Where's The People's Revolt Against Corrupt Leadership in Nigeria? By Felix N.Jarikre

Fifty-five years -stretching from political independence from colonial rule - of visionless leadership fueled by selfish ambitions of cynical politicians and roguish military adventurers have left the Nigerian people pauperized,disenchanted,powerless and voiceless. Angling for political leadership has become the easiest way to defraud the people without getting caught and punished. Emergency billionaires have sprouted from a rash of thugs and paupers who manipulated their way into power, polluting the land with their stolen wealth. The conventional wisdom is that your lack of preparation, as a politician, to steal an election,at whatever level, from local government to presidency, makes you a fool. The secret trick is to get a pliable judge who would agree to trade court judgement in your favour at a suitable fee.  Get one celebrity pastor to host a Thanksgiving service to celebrate your dubious victory, or some Muslim leader to endorse you as a man or woman chosen by God to lead the people to El Dorado, and you are on your way to breaking and looting the treasure box!  As wasteful public spending takes precedence over infrastructural development, creativity suffers and atrophy sets in. The story today is that some state governors from Imo to Osun owed several months' salaries to their civil servants,and had to ask for Federal bailout without shame. Some states like Delta and Lagos groan under public debts that could not be accounted for, even as their citizens wallow in poverty and unemployment. The question is, can Nigeria ever develop under this depressing scenario? Can this blighted country ever take her pride of place among the developed nation of this planet earth, where economic growth is taken for granted, the welfare of citizens assumed, and justice and fair-play held at premium?

The truth is, surrendering to despair is not an option. But if there is one thing we must wean ourselves from fast is the notion of waiting for some self-styled messiah to come and rescue us from the evil clutches of official corruption. This untenable notion is a delusion of the most destructive kind; so it should be uprooted as quickly as possible. First, the people should learn to develop a healthy distrust of those elected to govern them. Instead of being deceived, the people  should guard rather than abdicate their responsibility of leading the fight against official corruption. From media pundits, political errand-boys to bar-room conversation, the cry, smacking of grovelling supplication, is that PMB (President Muhammadu Buhari) should not abandon his avowed fight against corruption, but to probe deeply and not spare anyone accused of stealing from the common purse. All well and good, even though his vaunted personal integrity is still open to speculations in that so far he has carefully shielded himself from public accountability and scrutiny of his financial dealings. And we are now left to wrestle a sneaky conspiracy by the ruling elite to install PMB as the flaming guardian of the 'holy' war against corruption. This misplaced trust in Buhari's moral capacity to fight corruption to a standstill is fostered by a rapacious elite across the political spectrum -from PDP to APC - bent on a collective resolve to despoil the people. So far, the rest of us have bought that ruse calculated to distract and deprive us of our responsibility as a people to tenaciously demand for accountability and transparency in democratic governance, no matter whose ox is gored.

From Bola Tinubu calling OBJ (Olusegun Obasanjo) the 'Navigator of the Nation' last year when they ganged-up to dethrone Goodluck Jonathan to OBJ preparing and handing over a blueprint for national economic revival to newly-elected PMB, these maneuvers were all aimed at protecting their flank, and avoid being probed and prosecuted by an unfriendly, vindictive ruler. When OBJ, in an orchestrated move to scapegoat Jonathan for the ills that plagued Nigeria, arrogantly announced with a judicial irrevocability that the South-South geographical region would be haunted for many years to come by GEJ's 'misrule', I knew it would not be long before Buhari's henchmen come calling for Jonathan's head to satisfy the people's blood crave for public spectacle and shaming of 'corruption.' This is the same OBJ whose 8-years rule from 1999 was a litany of bluster, incompetence and failed expectations, a cautionary tale of how not to lead a nation, a man who elevated political impunity to high art. Running NNPC as a potentate without accountability and transparency during his tenure as president, OBJ it was who said he was not a 'sadist to throw big men into jail,' a flip-flop from his doctrine of 'no sacred cows' in his self-imposed fight against corruption. To have this same OBJ cavorting with the new president was a signal that PMB could not, and should not be trusted to genuinely probe and prosecute corruption in Nigeria starting from 1999. Despite Femi Adesina's convoluted untenable justification of how PMB would restrict his probe to Jonathan's tenure, it's clear to discerning observers that Buhari is out to witch-hunt! That the president's self-righteous anger against public corruption is simply a tale of 'sound and fury, signifying nothing,' apology to Shakespeare.

