The Unusual January 2012 Protests in Nigeria

In January 2012, the federal government of Nigeria gave its citizenry a New Year gift: the removal of the petrol subsidy. The President of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, had suggested 2012 as when the subsidy might be removed, but it came as a shock when he implemented the decision on the first day of January. In response, the citizens have through the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, professionals associations, activists and celebrities expressed their displeasure.

The past week has seen a nationwide strike and a series of peaceful protests. This strike action, which began on January 9 2012, has crippled the nation's economic activities. Protests meanwhile have recorded the highest turnout in the history of public demonstrations. The effects of the removal of the subsidy is an escalated cost of living as feeding, doing business, transportation, education and other things that depend on electricity become more expensive. This is because most facilities have to utilize petrol-dependent generators in the absence of reliable power from the nation's public utility company.

Though many have serious complaints about the effects of the subsidy removal on their livelihoods, protesters say they are also concerned about corruption, the high cost of governance and growing terrorism. The protesters also complained about the high incomes of government officials and the costs of running a government in Nigeria being higher than those of many developed countries in the world.

On Christmas day in 2011, the Boko Haram terrorist group bombed a group of Christians as they worshipped in churches and still, in 2012, it has not relented. Though not unconnected to politics, some citizens have claimed that the Nigerian government under the leadership of the President is too weak to extinguish the terrorist group. As such, their cry is to have him removed, much like the subsidy itself.

Spokespersons of the government in turn have justified the removal by saying that gangs have been selfishly looting the subsidy disbursement and its removal was the only solution because the cabals of corrupt persons concerned were untouchable.

The demonstrations remain remarkable because they involve an exceptional number of participants. Youths, who are concerned about their future, trooped out en masse to join the protesters nationwide. Unlike previous times, the involvement of so many Nigerians, regardless of their economic status, is an unusual feature of the January protests. The Nigerian citizens have proven that the people of any country matter and that demanding accountability and transparency from national leaders is a civic responsibility.

First Published at Commonwealth Correspondence Website

Visiting Orphans at Christmas

In the rush and exhilaration that usually come with the season of Christmas lies the tendency to ingenuously forget the opportunity it harbours; the holiday that affords us the room to spend quality time with family and friends, plan for the coming year and visit several malls with an eye for discount sales. It is also in this period that our incomes suddenly appear too small compared to the self-perceived time, commitment and efforts we have invested, working for our employers.

Even when some employees are paid the motivational thirteenth month salaries, they still grumble for more in the spirit of Oliver Twist. Yet, they hardly remember that though the times are tough, there are people who would do anything to be in their shoes; they are those who cannot satisfy the physiological or basic needs that are vital for human survival. But some of these less privileged people, precisely orphans, were lately visited with the euphoria of Christmas by a group of youths in Victoria Island.

The visitors who doubled as the NYSC corps members of Eti Osa 1 set out to have a Christmas party with the kids and staff members of the Living Fountain Orphanage at Victoria Island in continuous pursuance of their Community Development objectives. Founded to bring comfort to the abandoned, orphaned and even the poorest among the poor children in Nigeria, the orphanage has been a comfortable haven for the children since inception.

At the party sponsored by the NYSC corps members of the Drama CD group and held at the orphanage’s pavilioned playground, the founder, Mrs Bethy Obieri and her colleagues led the children in entertaining the audience with rhymes and poetic lines. Members of the Drama CD group, especially Joan Onasanya and Abimbola Akinmade, also taught the kids some juvenile lilts as melodious beats from the “corpers” local drums sounded in the background...

