WHAT IS CORRUPTION? HOW DO I CONTRIBUTE DAILY? IS IT EXPEDIENT TO LEAVE ERADICATING IT TO POLITICIANS?

We think erroneously that a single person or initiative will raise a magic wand and stop corruption in Nigeria; alluding this profound duty to a dependent or individual entity would be akin to encouraging corruption, and promoting abuse of power, one of the many faces of corruption.
The corruption menace is greater than any one citizen can fix, it is a foreign culture that our forefathers adopted, a mindset that is nurtured in the entire development process of the Nigerian system, at home, school, places of worship, society, and workplace. Even the holiest saint finds ways to justify allowances for corruption as God's favors. We continue to whitewash corruption instead of take responsibility and nib it in the bud.
I think a genuine effort in finding lasting solution might lie in defining the various forms of corruption that exist in our society, only afterwards should the ones without sin can cast the first stone. It appears that for many, corruption is only bad when it does not benefit them directly; if the benefits trickle down to them then it is interpreted otherwise. 
Most of my respondents who are distressed by the current trend even acknowledged that if given the opportunity, they would also steal a little of public funds but cover up their tracks with phantom projects, etc.
We can wait another 30 years for Buhari, or any other saint, to attempt  to tackle the stronghold of corruption in Nigeria but it will be a wasted effort until we recognize the role that all the stakeholders, especially the common citizen in Nigeria, plays in nurturing our celebrated corruption culture. 
Attacking corruption from the ground up will yield most manageable and sustainable results. All the various forms of corruption must be highlighted in our early development stage and tackled to build character. There is more to corruption than the political or fiscal aspects.
With the power structure in Nigeria's democracy, even the best solo efforts to eradicate corruption will face legal/illegal frustrations by power-brokers. Our politicians thrive most in these corrupt setting, they are not the best guys to expunge it. 
If we are serious, the power to fight corruption must rely on the common man, our institutions and the law to define and drive the fair change we seek. 

Forward Nigeria?

I thought APC wanted this bad enough to field fresh progressive candidates like Nda-Isaiah and/or Fashola and trust them to carry out their alleged change agenda.
Are they more interested in a mere power shift/status-quo salvation or do they genuinely have something different to offer? I am yet to be convinced.
PDP's performance under Jonathan may be less than satisfactory but there is one thing they seem to be doing right - focusing on sustainable gains rather than resort to quick fixes(sharp-sharp attitude) Nigerians are addicted to. Rebuilding a shaky foundation, like Nigeria will take considerable efforts and discomforts.
I have always maintained that Nigeria's current bottlenecks is a function of the poor/unsustainable foundations our fathers built on and we stubbornly continue the trend, praying for miracles/messiahs to keep the house from falling. We are part of that foundation and our values, customs, perspectives have to be realigned and empowered by the absolute truth.
The task of rebuilding Nigerian values is enormous; presidents/politicians alone cannot be entrusted with such responsibilities so we have the people, the grassroots, the agencies, the institutions, the constitution, etc as a more sustainable means of leadership.
Nigeria will be much better when we shun finger-pointing at those we carelessly surrender our power to and realize that the REAL power is in our hands - We as a people are the KINGMAKERS.
Individually, we can sow seeds to eliminate the 'Nobody' stigma and make every citizen proud to be included as a valuable stakeholder in the Nigerian commonwealth. You can be a palm wine tapper but if you also wish and apply yourself, you can become the president or influence it adequately.
Until I am otherwise convinced, I support Jonathan not because he is PDP; but because he best identifies with my current realities and the hope of the common Nigerian - a symbol of hope and equal opportunities for all citizens regardless of their ethnic, economic or social status. I best identify with his message, mistakes, and seeming slow progress rather than that of those who merely seem committed to preserve the status-quo and ignore inputs from our rich diversities.
Jonathan may not be Nigeria's best offering, but if we choose a tired, old, former military dictator as the only credible alternative then, we need to ask ourselves tougher questions about our resolve to move forward.

