THE GATHERER

The Guyanese born Pan-African writer, Walter Rodney, indentified that formation of what is known as “Third world countries” didn’t come about by chance – it is as a direct result of occupation on their land by countries referred to as “First worlds”. Meaning modernisation in the “West” is directly proportional to underdevelopment in the world’s lowly rated countries. As it pertains to Africa, he extensively discusses it in his book, which I like to consider as the African Bible – How Europe Under Developed Africa – published in 1972. An excerpt from the book, which I want to dwell on, is: “What was a marginal difference (in terms of development) when the Portuguese sailed into West Africa in 1444, became a huge gap...440 years later” . Referring to the Berlin Conference, 1884, a period when innovative technology advancements had clearly given the West a superior edge over Africa. Industrialising their societies with the labour of athletic built healthy African youths; taken in their

            I read with pain the response of MKO Abiola’s family to the renaming of University of Lagos after their principal . Quickly jumping in queue to praise the government of the day and choosing to abuse undergraduates and alumni of the university for protesting against the name change. I have since concluded the “family” obviously doesn’t realize MKO is a national icon and not just their family head.   I’ll take you guys 19 years back to 1993. I’d just barely gained admission into Saint Patrick College, Asaba. When my dad took my elder sisters for voter’s registration. The atmosphere was alive and smiling faces lit every corner of my neighborhood. I must say this singular experience instilled an excitement for democratic elections in me; I looked forward to when I’d be legally permitted to partake in this exercise that elevated, in my opinion, the man fondly called Money Kudi Owo (MKO), from socialite to statesman. And this reignited the spirit of ‘ progressives’ in my famil

Bishop Noel Jones, brother of famous actress and model,  Grace Jones , stunned a London crowd when during his sermon he suddenly asked, “Can you love someone you don’t respect? Can you respect someone you don’t love? Same question in reverse order. Well, before you answer, it may interest you to know he's been divorced for 20 years and heads a 17,000 member church, The City of Refuge, California – USA. He's also a grand-father and his children are happily married.  At first, my reaction was, why try to teach on love when you've clearly failed at it? But it occurred to me, that by virtue of hindsight he may actually have good lessons on how to have a successful marriage. Perhaps people who say they are  lucky  with their marriage are just being sincere.  Back to the question – if your answer to both is, no, then you’ll agree love and respect do correlate. And if respect must be earned and reciprocated, so must love. Thus, a healthy loving relationship is one where

I thought it wild but attainable, Brazil to beat Japan four nil, Germany 2006 World Cup. A £10 bet on that score line at the bookies would return £110. More encouraging was a friend’s telephone call that morning saying he won huge by predicting correctly results of 10 accumulated football matches. It was a period of celibacy for me gambling wise, but today the unction had return. Two hours later, Brazil won the match scoring 4 goals, save for Japan’s Tamada uncharacteristically scoring first.  4 -1 it ended, illusion of being £100 richer gone; reality is, I had lost my tenner… again. The actual danger of gambling surprisingly lies in winning a bet. By this, you enter into ‘Self Hypnosis’ – convinced beyond doubt it works, becoming addicted. I had once won a couple of hundreds on dog-racing, which began two-years of daily stakes, believing fortune would shine on me again, especially when people around me testify to winning a few quid here and there. “We’re already too de

In company of 3 and 4 year-olds, in my son’s nursery; the head-teacher, said I had a letter, so, after ‘goodbyes’, I waited in a corner of the class, while the letter was fetched. The day’s play commenced with the nursery-teacher, Miss. H, holding up a picture before the kids, who were witting with their tiny legs crossed, on the green carpet, surrounding her feet, in an arc. “Who knows what this is?” she asked. And, raising their hands, shouting ‘ME!’, but impatient, all answered at once, “IT’S A CHIMNEY!” “Ah...remember kids…classroom voice…” Miss H, said, in a low tone. A slight pause and she asked again, “Who can tell us why we have chimneys?” Ignoring her immediate admonition, the children yelled, again. ‘ME! ME! ME!’ and propped up their hands as they did. Though this time, they waited to be selected. “It’s for Santa”, the chosen girl said, rubbing her hands shyly. “Santa was stuck in ours”, said another boy. And uproar ensued with each child eager, to give their versi

Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) must be full of envy as he watches Vladimir Putin become president of Russia again. In 2008, the latter relinquished his presidency to protégé, Dmitry Medvedev, because in Russia a president cannot stay in office for three consecutive terms. But unlike IBB, who power eludes since 'stepping aside' from Nigeria's number one seat on that fateful day 26 August 1993, Putin, has gone on to serve as Prime Minister of his country (2008 - 2012) and he's now set to occupy   The Kremlin   a third non-consecutive time. However, if you've been following Russia's political scene for the past decade, you will know Putin's latest presidential mandate comes with some level of scepticism from his people. Also, most western leaders frown at oligarchy reign, seeing him metaphorically as a villain from the fictional British spy movie   'James Bond 007'.   But, with the new 6-year presidential term in Russia, leaders from the west

People's Democratic Party (PDP) has not hid its intention to make Nigeria a mono-party state. Triumph in four consecutive presidential elections since return of democracy to the West African country in 1999 suggests the party is on course to attain its goal. Should they retain Aso-Villa in 2015, the party will match a record of five wins in a row set by US democrats in 1948 when Harry Truman got re-elected into the White house. Such strong-hold on governance within a democratic state prompts one to seek what this party is doing right. A yoruba adage says:   'When a child falls he looks forward, but when an adult falls he looks back' . Therefore, let's look back and see if we can identify a consistent pattern in PDP's political structure. And where better to start than the beginning of the third republic, 1999. Chief MKO Abiola died in prison the previous year 1998. He was charged with treason in 1994 declaring himself president-elect of Nigeria's