Read Nnamdi Kanu's petition Against Justice Tsoho

BREAKING! Wife Of CBN governor, Abducted

A report has emerged that Mrs Magaret Emefiele, the wife of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has been abducted.

Sahara Reporters reports that she was abducted by a group of heavily armed gunmen late Thursday, September 29, 2016. The report quoted a source as saying Mrs Magaret was kidnapped along the Benin-Agbor road.

It was learnt that the kidnappers have contacted the CBN governor. It is not known yet how much they have demanded as ransom but the source said it was a huge amount. The report said an effort to reach Emefiele was unsuccessful.

Declare State Of Emergency In Mining Sector Reps Urges FG

The House of Representatives has called on the federal government to declare a state of emergency in the mining sector

Leadership reports the call is sequel to a motion moved by Hon. Solomon Bulus Marengo, in which he said some companies in Nigeria were involved in illegal mining of solid minerals deposits across the country. Solomon Bulus Marengo complained that illegal miners were reducing Nigeria’s stake in the solid minerals and other raw materials sectors. He said the illegal act was depriving the country of about 500,000 jobs for the teeming youths.

The lawmaker said illegal miners do not contribute to the development of the host communities as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

He said their activities leaves communities devastated, impoverished and exposed to hazardous environmental conditions. Sequel to the motion raised by Marengo, the House mandated its committee on solid minerals development to investigate the activities of miners, their collaborators and sponsors. It also asked the committee to ascertain the extent of the involvement of both local and foreign firms in the illegal exploration and exploitation of the sector and report back in four weeks. Meanwhile, the office of embattled lawmaker, Abdulmumin Jibrin, former chairman of the House of Representatives Appropriation Committee has been sealed by security operatives. Jibrin’s office in the House was sealed following his suspension after he failed to appear before the Ethics Committee in relation to his allegations of budget padding against the principal officers.

Drop Flopped Fellaini Now Pogba Tells Mou

Jose Mourinho called Manchester United’s Europa League clash with Zorya Luhansk a “must-win” encounter on Wednesday, but their 1-0 victory at Old Trafford had the home fans pulling their hair out for long spells as they watched a team of superstars being undermined by the lack of creativity offered by Marouane Fellaini.

Paul Pogba might be the world’s most expensive player, but United still often show a worrying lack of ideas in terms of how best to cater for the Frenchman. And while he was far from at his best as the Reds laboured to three points, the presence of Fellaini in the role just alongside him helped to bring United down to Zorya’s level.

The home side spent far too much time playing into the hands of their opponents with frighteningly slow build-up play and too little movement between the lines. It is hard to imagine that the presence of Michael Carrick rather than Fellaini at the base of midfield would not have added for more to their attacking presence.

With none of Carrick’s vision and a fraction of the Englishman’s passing ability, Fellaini was hung out to dry by Mourinho from the second he was selected in the pivot role alongside Pogba. For all his endeavour, and the threat he can offer in the final third, the Belgian is simply not a playmaker.

His evening was best summed up midway through the second half when he won possession only to immediately give the ball away again. Having then snaked a leg around his opponent to regain the initiative, he simply fell on the ball and conceded a free-kick for handball.

Moments later the fourth official's board went up for the first time, but Jesse Lingard, rather than Fellaini, was hauled off. On came Wayne Rooney and while he immediately made an impact, it was far more inadvertent than he would have liked as he teed up Zlatan Ibrahimovic for the long-awaited opener.

Rooney was left in the open with an apparent tap-in from Tim Fosu-Mensah’s cross but completely scuffed his effort and saw it bounce up for Ibrahimovic to nod home at the far post instead. It was a goal which summed up United’s performance: ill-judged and fortunate.

While Fellaini has been persevered with at the heart of the engine room, Carrick has still started only one game since the Community Shield win over Leicester City on August 7 and that came against League One side Northampton Town in the League Cup. In fact, his 12-minute sub appearance against Claudio Ranieri’s champions at the weekend is his only Premier League outing under Mourinho.

After a performance of real verve and urgency in the 4-1 win on Saturday, with Ander Herrera supporting Fellaini superbly, this was a repeat of the frustrations of the Louis van Gaal era for which the former Everton man became a poster boy.

But if Pogba is going to become the smiling figurehead of the Mourinho regime, then Fellaini needs to give way to Carrick or Herrera sooner rather than later.

Nigerians Advice Buhari On How to End Recession, No 6 would Shock You

 The following Nigerians have adviced President Muhammad Buhari on how to end the economic Recession. The 6th by senator Dino Melaye would shock you.

1. Atiku Abubakar

Atiku Abubakar, the former vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, at the Investiture Ceremony of the 9th President and chairman of council of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers which held at the Civic Centre, Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island, Lagos on September 29, said this was the best way to end the recession: “It is, therefore, clear that rather than praying for higher oil revenues, we should seize the current opportunity to get over our addiction to oil revenues. “Discovering new oil wells in the north or south is no substitute. Government should look to sustainable sources of revenue, mainly taxes, duties and other levies. And it can only enlarge the tax base by encouraging diverse economic activities right across the country and investing in human capital development to produce the entrepreneurs, inventors and workers of the future.”

2. Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Asiwaju Tinubu said electricity is a vital resource Speaking at the same event as Atiku Abubakar at the Civic Centre, Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island, Lagos on September 29, Tinubu said Nigeria is blessed with both human and natural resources, which it can properly harness to come out of the recession. The APC national leader also spoke on the significance of electricity in driving economic development, recalling how Lagos state invested in private power project during his time as governor.

3. Olusegun Obasanjo

Olusegun Obasanjo proffered three solutions to the recession Former president Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday, September 27, while speaking in Abeokuta at the opening ceremony of the National Council On Finance and Economic Development Conference (NACOFED), stressed the need for Nigeria to borrow, spend less and earn more to get out of the current economic recession. According to the former president, the major problem with Nigeria is that “we are spending more than we are earning and we have not been able to save for the rainy day”. He then proffered this three-fold solution: borrowing, spending less and earning more to the economic challenges of the nation. He also said that funds were available outside the country, advised that Nigeria needed to approach its allies who could lend to the country on reasonable terms. Obasanjo stressed the need to develop agriculture, frowned at policies which tended to turn the nation into a dumping ground for other countries’ products. “I was shocked when the ban on importation of toothpick which we imposed in 1977 was lifted four years ago. How can a nation seeking to rank among the best in the world continue like that? “We must begin to do away with things that we can do without and if we must import them, let them attract very high duties,” he said. He also backed the sale of national assets, saying: “I do not see why 49 per cent of NNPC cannot be privatised. I think the problem is in the coinage “selling of asset” as if we want to throw out our inheritance. What we are actually doing by that is simply re-organizing.”

4. Bukola Saraki

Bukola Saraki and the Senate are against the sale of national assets The embattled senate president, Bukola Saraki, gave the federal government some guidelines to end the recession in Abuja on Tuesday, September 27 in his welcome Address to mark the resumption of the Senate from a seven week recess. He advised the federal government to among other things put in place a pro-business leadership-level engagement platform with the private sector to boost market confidence in the economy. He also advised the government to raise money from sale of assets to shore up foreign reserves, calm investors and discourage currency speculation. “The Federal Government should engage in meaningful dialogue with aggrieved militants in the Niger Delta and avoid an escalation of the conflict in the region. “The National Assembly is very ready to play any role in the process. The Federal Government must consider tweaking the pension funds policy within international best practice safeguards to accommodate investment in infrastructure and mortgages. “The government and the Central Bank of Nigeria must agree on a policy of monetary easing to stimulate the economy and harmonise monetary and fiscal policy until economic recovery is attained. “The Federal Government must retool its export promotion policy scheme with export incentives such as the resumption of the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) and introduce export financing initiatives.” Saraki also said that it was pertinent that immediate, medium and long-term strategies were devised to ease the suffering of Nigerians especially those in the internally displaced persons camps. He then called on the lawmakers to play their own parts in the area of legislation to ensure that relevant laws were passed, saying: “We must ensure the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill as soon as possible to stimulate new investment and boost oil revenue. “As we all know, this bill is long in waiting and is very crucial for vital investment in the oil and gas sector. We will immediately begin the process of accelerating bills aimed at reforming the sub-sector for growth and accessibility. We must also explore the possibility of backing certain key government policies with legislation.” 

5. Aliko Dangote

Aliko Dangote believes the sale of assets is key.  Africa’s richest man and chairman of the Dangote group, Aliko Dangote, has enumerated ways Nigeria can come out of the current recession ravaging the economy during an interview with CNBC Africa. He urged the federal government to sell off the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas company (NLNG), and other dormant but huge capital-generating sectors in the country. He also stressed that the proceeds generated from the sales should be invested back into the economy before the end of the fourth quarter. Advocating the diversification of the economy, he said: “The only way for us to get out of this recession is to make sure we move into action quickly; action by diversifying the economy quickly. If I had challenges in my company, I would not hesitate to sell assets, to remain afloat, to get to the better times, because it doesn’t make any sense for me to keep any assets and then suffocate the whole organisation. “What we need to do now in my own thinking… we have a lot of assets to sell. We can sell part of the joint venture; part of the shares. You know government normally owns 60 percent. “We can sell in an open tender be it Chinese. We can change the term and make it an operating one, just like what we have in NLNG. We also have another asset I think we don’t really need. “You will not believe that the crisis that we have today, if we have $15 billion, adding it to our $25 billion, that is $40 billion reserves. That will give confidence, confidence will come back, then government will back it up with proper economic policy, where people can see the roadmap.”

6. Dino Melaye

Dino Melaye believes the sack of key officials is the solution Senator Dino Melaye, the chairman of the Senate committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has proffered some really drastic measures to bring Nigeria out of the recession. On Sunday, September 4, he said the way to stop the recession was that the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma; and the governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele be sacked over the country’s economic situation. The controversial Senator said: “At the moment, it must be crystal clear to all discerning minds that the President’s widely-acclaimed magical body language has lost its presumed aura and efficacy. His no-nonsense demeanor is equally neither instilling fear nor commanding respect and loyalty from among his cabinet members. “It is therefore obvious that the time for barking is over; now is the time to bite and boot out all those who have demonstrated, in the past several months, a crass lack of capacity to effectively carry out the functions of their office.”