Money Trees – Shine Your Eyes!

Lately I struggle to rationalize the futility of limitations posed by our society, such that contradicts our resolve for resource control, diversity and innovation.

Obviously, suppressing certain truths requires a vast commitment, a wasted resource indeed - maintaining a system of lies ultimately generates an undesirable ripple effect that loops indefinitely.  While limitative governance model is successful on its merits, it might be worth considering the opportunity costs - the loss/lack of creativity/identity which ultimately leads to a diminished overall value.

To consolidate a certain spectrum of diversity towards achieving a desirable culture, as seen in certain societies, involves constantly upgrading or recycling of the ideals of these diversities, this is more sustainable than rapid change.

What gives us value is our collective diversity, contributing towards a commonwealth. This is the absolute truth. Another is that, the most successful society is own built on the foundations of truth (and its constant pursuit).

We grew up with such slogans that metamorphosed into culture, transforming lifestyles, creating chaos;

       “Change to be better”, “money does not grow on trees”, “work hard to guarantee success”; etc.

We falsely apply these principles to our own detriment.  As much as we excuse misconceptions to be motivation, culture or faith, the fact is that it is a very misleading lie, to say the least.

Money does grow on trees! A town crier should sound a bell and proclaim this truth.  I like to think that the moment we started going in the other direction, was the era when such misconceptions were trending; because we hung up our hoes and hungrily chased the white man’s paper distraction around.

Thankfully we have discovered all we needed was to continue digging and growing our money trees, just like our forefathers did, and be sufficient. By now, we could have been well fed and far along, not trying to catch up with distractions of the worthless paper while the real money grows wild and decays in our backyards, sometimes all on its own!

Think about it, most of the world’s wealth is literally plucked from trees! The greenback, which we now do unspeakable things to collect and exchange, is actually extracted from a tree.  Another fact, all good things in life can actually be traced to a tree, the giver of life to humans, a perfect example of the value of synergy of universal diversities- the harsh sunlight, the unassuming water, and other random contents of the universe.

We love to have a sense of collective identity, and ignorantly protect or promote rigid paradigms in the name of whatever; but we must not forget that “one plus one is two”, and that our ‘individual’ identities adds up to a great wealth of resources – tapped or yet to be. The truth is, lies can get you by, but you can only be truly empowered by the absolute truth.

Shine your eyes! Don’t mistake of accepting old lies as culture or policy, ask questions and seek after the absolute knowledge of truth instead of chasing papers, only then you might be enlightened to cultivate and grow your own money trees.

Be Yourself - Grow Dependently, Change Independently

“Over the years I have metamorphosed on the inevitable demands of social inclusion. Now I stand alone because those who demanded I change now insist that I must be myself but I seem to have forgotten who to, or how to be". #beyourself

No Promises

If I gave you my heart, what would you do with it?

Would you care for it and shade it from the worse,

Would you wear it out and tear me down?

If I gave you my heart, what would you give in return?

Not the clichés or paradise, nor rewards in arrears

If I gave you my heart, the one thing I truly own,

Would you give me a happy life, before eternal life?

If I gave you my vote, what would you do with it?

Would you have it all and have me beg,

Would you share the cake as you take and take?

If I gave you my vote, what would you give in return?

Not bags of rice or promises, or crumbs from leftovers

If I gave you my vote, my real power and right to commonwealth,

Would you be my voice or mighty god?

©Ub Matthews - 011114

Human vs. Cultural Rights

“The truths you know today might be a lie tomorrow- listen, ask questions, think for yourself, unlearn your habits, be free indeed!”

Anti-gay proponents argue that, gay-culture (LGBT) is foreign to our culture hence must be espoused; what if it wasn't? Would you accept a reasonable argument that it is indeed an integral part of our pre-colonial culture?

How has the religious and cultural conditioning that shapes our collective national conscience, contributed to, and supported the development of homosexuals in our society?

Is it intelligent to expect a different outcome, other than the natural options that our training and conditioning guarantees?