That leads me to my point. President Buhari as a born-again democrat, and not a military despot, cannot be the guardian, but a subject of a renewed fight against official corruption. The people should seize the initiative, and appropriate the fight against corruption. Without sounding idealistic, it takes a vigilant, empowered people, not the head of any government, to checkmate the excesses of the judicial, legislative and executive arms of government. Despite immunity, even the government of President Buhari should not expire before the people start demanding for a probe and investigations into his deeds, apart from security issues, in office. That's why the Freedom of Information Act should be strengthened and domesticated across the length and breath of the country, no state or local government excluded.  Vigilance of the citizenry should be eternal, and not suspended. TO BE CONTINUED.

LET MONEY WAIT FOR YOU!

LET MONEY WAIT FOR YOU!  Secret Mind-Game of How You Can Capitalize Your Vision  in Your Business Start-Up.   BY FELIX N.JARIKRE                                                                                                                                          

Starting a business is a risky, demanding journey where you face daunting challenges, take chances, and sometimes suffer perilous defeat. Most times, people who finally succeeded in business have tales of how they had struggled through times of despair and near-paralysing anxiety – desperate times where it appeared everything would collapse on their head. Certainly, no one can claim that building a successful business asset is easy. It requires your unbroken focus, daring independent thinking, every ounce of resilience to bounce back when you are knocked down, staying enthusiastic and pumped-up when the winds of adversity blow. Indeed, the race to remain relevant and profitable is tough and unsparing. With more than 90 percent of start-ups failing, there are no guarantees of security and success. So why do you bother? Why don’t you take the path of least resistance by getting a job, waiting for the monthly pay-check, and hoping for pension when you retire?  Yet if your passion is to have unhindered platform to solve problems, and you need to seize control of your destiny, you would not be satisfied by taking the path of least resistance. Helen Keller said: “ Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”  The “ safe road” or “comfort zone” is an enemy of progress.  There are those who make things happen and other people who wonder what happened. When Steve Job was told derisively to go back to college by executives of Hewlett-Packard who turned down his idea of personal computer, he ignored his detractors,  went on to develop Apple into a world-class brand, and made billions of dollars for himself as well as for others in the process. So you say you want to make things happen, like the Steve Jobs, Elon Musks and Jimoh Ibrahims of this world. Your goals, objectives and plans are well laid out. You are ready to work hard and smart. You have invaluable skills. You have creative energy. And you are ready to roar!  But wait, you ask yourself: where is the money coming from? How do you fund your dreams and aspirations?  Take it from me. You are not alone in your perplexity and desperation. In the Bible, Gideon was also forced to confront his feeling of inadequacy when he was sent in a God-given vision to rescue his people, Israel from being oppressed and impoverished by their adversaries. Taking on a persona of bravery and heroism , he had to move beyond his desperation and embrace the unfailing resourcefulness of God who sent him. Hear the divine marching order to Gideon: “ Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have I not sent thee?”  This marching order is a currency of unquantifiable value. Since no amount of money could purchase this currency, it was given to Gideon for free. IF YOU ARE SENT BY GOD, YOUR ENTERPRISE SHALL ALSO BE ADEQUATELY FUNDED AND MOBILIZED FROM ABOVE. It takes a vision from above to escape the trap of financial destitution. For you to play the secret mind-game of turning your vision into operating capital, you had to see yourself as a MESSENGER of God in the jungle of business, armed and mobilized to take out your adversaries! It’s an error for your dream to crash and burn on the altar of financial destitution. The world of business today continues to favour enterprises with vision, tenacity and the willingness to adapt. So never allow the lack of money to short-circuit, or limit your ability to stretch, expand and be prolific. Be willing to embrace new ideas because your survival is at stake. Explore new avenues when you have to, and be prepared always to change directions. But using  lack of money to excuse our lack of productivity or resourcefulness is not acceptable. Don’t waste your skills, waiting for money. Use your skills to make money. In the bible, It takes Peter’s skill - trained to catch fish – to bring money out of the mouth of a fish; and put away offence!   