Click here to read the rest as published in The Nigerian Guardian

The Class 2003 Loyola College Old Boys’ Reunion

Ige, Abass & Chief Ayangbayi

On December 24 2011, some old boys met at the dinning hall of Loyola College Ibadan, one of the most prestigious mission schools taken over by the Oyo State Government and transformed into public schools in the wake of the 1980s. Founded in 1954 by Rev. Father Mackle of the catholic mission and originally distinguished by its qualitative education and adequate sporting facilities, the Loyola College which is still located along the Old Ife Road in Ibadan has produced many influential politicians, academicians, engineers, lawyers, doctors and other distinguished professionals over the years. But the eminent boys’ only school has grossly dwindled in glory as several of its most vital facilities are presently in dilapidated states while others are absolutely absent. The class 2003 which is disputably the last set of champion loyolans because of their active participation and performance at JETS competition, the Governor’s football tournament, Music, Arts, Basketball contests and Pepsi football academy recently assembled to share ideas on how to aid the restoration of the school’s lost glory.

The first speaker at the class 2003 reunion, Mrs Grace Oderinde, was one of the set’s favourite teachers, being the school’s life planning education tutor in their time. She was fondly remembered by many of the boy long after their graduation many years ago. Famous for her natural beauty and virtuousness, Mrs Oderinde offered the senior boys serial classes on sexual development and education. Most of the boys professed they were always looking forward to her lecture days to learn how to persuade the ladies from Saint Anne Girls’ High School at extramural classes. At the reunion, she made an interesting presentation on Recipe for building a good family with a focus on how to choose the right partner. She highlighted and explained the traits of a good woman or wife material and offered guidelines for having a successful marriage with someone from a different tribe. Sharing from life experience, she illustrated the problems associated with the search for greener pastures abroad and encouraged the alumni to acquire additional skills that can serve as an alternative means of livelihood in times when white-collar jobs are difficult to find. She relayed her time in Ireland with the ex-loyolans as a time of exposure, impact and redirection.

The other guest speaker, Chief S.O. Ayangbayi, who was the school principal for five out of the six years spent by the 2003 class, gave a lecture titled, self-sustenance, panacea to the dwindling Nigerian economy: our graduates’ perspective. He commenced with an enumeration of how Loyola College was built, how the school administration system was captured by the then government and the following but gradual mismanagement processes that reduced the school to what it is today. He also back-traced the failure history of government in performing its functions in our nation and identified the harnessing of local products and talents as a means of bridging the technological dichotomy between Nigeria and foreign countries. Advising the government, he said, “Let there be Igbo-made and okrika products. Government should seek ways of supporting them and improving the quality of their products. Those in government should close our borders to the importation of foreign goods.” Speaking further, Chief Ayangbayi, encouraged the many graduates of agricultural economics to continue the farming habit which they compulsorily practised while undergoing their undergraduate studies.

Though some of the 2003 set of loyolans, especially those in diaspora, were absent from the event, they sorely wished to be present. The event’s organising committee, chaired by Mr Abass Babatunde and comprising key facilitators such as Calculus, Sarofa and Owoyokun Abayomi, was severally praised by the ex-loyolans who were glad to see one another after an interlude of approximately 8years. Among those present at the reunion were Dr Olagoke Olakanmi (Ebora), Engr Tomiwa Ishola, Kunle Ola esq., Akinyemi Olayinka esq. (Sarofa), Engr. Ige Damilola (Calculus), Mr Ekene Mbalu (Oparun), Olawale Timothy esq. (Tanko), Mr Akerele Abayomi, Engr Femi Akintunde, Engr. Dimeji Adeyinka, Barr. Taiwo Egharevba, Mr Ismail Adeyemo, Segun Obisesan esq. (Senior Prefect), Mr Peter Adewoye (Ishoro), Mr Olajide, Mr Tolulope (Asst Senior Prefect), Mr Steven Bikers and many other prominent class 2003 loyolans. It is the desire of the organisers to have a recurrence of the event biennially. Until then, all class 03 loyolans are implored to keep their fingers crossed.

