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?