HOW PMAN CHANGED MY LIFE

THE UNWRITTEN BOOK OF THE NIGERIAN RECORDING INDUSTRY AND THE TALENTS THAT PROPELLED IT – (4)

THE UNWRITTEN BOOK OF THE NIGERIAN RECORDING INDUSTRY AND THE TALENTS THAT PROPELLED IT – (4)

The vibrant activities and good profit in the Nigerian recording industry in the first half of the 1970s resulted in substantial local and foreign investments in the second half of the 70s and early 80s.

Before these new investments, professional recording facilities were limited to the three studios in Lagos. The first was the EMI 8 track studio on Wharf Road Apapa set up with EMI technology, a smaller version of the set up at the EMI Abbey Road Studio in North London where the Beatles recorded their big hits. The engineering team was led by Emma Odenusi. The second was the Philips 2 track studio situated at Ijora Causeway in Ijora which was driven by Philips machines and headed by Inyang Henshaw who was a successful Highlife artiste in his own right. The third was the Decca 8 track studio at Lawani Street in Abule Oja, Yaba set up with 3M technology. The lead engineer, Emma Akpabio, had a team that included L.A.K. Adeniran, John Malife and Martin Ikebuaku.

Manufacturing of black vinyl records took place primarily at the Phillips factory at Ojota and that of Record Manufacturers Nigeria Ltd (RMNL), at the same premises as the EMI Studio in Apapa. People came from all over West Africa to make use of these facilities.

Because of the heightened activities in the industry, there were several rapid developments. Phillips which had been acquired by Phonogram, bought from Ibadan based businessman, Bayo Akinnola, the 16 track ARC studio on Alhaja Kofoworla Street in Ikeja. The studio was originally set up by world renowned drummer, Ginger Baker during his tour of Nigeria. The engineering team was led by Demola Odebiyi assisted by Raymond Njoku. The company now known as Phonogram expanded and moved its manufacturing facilities from Ojota to Satellite Town in Lagos. The manufacturing facility was later taken over by the foreign owned NIRA Sounds which also turned it into a CD plant.

Apala music maestro, Haruna Ishola set up the 24-track Phonodisk studio with MCI technology and a manufacturing facility at Ijebu Igbo and a major rehearsal facility on Ikorodu Road in Lagos.

One of the foremost indigenous players in the industry, Chief G.A.D. Tabansi set up a 24-track Tabansi Studio and a manufacturing facility in Onitsha and another manufacturing facility on Oregun Road in Ikeja.

Rogers All Stars, fresh from its huge success with Ikenga Superstars and Prince Nico Mbarga, set up a top class 24-track studio in Awka Anambra State with engineering talent like John Malife, formerly of Decca, manning the console.

Shanu Olu Trading Company, the frontline distributor for Decca West Africa, also set up its own 24-track studio and manufacturing plant in Ijebu Ode.

Record Manufacturers of Nigeria Ltd (RMNL) expanded its operations and moved its facilities from Apapa to a more modern and spacious location in Ogba near Ikeja.

Simeon Anochie of Anodisc Records, began arrangements to set up state of the art recording and manufacturing facilities at Ogbor Hill in Aba.

The Afrodisia Studio in Abule Oja took delivery of a brand-new Neve console and 24-track Studer recorder to replace its 3M equipment. This new set of equipment was some of the most expensive in the world.

EMI moved from Apapa to Ikeja and set up two studios at its new location on Oregun Road. Studio 'A' was a fully automated 24 track facility driven by MCI technology. Studio 'B' had the cherished EMI 8 track console which had hosted many great recordings including Fela's Shakara and Paul McCartney's "Band on the Run". The new EMI studios which had an engineering team led by Monday Oki also had Bayo Aro.

Olumo Records boldly gave birth to Recordisc in the Iju area of Lagos with another 24-track studio based on Neve technology and a record manufacturing plant. The engineering team at the studio was led by Raymond Njoku who used to work with Demola Odebiyi at Arc Studio.

CBS Records which previously had its repertoire distributed in Nigeria by EMI, set up offices at Allen Avenue in Ikeja headed by Keji Okunowo who had previously managed A&R and Public Relations operations at Phonogram. The offices eventually moved to Aromire Avenue and later to Adeniyi Jones Avenue, all in Ikeja.

Apart from the above investments, there were countless smaller investments in the industry with many millions sunk in with the cumulative potentials to provide thousands of jobs.