7. Olisa Agbakoba

Chief Olisa Agbakoba believes changes in CBN will help the economy Mr Olisa Agbakoba, the former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has stated that the oil price shock contributed mainly to the downward spiral in the economy which resulted in the present recession. In a statement he signed and issued to journalists on September 16, he painted a gloomy picture of the country’s economic situation which he said if not treated with urgency by introducing strong fiscal, trade and monetary policy could lead to depression. The statement says in part:“We know that Nigeria has experienced mismanagement for several decades but now is not the time to lament but to chart a clear economic policy direction that will give value to the economy. “This will entail developing macroeconomic models tailored to stimulate all sectors of the economy and catapulting us out of recession. “On the issue of monetary policy, there is a lot of confusion. There is the need for harmonisation between Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy which is leaning towards tight liquidity in a bid to harness inflation and the Minister of Finance call for increased public spending on capital projects.” He also noted that that CBN has increased the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 200 basis points from 12 per cent to 14 per cent to combat inflation and stimulate growth. “The MPR is the anchor rate at which the CBN, in performing its role as lender of last resort, lends to deposit banks to boost the level of liquidity in the banking system. “If the apex bank intends to increase the level of liquidity in the economy, it reduces the MPR but increases it when it intends to tighten money supply. “By increasing MPR, CBN has unfortunately tightened lending. The banking sector requires strengthening and must be empowered to lend. I recommend that money from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) should go back to the banks at single digit rates and that banks’ recommended lending rate should not exceed 5 percent,” he said. Whose advice Buhari will heed is yet to be clear.

3 Industries That Will Be Transformed By AI, Machine Learning And Big Data In The Next Decade -Bernard Marr ,

Historically, when new technologies become easier to use, they transform industries.

That’s what’s happening with artificial intelligence and big data; as the barriers to implementation disappear (cost, computing power, etc.), more and more industries will put the technologies into use, and more and more startups will appear with new ideas of how to disrupt the status quo with these technologies.

By my predictions, the AI revolution isn’t coming, it’s already here, and we’ll see it first in a few key sectors.

Healthcare

Most people agree that healthcare is broken, and many startups believe that the biggest answer is putting the power back in the hands of the patient.

We’re all carrying the equivalent of Star Trek’s tricorder around in our pockets (or an early version, at any rate) and smartphones and other smart devices will continue to advance and integrate with AI and big data to allow individuals to self-diagnose.

Sequencing of individual genomes and then comparing them to a vast database will allow doctors — and/or AI bots — to predict the probability that you will contract a particular disease and the best ways to treat those diseases when they appear.

Companies including Google, Apple, Samsung, and others are investing billions in developing new biometric sensors. Combined with big data, the information from these sensors could help prevent disease and extend lifespans.

And consumers aren’t likely to have to pay for it. Insurance companies have a vested interest in new technologies that will keep their clients healthier, and AI bots that help you remember to eat well, take your meds, and get important diagnostic tests that could keep you out of the hospital are a good investment.  (More about insurance in a moment.)

Finance 

AI is also going to be increasingly important in the financial services industries.

In the very near future, AI financial advisors will begin to replace human advisors. Computerized systems can sort through tens of thousands of possible companies to make recommendations.  It can look at your social media posts, your emails, and through sentiment analysis, determine which companies best align with your values and your risk tolerance. And then it can continue to monitor your personal profile and the market and help adjust your portfolio in real-time.

And a human advisor can’t begin to compete with that level of detail and automation.

This doesn’t even take into account the AI algorithms that are already making stock market transactions in nanoseconds and making revenue predictions based on hundreds, if not thousands of data points.

The era of the guess and the gut feeling when it comes to investments is headed out the door.  Additionally, AI systems will benefit banks and lenders by being able to predict which applicants are high and low risk investments for personal and business loans. Our credit scores are already on their way to being much more than the sum of our debts and bills paid. Before long, AIs working for banks will be able to tell by something as innocent as the kinds of things you buy and where you buy them whether or not you’ll repay your car loan.

Insurance

Building on the idea of the AI guaranteeing your personal loan, your insurance company will also be transformed by artificial intelligence and big data.  It’s already begun, with companies like Progressive offering discounts of you agree to putting a little monitoring device in your car that lets them know whether or not you’re a safe driver.

Imagine a health insurance company doing the same thing; just wear this smart device for a few weeks, and we’ll let you know if we can insure you at a lower rate.  If your heart rate, blood pressure, activity levels and other things indicate you lead a healthful life, you get a discount.

Another big change AI could see ushered in is autonomous cars.  One of the major purposes behind developing autonomous cars is that they rarely, if ever, crash.  So the only insurance they would need would be to replace them if a storm drops a tree on them. No more collision insurance.

