President Barack Obama is a very meticulous man. He is known to consider all available options before taking action on matters particularly if they concern the security and safety of Americans. But his recent decision to “blacklist” Nigeria as a country of interest in the war against terrorism does not appear to reflect the Obama I know.
The only Nigerian connection in the alleged attempt by Umar Farouk to blow up the Detroit –bound flight on Christmas day is that he was born to Nigerian parents. The young man has spent most of his adult life in Britain and indications are that he made his Yemeni contacts from Britain. If any country should be blacklisted as a result of this incident, it is Britain. After all, this is not Britain’s first brush with terrorists.
As Nigerians, we may have been involved in more than one criminal activity. We may have been involved in several inter and intra-communal clashes resulting from acts of injustice and deprivation as is the case with the Niger Delta region. We may be very notorious (sometimes exaggerated) for several forms of fraud but terrorism is very strange to Nigeria and Nigerians.
My advice to America is very straightforward. Instead of blacklisting Nigeria for the sins of one out of several million people, America should reach out to the Federal Government of Nigeria and recruit Nigeria as a foot soldier in the war against terrorism. I am confident that the Federal Government of Nigeria would be more than willing to bear arms against terrorism. America should provide logistical support to strengthen security in all our airports and other exit points as part of the global war against terrorism. No Nigerian is happy with what Umar Farouk attempted to do on Christmas day.
Tata, everybody
Napoleon
Friday, January 8, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
The Pastor Inyangs and their Churches
As a no longer practicing Roman Catholic, I am aware that it takes the Catholic Church fourteen years of hard work to produce one Priest. Specifically, a prospective Priest spends seven years in the Junior Seminary and another seven years in the Senior Seminary before being ordained a Priest. What do we find in the modern “living” churches? Anybody, just about anybody, can leave his immediate environment, move to another part of the country, and become a Pastor with or without any formal training. Such people are usually “called” by God and they give their lives to Jesus in obedience.
If you do not come near these so-called churches, you will not understand what goes on inside. The Pastors of these churches use all sorts of powers to influence their adherents to empty their pockets for them during prayer sessions, sometimes lasting several hours and usually daily. Somehow they even manage to convince their followers to pay “tithe” usually in the sum of 10% of their income. These followers contribute their hard earned money to build mansions for their Pastors and also buy posh cars in addition. They make them live at standards only millionaires can afford. What do they get in return? People who were known to live in single room apartments without any conveniences suddenly move to choice areas where only the rich live.
The news of Pastor Inyang’s imprisonment for four years for fraud should serve as an eye opener to all those who are still labouring under the influence of these so-called Pastors. No Pastor, or anybody for that matter, has powers to see into the future. They have neither the training nor powers to cure anybody. If you are sick, please go to the hospital or seek alternative therapy. All the so-called “miracles” are simple tricks they learn from each other. The story of Pastor Inyang is typical of all of them. They are all simple fraudsters.
Tata, everybody
Napoleon
If you do not come near these so-called churches, you will not understand what goes on inside. The Pastors of these churches use all sorts of powers to influence their adherents to empty their pockets for them during prayer sessions, sometimes lasting several hours and usually daily. Somehow they even manage to convince their followers to pay “tithe” usually in the sum of 10% of their income. These followers contribute their hard earned money to build mansions for their Pastors and also buy posh cars in addition. They make them live at standards only millionaires can afford. What do they get in return? People who were known to live in single room apartments without any conveniences suddenly move to choice areas where only the rich live.
The news of Pastor Inyang’s imprisonment for four years for fraud should serve as an eye opener to all those who are still labouring under the influence of these so-called Pastors. No Pastor, or anybody for that matter, has powers to see into the future. They have neither the training nor powers to cure anybody. If you are sick, please go to the hospital or seek alternative therapy. All the so-called “miracles” are simple tricks they learn from each other. The story of Pastor Inyang is typical of all of them. They are all simple fraudsters.
Tata, everybody
Napoleon
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Welcome aboard OJ
There is this aphorism in Human Resource Management that everybody is equal to his job. What this means is that if you employ a Driver and make him a Manager, one of two things will happen to the job. Either he will bring the office of Manager to his level as a Driver or he will rise from his level as a Driver and become a Manager. In practical terms it is easier for the former to happen so in most cases this is what happens.
