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.

 

ON THE ROAD TO A MASSIVE VICTORY IN CALABAR

I was in Abuja that Tuesday morning at the Federal High Court. I was to be a witness in an important case brought by COSON against a major Abuja hotel. The next morning, at 9 0'clock, I was scheduled to be in Calabar on the witness stand at the Federal High Court in another case brought by COSON against the Cross River State Government over copyright infringement at the Calabar Carnival.

My arrangement was to travel by the only flight from Abuja to Calabar that Tuesday afternoon after testifying in Abuja and to spend the night in Calabar.

The courtroom in Abuja was filled with lawyers, a good number of them, Senior Advocates of Nigeria. They came with their politician clients. As is the practice, any case that has a senior advocate gets precedence over other cases. And so, the senior advocates began to argue. Since I did not have a senior advocate, I had to wait.

I waited and waited for my case to be called. For where? The one flight from Abuja to Calabar left. I stepped out of the court, made a desperate call and had a new arrangement to be on a flight from Abuja to Uyo with the hope of doing the about two hours journey from Uyo to Calabar, by road. I was still in the court when the Abuja/ Uyo flight also left. At a point, it became clear that my case was not going to be called. I got very agitated. I had arranged for my lawyer to fly from Lagos to Calabar and he was already in Calabar waiting for me. So much time, money and energy had been invested and I was going to miss both the case in Abuja and that in Calabar. What if the judge strikes out the Calabar matter?

It was now early evening. There was no other flight to Uyo or Calabar. My being in Calabar the next morning looked impossible. It was then I called the airport and asked if there was any flight going to Port Harcourt. Port Harcourt to Calabar by road would take about six hours on a normal day. I was told there was one seat left and the flight was to leave in about one hour. I begged for the seat to be left open for me. I got a cab and asked the cab guy to drive like mad to the airport. I was the last person to board the flight as the door was about to be shut.

We arrived Port Harcourt just before 8.00 pm. It was impossible to get a cab at that time to go to Calabar. I ultimately got an old small car at an exorbitant price to take me to Uyo. By the time we navigated the go-slow infested streets of Port Harcourt and struck the highway to Uyo, it was almost 9.00 pm.

We then began a journey that did not make much sense. The road was pitch dark. The headlights on our car were not very good. It was a lonely road. There was no car behind us, overtaking us or coming in front of us. There were very few houses on either side of the road. I called a senior friend in Uyo to explain where I was, and he screamed. In a trembling voice, he told me that we were driving through the heart of a most dangerous part of Ogoni land and that no sane person drives on that road after 7.00 pm. How else do I get to Calabar? It was too late to turn back. All kinds of crazy thoughts crossed my mind. What if we got kidnapped by the much-feared Ogoni gangs? What if our rather old car broke down in the middle of nowhere?

Lo and behold, we made it in one piece to Uyo after midnight. I took a deep breath, found a hotel, had a bath and closed my eyes for a few hours. Early next morning I was on my way to Calabar. My immutable late colleague, the Rub-a-Dub master, Ras Kimono and Efe, his sweetheart, were waiting in Calabar to cheer me up. Also waiting was my good friend, Patrick Harry Doyle who joined me to testify in the case.  At the Federal High Court, I mounted the witness box and testified with all the passion I could muster. After all, I had journeyed through the shadow of death to be in Calabar. After what I had been through, I could not see how we would lose the case.      

Something truly historic for the creative community in Nigeria happened on Monday, June 26, 2023. It was a big bang!

On Monday, the Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar handed down a historic decision affirming the 2018 judgment of Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Calabar, ordering the Cross River State Government of Nigeria to pay the sum of N500,000,000.00 (Five Hundred Million Naira) to Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) for copyright infringement at the Calabar Carnival.

Before anyone gets it wrong, the case was not against the Calabar Carnival but against the abuse of copyright at the carnival. I am great fan of Carnival Calabar. I have no doubt that the event is one of the greatest legacies of my good friend, His Excellency, Governor Donald Duke, himself, a fantastic musician. Courtesy of the Cross River State Government, I was for several years an official adjudicator at the Carnival which attracts tremendous attention across the nation and across the continent. Believe me, the spirit of the carnival is so infectious that if you have not been to Calabar during the carnival, man, you don't know what you have missed.

