Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review XIII - Ideas for Electoral Reform

As we savour the returns

As the election season ends in Nigeria it is important to lay out in some form a whole series of ideas for electoral reform to improve on the experiences we had for the elections in April 2011.

It goes without saying that despite the view of cynics and sceptics about the elections a lot was done to make them freer, fairer and more credible than any we have had before. Even the much heralded 1993 elections were said to be manipulated [1] as averred by the then chairman of the defunct National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON), Professor Okon Uya.

The length of the season

It is however the prerogative of those who are aggrieved by this electoral season to avail themselves of the tribunal process with a quest for justice devoid of desperation and considerate of the fact that Nigeria must not be held back primarily for the satisfaction of the ambitions of the few.

These are however the matters that should become part of the discussion for electoral reform and implementation before the end of the next legislative term.

The electoral season should span at least a 12 month period allowing for voter registration, register inspection, party registration, candidate registration, campaign season, voting, results publication and expedited electoral dispute resolution.

Reusable voter registration

It is unlikely that Nigeria is ready for an electronic voting system; however, the voter registration needs to be amalgamated with the National Identity Card Scheme with added biometric information and a fixing with local government area based on the residential address within 6 months of the elections.

Consideration must be given to chipping the identity card and probably adding RFID data that stores allocated Polling Unit which can be updated if the voter changes their address at the local electoral office.

Voters only need validate their registration and eligibility to vote in what should be termed registration clearance months allowing for new voters to be added, the dead to be eliminated, circumstances to be updated and so on.

Competence over age

In terms of eligibility for office, consideration should be given to at least the age barriers to elective office by at least 5 years, the talent pool of the youth who in other endeavours are competent, able and successful are unfairly excluded by reason of age from elective office as political jobbers hog positions indefinitely.

Considering the pool of talent in the Nigerian population term limits should be set on all elective offices to allow others to contribute to nation building, it may also foster better mentoring rather than godfatherism and the nepotism that currently plagues the system.

Term limits

No one should have the exclusive inclination to think no other Nigerian can try for office and possibly perform better, after a set number of terms, two for executive office and a maximum of three for legislative office the said politicians have to give way.

The candidates for office should be known within a minimum of 90 days before the elections allowing for INEC to adequately inform the electorate of the choices they have. All nomination disputes must be completed at least 60 days before the elections.

INEC should have the right to penalise the abuse of equal access to media and resources to engage with the public doing the campaign process. Part of the sanctions that INEC can use should include barring the offending party’s candidate from contesting the elections.

Voting and sanctions

The modified open ballot system should be retained however the reporting process should have the paper trail as well as the use of mobile data transfers from the Polling Unit direct to the INEC headquarters.

Where electoral malpractice has been discovered and fully investigated to identify the culprits, the responsible party will forfeit the votes tallied, if that election remains valid, in the case there the election needs to be rescheduled, the offending party will forfeit the right to present a candidate for the reschedule election and where the offence is egregious the said party under whatever guise should be made to forfeit the right to present a candidate for the next two elections at the level when the crime was committed.

This means a party might forfeit the right for presenting candidates for the State House of Assembly, House of Representatives, The Senate, Governorship or Presidency.

Named persons for each party should be held criminally responsible for electoral offences committed by their party members and they by the strength of the law should not be able to abdicate their responsibilities.

Sanctions like this should greatly minimise incidents of electoral rigging.

Where reports of intimidation, harassment, bias, tampering or observer access is restricted, INEC should err on the side of fairness and make results from such locations tentative pending investigation with the likelihood of those results being voided.

Dispute resolution

After the results are announced and contestants find need to contest the results, all disputes must be completed with 365 days of the election under dispute.

No incumbent whose election is being contested should serve in electoral office longer than one-quarter of the complete term of office at which point the dispute must have been resolved or a new election should hold.

If the incumbent is found to have engaged in electoral misconduct, that person will not be eligible to contest in the new election and the party the person represents should not be able to present a candidate for that election for the next two terms.