A classic example of a Driver bringing the Manager’s job to his level is what happened to the Bayelsa State Civil Service in the last six years. The leadership of the State Civil Service was so inefficient and notoriously corrupt that the Office operated like an auctioneer at work. Everything was available to anybody if you had the asking price either in cash or in kind. Records could be accessed and changed at will. During the recently concluded Biometrics exercise it is reported that 4000 ghost workers were discovered but what nobody is saying is that more than 5000 people also found jobs dating back to 2004!
It is against this background that MatrinexPolls welcomes Rev. O.J. Oworibo to the beat as the Head of the Civil Service of Bayelsa State. Even though he is allegedly a cousin of the Governor from the same Okpoma community, that does not take anything away from the fact that Rev. Oworibo is a seasoned bureaucrat having served in several capacities in the State Civil Service. He is the most exposed, travelled and experienced of all the available Permanent Secretaries!
The task of restoring credibility to the State Civil Service after several years of high level corruption and decadence is, to say the least, daunting. First and foremost Bayelsans would like to know the exact number of workers who should be on the Government’s payroll. A situation where a State less than a fifth the size of Delta State pays nearly the same wage bill monthly is unacceptable. The last Biometrics exercise was a waste of taxpayers’ money because it did not solve the problem. If anything, it created more problems because while the exercise lasted, the top echelon of the Civil Service seized the opportunity to recruit more workers. Fresh letters of employment backdated to 2004 or earlier were openly on sale for anything between N10,000.00 to N30,000.00. It was therefore a case of one out, two in. The spectre of goal-post shifting when it comes to retirements should be stamped out. People should retire as and when due – with dignity! Training and re-training of Civil Servants should no longer be treated with levity as happened with the IT training where everybody was “trained” but nobody was taught.
So welcome aboard Rev. O.J. Oworibo. A new broom, they say, sweeps clean so everybody is watching to see what will happen in the next 30 days hoping that it is not a case of more of the same.
Tata, everybody
Napoleon
A classic example of a Driver bringing the Manager’s job to his level is what happened to the Bayelsa State Civil Service in the last six years. The leadership of the State Civil Service was so inefficient and notoriously corrupt that the Office operated like an auctioneer at work. Everything was available to anybody if you had the asking price either in cash or in kind. Records could be accessed and changed at will. During the recently concluded Biometrics exercise it is reported that 4000 ghost workers were discovered but what nobody is saying is that more than 5000 people also found jobs dating back to 2004!
It is against this background that MatrinexPolls welcomes Rev. O.J. Oworibo to the beat as the Head of the Civil Service of Bayelsa State. Even though he is allegedly a cousin of the Governor from the same Okpoma community, that does not take anything away from the fact that Rev. Oworibo is a seasoned bureaucrat having served in several capacities in the State Civil Service. He is the most exposed, travelled and experienced of all the available Permanent Secretaries!
The task of restoring credibility to the State Civil Service after several years of high level corruption and decadence is, to say the least, daunting. First and foremost Bayelsans would like to know the exact number of workers who should be on the Government’s payroll. A situation where a State less than a fifth the size of Delta State pays nearly the same wage bill monthly is unacceptable. The last Biometrics exercise was a waste of taxpayers’ money because it did not solve the problem. If anything, it created more problems because while the exercise lasted, the top echelon of the Civil Service seized the opportunity to recruit more workers. Fresh letters of employment backdated to 2004 or earlier were openly on sale for anything between N10,000.00 to N30,000.00. It was therefore a case of one out, two in. The spectre of goal-post shifting when it comes to retirements should be stamped out. People should retire as and when due – with dignity! Training and re-training of Civil Servants should no longer be treated with levity as happened with the IT training where everybody was “trained” but nobody was taught.
So welcome aboard Rev. O.J. Oworibo. A new broom, they say, sweeps clean so everybody is watching to see what will happen in the next 30 days hoping that it is not a case of more of the same.
Tata, everybody
Napoleon
Monday, December 28, 2009
Nigerian Terror Suspect - Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
It is often said that out of every five black people in the world, one is a Nigerian. So it is no surprise that for a country that makes news for all the wrong reasons, we now have a terror suspect allegedly with connections to Al Qaeda.
It would be inappropriate at this point to speculate on the circumstances leading to the radicalization of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab since authorities both in Nigeria and the United States are currently investigating. However, it would not be out of place to point out that this is a young man whose father reportedly complained to the American Embassy that he was no longer comfortable with his son’s activities. He was reportedly on the American Watch List but somehow managed to slip through airport security. It is troubling.
