New Nigeria Vanguard

I am laughing at people who point at Buhari going overseas instead of fixing Aso Clinic, or flying Kyari to Lagos apparently because of it.  Others are amused that he is quarantined in the villa after suspicions that he may be corona positive. Still others blame him for not ordering border closures, not to be outdone others tie his delay in closing the airports because his daughter was enroute. Only a callous man will not try to have a daughter return safely and even besides that suspicion only a mad man will order the closure of all air traffic and complete border closure , the lifeline of the nation, without some hesitation, it’s not just health but Naira and dollars evaporating into thin air, Nigeria will pay the price for these actions even as all Nigerians, although still alive, will have morphed into looking like kwashiorkor victims as a result.  Only a mad man will stay in Nigeria to experience the third world socialist medicine available, it’s a waste of time.  In...

Typically many Nigerians feel they have very little to celebrate about Nigeria at 59. How Nigerians developed a new found culture of impatience, ingratitude to God and dreams of immediate prosperity is difficult to determine, but it is not unconnected to the discovery of oil in 1956 and they resultant influx of petrol dollars that transformed Nigeria from an agrarian economy to a sophisticated economy overnight without going through development stages. Nigerians have since then, aided by foreign influence and a newfound consumerism that has no bounds, and shows no sign of abating, become one of the most demanding and most unimpressed people on earth. Few Nigerians understand that Nigeria is not a rich country, a separate discussion from potential. Nigerians are so sure of Nigeria’s unlimited resources that for instance if you mention going to space, every Nigerian will state that Nigeria could go to space immediately, except for its bumbling and kwarapt government. As Nigerians complai...

.The Bible is viewed as a holy book, but all it really does is document the history of the Jews and their tribulations over the years at the hands of various oppressors culminating in the dreams of a messiah to take them to the promised land. If we had a written language or transcribed the stories of the griots that Alex Haley in his Roots book had consulted to track down his ancestry, you would discover it would encapsulate the histories of our various people and trace bloodlines leading back to a long forgotten supreme ancestor, no different from Abraham who descended from Adam and you would trace your genealogy like the Bible does in linking Jesus all the way back to the line of kings, specifically to David in his case, similar to the bible. Their native men and sorcerers foretold of the arrival of the various messiahs to take them to the promised land or to restore the kingdom of Judea.  Jews had Prophets akin to native priests and griots and whole tribes, like the Levites, ded...

I salute UNN for this first revolutionary attempt to begin a discussion about this topic in Nigeria today, perhaps the first original theme of its kind. Many Nigerians act so sophisticated, but deep down we are a bunch of primitive superstitious savages. Nigerians go to church and mosques during the day, but we consult native doctors aka “juju” or medicine men at night.  Bring a white male cock, bring me a tortoise, bring me white cloth, what is the name of your grandfather, swear an oath, etc For instance Ngige received his “native” blessings to see him remain as minister today, go and try him and see the forces that will kee you, even Abacha imported native doctors from Bamako before the superior juju of mascara wearing Indians with red dots on their head superseded them, juju pass juju oh. No one can die in tiv land without accusations that his mother or relatives or enemies conspired to kill them in the spirit world, deaths in the aftermath are traced to a deceased spirit secur...

It is not so much that the standard of living is falling drastically, but that Nigerians are not earning enough income to satisfy new and more sophisticated needs. Basically, the needs of Nigerians have expanded geometrically in the last few years.  For instance, increased access and subscription to cable and the use of expensive cellular phones and recharge cards are new expenses being faced by everyone that was not obtainable in the past, so also are market-based school fees at universities and enrollment of children into private schools at all levels unlike in the past. These expenses all reduce disposable income.  Even historical out of pocket expenses including taking care of relatives through the extended family system, health care expenses, burial expenses and weddings expenses are now prohibitive. The rise of burial and wedding expenses is so high that certain religious institutions have restricted they length of time a corpse can remain unburied and some traditional r...

The common reason adduced for the closure of the border is the protection of our rice industry and to force Nigerians to substitute foreign rice with local varieties.  Two of the biggest flaws of the policy are: 1. Miscomprehension of the appetite of Nigerians for foreign rice and all things foreign. Nigerians talk a good game, but are hopelessly addicted to all things foreign including rice. The situation is so bad that some enterprising criminals are now mixing sorghum with local rice and selling them in foreign bags of rice and Nigerians are paying a premium. No one has time to wash rice like I observed growing up, you can wash rice and remove stones, but tell that to Nigerians, they will abuse you about how sophisticated they are. Bottom line unless the government has rock hard determination it remains to be seen how long Nigerians will tolerate feasting on local rice, despite all the noise. Nigerians are grounded in their idea of sophistication and taste and cannot be weaned o...

Nothing can make one more unpopular than displaying even a hint of Buharism or sympathy for cows and honest herdsmen not Fulani militia, while not condoning killing, but Nigerians are so locked in their hateful mindsets to examine issues beyond their tribal prism. This post by an Igbo person says it all. Nigeria is heading towards a major crisis when it will wake up one day and not find beef for sale anywhere, no one really likes pigs and goats are notoriously slow breeders. Nigerians will wake up one day and suddenly realize there are no cows anymore, the Fulani, the custodians of Nigeria’s beef have given up the business and Nigeria must import meat by the ton, another import bill that will crash the naira. President Buhari must be blamed for his catastrophic handling of internal security issues related to dealing with the Fulani militia and occupation of tribal land by nomadic Fulani clans and unrestricted grazing that has made Nigerians turn against “Fulani custodians” and their co...