THE POWER OF PHOTOGRAPHY

4, a photo by charlesviper on Flickr.

I decided to bring this pix here because it shows the beauty of photography

NIGERIA:THE STATE OF NATURE AND MR PRESIDENT.

The story of the state of nature may not be a completely true story, but among so many other created story, to an extent, the story on the state of nature points clearly to what society may have been and what it is now. One can equally argue that by extension,it can help man predict what may happen if certain things are not attended to. To those who have not read any thing on the state of nature, I will present the summary from Thomas Hobbes theory. This story in political philosophy  clearly separate society into two. Society before and society now. According to Thomas Hobbes, society before ( the state of nature) clearly present life in a state of survival of the fittest. In that life, man battled against man in an attempt to survive. There was no government to maintain law and order. It was the war of all against all and God for us all. It was the survival of the fittest. If I can displace you of your possession for my survival, so be it. In that life, there was fear, chaos,killing. in fact,  life was solitary, nasty ,brutish and short according to Hobbes.  However, Man felt this can not continue. To solve that, Man decided to form organized society, to have a government, to give up some of his right so that the government can help protect that right by law. Based on this, the idea of the survival of the fittest gave way to Man living together governed by a government whose duty is to provide for society and defend citizens. This story is according to Thomas Hobbes and this is just one of the story on the state of nature. I, have decided to use the story by Thomas Hobbes, just so I can point out some thing to the government and by extension Nigerians so that we can all do some thing before some thing will do us. According to the utilitarian philosophy which I love so much, it is the duty of government to provide happiness for the greatest possible number. That happiness in organized society will mean that the government make available jobs so that people can earn income to be able to feed, provide shelter for themselves and their family. It means the government must provide security for people to be able to go out and come without fear of death. It also mean I can go to church and not be killed by a bomb blast. It means the government must know this and do some thing about it. It means the government does not have to wait for people to die only to issue a very stupid statement saying we are doing all we can. It means the government has to be bold in the face of defending her citizens. It means the government has to show courage in the face of terror. GEJ, Nigerians are dying almost every sunday in church. People are being bombed. You are the president, commander in chief of the armed forces of the federal republic of Nigeria. The chief security officer of the federal republic of Nigeria. You swore to uphold the very constitution governing this country. You took an oath, that oath does not include allowing Nigerians to die like chickens. That oath does not include the fact that you make Nigerians suffer for your not having shoes as a baby when they voted for you out of sympathy for that very reason. You don't tell Nigerians that you are helpless in the face of terror. What will be your story if Nigeria break up because of your carelessness and lack of attention or foresight. The point to make before your excellency and Nigerians is clear. if you keep showing that you cannot defend Nigerians against this killings, If you keep showing that you are helpless in providing jobs for the many graduates who pass out every year, If you keep showing that Nigerians are not entitled to light, shelter and peace in their father land, I will like to point out that it is not in the nature of man to want to stand helpless and do nothing. Man by nature will want to fight back. Why? Because he is Man. Nigerians are watching. Nigerians are tired. I am sure my point is clear. I will let you take it from here.

MKO AND IBB; THE TRUTH WE MAY NEVER KNOW!