See More pictures here:

Loyola Reunion Photos on Flicker

When the Stakeholders of Future Lagos Met

When I first a received text message some time in November stating my nomination and invitation to attend the Lagos Youth Stakeholders Forum, I shrugged off the temptation to add it to my plans, knowing how tight time constraints would be on my schedule that week. Besides, I felt it was probably just another of those government initiatives that assemble youths to record their complaints and never do anything about it. But when the same SMS alerted my phone two more times, I had to read it more carefully. And then, I realized that though it was a programme sponsored by the Lagos State Government, it was co-sponsored and coordinated by the Afterschool Graduate Development Centre (AGDC), an organization chaired by Mrs Ibukun Awosika and managed by Mrs Detoun Ogwo. That was it. With paper magic, I squeezed out two and a half hours out of a cramped weekend schedule and planned to attend a portion of the whole event. So, when the young stakeholders in Lagos met with the Executive Governor, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, what did he say?

The Governor’s speech was very informative and interesting as he enlightened his audience with updates from the national frontiers. There were mixed questions, many of which could not be answered due to time constraints. I have taken time to put relevant chorused questions below each of the major points recorded.

“Job follows the economy as the night follows the day. Those who will drive the economy of the nation cannot be pre-existing companies. You cannot have twenty ExxonMobils or MTNs but you can have 20,000 massage parlours.”

Question: How will you tackle the problem of multiple taxing? Why should both Lagos and Ogun state governments tax companies along Ibafo? Should they also pay taxes to the federal government?

“The Nigerian economy has performed well to an extent in the areas of entertainment, downstream petroleum, banking, aviation, telecoms. But these areas are not labour intensive.”

Question: So what is the government doing to support indigenous private companies that are struggling to provide labour intensive opportunities? Dunlop folded up in Nigeria because of electricity. Lekki Toll Gate fare is too expensive for the average Nigerian who reportedly lives on less than one dollar a day. Can you tell us something we don't already know?

“The UAE has spent $53 billion this year alone on food importation. Nigerians, despite the fact that we travel to Dubai a lot have not participated in that exchange.”

Question: Good observation sir. How many Nigerians who are below the “fake” middle class of the economy that we have can afford the flight ticket to Dubai? Do you know there are graduates earning thirty thousand naira as their monthly salaries even in your state?

“I have often asked myself, with things so difficult, would I have chosen prostitution instead of practising as a nurse? Where is the sense of dignity?”

Question: Very well sir. We have often asked ourselves, “Do our grey-haired leaders think we are dull or what is the explanation for someone embezzling public funds to the tune of billions going to jail for 6months? Who cannot do that?

“Your pains get to me and I am ready to do something about it. I love our Ofada rice. The rice we eat here in Nigeria is 5-12 years old in storage. The Asians eat the fresh rice, which is why they can eat it with chopsticks. I do not see why government cannot create and implement policies that regulate the importation of rice and encourage the consumption of our locally cropped Ofada rice and the likes.”

Question: It is good that you love Ofada rice and want us to be planting and eating it. Please, how we get the “intelligent” people in Abuja to understand this? How to we interpret this to them since it offers no financial rewards to the loot-rich portion of high class economy?

National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Members in Lagos Challenge Students to Expand their Vocabulary

According to the Wikipedia, a spelling bee is a competition, where the contestants, usually children, are asked to spell English words. Each time a contestant is unable to spell a word correctly, they are eliminated and this removal process continues until an overall winner and some runner-ups emerge. And while the Wikipedia accounts that the phrase, spelling bee, was first used in 1825, the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary documents its date of original use as 1875. But regardless of the degree of precision of either date, the spelling bee concept, which allegedly originates from the United States,
has since its inception spread to other Anglophone countries of the world, where it is often observed as a national competition.

Towards developing better vocabulary power in the students of the Eti-Osa 1 Local Government (LG) in Victoria Island, the Drama Community Development Group of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Lagos State, Nigeria recently embarked on a spelling bee project in the community. The event was held simultaneously in six different classes for an approximate period of forty minutes. Almost all the students in each class participated but a total of 24 winners were given gift items, with 4 students making it through to the end in each classroom. The purpose of the event was to challenge the students to expand their vocabulary and actuate correct English spelling.