For us in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, it is little comfort that Umar is not just a home-grown “militant” operating in the creeks but an international figure with Al Qaeda ties. Unfortunately what appears to be an isolated incident may just make travel conditions a lot more difficult for a lot of innocent travelling Nigerians on legitimate business and leisure journeys.
MatrinexPolls wishes to commend The Federal Government of Nigeria for taking prompt action to unravel everything that needs to be known about the ugly incident. It is our hope that it is an isolated incident except that anybody who gains access to PETN cannot be a lone ranger. We have enough ugly scars already without adding this avoidable stigma.
Tata, everybody
Napoleon
It would be inappropriate at this point to speculate on the circumstances leading to the radicalization of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab since authorities both in Nigeria and the United States are currently investigating. However, it would not be out of place to point out that this is a young man whose father reportedly complained to the American Embassy that he was no longer comfortable with his son’s activities. He was reportedly on the American Watch List but somehow managed to slip through airport security. It is troubling.
For us in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, it is little comfort that Umar is not just a home-grown “militant” operating in the creeks but an international figure with Al Qaeda ties. Unfortunately what appears to be an isolated incident may just make travel conditions a lot more difficult for a lot of innocent travelling Nigerians on legitimate business and leisure journeys.
MatrinexPolls wishes to commend The Federal Government of Nigeria for taking prompt action to unravel everything that needs to be known about the ugly incident. It is our hope that it is an isolated incident except that anybody who gains access to PETN cannot be a lone ranger. We have enough ugly scars already without adding this avoidable stigma.
Tata, everybody
Napoleon
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Climate change
Nathan Myhrvold is not a name you come across every day. Anybody who obtained a Doctorate degree at age 24 and served as Chief Technical Officer for Microsoft for 14 years before setting up his own business cannot be a joker. That is Nathan Myhrvold’s resume.
Just when the dust was beginning to settle down after the Copenhagen Climate Summit, arguably with “meaningful agreement”, Nathan Myhrvold literally throws up this novel solution to climate change which has sent professional cynics and doubting Thomases alike scampering for cover. Members of the scientific community are wondering out aloud what to make of this apparent huge joke except that the joker is a serious minded non-joker! For us in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, any news about climate change is big news. The gas that is being flared 24/7 from thousands of oil wells in the Niger Delta region must be contributing immensely to global warming.
Dr. Myhrvold believes that the Carbon Dioxide emissions that have settled in the stratosphere, and probably will stay there for thousands of years, can be removed if we pump Sulphur Dioxide into the stratosphere to neutralize it. When asked how this would be achieved, he suggested that a 25 kilometre long hose would do the trick. Smart kid – perhaps too smart by half! What he failed to tell us is what will happen if the resident Carbon Dioxide reacts with the visiting Sulphur Dioxide in the stratosphere. If ordinary Carbon Dioxide can heat up mother earth the way we are made to believe, where is the guarantee that the product of the combination of Carbon Dioxide and Sulphur Dioxide will not roast all of us alive?
The truth of the matter is that we just do not know enough about the workings of the universe. What we think we know is merely scratching the surface. So tinkering with apparently crazy ideas like this will not solve any of the problems associated with mother nature. Those who think they know should tell us why and how we now have unprecedented levels of snowfall in Europe after all the hue and cry about global warming? Does excessive heat produce excessive snowfall?
The universe has built-in self-regulatory mechanisms unknown to man so we should stop interfering with nature in the name of Science and Technology.
Tata, everybody
Napoleon
Just when the dust was beginning to settle down after the Copenhagen Climate Summit, arguably with “meaningful agreement”, Nathan Myhrvold literally throws up this novel solution to climate change which has sent professional cynics and doubting Thomases alike scampering for cover. Members of the scientific community are wondering out aloud what to make of this apparent huge joke except that the joker is a serious minded non-joker! For us in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, any news about climate change is big news. The gas that is being flared 24/7 from thousands of oil wells in the Niger Delta region must be contributing immensely to global warming.
Dr. Myhrvold believes that the Carbon Dioxide emissions that have settled in the stratosphere, and probably will stay there for thousands of years, can be removed if we pump Sulphur Dioxide into the stratosphere to neutralize it. When asked how this would be achieved, he suggested that a 25 kilometre long hose would do the trick. Smart kid – perhaps too smart by half! What he failed to tell us is what will happen if the resident Carbon Dioxide reacts with the visiting Sulphur Dioxide in the stratosphere. If ordinary Carbon Dioxide can heat up mother earth the way we are made to believe, where is the guarantee that the product of the combination of Carbon Dioxide and Sulphur Dioxide will not roast all of us alive?