If there is a chance that our society has indeed tolerated, supported and nurtured homosexuality from time immemorial, how should we treat those whose way of life is merely one of the products, natural consequences or the flaws of our established way of life? Do we ignore, tolerate, treat, pray, protect, lynch, kill?

I would rather belong to a generation of progressively thinking Nigerians who are actively looking out to protect our minorities, after all, it is a merge of minority groups that make up and, add value and, color to our great Nigeria.

This might sound like another foreign thought, but I implore you to kindly, delay your judgment until the later parts of this article.

Cultural and religious values are one of the justifications for our recently assumed national homophobic identity. Looking at it with the other eye, is there a possibility that we have been conditioned by this same values to explore our homosexual tendencies?

Think about a young girl. She is discouraged from association with boys for various other ‘cultural’ reasons. She sits in a ‘Girls Section’ in church 2 times a week, goes to an ‘all girls boarding School” and various youth holiday camps, has mostly female friends, etc. All her life, she has been admonished to seek companionship and emotional support mostly from her kind - there is so much risk and punishment for moral corruption and identity loss if she doesn’t adhere to the some set out rules.

Growing up, she struggled to suppress the unusual feelings she has been having when around friends and acquaintances. ‘Why does she have such feelings, is she a bad person’? These questions have no answer because she cannot ask; it is not her culture to ask questions. Torn, she must refer to the general FAQs for any answers and, get used to the seeming reality – we are generally intolerant of minorities!

Understandably, our society which is still struggling to figure out equally incriminating heterosexual issues would definitely not be sympathetic or interested in understanding homosexuality.

Someday, in the course of living life, as dictated by the restrictions of her society, she meets many other people who even publicly acknowledged having similar evil thoughts and feelings. It is no longer about braveness to publicly explore her reality, it's about life and death, her freedom and survival is suddenly threatened by the pointing fingers of a hateful majority front.

Here is another popular belief, our public administrators are unrepentant sinners yet, no one seems as eager to 'pick up the first stone'. To justify the enormous wealth they are accused of grossly misappropriating, they have worked hard to pass a new laws but, this one has nothing to do with alleviating our sufferings, our pressing needs. Somebody proposed that, since there was so much cock-sucking-adrenaline on the floor, it might be feasible to make new a law that further restricts certain privileges to its untouchable members – what a brilliant idea! The masses whom they already have in their pockets, they would applaud it and surely give them a pass mark for next term.

Now, if you must, please served your judgement as you consider an unrelated story...

As a citizen, how have you contributed to creating this law, what does it say, how can it be interpreted, how does its implementation enhance your quality of life, is it consistent with global perspectives on human rights? These are some of the questions we should debate on instead of accepting whatever is hurriedly decided, with prejudice, in high places.

I often mull on the near possibility that perhaps, our dependence on 'hopeful prayers' over 'practical solutions' is the root of our major national issues. We were told that, God is responsible for our wealth creation/sharing, we pray that the ‘wealth of the wicked shall be ours soon enough - what else can you do? As helpless as we often are, we are always so eager to fight God's battles.

If the government is not doing well but government officials seem to be well off - God must be answering their prayers! There are rumours that most of them are actually stealing public wealth while we close our eyes and pray for your rightful portion; there is evidence to prosecute them with some of our outdated laws; we even have duplicate legal institutions to recover stolen wealth but, we must also pray about it. You may have believed in the lie that only God can save this country, but sadly, prayers will not move Nigeria's mountains until we all take personal little initiatives and look out for our interests.

With all our unwritten moral laws in Nigeria, we can safely predict and accept that homosexual marriages will never be institutionalized, not in the foreseeable future at least; our sodomy laws equally reinforce this outlook and checks for loose ends. Make your list of 111 current issues threatening Nigeria today – 3 for each state, including Abuja; with the current tension threatening to divide Nigeria into worthless factions, do you really need to prematurely include homophobia to the long list?

