Putting Obama dreams into perspective

Trail-blazers are not templates

If I see another inane blog that tries to ride the Obama success wave into passing the need to achieve to the next generation, I would most probably become violently sick.

Senator Obama in his achievement is a trail-blazer that reveals just another opportunity to achievement, he is not the way or the path to success – in fact, his path to success was so unlikely, there were unbelievers up till the very moment that victory was declared.

Why not you?

I find it mischievous and silly that suddenly most parents who have written about their child being able to reach the heights that Senator Obama has reached are probably much younger than Senator Obama who is 47.

If I recall, Senator McCain at 72, was about to become the oldest ever first term president, so it goes without saying that those parents might well aspire to high office rather than already conceding to a defeatist complex and immediately passing the mantle of high ambition to their children.

Now, if those parents really do see their kids aspiring to the highest office, I hope they are already breaking their backs giving their kids the best education in the best development environment, having them mix with leaders and commoners alike and charting a clear course to this high office since they can now see the future – unlikely.

So, who came after?

We dream but rarely walk or run towards that dream, we are full of fantasies and hopes which are fine for determining a course but never really engage on that course, rather we hope that we would be translated to the new place by miracles, accidents, luck or chance.

What am I saying here? There are many English mothers who would have dreamt when Margaret Thatcher became the Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1979, their daughters could become great leaders too, but 29 years on, there is no woman in the horizon going for that post.

Role models are just stars

Imagine how many pathways we would all be looking down if for every first and highest achiever we decided our kids would one day become one and every of those achievements.

A good example is in the week that Senator Obama became the first African-American President-elect, Lewis Hamilton became the first black F1 champion – I should think parents would now enrol their kids in presidency and F1 School?

I do not think so, people like Tiger Woods, Venus & Serena Williams, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Nelson Mandela and many more who are high achievers and first amongst equals are role models, but being a role model does not mean that they are ready for cloning – they are not templates for success, they are revelations of possibilities.

When Tiger Woods won, I would not have been surprised that some parents might have booked golf lessons for their kids without knowing if a birdie or a bogey was a bird, a score or a joke.

They are stars, they allow us to look up, see an array of lights in the sky, point to significant situations and aspire. They are not dies through which we can force our kids so that the resulting mould is a clone of the role model.

The open doors is usually far off

These possibilities only become realities to individuals who capture a vision of what the successes of their role models mean and find a way to work harder and excel at whatever they do.

These trail-blazers might open doors, smash glass ceilings, bring down hurdles and reveal what is possible, but they usually do not have hordes riding right behind them through the openings they have created – we can all aspire to be president, we would not all become president.

The danger is not getting sucked into a do-or-die ambition where the quest for great achievement takes away our humanity and turns us into cold and calculating malevolents.

We can and dream and should dream, we can ride the waves of the successes of those who have gone before us, but one man’s great success does not suddenly confer that victory and status to every child who witnesses that day.

At most, it reveals what is possible, what happens in a lifetime might not get us to the gates we have aspired to pass through, the ability to re-evaluate and reconsider our situations in relation to where we are should lead us to become the best we can become – nothing is impossible, but do we know what is possible and what we can make possible for ourselves?

Nigeria: Senator frogjumps her back wall

A new interest in Nollywood

I am no particular fan of Nollywood, though in the 70s we got caught up in aspects of Bollywood and Sinowood (Bruce Lee, the noises and the kicks), neither do I watch much Hollywood, the last time I was in a cinema was just about a year ago.

I must however say that some scripts, which are inadvertently appearing as news from Nigeria, are looking like we would be getting a major blockbuster very soon starring the thespian qualities of the histrionic Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello at her most melodramatic – I am enthralled.

Senator Obasanjo-Bello happens to be the daughter of the erstwhile President of Nigeria, and it seems she is getting embroiled in every kind of shady deal, which brings the name of Nigeria and the “office” of an elected representative into disrepute.

Cleared but not really cleared

Recently, the Nigerian Senate cleared their own from culpability in the squander of funds from the Ministry of Health; she happens to be the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health.

We have been told that 10 million Naira was given to the Senate Committee for a junket retreat in Ghana. The Director of Administrator in the Ministry of Health, Dr. H. B. Oyedepo who has been talking to the EFCC says it was 20 million Naira – so there is a little business of searching out the real truth and why the doubling or the halving of the money.

The great and desperate escape

Anyway, the EFCC have been after the powerful senator and on a visit to her home to invite her to appreciate the comforts of the commission, news reaches us that she made for the back garden and scaled her wall to escape those menacing EFCC clutches.

The senator would contend that she is no fugitive and we are being regaled with a sob story that she is now afraid for her life.

I’ll tell you this much, if I ran to my backdoor and scaled the wall of my garden, not only would I be afraid for my life, I would be in danger of losing it with a 7-storey plunge.

I cannot believe that such a highly placed politician who has been besmirched with claims of corruption and is protesting her innocence would resort to such desperate measures usually reminiscent of illegal overstaying refugees trying to escape the capture of immigration agents.

Her father’s daughter

The senator has form and she goes on the defensive by claiming, “There's a very huge anti-Obasanjo sentiment in the country now and honestly the behaviour is not normal.”