The truth of the matter is that we just do not know enough about the workings of the universe. What we think we know is merely scratching the surface. So tinkering with apparently crazy ideas like this will not solve any of the problems associated with mother nature. Those who think they know should tell us why and how we now have unprecedented levels of snowfall in Europe after all the hue and cry about global warming? Does excessive heat produce excessive snowfall?
The universe has built-in self-regulatory mechanisms unknown to man so we should stop interfering with nature in the name of Science and Technology.
Tata, everybody
Napoleon
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Re-defining Marriage
Change, they say, is the only constant in life. So people change everything from names to appearances and everything in between everyday and no questions are asked. But recent attempts by some people to change the definition of marriage in some parts of the world takes the icing!
Some people have decided that the age-old definition of marriage as a union between a “man and a woman” is no longer appropriate because it leaves out those of them with a special sexual orientation. They have struggled, with some degree of success, to re-define marriage as a union “between two people”. No problem.
My only grouse in this matter is that most of those involved in this so-called “same-sex marriages” are those who have raised families in conventional marriages and do not require any more children. That leaves a sour taste in the mouth because these people want to eat their cake and still have it. If a man (or woman) prefers to marry another man (or woman) then the “woman” or “man” among them should be able to figure out how to carry a foetus for 9 months if they decide to have babies! The corollary here is that these same-sex marriages, of whatever permutation, are not intended to produce babies which is just as well because those of us in the age-old conventional marriages are over-populating the world with our activities.
My unsolicited advise to all those Churches which condone same-sex marriages is that any couple above the age of 25 should not be “united”. If same-sex marriage is such a beautiful union, then why wait till you are 55 when you would have had all the children you require in life?
Tata, everybody
Napoleon
Some people have decided that the age-old definition of marriage as a union between a “man and a woman” is no longer appropriate because it leaves out those of them with a special sexual orientation. They have struggled, with some degree of success, to re-define marriage as a union “between two people”. No problem.
My only grouse in this matter is that most of those involved in this so-called “same-sex marriages” are those who have raised families in conventional marriages and do not require any more children. That leaves a sour taste in the mouth because these people want to eat their cake and still have it. If a man (or woman) prefers to marry another man (or woman) then the “woman” or “man” among them should be able to figure out how to carry a foetus for 9 months if they decide to have babies! The corollary here is that these same-sex marriages, of whatever permutation, are not intended to produce babies which is just as well because those of us in the age-old conventional marriages are over-populating the world with our activities.
My unsolicited advise to all those Churches which condone same-sex marriages is that any couple above the age of 25 should not be “united”. If same-sex marriage is such a beautiful union, then why wait till you are 55 when you would have had all the children you require in life?
Tata, everybody
Napoleon
Friday, December 25, 2009
My Christmas Message
This message is specially dedicated to the estimated 800 million people worldwide who went to bed hungry last night. This figure includes an estimated 4 million kids in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. On a day like this what can you tell a toddler who goes to bed without food in his stomach in the midst of an apparent plenty! The matter is further complicated by the fact that these kids will never understand. How can a four-year old understand why there is no food in the house?
No kid in Nigeria deserves to be hungry. God so endowed this country that everything grows in abundance in Nigeria. Every inch of Nigerian soil is suitable for something from the wetlands of the Niger Delta to the plateau of the Middle Belt and everywhere in between. I can understand kids going to bed hungry in Ethiopia or Somalia. The only reason Nigerians are hungry is lack of political will and good governance.
So on this anniversary of the birth of our Lord and saviour, my message to Nigerian kids is very simple: nothing lasts forever – certainly not bad governance.
Tata, everybody
Napoleon
No kid in Nigeria deserves to be hungry. God so endowed this country that everything grows in abundance in Nigeria. Every inch of Nigerian soil is suitable for something from the wetlands of the Niger Delta to the plateau of the Middle Belt and everywhere in between. I can understand kids going to bed hungry in Ethiopia or Somalia. The only reason Nigerians are hungry is lack of political will and good governance.
So on this anniversary of the birth of our Lord and saviour, my message to Nigerian kids is very simple: nothing lasts forever – certainly not bad governance.
Tata, everybody
Napoleon
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