Pause to Ponder: Are extra lessons Necessary for School Children?

I came across this topic on Nairaland and it kept me glued to my computer screen reading the readers opinions on the subject.  After going through some of the posts, it occured to me is we had ever paused to ponder whether indeed extra lessons for school children are indeed necessary.  I look at it from my own child's  perspectives.  The school closes 1pm, he stayed back for lessons organised by the school authorities till 3pm, then his class teacher charges me extra amount for giving him extra coaching again, and when he get home, I got another teacher waiting 3 times in a week. So, it got me thinking whether indeed all those are really necessary?

Come to think of it, here in Abuja, we pay a lot to send this children to schools as schooling here are highly expensive. Now, it got me thinking again, with such high amount of money, why the need of paying more money for extra coaching.

There was a time I shun extra coaching by his class teacher, I remember that at the end of that term, his performance reduced considerably, and I still believed it was deliberate sabotage to make me realise the ward really need extra coaching.

There was a time I also noticed that my son doesnt like going to school, and I discovered the hour they spend at school is long.  School children go in the morning and come back as late as 5pm. In our days we closes by 1pm and straight we go back home, then we go back to school in the evening for games at our own volition.
The present ongoing are however the fault of some of nowadays parents. They prefer to leave their child in the hands of their teacher to hold them for them like a nanny till when they will close in the office, and from then on, the school authorities invented the extra school lessons to keep them at bay since they see most of the parents prefer to have their ward stay back in school till evening, and as if that was not enough, the respective class teacher also creates their own private lessons.

In conclusion, so, unless your ward are short in certain areas of subject, they dont need extra coaching.  Children needs rest, they need to play as playing is part of learning. They needs to inter mingle with other children. If you indeed needs to occupy them, let it be on some other areas of learning like music, religions, games, sports etc. Pause and ponder over this.

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What had become of Abuja Federal Housing Scheme Policy

I first moved to the city of Abuja in 2002. My first impressions when I secured a job back then was that it would be easy to get an accommodation.  My contact there keep assuring me how difficult it was then to get an accommodation and promised me that on my arrival, I would see things for myself.  Not only was there scarcity of accommodation, they were damn expensive. I remembered I rented a make shift self contained room for 50k in 2002 and I was forced to pay for 2 years.

But the Federal Capital put in place an housing scheme back then that will make accommodation available to all those working in the city. The policy was for the Federal Housing Authority to parner with private developers to build houses in a form of estates and sell same to the residents through NHF (National Housing Fund) mortgages institutions.  The idea was that all employers are to register their employees in one of the mortgages institutions with a mandatory contributions, and thereafter this will allow employees to acquire one of these houses paying upfront 15% of the total cost of the houses and paid the rest in 30 years through the mortgages institutions. What a laudable policy that would have sweep under the carpet the problem of accommodation in Abuja.

The programme took off well, the developers started building the houses in a form of estates. Such Developers like Prince and Princeses, Efab Properties, Sunnyvale, Suncity, Kabusa, Citec etc were into the project and they made available some of these estates.  But as times goes on, they started derailing. First by selling the available houses to those who are ready to make payment immediately or in few installments instead of 15 percent initial payment and the rest in 30 years through the mortgage institutions.  Then as time goes by, they started selling at exhorbitant prices, then to those who pay upfront even when the building isnt ready and then selling uncompleted houses, then selling developed lands at exhorbitant prices and finally selling undeveloped lands at staggering prices.  All these while, the FCDA nor the FHA see nothing in what these Developers are doing.  It is that bad that at the moment, once a land is sold to you, they will give you an allocation letter that you bought a house to the tune of say about 22 Million, whereas the true position of things was that, you bought a land for around 7 Million naira. This is fraud, and it speak bad of good and lofty government ideas.

I had always said this that, what the people contributed to Government failures are far too much than what government are going to take the blame.  Most times, when Government come with a laudable effort in a form of policy, we Nigerians always find a way around it to defeat the real purpose it was first put in place.

Ever pause to ponder that though the people are the government, no wonder, those put in charge by the people are doing exactly what the people wants. What a shame!!!