If you think that we rushed to court on the matter, please bury the thought. I made countless efforts to resolve the matter out of court and was continuously tossed this way and that way. Even while the case was ongoing, I pleaded with officials of the Cross River State Carnival Commission that the matter be resolved out of court. I begged the Chairman of the Carnival Commission, Gab Onah, whom I consider a friend. I pleaded with then Attorney-General of the state, Attah Ochinke but I guess like most government officials in Nigeria, they concluded that the government is above the law. I had to wash my hands off participation at the Calabar Carnival. I could not continue to be part of a system that rapes the rights of creative people, the battle of much of my adult life. Now, the chickens have come home to roost.

I love Calabar and Calabarians. Some of the leaders of the carnival bands in Calabar are long term friends of mine. I am not sure there is anyone who knows me well who does not know the long-standing friendship I have enjoyed with Senator Florence Ita Giwa who has supported me in so many ways over the years. Late Nchewi Imoke, elder brother to Lyell Imoke, past governor of Cross River State, was best friend to my elder brother, Victor and we spent many great moments together in my Lagos residence. Former Minister of Culture, Edem Duke is my guy.  Former Chief of Staff to Governor Imoke, Alex Egbonna, remains a cherished friend of my family.  I wanted the matter sorted out.

The judge to whom the matter was initially assigned unfortunately died before commencing trial. There were so many fruitless trips to Calabar and so many adjournments.

I travelled to Calabar at least 15 times in search of justice in the matter. I was told that I was a fool to expect to win a case in Calabar against the Cross River State Government. But we won both at the Federal High Court and at the Court of Appeal each sitting in Calabar.  

It took us 9 solid years of stringent legal battle to win this historic victory for Nigerian musicians, the entire Nigerian creative family and the copyright system across the world. The courts have affirmed the intellectual property rights of creative people in Nigeria and stated loudly that in Nigeria, no one is above the law, not even the government. This is the legacy we leave for the coming generation. The monetary award is important but more important is the precedent set by the courts.

 

See you next week.

YOU USED ME AND DUMPED ME!

'You used me and dumped me!' With fire in her eyes, those words were directed at me a few years ago by a female professional colleague who worked closely with me at PMAN, PMRS and at COSON where I presently serve as chairman of the Board. Each of these organizations was set up as a non-profit making institution for the advancement of the interest of the commonwealth of persons in the music industry and the next generation of artistes. Over the years, I have directed my energy at rallying people whom I think believe in the cause and are willing to render selfless service towards the achievement of the objectives.

I have never at any time promised to make anyone a millionaire for joining in doing what ultimately is a thankless job.

I used her and dumped her? Where… How? I was shocked by the anger in the eyes of my 'sister' whom I thought has the education and exposure to understand what it means to give of yourself for the good of others. I regret that I had to go to court two times to establish that I did not use my sister and did not dump her.

Last week, in Saturday Breakfast, I wrote about our penchant for immediate gratification. As a people, we no longer seem to understand the meaning of service. We want money so badly and so quickly that we sneer at the idea of providing unpaid service and making sacrifice for the good of society. And we have come to believe that everybody is on the take and only fools render service without taking.

Can you imagine if Mother Teresa was a Nigerian? At death, people from her village would have immediately and angrily thrown her body into an unmarked grave, covered it up and walked away without looking back. After all, how much money did she have? Which mansions did she own? What was the name of her husband?

When Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa, died in September 1997, the whole world stood still. Her death was "Breaking News" on every international news network. She was not a Head of State, nor a popular actor, singer, sportswoman or business icon. She was not rich, yet every detail of her funeral was beamed live to the world on every significant broadcast channel.

