Question of the Day 1

If you had the power to re-create Nigeria, what would it look like? (TRY TO BE AS SPECIFIC AS POSSIBLE)

Preamble - In the midst of all our complaints about how Nigeria is not a good place at the moment, I rarely hear people move to the next stage to define what they want it to be like.

So I am giving us the chance to think wild and free and re-create the Nigeria that we probably have in our mind that we would like to see/live in.

As we answer this question, please try to be as specific as possible in our answers. No abstractions but real hard practical visualisation. Something so clear that we can start on the path of bringing it into reality.

I look forward to hearing all your thoughts. Please add a comment

Posted via email from Femi Longe's Zone

World Cup 2010: And then there was 1...

Only 7 countries that have ever won the world cup since it's inception. These are Uruguay, Italy, Brazil, England, Argentina, Germany and France. All of them except England and France have won it more than once. Technically, at every World Cup, this elite group have more chances of winning the trophy than any other country. The last time a new country won the World Cup was in 1998 when France hosted and won.

Seeing the way South Africa 2010 is shaping up, I think we might have a new name on the trophy this year. It's the way members of the elite seven have been dropping off like flies or how they are set to drop each other off that excites me.

First, France and Italy, though finallists at the last World Cup didn't even make it past their group. Oh sorry, not just that they didn't qualify, they were at the bottom of their groups. Leaving us with 5 of the elite seven making it to the round of 16.

Of the 5 in the second round, England was slated to face Germany after failing to win their group as expected. Actually that was major disappointment for me giving the new energy and fire that Fabio Capello had seemingly given these perennial under-achievers.

Well, the game with Germany is now done and dusted and the disappointment even deeper. England was whitewashed 4-1. Say what you will about Lampards disallowed goal but Germany were the more fluid side. Either ways another one of the elite 7 down leaving us with possibly 4 in the next round if Brazil beats Chile later today. I know the Chilean coach Bielsa fancies their chances. We'll see how that goes...

Taking us to the quarter finals where Uruguay face the last hope of Africa, Ghana who are bidding to be the first African team to ever enter a World Cup semi-final. My money is on Ghana to kick out another member of the elite 7 leaving us with 3.

Germany and Argentina will be slugging it out in the other semi-final march which means whatever happens, one more of the elite 7 drops out leaving us with 2.

So assuming Brazil beats Chile tonight, they'll be meeting either Netherlands or Slovakia. Slovakia, I think they'll prefer. Facing the Netherlands, they'll have their work fully cut out for them. With the Netherlands and Spain being the best teams to never have won the World Cup and given their current form, Brazil will definitely be in for a huge fight. I'll call it for Brazil though leaving 2 of the elite 7 still left.

So technically we have Spain, Portugal, Ghana and the Netherlands being the guys to stop 2 teams from the elite 7 from making it to the final again. Note that I seem to have discounted the chances of Paraguay, Japan or Slovakia from being the spoiler teams.

Perhaps I am wrong but in my opinion, in the 4 aforementioned teams lies a potential winner of this years World Cup expanding the fold to becoming the elite 8. I think it's possible and looking increasingly feasible.

Posted via email from Femi Longe's Zone

Some of the questions on my mind

What are the key questions that we need to seek answers to to bring transformation to the current state of Nigeria and Africa?

I am a questions man. I like asking questions. I believe questions open space for discovery. Give an answer and you close a query. Ask a question - a good open question - and you open the paths for exploration and who knows what you might find.

I know this is counter to everything we were taught at school. School is not about who asks the right questions, it's about who can give the best answer. If you question too much, you are called disruptive and possibly sidelined. Plus, you must be really, really dumb to ask so many questions. Why can't you just be like the other smart kids and give the best answer so you can move to solving the next question. Maybe that was why I was never really a school-ly person. Yet, I was once nicknamed professor :)

Anyways, back to my starting enquiry. Einstein is quoted as having said that if he had one hour to save the world he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution. I am of the same school as this great man.

I want to be sure that we are spending the valuable time we have answering the RIGHT questions on what Nigeria and Africa needs to transform. I want to contribute mine to defining some of the questions I see as pertinent if we are going to move from our current state of crisis to one where we are a place of pride.

