THIS IS ME.

Looking back now
I see that I whispered
When I should have roared
Cowered when I should have soured
Hid in your shadow
When the spotlight came
Refused to answer
When they called my name

Looking back now
I see I trembled
When tall I should have stood
Conceded even when misunderstood
Forfeited all for the sake of peace
Father your passing has brought me release
That was then
This is now
This is ME.

Where does the time go?

Where does the time go?
I don’t know, I don’t know
Seems I blink and a year is gone
I don’t know what’s going on
Where are the days of my youth?
That lasted forever like the truth
Days that dragged for months on end
I miss them so, I can’t pretend

Now it seems I wake and sleep
Spring is gone and summer’s deep
This express train on its silicon track
Looks like it’s not turning back.

Where is the ENERGY Mr President?

On May 29th of this year Mr Jonathan Goodluck was sworn in as the President of the federal republic of Nigeria and since then nada. Unless I am totally mistaken I have been underwhelmed by the lack of action and energy following this swearing in. Bearing in mind this is not a totally new Presidency I would have expected some things to be already formulated in his mind and ready for implementation. whilst I admire his great desire to be all inclusive there is only so much consultation a leader requires before he makes his decisions and sets out his strategy and agenda. Here we are six weeks later and I am not quite sure whats going on.

I see he went to NY to attend some forum on HIV and whilst this is laudable I think it would not top the list of priorities that most Nigerians would want him to focus on. There was also a flying visit to President Obama for the obligatory rubber stamping of being seen to be cool with Barrack. Bearing in mind how Obama snubbed us when he came to Africa and stopped off in Ghana rather than Nigeria what was the point of this?

Rather I would have liked to hear what our new Domestic policy is. What are we doing about unemployment? What are we going to do with the vast and very restless youth population? What is going to happen about diversifying from our almost total dependence on oil? What is going needed to drive agriculture, tourism as alternative sources of income? Etc, etc.

Where are the daily, weekly Press conferences informing the citizens of your plans? Updating on progress? Engaging in a national discourse? Just letting us know you are doing something besides engaging in photo opps? Where is the ENERGY of action?? The vibrancy, vigour, zeal, oomph that one would expect of a newly expected administration? I get the sense of sliding towards zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Is it this lack of action and energy that allows a Boko Harem to step into the void and create chaos? Do they also wonder who is in charge and what that person is doing?

And a final word on ENERGY. Where is the promised improved power supply? Sir? Sir?

Smiling all the way to the tank......

Much has been made in the press and on the web of the fact that Dimeji Bankole was smiling broadly on his way in to court to be arraigned. Could this not be due to the fact that he knows that it is all very much ado about nothing and it will all blow over in a few weeks? After all the new Speaker is also allegedly implicated in the scandal but it has not stopped him from being sworn in. Methinks Dimeji knows that this is all a charade and is playing his part. Well let's see.

What do you think?

Woe betide the honest man or woman......

What do you do if every morning you wake up and stare into the abyss of the long day ahead as an entrepreneur, manager, salaried employee, farmer whatever and worry about what the day will bring? All the stresses and strains of trying to do business, be an employer or employee and earn an honest crust in this great nation of ours? Despite the odds you get out of bed, do your ablutions, get dressed and set off on the journey to work to earn whatever it is you earn.

On the way you are then bombarded with headlines like "how we shared N10bn!" What do you do? How do you feel? Do you ask yourself what's the bloody point, go back home, crawl under the bedsheet and cry?

Or let's imagine you are running a small business and you need N5m to grow or take your business to the next level. You do the requisite business plan and take it to the bank and what do they tell you? Sorry we cant help you. On the way out, your dejected self is hit with the headline "Bankole took N10bn personal loan".

How long can you carry on before you say well sod it I'm going into politics? Is there any point in even trying to maintain a facade of honesty when we are all adrift on this raft of greed and corruption? How long can we hold out before we drown?

What do you think?

Absolute power.....Really?

My only experience of Mr Dimeji Bankole other than seeing him on TV was at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja last year. I was standing on the Mezzanine floor when I noticed a flurry of activity on the ground floor, sirens, armed escorts etc. Wondering which VIP was coming to grace the Hilton (surely the site of some of the most corrupt business deals in the history of Nigeria? I suspect that blowing it up would cut down corruption in Nigeria by 50%? Just a thought)I was surprised to see this short chap bound into the reception area followed by his ADC. Now I have had the opportunity to witness a lot of powerful people in both political and business circles around the world but I must say I have never seen anyone walk with such a swagger. I hate to use that word as it is of the moment but really the sheer level of swagger the man was exuding was unreal. He bounded into the lift and disappeared to go and do whatever it is he came for.

