MATHEMATICS DOES NOT WORK IN NIGERIA!

Have you ever asked yourself why our children do very badly in mathematics?  Please just talk to the average young man or woman going to school in these parts. Ask him which subject gives him or her the biggest headache and before the question is out of your mouth, the answer is thrown at you – 'Mathematics!' Most of them are scared stiff of the stuff. Some believe that Maths is magic and only the likes of Professor Peller, the master magician, can understand how 'a plus b' can be equal to c.

You might want to blame the kids. Don't blame them. Their parents before them and maybe their grandparents grew up in an environment where everything is conjecture and the only thing that is true is what the juju man or witch doctor says. Regardless of how educated, travelled or exposed we are, we are still deep inside, villagers trapped in the fables of juju men and witch doctors - the babalawos who intercede to the Gods on our behalf. We might be very religious or even call ourselves 'men of God' but the prism through which we see God is still that of the juju man, witch doctor or 'jazz'. Our new 'men of god' are our modern-day juju men. They wear designer suits, drive fancy cars, speak high-sounding English and 'prophesy' to us what we want to hear. Like juju men of old, they also speak in tongues!    

Why are we so backward? In a world of mathematics, quantum physics, empiricism, driver-less cars and Artificial Intelligence, we still consult cranky old men with chalk marks on their faces to toss around cowries in the air and tell us what the future holds. Oh, we still hire and pay prayer warriors to clear the path of our tomorrows. At a time, when much of the world can forecast hurricanes or tornadoes a week ahead or tell us precisely when it will rain in any village on earth, we still procure rain doctors to pretend to prevent the rain!

We fear to face the fact that much of our future is not dangling in the air like the cowries tossed by the witch doctor but is dependent on what we do or fail to do. We do not want to deal with facts because that means taking responsibility. So, we embrace conjecture and blame the devil or even God for our endless disasters.

Our mathematics problem is at the core of our many difficulties. Mathematics means facts. It means transparency, accountability, order, planning and the taking of responsibilities. In mathematics, two plus two will always be four. It can never be five or three and half. If we were to take mathematics seriously, how do we explain much of our contradictions? For instance, how does a level 8 officer in the employ of the government explain to his son how he owns an estate which his salary and all his allowances put together cannot contemplate even if he worked for one thousand years?

If the son of the level 8 officer were to ask his father: 'Daddy, how did you make this much money and own so many houses?' Do you think that the father would answer: 'as a cashier in the government service, I stole the money placed under my care to provide service to the community'? Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the answer would be something like: 'It is God's blessings.' Which God? The answer avoids the simple additions and multiplication that mathematics demands. By what do you multiply his sixty thousand naira a month salary to obtain the billion naira that he has stashed away in underground septic tanks?

Pray, how can our 'democratic' government explain paying a man in its employ, with a wife and four children, the incredible salary of thirty thousand naira a month and expect the man to pay for food, housing, transportation, NEPA, clothes, school fees, medicine and all the many expectations of the extended family and not be a thief? Thirty thousand Naira a month is really one thousand Naira a day, less than the cost of one decent loaf of bread! Some brilliant persons will tell you: "the man will survive… he will find a way". Tell me, what way? What kind of mathematical formula will the man apply to make one thousand Naira a day take care of his family?

And then, our dear dazzling newly minted president, in a moment of profound economic inspiration, announces the immediate removal of fuel 'subsidy'. And the life of the average Nigerian citizen goes into a tailspin! On many of our roads, Nigerians with heavy loads on their heads and angst in their hearts are trekking and trekking. Kwashiorkor seems to be on the way back and we better be ready for free-for-all stealing, banditry, on a scale we never imagined, and everyday suicide? I hear they are now talking about palliatives. Please, why did we not design and introduce the palliatives before the fuel subsidy removal? What mathematical formular will be employed to distribute the palliative and please what use is any palliative to the many who would have died before the palliatives come on stream?    