Now, what is your verdict? – Imagine you were an intelligent, impartial, independent, empowered, realistic...You, really, must punish this girl for displaying a consequence of her ‘gay-conditioning’ environment and set her back in the right path. Bear in mind, resources are scarce, there are numerous backlogs, and the system has been overdue for a total overhaul for a few decades now.

You acknowledge that you cannot further waste ‘allegedly’ lean resources in arresting these alleged minority cock-suckers; it is a simple matter of misplaced priority.

If you are religious, you have the extra option to pray that God would send the big whale to swallow Jonah instead, and be forced to cough out the excess kobos stashed away in their pot bellies.

Would sending this girl to a 14-year tax-free stay, in a crowded prison with other women, be one of your first 3 options to curb her homosexuality?

Would you still celebrate an anti-gay legislation that is actually fucking you in the ass? Why are you always eager to applaud policies that infringe your basic rights and keeps you in perpetual bondage?

Other cultures that had previous strong anti-gay policies are learning from their mistakes, they are better informed today and can truly now decide for themselves. As much as we might think foreign culture has ruined us for good, we must acknowledge that, it is model for most of our widely accepted modern culture, and has presented us with a paradigm from which we can better manage our 'so-called' culture so that it does not consume us in our attempt to preserve it. We are fortunate that most of our problems are not unprecedented, we can choose to observe and learn!

As we aspire and work towards becoming the economic giant of Africa, we must be reminded that we have no common identity, except being humans. How we regard our minorities will play a major role to consolidating our power; the harmonization of culture, or popular belief will only hold until it don't.

The First Time

'OMG! he is cute', she blurted, walking over to have a better view at a Facebook picture on the screen across her desk. 

Her colleague remarked, 'cue up girl! Umar is quite the charmer - boys and girls want him alike'.

'That is a familiar name!' Mima is excited, she rudely hoists herself in front of the screen. Staring blankly at his photos, memories rush back, and her eyes clouds with emotions - it was indeed him!  

'My Umar!' She blurts amidst exasperated sighs, 'after all these years...'

The ensuing events seemed awkward, as she predicted, it was meant to happen - this way, or the other. Afterall, she was the master of the plot. Umar, though 3 years older, was well aware, he accepted his place early enough in the relationship. He loved her too much - that was all that should matter.

'Secret Santa' was a Christmas tradition at Primary School-  everybody brought a gift to a pool and picked a random number from a sock. Successively, each person then picks and unwraps a gift on the spot. If you didn't like yours, you had one chance to exchange it from already opened gifts of others.

As an unwritten rule, whoever picked the 'weirdest' gift was often the brunt of jokes. He wasn't as lucky, his prized pick, a  mini guitar, was immediately snatched, now he had a  teddy - baby Jesus.

No one wanted a teddy - baby Jesus, it was the worst gift this year, but he had lost his chance to take another gift.

Mima, the new girl - brave, curly hair, with missing front teeth - walked up to him and smiled, 'may I have your baby?', she asked, 'you can have my Snow Ball, it's magical!'

He reached out for the exchange but she held back, 'there is a condition', she continued, 'you must volunteer to be my husband; I am 'Virgin-Mary' in the Christmas recitals'. He agreed.

It is 2013, 20 years has passed since they first broke up. He was impatient and she had wanted the first time to be special; now she was ready.

The door bell chimed and disrupted the moment, Mima opened her eyes, he had been watching her - grinning, she smiled back, knowing she belonged at the top of the list. As he started towards the door, he kissed her softly on the forehead and muttered 'come down in a few, I'll make coffee'.

The door creaked close, she stared at the ceiling, reminiscing, 'this is where I belong'. Her gaze wandered, it caught her eye - the Snow-Ball by the dresser - he kept it!

She meets him at the door and tries to conceal her excitement, and the 'Snow-Ball' bulge.

Umar is staring blankly at the baby dropped off in a basket with a note, They look confused, she looks happy. Trembling, he hands her the note and says, 'baby, just like the first time, will you have my baby?'