The measures have to be draconian with effective deterrents to ensure all parties and their officials play by the rules. The civil courts with respect to electoral matters should work in concert with INEC to bolster its independence and foster a surer democracy by upholding the letter of the law to its full remit.

Miscellaneous reform issues

The use of ad-hoc staff should be encouraged but INEC should expedite all means of payment and provide the maximum security for all engaged staff.

An electoral recall process should be set up to test a vote of confidence in the elected office at mid-term, if the incumbent is unseated the newly elected person shall only serve out the remaining period of the term and have to contest to retain the office.

Source

[1] The Sun News On-line | Every election since 1922 has been manipulated –Okon Uya, ex-NECON boss

Reviews written about the elections

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review I

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review II - New Election Dates

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review III - Who votes on Saturday.

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review IV - Part I to Voting

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review IV - Part II - We can

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review V

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review VI - Report to Prevent Rigging

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review VII - Change!

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review VIII - A President-Elect

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review IX - Analysing the Presidential Results

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review X - The North

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review XI - A functioning democracy?

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review XII - Altogether acceptable

Pouring cold water on cancerous hot meals

Trusting well

It is commonly reported that Ronald Reagan said regarding the nuclear treaties signed with the USSR, “Trust, but verify.”

Considering what I am about to write, I probably should trust that this quote was from Ronald Reagan but verify that it really was spoken by the Gipper; however, I would rather the quote was not attributed to anyone else because I need the authority of Ronald Reagan to press this quote to the widest audience of those who will trust but NEVER verify.

Only recently, a posting on Facebook [1] at the news of the death of Osama bin Laden which belonged to the writer and was followed by a quote by Martin Luther King suddenly lost its punctuation and before you knew it, MLK’s quote had been dropped and the musings of the writer became MLK’s quote and it was round the Internet on Facebook and Twitter like a wild fire.

Inadvertent trust

I never gave it much attention mostly because I was not passing the quote on because I know it would have looked unfamiliar to me and I would have dug in to find out the context of the quote before sharing that wisdom of the day with my friends.

There is a need for people to develop a sense of curiosity, a sixth sense about issues, a need to wonder if, find out why, understand what, appreciate how – I could go on.

As I rolled off my sleeping mat this morning the first thing I saw on Facebook was this title, “Drinking Cold water after a meal = Cancer!”

Now, it was on my Facebook timeline because I to an extent trust the person who posted it, yes, a Facebook friend is a trust exchange; what they post becomes part of your Facebook experience just as much as what you post becomes a part of their Facebook experience.

Twitter is however asynchronous, you only see what comes from those you Follow, things reTweeted by those you follow or those things that have your Twitter nickname attached to the message by others, you do not by default see in your Twitter stream the tweets of people who are just following you.

I don’t have itching ears

Now, I rarely ever take anything at face value on the Internet, I have this source, attribution, verification complex, even those who claim to be authorities in their fields of expertise in my view need to provide research and incontrovertible evidence to support their claims – it applies to professionals as doctors, engineers, lawyers, accountants and most especially preachers, I just do not have itching ears, I have an annoyingly inquisitive mind.

I find it so irksome when people publish news stories without the authoritative link, it means I have to go find out where they got the information from or condemn it as a rumour or urban legend. So this is how I addressed my friend on Facebook.

Some Friday mirth?

I don't know if this is a joke, I hope it is because if it is not, I will be mightily disappointed in you.

Why? I expect people who become I become friends with on Facebook to learn a few things from me, like research anything thrown your way before publication and then publish such only with references - in this case, the medical research that corroborates this urban legend.

I had never heard of this before so the first thing I did was do a search on Google and immediately it was clear that this was no science it was mumbo-jumbo.

http://www.snopes.com/ Is the Google of urban legends, usually within days of any story, issue or myth breaking they do the research and clear it up.

The second reference went to http://urbanlegends.about.com/ I suppose that speaks for itself.

http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/coldwater.asp

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_drinking_cold_water.htm

Like I said in the beginning, I do hope you were creating some Friday mirth and it was all a joke. It looked like one. :D

Trust, but verify

It was necessary that I convey my displeasure with a modicum of jest just to ensure my views are not thrown in the waste-bin and in response my friend has erred on the side of this being confused science, fine with me.