I related the tale to my father a few weeks later being that he is an Abeokuta man himself and knows the lay of the land. His response was that of disappointment as he believed that Ogun state had received the returns or benefits one would expect from having a son of the soil in such a powerful position. This sentiment has been repeated in most of the other conversations I have had across all sections of society. The message being - this man is only in it for himself. So if on the way up you do not make friends, then guess what happens on the way down.

Has DB been a great Speaker of the House? I can't really say but I don't get that impression from my informal surveys. The main feedback seems to be about corruption, greed, arrogance etc. Then someone raised the angle that when we talk about corrupt officials we generally tend to think of the home grown taxi drivers who end up as Governors and loot the treasury for all they are worth but what to make of someone who is supposedly well educated, studied and lived abroad, ajebutter etc etc. Are they not supposed to be above all this? Well I think DB's case proves that people are people and that absolute power can corrupt anybody.

On Monday there will be high drama in Abuja as we all wait to see if DB surrenders himself to EFCC or has to face the indignity of being arrested, put in cuffs and taken into custody. This was a man who believed himself untouchable. Recall the British Airways fiasco last year where he allegedly refused them permission to search his luggage? Hmmm, wonder what it contained that was so precious?

What do you think?

It's a new day, a new dawn,a new life.......and I'm feeling good.

Mr President, here we stand at the start of a new dawn and stare down the barrels of history. We have yet again been presented with the opportunity to turn around this drifting barge called Nigeria. I am not sure how many more chances we will get. We have had the fairest elections in our history despite a few hiccups here and there. It is now time to stop looking back and face our front. I know many sages and those much wiser than me (yes there are a few) have said it but just to reiterate and remind you Sir, our newly elected President, of OUR priority list.

1. Power. Give us a constant power supply. I hear and see, that inroads are being made to privatise this sector which will make things better for US however I do not expect the current stakeholders who benefit greatly from the lack of power in the country to give up that fight easily. Mr President sir, this is one of those things that is non-negotiable. IT MUST BE DONE. You must take the fight to them on our behalf. Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead.

2. Corruption. I will not join the bandwagon clamouring for a total end to corruption as that is very naive. Corruption exists in all countries and at all levels. No Sir, what I am asking for is to allow the forces that are fighting corruption free rein to get into the ring without their hands tied behind their back. We have several agencies that given the green light from you would make a severe dent in corrupt practices. It has been done before. It can be done again. However they need your full support and approval. Sir,again this is non negotiable.

3. Natural resources - Sir, between the resources buried deep in the soil and the resources above ground Nigeria is one of the most blessed countries with an abundance of both. Maybe due to this abundance we have been profligate to date with them. Now is the time to actually harness and manage them properly. We need to firstly develop our large youth population and give them a direction in life. For most, if not all, their lives so far all they have faced into is a world of corruption, greed, cronyism, unemployment and carnage. Sir, you have it within you to show them a different way of life. Surround yourself with the good people that will help you to motivate these youths, maximise our oil production, leverage our vast natural gas resources, develop our tourism sector, fertilise our agricultural landscape and make Nigeria once again a force to be reckoned with. It can, and must be done. Sir.

Sir if you are able to complete these three tasks over the next four years or at least lay a solid unshakable foundation on which they can be further developed then you will go down in history as one of our greatest leaders. However, if not then you will be seen as someone who just rode his Goodluck. The ball Sir is now in your court.

As we celebrate your inauguration today, and being the eternal optimist, I say to you.. It's a new, a new dawn, a new life....and I'm feeling good. Hope I can say the same next year and the year after.

To close I wish you a great inauguration and hope that the rumours of the purported budget for this event are wholly untrue and greatly exaggerated. Finally,if I may be so bold as to offer you some friendly advice? Please always divide any budget you are presentedto sign by 100 before signing. I do this with Iyawo all the time and it works a treat. Try it. You will be amazed how much can be saved.

Anti -climax......