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When I had to pay 8,500 for 6 month Statement of Account

The CBN needs to do a lot more in regulating our banks.  There are a lot of hidden charges that had become rampant.  For instance if you are an habitual ATM users like me, you will discover that Banks now has two balances, one is ledger balance and the other is available balance. Most times if a lot of money pass through your account, your ledger balance is higher than your available balance, and at the end of the month, like my bank does, the differences between the ledger balance and the available balance disappear with no sms informing you that your account is debited.  The only sms I always receive is COT and VAT for such ledger balance disappearance.

That is just by the way.  I needed my 6 month statement of Account from my bank (Name Withheld) . When I applied as I used to do, this time around, they did not honour my request telling me the balance in my account wont accommodate the charges for the printing of the statement of the Account.  It was then dawn on me that all along, they had been debiting me each time I ask for statement of Account.  But on this particular occasion, the fact that my account wasnt funded made me know.  When I inquired how come I am going to pay 8,500 for just printing of statement of Account, I was made to understand that, there are lots of transactions in my account and that each page cost 250 naira only.  A quick mathematics gives me the idea that for 6 months statement of account, I was able to amassed 34 pages.  It then further dawn on me that withdrawing from the ATM which in some occasions might be 5 times in a day accounted for the heavy transactions which I am paying dearly for now.

Isnt it the practice of Banks that they should be sending customers their Statement of Accounts every month? Had they been sending it to me, would I not just compile the backlog of 6 months and make use of it?  I dont seem to get it.  Not sending the statement of Account is actually a deliberate action so that when a customer needs one, they can get more revenue from the transactions.

Then, how come printing just statement attracts 250 Naira? Why not a one time payment, why must it be 250 naira per sheet?  Are they discouraging the use of ATM, using of current account?  I am lost.

The Central Bank of Nigeria should do something.  There are lots of Nigerians who are not learned enough to be conversant with the corny practice of these Banks.

All said and done, ever paused to ponder whether I actually paid that sum to obtain the Statement of Account? Your guess is as good as mine!! I did exactly as what you can do in this situation, yes, just as you would do.

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The Winners and Losers of Removal of Petroleum Subsidy Protests

My initial position as regards the removal of the Petroleum subsidy which drastically put the pump price of fuel to 141.00 per litre had always been expressed on my facebook wall. For avoidance of doubt while I support the removal of subsidy, and that it should be remove, I believed it is not the right time, and if it is going to be removed at all, certain palliatives measure should have been put in place to cushion the effect of the removal of the subsidy.

On the second day the removal of the subsidy was announced, the protest that greeted it was alarming, people of Nigeria believed that government has come out to inflict pain on them and add more to their sufferings.  

I am with the government on this subsidy removal, there is no pain without gain, and from what I gathered, things would be better in no distance future from the proceeds gather from the subsidy.  I am also with the Protest too, though not to revert it to 65 Naira, but to serves as a wake up call to government that people of Nigeria are aware that the proceeds from the subsidy needs to be spend judiciously.

However, unknown to most  protesters, there are quite some people who are benefiting from the protest while there are others losing a great deal from it too. 

On the winners list are the following:

- the opposition. the President's loss is always their gain

- the so called Cabals. They will do anything to revert it back to 65 naira.

- the Nigerian Labour congress, NLC. They promptly call for strike, they will use it to negotiate for transport allowance.

- Government workers, they will still be paid during the period of Strike

- The Journalist, they get more news to publish and smile to the bank. They are actually working while some other jobs are grounded to a halt.

- Some politicians, they are using the protest to prepare themselves for 2015

- Nigerian Artiste. Most of them are siding with the Protesters to gain more support and launder their image

- The Senators, House of Reps. They got jumbo salary and government cant slashed it now because it will be a political suicide, most especially when removal of the subsidy is also a political suicide.

- The Governors. They stand to gain from the subsidy removal. More money for them to steer the affairs of the states.
- The people residing in the villages. They dont own a car, they dont own a generator, they were not subsidize fuel wise before its removal. Life continues for them.
- The GSM Operators. Strike or protests doesnt affect them, infact, they make more profits.