Dear Nigerians, I feel the need to write because concerning the above topic, so much has taken place. We have had unrest, blood shed, standstill but in all of this the June 12 1993 presidential election remains an annulled election. The question to ask is why? I read in the paper recently where a state is demanding that the federal government Should Recognize june 12 and accord Abiola, even in death every honour and recognition befitting of a president. This is serious. Lagos state under Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu decided to go ahead and de clear June 12 as a state holiday. Some western state followed as well. It shows that june 12 is serious business. The federal government on his part decided to honour Abiola by renaming university of lagos to Moshood Abiola University of Lagos.    Instead of full acceptance, serious protest followed . The argument is that unilag is like a brand. Changing its name will look like changing the name Harvard. Another argument is that, unilag was established by an act of parliament, any change must also come by the same means. The third argument which is what concerns us here says that Abiola is a national figure. Therefore, any form of honour by the federal government must carry a national mark and not make it look like a sectional affair. Sincerely speaking, I don't agree less. It shows that the federal may have sent wisdom on holiday while thinking this. The reaction against it was too sharp. Yet the man whose name remain at the center continue to remain a topical issue whose very place is the front burner. His election was annulled by ibb. The question remains why? Sentiments aside, has ibb ever told the world the main reason why the 1993 election was annulled? Is there some thing Nigerians need to know? A created story ( at least I think so even though i was told in class in my ss2) has it that Babangida and mko happened to be very good friends. The story continued that Mko used his wealth to bring Buhari into power.( We can never be sure) However, when Buhari turned against him, he decided to use his money still to bring Babangida to power.( A fact we can't establish for sure) The agreement was that, if Babangida rulled for a while, he would hand over power to Mko under a well planned election. By so doing, Babangida would have fulfilled the promise he made to his friend Mko while in the annals of history, Babangida would have gotten the title, one time president and also be seen as the man who successfully returned Nigeria to democratic rule. At least it looked like a good plan even though the authenticity of this story cannot be established. One point to make clear is, Money and power are two things Man find difficult to let go off. That story also has it that Ibb found some things in Mko which made him distrust him. Still this cannot be confirmed. However, I must say to many that june 12 was not all about Abiola. It was more about Nigerian and the believe they had in that Mandate. To make it an Abiola affair alone is to run away from the main issue. That is why I argue that though Abiola may be dead, the questions begging for answers as far as June 12 is concerned must be attended to provided some of the key players are still living. My fellow country men and women, Mko is dead and the dead cannot speak. If we have a country where things work,, shouldn't Ibb be made to at least explain to Nigerians what really went wrong? Nigerians (his fellow country men and women) stood in the sun on that day, left their businesses, some family to ensure they go to the place they registered just to vote. Why then will one person decide to hold the whole country to ransom? When a case is opened abroad, even if it takes fifty years, the case stays open until it is concluded. Why can't the same happen here? Why can't we ask questions and demand for answers? Are some people bigger than the entire country? Will things continue this way? Shouldn't the change we want begin with getting answers to questions like this? Let me leave you to take it from here.

DID THEY MAKE A COSTLY MISTAKE?

According to d d Apadorai...A nation can be defined as a body of people, who feel themselves to be naturally linked by certain affinities which is so strong and real that they live happily together and are dissatisfied when disunited and they cannot tolerate subjections to people who do not share theses ties. The above definition shows that the entity called Nigeria is not a nation but of course we can say it is a state. It is a state because it has a population, geographical location, a government etc but it cannot of course be called a nation. We are not a body of people, we are very separated. We are not naturally linked, all that links us is the wealth from oil.we a are not happy (at least our politicians are) when disunited by politics, religion and the national cake. Haven said the above, the point to establish by it is the fact that we are a state and not a nation. Nigeria is a state with many nation. We have the igbo nation, the yoruba nation, the hausa nation, the ijaw nation, Niger delta nation etc. At least the yorubas have certain affinities, they are real, they live together, they will oppose any one who opposes them. The same applies to the other nation which make up this entity called nigeria. That accounts for why the people of GEJ will defend him no matter how much he fails to see the solution to our problems. In 1914 when Lord Lugard decided to amalgamate the northern and southern protectorate to make them one, history has it that he did not consult the leadership of this different nations. He did it for financial reasons and for administrative convenience. Believe me, it was not because he wanted us to be one.Our interest, concern, fears was not his concern. He was a representative of the British crown and all he did was in their favor not ours. It is therefore not wrong to conclude from the above that the entity called Nigeria is an artificial creation. A forceful creation. We did NOT agree to live together. We did not agree to exist together. Our interest for peaceful existence was not spelt out. The entity called Nigeria is a forced creation of the British government. To put it very straight, are we one? the answer is obvious....NO. HOW THEN DO WE SOLVE HIS? The USA is called the united state of america because the various state which makes up the federating unit agreed to live and exist together based on certain agreement and conditions which is well spelt out in their declaration. The question is, where is ours? did we agree to exist together? what were the conditions? I don't know if you have any but i don't. Please don't tell me the constitution is a document which states this because the constitution has no place which states clearly where we agreed to live together. If we did , may be the killings we see today would not have been the case. I therefore ask, shouldn't our nationalist leaders ( Awo, zik, ahmadu bello,enahoro etc) have sat down after independence to consider the all important question... DO WE WANT TO EXIST TOGETHER? WAS THAT A MISTAKE ON THEIR PART? A MISTAKE WE HAVE NOT RECOVERED FROM AND MAY NEVER EXCEPT WE ASK THE QUESTION? DOES THIS NOT THEREFORE SAY THAT A SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE IS VERY IMPORTANT? I will leave the above to you and let you take it from here...