So you are still here as well then? The world did not end? We did not cross the final frontier. It's back to work then. The daily grind. Traffic, noise, stress, hawkers, okadas, LASTMA, MOPOL. Yes me too.I understand though that there was a slight miscalculation and it will definitely happen in five months. So something to look forward to then? Might even buy a new suit this time. Just to be really ready. Maybe it was my cynicism and negativity that forced the apocalypse to be called off. This time I'm going to be more optimistic. COME ONNNNN!!!!!

Till then however, oya back to the grind.

Just in case........

I don’t believe in goobledegook or any of this end of the world rubbish however since so many of these crackpots have flooded the internet with news that it will all come to an end tonight I just thought it better to put some final thoughts down to be on the safe side. If anything does happen then I want the cockroaches (they seem to be the only ones guaranteed all manner of calamity) to be able to read my words and understand my legacy. I apologise now that there won’t be much left in the cash department as being a creative type – money is just not one of my priorities in life (I guess I should have mentioned this to Iyawo earlier. Right before she said those immortal words – for richer and for poorer. Well she has certainly experienced a lot of one and has big dreams about the other.

The legacy I would like to leave is of a loving, considerate, thoughtful, caring, sensual, all around MAN. But you know how I hate to lie and I’m not Cliff Richard. So what I really leave is the legacy of a man, like millions of others, who woke up every day and tried his honest best for his loved ones, his parents, near relatives, friends and associates. A man who tried not to judge, criticise, lie. A man who tried to make everything he touched better. A man for whom words were a constant companion through all the highs and lows. A man who hung on to hope at every turn and believed there was something better around the corner.A man who like many others tried to live by the ten commandments and other moral guidelines – minus the neighbour’s wife bit. Nothing has actually happened with my neighbour’s wife but come 11.59pm tonight if it looks like it is all going pear-shaped well……

I have become comfortably numb....

So now we see the charges that have been levelled against the IMF boss in NY. The identity of the accuser has been revealed. We hear that bank managers in Nigeria are being charged with stealing 70/80/100/500 billion naira. We hear that over 800 people are killed because of a political election. We read that the IRA have threatened to blow up something to disrupt the Queen's visit to Ireland. We are told that The Terminator "I'll be back" did go back many times to a member of his household. So many times that she bore him a child. And it goes on and on and on.

How does one cope with this deluge. It seeps in through every available means - phone, email, BB, Twitter, Facebook, News channels, Radio, TV,overheard conversations. It is constant. It is jarring.It is tiring. After a while one has to be careful otherwise the men in the white coats will come in their lovely van with the padded walls to take one away.

That is why for now - I have become comfortably numb. How do you cope?

Which way is North?

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about our moral compass. The compass by which we as the human race define right and wrong. It seems to me over the past few weeks and months that this has shifted somewhat. As a matter of fact it has probably been shifting subtly over the past few years but now it seems to be on a bigger scale.

I look at the situation of the Americans sneaking into Pakistan to assassinate Bin Laden and dump his body at sea. Is this really the right way for a "superpower" to behave? A country to whom most of the world for all ends and purposes turns to for guidance, whether willingly or not, consciously or unconsciously? If Nigeria decides to send troops into Cameroon to wipe out a village who would be able to stand up and say this is not right?

Then there's the IMF boss who allegedly committed a rape. Since then he has been forced to resign, there has been a scramble for his job!!, he is locked up in Rikers Island (trust me that place is not for toddlers) and all the while we have not even heard the man's side of the story. I mean he could be guilty as sin but what is the point in having courts if the decision of guilt is made at the point of arrest?

And what about the killings of civilians in the Middle East who are just asking for the right to eat, live and love? What morality allows them to be slaughtered so that those in power can continue to be in power?

And in Nigeria it seems the compass has really been thrown on its head. What area of life can one point to and say that it is the way it should be? From Pastors buying private jets off the tithes of the suffering masses, to the violence problems in the North, the disappearance of billions not only from Government but banks? Wherefore health, education or welfare?

Somebody please tell me - Which way is North?

Passion

Passion
Can't be
Secret
Underated
Ever sated
Always fiery
Smoking
On the boil
Bubbling
Overlapping
Whoosh
Wow
Woah tiger
Can’t control it
Can’t contain it
Man or woman
Doesn’t matter
Fever
Flu
Malaria
Sweaty brow
All the symptoms
All at once
Yet no cure
Nothing needed
No use pretending
You see
I got it bad
Passion...

For words.
For writing.
For life.
For love.