vice President to act was tearing the nation apart, eventually when the pressure became unbearable the National Assembly introduced the doctrine of necessity into the polity and proclaimed the VP as AP( Acting President). The controversial Attorney General was promptly relegated to the delight of most Nigerians. After the Executive council of the federation was dissolved hopes were high that a new council would comprise of dynamic visionaries and experts, hopes seemed dashed when most of the new members are either recycled or come from families with ties to those who have milked this nation dry.
I love my Spanish name even though I wonder why my dad gave me the name Salvador which reminds people of the Mexican soap opera titled Second Chance. However he argues that he had that name in mind years before he got married or even came across the soap opera. My name can be translated to mean saviour or rescuer. Apparently Nigeria needs a second chance and Nigerians need to become the saviours and rescuers of themselves. This can only be done when we all stand for the right cause and sacrifice our inordinate ambitions for the glory of truth and country. Babies like me must grow to know what is right and not just anything. Above all the country must be given a new lease of life by allowing the new breeds an opportunity to enter the arena. Enough of the same old names of the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. Let us take a cue from the Tony Blairs, Gordon Browns and David Camerons of the Britain, the Bill Clintons and Barrack Obamas of United States. Yesterday, the youths were the leaders of tomorrow. The youths of yesterday should be the leaders of today so that the youth of today may be the leaders tomorrow.
I am a credo kid and I believe that we will make it. But the nation will make it only when our elders set their priorities rights and leave the stage for the new breed to continue. Continuity does not have to remain with the individual; continuity is only guaranteed if the system has the capacity to regenerate irrespective of individuals. What is needed is for the institutional capacities to be strengthened and guaranteed and not for power to keep rotating among old hands and fagged brains .No individual should be too powerful to hold the system captive and no system should be so inefficient to make millions of people suffer in a nation blessed with abundant resources both natural and human.
The candle I am using to write is almost burning out and I am sweating profusely, I would have loved to have a cold bath but my mum says it must be with hot water since I am still a baby. The water is almost boiling she needs to fix it with some cold water but the tap is not running. I guess she has gone out to look for water vendors or mai-ruwa as they call them. Here I sit writing in my diary and my dad is held up in the traffic after a hard day at work. Things must change for the better before I grow up so that life may be more meaningful for us in this nation.
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