As proof of the wisdom in the several millions of Naira invested in the industry, a new string of hit records with substantially improved audio quality, followed. Haruna Ishola's Phonodisk Studio opened the floodgates with the sleek recording of the young and very charismatic law student of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Kris Okotie. The album, "I Need Someone" was produced by Odion Iruoje. The Odion Iruoje magic obviously was still at work. Odion had left EMI and made a successful recording at Decca with Cameroonian superstar, Manu Debango called "Home Made". The success of Kris Okotie's "I Need Someone" was a defining moment for the industry. Odion once again had in session his old partners from BLO, but this time the 'O' was a massively creative keyboard player, Lemmy 'Otu' Jackson.

Another development was the arrival of a deluge of Cameroonian instrumentalists that flooded Nigeria, apparently to exploit the fruits of the vibrant investments in the industry. While Kris Okotie released 'Just for You', another successful album at Phonodisk, the attempt by Phonodisk to achieve the same success with Gbubemi Amas, whose album, "Grill" was massively promoted, was unrewarded.

With the opening of the EMI Oregun Road studios in 1981, activities shifted from Phonodisk to EMI. In a great example of half-truth advertising, the EMI studio was advertised as a 32-track facility. While in theory the 24 track MCI recorder could be linked to another 8-track recorder in the studio resulting in 32-track operation, the studio was basically a 24-track set up running on 2 inch tapes.. Say what you might, the advertising worked and all roads led to EMI. The opening of the studio also marked the second coming of Odion Iruoje to EMI. At 23 years old, this author who had previously done some production work with Odion Iruoje at Decca, on the recommendation of Iruoje,.was engaged at EMI as part of the production and A&R team,

Odion came back to EMI with the undisputed hottest act of the time, Kris Okotie and quickly set about recording a new album. Simultaneously, Sonny Okosun was in the studio, not as a performer, but as a producer of a brand new female singer that people had seen on TV before, reading the news. Her name - Onyeka Onwenu! The author was also in the studio at the same time, both as producer and performer, on another album project. Onyeka Onwenu's "Endless Life", Tony Okoroji's "Juliana" and Kris Okotie's "Show Me Your Backside" were released almost simultaneously and all went into the charts. Shortly after, Sonny Okosun's "Mother & Child", Dizzy K. Falola's "Excuse Me Baby" among other recordings done at the Oregun studio were released and EMI was riding high!

Down the street on Oregun Road was the Lagos Headquarters of Tabansi Records which appeared to have caught the bug from EMI. Tabansi's response to the noise from EMI was profound. First, was the release of "Kill Me With Love" by Jide Obi who was incidentally a colleague of Kris Okotie at the University of Nigeria. The second was Bunny Mack's "My Sweety, My Sugar". The third was the release of "Lover Boy" by Felix Lebarty who had played guitar on the successful recordings of both Kris Okotie and Dizzy K. Falola. The public response to "Ngozi", a song from Felx Lebarty's album "Lover Boy" was phenomenal. A lot of activities were also going on at other recording companies and labels throughout the country.

Watch out as the tale of 'the Unwritten Book of the Nigerian Recording Industry and the Talents that Propelled it' continues.

See you next week.

THE UNWRITTEN BOOK OF THE NIGERIAN RECORDING INDUSTRY AND THE TALENTS THAT PROPELLED IT – (2)

Sir Victor Uwaifo was one of the major acts whose influence before the Nigerian civil war transcended the war. His monster hit "Joromi" released on the Philips label just before the Nigerian political crisis flared up in 1966, remained a dominant force as the war ended in 1970. The "Guitar Boy" of the Sweet Banana fame went on to score significantly with his Ekassa, Titibiti and Sasakosa series.

About 1971, the post war Nigerian recording industry began to gain tremendous strength. Sonny Okosun, who had operated under the radar for a while in the showbiz circle, used the period around 1972 to positively announce himself as a major act at EMI Nigeria. Okosun had performed in Benin City for a while as a second guitarist in Victor Uwaifo's Melody Maestroes and then experimented in Enugu with bands like "The Postmen" and "Paperback Limited". His 7" single, "Help" which had as its flip side another great song, "Don't Cry" recorded at the EMI Wharf Road Studio in Apapa, was a major hit. Both songs had the immensely gifted singer, Perry Ernest Okocha on the vocals.

