WOW! WOW! THE ALMIGHTY HAS DONE IT FOR ME AGAIN!

On Saturday Breakfast, I have told many stories about the love I share with my youngest daughter, Stephanie Chinenye Okoroji. Though 'Babim', as I call her, was born in America, I had to make sure she came back to Nigeria, went to nursery, primary and secondary schools and learnt to jump danfo busses and okada in Lagos.

She was the one in the house who found out when my nails where too long and trimmed them for me and generally made sure I was looking dapper. There is this special call and response I share with her. We sing it like a song.

When Iyke, my younger brother in America, called and asked that Babim should come over and finish school in the States, I was of two minds. I stayed awake at night thinking about it. I did not want any of my kids speaking with a funny accent or thinking it is ok to say "Daddy, don't be silly!' Besides, I loved the camaraderie we shared and did not want to miss that. Ultimately, I left the decision to her.

I remember the very long trip we took via Dubai to New York. It was not because we wanted to enjoy the famous Dubai experience. Emirates was offering the lowest fare to America and we could only afford the lowest fare. We had to go east in order to go west. It appeared like an endless trip.  

About three years ago, I watched with tremendous pride and joy as my baby daughter, graduated at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County (UMBC). My girl thought I was in Lagos. She did not know that I was in the auditorium watching and smiling, having arrived Baltimore a few hours earlier and having conspired with my brother, Iyke to keep the information from her. How do I describe the yelp she uttered when she saw me at UMBC? Unforgettable! Incredible! Unbelievable! It was worth every kilometre I travelled and every hard Naira it cost. It was a present like no other.

When the 1^st of August 2020 was fixed for the wedding of Babim to her sweetheart, Sam Egiafameh in Glenn Dale, a suburb of Maryland, it was meant to be a day like no other. I was practically counting the days, the hours and the minutes.

Madam, the fashionista that she is, raided Balogun market in Lagos to get the best fabrics on show to create for me some eye splitting agbada for the occasion. Ordinarily, I am not an agbada person but the 1^st of August 2020 was scheduled to be a day like no other, a day to dress to finish and I was ready.

As the coronavirus reared its ugly head earlier in the year, we all thought that after a few weeks or at the worst a couple of months, the madness would go away. After all, did Ebola not go away? Did SARS not go away?

Who would have thought that instead of the virus going away, the year 2020 would be washed away? For many months, the Premiership, the NBA, the NFL, the MLS disappeared. Even the Olympic Games, the world's greatest spectacle with billions of dollars invested, was scrapped.

I was so sure that before the 1^st of August, I would find a way to get to Ameri fca and walk my baby down the aisle in my flowing agbada and do that which every father is proud to do.

Who would have thought that the ever busy Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos could be shut down month after month and all the airplanes that fly people from country to country, morning, afternoon and night, would be parked? How come none of the big prophets and seers that harass all of us on TV saw that the world would be turned upside down in 2020?

I struggled to make sense out of what was happening. I was stuck in Lagos while my baby girl was taking one of the biggest steps in her life. At least her mother got there before everywhere was shut down.

We had actually planned back-to-back weddings in the family, Stephanie's and TJ's. I called and shut down the TJ wedding. No Coronavirus was going to stop me from being present at the wedding of my only son. Not long after, I was hit by a medical crisis and urgently needed to travel for medical help. Two days before my trip, a strong attempt was made to abduct me in Lagos, whisk me away and waste me in Benin. In the execution of the devious plan, the Almighty intervened. While I was abducted, my abductors could not take me away from Lagos. God freed me and I was able to travel for my medicals.

One afternoon, not long after I came back from my medical trip, the news came that bank accounts of COSON of which I am chairman had been frozen, the accounts of my personal business had been frozen, my domiciliary account had been frozen and my personal Naira account had also been frozen. Suddenly, life was hanging in a balance. To do basic things, I had to find someone to borrow from.

I hold no government position and have no access to one naira of government funds. I do not do money laundering, I do not do oil bunkering, I do not do 'yahoo-yahoo' or internet fraud of any kind, I do not deal in drugs and I am not engaged in any criminal activity of any sort but they have kept hunting me. There is no big money in any of my accounts that will suggest that it is the proceed of any crime and they know it. Their objective is to decapitate me.

Dr Jatto who took not one penny from me will confirm that on the day I left Nigeria, I came to take six injections from him making it eighteen in three days. Without my daughter, Alex who travelled with me, I may not have made it to New York for my son's wedding.

Though I still had health challenges in New York, I was pumped up. I was sure that those who froze my accounts had not frozen my faith and organizational ability. I am usually not one for big family events but I begged the Almighty to make the wedding of my son, who is my good friend and confidant an exception and an unforgettable event and to show evil people their limits and God answered my prayers big time.

You think God is done with me? This week while I was thinking of where to get money to pay the salaries of my staff, great news came from America. My baby girl, Stephanie Chineye Egiafameh has given me an early Christmas gift of a bouncing grandson. I must be the luckiest man in the world. What name should I give my newly minted grandson? Please join me in thanking the Almighty who continues to bless me over and over again. I am H A P P Y!