Some of the questions that occur to me include:

1. What exactly would a developed Africa look like in practical terms?
2. What is it about our make up as Africans that is hindering us from attaining this level of development?
3. How do we create the conditions so that everyday, everywhere all Africans are contributing in their own small way to the advancement of the continent?
4. How do we restore a sense of pride to all Africans so we stop seeing ourselves as a backward race and place? or as Bob Marley put it How do we emancipate ourselves collectively from mental slavery?
5. How do we empower ourselves as individuals to make our society better instead of waiting for it all to be done by government or whoever else has positioned themselves as the figure of authority?
6. How do we get the power back to the people?

These are some of the questions in mind. They are not all the questions and they are by no means the right questions. I am not looking for a single answer that stops the enquiry. I want these questions to motivate a search for solutions as mine and all our life work.

And still I need more questions...

Posted via email from Femi Longe's Zone

Please let's not yakubu again oooo

Seems the latest trend in Nigerian is forming new dictionary words from the name of people who screw up.

After our final world cup match with South Korea, the latest one was YAKUBU after Yakubu Aiyegbeni's miss. A miss from a player I insist should never have made it to the world cup but then that's subject for another post.

The first definition of the word to yakubu means to utterly squander once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, especially one that will cause pain to/mourning among millions of people

Nigeria has a couple of golden opportunities at the moment and I am afraid in advance that we might yakubu all of them.

Sticking with the football theme, after our woeful showing at the world cup which to be honest wasn't totally unexpected, we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to rebuild our national team based on time tested principles. Nobody (except Nigeria) goes into a competition like the world cup hoping just for miracles. Our oft venerated squad of 1994 was built over time through careful preparation, selecting only the best and playing together constantly. The nucleus of the team played either in our own local league or had just broken into Europe. They were hungry for success and in 1994 after many years of trying they got it.

In my opinion, now is the time for us to look at the formula from back then and inject it into building a team that do not act as if they are doing us a favour playing for the national team. We need a coach who understands our players and our system, who can't be bought and who has experience excelling on the international stage. For me at the moment, only Samson Siasia fits the bill. But will the rogues at our football association give him the role instead of shelling out outrageous sums to yet another "white man" who will most likely fail at the next hurdle? I fear they will lead us to yakubu again...

Will we also yakubu our chance for free and fair elections in 2011. Our president died and we have a man in charge who is changing the dynamics of Nigeria's political space. He has done a good thing by choosing to head the electoral commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, a brilliant thinker with integrity and a man notorious for having a mind of his own. Agreed he has just 6 months to work which makes the task before him daunting but will our political class lead us to yakubu what has the potential to be a breakthrough election...

FOOD FOR THOUGHT!!!

Posted via email from Femi Longe's Zone

Wasting my time

The ultimate disrespect anyone can show me is to waste my time.

I mean literally sit down and watch seconds, minutes and hours of my
life burn away waiting for you. This is time that I can never get
back. For me, it's worse than stealing money from me. Money can be
made back in hundred and million fold. Time, sadly can't be regained.

Small wonder one of my biggest points of frustration since returning
to Nigeria is the seeming need for people to make you wait just so
they can seem important. At meetings, in the bank, around every corner
is another idiot looking to masturbate their tiny ego by making you
wait...FOR NO JUST REASON.

If we have an appointment for a set time, I will go out of my way to
be there on time because I respect you and your schedule. When you
keep me waiting for you for 45 minutes, 1 hour or more and then you
have a rushed meeting with me because there is somewhere else you need
to be, you insult me. It is not cool to make people wait just because
you can. It is disrespectful.

Since I went freelance, I have started to understand more the value of
my time. The attitudinal downside of being an employee not on a clock
is that it is hard to know what an hour of your time is worth. I know
what my time is worth and when people waste my time, I can actually
put financial value to how much of my life they has just been lost and
I feel like I could ask for compensation. Perhaps, I will...

Posted via email from Femi Longe's Zone

When time freezes

So my internet is dead. Stopped working on a day when i had a
deadline. Need to go into the office to have it restored the next day
'cos it stopped on Sunday.

So i finished my task and decided to go find a cafe open on Sunday
night in Ketu. My baby went with me. We decided to make it a lovers
stroll though time was ticking.

Went in all the directions of the wind but not a one was still open.

It was 10pm on Sunday night so that explains it. Not even those with
the ginormous "Overnight Browsing" banner - the den of upcoming "yahoo
yahoo" boys.

After ages walking about, we decided this wasn't happening and went back home.

My dilemma - what to do with the application filled? Wait one more year?

To say i'm pissed off is putting it mildly. One day, internet access
will be a basic human right & i won't have this stress no more...

Posted via email from Femi Longe's Zone