 

Mother Teresa was an Albanian-born Catholic missionary and nun who relocated to Calcutta. She devoted her entire life to helping those most in need. Mother Teresa instituted the Order of Missionaries of Charity in India in 1950. For over 45 years, she ministered to the poor, indigent, sick, orphaned and dying. The world celebrated Mother Teresa as Queen of the poor.

Every society needs a Mother Teresa in every field – people who believe in causes and are prepared to pay any price for the cause they believe in, people who are givers. Gani Fawehinmi was a Mother Teresa. Gani was a giver. He believed in the rule of law and social justice and went to jail several times for his belief.  

I verily believe that the biggest problem we have in our nation today is that we have too many takers and very few givers. Poverty and hopelessness bestride our fatherland because we give nothing and take everything.

Give a Nigerian the nation's pension fund to manage and he takes all the money and leaves the pensioners hungry on the streets. Give a Nigerian Army General money to buy arms to fight the terrorists traumatizing our people, the General will take all the money and bury it in a soak-away pit and send innocent soldiers without weapons to go and die in Sambisa Forest. Across the country, everyone is in a mad scramble to take. Very few are willing to give. Pastors are on the take, civil servants are on the take, judges are on the take and policemen are on the take.

Give a Nigerian governor money to run his state and he grabs all the land across the state and builds mansions for himself, his wife, children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and generations unimagined. Meanwhile, he leaves the roads without maintenance, hospitals without drugs, government workers without pay and the citizens without hope.

What my 'sister' said to me has been said by a few others and shows how naïve I might have been. I used to think that many share my belief in service, sacrifice and the concept of giving.  Yes, I like to use people to do good the same way I am available to be used to do good. I believe that the worst of mankind is a useless person – that person that cannot contribute anything to making life better for the rest of God's children.

All around the world, people die so that nations can live. It is happening now in Ukraine. It is giving that makes nations live. Nigeria will die if we are not willing to give to it.

As I wake up tomorrow, I shall not ask God for the key to the strong room of the Central Bank. My prayer will be that He keeps using me to do good.

See you next week. 

WHAT KIND OF GOD DO NIGERIANS WORSHIP?

Have you heard about 'payola'? Payola is the term used for money collected under the table by 'On Air Personalities' in broadcasting stations in order that certain recorded music is broadcast more times than normal. In many countries, payola is a crime. In Nigeria, it now appears to be a crime if you are a poor budding artiste and you come to a station to promote your music without bringing payola. The thing has taken root so badly that I hear that a lot of guys and girls now look for jobs in radio stations not because of the salary but the expected payola.

Have you tried to get into an office to see a big man in Nigeria lately? Stoneface at the gate will bark at you, 'Oga no dey!' Quietly pass a few naira notes in his direction and Stoneface will suddenly become Smilingface! Quickly, he would remember, 'E be like say Oga don come back. I think, Oga dey!'

Do you think there is any group of people anywhere in the world who talk about God more than Nigerians? Ask any Nigerian whether he might go to work the following day and he starts his long reply with 'by the grace of God'. Ask him about the club meeting you scheduled for Wednesday, and he would reply, 'God willing, I will be there' Check out our names: Onyekachukwu, Chukwudi, Chukwuemeka, Oluwadare, Oluwatosin, Enobong, Imaobong, Abdullah, Wosilatu, Osaze, Idahosa, etc. Even our once first lady could not help but exclaim, 'Chai, there is God o!' and people who do not understand the Nigerian mentality want to make fun of her. Na grammar we go chop? Tell me, how many of those people who made fun of our first lady have had the patience to stand behind a man who had no shoes and push him on to become the President of the biggest black nation on earth? Tell me that it is not God at work.    

Have you wondered why for a group of people who talk so much about God, there is little God in how we deal with each other and how we run our country? Every chance we get, we steal the nation dry. Have you given any thought to what will happen if ten million naira in cash was placed before an average Nigerian, and he was asked to choose between the ten million and heaven? I can bet you that even though the guy's name might be Godwin, he would not hesitate in grabbing the money. And he would justify his choice! Godwin will tell you that it was God that sent him the money … after all God wins in heaven and money wins on earth. Is the money not proof that there is God o?! At the back of Godwin's mind is the fact that he can have as much fun as he wants with his ten million naira and still have enough change to bribe the gateman in heaven, especially if the gateman is a Nigerian. By the way, have you heard of a rich pastor in Nigeria going to the home of a dying poor man to pray that his soul be accepted into heaven?