On the losing ends are the following

- Nigerian masses. They bear the brunt of the increase, the strike and wanton destruction in the wake of protests.

- The Traders, the Merchants. They dont have anyone to pay them transport allowance.

- The government, protest is discrediting Nigerian image they represents

-The Traders and self employed, nobody is going to pay them for days lost to Strike action.

- Economy of the nation is suffering as experts had put about N320 Billion naira as being lost to the protest    daily on Nigeria economy.

- The Banks. They will be forced to close down because of the strike.

- The sick and the hospitalised.

The Police. They are suffering the price increase, but cant complain.

- Travellers. All airport closed.
- The Rich.  They pay more to fuel their fleet of cars.
- The President, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Sanusi Lamido Sanisi. The hatred from angry Nigerians is too much.

These are just the little I can think of as at the time of writing this. This is indeed a period to pause and ponder on the pros and cons of this fuel subsidy removal. Pause and ponder about the protest, and pause and ponder on the way forward.

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The funny sights of Fuel Subsidy Removal

It is no more news that the federal government of Nigeria had removed subisidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as Petrol. What is funny about it is the sense of humour of Nigerians as regard the whole scenerrios. Here are some of them in pics as collated from facebook.

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Recycled Politicians and the Blaming game

I remembered vividly when President Goodluck Jonathan was contesting last April election, majority of voters were like, I am voting for Jonathan, am not voting for PDP, because PDP is Nigerian problem. Has anyone paused to pondered that PDP was actually formed in 1999 whereas Nigerian problem has been on over 50 years ago.

I made it bold to say that, we should stop singling out PDP as our problem as indeed the Politicians are our problem.  For instance, most of the Politicians are being recycled, and they are carpet crossing politicians, today they may be in ACN and before you know it, in another political dispensation, they are with PDP.  Mall El-Rufai was indeed a PDP member during Obasanjo regime, today he is dining and wining with CPC and at the same time becoming an emergency anti government crusaders.  Most of the politicians in the newly controlled ACN states in the south west were formerly with PDP, now they have cross carpeted to ACN.

I therefore enjoined most of us to stop blaming PDP as Nigerian problem, the politicians indeed as a whole are our problems.  The youth of this country should bear this in mind, as from experience, these politicians are using this against us, and at slightest opportunity, they also blame the ruling party, just to get noticed, and what do we get in return, the same treatment meted out to us by PDP. Paused, and ponder this.

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When Roger Federer won a record 6th ATP World Tour Final

I was in the comfort of my home watching the finals between Tsonga and Roger Federer.  It was a tense Sunday afternoon as with Federer recent form, I expect him to despatched Tsonga in 2 straight sets.  My expectations was coming to fore when suddenly Federer begin to confirm my worst fear, he began to fumble in the second sets having won the first set in 6-2.  I was under pressure as if if he won, my life depends on it, but the joy of him creating another record of 6 win of ATP world Tour final and winning his 70th career title in his 100th final keeps me under pressure.

So when the second sets got to a tie break, I can watch it anymore, because with the way it is going, I am pretty sure, my heart cant bear to watch him perform miserably anymore, so I switch channel, even though my thought is with the game playing on.  

A mild drama played itself in my household as regard the match.  The moment I switched channel my spouse was watching it in the bedroom, and she keep making side comments as regard the Federer lack lustre performance in the 3rd and final sets.  I had to warn her to keep it to herself because I cant bear to listen nor watch, as I prepared my mind for a loss. Any ardent Federer fan will remembered that the same Tsonga won against Federer at the Wimbledon even though Federer was 2 set up in the match, and the thought that the same scenario is about to play itself made me believed it is all over for Federer to win the 6th record world ATP tour title.

When my spouse came again to make another side comments which suggests Federer performance isnt encouraging, I set up the quarrel between us by switching off the DSTV Receiver and hell was let loose.  That solved my problem as the match was blanked out and I dont have anyone to feed me with the poor performance of Federer, even though my mind wass still on the outcome of the result.

Finally, I summon enough courage to confirm my worst fear a while later to confirm the outcome of the match on the internet, and you can imagine my joy when I saw that it was Federer that won the match. 