In any case, I felt I should share this before it spreads like wild fire, an urban legend with no medical basis that was first posted in an email in February 2006 and carried on the wave of the trusting but incurious until it found a solid footprint on the Internet that I had not gotten halfway through the search terms before Google threw up suggestions that proved once again that you can always trust, but VERIFY.

The first link within my sources shows how you can avoid being caught out.

As for the Trust, but Verify [2] quote attributed to Ronald Reagan, it was originally Russian and said to be a frequently used phrase by Vladimir Lenin – next I expect someone to suggest Ronald Reagan was a communist, you saw it on my blog first.

Sources

[1] How to Identify and Avoid Spreading Misinformation, Myths, and Urban Legends on the Internet - Lifehacker

[2] Trust, but verify - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thought Picnic: My hopes coaching my reality

Wanting to board

Days come and go as a recent past seems to hang on to my present with a grasp that beclouds the future offering a story that I feel is already worn and probably excites no more of the context it once had over a year ago.

My options appear varied but the direction is fuzzy, it is like I got to a station and the train I was about to board just sped through without stopping and there is no inkling when the next would arrive.

The strings on my violin have been strained out of tune, somehow the chap who was diagnosed with cancer just over 19 months ago, who more or else enjoyed 5 months of chemotherapy and returned to work within 6 weeks of that appears to be at a loss.

Laurels looking tarnished

My experience could stand me in good stead but it does not seem to be enough, it appears one has been left behind with the stark reality of having to recoup, realign, rearrange, rethink, refocus and probably restart.

A fearful crossroad looms where divestment of a life of acquisitions might well be the lightened burden one needs to consider however uncomfortable it might be.

I call it the long tail of disease, it does not really stop when you appear to be well enough to reengage, the residual effects continue long after one has been through the darkest recesses of life when all hope is so distant it takes the love of many and some amazingly daring faith to come through it all.

Getting beyond around

At a point where I seem to be losing my religion and running out of ideas of maintaining relevance without going back to the fundamentals you really hope rock-bottom provides a bounce of sorts and a plateau that is much higher that the depths and travails that encircle making your heart skip multiple beats as you draw deep breaths contemplating what is ahead.

I am continually asking questions whilst I am working to appreciate what change is required like writer’s block this is looking like a career block the jobs out there all just seem to have one hurdle more, one requirement more, one barrier more, one consequence more, it all appears to add up to something beyond reach.

I dare to think I have not really reached that stage but what I have left is really my hopes coaching my reality; it is needs to be exercised to the point where all my capabilities are resolutely with much to spare beyond my realities.

Thought Picnic: The cattle rustlers on my blog

My fresh tomatoes

I cannot say that I am the best self-promoter of my abilities especially those that pertain to writing and that might inform why I have not made a living from it to date.

In some ways, I have taken this as a pastime even though many have tried to persuade or encourage me to take up technical writing in relation to my professional expertise, general writing as can be seen on my blog or even writing my own story which appears as snapshots in the many blogs I have written.

As a proof-reader, there is something natural first and then academic about how one feels for the English language, I have found myself offering that service many a time for free.

A farmer at heart

Now, I have been blogging consistently for over 7 years and that is good while longer than many more popular blogs and meeting places within the social networking environment, I believe that probably must count for something and maybe it is a testimony and profile of the things I cover.

The other day, I added a page to my http://akinblog.nl site which I called Blogging Trophies to showcase citations I have received from different websites by reason of what they might have found useful about my writings.

There is a reason why I jealously guard my material, I like the way it appears, I like the way I format my copy and I like to maintain control over what I write without the threat of it being edited, misrepresented or excerpted out of its particular context.

Sowing on my land

I can only enforce such strict control on my blogs or on blogs were I have been given a modicum of administrative control to ensure that the material does not lose my fingerprints.

I am usually inspired as I write and so there first publication might contain errors that need correcting over time, I have been known to review blogs that have been published for over a year and more because they are all posted for posterity, I publish and damn the consequences, like Pontius Pilate, I have written what I have written contextually but refinement is required in spelling correction, inscrutable grammar and some other foibles that writers might be prone to.