The gifts presented were sponsored by Addax Petroleum while the organisation of the contest was spearheaded by corps members Bode Olatunji, Chioma Obiora, Adewa Adeola, Farooq Kolawole, Grace Okey, Ugonma Udenze, Nike Adebayo, Agbo Raymond and Eke Kingsley. Each winner received the gift of a quality school bag for competing boldly and scaling through the preliminary stages of the contest. The corps members were moved by the students’ heavy participation because they were supposed to sit for some continuous assessment tests lately scheduled to hold after the competition. For the students of the Victoria Island Junior Secondary School, November 26, 2011 was a day of work and excitement.

Read More>> at www.cp-africa.com

Of Blackberries and Reckless Pinging

I was just standing outside a customer’s premises, waiting for a car to come pick me, when my eyesight caught a middle-aged lady rushing towards the same door I had exited, looking over her left shoulder and screaming loudly “Ping me! Ping me! I cannot hear you.” As she hurriedly walked past me, I tried to decipher what was happening. Obviously, she had alighted from one of the many Suzuki cars parked outside by the walkway and could not wait to hear what her driver was telling her. She was carrying filed documents so she must have been going for a meeting. And one more thing, she was probably late. In fact, very late, because my wristwatch at that exact period was showing 2.17pm. Then it occurred to me that her driver too was using a blackberry and whatever the issue was, he was going to ping her during at her meeting.

In 2009, just as the iphone fad climaxed, the next “thing” to catch people’s attention was the just around the corner. Like the iphone, it promised to be sleek, stylish and expensive, to offer uncountable applications and get many technophiles busy. Except technologists, no one expected it. It came into the scene bold and curve, holding a javelin in one hand and pointing a touch in the other. It came first to the city and then travelled to the slums before finding its way to the nooks and crannies of Nigeria and everywhere the 3G telephone signal went. It is still here in Lagos where the craze first started but for how long it will stay, no one knows. It is the almighty blackberry. Nicknamed BB and developed by the Research in Motion (RIM) company, this adult’s toy or tool (depending on how it is used) is now becoming the envy of little children.

I was an industrial trainee somewhere in Victoria Island when the BB entered Lagos. It did not struggle to introduce itself because the luxurious taste and tech groove of many lagosians quickly got its demand going. Like hot cakes served with iced coke, the BB sold. Many people around me, both those who had business using it and those whose salary rebuked it, were soon scheming and strategizing on how to purchase one. Today the idea is, if you are not using a BB and planning to buy one, you have been left behind. I even overheard a big girl persuading her boyfriend to make sure he got her another type on her forthcoming birthday. But the other idea is that those whose businesses demand on-the-go internet connectivity definitely needed portable internet devices like the BB smartphone. When high school seniors, yet-to-be matriculated undergraduates and unemployed adults start declaring their want of blackberries, you should know it is just because of the craze. Bitter truth: if your job or studies does not demand the use of an expensive smartphone or if you already have a laptop and reliable internet connectivity, owning a BB might just be an unwarranted liability.

To continue reading, please click: Ayo's Opinion on Celebrating Progress Africa

NYSC Members Discover Talents at KSC

NYSC Drama CD members at the Event

These days in Nigeria and with the global economic situation, classroom education is not enough to give youths a source of income. In fact, education does not guaranty employment rather, it makes students employable. As such, youths who have seen the four walls of high schools and universities with the evidence of due certificates are not necessarily going to get jobs after graduation. This is because certificates do not provide jobs. Instead, they confer the right to be given jobs upon potential job seekers. The reality is that the Nigerian labour market cannot absorb the number of students graduating from our secondary schools and higher institutions annually. These schools graduate students who become idle due to the inadequacy of vacancies. And since idle hands are the devils laboratory, these promising young minds often fall to various negative vices that create the troubles of teenage pregnancy, theft, insecurity, violence, and even terrorism existing in our society. Only those who are able to escape the trauma of prolonged joblessness by engaging in entrepreneurship and talent exhibition survive.