Here are three keys to unleash the secret mind-game of how to capitalize your vision:

CREATE A MOVEMENT; HUSTLE; MAKE PROGRESS. If things get desperate in your business, and you find your back against the wall, the solution is not to roll up into a corner and play dead. When you feel neglected, unwanted and ostracized, locked out of the “winners’ circle,” it’s tempting to harbour a siege mentality that negatively wants you to shut down. But that’s a seductive option that you cannot afford to tolerate. You must rebel against everything that want you to stagnate and retrogress. This is the time to shake off every mental limitation, get up and make a move. There is this biblical story of four lepers who were ostracized and exiled from decent society. As they sat at the gate of the city, famine was ravaging the land as a result of the adverse result of the siege laid by the Syrian army. The threat of death was a clear and present danger. Then the lepers said: “ Why sit we here until we die?” They decided to move toward the direction of the camp of their enemies. We were told God turned the movement of the four lepers into the fearsome noise of a terrible war machine, making the Syrian army  to scamper and run, leaving behind their hoards of money and rainment; which the lepers did not hesitate in secreting away. There is power in movement. The book of Genesis says: And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. To create a movement is to be resourceful. Make that call you have long delayed. Compose that email and send. Knock on that door. You have got nothing to lose! Summon the help of Jehovah Jump-Protocols!  Step out and hustle. There’s no lion on the street! Make progress and shine.

EXPOSE YOUR TALENT AND HIDE YOUR FEAR.  There’s nothing of value you want to achieve that would not suffer contradiction, disapproval or neglect from people. Discouraging, unfriendly circumstances are not far from those who aspire to something worthwhile. When Steve Job and Steve Wozniak decided to develop and commercialize Apple computers, there was really no viable market for personal computers.  It’s a fact of life that before you are celebrated for your ideas or talents, you might have to pass through the fires of rejection in the hand of people who don’t always feel comfortable with change. It’s very seductive to despise or neglect your idea or talent because you have presumed other people would be hostile to it. But we must not be like the biblical servant who buried his talent, and exposed his fear of suffering rejection from men for the “ worthlessness” of his talent. We must be totally persuaded that our ideas and talents are valid.   

DON’T BE HELD BACK BY LACK OF EXPERIENCE.  Whatever enterprise you feel excited or passionate about starting or getting involved in, don’t hesitate: Go, do it. Don’t be afraid that you don’t have sufficient experience to master the venture. What you don’t know about, get ready to learn. You don’t know enough for anything.  Whatever challenges or failures you face will yield new lessons/experiences that you would not have encountered if you never started. Moses never knew that a mere stick –pointed- could divide a large expanse of water until he was divinely instructed. With no experience in manufacturing or retailing, and starting out with just $5,000, Sara Blakely  built the Spanx Pantyhose brand and became one of the youngest self-made billionaires in the world.  Be a visionary. Unleash your passion. Be flexible and resilient. Laugh by force when you should cry, and maximize your strength as a result. Turn the table against your adversaries by your die-hard tenacity. Playing for higher stakes, bolstered by your resolve, money shall gravitate with haste to serve your vision!

