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If Nigeria were to be a man

If Nigeria were to be a man, he would live in a one room wooden ramshackle in Gbondu waterfront in Port Harcourt, with no toilet, no ventilation, in a mud-filled and garbage littered pedestals that can not take even bicycle. Yet he would have a satellite dish hanging over his roof of rusty metal sheets and a hummer jeep parked out on the streets. A weird mixture of poverty and affluence is what you see all around you, under the bridge at Ojuelegba, you see families so poor even beggars call them poor. They can neither feed nor afford the rent of a single room even in the slums of Ajegunle. Their children, some of school age, roam the streets begging for alms in the heavy traffic, running after flashy luxury cars, often wound-up and driven by people living in high-brew areas such as Ikoyi and Lekki. This unhealthy cacophony of extreme poverty and flamboyance in our towns and cities all around the country is infuriating at the least, and can be attribut...
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Quote Me

"If you like ' Quote Me ', please show support by clicking 'Like'. "Success is a journey, you can reach your destination only when you know..." "Life is like a book and we are only but readers. We cannot change its content, but to live by it". "Life is an ongoing project, it is either you complete it or abandone it". "Success is like fruits hanging in the air, for some, they just wait for it to drop, and for others, they reach out and get it". "It is important to make new friends, but it is much more important to keep old ones". "Wherever you are now is a climp up or down the stairs of life. It is your will or lack of it that determines your direction". "Countries are not adjudged great by their resources, but by social stability and good governance". "The irony of life is that bad news makes the loudest noise thereby over-shadowing the good things that are happening". ...

WHY ARE MEDIA HOUSES IN DISTRESS?

The emergence of new media in modern communications has lead to the development of wide ranging applications and opportunities in the ICT environment globally. In Nigeria however, the impact of new media in our local media is greatly masked by the ineptitude of employers to provide adequate incentives to practitioners, who are poorly remunerated and often owed back log of salaries. The implication of this is the lack of interest by new media practitioners to seek gainful employment in media houses and therefore unable to contribute to the expected growth and development of the practice in the sector and the country at large. Until employers and other stake holders in the media industry pay adequate attention to these concerns, the expected positive impact and economic growth the country stand to benefit will continue to be elusive. Though this is arguable, the truth however is that a lot of media houses worldwide are already paying the price for not embracing new...

PULL DOWN THE WALL

Nigerians from all parts of the country, across sectoral, cultural, religious and political divides are strongly against any form of separation or division of the federation. The scares of the Odumegwu Ojukwu led Biafra civil war is still very fresh in our memory. Insinuations recently by Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi calling for a split of Nigerian into Christian south and Muslim north was largely seen as repulsive and condemnable. Federal government’s spontaneous reaction and recall of the Ambassador to Libya Alhaji Aliu Mohammed, was supported by both Christian and Muslim leaders. Obviously, Nigerians want to remain as one indivisible entity. However, there are calls for a sovereign national conference to bring about a truly federal constitution. Nigeria is regarded by a school of thought as a mere ‘geographical expression” of the British Colonial masters, brought about by the amalgamation of the north and south when leadership was conceded to the Muslim north under ...

Let there be Peace in Bayelsa

It is a pity and indeed shameful that Bayelsans are busy fighting themselves while other States are pursing development with all vigour. The same thing happened during the Awolowo - cocoa era. While Awo was busy developing the West, other regions were busy engaging in political wrangling. Let us be wise and stop fighting. We should concentrate and seek ways of developing Bayelsa State. Presently, States like Lagos, Aqua Ibom, Cross Rivers, Enugu and some others are focused and are busy developing their towns and cities, and here we are busy fighting. The time will come again in future as it is now, when we have to give account of what we did with the resources available to us now. As usual with Nigerians, then, shall we again start putting the blame on the federal government? We have every opportunity now to move our people forward in the political, economical and fiscal arenas. I really pity us, because, I hear all kinds of degradating comments about how "we like en...

Power Supply, Key to Malaria Prevention

Malaria is transmitted by mosquito, a tiny blood sucking, desperate and noisy insect. Malaria is the number one killer of children in Nigeria and a major cause of weakness and fewer in adults. Malaria is traced to poor performance in the work force and low productivity in the economy. Efforts by researchers in Nigerian universities and drug manufacturers have not yielded appreciable result in the prevention and treatment of malaria. The national rate of malaria infection is still very high. Malaria control still remains a challenge in Africa where 45 countries, including Nigeria, are endemic for malaria, and about 588 million people are at risk   -- WHO, World Malaria Report 2008. Nigeria is visibly at the forefront of global efforts aimed at eradicating this deadly disease. The recent disbandment by the federal government of chloroquine for the treatment of malaria and introducing in it’s place, artesunate, artemisinin, artemether and lumefantrin as sub...

Missiles on Wheels

Sadly, only a couple of weeks ago, I lost a close family friend in a ghastly car crash along the Lekki - Epe expressway, involving a commercial vehicle,  whose driver, probable drunk and driving without head lamps, ran across the road to the other side of the road, causing a head-on collision with her official vehicle. Every day, we see many commercial vehicles and tipper trucks, driving along the Lekki Expressway without head lamps at night.  I have seen a big truck drive on this road with two of its rear tires completely absent, and was rolling on bear reams. Believe it or not, the road safety officials are all over the place. Whether they themselves see these things or not is not left for me to say. Another very dangerous practice by commercial bus drivers along the Lekki - Ajah axis, is that they disconnect the fuel tank of their vehicle and use a plastic container which they keep at the booth of the vehicle with a hose connected directly to the engine.  This sam...