It was in the light of these facts that the NYSC Drama Community Development Group of the Eti-Osa 1 local government located in Victoria Island took up the responsibility of catching tomorrow’s talents young in their own special way. Being one of the youth corps members of the drama CD group, I was privileged to witness the course of events and now bring you a briefing. The approach we utilized in impacting the life of these youths was to execute a talent hunt project titled, “The KSC Talent Hunt” and our overall objective was to discover and encourage the exceptional talents among them. The project idea, being an output of a brainstorming executive meeting suggested by the Drama CD coordinator, Alhaja Igara A.O., was initiated by a team of Drama CD leaders namely: Bode Olatunji, Oscar Odeigah, Juan Onasanya, Corper Anita and Ekeagwu Khan. These wonderful folks met on the 21st of October and came up with the talent show idea which later developed into an ongoing project. A project team consisting of the executive CD members and other dynamic corps members was set up to ensure the attainment of its deliverables. That was how the project kicked off. Today, it can be said that the Drama CD group of Eti-Osa 1 LG have not just influenced their environment but also heightened the hopes of many students in the Kuramo Senior Secondary School.

For the complete article visit: www.cp-africa.com

Minileaks

Image Name/Source: Africa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This is not a poem neither is it a story. It is merely an expression of thoughts.

I did not write a thing about Nigeria on October 1, 2011. Yes, that’s very unlike me. I was not being lazy and it was not due to lack of insights that I did not write. I only thought of ideas that could work and realized the guilt of all. I wrote nothing, I only pondered for hours.

In the paragraph above, the word “I” was used 6 times while “Nigeria” appeared just once. This is the issue with Nigeria and Nigerians, especially our leadership. Many of us, citizens and leaders alike, are full of the spirit of self and are starkly self-seeking.

We have ambitions and goals and certainly have the right to nurture and pursue them. But as we strive to attain greater heights in life, care must be taken to not live self-centredly. Other people should not suffer because we exist.

Men have responsibilities towards their wives and children. They must lead, provide and protect. Women must support the men and nurture the home. The children must go to school and come home with good report cards.

These are societal norms but they must be achieved on the basis of fairness. Should men because of family quench other lives? May women curse their husbands if they follow what is good? Is there any reason why children should cheat in examinations?

No one is perfect and if there is, he is probably not a Nigerian. Since imperfection will corrupt perfection, nothing done by man can be without errors. We err because we know in part and understand in part. Without being heavily strengthened in the inner man, we will not achieve anything perfect.

In the months of August and September 2011, I learnt two lessons. One, Persistence means not slacking when God is leading. And two, Patience means not running ahead of God. The first is the reason why we become stagnant and the second is why some get lost.

However, one thing is needful (even for Nigeria); to move forward, all stakeholders must contribute sacrifice. Some will sacrifice their selfishness; others their cowardice; and the rest, their contentment sustained by the will to survive.
We will have to die to self or self will have to die. It is the way out. The self that will not pray, love, vote, speak up, work hard or be controlled must die. We will have to commit the murder of self and take the risk of not achieving certain inordinate personal goals.

In the end, not everyone listening to motivational speakers will become a second Bill Gates or a younger Warren Buffet. But truly, time and chance will happen to all. We may not be able to change what we have but we can always change who we are and how the world sees us.

Yesterday we had problems. Today we are not without many problems and only God knows what awaits us on the streets of tomorrow. There will always be something to overcome; a challenge, a problem, a stumbling block. So, here is a finally shared microidea or “minileak”: As much as depends on you, follow peace with all men but know that He sees you and is waiting for you. He is God. He is not man.
God bless you Nigeria. We love you our country. So, do not die Nigeria, Do not die.