I was born into the Catholic Church, and I can see how people are fleeing the church. What does the average reverend father in the Catholic Church own? His white cassock, a few books and his weather-beaten old Volkswagen Beetle… and he thinks he can inspire people to attend church? Let the reverend father take a little time off his message of a heaven in the skies and attend a 'real' church on a Sunday. He will see an all-marble edifice with chilled air-conditioning. He will see a pastor with swagger, crisp jerry curled hair, gold cuff links, a Rolls Royce car parked at the entrance and a glittering Range Rover as escort car. Everywhere he looks, he will see the bevy of beautiful women with three quarters of their bosoms in full display and constantly reminding Pastor that the real heaven is popping out of their braziers, here and now and not in the skies.

Nigerians cannot wait for a heaven in the skies or wherever else. We want our heaven here and now so we can rollick and frolic in it. We want to go to church where on New Year's Day, our pastor, in the most glittering designer suit money can buy assures us that God has told him that this is the year that every member of the church will be handed the key to the Central Bank and we all shout 'Alleluia!' and dance like mad. It does not matter that Pastor said something similar last New Year's Day and the one before. This is the same guy who warns you that only God can protect your life but goes around with five hefty bodyguards. Who argues with a man who owns a glittering Rolls Royce car and has first class tickets to every enchanting city in the world?

In Nigeria, we have been well taught that a God who cannot make you rich is no God at all and the time you spend worshiping Him is wasted time. Same goes for a God who cannot help you rig elections. That is why our armed robbers go to church and pray before they set out to steal and kill.

Just think about it: the man who was supposed to protect our money at the Central Bank is now in detention and the man who was supposed to catch the thieves stealing our money is also in detention. Oh Nigeria!

I beg you, who in Nigeria really wants to wait for a God in heaven?

See you next week.

 

IS MALAMI TRULY GONE?

On December 6, 2017, a Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Buba, stepped into his court room in Ikoyi, Lagos. His court room was full to the brim. Justice Buba was scheduled to deliver an important judgment in a matter that was important to the Nigerian creative industry.

Justice Buba did not deliver the judgment. A visibly angry Buba announced that the evening before, he had received a petition against him from a party in the case, obviously trying to intimidate him. He announced that 'come rain, come sunshine' he would deliver the judgment on December 14. 

Lo and behold, on December 14, Justice Ibrahim Buba still did not deliver the judgment. He said that the case file had been taken from him to Abuja and he had no choice but to adjourn the matter till further notice!

The key question Justice Buba was scheduled to answer in his judgment was this: Under Nigerian law, was the syndicate, Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN) truly an approved collecting society and authorized to collect money on behalf of innocent Nigerian musicians? Somebody did not want that question answered, hence the muscling of Justice Ibrahim Buba.

You may wonder why this is important. The group MCSN, and six of MCSN's officials were facing seven different criminal cases before different judges of the Federal High Court. Each of the cases was filed by the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), an agency of the Federal Government.

How did this bizarre tale take this crazy turn? Early in 2017, the Attorney-General of the Federation & Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, in a strange letter, directed the NCC to approve MCSN as a collecting society to collect copyright royalties for the Nigerian music industry. At the NCC, they were mystified by what Mr. Malami, a lawyer, was asking them to do. The NCC replied to Mr. Malami giving him several reasons why what he was asking the commission to do was dangerous and unlawful.

The NCC objections did not deter the AGF. In a strongly worded letter dated 22nd March 2017, Mr. Malami ordered the NCC, despite the strong protestations, not only to immediately license MCSN, but to withdraw every case filed by the commission against MCSN including the seven criminal cases at the Federal High Court before Justice Mojisola Olateregun Ishola, Justice Babatunde Kwewumi and Justice Abdulazeez Anka.