In 1972, a Briton named Peter Bond, touched down in Nigeria as Managing Director of Polygram which had acquired Philips. Bond appeared to take a big liking to Perry Earnest who sought a solo career at Polygram. At this point, the dashing Keji Okunowo who later became CEO of CBS and Sony Music Nigeria was cutting her teeth in the music industry as Public Relations Manager at Polygram, operating from Polygram's Warehouse Road, Apapa head office.

With Perry Ernest gone, Sonny Okosun decided to grab the bull by the horn. He took over the mic and the lead singing in his band. Okosun added a big horn section to the band which section was led by trombonist, Fred Fisher who used to lead a band called the Granadians, resident at Granada Hotel at the Ojuelegba junction of Surulere. Okosun also brought in the locomotive drum sounds of Mosco Egbe, the keyboard wizardry of Jonny Woode Olimah , the guitar riffs of Spark Abiloye, the thumping bass of Ehimme Ottey and the group, Ozzidi took off like a bomb! To top up the attraction, a sexy group of female back-up singers and dancers like Claudia Pepple, Floxxy B, Margaret Akpan and Julie King became part of the group and Ozzidi was unassailable on stage! The rhythm section of Ozzidi was the core of the group that became known as SJOB Movement which subsequently with Prince Bola Agba, who passed on recently, became known as Jambos Express and released a significantly successful song called "Mother Africa". 

With Ozzidi, Sonny Okosun became a big activist and major voice in the anti-apartheid and African liberation movements. On the wings of Ozzidi, Okosun toured the African continent several times and made such great recordings as "Papa's Land", "Fire in Soweto", "Mother & Child", "African Soldier", "Which Way Nigeria?" etc. and became the greatest and longest hit maker at EMI Nigeria managed by chartered accountant, Bode Akinyemi. What Sonny Okosun did was what had been expected of either Jonnie Haastrup, whose band "Monomono" had a massive hit on EMI titled, "Give the Beggar a Chance" or Segun Bucknor, whose "Soul Assembly" had experimented with some intriguing African rhythms in the evergreen song, "Poor Man no Get Brother''. There were indeed suggestions from some quarters that what we know today as Afro Beat was created by Segun Bucknor but such suggestions evaporated because of Fela's towering personality and his undisputed dominance of the music genre.

At about the same period, three urbane looking young men in Lagos, Beckley Ike Jones, Laolu Akintobi and Mike Odumosu broke into the scene with a three-piece band called BLO which had an unbelievable sound as big as a huge orchestra. The name, BLO was coined from the first letters of the names of the guitarist, Beckley Ike Jones, the drummer, Laolu Akintobi and the first letter of the surname of the bass player, Mike Odumosu. From BLO's first album, "CHAPTER ONE" released by EMI, to "PHASE II", "STEP 3" and "PHASE IV", all of which came out on Decca's Afrodisia label, BLO never quite achieved its potential in record sales but was red hot on stage and the girls simply went crazy whenever BLO came to town for a show.

Music fans thronged whatever venues BLO played, to listen to the guitar solos of Beckley Jones on his famous Fender Stratocaster guitar, the singing bass lines of Mike Odumosu and the magical drum rolls of Laolu Akins and to experience the big sounds of their flashy Orange loudspeakers and amplifiers provided by Decca. The fact that only three guys produced such great sound was part of the great legend of BLO. The group was also very professionally packaged by their manager and publicist, Tony Amadi, one of Nigeria's best Entertainment journalists and publishers of all times. There was no argument that members of BLO were the best instrumentalists around and almost every recording artiste craved for some bars of the BLO sound in their recordings. The guys naturally became the most expensive session musicians in Nigeria. When Mike Odumosu moved on to join the trans-national group, "Osibisa", Biddy Wright 'Oladele' took over as the 'O' in BLO. In later years, the 'O' in BLO was the incredibly talented keyboard player, Lemmy 'Otu' Jackson who also became one of Nigeria's most successful producers responsible for hit songs from the likes of Oby Onyioha, Christy Essien Igbokwe and Onyeka Onwenu.

If EMI was the Mecca of pop artistes in Nigeria, Odion Iruoje was the Chief Imam. The fast talking and brash Producer and Artiste & Repertoire Manager at EMI, who neither had any formal training or apprenticeship in music, became one of the most powerful people in the Nigerian music industry.  Iruoje scored a major hit with the band, "Ofege" featuring high school students from St Gregory's College, Lagos. He simply gave fillip to the sweet schoolboy voice of lead singer, Melvin Noks Ukachi by throwing in the famed guitars of Beckley Jones to accompany the recordings of Ofege and all the kids in the streets were singing, "Wizzy Ilabo" and "Ofege is our name"!