Ever pause to ponder what actually is our gain as fans when in actual fact, there is no any monetary satisfaction to be derived despite our support, and we go to the length of going under pressure and having blood pressure. Federer won, it calm my nerves and that is what matters!

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Gone in November!!! Adieu

The incident of 6 years ago today, is still very fresh in my mind. A day hardly passed without thinking about  you. The truth is, the reality that you are gone forever is the pain I get each time I remembered you. May the lord continue to forgive your sins. Rest in perfect peace my son. I missed you very much in my life. Adieu.

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Is GLO BIS COMPLETE Completes?

Yeah, the title was okay.  Glo revolutionise the Blackberry Internet Service popularly referred to as BIS to GLO BIS COMPLETE for 1,400 Nigeria Naira and they were so loud with the advertisement that they keep telling us that you can browse and do all that the full BIS subsprition will do.  This was evident from their advert to the extent that they will say a BIS without a browser is not a BIS.  So, has anyone pause to ponder whether the Glo BIS COMPLETE is really complete? Read along.

I started using Blackberry on the platform of Airtel which was a  24 month contract. At the expiration in August this year, I dediced to give GLO BIS a trial. I go for the full subscription of 3,000 Nigeria Naira per month, until a few weeks later they started having problems on their network.  Having been accustomed to all these Network Operators, I always believed that they were all the same in terms of network, so I still stick with them.  When the network became so bad in the month of October, I vowed not to waste my money on full BIS anymore, so I went for GLO BIS COMPLETE which is 1,400 per month.  On two occasions, there was total blackout on my BIS Network and I was with the believe that, they had started with their network problem again.  This happened to me during Sallah Holidays and through the holiday I was without BIS Network, I resorted to using wifi at home to power my BIS.  The following week after Sallah holiday, the same thing happened, up till this day.  But  days ago, I met someone who was also using GLO BIS COMPLETE, and I discovered that while mine doesnt have BIS network, the other person had.  I was surprised, I had to do a battery pull and it was still the same.  So this morning, I was still thinking about it, and I remember that I had no credit in my GLO line.  I didnt care if I dont have credit in any of my line as long as the other phone has, because I had two phones.  So I reasoned that perhaps, it was because there wasnt credit on my glo line that was the reason I couldnt get BIS network on my blackberry. So I bought credit online, and Bingo!! my BIS network came on.

This Network Operators are really taking us for a ride.  A full month subscription BIS should be working whether you have credit on your line or not. BIS has nothing to do with having credit on your sim, because it isnt pay as you go, it is a one off payment.  I want to believe that, there might be hidden charges apart from the amount charge for this BIS COMPLETE subscription which subscribers are not aware of, otherwise, I dont see the reason why a subscriber must have credit in his or her glo line before your BIS network become operational. Those who are using full GLO BIS should also take note of this discovery, they might be denying them the use of their money too simply because your glo line wasnt recharged.

Pause and Ponder, enough of this rip off. Haba!!!

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Babatunde Omidina (Baba Suwe) Drug Ordeal

On October 12 2011, Babatunde Omidina widely known as Baba Suwe was arrested at Murtala Mohammed International Airport as a suspect for ingesting drugs suspected to be Cocaine by National Drug Law Enfgorcement Agency (NDLEA).  He was detained to enable them investigate as the scanner revealed that there is a substance in his stomach suspected to be drugs.  All eyes and ears are on the incidence since Baba Suwe is a popular Comedian in the Yoruba genre of Nollywood.  However, days drags by, Baba Suwe was still being held because the suspected drugs in his stomach has not been excreted as expected.  Then days turn to weeks, still the NDLEA were unable to make him excretes the suspected drugs in his stomach.  On the 21st day in detention, he was brought to High Court as earlier ordered and he was granted bail on condition that if nothing was found on him at the expiration of an earlier court order which is expected to end in 3 more days. As nothing was found on him albeit after inhuman efforts to make him excretes the drugs, he was left off the hook after 24 days in detention.