I could almost sympathise but the truth about the matter is simple, I know that many of us hold our family names in such esteem that we would be all too reluctant to be involved in anything that would bring shame to the family.

That inclination comes from a life of honesty, rectitude, integrity and pride instilled in us by our parents, which would have been instilled in them by a culture that could not countenance the concept of being brought to shame. We hold those values dear, no matter where we are in this world, the few who stray sometimes completely lose their way and end up foul of the law.

Some of the children of President Obasanjo do not seem to have been privileged to acquire this kind of parental guidance, the Obasanjo presidential term seems to be a litany of entrenched corruption, smoke screens of fighting corruption and the complete abuse of process.

A coward exposed

The example of Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello shows that she has followed after the abuse of power rather than the desire to maintain a reputable family name, which others would do by keeping a low profile.

She now feels she is a victim of harassment; that is just so pathetic – she would make us believe she has done nothing wrong - whilst she has peddled influence with impunity and she is now reaping the results in being wanted by the anti-graft agency for a number of questionable activities. Unfortunately, daddy does not seem to be able to pull the strings to exculpate his daughter.

What is most revealing about this saga is this, having been involved in a number of shady deals and transactions; she is unable to face the music and consequences of her actions. This is typical of people who have gained power through nepotism and abuse of process such that they know nothing of the responsibility they are given and when the going gets tough they are crybaby cowards.

If this does not sound like the makings of a Nollywood thriller, I challenge you to come up with a better plot.

Nigeria: Cut the cake society

Cutting social corners

This “cutting the cake” picture from one of ThisdayOnline's front pages which changes frequently, just about depicts the way we misplace our priorities in Nigeria, if one were to be objective or basically, it is the way things are done in Nigeria, if one were to succumb to the subjective.

The man in the middle is Senator Lee Maeba, and then from the left you have Govenor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa State, Goodluck Jonathan - the Vice-President of Nigeria, Patience Jonathan (The VP’s wife) and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State.

Senator Lee Maeba is married with two children, is a second term senator, the Chairman of the Petroleum Upstream Committee and member of the Establishment & Public Service, Agriculture, Culture & Tourism, Ethics & Petition committees.

Sylva replaced Jonathan as governor and they are all from oil-producing states which have seen so much revenue expended but no appreciable benefit to the people. Say no more.

The question then is why a man with a wife and children is cutting his birthday cake with political affiliates?

Birthdays are for families

One would think this is should be more a family affair, but the curse of junketry (that word again) and just the need to party at any opportunity - this has become a state religion with a horde and multitude of willing worshippers - has brought the Vice-President and two governors together to drink and be merry and that probably is just the tip of the iceberg of the many other idle “dignitaries” as they are known in Nigeria, who attended this lavish ceremony.

Anywhere else public figures celebrate their birthdays, it is usually amongst family with close friends gathering round to share the day with them.

I suppose we could forgive the man for celebrating his Molybdenum Jubilee, a landmark, milestone and grand old age not higher than, nor lower than but equal to the amazingly magnificent number of 42 – The birthday boy … as the caption proudly declares.

Governor Amaechi seems to be stretching out so much the buttons are about to come off the suit – in my opinion the best photograph should have been the Senator, his wife and two children put in the family album and kept of public view.

Maybe, it would be asking a lot for important Nigerian men to spend time with their families when there deals to be made and Jones’ to keep up with on the social calendar. Next, we'll have the Vice-President kiss the bride before the bridegroom does at a church wedding.

‘Nuff Said.

NB: Molybdenum derives from the mineral at 42 in the periodic table.

Police in toilet misconduct

Foot tap importuning

Once again a lewd conduct situation is about to hound a Republican Senator out of office. The press is running amok with Puritanical sanctimony as analysis and commentary drags out for our recollection every other lewd conduct scandal that has sent many an unassuming politician to a retirement in ignominy.

The new career of self-rehabilitation may never end till the day they draw their last breath and that is very sad.

In America, these situations are even beneath contempt when the police are engaged in what they like to call a sting when really they are agents provocateurs, people who incite to create a criminal situation they have not been able to objectively investigate and resolve.

Apparently, the senator entered a cubicle and tapped his foot in what suppose was the sign to engage in conduct unbecoming, no doubt, the policeman being a consenting party would have responded to the point that a level of risky trust was developed before the police identified himself. I would not go into the analysis of who tapped first, the police were there to catch foot-tappers by incitement or reciprocation.

Solving moral crimes

People in moments of weakness or lewd adventure who are importuned or tempted to yield to the flesh by the law pretending to be a consensual party to some prospective sexual liaison does make one wonder what policing has become.

It is the same tactic that was used to nab George Michael who whilst cruising in a cottage was importuned by a pretty policeman, or as they would have us read, an undercover agent.

Indeed, these activities can be a nuisance in public areas, they are also as it were consensual and victimless, the use of crimes to qualify this activity is to moralise with hypocritically.

I am not sure engaging the police to be pimps or baits in lewd conduct is the best use of tax payers money much as the moralising of the situation gives us the false comfort of ridding our public places of “crimes”, not of the ones that fill us with fear and indignation but the ones that make us feel extremely “holier than thou”.