As the mid-seventies strolled by, with the Udoji awards in the pockets of the Nigerian consumer, EMI  was in business  with such hit songs as "Still Searching" by Bongos Ikwue and the Groovies; "Beautiful Woman" by "Cloud 7" led by singer, Cliff David, "She's My Choice" by "Sweet Breeze" fronted by Dallas King Anyanwu as lead singer; Basil Akalonu (Bazy Cole), who will be laid to rest in a fortnight, as drummer; Jackie Moore Anyaorah, who passed on in New Jersey a few years ago, as lead guitarist and Vincent Iketuonye as Bassist. There was also "Slim Fit Maggi" by Semi Colon led by Lasbrey Ojukwu and a couple of mild hits from Warri based Tony Grey with his Ozzimba. Later on, Odion Iruoje used the back-up sound of BLO in addition to the Cameroonian, George Achini on bass guitar, to make Kris Okotie's "I Need Someone" on Haruna Ishola's Phonodisc label, one of the most successful records in Nigerian history.

While EMI was not known for Highlife, it did extremely well with the music of Peacocks International Band of Owerri led by guitarist, Raphael Amarebem and singer, Dan Orji which produced hit songs like "Sambola Mama" and "Eddy Quansa" which will be remembered by many as the iconic signature tune of the NTA sitcom, "Masquerade". EMI also sold hundreds of thousands of copies of the music of Apala legend, Ayinla Omowura. EMI was also selling a lot of reggae music by artistes like Jimmy Cliff, Jonny Nash, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Eric Donaldson, etc and scored positively with The Guyanese singer and producer, Eddy Grant, who had established a special relationship with the company.

Next week, we will examine the Juju music explosion at Decca West Africa, the emergence of Ayinde Barrister with Fuji music as a serious popular music form, the arrival of the Highlife guitar bands of Oriental Brothers and Oliver De Coque and the Ikwokirikwo craze fired by Ikenga Super Stars of Africa; the coming of the various locally owned labels, etc. Stay tuned. It will be interesting.

See you next week. 

BREAD & OMELETS FROM “NO MUSIC DAY”

Yesterday, September 1, was "No Music Day". As has become traditional, I had to do a live broadcast on the state of the music industry to mark the day.  I realize that many are very busy and would have missed the broadcast. Today, in Saturday Breakfast, I serve some bread & omelets from the broadcast:

Why is September 1 called "No Music Day"?

Exactly 14 years ago, on September 1, 2009, practitioners in the entire Nigerian creative family massed in front of the National Theatre in Lagos and for days, refused to eat or drink and demanded that the over 400 licensed broadcast stations in the country, who use music as the key raw material for their operations, should not broadcast music for a significant period of that day. So began what we have celebrated every year since, as "No Music Day".  

The mass hunger strike was a result of our frustration with the devastating level of intellectual property theft which is a malignant symptom of what has become a general national malady. Everywhere around us, people are trying to reap where they did not sow and comfortably stealing what does not belong to them and this has manifested in endemic corruption that threatens to ruin our nation.

Every year, in marking "No Music Day", our key objective has been to engage the Nigerian people and the various governments on the potential contributions of Nigerian creativity to the development of the Nigerian nation and the necessity to fully deploy the substantial comparative advantage which our nation possesses in this area so as to provide hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs to the teeming masses of Nigerian youth who parade the streets of our country almost hopelessly and which hopelessness invariably attracts them to become laborers in the devil's workshop.     

The truth is that nothing is wrong with our genes. While our politicians and so called leaders, with their take-everything and give-nothing-in-return mentality, have left millions of Nigerians with devastating hunger, joblessness and unknown gunmen everywhere, several young Nigerians are flexing their muscles in different parts of the world and soaring in diverse fields.

Asake, Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage, Flavour and many more are taking what is today called Afro Beat to the world and filling huge venues with rapturous fans paying pounds and dollars to see them. Bukayo Saka, the Arsenal player who now wears the shirt of the English national football team, is born of Nigerian parents. Victor Osimhen who is the top scorer in the very competitive Italian Football League is a full-blooded Nigerian. Taiwo Awoniyi who amazingly just scored in 7 consecutive premiership games for Nottingham Forest is a Nigerian. Tobi Amusan who holds the World Record in 100 meters Hurdles is a Nigerian. Anthony Joshua, the famous boxer, has Nigerian genes. The internationally celebrated writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian.