SECRETS OF MARITAL SETTLEMENT (5)

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SECRETS OF MARITAL SETTLEMENT (5) - By BISHOP (DR). CHRIS KWAKPOVWE

WHY THE UNMARRIED ARE MORE BETTER THAN THE MARRIED

Let me quickly say that success in life is more important than being married! From prison, Joseph succeeded without marriage. If Joseph in the Bible was distracted by worry, insecurity or feeling of inadequacy; if he was troubled by thinking he would probably die in prison without getting married or having children. BEING UNMARRIED IS NOT A CURSE AND IN FACT IS PROVEN TO BE  WORTH MORE EMULATING THAN BEING MARRIED! When Pharaoh had the problem of a perplexing, mysterious dream, Joseph’s eye would not have been opened to see the solution if he was looking down on himself in prison!  When God made Joseph to succeed through his gift as a dreamer, he did not waste his singlehood troubled by how he could ventilate his sexual lust through any illicit affair with a woman like Potiphar’s wife, even when the latter desperately wanted to get him to violate his purity. Joseph disciplined himself instead to develop and sharpen his gift, and when his time came to bear rule, he was not found wanting! AT LAST IT WAS JOSEPH’S  SUCCESS THAT PROVOKED HIS MARRIAGE. Marriage does not necessarily make you to succeed!  If you marry because you want to succeed, that’s a demonstration of stupidity!  For many, it is even marriage that made their visions and gifts to crash.

May your gift show up for you, and not disappoint you! The Bible says a man’s gift (not his marriage) maketh a way for him.  For example, Ms Condoleezza Rice, a powerful and influential woman in global politics and was once a National Security Adviser and U.S. Secretary of State under George W. Bush remains unmarried. A CNN interviewer had asked her being an eligible woman: “How have you avoided being snared in a marital trap?”  She replied she never thought of not being married, but “You don’t get married in the abstract. You find someone that you’d like to be married to.”  Concluding, she said not being married had not made her less satisfied or happy in life as she loved being a university professor who exercised her gift, and opened new worlds to her students.

If you are not married, your success in life is your best revenge against those who are married or those who are disrespectful to you over your marital status. So for those who are single, or would remain so temporarily by circumstances, and would remain so for life, always know that your success in life is your best revenge! It takes the discovery and development of your gift for your relevance not to be questioned. Read this well: The world now is not really interested in where you came from, the colour of your skin, or the degrees of your academic attainment.  How you develop and deploy your gift to empower, and not defraud your community or society is what would make the world stand at attention before you: NOT YOUR MARITAL STATUS.  Bill Gates dropped out of university to start Microsoft. Today his personal wealth is so staggering that he can feed five African countries with ease. To the unmarried, this is not the time to wail and pity yourself! Focus rather on how to cultivate and unleash your gift to the betterment of those around you. Fire up your zeal to be an evangelist of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Study your Bible with uncommon perseverance and enthusiasm! Show tenacity and consistency in your giving. Don’t be ashamed or afraid to stand up for your convictions. Force yourself to laugh when you should cry!

THE UNMARRIED ARE MORE BLESSED - Without controversy, following the prescription of scriptures, the unmarried are more blessed than the married!  Why? The unmarried are likely to be more generous to their friends or relations (There are exceptions to this rule, of course), but if it is true – as indeed it is – that unmarried people give more than those who are married, then it stands to reason that the unmarried are more blessed because Acts 20:35 says ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ GIVING IS MORE BLESSED THAN RECEIVING!

THE UNMARRIED MANIFEST SPIRITUAL GIFTS MORE! Many married people are so burdened and consumed with their self-imposed task of trying to please their spouse that they end up neglecting to exercise their spiritual gifts and talents. They become a caricature and shadow of their true self in the name of marriage.  To the singles who are looking to get married, they should remove self-pity and despair from their dictionary. MORE NEXT WEEK ON WHY BEING UN MARRIED IS BETTER THAN BEING MARRIED!