One then wondered the lifespan of a wrap drugs ingested in a human stomach before it burst.  One also wondered why after 24 bowel movements, the NDLEA were unable to make Baba Suwe excretes the drugs.  I continue to pause and ponder what it would be like and how it had been like on ordinary citizen who are not as popular as Baba Suwe if this is what is obtainable from someone that is well known.  The NDLEA certainly are a laughing stock to international community and it really speak volumes about the type of equipment they are parading to fight the drug battle.  It continue to make me ponder if such treatment meted to Baba Suwe are obtainable in other countries, and then I continue to ponder still what it will take to nail a suspect at all cost and have me puzzled as to the type of investigations the NDLEA carried out before Baba Suwe arrest and what type of equipment they are parading to nail him despite the fact that a scan reveal something suspected to be drugs is in his stomach.

The DPP of NDLEA however shows the incompetency of the organisation when he claimed the suspected ingested drug is coming down slowly after 24 days and that they still want to keep Baba Suwe a few days more to monitor the suspected drugs, showing inhuman attitude to Baba Suwe plight. The blogger wondered further if it is one of the well known politicians, whether his detention can be as long as that of Baba Suwe.

Having said all this, it is believed generally that there is an iota of truth in every rumour , there indeed must be something in Baba Suwe Stomach as the scan clearly revealed it, and the insinuations that it was African Magic that prevented him to excretes them makes the whole matter very difficult to ponder.

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Congratulations Mr. President

Congatulations Mr. President. 

I just need to let you know that Nigerians voted for your personality,not because you are in PDP, majority of Nigerians voted for you because you are from south south, whom a lot of people believed are minority and whom had never ruled nigeria before.  The North had ruled us more than the West, you are the first from the South South to win an election and rule Nigeria, dont let Nigerians regret it.

Mr President, rule this country in such a way that when you want to leave in 2015, we will all be begging you to stay.  Represent the South South very well so much that Nigerians will realise their mistakes in denying the South South to rule ever since independence.

Mr President Sir, do you know most of your opposition supporters said you are clueless when it comes to affairs of the nation, please prove them wrong.

Goodluck to you in this onerous task ahead. Goodluck to Nigeria!

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When Government efforts on Health are white elephant

The national Health Insurance Scheme introduced by the government of Olusegun Obasanjo was hailed by everyone when it was first introduced. The scheme was introduced as a social security system that guarantees the provision of needed health services to persons on the payment of token contributions at regular intervals. The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is a body established under Act 35 of 1999 by the Federal Government of Nigeria to improve the health of all Nigerians at an affordable cost.

Scorecard emanating from the progress so far about this scheme is not salutary at all.  In the other countries where this scheme is being practiced and where it was copied, the level of progress is very high. In Nigeria, there are various complaints, ranging from the beneficiaries being treated as second rate citizens when it come to administer of health facilities.

In some of the Hospitals being retained for the scheme, we are made to understand that each Hospital are entitled to N550.00 per month per a family, which means an hospital with 2,000 customers will rake in over a million naira per month whether the NHIS patients appear for treatment or not. One would have expected that such gratification would be met with commensurate services by the Hospitals, but reverse was the case.  

For example, beneficiaries of NHIS complaints that patients on NHIS patient are treated differently in most of the hospital albeit shabbily, they said they are made to see different consultants, and given cheap drugs, and in some cases discriminates as regards to Beds in case of Admission, compared to other patients who are are going to pay for their services instantly. 

The Hospitals prefer to deal with the patients who offered to make payment compared to the people on NHIS platform, thereby making NHIS beneficiaries look inferior to their counterpart who offered to make payment.  In most cases, NHIS beneficiaires ended up making payment too, so that they can receive the best medical care. This is indeed sad on our part as a nation.  

Have you paused to ponder that sometimes, we lack the understanding here in Nigeria that Government is doing all it can to better our lots, but sad that a lot of us prefer our old ways of being treated shabbily.

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I Still Hate Politics

Of recent, my facebook status and comments is on Politics, and mostly about the candidacy of the incumbent, President Goodluck E. Jonathan.  Until now, even at the time of writing this, I aint into politics, and would never will, because I cant stand the double dealing, carpet crossing, back stabbing etc, some of these clearly put me off.