Any 'baby lawyer' will tell you that the AGF has the power to file a 'Nolle Prosequi' to stop any case. In this situation, the AGF did not file a 'Nolle'. He ordered the NCC to abruptly withdraw the cases, referring to the powers he said he had under Section 50 of the Copyright Act as it was, to give directives to the NCC. The only problem is that the law in Section 51 expressly vested the power to give directives to the NCC in "the minister charged with the responsibility for culture" and not the AGF.

To protect their jobs, the staff of the NCC had to bow to the weird demands of Mr. Malami even though they knew very well that what they were doing was unlawful. Of course, they began to defend what they know is wrong.

On learning about this strange development, I sought to see the AGF because I was sure that his directives would set the music industry on fire. I am very familiar with the Copyright Act; I served on the committee that drafted the Act as it was. I am familiar with the Copyright Commission; I was twice on the board of the commission. I know the Nigerian music industry from several directions having been an artiste, a producer, President of PMAN and Chairman of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON).

I met with the AGF in his Abuja office on April 6, 2017. After our discussions during which I gave to him a copy of the law and other documents, Mr. Malami said that he did not quite understand the issues but had acted out of persistent pressure from his S.A. (Media), one Salihu Othman Isa. He also told me that he was alarmed at some point with the unending pressure of Isa and that he had asked Isa what his interest was in the matter. I believed Mr. Malami.

To cut a long story short, I asked the AGF what he was going to do about the matter since he had become better informed. He looked at me, eyeball to eyeball, and said, "give me seven days". Seven days passed and nothing happened. Another seven days went by and I called the AGF and there was no answer. I sent him a text and there was no reply. I followed up with an e-mail which received no acknowledgement. It became clear to me that I had been sold a dummy. Mr. Malami all the time knew what he was doing!

At COSON of which I am chairman, we addressed a press conference on the issue. Thereafter, I was repeatedly sent very vile text messages by a very senior aide of Mr. Malami calling me names in gutter language. This was followed by mails threatening me with legal action.

When it became obvious that despite his promise, the AGF would never address the problem, we took the issues to the Federal High Court for a resolution. Justice Ibrahim Buba who was assigned the case was, was faced with intimidation so that he would not deliver judgment in the matter as he deemed fit.

I thought I would never see a day in my fatherland when the rule of law would be so violently and brazenly assaulted. The courts were supposed to be the last refuge of the common man. I was startled by the precedent being set: a judge being arm-twisted so that he does not deliver judgment in a case as he deemed fit. For me, it was crazy!

I demonstrated for days and carried placards in front of the Federal High Court in Lagos and insisted that the case file be brought back to Justice Buba. The case file in Suit No FHC/L/CS/1259/2017 was brought back but by then so much water had passed under the bridge…

Thereafter, I was subjected to unbelievable torture for having the boldness and audacity to insist on the rule of law in my country. I was subjected to unending defamatory statements. The Police, EFCC, DSS, NCC and NFIU were unleashed on me and my colleagues at COSON. One evening, I was abducted by five men bent on driving me to Benin City in the middle of the night and possibly wasting me on the way. The Almighty saved me. COSON bank accounts, my personal bank accounts and my private business accounts were all frozen even though there were just modest sums in the accounts, no penny of which was obtained by any illegal activity. At some point, it was difficult for me to even buy food. The price I have had to pay has been huge but I swore to defend my industry and no great nation has been built by cowards.  

During one of my meetings with Mr. Malami, he informed me that he was motivated by "national interest" and not necessarily the law. I became really scared and said to him that respect for the rule of law is fundamental to the national interest and that no "national interest" can be determined by one man. He was adamant and at that point, I knew that Nigeria was in big trouble and that with the mindset of Malami, the Chief Law Officer of the nation and his oversized power in the Buhari government, our country was lost.