Meet The AI Assistant Behind Google's New Messaging App, Allo

Allo, Google’s AI-enhanced answer to ‘smart messaging’ on mobile, is here. Designed to keep users from straying outside the app to search for things on the internet, Allo is the first Google product to feature its AI “assistant.”

Suggestions from the assistant are meant to be conversational, and can be plugged into existing conversations or had between you and Google alone. Google is expected the start rolling out the assistant to other products this fall, starting with Google Home, as part of the company’s ongoing push toward AI. Allo comes on the heels of Duo, Google’s video calling app, which has been downloaded 10 million times since it was released last month. Taken together, the two represent Google’s attempt to grab some of the direct messaging market while integrating machine learning across its suite of consumer-oriented products. “We don’t see messaging as a solved problem,” said Nick Fox, Google’s vice president of communications products. Fox said Allo is about “getting things done right in your chat. We think the enabler here is AI.”

Fox stressed that the goal of Allo is to keep the automated suggestions simple and subtle, so as not to replace other apps or search generally, but rather to supplement them. Like Duo, Allo uses your cell phone number, so there’s no need to create a separate user account. Allo does associate with your existing Google account, however, giving it access to a host of personal information, such as images you’ve saved with Google’s cloud photo storage. The more you use the assistant, the more it learns about you. Once you tell Allo your favorite sports team, for example, you can recall news about the team without using its name. “Google has been a one on one experience for 18 years,” Fox said, adding that with Allo, “now it’s like multiplayer.”

When you turn Allo on, it asks for your location. This gives it the ability to search for things you might be likely to ask it for, such as the weather or nearby restaurants. Allo retains the context of a conversation when you query it , mimicking an actual conversation you’d have with a friend. Let’s say you invite someone to dinner via Allo, and your friend asks the assistant to find nearby restaurants. Both users would see the same results, and if one person wanted to see just the restaurants that are open or those with the highest rating, for example, the assistant would filter down results accordingly, all within the app itself.

The assistant gives two types of results. The first is what you’ve come to expect from any search engine, and includes basic information on the subject you’ve asked about. Beneath that is a row of suggested information based on what you asked, when you asked and what you’ve asked in the past. Throughout the app, results are doled out in “bite size snacks,” Fox said. Think of results less like a comprehensive Wikipedia page, and more direct responses to the question you’ve just asked. In addition to quickly surfacing web results, Allo lets you respond to messages with pre-determined phrases that are common replies to questions or prompts. So if your friend sends you a selfie, for example, an automated reply might be “What a great smile.”

Forbes.

The Task Ahead For Igbo Intellectuals (4)

By: Most Rev Prof Godfrey Onah (Catholic Bishop of Nsukka)

lgbo culture is undergoing rapid and profound transformation. I am however not too sure that this transformation is for the better. Our culture is not only about mmonwu and our colourful dresses. It is not only about our funeral rites and marriage ceremonies (already deformed beyond recognition in many parts of Igboland). It is not only about our beautiful, vibrant dances and appetizing dishes. Our culture is also about the way we grow our crops and preserve our food; the way we organize our social life and manage tension. Our culture is also about the way we educate our children. Our culture is, especially, about the values we cherish and how we transmit them to future generations. Our culture is what we make of all with which God has endowed us; what we make of our nature as humans within our particular environment and history as a people. What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gratitude to God and our contribution to humanity. Who will ask questions about which values in our culture are real values and which are only apparent? Intellectuals. Who will ask questions about how to preserve, purify and transmit our real values in a fast changing society? Intellectuals. Who will imagine better ways of doing old things? Intellectuals. Who are those day-dreamers who will invent things which others have so far thought impossible, discover vaccines for apparently incurable diseases, solve life riddles considered insoluble? Intellectuals. Who are those who will find natural solutions to those natural problems which our people have up till now attributed to ogwu and amosu? Intellectuals. Who will figure out a system of social organization adapted to our circumstances, which will increase public participation in governance, restore social and political power to our women, check corruption and foster peace and security? Intellectuals. If all these are not development, Ladies and Gentlemen, I do not know what else is. Intellectuals have done and continue to do these things elsewhere. There is no reason to suppose they cannot do them here. No one is suggesting that intellectuals or intellectualism alone can solve all the problems of humanity or lead our people to the “promised land.” But without their input, we can only get worse, not better. The intellectual, of course, needs the hands of the labourer and the technician, the funds of the businessman, the decisional power of the politician, the prayer and admonitions of the priest, the support of all. Otu aka adighi eke ngwugwu (no one can wrap a parcel with only one hand).
No intellectual among us should think that he or she can make it alone. In our present circumstances, with the paucity of means and the indifference (sometimes outright hostility) of governments, the intellectuals need to work together if they hope to achieve anything and walk together if they wish to get anywhere. This does not mean that they have to agree on every issue. In fact, unanimity among intellectuals is suspect. I agree with Richard Hofstadter when he says: “The criticism of other intellectuals is, after all, one of the most important functions of the intellectual, and he customarily performs it with vivacity. We may hope, but we can hardly expect, that he will also do it with charity, grace, and precision. Because it is the business of intellectuals to be diverse and contrary-minded, we must accept the risk that at times they will be merely quarrelsome.”
Furthermore it is not really the mere increase in the number of intellectuals in lgboland that will promote development in the area, but rather the creation of an atmosphere, a mentality, that encourages the intellectual vocation for those who wish to undertake it and takes seriously the questions intellectuals ask as well as the answers they proffer. This, as I have noted earlier, is what I mean by intellectualism. A favourable attitude to intellectualism in Igboland will make it touch and possibly rub off on the various facets of life in our area, leaving some of its fragrance.
With the alarming increase in superstition and religious sentimentalism among our people, Christians as well as traditional religionists, we need religious intellectualism to help believers separate the grains from the chaff in their religious belief and practice. The distinction often made between faith and reason could lead to distortions. Human beings are religious beings only because and so long as they are rational beings. Faith is a rational act and cannot be required of irrational beings. To believe is to accept that someone or something has meaning or makes sense, even though one may not be able to explain how. “It is wrong,” says Okere, “not realize to what extent true religion is essentially a matter of the mind. After all the very first commandment says that we should worship God with all our heart and all our mind… The most profound and sincere homage we can pay to God and to religion is the homage of our African mind. It ought to be noted that the heart in Hebrew thought (as in most ancient traditions) is not the seat of sentiments but of knowledge and moral judgment.
There seems to be a deliberate attempt by many of our people today to exclude the mind and the heart entirely from religion. This “mindless” and “heartless” religion of fear and superstition, of crowds and noises, of casting and binding, degrades religion, breeds fanatics, impoverishes and anesthetizes the people, enriches some ministers, and keeps our land underdeveloped. We need religious intellectualism as a matter of urgency.
Similarly, we need to inject sufficient doses of intellectualism into our political class and business community. We have so far had too many instances of half-educated persons and even stark illiterates “representing” us at the various levels and arms of government. Some of them, not content with enriching themselves and their political cronies alone, work against the interests of the people as well. Granted that this may be a question of moral probity and not just an intellectual issue, nevertheless, in the fight against moral decadence, intellectual education is a better ally than ignorance.