I was however pushed into supporting the candidacy of GEJ by my facebook friends who mostly believed General Muhammadu Buhari and Prophet Bakare which they termed (BB) were a better candidate than GEJ.  Each time I logged in to my facebook account, it is one noise or the other about how he is the next best thing. The noise is so deafening that, they invented captioned like, 100 reasons why BB is the answer, why they dont vote Buhari in the past etc.  As a GEJ supporter, I began to run away from such post and chant. Then I decided to fight back, now a lot of people believed I am some kind of card carrying member of PDP.

Let me set the record straight, I have never met Mr President physically, nor do I belong to PDP, but he is my President, and I believed in him. I believed in his candidacy, but I am not his agent or that of PDP.  someone was so pissed off with the way of my strong defence for GEJ that he put it in his Status in capital letter that I am GEJ agent. I would love to, it is an honour, but I aint.

Who doesnt want to be linked with the President, no wonder I am with Dbanj as regard the Interview the President granted him on Silverbird TV. I used to tell people that, if it were to be Buhari that adopted that kind of style, Dbanj will receive lots of applause from the BB supporters. The condemnation was so deafening because most of BB supporters are elites who are online, mostly on facebook, twitter etc. Dbanj should ignore them, they will seize the opportunity if Buhari ask them to come and anchor that kind of programme for him too.

so, pause and ponder, with my recent recalcitrant posture on candidacy of GEJ, does it really look like am into Politics, while in actual fact, I hate politics with a passion.?

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When Domestic helps are Dubious

When i was young, I used to viewed it seriously the act of making someone an househelps. I used to go like, I wouldnt want my child to be one, so why would i used someone else child as one.  My orientations changes later in life when I discovered that they are necessary in one daily life. I agreed to this concepts even though I make sure they are treated best in my entire household.

Experience had shown that when seeking househelps, the agents are dubious, so also are the househelps too. The agents will want to supply to highest bidder, while the househelp themselves will come with just the cloth they are wearing, as if they dont have more than that one.  When they travel for holiday, they hardly come back, they prefer to try a new ground where they will be treated as fresh, and then get a new set of clothes and wages.  All these point to one facts, they are dubious and can never be trusted.  The househelp business is becoming a 419 sort of, all the parties involved are so dubious that it is very advisable to have the underlisted tips in mind.

The other day someone sent me a broadcast message on my blackberry, it goes thus:

1. Get your domestic helps to provide 3 guarantors each. Know these guarantors.

2. Call home several times a day preferably to a landline

3. Get to know your neighbours and try to be on good terms with them. Chances are they may report suspicious activity.

4. Have a close relative over as much as possible. Your sibling or parents is unlikely to harm your child.

5. Do not deliberately extend your hours at work. sitting idle in the office waiting for traffic to subside might not be such a good idea.

6. If you really dont have time to be a parent, then dont be.

7. Teach your child (especially your daughter) the parts of her body that are off limits to anybody except you or a doctor.

8. As early as possible, your child should know your name (not "mummy" or "daddy"), your address, where you work, and your telephone number.

9. Be kind to your domestic helps. whether you like to admit it or not, for some people, these helps do more parenting than parents!

10. Pray for your kids and be vigilant.

Pause and ponder, dont you think these tips are highly necessary?

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Is Facebook and Twitter killing Blogging?

Gone are the days when net crawlers like me will be refreshing Blog aggregator to get updates on bloggers.  You want to keep abreast to what happens around the world first hand through the inspirations of bloggers. Bloggers making waves back then are Chxta's world, Grandiose parlour, Akin's blog, Omodudu, Jeremy's blog, Funmi Iyanda's blog just to mention a few.

But with the advent of Facebook and Twitter, seems blogging is becoming history, as updates of blogs by bloggers is dying.  Take for instance, this year alone, and we are in march, Grandiose Parlour and Omodudu both only had  one updates, Funmi Iyanda hasnt updated since October last year, while Chxta's world updated last in February. Akin's blog and Jeremy's naija blog however  updated their blog regularly.

Yours truly also performed poorly in this regards, as my 2 blogs - Nollywood photoblog and this one had not seen updates in a long time.