I have since watched Nigeria, the limousine, with Buhari relaxed in the back seat and Malami as the Chief Driver. I have watched the bizarre decisions and policies flowing from the position where one man's interest becomes the national interest. I have followed the Paris Club refund bruhaha and the many 'consultants' owed humongous amounts of money. Tell me that all that is not in the national interest.

Is Malami truly gone? I would not think so until we start untying the many knots tied around the neck of Nigeria. 

See you next week. 

KILLINGS & KILLINGS IN THE NAME OF THE LORD

Hatred has taken over the world. Whether it is in the Middle East, East Africa Nigeria or Ukraine, the slaughtering of innocent people is no longer shocking. It is an everyday thing. It has become normal. 'Unknown' gun men are running riot across Nigeria, killing and maiming at will. Just this week, several members of staff of the American embassy were reportedly murdered in cold blood in Anambra State. Nothing is sacred anymore and no one is off limits.

In the last two weeks, the perennial carnage between the Palestinians and the Israelis exploded once more. On television, we were visited by the gory images of the mayhem caused by the massive Israeli military machine that appears ever ready to rip to shreds Palestinian men, women and children. Some Israelis and hundreds of innocent Palestinians, old women and mere children were slaughtered like cattle in the never-ending war in which they are neither participants nor do they quite understand the reason. Massive buildings crashed down like a pack of cards.

Meanwhile, the people responsible for this massacre and their friends justify this horrific killing field. They explain it with a lot of grammar especially at the United Nations and on world-wide television. Those who have the big guns also own the big loudspeakers and the sophisticated PR specialists. So, they activate their propaganda machinery to dominate the narrative. Nothing is true or false anymore. It is all a matter of how you coin it and spread it. So, they justify the carnage by announcing that they are defending their people! Of course, they have ready support from their friends with the veto power.

It does not matter that the innocent women and children so brazenly murdered are some other person's 'people' and children of God too. We live in a world in which might is right and so the children of the slaughtered old women and the brothers of the murdered children, who probably will never have access to any significant military machine, will eventually turn themselves into suicide bombers and explode themselves on innocent civilians. And the cycle of blood continues...

Every crazy group in the world unleashing death on everyone around them can justify the killing. It is usually based on an 'us against them' mindset of some spiritual, tribal or political leader hungry for control who drums up the immense bitterness fuelled by some ancient bigotry or hatred that eventually turn the young, frustrated and restless into killing machines.

Talk to any members of the vicious Boko Haram group or ISWAP that have unleashed fear and death across Nigeria or the other ethnic separatists that are emerging everywhere in Nigeria and they all have religious or tribal justification for their senseless killing of innocent men and women. Members of the Al Shabab gang who have gunned down many innocent people in East Africa are sure that they are doing God's work. Whether it is Al Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram or even the IRA that kept Northern Ireland in commotion for a long time, they all beat their chests and assert justification for the innocent lives they have taken. Check out their justification and it is based on some skewed religious beliefs or some real or perceived injustice done to their 'people' today or in times gone by.

Listen to Vladmir Putin's diatribe and his justification for the slaughtering of innocent men, women and children in Ukraine. He claims to be protecting ethnic Russians from a Nazi regime committing genocide against them.

Nothing frightens me these days more than the seemingly unstoppable spread of fundamentalist religion. Contrary to popular notion, this terrifying development is not limited to the Islamic faith. All over the world, there are self-styled prophets in religious garments indoctrinating masses of people who they will unleash on the world and who would become cannon fodder in their war to rid the world of those who do not agree with them.

All of these 'men of God' preach love but the love they preach is not love for all children of God but love only for the people who think like them, pray like them or love like them. If you think differently, you are vermin which must be exterminated to create their pure world. They have convinced themselves that they are holy warriors fighting God's battle and that they have the right to kill in the name of God.     

But who are these people supposedly fighting in the name of God and killing the children of God? Who told them that God needs their help? Who informed them that they are more effective than God, the maker and giver of life, who if he chooses can wipe out whole nations in a twinkle of an eye? How can a war be holy in which innocent children of God are killed?