Exactly how did Nigeria, with one of the world's biggest reservoirs of crude oil and other hydrocarbons become one of the world's biggest importers of petroleum products with subsidies and scams that defy logic? Please, how did we come to the brilliant conclusion that paying to transport our crude oil to Europe, paying to refine the crude oil in Europe and then paying to bring the refined product to Nigeria is mathematically sound? Who killed our refineries and what price are they paying for the madness?  

Let's face it: we hide behind the name of God to do so much that is evil. Our politician who in four short years becomes richer than the state he promised to develop, at the end of the day goes to church for thanksgiving. What is he thanking God for?  In his mind, by doing thanksgiving, he is bribing God to look the other way as he wallows in his thievery.

We have created a god in our image who is illiterate and does not understand mathematics. This creation of ours is based on our babalawo mentality, the belief that everything is abracadabra and facts and mathematics do not matter. It is the babalawo mentality that pushes some of us to take the life of a fellow human being, lock up his corpse in a cupboard and expect that if we chant some magic words, the corpse will be printing money every day for us in every currency. It is the babalawo mentality that makes us believe that once a 'man of God' has prayed for us, we do not need to plan or work hard anymore, we simply go home and there will be money everywhere. The 'man of God' is our later day babalawo, the middleman between us and the gods. OMG! We have a big problem. Mathematics does not work in Nigeria!

See you next week. SATURDAY BREAKFAST with TONY OKOROJI

MATHEMATICS DOES NOT WORK IN NIGERIA!

Have you ever asked yourself why our children do very badly in mathematics?  Please just talk to the average young man or woman going to school in these parts. Ask him which subject gives him or her the biggest headache and before the question is out of your mouth, the answer is thrown at you – 'Mathematics!' Most of them are scared stiff of the stuff. Some believe that Maths is magic and only the likes of Professor Peller, the master magician, can understand how 'a plus b' can be equal to c.

You might want to blame the kids. Don't blame them. Their parents before them and maybe their grandparents grew up in an environment where everything is conjecture and the only thing that is true is what the juju man or witch doctor says. Regardless of how educated, travelled or exposed we are, we are still deep inside, villagers trapped in the fables of juju men and witch doctors - the babalawos who intercede to the Gods on our behalf. We might be very religious or even call ourselves 'men of God' but the prism through which we see God is still that of the juju man, witch doctor or 'jazz'. Our new 'men of god' are our modern-day juju men. They wear designer suits, drive fancy cars, speak high-sounding English and 'prophesy' to us what we want to hear. Like juju men of old, they also speak in tongues!    

Why are we so backward? In a world of mathematics, quantum physics, empiricism, driver-less cars and Artificial Intelligence, we still consult cranky old men with chalk marks on their faces to toss around cowries in the air and tell us what the future holds. Oh, we still hire and pay prayer warriors to clear the path of our tomorrows. At a time, when much of the world can forecast hurricanes or tornadoes a week ahead or tell us precisely when it will rain in any village on earth, we still procure rain doctors to pretend to prevent the rain!

We fear to face the fact that much of our future is not dangling in the air like the cowries tossed by the witch doctor but is dependent on what we do or fail to do. We do not want to deal with facts because that means taking responsibility. So, we embrace conjecture and blame the devil or even God for our endless disasters.

Our mathematics problem is at the core of our many difficulties. Mathematics means facts. It means transparency, accountability, order, planning and the taking of responsibilities. In mathematics, two plus two will always be four. It can never be five or three and half. If we were to take mathematics seriously, how do we explain much of our contradictions? For instance, how does a level 8 officer in the employ of the government explain to his son how he owns an estate which his salary and all his allowances put together cannot contemplate even if he worked for one thousand years?

If the son of the level 8 officer were to ask his father: 'Daddy, how did you make this much money and own so many houses?' Do you think that the father would answer: 'as a cashier in the government service, I stole the money placed under my care to provide service to the community'? Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the answer would be something like: 'It is God's blessings.' Which God? The answer avoids the simple additions and multiplication that mathematics demands. By what do you multiply his sixty thousand naira a month salary to obtain the billion naira that he has stashed away in underground septic tanks?