The fact is that none of the Nigerians mentioned here became successful as a result of any contribution or assistance of the Nigerian government or any of our numerous government agencies continuously expending billions of naira of public funds. Every Nigerian star across the world who has made it has made it on his or her own.

The tragedy of our development or the lack of it, is that when the government or any of its agencies touches any great idea, that idea is sentenced to failure. The reason is simple: The average Nigerian public official is not programmed to work for the public good. His focus is to corrupt any good idea and look for how to deploy the idea to grab whatever he can grab for himself, his family and friends.

COSON is a shining example of how public officials behave towards good ideas in Nigeria. Through a lot of toil and hard work, we built COSON into the biggest and most successful copyright collective management organization in Nigeria's history and one of the most respected in Africa, an organization admired across the world. COSON distributed hundreds of millions of Naira every year to musicians across Nigeria, some of them famous and a lot of them in the growth period of their careers. We built the magnificent COSON House in Ikeja without borrowing any money and without any government help whatsoever.

Lo and behold, our success became our albatross as every group you can imagine began to conspire to hijack COSON, take over the organization, and in the typical Nigerian fashion, suck it and milk it dry. We said no and the government agency we campaigned vigorously to be set up, an agency that was supposed to protect us, joined our adversaries, deployed powers they do not have under the law and took every imaginable step to annihilate us. Some officials of the government devised 'divide and rule' tactics to infiltrate our leadership, some planning to retire into COSON when they leave government. In all of these, they spared no thought for the enormous harm they were doing to thousands of musicians in Nigeria and the billions of naira they have cost the musicians they are supposed to be in office to lift up. Sadly, they never cared that they are choking us and would not let us breath. At the end of the day, it has become clear that the musicians would have done much better without this government agency.

What has happened to COSON has happened to several other organizations and individuals in Nigeria faced with officials of government who see their role not as agents of growth in position to lift up institutions and individuals. These officials are in every sense self-centered agents set to pull down good institutions, good ideas and good individuals and feast on their carcass.  

Once again, I make this broadcast from COSON House in Ikeja which is property that belongs 100% to the creative people of Nigeria and which shows what we can do when we work together. I wish to state that I am proud of the members of COSON, everywhere in Nigeria, our Board members, and the indefatigable Management team at COSON. COSON has continued to thrive because we have not allowed anyone to tear us apart which underlines the truism in the words, "United we stand, divided we fall".

On this "No Music Day", I restate the determination of COSON to remain a transparent and law -abiding agent of strength, unity, progress and growth for the music industry in Nigeria with the determination to shield the Nigerian music industry from scammers and marauders who work day and night to turn collective management of copyright into their personal cash cow and naira gushing ATM.

Yes, on this "No Music Day 2023", I wish to assure the thousands of members of COSON across the country, that the season of the locust is practically over and that every step is being taken to make sure that the music begins to pay again without delay.

On this "No Music Day", I call on the  true creatives of Nigeria to borrow a leaf from COSON, bind together and work together for the good of all and to resist those who work day and night to divide us so that they can feast on that division. Nigerian musicians must continue to conquer territories and soar in every part of the world. Nigerian movies must be dominant everywhere we go. Nigerian fashion must be the toast of people in every part of the world. Nigerian sportsmen must conquer in every field, on every track, every court and every ring. Nigerian content must be the reference point on every platform.

We very much recognize the deep despair in the land, the hunger that threatens the life of millions of Nigerians, the insecurity that has snatched the lives of so many of our countrymen and the anguish under which many Nigerians wake up in the morning and go to bed at night. Nigerian creatives cannot afford to give up. We must work hard together for the unity of our country and the progress of our nation. We must contribute to making Nigeria a nation in which people do not brazenly reap where they did not sow and comfortably steal what does not belong to them and amass wealth which they have not earned.

We cannot afford to give up as a nation despite the immense disappointments we have faced. All of Nigeria's creative people must today fully engage in preventing Nigeria from becoming a wasted land destroyed by hatred and suspicion and the narrow tribal ambitions of a hand-full of people.

On this "No Music Day 2023", I pray for all Nigerians who are going through trials, tribulations and hardship and beg the Almighty to please meet their needs. God bless the Nigerian Creative Industry and God bless the great people of Nigeria.

See you next week.

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.