While I am not saying categorically that Facebook and Twitter seems to be the only reasons, they may however contributed since in a few words, it is easier to capture whatever one need to update on the blog.

Pause and ponder, is this what is going to happen? I stand to confirm my worst fears on this in a couple of years. Meanwhile, this is a wake up call for me, as I am not determined more than ever to update my blogs as and when the need arises, twitter or facebook notwithstanding.

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Taking Advantage of others

One way or the other, we stand to take the advantage of others, knowingly or unknowingly. In the course of my life, I had learned that if you dont have a hard stern on some matters of life, people will take advantage of you. If you have a weakness, they will take advantage of you as long as your way of life will help them in their selfish interest, they will take advantage of you.

Now, there is this general saying that people used to say, I am me.  To me, it is the best way to live one's life. Be yourself, even if what you get from it is people taking advantage of you, in the end, you will know you live your life a fulfilled man.

One noticeable traits about my life is that, I had never and ever make a mockery of my friendship with women, to the extent that I would be taking advantage of them, I let them take advantage of me, and unknown to them, it gives me great satisfaction, and it pleased my conscience than me getting away with a seeming action of mine that would seem like I took advantage of them. The same with my fellow men.

My reader may pause and ponder whether this is right or wrong of me, but the truth is that, I am me, and I enjoyed being me.

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Siverbirds Entertainment Centre Abuja and its Non Refundable Ticket Money Arrangements

If only there is an email address to forward this to, but I guess I have no alternative than to say it here.
The Silverbirds Entertainment Centre Abuja should call their Staff to order. I was in the company of my family to watch a nollywood movie, on Saturday, 24th April, 2010 at exactly 5pm and I ended up losing 3,000 Naira to their staff over zealousness. I obtained a ticket from one Ijeoma who actually asked me for how many people and I replied for my family. She gave me 2 ticket for myself and my wife. When we got to the gate of the movie theatre we were refused entry by a guy stationed there simply because we came along with our 5 year old son whom the guy classified as under-aged. Fine, What is the next thing to do, he ask us to go back to the box office on 3rd floor for a refund of our ticket money. When we got there, the staff we met, Ifeoma refused to refund our ticket money saying at the same time that it was the management policy. She wanted to apportioned blame as to whether in the first place we should not have been given a ticket for such a particular movie had she known we came in company of our 5 year old son who was busy playing around when I mentioned to her that I came in company of my family. I had to cut her short and told her that, that is not the issue, and that the issue is that me and my family came all the way from our house to relax, but we ended up losing our money and also what we came for. When she would not realise how important that was to us than her stupid management policy, I left thereby losing my 3,000 Naira in the process. The management should do something about this rigid stance of non refundable of ticket money especially where a genuine reasons is involved like mine. Talk of daylight Robbery!!!

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Who will call Abuja VIO to order?

Somebody that is in charge should do something or perhaps this should be taken up by a higher authority. The Abuja VIO should be called to order. Nobody says they should not do their work, which is mainly vehicle inspections. They are not methodical in performing this task at all. Nowadays, vehicle inspections is done during rush hours in the morning when motorists are rushing to their respective offices. They will stop motorists with a checklists of demands ranging from vehicle particulars, drivers licence, Triangle and fire extinguishers etc. One thing I noticed is that, the emphasis is not on whether you complied with their checklists, but on the revenue they will generate to the purse of the organisation. This is evident because once you are stopped, there must be one offence they will book you for. As if this is not enough, any genuine explanations is on deaf ears, as they are quick to remove your plate numbers.

If you are unlucky to be booked for any of the offences, which must be redeemed by payment of various fines, getting out of the jam is another thing entirely, as you will be made to go through strenuous procedures.

Come to think of it, their job is not that important compared to that of Raod Safety which is solely to maintain safety of Roads and Vehicles, the VIO main task is to inspect Vehicles. In other State capitals of the Federation, VIOs are not visible along the roads, it is only in Abuja that they are usurping the work of Road Safety.