The National Call

On ruptured walls in a crying society
Lay water-washed, fading images
Of local famous crooks, decried of larceny
Who for the sake of cast votes, ran off our rustic vicinity

On policed streets, are polymer notes of twenty naira
Travelling from hand to hand, and into deep black pockets
Potholed roads with hollows mighty enough to swallow careless goats
Sit in the asphalted earth, with the looks of bald cheated gentlemen

In the neighbourhood, are boreholes that are bored of waterworks
The animated taps that once hissed, belched and rumbled
Have all grown quiet and suffer the insomnia of aqua current
With a faint grumble if touched, and a sober whisper if forced

Under green trees and leaking roofs, children listen and teachers teach
So, inside exam halls, pupils whisper and students sing answers
... ... ...

The Ultimate Graduation Letter: Life Begins Now

While work is the fundamental means of starting and sustaining a responsible life, hard work is the aura of adult responsibility, the reason why respect and dignity follow matured persons. And since late Pa Adam commissioned the need for hard work, every man who would live has found no reason to ignore it from the core days of their youth. But then, hard work does not guarantee the possession of a big and fat account, if all other factors (honesty, due process, taxes, tithes, continual education, social responsibility, family growth, asset management, etc) are considered. However, it is certain that appropriately channelled hard work delivers prosperity and in this regard prosperity means consistent increase in the good tidings one’s life brings to their environment overtime; the positive condition of not remaining the same again. It is not when you suddenly ‘hammer’ and subsequently ‘simmer down’. It is when you do what should be done and get what should be gotten. Adults increase in human value and gain innate fulfilment when they earn a good living and are able to contribute to the betterment of other lives around them. This inward feeling is the reason why you are reading this article; the cause of my writing. When times are hard, as they sometimes are in Nigeria, ordinary work may not be enough. So, wise adults subscribe to hard work. Without work, we are unfulfilled, the society decays and the future is colourless. Even when the times are not hard, hard work further ensures that a good legacy is left behind. Our lives have begun, so friends, the hard work must begin.

In December 2010, we, the final year students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (2010 set) concluded our final semester examinations and graduated from varsity. Oh, we graduated officially in 2010! But unofficially, it was January 2011. And when we did, it seemed like we had just won a war- a war that had lingered painfully for years. For most, it marked the survival of a seemingly everlasting pain; a pain created by the burning of candle wicks, charging of rechargeable lamps and fuelling of kerosene lanterns to study on cold nights in the midst of hungry mosquitoes at distant lecture theatres and the compulsory choice to survive diverse institutionalised improprieties; a pain sustained by intermittent strike actions, unfound results and wide tuition fee increments. For them, it was a mixture of joyful and hellish experiences. For others, among whom I membered, it was the ignition of new fire for a different phase in the same race. On the day we had our final common (telecoms and power combined) paper, everyone looked gay and our strict lecturers seemed friendlier. They referred to us as their colleagues but the conservative part of us listened to the kind remarks unbelievably. Personally, I was just thinking about Entrepreneurship, my final paper after Electromagnetism. I should have it three hours later and knowing well that the management faculty had proven to not regard good practice of time management, I bothered myself with when the stipulated venues would be pasted- if they were ever going to be pasted. The thing is, during our time, MGS lectures were never certain. If we had them, we must have started late. Mayowa Adewumi, Segun Alawode, Gbenga Adedeji, Olaide Olawuwo and Seun Kupoluyi could perhaps bear witness to this. We were the only folks from EEE. Every other “fire fellow” had been wooed by the Civil Engineering Practices course. Nevertheless, now that all the MGSes, EEEs, MEEs, SWEPs and SIWES etc, have been exhausted, what’s next? Time has flown and in 5 years of undergraduate EEE studies, no less than 98 courses have been done with almost 234 units being fought for. But then, life has really begun.