Aside from the issue of development, for our survival in Nigeria today, we, Ndigbo, need to pay more attention to the cultivation of the intellect than we are doing at the moment. We owe it to ourselves and to the rest of Nigeria. We have the brains. We have the institutions. What is holding us back? What do we lack? Not the money, but the will. The will to stop being slaves in our own land and become masters of our destiny. The will to glorify God and enrich humanity with our best asset. The will to start proclaiming our worth and stop bemoaning our woes. The will to set high goals for ourselves and transform them quickly into new starting points. The will to use the divine power in us to subdue the earth rather than worship some of its intimidating features. The will to collaborate with God and make his image in us shine in all its splendour. The cultivation of the intellect is therefore not optional for Ndigbo, and those who are already .engaged in it should realize that they are pursuing a noble vocation.

Thank you for your patience!

The Task Ahead For Igbo Intellectuals (3)

By: Most Rev Prof Godfrey Onah (Catholic Bishop of Nsukka)

If any German had any idea about how to influence atmospheric conditions in such a way as to make it rain or stop raining on desired dates, at specific times and in designated areas only, we would probably have had “professors of rainmaking” sitting among us today; that is, if they would not have been in the different parts of Africa helping solve the severe problem of draught ravaging the area, or somewhere else (in Europe and America) stopping the rains from causing destructive floods and inundations. Unfortunately, those who claim to have such knowledge are our own people and they seem to use the knowledge they claim to have only to disrupt celebrations. (There are claims too in some quarters that even some foreign road construction firms now engage their services.) Nobody knows exactly who believes these claims and who does not. What is certain is that for some celebrations in some months of the year, most of us are likely either to hire them or, with some unexpressed gratitude, pretend not to know when others do so on our behalf.

That we jumped directly from the town-crier method of sharing information to the cell-phone is evident from the way we shout into that little piece of technology. Most of our people (whether they are the ones making or taking telephone calls, or are simply passing or standing by), are not aware that telephone conversations are supposed to be private. First, there is the loud sounding of the gong (ivom/ogene — now the ringing tunes), then comes the public announcement (ohaobodo geenu nti-o-o!). And although the mobile telephone in Nigeria is very inefficient, because of oversubscription on a fragile infrastructure, nobody seems to care. Indeed, most people will say that it is better than nothing. For without it, most Nigerians have no other means of telecommunication. Should the system collapse now (it is a miracle it hasn’t already), we have nothing to fall aback on.

The word “malaria” is Italian in origin, a contraction of two words, mala aria, meaning bad air. The sickness was endemic in the Italian peninsula up till the period after World War II. Today, it no longer exists there, except it is brought back by a traveller from the tropics. In our case, we seem to have resigned ourselves to its incurability, until salvation comes from either Europe, America or, now, Asia. It is common knowledge that many, very many plants, on our soil are medicinal. Are our pharmacologists doing enough to discover, catalogue and synthesize these substances for better use?