Rustlers on my corral

I have gotten into a good few spats about seeing my complete blogs appear on websites I have not given the permission to use my material. It grates when consent is implied by offering back-references to the original material, it is just not good enough – there is a reason why my blog exists, it contains itself well enough not to have to be replicated for the bolstering of other lack-lustre duplicators of material.

The links below show how much of a fuss I am ready to kick up.

NaijaLive - PS. Aggregation not poor duplication

Sahara Reporters has infringed my copyright

Courtesy demands that express permission be sought and it is my prerogative to grant permission if I am so inclined, at the very least, those who wish to showcase my blogs or my writing have engaged me in conversation and communication to determine if our goals and objectives are suitably aligned.

No matter how inconsequential, I do have a reputation that I guard jealously, it would be advisable to those who have crossed the bounds of ethical conduct to make amends or expect consequences – I always win the battles I chose to fight.

Cunard Queen Elizabeth in Amsterdam

One look out of my window

A wonderful child-like excitement engulfs my being as I look out of my living-room window towards the left towards the Amsterdam Passenger Terminal.

The late spring and summer months present a spectacle of visitations on the waters that form the harbours of the old Amsterdam port from the sailing school just below my window through the open waters that host the sailing regattas and the then further on where it is deep enough to float ocean going cruise liners.

Satisfying my curiosity

Yesterday, in fact, the day before, there was a huge cruise liner docked at the terminal, I had to see it up close so I cycled up the embankment with my camera to take a few pictures.

That was not enough to observe the cruise liner in all its splendour, I needed to know when it was setting sail again so I for the first time stepped into the terminal and asked at the information desk when it was leaving.

The scheduled time was in another 24 hours at about 17:00 hours, so when I returned home I went online to the check the Cruise Calendar [1] and found out it would be an hour later.

Setting sail

So, yesterday evening, I rode out to see the cruise liner leave and it quite a ceremony weighing anchor that took about 15 minutes and then another 30 minutes to turn the bow astern to sail out of Amsterdam.

It was quite windy and there was a chill in the air as I took pictures from many vantage points and even planned to race the liner to the point where it finally sailed out of Amsterdam and the chain on my bicycle broke just as got behind the central train station which fortunately had a bicycle repair shop in the front.

It was worth it

My pursuit ended with the wheeling of my bicycle to the shop with the hope that I will see the cruise liner when next it docks in Amsterdam.

It was the Cunard Queen Elizabeth [2] with 12 decks that measured the height of 9 storey building, it has a length of 964.5 feet (294m), a width of 106 feet (32.3m) and a draft of 25.9 feet (7.9m) – the draft is the ship’s depth below the water.

We should expect at least 20 cruise liner dockings every month until September with Queen Elizabeth returning later this month and then in October, meanwhile there will be a lot to see until then.

This is my slideshow of pictures taken.

Sources

[1] Passenger Terminal Amsterdam – Cruise Calendar

[2] Queen Elizabeth Cruise Liner Facts : Luxury Cruise Ships : Cunard Cruise Line

Obama sees the end of Osama

Osama in my slumber

Just before I fell asleep my Twitter time-line revealed Barack Obama was about to make an unusual Sunday statement and so my dreams were invaded by content broadcast by Al Jazeera concerning Osama bin Laden.

I eventually stirred up and the alertness that came was hit with the comprehension of my dreams, Osama bin Laden is dead.

A very evil man

It is a welcome development but it needs to be taken in context. This man was a very evil man whose Midas touch was death and destruction under the guise of an extreme form of religion that took its strains from Islam.

He found brotherhood amongst fellow religionists, usually sexually ascetic and repressed who were cajoled into giving up their lives for a paradise of debauched harems of virgins. With these bedazzled foot-soldiers he waged Jihad with impunity and unspeakable atrocity.

East Africa, Yemen, New York, Washington and spin-offs in Bali, Madrid and London, it was carnage like Armageddon and the man behind it every few months released videos to taunt and tease that he was still around – Catch me if you can.

