THE GATHERER

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 w...

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...

Tourists to Nigeria’s popular cities -- Lagos, Abuja, and Port-Harcourt -- may query statistics that suggests Islam to be the peoples’ major faith. Arguably, there are twelve churches to every mosque in each local government area, in, say, Lagos. Majority of these churches are privately owned organisations, e.g. Winners Chapel: formerly world’s largest church capacity, with fifty thousand seats, until recently upstaged by the Apostolic Church of Nigeria’s one hundred thousand seats church auditorium, also in Lagos. Approximately 160 million people, individually affected by two or more of the following: Tribal racism; Post-trauma of a civil-war (Biafra); Societal under-development stemming from thirty-two-years of oppressive military rule; Poverty; and now Terrorism. Taking a social science approach, expected loss of human dignity and social cohesion in such society, especially having evolved through slavery and colonialism, prior, it’s understandable why the world’s larges...

“Do you know what is right or wrong?” - these reportedly were the last words that came out of Late Gaddafi, in a state between Life and Death, as he was dragged by the rebel force along the streets of Sirte, Libya. These words have kept ringing in my head. Coming from a man whose death was near, and one would have expected him to be begging for mercy or cursing at the top of his voice. Rather, he chose to ask a question - “Do you know what is right or wrong?” Now, what is right? Are they those things our parents told us were right from cradle? And we grew up to find out that they actually meant ‘do as we say’ and not ‘do as we do’. Or are the right things, the Ten Commandments of Moses? – that we find difficult to fulfil all 10 day after day? As we now say no man is perfect, and perfection is only meant for GOD. If no one is perfect, then how come we judge ourselves? - to the extent of executing one another in the name of doing the RIGHT thing, from ‘Capital Punishmen...

In light of today’s 51 st Independence Anniversary in Nigeria, I have been tweeting all week starting from Monday (26-09-11) those positive things that I want to celebrate about our country. While many joined in to mention good things about Nigeria and hash tagged with #OCT1 , I couldn’t help but notice those who decided to gate crash the positive thinker’s party and flooded us with ‘depressing facts’ about our nation and her polity. Among the many negative rants was one that jumped out at me, it read – "We always do ask ourselves, When will 9ja b Great again? But I ask Again, Again and Again, Has 9ja ever been great?" This tweet bugged me a lot, maybe for the fact that unlike the person who posted the tweet, I grew up seeing a little of a great Nigeria before things started to really deteriorate mid 80’s. I grew up when we had Kingsway, Leventis, UTC and Masco Stores and a variety of amusement parks around town where our parents took us to shop and have fun as kids. ...

An idea you’re passionate about may never materialize. You may stay over-thinking until it becomes stale, or perhaps, your efforts to actualize it are continually frustrated. If you give up, you won’t be the first to let a dream die. Nonetheless, many have faced same predicaments and defied odds, not only fulfilling their dreams but also surpassing them. How did they do it? – Motivation! By default, the mind is programmed to quit when overwhelmed. Body pains and tears are its natural reaction to physical or emotional pressure. But ironically, strength to keep going when your mind says – quit – will only come from a past or present pain. An experience that transforms your psyche and literally turns you to a wall – the harder the ball is thrown at you, the farther you bounce it off. I’m not glorifying sufferings, but you won't find any successful person without a story of pain to share. And hardly will you find   trust fund kids   who   multiply their family wealth. ...

Passion can be defined as an “uncontrollable or intense feeling or emotion towards achieving a set goal”. It is also described as a “crazy drive to achieve”. People who are passionate about attaining a feat, often, stretch themselves beyond their natural limits to get the job done. Take for instance a toddler, after the stage of crawling they start to get up to walk. And after taking some few early steps, they fall back down, because obviously their legs are still feeble. But their desire to walk like every other person around them, ultimately drives them to continue to get up each time they fall - to take some more steps  forward, until they finally master the art of walking erect and before you know it they're already running and jumping all over the place. This is the same approach we have to adopt towards succeeding in life. Without Passion, it is impossible for anyone to achieve anything significant, worthy of Praise, or to be emulated by others. Permit me...