Pray, how can our 'democratic' government explain paying a man in its employ, with a wife and four children, the incredible salary of thirty thousand naira a month and expect the man to pay for food, housing, transportation, NEPA, clothes, school fees, medicine and all the many expectations of the extended family and not be a thief? Thirty thousand Naira a month is really one thousand Naira a day, less than the cost of one decent loaf of bread! Some brilliant persons will tell you: "the man will survive… he will find a way". Tell me, what way? What kind of mathematical formula will the man apply to make one thousand Naira a day take care of his family?

And then, our dear dazzling newly minted president, in a moment of profound economic inspiration, announces the immediate removal of fuel 'subsidy'. And the life of the average Nigerian citizen goes into a tailspin! On many of our roads, Nigerians with heavy loads on their heads and angst in their hearts are trekking and trekking. Kwashiorkor seems to be on the way back and we better be ready for free-for-all stealing, banditry, on a scale we never imagined, and everyday suicide? I hear they are now talking about palliatives. Please, why did we not design and introduce the palliatives before the fuel subsidy removal? What mathematical formular will be employed to distribute the palliative and please what use is any palliative to the many who would have died before the palliatives come on stream?    

Exactly how did Nigeria, with one of the world's biggest reservoirs of crude oil and other hydrocarbons become one of the world's biggest importers of petroleum products with subsidies and scams that defy logic? Please, how did we come to the brilliant conclusion that paying to transport our crude oil to Europe, paying to refine the crude oil in Europe and then paying to bring the refined product to Nigeria is mathematically sound? Who killed our refineries and what price are they paying for the madness?  

Let's face it: we hide behind the name of God to do so much that is evil. Our politician who in four short years becomes richer than the state he promised to develop, at the end of the day goes to church for thanksgiving. What is he thanking God for?  In his mind, by doing thanksgiving, he is bribing God to look the other way as he wallows in his thievery.

We have created a god in our image who is illiterate and does not understand mathematics. This creation of ours is based on our babalawo mentality, the belief that everything is abracadabra and facts and mathematics do not matter. It is the babalawo mentality that pushes some of us to take the life of a fellow human being, lock up his corpse in a cupboard and expect that if we chant some magic words, the corpse will be printing money every day for us in every currency. It is the babalawo mentality that makes us believe that once a 'man of God' has prayed for us, we do not need to plan or work hard anymore, we simply go home and there will be money everywhere. The 'man of God' is our later day babalawo, the middleman between us and the gods. OMG! We have a big problem. Mathematics does not work in Nigeria!

See you next week.

GOD IS LOVE

Those who read Saturday Breakfast regularly should by now be familiar with my mantra, "I drive on a full tank of faith!".

I have written before, that when I say that I drive on a full tank of faith, I mean that I have full confidence that if what I am doing is to the glory of Almighty God and the good of His children, I cannot fail. As my tank is filled with faith, so are my tires filled with love and no obstacle or bump can stop me.

I woke up yesterday morning, weak from having wrestled for days with this stubborn variant of Malaria that seems to be attacking everyone. My assignment for the day was to leave Lagos on the first flight to Benin City and to try and get back to Lagos at the end of the day. I had to go to Benin because some people I had previously considered my friends had spurn a web of lies against me and filed the lies in a Court of law in Benin City to trip me, bring me down and to bring down the institution I lead.

Tired as I was, I had to push myself to leave home at about 5.00 a.m. to the airport to board a propeller driven airplane with the interesting name of Green Africa. It was my first time on Green Africa, which you board from the back. For some reason, I got the very last seat on the aircraft, Seat No. 18B, at the tail of the plane.  

I am not very comfortable these days with propeller driven planes. I think that aircraft technology has moved past them. My Green Africa plane however flew smoothly to Benin. The engines seemed to be in good shape.

I was at the Federal High Court Benin before they opened their doors yesterday. Some people ask why I go to court so frequently. There are several reasons. The courts represent to me the greatest university you can go to. The lessons you learn in court, you cannot learn elsewhere. In court, you see man's treachery laid bare. You see society as it really is: the lies, the wickedness, the scheming and the theater. I am intrigued to watch judges resolve intricate issues where each party has a very opposite interpretation of the same facts.