The political system we are running in Nigeria today is not working because it was designed for societies that are completely different from ours and took centuries of trial-and-error to arrive at the stage in which we found it. Rather than evolve a system from what we had already, or adapt the borrowed system to our exigencies, we have obstinately insisted on moving contemporary Washington, D.C. to Abuja, in the same way that we transplant models of houses from England, Scotland and Wales to Imerienwe, lhiagwa and Amaimo, without any regard for geography or culture. Do our political scientists and philosophers really think that what we have now is the best or the only form of representative government in our present context? Have we nothing better to propose, or are we merely content with being considered a “democratic” nation by the rest of the world? Perhaps we expect our politicians themselves to “think out” a better system. Supposing that some of them are still able to think at all, they seem to think only about their personal interests. Given that the present system is to their advantage, with all the corruption and abuse of power that it permits, these same politicians who profit from the system will not be the ones who will try to change it.

There are simple savings and interest-free loans systems that have been operated by women in our area for a long time now. Some of them were life-saving for local women during the war. If our economists ever thought of developing these systems, perhaps by now they would have arrived at concepts on par with or even better than the microcredit and microfinance concepts, which have earned the Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, Muhammad Yunus, a harvest of prizes, including the Nobel Peace Prize. But since our intellectuals are not rising to that challenge, our economic policies are being driven by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to the advantage of their masters in Wall Street.

Metal craft and pottery were flourishing in many parts of lgbo land ‘before the white man happened to us,” to borrow yet again the expression of Theophilus Okere. The waste from the blacksmiths is still there, but the industry has completely disappeared. Is there any possibility of reviving this industry? What help can our intellectuals offer to the expert to codify their knowledge and art in a way that would make it easier to preserve and transmit? Whom are we waiting for to translate the sounds and beats of our local musical instruments into notes and signs in order to make it possible for anybody who wants to learn how to play any of them to simply buy a “teach-yourself’ book on it, rather than depend exclusively on reluctant local masters who prefer to die with their art?

Our intellectuals have to persistently ask similar questions in all the sectors of our life as a people, if we really want to develop. The issue at stake for Ndigbo today is not whether or not we need intellectuals and intellectualism for our development but rather:

Which intellectuals and whose intellectualism will guide our development? So long as we keep answering only the questions asked by other people, we shall continue to produce what we do not consume and to consume what we do not produce. That is a recipe for dependency and underdevelopment, not a pathway to development. James Parkinson, Alois Alzheimer, John Langdon Down, Gabriele Faliopplo, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Andres Celsius, Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel, Louis Braille, Franz Anton Mesmer and many more have become part of our everyday vocabulary as we discuss health issues, education, temperature and transportation. The world is waiting for the time when Ona, Okere, Anyanwu, lwuagwu, Nwachukwu, Okonkwo… will make it to other languages through the ideas and discoveries of the intellectuals who bear these names. Nobody denies that some of our intellectuals have been working hard in their various fields. But the fire of intellectualism is yet to be ignited in our own area. Here, once more, I find the following words of Theophilus Okere, which he referred to the entire continent of Africa, pertinent:

The Task Ahead For Igbo Intellectuals (2)

                  Most Rev Prof Godfrey Onah (Catholic Bishop of Nsukka)

By: Most Rev Prof Godfrey Onah (Catholic Bishop of Nsukka)

Akwukwo na-aso uso;

m ‘0 na-a fia aru na mmuta.

Onye welu ntasi-obi,

oga-amuta akwukwo;

m ‘obulu na nne ya na nna ya nwee ego!

Yet, the question remains: Is education, especially higher education, still worth the trouble for our people? If material wealth was all we needed in life, then higher education would not be the shortest and best route to it. But, as Aristotle rightly observed, people do not usually seek wealth for its own sake, but rather for other things which they hope that wealth would make possible, namely, “better life” — to use a popular Nigerian expression. Commenting on Aristotle’s view, Amartya Sen said: “The usefulness of wealth lies in the things it allows us to do — the substantive freedoms it helps us to achieve. As has already been mentioned, Sen sees development as the means of removing the different types of unfreedom which bedevil human beings, thus offering them more freedom, The Legend of Nsukka, nay Enugu State, the Late Bishop Michael Ugwu Eneja, once said to me: “The greatest freedom you can give to a man is to educate him.” I agree. To educate is to lead to the truth and, as Jesus said, “you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free” (John 8: 32). Of all forms of bondage or slavery, ignorance is the worst. For it totally deprives a person of the possibility of choice. Freedom is the capacity for choice. A piece of drama which was very popular when I was in primary school was titled: “Ignorance is a disease.” Putting these together, one may conclude that education, being a way to freedom, is both a type of development and a means of further development. Education brings out the best in a person. It polishes one’s talents and increases one’s potentials. Education enhances personal development. It also equips the individual to make a more personal and meaningful contribution to the society.