The cost in life and property cannot be quantified in Afghanistan and Iraq, in some circles he could have been the precursor to the Anti-Christ, if a mere mortal can make destruction a global business you can only wonder about those who are destined to wreak biblical proportions of havoc untrammelled.

Justice is not served, revenge is

Amazingly, whilst he launched 9/11 from Afghanistan and was almost smoked out in Tora Bora he was found in a monumental edifice just North-East of the capital of Pakistan a classic case of hiding in plain sight.

I am not convinced justice is served, his actions changed our world that the rights, freedoms and liberties that many gave their lives for in the wars of the 20^th Century have systematically been rolled back in the blanket interests of safety and security, the world will never be the same again.

However, revenge has been taken, vengeance exacted and it is important that our celebration of his death especially amongst democratic nations should see this as the removal of a leader, a figurehead and an international nuisance, it would have been nigh on impossible to take him alive to face our courts and answer for the crimes he committed – we need to maintain that view of justice being served in that kind of structure.

Managing the fallout

An embarrassed Pakistan should have something to say about the unwanted guest that took residence in their country, as for the body that is in the custody of the United States in Afghanistan, he was shot in the head, he deserves no burial rites derived from the religion he professed to follow but besmirched with his actions and philosophy – there is a whole lot of rebuilding of systems, creeds, beliefs and reputations to be done.

He should never become a martyr and those who seek inspiration from his causes should begin to diminish and let our hope and future begin to take shape into a world that is safe, free, secure and less threatened by terror not forgetting the conflicts that allow for these extreme activities to take hold.

Palestine needs resolution, repressive regimes in the Arab world need to come to an end, some accommodation needs to be found for Iran, the Muslims should not find persuasion in the view that they are under siege.

The news today and the paralysis of analysis will for the moment be; Obama sees the end of Osama.

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review XII - Altogether acceptable

Looking at the elections

With the conclusion of the elections on the 28th of April 2011, one now has the opportunity to give a general review of the conduct and the results of what was historic in Nigerian history.

So many opinions have been proffered by many about what these elections mean for Nigeria’s future, however, critically, compared to elections held before; these are probably the freest, fairest and most credible ever administered in Nigeria.

It does not mean they were perfect, they were not and they were far from ideal but a considerable improvement time and again at each time that people offered to elect their representatives.

There are a few more results to be released, some inconclusive results and supplemental elections to hold in certain districts but the elections in the main are over.

Where we started

The newly reorganised Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had just about 10 months to pull off this turn-around in electoral fortunes that had long been besmirched with incompetence, mismanagement, fraud and corruption.

The voters registration exercise was first a logistical nightmare that INEC attempted to refocus and manage towards the successful registration of over 73 million voters.

The political landscape was a bit fraught for the opposition which for the last 4 years had remained majorly regional and had only made superficial changes to present a national front such that the merging of the opposition parties would still have been a piddling challenge to the ruling party, however, acolytes of these parties harboured bizarre levels of optimism that had no basis in realistic opportunity for success.

The structures implemented

In earlier reviews, it could be said the that theoretically INEC had put in place a whole series of checks and balances to foster credible elections along with engaging the voting public in participating in ensuring their votes counted.

There were loopholes and flaws in the process which need to be improved on in future elections whilst those who now find fault with the system are best advised to avail themselves of the processes in place for the aggrieved.

Social networking featured greatly in the observance and monitoring of the elections, some of the decisions taken by INEC to review the results and reconsider outcomes came from evidence gathered by non-INEC personnel.

Twitter served as both a useful informative platform as well as one in which reputations will be made or tarnished as it was also a vehicle for propaganda, rumour, untruths, lies and misinformation.

The parties and their options

There were three sets of elections in order for the National Assembly, the Presidency and State representation that included the governors and the state assemblies. In the first only three parties really challenged for positions and those were the ruling PDP, then ACN and ANPP with CPC, APGA and LP bringing up the rear.

In the Presidential elections CPC presented the greater challenge winning a good number of states in the far Northern Nigeria only to end up seizing a state for the governorship in the North-Central region where it lagged the ruling party a week earlier.