Karl Max said that religion is the opium of the poor. I agree. Take a map of the world and check out the regions where there are fervent religious activities. These are where you will find nations in commotion, in poverty and in decline. Not too long ago, I spent some time in the United States. Sunday mornings, the streets of the major cities are practically abandoned. The churches are empty except for minority groups. Yet, these are the people from whom we inherited our religious beliefs. We have become far more religious than them with very little to show for it.

Please drive on the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway. There are interesting developments on both sides of the road. Apart from a few recent commercial ventures, nearly every significant structure on the road is owned by a religious group of either the Christian or Islamic faith. If the structure is not a worship centre built on acres of choice land, it is a university owned by the same religious groups.

A lot of the children whose parents contributed the tithe and offering with which the universities were built will find out that the universities are not priced for them. I have wondered what would eventually happen to those who study at the universities from Mondays to Fridays and worship at the churches on Sundays. Where are they going to find work? From where will they earn the money to maintain body and soul and pay tithes to the religious establishments so that they can continue to boom?  If you cannot see the looming problem, you are probably one of those who believe that Nigeria played the last World Cup in Qatar and actually won the cup!

Before anyone concludes that I am anti – religion, let me state clearly that I am a Christian and that I go to Church. I however do not believe that every Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist, Ifa Worshiper, or anyone who does not worship the way I do is condemned to hell fire. It is the same way that I do not believe that the people who come from my part of the country are always right and the others are forever wrong. Similarly, I do not believe that when the time comes, it will matter whether you face the east or the west when you worship your God or whether you come from the North or the South or whether you are straight, gay or lesbian.  We are all children of one God.

See you next week.

ONCE AGAIN, WILL VALDMIR PUTIN GO DOWN LIKE SADDAM HUSSEIN?

The nation of Iraq used to be one of the most admired nations in the Middle East. The beautiful nation had developed great infrastructure and there was high standard of education and social welfare for much of its citizens. With huge oil revenue, Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, lived large in palaces and mansions lined with precious stones and metals. Humility disappeared and power got into his head. The gun totting Saddam who was born after the death of his father, began to flex his muscles against anyone and everyone and waged war against the Kurds and Iran.

 

In August 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded the nation of Kuwait, Iraq's smaller southeastern neighbor. Saddam wanted to gain control of Kuwait's significant oil wealth to add to Iraq's. Led by the United States, several nations asked Saddam to withdraw his troops from Kuwait. He refused. America amassed troops in the region in what was nicknamed "Operation Desert Storm" and Saddam boasted that he would show the Americans a "mother of all wars". But when push came to shove, it took the Americans just a few weeks to drive Saddam's soldiers out of Kuwait. However, as the American soldiers approached Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, they stopped, leaving Saddam still in power.

 

Anyone would think that the loquacious Saddam Hussein would learn his lessons and humble himself. He did not. He continued to boast. In 2003, the Americans came back after the 9/11 attack of 2001. In Desert Storm 2. Saddam who used to reside in the most luxurious abodes on earth, was on December 13, 2003, found by U.S. soldiers hiding in a six-to-eight-foot hole in the ground, nine miles outside his hometown of Tikrit. He was. picked up, tried on television, and executed by hanging, like a common criminal. For several years, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and their nation paid a huge price for the oil induced madness of Saddam Hussein.

Has anyone forgotten Muammar Gaddafi, the incredibly glamourous and daring leader of Libya, who was captured in a gutter and killed on October 20, 2011? Gaddafi also tasted oil wealth and became oil drunk and believed he was invincible. At the end of the day, he died in a most humiliating way. Libya was one of the most developed nations in Africa, with significant oil revenue. It has remained unstable since.

There must be something about oil money that drives people crazy. Just look at Nigeria and how people who have fleeced the country of its oil money seem to have gone mad and practically destroyed the country. Everywhere you look, the pain and suffering of the Nigerian people brought about by the unending battle to control Nigeria's oil wealth, stares you in the face.