Yesterday, in Benin, I saw how Nigeria is destroying its children. While in court, I witnessed several Nigerian boys, some of them, as young as 22 years old, sent to jail for the possession or cultivation of some Indian Hemp, something that is no longer a crime in many parts of the world. I watched the judge struggle with applying the sentences as enshrined in our laws, knowing that these kids are in many ways victims of a Nigerian society that has abandoned its children. I could not get off my mind the injustice of the terribly hungry and emaciated young men whose lives will be ruined in prison while their countrymen who have stolen the nation dry revel in luxury. 

A judge is not a magician. He acts on the facts and the law as presented to him. I have very good lawyers but each of them will tell you that I am engaged and insistent that every fact and every law in every case I am associated with is excellently articulated. I take courts seriously because a pronouncement from a judge can destroy what has taken a lifetime to build and we all know that it is easier to destroy than to build. Who else in society has the power to sentence a man to death and the sentence is carried out?   

I am convinced that Nigeria will escape its slide into anarchy if our Judges decide to be bold and take the bull by the horn. They hold the key.

I go to court because those who have repeatedly made themselves my adversaries know that I have done nothing against them and taken nothing that belongs to them. They are just driven by jealousy and intense hate and so cannot think or act rationally. I was once told by someone I respect that there are people who hate me because I am always winning. He advised that I should lose sometimes so that my 'adversaries' can be happy! In other words, I should be a failure so that some people can celebrate! People who do not work anywhere as hard as I do want recognition for what they have not done. See me, see trouble!

Everyone who knows me will tell you that I work 25 hours a day, 8 days a week. I never stop working and I don't complain about work. Life is work. Work is the reason we are here. In everything I do, I seek perfection. I have repeatedly asked the good Lord to use me to do good to as many people as possible. Every day I wake up, it is my duty to put a smile on the face of someone.

Most of the people who ferociously attack me are people I have given my love to. They take my love and take my love and at some point, conclude that I have become their 'mugu,' available to give everything they want. Then, they make a demand that I cannot give. Come and see wahala oh! They are shocked that their 'mugu' can say no to them sometimes. After all, I am supposed to be there for their use. Suddenly, friendship turns to hatred. From being an exceptionally good person, I become a very bad man, selfish, cunning, and even a criminal! That is how the hatred swells and the desire to destroy ferments.

Please, let them go with their hate. I do not want to be part of it. I do not want to dwell in it. Hate belongs to the devil. I deal with love and I am happy with it. I know that the Almighty will never let me be successful in destroying anyone who has done nothing against me.

I have witnessed some people cook up lies and lies, repeatedly tell their lies until they even begin to believe their lies. They continue to run from pillar to post and ask themselves why their lies have been so ineffective in destroying me and what I do. They get frustrated that they do not achieve the evil they desire. The answer is simple: love conquers hate.

I do hope that all of us will learn that man is not God and God does not dwell in hate. If you kneel down and pray that you succeed with evil, you have not prayed to God but to the devil. You will simply continue to be eaten up by the virus called hate.

Oh, I got back to Lagos yesterday on AirPeace, Nigeria's present champion in the skies. This time I got Seat No. 1B. In Ikeja, I saw thousands of people trekking as if the nation is at war. Chai! 'Tinubunomics' at work!

Please try pumping your tires with love. I promise that you will never be stranded along the way. God is love and will see you through. I continue to drive on a full tank of faith!

 

See you next week.

A CAT WITH MORE THAN NINE LIVES!

I want to say again that I am an unbelievably lucky guy. Each time people have counted me out, the Almighty has restored me. It has happened so many times, I have lost count. On social media, a guy once described me as a cat with nine lives. Believe me, this cat has lived more than nine lives!

I am humbled by the incredible energy and protection the Almighty has given me. For a guy who has failed to go to church as often as he should, I have had the grace of God beyond measure. This gentleman has been fired with bazookas at close range. I have been suicide bombed! I have been left for dead. It just happens that whenever some people think they are departing from my funeral, they meet me on the road laughing and bouncing like never before.