It goes without saying that the CPC was created mainly as a vehicle for the presidential aspirations of a messianic symbol and not much else, Nigeria would have been plunged into a stalemate of sots to have a CPC president having to work with elected representatives of other parties holding different principles, agendas and motives.

Much as Nigeria requires competence and probity in leadership, it mostly needs the apparatus of government that is not hamstrung with sapping all goodwill necessary to get the job done – the opposition was poorly organised and ill-prepared to take on the machine of the ruling party nationally and so we have the results that leave the ruling party quite dominant national whilst somewhat weakened in some regional areas.

The election low-point

The violence that arose after the presidential elections were unfortunate and poorly addressed by all those who had leadership positions to contain and ameliorate the enveloping crisis.

The Commanded-in-Chief should have been apprised of the possibilities of unrest and put in place measures to pre-empt the situation and once it had begun, he should have moved swiftly to deploy security forces to quell the problems before it lead to the unnecessary destruction of property and even more the loss of innocent lives prominent amongst which were members of the National Youth Service Corps who had been called into the greater national service of being ad-hoc staff of INEC.

At the same time, it exposed the difference between a general being able to command an army failing in battle as opposed to a messianic leader who could not control a mob that failed to attain its aims.

That became the low-point of elections that at one time were being applauded as one of the best ever conducted in Nigeria raising the esteem of the country internationally.

Moving on from this

It is the prerogative of those who care to maintain a cynical and curmudgeonly view of the elections and the continued dominance of the ruling party which is unfortunate for some.

However, we are presented with another 4 years of governance that have been tested by a more credible electioneering process of whom we are within rights to demand accountability, action and responsiveness to the needs of the electorate.

It is incumbent on the opposition to form a broader based national profile which should be evidenced in the performance of their elected representatives, but the hope of all Nigerians is that anyone with a mandate respects the privilege and gets to work for the people regardless of the party they are representing.

The foundation is laid

Nigeria is a project in flux and constant pressures of conflict, change and possible division, we Nigerians all have stewardship of a country given to us by our founding fathers to hold in trust for those who follow after us, to whom we should bestow a better, more prosperous, thriving and growingly assertive nation ready to take its place as the Giant of Africa and the land of opportunity for all regardless of circumstances of birth or fortunes of life.

The foundation laid by these elections are starting point, they still need underpinning, some reinforcements and viable structures to home the flourishing of Nigeria’s potential, it would be shame to squander the next four years in indifference, apathy or destructive criticism of those who have power today to make a difference in people’s lives.

The pursuit of justice must continue, however, not to the detriment of allowing systems to function effectively and efficiently as we demand and expect that they should.

If there is a greater call to national duty, it remains the ability and wiliness to put the nation before self for the good of the nation and the people at home and abroad.

We need to believe in the Nigeria that we have and work to build it into a greater nation.

Reference material

Where we were 4 years ago Before we lose the Nigerian elections gracefully

The comments about the results are derived from the following sources:

The INEC Nigeria homepage offers a summary of the validated results of the elections.

Punch on the Web: Election Portal | Results of 2011 Presidential and other elections

Home : Nigeria Election Coalition presents an another analysis of the results announced.

Reviews written about the elections

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review I

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review II - New Election Dates

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review III - Who votes on Saturday.

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review IV - Part I to Voting

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review IV - Part II - We can

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review V

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review VI - Report to Prevent Rigging

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review VII - Change!

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review VIII - A President-Elect

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review IX - Analysing the Presidential Results

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review X - The North

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review XI - A functioning democracy?

Other issues that arose concerning the elections

Nigeria: A Primer on INEC Elections in April 2011 – Originally published at NigeriansTalk.Org – A compendium of information regarding the elections.

Nigeria: Table of INEC Electoral Chain of Custody – Documents the paper trail put in place to handle the elections and manage the results.

Nigeria: In Support of Attahiru Jega of INEC – Reviewing the mammoth task that INEC faced in trying to offer free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria this year.

Thought Picnic: My Nigerian Philosophy – What informs my stance on Nigerian issues today.