In reminiscence of my studentship in LAUTECH, I recall that the school was once the 7th best University in Nigeria after being the best state University twice and the most rapidly developing Varsity once. Ah! Maybe that was why two grown-up governors had suddenly unsolvable ownership problems over us. Well, all those ratings should matter but somehow, they did not mean much. About that time, people studying in Harvard, Caltech and Oxford had described to me what their curricula looked like. And one time, after browsing through MIT’s online courseware, I realized that to catch up with someone studying there, LAUTECH students would have to neglect many of the things they were taught in school, and/or read more impossibly. Yes, “more” is made up four alphabets but if you were to do a personal upgrade, the depth of what you would read was bulkier. Added to our many aged photocopies, you’d probably be doing a PhD study as an underGrad. It is at this point that wonderful folks like Minister, Sister Mary, Bro Laide and Ozone should be thanked for sparing time to administer the much-needed photocopies provided. Yet, that final day after EEE508, as we chorused, “Congratulations” to one another, taking pictures, laughing and saying prolonged goodbyes, I briefly recalled that indeed, it was an occasion of victory at last.

The victory had come and it was well-deserved. Our triumph was over the seasons when untimely lectures and unclear photocopies were served on our academic plates. It was over the strikes which had occurred each year we spent in school, starting from PDSP. It was over the need to understand theories at night classes when timetables were doubtful and necessary lectures ate out of our pre-examination time. It was over the occasional misfortune of having to cram ambiguous worked examples into the exam halls and being fearful when Minister distributed our results. There were times when you wrote exams with your heart in your mouth and your mind in the past, trying to remember faded and lengthy formulas. I know we have had several other victories but really, these triumphs seem most glorious. Our lives have begun. We have finished the saga of theory with inadequate practical. We have heard and read about fibre, microwave and transmission lines, now I pray that we will improve them. We have learnt how to use Smith’s chart so if we find ourselves in places where they’re used, I hope we’d apply the theory.

On a benedictory note, let’s remind ourselves that self-education is now the key to relevance. In this environment where many facets of leadership favour corruption, a Nigerian university graduate who does not value self-education will self-destruct quietly. I say quietly because his colleagues may not even know he is decaying, if his job is basically an unchanging routine work. So, beware! Guys, invest in yourself and your future. Ladies, plan more for your marriage (which should last forever) than for your wedding (which will last no more than many hours in one day of your long life). And, need I remind you that the government of our land does not have an adequate plan for us? No, they don’t and probably can’t for now. They can’t because Manslaughter, Kidnapping and Bombing are almost becoming some people’s hobbies while mismanagement at all ramifications has been added to our culture. As the bad examples among our leaders age away, these problems are the heritage they leave behind. These created problems are your challenges and my challenges. To solve them, we must know more than they knew and avoid some of the things they did. That is a Herculean task. But, may God help us all.

Our generation is the unlucky one posed with the challenges of a stunted educational system, non-functional research facilities, institutionalised corruption, extreme insecurity, decadent moral system, phoney religious parastatals (in their thousands), unbalanced utilization of natural resources and a tendency to always have diverse misunderstandings with the woman you love. LOL! Friends, whatever path you choose, begin with honesty and have a good legacy at heart. But against the many identified and unnamed odds, I beseech you to fear God and always be someone we will all be proud of. Knowing that the times are hard and the country looks bad, I pray that tomorrow will open greater doors unto us all. Yesterday, we were Ladokites. Today, we are alumni and alumna. And tomorrow, we will be in the deep of our lives. So, I invest this moment in saying, “Best of luck! God bless you all! And God bless our country”. Kudos to my favourite lecturers: Engineers Electrode, Busta, Mummy Agunlejika, Oseni, Dr. Ojo, Dr. Adeyemo and Engineer Seye. And to my many wonderful friends, may jollification occur when next we meet. But now, go and serve the land of your fathers! Go and live the much anticipated future! Go and live your life, it has begun. Ire o!

Penned by: Ayodeji Morakinyo (Moraks), EEE graduate LAUTECH, 2010 Set.