Many young lgbo people today, especially the males, shun University education, because they believe that taking the fastest route to most wealth will automatically translate into more development or “better life.” They are wrong. Wealth without knowledge increases bondage. And development is about freedom. However, if Igbo male youths today show less interest in the cultivation of the mind, elder lgbo intellectuals should ask themselves what they might have done to contribute to this. Could it be that the intellectuals themselves have failed to show by their life that their vocation is worth following by others? The German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, one of Christianity’s greatest enemies, told his Christian contemporaries: “If your faith makes you happy, show yourselves to be happy. Your faces have always done more harm to your faith than our reasons! If that glad message of your Bible were written on your faces, you would not need to demand belief in the authority of that book in such stiff-necked fashion. Elsewhere he said that for him to believe in the redeemer, “his disciples would have to look more redeemed!. ‘Intellectuals who are not proud of their identity or who have nothing to show for their intellectual labour are bad publicity for intellectualism. An intellectual, who succumbs to the prevalent commercial civilization in lgboland, cannot be a role model to the myriad of Igbo boys hawking wares along the streets of all major cities in Nigeria, nor can he rouse the envy of the trader in the Ariaria market, Aba or Otu Onitsha. In Nigeria today, politics has become the most lucrative business. The inordinate amount of money people collect (to say “earn” would be to abuse the term), just for being anywhere near political power in this country, is visible even to the blind in Nigeria today. People are usually not very parsimonious with money they did not suffer to get. Should intellectuals, instead of getting angry at the banditry and spendthrift culture of some corrupt politicians and political office holders, prostrate before them, in order to eat the crumbs that fall from the masters tables, then some boys who have some dignity in them would prefer to run after molue buses with sachets of “pure water.” If those who should know adopt the principle “ewu soko ye ji ekwukwd’ (the goat follows whoever is carrying green grass), they should blame nobody but themselves if they are scorned.

Although most of our intellectuals have remained faithful to their intellectual vocation, not without difficulties and temptations, the harvest is still plenty, the labourers are very few indeed, the instruments still fewer and those few ones are often very defective. One does not need to look far in order to see areas crying to our intellectuals for immediate and constant intervention. Unfortunately, because of our colonial history from which we inherited our present formal educational system, our intellectual education is often not relevant to the cultural, environmental and existential needs of the people and place whose development we would want to advance. Every knowledge, says Hans George Gadamer, is an answer to a question. The fundamental question which our intellectuals should constantly ask themselves is:

Whose questions are we answering? Applying this to our various areas of specialization, one may ask: Whose philosophy are our professors of philosophy “professing”? Economics is all about the management of the home. Whose home are our economists managing? Medicine is for health. Which parameters are used in the measurement of health and sickness? Human nature is one, it is true, and the exchange of words, ideas, inventions, systems, is part of the human mode of being. As I have said elsewhere: “Whatever one man in any corner of the globe has thought out and expressed publicly should be regarded as a common patrimony of the entire human race and each group of people should feel free to appropriate and apply such thoughts [and their public expressions] to their particular circumstances, if it suits them to do so.” Nevertheless, the variables of place and time make so much difference in actual human life that the appropriation and application of ideas and things from other persons and places cannot be done without proper evaluation of their suitability. A people cannot really develop on borrowed models any more than a bird can fly with borrowed wings. Ekwa nñta a-n ‘g’esh ‘Ike n ‘ukwu (borrowed clothes do not fit).

It is one thing for us to borrow general principles already elaborated by others and elsewhere. It is another for us to be mere consumers of finished Western products, worse still, of their poor Chinese imitations. We cannot meaningfully talk of development unless we make serious attempts to improve on what we already have and educate our people on the principles behind the things we borrow. A few examples may help illustrate the point being made here.

One would have expected our agric engineers to ask some questions about how to improve on the very dangerous and inefficient rope (agba /ete) that has been used to climb palm trees in our area for centuries. The palm tree has been a major economic tree in our area. Maybe we are waiting for the Europeans who do not have palm trees, or for the Malaysians who borrowed palm seedlings from us some decades ago, to ask and answer this urgent question for us. In the meantime, we continue to lose precious lives of the climbers, whose rudimentary methods of maintenance of the ropes are not enough to guarantee their safety, especially during the harsh harmattan season.

To be contd

The Task Ahead For Igbo Intellectuals (1)

(Excerpts from a public lecture titled: “Intellectualism and the Development of a People,” which he delivered at the Federal University of Techlonogy Owerri (FUTO) Feb. 8, 2016