See you next week. 

WHO DOES BUHARI SPEAK TO?

Did you listen to the President's Independence Day speech? It is a pity that many Nigerians seem to have tuned off on him.

I have said before that I am a sucker for words masterfully put together. I believe that words used the right way can move mountains. They can make men fight like hell in war. The right words can bring peace where strife reigns. The architecture of change is words. The building is action.

I am one of those who believe that Nigerians have had to endure the excruciating pain we are suffering today because we have a president who has very little skills in the use of words.

President Buhari was elected practically, without saying anything to anybody. An avalanche of people like Adams Oshiomhole, Festus Keyamo, Bola Tinubu and co. hugged the microphones at campaign events and spoke for Buhari and made promises on behalf of Buhari. Please check, Buhari personally promised Nigerians very little. With hindsight, Nigerians never really had a chance to measure Buhari.

Masterfully, the minders of Buhari scattered the presidential debates organized by BON during the elections. Across the world, the political debate has become a critical platform for assessing politicians and their abilities, their communication skills, their temperaments, their mastery of the issues and their readiness for the job. That is why nations do not joke with debates and nobody gets elected without a debate. Words matter.

On the debate stage, Buhari would have been on his own. There would have been no Garba Shehu, no Femi Adesina or Lai Mohammed to tell him what to say. There would have been no press release to tell us what he means. We would have heard him unfiltered and left to make up our minds.

If you think that Donald Trump lost the last U.S. presidential election on the day of voting on November 3, 2020, then you were not quite following the events. Joe Biden won the Presidency fair and square on September 29 on the debate stage in Cleveland Ohio.

Words matter. Just imagine how many people have been moved by the immortal words of Martin Luther King Jnr in his 'I have a dream' speech. What of the unforgettable 'Ask not what your country can do for you' speech of John F. Kennedy? Without 'Yes we can' would Barack Obama, the young man of Kenyan ancestry, have become President of the most powerful nation on earth?

As a Nigerian, I keep scratching my head in search of the memorable or inspirational words of our President. Of course, the lack of appreciation of the use of words by those who purport to lead us, to paint their picture of tomorrow and to inspire us to dream big dreams, has something to do with the level of our underdevelopment. President Buhari's inability to lift us up with his words and heal our wounds at this time of distress, is a sore in the heart of many Nigerians. Words do matter.

The President was correct when he said in his broadcast: "The seeds of violence are planted in people's heads through words. Reckless utterances of a few have led to losses of many innocent lives and destruction of properties" I will plead with the President to honestly look in the mirror and ask whether he is guilty of the offence he is complaining about. Has he used words that have raised the tension and maybe violence in the country?

There are many who believe that the President is almost consumed by the ethnic agitators in the South and appears not to be sufficiently concerned by the gory killing fields in the north. These killing fields have made hundreds of thousands of our fellow countrymen refugees in their own land. As the President spoke, our air force is said to be bombing parts of our country, a nation technically not at war! Schools are closed in some parts of the north with millions of children at home because nobody can guarantee their safety from bandits. Cell phone networks have been switched off in several parts of the north to deal with what is clearly a horrendous break down of law and order.

Yet in his broadcast, the President mentions just two names form the South. He said, "the recent arrest of Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Adeyemo and the ongoing investigations have revealed certain high-profile financiers behind these individuals" Please Mr. President, who is financing the mayhem in the north? Kanu and Adeyemo are not known to have done anything to create the chaos that is consuming our nation. They are ethnic agitators and there are those who will tell you that it is the actions of the government that have made these hitherto unknown individuals the superstars they have become with huge cult followership, even while in jail.

I am sure everyone remembers that during his first inauguration, President Buhari said these words: 'I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody'. The words practically caught fire. They were repeated over and over across the country. Those nine words conveyed deep meanings of which a major book could be written. I had hoped thereafter to hear from our President such deep words that can exalt Nigerians and elevate the desire of Nigerians, man and woman, to do the work necessary to uplift our nation.

 

Why is it important? No general fights a war alone. He must inspire his commanders and foot soldiers to feel what he feels, take on the enemy with gusto and lay down their lives if it becomes necessary. A good army is like an orchestra. All the instruments are in tune and every instrumentalist follows the slightest gesture of the conductor. My gut feeling is that Nigeria is at war but the foot soldiers necessary to win the war are not engaged. Our Commander-in- Chief has not properly articulated the war so Nigerians can fight with him. So, President Buhari and his handful of people are fighting the war alone. I do not know how they are going to win. I know not where it has happened before. No conductor plays a symphony all alone.

 

Do you recall the Arise News interview of our President? It was very revealing of the mindset of the man who makes life and death decisions on our behalf. Did he calm our nerves, or did he pour more fuel on the fire burning across the nation? Words like "the dot in a circle" matter.

 

Words and the way they are used matter at every level of leadership, at home, at work, in religion, in politics, everywhere. The greatest salesmen are those who know how to use words. The greatest preachers are those who know how to use words and definitely, the greatest leaders.

 

I am in anguish wondering whether our President truly understands the power of words.

See you next week.