Please, how does one explain the horror that has gone on in Ukraine? For months, the world begged Russian President, Vladmir Putin, not to invade his smaller neighbour, Ukraine and not to kill innocent Ukrainians who have done nothing to him. Several times, U.S. President, Joe Biden at virtual meetings, pleaded with Putin. French President, Emmanuel Macron had to go to Moscow to beg Putin. German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, also went to Moscow to beg Putin. Hungarian Prime Minister, Victor Orban was also in Moscow and repeatedly, Vladmir Putin, who became an international movie star, showed off his expensively paneled office at the Kremlin on TV as world leaders begged him to show mercy on the poor citizens of Ukraine. He did not just show off his expensive offices, he showed off his heart of stone.

Everything Joe Biden said Putin would do, has come to pass. Putin's lies and subterfuge have played out for the whole world to see. The innocent men, women and children who have been bombed and slaughtered recklessly in Ukraine are just pawns in Putin's game as he seeks to expand his territory and fiefdom.

On February 24, 2022, ignoring all the pleadings from leaders around the world, Putin drunk on Russia's oil wealth, invaded Ukraine with his vast military might: an estimated army of close to 200,000 soldiers and well over 1,000 tanks in what he termed "Special Military Operation".

It is widely believed that with his overwhelming force, Vladmir Putin was sure that his "Special Military Operation" in Ukraine would be over in a matter of days. The multiple pronged attack indicated that Putin's objective was to quickly capture the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, depose Zelensky, Ukraine's democratically elected President and take over the country.

 

Drunk on oil, Putin did not bargain for the fierce resistance of the Ukrainian people who have fought the Russians like wounded lions. He also did not bargain for what looks like the iron clad unity of the West led by Biden who has made sure that Ukraine received sophisticated weapons and financial support to take on the Russians. 

 

Despite their unprecedented shelling and carpet bombing of Kyiv, the Russians failed to take the Ukrainian capital. Their forces reached the outskirts of Kyiv but at the end of March 2022, had to run away in all directions with enormous losses of men and tanks.

 

When the Russians were scattered from Kyiv, they shifted to a slimmer objective in eastern Ukraine, where they achieved some success with ruthless and indiscriminate artillery attack that flattened several Ukrainian towns and villages which they captured.

 

With the acquisition of new and more sophisticated weapons, the Ukrainians, at lightning speed, have captured much of the territory taken by the Russians in Eastern Ukraine and even more. It appears that the Russian military has lost its mettle. All is not well with the troops who appear to be on the run, abandoning their tanks and other equipment. Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner group, Russia's powerful private militia, fighting in Ukraine, is angry. He is openly complaining about the crisis in the Russian military and the thousands of Russian soldiers dying in Ukraine.

Fifteen months down the road, Putin's "Special Military Operation", which he expected to last one week, is nowhere near over and no one can say for certain how the war will end. It is however not arguable that things have not gone the way Putin expected and that he has become frustrated and terribly desperate. It is reported that Putin has resorted to directly giving instructions to his generals in the field as many thousands of Russian soldiers are slaughtered in the war. The desperation became obvious a few months ago when Putin announced the mobilization of 300,000 military reservists to join the war in Ukraine and threatened to deploy nuclear weapons in the war, a move that will destroy the world as we know it. 

The result? Thousands of Russian men of fighting age rushed out of Russia. They don't want to fight in a war they don't understand.

I thought Vladmir Putin was a strategic thinker, with a good understanding of history. Once again, oil money has got a world leader terribly drunk. The once admired Vladmir Putin can no longer go where he chooses as he has been declared a war criminal, subject to arrest anywhere he is picked up.

At the end of the day, just like Saddam Hussein, just like Muammar Gaddafi, just like Osama Bin Ladin, just like ISIS leader, Abu Bakir al-Baghdadi, Putin's dream will not become reality. Vladmir Putin will never be King of the world. He has cooked for the world and the food has got burnt in the oven. Unfortunately, the ordinary people of Russia will pay a huge price for the misadventure of their oil drunk leader.

As the "Special Military Operation" in Ukraine unravels, the question must be asked: Will Vladmir Putin go down like Saddam Hussein?

 

See you next week.