Recent Igbo Experience

Before the Nigeria-Biafra war, the intellectual was pride of the Igboman. There was a time when those who had University degree at all were celebrated in Igboland as great intellectuals and heroes. Apart from those among them who play some useful roles in political leadership and activism — Nnamdi Azikiwe, Michael Iheonukara Okpara, Francis Akanu Ibiam, Mbonu Ojike — there were also others who were admired and respected just for their intellectual stature: Chike Obi, Kenneth Onwuka Dike, Chinua Achebe, Alvan Ikoku. Time was when to be called “nne lawyer” or “nne doctor” was the dream of many women in some parts of Igboland. A story is told of a day in the 1960s in which news went round Otu Onitsha that Prof. Kenneth Dike was in town and many traders quickly closed their stalls as they rushed to grab an opportunity of setting their eyes on this revered intellectual. Then came the war, the blockade, the starvation, the surrender, the humiliation and the economic emasculation. Despite the beautiful slogan, “No victor, no vanquished,” there was (and still is) a clear plan to crush the presumably rebellious Igbo spirit and, thus, shatter the myth of the resilient Igboman. But the Igbo fought back. Since they were left with nothing, having been stripped to the bare skin of all the material wealth they had acquired before the war by the post-war Nigerian government, their foremost battle was for survival in a Nigeria that neither wanted them in its fold nor would it let them go. As I already mentioned at the beginning, “No condition is permanent” became their motto, painted boldly on walls, kiosks, hand-pushed trucks and ramshackle boxes on four or six wheels, which they called cars and Lorries. Onitsha, especially the Main Market, was the nerve-centre of this Igbo struggle for economic revival.
Soon a new set of social icons emerged, namely, the rich. They were celebrated in songs, decorated with all forms of spurious “traditional” titles and hoisted as flags for the young to behold, to venerate and to emulate. Perhaps some of them deserved the adulation, for to rise from abject poverty to being a multimillionaire in a couple of years takes much more than good luck. But the toll the Igbo people have paid in values for this has been enormous. Now money and what money can buy seem to be all that matter (o ego k’o y’eli — it will only cost money). Even our proverbial egalitarianism and republicanism seem to have disappeared as the super rich became the “owners” of the community (ndi nwe obodo), at least so they claimed, and their praise-singers reminded those who were in doubt that the community or town indeed belonged to some people (a na-enwe obodo enwe).
Anybody who observes the way most political office holders are now selected in Igboland and what they do with our money when they are in office will wonder why that song— “a na-enwe obodo enwe” — has not yet become a kind of Igbo national anthem, for we have collectively sold our birthrights to those who have “hard currency” to spray.
Before long, the only-money-counts attitude found its way into the precincts of the Churches and, through harvests, bazaars and the unending fund-raising programmes for the innumerable Church projects, it gradually moved right into the sanctuary. From the sanctuaries it has exploded like a petrol tank on fire, spilling its content into massive open air rallies, crusades and fanfares of the miracle industries and mega-markets, where the insecure wealthy class, the distressed youth and the miserable victims of the reckless pillage of our national wealth by an unscrupulous political class collectively fund the extravagance of some self-appointed redeemers. Ego! What can money not buy now from an Igboman and in Igbo land? What does the Igboman not believe that he can buy with money? After all, o ego k’o y’eli. And if only money counts, why would any sane Igbo person invest in the intellectual culture except it is also a sure way of making much money?
What about our Universities and other institutes of higher education? “The University,” says Kyari Tijani, is the arena per [sic] excellence where the intellectual displays his wares and makes his living. Sure, the late Prof. Tijani was being metaphorical in his use of terms. Nevertheless, this imagery, as beautiful as it is, could be problematic in a country like Nigeria, especially among people like the Igbo, who seem to have reduced everything in life to buying and selling. It is no secret that for many people, the Universities and other institutions of higher learning in Nigeria have today literally become extensions of Otu Onitsha, Alaba International Market or Wuse Market, where not just books and hand-outs but also admissions, grades and even degrees are up for sale to any person at all who has the cash to pay. This cash-and carry attitude adopted by some members of the University community in Nigeria has de-motivated many of our hard-working youths and demoralized our real intellectuals. Other forms of inducement apart from money, which are now allegedly used to obtain marks and, consequently, degrees in our Universities, are not worthy of mention in this dignified congregation of intellectuals.
Reflecting on what has happened to the Igbo psyche since after the Nigeria-Biafra war, I am tempted to assume that the single most influential institution in post-war Igboland is neither the Christian Church nor the University of Nigeria Nsukka, but the Onitsha Main Market (Otu Onitsha). It seems to have formed our mentality and created our heroes, ideals and values. Although not all the eze-egos (money monarchs) in Igbo land today made their wealth at the Onitsha market, it appears to have set the tune of what has become the preferred music for most Igbo people today. It seems too that the nearer one draws to the Otu, the louder that music is heard, in spite of the array of distinguished intellectuals that the area has so far produced. If Prof. Kenneth Dike were to venture nearing the area today, he would be lucky if he is not knocked into the gutter by an okada rider or keke operator, except, of course, he was there for a money-spraying spree in the name of political campaign. My hope is that, since this position of mine is a result only of impressions and suppositions, rather than of research and study, sometime very soon, our sociologists, using the correct methods and the appropriate tools, will take a critical look at contemporary Igbo society and prove me wrong. Nobody will be happier than to know that on this issue I was dead wrong in my assessment of my people. Until then, let no one try to console me by pointing out that these ills are found all over Nigeria, not only among the Igbo. For other Nigerians are wont to accuse the Igbo of having spread the only-money-counts virus (including the culture of “settling”) to the rest of the country.

To be continued.