OMG! I have repeatedly seen the treachery and betrayal of men and how they rationalize their duplicity and all the nonsense they do.

When a guy you thought was your guy begins to manufacture a dispute between the two of you when there is really nothing to quarrel about, your antenna should go up. He is up to something. Nine times out of ten, your guy is fabricating a justification for treachery which he is hatching. Sooner or later, it will manifest.

It is then that the guy you used to eat and drink with will tell everybody how horrible you really are and why he must perch somewhere else. It is all cock and bull! He has found a new chopping center and has decided to port.

The average human being is very selfish and always out for where he thinks his bread is buttered. Do not be surprised that the person who has behaved like he would go to the grave with you is in fact praying that you should die quickly. He has probably been eying your wife, your land or your position. He wants to grab everything that belongs to you. All the while, your guy has only been using you as his ladder. If he gets to wherever he has been climbing to, or finds a better ladder, he will create a scene and dump you like rotten pepper soup. Have you noticed the game of musical chairs in our politics? In our politics, no friendship is real.

I have learnt to be weary of praise-singers. If a guy begins to tell me that I am the best thing he has seen since man discovered sliced bread, my antenna goes up! I know that I am a mortal being and no mortal being is perfect. The guy is setting me up for the kill.

Your telephone rings and it is a call from a person you do not know from Adam. He is so nice on the phone. He reminds you of how the two of you met at an event you never attended! Once he thinks he has your attention, he will tell you about the huge demand for a special stone in a remote village that only he knows. You are told that anyone who obtains a good quantity of this stone will be richer than Aliko Dangote. If you have not given up on him yet, he will whisper to you about a secret NNPC contract that he wants to execute with you as his partner that will bring so much money that even Femi Otedola will be shocked.  My guy… 419 and half!

I have seen betrayal upon betrayal and the evil men do, in every colour. I seriously have to restrain myself from believing that there is no good man in the world anymore and there is no reason to do good to anyone. Fortunately, there are still good men left and there is good reason to do good to people. If I cannot do good to people what then am I living for? The Almighty might as well take my life because it has become a waste.

I have written in Saturday Breakfast several times that I verily believe that the true worth of a man is not in what he takes but in what he gives.

I have dealt with many who have made money their god. They do not believe that a man can do anything without expecting something in return. They do not understand the concept of giving and of sacrifice.

I have met many who do not understand why I do not think like them. Some believe that I must be hiding something. Someone has asked me how I can write and publish Saturday Breakfast without fail, 52 times every year for 11 unbroken years without being paid by anybody. Others believe that my philosophy is stupid. They believe that the fact that I own no house in Maitama or Banana Island is idiotic. Every day, they count me out but each time, the Almighty brings me back in a new way.

I have repeatedly emphasized that I drive on a full tank of faith. I serve a living God. The work I do is to the glory of the Almighty. The power I use is not mine but His.

My experience in 2021 has resharpened my faith that you do not become great by what you take but by what you give. The glittering wedding of TJ, my son and best friend, in New York City reiterated the fact that if you believe in the Almighty, He will never let you down. On my way to New York, I had no money, none whatsoever. With hatred in their hearts and no justifiable reason, some people conspired to use the police to instantly freeze all my bank accounts, both personal and business. They were sure they would grind me to a halt.  What they were unable to do was freeze God's love for me. The good Lord provided everything I needed in New York. He provided more than money. He brought love and happiness in full measure and made me a very proud father. Believe me, you might face trials upon trials but like Job, you will prevail.

Have you made money your God? May I advise that you do not worship men or money. Worship the Almighty and take care of the needs of His children. Do not fret about how you will survive. You will.

Please do not take credit for that which the Almighty does through you. It is not by your power. All glory and honour belong to Him. Drive on a full tank of faith with your tires pumped with love and do not listen to anyone who tells you that your dreams are impossible. I assure you, you will be a cat with more than nine lives!

See you next week.