The job of inspection of Vehicles should not affect the normal life activities of law abiding citizens who are going about their lawful errands of getting to work early in the morning. For example, in the Estate where I reside here in Abuja, the VIOs will come and station themselves at our Junction leading to the town very early in the morning and harrassing law abiding motorists thereby preventing them from reaching their various offices/destinations at the appointed time. This is very wrong.

This harrassment seems to be limited to average Nigerians as it does not concern those who are at the top, because a mere mention of who owns the vehicle is enough for the VIO to let go. Therefore, I enjoined people to rally round this dangerous trend, by joining this blog in the quest to get the right channel where we can table our petitions.

Ever ponder what will happen in a situation where you dont want to be late for an interview one morning and the VIO stop your vehicle for inspection? It could be you next!! Just pondered.

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World Cup Qualifier - Thank God Nigeria will not qualify

Trust Nigerians, they dont joke with football at all, and I can imagine the bashing I will get from this. For instance, they have resorted to their old song of how only God can help us qualify. When will Nigerians learn to accept responsibility? God is sick and tired of us. I mean we have all the time in this world to seal the ticket here in Abuja, and God seems to answer only my own prayer that we should not win.
Thank God we didnt win, I will continue to pray that we do not qualify for South Africa. All is not well with this country, and I dont want football to hide our problem, moreso when our football itself is not in good order. Until Nigeria learn to do things right, we will continue to struggle, enough of all this fire brigade approach to all facets of our life.
Yeah, that is the point, our youth are all at home, because their lecturers are on strike, those who can afford it have withdrawn their children from the striking schools to private own university, whereas it is the same sets of people who make the public university go on strike that now own the private university. We deceived ourselves in this country a lot, tell me how can a private university survive, if there is no problem with the public university? Now, we all want our super eagles to qualify, we dont need any football to hide our sorrow, let not the football be our consoling factors everytime. For us to qualify, is to make it look like everything is well in this country. to qualify is to let the NFA add that to their achievement, as if all is well with our football, to qualify is to let the government of the day believed that we are doing things right. God, Please dont let us qualify for the world cup for the second time in a row.

Take it from the players point of view. We all know what will happen to them if while playing for this country, something happen to them. But because, the country is not in a good state, they can never give in their best, whereas, when it come to their club assignment, they put in everything. So what is the cause of that? because so many things is wrong with this country. A clear case is that of Samuel Okwaraji, and of course until recently, and i dont know if it is true, Nigeria just redeemed her pledge to the players who won African cup of nations which nigeria won last in 1980 - can you beat that? Ponder over that!!!

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Agony of lack of power in Nigeria

Ever ponder when the power supply problem in Nigeria will end?  Perhaps it is not going to be in this generation.  It is getting worse and worse.  At my estate, we don’t even expect power anymore.  We all depend on burning fuel on our generators. 

To keep your generators running, if you are the type like me who always stays indoor and prefer to have power constantly, then be prepare to budget a large amount of your hard earned money on acquisition of fuel.  To get the fuel in filing station is another problem, you need to pray it is not a period where there is scarcity of fuel, less you are in for another problem.  If there is no fuel scarcity, then you have little problem acquiring fuel for your gen sets, but if there is, then you will be required to bring your gen set to filing stations before they can sell to you.  If you prefer to buy in jerry cans, then be ready to part with extra cash to the fuel attendants.

A case of mine in question, I have 4 generators.  You will ponder how I am managing fueling all the four, and having them serviced. I tell you it is not that easy.  However, the secrets behind them is that, 3 of them consume less fuel, because they are small power generators, while I have one big one that have capacity to  carry all the loads.  Here is the idea, I will put on the small ones in daylight just to power the fan and the TVs, and put on the Big one at night to cater for all the bulbs and put the fridge and freezers on.  When it get to 12 midnight, I will put it off, and put on the small ones again to power the fans and other security lights till morning.

Ever ponder when this wahala will end? The whole thing looks a mirage to me. God save this country from the small few that are taking us to ransom.

On a final note, ever pause to ponder that, the present Head of Nigerian Communications Commission may as well be drafted to the power sector, who knows, he may revolutionise the industry too just as he did with Communication sector. Just pondering…..

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