©Ub Matthews - 240114

LGBT

I have always thought - does my liberal judgements make me a saint or sinner?

Until recently, I have come to realise that I inadvertently delay judgement in order to cope with the increasing pressure to bow to controversial populist views of the status-quo; or empathize with victims of marginalization.

On the issue of the recent anti-gay legislation in Nigeria, once again, I delay my judgement.

However, I wish to remind those openly supporting or disavowing  the polity, to be aware of the risk that this law might pose to the freedom of the many other minorities that make up Nigeria.

Because it seems to be a popular legislation, does not mean that we should sacrifice other hard-earned civil liberties alongside it. Everybody must be carried along.

It can be argued that there are other equally popular views in Nigeria that are yet to be legislated, or enforced, but seem to be blatantly ignored, why this one...why now?

For the absolute 'rule of law' to prevail in our democracy, populist, or any segmented views or interpretations must be secondary.

If we refer to the constitution as base for our laws, we must refrain from celebrating, or condoning any misplaced, or contradicting laws that serves only to promote political, religious, and/or cultural views and agenda while; rubbishing the basic constitutional  and human rights of Nigerian citizens.

2015 seems too soon, It appears that we have given up our right to decide our fate, as a democratic nation. We also stand a risk of eventually losing a lot more!
Popular guys with misplaced priorities, who gamble with the basic needs of the majority and; seem oblivious to the importance of protecting the rights of the minorities, must not win this war.

It is high time that well meaning, new-generation Nigerians be actively involved in managing the diversity of cultures, religions, and all the complexities that makes up Nigeria.
Stop sacrificing your rights and freedom to popular theories and mediocre politicians.The risk of being mere observers and complainers, as we often come to realise, is too far too severe to be ignored!

Praying-Mantis - Oh My God!

I have noticed that it is common for folks on these fora to pick out popular-topic articles and dissect it without even listening to what/how the news is actually reporting/being reported. We are set! We can't accept any foreign reasoning for its physical value, except ones altered for selfish purposes.

We just like to throw each other down 'cause we are so used to such treatment. ' It's our culture we say!' - yeah, the same one we adopted years ago from those trying to teach us newer tricks today!

We are told not to 'forget where we come from' but, at the core of the rot in our society could be the values weaned from our celebrated cultural practices -

'respect our elders, especially the thieves'; 'punish the minority, worship the ogas'; 'pray and have faith; your miracle is on the way!'...

We have seen online-critics and activists bring good change to the political scene so in attempt to adopt it, we complain, but repeatedly do the same thing over, and pray!

Our 'patriotism' and 'passion' prohibits us entertaining any form of paradigm shift whatsoever!

We are experts at making countless 'Cases' for 'God' and once in a while, we are rewarded with a 'Chosen One' to manage His blessings and display His power so that we, can waste our 'blessings' - the often insufficient resources that we are fortunate to receive as reward, to get online and make empty noise to further enrich our 'God'.

People - especially, patriotic Nigerians, are programmed - with permission, only to complain about being victimised by the gods, the same ones we created and, can momentarily destroy.

If our claim to be a 'patriotic' bunch, is a national identity, then I assure you, the wrong people are dying for our dear country!

Have faith! The change we need will come awhile but, make all the noise you want here, and in all the other wrong places, about issues - you or your 'GOD', is passionate about; it is gonna cost a little bit more than that to make your voice really heard and bring about some of the change you want.

Shut up! and listen to each other, people different from you, might actually have something to say. They can be your new God, a better one!

Aside from religion, ethnicity, and scaremongering - what are really the foundation of the issues plaguing our economy today, what are the sustainable options to mitigate these?

Am I really a patriotic Nigerian or, am I just a sell-out, waiting to complain or, God willing, count my blessings during the next crusade?

As you listen to each other, ask yourself, If I eventually became a 'CHOSEN ONE', what would I do differently?

Now say a BIG "Amen!'; conclude your many prayers and start laying a better foundation for the change YOU believe is possible!